XIAOMI MI 8

REVIEW

Introduction

Announced less than a month ago and selling like hotcakes in its homeland, the Mi 8 is Xiaomi's latest top model. What happened to the Mi 7, you ask? Well, it's the company's 8-year anniversary, and it must be celebrated.

Looking at the Mi 8 and the Mi 6 side by side, it makes even more sense. You'd expect more contemporary design from the team that brought us the original Mi Mix and lead the way in minimal bezels, but the Mi 6 wasn't remotely that. Well, with the Mi 8, Xiaomi is back on the right track.

That means a 19-ish-to-9 tall screen with a notch like everyone else has. However, there's an infrared face recognition camera in there similar to what only a select few Galaxies can boast. Sadly, this regular Mi 8 doesn't get the Explorer edition's 3D face mapping and its under-display fingerprint reader - only a regular rear-mounted one for the vanilla model.

The two share cameras though, and they come straight from the Mi Mix 2S - a dual pixel 12MP primary cam and an extra 12MP one for 2x zoom, not unlike them high-end Galaxies. No high-end Galaxy has had a 20MP front-facing camera, but this Mi 8 does.

The Mi 8 is big when it comes to positioning - it's the first phone to support the L5 band of GPS signal, supposedly making it that much more precise in dense urban environments. We'll see about that, even if it's not strictly a Hong Kong skyline we have here.

The rest is pretty standard for a 2018 flagship - Snapdragon 845 goes without saying, there's 6 gigs of RAM on board and your choice of 64, 128 or 256GB of storage, the 3,400mAh battery looks about adequate, and the Android version is 8.1 Oreo (as if it makes that much of a difference with MIUI on top).

Xiaomi Mi 8 specs

Body: 7000-series aluminum frame, Gorilla Glass 5 front and back; 154.9x74.8x7.6mm, 175g.
Display: 6.21" Super AMOLED, 2,248x1,080px resolution, 18.7:9 aspect ratio, 402ppi; HDR 10 and DCI-P3 compliant.
Rear camera: Primary 12MP, Type 1/2.55" sensor, 1.4µm pixel size, f/1.8 aperture, dual pixel PDAF, OIS; Secondary 12MP, Type 1/3.4" sensor, f/2.4 aperture, autofocus; 2x zoom. 2160p/30fps, 1080p/240fps slow motion.
Front camera: 20MP, 0.9µm pixel size, f/2.0 aperture; 1080p/30fps video recording.
OS: Android 8.1 Oreo; MIUI 9.5 custom overlay.
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845: octa-core CPU (4x2.8 GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4x1.7 GHz Kryo 385 Silver), Adreno 630 GPU.
Memory: 6GB of RAM; 64/128/256GB storage; no microSD slot.
Battery: 3,400mAh Li-Po (sealed); QuickCharge 4.0+ fast charging.
Connectivity:Dual-SIM; LTE-A, 4-Band carrier aggregation, Cat.16/13 (1Gbps/150Mbps); USB-C; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; dual-band GPS; Bluetooth 5.0
Misc: Rear-mounted fingerprint reader; single down-firing speaker; infrared face recognition; no 3.5mm jack.

Built-in storage may be plenty (or at least borderline sufficient for the 64GB version), but a microSD slot for expansion is always welcome, only there isn't one on the Mi 8. Not cool. Under the same category we'd file the lack of a 3.5mm jack, though it's not like we were expecting one - Xiaomi had already scrapped it for the Mi 6. At least they're still bundling a dongle. What else is in that box now?

KEY SPECIFICATIONS

NETWORK	Technology	GSM / CDMA / HSPA / LTE
	2G bands	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2
		CDMA 800 & TD-SCDMA
	3G bands	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100
	4G bands	LTE band 1(2100), 2(1900), 3(1800), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 12(700), 17(700), 20(800), 34(2000), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500)
	Speed	HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE-A (4CA) Cat16 1024/150 Mbps
	GPRS	Yes
	EDGE	Yes

LAUNCH	Announced	2018, May
LAUNCH	Status	Available. Released 2018, June

BODY	Dimensions	154.9 x 74.8 x 7.6 mm (6.10 x 2.94 x 0.30 in)
	Weight	175 g (6.17 oz)
	Build	Front/back glass (Gorilla Glass 5), aluminum frame (7000 series)
	SIM	Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

DISPLAY	Type	Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	6.21 inches, 97.1 cm² (~83.8% screen-to-body ratio)
	Resolution	1080 x 2248 pixels (~402 ppi density)
	Multitouch	Yes
	Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 5
		- HDR10 display - DCI-P3 - MIUI 9.5

PLATFORM	OS	Android 8.1 (Oreo)
	Chipset	Qualcomm SDM845 Snapdragon 845 (10 nm)
	CPU	Octa-core (4x2.8 GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 385 Silver)
	GPU	Adreno 630

MEMORY	Card slot	No
	Internal	64/128/256 GB, 6 GB RAM or 128 GB, 8 GB RAM

MAIN CAMERA	Dual	12 MP, f/1.8, 1/2.55", 1.4µm, 4-axis OIS, dual pixel PDAF 12 MP, f/2.4, 56mm (telephoto), 1/3.4", 1.0µm, AF, 2x optical zoom
	Features	Dual-LED flash, HDR, panorama
	Video	2160p@30fps, 1080p@30/120/240fps

SELFIE CAMERA	Single	20 MP, f/2.0, 0.9µm
	Video	1080p@30fps

SOUND	Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	No
		- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - Type-C to 3.5 mm headphone jack adapter

COMMS	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot
	Bluetooth	5.0, A2DP, LE, aptX HD
	GPS	Yes, with dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS
	NFC	Yes
	Radio	No
	USB	Type-C 1.0 reversible connector

FEATURES	Sensors	Infrared face recognition, fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, barometer, compass
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
	Browser	HTML5
		- Fast battery charging (Quick Charge 4.0+) - MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.265 player - MP3/WAV/eAAC+/FLAC player - Photo/video editor - Document viewer

BATTERY		Non-removable Li-Po 3400 mAh battery

MISC	Colors	Black, Blue, White, Gold
	Price	About 380 EUR

TESTS	Performance	Basemark OS II: 4283 / Basemark OS II 2.0: 3858 Basemark X: 43285
	Display	Contrast ratio: Infinite (nominal), 4.086 (sunlight)
	Camera	Photo / Video
	Loudspeaker	Voice 68dB / Noise 72dB / Ring 82dB
	Audio quality	Noise -93.9dB / Crosstalk -93.7dB
	Battery life	Endurance rating 86h