Xiaomi Mi 10 series announced: Snapdragon 865, 108MP camera starting at $600

Xiaomi’s much-awaited Mi 10 smartphone series is now official. As expected, the company has launched the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro in China. The phones were also slated to launch in Europe at Xiaomi’s global event in Barcelona. However, given the recent cancellation of MWC 2020, the company has postponed that event.

Nevertheless, the two smartphones are here and have all the makings of a premium flagship. Both phones feature the Snapdragon 865 chipset, 90Hz displays, 108MP cameras, and super-fast charging. Needless to say, the phones also get 5G connectivity. Here’s everything you need to know about Xiaomi’s 2020 flagships.

Read: Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro review: Delivering the goods | Xiaomi Mi 10 review: Premium hardware let down by unpolished software

Xiaomi Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro design

The Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro look the same in terms of their design profile. They both have curved displays with a camera cutout on the left-hand side. They also have curved glass back panels. There are speaker grilles situated at the top and bottom of the phones.

A USB-C charging port is provided at the bottom and both phones continue the Mi flagship tradition started with the Mi 6 of dropping the 3.5mm headphone port.

Xiaomi Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro specs

Both the Xiaomi Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro feature a 6.67-inch curved, FHD+ AMOLED display with HDR 10+ support. Xiaomi has decided to stick to the 90Hz refresh rate, as opposed to the 120Hz refresh rate on the Galaxy S20 series, as well as the upcoming OnePlus 8 lineup.

Xiaomi had confirmed the Snapdragon 865 silicon back at the chipset’s launch and that’s exactly what you get with the phones.

Both the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro get 8GB and 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM coupled with UFS 3.0 storage. We think anything above 8GB might be overkill, but that’s not stopping tech companies from increasing the RAM capacity on their phones.

The primary camera on the Mi 10 series is one of its main highlights. The duo flaunt a quad-camera setup with a primary 108MP sensor leading the pack.

Other sensors in the regular Mi 10’s rear camera setup include a 13MP wide-angle lens, a 2MP macro sensor, and a 2MP depth sensor. Surprisingly, there’s no telephoto lens on the phone and at this rate, the Mi Note 10’s camera setup seems superior compared to that of the new Mi 10.

Meanwhile, the Mi 10 Pro’s 108MP snapper is accompanied by a 20MP ultra-wide camera, a 12MP short telephoto lens, and an 8MP long telephoto lens. The phone scores top marks from the folks over at DxoMark, and is now the new leader in their smartphone camera image quality ranking.

Just like the S20 series, the Mi 10 series also supports 4K and 8K video recording. Additionally, both get support for OIS and EIS.

In terms of battery capacity, the Mi 10 is powered by a 4,780mAh battery. It is equipped with 30W wired fast charging and 30W wireless fast charging. It also supports 10W reverse wireless charging to juice up other devices.

The Mi 10 Pro gets a smaller 4,500mAh battery with 30W wireless charging and 10W reverse wireless charging. However, it takes up wired fast charging to 50W, beating out the Galaxy S20 Ultra’s 45W fast charging by a small margin.

Related: Here’s why Xiaomi hasn’t delivered a 100W charging phone just yet

For connectivity, the Mi 10 series features support for Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, dual-mode 5G, and NFC.

Prices and availability

The vanilla Mi 10’s three configurations include: 8GB RAM + 128GB storage priced at 3,999 Chinese yuan (~$573), 8GB RAM + 256GB storage priced at 4,299 Chinese yuan (~$616), and 12GB RAM + 256GB storage priced at 4,699 Chinese yuan (~$673).

The Mi 10 Pro starts at 4,999 Chinese yuan (~$716) for the 8GB RAM and 256GB storage variant. Its 12GB RAM + 256GB storage version costs 5,499 Chinese yuan (~$787). Lastly, the top-of-the-line 12GB RAM + 512GB storage variants is priced at 5,999 Chinese yuan (~$859).

Related: Xiaomi Mi 10 series pricing and availability: Here’s what to expect

The Xiaomi Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro are already available for preorder in China. The Mi 10 will go on sale starting February 14, while the Mi 10 Pro will go on sale from February 18.

We’ll update this article when we get more details about the global availability of the phones.