It’s starting to seem like the Xiaomi Mi 10T might be the next big phone from the Chinese company, and it could be coming very soon.
The Xiaomi Mi 10 marked an emphatic entry into the premium smartphone market for Xiaomi, and a departure from the mid-range price point that the Xiaomi Mi 9, among others, sat. In the same way that phone had the Mi 9T succeed it later in the year, it seems the Mi 10 might have a Mi 10T coming soon.
This isn’t totally speculation on our part – it would fit the company’s annual refresh cycle, and it’s also something the company itself has teased – there’s more on that below.
The Xiaomi Mi 10T isn’t the only big phone we’re expecting from the company soon – the Mi Note 11 is expected towards the end of the year, with perhaps the Mi 11 in the beginning of 2020. But we’re expecting the Mi 10T to be the next one out of the gate, representing all the top tech from the company.
We don’t know too much about the Xiaomi Mi 10T just yet, but a few pieces of information have leaked, and Xiaomi has confirmed quite a bit too. Read on to find out what we know so far.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? An upgraded version of the Mi 10 from Xiaomi
- When is it out? By the end of September
- What will it cost? We’re not sure yet
Xiaomi Mi 10T release date and price
We’re expecting there to be a few different Xiaomi Mi 10T smartphones – we say this because a premium-sounding device has leaked a few times, but we also know Xiaomi is working on a new cheap 5G phone under the Mi 10 name.
We know this as a fact because Xiaomi itself confirmed it, in a tweet you can see below. Note, though, that the tweet states there’s a new ‘member’ of the line – could there be only one Mi 10T phone coming?
We’re going to launch a new 5G smartphone this September and it will start from £2XX!As a new member of our #Mi10 Series, it will be the first to feature an upcoming brand-new Qualcomm Snapdragon 7-Series 5G Mobile Platform. Amazing value for money to allow #5GForEveryone! pic.twitter.com/YUhOVM0BpgSeptember 1, 2020
Well, that tweet explicitly confirms the price of one member of the Mi 10T line, perhaps the Mi 10T Lite, but we have a leaked price for the ‘Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro’ too.
This phone was briefly listed on Amazon before being taken down, where it had the price tag of €666 (roughly $790, £610, AU$1,080). Since that’s quite a weird number, though, we’d take this with a pinch of salt.
A leak from Digital Chat Station, a fairly reliable leaker on Chinese social platform Weibo, suggested the Mi 10T Pro would have a retail price tag in Europe of €699 (about $830, £640, AU$1,130), which looks a bit more like an actual retail price than €666. That’d make the phone quite a bit cheaper than either Mi 10 device.
We don’t know when the Xiaomi Mi 10T is set to launch, but if the Mi Note 11 is still coming later in the year, we’d expect Xiaomi would want the Mi 10T launch earlier rather than later to separate out the devices.
Xiaomi Mi 10T leaks and rumors
Let’s start with the design – a popular leaker tweeted some renders of the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro, which you can see below. It shows a display similar to the Mi 10 except that it’s flat at the edges, not round. In addition, the camera array on the back is chunkier than in that device, with an absolutely huge lens at the top.
小米10T Pro官方渲染图，如果拿回国就好了[吃瓜] pic.twitter.com/P0WetZRo1bSeptember 11, 2020
That’s apparently for the Pro model, and we don’t know what’s different in the base or Lite versions just yet.
According to the Amazon Spain listing for the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro, which we shared above, the phone is said to come with a 108MP main camera and three other snappers, while the Mi 10T will stick to 64MP quad-camera stack.
In that case, the ‘standard’ Xiaomi Mi 10T will have a lower-res main camera than the Mi 10, which had a 108MP main, though until we’ve tested the newer phones out, we can’t say for sure it’s worse than them.
XDA Developers was able to get its hands on some product renders from an online marketplace which is supposed to be of the Mi 10T Pro. Some code-digging revealed that the phone will have a 144Hz display, which is a rare feat for smartphones – we’ve only seen it in the Nubia Red Magic 5G. We wouldn’t expect the non-Pro phones to have this snappy refresh rate though.
Since both the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro were powered by Snapdragon 865, we’d hope for a spec increase in this regard, and as the Snapdragon 865 Plus is out that’d make for a logical choice. This is just speculation though, and we haven’t heard many leaks about it.
There’s one leak which purports to lay bare the phone, if true:
[ Exclusive ] Mi 10T, Mi 10T Pro & Mi 10 Lite Launching Soon Globally.Here is The First Look Of Mi 10T Pro.Mi 10T Pro Specs.•5000mAh Battery•144Hz Refresh Rate•108MP Rear Camera•May Be Side Mounted Fingerprint Scanner I Am Not Sure About This One.#Mi10TPro #Mi10T pic.twitter.com/8ngfxyrzZoAugust 26, 2020
This leaker doesn’t have much of a track record though, so be warned about taking any of this as gospel: it may turn out to be totally wrong, especially the bit about the side-mounted fingerprint scanner as the leaked renders dispute this.
Take it with a pinch of salt for now, though it looks more and more likely as additional leaks back up the specs.
Saying that, a subsequent leak from a reliable leaker suggested the phone will have a 144Hz refresh rate, 108MP main camera, Snapdragon 865 processor and 5,000mAh battery, so maybe that other leak isn’t so wrong.