Give Mi all the phones!
Since its inception, the Xiaomi Mi series has been wildly popular, especially among the budget-oriented buyers who want flagship specs. With the Mi 1 launched all the way back in 2011, this marks the 9th year of the Mi series flagships. Are you ready for the Xiaomi Mi 10?
Two Launch Dates?
Xiaomi’s first 2020 flagship, the Mi 10, is due to launch on February 13. Following recent developments of the 2019 novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), Xiaomi has decided to make the launch event an online-only live event, a first for the company. This move was confirmed by CEO Lei Jun on Weibo, stating that “it was a hard decision to make”.
As you might have realized, the announcement was only made on Weibo, the Chinese social media site. This is because the February 13 event is Xiaomi’s domestic launch of the Mi 10, targeted towards the Chinese market. As for the global launch, we will have to wait until Mobile World Congress (MWC) where Xiaomi will oficially launch the Mi 10 globally on February 23.
What we know so far
As with every other smartphone launch, there were a lot of leaks that surfaced on the internet over the past few weeks. Here is what we know so far.
A few specs were already confirmed by Xiaomi. This includes the Snapdragon 865 chipset, which will be the standard for flagships in 2020. Xiaomi also revealed that the Mi 10 will utilize LPDDR5 RAM, which is twice as fast as LPDDR4, 20% faster than LPDDR4x, features a 50% improvement in data access speed, and a 20% improvement in power consumption. It is also expected to include the 108-megapixel Samsung image sensor, first found in the Mi Note 10.
Other specs expected to come with the Mi 10 include UFS 3.0 storage, under-screen fingerprint sensor, and a 90Hz AMOLED display.
It is also expected to have a Pro variant, dubbed the Mi 10 Pro. According to code found in the MIUI 11 code, the Pro variant will allegedly support 66W fast charging, which will be over twice as fast as the 30W charger expected to come with the Mi 10.
So, how much will it be?
Looking at the crazy spec list of 90Hz display, UFS 3.0 storage, LPDDR5 memory, netizens have raised concerns regarding the price of the Mi 10. With all the new tech packed in, there is little doubt that the price will increase. But by how much?
In an interesting comment by Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun on Weibo, he said, “for the Mi 10, I have asked to lift the price constraint in order to focus on making a better product.”
This move isn’t unexpected, as Xiaomi’s budget arm, Redmi, has been spun-off into its own sub-brand recently. Lei Jun also noted that the decision is aimed to allow the brands to focus on their own directions; Xiaomi will focus on the high-end premium market whereas Redmi will focus on the ultimate price-to-performance products. This can be seen with the Redmi K20 Pro launched last year, which used the flagship Snapdragon 855 SoC.
If Redmi is taking over what the Mi series once was (flagship specs at a budget price), will the Mi 10 get a significant price increase? If so, will the Mi series lose its appeal? Let us know what you think.
