Xiaomi's 2020 flagship is the What 10 5G quickly arrived to us (you'll see the second part of our test soon) and, in addition to its software capabilities, we wanted to see what and how the manufacturer's engineers had fitted it under the bonnet.
What 10 disassembled
This time we didn't start disassembling the Mi 10 ourselves, as it would be expensive to make a small mistake with a smartphone of this price range, but we left it to Attila Komáromi again, as he was itching to do it.
Let's take a look at what's inside the beautifully painted Gorilla Glass 5 glass:
Careful planning preceded production, so we managed to install the strongest and fastest of everything, using every square millimetre of space. Heat paste traces tell you where the processor is located, and the flat black part to the left of the back panel is responsible for heat dissipation. Long battery, modular camera unit, short pass-through cables. Forget the charging panel, the USB-C port is soldered directly to the motherboard. This solution takes up less space on the bottom of the device, but is much more expensive to replace. It's worth taking care of the connector, as it's very complicated and expensive to replace.
SIM slot part
On the right side of the unit shown in the photos, there is the reader part that handles 2pcs nanoSIM cards, but it has been inactivated, blocked. In addition to the restriction on the SIM tray, the software has been restricted to handle the two cards. This can probably be worked around with a scraper, but you will need a Chinese Mi 10 SIM tray to do it.
Camera unit
The 4 lenses are clearly visible. The autofocus module is visible on the top and bottom two, while the second one is much larger than the first. It also houses the 108MP Samsung sensor and the 4-axis optical image stabilizer.
The Mi 10 has everything you need in a smartphone for the present and the near future. In other words, you're guaranteed to get 5-6 years of a phone that won't get old in a few months. Although in terms of camera, the Mi 10 Pro, Mi Note 10 Pro or even the Mi 10 Lite Zoom looks like a strong offering (as does the POCO F2 Pro, due in May), it will last you for years.
Without further ado, let's see what's inside the Mi 10:
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor
- 8GB LPDDR5 RAM
- 128GB UFS 3.0 ROM
- WiFi 6 module
- 4780mAh battery
- Quad camera with 108MP photo sensor (OIS)
- 90Hz Samsung Amoled display with 1200 nits brightness, calibration
- 30W fast charge and 10W recharge
- NFC
- 5G
- stereo speaker pair
There is no IP protection, but that should be the biggest problem if you want a Xiaomi phone.
