Xiaomi is once again owning the flagship smartphone category again with two new smartphone announcements today in its event. To celebrate the 8th anniversary of the company, the company is skipping the number ‘7’ and calling its new flagship the Mi 8, while no pun intended for the mishap of the Note 7, the new Mi 8 is once again the new affordable price champ in the flagship category, packing in a Snapdragon 845 AI Edition processor with storage options of up to 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, while prices start from RMB2699 (RM1,680) up to RMB3299 (RM2,054), easily owning the OnePlus 6 and its own Mi MIX 2s smartphone.
The Mi 8 doesn’t just come with the most top notch hardware specs, it is also the first Xiaomi flagship to come fitted with an AMOLED panel measuring 6.21-inches and produces a FHD+ resolution. While Xiaomi’s CEO Lei Jun admits that the notch is there due to design limitations, Xiaomi has in fact included a whole lot of hardware behind that bezel, which includes a 20-megapixel camera, proximity sensor, earpiece, infrared lighting and an infrared lighting, which the latter two are used for Face Unlock, making it the first Android smartphone to feature facial unlock technology on par with the iPhone X. Other than that, the Mi 8’s main camera uses the same dual camera system found on the MIX 2s, which comprises of dual 12MP sensors that features different focal lengths, 1.4µm sensor size and 4-axis OIS, the camera comes with over 200 AI scene detection features that scores 99 marks in DxO’s ranking, matching Samsung’s Galaxy S9+ and higher than the iPhone X.
Xiaomi seems to have taken design cues from HTC’s U12+ smartphone as well, as the company also announced the Mi 8 Explorer Edition that comes with a translucent back glass design, but apart from that, the Mi 8 Explorer Edition features an in-screen fingerprint sensor, a more advanced 3D facial recognition system, the rest of the performance internals remain the same as the top spec standard Mi 8. The Mi 8 Explorer Edition costs slightly more at RMB3699 (RM2,295), which is still very affordable.
As some might feel that the Mi 8 is too cumbersome for their hands to handle, Xiaomi has got that covered with the Mi 8 SE with a smaller 5.88″ AMOLED display. Though it doesn’t sport the Mi 8’s Snapdragon 845 AIE processor, this handset will feature an all new 10nm Snapdragon 710 AIE processor, it is the successor to the widely popular Snapdragon 660 and has much better power efficiency and performance that is still sufficient for many heavy duty tasks, the Mi 8 SE comes with either 4GB or 6GB RAM with 64GB of storage, the dual camera comprises of a 12+5MP sensor with AI scene recognition similar to the Mi 8, while the front camera remains the same at 20MP.
The Xiaomi Mi 8 SE’s price will start from RMB1799 (RM1,115) up to RMB1999 (RM1,240), which is an insanely low price for what it is capable of. The Mi 8, Mi 8 Explorer Edition and Mi 8 SE will come pre-installed with the company’s new MIUI 10 skin, which is now enhanced to work better with the AI capable processor on the phones and comes with the company’s XiaoAi smart assistant built in, though we believe the latter isn’t going to be available when the phone ships internationally.
