BEIJING, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese tech giant Xiaomi is stepping up the development of 5G handsets to expand market presence in the era of the super-fast wireless technology.
The company unveiled two 5G smartphones Tuesday, about seven months after rolling out its first 5G handset in Europe.
Mi 9 Pro 5G is powered by Qualcomm's latest flagship processor Snapdragon 855 Plus, and supports 30W fast wireless charging and 40W fast wired charging that completes a 100-percent charge in just 48 minutes.
Tuesday also saw the roll-out of the latest product of the company's futuristic Mi MIX series. Mi MIX Alpha features a pioneering 108-megapixel camera and an innovative surround screen with a screen-to-body ratio of more than 180.6 percent. The front, side, and back of the phone are almost entirely display.
Both smartphones can support 5G bands of the country's three major carriers.
Xiaomi is currently the world's fourth-largest smartphone brand, with about 60 million smartphones shipped in the first half of this year.
Smartphone makers including ZTE, Huawei and Samsung have rolled out 5G handsets in China after the government greenlighted 5G commercial use in June.
China's smartphone shipments fell 4 percent from a year ago in the first eight months of this year to 240 million units, including 291,000 5G handsets, while nine 5G handsets were released during this period, according to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.
China is expected to be the largest 5G smartphone market, with 5G phone sales potentially hitting 80 million in 2020, according to a report by market intelligence firm Strategy Analytics.
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