The Mi 10 & Mi 10 Pro are here
A few days ago, we reported that the Xiaomi Mi 10 was launching in China on 13 February and it might be expensive. Now, Xiaomi has officially unveiled the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro in China through an online-only live event. Before you ask – yes, it is more expensive than its predecessor, the Mi 9.
Specs
As previously teased by Xiaomi, the brand new Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro comes with the latest Snapdragon 865 processor. All models are fully featured with 5G, which Qualcomm indirectly mandated by not putting a 4G LTE modem in the SoC itself. Instead, manufacturers are required to pair the Snapdragon 865 with a separate modem which has both 4G and 5G connectivity. Previously confirmed features such as LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.0 storage are also present.
    
For the cameras, Xiaomi included the 108-megapixel sensor in both models, the same one found in the recently-released Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. However, the rest of the camera setups are different. The Mi 10 sports a 2MP depth sensor, 2MP macro shooter and a 13MP ultrawide camera. While the Mi 10 Pro has a 10X Hybrid Zoom camera, 12MP portrait shooter, and a 20MP ultrawide camera. Both models can shoot 8K video, just like the new Galaxy S20 series.
On both models, it uses a 6.67″ AMOLED FHD+ display which supports 90Hz refresh rate and 120Hz touch sampling rate. This will make your scrolling experience much more buttery smooth. Xiaomi is also proud of the display due to its 1200-nit peak brightness, 4096 levels of brightness adjustments, and DC dimming. This time around, Xiaomi used a corner hole-punch display instead of the teardrop design, similar to the Samsung Galaxy S10 series.
The battery and charging received a significant upgrade. Interestingly, the little brother, the Mi 10 packs a larger battery at 4780mAh compared to the Mi 10 Pro’s 4500mAh. However, the Mi 10 Pro supports up to 50W wired charging while the Mi 10 only supports 30W. Both models support 30W wireless charging! This is double the speed of the 15W ‘fast’ wireless charging that most smartphones use.
Bad News Bears
Seems like a decent phone so far! So, what’s the bad news? Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2020 where the Mi 10 global launch was supposed to take place has been cancelled. Following the announcement, Xiaomi also clarified that the launch will be postponed to a later date. This means that we will need to wait a little longer to get our hands on the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro.
One more thing, the price. As discussed in our previous article on the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro, a price increase was expected due to the new hardware and features that the new flagships would pack. Seems like it is indeed the case here with the Mi 10 series. Even in China, where it is usually sold at the cheapest, the Mi 10 starts at CNY3,999 (RM2,373). That is CNY1,000 (RM593) more expensive than the Mi 9 when it came out, which started at CNY2,999 (RM1,779). The Mi 10 Pro starts at CNY4,999 (RM3,000). This is not a cheap phone by any means.
Xiaomi justified the price increase with a few main reasons:
- The use of SD865 and the new 5G-capable modem
- The change of the display from teardrop design to hole-punch design
- New camera modules, including the 108MP sensor
- The upgrade from LPDDR4 to LPDDR5 RAM
- Battery/ Charging/ Cooling System Upgrades
Do you think it is justified or do you think the flagship Mi series has lost its identity as a budget flagship? Will you consider getting one?
