Xiaomi is now firmly entrenched in India's handset market, but the brand is primarily associated with being a budget player. While the Chinese manufacturer launched the Mi Mix 2 in India last year, reception was lukewarm as best as customers were unwilling to shell out over ₹30,000 ($435) for a Xiaomi phone.

Xiaomi is now looking to break the mold with a new sub-brand called Poco, which is being led by Jai Mani. Mani joined Xiaomi from Google back in 2014 as Lead Product Manager, and subsequently became a key figure in the company's product launches in India. The exec tweeted a manifesto for Poco on Twitter, starting that the project was born out of a need to make a phone with technologies "that truly matter:"