Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro review: a seriously powerful Android smartphone

The Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro is another flagship-level phone from the Chinese manufacturer, as it looks to gain even more market share outside of its home country. It follows on from the superb Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro from last year, and fits alongside the other Mi 10 phones of 2020.

It's not a terribly easy range to figure out – there are several different-but-similar Mi 10 phones to pick from, with and without the T attached (though the T denotes the newer models), and then there are the Note models to take into consideration as well...

• PS5 secret we were desperate to discover just got exposed – and it's GREAT news
• Radical Samsung Galaxy S21 plan to outmanoeuvre iPhone 13 breaks cover
• All the best phones together in one place
• The best Android phones money can buy

It's perhaps easier to look at the prices to understand where each phone sits in the Xiaomi Mi 10 range. This Mi 10T Pro hasn't been given a UK price (or launch date) yet, but costs €599 in European markets – that works out at roughly £545, so mid-to-upper-range pricing.

That's a very reasonable cost for what are some flagship-level specs, but Xiaomi has always been about offering top-notch quality at a price much lower than the Samsungs and Apples of this world. Read on for plenty more in our full Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro review.

Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro review: price and availability

As we've said, the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro costs €599 in European markets – Xiaomi is unlikely to use a direct price currency conversion if and when it brings the phone to the UK, but we're talking a cost that's a little more than phones like the iPhone SE 2020 and the OnePlus Nord. As soon as we know pricing and availability for the UK, we'll let you know – if previous Xiaomi phones are any indication, it's likely that you'll be able to buy the phone direct from Xiaomi as well as from third-party sellers such as Amazon.

Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro review: design and screen

Image 1 of 2

The Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro is a big, slightly chunky phone, with a 6.67-inch, 1,080 x 2,400 pixel, IPS LCD display running at a rather impressive 144Hz – though it does adapt the refresh rate depending on what you're doing. It should give you a super-smooth experience when scrolling, gaming and watching movies, and we can confirm that's the case: this is a phone that keeps up the tradition of excellent Xiaomi displays.

Besides the 144Hz refresh rate, brightness and contrast are excellent, with the phone displaying punchy colours and clarity that make using it a pleasure. The only disruption to the screen is a single punch hole notch in the top left-hand corner as you look at it, and we're pleased to see the bezels around the display are as thin and unobtrusive as they should be on top-end phones these days.

The volume and power buttons are down the right-hand side of the device, and the power button has a fingerprint sensor built into it – we actually prefer having these sensors on the back of phones (or under the display), but you may disagree. At the back there's quite a significant camera bump. The phone's colour options are Cosmic Black, Lunar Silver and Aurora Blue.

As usual with Xiaomi, there are a few compromises – no IP68 waterproof rating is one – but taken as a whole we're pretty impressed with the build quality and the materials on offer with the Mi 10T Pro. It's a large phone for sure, but it's been put together well, and it comes with a gorgeous screen attached.

• These are the best gaming phones available now

Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro review: camera and battery

The main sensor on the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro's rear camera is a 108MP affair – that's a huge amount of megapixels, though the phone groups them together, so they won't all appear in your photos. That main lens is joined by a 13MP ultrawide lens and a 5MP macro lens to make three cameras in all. There's no optical zoom here, perhaps another nod towards getting the phone down to a very respectable price, but otherwise the phone offers some decent camera specs. The front-facing selfie camera comes in at 20 megapixels.

The snaps the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro takes are actually very good – darker and lighter areas are handled well, detail is retained well even on close inspection, and colours are well balanced. There does seem to be a bit of oversaturation going on with the default settings, but it's something we can live with, and we're not going to mark the phone down too much for that. Both close-ups and wide angle shots come out looking fine, and the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro has a perfectly capable camera for all your social media shots.

Image 1 of 9

The phone's rear camera also performs well in low light situations, with a night mode that manages to boost the brightness and illuminate a scene quite well – though you do need to be able to keep the phone very steady for a few seconds to get the best results. It's not the best low light performer we've ever seen, but it should be able to get some very usable shots for you most of the time.

Xiaomi has packed in a 5,000 mAh battery here, but battery life is good rather than amazing – the big screen and 144Hz refresh rate might have something to do with that. A two-hour video streaming test (at maximum brightness) knocked the battery down from 100 percent to 84 percent, suggesting around 12 hours of streaming altogether. That's a very respectable figure and this should see you through a day and then some. 33W fast charging is on board, though there's no wireless charging.

• Check out the brand new iPhone 12 range

Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro review: other specs and features

The Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro certainly comes with plenty of power packed inside – thanks to a Snapdragon 865 processor, 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of internal storage (which you can't add to with a memory card), the phone can hold its own against anything else on the market. In terms of power versus price, it might be one of the best value Android phones you can buy at the moment.

In day-to-day use we haven't noticed any sluggishness or slowing down – the phone speeds along just as quickly as you would expect. The phone posts impressive Geekbench 5 scores of 914 (single-core), 3371 (multi-core) and 3220 (OpenGL), so we'd suggest that this handset is going to last you a good number of years before there's any reason to upgrade it. Games, web browsing, image editing... the phone coped with it all nicely.

The stereo speakers do a good job for movies, podcasts and the like, though they're not anything special as far as phones go, and there's no headphone jack. Data transfer and charging is handled by a USB-C slot, and we're pleased to see support for the latest Wi-Fi 6 standard included. Like most phones at this point, the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro also comes with 5G on board, which is a bonus if next-gen connectivity has rolled out to your area.

As usual, Xiaomi slaps its MIUI software on top of Android (Android 10 in this case), and while there's nothing particularly wrong with it, we prefer the clean simplicity of stock Android – there are fewer apps and menu screens and settings to wade through. Xiaomi is by no means the worst in the software department, but it isn't our favourite either.

• These are the best small phones you can buy now

Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro review: price and verdict

We're big fans of the way Xiaomi puts its phones together and the prices that it sells them at, and there's a lot to like about the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro – it's well designed, it has an impressive screen, it comes carrying some of the best specs you'll see on an Android phone this year, and the camera and battery life won't let you down either.

Then there's the price: we don't know this for sure as far as the UK goes, but based on what the phone sells for in Europe, this looks set to be a very good handset in terms of value for money. If you need 5G in a well-priced phone that scores highly in most of the key categories, then the Mi 10T Pro is worth a spot on your shortlist.

So why might you pick something else? Well, you can buy phones with better aesthetics and better cameras, and you can get 5G for less. Spend more, and you'll get extras like waterproofing, wireless charging and telephoto zoom. There are a lot of very good handsets to choose from at the moment – and quite a few of them are made by Xiaomi itself, in fact.

Everything considered, the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro is another example of the ability Xiaomi has to build top-quality phones at very appealing prices. While it might not quite be the most impressive handset that it's ever put out, it's definitely an option if you want your money to stretch as far as possible.

• Our picks for the best cheap phones currently available