Xiaomi’s latest products in India signal a shift towards premium

It’s been a while since Xiaomi launched a high-end product in India. Indeed, the company’s last Mi branded high-end smartphone was the Mi Mix 2, a product that launched way back in 2017. Now, After a long lull period, Xiaomi is finally making a return to India’s high-end smartphone space with the all-new Mi 10. 

The Mi 10 is an unassuming piece of kit that packs top of the line hardware while keeping things understated. Under the hood, you can expect a Snapdragon 865 chipset with 8GB or 12GB of RAM depending on the variant you opt for. Elsewhere, the phone is available in 128GB or 256GB versions. 

 The highlight feature of the phone is its 108MP primary camera that is paired with a 13MP ultra-wide sensor as well as 2MP macro and depth cameras.  Unlike the Mi 10 Pro, you do not get a dedicated telephoto lens here and will have to crop into the 108MP shot to zoom in. Over at the front, users get a 20MP camera. 

How much does the Mi 10 cost in India? 

• Xiaomi Mi 10 8GB/128GB: Rs. 49,999 (~$663)
• Xiaomi Mi 10 8GB/256GB: Rs. 54,999 (~$729)

India pricing for the phone slots in between that of China and Europe as expected. In fact, Xiaomi is not manufacturing the phone in India which likely plays a role in driving up costs. As such, it will be interesting to see how the phone does against the OnePlus 8-series that offers similar or better specs, depending on the variant for similar money. 

The Mi 10 will be available in Coral Green & Twilight Grey colors with pre-orders starting today and going on till 17 May. Alongside the phone, Xiaomi is also introducing a 30W wireless charger. The charger is priced at Rs. 2,299 (~$30) and can be had for an even lower Rs. 1,999 (~$26) if you pre-order it with your phone. 

Mi Box 4K

With the Mi 10, Xiaomi is also introducing the Mi Box 4K in India. The Mi Box 4K runs Android TV and lets you add streaming capabilities to any non-smart television. As you would expect, the box supports popular streaming services like Netflix, Hotstar, Disney Plus, and Amazon Prime Video. Interestingly, the box does not run Patchwall which is the company’s custom interface layer found on the Mi TV range. 

Powering the box is an Amlogic S905X chipset with 2GB of RAM and 8GB of eMMC storage. Unfortunately, the box does not support microSD storage expansion and your only option will be to plug in external storage to the USB 2.0 port.

In addition to 4K content, the Mi Box supports HDR10 as well for high dynamic range content. Unfortunately, there is no support for Dolby Vision which means a lot of content from Netflix will not be played back in HDR.  Elsewhere, like every Android TV box, the Mi Box 4K supports the Chromecast protocol so you can cast content straight from your phone to the TV. Finally, the voice-capable remote enables Google Assistant support which should let you control your smart home, play streaming content without having to scroll around the interface. 

The Mi Box 4K is priced at Rs. 3499 (~$46) in India and will be available starting May 10 from Mi.com and Flipkart. You can check out the Mi.com listing via the button below.

Mi True Wireless Earphones 2

Finally, Xiaomi is also introducing the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 in India. The Airpods clones ship with a wireless charging case, and support the latest Bluetooth 5.0 standard. In fact, the true wireless earphones support the LHDC codec which should keep latency low. This is in addition to the SBC and AAC codecs. Xiaomi claims that the 14.2mm drivers should deliver high-quality audio with tuning that has been adapted for Indian preferences. 

The Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 are priced at Rs. 3,999 (~$53) and go up against competing products like the realme Buds in India.