Are Xiaomi and Redmi really the same? If you have some knowledge of the sector or have had mobile phones from any of the brands, it is likely that at least it sounds to you that they are linked. However, the fact that Xiaomi does not stop launching mobile phones causes a huge mess and it is completely normal to get disoriented and not know if they really are from the same company or what differences they have.
First of all, we already told you that yes, Xiaomi and Redmi are still from the same company. In fact, you can buy Xiaomi phones and Redmi phones on the same site. However, there are several sections to highlight about Redmi, including the actual meaning that it has or how the market is divided with Xiaomi.
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Meaning and origin of Xiaomi and Redmi
Original Redmi logo that would end up abandoning the “by Xiaomi”
As we already told you, Redmi is really a Xiaomi sub-brand of which we will later tell you what differentiating elements it has with its main brand. We first delve into the curious origin of the name of Redmi, which is largely due to the Great popularity of red rice in China.
It was in the year 2013 when Xiaomi launched its first sub-brand under the name of “Hongmi” for China and “Red Rice” for other territories, clearly alluding to the aforementioned red rice. Incidentally, the company slipped the color red into a commercial name, knowing everything that it symbolizes beyond passion and that in countries like China itself it is usually linked to good luck.
However, it seems that Xiaomi’s marketing department did not quite see the red rice thing clearly and they sensed that outside the Chinese borders it could cause confusion and even downplay the product. It was then that they went to a more subjective field with “Redmi”, splitting it into “Network” and into “my”.
On the one hand, with “Red” they get keep the color red in the namingwhile with “Mi” they can not only be linked phonetically to Xiaomi as the main brand, but also continue to maintain a food cereal as protagonist. And it is that “Mi” comes from “millet”, which is a cereal also popular in China.
If we talk about mobiles, there are more similarities than differences
First we must differentiate what Xiaomi says from what ends up happening. Three and a half years ago one of its co-founders stated that Xiaomi and Redmi would target different audiencesbeing the first linked to the most demanding with high-end smartphones and the second for the mid-range.
Nevertheless, the reality of these brands is very different from the theory. Xiaomi has launched mobiles with its main brand in all kinds of ranges, in the same way that Redmi has come to launch high-end mobiles. Although it is true that, as a general rule, these lines always tend to be differentiated.
Xiaomi launched phones with the subname “Mi” in the highest range. See the Xiaomi Mi 11 as one of the latest exponents, although this year they decided to load that “Mi” with phones like the Xiaomi 12. Redmi, for its part, remains fully associated with the main brand, although it commercially launches phones like the Redmi Note 11 Different ranges and different names, but in the end from the same company.
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A separate case would be the mess that the brand makes with its international launches. On several occasions we have already seen “Xiaomi” or “Redmi” mobiles appear in China that later arrive in countries like Spain changing their name to that of the other or even arriving as “POCO”, which is another of Xiaomi’s sub-brands.
Be that as it may, we insist on emphasizing that they ultimately belong to the same company. Both of them share outlets and they even coexist within the official points of Xiaomi itself. Similarly, despite their differences in hardware on paper, they also share their Android-based MIUI operating system. So regardless of what you put in the box or on the phone’s chassis itself, if you buy a Redmi you are really buying a Xiaomi.
