Xiaomi had a fantastic 2019 with the Mi 9, Mi Note 10 and specific Redmi devices and it kicked off in March with the Mi 10 series in 2020. These phones have top-end Snapdragon 865 chipsets (save the Mi 10 Lite), 5 G connectivity, 108MP main cameras, and good AMOLED screens.
With a stronger quad-lens camera setup than the Mi 10, more storage and faster charging speeds, the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro is the most expensive of the bunch. Compared to, say, the Samsung Galaxy S20 and S20 Plus, there are very few variations between this and the base device but the Mi 10 Pro should still be the stronger device.
Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro release date and price
It will be released in various European countries on either April 7 or April 15, although it is expected to arrive in the UK and other regions at an unspecified later date.
Xiaomi had a great 2019 with Mi 9, Mi Note 10 and similar Redmi apps and the Mi 10 series kicked off in March 2020. These phones have top-end 865 chipsets from Snapdragon, 5 G networking, 108MP key cameras, and decent screens from AMOLED.
The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro is the most expensive of the lot, with a better quad-lens camera setup than the Mi 10, more storage and faster-charging speeds.
Design and display
The Xiaomi Mi 10 has several style features in common with the Mi Note 10 above. Its glass is curved, but not to the same degree as other top-end models, and there is a relatively prominent camera hump on the rear that houses all but one of the lenses (the other is just below in its own protrusion).
There is a volume rocker and power button on the right side, all of which feel easy to reach without using a second hand, and there is a USB-C port at the bottom of the system (though there is no 3.5 mm headphone jack).
The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro usually feels very easy to use in one hand, given the fact that its 162.5 x 74.8 x 9 mm dimensions are not exactly those of a ‘compact’ handset. But it felt a touch slick.
The monitor is an AMOLED 6.67 “panel with a resolution of 1080 x 2340 and a refresh rate of 90Hz. It is only broken up in the top left corner by a punch-hole cut-out, so its front-facing camera is in the same place as the Oppo Find X2 and more phones, and this place seems to be a the trend.
The screen is very good-looking, and we particularly appreciated the contrast ratio and the consistency of the colour.
The screen is very good-looking and we particularly appreciated the contrast ratio and the consistency of the colour. We also found that after using all the screen’s bells and whistles, battery drain wasn’t too bad and the always-on monitor didn’t draw as much power as we expected either.
Features and specs
The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro has a Snapdragon 865 chipset, the most premium processor available at the time of release of the phone to Android handsets, and as a result, it’s a pretty powerful tool. The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro can be selected with either 8 GB or 12 GB of RAM, along with 256 GB or 512 GB of data.
Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro is also a 5 G smartphone, another chipset advantage, but we have not been able to check the networking speeds of the smartphone. Saying that, the way a link is snappy seems to rely more on the network than on the computer.
The battery of the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro is 4,500mAh, which is a pretty decent size, but just a touch smaller than the size of the base model. As previously reported, in our time with the phone it felt designed to cope with the relatively challenging screen technologies, although the battery drain for gaming and viewing content felt more in line with what we are used to in other apps. Powering up here is achieved with snappy 50W fast charging, which is definitely easy, as the phone’s battery was 27 percent higher after just 10 minutes of charging. There’s 30W wireless charging and 5W reverse wireless charging and the quick wired capability.
The operating system on the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro is Android 10, Google’s new program, with Xiaomi’s MIUI 11 overlaying the edges. Like with all Android overlays, MIUI is mostly an aesthetic update with various looking icons and choices. There are two of our main MIUI gripes. There’s more bloatware pre-installed, including several games and a few other apps like WPS Office and LinkedIn.
Cameras
The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro has four rear cameras, with a 108 MP main snapper in the helm. This is backed up by a medium angle 20MP, 8MP telephoto (5x optical zoom) and 12MP portrait (2x optical zoom) camera.
Though we could not test the cameras of the phone as much as we would have liked (thanks to the lockdown of the UK), we gave them a brief whirl, and can also refer to our experiences with the Mi Note 10, which has an almost identical camera setup, while changes in software might make the cameras on this new phone a better touch.
The main camera of the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro takes bold shots with strong contrast and precise-looking colours, and this feels the AI scene optimization job just as much as the camera itself. However, this camera was a little slow to focus on other flagship devices as compared to main cameras.
The ultra-wide camera also took good images, with little or no distortion on the edges, and the macro mode is also responsible for this snapper. Macro images looked very good and came into focus easily, and we are glad that this shooter was used instead of the dedicated macro lens of the Mi Note 10.
The front-facing camera is 20MP, and it took good selfies, but it really shone in portrait mode, by precisely blurring backgrounds and highlighting the right parts of the face.
At the launch, Xiaomi also made a point of describing the Mi 10 Pro videography features, so we looked at them. You can shoot in resolutions from 720p to 8 K, and now this phone is one of many that can shoot in such high resolution that most people won’t have a screen that can view it properly. You can fire at 30fps or 60fps, even though 8 K works only at 30fps.
With 21:9 style moving object tracking, beauty, and color filters, there are plenty of choices for tuning your video shooting experience.
Verdict
The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro is in many respects very similar to the Mi Note 10, and despite some notable new features like 5 G, the chipset, and a better display, it remains to be seen if the newer phone deserves to be near twice the size.
Saying that there seem to be plenty of Mi 10 Pro features that might display their face the more we check, as the video shooting modes seem promising and the battery management tools and charging speeds promise to really reduce the stress of constantly powering the phone up.