Xiaomi MI 10 to Feature Punch-Hole Design, 100MP Lens

Xiaomi Mi 10 could be one of the most intriguing mid-range devices of 2020, with a series of leaks making the Mi 9 successor look like a big competitor to the OnePlus 8 or Huawei P40.

If 2019 was the year Xiaomi phones really started getting big in the west, 2020 could see the company square off against industry veterans Apple, Samsung and Huawei, with a slew of impressive yet affordable phones. This precedent was started in late 2019 with the fantastic Xiaomi Mi Note 10, and we’re expecting the baton to be passed on to the Mi 10 when that comes out.

Xiaomi Mi 10 is excepted to launch in China early February (likely just before the Samsung Galaxy S11), then see a global launch during Mobile World Congress 2020 in late February, so there shouldn't be long to wait.

Hands-on pictures of the Xiaomi Mi 10 have been leaked, and it looks like it could be the ‘Pro’ version. In general, the images look a lot like the Mi Note 10, but there are a few differences – and also some differences with previous rumors we’ve heard.

The Xiaomi Mi 9 debuted at an event in China in early February 2019, before being announced for the global market at MWC 2019.

According to source, the company is preparing for an early launch event in China for the Mi 10, apparently for some time before the Samsung Galaxy S11 release, so it seems history is repeating – could the Mi 10 therefore be one of the big devices of MWC 2020?

This is how Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro could look like based on latest leaks pic.twitter.com/u13BsCKylG

— Ben Geskin (@BenGeskin) January 6, 2020

In terms of price, we haven’t heard much so far, but we wouldn’t expect the Mi 10's cost to be much different to the Mi 9. Therefore we’d expect it to be available for roughly £500 / $650 / AU$950 depending on storage size options.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro coming along too. Both phones are said to have 6.5-inch 90Hz screens, so the Pro isn’t positioned as a ‘Plus-sized’ alternative, and they even apparently have the same 4,500mAh power pack, so they won’t be too different.

There’s one big difference: while both are supposedly set to have the Xiaomi Mi Note 10’s 108MP main camera, the Mi 10 Pro is said to have that joined by a 48MP, 12MP and 8MP array, while the base Mi 10 is said to have a 20MP, 12MP and 5MP array, which is a little more middling. We don’t know the specifics of any of the lenses though.

The charging speeds could be another big difference, as the Xiaomi Mi 10 is said to have 40W fast and 30W wireless charging, while the Mi 10 Pro apparently has 66W fast charging and 40W wireless powering. The standard Mi 10 is also said to have 10W reverse wireless charging, and we'd expect the Mi 10 Pro would have this feature as well.

The big news is that the device is slated to have a Snapdragon 865 chipset, and if the handset launches in China in early February, it could be the first smartphone on the planet to have the new top-end chipset.

This was the case with the Snapdragon 855, as while the Samsung Galaxy S10 was the first phone available in most regions with 2019’s top processor, the Xiaomi Mi 9 technically launched before it in China.

In terms of design, the main piece of information we have comes from renders of the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro that show a phone that looks very similar to the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus. These are based on rumors of the phone, and aren’t official pictures, but they still give us a comprehensive look at the likely design.

This includes a screen that’s curved to the sides, and a dual-lens punch-hole camera (likely one is the main selfie camera and the other is a depth sensor for improved ‘bokeh’ background blur).

There’s four rear cameras there, although the lowest looks a little too small to be an 8MP camera unless it’s a depth sensor or tiny macro camera.

We’ve got similar renders of the Xiaomi Mi 10 too, that show a slightly less premium-looking phone (note that it’s referred to as the ‘Pro’ in the tweet, but a subsequent tweet clarified that as a typo: it’s the base Mi 10 device).

While the phone here definitely shares a design bone with the Mi 10 Pro, it has not got that curved screen which, along with the rumored lesser camera resolutions and charging speeds, is one of the key indicators that this isn’t a ‘Pro’ phone.

There’s still the dual-lens front-facing camera cut-out and quad-lens rear snapper array, but it’s worth pointing out that the fourth lens looks noticeably bigger than in the Pro. But given the different rumored megapixel counts we're expecting different lenses, so this somewhat lines up.

Some hands-on pictures of the Xiaomi Mi 10 have surfaced too, presumably of the Pro version, and while they look a lot like the renders there is one main difference – the ‘punch-hole’ selfie camera is quite a bit different.

Firstly, it’s on the other side of the display to in the renders, and secondly, there’s only one lens instead of two, which means the cut-out takes up less space, but could take slightly worse pictures.

In general, though, the hands-on pictures show a phone that looks a lot like the renders, and perhaps thanks to it having the same color scheme, it looks a lot like the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 too.

January 20, 2020