The Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer is the premium phone in the
series. Besides its attractive translucent back, it also comes with a 3D face
scanner and an under display fingerprint reader. Naturally, this drives up the
price, but TENAA reveals that there may be a more affordable version in the
works. We’ve seen this device before, though TENAA hadn’t posted the photos at
that point and they certainly add a new dimension to the rumors.
The design looks similar, including the back, but
the notch on the front is noticeably narrower. Sure, the TENAA photo is quite
dark, but the selfie camera is right next to the earpiece. On the Mi 8 Explorer
(and regular Mi 8) those two are much farther apart.
Chances are the 3D face scanner is gone, perhaps
even the IR face recognition system of the base Mi 8. But since there’s not
fingerprint reader on the back, we have to assume that is still under the
display. Also, this phone has three RAM configurations: 4GB, 6GB and 8GB. The
Mi 8 phones have 6GB (base model) and 8GB (Explorer), only the Mi 8 SE has a
version with 4GB. Similarly, there are three storage capacities: 64GB, 128GB
and 256GB, presumably paired with the RAM options in order.
The screen seems to be the same (6.21” AMOLED,
1080p+), so does the chipset (Snapdragon 845) and the camera (back: dual 12MP,
front: single 20MP). We can expect the price to be between the Mi 8 Explorer
(US$ 530) and the regular Mi 8 (US$ 395).
