Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is expected to unveil a new 5.5in handset with AMOLED display, 13-megapixel rear camera, and 8-megapixel front-facing selfie camera, in the upcoming media event on 28 February. The company has reportedly sent out media invites for the high-profile event, wherein the new phone is expected to be launched in the sub-$200 category for entry-level or budget consumers.
Apart from the budget smartphone which will be priced around ¥1,299 ($190), Xiaomi will be showcasing a couple of in-house developed CPUs at the event, reports DigiTimes.
The V670 and V790 which are codenamed 'Pinecone' will be the two upcoming CPUs developed by Beijing Pinecone Electronics in partnership with Leadcore Technology. Both the CPUs are touted to be based on the Apple's A10 Fusion SoC architecture that's found in iPhone 7 series.
The V670 chip will be based on a 28nm-fabrication process wherein four high-performance Cortex-A53 cores will be paired up with four Cortex-A53 low-powered cores, alongside an ARM-based Mali-T860 MP2 GPU.
On the contrary, the V970 chip will be based on the 10nm-fabrication process wherein four Cortex-A73 cores will be paired up four Cortex-A53 cores along with a Mali G71 MP12 GPU.
Meanwhile, the recent sales survey conducted by market research firm Canalys suggests that Apple has lost its fourth place to Xiaomi in the fourth quarter of 2016 in China's booming smartphone market. The survey report adds that Xiaomi lost nearly 21% of its share in the smartphone market with 51.4 million unit sales while Apple has lost around 18.2% of its share in the last fiscal year with 43.8 million iPhone sales.
