Lu Weibing points to multiple bottlenecks holding back Xiaomi Mi Mix 4 production; Mi Pad 5 to arrive in Europe next month

The Mi Pad 5 and Mi Mix 4 are selling well, despite only launching in China so far. Unfortunately, Lu Weibing has hinted that Xiaomi had limited stock available of the latter, and that it would be hard to come by for a while, if not indefinitely.

Apparently, Qualcomm is struggling to produce many Snapdragon 888+ chipsets, which Xiaomi must share with its competitors. Incidentally, this may explain why Samsung chose the Snapdragon 888 for the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Galaxy Z Fold 3, having used the Snapdragon 865+ in the Galaxy Z Fold 2 last year. Hardly anything separates the Snapdragon 888 from the Snapdragon 888+ though, as we covered when Qualcomm announced its refreshed SoC earlier this year.

Additionally, Weibing states that Xiaomi has low yields of the Mi Mix 4's ceramic body, another bottleneck for the smartphone. Supposedly, the ceramic material costs five or six times that of glass too, a third factor limiting a wider release of the Mi Mix 4.

By contrast, Gizmochina asserts that Xiaomi will launch the Mi Pad 5 next month in Europe. Citing an unnamed supply chain source, the website claims that only the Mi Pad 5 will make its way outside China. Regardless of this being true, Xiaomi has already certified the Mi Pad 5 with the FCC in the US. Hence, we would expect Xiaomi to sell its latest tablet in Europe and North America within the next few months.

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