Xiaomi just unveiled the first smartphone in India for the new year. The Xiaomi Mi 10i follows in the footsteps of the Mi 10 and Mi 10T Pro. However, unlike the two flagships, the Mi 10i brings the 108 MP camera to the mid-range. The Mi 10i’s price in India is set between Rs 20,999 and 23,999, putting it smack dab in the country mid-range market. So, without any further delays, let’s take a first look at the Mi 10i.
The design of the Xiaomi Mi 10i strongly resembles that of the Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G, which launched in China back in December. While the front and back of the Mi 10i are both protected by Gorilla Glass 5, the frame of the phone is made from plastic as opposed to the aluminium frame on the Mi 10T Pro. On the front, hole-punch camera cutout is shifted to the centre as opposed to the top left. Another key difference is the matte gradient finish with a circular camera module.
The Mi 10i weighs 214.5g and measures 9mm thick. You get used to the weight pretty fast while the added case makes it easy to grip the phone and doesn’t take anything anyway from that attractive finish. The Mi 10i also features a headphone jack and has an IP53 rating making the back-panel splash-proof. The dual stereo speakers sound good for the most part, while the device opts for a side-mounted fingerprint reader.
For the display, the Mi 10i sports a 6.67-inch FHD+ IPS LCD panel with a 1500:01 contrast ratio and a brightness of 450nits. Like the Mi 10T Pro, the Mi 10i also features a 120Hz refresh rate with support for AdaptiveSync, which automatically adjusts the refresh rate to 30Hz, 48Hz, 50Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz, or 120Hz depending on the requirement of the content on the screen. The display is HDR and HDR10+ compliant, and the device is L1 certified. As far as LCD panels go, this is as good as it gets, but its still no OLED.
As a mid-range smartphone, the Mi 10i is pretty formidable, packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G SoC. The chip is paired with an integrated Snapdragon X52 modem. The chipset is paired with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage. The Mi 10i managed an overall score of 332142 points on AnTuTu. The phone can run any game without too much of a bother. The handset also runs cool under pressure, while multitasking is pretty fluent.
For optics, the Mi 10i gets a quad-camera setup with 108 MP Samsung HM2 sensor at the helm. The 108 MP sensor features an f/1.75, 7P lens with a 1/1.52-inch sensor size. It supports 9-in-1-pixel binning. The other three sensors include an 8 MP, f/2.2 ultrawide lens with a 120-degree FOV along with a 2 MP depth sensor and 2 MP macro camera. On the front, the hole-punch cutout houses a 16 MP, f/2.45 selfie shooter.
Photos captured on the main camera retain a ton of detail with accurate colours and excellent sharpness in bright outdoor settings.
The ultrawide camera struggles to keep pace with the 108 MP sensor, with a noticeable difference in sharpness and colours. However, the results are not too shabby. As compared to the competition, this is definitely one of the better ultrawide cameras around. I had no hesitation switching from wide to ultrawide to snap photos in the right light.
The main camera offers 10x digital zoom, but I preferred using the 108 MP mode and cropping the image rather than fully zooming in as stabilisation tends to go out the window.
So, long as you’re capturing stills, the night mode on the Mi 10i is well-above average. The 108 MP sensor snapped images with a ton of detail with little to no noise. The sensor also managed to capture a fair bit of light, even in dimly lit scenarios.
The camera app is pretty easy to use and has a ton of different modes, including Vlog mode, Portrait mode, Pro mode, and much more. The rear camera also supports 4K video recording at 30fps, while you can also use the Dual video mode to record videos on the front and rear camera simultaneously.
We’ll take a better look at the cameras on the Mi 10i in our full review, but our initial impressions were overwhelmingly positive.
In terms of battery life, the Mi 10i can easily go a full day on a single charge with its 4820 mAh battery capacity. Additionally, Xiaomi has also included a 33W fast charging adapter in the box, which took the phone from 5 percent to 100 percent in little under an hour. Xiaomi AdaptiveSync technology also works well to preserve battery. It is easy to forget that the Mi 10i’s screen has a 120Hz refresh rate and doesn’t have a more efficient OLED panel.
The Mi 10i runs on Android 10 with Xiaomi MIUI 12 on top. MIUI 12 brings a ton of UI customisations as well as new features like a reading mode, Game Turbo mode, video dashboard, Second Space for privacy, and more. The UI is not fully free of bloatware but is relatively clean.
At a starting price of Rs 20,999, the Mi 10i is the next best thing to a flagship. It was impressive to see just how much the gap has narrowed between cameras in the mid-range and top end. Apart from the camera, the Mi 10i also offers decent battery life and an extremely good LCD panel with a high refresh rate. Sure, the phone does come with some caveats, but none of which are deal-breakers. MIUI still hasn’t won me over just yet, but for hardware, this good I was more than willing to overlooks its tiny flaws. In my initial impressions of the Mi 10i, I failed to find any reason to not recommend this phone. At this price, there are few phones that are going to be able to keep pace with the Mi 10i. If you want a more in-depth analysis, particularly in the camera department, stay tuned for our full Mi 10i review.