Xiaomi released its most expensive phablets on Thursday - the Mi Note and Mi Note Pro - comparing them directly with Samsung's Apple's largest devices. The 5.7-inch Xiaomi Note debuts Jan. 27 for 2,299 yuan ($371), Chief Executive Officer Lei Jun said at a press conference in Beijing today. The device is bigger, lighter and thinner than Apple's iPhone 6 Plus and has a curved glass display (5.7-inch Full HD 1920 x 1080, 386 ppi), he said. The 16 gigabyte model is less than half the price of Apple's handset and Samsung's phablet, the Galaxy Note 4.

The Mi Note is 6.95mm (0.27in) thick and weighed 161g (5.7oz). That makes it 1.05mm thinner than the iPhone 6 Plus and 11g lighter.

The Note also sports a 4MP front-facing camera with a 2µm pixel size. The phablet is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor, and features dual 4G nano and micro-SIM card slots. Audio should also be impressive as the Mi Note will utilize the same ESS decoder found in many high end Hi-Fi systems, as well as a built-in 2-level amplifier. As for battery life, the Mi Note will be fitted with a 3,000mAh capacity battery.

A second device, the Note Pro, will sell for 3,299 yuan ($532). It has a higher resolution display (2K - 515 ppi) and a faster processor (Qualcomm Snapdragon octa-core 810 processor, 64-bit) than the basic model. It also features more RAM memory (4GB), 64GB of built-in storage, a 13 megapixel rear camera, made by Sony, and a 4MP front one.

Xiaomi is world's third-largest smartphone vendor and is trying to overtake Samsung and Apple.

In its home market of China, Xiaomi's current lineup includes the Mi 4, with a 5-inch display; the Redmi 2, with a 4.7-inch display; and the Redmi Note, with a 5.5-inch display. The devices start at about 699 yuan.

Xiaomi's phones are only available in select Asian countries including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, India and Indonesia. There has been speculation it might soon announce a move into the US, but there was no mention of this at the latest launch.

In addition to the new smartphones, Lei announced the 199-yuan Mi Box Mini to stream online video. The Mi Box mini is a power small device powered by a quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 processor from MediaTek, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of storage, dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a HDMI 1.4a output capable of showing 3D video at 1080p. While it offers DTS 2.0 and Dolby Digital Plus audio processing and has a Bluetooth remote control, it does not include any options to increase the storage or connect over Ethernet or USB. Shipping from January 27, the Mi Box mini is priced at 199 RMB ($32).

On Monday, Reuters reported that Xiaomi's Lei and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed a potential investment by Facebook in China's top smartphone maker ahead of last month's fundraising, but a deal never materialised.