Xiaomi announced the Mi A2 and Mi A2 Lite towards the end of July 2018 and naturally, the company is expected to succeed the duo with 2019 models – Xiaomi Mi A3 and Mi A3 Lite – around this time of the year.
Rumors of these two have been floating around for a while, but things escalated to a whole new level when Xiaomi recently announced the camera-centric Mi CC9 and Mi CC9e handsets in China.
Apparently, these two could grace the global market as Android One devices, presumably, the Mi A3 and Mi A3 Lite, respectively. It’s also thought that Xiaomi could launch the Mi CC9e globally as the Mi A3 and not Mi A3 Lite.
The latter case has more evidence to back the claim, but the former is more realistic. Either way, the material evidence that folks at the XDA Developers have collected suggest Xiaomi Mi A3 could be a rebadged Mi CC9e when it arrives these sides.
Granted, we are still looking at an improved device overall when compared to the outgoing Mi A2. Some might not like the lower 720p resolution, but looking at everything else, including the return of the 3.5mm audio jack, the supposed Mi A3 will definitely challenge the likes of Tecno Phantom 9 and Huawei P30 Lite for the money.
Here’s the rest of the Mi A3 specs (based on Mi CC9e specs):
- 6-inch HD+ AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 processor
- Memory: 4GB + 64GB, 6GB + 64GB, 6GB + 128GB
- Tri-lens main camera: 48MP + 8MP + 2MP
- 32MP selfie camera
- 4,030mAh battery
- Android 9 Pie
- Extras: Bluetooth 5.0, USB-C, 3.5mm audio jack, under display fingerprint scanner, Quick Charge 3.0, etc.
Xiaomi Mi A2 and A2 Lite arrived in Kenya in October. If this timeline maintains, we are looking at an October 2019 release date for Xiaomi Mi A3 here in Kenya. But we’ll have to at least wait for Xiaomi to unveil the device(s), probably later this month.
In China, the base model of the Mi CC9e goes for about Kshs 19,400 while the high-end variant is priced at about Kshs 23,900.
