Xiaomi held an event in China earlier today to unveil the Redmi K50 Gaming, the first member of the highly anticipated Redmi K50 series and the direct successor to last year’s K40 Gaming. The new phone features blazing-fast 120W charging and Qualcomm’s latest flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 CPU. It’s also the first phone under the cooperation between Xiaomi and Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, with an unique limited edition phone bearing the racing team’s badge and colours.

On the right side, there are two physical gaming triggers, similar to last year’s K40 Gaming. Xiaomi’s CyberEngine x-axis haptics motor and dual JBL-tuned speakers are also included. The phone’s frame is constructed of metal, and the back is made of glass.

Xiaomi created a brand-new twin vapour chamber (VC) cooling mechanism to keep the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 CPU and other components cool. The process begins with a copper radiator placed directly on top of the processor. Xiaomi also used dual graphite sheets, stainless steel, and mesh.

The Redmi K50 Gaming has a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with FHD+ resolution, a refresh rate of 120Hz, and a touch sampling rate of 480Hz. Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protects the panel, which displays 10bit colours. The front-facing camera is a 20MP Sony IMX 596, while the back has a 64MP Sony IMX 686 main camera, an 8MP ultrawide snapper, and a 2MP telemacro camera.

Xiaomi claims that the 4,700mAh battery with 120W charging can be fully charged in just 17 minutes. On stage, there was a demonstration that showed the phone taking 37 minutes to charge while actively playing a MOBA game. MIUI 13, which is based on Android 12, handles the software. The phone also has WiFi 6E and NFC connection.

The Xiaomi Redmi K50 Gaming is available in Dream colours such as blue, silver, and black, as well as a Mercedes AMG F1 edition.

The K50 Gaming with 8GB LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB UFS 3.1 storage is priced at CNY 3,299 ($520). A 12/128 GB variant costs CNY 3,599 ($567), while a 12/256GB version costs CNY 3,899 ($615). The limited-edition Mercedes AMG F1 with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage will cost CNY 4,199 (about $662).