Xiaomi to bring its new Redmi Note 9 series to India as the Redmi 9 Power and Mi 10i

Xiaomi launches a lot of phones every year, which is par for the course for a big OEM that operates in multiple markets. Just last week, Xiaomi launched the new Redmi Note 9 4G (device codename: lime), Redmi Note 9 5G (cannon), and Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G (gauguinpro) in China, bringing along a bunch of upgrades across the board for one of its most popular product brandings. Now, we have evidence that suggests Xiaomi is looking to bring two of these three phones to India, but curiously under different branding, namely as the Redmi 9 Power and the Xiaomi Mi 10i.

Redmi 9 Power (limein)

Shortly after the launch of the Redmi Note 9 4G in China, Xiaomi released the firmware for the device for the region. But alongside the release of V12.0.5.0.QJQCNXM (Chinese ROM) for lime, Xiaomi also published 12.0.1.0.QJQINXM (limein), which is the Indian ROM for the device. This is evidence that the company plans to launch the device in India.

But this also poses a curious problem — there is already a Redmi Note 9 (with 4G connectivity)(device codename: merlin) in India. Digging into the published firmware, we can spot that the build.prop file for limein mentions the marketing name of the upcoming device as the Redmi 9 Power.

build_lime.prop:ro.product.vendor.marketname=Redmi 9 Power

Xiaomi India has not announced anything on this phone yet, but we can expect them to be making an announcement soon.

Xiaomi Mi 10i (gauguininpro)

The gauguin and gauguinpro lineup from Xiaomi was actually spotted back in July 2020, and we mentioned that the device would be coming to India at that stage itself. Now, new evidence corroborates our findings from months ago.

A device popped up on the Google Play Console with the marketing name “Mi 10i”, and the codename “gauguininpro“. The codename may appear weird, but that is how regional variants are often codenamed by the company — the in in the middle denotes that the phone is coming to India.

Gauguin recently launched as the Mi 10T Lite in Europe, while Gauguinpro launched as the Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G in China. While we do not have information of gauguin coming to India just yet, the Play Console Listing for gauguinpro makes it abundantly clear that the device is coming to India under the name of Mi 10i. The rebranding is somewhat necessary, again, because India already has a Redmi Note 9 Pro (4G). Xiaomi India has not revealed anything yet, but we reckon it is just a matter of time at this stage.

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Xiaomi and its love for 9

Rebranding products differently in different regions is not new — not for Xiaomi, and not for a lot of other OEMs. It is a very common practice in the industry wherein you release the same product, or a similar product with very small changes, under different names in different regions. The branding changes according to the goodwill in the region. And Xiaomi’s Redmi and Redmi Note lineups have garnered a strong reputation for themselves over the years across the world.

But with Xiaomi, Redmi, Redmi Note and the number “9”, we are at a point where it has become very difficult to track products, especially if you track them across different regions as we do. Mishaal put together a list to better illustrate this point.

So if at any point you feel very confused about how Xiaomi names its products, count us with you.

The post Xiaomi to bring its new Redmi Note 9 series to India as the Redmi 9 Power and Mi 10i appeared first on xda-developers.

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