Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro review - Delivering the goods - Android
Xiaomi has long had a knack for knocking out solid hardware, and the Mi 10 Pro sees the company doubling down on its dashing design language. The phone isn’t just a glass beauty, it’s a technical powerhouse. The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro goes head-to-head with some of the best phones in the world, including entries from Oppo, Huawei, and Samsung.
Did Xiaomi dial in the right mix of bravado, proficiency, and pricing? Find out in Android Authority‘s Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro review.
The Mi 10 Pro is a flagship phone that competes with the Oppo Find X2, Huawei P40 Pro, and Samsung S20 family. It’s a heavy hitter designed to appeal to those who want the whole package: good looks and top performance. This isn’t an easy feat. It’s easy to get at least part of the equation right and still get the resulting solution wrong.
The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro sees the company focusing on four major tentpoles: the display, processor performance, battery life, and the camera. If these are the core features that might get you to part with your cash, Xiaomi has them in spades.
There’s a bit of a change, however: the Mi 10 Pro costs a lot more than its predecessor — nearly twice as much — and is now in line with the competition on pricing. In other words, the phone has lost one of Xiaomi’s traditional advantages. Let’s dive in and see how the Mi 10 Pro earns its higher price tag — and whether or not it should earn your money.
Xiaomi isn’t breaking any new ground in terms of design, and yet the Mi 10 Pro is appealing all the same. It is as refined a product as I’ve seen from Xiaomi.
The glass sandwich form should be familiar to anyone buying a flagship in 2020. A slim metal frame is the filling between two Gorilla Glass 5 panels that curve around the edges to meet the aluminum. The glass is flawless and creates an utterly seamless transition from glass to metal to glass as you move your finger around the edge. The fit and finish is second to none.
The phone comes in two colors: Alpine White or Solstice Grey. Xiaomi lent us the gray model, which resembles the sky at dusk right before a wicked snowstorm. It’s got a satiny finish, rather than gloss, which gives it an elegant, gentlemanly quality. The metal frame is shiny, but still painted to match the phone’s dark, cloudy mood.
Apart from the color, the camera module is the most striking design element on the phone’s rear panel. Rather than go with a bulky rectangle, Xiaomi lined up the Mi 10 Pro’s cameras in a vertical column. While three lenses are encompassed in the same raised module, the fourth lens is, inexplicably, an island unto itself. The effect? It looks like an exclamation point. A reflective chrome ring circles the top lens, calling out the phone’s high pixel count. The module, offset to the left, means the phone will wobble as you tap the screen while it sits on a hard surface.
The controls are about what we’ve come to expect from flagships. That means USB-C but no headphone jack, a SIM card tray but no microSD, stereo speakers, and slim buttons on the side. The screen lock key and volume toggle, both on the right, are perhaps too slim. The action is good.
It’s not stupidly big. The Mi 10 Pro is about the same size as a Google Pixel 4 XL, and noticeably shorter and narrower than the LG V60. In other words, it is easier to hold and use than some flagships. It’s still sizable and may be too large for some people.
The Mi 10 Pro is as refined a product as I've seen from Xiaomi.
Xiaomi says it has “splash protection” but not a full IP rating. Nearly all of the Mi 10 Pro’s competitors (S20, V60, P40, Pixel 4, OnePlus 8 Pro) have IP68 ratings.
In all, the Mi 10 Pro may be simple, may be safe, but it’s polished in just the right ways.
Xiaomi made the conservative choice with respect to the display. Whether or not it is enough is up to you. It’s a sizable 6.67-inch AMOLED that can be set to 90Hz if you want a smoother experience. The refresh rate isn’t as high as the 120Hz displays of the S20 series or the OnePlus 8 Pro, but it matches the rate of the Huawei P40 Pro and Google Pixel 4 XL. The Full HD+ resolution is dense enough for the panel, but I’d have preferred to have Quad HD+ as an option. Brightness ramps as high as 1,200nits under certain conditions. There’s no notch, but you’ll find a small punch hole camera in the top-left corner of the screen. The Dot Display branding is Xiaomi’s version of the Infinity-O branding from Samsung.
All this translates to a fine display. It’s pixel rich, bright, and colorful. Everyone should be happy to browse the web, scroll through social media, or punch out some emails on this screen. I really enjoyed the look and feel when set to 90Hz scrolling and other animated motions are smooth, smooth, smooth.
If you love to Netflix on the go, the HDR10+ certification means you get the best possible picture from the streaming service. The phone also has TUV Rheinland certification and a contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1. The most recent season of Ozark looked amazing on the screen.
Last, the phone has an under-the display fingerprint reader. It’s positioned about where you expect it to be. While I still prefer rear- or side-mounted readers, the Mi 10 Pro’s reader was acceptable in terms of speed and accuracy. The face unlock tool, which doesn’t rely on any fancy tech, is consistent but not as secure as 3D-based solutions.
Essentially, the Mi 10 Pro matches much of the competition when it comes to screen tech and performance.
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