Xiaomi's sub-$500 smartphone has six cameras, 30W charging & more

The anticipation for Xiaomi's Mi Note 10 (Mi CC9 Pro in China) has been incredible. Fans around the world were eager to see what Xiaomi brings to the table and at an event in China, the Chinese tech giant ended the suspense around its Mi CC9 Pro.

Xiaomi's Mi CC9 Pro is the Chinese version of Mi Note 10, which is likely to debut at a later date. But the China launch has given the world a clearer look at what this new smartphone is all about and how Xiaomi managed to bring the most sophisticated camera setup.

Before we get to that, fans would be interested to know the Mi Note 10's price. The handset, coming in two configurations - 6GB+128GB and 8GB+256GB, starts at CNY 2,799 (around Rs 28,000) and CNY 3,099 (approx. Rs 31,400), respectively. There's also a Premium Edition that has an 8P lens in the camera, costing CNY 3,499 (roughly Rs 35,000). If this pricing is any indication, we can imagine the kind of disruption it could bring to the Indian smartphone space.

Xiaomi is expected to bring the handset to global markets starting with Spain on November 6. It remains to be seen if there's a date for India launch as well, but nothing has been made public till now.

Let's take a look at what makes Mi Note 10/Mi CC9 Pro so special.

Cameras

Mi Note 10's cameras have been the biggest talking point and that's for a good reason. There are a total of five cameras at the back and two dual-LED flashes. The primary lens in the camera setup is a 108MP Samsung ISOCELL Bright HMX 1/1.33-inch sensor, which is unusually large but largely beneficial. The sensor automatically shoots 27MP shots and uses pixel binning to combine four pixels together, but you can always shoot in 108MP resolution, too.

This incredible primary lens is backed by four other standard lenses to enable various camera modes. There's a 5MP telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom, 10x hybrid zoom and 50x digital zoom (hello Huawei!), a 12MP portrait lens, a 20MP ultra-wide-angle lens covering 117-degree FoV and a 2MP macro lens for those close-up shots.

If you're wondering about selfies, Xiaomi has a 32MP front-facing camera placed within the notch. And for those who still want DxO Mark scores, the Mi CC9 Pro shares the top spot with Huawei P30 Pro with a score of 121.

Mi CC9 Pro: Specifications

The cameras of the Mi CC9 Pro certainly steal the limelight, but that doesn't excuse other specifications. The handset is powered by Snapdragon 730G processor with 6GB/8GB RAM and up to 256GB storage. Xiaomi has gone with a rather traditional design, featuring a 6.47-inch curved OLED display with Full HD+ resolution. There's also an in-display fingerprint scanner for security.

Under the hood, the Mi CC9 Pro features a massive 5,260mAh battery and a 30W fast charging is added to the rescue of users. According to the company, it takes 30 minutes to charge the phone from 0 to 58 percent and fully charge it in 65 minutes.

Mi CC9 Pro has a USB Type-C port for charging and data transfer. There's a Hi-Res headphone jack, NFC and all the standard connectivity features. The software side of things are left to be handled by MIUI 11 based on Android Pie.