Mi 10 : Initial Impressions, Overpriced Smartphone ?

Xiaomi, the company that made its mark upon India for its high value smartphones. It took down giants like Samsung single handedly though its Note series smartphones. Like literally, among 10 people you could find more than one person with Redmi on their hands.

But, following One Plus’s suit (One Plus 8 Initial Impressions) , Xiaomi is looking to enter into the premium smartphone segment with its Mi 10 smartphone. Yes my friends, the Mi 10 is expected to be priced around 49,999 INR.

 

Mi 10 comes with top of the line specifications. Snapdragon 865 coupled with 8 GB of RAM, 128/256 GB internal storage, 6.6” AMOLED 90Hz display, 30W fast charging, Wireless charging,4780 MaH battery, 5G support. All top of the line. But don’t all the smartphones at this range have the same spec sheet ? (One Plus 8 Specs

There are three things that make a smartphone win/lose in the premium smartphone category.

1. Performance
2. Camera
3. No Compromises

 

Yes, the specifications are top of the line. But is Xiaomi’s software tuned to make use of that power ? All Xiaomi’s smartphones, even the budget ones, have top of the line specifications for its price. But when it comes to performance, its software is utter crap. Yes, out of the box it’s fast and all. But after a month or two, it slowly starts to show its ugly face. It lags, it hangs, it’s just garbage. One Plus Oxygen OS stays fast. When you buy a smartphone at that price range you expect it to stay fast. I highly doubt that would be the case with Xiaomi.

Mi 10 comes with a 108 MP main camera, 13 MP ultra wide and 2MP depth/macro camera. Again impressive on sheet. But when it comes to camera quality, the post image processing can make a lot of difference. Pixel does not have an impressive camera on numbers, but it takes one of the best shots a smartphone can – all thanks to its software. We would have to look into how Mi’s camera would perform with other smartphone giants. 

Mi 10 at 49,999 INR does not provide an IP rating. Xiaomi has a poor track record when it comes to system updates. And when it comes to privacy, Xiaomi does not have a good track record either.

To sum up, with a poor brand name for the premium segment, it is a pretty ambitious move from Xiaomi. Unlike its budget segment, Xiaomi has a lot of competition at this price range especially when both Apple and OnePlus has smartphones that cost less than Xiaomi. People obviously don’t want an iron box that costs that much ! But if it does do things right, then maybe yeah Mi 10 might be a pretty good smartphone to consider. But we should get our hands on one first before we could make a judgement. Stay tuned for that !

Inputs : Anisha Rajan