Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro Review UK

Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro Review: Overview & Price

So you’re interested in the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro?

Great! You are in the right place. In this Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro review we will be going over everything from the specifications to the design and everything in-between.

As well as giving you all of the nitty-gritty details, we also showcase the best deals for the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro in the UK.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro was finally released in the UK on the 8^th of November 2018, and with its strong specifications, it’s a great alternative to some of the more expensive flagships.

This is some of the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro specs;

• 21-inch Full HD+ AMOLED Display
• 8GB RAM
• Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+
• Dual Camera
• Snapdragon 845 Chipset

Pretty impressive, considering the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro price is £499 here in the UK.

Let’s take a closer look at what this phone has to offer…

Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro Review: Design & Display

So when it comes to the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro design we were impressed.

The phone comes in three different colours, Black (transparent), Meteorite Black & Twilight Gold.

We were lucky enough to get our hands on the transparent black variation of the phone to conduct our Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro review, and it was eye-opening, to say the least.

The first thing we noticed about the phone as soon as we pulled it out of the box is that it has all of its internals on show.

Now, this is done on purpose, to give a unique design that exposes the chip and all of the other internal components.

Xiaomi states that these are not the actual components, and are instead a panel of mock components, however, the untrained eye would be none the wiser.

The phone itself is made from aluminium with two big panels of Gorilla Glass 5, giving the phone that extra protection should you accidentally drop it.

That being said with it being a glass design, this phone is a fingerprint magnet so we would recommend investing in a case and a screen protector.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro design makes it extremely easy to hold in one hand, this is because of the curved glass that is on the rear panel.

Although the phone is glass, we found it to offer plenty of grip, this is perfect and just what you would expect from a £499 smartphone.

You may be wondering is the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro waterproof?

Well unfortunately not, the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro is not waterproof and they have decided not to go give the phone ay IP rating.

We are not sure why but they seem to do this with a lot of their phone, we suspect it is a budget reason to keep the cost as low as possible.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro also does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack, again following suit like most phone in 2019. They do include a USB-C adapter in the box though.

Xiaomi has stuck with the design that most phone manufacturers are opting for nowadays, as much real estate on the display as possible with a small bezel at the top that houses the front-facing camera.

There is also a small chin at the bottom of the device, flip the phone over and you will see the dual-camera set up in the top left corner.

Then moving towards the base of the phone you see the Xiaomi logo in the bottom centre of the device. On the right-hand side of the phone you will find the volume rocker, and a bright red power button (on the black variant).

Down at the bottom is the USB-C charging port with the speakers neighbouring it.

On the left-hand side of the phone you will find the SIM tray, allowing you to add 2 SIM cards to this phone, ideal for those who have a personal and a business line.

Moving on to the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro display, and it has 6.21-inch AMOLED Full HD+ resolution panel.

Brightness levels are great as the display can crank right up to 600nits, meaning you will have no trouble using this phone in direct sunlight.

There are some cool features to play around with on this display, such as ‘Night Mode’.

This feature is essentially a blue light filter that protects your eyes when using the phone late at night, perfect for those late-night social media sessions.

Another cool feature is the ‘Always On’ feature; this will always display the time date and any other feature you set, maybe the weather.

So all you need to do is simply look at your phone and you can see the time and any notifications that you set.

Colour temperature can be adjusted in the settings, so if you feel the colour of the display is a little warm, simply dig into the settings and you can cool it down a little.

The display itself is great, colours are punchy and thanks to it being AMOLED blacks are nice and deep too.

This makes for a great viewing experience when watching Netflix and YouTube.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro display also has an in-display fingerprint sensor, meaning your passwords and card details can be nice and secure, locked by your very own fingerprint.

We did find that if your hands are slightly wet, the fingerprint sensor won’t work, and it has a higher failure rate than other in-display sensors we have used.

We found ourselves using the face-ID unlock feature much more than the fingerprint sensor mainly down to the failure rate.

As a whole the Xiaomi Mi 8 pro display is impressive, viewing angles are great and the brightness is insane.

We love the Night Mode too as we found it put a lot less strain on our eyes when using the phone in the dark.

Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro Review: Performance

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro software is MIUI coupled with Android 8.0 Oreo.

MIUI is super easy to use and has lots of cool features to play around with. Our favourite feature of this UI is the ‘One-Handed Mode’, this essentially minifies the whole display into the corner making it super easy to use the phone with one hand.

There are standard on-screen navigation keys as well as full-screen gesture navigation, which relies on swiping from the edges of the display to navigate around the phone.

See Related:

*Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Review*
*Xiaomi Mi 9 Review*
*Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite Review*
*Xiaomi Mi 8 Review*

This navigation experience takes some getting used to, however, after a while you will find yourself breezing around the UI with ease and fluidity.

There is an ‘App Vault’ that allows you to keep all of your applications neatly tucked away and gain easy access too.

Digging deeper into the settings and you will find that the UI is extremely customisable, allowing you to change backgrounds, security and more.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro performance aspect is where this phone really shines; it is armed with the Snapdragon 845 chipset alongside 8GB of RAM.

This combination makes for an extremely smooth experience when navigating around the phone, as well as gaming and other features you use the phone for.

Multi-tasking is a breeze for the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro and jumping between apps is extremely snappy and fast.

We tested the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro on some of our favourite games, the first being ‘Runescape’ which is our favourite MMORPG game.

The game ran extremely smoothly with no fps drop or lag whatsoever, we really have nothing to complain about when it comes to the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro performance.

This is easily one of the fastest phones in 2018, and the beginning of 2019.

However, if you are looking for something that is definitely going to blow you away in terms of performance, then check out our Xiaomi Mi 9 review.

The Mi 8 Pro comes with 128GB of storage as standard; this is generally plenty for most users.

We would have liked to see a microSD card slot for an expandable option, however, there is no MicroSD present on this phone.

Throughout this Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro review the specs of the phone were easily the most impressive over every other aspect. We found its performance ability to be second to none, it can handle literally anything you throw at it.

Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro Review: Camera

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro has a dual-camera setup, it has two 12-megapixel cameras with optical image stabilisation, lossless 2x zoom and AI tech.

Everyday photos on this device look great, colours are bright and vibrant with the dynamic range being a strong point here too. Contrast is great, the textures and colours are excellently reproduced.

That being said when night closes in the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro camera does struggle, forcing you to resort to the flash.

Portrait mode is the mode we found ourselves using most, as it does an excellent job at keeping plenty of detail in the shot as well as keeping focus thanks to it blurring out the background.

One feature we have come to find a lot on our recent smartphone reviews is ‘Beauty Mode’ this little gem will define your jawline, shrink your nose and make you look social media ready no matter what kind of night you had before.

‘Scene Recognition’ is also present on the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro camera, using AI tech to determine what kind of setting you are in when taking a photo, the phone will then automatically adjust the settings to try and enhance the image.

We found ourselves disagreeing with the AI sometimes though but this can simply be turned off when digging into the settings.

The phone uses ‘Semantic Segmentation’ to basically lift the subject from the background, ensuring that as much detail and clarity is captured as possible, this works really well.

Even when zooming in on your subject the camera still manages to retain lots of detail and keep colours rich.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro has a 20MP front-facing camera, this manages to keep plenty of detail in shots and Beauty Mode also works with selfies.

Portrait mode also does a fantastic job on the selfie snapper; we really didn’t have much to complain about in the camera department.

When it comes to video recording the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro lets you shoot in Full HD at 120fps and 4K@30fps, it even has a slow-motion mode that makes for some funny videos of your pet.

Image stabilisation is extremely strong here and even when walking at a fast pace the phone does well to keep the footage stable, this is perfect for those who don’t have a steady hand.

Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro Review: Battery Life

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro has a 3000mAh battery that will just about get you through a full day of use.

We hoped the battery would be a little stronger than it actually is, seeing as though it has the Snapdragon 845 chip we assumed it would be conservative.

Unfortunately, if you are using this phone intensely, as in gaming or viewing lots of videos or streaming, you may find that this phone runs flat before the day is over.

Thankfully the phone does support Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ that is well needed on this phone, this will get the device from 0-50% in around 30 minutes.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro battery does not support wireless charging either, meaning you will need to plug into the charger supplied in the box to get this device some juice.

The phone also support a ‘Battery Saver Mode’ which is ideal for helping you hold on to that final 10% charge.

Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro Review: Summary

So what is our final verdict on the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro?

Well if you are looking for a unique handset that stands out from the crowd, then this could be the phone for you.

We love the transparent design, as it is unique and incredibly eye-catching.

This combined with the stunning display that is great for viewing Netflix and YouTube.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro camera is great and can capture strong shots in almost any lighting condition, with plenty of modes to play around with the help get the perfect shot.

Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro 4G 128GB Dual-SIM transparent titanium EU 

Giving the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro price, we were extremely impressed with the phone as a while, however with the release of the Xiaomi Mi 9 for a similar price, it makes this phone a questionable purchase.

Although they do wish the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro battery was a little stronger, as 3000mAh is not the best, the fact it charges up quickly does help combat this slightly.

Now because the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro is not waterproof, you will need to be very careful when using this phone in and around water.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro specs are extremely impressive, plenty of horsepower for anything you throw at this device, gaming is a breeze.

As a whole this is a strong all-round phone, however, for this price point, there is better value for money options. Especially with the release of the Xiaomi Mi 9.

We hope you have enjoyed our Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro review, and feel free to leave a comment and check out our best Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro deals at the top of the post.

Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro Review: Full Specification

Launch: 2018, September

Body:

• Dimension: 154.9 x 74.8 x 7.6mm (6.10 x 2.94 x 0.30 in)
• Weight: 177g (6.24 oz)
• Build: Front/back glass, aluminium frame (7000 series)
• Sim: Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

Display:

• Type: Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours
• Size: 6.21-inches, 97.1 cm² (83.8% screen-to-body ratio)
• Resolution: 1080 x 2248 pixels (-402 PPI density)
• Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass 5
  – DCI-P3
  – HDR10

Platform:

• OS: Android 8.1 (Oreo); MIUI 10
• Chipset: Qualcomm SDM845 Snapdragon 845 (10nm)
• CPU: Octa-core (4×2.8 GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo Silver)
• GPU: Adreno 630

Memory:

• Card slot: No
• Internal: 128GB, 6/8GB RAM

Camera:

• Primary: 12MP, f/1.8, dual pixel PDAF, 4-axis OIS
  – 12MP, f/2.4, AF, 2x optical zoom
• Features: Dual-LED flash, HDR, panorama
• Video: 2160p@60fps, 1080p@30/240fps
• Single: 20MP, f/2.0
• Features: HDR
• Video: 1080p@30fps

Sound:

• Loudspeaker: Yes
• 3.5mm Jack: No
  – Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic

Comms:

• WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot
• Bluetooth: 5.0, A2DP, LE, aptX, HD
• GPS: Yes, with dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS
• NFC: Yes
• Radio: No
• USB: Type-C 1.0 reversible connector

Features:

• Sensors: Infrared face recognition, fingerprint (under display), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, barometer, compass

Battery:

• Non-removable Li-Pro 3000mAh battery
• Charging: Fast battery charging 18W (Quick Charge 4+)

Misc:

• Colours: Black (transparent), Meteorite Black, Twilight Gold
• Price: As seen in the above post