Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi on Tuesday announced the launch of its next generation big screen smartphone, the Xiaomi Mi Max 2 in India at an event in New Delhi. Xiaomi Mi Max 2 is the successor to company’s 6.44-inch super-sized Mi Max phablet, which was launched in May last year. Priced at Rs. 16,999, the new Xiaomi Mi Max 2 will go on first early access sale starting July 20 (Thursday) at 12:00 PM exclusively via company’s online store, Mi.com and company’s offline store, Mi Home in Matte Black colour variant. And the smartphone will be made available for open sale starting July 27 (Thursday), via both the e-commerce platforms as well as offline retail partners across the country. As for e-commerce websites, the Mi Max 2 will be available at Flipkart, Amazon, Tata Cliq, and Paytm mall. The offline retail partners include Poorvika, Big C, Sangeetha, Croma, Lot, Vijay Sales, Ezone, and Reliance Digital. Besides this, the company also announced that it will be inaugurating two more Mi Home outlets in LIDO Mall and Orion Mall in Bengaluru on July 22 and July 29 respectively.
Additionally, the Reliance Jio users who subscribe to Jio Prime membership will also get up to 100GB of additional 4G mobile data on the purchase of newly launched Xiaomi Mi Max 2. All the eligible customers will get up to 10GB additional 4G data voucher per month with every recharge of Rs. 309 or above. There is an upper limit of up to 10 recharges, and the offer is valid until March 31, 2018.
The main highlights of the Mi Max 2 are its mammoth 5,300 mAh battery and the massive 6.44-inch full-HD resolution display. Design wise, Xiaomi Mi Max 2 sports a full-metal unibody design with a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, located just middle of the device. The volume rockers as well as the power/lock buttons are all placed on the right-hand edge of the device and a 3.5mm audio socket is placed on the very top edge of the phone. Dual speaker grilles are seen at the bottom edge of the device along with a USB-C type charging port sitting in the middle. The Xiaomi Mi Max 2 also features an IR Blaster (infrared sensor) that can be used as a universal remote to control third-party electronics & appliances like set-top boxes, audio consoles, TVs, fans, air conditioners or DVD players.
Talking about its specifications, the Xiaomi Mi Max 2 sports a 6.4-inch full HD display with a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and a scratch resistance 2.5D Corning Gorilla 3 curved glass coating on top. The device is powered by a 2.0GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor paired with Adreno 506 GPU to handle the graphics. In terms of memory, Mi Max 2 is backed up by a 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, which can be further expanded up to 128GB via a microSD card. Talking about its software fronts, the Xiaomi Mi Max 2 runs Google’s latest Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system with company’s own MIUI 8 custom skin running on top of the device. The phablet also features a rear-mounted fingerprint recognition button for biometric security.
For photography, Xiaomi Mi Max 2 features a 12-megapixel Sony IMX386 rear sensor with an f/2.2 aperture ,1.25-micron pixels, Dual LED flashlight, PDAF (Phase Detection Autofocus) support. On the front, it has a 5-megapixel front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture, 85-degree wide-angle lens for capturing better groufie and video calling.
In terms of connectivity, the Xiaomi Mi Max 2 supports dual-SIM dual standby and offers various connectivity options including 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (dual-band), hotspot, GPS/A-GPS/Glonass, NFC, Bluetooth 4.2, a 3.5mm audio port, IR blaster, USB OTG, and a USB Type-C port for superfast charging and data transfer. Sensors on the smartphone include Accelerometer, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, and E-Compass and Gyroscope sensor. On the battery front, the Xiaomi Mi Max 2 is fuelled by a massive 5300mAh battery that is rated to deliver up to two days of battery life. The battery also supports Qualcomm’s Quick charge 3.0 fast charging technology which can charge the device up to 68% within 1 hour. Dimensionally, the handset measures 174.1 x 88.7 x 7.6mm and weighs 211 grams.
