Xiaomi unveils Red Rice smartphone in China: $130 for 720p and a quad-core CPU

Xiaomi's talk about doubling smartphone sales over last year sounded a tad ambitious, but it turns out it had a secret weapon. The company just announced the Red Rice smartphone, a pretty decently spec'd model priced at a mere 799 yuan ($130). For that pittance, Chinese buyers will get quite a bit: a quad-core MediaTek CPU, 4.7-inch 720p screen (312 ppi) with Gorilla Glass 2, 1GB RAM, 4GB storage, China Mobile's TD-SCDMA 3G, dual-sim / dual standby capability, an 8-megapixel rear camera and Xiaomi's MIUI-flavored Android. Though it's lacking the WCDMA-3G used by other Chinese networks, China Mobile's 70 percent market share should give Xiaomi more than enough users to hit its targets, especially at that price.