Xiaomi Mi Note 10 in pictures - the 108-megapixel camera cometh! (Updated!)

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Update (4 Dec 2019): The Mi Note 10 and Mi Note 10 Pro are both available now and are priced at S$699 and S$799 respectively. You can find them online on Lazada and Shopee.

So, a Carousell alert the other day told of export sets of the Mi Note 10 at several mobile shops along Serangoon Road. Naturally, I just had to get hold of this 108-megapixel monster before its official launch in Singapore.

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Let's start with the business end of the Mi Note 10. The show-stopping feature is the 108MP Samsung ISOCELL Bright HMX sensor. In order to keep the size of each pixel to a respectable 0.8um, this sensor has to be huge, and at a whopping 1/1.33-inches in size (that's around 9.6mm x 7.2mm!), it is. For comparison's sake, it's even larger than the 1/1.7-inches sensor in the Huawei P30 Pro.

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Is five cameras four (or three or two) too many? These days, who's keeping count anymore? The 108MP sensor sits behind an f/1.7 7P (i.e., seven plastic element) lens. Then there are two telephoto shooters, a 12MP 2x zoom and a 5MP 5x zoom that actually upscales to 8MP and is actually 3.7x (go figure!). The ultra-wide is a 20MP 13mm f/2.2 unit. Oh, and don't forget the 2MP f/2.4 dedicated macro camera, which every new Chinese mid-ranger must have...

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Not that you'd care about any of the other sides of the Mi Note 10 at this point... but maybe you will when you see its absolutely, definitively, undoubtedly, positively coincidental resemblance to the Huawei P30 Pro, which I couldn't help but point out. Even the Glacier White colourway has a similar gradient!

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The fronts of both the Mi Note 10 and the Huawei P30 Pro also look too similar for comfort; both have curved 6.47-inch AMOLED displays and "teardrop" camera notches. So... which is which?

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But while the Huawei P30 Pro is sold as a flagship, the Mi Note 10 is better described as a premium mid-ranger, and it shows in the provision of a headphone jack - something we haven't seen in a very long time!

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However, turn both phones on their sides and the similarities end between the Mi Note 10 and the Huawei P30 Pro. As you can see, the former is THIC(C if you're a millennial, otherwise K) - almost a full centimetre, to be exact! Blame it on the thickness of the lens group required to feed light to such a large sensor, plus the gargantuan 5,260mAh battery (yes, that's not a typo)!

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We'll have more on the camera in our detailed review soon, but let's not beat around the bush: even in this quick and dirty test, the Mi Note 10 delivers. Images have great dynamic range, bang-on colours, and yes - a ton of detail.

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Here's a teaser to whet your appetite for the full review. Observe this scene closely... (and you can click here for the )

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...now, can you even find which part of the previous photo this came from? This is not a crop - this is straight out of the camera, at 50x hybrid zoom!

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And that's all we're going to say for now. We don't have information on the exact launch date or pricing of the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 in Singapore, but stay tuned for the official announcement and the full review!