Xiaomi Mi3 specs, review and news: $327 is not cheap for anything in China, especially a mobile device. But a handset is considered a status symbol in the country and Xiaomi, a company endorsed by Steve Wozniak as a tech firm ready for the U.S. market, has made a name for its devices. It’s been called the ‘Apple of China” and its founder, Lei Jun, the country’s Steve Jobs.

The Chinese tech giant’s latest invention, the Xiaomi Mi3, has sold its first batch of 100,000 units in less than two minutes when it was launched. The question is, now that the iPhone is officially in China via China Mobile, will the Mi3 still fair better?

According to TechWeb report, the phone was sold out 86 seconds after it was launched on October 15. The device features a Tegra 4 quad-core CPU and 5-inch full-HD screen and and is being sold at 1,999 Yuan or $327. The Xiaomi Mi3 was first launched by company CEO Lei Jun, who many are hailing as the Steve Jobs of China. Mi3 has been considered the model with the highest capacity-price ration in the market.

In a report by GizChina, it is reported that the WCDMA version of the Mi3 is coming soon. It was alleged that a Mi3 sold as a WCDMA on eBay was not only overpriced, but also fake. Despite it being a hoax, the unit was sold and saw demand.

According to reports, due to great demand for the Xiaomi Mi 3, some customers have approached scalpers for a unit for an augmented price, up to $164 more than the retail price. Beijing Business reported that most scalpers would not reveal where the device has been sourced out but noted that the extra price is for the cost of having to hire someone to order it.

The Xiaomi Mi3 has specs that is very competitive to its Western counterparts. Aside from the display, it has also an under the hood that gives consumers options for a processor of their choice (Nvidia Tegra 4 or Qualcomm Snapdragon 800).

Xiaomi Mi 3 runs on Xiaomi’s Android-based system, MIUI, which has over 20 million hardware users.

The manufacturer of the device, Xiaomi, has surpassed Apple as the market leader in the lucrative Chinese market. The company has created a production process that allows them to sell units in 100,000 batches, integrating new updates along the way in newly produced hardware units which is then sold every Tuesday noon.