Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 Launch, Amazon India Sale Offers, Nokia 6 Sold Out, and More This Week

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 was the biggest launch of the week in India, and the company's first smartphone launch of 2017 in the country. The Xiaomi smartphone starts at Rs. 9,999 for the 2GB RAM, 32GB storage variant. The 3GB RAM and 32GB storage variant of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 will set you back by Rs. 10,999, and the top end 3GB RAM and 64GB storage variant is priced at Rs. 12,999.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 did well in our review, scoring particularly high scores on design and battery life, but the camera, though better than what we saw with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, still could use some improvement. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 will be on sale from January 23, on Flipkart and Mi.com. No pre-registration is required.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 vs Moto G4 Plus vs LeEco Le 2 vs Lenovo Z2 Plus

Amazon is holding its first sale of 2017, the Amazon Great Indian Sale 2017, and today is the last day to pick up deals. Ahead of the Great Indian sale, Amazon hired 7,500 temporary workers to ensure smooth logistics, and there have been a number of great deals on offer as part of the Amazon sale.

Among popular smartphone offers and deals still available as part of the Amazon Great Indian Sale are the Moto G4 Plus 16GB variant, which is available at Rs. 11,499. The Moto X Force 32GB, on the other hand, receives a Rs. 5,000 discount as part of the Amazon Great Indian Sale 2017 offers, and is up for grabs at just Rs. 21,999. The Moto G4 Play gets a Rs. 1,000 discount from its usual Amazon India listing price, and is now available at Rs. 7,999. The Lenovo Zuk Z1 gets a Rs. 2,500 discount from its usual Rs. 13,499 price, and is available at Rs. 10,999 as part of the Amazon Great Indian Sale 2017.

The OnePlus 3T doesn't receive any price cut, but Amazon India is offering an extra Rs. 2,000 on exchange during the sale. Furthermore, the Lenovo Phab 2 Plus gets a Rs. 1,000 discount, and can be purchased at Rs. 13,999 (JBL headphones will also be bundled in for free) as part of the Amazon Great Indian Sale 2017. Lastly, if you're looking for an iPhone, then the iPhone 5s 16GB is available at a discounted rate of Rs. 15,999 (usual price said to be Rs. 18,749).

Amazon Prime Video also had an interesting announcement this week - Amazon india has partnered with media company OML to release 14 stand-up comedy specials. Globally, Amazon also announced a Good Omens series which will be out in 2018.

Meanwhile, in China, Nokia's comeback is off to a solid start. The Nokia 6 went on sale for the first time, and sold out in just a minute. That's no surprise considering that there were 250,000 registrations for the Nokia 6 within just an hour, and two days ahead of the sale, the number had crossed 1 million.

Unveiled earlier this month, the Nokia 6 sports a 5.5-inch full-HD display with a 2.5D Gorilla Glass on top. The Nokia 6 is powered by a Snapdragon 430 SoC coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The dual-SIM Nokia 6 smartphone comes with a 3000mAh non-removable battery with fast-charging support.

On the camera front, Nokia 6 comes with a 16-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, phase detection autofocus, and dual-tone flash, as well as an 8-megapixel front camera with f/2.0 aperture. The Android 7.0 Nougat smartphone has USB 2.0 port for connectivity, fingerprint sensor in the front, stereo speakers and Dolby Atmos audio enhancement.

Data deals continue to come up in India as Reliance Jio continues to grow. The latest is from Vodafone, offering 1GB of 4G data at Rs. 150, and 4GB at Rs. 250. In case that's not enough, you can also choose the 35GB data pack, for Rs. 1,500.

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Speaking of Jio, a new phone leak has emerged, showing a 4G VoLTE feature phone for Jio. The phone is rumoured to be priced between Rs. 999 and Rs. 1,500, but not much else is known about it. It's worth pointing out that unlike other telcos, Jio only supports 4G, so VoLTE is the only way people can make calls on the network. From the leaked image, it appears that the feature phone will also come with dedicated buttons for Jio's media services.

Early in the week, Samsung released the Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro in Bhubaneshwar. The dual-SIM phone comes with 6GB RAM, a 6-inch display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 653, and 64GB storage, at Rs. 36,900.

Apple meanwhile says it's ready to start making iPhones in India - but at a price. Among other things, the company is said to be seeking a 15-year tax holiday on imports of components and equipment, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

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This week also saw the launch of the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, the world's first Tango smartphone. It has a 6.4-inch QHD display, and a total of four cameras - the normal front and back, plus a depth sensing infrared camera, and a motion tracking camera. All this is meant for augmented reality (AR) applications like indoor navigation, search, and gaming. Other launches include the Vivo V5 Plus and the V5 Lite. The phones release on Monday, but Vivo unveiled them this week. Both phones put emphasis on the front camera, for high quality selfies.

The Micromax Vdeo 3 and Vdeo 4 smartphones have now been officially launched for India as well. These budget friendly phones come preloaded with Google Duo app for video-calling. Lava also launched two entry level smartphones, the A50 and A55, at Rs. 3,999 and Rs. 4,399 respectively.

And in the South Korean market, we saw the launch of the LG X300, which sports a 5-inch HD display, a quad-core Snapdragon 425 SoC, 2GB RAM and 16GB of inbuilt storage. It is priced at KRW 253,000 (roughly Rs. 14,800).