With the first batch of Xiaomi's new Mi Note selling out in three minutes, the phone is considered a direct competitor to Apple's iPhone 6 Plus. The Mi Note retails for ¥2,299 (€324) - Apple's big-screen alternative costs the equivalent of €876.
Xiaomi has been enjoying rapid growth in the massive Chinese smartphone market by offering cheap and attractive phones. This new model sees the company moving up a level, coming closer to competitor's high-end offerings, all while keeping its prices low.
The phone has a large 5.7 inch screen, a 1080p HD display, a 2.5GHz quad-core processor, 3GB of RAM and a 13-megapixel camera.
That spec puts it on-par with most high-end phones - a Mi Note Pro is coming in March with a 2160p quad HD screen, 2GHz octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.
While Chinese phone makers like Huawei are available in Ireland - Xiaomi is targeting emerging markets in China and India.
It is also believed that if the company tried to sell its products in the West it would face a barrage of patent-violation claims from companies like Apple and Samsung.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Apple's head of design Jony Ive admitted that he is not a fan of the company, or comparisons between it and Apple.
He said: "When you’re doing something for the first time, you don’t know if it’s going to work. You spend seven or eight years working on something and then it’s copied. I think it is really straightforward. It is theft and it is lazy. I don’t think it is okay at all.”
The company was founded in April of 2010 - it is now valued at more than €37bn. The company's founder and CEO Lei Jun has predicted that it could overtake Apple in the next "five or ten years."
