It is confirmed that Xiaomi will be releasing the Mi 5 after the Chinese New Year holidays in China, but it seems like the Mi 5 isn’t Xiaomi’s first device of 2016. The smartphone to claim that title would be the Xiaomi Redmi 3, which is a 5-inch device made of metal.
What’s interesting is that Xiaomi has decided to take a different approach to the successor of the Redmi 2. Looking at the promotional poster released by Xiaomi on Weibo, the Redmi 3 seems to not only have a full metal body design, but a plaid design on the back as well. This could increase the grip of the smartphone, but we’ll have to get our hands on the device to know for sure.
![](https://www.lowyat.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/redmi-3-image-600x397.png)
The company hasn’t revealed any official specifications of the device, but comparing it to the TENAA listing we reported earlier, the Redmi 3 is confirmed to have a 5-inch 720p display. Other than that, the device is said to run on an octa-core 1.5GHz processor coupled with 2GB of RAM. It will supposedly have 16GB of internal storage with support for expansion via a microSD card, as well as a 5MP camera on the front and a 13MP camera on the back.
Xiaomi has set a date, the 12th of January, as the official day to launch the Redmi 3. If Xiaomi is implementing the same pricing strategy, then the device could have a very competitive retail price.
(Source: MIUI)
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