Xiaomi’s Mi 10 Pro is out in China today and the specs are… familiar.
The Chinese smartphone maker’s new flagship smartphone is similar in nearly all aspects to Samsung’s recently unveiled Galaxy S20 Plus and, in some ways, the Galaxy S20 Ultra variant.
Just check out these specs: A 6.67-inch AMOLED display with curved edges and a 90Hz refresh rate, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor, a 108/20/12/8-megapixel quad camera with 10x hybrid zoom on the back, with 8K video capabilities.
There’s also a 20MP selfie camera, 8 or12GB of fast, LPDDR5 RAM, 256 or 512GB of storage, 5G support, and a 4,500mAh battery with 50W fast charging, wireless charging, and reverse wireless charging.
Those specifications are extremely close to Samsung’s S20 Plus. The only big thing Xiaomi lacks is a 120Hz refresh rate.
The camera is a little harder to compare, but the main sensor is a 108MP one, just like on the S20 Ultra. Finally, with a 20MP sensor, the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro’s selfie camera is right in between the S20 Plus and the Ultra, which have 10MP and 40MP sensors, respectively.
Of course, phones are much more than a laundry list of specs, and I’m quite sure that Xiaomi and Samsung’s cameras, in particular, will perform differently, perhaps very differently. But it’s easy to see what Xiaomi’s been aiming for with the Mi 10 Pro.
With Samsung’s brand power being a few levels above Xiaomi’s, the Chinese company typically competes at a significantly lower price. The Mi 10 Pro starts at CNY4,999 ($716) for the 8GB RAM/256GB storage version, CNY5,499 ($788) for the 12GB RAM/256GB storage version, and CNY5,999 ($860) for the 12GB RAM/512GB storage variant.
While that’s quite pricy for Xiaomi’s standards, it’s still pretty good value considering how feature-packed the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro is.
Xiaomi also launched the Mi 10, which has the same display and a 108MP camera on the back. But it has no telephoto lens and only a 13MP ultrawide lens. It does, however, have a slightly larger, 4,780mAh battery, with slower (but still fast) 30W charging. It starts at CNY3,999 ($572) for the 8GB RAM/128GB storage model, while the most powerful 12GB RAM/256GB storage model costs CNY4,699 ($673).
Note that global prices will likely be different.
But we won’t have to wait long to find out what they are, as Xiaomi said it will launch the Mi 10 series of devices in Europe soon.
