Xiaomi Mi Note 10 review: is it worth taking a novelty with five cameras

An endless screen to get used to

We got a black smartphone with a glossy surface that plays with shades of gray in the light. The back is a real hell for cleaners: fingerprints or smears instantly remain on the case. We do not recommend wearing a model without a case. Fortunately, a transparent silicone is already included.

The gadget has thin frames and a small teardrop-shaped front camera - invisible enough not to be annoying. Mi Note 10 also released in white and emerald green, which bloggers dubbed a twin Huawei P30 Pro. And the truth: well, very similar.

The phone does not have sliding elements like a sliding front camera. This is a plus: this trend made more difficult to use than easier. For example, the phone became less resistant to moisture and dust. But the Mi Note 10 is not without such a time bomb. It has become a 3D ‑ AMOLED ‑ display, endless, like a Russian soul.

On the one hand, thanks to such a screen, watching a video seems like a holiday: the viewer is literally drawn into the screen. On the other hand, it has become much more difficult to shoot with a phone: the proportions are distorted, and it is now more problematic to estimate the distance to the object. Printing on a curved screen also takes some dexterity, and the edges are easy to scratch off of habit. In general, you cannot call a convenient feature.

On the back of the gadget there are five cameras that have become a hallmark of the flagship. We will talk about them later.

The Mi Note 10 is a large gadget, but not heavy at all. The elongated shape is perfect for sticking with it all evening. The smartphone does not slip out of the palm even without a case.

Contrast display and average sound

Screen diagonal - 6.47 inches, resolution - 2,340 × 1,080 pixels. The AMOLED display is fantastically contrasting and bright, the color reproduction is deep: it is a pleasure to watch photos and videos.

But the sound is mediocre: if everything is in order with the volume margin, then the playback quality is more likely to be three. So it will be pleasant to watch Pink Floyd's music videos, but not very much to listen to.

Not too powerful processor and constant overheating

The smartphone is powered by an eight-core Snapdragon 730G processor - completely non-flagship and non-top. In general, it is enough for all everyday tasks, but after a couple of minutes of hard work, the gadget starts to warm up like hell in your hands. The smartphone freezes even during simple games. Some difficulties arise during photography - we will talk about them further.

An important plus of the smartphone is a battery with a huge capacity of 5 260 mAh. The gadget can work without recharge for almost two days. In addition, it supports fast charging and accelerates to about 50% in half an hour.

6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage will hold all the applications and music you need.

Pictures that will have to wait

This is where the fun begins: the rear panel contains five special modules for different genres of shooting. The main find is the 108 megapixel main camera, which the Mi Note 10 received the first from Xiaomi smartphones. During shooting, you need to switch to it, because by default the gadget shoots at a resolution of 27 megapixels.

There is also a separate camera for macro photography, a 20 megapixel wide, as well as 5- and 12-megapixel modules with a telephoto lens.

According to representatives of Xiaomi, the pictures are super-detailed, even if you photograph at night and with shaky hands. In fact, everything is a little more prosaic.

Let's start with a 108MP camera. You will have to pay for the quality of the pictures with a long wait: the smartphone starts to freeze. We waited for our perfect photos for up to 20 seconds, and it turned out that other bloggers who tested the gadget faced similar problems. Shoot in a well-lit room or outdoors to get the most out of your camera.

At the same time, the photos really turn out to be of extremely high quality - you will notice even small cracks in the brickwork.

The footage captured at 27 megapixels is less detailed, but still of high quality.

There are 2x and 5x zoom functions - oddly enough, even with the latter, the images are super sharp.

The wide-angle lens is decent - though the photos come out a bit chilly. In night mode, it makes no sense to shoot with it: the detail is reduced to zero.

Photos in night mode take a very long time to process. The level of detail is mediocre: tracks in the snow merged into one gray spot. Trembling hands will also play negatively on the image, in general, the stabilization turned out to be worse than expected. Shooting at 108 megapixels in the dark looks livelier, but photographing flickering objects in this mode is still not worth it.

Selfies in the night mode are contraindicated: under different lighting conditions, the skin casts green or blue, and the circles under the eyes increase two times. In the daytime, there are no questions to the regime. True, we still felt that the pictures came out colder than we would like.

In the selfie settings, you can enlarge your lips or eyes. We do not recommend: looks unnatural

Video, in our opinion, is not the strong point of the smartphone: it turns out noisy and twitchy. If you want to play around, turn on the Vlog mode for video bloggers with different cinematic effects, but you shouldn't expect high professionalism of the shooting.

Here are the videos you get in motion.

To summarize, a phone with five cameras, one of which shoots 108MP, sounds exciting but isn't really impressive. We get high detail and embarrassing selfies, but waiting for half a minute during each photo session is rather tiring, so you have to choose between speed and quality.

Adequate protection and new difficulties with the display

Mi Note 10 supports unlocking using different types of PIN, fingerprint and face. The local analog of Face ID works flawlessly. If your password contains numbers 1, 9 and 0, then be prepared to make mistakes many times: because of the curved screen, it is not always possible to hit them the first time.

The most convenient way to unlock the phone with your finger: according to the manufacturer, the sensor of the novelty is thinner than that of its predecessors, and the scanning area has been significantly increased. We really never missed, the print worked quickly and accurately, even on the street.

Should I take it?

Mi Note 10 with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB storage costs 39,990 rubles, the Pro version with 8 GB of RAM and 245 GB - 44,990 rubles. For this money, you will get an excellent five cameras, an endless screen and the ability to recharge your smartphone in a matter of minutes.

Perhaps, for the quality of the shooting, we would forgive the smartphone and the unusual display, which is easy to knock, and not too clean sound, because the pictures are really detailed and clear. But alas: because of the not very powerful processor, the phone gets very hot, and when shooting with a 108-megapixel camera it dulls more often than we would like.

But if you are ready to come to terms with this (or your hands are constantly freezing) - take it without hesitation.

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The author thanks the company Xiaomi for the device provided for testing. The company had no way to influence the test result.