The Xiaomi Note is the company's newest flagship phablet

From CNET

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun holding up the new Xiaomi Note.Aloysius Low/CNET

BEIJING -- The flagship Xiaomi Note was announced today when CEO Lei Jun took to the stage in the Chinese capital.

The new Note is not to be confused with the company's budget friendly line, the RedMi Note, nor the offerings from the South Korean electronics giant Samsung. The new phablet, if Lei Jun is to be believed, is set to go head-to-head with Apple's iPhone 6 Plus.

The company is betting that consumers in markets such as India who want phones similar in quality and size to the 6 Plus will opt for the Note instead.

The Xiaomi Note packs a 5.7-inch Full HD display and weighs just 161g. It sports a curved glass front and rear. Xiaomi also claims it has a patent for the rear 13-megapixel camera -- and unlike the Apple iPhone 6 Plus, the thinner Note doesn't have a protruding carriage for the rear shooter. It also has optical image stabilisation.

For the selfie-loving crowd, Xiaomi has taken a page out of the HTC One M8's book. The front camera uses a 4-megapixel sensor, which sports the same 2µm pixel size. This should make for better-looking selfies, especially in low-light conditions.

Xiaomi says the phone will retail at 2,299 RMB, which converts to about US$260, £245 and AU$450. It's definitely not as cheap as the company's other products, and Xiaomi says it's due to the high manufacturing costs of the phone.

"Xiaomi 'going phablet' with the Note wasn't a surprise," says IDC analyst Bryan Ma. "It was an obvious gap in their portfolio that in was only being serviced by a low-end RedMi Note before. High-end users need their phablets too."

Power users who want something even more powerful can look forward to the the Mi Note Pro, which will be one of the first few phones to sport the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core processor, 4GB RAM and a 2K display. It will retail close to Xiaomi's manufacturing cost at 3,299 RMB -- this converts roughly to $530, £350 and $AU$650.

We'll have a hands-on with the Xiaomi Note soon, so be sure to check back in a bit.