Say hello to the first (officially announced) phone to feature the long-awaited quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro with the Adreno 320 GPU: the Xiaomi Mi-Two, available in China for ¥1,999, which converts to roughly $310 US. If you're unfamiliar with Xiaomi (and who can blame you?), the Chinese company that brought us MIUI also made the first native MIUI phone last year, called the Mi-One. You can find an excellent hands-on photo gallery for this powerful phone, expected to ship in China in October, at Engadget.

In what is easily the world's largest smartphone market, Android has an 81% stranglehold (perhaps another reason for Apple's "thermonuclear war" on Android?). One reason for this is the wildly popular MIUI custom ROM, and another reason is likely the dominance of nearby Korean manufacturers Samsung and LG, Taiwanese manufacturer HTC, and Chinese manufacturers Huwai, ZTE, and the upstart Xiaomi. Also contributing to the popularity of Xiaomi's native MIUI phones is the combination of cutting-edge specs, an affordable price, and an interface that mimics the popular iPhone (while the iPhone itself is prohibitively expensive for most Chinese smartphone users). The Mi-Two offers the latest such combination in the form of:

• A 1.7 GHz Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
  
• Adreno 320 GPU
  
• 2GB of RAM
  
• 16GB internal storage
  
• 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen at 1280×720 pixel resolution
  
• 8 megapixel rear camera (with upgraded F/2.0 lens)
  
• 2 megapixel front camera
  
• HDMI-compatible USB port
  
• HSPA+ connectivity up to 42 Mbps (though this might not be the case in the U.S.)
  
• WCDMA 850Mhz, 1900Mhz, and 2100Mhz frequency bands alongside quad band GSM

So how does the new quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro with the new Adreno 320 GPU stack up against the competition? According to PhoneArena, the S4 Pro/Adreno 320 is the first chipset to top Apple's PowerVR graphics chip (3rd-generation iPad) on the GLBenchmark Egypt C24Z16 Offscreen 1080p test. The chipset was tested as featured on the LG E970 - the Eclipse 4G model allegedly bound for AT&T. I ran a quick GLBenchmark 2.1 comparison test myself, comparing this new chipset (again, as seen on the LG E970) with the 3rd-generation iPad, the international Galaxy S III, and the HTC One X, and it stacks up quite well overall against the competition, beating all three devices handily in some tests. Regarding the popular Quadrant benchmark (yeah, I know, Android users who are "in the know" always take Quadrant with a grain of salt), the S4 combo easily scored north of 7500 as tested by IntoMobile on Qualcomm's development tablet. More test results can be found on AnandTech's website.

Mi-Two benchmark screenshots

For those of you who don't live in China, you should be able to import it eventually, although at somewhat of a markup. Based on prices for last year's Mi-One at 365Gate.com ($369) and Lightake.com ($399), you're probably looking at a markup of about $100 (which apparently also covers fees associated with importing the device through U.S. Customs). The phone, which supports 850Mhz, 1900Mhz and 2100Mhz frequency bands along with quad-band GSM, should work on AT&T and T-Mobile, though you might experience some signal degradation.