Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro review: Bloatware and a hefty price tag make it hard to love this phone
Xiaomi's Mi 10 Pro has an inconspicuous front-facing 20-megapixel camera on the left side of the screen.
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The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G is a phone that costs roughly $1,100 when converted from its price in Europe (€999). The phone is stuffed with pretty much everything you'd expect from a premium 5G phone, including a Snapdragon 865 chipset, a 90Hz refresh rate display, a large 4,500-mAh battery, and even a 108-megapixel rear camera.
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For the most part, those specs meant that the Mi 10 Pro delivered the goods. But it has its shortcomings. The most obvious one is that the Mi 10 series lacks an IP rating for water resistance. The phone does have some degree of water resistance, but an actual IP rating would have given me some extra peace of mind. The other drawback is the phone came with a dizzying array of annoying preloaded apps and advertisements. It just feels cluttered compared to say a Pixel phone or even Galaxy phone. Depending on what carrier you get the phone through or if you get it unlocked, the apps that come out-of-the-box may be different from mine though.
If an IP rating is important to you, there are other Android phones to choose from, like the OnePlus 8 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S20 or the Motorola Edge Plus ($1,000 at Motorola). But even if water resistance isn't a priority, I'd still recommend any of those aforementioned phones over the Mi 10 Pro. Even though the Mi 10 Pro is impressive, it's simply way too expensive when compared to the competition based on its European pricing.
The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G has a 6.7-inch display with delicately curved edges.
Sareena Dayaram/CNET Pricing and international release
Mi 10 phones are available in several European and Asian countries, but Xiaomi stopped short of announcing any details of a US launch or release for the Mi 10 Pro. In Europe, the Mi 10 starts at €799 (8GB RAM/128GB), while the 10 Pro starts at €999 (8GB RAM/256GB). Convert that to US dollars and the Mi 10 and 10 Pro are $866 and $1,083, respectively.
Though I didn't get a chance to review it, the cheaper Mi 10 has mostly the same specs as the Pro, like a 90Hz display and large battery. But it lacks a telephoto lens in its quad-camera module. Instead, it has a macro and depth lens instead.
Design and display 
If you're willing to pay the price of battery life, Xiaomi has an always-on-display feature available (pictured above).
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The Mi 10 Pro has a large 6.7-inch AMOLED screen, delicately curved edges and ultra-narrow bezels. I love that Xiaomi eliminated the notch entirely and went with an inconspicuous in-display selfie camera on the left side. The phone comes in two colors, white and grey. I received the grey model for review and I absolutely adore the metallic grey finish. It has an attractive sheen but it's not too shiny. It is a fingerprint magnet though, so you'll either have to get a case for it or constantly wipe it down.
The Mi 10 Pro's 90Hz screen is a higher refresh rate than most phones, which have 60Hz displays. It's silky smooth and I love the way it looks, though it's not as high as the 120Hz screens on the OnePlus 8 Pro ($999 at OnePlus) and Galaxy S20. The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro also has a lower resolution than the Galaxy S20, so images and video aren't as sharp.
In addition, even though I'm a fan of big phones, the Mi 10 Pro is heavy. I have large-sized hands for a woman and one-handed use was still challenging for me.
The Mi 10 Pro features four cameras on the rear led by a 108-megapixel sensor.
Sareena Dayaram/CNET The Mi 10 Pro's 4 rear cameras
The Mi 10 Pro's biggest draw is its astonishing 108-megapixel camera. While more megapixels don't necessarily translate to better photos, the key advantage of having so many megapixels is that the image retains clarity when you zoom into it.
And that it did. The camera captured magnificently crisp and vibrant photos with a lot of detail. It caught details that I missed with my own eyes and, at certain lighting conditions, it captured more detail than other phones I used after zooming in.
The camera also has up to 50x digital zoom, but pictures taken zooming in that much, were extremely grainy and it's not something I see myself using much or at all. But pictures taken in using 5x zoom and even 10x still retained impressive detail and clarity.
This photo was taken in the afternoon using the phone's 108-megapixel camera.
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I cropped this photo from the picture above that was taken with 108-megapixel camera. This cropped picture retains impressive detail considering how far the buildings were from where I took the original photo.
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Both photos were taken with the standard shooter on an overcast day. You can see how the AI software perks up the green leaves on the image on the right.
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The image of the buildings on the left was taken with the ultra-wide camera.
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The was taken with the default 12-megapixel shooter.
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The image of the building was taken zooming in 5x on an overcast day. You can see that the photo is crisp and fairly detailed.
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The image of the building was taken zooming in 10x on an overcast day. It's an example of the Mi 10 Pro's 10x hybrid zoom capabilities.
Sareena Dayaram/CNET
The image of the building was taken using 50x digital zoom on an overcast day. The image is grainy and pixelated.
zooming in 5x on an overcast day.
Sareena Dayaram/CNET
The 108-MP camera was accompanied by three other shooters: a 20-megapixel ultra wide, and 12-megapixel telephoto lens and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens.
Photos taken in low light were also impressive. I took a photo when it was dark in my living room and I couldn't see much with my naked eye. But the camera managed to capture my living room with lots of detail. Sometimes the pictures weren't very color accurate, but overall pictures was rich considering the dark conditions the camera had to work with.
Compared to other phones like the iPhone XS ($900 at Sprint), portrait photos taken on the 10 Pro were only okay. It didn't capture as much detail as I would have liked, especially of my dog's fur (pictured below). Also the photos looked looked washed out in comparison.
I shot this image using the Mi 10 Pro's Night mode after sunset in Hong Kong. The sky was a blackish grey color in real life, but on the the image the sky looks blueish grey.
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Portrait mode comparison between the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro (left) and the iPhone XS Max (right). The iPhone XS captured a far more true-to-life color of my dog's golden brown fur.
Sareena Dayaram/CNET Software and design
This Grantit advertisement appeared on my screen immediately after the Google Play download completed of the CNET app. Advertisements like that one appeared every time I finished downloading a new app from the Google Play store.
Screenshot taken by Sareena Dayaram/CNET
Xiaomi's MIUI 11, which is layered on top of Android 10, is one of the more playful skins I've come across. It features bright colours and has some fun touches, like confetti animations appearing on the homescreen with certain wallpapers. There's also an always on display and dark mode. This is also very minor, but you can take screenshots or adjust the phone's volume by swiping three fingers downwards on the home screen. This took a bit of time to get used to, but it was easy enough to learn and ended up being kind of fun.
What is irritating though is that I was served ads every single time I finished downloading an app on Google Play, or when I used apps native to Xiaomi's MUIU 11, like its Theme app for changing the wallpaper. These ads can be turned off, but it's a tedious process and if I'm paying $1,000+ for a phone, I do not need this to be part of my user experience. For this reason, I felt I had to ding the phone's rating under the Features category.
Performance and battery
There's a discreet in-display camera on the left side of the screen of Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G.
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The Mi 10 Pro has a 4,500-mAh battery, which is surprisingly smaller than the 4,780-mAh battery inside the more affordable Mi 10. We're in the middle of revising our battery testing procedure, but overall I was pleased with the battery performance. Anecdotally, it lasted more than 24 hours with medium usage. That means I checked my email, WhatsApp and social media apps, watched YouTube videos for a few minutes, and made a few short calls, while the display was set to 90Hz. I also ended up tethering my phone's internet connection to my laptop for about two hours when my connection went down. At that point the battery was at about 30%.
The next day, I didn't use my phone as a hotspot and the battery lasted more than 34 hours with similar usage as the day before. When the Mi 10 Pro did run out of battery, it took nearly 30 minutes to charge it to 60% and about 55 minutes for it to fully charge. Though that is pretty good, it's not as impressive as the charging speed of the pricier Oppo Find X2 Pro ($1,199 at Giztop), which charged up to 100% in 38 minutes
One of my favorite things about the Mi 10 Pro is its reverse wireless charging capability. Featured on phones like the Galaxy S20 and OnePlus 8 Pro, the phone can charge other phones and accessories wirelessly. It's a handy feature s when you need that emergency top-up, say like charging your Airpod Pros before a workout.
The Mi 10 Pro has the newest Snapdragon 865 chipset with 12GB of RAM. On benchmark tests, it stacked up well against other phones with the same chip.
Xiaomi's Mi 10 Pro looks sleek and modern with its curved edges See all photos 3DMark Slingshot Unlimited Note: Longer bars indicate better performance Geekbench v.5.0 single-core Note: Longer bars indicate better performance Geekbench v.5.0 multicore Note: Longer bars indicate better performance Mi 10 Pro series versus One Plus 8 Series Mi 10 Mi 10 Pro OnePlus 8 OnePlus 8 Pro 6.67-inch AMOLED, 2,340 x 1,080 pixels (Full HD) 6.67-inch AMOLED; 2,340 x 1,080 pixels (Full HD) 6.55-inch AMOLED; 1,080x2,400 pixels 6.78-inch AMOLED; 1,440x3,168 pixels 386ppi 386ppi 402ppi 513ppi 6.4 x 3 x 0.35 in 6.4 x 3 x 0.35 in 6.3 x 2.8 x 0.31 in 6.51 x 2.93 x 0.35 in 162.58 x 74.80 x 8.96mm 162.58 x 74.80 x 8.96mm 160 x 72.9 x 8.0 mm 165 x 74.4 x 8.5 mm 208g 208g 6.35 oz; 180g 7.02 oz; 199g Android 10 Android 10 Android 10 Android 10 108-megapixel (primary), 13-megapixel (ultrawide), 2-megapixel (macro) , 2-megapixel (depth) 108-megapixel (primary), 20MP (ultrawide), 12-megapixel (telephoto), 8-megapixel (telephoto) 48-megapixel (standard), 16-megapixel (ultra-wide), 2-megapixel (macro) 48-megapixel (standard), 48-megapixel (ultra-wide), 8-megapixel (telephoto), 5-megapixel ('color filter') 20-megapixel 20-megapixel 16-megapixel 16-megapixel 8K 8K 4K 4K Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 128GB, 256GB, 256GB, 128GB, 256GB 128GB, 256GB 8GB, 12 GB 8GB, 12 GB 8GB, 12GB 8GB, 12GB None None No No 4780 maH (30W wired and wireless charging) IN box charger 30W 4,500 mAh (50W wired and 30W wireless fast charging . • In-box charger: 65W ) 4,300mAh 4,510mAh In-screen In-screen In-screen In-screen USB-C USB-C USB-C USB-C None None No No 30W wireless charging, dual stereo speakers, 5G enabled, reverse wireless charging, in display fingerprint reader 30W wireless charging, dual stereo speakers, 5G enabled, reverse wireless charging, 90 Hz, in-display fingerprint reader 5G enabled; Warp Charge; 90Hz refresh rate 5G enabled; Warp Charge; reverse wireless charging; water resistant (IP68); 120Hz refresh rate starting at €799 (8/128GB) , converts to roughly $866; and €899 (8/256GB), which converts to roughly $985 starting at €999, converts to $1096 $699 (8GB RAM/128GB), $799 (12GB RAM/256GB) $899 (8GB RAM/128GB), $999 (12GB RAM/256GB
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