Beijing: China's Xiaomi unveiled on Tuesday its new flagship Mi 4 smartphone, aimed squarely at the premium handset market dominated by Apple and Samsung Electronics.
The Mi 4 will feature a Qualcomm Inc Snapdragon 801 2.5Ghz processor and 5-inch 1080p screen, said Lei Jun, Xiaomi's chief executive, at a launch event in Beijing.
The Xiaomi MI 4 has 3GB LP-DDR3 RAM, a 13 megapixel rear and an 8 megapixel front Sony stacked CMOS camera along with a 3080 mAh Lithium-ion polymer battery.
But sheathed in iPhone-like metal sides, the Mi 4's similarities to Apple's smartphone drew murmurs from the crowd of 'iPhone' when showcased by Lei.
Founded in 2010 by Lei, Xiaomi seeks to cut costs by eschewing brick-and-mortar stores in favour of web-based distribution and word-of-mouth marketing.
Xiaomi's previous flaship phone the Mi 3 is going on sale in India on the same day the successor Mi 4 was announced.
Xiaomi became the world's sixth-largest smartphone vendor in the first quarter of 2014, according to data firm Canalys, after repeatedly doubling its sales. The company was valued at $10 billion last year.
Xiaomi sold 18.7 mln smartphones in 2013 and on Tuesday maintained a 60 million sales target for 2014. For comparison, Huawei Technologies has said it is targeting 80 million smartphone sales for the year.
The latest phone was unveiled at a glitzy launch event at the National Convention Centre in Beijing, where Lei Jun and Vice President Hugo Barra - a former Google executive - posed for photos with a winding queue of fans decked in Xiaomi-branded red T-shirts.
With inputs from Reuters####
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