Rumors of a 4.3-inch Xiaomi smartphone with Snapdragon 820 CPU show up next to a fake photo

Announced last week, and ready to hit shelves around the world on March 31, the iPhone SE seems to be a hit, as Apple reportedly already received over 3 million pre-orders for it in China alone.

With its 4-inch display and Apple's A9 processor, the iPhone SE is, hands-down, the most powerful compact smartphone we've seen, and doesn't have any real alternatives. Well, at least not yet. According to a rumor coming out of China, Xiaomi - one of the world's top 5 smartphone makers - is getting ready to release a high-end 4.3-inch Android smartphone.

Reportedly, the upcoming 4.3-inch Xiaomi handset will be powered by Qualcomm's top of the line Snapdragon 820 processor - the same that smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and LG G5 are using. That 4.3-inch screen should offer a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels, while other features are expected to include a 13 MP rear camera, 3 GB of RAM, 32 GB of internal memory, and a 2350 mAh battery. It's said that the new smartphone will be released in June, costing around $276.

Alongside details about the features of this unannounced Xiaomi handset, a photo that allegedly shows the device has been making the rounds in China. We've seen plenty of Western websites reporting this story, including the respective photo, mentioning that that's what the new 4.3-inch Xiaomi handset could look like. However, the image - which you can check out for yourself below - is fake. More exactly, it doesn't show a new device, being just a cropped and slightly altered hands-on photo of the already announced Xiaomi Mi 5. The original image was published in February by The Verge.

So, is Xiaomi really working on a 4.3-inch iPhone SE competitor? Well, it might be, but the device is certainly not the one we're seeing below.


sources: Weibo (registration required), The Verge via IT Home (translated), GizChina