Xiaomi is finally announcing the new Xiaomi Mi 8. Featuring a notched display and Qualcomm’s best chipset yet, the Mi 8 is unsurprisingly a high-end flagship smartphone – it’s also touted to have a very good dual-camera system.
For starters, the Mi 8 has a 6.21-inch Full HD+ 2248 x 1080 AMOLED display. Yes, it has a notch at the top, and there’s still a small chin at the bottom of the phone. It’s not quite as sizeable as, say, the Huawei P20 Pro‘s bottom bezel, but it’s a chin nonetheless.
Aside from that, the Mi 8 also features a 12MP + 12MP dual-camera system, and it seems to be pretty darn promising. The camera has a large 1.4µm sensor, as well as four-axis optical image stabilisation. According to Xiaomi, DxOMark gave the Mi 8’s camera a total score of 99, ranking it at the same level as Samsung’s excellent Galaxy S9+.
As is the case with several phones in the market now, the Mi 8 comes with AI scene recognition too. Based on what the camera is pointed at, the phone will automatically choose a suitable setting to make the shot look more appealing.
The Mi 8’s front-facing camera is quite interesting too. Unlike other Android phones in the market, the Mi 8’s 20MP front-facing camera uses infrared technology for face unlock. This effectively lets the phone recognise you even in the dark without the need to brighten the display to illuminate your face – many Android phones with face unlock does this in low light conditions.
Rounding out the specifications of the Mi 8 are a Snapdragon 845 chipset paired with 6GB of RAM, up to 256GB of internal storage, a 3,400mAh battery, and a rear fingerprint sensor. Oh, there is also a translucent variant of the Mi 8 – the Mi 8 Explorer Edition.
For the most part, the Explorer Edition shares the same hardware as the standard Mi 8, but it comes with an in-screen fingerprint sensor, a more sophisticated 3D face recognition system, and a very, very sleek back design. Even more so than the HTC U12+, in my opinion. However, it does come with a slightly smaller 3,000mAh battery.
Pricing has always been Xiaomi’s strength, and it’s no different with the Xiaomi Mi 8. The base model with 64GB of storage retails at 2,699 Chinese yuan (about RM1,675), while the 128GB and 256GB variants go for 2,999 yuan (approximately RM1,865) and 3,299 yuan (around RM2,050) respectively.
The Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition, on the other hand, retails at 3,699 yuan (about RM2,295), and it comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. For now, it remains to be seen when – or if – the Mi 8 will be available in Malaysia.
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