Xiaomi records three million orders for new smartphone series

Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Xiaomi, speaks during the launch ceremony of the flagship smartphone series in Beijing on September 27, 2016.[Photo/VCG]

Chinese tech company Xiaomi has received more than three million pre-orders of its newly released flagship smartphone series and the number is growing, said Wei Lai, vice-president of mi.com on his Weibo account on Wednesday.

Featuring ultrasonic fingerprint sensor tech, the Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus models are expected to lead a new trend in the smartphone manufacturing sector and a powerful counterattack to its foreign and domestic rivals.

Lei Jun, founder and CEO of the most valuable Chinese startup, stressed the innovation of the fingerprint identification technology during the launch ceremony of the flagship smartphone series on Tuesday in Beijing.

Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset and a battery of 3200mAh, the Mi 5s is priced at 1,999 yuan for the 3GB RAM and 64GB ROM storage model and 2,299 yuan for the 4GB RAM and 128GB ROM storage model.

Through a tie-up with Sony, the 5.7-inch-screen Mi 5s Plus model is equipped with 13-million-pixel dual cameras, a direct challenge to Apple's iPhone 7 Plus and Huawei's P9.

Xiaomi shipped a total of 10.5 million devices in the second quarter, a 38.4 percent fall from the same period of last year, and 9.1 million in the first quarter of this year, a decline of 32 percent in the same period, according to International Data Corp.

In order to boost sales amid the gloomy market, the internet-driven company made more efforts in the offline sector.

According to Lei, Xiaomi has opened 25 flagship stores, Mi Home and the number is expected to reach 1,000 in the next three to four years.