Meizu MX5 Anticipated In India As Xiaomi Rival Sets Date For Brand Launch

China’s Meizu Telecom Equipment Co. entered India earlier this year with two of its smartphones without too much fanfare, but now the Alibaba Group-backed rival to Xiaomi Corp. is preparing to raise its profile in the subcontinent.

Meizu is preparing for a “brand launch” event in New Delhi later this month, and its announcement on Facebook has tech enthusiasts hoping its latest flagship phone, the MX5, will make it to India. Meizu has also recently launched a budget 4G phone in China, and it remains to be seen if this smartphone also reaches Indian shores.

The MX5 is Meizu’s latest flagship smartphone. If released in India, it would rival Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 2, running on the same higher-end processor, the eight-core Helio X10 from MediaTek.

While Alibaba’s partnership with Meizu means that the Chinese e-commerce giant will try and promote its own YunOS at home, the two Meizu phones currently available in India run on Google’s Android KitKat version. Meizu introduced the M1 Note 5.5-inch phablet in May and more recently, its next iteration, the M2 Note.

Both phones are listed on Amazon.com Inc.’s Indian site, although the latter is listed as “currently unavailable.”

Anticipation is high that the M2, a $100 4G smartphone that Meizu launched in China last month, will make its way to India as well. For the price, the M2 offers slightly better specs than the Xiaomi’s Redmi 2 Prime in some departments.