The Xiaomi Mi 6 out-specs the Galaxy S8 for half the price

With the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 finally ready for market, it's time for a round of smartphone updates from the usual suspects. The chip debuted in the Galaxy S8 (full review coming soon), and Xiaomi is now featuring the 835 in the Xiaomi Mi 6, the new flagship for the company's home market of China.

Unlike the stunning Xiaomi Mi Mix, a slim-bezel "concept" phone from Xiaomi that the company actually sold, the Mi 6 is pretty boring to look at. Xiaomi has fallen back to its standard "do what Apple is doing" design language, with thick bezels on the top and bottom of the phone and a front-mounted fingerprint sensor. It gets a lot harder to complain when you see the price, though: $362 (RMB 2,499).

Yep, for less than half of the price of a Galaxy S8, Xiaomi will sell you a phone with a faster 2.45GHz Snapdragon 835, 6GB of RAM (2GB more than the S8), 64GB of storage, and a 3350 mAh battery (also more than the S8). The Galaxy S8 does have a bigger display, though—Xiaomi is using a back-to-basics 5.15-inch, 1080p display in the usual 16:9 aspect ratio. There's also a USB-C port, stereo speakers, and NFC.

Other than the speedy internals, the big addition to the phone is a dual 12MP camera setup on the back. The camera has a 2x optical zoom and a wide-angle camera lens. The dual camera setup also allows for a fake depth-of-field effect that phones have been doing for about three years now.

The phone has a stainless steel frame and a glass back, and if you want your device to be even more fragile, there is also a $435 ceramic version with 18-karat gold camera rims. The regular edition of the phone comes in three colors: black, white, and blue, it and will launch in China—and nowhere else—on April 28.