Is the reign of xiaomi in danger on mobile phones?

For some time now, especially if we look at the mid-range section of mobile catalogs, there has been an indisputable king in popularity and sales: Xiaomi. The Chinese brand has managed to lower its profit margin to offer terminals at a very good price, at a time when the rest of the brands have launched terminals that, without shame, exceed a thousand euros in price. If we look at a store like Amazon, the top ten positions are made up of Xiaomi brand phones, among which the largest is the Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro that can be obtained for 350 euros but has software that would fight a duel with terminals of more than double the price. This, of course, means that the brand is chosen by many users and that it becomes a success. But what if this had the days numbered?

Realme, Samsung's mid-range and changes in Xiaomi philosophy

Xiaomi raises the price of its latest mid-range

Three are the obvious factors that can jeopardize Xiaomi's reign in the mid-range. And one of them has surprised us the most, because it comes directly from the Chinese company itself. Recovering the range Mi Note has brought to the market an original mobile in terms of performance, since it has no less than five rear cameras and whose main lens has 108 MP. But not all is good news and, in the final price, it is where you have to raise your eyebrow. Currently, the version of the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 that is sold in the official store amounts to 550 euros (6 GB of RAM + 128 GB of storage). A price, clearly, excessive for what this brand has us used to.

It is as if Xiaomi had bet everything on the fivefold brand, trusting that the public addicted to mobile photography will make an outlay of more than five hundred euros, simply for this feature. But if we look inside the phone, the price does not correspond to what was found. We have in this terminal with a Snapdragon 730G processor, a gaming variant of the 730 that carry terminals such as the Xiaomi MI 9T that can be found on Amazon, sometimes, on sale for about 280 euros, almost half. What's more, Xiaomi itself offers terminals with a superior processor, taking us to the Snapdragon 855 in the Xiaomi Mi 9, which can be purchased for 380 euros or even 300 euros in flash offers.

We are not concluding that this phone is not worth 550 euros but seeing the usual trend of the brand it seems to us a rather strange movement. In China, where this phone is marketed under the name Xiaomi CC9 Pro, when it came out it was priced at 360 euros. When they arrive in our country, it is normal for them to rise in price for different reasons, including taxes and duties. But up to 200 euros? When the Redmi K20 came out in China (here the Xiaomi Mi 9T) it was priced at 260 euros for the base version. How much did it cost when it arrived in Spain? 330 euros, that is, 70 euros more. That is, the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 should have had a price of approximately 450 euros. 100 euros less than what we find, now, in the final price of this phone.

Already in January Xiaomi warned that its phones were going to rise in price and, surely, this movement will be joined by other terminals in the future. Where do we have to look, then, if we want to continue obtaining the best at an unbeatable price? The answer seems to be another brand newcomer to the market, Realme.

The breakthrough of Realme

Realme is a brand owned by Oppo and it comes to break the market and look from you to you at the Xiaomi mid-range. And it does so with the brand's own weapons of the Redmi Note 7, with demolition prices in terminals with higher specifications. For now, and before entering the matter, Realme is committed to including, exclusively, Qualcomm processors in its terminals, something that Xiaomi has already stopped doing in its recent Redmi Note 8 Pro and the inclusion of a Mediatek. If you want to know a little more about the problems of Mediatek processors, visit this special one and draw your own conclusions.

Right now, Realme has the following devices for sale in our country.

• Realme 5. HD screen, four main cameras and Snapdragon 665 plus 5000 mAh battery for 160 euros.
• Realme 3 Pro. FullHD screen, two main cameras, Snapdragon 710 and 4,405 mAh battery for 180 euros.
• Realme 5 Pro. FullHD screen, four main cameras, Snapdragon 712 and 4035 mAh battery for 200 euros.
• Realme X2. FullHD screen, four main cameras, Snapdragon 730 and 4,000 mAh battery for 300 euros.
• Realme X2 Pro. FullHD screen, four main cameras, Snapdragon 855+ and 4,000 mAh battery for 400 euros.

Let's look at the Realme mid-range, which is where, really, Xiaomi can pupate. The Realme 3 Pro with Snapdragon 710 processor, for example, can now be purchased at a price of 180 euros and appeared on the market in May 2019. If we are looking for an equivalent in price in Xiaomi we would have to go to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7, a terminal that appeared in January of this year with Snapdragon with 660, two cameras and 4,000 mAh battery can be purchased for 161 euros. For 20 euros more you have two additional cameras, faster charging and bigger battery. Now, the user will have in Realme a serious competitor to the usual Xiaomi option. Option, by the way, that is completed by a third agent that has broken in with force: Samsung's mid-range.

Samsung's new mid-range

Dead the J range and before the 'monopoly' of Xiaomi and its mid-range, reinvent or die. With this premise, Samsung has launched no less than nine terminals (from the Samsung Galaxy A10 to the Samsung Galaxy A90) and with prices that range between 137 euros of the first and 750 euros of the 5G model of the last. The user who is interested in a Samsung terminal can already find a mid-range terminal worthy of the Korean brand, such as the Samsung Galaxy A40 that, for 200 euros, offers a FullHD screen, an Exynos 7904 processor, double camera and 3,100 euros battery. It falls a little below the terminals that we have previously reviewed and that were in this price range, but we cannot forget that many users prefer Samsung over Xiaomi due to the solvency of the brand in our country.

What will end up happening? Xiaomi must undoubtedly wake up from the stalking Realme, Samsung's consolidation in the mid-range and its internal decisions. Only time will know if Xiaomi's reign will be able to remain or it will be overthrown forever.