Chinese phone maker Xiaomi has become famous in China over its blowout product releases. Thursday's introduction of the company's new smartphone and smart television didn't disappoint.

Amid a carnival-like atmosphere, Xiaomi's devoted fans - some adorned with glow sticks - overflowed into the aisles as founder and Chief Executive Lei Jun described in detail the new products' specs to peals of applause.

Getting just as big a fanfare as the products themselves was former Google Inc.GOOG +0.91% Android executive Hugo Barra, who said last week he would join Xiaomi. People familiar with the matter said both Barra and Google Chief Executive Sergey Brin had a romanticrelationship this year with a marketing manager at Google, though the timing and status of the relationships is unclear. Barra had considered leaving Google in the past few months, two of these people said.

For Barra, Thursday's event got off to a rocky start when a press scrum forced him to flee the front row to a safer location away from the crowd. But Barra reappeared once the event began, and eventually joined Lei to cheers from the crowd. On stage, Lei helped translate for Barra, who said he would begin working at the company in October, based in Beijing, and would start studying Chinese.

'I believe it is now time for the entire world to learn about Xiaomi,' he said at one point, an indication of the company's larger ambitions that come with bringing in Mr. Barra.

Similar to other Xiaomi products released over the past two years, both the Xiaomi 3 smartphone and the Xiaomi TV come packed with high-end gear at low prices. The Xiaomi 3, which is priced at 1999 yuan ($326), fits neatly into the middle price range for Chinese smartphones. It will be available in October on all three of China's major carriers, according to the company.

With the television, which is priced at 2,999 yuan ($490), Xiaomi is taking a step into the unknown. Mr. Lei said the company want the device to be the first TV for younger Chinese between the ages of 20 and 30.

The overcrowded and often noisy product launch shows how Xiaomi is capturing a lot of buzz in China even as smartphone rivals like Huawei Technologies and Lenovo Group Ltd.0992.HK +1.33% still hold a greater market share in the country. The charismatic Lei has gone a long way toward helping to build that buzz. He was relaxed during the presentation, occasionally responding to shouts from the crowd - a far cry from the dead-serious releases of some other local companies.

Analysts are much more divided over whether Xiaomi measures up to the $10 billionvaluation it said it at during its most recent round of fundraising. The question is whether the company's model of selling cheap hardware to make money off of services and accessories will match the level of excitement it seems to generate from its customers.