The Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra: A Chinese Flagship That's Impressing

In a move that's left many fans of high-end smartphones excited, Xiaomi has announced the Mi 10 Ultra, a device that promises to deliver top-notch performance and features at an affordable price. While it may not be available outside of China just yet, those looking to get their hands on this phone in the future can try importing it, or use the methods described below to access Google Play Services.

Interestingly, when you put a Western SIM card into the Mi 10 Ultra and set the language to English, you'll find that the Google Play Store is actually already installed on the device. To activate it, simply go into the Mi App Store and hit "Update", and it becomes available on the home screen. However, before you try this method, there is no Google Play Services or Google Play Store on the phone whatsoever.

Fortunately, I've had a chance to use the Google Play Services on my own Mi 10 Ultra, and it's worked just fine. Now, let's talk about what makes this phone so impressive.

The first thing that caught my eye when I picked up the Mi 10 Ultra was its size and weight. It's big, chunky, thick, and heavy – a far cry from some of the slimmer designs we've seen on other flagship phones. But despite its bulk, it feels rugged and well-made, with clicky buttons and tight haptics that make you feel like you're interacting with a premium device. The fingerprint scanner is also quick and efficient.

One feature that's definitely not for everyone is MIUI, Xiaomi's custom skin that comes pre-installed on this phone. While some people may love the bubbly interface and colorful design, others may find it overwhelming or too different from the Android experience they're used to. However, if you do decide to use MIUI, there are actually ways to customize it to suit your preferences.

Speaking of customization, Xiaomi has done a great job with the charging speeds on this phone. Claiming not to reach 100% in just 23 minutes, I can confirm that this is no marketing fluff – the actual charging speed is even faster than that. Wireless charging is also available, and surprisingly takes around 40 minutes to go from zero to 100%.

On the back of the Mi 10 Ultra, you'll find a quad-camera module that dwarfs most of its competitors. While it's not quite as impressive as some other phones with 120x optical zoom (the actual zoom is more like five times optical), it still looks incredibly powerful and capable.

Now, let's talk about the camera performance on this phone. DXOMARK recently ranked the Mi 10 Ultra above some of its closest competitors, including the P40 Pro and S20 Ultra. This suggests that Xiaomi has done something right with their camera design – but as with any smartphone camera, it'll be up to our own testing to confirm whether this is actually a top-notch experience.

In terms of competition, there are many other high-end smartphones available in the market, each with its own unique features and strengths. But if you're looking for a phone that takes the best bits from pretty much every flagship smartphone, adds in some exclusive features like 120W charging, and then gives you a device that actually feels worth the money – Xiaomi seems to have done just that.

When it comes to unboxing and packaging, Xiaomi has outdone themselves. The box is full-size, with a nicely laid-out package that includes not only the phone itself but also a headphone port adapter, a case, and a 120W charger – all of which were included in the box without being asked for. This level of attention to detail suggests that Xiaomi is serious about creating a flagship experience that's both premium and affordable.

Overall, my first impressions of the Mi 10 Ultra are overwhelmingly positive. It's clear that Xiaomi has put a lot of thought into this phone, from its design and build quality to its camera performance and charging speeds. Whether or not it'll be available outside of China remains to be seen, but one thing is certain – if it does make it to Western shores, it's going to be a must-have for fans of high-end smartphones.

For now, we're excited to get our hands on the Mi 10 Ultra and put it through its paces in a full review. Stay tuned for that, coming soon to Android Authority.com and YouTube!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe samsung galaxy note 20 ultra just came out and it's fair to say it has one of the most impressive spec sheets of any smartphone in 2020 but what if i told you that xiaomi has just managed to do one better the xiaomi mi 10 ultra is a spec king it's got a 6.67 inch 120 hertz amoled display albeit in full hd up to 16 gigabytes of ram half a terabyte of storage a snapdragon 865 five high resolution cameras including 8k video recording and a five times periscope zoom lens with 120 times hybrid mode it's got a 4 500 million power battery with 120 watt fast charging 50 watt wireless fast charging and 10 watt reverse wireless charging it's a beast but before we get into the first impressions of this device we need to get out the box in this large and very shiny 10th anniversary box you'll find the xiaomi mi 10 ultra device itself our model is the 12 by 256 gigabyte option in this transparent colorway also included is some documentation a tpu case a 120 watt charging brick take no other manufacturers and most surprising of all a usbc to headphone port dongle neat the xiaomi mi 10 ultra is currently not being sold outside of china however if you do want to get one imported in the future there is a way of getting the google play store on it now it's actually already on the phone but when you put in a western sim card you set the language to english you can actually go into the me app store and activate the google play services by hitting update and then it becomes available on the home screen prior to doing this method there is no kind of google play services or a google play store on the phone whatsoever i've been using the google play services on it for the past couple of days and i think it's worked just fine let me make this clear first straight out of the gate this phone is big it's chunky it's thick it's heavy it's bulky and the quad camera module on the back dwarfs almost all of the competition it's the first thing i noticed when i picked up the me10 ultra because i'm a right-handed person and so when you hold this thing with your right hand your your finger kind of gets caught on the bottom of the camera module i happen to have small to medium sized hands so i can only imagine if you had larger hands that it would become more uncomfortable unless you had a case on it all in all it feels rugged and well made the buttons feel clicky and the haptics are tight the fingerprint scanner is fairly quick typical flagship stuff really miui's not going to be for everyone and there is a fair amount of bloat installed but i enjoy the kind of bubbly interface on this thing the bloat is kind of to be expected though since it's a chinese phone and you have to actually go out of your way to change it to english if you want to use this thing and only know english the charging is stupidly fast so xiaomi is claiming not to 100 in 23 minutes and from what i've seen so far that's not marketing fluff also wireless charging is meant to just about double that time to around 40 minutes from zero to 100 which is impressive for a 4 500 milliamp hour battery in wired form let alone in wireless form as well of course we'll put it through our full and thorough testing for our review coming out next week hit subscribe so you don't miss that with regards to the 120 times zoom stamped on the back of this thing it's very similar to how samsung does the 100 times zoom stamped on the back of the galaxy s20 ultra it's not quite 120 times optical in fact it's only five times optical which i say only that's still rather impressive it's what you see on the p40 pro the p30 pro and the real me x3 super zoom the rest of that number is actually being done with a hybrid of kind of cropping into the sensor but then also using that five times periscope we'll definitely be putting a lot of emphasis in the camera on our review because that is one of the most impressive sections of the phone let us know if you want to see any video content based around just smartphone cameras like this one because we'll happily do that as well mentioning its competitors there dxomark recently ranked the miten ultra above the likes of the p40 pro and the s20 ultra in its camera testing system which inspires promise but will be the real judge of that for a phone that isn't coming out of china anytime soon this is a really really exciting device it takes the best bits from pretty much every single flagship adds in its own unique features like that crazy 120 watt charging and then gives you a device that actually looks and feels like it's worth the thousand plus euro that it's expected to be i mean just talking about that in boxing experience there you got a full-size box and a very nice laid out package you even got a headphone port adapter and a case in the box and 120 watt charger in the box that wasn't something you had to buy separately so it does actually feel a lot like a flagship like xiaomi are actually doing a flagship right and that about rounds out our first impressions and unboxing coverage of the me 10 ultra we will be doing a review next week on the website android authority.com and also on youtube so stay tuned hit subscribe to make sure you don't miss out on that one in the comments let us know what you think about this are you excited for it or is it just another phone that is going to cost way too much money and you you don't have to go out of your way to import it i'm actually personally hoping that they release this in europe because it would be really fun to get my hands on as always leave a like if you enjoyed today's content i've been ryan thomas with android authority and i'll catch you laterthe samsung galaxy note 20 ultra just came out and it's fair to say it has one of the most impressive spec sheets of any smartphone in 2020 but what if i told you that xiaomi has just managed to do one better the xiaomi mi 10 ultra is a spec king it's got a 6.67 inch 120 hertz amoled display albeit in full hd up to 16 gigabytes of ram half a terabyte of storage a snapdragon 865 five high resolution cameras including 8k video recording and a five times periscope zoom lens with 120 times hybrid mode it's got a 4 500 million power battery with 120 watt fast charging 50 watt wireless fast charging and 10 watt reverse wireless charging it's a beast but before we get into the first impressions of this device we need to get out the box in this large and very shiny 10th anniversary box you'll find the xiaomi mi 10 ultra device itself our model is the 12 by 256 gigabyte option in this transparent colorway also included is some documentation a tpu case a 120 watt charging brick take no other manufacturers and most surprising of all a usbc to headphone port dongle neat the xiaomi mi 10 ultra is currently not being sold outside of china however if you do want to get one imported in the future there is a way of getting the google play store on it now it's actually already on the phone but when you put in a western sim card you set the language to english you can actually go into the me app store and activate the google play services by hitting update and then it becomes available on the home screen prior to doing this method there is no kind of google play services or a google play store on the phone whatsoever i've been using the google play services on it for the past couple of days and i think it's worked just fine let me make this clear first straight out of the gate this phone is big it's chunky it's thick it's heavy it's bulky and the quad camera module on the back dwarfs almost all of the competition it's the first thing i noticed when i picked up the me10 ultra because i'm a right-handed person and so when you hold this thing with your right hand your your finger kind of gets caught on the bottom of the camera module i happen to have small to medium sized hands so i can only imagine if you had larger hands that it would become more uncomfortable unless you had a case on it all in all it feels rugged and well made the buttons feel clicky and the haptics are tight the fingerprint scanner is fairly quick typical flagship stuff really miui's not going to be for everyone and there is a fair amount of bloat installed but i enjoy the kind of bubbly interface on this thing the bloat is kind of to be expected though since it's a chinese phone and you have to actually go out of your way to change it to english if you want to use this thing and only know english the charging is stupidly fast so xiaomi is claiming not to 100 in 23 minutes and from what i've seen so far that's not marketing fluff also wireless charging is meant to just about double that time to around 40 minutes from zero to 100 which is impressive for a 4 500 milliamp hour battery in wired form let alone in wireless form as well of course we'll put it through our full and thorough testing for our review coming out next week hit subscribe so you don't miss that with regards to the 120 times zoom stamped on the back of this thing it's very similar to how samsung does the 100 times zoom stamped on the back of the galaxy s20 ultra it's not quite 120 times optical in fact it's only five times optical which i say only that's still rather impressive it's what you see on the p40 pro the p30 pro and the real me x3 super zoom the rest of that number is actually being done with a hybrid of kind of cropping into the sensor but then also using that five times periscope we'll definitely be putting a lot of emphasis in the camera on our review because that is one of the most impressive sections of the phone let us know if you want to see any video content based around just smartphone cameras like this one because we'll happily do that as well mentioning its competitors there dxomark recently ranked the miten ultra above the likes of the p40 pro and the s20 ultra in its camera testing system which inspires promise but will be the real judge of that for a phone that isn't coming out of china anytime soon this is a really really exciting device it takes the best bits from pretty much every single flagship adds in its own unique features like that crazy 120 watt charging and then gives you a device that actually looks and feels like it's worth the thousand plus euro that it's expected to be i mean just talking about that in boxing experience there you got a full-size box and a very nice laid out package you even got a headphone port adapter and a case in the box and 120 watt charger in the box that wasn't something you had to buy separately so it does actually feel a lot like a flagship like xiaomi are actually doing a flagship right and that about rounds out our first impressions and unboxing coverage of the me 10 ultra we will be doing a review next week on the website android authority.com and also on youtube so stay tuned hit subscribe to make sure you don't miss out on that one in the comments let us know what you think about this are you excited for it or is it just another phone that is going to cost way too much money and you you don't have to go out of your way to import it i'm actually personally hoping that they release this in europe because it would be really fun to get my hands on as always leave a like if you enjoyed today's content i've been ryan thomas with android authority and i'll catch you later\n"