Not too acquainted with Xiaomi? Nicely, simply know this: they seem to be a huge deal and getting even greater. Whereas they nonetheless act and construct merchandise with the nimbleness of a startup, a cult following has developed round their telephones, main to close-immediate sellouts within the firm’s native China. Whereas the Mi 5 clearly wears the brand new flagship crown, the Mi 4S is not any slouch with its Snapdragon 808 chipset and 3GB of RAM — it principally shares a mind with the Moto X Pure Version and the Nextbit Robin. The 4S additionally packs a 5-inch, 1080p show, a thirteen-megapixel digital camera, a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and — crucially — a three,260mAh battery. After being burned considerably by the weaksauce battery in Nextbit’s Robin, we will not helped by be excited by this hefty energy cell.

Phrase from Beijing is that the 4S shall be obtainable this March for 1,699 yuan ($260). Barra continues to be on-stage right here working by means of his presentation, however with a bit of luck, we’ll see these good-looking devices get a worldwide launch. There’s by no means been a greater time for purchasing good, cheap smartphones, and Xiaomi might conceivably carve out a really worthwhile nook of the world market.