Well, that was fast. It was just a few months ago when Samsung and Xiaomi announced the two has co-developed a groundbreaking 108 MP image sensor for smartphone and that Xiaomi be the first to adopt it, and it is now on a product ready for sale.
At least it is in China as device called Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro. I know right. It is absolutely bonkers. 108 MP. Just imagine that! It kind of makes smartphone that still uses 13 MP seems paltry, doesn’t it?
Anywho, not surprisingly, Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro went straight to top the DxOMark for smartphone chart, sharing the top spot with Huawei Mate 30 Pro with a DxOMark score of 121.
Not withstanding its theoretical imaging prowess, the Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro ain’t no flagship. That was the real surprise to me.
It is a mid range device, powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G Mobile Platform, developed from an 8 nm process featuring Kryo 470 processor that tops out at 2.2 GHz, faster Adreno 618 (700 MHz) GPU – all with Artificial Intelligence Engine (AIE), of course.
The 108 MP sensor, shares the back with four other cameras: a 10x hybrid zoom camera, a 12 MP portrait camera with 2x zoom (with dual PD to boot), a 20 MP 117-degree wide-angle camera, and a macro camera that enables up to 1.5 centimeter ultra-close shots, or 2-10 cm AF macro shots.
The five-camera setup is totally capable of 4K recording at 30 fps and slo-mo at 960 fps at 720p. Around the front is a pretty darn large 32 MP sensor selfie-camera. But really, the 108 MP camera just stole the limelight.
The Mi CC9 Pro, btw, is also the first Xiaomi smartphone to tout an ultra-thin under display optical fingerprint sensor.
Other notable details include 6/8 GB RAM, 128/256 GB storage (probably NOT UFS 3.0), a 6.47-inch AMOLED FHD+ (2,340 x 1,080 pixels, 398ppi) display with TÜV Rheinland Low Light Blue Certification, a large capacity 5,260 mAh battery that supports 30W charging and Power Delivery, dual nano SIM, dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC (supports Mi Pay because, China), USB-C port, a bunch of sensors including GPS/A-GPS/Galileo/GLONASS/Beidou, and believe it or not, a 3.5 mm headphone jack.
Like the Mi Watch, the Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro is set to be available on ‘Singles’ Day’ on November 11 and it has a starting price of just 2,799 Chinese yuan (about $400).
There are two other “lesser” versions of the CC9, the CC9e and a CC9 “Meitu” edition with a starting price of 1,499 yuan and 2,199 yuan (or around $214 and $314), respectively.
All images courtesy of Xiaomi [CH].
