Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro Review – Close To A Budget Flagship

In India, for a long time, Xiaomi was the real ruler in the budget smartphone segment, but after the entrance of brands like OnePlus, Xiaomi has started to work on its premium segment of smartphones harder than before since this was becoming the new battleground in the smartphone wars. Since then, Xiaomi has launched multiple smartphones targeted towards the premium market, and it has now and then grabbed a lot of market share there as well.

Also Read: Best Smartphones under Rs.50,000 in India

The new Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro is the latest in the long line of premium smartphones by Xiaomi to go up against the premium heavy-weights like OnePlus, Samsung, etc.

The Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro starts at a price of ₹39,999 for the lone 8GB/128GB variant available here in the Indian subcontinent and is available in colours of Cosmic Black and Lunar Silver.

The Mi 10T Pro can be purchased via Mi.com or via other various online and offline channels. Given below are the specifications for the Mi 10T Pro.

Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro comes included with a bunch of accessories in the box:

• Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro 8GB + 128GB in Cosmic Black color
• USB Type-C Cable
• 33W charger
• SIM Ejector tool
• Anti-Bacterial Transparent Protective case
• USB Type-C to 3.5mm converter
• User manual and warranty information

Before we talk in detail about Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro, let’s have a quick look at the key specifications. 

• Display: 6.67-inch IPS LCD panel, 1080×2400 pixels, 395PPI
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 (7nm+), Octa-core processor with Adreno 650 GPU
• Storage: 128GB/256GB UFS 3.1 Storage
• Memory: 8GB LPDDR5 RAM
• Software: Android 10 with MIUI 12
• Rear cameras: Triple camera setup (108MP + 13MP + 5MP)
• Selfie camera: 20MP
• Battery: 5000mAh
• Build: Gorilla Glass 5 on front and back
• Weight: 218 g
• Dimensions: 165.1 x 76.4 x 9.3 mm

Now, let’s move ahead and see how well the above specs tracks in real-life usage and if the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro is as good as it looks.

The Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro is a very premium looking device and has a good grip to hold the device since there is some heft to the device. The Mi 10T Pro is built with Gorilla Glass 5 protection on the front and the back which helped the device sustain being around keys in our pockets. The frame is made up of aluminium which makes the device more sturdy to hold. The volume and the power button/fingerprint scanner are placed on the right side of the device, which improves the accessibility of the buttons. The fingerprint scanner is fast but, being embedded in the power button results in misreads in some situations. Still, thankfully, we can change the fingerprint scanner to scan when the power button is being clicked, which reduces the chances to lock yourself out of the device.

We got the Cosmic Black colour variant of the Mi 10T Pro, and the colour looked a bit like gunpowder which paired with the glossy effect from the glass back looked pretty neat for a premium device like this.

On the front of the device, we have a rather adequately sized IPS LCD Panel display which is capable of super-smooth 144Hz of refresh rate and the best part is that the display can adapt the refresh rate to that of the content being displayed on it. The content looks great on display like this, thanks to the IPS LCD panel which is HDR10+ capable, which means we get awesome colours and brightness to take on the OLED competition.

While we are thankful for the Adaptive Refresh Rate and great colours, we are a bit disappointed with one of the features offered for the display by Xiaomi, namely the MEMC (Motion Estimation, Motion Compensation) feature, which as the name suggests, the feature inserts system-generated compensation frames to match the refresh rate of the display, which most of the times looks unreal and ruins the content watching experience significantly. On the top of disappointments, we also have the HDR10+ implementation, which is not great due to the fact that the display is IPS LCD instead of the standard OLED. The backlight bleeds and absence of local dimming prevent us from getting super precise blacks. But still, the movie and video watching experience is still great for the average user.

The Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro is a powerhouse in terms of the performance it offers. The Snapdragon 865 chipset is more powerful than its predecessors and more efficient too. The gaming and other tasks were performed by the device without even breaking a sweat. The 144Hz display makes the experience really smooth and gives the feeling of speed and snappiness when being used.

There are still things that the Mi 10T Pro misses out on like the Always On Display and the Full-screen display compared to the Mi 9T Pro (Redmi K20 Pro in India), but it is more than made up by the 144Hz display, and the performance offered to the end-user.

Read: Top Xiaomi Mobiles Phones

The loading times on apps were instant thanks to the UFS 3.1 storage, and the RAM management is also excellent with the fast LPDDR5 based 8GB RAM. The only downside in the storage department is the inability to expand the storage due to the absence of microSD card slot which may be due to the cost-cutting to make the device affordable while still being a flagship. The 5G capability of the device is yet to be tested since unavailability of 5G networks in India, but we have word that the 5G functionality is only while the device works in single SIM mode meaning the secondary SIM needs to be deactivated for 5G to work, but 4G can still be used in dual SIM mode.

The MIUI 12 is one of the great 3rd party skins out there, and it really had the optimizations baked in for this device. The only downside is the bloatware is still there, but it has significantly shrunk and can be uninstalled by the users. Another great thing about the device is haptics. The haptics is so good that the typing and usage experience just goes on another level. This is thanks to Xiaomi’s new linear motor vibrator, which is good and works in an instant.

Also Read: How To Disable MIUI Ads?

The Mi 10T Pro sports a triple camera setup on the rear and a single camera on the front which takes care of the photography department. The rear cameras are a bit protruding towards the back of the device. The primary camera is the 108MP Samsung Bright HMX sensor which does most of the heavy lifting. The shots taken from this sensor end up being only 25MP in resolution due to the 4 in 1 pixel binning technology of the sensor.

The daylight shots end up looking great with a lot of details and have the right amount of contrast in them. The dynamic range is wide, and the colours are natural-looking. We also took some shots with the AI feature turned on, but that takes the great out of this camera. The 108MP mode is there to take full 108MP shots, but the details get lost, and the sharpness decreases drastically.

The telephoto mode also utilizes the main sensor, and the shots are 2x zoomed and turn out good enough but going above 2x or 3x zoom isn’t advisable as the shots get fuzzy and the detailing decreases too. The ultrawide shots are only somewhat satisfactory, the details are lacking, and the dynamic range gets narrower, but the colours are punchy and sometimes turn out better than those in the main sensor. The macro camera is pleasantly good enough to use, the autofocus, the natural-looking colours and good contrast justify the camera being there.

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The portrait shots are a kind of okay to us, the blur is great, and the subject detection works brilliantly, but the edge detection sometimes blurs out the details on the edge of the subject which needs to be worked upon to make it a truly remarkable experience.

Now, let us move on to talk about the low light photography on this device. The low light shots without the night mode on have a wide dynamic range, a great amount of sharpness but the details get clipped out due to HDR feature being at work. The noise is also minimum, and the shots turn out great if one is in a hurry to turn the night mode on. When we do turn on the night mode, we see that the details are more improved and the light sources are also contained within limits, the noise is minimum, and the overall quality of the shot is improved. But the Night Mode’s 2x zoom shots are far more inferior to the unzoomed pictures with lesser details.

Selfies are sharp-looking thanks to the 20MP camera, the details are great, and the skin tones are natural-looking. On switching over to the portrait mode, the resolution drops to 5MP but retains a good quality of details, and the edge detection is excellent and even better than the primary camera.

The video recording from this device is rated at up to 8K at 30 fps via the rear camera and 1080p at 30 fps via the front camera. The video quality is good with a lot of details and natural but punchy colours.

The battery in the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro is an upgrade from its predecessors; the 5000 mAh battery is more than enough to take on the power requirements of the device. The battery is able to run our tests of web browsing and video playback for about 18 hours and 17 hours respectively. These numbers are despite the high refresh rate of the display turned on, but that also is not constant due to the adaptive refresh rate feature. The charging times are relatively low thanks to the 33W power brick provided in the box. The phone charges to a full in just under an hour and under 30 minutes, there is 60% of charge which is enough to go on for hours at length.

Pros

• Striking performance
• 144Hz refresh rate display
• Full-sounding speakers
• Rock-solid main 108MP camera
• 5000 mAh battery with 33W supported charging
• Support for 5G connectivity

Cons

• Bulky design
• No wireless charging