Xiaomi Redmi K90 Ultra tipped to surpass Redmi K80 Ultra and Redmi K90 Pro Max with 165 Hz display and MediaTek Dimensity 9500 Plus

The dust has barely settled on the launches of the Redmi K90 and Redmi K90 Pro Max in China. Launched less than a month ago, the pair leverage Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipsets, respectively, to take on recent flagships. Incidentally, Xiaomi will be offering the pair globally before the end of the month as successors to the Poco F7 Pro and Poco F7 Ultra (curr. $732 on Amazon), too.

While Xiaomi is busying itself with the Poco F8 Pro and Poco F8 Ultra globally, rumours have already started popping up about the company's next Redmi K90 series smartphone. According to Digital Chat Station, Xiaomi is working towards delivering the Redmi K90 Extreme Edition or Redmi K90 Ultra with MediaTek's 'Dimensity 9 performance variant'.

Writing on Weibo, the leaker specifies that MediaTek will announce this chipset in 2026. Given the Redmi K80 Ultra's reliance on the Dimensity 9400 Plus, we suspect that Digital Chat Station is referring to the unannounced Dimensity 9500 Plus here, which they believe Xiaomi will complement with a 6.8-inch LTPS AMOLED display that combines a 1.5K resolution with a 165 Hz refresh rate.

In other words, the Redmi K90 Ultra is rumoured to surpass the Redmi K90 Pro Max when it comes to display refresh rate, with the latter peaking at 120 Hz. Moreover, the same leaker indicates that the Redmi K90 Ultra's battery capacity will likely exceed 8,000 mAh in another upgrade over both its predecessor and the Redmi K90 Pro Max. Presumably the basis of the Xiaomi 17T Pro, neither the Redmi K90 Ultra nor the Xiaomi 17T Pro are expected to arrive before 2026.