After months of leaks and rumors, the much awaited Xiaomi Mi 8 and more premium Xiaomi Mi 8 SE are finally here. Let’s now see if Xiaomi confirms all the features we’ve been hyped about in the last weeks.
Xiaomi Mi 8
Design
As expected, the Xiaomi Mi 8 comes with a notch at the front on top of its 6.21-inch FHD+ 18.7:9 Samsung AMOLED display with an 88.5% screen-to-body ratio and a brightness of 600nit. The rest of the body is made out of glass with a dual rear camera setup in the upper left corner, meanwhile the fingerprint scanner is placed in the middle.
What’s really different from previous Xiaomi phones (aside from the notch) is the dedicated button we find on the left of the phone. Xiaomi explained that said button will be used to launch MIUI AI’s assistant, which will hopefully work outside of China as well, or at least give us the option to remap it to Google’s Assistant.
Hardware
Not too many surprises as far as hardware goes. The Xiaomi Mi 8 is powered by the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 along with 6GB of RAM and 64GB, 128GB or 256GB of internal storage.
The hardware combo is so high-end that it managed to score over 300.000 on the Antutu benchmark software, making it the best scoring Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 phone on the market.
The smartphones comes with NFC for payments on the go as well as a new dual-frequency GPS module. This leading technology should be far more accurate than the GPS receivers we find today, with an accuracy of around 30 centimeters.
Cameras
The Xiaomi Mi 8 packs a 12MP+12MP rear camera setup with 1.4um pixel size, 4-axis OIS, dual pixel autofocus and AI scene detection. Meanwhile on the front we find a 20MP shooter with 1.8um massive pixels, F/2.0 aperture, AI portrait mode and AI beautify.
Along with the 20MP front camera, we also find an infrared lighting emitter and an infrared lens for Face Unlock to work.
Gizchina News of the week
Xiaomi’s 8th anniversary phone managed to score 105 points in the DxOMark “photo” benchmark and got a 99 general score (same as the Samsung S9 Plus), which means the smartphone is expected to snap some quite amazing pictures.
Some comparisons between the Xiaomi Mi 8, iPhone X and Huawei P20 as well as AI scene detection at work:
Pricing
The Xiaomi Mi 8 will be priced starting at 2699 Yuan, which is about $420, for the 6GB+64GB version, an incredible price tag for what it offers. There are also two models with 128GB and 256GB of storage costing 2999 Yuan ($467) and 3299 Yuan ($514.73) respectively.
Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition
Xiaomi surprised everybody with yet another phone getting launched, the Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition.
The smartphone is basically an upgraded Mi 8 with a translucent back cover, an under-display fingerprint scanner and 3D Face ID. Xiaomi’s face recognition system works in the same way as what we find on the iPhone X. This means it utilizes a dot projector and a flood illuminator to precisely register and recognize a face, making it much more accurate than other Face recognition technologies.
Meanwhile fingerprint scanner works in a small portion of the display, which means it’s not as convenient as the half-display scanner on the VIVO Apex concept phone, but rather more like what we find on the VIVO X21 UD. That said, the Mi 8 SE sensor appears to be much faster than the one on VIVO’s phones.
The Mi 8 Explorer Edition comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of UFS2.1 internal storage.
Pricing
The Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition will be available for 3699 Yuan, around $577.60.
Xiaomi Mi 8 SE
Design
The Xiaomi Mi 8 SE is the smaller and more rectangular of the three coming with a 5.88-inch FHD+ AMOLED display along with the inevitable top notch.
Hardware
The Xiaomi Mi 8 SE is powered by the recently launched Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 – which makes its global debut- along with 4GB or 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage.
Cameras
The smartphone packs a 12MP+ 5MP camera combo on the back with AI and enhanced low-light photography. Meanwhile at the front we find a 20MP selfie snapper also supported by AI.
Pricing
The Xiaomi Mi 8 SE will be selling at 1799 Yuan, which is around $280, for the 4GB+64GB version and 1999 Yuan (about $310) for the model with 6GB of RAM.
So far the the explorer edition doesn’t look too bad, but that price tag is kinda high I think…
think i agree with you, would rather the under screen display on the base version as well
Indeed. I’d rather have just the under-screen on the base than the face unlock and backwards scanner…
Any talk about wireless charging, or waterproofing?
And most importantly when and where can we get it
Waterproofing might be inofficial like we saw in the Mi6 (no waterprofing for type c port) and on the One Plus.
The Explorer Edition is not expensive for what it is £432 is actually near the price of the one plus and that has far less tech inside it.
I agree, you get a lot more for the money. However this £432 will probably be in china only. I expect it to cost a lot more in europe. Also shops like gearbest will sell it for way more and then there’s a chance you also have to pay taxes…
Now this I bet you is a 1+ Killer… for all those idiots who bought 1+… FU!!
Why pissed at people that buy 1+ as if it effects you lol
It’s the right set of moves for mi. Again focus on audio is lacking. Should have supported jack and a dac for this price