Redmi K100 Leak Points to a Sharp Price Jump for Xiaomi's Next Sub-Flagship

A leak attributed to Chinese tipster Digital Chat Station suggests Xiaomi's next Redmi K-series sub-flagship could carry a starting price in the CNY 4,000 range — roughly 54 percent more expensive than its predecessor launched just months ago. Xiaomi has not confirmed the device or its pricing, and the phone's name was not explicitly stated in the original tip.

The Details

The pricing claim surfaced via Digital Chat Station, a prolific Chinese hardware leaker, and was reported by Gizmochina on April 29, 2026. According to Gizmochina, the tip placed the starting price for Xiaomi's next sub-flagship in the "4K" yuan bracket, a shorthand commonly used in Chinese tech circles to indicate approximately CNY 4,000.

Notebookcheck separately reported the same leak and identified the phone most likely being referenced as the Redmi K100. Notebookcheck added that it expects the device to be paired with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, though neither the model name nor the chipset pairing was confirmed by the original tipster.

Android Headlines also covered the leak, noting that the CNY 4,000 figure was the consistent takeaway across reports while flagging that the phone's name was not explicitly confirmed. The convergence of multiple outlets citing the same underlying tip adds weight to the claim but does not change its status as unverified.

For context on what CNY 4,000 would represent, Gizmochina noted that the Redmi K90 launched at CNY 2,599 for the 12GB/256GB configuration. A CNY 4,000 starting point for the K100 would put it approximately 54 percent above that entry price, a jump that would push the sub-flagship well past the psychological CNY 3,000 threshold that has historically defined the segment.

The tipster's post on Weibo — the original source of the leak — was not directly retrievable by Zero Signal's research team. The coverage trail here runs through secondary reports: Gizmochina, Notebookcheck, and Android Headlines each independently summarized the tip without discrepancies in the price figure, which is the strongest verification available at this stage.

Xiaomi has not officially announced the Redmi K100 or confirmed when it will launch. Gizmochina reported that the Redmi K100 lineup is expected to debut in China around October 2026, based on the company's prior release cadence for the K series, though that timeline has not been officially confirmed either.

Context

The rumored price jump does not arrive in a vacuum. Xiaomi raised prices on several existing Redmi devices in China earlier this month, citing what the company described as a "continued sharp rise" in component costs, according to Gizmochina. The affected devices included models in the Redmi K90 Pro Max and Redmi Turbo 5 series.

Xiaomi smartphone president Lu Weibing provided a more specific picture of the cost pressure in a statement reported by Digital Trends. Lu said the cost of sourcing a 12GB RAM plus 512GB storage combination had increased by approximately 1,500 yuan year over year — a figure that, if accurate, would represent a significant input-cost increase for any device targeting that memory configuration.

The current Redmi K90 family — which includes the standard K90, K90 Max, and K90 Pro Max — represents Xiaomi's sub-flagship tier in the Chinese market, according to Notebookcheck. Sub-flagship devices occupy the space just below full flagship pricing and have historically been among the strongest value propositions in the Chinese smartphone market. A base price of CNY 4,000 would challenge that positioning, narrowing the gap between the Redmi K series and Xiaomi's own flagship lineup.

Whether the memory-cost increase fully accounts for a 54 percent price jump remains unclear from the sourced record. No analyst or official breakdown of the K100's projected cost structure has been published, and Xiaomi has not addressed the leak.

What's Next

The Redmi K100 lineup is expected to debut in China around October 2026, according to Gizmochina, though Xiaomi has not officially confirmed that timeline or any other detail about the devices.

The key outstanding question is whether the leaked CNY 4,000 figure will hold once Xiaomi formally announces the phone. The company's decision to raise prices on existing Redmi devices in April 2026 citing component costs suggests pricing pressure is real, but the gap between a supply-side squeeze and a 54 percent generational price increase is wide enough that the final number could land anywhere along that range. No launch announcement or official pricing guidance has been issued.