Xiaomi hijacks OnePlus 6T launch with calculator giveaway: guess why

• Xiaomi reportedly gave out calculators to people at the OnePlus 6T launch in India yesterday.
• This allowed those at the event to work out how much cheaper the Pocophone F1 is.
• As usual with this type of campaign, it ignored a lot of important details.

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Xiaomi reportedly got up to a bit of mischief at the OnePlus 6T launch event in India yesterday. According to a post on Reddit, the company gave away calculators in boxes branded with the phrase "You Do The Math" to people attending the event.

A quick look at the Poco India Twitter account explains the stunt relates to the fact the Xiaomi made Pocophone F1 has the same Snapdragon 845 processor as the OnePlus 6T, but is significantly cheaper. The price of the phones in India is 20,999 rupee (~$283.83) for the Pocophone F1 and 37,999 (~ $513) rupee for the OnePlus 6T, according to Poco India.

Never Settle for OverPriced. Unlock the #MasterOfSpeed. You decide. #DoTheMath pic.twitter.com/KvCIDyXXSq

— POCO India (@IndiaPOCO) October 30, 2018

As usual with this type of stunt, however, it doesn't tell the whole the story.

These are far from equivalent smartphones: the 6T has a glass back, an OLED display, and an in-display fingerprint sensor. This compares to the Pocophone F1's plastic back, LCD display, and rear fingerprint sensor. The 6T also has more RAM and storage than the cheapest version of the Pocophone F1, which is the one that Xiaomi uses in the price comparison.

If these are things you find important — presumably they are to people at the OnePlus 6T launch event — then it simply won't matter how cheap the Pocophone F1 is.

u/donniedarkero

That's not to say the OnePlus 6T is definitely worth the extra money for everyone. It is missing the headphone jack and has a smaller battery, which may be dealbreakers for some people. However, the value of each phone also definitely isn't as simple an equation as Xiaomi appears to be suggesting.

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This kind of marketing disguised as trolling is pretty standard fare between phone manufacturers nowadays. From Samsung mocking Apple about its notch, to Huawei handing out battery packs to people waiting for the iPhone XS, to OnePlus itself mocking pretty much everyone, there aren't many manufacturers who haven't been involved in something similar themselves.

Nonetheless, one company hijacking another company's launch for its own gain always seems like a bit of a cheap move. Especially when it targets people at the event who are just excited about a new Android phone.

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