Just nine months after the release of their flagship phone and four different products after that, the Chinese manufacturer known for their value-for-money smartphones, Xiaomi is already launching a new flagship phone for the year 2020. New year; new flagship, am I right? Just like all flagships, the device carries the latest top-of-the-line processor – the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865.
XIaomi’s Mi 10 Series are the first devices in the year 2020 to pack Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 865 processor with 5G capabilities. Overall clock speed has increased (obviously), but clock speed is so yesterday. 5G on the other hand is the latest buzz. The new Octa-core processor though has a maximum clock speed of 2.84GHz; a 25% increase of performance in both CPU and GPU compared to last year’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 855. It is also supposed to consume less power; specifically 35% less power than its predecessor.
With great power comes great responsibility picture quality. Xiaomi is stepping up its game with a quad camera system with a 108-Megapixel main camera in both the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro. But that is all the similarities between the cameras of both devices in the series. On the Mi 10, you get a 13-Megapixel Ultra-Wide lens, a 2-Megapixel Macro lens, and another 2-Megapixel depth sensor.
The Mi 10 Pro on the other hand come with a better 8-Megapixel telephoto lens, a 12-Megapixel 50mm portrait lens (technically also a 2x optical zoom telephoto lens), a 20-Megapixel Ultra-Wide lens. Thanks to the insane 108-Megapixel camera and the new super powerful System on a Chip (SoC) both devices are able to capture 8K (7,680 x 4,320 pixels) videos. Using the 8K video you are also able to capture clear 33MP (technically 8K resolution anyway) photos while recording.
While most of the fancy features are reserved for the main camera. The selfie camera is not neglected. It shoots at a decent 20-Megapixel. Still that is 12-Megapixel less than the Xiaomi Mi Note 10. The camera is nestled in the punch hole at the top left of the display, not the usual tear-drop style taht we are used to like in the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Pro.
Speaking of cameras, you need a display to view the photos that you take with the super powerful cameras. The Xiaomi Mi 10 comes with the usual curved Full HD+ AMOLED curved DotDisplay measuring in at 6.67-inch compared; bigger than the 6.47-inch of the Mi Note 10. While you lose out on ppi counts, the device makes up for it in its 90Hz refresh rate for a super smooth navigation experience. 60Hz feels sluggish when you put it next to the Xiaomi Mi 10 series devices. The AMOLED DotDisplay also boast some of the best colour accuracy in the market with ΔE<1.1.
Watching movies is a joy with the highly advanced and fast display. Dual stereo speakers on the Mi 10 series devices helps boost the immersive experience. Unfortunately though the Xiaomi Mi 10 will not ship with a 3.5mm jack. Rather, you get a 3.5mm jack dongle in the box. That kind of sucks.
For you to enjoy hours of mindless video content the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 4,500 mAh battery and the Xiaomi Mi 10 comes with 4,780 mAh battery. The Mi 10 Pro has 50W fast charging that is able to charge from 0% to 100% in just 65 minutes; Impressive.
There will be three variants of the Mi 10, an 8GB RAM + 256GB storage, 12GB RAM + 256GB storage and 12GB RAM with 512GB of storage. Prices starting from RMB 3,999 that translates to about RM 2,373.
The Mi 10 Pro also has three variants starting with, 8GB RAM + 256GB storage, 12GB RAM + 256GB storage and lastly 12GB RAM + 512GB storage. Where the Mi 10 Pro starts at RMB 4,999 with roughly translates to about RM 2,966.
