Content-creation Juggernaut: The Mi 10 Pro debuts at the top of DxOMark's camera and audio charts

After weeks of teasers, Xiaomi has now unveiled its newest flagship phones, the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro at an online event for the Chinese market. As is usual with Xiaomi's recent releases, the phones—well, the Mi 10 Pro in this case—make their way straight to DxOMark testing. 

The Mi 10 Pro did exceedingly well, in fact, as it now sits at the very top of DxOMark's camera and audio charts. In the camera review, the Mi 10 Pro earned an overall score of 124. That just one more point than the Mate 30 Pro 5G (123), and three more than Xiaomi's next phone on the list, the fifth-placed Mi Note 10 Pro (121).

The Mi 10 Pro recorded a photo score of 134, four more points than the Mi Note 10 Pro. That makes sense, seeing as the phones sport identical camera hardware. What differences that exist are due to software fine-tuning, and the more capable SoC and ISP. 

It's important to point out that the 108 MP sensor on the Mi 10 Pro is not the same one on the new Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. The one on the Mi 10 Pro (ISOCELL Bright HMX) uses 4-to-1 binning to replicate a 1.6μm pixel size, while the one on the S20 Ultra (ISOCELL Bright HM1) adopts a more advanced 9-to-1 binning process to replicate a 2.4μm pixel size.

In the video category, the Mi 10 Pro made do with a score of 104, which makes it DxOMark's new video champ. 

The audio review is the real shocker here. The Mi Note 10 Pro flopped hard when it was reviewed but the Mi 10 Pro manages to deliver a stellar performance, dethroning—albeit narrowly—the Huawei Mate 20 X at the top of the audio leaderboard. Xiaomi appears to have used a dual side-firing stereo speaker setup, and it shines in the playback category. More impressively, it also earns DxOMark's highest ever score in the recording category. 

As always, DxOMark is not to be considered gospel. There have been multiple cases of phones scoring highly on DxOMark's tests but performing poorly when tested by other media outlets. We will test the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro extensively when they're released globally, and you can wait for that.