Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “The 108MP PHONE?? Xiaomi Mi Note 10 / Mi CC9 Pro review!”.
So I always hate saying that, if phones all about the camera, because nowadays it seems like every phone is focused on the camera, but this is the me note 10 and it’s the first phone with a 108 megapixel camera. Okay. First of all, don’t get all caught up in the hype of a camera being a hundred and eight megapixels megapixels aren’t always better, especially when you subdivide on a sensor. That’S the same size, in fact, there’s a reason why most cameras that do really well in low-light have less megapixels.
They are less subdivided on the same sensor. Now, when you put a hundred megapixels on something like the Fuji GFX 100, which is a huge medium format. Camera, it’s fine because you still get a lot of light information per diode on that sensor.
But when you put a hundred megapixels on a sensor, that’s three-quarters of an inch. You start to lose a lot of information. Now, don’t get me wrong! 3/4 of an inch is huge for a smartphone sensor.
In fact, that’s the biggest smartphone sensor that we’ve seen so far. The sony IMX 586 48 megapixel sensor – that’s been in like every single smartphone. This year is half an inch, so that’s actually quite a bit larger and even Huawei’s.
Mate 30 pro uses a smartphone sensor, that’s 0.65 inches, so this is even bigger than that so past. All that technical stuff you’re probably wondering how a hundred and eight megapixels actually looks on a smartphone and I’m pretty mixed. So an absolutely perfect light. Think midday in the middle of the summer.
You can get some pretty cool shots. You can definitely do min a little bit further in the Crofts mode than you could on a regular camera, but in pretty much anything besides absolutely perfect lighting, you’re gon na just want to use the bins 27 megapixel mode on this phone. I shot photos in perfect, medium and bad lighting and in almost every single situation, the regular 27 megapixel mode did a lot better than the 108 megapixel mode. Even sharpness and detail in perfect light looked better at most of the time on the 27 megapixel mode, and that’s because the camera is actually pixel bidding and what that means is it’s taking groups of four pixels on the sensor and acting as if they’re one giant Pixel diode, taking in the light and then using that as a big pixel of information. When you subdivide those into four sections, you just get a lot less light information and I don’t really see a point of having a one hundred and eight megapixel camera on a smartphone unless you can make the sensor a lot bigger, but all right. Let’S move on because this phone clearly isn’t all about the 108 megapixel camera below that sensor. You’Ve got a 2x telephoto camera and below that you’ve got a 3.7 X telephoto camera now Jemmy markets this as a 5 megapixel 5x optical zoom camera. But that’s not the case.
This is actually a 3.7 X optical zoom on an 8 megapixel sensor. That’S just kind of cropped in to 5 megapixels to produce a 5 megapixel image now you’re getting about the same reach as you would get on a 5x zoom. With this mode, but they aren’t the same thing: you’re still getting the same distortion as you get on that 3.7 X, optical zoom, and they also printed 5x optical on the phone. So that’s pretty misleading. In my opinion, below that, you’ve got an ultra wide sensor and then below that you’ve got a dedicated macro sensor. That’S 2 megapixels! So it’s clear that Xiaomi is really trying to make this phone a Swiss Army knife of cameras, and I feel, like they’ve, really done that here now.
If we can move past all that technical stuff, the actual images that I got out of this phone were really good. I’Ve always really enjoyed Xiaomi cameras because I feel like their colour profile and contrast and sharpness is just a nice middle ground than what we see in smartphones today. Most phones currently are either over sharpened or have too much contrast, and they just don’t look realistic, but Jamie’s really gone with a more subtle approach and it looks a little bit more like a Fujifilm camera portrait mode shots also looked pretty good, they did sharpen faces A little bit more than they would in normal shots, but overall I think they looked really nice. They had very good edge detection and color and sharpness were good. Now.
The other interesting thing about the Xiaomi me Note 10 is it’s: got a freaking huge battery. It’S 5260 milliamp hours, which is absolutely massive, especially when you compare it to how thin the device actually is. This one looks pretty generic.
It kind of just looks like a generic on our phone to me, but it maintained the same footprint as most of the other phones that you’ll find on the market right now, and the ability to put such a massive battery in a phone. This thin is pretty insane also. It comes with a 30 watt charger and that charger was able to charge this from zero to 100 % in just an hour in six minutes, which is really really fast, especially when you consider how much power is actually in this battery. Now the phones also got a 1080p AMOLED display and it looks really good. I’Ve never really thought that you needed a 2k display in a phone and when other manufacturers are using AMOLED displays and making their 1080p panels. Looking great, I think that Japanese really hit the nail on this one, as well as for other specs. You’Ve got six gigabytes of RAM 128 gigabytes of you, FS 2.1 storage and the Snapdragon 730 G. So know there are a lot of flagship specs in this phone, but unfortunately the chipset is just not there. It’S a gaming oriented version of a mid-range chip from Qualcomm, and I mean it was fine. I didn’t have any performance issues with it during my entire time. With the device it just scored a little bit lower on benchmarks, but unless you really care about that, I don’t think most people are going to notice. Also, it’s a lot lower power, which is probably contributing to the really good battery life that I’m seeing in this phone other extras. You’Ve got or an integrated fingerprint reader, it’s a little bit better than it was last generation and 88 % thinner. It’S now 7 by 9 millimeters instead of 7 by 7, millimeters like the last generation and you’ve also got a headphone jack and an IR blaster, and those are both really awesome to see – and I say this probably every time, but if a manufacturer can fit a 5260 million power battery in this phone this thin and include a headphone jack.
I mean come on now: a lot of people really hate, shammies UI and it’s not great, there’s no app drawer. It’S a really bubbly aesthetic and it’s ok. I mean if you hate it, you can always throw a launcher on it, but I probably wouldn’t use this stock also. This is new UI 11, which is based on Android 9 and if you’re shipping a phone at the end of 2019, when Android tends been out for a while. Now I don’t think you really have that many excuses for not putting Android 10 on your phone and dummy is charging 550 euros for this amount. So that means that this phone is in direct competition with the one Plus 70, now one plus 70 you’re getting the better snapdragon 855 plus you’re, getting the better ninety Hertz AMOLED display you’re, getting a better UI and on this phone you’re getting a more versatile set Of cameras and you’re getting a headphone jack and you’re getting a much better battery. So, honestly, if you’re in the European market, it really just depends on what’s important to you in a phone, do you want to faster, more fluid display with a better UI, or do you want a bigger battery and more cameras? A lot of people might say a bigger battery and more cameras. So if that’s your thing, this is a pretty decent device, but at the end of the day the me Note 9 is all about that 108 megapixel camera and I just don’t think we’re ready.
Yet for super high resolution cameras in smartphones, we really need to make sensors bigger before we’re able to ship phones with cameras like that, but I can’t fault Xiaomi for pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in a smart phone. If no was gon na push those boundaries, we’re never gon na get better cameras. We’Re never gon na get bigger sensors and I feel, like over time, will eventually get bigger and bigger sensors to where this starts making sense.
But for now I just want to say: don’t fall into the hype from 108 megapixels there’s a reason that Google has stuck to 12 megapixels and now 16 for so freakin long, but that’s been about it. For these yummy me Note. 10. Let me know if you have any questions in the comment section below I’ll, be sure to answer them head over to the website. I’Ve got a full written review of this phone with tons of photos, lots of photo samples.
If you want to actually see these pictures and until next time, I’ve been David with Android authority and I’ll catch, you in the next article .