A comprehensive review of all Xiaomi's mobile phones over the past 8 years: They have laid a solid foundation for Xiaomi's listing

On July 9, 2018, Xiaomi, founded on April 6, 2010, finally completed its dazzling transformation from a startup to a large listed company in just 8 years, 3 months and 3 days.

Although Lei Jun said in the recent IPO roadshow that Xiaomi is a new species, a rare company that can do hardware, e-commerce and the Internet at the same time, no one will deny that in the business system that Xiaomi has built over more than eight years, the smartphone business undoubtedly plays the role of cornerstone, pillar and backbone. It can be said that without the rapid development of Xiaomi's smartphone business, Xiaomi would not have achieved what it has today.

Therefore, at the highlight moment of Xiaomi's listing, Leifeng.com would like to review with everyone the mark Xiaomi has left on the road of smartphones.

August 16th was a special day for Xiaomi in its early days. On August 16th, 2010, four months and ten days after Xiaomi was founded, the first internal beta version of MIUI was launched, which can be said to have forged a "soul" for the birth of Xiaomi mobile phones.

A year later, also on August 16, the first Xiaomi mobile phone came out, which we called Xiaomi 1.

Xiaomi Mi 1 was born with the concept of "born for audiophiles" (of course Xiaomi no longer emphasizes this statement). In terms of configuration, Xiaomi Mi 1 is said to be the first dual-core 1.5GHz mobile phone in China, equipped with Qualcomm MSM8260 dual-core 1.5GHz CPU, Adreno 220 graphics chip, 1GB memory, 4GB body storage, and support for 32GB MicroSD expansion - in all aspects, this is a product "born for audiophiles".

At the same time, the price of 1999 RMB made Xiaomi 1 a huge sensation in the Chinese smartphone market at the time, and Xiaomi was regarded as a "disruptor" in the industry. The 1999 RMB price line became a curse in the early days of Xiaomi's development, which helped Xiaomi become a dark horse in the Chinese smartphone market, but also caused it to suffer unspeakable pain in the process of transforming to high-end products.

In addition, the appearance of Xiaomi 1 also opened up a new sales model in the Chinese mobile phone market - direct sales by e-commerce. Regardless of whether the shortage was caused by the problem of production capacity ramp-up, Xiaomi's practice of pre-ordering in batches in mobile phone sales objectively created a golden era of sales, which also brought Xiaomi the negative topic of "hunger marketing".

On May 15, 2012, Xiaomi 1 Youth Edition was launched on Xiaomi's official website.

From the configuration point of view, Xiaomi 1 Youth Edition can be regarded as a scaled-down version of Xiaomi 1, with the CPU changed to 1.2 GHz and the memory changed to 768 MB. In addition, the price of Xiaomi 1 Youth Edition is also quite attractive, 1499 yuan.

If we look at the appearance of Xiaomi 1 Youth Edition from today's perspective, there can be another interpretation: perhaps from the very beginning, Xiaomi had a trend of lowering prices based on the 1999 standard, which in a sense laid the foundation for the subsequent appearance of the Redmi series.

It is also worth mentioning that on June 7, 2012, Xiaomi announced that its mobile phone sales reached 3 million units.

On August 16, 2012, Lei Jun released Xiaomi 2 and Xiaomi 1S at 798 Art Center.

With the support of Qualcomm (Lei Jun announced Qualcomm's investment in Xiaomi in December 2011), Xiaomi Mi 2 uses the world's first quad-core 1.5 GHz processor using 28 nanometer technology, and titles such as "Performance King", "Performance Monster" and "Betting King" became popular. In addition, 2GB of memory, 1280x720p resolution screen, 16GB of storage space, etc., all make the 1999 yuan Xiaomi Mi 2 even more popular.

Xiaomi Mi 2 was accompanied by the Mi 1S, priced at 1,499 yuan. Compared with Mi 1, the Mi 1S has basically no changes in appearance, but the processor has been upgraded to a dual-core 1.7 GHz and a front camera has been added.

On October 23, 2012, Xiaomi 1S Youth Edition joined the Xiaomi mobile phone camp at a price of 1299 yuan. So far, Xiaomi has covered three price ranges between 1000 and 2000 yuan, namely 1299, 1499 and 1999.

On April 9, 2013, during the second Mi Fans Festival held at the Beijing National Convention Center, Xiaomi 2S and Xiaomi 2 Youth Edition (also known as Xiaomi 2A) were officially released.

Compared with Xiaomi 2, Xiaomi 2S has slight upgrades in processor and camera. The storage space is divided into two versions: 16GB and 32GB, priced at 1999 yuan and 2299 yuan respectively.

In contrast, Xiaomi 2A continues the positioning of the previous generation Youth Edition and is priced at 1,499 yuan.

Due to their outstanding performance in all aspects, Xiaomi 2 and Xiaomi 2S have stood the test of time. In July 2017, Lei Jun said on Weibo that Xiaomi 2/2S were products from five years ago, but they are still used by nearly 5 million people; and MIUI 9, which was released in 2017, still supports these two models.

On July 31, 2013, with the launch of the first Redmi phone (which we call Redmi 1), Xiaomi ushered in a new series in its mobile phone product line - the Redmi series.

Redmi 1 is undoubtedly a high-volume product. Redmi uses MediaTek's 28 nm quad-core processor, AUO's 1280x720p screen, and cooperates with China Mobile and QQ Space. At a price of 799 yuan, this thousand-yuan phone is unstoppable. The data at the time was that the first batch of 100,000 units were sold, and more than 9 million users made reservations through QQ Space.

On February 14, 2014, taking the opportunity of launching the telecom version, Xiaomi directly launched the Redmi 1S telecom version, priced at 799 yuan.

Starting from Xiaomi 3, Xiaomi gave up the precedent of holding a press conference on August 16 and instead chose to release new products on September 5, 2013 at the National Convention Center.

Compared with Xiaomi's previous generations of products, Xiaomi 3 adopts a completely different design. Its plastic body and curved frame give people a strong Nokia style, and it has been criticized as "the ugliest design in history."

In terms of configuration, Xiaomi 3 also made a bold attempt on processor, using two processors, Nvidia Tegra 4 (mobile version) and Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 series (China Unicom version and China Telecom version) - yes, the concept of "full network access" was not popular in the Chinese smartphone market at that time.

On Double 11 in 2013, Xiaomi participated in Tmall's Double 11 promotion for the first time, with 110,000 Xiaomi 3s, 110,000 Xiaomi 2s and 110,000 Redmi units participating. It won the first place in brand attention in the mobile phone category and the first place in single-store sales in the mobile phone category.

On March 19, 2014, Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note mobile phone based on the Redmi 1.

It is worth mentioning that, also based on the MTK 6592 processor, Redmi Note has launched three versions: standard edition, special edition and enhanced edition, with prices covering three levels of 799, 899 and 999 respectively.

Subsequently, with the release of 4G licenses, Redmi Note launched the 4G enhanced version in August 2014 (covering the networks of China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom respectively), which used the Qualcomm 400 processor and was priced at 999 yuan.

Redmi Note 4G Mobile Enhanced Edition became Xiaomi's first 4G model to go on sale.

On July 22, 2014, Xiaomi 4 was released with the slogan "An artistic journey of a piece of steel plate".

It uses a metal middle frame and front and back glass panels, which greatly improves the texture of the body; Xiaomi officially calls it "the masterpiece of Xiaomi's fourth anniversary", while some netizens call it "the most beautiful Xiaomi phone ever."

Xiaomi Mi 4 is still priced at an attractive 1999 yuan, but what is different is Xiaomi’s self-positioning. At that press conference, the previous slogan “born for enthusiasts” was changed to “let everyone enjoy the fun of technology”. As Xiaomi’s voice in the supply chain increased, Lei Jun promised to supply 1 million units in the first two months at the Xiaomi Mi 4 press conference.

However, it is worth mentioning that Xiaomi 4 was initially sold only in China Unicom 3G version, and later followed up with 4G version.

On January 4, 2015, Redmi 2 was released, starting at 699 yuan.

On March 31, 2015, at the Xiaomi 5th Anniversary Mi Fan Festival New Product Communication Conference, Redmi 2A was released. It uses a 1.5GHz Leadcore L1860C quad-core processor and is priced at 599 yuan (499 yuan for the Mi Fan Festival). Obviously, this is a product specially launched for Xiaomi's Mi Fan Festival on April 6.

On August 13, 2015, Redmi Note 2 was released, using MediaTek 6595 processor, priced from 799 yuan, with two versions priced at 899 yuan and 999 yuan. However, after the release of Redmi Note 2, due to the problems of AUO and Tianma screens, it caused a huge public outcry on the Internet, and Xiaomi finally apologized.

On November 24, 2015, Redmi Note 3 was released. Lei Jun said that this phone is "all my dreams". It uses MediaTek 6795 (Helio X10) processor and fingerprint recognition function, and the price starts from 999 yuan. The release of Redmi Note 3 made Redmi Note 2 called "the shortest-lived phone in history" by netizens.

However, according to the information announced by Lei Jun at the press conference, from the time Redmi Note 2 was launched on August 16, 2015 to November 23 of the same year, it had cumulative sales of 6.09 million units and revenue of 4.88 billion yuan in a full 100 days.

Xiaomi Note was considered as Xiaomi's attempt to enter the high-end market. However, given that the Xiaomi series' price of 1,999 yuan was well-known at the time, Xiaomi Note was not considered a success.

On January 15, 2015, Xiaomi Note was released with the highest configuration at that time (such as Snapdragon 801 processor), with a starting price of 2,299 yuan, of which the 64GB version was 2,599 yuan; later, the top-end version of Xiaomi Note equipped with Snapdragon 810 processor was priced at 2,999 yuan. This shows Xiaomi's determination to hit the 3,000 yuan price point.

In order to increase the sales of Xiaomi Note, Xiaomi launched several versions of this phone, such as the Goddess Edition and the Bamboo Back Cover Edition, and started selling mobile phones in Xiaomi Home for the first time. On June 29, 2015, Xiaomi Note released the All Network Edition and announced that the price of the Xiaomi Note Standard Edition would be reduced to 1,999 yuan - this was interpreted by the outside world as the failure of Xiaomi Note to impact the high-end market.

However, the emergence of Xiaomi Note All Network means that Xiaomi mobile phones have officially entered the All Network era.

Perhaps due to the failure of Snapdragon 810, Xiaomi did not update the Xiaomi mobile phone series in 2015. On September 22, 2015, Xiaomi 4C was released. Its appearance design is actually quite ordinary, with a plastic body, but the highlights are: it uses a Snapdragon 808 processor, supports full network 2.0, and uses a USB Type-C interface - this makes it the first Xiaomi mobile phone to use full network 2.0 and the first to use a USB Type-C interface.

With a starting price of 1,299 yuan, Xiaomi 4C successfully took on the role of Xiaomi's sales force in the second half of 2015 in the absence of Xiaomi's digital flagship.

In January 2016, the metal-body Redmi 3 was released, priced from 699 yuan; the high-end version also used fingerprint recognition and was priced at 899 yuan.

It is worth mentioning that starting from Redmi 3, all Redmi phones have begun to support full network access.

On February 24, 2016, after nearly two years of waiting, Xiaomi 5 arrived with Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 flagship processor using 14 nm process. However, a small episode was that LeTV rushed to launch Snapdragon 820 at CES in the United States, which really stole a lot of Xiaomi's limelight; but from the perspective of mass production, Xiaomi 5 is still the first mobile phone in China to use Snapdragon 820.

However, due to the cost of the Snapdragon 820 processor, the Xiaomi Mi 5 is beginning to show a trend of exceeding the 1999 yuan price line. The Xiaomi Mi 5 standard version is priced at 1999 yuan, but it is actually a so-called castrated version of the Snapdragon 820; the Xiaomi Mi 5 high-end version is priced at 2299 yuan, and the top-end version is priced at 2599/2699 yuan (2699 for the ceramic version).

Along with the release of Xiaomi 5, Xiaomi also released a mobile phone priced at 1,699 yuan - Xiaomi 4S, which can be seen as an upgraded version of Xiaomi 4C with an additional fingerprint recognition - but under the brilliance of Xiaomi 5, Xiaomi 4S has a weak presence and quickly faded out of people's sight.

On May 10, 2016, Xiaomi released the large-screen, high-battery Xiaomi Max, equipped with a Snapdragon 652/650 processor and priced from 1,499 yuan.

On July 27, 2016, Redmi Pro was released, with a starting price of RMB 1,499. This was the first time that the Redmi series reached such a starting price.

Redmi Note 4 was released on August 25, 2016. It is equipped with MediaTek Helio X20 processor, supports all networks, and is priced from 999 yuan.

Redmi 4 was released on November 4, 2016, starting at 699 yuan, and the high-end version equipped with Snapdragon 625 is priced at 899 yuan; while Redmi 4A starts at 499 yuan. Obviously, both products are launched for the Double Eleven Shopping Festival.

It is worth mentioning that on February 4, 2017, Xiaomi announced that the prices of Redmi 4 and Redmi 4A would increase by 100 yuan due to cost increases.

On September 27, 2016, Xiaomi Mi 5S and Mi 5S Plus were officially released. Both are equipped with Snapdragon 821 processors. They can be seen as upgraded versions of Xiaomi Mi 5. Their features include Qualcomm's ultrasonic fingerprint recognition technology. The Xiaomi Mi 5S starts at RMB 1,999, while the Xiaomi Mi 5S Plus starts at RMB 2,299.

It is worth mentioning that Xiaomi 5S Plus is the first Xiaomi phone equipped with a rear dual camera.

On October 25, 2016, Xiaomi held a new product launch conference, announcing the launch of Xiaomi MIX.

Xiaomi MIX adopts a full-screen design that breaks through the 16:9 screen-to-body ratio, and the earpiece and camera have been completely redesigned for the full screen; at the same time, Xiaomi also invited the world's top designer Philippe Starck to support it.

The emergence of Xiaomi MIX has allowed Xiaomi to truly lead the trend of full-screen smartphones, and has also made people feel Xiaomi's efforts in innovation. The emergence of this product has also greatly reversed Xiaomi's brand image, and has even been interpreted by the outside world as an important turning point in the recovery of Xiaomi's mobile phone sales.

Compared with Mi Mix, Mi Note 2 endorsed by Tony Leung Chiu Wai seems dull; but this is not because Mi Note 2 is not good enough, but because Mi Mix is ​​too dazzling. And after Mi Note 2 reached its peak, Mi Note series no longer plays the role of flagship model.

On February 13, 2017, the Redmi Note 4X was released on Xiaomi's official website, priced at 999 yuan. Later, Xiaomi launched a Hatsune Miku package for this phone, priced at 1,299 yuan.

On February 28, 2017, Redmi 4X was quietly launched on Xiaomi's official website, with a starting price of 699 yuan.

On February 28, 2017, Xiaomi held a press conference at the National Convention Center and released the Xiaomi 5C, which is equipped with the Surge S1 octa-core chip independently developed by Xiaomi Pinecone and is priced from 1,499 yuan.

On April 19, 2017, Xiaomi 6 was released. It is the first mobile phone in China equipped with a Snapdragon 835 processor. The lowest price is 2,299 yuan for the 4GB + 64GB version, and the highest is 2,999 yuan for the ceramic premium version.

At this point, Xiaomi's digital series of mobile phones have finally gotten rid of the 1,999 yuan price curse, and consumers have been able to accept this fact calmly.

On May 25, 2017, Xiaomi Max 2 was released, equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor and priced from 1,699 yuan.

On June 21, 2017, Redmi Note 5A was released, mainly sold offline, with a starting price of 699 yuan.

On July 26, 2017, Xiaomi 5X was released, equipped with a Snapdragon 625 processor and priced from 1,499 yuan.

On September 11, 2017, one day before the iPhone was released, Xiaomi released the Xiaomi MIX 2, priced from 3,299 yuan. Compared with its predecessor, this product made a lot of compromises for mass production, which also made it less surprising to the industry.

At the same time, the Xiaomi Note 3 equipped with Snapdragon 660 has also become a mid-range product competing with OPPO and vivo. Starting with this phone, Xiaomi began to use Kris Wu as its spokesperson.

On December 7, 2017, Xiaomi officially launched the 18:9 full-screen mobile phone - Redmi 5, with a starting price of 799 yuan; Redmi 5 Plus is priced from 999 yuan.

On March 16, 2018, Redmi Note 5 was released. The phone features an 18:9 full screen, the world's first Snapdragon 636 processor, and is equipped with an AI dual camera. The price starts at 1,099 yuan.

On March 27, 2018, Xiaomi MIX 2S was released in Shanghai. As the first flagship model in China to use Snapdragon 845, Xiaomi MIX 2S continued its predecessor in terms of appearance design, which did not bring much surprise. However, Xiaomi MIX 2S achieved a significant improvement in photography, achieving a high score of 101 in DXO, catching up with iPhone X.

Of course, in terms of price, it continues to be priced at 3,299 yuan.

On April 25, 2018, Xiaomi released the Xiaomi 6X mobile phone at Wuhan University. It is equipped with a Snapdragon 660 AIE processor and is priced from 1,499 yuan.

At the press conference, Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Xiaomi, announced that "Xiaomi's hardware comprehensive net profit margin will never exceed 5%. If there is any excess, it will be returned to the users in full."

On May 10, 2018, Xiaomi and Suning.com jointly launched a new Redmi S series product, Redmi S2, in Nanjing. It is equipped with a Snapdragon 625 processor and is priced from 999 yuan.

On May 31, 2018, Xiaomi held a press conference in Shenzhen and announced the launch of the Xiaomi 8 series of mobile phones.

Xiaomi Mi 8 is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, adopts “full screen with notch”, equipped with dual-frequency GPS technology and infrared face recognition technology, and is priced from 2,699 yuan. Due to its similarity to iPhone X, Xiaomi Mi 8 has attracted a lot of complaints from the outside world.

Xiaomi Mi 8 SE is the world's first to launch Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 processor. It also uses a "notch full screen", but has a tougher body and is priced from 1,799 yuan.

Compared with Xiaomi Mi 8, Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition uses 3D structured light technology, and is equipped with screen fingerprint recognition. In addition, the transparent back cover with mechanical beauty also makes this phone attract a lot of attention. This product is considered to be the "Xiaomi 8th anniversary flagship masterpiece". It only has 8GB+128GB version and is priced at 3,699 yuan.

In addition, Lei Jun said that since this product requires dust-free transformation of the factory, this product will not be available until mid-to-late July.

On June 12, 2018, Redmi 6/6A was released, with Redmi 6 priced from 799 yuan and Redmi 6A priced from 599 yuan.

On June 25, 2018, the Redmi 6 Pro, the first notch full-screen model in the Redmi series, was released, with a starting price of 999 yuan.

Looking back at the road Xiaomi has taken in the mobile phone industry, Leifeng.com (official account: Leifeng.com) can clearly feel the ups and downs and adjustments Xiaomi has experienced in its product line layout. Today, Xiaomi has developed from the initial price line of 1999 yuan to almost all price ranges between 499 and 3699 yuan. It can be said that it has successfully completed the rise and fall of the price range. Among them, Xiaomi has made more efforts in the process of climbing, and the Xiaomi MIX series has to be said to have made great contributions.

In addition, there is another question worth pondering: Is it the Xiaomi series or the Redmi series that supports Xiaomi today?

Previously, there was a voice in the industry saying "Without Redmi, there would be no Xiaomi", which is certainly in reference to the sales volume of Redmi phones shown in the Xiaomi CDR prospectus; but it is undeniable that from a more fundamental perspective, the Xiaomi mobile phone series plays a mainstay role in the entire Xiaomi mobile phone product system - in a sense, this is a more important role, it successfully carries the brand image of Xiaomi mobile phones and its self-value in the technology industry. With the support of the Redmi mobile phone series, they have jointly created a solid foundation for Xiaomi's business system. Both are indispensable and irreplaceable.

Therefore, it should be said that without the mobile phone business, there would be no Xiaomi today.

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