Here’s where to watch the Xiaomi official UK launch event, likely including Mi 8 Pro [Livestream]

Damien Wilde | Nov 8 2018 - 5:46 am PT

Today marks the first steps in Xiaomi’s big move into the Western market with what the Chinese company is calling the ‘global launch’ of their popular Mi 8 Pro devices amongst almost all of the Xiaomi product lineup.

Whilst a US launch is all but speculation, the upcoming New York taster event might just be a sign of Xiaomi’s intent to make their affordable products available in North America at some point in the near future.

The Republic of Ireland has already seen an official launch, but by making Xiaomi Android devices available in the United Kingdom, the brand could see this as the perfect testbed before rolling out to North America.

We’re expecting the Mi 8 Pro to be the headline star of the entire event. The device has been teased by Xiaomi on social media with images of the in-display fingerprint reader giving a massive hint as to what we are likely to see.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro is a bit of a looker, with a clear backplate variant, 6.4-inch FHD+ display, Snapdragon 845, 128GB storage, 6 or 8GB RAM. There is a dual camera array round back that pairs dual 12-megapixel sensors — one being a wide angle, one a telephoto zoom lens.

It’s an interesting package for sure and we’re certain that if it somehow manages to be as affordable as it is in China — where it retails for 2699 yuan ($394) — then Xiaomi might gain some traction on the UK market.

Top of our wish list though is the recently announced Xiaomi Mi Mix 3. The slider phone hasn’t yet appeared in any teasers like the Mi 8 Pro but that doesn’t mean we won’t see the device at the launch. The event livestream from London starts at 14:00 GMT (09:00 AM ET) and is expected to last just two hours.