Xiaomi Mi 10, complete analysis with opinion

Whenever we talk about high-end launches, we always keep in mind that one of the brands that does it best is Xiaomi. Something that has been gained as the different flagships of the manufacturer have appeared over the years. Today it is the turn of the Xiaomi Mi 10, of which we are going to make its corresponding review

All previous generation Xiaomi Mi phones have been exceptional phones, and price has had a lot to do with their success. They offered practically the same as the other high ranges on the market, but at a much lower cost.

This is something that the new Xiaomi Mi 10 no longer offers so clearly, since its price is quite similar to what other brands are asking forfor this type of terminals. But that may give them more room to make the final leap to the top of the high-end range. Let's see if that's the case.

Xiaomi Mi 10, technical sheet

Of course, the smartphone is committed to state-of-the-art hardware, which is quite close to the Mi 10 Pro, the top model of the family. These are the specifications of Mi 10:

Screen: 6.67-inch FHD+ (2,340 x 1,080 pixels) Super AMOLED, 19.5:9 ratio, 386 pixels per inch.
Processor: Qualcomm SM8250 Snapdragon 865.
RAM memory: 8/12 GB.
Internal storage: 128/256 GB.
Rear camera: 108 MP main, f/1.7, 1/1.33", 0.8 µm, PDAF, OIS + 13 MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, 12 mm + 2 MP macro, f/2.4 + 2 MP depth, f/2.4.
Front camera: 20 MP, f/2.0, 1/3", 0.9 µm.
Connectivity: WiFi 6 (ax), Bluetooth 5.1, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS and NFC.
Ports and sensors: infrared, USB Type C, optical fingerprint reader and face unlock.
Battery: 4,780 mAh with 30W fast charging, 30W wireless and 5W reverse wireless.
Operating system: Android 10 + MIUI 11.
Price: 750 approximately.

Good finishes and sober design

In the Xiaomi Mi 10 the first thing that stands out is how well Xiaomi has taken advantage of the side and top frames, leaving the lower one a little thicker, something that slightly breaks the aesthetics of the rest.

Xiaomi Mi 10, complete analysis with opinion alt=

The screen is curved on the sides, which favors the aesthetics of the terminal, but it has no practical effect and causes the sides to lose brightness and distort the image a bit.

To finish with the front we see that the front camera has been incorporated into a hole in the upper left part, of a normal size for what is seen today in smartphones with a similar design.

Xiaomi Mi 10, complete analysis with opinion

The back of the Xiaomi Mi 10 is made of glass with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection, with good finishes and quite sober when it comes to color refers.

It suffers from a problem that is common in many smartphones today: its rear cameras protrude quite a bit from the body of the terminal, with the consequent danger of scratches that this causes.

This camera module does not follow the rectangular fashion that is prevailing in the smartphone world, especially high-end, and places all the sensors vertically, something that we already saw when we reviewed the Oppo Find X2 Pro.

Something that we can consider an absence, since many of its competitors have it, is that there is a lack of some type of protection against water and dust, which Xiaomi has not incorporated into the Mi 10.

On the right side we have the volume control and power button of the mobile, located a little higher than what we I would like.

At the top there is a infrared sensor, a speaker and a noise canceling microphone.

The left side is completely deserted.

The lower part has the USB Type C port, the SIM card slot and a speaker multimedia.

Halfway Screen

The Xiaomi Mi 10 screen is type Super AMOLED with a size of 6, 67 inches, resolution Full HD+ (2,340 x 1,080 pixels), and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio.

Offers an 89.8% screen-to-body ratio, HDR10+ color, 90 Hz refresh rate and 386 pixels per inch of density.

The refresh rate is 90 Hz, something that is quite noticeable compared to conventional 60 Hz screens, especially if we run games or videos where movements are continuous.

The Xiaomi Mi 10 has 3 color schemes for the screen called Automatic, Saturated and Original Color.

As standard it comes with the automatic color system, which normally moves in the middle ground between the other two modes, offering somewhat muted colors and without spectacular sharpness.

If we use the “Original Color” mode, the colors are the most similar to reality, although the whites tend to be somewhat yellowish and the sharpness is much better than in the “Automatic” mode

Now then, the “Saturated” mode is the most spectacular of all, with very vivid colors (saturated), whites much more realistic and good sharpness. It is the most spectacular mode, but we must bear in mind that the colors are quite enhanced and do not resemble reality.

No matter which mode we choose, the black color of the screen is really black, as is the case with all OLEDs. The brightness is more than enough for outdoors and the viewing angles are really good, except in the area where we have the curved screen, since there these edges play a trick on us by distorting the image.

It is a pity that Xiaomi has not been encouraged to take the leap and mount a QHD+ panel on this Xiaomi Mi 10, as many of its opponents do, because we believe that the quality leap has been considerable. This gives the feeling that Xiaomi has stayed halfway.

The Xiaomi Mi 10 has two stereo speakers, one of them at the bottom of the terminal and another at the top.

Both speakers sound exactly the same. In other words, in many reviews that we do at El Grupo Informático we say that the lower speaker is much more powerful than the upper one, well, that doesn't happen here.

Thanks to this system, the sound of the Xiaomi Mi 10 is clear, powerful, full-bodied and enough bass so that the listening experience using it as an external speaker is completely satisfactory.

In theory it is powerful and in practice the same

To move the Xiaomi Mi 10, the Chinese brand has assembled the last of the last, giving its flagship a lot of power:

Snapdragon 865 as processor.
8 GB of LPDDR5 RAM memory.
128 GB UFS 3.0 internal storage.
Adreno 650 as GPU.

We have already seen this configuration in a few terminals this year since it is, we can say so, the "standard" within the high-end range of 2020. This does not mean that we do not have power, because we have a lot.

If we want to move applications or games that are really demanding for the system, we can do it without suffering any kind of problem, since offers high performancefor that and more.

The loading times are really good and if we play a top level title, such as Asph alt 9, the terminal responds very well, without any type of lag, or slowdown, or anything that prevents us from enjoying one hundred percent.

Fluidity is what marks our day to day, without any type of stoppage, or unexpected closures and, no matter how much multitasking we do, the terminal continues to behave very well.

As far as software is concerned, we have Android 10 as an operating system, completely blurred by MIUI, Xiaomi's customization layer.

MIUI is one of those types of layers that make pure Android disappear completely, but in return allows us tremendous levels of customization, both in terms of aesthetics and security. If we do not know MIUI beforehand, we may even need an adaptation period to discover everything it offers.

The Xiaomi Mi 10 is a terminal compatible with 5G networks, in addition to having WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, Bluetooth 5.1, NFC, dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS, USB Type C, fingerprint and facial reader, accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor, compass and barometer.

Xiaomi makes better cameras every time

As we already saw in the design section, the Xiaomi Mi 10 has 4 rear sensors distributed vertically, with the following specifications:

Main: 108 MP, f/1.7, 1/1.33", 0.8 µm, PDAF, OIS.
Ultra Wide Angle: 2.4, 12mm.
Macro sensor: 2 MP, f/2.4.
Depth sensor: 2 MP, f/2.4.

Video recording reaches 8K at 30 fps, also supporting 4K at 30 / 60 fps and 1080p at 30 / 60 fps.

Although we have a 108-megapixel main sensor, the photos are taken by default with 27 MP unless we activate the “mode super high resolution” in order to take full advantage of the sensor.

But it is also true that there is not a big difference between the photos at 108 MP or at 27 MP. Leaving aside the resolution, in the rest of the parameters they are practically equal, except that the captures at 108 MP saturate the colors a little more.

If the light accompanies us, we have some photos with a good level of detail, sharpness, brightness and color in its just right point of vividness.

When light conditions drop slightly or in indoor photos, our experience is still good, although we begin to notice how the colors become colder.

The AI (artificial intelligence) is capable of detecting scenes to improve photos, but in practice the only thing it does in all snapshots is make the colors more saturated to make them appear more vivid and dramatic.

If we take photos at night we realize that it is a terminal that does not capture the light badly, with quite well-achieved colors for this type of snapshot, but that it is not capable of limiting noise and, above all, the decompensation in strong points of light.

If we use the “Night Mode” we will have a substantially greater capture of light, where we will see areas that without this mode would not appear in the photos, but it is not able to suppress the noise of strong points of light.

In addition, at certain points in the photos it exaggerates the capture of light too much, unbalancing the color. In other words, it allows itself to be carried away by the predominant color in those areas of the snapshots.

As for the photos with blurred effect (bokeh) we found them extremely correct, with a natural blur and with a crop that in some areas is not entirely precise, but in general it works really well.

If we use the 13-megapixel wide-angle camera we realize that the sharpness is quite smaller than what we obtained with the main sensor and that it is not a camera designed to be used in low light photography.

Photos with the macro sensor are just okay, since with 2 MP we can't expect spectacularly detailed photos either.

The front camera is 20 megapixel with 2.0 focal aperture. A sensor that we found much more than correct, with good sharpness and a beauty mode that allows us to apply effects to our face to further improve the selfie.

Good Level Unlock

How could it be otherwise, the Xiaomi Mi 10 supports unlocking by means of fingerprints and facial recognition.

The fingerprint sensor is under the screen and we found it to work well. It is fast in reading, although not as fast as some of its competitors, the failure rate is negligible, not to say non-existent and the position on the screen seemed ideal to us.

The 2D type face unlocking system also works well, although should be more fast to compare yourself with several of your competitors. In addition to the fact that the occasional high-end smartphone has opted for a recognition system that has proven to be more effective, the 3D type with a ToF sensor.

Excellent autonomy

The battery of the Xiaomi Mi 10 is 4,780 mAh with 30 W fast charging compatible with Quick Charge 4.0+, wireless charging of 30 W and additionally inverse 5 W.

If we leave the terminal at the rate of 90 Hz refresh rate and we use it in the normal way, that is, some messages, moments browsing, watching YouTube videos and social networks, the result has been about 10 and a half hours of active screen time.

If we carry out the same test, but with the screen at 60 Hz, the life of our smartphone increases, although it is not a substantial difference, since it leaves at 11 hours and a quarter approximately.

If we want to charge our Xiaomi from zero to its maximum capacity, we must have the terminal plugged into the electrical network for about 55 minutes to charge it to 100%.

Price and Conclusion

The Mi 10 shows that Xiaomi has embarked on a new path, at least in its high-end range, since we can no longer talk about a much cheaper flagship than its competition.

Currently the Xiaomi Mi 10 with 8 GB of RAM memory and 128 GB of storage like the one that has been given to us stands at about 750 euros.

It is a smartphone with a good number of positive aspects, as is normal for Xiaomi, but it needs to take a step further to rub shoulders, once and for all, with the greatest in the smartphone world. Of course, anyone who buys this Mi 10 will have a top-level phone in their hands, without any doubt.