Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro vs Mi 10 Ultra: Is The Pro Good Enough?

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Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Luis Silva (December 2020, updated: February 2021)

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Introduction

In August of 2020, Xiaomi launched its Mi 10 Ultra. The Mi 10 Pro, however, has seen the light of day in February of 2020.

We've run down the specs, design, price, and much more in this guide to help you choose between the Mi 10 Pro and the Mi 10 Ultra.

If you have the time, click here to skip the spoilers and continue to the full comparison.

The Mi 10 Pro definitely has the Mi 10 Ultra beaten on price. Remember that when you're comparing the two models.

For each featured section, there's a "Tek-Score" for you to check. For a quicker analysis of how far they are from each other, we'll consider all their specifications. We'll also provide a global score for comparison if you're willing to consider other phone suggestions.  ? 

This score is consumer-based from research done by Globalwebindex.com on what features users value on new smartphones.

For additional information regarding our smartphone comparisons, check this FAQ.

You're going to find a red or green bar next to some features. It's there for you to better understand how they relate to the ones from similarly priced smartphones.  ? 

By clicking here:  i  you'll see which ones we've analyzed, but we only include smartphones with price tags from -20% to +20%.

Feel free to click any feature title to check out the top 10 phones for that feature for every budget.

Price*			vs.
Device	Mi 10 Pro	Mi 10 Ultra
Release Date	2020, February	2020, August	0y.
OS Updates	1 year	1 year	0y.
Security Updates	4 years	4 years	0y.

*Reference: Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

Performance

There isn't much to see here, as both share the same core: the previous generation Snapdragon 865.

They also share the same graphics chipset: last year's Adreno 650.

As you may have guessed, Geekbench 5 gave these two the same performance. All in all, there's not much of a difference between the two.  ? 

You can also count on the Mi 10 Pro to have one of the best performances around if you consider related priced phones. About 27% above.

It's safe to say that both of them can be tagged as high-end.

The Mi 10 Pro features the Android 10 and MIUI 11 OS, while the Mi 10 Ultra comes with Android 10 and MIUI 12.

Performance*			vs.
Features	Mi 10 Pro	Mi 10 Ultra
SoC	Snapdragon 865	Snapdragon 865
Graphics	Adreno 650	Adreno 650
Geekbench 5 Score	3331	3330	-1
OS	Android 10 and MIUI 11	Android 10 and MIUI 12
Tek-Score	7.6	7.6	0.0

*Reference: Apple iPhone 12.

Display

The Mi 10 Pro has a 6.6-inch AMOLED screen, which is slightly smaller than the Mi 10 Ultra's 6.7-inch AMOLED display. You'll likely have set your preferences already on the display type and size. To me, a 6.3 inches screen is where I draw the line.

They draw at the number of pixels: 1080x2340 Full HD for both of them.

The Mi 10 Ultra has one disadvantage over almost all of its competitors: It is 25% below the average pixel density.

Screen bezels are shrinking in size almost every passing day, so let's get the elephant out of the room. These displays share a "Corning Gorilla Glass 5" protection.

If you're looking for the Always-On-Display feature, rest assured: it's here on both.

If you set these displays for auto-brightness, the Mi 10 Pro can go up to 860 nits, and the Mi 10 Ultra can top at 811 nits.  ? 

Both phones can play HDR10+ video formats.

If you're looking for high refresh rate displays, you should know that the Mi 10 Ultra does 120hz, and the Mi 10 Pro only does 90hz.

If you're leaning towards the Mi 10 Pro, you should know that 88% of its rivals can play HDR content. Plus, all of them have an AMOLED screen, and 96% have an Always-On display.

Regarding the Mi 10 Ultra, just so you know, all of its rivals can play HDR content and have an AMOLED screen, 88% have an Always-On display, and 94% of them have Gorilla Glass 6 or better.

Display Density (DPIs)*			vs.
Features	Mi 10 Pro	Mi 10 Ultra
Size	6.6	6.7	0.1
Screen Type	AMOLED	AMOLED
Resolution (px)	1080x2340	1080x2340	0
Refresh Rate	90hz	120hz	30
Dots per Inch	390.49	384.66	-5.83
Always-On-Display	Yes	Yes
Notch	Hole	Hole
Peak Brightness	860 nits	811 nits	-49
HDR	HDR10+	HDR10+
Sub Tek-Score	8.6	8.9	0.3
Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 5	Corning Gorilla Glass 5
Tek-Score	6.6	6.7	0.1

*Reference: Sony Xperia 1.

Cameras

What about its shooters? Xiaomi's Mi 10 Pro can record videos at up to 4320p. It also has a shooter with a whopping 108 MP, an aperture of f/1.7, a 25mm wide-angle lens, three flash LEDs, HDR capabilities, and Optical Image Stabilization.

As if that wasn't enough, it also has three more sensors: an 8 MP (with f/2.0 and an astounding 94mm telephoto lens), another 12 MP (f/2.0) with a 50mm telephoto lens, and another 20 MP and a 15mm ultra-wide-angle lens.

If you take a 108 Megapixels snapshot, you can zoom in on it and do a crop in the middle to get the same shot you'd get on a 27 Megapixels shooter with 2x optical zoom.

Its selfie camera features a 20 MP sensor with an f/2.0 aperture and a 1/3" sensor.

DxOMark reviewed this camera and gave it 130 points. Then, if you consider the telephoto and wide-angle lenses, the final rate goes up to 146 points. If you want to know more about it, click here.

PS: all of its rivals can record videos in 4K or more, have an ultra-wide-angle lens, and feature Optical Image Stabilization. Though only 12% of them feature a macro lens.

The Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra, in its turn, features a whopping 48 MP camera with an f/1.9 aperture and a 25mm, wide-angle lens. Then it has two flash LEDs, HDR capabilities, and Optical Image Stabilization. It records videos at up to 4320p. These days a single shooter is not enough, nor it's two or three. I guess you need four of them. The second one has 48 MP with an aperture of f/4.1 and an astounding 120mm telephoto lens. The third one has 12 MP (f/2.0) with a 50mm telephoto lens, and the fourth has 20 MP and a 12mm ultra-wide-angle lens.

If you take a 48 Megapixels snapshot, you can zoom in on it and do a crop in the middle to get 2x optical zoom. You'll get a 12 Megapixels photo.

The selfie camera has 20 MP, an f/2.3 aperture, and a 1/3.4" sensor.

On DxOMark's reviewing article, they gave this shooter 136 points. By adding the telephoto and wide-angle lenses, we'll get to the final rate of 154 points. If you want to know more about it, click here.

Furthermore, just like the other device, all of its rivals can record videos in 4 or 8K, have an ultra-wide-angle lens, and feature Optical Image Stabilization. Additionally, none of them feature a macro lens.

By DxO's standards, the Mi 10 Pro is also roughly 56% above its adversaries for the same budget. Although as of now, it isn't good enough.

If you're not a numbers person, we can tag these two as high-end.

Just in case it's a deciding factor, the Mi 10 Pro zoom lens is 30mm above what you usually see on similarly priced devices.

Picture Quality*			vs.
Primary Camera	Mi 10 Pro	Mi 10 Ultra
Megapixels	108	48	-60
Aperture	1.7	1.9	0.2
Lens	25mm	25mm	0
Lens Type	Wide-Angle	Wide-Angle
Flash	3	2	-1
HDR	Yes	Yes
OIS	Yes	Yes
Video	4320	4320	0
Score	146	154	8

*Reference: Huawei Mate 40 Pro.

Extra Camera(s)	Mi 10 Pro	Mi 10 Ultra	vs.
Megapixels	8	48	40
Aperture	2.0	4.1	2.1
Lens	94mm (3.8x zoom)	120mm (4.8x zoom)	26
Lens Type	Telephoto lens	Telephoto lens
Megapixels	12	12	0
Aperture	2.0	2.0	0.0
Lens	50mm (2x zoom)	50mm (2x zoom)	0
Lens Type	Telephoto lens	Telephoto lens
Megapixels	-	20
Aperture	2.2	2.2	0.0
Lens	15mm	12mm	-3
Lens Type	Ultra-wide-Angle	Ultra-wide-Angle
Score	16	18	2

Selfie Camera	Mi 10 Pro	Mi 10 Ultra	vs.
Megapixels	20	20	0
Aperture	2.0	2.3	0.3
Lens	-	-

	Mi 10 Pro	Mi 10 Ultra	vs.
Tek-Score	8.6	9.1	0.5

Body

They ended up with different widths (74 mm / 2.92 inches vs. 75 mm / 2.96 inches), but they share the same height: 162 mm (6.38 inches).

Both have about the same thickness: 9 mm (0.35 inches).

The glass rear on these phones makes them feel great on the hand. The Mi 10 Pro weighs 208 g. (7.34 oz), while its sibling is 14 g. (0.55 oz) heavier. If you want a big screen in a light phone, the Mi 10 Pro has a "weight to screen size" score of 3.5, meaning it's kind of weighty for its display size. Having said that, the Mi 10 Ultra has 2.6, which suggests it's considerably hefty too.  ? 

You can purchase the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro in Alpine White and Solstice Grey. And you can pick the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra in Obsidian Black, Transparent Edition, and Mercury Silver.

Both feature the same size, so you can pick any of them.

What about a fingerprint scanner? Both devices included it.

For an all-weather smartphone, you should check out the competition, like the OnePlus 8 Pro.

Looks*			vs.
Body	Mi 10 Pro	Mi 10 Ultra
Size	162 x 74 x 9 mm (5.71 x 2.61 x 0.32 in)	162 x 75 x 9 mm (5.71 x 2.65 x 0.32 in)	1458
Weight	208 g. (7.34 oz)	222 g. (7.83 oz)	14
Build	Front and back glass	Front and back glass
Colors	Alpine White and Solstice Grey	Obsidian Black, Transparent Edition, and Mercury Silver
Screen To Body Ratio	89.20%	90.69%	1.50
Disp.Size To Weight Score	3.5	2.6	-1.0
Looks	9.1/10	9.1/10	0.0
Waterproof	-	-
Biometrics	Under Display Fingerprint	Under Display Fingerprint
Tek-Score	1.8	1.4	-0.4

*100% = 4+ colors + front and back glass + S2BR: 86+%.

Battery

Can you find a winner just by looking at their battery capacity? Both have about 4500 mAh. But how would both perform in a real-world scenario? If you do a full charge and run these tests, this is how the Mi 10 Pro comes out of it:  ? 

• By talking for 1 hour, browsing the web for 1 hour, and playing videos for 1 hour, you should have 84% of the battery left for the rest of the day.
• From 1 hour of talking, 3 hours of web browsing, and 1 hour of video playback, you'll still have 71% left for the rest of the day.
• By talking for 1 hour, browsing the web for 1 hour, and playing videos for 3 hours, you'll likely end up with 74% of the battery charge.

And this is how the Mi 10 Ultra handles these tests:

• If you do 1 hour of talking, 1 hour of web browsing, and 1 hour of video playback, you'll still have 81% left.
• By talking for 1 hour, browsing the web for 3 hours, and playing videos for 1 hour, you'll probably have 65% left for the rest of the day.
• If you do 1 hour of talking, 1 hour of web browsing, and 3 hours of video playback, you'll be with 70%.

Have you noticed who the winner is? Yes, it's the Mi 10 Pro.

What's even better, the Mi 10 Pro can also easily defeat most devices. You can check here if it still is on our top 10 for battery life.

Fast-charging's here, and both phones support it. The Mi 10 Ultra can go up to 120w, and the Mi 10 Pro up to 50.

It's good to know that both phones support wireless charging at up to 30w vs. 50w.

Both can charge any QI-enabled gadgets, like smartphones or earbuds.

Fast charging on the Mi 10 Ultra does stand out. Smartphones from this price-range usually stay at around 30w/hour.

The Mi 10 Ultra's wireless charging is likewise faster than the traditional 5w. That's something you rarely see at this price range.

Battery*			vs.
Features	Mi 10 Pro	Mi 10 Ultra
Capacity (mAh)	4500	4500	0
1h Talk + 1h Web + 1h Video	84% left	81% left	-3
1h Talk + 3h Web + 1h Video	71% left	65% left	-6
1h Talk + 1h Web + 3h Video	74% left	70% left	-4
Bat. To Phone Size Score  ?	4.3	3.0	-1.3
Sub Tek-Score	7.6	7.2	-0.4
Fast Charging	50w	120w	70
Wireless Charging	30w	50w	20
Reverse Charging	5w	10w	5
Tek-Score	8.0	9.0	1.0

*Reference: Samsung Galaxy A31.

Storage

The Mi 10 Pro has 256GB of internal storage and 8GB of RAM. There's no expandable storage, but I believe you'll manage with only 256GB of storage. Be aware that at this price segment, others offer more RAM but less storage. Right now, the average is 150Gb of storage and 8GB of RAM.

On the Mi 10 Ultra, you'll find 128GB of internal storage and 8GB of RAM. There's also no extra storage here, but you'll have plenty of room for your files.

Storage*			vs.
Features	Mi 10 Pro	Mi 10 Ultra
RAM (GB)	8GB	8GB	0
Internal (GB)	256GB	128GB	-128
Micro SD	No	No
Tek-Score	8.5	6.0	-2.5

*Internal Storage + 256GB Memory Card (Max: 512GB).

Connectivity

Both phones have Bluetooth 5.1, so nothing special here. As for the NFC chips, both have them.

There isn't much to say about the 3.5mm headphone jack, except that it simply isn't here. You can try an adapter if you want, but the wireless buds are the way to go here. Luckily, you can still get it on other phones if you don't mind searching for them. You can get that with the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus.

You can connect them to (LTE and) 5G networks.

Connectivity			vs.
Features	Mi 10 Pro	Mi 10 Ultra
Network	5G	5G
Bluetooth	5.1	5.1
NFC	Yes	Yes
3.5mm jack	No	No
Tek-Score	5.1	5.1	0.0

Price

The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro clearly is a good value for its price, and it can only get better, depending on the place and deals that you'll find. The Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra may be costly, but it still may be more valuable.

If you still aren't sure about any of them, let's check how much value you can expect.

Here are the prices that we've come across recently:

I earn a small fee from qualifying purchases. It doesn't affect the price you pay nor my opinions, but it will mean a lot if you click on one of these buttons before purchasing your next phone. You'll be helping to take this to the next level.

Prices on eBay are in $US but Europe-based. You can click to check the prices in your country.

Prices marked with ! are from renewed/refurbished/carrier-locked phones (except eBay prices that, as a last resort, can be from bids or used devices).

How much of a "phone" can your money buy?
That's how much "score" you can get with $100 based on the global score that you'll see in the next section (higher is better).

Have you found better prices elsewhere? The formula is simple: score/price*100.

Value for money	Mi 10 Pro	Mi 10 Ultra	VS
Amazon	1.23	0.84	-0.39
eBay	-	-	-
Best Buy	-	-	-
Wallmart	-	-	-

And this is the "The Best Smartphones On A Budget" list.

Are you curious to know what their global score is? First, let me mention the average at their price range. They're in the ballpark of 6.9 for the Mi 10 Pro and 7.3 for the Mi 10 Ultra.

Verdict: Does any of them really stand out?

The Mi 10 Ultra should be an improvement over the Mi 10 Pro in every department. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Accordingly to GSMArena, the battery life on the Mi 10 Pro is significantly better, despite having the capacity, the same SoC, and display size. Not only that, but the Mi 10 Pro also starts at 256 GB of storage, while its sibling starts at 128 GB. Aside from that, the Mi 10 Ultra also has better refresh rates, crazy-fast charging speeds (120w vs. 50w), faster wireless charging (50w vs. 30w), and faster reverse charging (10w vs. 5w).

Pros	Mi 10 Pro	Mi 10 Ultra
#1	Performance	Performance
#2	AMOLED	AMOLED
#3	Always-On-Display	Always-On-Display
#4	Cameras	Cameras
#5	Battery Life	Fast Charging
#6	Fast Charging	Wireless Charging
#7	Wireless Charging
#8	Storage

Cons	Mi 10 Pro	Mi 10 Ultra
#1	MicroSD Slot	MicroSD Slot
#2	Weight	Weight
#3	3.5mm Jack	3.5mm Jack
#4	Price	Price

Relative Score*			vs.
Global Score	Mi 10 Pro	Mi 10 Ultra
Gaming Score	8.0	7.8	-0.1
Tek-Score	7.37	7.12	-0.25

*Reference: Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

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