Two-minute evaluate
The Xiaomi Mi Observe 10 isn’t a telephone you’d count on to be significantly revolutionary, being a mid-range system from Chinese language price range tech model Xiaomi, but it surely may very well be the system that makes the smartphone world sit up and take discover of so-called ‘price range’ Chinese language manufacturers.
That’s as a result of the Mi Observe 10 brings all the trimmings of a top-end telephone, however with out the top-end price ticket – it’s received an exquisite curved-edged display, large battery, in-screen fingerprint sensor, 5 rear cameras and, most notably, it was the primary smartphone to return with a 108MP fundamental digital camera sensor.
That digital camera dwarfs the iPhone 11’s 12MP and even the Huawei P30 Professional’s 40MP snappers. It’s an intriguing tackle the smartphone digital camera conundrum – how can a telephone snapper rival a DSLR? In contrast to Apple, Huawei and Samsung, Xiaomi is counting on brute-force {hardware} slightly than post-processing software program, and the Mi Observe 10 manages to take nice footage with out AI tweaking the picture to oblivion.
Saying it takes nice footage is an understatement, actually, because the Xiaomi Mi Observe 10 is likely one of the greatest digital camera telephones round, particularly for those who’re on a price range. That’s regardless of a few of its 5 rear snappers feeling a little bit inconsistent, and probably redundant.
Past the digital camera, the Mi Observe 10 is a powerful system in different methods, with its sturdy construct, lovely display and extremely snappy charging, but it surely’s additionally received an Achilles heel within the type of its mid-range chipset – the processor clearly struggles to deal with 108MP footage, and has bother with another duties as nicely, so the spectre of this middling chipset is ever current if you’re utilizing the telephone.
Nonetheless, a premium telephone competitor that retails for a (comparatively) low value is inevitably going to have some weaknesses – and the extra you utilize this telephone, the extra you’ll discover that you simply’re capable of ignore most of those shortcomings.
Xiaomi Mi Observe 10 pricing and availability
Within the UK, the Xiaomi Mi Observe 10 formally went on sale on February 26, 2020. The Mi Observe 10 value is £459 for the 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage mannequin. If you need extra energy and house, there’s additionally a 8GB/256GB configuration which can set you again £549.
Whereas these are the costs on Xiaomi’s personal website, the Mi Observe 10 seems to be accessible simply slightly below £400 on Amazon (opens in new tab) UK – so it may pay to buy round a little bit.
There isn’t any phrase on the value or launch date of the Xiaomi Mi Observe 10 simply but within the US or Australia, but it surely’s additionally accessible in Europe and prices €549 (round $610 or AU$880).
Design
The Xiaomi Mi Observe 10 follows the ‘customary’ Android look and improves on it in a couple of methods; it’s not as distinct because the Oppo Reno or Huawei Mate 30 Professional, but it surely’s not similar to the legions of similar-looking Android smartphones both.
The telephone measures 157.8 x 74.2 x 9.7mm, so it’s one of many thickest smartphones we’ve examined – you’ll probably discover this if you’re utilizing the system, though we received used to it fairly simply. This thickness is mirrored within the 208g weight, which once more is comparatively heavy for a handset, though we’ve used heavier gadgets.
The back and front of the Xiaomi Mi Observe 10 are made from Gorilla Glass 5, sandwiching an aluminium body, so the telephone feels reassuringly sturdy.
The Mi Observe 10 display is curved – extra on the show shortly – and the rear of the smartphone is curved too, extra so than on most different gadgets. This makes the sides of the telephone really feel noticeably rounded within the hand, and the system is due to this fact fairly comfy to carry within the hand.
Across the edges of the telephone you’ve received a normal USB-C port and three.5mm headphone jack beneath, so customers of wired headphones will discover this one of many few gadgets they will nonetheless use with out having to splash out on a Bluetooth pair. On the best fringe of the telephone are an influence button and quantity rocker, each low sufficient to be straightforward to hit with a finger for all however the smallest fingers.
One gripe we’ve with the Mi Observe 10’s design is the rear digital camera bump, which is pronounced, and stands proud a great distance in comparison with the bumps on most telephones. The sides of the bump on our evaluate handset shortly grew to become scuffed because of this, which (actually) took the shine off the in any other case modern look.
It’s additionally curious that not all of the cameras sit throughout the bump, as two are literally under it. This doesn’t change how you utilize the telephone, but it surely offers it an odder, and fewer aesthetically pleasing, look than if all of the lenses have been included throughout the bump.
Show
The Xiaomi Mi Observe 10 has a 6.47-inch show, so relying on the dimensions of your hand it is simply sufficiently small to be simply usable with one hand, although for some customers it would simply fall into the ‘two-handed use’ camp.
The display is an AMOLED panel with 1080 x 2340 decision, and though AMOLED screens are inclined to look good, they don’t usually look this good on a mid-range telephone. The colours actually pop, max brightness is fairly excessive, photographs look textured and distinction is nice. Most smartphones with screens this good are premium gadgets, and it’s slightly uncommon to see mid-range telephones with the tech.
One factor price noting is that, in contrast to on a lot of different telephones, there’s no double-tap to wake the show choice, which can be a little bit jarring for individuals used to that methodology of waking their telephone. As a substitute, you must both press the ability button, or for those who’ve received fingerprint unlock enabled, you possibly can maintain your thumb on the in-screen sensor to wake the system.
As talked about, the sides of the display are curved, as on the Samsung Galaxy S10 or Huawei P30 Professional, nevertheless on the Mi Observe 10 the curve is barely extra pronounced, which makes the telephone simpler and extra comfy to carry; nevertheless we did sometimes inadvertently press the curved edge when holding the telephone, which may have irritating penalties like altering pages on an e-book we have been studying.
On the high of the display is a small teardrop notch within the heart, which homes the front-facing digital camera. It’s not significantly intrusive, however different telephones have alternate options akin to punch-hole cutouts and pop-up cameras, so it’s a matter of non-public style whether or not or not you’re a fan of the notch.
Digicam
The headline characteristic of the Xiaomi Observe 10 is its digital camera: the 108MP fundamental sensor is the primary of its type on a smartphone on the earth, and it’s such an necessary a part of the telephone’s id, and Xiaomi’s gross sales pitch, that ‘108MP’ is stamped on the telephone’s rear.
This fundamental rear digital camera is joined by a complete host of neighbors: there’s a 12MP sensor with a 2x telephoto lens for portrait mode; a second telephoto snapper, this one with 5x zoom and 5MP sensor, for zoomed photographs; a 20MP ultra-wide digital camera; and eventually a 2MP macro snapper.
Fortuitously, given the burden of expectation falling on it, the primary 108MP digital camera takes completely unimaginable photographs. Neglect the iPhone 11 Professional, Huawei P30 and even Realme X2 Professional – this telephone takes a number of the best-looking footage you’ll get from a smartphone.
Every thing right here is on level: colours are wealthy, distinction is suitably stark or delicate to suit the picture, and pictures are vivid. Footage are mechanically 4-in-1 pixel-binned to create 27MP snaps, however if you’d like (and also you aren’t anxious about operating out of space for storing) you possibly can shoot in full-blown 108MP.
Every thing right here is on level: colours are wealthy, distinction is suitably stark or delicate to suit the picture, and pictures are vivid. Footage are mechanically 4-in-1 pixel-binned to create 27MP snaps, however if you’d like (and also you aren’t anxious about operating out of space for storing) you possibly can shoot in full-blown 108MP.
Should you take 108MP footage, you possibly can zoom in on them after and also you’ll discover that the element and general high quality maintain up – that is nice for individuals who edit their photographs, because it means you possibly can crop footage with out worrying about them turning into too low-res. Not everybody might want to take 108MP snaps after all – it’s critical overkill for Instagram, for instance – but it surely’s a incredible choice to have.
Taking 108MP snaps has one other draw back, along with filling up your storage, because the Mi Observe 10 takes some time to course of them – whereas that is occurring you possibly can’t take different footage, view your snap, or go away the app. This will take from a couple of seconds to virtually a minute in some circumstances, and whereas it occurs sometimes with portrait, ultra-wide and regular photographs too, it was far more of a problem with 108MP photographs.
It’s a problem that stems from the system’s fundamental weak level: its processor, which we’ll get into within the ‘Specs and efficiency’ part of this evaluate. Suffice to say, it detracts from the pictures expertise considerably, however the picture high quality isn’t affected – and it’s unlikely that you simply’ll be firing off 108MP photographs all day.
The following digital camera we’ll speak about is the 12MP portrait digital camera, and once more it’s a deal with to make use of. Snaps taken with it reliably detected the topic and utilized acceptable background blurring, with little to no blurring of the topic, or any of the opposite points you generally get with ropey portrait modes.
The one drawback right here is that the sensor is paired with a 2x telephoto lens, so if you activate portrait mode this stage of zoom is mechanically utilized, and you’ll’t zoom out. This typically meant that we needed to take a couple of steps again earlier than taking a portrait shot, however we regularly discover that we should be a little bit nearer than is right to the topic to seize a good portrait on different telephones, so this wasn’t the tip of the world.
Beneath that telephoto lens is the second, which is used for long-range zoom photographs, and which presents 5x optical zoom. This snapper was a little bit disappointing, because the sensor is barely 5MP, so despite the fact that it may shut distances very nicely, the ensuing footage have been a little bit grainy and uninteresting. In reality, we regularly discovered it simpler to take a 108MP snap and crop it to simply the part we needed (however the problems with this digital camera talked about above). This sensor actually must have a better decision for zoomed photographs to be any good.
Speaking of redundant lenses, we actually struggled to take any first rate close-up footage with the macro lens and its 2MP sensor. Macro photographs have been grainy and low-res, and once more utilizing the primary digital camera returned significantly better outcomes. This snapper feels completely redundant and, with out desirous to sound too cynical, it feels a little bit prefer it was included to flesh out a specs listing. We might have most well-liked to see a OnePlus 7T Professional-esque macro mode with an ultra-wide lens, slightly than a weak devoted digital camera like this one.
The ultimate digital camera, the 20MP ultra-wide snapper, is decidedly ‘positive’. Footage taken with it seemed good, with out unreasonable quantities of distortion, however we weren’t precisely blown away with the outcomes. Saying that, that is the digital camera we used least in our time with the Mi Observe 10, and we think about it’ll be the identical for most individuals.
We additionally encountered an issue with this snapper that we haven’t come throughout earlier than on a telephone. It’s slightly low down the physique of the system, and infrequently after we have been attempting to take an image with it we’d discover that our fingers holding the telephone can be in body. Due to the way in which we maintain our telephone when taking footage, this was solely actually a problem when snapping in portrait orientation, however we regularly needed to reshoot footage after we observed our fingers creeping into the body.
On the entrance, the Xiaomi Mi Observe 10 has a 32MP digital camera housed in that aforementioned notch, and we had nice enjoyable enjoying round with its numerous filters and options. Selfies seemed fairly vibrant and high-quality,and the system’s software program was apt at figuring out and blurring backgrounds however not topics.
In order that’s the lenses lined, however for many individuals, how good a digital camera telephone is depends upon ease of use and options as a lot because it does on out-and-out picture high quality. As beforehand talked about, the Mi Observe 10 was generally a little bit sluggish in use, taking some time to course of photographs. It additionally crashed sometimes, and we misplaced a couple of footage this manner in the event that they hadn’t completed processing. Once more, that is all all the way down to the chipset, which we’ll get to shortly.
By way of video high quality, you possibly can document as much as 4K. That is regardless of 6K video recording being one of many touted options of the 108MP sensor, so the absence is curious, and after we requested Xiaomi about this at a product briefing, they didn’t appear to have a lot of a solution. Saying that, comparatively few individuals would truly be capable of benefit from 6K content material, so it’s not an enormous subject proper now.
There are a couple of image or video modes that some customers will benefit from, however every had a downside. Gradual movement video is at all times a cool characteristic, nevertheless on the Xiaomi Mi Observe 10 that is captured the ultra-wide snapper, however cropped to suit the identical field-of-view as the primary image, which ends up in a lack of picture high quality. Vlog Mode is nice for simply creating jump-cut short-form movies, but it surely solely works with the rear cameras, so you possibly can’t truly movie your self.
Evening mode for stills right here isn’t unimaginable, as footage taken on this mode seemed indistinguishable from snaps taken with out the mode enabled. In reality, all low-light photographs from the telephone digital camera seemed a little bit noisy, no matter which snapper was used, though the primary digital camera pulled in sufficient mild to compensate at occasions.
Our evaluation of the Xiaomi Mi Observe 10’s digital camera evaluation might sound as if we’re fairly down on them, and it does really feel like Xiaomi tried to cram in a great deal of options right here with out fleshing them out correctly, which is why there’s tons to critique. However the primary and portrait snappers greater than make up for the shortcomings of the remaining, and general the handset takes unimaginable footage.
Digicam samples
Specs and efficiency
We’ve alluded to the Xiaomi Mi Observe 10’s main weak spot above, and now we are able to focus on it in additional element: the handset’s chipset simply isn’t ok. There’s a Snapdragon 730G chipset right here, which is a good mid-range processor that’s optimized for gaming, however in a telephone that aspires to premium standing it’s merely less than the job.
The primary knock-on impact of that is the aforementioned sluggish picture processing occasions, and the actual fact the digital camera app (and some different apps from time to time) tend to crash, however we additionally really feel the surprisingly mediocre battery efficiency (as we’ll get onto) may very well be a results of this too.
If Xiaomi was trying to create a telephone that might genuinely rival the perfect from the likes of Apple and Samsung, it may have opted for the top-end(at the least when the Mi Observe 10 launched) the Snapdragon 855 chipset, which might have comfortably dealt with every thing demanded of it.
Nevertheless, ifyou have a look at the Mi Observe 10 extra as an completed mid-range telephone, slightly than a pretender to the premium throne, the sub-par processor turns into much less of a problem, and you could really feel which you could dwell with the occasional crash and brief delay given the value of this handset.
In terms of gaming, the Xiaomi Mi Observe 10 makes the a lot of the Snapdragon 730G chipset, and we hardly ever observed stutters whereas enjoying top-end video games like Name of Responsibility Cellular. The display high quality made the expertise fairly nice too, so for those who’re searching for a superb smartphone for gaming, you received’t go far unsuitable right here.
The Mi Observe 10 is out there with both 6GB or 8GB of RAM. Formally the 8G model known as the Observe 10 Professional, however apart from further RAM the one distinction is that the Professional has 256GB of storage, slightly than the 128GB of the bottom model, so there’s not an enormous distinction between the 2,
One thing that we discovered fairly spectacular within the Mi Observe 10 is the speaker, which delivers good high quality audio with ample quantity. It’s only a single mono speaker, and if you’re watching content material or enjoying video games you possibly can by chance cowl it together with your hand, but it surely’s a good speaker for a telephone.
The speaker is nice for listening to music, however maybe your wi-fi headphones received’t be – we had some points with Bluetooth, when linked each to audio system and headphones, in that it will sometimes lower out or stutter. This didn’t make the telephone unusable for music playback, but it surely was annoying when it occurred, which is one thing to keep in mind. The inclusion of a 3.5mm headphone jack means individuals who use wired headphones will likely be completely satisfied, although.
Software program
The Xiaomi Mi Observe 10 runs Android 9, which was the most recent working system accessible to Xiaomi gadgets when it launched, with the corporate’s MIUI interface laid excessive. MIUI’s aesthetic options rounded-square icons, and a muted shade scheme. Once we examined the Mi 9 we weren’t a fan of how the software program seemed, however lots has been improved since then.
As with all third-party person interfaces although, whether or not you favor it to different manufacturers’ UIs is essentially all the way down to style, because it’s principally a matter of aesthetics, with maybe a couple of variations by way of options and navigation.
Some issues aren’t ruled by style although, and MIUI has an issue that different Chinese language telephone firms have wrestled with in their very own UIs: bloatware. The Xiaomi Mi Observe 10 comes with a couple of pre-installed apps that we weren’t followers of, like internet browser Opera and some light-weight video games. On high of that sure app folders (solely ones that come already on the telephone, none ones you create) counsel further apps to obtain, which muddle up your telephone. Generally although, the issue is nowhere close to as unhealthy right here as we’ve seen elsewhere.
The Mi Observe 10 doesn’t have an app drawer by default, so apps you obtain will replenish the house display as an alternative, however you possibly can allow the app drawer within the settings menu.
Generally, the telephone’s interface felt fairly snappy to navigate. We hardly ever skilled stuttering when navigating the menus, and aside from a couple of massive video games, apps opened promptly.
One factor we actually appreciated concerning the Mi Observe 10 was its face unlocking, which is likely one of the quickest implementations we’ve used – generally the telephone was so fast to unlock that we didn’t even get to see the lock display due to the velocity. This may very well be indicative of safety points although – it may very well be that the facial recognition tech isn’t superior sufficient to correctly analyse a face.
Battery life
The Xiaomi Mi Observe 10 battery capability is 5,260mAh, which is lots larger than you get in most fashionable smartphones – the iPhone 11’s battery is 3,110mAh, for instance, which is pretty typical. You’d count on, due to this fact, that the Mi Observe 10 would have excellent battery life – at the least a day and a half, or maybe even two days – however that’s not the case.
In reality, we discovered the Mi Observe 10 solely lasted roughly a day between fees, which was a little bit underwhelming given to the large measurement of the battery. Sure, that’s roughly how lengthy most smartphones final, however most handsets have smaller batteries – and because the telephone’s weight and thickness are probably all the way down to the battery measurement, this implies the additional heft is outwardly for nothing.
We count on the culprits accountable for draining the battery are the high-quality show, in addition to the actual chipset used right here. Regardless of the purpose, one-day battery life isn’t precisely disappointing in comparison with different telephones, however we have been anticipating a greater efficiency.
On the plus aspect, after we put the Mi Observe 10 by means of our battery check, which entails absolutely charging the telephone, turning the display brightness to max, leaving Wi-Fi on, and enjoying a 90-minute video, it dropped by solely 8%. That’s a powerful rating, crushed in 2019 solely by the Huawei P30 which misplaced 7%, and trumping principally each different smartphone.
This implies the battery is optimized nicely for viewing content material if not essentially different features, one thing with which we’d concur based mostly on our time streaming media.
Regardless of whether or not the Xiaomi Mi Observe 10 battery life and efficiency is nice sufficient for you, there’s a characteristic that might make up for it, and it’s the charging velocity – the 30W quick charging right here is spectacular, and can juice up your telephone very quickly.
In reality the charging velocity was so quick that we received out of the behavior of charging the Mi Observe 10 in a single day – the system was powered up sufficient as we received prepared for mattress that there was no want to go away it plugged in for the entire night time.
It stays to be seen what this super-speedy charging does for the battery in the long term – it’s doable that it may injury the battery over years of use, so we’d advise not leaving the handset plugged in for ages unnecessarily.
Purchase it if…
You wish to take top-quality footage
If you wish to take incredible-looking footage, or incredible portrait photographs, that is the telephone for you. Certain, there are some benefits to proudly owning a DSLR or mirrorless digital camera, however if you’d like to have the ability to take top-notch footage with a telephone, that is the one.
You need a telephone that feels nice within the hand
The curved display and rear of the Mi Observe 10 imply it feels good within the hand, no matter how massive or small your fingers are.
You need a premium-esque telephone with out breaking the financial institution
Xiaomi has priced the Mi Observe 10 super-competitively, and it’s received a lot of the trappings of a top-end telephone with out the value tag. So if you’d like a cutting-edge digital camera, curved-edge display, and snappy charging, with out paying high greenback, this can be a nice telephone for you.
Don’t purchase it if…
You hate notches
Xiaomi is sticking with the notch the place others have dropped it, and for those who don’t like even a small notch encroaching in your display you received’t just like the Mi Observe 10 – you’d in all probability choose a telephone with a punch-hole or pop-up selfie digital camera.
You do not care concerning the digital camera
The Mi Observe 10’s digital camera is its massive promoting level, so for those who’re not the kind who takes quite a lot of footage together with your telephone, otherwise you don’t want your photographs to be top-quality, you’re not going to benefit from this telephone.
You want a lot of processing energy
The Mi Observe 10 can play video games and media simply positive, however general its processor isn’t the perfect performer, so for those who want buckets of processing energy for multi-tasking you must search for a better-specced telephone.
First reviewed: February 2020
Competitors
Huawei P30 Professional
For a very long time the Huawei P30 Professional topped our listing of the perfect digital camera telephones. Whereas it doesn’t have the Mi Observe 10’s unimaginable 108MP sensor, it’s received a variety of highly effective post-processing options, in addition to some new {hardware} like (on the time) essentially the most high-res digital camera sensor ever, that lets you take some incredible footage. Because it launched its value has dropped a good bit, so now it’s undoubtedly a rival to the Mi Observe 10.
Learn our in-depth Huawei P30 Professional evaluate
Realme X2 Professional
The Realme X2 Professional was the primary widely-available telephone to have a 64MP sensor, and whereas that’s lower-res than the 108MP sensor within the Mi Observe 10, there are many different causes to love this handset, chief amongst them its large battery and 90Hz-refresh-rate display.
Learn our in-depth Realme X2 Professional evaluate
Xiaomi Mi 9
Should you like Xiaomi telephones however don’t want the model’s latest system, the Mi 9 launched early in 2019, and it has the trimmings of a good mid-range telephone, with no aspirations to premium standing, at a distinctly price range pric. It’s fairly low cost, however the specs are nothing to show your nostril up at both.
Learn our in-depth Xiaomi Mi 9 evaluate