The Xiaomi Mi 8 SE: A Review of Its Performance and Features

The Xiaomi Mi 8 SE is a powerful device that boasts impressive performance, a high-quality display, and a range of features that make it an attractive option for smartphone enthusiasts. In this review, we'll take a closer look at the phone's performance, camera capabilities, gaming experience, and other notable features.

Light Performance Against Other Phones

When comparing the Mi 8 SE to other phones in its class, it becomes clear that Xiaomi has made significant strides in terms of light performance. The phone's Snapdragon 710 chipset is capable of handling demanding tasks with ease, making it a great option for gamers who want to play the latest titles without any issues. In fact, the phone can run games at high settings with smooth framerates, making it an excellent choice for those who value gaming performance.

Camera Comparison and Gaming Performance

The Mi 8 SE's camera is another area where Xiaomi has made significant improvements. The phone's camera can shoot in 4K resolution, which provides more detail than the standard 1080p resolution. However, the electronic image stabilization feature is not enabled by default, and even when it is, the footage can be slightly shaky due to the user's hand movements. Nevertheless, the camera performs well, especially in bright lighting conditions.

Gaming Performance

The Mi 8 SE's gaming performance is another standout feature of this phone. The phone's ability to play demanding games at high settings with smooth framerates makes it an excellent choice for gamers who want a seamless experience. In our testing, we found that the phone could handle even the most demanding titles without any issues, making it an excellent option for those who value gaming performance.

4K Shooting and Image Quality

The Mi 8 SE's ability to shoot in 4K resolution is also worth noting. While this feature may not be a game-changer for everyone, it does provide more detail than the standard 1080p resolution, which can be beneficial for photographers and videographers who want high-quality images.

Facial Recognition and Audio Quality

The Mi 8 SE's facial recognition system is fast and accurate, making it an excellent option for those who value security. However, there have been reports of some users experiencing issues with the camera app, including lag and stutters. Additionally, the phone's audio quality could be improved, particularly in low-light conditions.

Display and Build Quality

The Mi 8 SE's display is another area where Xiaomi has made significant improvements. The phone features a high-quality AMOLED panel with a 5.8-inch screen size, which provides excellent brightness and color reproduction. However, the notch design may not appeal to everyone, and the phone's build quality could be improved, particularly in terms of scratch resistance.

Battery Life and Charging Speed

The Mi 8 SE's battery life is another area where Xiaomi has made significant improvements. The phone features a large 4000mAh battery, which provides excellent power for extended use. However, the charging speed could be faster, particularly with the phone's wireless charger capabilities.

Software and Bugs

Finally, it's worth noting that the Mi 8 SE's software experience is not without its issues. There have been reports of some bugs, including lag and stutters, which can be frustrating for users. Additionally, the camera app has some minor issues, particularly with the front-facing camera.

Overall, the Xiaomi Mi 8 SE is a powerful device that offers excellent performance, a high-quality display, and a range of features that make it an attractive option for smartphone enthusiasts. While there are some areas where the phone could be improved, including software bugs and audio quality, these issues do not detract from the overall experience.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enChris here back with the full review ofXiaomi Mi 8 SE so this is the smallermodel of the me eight and has a fivepoint eight eight inch screen it'spowered by the Snapdragon 710 four tosix gigabytes of RAM and to 64 gigabytesof internal storageit is emmc fly point one's back and thatis all we get we don't have 128 or 256gigabyte storage option which I feel isan error considering that this phone youcannot expand upon that storage there isno micro SD card support but the buildquality of this phone is very good ithas a full metal frame all around theoutside and we've got glass on the rearso it's got a bit of a sony xperia meetsiPhone 10 kind of look to it the qualityof it is good i've got middle buttons onthe right-hand side one of them istextured the power button so you candistinguish the difference between thevolume rocker and that button there theglass on the rear is 2.5 d and it'squite easy to scratch I have noticedI've already got quite a few scratches Idon't even know how this has happenedbecause I have been using a case now thecamera module you can see we've gotobviously two cameras they're dual toneLED flash the main sensor is 12megapixels it has an F 1.9 aperture itis a Sony AMX 363 sensor which is adecent sensor and used in a lot offlagships it's the same sensor used inthan me 8 but here it is lacking opticalimage stabilization we only haveelectronic up to at the time of thisreview only 1080p 4k currently does notwork so that footage is shaky it doestake a really good photo but I'll getonto that later on in this review theother camera below that is 5 megapixelsthat's just used for your portrait modeor your depth effect blurred backgroundsup the top we have an IR transmittersecondary mic for voice calls couple ofantenna lines there down the bottom typeC port microphone loudspeaker now thetype C port obviously or outputs audioyou have to use the adapter now when youuse the adapter audio quality is goodit's very clear there's no hisses nostatic now I'll give you a sample ofthat loudspeaker justmentioned that the loudest is good thequality isn't super-high it can distorta little bit a hundred percent volumebut overall not a bad loudspeaker buthere's that sampleand then on the left hand side of thedevice there is a sim tray yes it has anotch so it's wider thus not than mostother phones with notches it's a lotwider than the one plus six it has alittle smaller earpiece in here now callquality and voice calls when you listento them through this earpiece of coursesounds okay but not the best I believeit's probably because of the size of theearpiece being smaller it just sounds alittle flatter but the volume is allright that comes out of it now we've gota front-facing LED flash for selfies andthe camera on the front here is 20megapixels with an F 2.0 aperture ittends to overexpose and this is a commonthing that's been happening with xiaomiphones onto the displays so it's aSamsung AMOLED panel and it's got areally good brightness there's a 719 Luxmaximum output really bright superbright it's got good color reproductionthe whites look good and you can ofcourse tweak that to your own personalpreference through the settings now italso supports HDR I only have one minorcomplaint with this otherwise reallygreat screen is that there blacks atcertain angles don't look as deep asthey should now it's down to other twothings I have worked out it's either theglass they have used covering the AMOLEDpanel or it's not optically bonded theremay be a small gap between the AMOLEDpanel and then the glass or even maybeperhaps a layer on top of the AMOLEDpanel that's the only thing but it isjust a very minor complaint this displayis so much better than the likes of theme 6 X's display or the redmi note 5display they use IPS panels the 18 by 9aspect ratio but this display here to meis just a lot better now the UI it runsis me UI 9.5 that's shammies own and Iwon't go into a lot of detail with itthat it's got a lot of features onthey've got things like double tappedaway we do have also and always-ondisplay so that's something that's comethrough of course with the AMOLED panelthey can use that now at the moment intime of this review all it can displayis just your messages and the date andthe time that's it I really wish itwould display other notifications ifthey can allow us to customize that thatwould be great but it's really goodhaving this feature there of course itwill slightly drain the battery now thething with the UI and the knotch too isthat when you want to see thenotifications they're not actually thereyou have to swipe down the same goes forthe battery percent so that will not bedisplayed in the current setup and theicon so Sherman's got a few patches tocome through for this one clearlybecause I've also seen some stutterswith notifications swiping down hassometimes being very laggy especiallywhen you just turn on data or Wirelessand you start getting all those whatsappnotifications coming through there's alot of lag at times and the chipset isquite powerful and it's not a fold ofthat the other thing to us notice just acouple of minor little bugs with the UIthat I've had icons on top of other onesso the ticks doubling up very minor andalso sometimes some lag when using fullgesture mode just going through recentapps so that's just a minor thingthere's a few little bugs that they haveto iron out now performance of the phonein general is very good though when youdon't see any of that lag you've got anante to score of almost 170,000 so thatputs it above the snapdragon 660 and the6-3 six which is about 130,000 soperformance is good now the wireless Ihave a minor complaint here with awhiner Wireless it doesn't seem to be asfast as other phones for some reason andI cannot figure out what why this isI've done a lot of speed tests I've alsoused apps like Wi-Fi sweet spot just tosee their maximum throughput there andit's falling below other phones I justbelieve a patch is probably needed againsoftware here isn't quite there at themoment with those GPS signal is good itgets a fast lock also the internalstorage is fast for the specs now we'rehaving a look at added battery life thebattery capacity is 3121 hours so it'snot the largest because it is a smallerphone obviously they had to cut downover for example a 3400 see in the me 8but it did surprise with good batterylife here so with my own battery lifetests that i do i do continual use i usethe phone quite demanding you can call amoderate to heaviera lot of gaming and it managed to getclose to eight hours on screen time soyou're gonna get about seven to eighthours out of this phone so there'sdefinitely a two day mobile phone thecourse depending on your use just takethis as a guide only charge times alsovery quick so it does support Qualcommquick charge three and in thirty minutesare challenging you can get around aboutfifty percent battery life which isgreat and to fully charge takes justover one hour and twenty minutes so allgood there so to the main camera here itcan take a really nice photo a littlebit oversaturated at times but I knowthat most people will probably preferthese photos because the colors do lookgreatvery nice and when you're viewing themon the AMOLED panel do they look evenoversaturated more perhaps it alldepends on how you have the screencalibrated but even getting is on my PClooking at them I did a comparisonagainst the ribbon note five and theytended to be a little bit more saturateddifferently than the Rema note five butit did lose out there with low lightperformance against that phone so makesure you check out that review thatcamera comparison gaming performance soa lot of games newer titles like pub shedidn't actually order to Texas netdragons 710 very well put it on thelowest settings but if you useapplications like GFX tool force it ontothe high settings the game is still veryplayable and it looks great so theperformance here of the Snapdragon 17 isgreat and even having a look at alineage two revolution that even on thehighest settings very playable itssmooth so good gaming performance Ithink that what the well 1080presolution which is this basically ispushing it has no issues with all thedemanding titlesso this is now shooting in 4k and youcan see of course we get a lot moredetail the resolution is good now dohave that image stabilization enable inceilings but you can see that clearly itis not working because the footage is alittle bit shaky and I don't have thesteadiest of hands definitely noticeablewhen you start to walk and move aroundaverage Xiaomi has to improve the audioquality it's been a problem that we'vehad with my boss as a recent andaffecting mostly the flagships sohopefully with mui ten when that comesout will improve the quality of theaudio and give us electronicstabilization face unlocking is alsovery quick it's fast and it's also veryunsecure there's a couple of videos thathave been released one from chinaespecially that they managed to fool thecamera with a simple a4 printout inblack and white of someone's face ifI've got time I may do a video testingthat one out now to quickly recap hereso we've got a fantastic AMOLED panelfrom Samsung five point eight eightinches I really do like the size thebuild of this the screen okay it doeshave the knotchbut what you're gaining is really goodbrightness good color reproductionblacks okay it's certain angles theydon't look as dark and deep as theyshould be for an AMOLED panel but Ithink it's the glass but really theglass on the back as well scratched andI don't even know how he did it butusing a case and it's got a couple ofscratches on it already so it's a littlebit more fragile definitely than otherphones because the glass back on it andyes it has a bit of a copycat designedlook compared to say the Xperia thatiPhone 10 we know that's what Charmy hasbeen doing recently with their designsso the bezels on the side a little bitthicker than the press images so beprepared for a little bit of a surprisewhen you get your hands on this if youhappen to buy oneit just won't be exactly as you thoughtI noticed that when I first unbox thisand four side bezels but it is goodyou're gaining a really really goodscreen here so better life alsoexcellent core quality is good Wirelessspeeds not as fast as I expect it but Ibelieve it's down to software GPS isworking wellthe audio quality from the three pointfive outs using the adapter of courseyou have to plug the adapter oh thatsounds good it's clear it's crystalclearstatic does it no interference there theloudness is good but really comes downto software with this phone here thatChairman's got a lot of optimization todo with the camera so fix the 4kelectronic image stabilization or enableit or let third-party applications useit at least they also need to optimize alittle bit the camera and low-lightfront-facing camera over exposes theyneed to fix that and the audio there arebugs with the UI so very minor bugsthough not the whole phone crashing butI just noticed that icons doubling upnow and then I noticed some stutterssome lag that should not be happeningwith a snapdragon 710 the 710 looks likean efficient chipset were they a goodcombination of features efficiency andpower it can play all the latest gameson the high settings with good framerates thereso overall once Xiaomi fix the softwareyou've got yourself a very decent phoneprice similarly to the Mi 6x and I thinka lot of people have been asking mewhich one's the best obviously this isfaster has the better display I thinkthe better cameras are on the 6x thoughso that one might have a slight edge Ihave a camera comparison of that onecoming up and currently working on itand I do hope to catch you back in thechannel soon with my upcoming reviews ifyou haven't checked out my review of theme sorry the redmi note 5 that's rightup here and also the camera comparisonbetween the redmi note 5 and this Mi 8 SEthank you so much for watching\n"