The Chinese regulatory agency has certified the new Xiaomi smartphone for sale in the country. In this process, some of the device's specifications and images have also become public.
In November, the Xiaomi Redmi 4, Redmi 4A were officially introduced. However, the company may already have started working on its successor. Now that the latest Xiaomi smartphone is cleared through China's TENAA certification site, it could be launched as Redmi 5 or Redmi 4X.
According to GSMArena, some speculators in China state that this could be the Redmi 5 and others expect it to be branded as Redmi 4X and sit beside the recently unveiled Redmi Note 4X in the portfolio of company with the latest design compared to the Redmi 4.
Irrespective of whatever it being called, the handset has a 5-inch touchscreen, dual-SIM functions, and a 4,000 mAh battery. It is also apparent from the shots that it sports a metal build. Having rounded corners as well as a distinctive design for the antenna bands, it also has the fingerprint sensor's edge at the back.
Owning the model number as MAE136, its dimensions are 139.24 x 69.94 x 8.65 mm. There are no more details about its chipset, memory or cameras. It is expected that those details will be released in the coming days and weeks.
In the meantime, Gizbot reported that in 2016, Xiaomi released more smartphones as compared to previous years. In 2017, Xiaomi already launched the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X and now the company is working on a new smartphone with a 5-inch display.
Earlier Xiaomi lost significant market share in China to its major rivals like Oppo, Huawei and Vivo. The company in all probability aiming to regain the lost ground by launching these new handsets. The company is reportedly making its own processor called Pinecone. The first smartphone with Pinecone chipset is likely to launch later this month.
The Xiaomi Redmi series have brought a lot of success for the company in India. Xiaomi recently announced that it has over 3 million Redmi 3S handsets in India. With the launch of the Redmi 5, it is expected that the Redmi 4 and Redmi 4A will arrive in India.