Xiaomi Mi A2, the Chinese brand’s second Android One phone in India, was launched in the country yesterday. While the first Mi A2 flash sale is scheduled for August 16, fans have the option to pre-order the device starting today, August 9. While it is called pre-order sale, it will be quite similar to a flash sale in nature as the company has kept limited stock in pre-order sales it has held in the past. The Xiaomi Mi A2 price in India will remain the same for both pre-orders and flash sales as the company is providing no special benefits for pre-booking the device except early shipping. If you are planning to try your luck in today’s sale, here’s everything you need to know.
The Mi A2 pre-order sale will continue only till Xiaomi receives bookings for all the units it has in stock - while this means there’s no official end date for the pre-bookings, it is still likely that the sale will be over within a few minutes. The main benefit of this sale is that fans will get the handset delivered to them early. The Amazon.in listing page for the handset says shipping will begin on August 12, and Gadgets 360 has learnt deliveries will start on August 12-13 and Xiaomi estimates most people will get their handset before August 16.
As with other Xiaomi pre-bookings, the Mi A2 pre-order sale today will require the buyers to make the full payment for the handset online as there is no cash on delivery option. Pre-orders can be placed on both Mi.com and Amazon.in at 12pm IST.
Xiaomi Mi A2 price in India is Rs. 16,999 for the variant with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage; the base 32GB storage model is not being launched in India, as Gadgets 360 had reported previously. The company also said at the India launch event that the smartphone’s 128GB storage and 6GB RAM option will be released in the country at a later date. This means you only have one variant to pre-order in the sale today.
The dual-SIM (Nano) Xiaomi Mi A2 runs stock Android 8.1 Oreo, and being a part of the Android One programme from Google, is certified to offer an optimised Android experience and timely updates. The company is promising "minimal preloaded apps." The smartphone sports a 5.99-inch full-HD+ (1080x2160 pixels) display with an 18:9 aspect ratio and pixel density of 403ppi. It is protected by 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 5. The Mi A2 is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 660 SoC (four cores clocked at 2.2GHz and four cores clocked at 1.8GHz) coupled with either 4GB or 6GB of RAM.
The Xiaomi Mi A2 sports a dual rear camera setup, with a 12-megapixel Sony IMX486 sensor in the primary camera, featuring 1.25-micron pixels with an f/1.75 aperture. It uses a 20-megapixel IMX376 sensor as the secondary rear camera, with 2-micron pixels, 4-in-1 Super Pixel tech, and f/1.75 aperture. The rear camera setup also features a flash module. On the front, the Mi A2 bears the same 20-megapixel sensor, complete with a soft-light flash module.
Xiaomi is touting several 'AI Camera' features, including Portrait mode (available on the front camera as well), Beauty Mode 4.0, and face recognition. There is also a 'Smart Lens Selection' feature, that chooses the appropriate rear sensor based on the lighting conditions. The smartphone also offers electronic image stabilisation (EIS) for video recording. As we mentioned, the Xiaomi Mi A2 comes in two inbuilt storage options - 64GB and 128GB - depending on the variant purchased.
Connectivity options on the Mi A2 include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac (dual-band, 2.4GHz and 5GHz), Bluetooth v5.0, GPS/ A-GPS, and a USB Type-C (v2.0) port - there is no 3.5mm headphone jack on the phone. It bears a fingerprint sensor on the rear panel, while other sensors on board include an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, digital compass, gyroscope, and proximity sensor. The Xiaomi Mi A2 sports a 3,000mAh battery that supports Quick Charge 4.0, however, the smartphone will ship with a regular 10W charger in the box. It measures 158.7x75.4x7.3mm, and weighs 168 grams.
Is Xiaomi Mi A2 the best Android One smartphone in India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.
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