Xiaomi’s latest flagship phones pack Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 processors, 5G modems, and multi-camera setups including a 108MP shooter that can capture 8K video, among other things.
The Xiaomi Mi 10 will be available in China starting February 24th for about $575 and up, while the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro launches the same day for about $715 and up.
Xiaomi had scheduled a global launch announcement for later this month at Mobile World Congress. But now that the show has been cancelled the company has postponed that event.
In addition to the specs listed above, both phones feature 6.67 inch, 2340 x 1080 pixel, 90 Hz AMOLED displays with support for peak brightness of 1200 nits, although Xiaomi says “typical” brightness will be 800 nits.
For memory, the Xiaomi Mi 10 series phones pack LPDDR5 RAM, which is faster and more energy efficient than the memory used in most smartphones to date. And the phones use UFS 3.0 storage, which Xiaomi says supports maximum sequential write speeds up to 730 MB per second thanks to the company’s “Write Turbo” technology.
Other new features include support for WiFi 6 (802.11ax) with 8×8 MU-MIMO tech for faster speeds and a vapor chamber for improved heat dissipation.
Xiaomi says the 108MP primary camera on both new phones supports optical image stabilization and electronic image stabilization and allows users to capture video at 7680 x 4320 resolutions while also saving 33MP photos by tapping the screen while recording an 8K video.
So those are the similarities. Let’s talk about the differences between the two phones.
In addition to the 108MP camera, the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro has:
- 12MP 50mm portrait camera with 2X optical zoom
- 8MP Telephoto camera with 10X hybrid zoom
- 20MP ultra wide-angle lens
The phone also has a 4,500 mAh battery and supports 50 watt fast charging (wired) or 30 watt wireless charging.
Interestingly, Xiaomi is also introducing a new 65W Fast Charger with GaN technology alongside the new phone — even though the phone can’t support its top charging speed. But Xiaomi says even at 50W, the charger can take a Mi 10 Pro battery from 0 to 100-percent in 45 minutes.
The cheaper Xiaomi Mi 10Â lacks any telephoto cameras, and instead has 108MP primary + 13MP ultrawide + 2MP depth and 2MP macro cameras.
Like the Pro model, the Mi 10 supports 30W wireless charging, but tops out at 30 watts when charging via a USB cable. Interestingly, it has a larger battery, and 4,780 mAh.
The other differences that help explain the price gap between the Xiaomi Mi 10 and Mi 10 pro come down to the memory/storage configurations. Here’s a run-down of prices for the Chinese market:
Xiaomi Mi 10
- 8GB/256GB for RMB 3,999 (~$575)
- 12GB/256GB for RMB 4,299 (~$615)
- 12GB/512GB for RMB 4,699 (~$675)
Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro
- 8GB/128GB for RMB 4,999/ (~$715)
- 8GB/256GB for RMB 5,499 (~$785)
- 12GB/256GB for RMB 5,999 (~$860)
via Mi Blog
After last year’s Samsung s10 (first phone I am aware of with 1000 gb solid state storage) very unfortunate to see them not going forward with higher storage options. I DO NOT CARE about a 100 Mega Pixel camera… Please manufacturers offer the following;
#1. Standard 5 G, and Wifi 6 and BT 5.1 – the best networking bandwidths;
#2. “Best” solid state storage UFS 3.1 – 1000 gb and more doubling it every year.
#3. Much better batteries -5000 Mah and keep improving them from there.
#4. Much better screen ideally looking for the Z fold 6″ phone folding 3 ways out to a 9″ tablet.
#5. Do it at a decent price – Samsung improved some specs on their phones this year but not good enough for a $1400-$1600 price tag. It seems like the manufacturers have been holding out on better tech for a long time. Then they wonder why sales are going down. I won’t be spending $1000 on a new phone every year – try $750 every 6-7 years.
I still remember how troublesome it was to carry a 6″ mobile phone in my pocket 2yrs back (my previous phone). I think it’s only for those who use mobile phones as their STATUS symbol rather than as PDA or communication device.
By the by, who is stopping them to increase the display size to make it a good multipurpose tablet, at least a foldable one!
I think you have the prices backwards. You have the pro ad the cheaper of the two.
Yup, thanks! I’ll fix that now.