 "Confirmed: Xiaomi is making a laptop and expanding into telco services")
A few months ago, I weaned my bestie off his iPhone. I gifted him a shiny, new Xiaomi Mi 4i for my birthday. That was his first Android device. In India, most apps are Android-first, so a value-for-money Xiaomi phone made perfect sense, I thought. But the joy was short-lived.
The phone was in his trousers that went for a thorough hour-long spin in the washing machine. And then for a few days, he wasn’t my bestie.
Today, Xiaomi announced some good news for the absent-minded. The Chinese gadget maker launched Mi Protect in India, an insurance cover for accidental and liquid damage for one year after activation. Mi Protect is priced at Rs 275 ($4) for the Redmi 2 and Redmi 2 Prime, Rs 499 ($7.5) for the Mi 4i (16GB / 32GB), Mi 4 (16GB), and Mi Pad.
It comes with:
- Free home pickup and drop-off
- A free second servicing within one year of activation.
- 24X7 call centre support to report damages
- One call to block your SIM from anywhere in the world
- SIM misuse insurance cover of up to Rs 3,000 ($45)
- Docusafe of up to 1GB to store and access documents from anywhere
The catch is – if you can call it so – Mi Protect can be bought with devices on Xiaomi’s homepage only.
Bad news for my bestie is that Mi Protect will not work in retrospect.
