Xiaomi VP Manu Kumar Jain has joined in the teaser campaign for the Xiaomi Mi 10i 5G. He posted a video describing the upcoming phone as an “extension” to the Mi 10, Mi 10T, Mi 10T Pro and even the Mi 10T Lite.
Anyway, the Mi 10i has been specifically
designed for India and uses a brand new camera sensor – a 108MP camera, as seen
in the numerous teasers that have come out recently. The full announcement will
be on January 5. You can see the quad camera of the phone in this teaser video.
The two labels of note are “108 MP AI camera” and “Built for 5G”. Xiaomi was
the first to use a 108 MP sensor, the ISOCELL HMX. However, Jain mentions that
this is a new sensor – he could be talking about the HM2, which Samsung unveiled
in September (the major difference is that it does 9-in-1 binning instead of
4-in-1 as the HMX).
The Xiaomi Mi 10i 5G will use a relatively
new chipset, though – the Snapdragon 750G was also unveiled in September and
the Mi 10T Lite was the first phone to use it. This explains the complicated
family relations mentioned in the beginning.
But the Mi 10i isn’t based on the 10T
Lite. Clues point to the Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G being used as the base. This means
a 6.67” IPS LCD with HDR10 and 120 Hz refresh rate, plus a 4,820 mAh battery
with 33W wired fast charging. There could be modifications to that recipe for
the India market, but we’ll find that out in less than a week. Amazon India has
a detailed landing page for the phone, the retail giant will be the exclusive
launch partner for the Mi 10i 5G. The phone should also be available on Mi.com
and brick-and-mortar stores, however.