The Xiaomi Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro have received their international launch, following a delay caused by the cancelation of Mobile World Congress 2020, and the China-only Mi 10 launch on March 9. The two new 5G phones will be sold globally, and are the sequels to Xiaomi’s excellent Mi 9 series.
At a casual glance, both the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro look the same, and they do indeed share a Gorilla Glass 5-covered body that’s the same size and weight. The screen is the same 6.67-inch curved AMOLED panel with a 90Hz refresh rate and 19.5:9 aspect ratio, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 powers them both, along with 8GB of RAM.
What else is the same? The phones have 5G, dual stereo speakers, advanced vapor cooling systems, an in-display fingerprint sensor, and a 20-megapixel selfie camera that lives in a punch hole in the top left of the screen. However, look closely at the rear camera array and the first differences start to appear. Let’s dig a little deeper.
Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro
The Mi 10 Pro is the highest spec version of the two. A massive 108-megapixel main lens, with a 1/1.33-inch sensor, an f/1.69 aperture, and optical image stabilization, is the star of the Mi 10 Pro. It comes with a 20-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, a 12-megapixel telephoto for 2x optical zoom, and an 8-megapixel telephoto for 10x hybrid and 50x digital zoom. Features include 8K video recording at 30 frames per second, 960fps slow-motion video recording, and a night mode.
Keeping the Mi 10 Pro going is a 4,500mAh battery with super-fast 50W wired charging, which takes just 45 minutes to reach capacity, or 30W wireless charging. Put the phone on a compatible wireless charger, and it’ll be at maximum in 65 minutes. The Mi 10 Pro comes in either white or grey, and with 256GB of internal storage space.
Xiaomi Mi 10
The rear camera array is made up of the same 108-megapixel primary camera seen on the Pro. It is joined by a 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel depth camera. The camera can shoot 8K resolution video, has artificial intelligence to enhance images and for scene recognition, plus a night mode too.
The other main difference is in the battery. The Mi 10 has a 4,780mAh cell with 30W wired and wireless charging. Use the cable and the battery will be full in just under an hour, or expect about 70 minutes to charge it up using a compatible 30W wireless charger. Finally, the Mi 10 comes with either 128GB or 256GB of storage space, and in a grey or green color.
Samsung challengers
The 108-megapixel camera which makes these two phones standout is likely to be almost the same sensor found on the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. When it was officially announced in 2019, Samsung said it collaborated with Xiaomi to create the monster-spec camera, which is known as the ISOCELL Bright HMX.
Both companies will have tuned the camera software differently, so we shouldn’t expect identical results from the Mi 10 phones as we’d see on the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. What we should look out for though, is a serious price difference. Xiaomi’s prices are highly competitive, and even the Mi 10 Pro is unlikely to reach the giddy heights of the $1,400 Samsung demand for the S20 Ultra.
Price and availability
Xiaomi will confirm the price and availability during its launch event, and we will update here when we know more. However, expect the phones to be sold in the U.K. and Europe, India, and other countries too, but only as an import in the U.S.