Xiaomi Mi 10 – Entry Into Flagship Segment

Xiaomi’s 2020 flagship smartphone, the Xiaomi Mi 10, was launched on February 13, 2020, in China and on May 8, 2020, in India. The much-awaited flagship smartphone Mi 10 has an utterly beautiful premium looking design that is competent enough to grab many eyeballs. Powered by the latest and most potent Qualcomm’s mobile platforms, Xiaomi Mi 10 has terrific camera quality and is undoubtedly the cherry on the cake. The phone isn’t just a glass beauty; it is a technical powerhouse. The Xiaomi Mi 10 goes head-to-head with some of the best phones in the world, including entries from Oppo, Huawei and Samsung.

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Let’s get right into the review of this flagship device Xiaomi Mi 10 to know more about it.

The stunning and power-packed smartphone is of a little high budget, but it is definitely the best one could get at this price and with all the best specifications. The price for Mi 10 in India is set at Rs.49,999 for the 128GB storage while its 256GB option is priced at Rs.54,999. Both the variants are offered in Coral Green and Twilight Grey colour options.

The device is available on Flipkart, Amazon as well Mi’s official store and also through authorized offline retailers.

The box contents of the flagship Xiaomi Mi 10 look like:

• 30W wired charging Adapter
• USB Type-C Cable
• SIM Eject Tool
• User Guide
• Hard Case
• Type-C to 3.5mm Headphone Adapter

Here is the list of what the Xiaomi Mi 10 is offering:

• Display: 6.5 inch HD+ Display, 
• CPU & GPU: 7nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 
• RAM & ROM: 8+128GB / 8+256GB
• Software: MIUI 11 based on Android 10
• Rear cameras: 108MP + 13MP + 2MP + 2MP
• Selfie camera: 20MP
• Battery: 4780 mAh, 30W charger
• Weight: 208g
• Dimensions: 162.58mm x 74.8mm x 8.96mm

Xiaomi Mi 10 deserves a standing ovation for the gorgeous and breathtaking appearance. Thanks to the glass sandwich design along with curved edges on both the front and back, the smartphone looks super sleek upfront. This is further decorated with layers of Gorilla Glass 5 on both front and back which protects the body from scratches. Moreover, you can rely on a case to prevent it from any scuffing or damage due to drops.
At the back is the much-highlighted quad-camera setup sitting on the left side of the device along with the LED flash. Xiaomi Mi 10 does get a camera bump which makes the phone wobble when kept on a flat surface. Along with the camera, the back panel also has Mi branding. The button placement is simple with the power button being placed at the right-hand side, and the volume controls on the left. The USB Type C charging port is placed at the bottom along with the speaker grille. The front consists of a 20 MP selfie camera. The device is waterproof and comes up with P2i coating, which helps in protecting the smartphone from accidental splashes.

The design of Xiaomi Mi 10 is the best compared to other smartphones falling in the same range. It provides both the sleek and robust qualities of design impressing the mass number of people. You will have a fantastic experience using the device in regards to its design structure.

Xiaomi Mi 10 has a perfect AMOLED hyperboloid screen. The panel boasts a 19:5:9 aspect ratio and a 90Hz refresh rate for a smoother appearance. It has a sizable 6.67-inch full HD+ display with a 1080*2340-pixel resolution. There is no notch display. The flagship smartphone has a pixel rich display and offers a bright and vibrant colour reproduction. It comes with HDR+ certification, that means you will get the best picture quality when streaming online.

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Xiaomi Mi 10 has a capacitive touchscreen and provides multi-touch features also. It features a totally comfortable display which both looks and feels buttery. The refresh rate of 90 Hz is a little less than other smartphones of the same range, but it will still not fail to impress you. One would surely have a great experience in watching movies and playing games on the Mi 10 5G due to the excellent colour contrast, fantastic brightness and right viewing angles. As a trend in 2020, the display also houses an in-display fingerprint sensor that performs quite well and goes handy with the overall display structure. In all, the smartphone does impress everyone in terms of its display department.

Powering the Xiaomi Mi 10 5G is the latest and high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset which is paired with Adreno 650 GPU. The powertrain also consists of 8GB of RAM and comes in two storage variants- 128GB and 256GB. The 5G smartphone turns out to be a smooth performer and provides no lag or slug while using the device. Xiaomi Mi 10 does really well when it comes to gaming and playing heavy graphic-intense games like Asphalt 9 and Call Of Duty – Mobile. Overall, gaming on the Mi 10 turned out to be a very delightful experience. You will not get disappointed by its performance if you are using some editing apps too. The brand also claims to have used a multi-level cooling solution in the Xiaomi Mi 10 which keeps the inner components cool while performing heavy tasks such as gaming but it does get heated up if used for a long time.

The Mi 10 5G includes IR blaster like most of the Xiaomi devices. The smartphone comes with a sensor and Peel remote app which offers the feature to convert the device into a universal remote and control the home appliance with it.

The 5G feature of the device is no of no use for Indian users as 5G is not supported in India, but it surely does not make the smartphone worth buying. It does not fail to impress with its outstanding performance and software, which is lashed with all the latest features. Overall, Xiaomi Mi 10 really performs like a flagship smartphone.

The Xiaomi Mi 10 runs Android 10 operating system topped with MIUI 11 user interface. However, it will soon receive MIUI 12 updates, as claimed by the company, to enhance the user experience. The device lacks an app drawer which may clutter the home screen. The smartphone offers everything one would expect from an android phone.

The UI of the device is quite simple to use and has the common gestures and shortcuts that any Xiaomi smartphone running MIUI 11 will have. It also provides a reverse wireless charging mode, and one can easily find a quick toggle to enable the same. The Mi 10 also consists of Google’s SMS app and dialler. There is one exciting feature called Multilink that is provided by which one can combine both Wi-Fi bands and mobile data and enhance the surfing speed.

The excellent specifications of any phone largely depend on its camera qualities. Usually, high-end and expensive smartphones are expected to have really amazing multi-camera setup, and Mi 10 5G is no different. Its camera qualities turn out to be cherry on the cake. The camera of Xiaomi Mi 10 is undoubtedly a centre of attraction for the users and pulls a lot of crowd towards the smartphone due to its amazing camera quality.

Xiaomi Mi 10 has a quad-camera setup which consists of a 108MP primary camera with f/1.7 aperture, 13MP ultra-wide-angle lens with f/2.4 aperture, 2MP macro lens with f/2.4 aperture and 2MP depth sensor with f/2.4 aperture. The front consists of a 20MP selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture. The rear camera is capable of recording 8K videos, and it also comes with optical image stabilization. The rear camera supports 10x zoom and 2x zoom in 108MP mode. The 108MP sensor can also be used as a telephoto lens. The images captured from the camera of this device offer really well detailing, colour reproduction and sharp quality.

Some noise might occur when using the 10x zoom feature. The night mode of the camera is really impressive and gives quite well images, even in the dark. The camera produces real looking photos with the same colour as of the scenery, and so the images don’t look artificial, which is a must factor any good smartphone falling in the range should provide. The time taken by the device to process the images is a bit more, but it surely gets covered by so many good specifications the smartphones offer.

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Just like the rear-view camera setup, the 20MP front shooter also offers commendable performance. The selfies taken from the front camera have very little noise and offer bright photos along with good skin texture. The portrait mode also performs well with almost perfect edge detection. The videos shot on the camera turn out to be really well with good quality. However, it may not retain its quality shooting in dim light. The zoom feature in the video mode provides really well cinematographic experience. It is an all-rounder for users who shoot Vlogs. Anyone investing half a lakh in a smartphone will at least expect its camera to be used as a substitute for the real camera and it really does not fail to do so at an extent.

The Xiaomi Mi 10 provides a 4780mAh battery with support for 30W proprietary fast charging. The device also supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0. The device has an excellent battery backup, and one can easily rely on its single charge for a day or so even after performing heavy tasks like gaming. The time taken by the smartphone to get charged is also less. If one uses the bundled 30W charger, then the smartphone can charge completely within one hour, making it very time convenient too. Xiaomi Mi 10 also supports wireless charging. The main attractive feature of the smartphone is its wireless reverse charging by which you can charge other devices too by using the smartphone’s battery. However, for charging the device wirelessly, one needs to buy a 30W wireless charger from Xiaomi. In today’s generation, where people prefer any smartphone to have an amazing battery backup which can be used to perform well with heavy tasks without getting drained too quickly, it performs really well in the particular aspect.

Talking about the audio performance of Xiaomi Mi 10, it surely does impress its users in this department. The smartphone delivers a clear and loud sound quality. The device has stereo speakers which automatically detects the orientation, and it also offers LHDC codec support. It performs really well even when connected to speakers and produces really clear and subtle audio. The experience of its audio quality can be enhanced by using earphones with it, which surely is like a cherry on the cake and provides out of dimension audio quality. There is no fault one can take out in the smartphone if the audio aspect is considered.

Coming to the connectivity on Xiaomi Mi 10, and it supports 2G, 3G, 4G, 4G LTE. The device also supports 5G, which is not an attraction centre in India as we are still improvising in the field of technology, but it surely impresses the users from the country where 5G is supported well. It features a good Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac(2.4 &5GHz) which performs quite well. It has other connectivity features such as dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot, Bluetooth V5.1, A2DP, Low-energy, aptX HD. It surely impresses its users in the connectivity aspects too.

For security, Xiaomi Mi 10 comes equipped with an in-display fingerprint sensor and also has face-unlock as an alternative. The fingerprint sensor works quite well and also goes very handy with its sleek design and good display. The face-unlock feature is also quite well and senses the face even in dim light. It is quick, reliable and accurate. It does not disappoint its users in terms of security.

Pros:

• Impressive camera setup
• Gorgeous 6.67-inch Super AMOLED display
• 90Hz refresh rate panel
• Modern design
• Stereo speakers
• Powerful VC Liquid cooling system
• Impressive battery department

Cons:

• There is no high 120Hz refresh rate display
• It sports FHD+ resolution instead of QHD+