The smartphone market in the Philippines was off to a slow start in 2025, but Xiaomi is the only brand that managed to buck the trend and still experience growth.

Looking at Canalys’ report, Xiaomi was able to keep its position at number 2 with an annual growth of 20%, while the rest of the top 5 experienced negative growth. Looking back at Xiaomi’s releases in the first quarter of 2025, we’re not surprised why they enjoyed a good run.

For the first quarter of 2025, we’ve seen solid releases from the brand: there’s the POCO X7 Pro that continues to keep its reputation as one of the best midrange phones in terms of raw performance, along with a much-coveted Iron Man collab. The latter is significant, as it is one of the rare times that Xiaomi made a collab available in the Philippines.

Just around the same time as the POCO X7 series, the Redmi Note 14 series became official and maintained a strong following across the entire lineup. Having KPop idol Bambam helps, but it is more of the loyal following for the Redmi Note series that’s driving good sales for Xiaomi.

Xiaomi’s strong growth is not limited to the midrange segment: the Xiaomi 15 has generated buzz for being one of the more affordable Snapdragon 8 Elite phones in the Philippines, and it’s the POCO F7 Ultra that gave a solid one-two punch for Xiaomi in making a 2025 flagship processor accessible to everyone with a starting price of Php 34,999.

Things may change for the second quarter of 2025, as Transsion unveiled their bang-for-the-buck midrange phones from Infinix and TECNO last April, and the same goes for realme with the 14 Pro and 14 5G series.