Xiaomi Mi 4i launched in India with premium specs and colourful design

Xiaomi has launched its first smartphone outside of its home country of China, with the Mi 4i promising a colourful version of the company's flagship smartphone for the fast growing Indian market.

The phone, which the company calls its flagship smartphone, comes with premium hardware including a top-of-the-line display and a powerful processor but will be on sale for just Rs 12999 (£135) when it goes on sale on 30 April in India.

Xiaomi's head of global expansion Hugo Barra unveiled the phone at a press conference in New Delhi, revealing that the Mi 4i would be 12% thinner and 13% lighter than the premium Mi 4 which was launched in 2014.

Comparing it the iPhone 6, Xiaomi says the Mi 4i is the same height but features a screen which is 10% bigger.

At 7.8mm and 130g the phone will be slim and lightweight, which is in part thanks to the unibody polycarbonate shell, a design choice we have seen used widely by the Lumia range of Windows Phone smartphones. The phone will also a smooth matte finish along the edges with an anti-grease coating to prevent smudges and fingerprints collecting.

The phone will come with the company's own MIUI 6 operating system which is built on Android, and it will come with an Indian-specific feature called Visual IVR (interactive voice response) which is a system of quickly navigating telephone complex answering systems.

The MIUI software is also now available in six different Indian languages.

The Mi 4i also features a fast charge feature which will allow users to charge their phones to 40% in an hour and to fully charged in just 3 hours.

Barra also played up the company's laminated OGS display, which he claimed was tough enough to withstand being dropped from a significant height and will provide the same protection as Corning's Gorilla Glass 3.

The screen also has a hardware-enabled feature called Sunlight Display to allow users to view the screen in direct sunlight without it being washed out - also making it 30% more light efficient.

Barra showed off the phone's front and rear camera, including HDR functionality and the extensive Beautify mode which will alter the filters depending on your age.

The phone will come in five colours (black, white, orange, light blue and pink) which mimic the colour options available for the company's Mi Pad tablet.

Barra also announced that the company's budget fitness tracker, the Mi Band, will go on sale in India costing Rs 999 (£10.50) with the company offering the first 1,000 bands for sale for just one rupee.