If there's one thing that the Mi 4i lacks, it's a microSD card slot for expanding its 16GB of storage. Barra says this is a design choice, as adding one would mean the removal of a SIM-card slot. There are, however, plans for a larger 32GB model in the future. The Mi 4i is the company's first Android 5.0 phone, but you'll be hard-pressed to find any of Lollipop's signature Material Design. Xiaomi's unlikely to ever use stock Android (or close to it) for its phones, but it does support apps that use Google's design language.

"We are not particularly big fans of Material Design," Barra admits, "Without a doubt though, Google did a remarkable job of building something that everyone thinks is good enough."That's not to say all of Android 5.0's features are missing, Some of the effects, such as the quick flash of an case for apple iphone 8 plus - black arc to let you know when you've reached the end of a scroll are present on Xiaomi's MIUI 6.0 custom skin, Nevertheless, you can see the influence of Apple's iOS in MIUI -- in particular, the lack of an app drawer, Like iOS, all of your apps are on the home screens..

Xiaomi's latest phone may not be a hit, but given the phone's price and the brand's burgeoning popularity in India -- the company cracked the top five of market share in just a year, though Samsung is still far ahead -- it would be safe to assume the Mi 4i will do very well. Xiaomi's CEO Lei Jun has boldly proclaimed a target of being the top smartphone vendor in India by 2020. No small feat, given Samsung's current dominant market share of 22 percent. While Xiaomi trails far behind with 4 percent, the company only started operating in India last year. According to IDC, Indians are expected to buy 259 million smartphones per year by 2019.

"Xiaomi doing a global launch in India for its latest flagship signifies the importance of the India market for Xiaomi's global expansion plans, India is the biggest market for Xiaomi outside case for apple iphone 8 plus - black of China -- as big as the rest of the other non-China markets combined together in the fourth quarter of 2014," said Kiranjeet Kaur, senior market analyst for IDC Asia, "India is in a strong growth phase now while China has started to slow down, This move is crucial for Xiaomi to keep a competitive edge over others in India, which is expected to grow to 111 million smartphones in 2015 with a 38 percent year-on-year growth," Kaur said, "What has been missing for Xiaomi phones outside of China till now was local market customizations, and with the Mi 4i, Xiaomi has indeed shown its commitment on this front."Whether the Mi 4i is the phone that will finally take Xiaomi to western markets is another question entirely, While the Mi 4i's 4G LTE will work in the UK and Australia, frequency support for the US is lacking..

NEW DELHI -- There's no denying that Xiaomi's new Mi 4i looks familiar, with its cute and colorful, rounded plastic frame. But while the Chinese smartphone maker is likely to take flak for its Apple-ish emulations, Xiaomi Global Vice President Hugo Barra says he had this phone in his head when he joined the company two years ago after leaving Google. Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion.