Mi A3, Mi A3 Lite Android One Smartphones Could Come With In-Display Fingerprint Sensors: Report

The Mi A2 was a good phone from Xiaomi as it ticked most of the right boxes, the biggest one being the presence of stock Android thanks to the Android One programme. While it's still a good buy even today, age is catching up to it, at least aesthetically. Now, there's good news for those waiting for its successor as a new report states that Xiaomi is currently working on two Android One smartphones, and the all the findings point to the fact that these could be the successor to the Mi A2 and Mi A2 Lite.

A junior member from XDA Developers going by the name ‘franztesca' discovered this, which was then confirmed by the team at XDA Developers. The report states that Xiaomi is currently hardware testing three new devices, codenamed ‘pyxis', ‘bamboo_sprout', and ‘cosmos_sprout'. The report states that ‘bamboo_sprout' and ‘cosmos_sprout' are most likely Android One phones, since in the current list of Google Play certified devices Android One phones have ‘sprout' in their codenames. There is a good chance that these could be the Mi A3 and Mi A3 Lite smartphones.

The name ‘pyxis' is beloved to be the Chinese variant of either one of the other two, similar to how the Mi A2 (Review) was launched as Mi 6X in China. Earlier in January, franztesca also discovered clues in the MIUI 10 code, which hinted that Xiaomi might be working on the Mi A3. For now, the exact source of the new codenames was not revealed.

Given that past Xiaomi Android One phones have been mid-range devices, there is a good chance that these phone would also sport a mid-range SoC such as the Snapdragon 675 or 710, rather than a Snapdragon 855. The report also mentions that all three phones are being tested with an in-display fingerprint sensor. Xiaomi will want to target a similar price point with the Mi A3 and Mi A3 Lite, which means we could be looking at an optical in-display fingerprint sensor instead of an ultrasonic one like in the Samsung Galaxy S10+.

The last bit of information includes the likelihood that all the three phones would probably have a 32-megapixel selfie camera, with 4-in-1 pixel binning. However, there's no clarity on if there'll be additional sensors for the front nor is there any information about the rear cameras. The report mentions that since this is still early testing days, there's no concrete information yet about the marketing names launch dates or tentative pricing for these models.