Details of the Xiaomi Mi 8 and Mi 8 SE surface before launch

Xiaomi is all set to unveil its upcoming flagship, the Mi 8, the China tomorrow but a few leaks about the specifications and design of the smartphone have cropped up on the internet. While we have been expecting the Mi 8 for quite sometime, there is now news coming that a Mi 8 SE (Special Edition?) is also on the anvil.

Also, we now have information on the global availability of the Mi 8. Going by Xiaomi's official poster, the Mi 8 will be the company's first true global flagship with initial availability in 8 countries at launch. Apart from China, the Mi 8 will be available in India, Egypt, Spain, Italy, Russia, Thailand, France, and Vietnam. We've been seeing a few renders of the Mi 8 so far (earlier thought to be the Mi 7) and now, a new video has surfaced showing a prototype device in action. The device is shown to feature a fingerprint sensor on the rear alongside two vertically stacked cameras (20 MP + 16 MP) with an LED flash between them. The front of the device features the infamous notch and is purported to measure 6.2-inches with a resolution of 1080 x 2280. The device runs Android 8.1 Oreo overlaid with Xiaomi's MIUI 9 with support for iPhone X-like gestures. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC paired to 6 GB of RAM will power the internals. Onboard storage could be offered in 64 GB and 128 GB variants. There are also strong indications that the Mi 8 will feature some form of 3D facial recognition similar to the iPhone X. 

While the Mi 8 is definitely a flagship to watch out for, tomorrow's launch could reveal another variant as well — the Mi 8 SE. An image of a display sticker carrying the Mi 8 SE moniker has leaked online and it shows that the handset will be powered by Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 710 SoC, which comes with an AI Engine (AIE). The Snapdragon 710 sports an Adreno 616 GPU with Google ARCore support and the Mi 8 SE is expected to feature an AI dual-camera setup in the rear and a 20 MP selfie camera with LED flash. Qualcomm recently differentiated the higher end Snapdragon 600 series into a new 700 lineup and the 710 is the first of those SoCs, which will be making its debut with the Mi 8 SE.

We will have to see how the new Mi smartphones help in further consolidating Xiaomi's position as a major smartphone player in Asian markets and how the Mi 8 stacks up to the likes of the Honor 10 and the OnePlus 6. In any case, it wont be too long before we find out.

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