Dubai: Infinix Mobility has launched its premium smartphone — Note 5 — in a bid to garner more market share in the mid-range price point with a bigger battery, bigger screen size and Android One platform.

The Chinese group Transsion Holdings, parent company of Infinix, is popular in the emerging markets for its mobile brands — Tecno, itel, Infinix and Spice.

Its brand portfolio also includes Carlcare for after-sales services, Syinix for home appliances and Oraimo for smart accessories.

Benjamin Jiang, managing director of Infinix Mobility, told Gulf News the Middle East was one of the most dynamic smartphone markets in the world.

“We are committed to the regional market and will continuously invest in the market. The Note 5 is a phone developed by Infinix, MediaTek and Google as part of the Android One project. It is a phone with a pure Android Oreo experience for the artificial intelligence-powered devices, Google Lens, Google Photos and Google Assistant features,” he said.

He said that AI was still new and developing.

“It will take time as it needs data. We are helping Google to collect data from this market,” he said.

The six-inch device is powered by 2 GHz MediaTek Helio P23 chip set with two variants — 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage space or 4GB of RAM and 64GB of space. The dual SIM device also supports 128GB microSD card. It sports 12MP rear and 16MP front cameras and sports 4,500mAh battery.

Jiang did not disclose the price but said that it will be similar to that of last year’s model — the Note 4. Industry sources said that it is expected to be priced at around $200.

He said the company, which is six years old, is growing almost 100 per cent yearly and expects similar growth this year also.

“The regional market is growing and not like China and the US where the market is flat. This region is growing as the penetration of smartphone is still growing. We are very optimistic to contribute to the migration from feature phones to smartphones,” he said.

Infinix sold close to six million units in 2017 and forecasts close to 10 million units this year. Infinix operates in more than 20 countries while Transsion Holdings operates in 60 countries. The group aims to sell 180 million units this year compared to 130 million units last year.

Rami Osman, director for corporate sales and marketing at MediaTek Middle East and Africa, said that Africa must have witnessed 10 per cent growth in smartphone market last year but Middle East was almost flat.

He said the Tier 1 cities in Africa have more inclination towards smartphones than Tier 2 and 3 cities.

“The markets look for bigger screen size, battery and storage capacity and they will forgive you for a lot of other stuff. We work hand in hand with local mobile phone manufacturers,” he said.