Xiaomi taps into 5G market with new version of MIX3

Chinese tech company Xiaomi released its first 5G phone, a new version of the MIX3, on Sunday at the Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona, Spain.

The new MIX3 will be equipped with a Snapdragon 855 system and Qualcomm's X50 5G modem.

Priced at 599 Euros, the phone is expected to be on sale in May.

Senior Vice President of Strategic Cooperation at Xiaomi, Xiang Wang, speaks during the presentation of the new Xiaomi Mi 9 and the new Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G in an event held on the eve of the Mobile World Congress 2019 (MWC19), in Barcelona, Spain, 24 February 2019. [Photo: IC]

The price of the MIX3 is much lower compared to the 5G phones released by Samsung and Huawei earlier.

"Xiaomi is determined to make real 5G commercial products from the very beginning by lowering the entering threshold for customers so that more people can enjoy the latest technology," said Wang Xiang, senior vice president responsible for Xiaomi's international business.

Also, the MIX3 is perfectly compatible with the 4G network when there is no 5G internet available.

During the launch ceremony, Xiaomi made its first 5G video call through European telecom operator Orange.

Besides Orange, Xiaomi announced that it has reached cooperation deals in 5G with five other telecom operators in Europe including 3, Sunrise, Telefonica, Tim and Vodafone.