Xiaomi Mi 10 pro review - Design, Display, Performance, Camera and Battery Backup.

Xiaomi Mi 10 pro review

You've seen the title... so you know I've got Xiaomi's all new Mi 10 Pro right here. so let's try out the 5G, let's try out the camera and let's see how good it really is! -Let's go! So, here I've got the Mi 10 Pro that Xiaomi recently announced. Not only is the phone marking Xiaomi's 10 year anniversary, it's also been given the number one smartphone camera rating on DxO mark, and it's got the number one on DxO in smartphone audio. So let's have a look at the specs.

BUILT AND DESIGN

The device is 162 by 74 millimeters in size, little less than 9 millimeters thick, weighing in at about 200 grams. On the inside it's got a 4500 milliamp hour battery that supports 65 watts ridiculously fast charging and it's got QI wireless charging that supports 30 watts Qi charging, with reverse charging allowing you to charge another phone.It's the first phone launched with the all-new snapdragon 865 processor with either 8 or 12 gigs of ram and 256 or 512 gigs of storage.

On the front it's got a 6.67" AMOLED display with a 90 Hertz refresh rate. It's got a full HD+ resolution. This screen is slightly curved like we've seen recently with the Mi Note 10, and in this display, you'll find a very small selfie camera that shoots20-megapixel photos and HD videos and it's also used for 2D face unlocking. It's got an in-screen fingerprint scanner that seems to work really really well, and so far hasn't failed me a single time. On the bottom of the phone Xiaomi did didge the headphone jack in favor of USB-C that is also used for data transfer and charging. - Here you'll also find it's SIM card slot.

AUDIO AND CONNECTIVITY

 The Mi 10 offers a dual audio speaker system with really good sounding stereo audio. With a speaker on the bottom and on the top. And on the top you'll also find the IR blaster allowing you to set the phone to be used as a remote controller. It comes with Wi-Fi 6 that supports the latest Wi-Fi bands, it's got bluetooth 5.1, it's got NFC and it supports 5g.

so here's what music sounds like, it's really quite impressive with the Mi 10. And an audio recording that I've made with the voice recorder on the Mi 10. And that also comes out very nice. The only comment I have about the voice recording is that it seems to be panned more to the left but I'll try it out in the next few days and I'll come back on that in my next video. And last but not least there's 5g. It got up to 525 Mbps download and around 35 Mbps upload speeds and it seems to be really depending on which district I'm in. But, anyway, 5g is here. And even at 525 Mbps it is already ridiculously fast.

CAMERA

 On the back, it's got a four-camera setup with a 108-megapixel main camera, a 20-megapixel ultra-wide angle lens, a 12-megapixel portrait lens with two-times optical zoom and an eight megapixels super-telephoto lens that gives you five times optical zoom. But there's more... On the video side of things, the Mi 10 Pro shoots at 8k at 30 frames per second. yes that's 8k. And it can also shoot 4k up to 60 frames per second which is stabilized and HD up to 60 frames per second which is extremely stabilized footage.

Camera Quality

so my first impression is that the phone feels nice in hand when I compare  that with the Mi Note 10 right here I actually favor the Mi 10. In daily use it also feels quite a bit faster than the Mi Note 10 as well. The Mi 10 also runs MIUI 11, with all the things that we are probably familiar with by now. You can really tell the difference that this snapdragon 865 is giving it, not only with playing games but also really when taking pictures Where the Mi Note 10 needs a few seconds to process a 108 megapixel image the Mi 10 does this instantly.

 So now for the camera. -I've been walking around with this phone for the last few days and it is impressive! And it's got some really really cool results. The photos taken with the 108 megapixel main camera come out really nice. You can zoom in to those extremely well and they have a ton of detail. I did have two photos where the white balance was slightly off but I believe that's actually fixed with an update that I've just installed a few minutes ago. The photos with the super wide angle lens come out looking very good as well. You can see there is a little bit more software sharpening going on with these, but it's not to say that they look bad though... the two times optical zoom lens, also used for portrait images, gives some really good results. It kind of feels like shooting with a 50 millimeter lens and I notice myself using this one quite often, and with good results.

Video Quality

The five times zoom lens has a bit more sharpening going on as well but it actually is a pretty decent lens. -Especially when there's enough light, it gave me some very good results So, some picture I've taken with the ultra wide-angle, the regular lens, the two times zoom lens, and the five times zoom lens. It does allow you to go all the way up to 50 times digital zoom so here is 10 times zoom, 20 times zoom, and beyond that it kind of really does get a bit silly. This is zoomed in all the way to 50 times and that image is not really that usable although it is possible...

The 8K video is also just crazy. -It's mind-blowing. I mean the shots that I've taken with it come out looking very good but the file size of these is huge and not every computer will be able to process these properly. Nonetheless, the video does look very good and for those that want 8K video on a phone, well it is here! Additionally you can shoot 4k which looks very well and really well stabilized so you probably might want to just jump on 4k for most of the time. There's also the option to get ultra stabilized footage which will be recorded in HD but is crazy stabilized. Also the selfie video looks very good and crisp. Here I've tried vlogging with this. So, on to the audio, as that's also been greatly improved on the Mi 10 

Final Thoughts

            So what are my first thoughts on the Mi 10 Pro? Well first of all I like it. A lot! I really like the camera with the 108megapixel main sensor, even though I do have that on the Mi Note 10 as well it is slightly better on the Mi 10. And that's not even its best feature. I love that it's got a snapdragon 865. It's really fast, it's really snappy. The screen is also a big improvement with that 90 Hertz refresh rate on the AMOLED display.

          I'm a big fan of Qi charging and even though it should kind of be a standard on every phone I feel, not every Xiaomi phone has it so I'm glad that they did add it to this flagship. The insanely fast 60 watts charging sounds really amazing. I'm really looking forward to try it out but I will have to wait a few weeks for the 60 watts charger so I haven't really been able to try it out. And the audio sounds really impressive. The 8K video is very cool but I will have to play around with that in the next few days for the photo video and audio review that I'm planning to do. -So stay tuned for that I am however slightly disappointed with the battery even though it is a 4500 milliamp hour battery which is a huge improvement over 3300 mAh battery found in the Mi 9, but it is a bit smaller than the 5260 mAh battery in the Mi Note 10 -which I've really gotten used to. But in Xiaomi's defense I think some battery space was compromised to be able to get the Qi charger in there. So yeah, I kind of want that too.

           In China the Mi 10 Pro came out in the Xiaomi store starting at 5000 RMB for the entry-level and 6000 RMB for the 12 gig ram and 512 gigs of storage which is around 714 US dollars or 650euros for the base model and 850 USD or 780 EUR for the fully spec'd model. The regular version, called the Mi 10 will also be released this week starting at 4000 RMB, which is around 570 USD or 520 Euros. It's not been released in Europe yet so I am not entirely sure what the retail price will be in other countries though. I know it is a little bit more expensive than what you're used to from Xiaomi but I think that they have really outdone themselves with the specs on this phone and if you want a slightly cheaper fund and look at the Mi Note 10 for example. So what do you guys think of the Mi 10 Pro.

ALSO READ Xiaomi Mi note 10 lite review.  Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition Review