MI 10 - A tough Road for Xiaomi India !!
After almost 3 years Xiaomi has launched their true flagship Mi 10 in India. The last flagship that was launched in India was Mi Mix 2 which was surely overpriced. Mi 10 is priced at Rs. 49,999 for the base variant making it the costliest Phone in the entire Mi lineup and it is going head to head with the OnePlus 8 series in India. Is this time also Xiaomi has missed a chance to create a buzz for their flagship in India? Is Mi 10 actually overpriced as it seems like? Let's talk about Mi 10. We will find out actually what Xiaomi targets by launching Mi 10 in India.
MI 10 Quick Specs -
Starting with the build quality of the Phone you get a beautiful Glass build Phone offering Gorilla Glass 5 Protection on both front and back with an Aluminium frame and weighing around 208 grams which makes it Solid while holding it in hand. It offers a 6.67 Inch FHD+ Super Amoled curved Display with a 90 Hz Screen refresh rate. Mi 10 is HDR 10 + Certified and offers 1,120 nits of brightness. Xiaomi claims that it has the most color accurate display in comparison to any other Smartphone out there. As Mi 10 is a flagship it comes with the top of the line SDM 865 Processor coupled with 8 or 12 GB of LPDDR5 based RAM with a 128 or 256 GB fast UFS 3.0 Storage. Performance is never going to be an issue with the Mi 10 and it will surely perform best at every scenario whether you game with it or use it as your daily driver. As you can guess Mi 10 is a 5G Ready Phone so that you can take advantage of that when 5G is launched here in India.
Coming to the Cameras it offers a Quad Camera setup at back with a main 108 MP, f/1.7, 1/1.33", 0.8µm sensor with PDAF and OIS. Next one is a 13 MP Ultra Wide Angle f/2.4 sensor to capture more perspective in one picture. Next two sensors are of 2 MP each for Depth and Macro shots. In real world usage with that large Primary sensor low light photography is going to be better and you will find a lot more sharpness with your day time shots. On video front you can record video upto 8K resolution with an additional support for 4K 30 or 60 fps. Selfie camera is a Punch Hole style and has a Pixel count of 20 MP and clicks some good shots. Xiaomi offers a stereo type speakers with Mi 10 and it has achieved top score in DXO Mark Audio test which means you will really enjoy its loud and clear output through the speakers. Here, MI 10 packs a 4780 mah battery with the support of fast 30 watt wired or wireless charging and a 10 watt reverse wireless charging. Mi 10 will last for a day easily even with the heavy usage beacause of the FHD+ screen and 90 Hz screen. For security it opts for an Optical based In Display fingerprint sensor and a face unlock bt the front camera. The Phone runs on MIUI 11 based on Android 10 and will receive MIUI 12 update in near future.
Cons -
This time Xiaomi has made a big debut in Premium flagship territory by offering every flagship Hardware component in it but, there are few drawbacks which doesn't allow the Mi 10 to be called as a true flagship Phone. Even after having a Quad camera setup apart from the main and ultra wide sensor the presence of 2 MP sensor for Depth and Macro instead of a Telephoto lens is disappointing to see at this Price point. Mi 10 lacks actual IP rating for water and dust resistance which is a most common feature of flagships these days.
After Image processing of Xiaomi is a hit and a miss at the same time. Sometimes you will get good looking Photos but most of the times it will produce inaccurate colors from the main sensor. There is going to be Focus issues with the Mi 10 because of its large Camera sensor as it is in other 108 MP Phones. In videos, lack of of EIS + OIS combined results in a shaky footage in comparison to its competitors like Iphone se 2020 which shoots a lot better videos and static Photos. The Display here lacks the QHD resolution which converts in less ppi density for a big Phone like this. Even the screen refresh rate is limited to 90 Hz when Samsung and OnePlus flagships are providing 120 Hz refresh rate with their phones.
Apart from its internals there is lot more to talk about its Software. Even after several claims of having an Ad free experience with Mi 10, Xiaomi has failed to provide an actual Ad free experience with this phone.You will get unwanted notification from its preinstalled Mi Apps and the Phone comes loaded with a lot of bloatware. Frankly speaking, Xiaomi has downgraded the Image of its own MIUI by pushing ads in their Redmi lineup of Phones. Simple fact is that no one is going to trust Xiaomi that their Mi lineup of Phones will not get any kind of Ads.
My True Thoughts :
In my thoughts, it is going to be long journey for Xiaomi in India to establish themselves as a major flagship player in this segment. When a consumer is going to purchase a Phone worth Rs 40 k or more they look for the brand reputation which Xiaomi has not been able to build over the years. There is a common perception among consumers in India is that Xiaomi means great hardware with cheap pricing. All the popularity which Xiaomi has gained in India over the years is because of their Redmi lineup of Phones which means Xiaomi hardly has any recognition for their Mi lineup. Talking about this Xiaomi hasn't tried properly to establish a brand image of their own in India from beginning as they never launched any of their flagship phone in India after the Mi 5 and Mix 2 failures. Looking at OnePlus they have done exact opposite what Xiaomi did and now they are enjoying a brand reputation of their own. Today if OnePlus drops a mediocre budget phone which is inferior to what Xiaomi is offering even then definitely, Consumers are going to pick OnePlus Phone over the Mi one because of their reputation and great Software experience.
Clearly, Xiaomi India does not have any expectations from the sales numbers of Mi 10 as they are directly importing the unit from China instead of assembling it in India. For them launching Mi 10 is like an experiment from their side to see how many people are actually interested in their Premium Products . Eventually, what they want is to differentiate their Mi lineup of phones with their Redmi lineup so as to establish Mi as a premium product in India like what they did in China. So that, when consumers go out to buy a Phone they can associate Mi as a Premium Phone but this is going to take few years to achieve this and they can't stop launching their premium Mi Products in India if they really want to build a Brand Image but for now People can't digest the fact that a Xiaomi Phone can be priced at 50K in India. Considering the current situation, the Ads that they push in Redmi phones is going to hurt Xiaomi badly in a long term to build a brand reputation of their own.
Conclusion:
To conclude even though Mi 10 is a good package overall the Price at which it is launched for whatsoever reasons doesn't justify it when OnePlus 8 Pro is available at Rs. 5,000 more which is a true flagship in every sense. The bad Software experience is going to ruin the show for Xiaomi with their Mi 10. There is room for an improvement in their Camera department if they want to compete with the flagships in this Price segment. Offering a flagship Camera sensor with poor Image processing and creating a big hype of that 108 MP sensor is not going to help them at all. If we compare Mi 10 with the regular OnePlus 8 then it does provide slightly better hardware so, you can prefer it over Oneplus 8 if you really want to try out a new flagship and you are in a hurry as the stocks of the OnePlus 8 series is limited for now. Apart from these things we have to appreciate Xiaomi for taking such a bold move by launching Mi 10 in India even after their last failures. I hope Xiaomi brings more products under the Mi lineup in india in the coming future with some sensible pricing. I wish them a good luck!!
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