Redmi sells 5.5 million phones in six months — and the cheap model is doing all the heavy lifting
Xiaomi's Redmi sub-brand has sold 5.5 million phones across two product lines in roughly six months, with data through week 26 of 2026. The K90 series accounts for 3.5 million of those, while the Turbo 5 line adds another 2 million. The numbers reinforce what mid-range smartphone sales have shown for years: buyers want value, not specifications at any price.
The breakdown
The standard Redmi K90 is carrying the K90 family almost single-handedly, with around 2.39 million units sold. The K90 Pro Max — the range-topping version — sits at 725,000 units, and the K90 Max at 413,000. That means the base model outsells its two premium siblings combined by a wide margin. The Turbo 5, running a MediaTek Dimensity 8500-Ultra chip, and the Turbo 5 Max, using the Dimensity 9500s, together reached 2.004 million units by the same cutoff.
The switch from Qualcomm to MediaTek across both lines isn't accidental. Component cost pressures have pushed manufacturers to seek alternatives, and MediaTek's Dimensity chips now benchmark close enough to comparable Snapdragon parts that most buyers won't notice a difference in everyday use.
What this means outside China
Neither the K90 series nor the Turbo 5 is widely available through official retail in the US — buyers there face grey-market imports that void any manufacturer warranty, per the Alibaba Electronics Guide. UK shoppers have better luck, with official channels covering that market alongside India, the UAE, and Southeast Asia. The Turbo 5's base price started at 2,299 yuan in China before an April 2026 price hike tied to memory chip costs, reports Gizmochina (April 2026) — a squeeze that premium brands like Samsung and Apple absorb through thicker margins, but which hits the mid-range much harder.
Redmi K90 Max smartphone. Illustration: Xiaomi
The bigger picture
The K90 and Turbo 5 figures matter because the K series historically feeds into global POCO-branded releases, which do land in Western retail. If the K90 base model's 6:1 sales advantage over the Pro Max tells Redmi anything, it's that the market for a well-specced phone at a sensible price is larger than the market for every feature maxed out. That's a product signal worth watching, especially as component inflation continues to push mid-range prices upward across the industry.
