[REVIEW] Xiaomi Mi Note 10: 108 MPx camera is incredible, but the phone has one flaw

For years, Chinese Xiaomi has been criticized for the insufficient quality of cameras in its models. The quality of photos and videos lagged behind the competition quite noticeably, but the manufacturer has taken action. It invested a lot of money and built its own division solely to develop mobile camera technology. Today, it runs one facility also in Europe, in Finland.

In the last two years, this big investment has started to pay off—and Xiaomi smartphones’ photo quality is now much closer to expensive competitors. Recently unveiled Xiaomi Mi Note 10 surprised the entire tech world with a 108 MP “penta” camera—the first to arrive with it.

The legendary Mi Note smartphone series has thus moved away from the original goal of competing with Samsung’s Galaxy Note models. What’s more, Mi Note 10 is the successor to the Mi Note 3 model that was introduced in 2017. Xiaomi therefore skipped 7 generations in the naming—but we don’t know why.

However, we managed to get our hands on this highly anticipated piece for testing, and we’re bringing you one of the first Slovak reviews. Is it truly a high-quality camera phone—or just marketing? You’ll find out in our detailed review.

Where we bought it

Before we get into the review itself, we’ll share a few details about the purchase. At the time we ordered it, it was exclusively available from the seller Gearbest.com with a very solid coupon.

You can find the best coupons here 👇

I want a discount on Mi Note 10

We ordered it on 7 November / November, and by 21.11 it was already on our desk. For shipping, we chose EU Priority Line, so it took just 14 calendar days—which is pretty good for shipping from China.

The interesting part is that Gearbest offers a warranty of up to 10 years for the Mi Note 2—something that hasn’t been common so far. What’s more, in case of a malfunction you can claim the warranty at a European service center, so you don’t need to ship the phone to China.

Standard packaging with accessories is already a classic

The Xiaomi Mi Note 10 comes in a black box with a big 10 label that’s part of its name. In the box, besides the smartphone, you’ll also find a solid protective case. For our black version, it’s a black rubber case.

The case is thick enough to cover the noticeably protruding rear camera perfectly. The package also includes the standard USB Type-C cable, and a very pleasant surprise is a fast 30 W charger—which isn’t common in the basic bundle.

There are also standard manuals and a SIM tray ejector pin. It doesn’t have a cut-out for a microSD card, but it does offer DualSIM functionality (NanoSIM + dual stand-by mode).

You can feel the luxury from the build

The moment you pick up the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 right after unboxing, you can tell it’s not any cheap smartphone. Its build quality is top-notch and made mostly of glass. That’s on the back—on the front you get a 3D curved display.

Everything is held together by a quality metal frame with a matte finish and bevelled edges. Design-wise, it’s very similar to a competing Huawei P30 Pro smartphone, so Xiaomi has drawn inspiration again—but this time from its Chinese rival.

We’ve chosen an elegant black color for the phone, but you can also get a bold green and a beautiful white. So there’s a pick for everyone.

As for dimensions and weight, the Mi Note 10 is definitely not the lightest smartphone. The measurements are 157.8 x 74.2 x 9.7 mm and the weight is 208 grams. So it’s not a compact phone, and users with smaller hands may have trouble using it one-handed. The higher weight is justified by the massive battery.

The front is dominated by a large 6,47“ display with an eye-catching 3D curve. It’s protected by Gorilla Glass 5, and on the top you still get a slowly disappearing cutout for the selfie camera. The notch is smaller and gets in the way very little in everyday use.

Above the camera there’s also a very loud speaker for phone calls, delivering clean sound. The bottom side is empty—it only has a narrow chin. Overall, the phone looks truly premium: the quality glass build and the curved display will delight lovers of luxury.

When it comes to the layout of the controls, it’s already the classic setup we’ve come to expect from Xiaomi. The left side has the power button, with volume buttons above it. The dual nanoSIM slot is also on this side, which leaves the right side completely empty.

The bottom edge has a mono speaker, a USB Type-C connector, and this time Xiaomi didn’t forget the 3,5 mm audio jack either. On the opposite top edge you’ll find an IR sensor for controlling household appliances and a microphone.

The back hides the jewel of this smartphone—a 108 MPx “penta” camera. 5 sensors in a vertical arrangement together with a pair of dual LED flash units.

This monstrous camera setup takes up a decent amount of space and the cameras sit noticeably proud. Without a case, the smartphone will tip around on a flat surface—like on a table as if it were a little seesaw. We definitely recommend using the included protective case.

So the build is (almost) perfect. Still, some people might miss water and dust certification on a premium smartphone like this, which you would expect to be here.

Watching the display is a pleasure

6,47“ AMOLED panel with a brightness of 600 nits, a contrast ratio of 400 000:1, FullHD+ resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels, pixel density of 405 ppi, and a color gamut of 103 % NTSC. You also get the double-tap feature to turn on the display, as well as lifting the device with the same functionality.

In the case of the Mi Note 10 display, Xiaomi really outdid itself. The company enhanced the quality AMOLED panel with a stylish 3D curved build that “pulls” the display all the way to the edges of the frame. When you swipe through the home screens, the curve is visible perhaps the most—and it creates a truly interesting “waterfall” effect.

These are the main display specs for the Mi Note 10. Some of the numbers might not mean much to you. In reality, though, it’s an absolutely gorgeous viewing panel that’s a joy to look at. It delivers beautiful colors, excellent viewing angles, and high brightness in direct sunlight. At night, it’s also gentle on your eyes, and Xiaomi deserves praise for balancing the maximum and minimum brightness levels.

There’s also an ambient mode for showing the time and notifications—quite a practical feature. The manufacturer also strongly highlights the curved display edges. It genuinely feels premium, following the style of flagship models. In real life, though, the usefulness of this feature is questionable. The color rendering and even the text are distorted at the edges.

Performance is the aforementioned shortcoming

Inside the device you’ll find an octa-core processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G (2 x 2.2 GHz Kryo 470 Gold + 6 x 1.8 GHz Kryo 470 Silver). It’s a fairly new chip focused on mobile gaming performance, but the smartphone still manages to feel sluggish in places.

Right after the release, the processor was immediately criticized by fans—probably the most of all. We were a bit skeptical too, since even processing 108 MPx photos would call for a flagship Snapdragon chip. The reviewers split their take on performance and smoothness, because two of our testers ran the phone and had different opinions.

Performance rating by tester Jura:

I used Xiaomi Mi Note 10 really intensively during our 10‑day work trip in China. On the one hand, I wanted to see what it could handle, and on the other, I simply needed to use it.

Throughout my stay, I used mobile data on a Chinese SIM card, with VPN constantly turned on. I also hotspot-shared the internet with the rest of the “crew”, took a ton of photos and filmed a lot, and used social media.

I have to say my feelings about performance are very mixed. With such demanding use, the smartphone often couldn’t keep up—it would simply “lag”. It even froze completely three times, and I had to force-restart it. I’ve been using Xiaomi phones for years, and this has never happened to me before, and I wouldn’t expect it from Xiaomi either.

I also ran into a slow camera. Even just launching the camera app, the image would stutter first and only then start up. Taking 108 MPx photos is slow—it took even 2-3 seconds for the photo to save. Later, I also encountered long creation times for regular photos and the gallery freezing when browsing photos or videos.

On the other hand, I’m very glad about the massive battery—it often carried me through and handled my entire demanding day in China. I didn’t need any power bank.

However, I have to say that after I got home and uninstalled the VPN app, the freezing issues stopped. In normal everyday use at home or in office conditions, the phone is very smooth. More demanding usage is what causes problems.

Performance rating by tester Slava:

Occasional stuttering isn’t exactly the processor or other hardware’s fault. I noticed it mainly when frequently using the camera app and processing photos in the gallery. Literally, for this configuration, it calls for a more powerful Snapdragon 855 model—or 855+.

Gaming performance is definitely not bad, and the included Adreno 618 graphics accelerator helps too.

So the processor itself remains a slight disappointment—the AnTuTu “benchmark” test results you can check in the gallery above.

This time, no microSD card

In terms of memory, the smartphone currently offers 6 GB RAM, which is quite common. Considering the computing power—especially in the camera area—we could imagine a better optimized version with 8 GB RAM. What a pity.

The internal storage is where the manufacturer didn’t hold back, and at this price it offers 128 GB. That’s enough capacity for the vast majority of users, as long as you’re not exclusively taking every photo in full-resolution 108 MPx.

We didn’t have any issues with storage capacity. After the first boot, Android and the MIUI overlay take up less than 11 GB, and after installing about three dozen apps, we still had a decent amount of free space—114 GB—on the phone. However, it’s necessary to keep in mind that the smartphone does not support expanding storage with a microSD card.

An in-display reader won’t be embarrassing

The fingerprint sensor is placed under the display, so it doesn’t disrupt the device’s overall design. Its placement is emphasized with a lighting effect, similar to the way it’s used. It’s an optical sensor, and although it isn’t as fast as standard sensors on the back, it’s absolutely not bad.

You could say it’s the better option of what’s currently being sold on the market in the form of an under-display sensor. We didn’t have any issues with recognition—that’s good news. Still, there’s some waiting time. Also, recognition is worse and problematic with slightly damp or oily skin.

Android 9 Pie is missing, along with the latest MIUI 11 skin.

Software is just as important on any Android smartphone. In this case, we still have Android 9 Pie, while an update to the latest Android 10 is still pending. Still, the device includes Google’s security packages as of 01.11.2019, which is good news—so only the December update is missing.

Along with the system itself, the new skin isn’t missing either, marked as MIUI 11.0.11. We updated to the latest version during our testing, and we definitely praise the manufacturer for this support. The current version also doesn’t lack a full dark mode, which can even help save battery on AMOLED panels. You also get an updated font, device sounds, and other improvements.

So the system is regularly updated and properly optimized. Unwanted stuttering or sluggish behavior showed up only with the previously mentioned use of the camera app, or the photo gallery when processing images.

108 MPx „penta“ camera—makes sense

The smartphone is equipped with no fewer than five rear cameras, which is definitely unusual in this price category. And the camera is the biggest draw of this smartphone.

It all starts with the 25 mm main 108 MPx (f/1.7) sensor, delivering truly detailed photos with a beautiful—and above all natural—depth of field.

In spite of that, the vast majority of users will still go for the automatic mode, which produces 16 MPx photos from the main sensor using the well-known pixel-binning technology.

Among other cameras, there’s also a 50 mm 12 MPx (f/2.0) telephoto lens with laser focusing and 2x optical zoom, a 5 MPx sensor (f/2.0, upscale to 8 MPx) for use with up to 5-times optical zoom, a 20 MPx wide-angle lens (f/2.2), but also a “just” 2 MPx “macro” sensor.

You can record video up to 2160p (30 fps). However, 1080p video (60 fps) offers a slightly better stabilization. Timelapse, slow-motion video, as well as HDR or panorama are also available.

The three rear cameras protrude quite noticeably from the device body in a single module. The other two sensors are located under this module—possibly even too low. Their placement on the back is basically asking for accidental fingertip touches.

When shooting with the ultra-wide sensor, we often found that we accidentally covered the camera sensor with our finger. This sensor placement could have been higher.

The front camera offers 32 MPx (f/2.0) resolution and sits at the front in a cutout on the display. It also supports HDR, sharp photos, and records 1080p video (30 fps). The photos themselves are at a very good level in terms of sharpness and detail—colors are realistic, and possibly even a bit too neutral.

In DxOMark, it’s second in the world—so what’s the reality?

If you’ve been following the Mi Note 10 model, you’ve definitely heard about its rating in the reputable DxOMark test. The testers gave it a total of 121 points, placing it second in the global rankings. Ahead of it is only the Huawei Mate 30 Pro— even the more expensive iPhone 11 Pro Max couldn’t overtake it.

However, it’s worth noting that in the DxOmark test they used the Xiaomi CC9 Pro Premium version (in Europe known as Mi Note 10 Pro), which has a slightly better main sensor. The 108 MPx sensor in this model is made up of 8P lenses, while the standard Mi Note 10 model has 7P lenses. More lenses help with better light throughput, so the night photos are correspondingly a bit higher quality.

Alright, we’ve got the theory out of the way—what about real life? When creating the first photos with the Mi Note 10 and then viewing them on the phone’s display, we weren’t exactly blown away by the quality. But when you look at the results on a large computer monitor, the quality is very high—almost breathtaking!

12 032 x 9 024 px

The photos are very sharp, especially for the main sensor. The camera’s base mode creates 27 MPx photos; to shoot 108 MPx photos, you need to switch to another mode. As we already mentioned, saving these photos takes 2-3 seconds, but the results are definitely worth it. Below you’ll find a few examples of what exactly the resolution 12 032 x 9 024 px means.

Photo crops at a 100-percent zoom.

Night photos

Classic daytime photos are handled by the Mi Note 10 with the left rear camera, so we won’t really go into them. We’ll focus on night photography, where many smartphones struggle. We can say that even in poor lighting conditions, the phone performs really well. Of course, there’s some noise, but overall the photos are very sharp.

The photos in the review have been resized; you can find them in full quality in the link below.

We recommend using the built-in Night mode with common sense – it’s not always the resulting photo is better than in the standard mode. Night mode tends to overexpose some objects, and the photos aren’t as contrasty.

50-x zoom

Another highlight of the Mi Note 10 camera is the telephoto lens, which offers not only a 5-times optical zoom without losing quality, but also a crazy 50-times digital zoom. It’s questionable whether photos taken with this zoom are actually usable, but you can see an example below.

Video has amazing stabilization

A video camera is one of the best parts of the Mi Note 10 camera. Video stabilization is simply amazing—it even gives the impression that the video was shot with a gimbal. Just while walking and holding the phone in your hand, the image is stabilized really excellently.

It’s a bit disappointing that support is only for 4K video at 30 fps; in this price category we’d expect 60 fps from Xiaomi already. But here’s the stumbling block again—the processor. Still, FullHD video at 60 fps has better stabilization than the aforementioned 4K video.

Final verdict on the camera

So, to wrap it up. In the smartphone category up to 400 €, you definitely won’t find anything better. However, the camera can truly compete with global flagship devices, such as the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro, or Galaxy Note 10.

These are excellent photographic results—and this also applies to photos in poor lighting conditions. You can feel that the manufacturer truly invested in the photography equipment. Maybe it’s a pity about the worse “macro”. But be careful with full-fledged 108 MPx photos—one such photo takes up approximately 15 – 20 MB.

Original photos in full resolution are available in the link below.

More photos in original resolution from our trip to China you’ll find in this link.

In the gallery, we present previews of photos taken in daylight, photos taken in challenging lighting conditions, full 108 MPx shots, but also wide-angle and “macro” photos.

Seamless connectivity

As far as connectivity goes, we practically have no complaints. The smartphone offers full LTE networks also for Slovakia and the Czech Republic, so it’s also there the LTE B20 band (800 MHz) used by us.

You also can’t miss the NFC chip for practical contactless payments with your phone, for example via Google Pay.

Other equipment includes Wi‑Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0 A2DP LE with aptX HD support, GPS, A-GPS, GALILEO, or GLONASS, plus an infrared port for controlling home electronics and FM radio.

A huge, above-standard 5260 mAh battery

The thickness and weight of the device shows in the most positive way—Mi Note 10 comes with a truly above-standard battery with a total capacity of 5260 mAh. Yes, gaming and a demanding camera will take their toll, but this really won’t be just a one-day smartphone.

With standard use, we only started looking for a charger the following day in the afternoon. And it wasn’t just any charger—it was the one from the box with fast charging, rated up to 30W. Compared to flagship competitors, there’s no wireless charging feature, so you need to keep that in mind.

Battery life during normal use:

In our case, standard use involved truly active usage—social media around the clock, hourly phone calls, watching 1080p videos for about an hour, and occasional gaming. A passionate photographer or gamer may notice slightly lower battery life, but overall battery performance—and the battery used—are definitely worth praising. Thumb up.

Battery life under heavy use (VPN, constant mobile data, hotspot, GPS navigation, social media, web browsing):

Final verdict: A top-tier photo smartphone isn’t for everyone

For heavy users, the extra performance will definitely be missed—that’s a fact. However, this smartphone’s main advantages lie somewhere else.

This is a top-class photography setup, a beautiful AMOLED display, and a truly large battery capacity. On the other hand, it lacks IP certification support for enhanced durability, as well as wireless charging.

So if mobile photography is important to you and you also care about high-quality, premium device build, the new smartphone Mi Note 10 is definitely the model made for you.