Xiaomi announces Mi 4s, an updated version of its former flagship

On top of unveiling its new Mi 5 flagship, at MWC 2016 Xiaomi has also announced an updated version of its previous top-of-the-line smartphone, Mi 4. Called Mi 4s, the new handset comes with an improved design, up to date hardware and, best of all, a price tag of around $260.

Mi 4s utilizes the same processor as found in the more affordable Mi 4c, which I have reviewed here, namely a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808. That makes it significantly faster than Mi 4, but less impressive in this regard than the new Mi 5, which sports a top of the line Snapdragon 820 chip.

As with its predecessor and other devices in the Mi 4 line, Mi 4s ships with a 5-inch display with a resolution of 1,080 by 1,920. It is paired with 3 GB of RAM and a 3,260 mAh battery. Storage capacity is 64 GB, and there is also a microSD card slot.

Mi 4s has a fingerprint sensor, a feature that only Mi 5 and Redmi Note 3 have in Xiaomi's lineup. The sensor is found on the back, just like on Redmi Note 3; Mi 5 has it on the front, embedded in the home button.

Mi 4s ships with a 13 MP camera on the rear with phase-detection autofocus. There is no information on the front shooter, however. But it is likely that it is on par with other devices in the Mi 4 line.

The microSD card slot actually doubles as a SIM card slot so, if you do not need extra storage, you can slap two SIM cards in Mi 4s. It is an approach that we have seen before with other devices.

Here are other things that you should know. There is support for 4G LTE+, which Xiaomi says that it enables download speeds of up to 600 Mbps, and USB Type-C. It runs Xiaomi's MIUI skin, atop of Android (presumably, Marshmallow). It comes in at 139.26 x 70.76 x 7.8 mm and 133 g.

Xiaomi is likely to sell Mi 4s outside of China, but there is no information yet on international availability. Color options include black, gold, pink and white.