Three new Xiaomi phones hit TENAA: Are we looking at Redmi 6 and Redmi 6A?

TENAA

Xiaomi’s Redmi family of phones offers some fantastic value for money, delivering solid specs at a great price. The Redmi 5 series has been on the market for roughly six months, but is Xiaomi about to pull the trigger on the Redmi 6?

Three new phones popped up on China’s TENAA telecoms authority overnight, shaping up to be entry-level, better than entry-level, and squarely mid-range devices.

All three phones sport a 3,000mAh battery, 5.45-inch 1,440 x 720 display, and a 5MP front-facing camera. They also sport a set of dots on the lower portion of the rear cover, suggesting wireless charging capabilities out of the box. But that’s about all they have in common with each other.

Starting with the entry-level model (model number M1804C3CC, seen below), we have a phone with a quad-core 2Ghz processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. A 13MP single camera and 5MP selfie snapper will handle your photography needs, while the lack of a fingerprint scanner is also notable here.

TENAA

Moving up a bit, we have a better spec sheet (model number M1804C3CE), delivering an unnamed octa-core 2Ghz processor, 2GB or 3GB of RAM, and 16GB or 32GB of expandable storage. The photography department consists of a 12MP rear shooter and a 5MP selfie camera. Much like the previous model, there doesn’t seem to be a fingerprint scanner here, either.

The top-end model (model number M1804C3DE) gives us a dual-camera setup with at least one 12MP shooter, an unnamed 2Ghz octa-core chipset, 2GB to 4GB of RAM, and 16GB to 64GB of expandable storage. It also differs from the previous two phones by being the only one to offer a fingerprint scanner on the rear.

Redmi 6, Redmi 6A or something else?

So what devices could they be, then? The Redmi 5 series was first announced in November and December 2017. The TENAA listings would be very early for a Redmi 6 family of phones, which means we could be seeing an early launch if these are indeed successor devices.

If Xiaomi is sticking to a November/December timetable, however, it means we’re getting a glimpse of these phones a full six months before they’re actually launched — a very unlikely but not impossible scenario. The other explanation is that they’re not the Redmi 6 range, but between the 720p displays and budget specs, they certainly seem like new Redmi phones.

The lack of a fingerprint scanner on the two cheapest models is also pretty noteworthy. Xiaomi usually ditches the scanner on its Redmi xA devices, such as the Redmi 4A and Redmi 5A. In any event, we’re pretty excited about the potential inclusion of wireless charging — will this be the next big feature to trickle down from premium phones? Give us your thoughts in the comments.