Unicode 13 was announced earlier this year, bringing along 62 new emojis (117, if you count the variations separately) to devices. While their inclusion may not seem like a big deal on the surface, these graphical assets have become an integral part of expression on the internet and through our devices. They add emotions, intentions, and character to mere words. And the frequent addition of newer emojis is testimony to their importance in modern-day communication and expression. It should then be no surprise to learn that the 62 emojis added in Unicode 13 were added to the Android 11 Beta 1. You can install Android 11 Beta 1 on supported devices to access these emojis. But there is also an easier way to install and experience these emojis on your existing software, presuming you have root.
XDA Senior Member RKBD, known for his Gboard themes, has obtained the font file containing the new emojis from an unreleased Android 11 build. This font file has been packaged into a Magisk Module, that users with Magisk installed can simply flash to replace their existing emojis. For most Android devices, the module replaces the “NotoColorEmoji.ttf” file in /system/fonts. On Samsung devices, the module replaces the “SamsungColorEmoji.ttf” file at the same spot.
One thing to keep in mind is that the emoji style is visible on your device. Several apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, and others are using their own styles and have not included the new emojis yet. If the platform does not include support for the new emojis, they will not be rendered properly on the receiver’s end. So do keep that in mind before you send out U+1F972 to everyone. But now that installing the new ones has become significantly easier, we should see wider proliferation across ecosystems. Just a matter of time for Gboard to integrate the new ones.
Update 1 (6/22/20 @ 01:40 AM ET): Realme has launched a new 4GB + 64GB variant of the Narzo 10A for ₹9,999 (~$130).The original Realme Narzo 10/10A launch story from May 11, 2020 remains unchanged.
Realme recently completed two years as an independent brand. Since its spin-off from OPPO, the company has aggressively launched new devices every month and this has allowed it to break its way into the top five smartphone brands in India. The company’s objective, however, is to be a tech lifestyle brand and this is why it is launching a new smartphone series for Gen-Z in India. The new Realme Narzo series includes two new phones – Narzo 10 and 10A – powered by MediaTek G series chipsets and focus on photography.
While Realme was supposed to launch these devices in March, the launch was delayed due to the COVID-19 lockdown in India. Both of these devices are rebranded versions of previously launched Realme devices with certain aesthetic changes.
Realme Narzo 10
The Realme Narzo 10 is the superior of the two models launching today. It is, in fact, a rebranded Realme 6i, which has already been launched in Europe. The phone is powered by the MediaTek Helio G80 chipset with a 4GB LPDDR4X RAM. It comes with a 128GB eMMC storage which can be further expanded with a microSD card for which the Realme Narzo 10 has a dedicated slot.
The Narzo 10 features a 6.5-inch HD+ display with Gorilla Glass on top. Realme did not specify the version of the Gorilla Glass protection. The back of the Realme Narzo 10 is made of polycarbonate with a satiny finish identical to the Realme X Master Edition. The phone comes in two colors called, That White and That Green.
When it comes to the cameras, the Realme Narzo 10 features a quad camera setup on the back comprising a 48MP primary sensor, an 8MP ultrawide sensor, a 2MP depth sensor, and a 2MP macro camera. On the front, there’s a 16MP selfie camera.
In terms of the battery capacity, the Narzo 10 comes with a 5,000mAh battery along with support for 18W fast charging via the USB-C port.
In terms of software, the phone is running the company’s custom skin Realme UI which is based on Android 10.
Realme Narzo 10A
The younger sibling, Narzo 10A, also comes with a 6.5-inch HD+ display with Gorilla Glass 3 on top. This one is the rebranded version of the global variant of the Realme C3, which differs from the Indian Realme C3 (gaming review) and was launched in Thailand back in February and then globally in March. Realme has made changes to the back design of the SKU and the Realme Narzo 10A comes with a scratch-resistant polycarbonate body with a large Realme logo. The Realme Narzo 10A comes in two color variants – So White and So Blue.
The Narzo 10A features triple cameras including a 12MP primary camera, 2MP macro camera, and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, there’s a 5MP selfie camera.
The phone comes with MediaTek Helio G70 chipset with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage. It features a 5,000mAh battery but you may be limited to 10W charging via the microUSB port.
On the software front, the Realme Narzo 10A will also be running on Realme UI based on Android 10.
Realme Narzo 10 and Narzo 10A Specifications
Specification
Narzo 10
Narzo 10A
Dimension & Weight
164.4 x 75.4 x 9 mm
199g
164.4 x 75.0 x 8.95 mm
195g
Display
6.5″ IPS LCD
1600 x 720
Gorilla Glass
6.5″ IPS LCD
1600 x 720
Gorilla Glass 3
Security
Rear fingerprint sensor
Software-based face recognition
Rear fingerprint sensor
Software-based face recognition
System-on-Chip
MediaTek Helio G80
Mali-G52 GPU
MediaTek Helio G70
Mali-G52 GPU
RAM
4GB LPDD4X
3GB/4GB LPDDR4X
Storage
128GB eMMC
32GB/64GB eMMC
Battery & Charging
5,000 mAh
18W Fast Wired Charging
5,000 mAh
10W charging
Rear Camera
48MP Wide, f/1.8, 6P lens
8MP Ultra-Wide, 119°, f/2.25
2MP f/2.4 Macro Camera
2MP f/2.4 Depth Sensor
12MP Wide, f/1.8
2MP f/2.4 Macro Camera
2MP f/2.4 Depth Sensor
Front Camera
16MP
5MP
Software Version
Realme UI based on Android 10
Realme UI based on Android 10
Connectivity
4G LTE
2.4GHz Wi-Fi
USB Type-C
Bluetooth v5.0
4G LTE
2.4GHz Wi-Fi
microUSB
Bluetooth v5.0
Colors
That White, That Green
So White, So Blue
Pricing & Availability
The Realme Narzo 10 is priced at ₹11,999 (~$160) in India while the Narzo 10A will be sold for ₹8,499 (~$115). The former goes on the first sale on May 18th while the 10A will be available for the first sale on May 22nd. Both of these devices will be available via Flipkart and Realme’s own online store.
Realme has announced a new 4GB+64GB variant of the Realme Narzo 10A that will be priced at ₹9,999 (~$130). It will be available alongside Realme Narzo 10 and the previously launched Narzo 10A via Flipkart and realme.com.
The Pixel Themes app lets you customize the icon shape, font, accent color, etc. on Google Pixel phones running Android 10. We discovered the existence of the app shortly after Google pushed the second Android Q beta, and managed to get an early preview of its capabilities about a month before the public appearance. As the name suggests, the app is not intended for non-Pixel devices, but the underlying overlays that it toggles can still be found on other devices. Although neither the full-fledged Pixel Themes app nor the AOSP ThemePicker is present on Sony Xperia phones running Android 10, the company has left in a lot of the icon shape and accent color overlays that can be activated via the cmd overlay shell command.
While tinkering with his brand-new Sony Xperia 1 II, XDA Recognized Developer niaboc79discovered the existence of these overlays. Given the fact that Google designed the overlay-based theming mechanism on top of Sony’s Overlay Manager Service (OMS), the inclusion of the packages in the Android 10 firmware of Xperia phones isn’t very surprising. There is no user-facing app to control these overlays, though, so users have to manually toggle them via ADB shell. For example, you can easily change the accent color using the following command:
where COLOR_NAME can be “purple”, “black”, “cinnamon”, “green”, “ocean”, “orchid”, or “space”.
Here are the three basic commands you should know before playing with the overlays. You can enter them using Android Debug Bridge (ADB) after connecting your Sony Xperia smartphone to a PC/Mac with USB Debugging enabled.
To see a list of available overlays, enter the following command:
cmd overlay list
To enable an overlay, enter the following:
cmd overlay enable [package.name.here]
To disable an overlay, enter the following:
cmd overlay disable [package.name.here]
Best of all, the trick should work on older Xperia devices as well, provided they received an official Android 10 update from Sony. This means that owners of the Xperia 1/5, Xperia XZ2/XZ3, and Xperia 10/10 Plus can also perform the same command line theming magic on their phones.
There’s no denying that people love customizing their smartphones with different wallpapers. No matter if your device is completely stock or rooted and modded up the wazoo, a simple wallpaper can change the feeling to fit your style or mood. We often share wallpapers from newly launched phones, but today we have live wallpapers from Meizu’s Flyme OS 8 which was announced last year.
These wallpapers from Flyme OS 8 are not simple static wallpapers, however. XDA Recognized Developer linuxct, who is kinda known for porting live wallpapers, grabbed the 5 live wallpapers as seen below. They feature bubbles in various colors that slowly move around the screen. You can download the APK linked below to use the live wallpapers.
Up until now, my favorite Xiaomi phone was the Mi Mix 3. It had the right combination between hardware, design, and a certain element of style. I really didn’t think there would be another Xiaomi phone to fill the void the Mi Mix 3 left in my heart, but luckily, there is. That phone is the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro.
The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro is Xiaomi’s most premium consumer-grade flagship yet. This is also Xiaomi’s most expensive flagship to date, starting at €999 (~$1,090.) Xiaomi, a brand known for its fantastic value on phones, has now released a phone that’s just as expensive as high-end competitors. That now leaves us to wonder, is this phone still a good value in comparison to the other flagships on the market? Was the jump in price worth it from their previous flagships?
About this review: Xiaomi provided us the Mi 10 Pro unit for review purposes. This review is after two months of use.
Display
First up, the display. This is one of the places Xiaomi phones previously struggled. They were always good, but never great. Even on their flagships, they looked about average and didn’t really feel like flagship-level displays, but that was excusable at the much lower prices. This year, the price is much higher and as expected, the display quality is much better. So good, in fact, I would say this is one of the best displays on any phone.
This year, Xiaomi is using a curved FHD+ panel with a high refresh rate of 90hz and touch sampling rate of 180hz. This means everything will look smoother thanks to the high refresh rate and feel more responsive thanks to the faster touch sampling. This is all around a good improvement and something that is needed to keep Xiaomi in the running with other flagship phones this year.
As for the colors, they look fantastic. I kept my phone in the “Auto” display mode because Xiaomi has some really great calibration in that mode. According to Xiaomi, the mode will “adjust colors based on current lighting.” Nothing gets overly saturated and it is nice to look at. The “Saturated” mode gets much more saturated. Every color really pops and I’d say it’s too saturated for my liking, but some people do like this. The other preset mode is “original color”. It gets a highly calibrated and accurate color mode. It’s not as nice to look at, but it will look good for those who prefer images to look true and flat, with no added punches. The last mode is a custom mode. There are a whole lot of settings, so you can really calibrate the display colors however you want.
I would give this display a nice A- rating. Why A-? Well, it’s because of two reasons, resolution and refresh rate. They cut down on refresh rate and resolution because 90hz and FHD+ are both decent. The combination helps save cost and battery. 120hz and WQHD+ would just be nice improvements, especially at the price Xiaomi is asking it for. I know it’s nitpicking, the display is fantastic but those two improvements would have been nice to see. If Xiaomi wants to compete at the top, it needs to be at the top, and 90Hz FHD+ is not the top, even though it remains practical.
Hardware
The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro has some of the best internal hardware on the market. It’s running the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 with the X55 5G modem. This device only supports mid/low band 5G and no mmWave. That is perfectly fine as the device isn’t launching in the US. In the countries it is launching in, it should support most 5G bands in use for the region. It has a 4,500 mAh battery with 50W wired charging and 30W wireless charging. Xiaomi claims the 50W wired charger should fill the battery in about 45 minutes and my tests find that this is true. The 30W wireless charger is obviously a bit slower, but not by much. It takes around 25 minutes to charge from 5% to 53% and around an hour to fill the battery. That is much faster than a lot of other flagship phones’ wired charging. Back to that in-box wired charger for a moment, it is actually a 65W charger that supports PD/PPS so you can use it to fast charge most laptops and tablets. This is a small detail but greatly appreciated. The single storage option is also pretty good. It has 256GBs of UFS 3.0 storage with 8GBs of LPDDR5 RAM. That is more than enough base storage and a good amount of RAM.
The camera setup is also pretty top-notch. The main sensor is the Samsung Bright HMX 108MP sensor. It has a sensor size of 1/1.33”, a pixel size of 0.8μm with 4-in-1 pixel binning to 1.6μm, f/1.69 aperture, and OIS. Unlike the Galaxy S20 Ultra, the Mi 10 Pro does pixel binning more conventionally, with 4 pixels instead of 9. There is also a 20MP ultra-wide at a 117-degree FoV along with a 12MP 2X optical and 8MP zoom lens with 10X hybrid zoom. It’s a pretty great setup. and I’ll get into more detail in a bit. Note that the rear camera setup is where the phone sets itself apart from the regular Mi 10.
On the outside, the phone is absolutely fantastic. It has a 6.67-inch FHD+ display with HDR10+ and a 90hz refresh rate. The brightness on the display is pretty good at 500 nits average and 800 nits in high brightness made. It is a curved display, but it isn’t too curved. It’s definitely a comfortable curve, though. There are little to no issues with palm rejection as well. It’s all around really great.
The body of the phone is aluminum and the back and front are Gorilla Glass 5. It comes in two colors, Alpine White and Solstice Grey. The rear glass on both devices has a matte texture with a slight color shift depending on the lighting. The unit Xiaomi sent me was the Alpine White unit and it shifts between white, pink, red, and blue. It just looks absolutely fantastic.
Something else that has seriously improved about the Mi 10 Pro is the haptics. I would go as far as to say the haptics on this phone are better than on the OnePlus 8 and Pixel 4. They are precise and strong without making a table shake while getting a notification. Xiaomi also implemented them throughout the entire UI. When you hit the top or bottom of a page while scrolling, you’ll get a light haptic buzz to let you know that you can’t scroll any longer. It’s little things like this throughout the UI that just make it feel complete.
There are a lot of absolutely fantastic parts of this phone, and for a Xiaomi flagship, that’s pretty impressive.
Audio
Normally I don’t talk about audio quality in reviews. I’m not an audiophile and I’m not too versed in audio quality. What I am versed in is phones. I’ve used so many phones over the years, and every year, one can hear the improvements in speaker quality. That improvement has plateaued in basically every phone expect two, the Galaxy Fold and Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro. These two phones have one thing in common that makes them so much better than every other device: symmetrical speakers.
Symmetrical speakers are my favorite thing about this phone, if I’m being honest. They get super loud and sound really good. These are the best speakers on any phone I’ve ever heard. Better than the iPhone, better than the Galaxy Fold, better than the Pixel 4 XL. Xiaomi absolutely nailed them. I tried to record a video of the speakers, which is above, but it doesn’t do complete justice to the speakers. They are truly fantastic. I’d say they are even better than my 2020 iPad Pro, which also has fantastic speakers. It’s just incredible.
The microphone is also really good. My experience with Xiaomi phones has been mostly negative in the microphone department. I usually find them to be really bad for anything but phone calls. The Mi 10 Pro changes that. These new microphones are, once again, fantastic. They sound accurate and do a great job of getting good voice accuracy and not sounding tinny. While I was talking to my friends on Houseparty, they told me the Mi 10 Pro had the best sounding microphone out of all of the flagships I asked them to compare, those being the OnePlus 8 Pro, the Huawei P40 Pro, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max. It’s really impressive to come out on top against such a heavyweight lineup!
This was honestly shocking to me, but I’m glad Xiaomi focused on it. The Xiaomi Mi 9 and Mi Mix 3, the previous two Xiaomi flagships I used, had bad microphones and speakers. They were disappointing for expensive phones. I’m so glad Xiaomi not only improved them but made them better than any other phone OEM.
Camera
As I mentioned in the hardware section, the main shooter of this camera is the 108MP Samsung Bright HMX sensor. Xiaomi was the first OEM to use this sensor in the Xiaomi Mi Note 10. On that phone, it was all around fine. It wasn’t particularly good or particularly bad. It was all-around average, which was fine for the price since the Mi Note 10 was cheaper. The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro is a much more expensive phone and, of course, a flagship. The main sensor, and all the others at that, do not disappoint and are actually really great.
So first off the main sensor, this 108MP behemoth. The images you capture won’t actually be 108MP, unless you use the 108MP mode. They will be 25.2MP after using 4-in-1 pixel binning. Pixel binning basically takes a set of nearby pixels in a square and combines them into one larger pixel. So even though the individual pixels are very small, it is effectively a much larger pixel. This should result in better detail and better low light photography.
The results are really good. There’s a lot of detail and colors are mostly accurate and very appealing. You are able to zoom in and retain detail and clarity. HDR is pretty good but not crazy good. There is some work that can be done, but it’s not a huge deal. The detail in portrait pictures is great and there isn’t much skin smoothing once you turn off beauty mode. It’s not great for moving objects, though. I really haven’t been able to get any good pictures of my 3-month-old puppy. The white balance is always off and the images are all blurry. It’s a good all-around main sensor, but not without its issues.
The ultra-wide is also really good. It’s a 20MP sensor 117-degree FOV lens. It is definitely a good camera and I have no complaints about it. HDR and detail are good. There really aren’t any glaring issues with it, though I would have liked to see a bit more similarities between the colors of the main and ultra-wide lenses.
There are actually two zoom lenses, a 12MP short telephoto which is used for portrait shots. It’s all-around pretty good. Of course, it’s not as good as the main sensor but no telephoto really ever is. It’s great for portrait mode and for close range zoom. Once again, no real complaints about this camera. It’s pretty good, but there’s always room to bring it up to par with the main sensor.
Lastly for the rear, the long telephoto. It’s an 8MP sensor with a 3.76x optical zoom. It’s good to note this is NOT using a periscope camera setup. Using extra information from the main 108MP sensor, Xiaomi was able to get 10x hybrid zoom and 50x digital zoom. Like most cameras with ultra far zoom, it’s not great, but again, no phones with this type of zoom really are.
As for the front-facing camera, it’s pretty good. The photos aren’t super sharp but it does preserve a lot of detail and have minimal skin smoothing. It’s a pretty damn good looking selfie camera, and I really have no complaints about it. I do have complaints about the camera app, though. Beauty mode should not be enabled by default, it should be an option that you have to manually turn on.
All around, this isn’t a camera you can be disappointed by. It’s good, like most Xiaomi cameras. I’m not going to say it’s the best smartphone camera, as white balance and moving images have been common issues I’ve noticed. I mean sure, there are a few improvements you can make here and there but that’s not going to ruin the overall experience of the camera. It’s no worse than something like the Galaxy S20 Ultra, which I really like despite its flaws. The same goes for the camera on the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro.
Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro Performance Analysis
Section contributed by Mishaal Rahman
The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 mobile platform, Qualcomm’s flagship-tier SoC announced at the end of 2019. The SoC features an octa-core CPU in a 1-3-4 core configuration; 1x ARM Cortex A77 core clocked at up to 2.84GHz is joined by 3x ARM Cortex A77 cores clocked at up to 2.4GHz and finally, 4x ARM Cortex A55 cores clocked at up to 1.8GHz. For graphics, the Snapdragon 865 packs Qualcomm’s Adreno 650 GPU. TSMC fabricates the Snapdragon 865 using its 7nm (N7P) foundry process. Compared to the previous generation Snapdragon 855 found in the Mi 9 series, the Snapdragon 865 enables 25% faster CPU performance, 20% faster graphics rendering, and 35% more power efficiency in graphics rendering.
Other important components to note that contributes to the day-to-day performance include the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro’s LPDDR5 RAM module (up to 12GB) and UFS 3.0 storage module (up to 512GB). LPDDR5 RAM brings faster memory speeds at a lower power consumption than the previous generation LPDDR4X specification thanks to features like DVFS, Deep Sleep Mode, DQ Copy, and WriteX. Universal Flash Storage, or UFS, is a storage standard designed for flash storage devices that are commonly used in mobile devices. UFS 3.0 promises significant improvements in theoretical sequential read and write speeds with over double the bandwidth per lane compared to the previous generation UFS 2.1.
With that in mind, the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro is expected to perform very well in synthetic benchmarks and in real-world performance. However, there are a myriad of factors that affect the actual performance because OEMs like Xiaomi don’t simply clone Qualcomm’s reference hardware and software. On the software side, OEMs tune things like the CPU and GPU schedulers, memory controller, and file system. On the hardware side, OEMs design their products to have a balance between heat dissipation and aesthetics. To help dissipate heat in the Mi 10 Pro, Xiaomi boasts a “VC Liquid Cooling” system consisting of a large vapor chamber, 6-stack graphite layer, and heat-transmitting gel. While that means the Mi 10 Pro is equipped for extended gaming sessions, does that translate to great performance in spite of MIUI?
”Quick
AndroBench: AndroBench is a fairly old benchmark with an equally dated design, but it’s still the go-to for storage testing. It tests the speed of sequential read/write, random read/write, and SQLite insert, update, and delete operations. A sequential read/write is an operation that involves reading/writing storage blocks that are contiguous, while a random read/write involves reading/writing randomly scattered storage blocks. SQLite describes a type of database management system; developers dealing with large databases often have to make SQLite calls to retrieve or modify the database. We can get a good idea of the storage performance of an Android device with AndroBench. By default, the benchmark writes a 64MP file with either 32MB or 4KB buffer sizes for sequential and random read/writes respectively, and an SQLite transaction size of 1. The speed of the former operation is measured in MB/s while the latter in Queries Per Second (QPS).
AnTuTu: This is a holistic benchmark. AnTuTu tests the CPU, GPU, and memory performance, while including both abstract tests and, as of late, relatable user experience simulations (for example, the subtest which involves scrolling through a ListView). The final score is weighted according to the designer’s considerations.
GeekBench: A CPU-centric test that uses several computational workloads including encryption, compression (text and images), rendering, physics simulations, computer vision, ray tracing, speech recognition, and convolutional neural network inference on images. The score breakdown gives specific metrics. The final score is weighted according to the designer’s considerations, placing a large emphasis on integer performance (65%), then float performance (30%), and finally, crypto (5%).
GFXBench: Aims to simulate video game graphics rendering using the latest APIs. Lots of onscreen effects and high-quality textures. Newer tests use Vulkan while legacy tests use OpenGL ES 3.1. The outputs are frames during test and frames per second (the other number divided by the test length, essentially), instead of a weighted score. Aztec Ruins: These tests are the most computationally heavy ones offered by GFXBench. Currently, top mobile chipsets cannot sustain 30 frames per second. Specifically, the test offers really high polygon count geometry, hardware tessellation, high-resolution textures, global illumination and plenty of shadow mapping, copious particle effects, as well as bloom and depth of field effects. Most of these techniques will stress the shader compute capabilities of the processor.
PCMark 2.0: Tests the device as a complete unit. It simulates everyday use cases that can implement abstract algorithms and a lot of arithmetic; the difference is that these are dispatched within an application environment, with a particular practical purpose, and handled by API calls and Android libraries common to multiple applications. The test will output a variety of scores corresponding to the various subtests, which will be detailed below; the composite, Work 2.0 score is simply the geometric mean of all of these scores, meaning all tests are weighted equally.
Web browsing 2.0simulates browsing social media: rendering the web page, searching for the content, re-rendering the page as new images are added, and so on. This subtest uses the native Android WebView to render (WebKit) and interact with the content, which is locally stored — this means you can run it offline, but it does not simulate web browsing fully as it rules out internet connection factors (latency, network speed). It is specifically trackingframe rates and completion timeacross seven tasks, with their score being a multiple of their geometric mean.
Video Editingsimulates video editing performance: applying effects to a video using OpenGL ES 2.0 fragment shaders, decoding video frames (sent to an Android GLSurfaceView), and rendering/encoding the video in H.264/MPEG-4AVC at several frame rates and resolutions up to 4K. It is specifically trackingframe rateson the UI, except for a final test tracking thecompletion timeof a video editing pipeline.
Writingsimulates general document and text editing work: adding or editing texts and images within a document, copying and pasting text, and so on. It uses the native Android EditText view as well as PdfRenderer and PdfDocument APIs. It will open compressed documents, move text bodies, insert images in the document, then save them as a PDF, to then encrypt and decrypt them (AES). It specifically tracks task completion times for the processes of opening and saving files, adding images and moving text bodies, encrypt/decrypt the file, and render the PDF pages on ImageViews.
Photo Editingsimulates photo-editing performance: opening images, applying different effects via filters (grains, blurs, embossing, sharpening, and so on) and saving the image. It uses 4MP JPEG source images and manipulates them in bitmap format using the android.media.effect API, android.renderscript API’s RenderScript Intrinsics, android-jhlabs, and the native android.graphics API for drawing the process on the screen. This is an extremely comprehensive test in that it will be impacted by storage access, CPU performance, GPU performance, and it is dependent on many different Android APIs. The test specifically measuresmemory and storage access times, encoding and decoding times, task completion times. The various filters and effects come from different APIs.
Data manipulationsimulates database management operations: parsing and validating data from files, interacting with charts, and so on. It will open (date, value) tuples from CSV, XML, JSON files, and then render animated charts with the MPAndroidChart library. It specifically tracksdata parsing timesas well asdraws per secondof each chart animation (similar to frame rate, but specific to the updating chart).
We’ll start off with GFXBench. To test the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro’s sustained GPU performance (and in addition, the battery life) over time, we ran the Manhattan 3.1 long-term performance/battery test. This is a graphically intensive onscreen test that runs at the phone’s native resolution (1080p) and at maximum brightness. The Mi 10 Pro rendered at least 4645 frames through 30 iterations of the test. GFXBench estimates the battery would last 193 minutes, or a little over 3 hours, if it were to continuously run the test. That means you can expect at least 3 hours of continuous gameplay on the most demanding Android game you can think of with the screen bumped up to max brightness. What’s more, is that the performance shouldn’t fluctuate very much; the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro’s rendered between 4645-4654 frames throughout the 30 iterations of the test, so the variation was quite small. The battery temperature rose from about 27 degrees to about 37 degrees Celsius, which may feel uncomfortable but likely not hot. Keep in mind, though, that the baseline temperature will depend on where you live.
For good measure, we also ran the Sling Shot Extreme test in 3DMark (which is written using the OpenGL ES 3.1 API). This is another highly intensive, but shorter, test that pushes the GPU to its limits. The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro scored within the top 1 percent of all devices with an overall score of 7061 and a graphics score and physics score of 8210 and 4739 respectively.
Mi 10 Pro
Next up is PCMark 2.0 and the Work 2.0 performance test. The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro scored 11463 overall, which is about 800 points lower than the score of the Snapdragon 865 Qualcomm Reference Device. The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro outperforms the Qualcomm Reference Device in the Video Editing and Data Manipulation tests but underperforms the QRD in the Web Browsing, Writing, and Photo Editing tests. Keep in mind that the QRD is tuned for performance and as such, represents the pinnacle of what the Snapdragon 865 can accomplish.
In AndroBench, the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro outperforms the 865 QRD in all the key areas: sequential and random read/writes. This suggests that Xiaomi’s optimizations to the file system have been beneficial to the storage performance. While the improvements don’t mean much in the real world, the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro proves to be a champ in reading and writing files to storage. This has benefits in-app launching speeds, image saving, and more areas.
In Geekbench 5, the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro underperforms the 865 QRD in both the single-core and multi-core CPU scores, but only slightly. The device boasts impressive numbers in all key tests, including cryptographic, integer, and floating-point calculations. The powerful CPU in the Snapdragon 865 proves to be a boon in retro console emulation including that of the Nintendo GameCube, Wii, and 3DS. The high single-core performance also means that single-threaded tasks, which are quite common in simple Android apps, will be performed quite quickly.
Lastly, the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro posts a high score in the popular AnTuTu benchmark. The Mi 10 Pro bests the 865 QRD thanks to superior performance in the memory and UX tests.
Final Thoughts
Trying to decide if phones are “worth it” is hard. There are a few parts to it, the price to performance, the device to device competition, the experience of using the phone, and so much more. The price to performance ratio on this phone is good, but this year has been expensive for flagships in general. Xiaomi has incredible audio and fast charging, a pretty good but not breathtaking display, and a not-bad camera. Comparing device to device, it is highly competitive with most other phones at the €999 price. The experience of using this phone is absolutely fantastic.
When talking about modern smartphones, it’s really hard to say which phones are the best. Each flagship has a different trade-off in a different part that is more or less meaningful to different people. For example, the OPPO Find X2 Pro has an amazing display and super-fast charging, but no wireless charging. In comparison, the Galaxy S20+ has wireless charging but the camera is a little less than perfect. The Huawei P40 Pro has an incredible camera, but no Google apps. It’s all about the trade-offs about the device and what you value most about the phone you are getting.
If you value audio quality, fast wired and wireless charging, good battery life, overall great but not fantastic cameras, and a good display, this phone is for you. If any of those points are what you aren’t really digging, I highly recommend checking out other options. There are a lot of great phones right now that might be a better fit.
The TCL 10L and 10 Pro are great mid-range smartphones if you live in the U.S. because they’re available at affordable prices while delivering decent hardware and software experiences. Both phones are currently available directly from TCL in the but the TCL 10L may soon launch on T-Mobile under the REVVL branding. In addition, the upcoming TCL 10 5G may also launch on T-Mobile as a new REVVL device.
T-Mobile REVVL is a smartphone brand consisting of white-label devices from OEMs like Motorola and TCL. The REVVL brand started in 2017 with the first REVVL and REVVL Plus which were made by TCL. The second-generation REVVL 2 and REVVL 2 Plus were also made by TCL while the third-generation REVVLRY and REVVLRY+ were rebrands of Motorola’s Moto G7 Play and Moto G7 Plus respectively. Now, it seems that the fourth-generation T-Mobile REVVL devices will be made by TCL once again.
T-Mobile REVVL 4+
As first spotted by PhoneScoop, the Bluetooth SIG filing for the TCL 10L was recently updated to list the “REVVL 4+” with model number 5062Z/5062W. There’s also an FCC filing for model names 5062W and 5062Z which confirms the phone has the same ~4000mAh battery found in the TCL 10L. A separate document confirms that the phone supports the following frequencies:
The phone also supports 2.4GHz Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and 5GHz Wi-Fi 802.11a/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, FM, and NFC. Lastly, the filing says that “LTE band 40 is not available in the US market and Canada market” which suggests the phone will be available in the US and Canada, although in Canada it will likely retain the TCL 10L name. Both the TCL 5062Z and 5062W have also been certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance, but the filings don’t reveal much.
The TCL 10L
T-Mobile REVVL 5G
More interesting is the filing for the T-Mobile REVVL 5G. A new device was just added to the list of Google Play certified devices. The device has the name “REVVL 5G” with code-name “seattle_5G” and model name “T970W.” It’s powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G, 6GB of RAM, has an FHD+ display at 2340×1080 resolution, and runs Android 10. According to the Bluetooth SIG, T790Y is the model name for the TCL 10 5G. The Bluetooth SIG filing also says the design name of T970W is “Seattle GL.” Thus, it’s likely that the REVVL 5G is just a rebranded version of the TCL 10 5G for T-Mobile.
The TCL 10 5G
With these new devices going through all the required regulatory steps before launching, it’s possible they’ll launch pretty soon, but as usual, we don’t have a definitive date quite yet.
The T-Mobile REVVL 5G with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G could be great competition for the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G especially if T-Mobile can keep the sub-$500 price tag of the TCL 10 5G. The T-Mobile REVVL 4+, on the other hand, will make for a decent all-around affordable mid-ranger if T-Mobile can keep the $250 price tag. Both devices have a lot going for them in terms of hardware, but let’s just hope that T-Mobile can keep up with the updates. TCL, for their part, have committed to one major Android OS update and 2 years of security updates.
If you’re anything like me, you probably carry a number of different chargers in your bag at any given time. I talked about that a little bit when I reviewed the RAVPower 61W PD GaN plug and mentioned how it was able to reduce the number of plugs I carried in my bag. Now the RAVPower 65W PD GaN reduces the number of plugs I carry in my bag yet again, as it packs not just a USB-C port, but a USB-A port as well. It’s only a small bit larger than the 61W PD GaN charger we already reviewed and is much smaller than both the MacBook Pro charger and the Nintendo Switch chargers I previously carried in my bag.
About this review: : I received the RAVPower 65W PD GaN from RAVPower at the end of May 2020. While I received this product for review from RAVPower, they did not have any input in the contents of this review.
The RAVPower 65W PD GaN charges two of everything
Just like the previous charger we reviewed from RAVPower, the 65W PD GaN also charges practically everything. With the aid of its USB-A port though, it charges two of everything, even if it can’t quite reach those insane 65W charging speeds from the USB-A port. It gets up to 18W maximum charging speed from the USB-A port, which is still equivalent to Qualcomm QuickCharge 2.0 and will charge the Nintendo Switch at full speed. I typically keep the USB-C port for charging my MacBook, as it’s capable of much faster speeds than the USB-A port. Note that the RAVPower 65W PD GaN does not come with a USB-C to USB-C cable, and that you’ll need to provide your own. The USB-A port is for devices like older iPhones and Samsung smartphones. You can read more about RAVPower’s iSmart charging tech here. Please note that it does not support Qualcomm QuickCharge.
The RAVPower 65W PD GaN is slightly bigger than the 61W charger that we already reviewed, though not by much. The US version of the plug can also fold in its prongs on itself to be even more compact – a luxury that I sadly don’t get with the UK plugs that we use in Ireland. Still, there is one major downside here. Just like with the previous RAVPower charger, this won’t quite reach the fastest charging speeds that a MacBook Pro is capable of. MacBook Pros charge at 87W, though 65W is perfectly respectable and will still charge your device extremely quickly.
Just like last time around, the RAVPower 65W PD GaN will power the Nintendo Switch dock and will charge the Nintendo Switch to full in approximately 3 hours. It will also charge the OnePlus 8 Pro with USB Power Delivery at 15W, while the Google Pixel 4 will charge at 18W using USB Power Delivery.
RAVPower 65W PD GaN Pricing
The RAVPower 65W PD GaN comes in at £45.99 on Amazon UK. As I mentioned in our review of the RAVPower 61W – that seems like a steep price, until you consider that the MacBook Pro’s 61W charging brick comes in at £69.99, a price that still manages to exclude the cable. A Nintendo Switch charger does admittedly cost only £24.99 with a cable, but its use case is rather one dimensional coming in at just 15W. If you needed a new MacBook Pro charging brick – or even just a charging brick for USB PD-charged devices – the RAVPower 65W PD GaN would be perfectly apt for the job, and the USB-A port adds even more to an already good deal. If you’re interested, you can pick it up from RAVPower’s own site or Amazon from the links below.
