At the annual product launch, Xiaomi has launched the Xiaomi Mi 8, Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition with the in-display fingerprint scanner, and even the Mi Band 3. The company also launched the Xiaomi Mi 8 SE alongside - a smaller Mi 8 variant - for those who prefer a small screen and a cheaper price tag. The smartphone is the first to be powered by the newly launched Snapdragon 710 SoC, comes with a fingerprint scanner at the back and runs on MIUI 10. Design wise, the Mi 8 SE looks similar to the Xiaomi Mi 8 with a notch display, a slight chin at the bottom, and dual rear camera setup.
The Xiaomi Mi 8 SE is priced at CNY 1,799 (roughly Rs. 18,900) for the 4GB RAM/64GB storage variant, and CNY 1,999 (roughly Rs. 21,100) for the 6GB RAM/64GB storage variant. The smartphone will be available from June 8 in China.
Coming to the specifications, the Xiaomi Mi 8 SE runs on MIUI 10 as well, and sports a dual-SIM (Nano+Nano) 5.88-inch AMOLED full-screen HD+ (1080x2244 pixels) display with 2.5D glass protection, 423ppi pixel density, 18.7:9 aspect ratio, and 86.12 percent screen to body ratio. As mentioned, it is powered by the 2.2GHz octa-core Snapdragon 710 processor. This is the first smartphone to integrate the recently announced chip. The 10nm octa-core chip includes two Kryo 360 Cortex-A75 cores that are clocked at 2.2GHz and six Kryo 360 Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.7GHz. It is coupled with Adreno 616 graphics and 4GB or 6GB RAM options. Inbuilt storage is at 64GB, not expandable via microSD card.
Optics on the Mi 8 SE include a AI dual camera with one 12-megapixel sensor and another 5-megapixel sensor as well. The camera features include f/1.9 aperture, Bokeh mode, Portrait mode, monochrome temp flash, HDR adjustment, panorama mode, burst mode, facial recognition, dimming technology, EIS, and AI features like business card recognition, intelligent translation, and intelligent exchange rate conversion. At the front, there is a 20-megapixel shooter with AI background bokeh, smart beauty features built-in front soft light, automatic HDR, 4K video capture, and slow motion. The Xiaomi Mi 8 SE packs a 3120mAh battery that claims to offer 269 hours of standby, 108 hours of local music playback, 13 hours of video playback, and 7 hours of continuous gaming. The battery comes with support for fast charging as well. Connectivity options include Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, MIMO, GPS, AGPS, GLONASS, VoLTE, and USB Type-C support. The Xiaomi Mi 8 SE measures at 147.28x73.09x7.5mm, and it weighs 164 grams. Onboard sensors include gyroscope, accelerometer, compass, ambient light sensor, hall sensor, vibration sensor and infrared.
Editor's note: A previous version of this article incorrectly claimed the Xiaomi Mi 8 SE has the face unlock feature. The error is regretted.
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