Xiaomi’s Redmi 1S is already the cheapest mid-range smartphone you can get and it looks like the company will be pushing things further by creating an even more affordable release. The device will apparently cost just about $65 and it’s most likely to be the successor to the said handset.
GizChina is reporting that Xiaomi has invested a huge amount of cash into Chinese chip maker Leadcore. You’ve probably never heard of the company and to be frank, neither have we, and that’s mainly because it doesn’t have such a high presence unlike MediaTek which currently dominates the affordable market.
Thanks to the huge investment (actual amount isn’t known as yet), Xiaomi will be able to get its hands on mobile SOCs for much cheaper, thus reducing the overall cost of a smartphone. Rumor has it that the company’s will use the Leadcore LC1860 chipset in its next lineup of entry-level smartphones which should include the Redmi 1S‘ successor.
The said processor is based on the Cortex A7 CPU with a clock speed of 2GHz and it’s paired with a Mali T628 GPU which is found on the Samsung Galaxy Alpha and other Exynos 5 Octa handsets. The chip certainly looks to be a beefy one and it also has support for 2K displays and 1080p video capture at 60fps.
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Another great feature is its integrated modem which offers 4G LTE, 3G and GSM support. Qualcomm’s chipsets also offer the same solution as it avoids excessive costs of adding a separate module for connectivity.
If anyone is capable of pulling off a $65 mid-range smartphone, it’s most certainly Xiaomi. Let’s hope it isn’t a long wait to see such a handset to reach fruition.