Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G review

GSMArena team, 21 April 2020.

4.4

Main camera and Ultra-wide camera image quality

We start with daylight samples, as usual. The ones coming from the primary camera of the Mi 10 Pro are saved in 25MP. The ISOCELL Bright HMX shoots in 27MP by default and we guess the phone crops a bit for reasons unknown. The Mi Note 10 with the same sensor offers images in 6016 x 4512 px, while the Mi 10 Pro photos are 5792 x 4344. And with all this being said, let's move on.

The 25MP pictures we shot in this sunny (quarantine) day are impressive - the detail is abundant, the dynamic range is absurdly high, noise is non-existent, and the colors are spot on. The HDR was set on Auto but it did not pop up even once.

The only downside of such high resolution is the file size - usually 10-15MB. We want Xiaomi to consider adding a 12MP option in Settings - some detail will be lost, but also for most purposes 4MB 12MP photos are simply enough.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 25MP photos

The MIUI 11 camera app has AI Camera trigger on the viewfinder. This is more than simple scene recognition thing - the AI option always uses HDR and oversaturates the colors big time. You will see shadows pop unnaturally, and colors go to extremes. But if this is your cup of tea, then why not?

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 25MP photos with AI

Shooting in 108MP is possible. The photos look okay but are noisy and not that detailed. Downscaling a 108MP photo to 25MP will not yield better results in most, if not all, cases. And mind you, when shooting in 108MP, the phone takes significantly longer to save the image, and they are about 30MB in size. 25MP is more than enough, better use that one.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 108MP photos

The main camera sensor is huge in resolution, but also physically large. And larger sensors do offer a shallower depth of field, which is desirable for subject isolation. Couple that with the bright f/1.69 lens, and the camera should be offering pretty impressive natural bokeh, at least as far as phones go. You can see the effects in the photo with the snail in the samples above.

We also shot some closeup photos with the main camera and indeed - the bokeh is pretty great.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 25MP closeups with main camera

The Mi 10 Pro has a dedicated Macro mode, which uses the ultrawide camera for the closeups. Unfortunately, we shot more than 10 different macro photos, supposedly in focus, but only few of those were good enough for publishing. And yet - they are nowhere near what the main camera can offer. So - maybe avoid snapping closeups with the ultrawide cam.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 20MP macro samples - ultrawide camera

But you should definitely use the 20MP ultrawide camera for what it was intended in the first place - fit more subjects in the frame. The photos are detailed as far as ultrawides go, with very good dynamic range, and present great contrast and accurate colors. The edges are a bit soft, but not to bother-some extend. The software distortion correction is competent and will not mess up the corners.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 20MP ultrawide photos

2x and 5x zoom camera image quality

Now, let's talk about the zoom cameras. We start with the regular telephoto that offers 2x optical zoom over the main camera. It snaps 12MP images and those are of flagship quality - the sharpness and detail levels are great, the colors are well matched to the main camera and the dynamic range is quite high, and the only imperfection we saw is some noise that's visible mostly in areas of uniform color.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 12MP 2x zoomed photos

If you've ever wondered if cropping the center of the main cam's 25MP image to match the coverage of the short tele wouldn't make for an equal or better 2x shot, we tired, and the answer is 'no'. Almost, but not really. The dedicated telephoto offers better quality, and we appreciate its presence on the Mi 10 Pro.

This is also the camera that shoots portraits and those are amazing - excellent separation and natural-looking blur.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 12MP portraits

Moving on to some 5x photos shot on the second and long-range telephoto - the 8MP one. The camera offers 5x zoom over the main one, but it achieves this promise with some trickery - the 94mm lens provide about 3.7x optical zoom, and the rest is a crop-and-upscale affair.

Still, the 8MP photos are really very good - sure their detail is not the best we've seen, a result of the upscaling perhaps, but the pictures exhibit superb contrast, consistently accurate colors, and low enough noise levels.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 8MP 5x zoomed photos

We also snapped some 10x photos - those are poor in detail and are simply upscaled and cropped from the original 3.7x 8MP photo.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 8MP 10x zoomed photos

If you are curious about the native resolution of the 8MP camera - we snapped a few samples for you to enjoy. The third image in each of the photo shoots below (3.7x) has no upscaling or cropping whatsoever.

1x • 2x • 3.7x • 5x

And here are some side-by-side comparisons of the original 3.7x 8MP images and the tweaked 5x photos. You can see how some detail is lost during the upscaling.

3.7x • 5x • 3.7x • 5x

Low-light performance

Next, let's go through some low-light photos. Starting once again with the main camera - the 25MP photos are quite detailed and bright, the exposure is balanced, and the color saturation is retained at all times. Overall, these are great night shots but upon close inspection, you may notice the photos are not as sharp as what the competition has to offer.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 25MP low-light photos

The Night Mode is available only on the main camera, takes about a second, but has no benefits over the regular shots. Ideally, it may restore some blown highlights at the expense of added softness. But these are very rare occasions.

So, either all normal shots are Night Mode shots, or Xiaomi's processing and hardware have reached the next level, and we do not need Night Mode anymore. Huawei experienced the same thing with the P40 series getting past the point where Night mode makes sense compared to the capabilities of the Normal mode.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 25MP photos with Night Mode

The ultrawide photos are a blurry mess at night, and there is no point of using this camera after sunset. You will be very disappointed.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 20MP low-light ultrawide photos

The 2x camera is rarely activated at night, and the phone prefers to use the main camera for 2x magnification. Well, at sunset, or sunrise, the 12MP does fire and it takes sharp and detailed even if noisy photos.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 12MP low-light 2x zoom photos

The 5x tele camera is always used at night though, and its photos are great - there is enough detail and sharpness, the colors are kept true to life, the images are bright enough and overall - we were surprised by such good quality from a 5x zoom snapper. Neither Huawei P40 Pro nor the Galaxy S20 Ultra can offer such impressive zoom photos at night as they often prefer to do digital zoom over the main camera.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 8MP low-light 5x zoom photos

Once you're done with the real world samples, head over to our Photo compare tool to see how the Mi 10 Pro stacks up against other phones.

Mi 10 Pro against the Galaxy S20 Ultra and the Huawei P40 Pro in our Photo compare tool

Selfies

The 20MP selfies aren't that sharp because of the Quad-Bayer sensor, but good nevertheless. The HDR works great when needed, and the photos have good colors and contrast. We'd be quite fine with the native 5MP shots though, just saying.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 20MP selfies