POCO is rebranding the Redmi 12 5G days after it went official

Xiaomi unveiled the Redmi 12 5G in India just two days ago, marking the global debut of the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC. With this SoC, phone makers can make cheaper devices with some impressive 5G capabilities. If you want more options with this SoC, POCO is also launching the M6 Pro 5G in India this week. However, we wouldn’t blame you if you thought the device looked familiar. That’s because the POCO M6 Pro 5G is a rebrand of the Redmi 12 5G itself.

POCO India has begun teasing the launch of the M6 Pro 5G, scheduled for August 5, 2023.

At first glance, the phone has a black bar across the camera island, a signature styling element of the POCO brand. But the flat back and camera lens placement are similar to the Redmi 12 5G, pictured below.

Further, from code present within MIUI, we know that the Redmi 12 5G shares its codename “sky” with other rebrands, such as the Redmi Note 12R and the POCO M6 Pro 5G. Devices with shared codenames will share a vast majority of their specifications but may have minor regional differences. These differences are often cosmetic but can also be across minor spec points and storage and memory configurations.

POCO, as a sub-brand, follows this rebranding strategy consistently. It works out in the consumers’ favor as the products are sold online only and are usually priced lower as a result. It remains to be seen how the POCO M6 Pro 5G is priced and how it affects the sale of the Redmi 12 5G.

POCO India’s country head Himanshu Tandon has also announced that the brand is collaborating with Reliance Jio for the release of the POCO M6 Pro 5G. The announcement had no further details about this collaboration, so we will have to wait for the product to launch to learn more. Note that the Redmi 12 5G does not have any such collaboration in place, but it still works well across 5G operators in India.