Xiaomi Redmi Note 2, To Be Announced on January 15, 2015 : Watch the Official Online Livestream

Disruptive Chinese electronics company Xiaomi Global is expected to announce a new flagship smartphone this coming Thursday - January 15, 2015 - via an exclusive media event to be held in Beijing.

A few days ago, I disclosed on TP that the handset player is already poised to unveil Xiaomi Mi5 but apparently - or at least, according to 'insiders' - the company will be releasing the follow-up to their wildly successful phablet line first.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 2

As its very name suggests, Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 is the successor to the first generation Redmi Note released in the brand's key markets (but not in the Philippines, oddly enough) in 2014. As such, it is expected to offer a slew of enhancements to the initial model's technical specifications and features on top of coming replete with design improvements.

Various sources claim that the Redmi Note 2 will be the thinnest smartphone in Xiaomi's entire product catalogue to date and will sport a 5.7-inch Full HD IPS dipslay, 2.5D curved glass touchscreen, 13 MegaPixel autofocus main camera with Dual Tone LED flash, 5 MegaPixel front cam for selfies, LTE connectivity support and a 3,600 mAh battery pack. Under the hood, it's said that the Dual microSIM Dual Standby phablet runs its MIUI 6 skinned Android 4.4.4 KitKat operating system with a 64-bit Octa Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 MSM8939 chipset, has 2 GB of RAM, and comes with 16GB and 32GB storage options. As for the price tag, it's believed that device will be offered at $249 USD or around Php 11,200 (with current conversion and before taxes) for international customers.

Xiaomi and Youku Tudou jointly announced that it will broadcast Xiaomi’s January 15 launch event live to hundreds of millions of users worldwide. This is the first time that Xiaomi has organized a live streaming of its launch event.

On January 15 at 2pm (Beijing time GMT+8), a link to the live broadcast will be provided on Xiaomi’s homepage (http://www.mi.com/index.html) and official Weibo account (http://weibo.com/xiaomikeji), as well as on Youku Tudou (http://www.youku.com/).

The stream will also be hosted on Mi Singapore (www.mi.com/sg), with an English-language discussion accompanying the Chinese-language stream. Please visit Mi Singapore (www.mi.com/sg) on January 15 at 2pm for a link to the video and discussion.

In November 2014, Xiaomi and Youku Tudou entered a strategic partnership to jointly develop content and technology, aiming to accelerate the development of a multi-screen media and entertainment ecosystem.