After teasing it for months, Xiaomi has finally taken the wraps of Mi10, its latest upgrade to the company’s flagship line-up. And similar to how other smartphone majors have now taken it to phone’s cameras to upgrade stagnating flagships, Xiaomi too has done pretty much the same.
The biggest talking point for Xiaomi’s Mi10 flagship is its whopping 108MP camera, a first for any smartphone globally. This new camera setup has been teased by the company and its senior execs for quite some time now. Mi10 is the first time when we are seeing this on a commercial, production-ready handset.
Talking about under the hood specs, the phone is powered by a Snapdragon 865 processor, clubbed with a more efficient LPDDR5 RAM, and faster UFS 3.0 storage. Micron, the company that started producing the world’s first mass-produced LPDDR5 RAM chips, has provided the same chips to Xiaomi. Micron had announced the same already.
The Mi10 has been launched in two variants, a normal Mi10 and a further upgraded variant, called the Mi10 Pro. The Mi 10 and the Mi 10 Pro both come with a quad rear camera setup that includes a 108-megapixel main senor, but the rest of the sensors differ. Interestingly, Mi10 Pro’s DXOMark score was recently put in at 124, which is the most any smartphone has achieved till date. The phone defeated its other Chinese rivals from Huawei and Xiaomi.
In terms of display, the Mi10 packs a 6.67-inch full-HD+ (1080 x 2340 pixels) curved AMOLED display with 90Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling rate, and a hole-punch design. The Mi10 Pro on the other hand, packs in a 6.67-inch full-HD+ (1080 x 2340 pixels) HDR10+ AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate.
Both the phones are powered by the same octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC, paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.0 storage.
The Mi 10 comes equipped with a 4,780mAh battery that supports 30W wired charging and 30W wireless charging. The phone also supports 10W reverse wireless charging. The Mi10 Pro on the other hand, strangely has a smaller 4500 mAh battery. The size has been shrunk to perhaps make way for all those extra rear camera sensors.
Pricing, as has usually been the case with Xiaomi, is aggressive as ever. The Mi 10 Pro price starts at CNY 4,999 (~$700/₹50,000) for the 8GB + 256GB variant, while the 12GB + 256GB model will set buyers back by CNY 5,499 (~$800/₹55,000). As for the top-of-the-line 12GB + 512GB variant, it is priced at CNY 5,999 (roughly Rs. 60,000).
However, expect the prices to be higher in India. Xiaomi’s India MD Manu Kumar Jain mentioned that the company will need to import 100% of the device since it won’t be manufacturing the same within the country. The Government recently increase duties on full imported electronics from China, and hence the pricing is sure to see quite an uptick.
However, making such a device requires state of the art facilities, which are not available in India.
We will have to import 100% of units if we launch the #Mi10 in India. Hence, it will have a different pricing model than usual.
RT🔄 with #Mi10 if you want to see it in India. https://t.co/FbRGe4tvjL
— Manu Kumar Jain (@manukumarjain) February 13, 2020
In terms of availability, the Mi10 Pro is up for pre-orders in China, with the first sale kicking on Feb 18th. No update yet on an India or global launch.
