The coronavirus outbreak has forced the GSMA to cancel the biggest mobile show of the year. MWC 2020 is officially dead, but that’s not entirely bad news. As we’ve already explained, we’ll be in for few interesting weeks when it comes to new mobile products. Everything that was supposed to be unveiled at MWC will be announced separately, with smartphone vendors already planning their own press events. The first announcement already happened online in China, where Xiaomi unveiled the Galaxy S20 rival we all expected to see at MWC. And the phone’s most surprising feature is wireless charging that so fast it actually beats the Galaxy S20’s fast wired charging.
That’s the Mi 10 series, which includes two devices, the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro. The two devices were announced via an online-only press event from China, xda-developers reports, and they’re exactly the kind of Galaxy S20 rivals that we expected them to be.
The phones feature the same overall glass-sandwich design complete with a hole-punch curved display on the front and a multi-lens camera system on the bottom. The 6.67-inch OLED screen comes with 90Hz refresh rate support, an in-screen fingerprint sensor, and a hole-punch 20-megapixel camera. The Pro model gets a display that supports increased brightness compared to the regular Mi 10.
Both phones share the same set of core specs. We’re looking at a Snapdragon 865 processor with built-in 5G support, up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM, up to 256GB of 512GB UFS 3.0 storage, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, USB-C connectivity, and Android 10.
The phones also pack similar camera modules, although the Pro’s primary camera has better specs. We’re looking at a 108-megapixel primary camera for both devices, with the Pro getting an 8P lens compared to 7P for the Mi 10. The Pro also features a 20-megapixel ultra-wide lens, 12-megapixel portrait lens, an 8-megapixel telephoto lens with 10x hybrid zoom. The Mi 10 has three additional cameras as well, including 13-megapixel ultra-wide, 2-megapixel macro, and 2-megapixel depth cameras.
Both phones support fast wired charging, at 30W for the Mi Pro and 50W for the Mi Pro, and both deliver the same wireless charging experience. That’s 30W wireless charging and 10W reverse wireless charging. The Galaxy S20 and S20+ only support 27W wired charging, which means the new Xiaomi phones would recharge faster than two Galaxy S20 models hooked up to a regular wired charger. The S20 Ultra does support 45W wired charging. When it comes to battery size, the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro feature 4,780 mAh and 4,500 mAh batteries, respectively.
The phones are already available for preorder in China, with the Mi 10 starting at 3,999 yuan ($575) for the 8GB/128GB version and going up to 4,699 yuan ($675) for the 12GB/256GB model. The Pro is more expensive, starting at 4,999 yuan ($715), with the 12GB/512GB Pro version selling for 5,999 yuan ($860).
Xiaomi was supposed to hold a press event in Barcelona on February 23rd to unveil the new Mi 10 phones, but it’ll announce them at a later date in the region.
