Unlike its portfolio of Redmi smartphones, a variant in the Mi line sports ‘pure Android’ instead of Xiaomi’s own MIUI interface. The first, Mi A1, has now been succeeded by a new version for 2018.

The Mi A2 (and a Lite variant) have just seen a global launch in Madrid, Spain, and the A2 at least is bound for India on August 8.

There are no indications of a price yet, but we did get a look at the device.

The A2 is to be available in four colours — black, white, gold and blue. It’s a slim but sturdy phone with a build quality one would expect from Xiaomi. Prominent on the back is a large camera lens. The camera, in fact, is one of the features the company is highlighting. The phone has a 12 MP and 20 MP dual camera set. The sensors used are a Sony IMX 486 with f/1.75 aperture and a Sony IMX376 sensor, with an f/1.75 aperture. The front camera is a 20 MP shooter that includes a selfie flash for low light and a portrait mode.

The phone’s design is essentially minimalistic with its curved glass and contours making the metal and Gorilla Glass 5 a seamless unit. The display is a 5.99-inch 1080 x 2160 with no notch but bezels that are slimmer than the first version. The fingerprint sensor is on the back.

The A2 has moved on to USB Type C charging and uses the port for headphones as well, which means there is no 3.5 mm jack.

The A2 runs on the Snapdragon 660 with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. There is no space for a microSD card, though it is a dual-SIM device.

The marquee feature is of course stock Android at version 8.1 slated to receive frequent updates and upgrades compared to other phones.

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