Xiaomi is a company well reputed for dishing out premium devices, even if they look strikingly similar to smartphones from other companies. Nothing exemplifies this more than the Xiaomi Mi Note 2, a phone that looks remarkably like the ill-fated Samsung Galaxy Note 7.
Much like the Note 7, the Mi Note 2 features a curved 5.7-inch, AMOLED display. However, it does fall short in terms of resolution, featuring a 1080p display as opposed to the Quad HD display of the Note 7. But the display isn’t the only similar thing the two smartphones share. The Mi Note 2 also has a curved back, symmetrical to its front, a design also employed by the Note 7. Both the back and the front of the phone sports 3D curved glass.
The Mi Note 2 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821, the successor to the powerful 820 we’ve seen at work in the Moto Z. To help keep all your apps running simultaneously, Xiaomi also fitted in 6GB worth of RAM in one version and 4GB in the other. As a result, we can expect this phone to fly through performance tests, similar to the Mi 5. However, insane specs like that are battery killers but it looks like Xiaomi has gone above and beyond by fitting in a 4,700 mAh battery. As for storage, you can opt for either the 64 GB or 128 GB versions.
When it comes to the cameras the Mi Note 2 features a rear-facing 22.5 MP, f/2.0 camera that has phase detection autofocus and a dual-LED (dual tone) flash. Other features to go with the rear-shooter include 1/2.6″ sensor size, 1 µm pixel size, geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR and the ability to take panoramic pictures. When it comes to video, it can film in 2160p at 30fps. The front facing camera will let you take 8MP selfies.
But perhaps the biggest feature about the Mi Note 2 is that it will have Global LTE bands. As a result, we can expect Xiaomi to increase its market penetration in foreign markets instead of just solely China (where it is currently losing market share to Huawei, Oppo and Vivo). The phone starts at 2799 yuan ($413) for a 64 GB of storage and 4GB of RAM variant, going up to 3499 yuan ($516) for a global model with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM.
