Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra review

MIUI 12 on top of Android 10

The Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra is the first smartphone we meet that boots MIUI 12 out of the box. The new launcher is based on Android 10 and introduces a refined interface with new animations, new privacy options, floating windows, dedicated Control Center, Super Wallpapers, and a brand-new app drawer, among other features.

The new MIUI 12 is not a massive overhaul over MIUI 11, but more of a refresh with new looks here and there, new cooler animations optimized for high-refresh-rate screens, and a couple of new features though it's up to you whether you'll use them or not.

One of the most striking visual changes is the addition of Super Wallpapers. Long story short - this is a dynamic wallpaper that zooms each time you pass a certain screen. You start small on the Always-on screen (you see the planet Mars), then you wake up the Ultra, and the phone zooms in on Mars, and finally, when you reach the homescreen, the Ultra zooms in further revealing one very cool Mars canyon. You can choose between a few locations for the final zoom level). Moving between homescreen rotates around the said canyon, or crater, or hills.

Super Wallpapers (Mars)

The Super Wallpapers are not something unseen, but they provide one very coherent visual experience that is a feast for the eyes and in the meantime - connects the parts of MIUI in a subtle yet striking way.

Super Wallpapers (Earth)

There are three Super Wallpapers available at launch - Home (Earth), The Red Planet (Mars), and faraway Rings (rings of Saturn).

Super Wallpapers (Saturn)

The Ultra supports Always-on display, and you can schedule it or leave it on/off all the time. MIUI 12 brings a ton of new AOD themes you can choose from and make it yours. You can customize many of those. The Always-on display also supports breathing light - the curved edges of the display will flash with colors upon new notifications.

Always-on display

You unlock the screen via the blazing-fast optical under-display fingerprint scanner. The reader is easy to set up, fast, and superbly accurate - it is on par with the best in business. 2D Face Unlock is available, too, but it is far less secure than the fingerprint option.

Security options

The homescreens are business as usual - they are populated with shortcuts, folders, and widgets. The leftmost pane, if enabled, is called App Vault and while with a bit refreshed looks, it is still the same as before - shows cards and shortcuts from the chosen apps (calendar, weather, news, favorites, etc.).

Homescreens

MIUI 12 offers an app drawer by default, and it automatically organizes your apps into categories. The first is All, meaning it contains all apps. Then follow Communication, Entertainment, Photography, Tools, New, and Business. You can edit these categories or even disable them altogether. You can disable the app drawer entirely if that's not your thing.

App drawer

Another new feature is the Notification shade split into Notification Center and Control Center. Indeed, this is precisely what the iPhones do, and you even summon them in the same fashion - pull down from the left part of the screen for the Notification Center, pull down from the right for the Control Center.

If you are not fond of this new split - you can disable the Control Center, and the shade will revert to its MIUI 11 looks and operation.

Notification Center • Notification Center • Control Center • Control Center • The old Notification Shade

The task switcher has not changed much. It shows all of your recent apps in two columns. Tap and hold on a card for the split-screen shortcut, or just swipe it left or right to close it. There is a new Floating Windows button on top, which is a new option offered by MIUI 12. You can put any app in a floating state, but you only have one floating window at a time.

Task Switcher • Floating Windows • Floating app

Themes are a huge part of MIUI, and they are available on MIUI 12, too. You can download new ones from the Themes store, and they can change wallpapers, ringtones, system icons, system fonts, and even the always-on display style.

Themes

Xiaomi enhanced MIUI 12 with a couple of additional privacy options. Now when sharing stuff, like photos and videos, you can opt to remove location and/or other metadata (incl. device info) and thus protect your privacy fully. Neat.

Gallery • Privacy Settings

MIUI also offers a Security app. It can scan your phone for malware, manage your blacklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, and free up some RAM. It can also manage the permissions of your installed apps and allows you to define the battery behavior of selected apps and applies restrictions only to the apps you choose.

MIUI 12 packs proprietary Gallery, Music, and Video player. In some regions, the music and video apps include paid streaming options. Mi Remote for the IR blaster is available, too. In China, a new Mi AI assistant is part of MIUI 12, replacing the Google Assistant.

MIUI 12 also enhances the Notes app with even more Task checklists and subtask options.

Security • Security • Music • Video • Mi Remote

MIUI 12 supports Dark Mode, too, and you can even force it on wallpapers or restrict its application on incompatible individual apps.

Dark Mode

MIUI 12 is fully optimized to work on HRR displays, and we have to say - it looks gorgeous on the Ultra. Everything is smooth and fast; animations are unobtrusive yet impressive, the attention to the detail is simply excellent. We did enjoy working with this new MIUI on the Ultra's 120Hz for sure.

Finally, the Mi 10 Ultra is currently sold only in China, and because of that, it lacks Google Play Store and Services out of the box. It is a Google-certified phone, so it is very easy to get both installed. Just search Settings for Play Services and enable them. Then go to the Mi Store and install Play Store. Simple as that.

Performance and benchmarks

Just like the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro, the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra runs on the Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865 chip. It features Qualcomm's X55 modem that adds full-fledged 5G connectivity.

The Snapdragon 865 has an octa-core processor with a familiar core configuration - 1x2.84 GHz Kryo 585 Gold (Cortex-A77 derivative) & 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 585 Gold (Cortex-A77 derivative) & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 585 Silver (Cortex-A55 derivative).

The Adreno 650 is part of the Snapdragon 865 and it a might GPU, among the best in the business.

The Snapdragon 865 chip supports LPDDR5 RAM, and the Mi 10 Ultra is available with 8GB, 12GB (ours) or even 16GB LPDDR5 RAM. The storage options are 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB, and the storage is of the UFS 3.1 kind.

We ran the usual benchmarks and, unsurprisingly, the Mi 10 Ultra aces all of them.

It packs the best processor Android has to offer. The Snapdragon 865+ inside the ROG3 has its Prime core clocked a bit higher (3.1GHz vs. 2.84GHz) and thus the small difference in single-core computing.

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 8
  3399
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  3374
• Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
  3357
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  3331
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  3248
• Huawei P40 Pro+
  3203
• Huawei P40 Pro
  3197
• Realme X50 Pro
  3175
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  2697
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  2603
• vivo X50 Pro
  1937

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
  975
• OnePlus 8
  919
• Realme X50 Pro
  911
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  905
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  904
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  902
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  901
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  880
• Huawei P40 Pro+
  781
• Huawei P40 Pro
  780
• vivo X50 Pro
  636

The graphic scores are chart-topping as expected.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
  82
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  78
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  76
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  75
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  74
• Realme X50 Pro
  60
• Huawei P40 Pro
  52
• Huawei P40 Pro+
  52
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  43
• vivo X50 Pro
  31

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
  48
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  46
• OnePlus 8
  46
• Realme X50 Pro
  45
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  43
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  42
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  42
• Huawei P40 Pro
  31
• Huawei P40 Pro+
  31
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  24
• vivo X50 Pro
  17

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1440p

Higher is better

• OnePlus 8
  6720
• Realme X50 Pro
  6472
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  6431
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  6425
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  6308
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  6248
• Huawei P40 Pro+
  5641
• Huawei P40 Pro
  5637
• vivo X50 Pro
  2983

Finally, the Mi 10 Ultra topped our all-time AnTuTu 8 chart, for now at least.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  638497
• Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
  601858
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  595246
• Realme X50 Pro
  592447
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  573276
• OnePlus 8
  564708
• Huawei P40 Pro+
  529687
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  514485
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  508760
• Huawei P40 Pro
  496356
• vivo X50 Pro
  323736

The Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra has one of the best hardware platforms as of the time of writing, and the benchmarks are an easy tell of its capabilities. Its 8-core CPU is blazing-fast, while its GPU is ready to take the heaviest of games and show them in more than 60fps where possible.

The phone gets a bit warm after prolonged benchmark and gaming sessions, but we didn't notice a noticeable drop in the performance or unpleasant feeling (as the one we got when the Ultra was hooked on the 120W charger).

So, the Mi 10 Ultra is one of the fastest phones on the market, and it will offer one of the best experiences possible right now.