Xiaomi Mi 10 5G vs OnePlus 8 Pro: Which one should you buy?

Xiaomi's Mi 10, launched on May 8 in India, offers a flagship-grade chipset, camera setup, battery, design, and display. The device is the costliest smartphone offering of the company.

But at a starting price of Rs 49,999, the Mi 10 is not the only compelling premium smartphone around. With a starting price of Rs 54,999, the OnePlus 8 Pro is arguably its closest competitor. So, let us find out how the two phones stack up against each other.

Both phones are pretty evenly matched in terms of performance. However, OnePlus does have a slight edge as the company offers the device in a 12GB configuration, but the extra RAM is not worth the extra cost.

Barring camera layout, the design of both the Mi 10 and OnePlus 8 Pro are pretty similar. However, OnePlus does have an advantage on the utility front as it features an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance.

While the screen on the Mi 10 is pretty good for its price, the OnePlus 8 Pro has one of the best displays of any smartphone. The OnePlus 8 Pro offers a higher refresh rate, resolution, and peak brightness level. The panel on the OnePlus 8 Pro can go toe-to-toe with the best from Apple, Samsung and Google, which means the Mi 10 is certainly not going to be able to keep up.

The Mi 10 has a slightly bigger battery than the OnePlus 8 Pro. Moreover, the OnePlus’ 120Hz display and QHD+ resolution will take a much higher toll on battery life than the 90Hz FHD+ panel on the Mi 10. In terms of charging, both phones are pretty evenly matched.

While Xiaomi’s MIUI 11 features some major improvements in customizations and bloatware reduction, OxygenOS is undoubtedly one of the best, if not the best, Android skin. OxygenOS is as close as you can get to stock Android.

Xiaomi gains some massive ground in the camera department on account of the massive 108-megapixel primary sensor. But OnePlus has a newer 48-megapixel primary sensor and a telephoto camera with OIS. The Oppo Find X2 Pro has the same primary camera sensor as the OnePlus 8 Pro, and DxOMark claims that it can go head-to-head with the Mi 10 Pro.

While we cannot give you a definitive answer without testing both cameras for our self, we cannot imagine camera performance of the OnePlus 8 Pro will be too far behind Mi 10. Both these phones will deliver flagship camera performance, not too far behind Apple, Google, Huawei and Samsung’s best.

If you are pondering on whether to buy a Mi 10 or OnePlus 8 Pro, we would suggest you to go for the latter. The gains OnePlus are offering is well worth the extra 5K. Not only do you get an IP rating, but also a better display and clean UI. While the jury is still out on camera, the OnePlus 8 Pro just seems like more of a premium smartphone than the Mi 10.