Along with the Xiaomi Mi 8, the company also announced the Xiaomi Mi 8 SE. As expected, it is a mid-range smartphone that comes with the latest Snapdragon 710 chipset and is the first phone to come powered by this 10nm processor. The design language remains same as the Mi 8 except for some differences here and there. Just like the Mi 8, the Mi 8 SE comes with an impressive price tag and translating the pricing from Yuan to USD, the price starts at $280 and goes up to $312 in China. If the phone comes at the same price in the global market, it will easily beat every mid-range smartphone.
So, the Xiaomi Mi 8 SE has a design similar to the Mi 8 except for the fact that it is less curvy as compared to the Mi 8. There is a vertical dual camera setup & the fingerprint scanner on the rear. Just like the Mi 8, there is no headphone jack, and there is only the USB Type-C for all kind of Inputs and Outputs.
The screen on the front has a notch, just like the Mi 8. The display is a 5.88-inch Full-HD+ AMOLED panel with 18.7:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 2244×1080 pixels. The Xiaomi Mi 8 SE is powered by the octa-core 10nm Snapdragon 710 processor along with 4/6GB RAM & 64GB internal storage (eMMC 5.1).
The Snapdragon 710 sits just below the 845 and 835 regarding the performance, thanks to the powerful Kryo 360 CPUs and the Adreno 616 GPU.
On the rear, there is a dual camera setup that includes a primary 12MP camera with f/1.9 aperture, 1.4-micron pixel size & Dual PD. The secondary camera is a 5MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture and 1.12-micron pixel size. The front camera is a 20MP sensor, same as the one on Redmi Note 5 and the Xiaomi Mi 6X. Under the hood, there is a 3,120mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 via USB Type-C port. We can expect a day of battery life on normal use, thanks to the 10nm Snapdragon 710 chipset.
Android 8.1 Oreo runs out of the box with MIUI 9 skin on top, and the phone will be upgradable to MIUI 10.
Other features include NFC, Dual 4G VOLTE, Bluetooth 5.0 etc.
Finally, here is the pricing for the Chinese market –
- 4GB RAM + 64GB ROM – 1,799 Yuan or $280
- 6GB RAM + 64GB ROM – 1,999 Yuan or $312
The Xiaomi Mi 8 SE will be available to buy in China from June 8. The color options are Black, Red, Gold and Blue. Just like the Mi 8, there is no official word from the company on the global launch.