Mi 10 5G Full Review: A Flagship Comeback From Xiaomi Nepal

Xiaomi Mi 10 5G is one of the most authentic flagship devices that has been in the buzz for a while now. After the launch of Mi 3 which was a long while ago, Xiaomi had not launched any Mi series in Nepal. However, Mi 10 5G is a flagship smartphone from Xiaomi that has been talked about a lot since its recent release in Nepal. So, let’s find out what the hype is all about and if it’s actually worth buying.

Mi 10 5G full Review:

Design and Display

Xiaomi’s Mi 10 5G comes with a curved design on both the back and front and is made up of glass with a metallic frame making it look premium on the hand. The glossy single-color back finish adds beauty to the phone’s aesthetics. Only Gorilla Glass 5 protection and P2i coating instead of any IP rating is kind of disappointing for a flagship device like this.

This 210-gram phone doesn’t feel that heavy on hand due to its good weight distribution. The big camera bump on the back makes the phone unsafe without a proper case. We do get a sturdy transparent case within the box that gets the job done. Adding on to its back look, there is a separate module for the wide-angle camera, which is separated from the other lenses. Clicking a wide-angle shot in portrait mode gets blocked by our finger due to that placement but you can easily get used to it. The bottom of the phone has a SIM tray, USB Type-C port, microphone, and speaker grills. While the left side is empty, the right side has the power and volume buttons. The top of the phone also has speaker grills, a noise-canceling secondary microphone, and an IR blaster. There is no micro-SD card support or the presence of a 3.55mm headphone jack.

As for the display, Mi 10 5G features a striking 6.67 inches Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen from TCL with 1080 x 2340 pixels resolution. It has a tiny punch-hole at the top left side for the selfie sensor. The display comes with a thin screen protector from the company itself which will save the screen from any possible mishaps. During my long-term usage, I found that the display has vibrant color reproduction, enough brightness for both indoor and outdoor use, and good viewing angles. The HDR+ certification of the display helped me enjoy my online streaming services in the best picture quality. The in-display fingerprint sensor is fast and reliable. Other notable features include the always-on display with limited functions and the option to block off unwanted touches on the edge of the display.

Although Mi 10 5G could have been much better with a smoother 120 Hz refresh rate and QHD+ resolution panel, the FHD+ panel with 90Hz refresh rate and 180Hz touch sampling rate is no joke.

Performance and UI

Now, in terms of performance, I have no complaints. Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 coupled with the latest 8 GB LDDR5 RAM and 256/512 GB UFS 3.0 storage, is more than enough for any kind of multitasking, video editing, content creation, and gaming. A flagship snapdragon chipset such as this is obviously better than those Exynos disappointments of Samsung flagships.

As PUBG Mobile has recently started supporting 90FPS with its new update, I could easily run the game here on 90FPS and highest graphics settings possible without any lag or frame drops. I also noticed its flagship worthy haptic feedback and stereo audio quality during my gaming sessions. The LHDC codec support also improved my Bluetooth 5.1 sound experience.

Mi 10 5G runs Android 10 topped with Xiaomi’s own MIUI 11. The phone is also eligible for the upcoming MIUI 12 updates. Just like on any other Xiaomi smartphone, MIUI 11 is smooth and feature-packed with some minor bloatware, built-in useless apps, and ads that can easily be disabled. The absence of an App drawer may be a downside for some people as everything is cramped on the Home screen. The unique thing here was the presence of Google’s SMS app and Dialer by default. Quick toggle buttons on the notification drawer are quite useful.

An interesting feature of this phone is called Multilink that combines both Wi-Fi bands (2.4 GHz and 5GHz) along with mobile data and enhances speed when your connection is weak or unstable. The phone has a 5G modem and Wi-Fi 6 being totally futureproofed but none of these services are available in Nepal yet so I could not test them out.

Camera:

In the camera department, the phone has a 108 MP ultra-clear main sensor, 13 MP ultrawide, 2MP depth, and 2MP macro. For the main sensor, Mi 10 5G does quad-pixel binning with 4 pixels in 1 which is great, but unlike other flagships with a 108MP sensor, it lacks the Nona Pixel binning which is 9 pixels in 1. The pixel binned image here is of 25MP. However, it has an excellent color reproduction with good contrast and details. Turning on HDR has good improvements in dynamic range. Even though the presence of a telephoto lens would have resulted in versatile camera setup, I cannot deny that the cropped in the picture from the 108MP mode is good enough. However, the 10x zoom shot from the main sensor has visible noises.

Sadly, the images from the 13MP wide lens are not flagship worthy due to mediocre dynamic range, details, and color reproduction. I hope that the 2MP depth sensor aids in taking portraits and is not just a gimmick. The blur is accurate with good skin texture and natural colors. But if we are to compare it side by side with other flagship devices, it still lacks on getting that natural blur aspect. The pictures taken by the macro lens are decent enough but nothing to be excited about for it being taken by a flagship smartphone.

The selfies from the 20MP f/2.0 front sensor has a good amount of details, natural skin tone but the portrait selfies need slight improvements in edge detection via software updates.

As for the video, Mi 10 can process up to an 8K video at 30FPS and have an appreciative outcome for still-shooting purposes. But for the optical image stabilization in the main sensor to kick in, you need to switch to 1080p. The wide-angle 1080p videos have a total change in how they look as compared to the main sensor’s and the result is just about satisfactory. I wish the quality while changing sensors could be as good as the ones from an iPhone. As for the front camera, it can also shoot videos at 1080P 30FPS and give a decent outcome.

Night-mode pictures are surprisingly good from the main sensor, but the lack of night mode completely ruins the ones from the wide-angle lens. Low light videos have a major drop in quality from either of the sensors. There is also Pro mode which I highly recommend making use of for better shooting options. The phone also has Camera2API support which means you can install a good Google Cam port for Google’s level of software processing in your pictures.

Battery:

Mi 10 5G has a decent 4700 mAh battery, which gives a better endurance compared to other flagship devices. In my mixed daily usage, it lasted for more than 20 hours with a full charge. I think the adaptive refresh rate really results in more battery backup. The phone has a great charging speed of 30W for both wired and wireless as well as 10W reverse wireless charging. I could easily juice up my phone from 20 to 100 in under an hour.

Xiaomi Mi 10: Specifications

Xiaomi Mi 10 Price in Nepal: NPR. 89,999 (8GB+256GB)

Verdict: A Flagship Comeback From Xiaomi Nepal

Overall, Xiaomi Mi 10 5G is an amazing premium level flagship device in terms of display, performance, camera, and sound quality which impressed me the most. Although it has no IP rating or QHD+ resolution, I would not mind purchasing this device for all its other features. With just a few more additional things, this phone could have taken the place at the top of flagships but well, we mostly do not get what we desire.

Let me know what you think about this phone in the comments below.