The brand’s Redmi line was started in 2013, with Pocophone following in 2018. The Black Shark sub-brand of gaming phones were also first seen in that year, and while Black Shark and Redmi are technically owned by Xiaomi, both companies strongly down-play the connection.
Xiaomi started selling its phones in Australia in 2014 and in the United Kingdom in 2018. The company sells some smart home products in the US, but no smartphones.
What phones does Xiaomi make?
The Xiaomi Mi line of smartphones is the company’s flagship, featuring high specs and new camera advancements. In addition, Xiaomi tends to release a ‘Lite’ and higher-end version of the main phone, too.
This is followed, roughly six months later, by a ‘T’ version of the phone (or versions, with spin-offs of each version in the flagship line) that typically slots into the Mi line to flesh it out with options at other price points.
However, it doesn’t end there. There are more Mi phones in the form of the Mi Mix line – devices that were discontinued in 2019 but then resuscitated in 2021 in the form of a foldable phone – and the Mi Note line of mid-range, great value-for-money spin-offs of the Mi line.
It’s worth pointing out that, since 2021, Xiaomi dropped the ‘Mi’ in its phones names – so the Xiaomi Mi 11 was followed by the Xiaomi 12. We still use ‘Mi’ now and then as it’s an easy shorthand version of ‘Xiaomi’, and a simple way to refer to the main series of mobiles, but it’s no longer an official part of their titles.
Next up is Black Shark, a series of gaming phones that come with high-mid-range prices and top specs. This line usually comprises a standard and ‘Pro’ version of the phone that have similar specs, with the Pro model including a few extra features such as physical triggers.
Pocophone is Xiaomi’s newest line of handsets, and are typically classed as ‘premium budget devices’. They feature some impressive specs (such as high-refresh-rate displays) at lower cost. On occasion these are launched in the West as rebadged versions of Redmi phones.
So, on to Redmi, which has two lines. There’s the Redmi Note range, which is very similar to Pocophone. They’re known for delivering top specs for low prices; for example, the Redmi Note 10 Pro was the first budget phone to include a 108-megapixel camera. These sometimes get T iterations, like the Mi series.
The Redmi A series presents super-affordable phones for people who don’t need top specs and just want a low-cost device.
