After plenty of leaks and speculation, Xiaomi has finally announced the Mi Note 2 phablet at a special event in Beijing, China. As expected, the successor to the impressive Xiaomi Mi Note includes a dual curved-edge display akin to the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and beneath the panel, there's plenty of firepower.

The Xiaomi Mi Note 2 packs a 5.7-inch 3D flexible OLED display, which apparently provides an agreeable 77.2 % screen-to-body ratio. For the sake of uniformity, the rear of the device is also comprised of a dual-curved-edge, glass finish. Xiaomi touts this composition as 'one side technology, one side art', and the whole thing is held together by an aluminum frame.


Like a number of recent flagships including the company's very own Mi 5s Plus, the Mi Note 2 arrives with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 821 chipset (2.35 GHz). There's 4 or 6 GB of LPDDR4 RAM available, and either 64 or 128 gigs of internal storage dependent on the version.

Global variant includes 6 GB RAM, 128 GB ROM and support for 37 bands
Global variant includes 6 GB RAM, 128 GB ROM and support for 37 bands

On the battery front, there's a 4070 mAh juice pack with support for Quick Charge 3.0. The rear-facing camera is a 22.56-megapixel effort, which Xiaomi spent a good two or three minutes stipulating is not a 23-megapixel shooter. It's an f/2.0 Sony IMX318 sensor and features EIS (not OIS, unfortunately), just like the Google Pixel. There's also an 8-megapixel Sony IMX268 snapper for selfies with auto-focus and f/2.0 aperture.

The Mi Note 2 includes a number of other bells and whistles like NFC for Mi Pay support and GPS high-precision positioning. Audiophiles will be pleased to learn that there's support for Qualcomm's descrete 'Aqstic' audio DAC, which brings native support for 192 kHz / 24-bit playback. Software-wise, Xiaomi's custom MIUI 8 skin runs atop Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which is the same firmware of the Mi 5s series. The Nougat-based MIUI 9 has been spotted in the wild in recent times, though, so hopefully an end user update won't be too far off.

The device arrives in Piano Black and Glacier Silver color options. The version with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage arrives at the cost of 2799 Yuan, or around $413. The 6 GB and 128 GB version is 3299 Yuan, which equates to about $487. The 'global' version, which includes support for 4G+ and some 37 different LTE bands worldwide, is 3499 Yuan, or $516. The device will apparently be available in two to three weeks.

Do you like what you see of the Mi Note 2? Let us know of your early impressions in the comments below.