Possible Mate 20 camera features include Underwater Mode & Video Bokeh

The fact that it’s invisible is somewhat amazing, but it does make it tricky to find when in a banking app, for example – or any other instance that supports fingerprint authentication (although that fact that the Mi 8 Pro’s sensor works with such experiences at all is appreciated). The nature of the sensor also means there’s no gesture support, which is a far minor inconvenience but worth noting all the same. Then there’s the notch. It isn’t as ugly as the one encroaching on the Pixel 3 XL’s screen, but it’s big, following in the footsteps of the iPhone X by dominating the majority of the top edge of the screen. It features the front-facing camera and an IR camera setup for face-unlock that works even in low light.

Despite the technical benefits, though, it remains an eyesore. Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro – Performance Look beyond the faux processor visible on the Pro’s back and inside lies a legitimate Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chip, backed up by a generous 8GB of RAM and a respectable 128GB of (non-expandable) storage. On paper, the phone reads as well as any other high-end 2018 handset, with twice the memory of the Google Pixel 3 and the same top-tier processor as everything from the LG G7 to the Sony Xperia XZ3. In day-to-day use this phone flies; it feels snappy in general operation, launches things quickly and is happy jumping between apps and multitasking – everything you’d expect of a flagship phone. But something isn’t quite right under the hood. When gaming, performance takes a notable hit after just a few minutes, with frame drops that the phone can only recover from if I leave the application, or at the very least pause the game for a few moments.

Possible Mate 20 camera features include Underwater Mode & Video Bokeh - Picking Out Sensible Advice In buy phones

As the results above show, it would seem that Xiaomi just hasn’t optimised the hardware and software as well as on the likes of the OnePlus 6T, with the phone consistently scoring lower than most other top devices currently on the market. Related: Best Mid-range Smartphones Beyond base performance, the phone’s earpiece is well equipped to dole out clean audio during phone calls, while the single loudspeaker is again clean and loud, albeit only capable of delivering mono sound. I’ve already mentioned the innovative but sluggish fingerprint sensor – the available face unlock functionality on hand is snappier and more reliable, provided you’re comfortable with a less-secure unlock method.

There’s also the matter of dual GPS, one of the other standout features of the phone that only a few other handsets, like the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, can boast right now. It simply means more reliable and snappier GPS location services and as such, I have no complaints on its inclusion. Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro – Software Xiaomi’s phones sport a heavy-handed skin called MIUI that offers a wealth of customisation and control over the experience on hand, but it features some notable departures from stock Android, to the point that a little retraining might be required for some users. The company has confirmed an OTA (over-the-air) update to MIUI 10 is inbound, which brings with it Android 9.0 Pie, adding face unlock support (which isn’t currently available when the phone’s region is set to ‘UK’), as well as more advanced selfie features too. In the meantime the Mi 8 Pro as I tested it comes running Android 8.1 with MIUI 9.6. You have the standard on-screen navigation keys here, but there’s also the option of what MIUI calls ‘full-screen gesture’ navigation, which instead relies on swiping in from the edges of the display, not unlike iOS as it appears on every home button-free iPhone since last year’s iPhone X. It takes some getting used to but once you get your head around it, it makes for satisfying and fluid operation.