Xiaomi is reportedly working in collaboration with Google to offer pure Android experience in its smartphone, with an Android One phone. The Chinese company under its current smartphone range offers its fully customised MIUI software based on Android OS.
The new report coming from an Indonesian website Kripitech claims that Xiaomi and Google are working closely to bring an affordable Android One smartphone to the market. This would be the first time Xiaomi will be releasing a smartphone without MIUI.
The report further claims that the phone will be probably the company’s recent launch Mi 5X, which made its debut in China. It suggests the phone will be called Xiaomi A1 and the company might re-brand the Mi 5X for the global markets.
To recall, Google’s Android One project was launched in India in 2014. The project promised to bring the stock Android experience to the budget market with affordable smartphones. But, the response was not so satisfying for Google. So, now the presence of Xiaomi can create the right buzz and trigger the Android One program.
The collaboration may help to bring an affordable Android One smartphone into the Indian smartphone market. Since Xiaomi continues to be a popular phone vendor in the budget segment, it will sure to benefit the search giant.
The Krispitech blog expects the phone to introduced in the Indonesian market. Xiaomi will launch its first dual-camera phone in India in the month of September. India’s Managing Director Manu Kumar Jain had recently tweeted, “Can’t wait for you guys to check out Xiaomi’s first dual-camera phone in India! Coming next month! Can you guess which one?”. So, we can speculate it will be either Mi 5X or its rebranded version with Android One.
To recall the specifications, the Xiaomi Mi 5X features a 5.5-inch full HD (1080p) display. It is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 625 SoC paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The phone comes with a pair of 12-megapixel wide-angle lens and a telephoto lens.
We are seeing an increase that manufacturers giving up their customized UX skins in order to adopt stock Android. With Lenovo’s recent K8 Note, this trend moved on forward towards the budget segment of smartphones. So, it is no wonder Xiaomi, which is known for its strength in the budget segment will come up with Android One.