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Last week, Xiaomi unveiled the new Mi 10i, the company's first phone of the year 2021. It comes packed with feature-rich hardware and with a starting price of Rs 20,999, Mi 10i is the most affordable 5G mobile in the market. Does it deliver the goods? Let's check it out.
Design, build quality and display
On the front, it has a familiar dot-display design language. The Mi 10i sports a 6.67-inch full HD+ (1080px2400p) LCD screen. It offers up peak brightness of 450nits and supports up to 120Hz display refresh rate and HDR10+. I had a really good time watching HD videos and also did not face any pressing issue while viewing contents on-screen even under bright sunlight.
The screen comes with TÜV Rheinland low blue light certification, which means the device produces less blue light, is flicker-free, and users can view content on it for long hours with less chance of strain to the eyes.
On the left, you will find the side-mounted fingerprint sensor, which doubles up as the power button. It works fast and flawlessly. During the entire review period, it never failed once to recognise the finger impression and unlock the display.
On the back, our Pacific Sunrise review unit features a visually appealing multi-tone colourful shell with greenish-blue at the top to orangish pink at the base. Also, the device has a minimalistic design with just a small company logo at the base and the well crafted circular camera module at the top adds value to the design. Currently, it is one the best-looking phone in the market.
The display is protected by Corning's Gorilla Glass 5 shield and comes with an IP53 rating. It can sustain accidental water splashes or light to moderate rains.
It should be noted that Xiaomi has pre-fitted an additional layer of screen guard on top to shield the display from daily wear-and-tear such as scratches from keys or any sharp objects in the pocket. Also, it offers a clear soft cover case with retail box and this also offers protection from accidental drops.
Performance
Mi 10i runs Android 10-based MIUI 12.0.4 OS and is powered by 8nm class Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G (Kryo 570 ) octa-core chipset, which can clock peak CPU speed of 2.2Ghz. It is backed by Adreno 619 GPU.
Xiaomi's new phone works fast and smoothly in terms of not just day-to-day chores such as app loading, lanching camera or switching multiple apps, but also while playing graphics-intense games. There was no sign of lag-ness or over-heating as such. Also, 120Hz display refresh rate enhances the immersive gaming experience.
It scored an impressive 625 and 1978 points on single-core and multi-core tests on Geekbench 5 performance testing application. The device will be offered in three configurations- 6GB RAM + 64GB storage, 6GB RAM + 128GB storage and 8GB RAM + 128GB storage.
It also comes with X52 5G modem (supported bands--Sub6G: n77/n78), but unfortunately, India has no infrastructure just yet. Whenever it gets ready, Mi 10i owners will be able to experience super-fast internet up to 1Gbps.
Xiaomi's new phone comes packed with a 4,820mAh battery. During our review period, it consistently delivered one and a half days of battery life.
Also, the retail package comes with Type-C 33W fast charger and it takes less than one hour to fully charge the device from zero to 100%.
Camera
The USP of the Mi 10i is the photography hardware. It boasts quad-camera module-- main 108MP (1/1.52-inch Samsung HM2 sensor with 7P lens, 0.7μm pixel size, f/1.75 aperture) backed by an 8MP 120-degree ultra-wide sensor, a 2MP depth sensor and a 2MP macro sensor. All the four cameras work beautifully to get the job of capturing the best photos in any given light conditions.
It excels in getting crisp, colourful and detailed snaps in natural light. The Mi 10i does a pretty job in terms of edge detection of the flower and flawlessly blurs the background. The resultant images never look artificial at all.
Even the wide-angle shots are really good and cover long landscapes with details. Also, Digital Zoom ( up to10X) pictures are decent.
But, I am most impressed with the night mode shots. I have to say, the picture quality is remarkably good in terms of sharpness, details, colour and there is less noise. It can surely give any high-end phones costing more than Rs 50K, a run for their money.
It can take 4K videos at 30 fps(frames per second), full HD (1080p) at 60 & 30 fps , HD (720p) at 30 fps. Also, it can record slow-motion HD (720p) videos at 120 fps (frames per second), 240 fps and 960 fps. And full HD (1080p) at 120fps.
On the front, it houses a feature-rich 16MP camera with f/2.45 aperture. I have no complaints here, as it takes pretty decent selfies in all lighting conditions.
Xiaomi's MIUI camera app offers a plethora of editing and filters to enhance the photography experience.
Final thoughts
I am pretty impressed with everything Mi 10i offers -- it excels in design, build quality, smooth performance, long battery life and the camera hardware is just top-notch in its class. Right now, it is the best value-for-money 5G phone in the market.
Xiaomi Mi 10i is being offered in three variants-- 6GB RAM +64GB storage, 6GB RAM + 128GB Storage and 8GB RAM + 128GB storage--for Rs 20,999, Rs 21,999 and Rs 23,999, respectively.
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