Xiaomi is playing games with Mi 11 prices in Europe; flagship now starts at €799 with €899 the new asking price for the 256 GB model
The global edition of the Mi 11 launched yesterday, with Xiaomi pricing its latest flagship at €749 with 128 GB of storage and 8 GB of RAM. Meanwhile, the company will charge an additional €50 for 256 GB of storage, but there is no 12 GB RAM variant outside of China. While the lack of a high RAM variant may put the Mi 11 at a disadvantage compared to its peers, the device is significantly cheaper than other flagships.
Similarly, the Mi 11 starts at €50 less than its leaked pricing suggested it would do. The Mi 11 comes with a 55 W GaN charger too, and at a time when Apple and Samsung have stopped including chargers with their flagship smartphones.
So far, so good for Xiaomi and the Mi 11, then. It is worth emphasising that the entry-level SKU costs 46% more in Euros than its does in Yuan (CNY), although price differences between currencies are common, in fairness to Xiaomi.
However, there is a more pernicious element to Xiaomi's European pricing strategy for the Mi 11. While the company proudly boasted during its live stream that the Mi 11 would start at €749, its German and Italian social media channels have already announced different pricing.
As the screenshots below show, the Mi 11 will actually start at €799, not €749, and the 256 GB SKU has gone from €799 to €899. Xiaomi's blog post and its German product page do not reflect these price increases, at the time of writing. According to our German-speaking colleagues, Xiaomi is yet to make an official statement on the price increases.
So, the Mi 11 will start at €799 in at least two major European markets when it launches later this month. Meanwhile, the 256 GB model will cost almost €900, or 62% higher than Xiaomi asks for it in China.