Date Posted: 24/06/2021
Review By: Sumit Saurav
Tags: #Makaut #Technical_Review #MAR_Activity
HONEST REVIEW OF MI 1Oi !!
Almost 2 month ago, I have buyed my own smartphone after so much research.
I was pretty confused because i am going to bought it with my own money that i have earned with my intern during the lockdown.
The Mi 10i is Xiomi's attempt at doing a “sort-of” premium midrange phone at a not-so-premium price – it starts at Rs 20,999.
A 108-megapixel main camera, a 5G-enabled chipset, a premium design, and a 120Hz refresh rate display. This was like my dream phone at this price range!
It is the perfect smartphone under Rs 22,000 in India.
Here i am going to give brief review after using it for 2 months.
Design
The Mi 10i isn’t a revolutionary design in any way. In fact, had the Pacific Sunrise color didn’t exist, I would have passed on the Mi 10i as another boring glass slab design with the same old large circular camera design and display with a punch-hole cutout. This phone is highly reminiscent of the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max and the Poco X3, complete with similar dimensions.
That tasteful paint job extends to the side frame as well. Hey Xiaomi, give my regards to your design team. The display is flanked by irregular bezels and that kills the otherwise gracious persona this phone has. Maybe an AMOLED display could have helped Xiaomi trim the bezels further. Samsung does it so well with its Galaxy A51.
With all that fancy glass rear and beefy stuff inside, the Mi 10i is hefty at 214 grams and the weight distribution isn’t balanced.
The case and pre-installed screen protector have anti-bacterial qualities.
Overall, the Mi 10i is pretty good looking under this prize range.
Display
The 6.67-inch display on the Mi 10i is essentially the same as the one on the Poco X3. Hence you get the same good-enough 1080p IPS LCD display with narrow bezels and a refresh rate of 120Hz. The display is good with color vibrancy as well as contrasts but it isn’t the best in its class. The Realme 7 Pro and Galaxy A51 with their AMOLED display still offer the best overall viewing experience with lively colors and high contrasts. The 450 nits of brightness isn’t adequate outdoors. As long as you aren’t comparing it with an OLED display-equipped phone, this should work for most of you. I got used to watching YouTube videos as well as browsing social media over time.
The 120Hz refresh rate helps to smoothen out the user experience. Scrolling through menus is definitely more pleasant on this display and so is playing intensive games that support higher refresh rates. The Adaptive-Sync technology alters the refresh rate based on the content and I did not encounter any jitters or frame tearing while using the phone.
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Performance
Beating under the familiar clothes of the Mi 10i is a rather unfamiliar Snapdragon 750G chip. Last I used a phone with this chip, I was left thoroughly impressed. The Snapdragon 750G offers similar performance on paper as the Snapdragon 765G, albeit with a slightly compromised GPU. Paired to a well-optimized MIUI 12 experience, this is one of the fastest phones along with the Moto G 5G at its price.
My unit at the time of writing this runs on MIUI 12 version 12.0.4
that I received as an update. The OS has been stable with no noticeable
lags or struggles during my time with the phone. All animations have
been smooth while app opening times have been normal. During my office
hours, I usually juggle a lot between WhatsApp, Outlook, Gmail, Teams,
Twitter, and Chrome. The Mi 10i never faltered on my account.
The MIUI 12 experience is at its best here for a midrange Xiaomi device. MIUI 12 amasses lots of opinions – chances are you may either love it or loathe it. I like MIUI 12 for all its design flair as well as its bucket loads of features. The home screen layout isn’t eye candy but the rest of the interface feels as if it comes from a very expensive phone. There is so much to customize here, right from the battery icon’s appearance to the way you want your app drawer to be listed.
For India, MIUI has started bringing more of Google’s basic apps such as Phone, Contacts, Messages, Gmail and more. I missed the native MIUI alternatives for these, given that they worked well. One of the nicest features making it to the MIUI 12 build in India is the option to tune the audio output via wireless and wired headphones – this is awesome for audiophiles.Since we are on the subject of audio, the Mi 10i features a stereo speaker setup. The audio output isn’t as rich as the ones on the Mi 10 but the stereo effect is always appreciated. The output is fairly loud, which helps while gaming as well as watching videos. Audio quality via the earpiece is great too during calls. I could not test 5G network performance for obvious reasons but with the Jio connection, the Mi 10i performed the best it could, given the network conditions. I did not face call drop issues but compared to my iPhone 12, the internet connectivity did suffer in challenging areas.
Camera
With the Mi 10i, Xiaomi brings its 108-megapixel camera sensor to the masses – a feature that makes the Mi 10i a flagship alone in the eyes of Xiaomi. Xiaomi says it uses a newer Samsung HM2 sensor that offers a 9-in-1-pixel binning technology to improve details as well as low-light performance. The product team did not mention how it compares to the setup from the Mi 10T Pro and we couldn’t test it either due to the lack of a Mi 10T Pro with us.
Since I have used the Mi 10T Pro previously, I was able to figure the restraints Xiaomi put on this camera. The overall image quality is inferior to that of the Mi 10T Pro. I don’t blame Xiaomi for that, given that it still has to justify the higher price for the Mi 10T Pro. Maybe a GCam mod for this camera may help getting more out of it.
The 108MP mode is where the Mi 10i starts flexing. I loved using this mode as there’s no lag in image processing and the color tuning is slightly closer to natural. If you like pixel peeping, the 108MP photos will astonish you with substantial details (you have to double-tap twice to see the actual quality on the phone’s display). Be it day or night, this mode is reliable, and shutterbugs will find it highly useful. The 108MP mode negates the need for a zoom camera.
The ultra-wide camera isn’t quite on the same level as the main camera with regards to details and colors. Considering that you don’t pixel-peep your ultra-wide photos, you could be contented with the output from this one. The macro camera is low on sharpness and needs ample lighting to disburse useful shots. The depth camera makes for good quality portrait mode photos with artificial background blurring.
Video quality is good in daylight in both 4K and 1080p. The Mi 10i is limited to 4K at 30 fps only but you can have the smoother 60 fps at 1080p. The stabilization isn’t nice due to a lack of OIS on the main camera. As the daylight drops and you seek artificial lighting, the Mi 10i drops the video quality, sharpness, and color vibrancy.
The 16-megapixel front camera is good under daylight situations. I was always getting selfies with slightly boosted saturation and contrasts but the results were always likeable. However, under artificial lighting or low light situations, the front camera falls apart and you need good editing skills to make the most out of such photos.
Battery
The 4820mAh battery inside the Mi 10i offers great battery life, provided you are sticking to 4G networks. 5G will eventually hog on battery stamina and may reduce the battery life of the phone to just a day. However, with my usage, I was able to get up to two days of battery life on a single charge. On busy days when I was doing lots of video calls, browsing, and texting, the Mi 10i was lasting me an entire day and making it to the lunch-hour of the next day. Thankfully, the 33W fast wired charging system with its split charging feature took just an hour to brim the battery from 10 percent.
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