The Chinese consumer electronics maker Xiaomi has increased the prices of its two popular products -- Redmi Note 5 Pro and Mi LED TV 4 55 -- that were launched in February 2108. The new prices of the smartphone and television are set to reflect starting tomorrow. As per a recent tweet by the Xiaomi India MD Manu Kumar Jain, starting Tuesday, the Redmi Note 5 Pro will be available to the buyers at a starting price of Rs 14,999 for the 4GB RAM, 64GB storage variant.
As per Xiaomi, the price hike for the smartphone comes as a direct impact of the recently increased PCBA import taxes and the ongoing depreciation of the Indian Rupee. The Redmi Note 5 Pro will be available at the revamped price on all existing sales point of the company including the official Xiaomi website, Xiaomi retail stores (Mi Homes), Flipkart as well as Xiaomi partner retail suppliers. In addition to the Rs 1000 price hike for the Redmi Note 5 Pro, Xiaomi's recently launched television offering, the Mi TV 4 will also be experiencing an increased price starting Tuesday.
In a blogpost, the company explained, "We have been seeing a huge demand for Redmi Note 5 Pro and Mi LED TV 4 55”. In order to ramp up supply for Redmi Note 5 Pro, we are importing a significant amount of PCBAs as our local PCBA production would only ramp up 100% by CY Q3 2018. With the recent changes in tax structure on PCBA imports and the depreciation of the rupee (by ~5% since the beginning of the year), this has resulted in a significant increase in costs for us."
To recall, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro comes with a 5.99-inch full HD+ display with 1080x2160 pixel resolution and 18:9 aspect ratio. Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor, the smartphone runs Android 7.0 Nougat operating system with MIUI 9. It has a dual rear camera setup comprising of a 12MP and 5MP sensors and on the front offers a 20MP selfie camera with LED flash. The smartphone is also backed by a 4000mAh battery and offers 4G, VoLTE, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS as connectivity options.
