The Redmi Note 7 is a hit.

There is no doubt that Xiaomi’s latest phone has been making waves. In fact just yesterday another report on GSMArena revealed that the company sold 100,000 units of the phone in 10 minutes and 56 seconds! How is it that a fairly good to average spec phone with a “48 MP” camera has managed to drive so much demand and interest?

Perceived vs Real Value

One of the key things I think that Xiaomi (and now it’s Redmi sub-brand) has done very adeptly is building hype around a certain price point for their phones. In the past year there has been only one other phone release that led to the kind of hysteria and hype that the Redmi Note 7 has achieved: the Pocophone F1. With the release of the Pocophone F1, Poco by Xiaomi touted all the specs of a flagship phone: Snapdragon 845 with liquid cooling technology, up to 8 GB of Ram and 256 GB of storage, 6.18 inch FHD+ display, AI Camera and a 4000 mAh capacity battery. The price for this amazing spec list? 300 Dollars. It was that 300 dollar price point that wowed and stunned people. In every subsequent article and video for the next week the hype all was focused around one main theme: The Pocophone offers flagship specs for 300 dollars, and is the greatest deal in mobile tech we have ever seen.

But was the theme of that release really indicative of the reality that most people experienced? As most of you may remember every single YouTube video released at the time had that $300 price point in their video title. Yet what was the phone that Xiaomi sent out to all these top influencers? It turned out to be the 8GB, 256 GB storage version in a beautiful rubbery Kevlar “Armored Edition” whose true costs was closer to 420 US Dollars. Rarely did I hear a single video mention this fact, and the reality at this moment became clear: the perceived value that people initially see and that compels them to purchase a phone is always far greater than the real value they ultimately get.

Now don’t get me wrong, I loved the Pocophone, and even at 400 dollars it still provided a great value for what I was getting. Yet regardless of that, Xiaomi’s 300 US Dollar price point is what sticks in people’s minds. It’s what drives the viral nature of their releases, with flash sales just continuing to build the hype of sheer demand on the phone, and it is this same tactic that Xiaomi has employed with the Redmi Note 7.

The 150 USD, 48 Mega Pixel Budget Flagship Killer

When I watch Xiaomi press events and phone releases I do it the same way you all may do: dodgy YouTube streams! As I am not fluent in Mandarin I rely on the almost comical live subtitles for these events. Yet watching Lei Jun present these phones I see a lot of the theatrics and style that made watching Steve Jobs keynotes so entertaining. In the best of Steve’s keynotes there was always an element of surprise and mystery. You never knew if you would get a “one more thing” or another announcement that could change the world again. When Lei Jun revealed the price point for the Redmi Note 7 I felt that same feeling of surprise and reveal. The 999 Yuan dropped with a crash from the top of the screen followed by gasps and applause in the crowd. That was the first step in building hype for Redmi’s first sub-brand phone. The next day every single publication (The Verge, Mashable, Slashgear) had a headline that read similarly: 48 MP phone for 150 Dollars. The narrative for the Redmi Note 7 had been set, and it continues to define the story of this phone in most people’s eyes. Forget the fact that any 4GB plus variants of the phone will cost you more (in fact my review unit cost me upwards of 250 US Dollars!), or that the Snapdragon 660 included cannot actually process 48 megapixel photos, thus forcing the camera to down sample images to 12 megapixels. Now I’m not trying to nitpick here, but I will say that Xiaomi has an incredible way of making you feel that you are almost stealing this phone from them at this price point, and that alone drives the fandom and hype we see, regardless of the details.

Colors, colors, what’s your favorite color?

Go look at the photo below and you will notice one thing: of the three color variants Xiaomi has released for the Redmi Note 7, there is only one whose back does not appear on this image. You guessed it, it’s the black color version. While Huawei pioneered the gradient back phones since last year’s P20 Pro, Xiaomi has joined the bandwagon and has begun offering it now on some of their lower price point phones. The two colors you do see, Twilight Gold (which in my opinion has got to be the worst name to describe this back) and Twilight Blue are bright, vibrant and beautiful if not slightly ostentatious. In person they look even better. And yet do these colors really do anything to improve the overall phone experience? Not at all.

For some users they may even detract from their experience. Yet there is one thing these loud and possibly gaudy colors do well: marketing. There is no denying that phone makers have turned to colors to find ways to drive new sales and build hype around releases. Apple is famous for releasing their “Product Red” color variant months after the initial release to drive a new cycle of demand. Even One Plus recently has done the same with the release of their red and “Thunder Purple” 6T variants that opened the door to a new set of buyers. Color sells, and certain colors can have as much an impact on marketing and promoting a phone as the specs and price point. By releasing their first Redmi sub-brand phone in two absolutely stunning and over-the-top color schemes, Xiaomi has ensured that through hands on videos, images on websites and reviews their phone will get the attention and hype that they hope for. I don’t see this as subversive or anti-consumer thing, this is just smart marketing that appeals to the most primordial of human instincts: my “insert product here” is shinier than yours!

The reality is that because of all this hype and marketing and theatrics one thing becomes clear: the real value of the devices we purchase rarely ever reach the heights that they achieve before we use them, and that is why the next big thing always looks better than the one we currently have in our hands.

The Redmi Note 7 Flash sales have seen the phone selling out in minutes.