If you want a dedicated gaming phone, you typically have to pay quite a bit - top internals and screen specs don't come cheap - but that might change soon, because affordable phone brand Redmi has announced its entry into the gaming handset market.
This comes from Chinese social media platform Weibo, where Lu Weibing, Redmi's general manager, announced in a lengthy post "In 2021, Redmi will [...] launch Redmi’s first flagship gaming phone".
Weibing also alludes to a price, saying the phone will come "at a price that cannot be refused". That's all we know about the upcoming gaming handset so far, as while Weibing's wider post is about the new MediaTek Dimensity 1200 chipset, at no point does Weibing actually say that processor will be used for the phone.
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The road ahead
While Redmi doesn't have a gaming phone right now, it's not starting from scratch. Redmi is a sub-brand of Xiaomi, and another one of Xiaomi's sub-brands is gaming phone maker Black Shark, which most recently made the Black Shark 3 but should launch the Black Shark 4 soon. So the company has some knowledge of the market to draw on.
If this Redmi gaming phone is as affordable as Weibing states, it could be a big shake-up for the gaming phone market, as such phones are always mid-range or premium in price. An affordable gaming phone could pull in many fans, and have big implications for the market niche.
We'll have to wait and see though because this upcoming affordable phone is likely some way away. When Redmi does announce this new handset, or provides more information on it, we'll let you know.
