It's not really that a phone could not cost this little. Xiaomi's pricing model is pretty transparent, they make a 5% or so profit from each device and also mon

It's not really that a phone could not cost this little. Xiaomi's pricing model is pretty transparent, they make a 5% or so profit from each device and also monetize via UI ads. It's more that consumers around the world have been brainwashed into believing huge markups are the default and must be accepted. That of course does not alleviate the data collection concerns about Xiaomi, but it is unfair to say that given the production apparatus to produce at scale and the ability to absorb losses initially, it is not possible to make devices this cheap.