In November last year, Xiaomi had announced its first phone with a metal body and a fingerprint scanner: the Redmi Note 3. Less than two months later, the company has announced a new variant of the phone that is powered by a Qualcomm chipset.

The original version of the Redmi Note 3 was powered by an Octa-core MediaTek Helio X10 chipset clocked at 2GHz. In comparison, the Snapdragon 650 is a hexa-core chipset that features 2x Cortex A72 cores and 4x Cortex A53 cores clocked at up to 1.8GHz. It also sports an Adreno 510 GPU and an integrated X8 LTE modem that supports Cat.7 speeds.

Other specs of the Snapdragon variant Redmi Note 3 remain exactly the same, which includes a 5.5-inch Full HD display with Sunlight Display technology, a 16MP rear camera with Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF), a 5MP front shooter, a fingerprint sensor at its rear, a 4050mAh battery, 2/3GB RAM, 16/32GB storage space inside a metallic body.

The 2GB RAM/16GB storage space variant of the Snapdragon powered Redmi Note 3 has been priced at RMB 999, with the 32GB/3GB RAM variant pricing yet to be announced.

Additionally, Xiaomi also announced that it will be bringing the Redmi Note 3 to India soon. The company did not announce any details about its availability or pricing, but with the mid-range smartphone market in India heating up and brands like LeTV and Lenovo upping Xiaomi with their offerings, it should not be long before the company launches the handset in the country.