Xiaomi reveals the Mi 9’s triple rear camera specs, in-display fingerprint scanner, and Qualcomm Snapdragon 855

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Before Xiaomi announced the date for the Mi 9’s launch event, we hardly knew anything about the upcoming flagship smartphone. Rather than let their surprises be ruined by leaks, Xiaomi’s official social media accounts and several Xiaomi executives have revealed much of the Mi 9’s design and hardware specifications. Just today, in fact, Xiaomi’s Founder shared the full specifications of the Mi 9’s triple rear cameras along with a handful of camera samples. To save you the trouble of digging through multiple social media channels to find all the latest info on the Xiaomi Mi 9, we’ve compiled all the major details that the company has disclosed ahead of the February 20th launch.

Xiaomi Mi 9 Specifications

SoC

On Facebook, Xiaomi confirmed that their next flagship device will feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 mobile platform. That shouldn’t come as a surprise since we would expect 2019 flagships to sport Qualcomm’s 2019 flagship mobile platform, though we should note that not every upcoming flagship device has Qualcomm’s latest silicon.

For more information on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, I recommend you check out our overview of its specifications, deep dive on its performance and AI improvements, and benchmark comparison with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 and HiSilicon Kirin 980.

Biometrics

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition and Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro both have optical in-display fingerprint scanners, so we would expect Xiaomi’s next flagship device to have biometric authentication hardware that’s at least on par with Xiaomi’s 2018 flagships. Lei Jun, Founder of Xiaomi, shared the following image comparing the chin sizes between the Mi 9 and other products like the Vivo X23, Huawei Nova 4, Honor View 20, and OPPO R17. The image shows the in-display fingerprint scanner icon, so we’re pretty sure the device will have such a sensor. Xiaomi didn’t share any information on whether the Mi 9 will have an ultrasonic under-display fingerprint sensor like the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S10, however.

Camera Specifications

In a surprising move, Xiaomi went ahead and confirmed the specifications for all three rear cameras and revealed the megapixel count of the single front-facing camera. The Xiaomi Mi 9 will have the following cameras:

Back (Primary) 48MP 1/2-inch Sony IMX586 sensor, wide-angle lens, f/1.75 aperture, 6P lens, 0.8μm pixel size, 4-in-1 pixel binning (Secondary) 12MP telephoto lens, f/2.2 aperture, 6P lens, 1.0μm pixel size, 2x optical zoom (Tertiary) 16MP 117° ultra wide-angle lens, f/2.2 aperture, 6P lens, 1.0μm pixel size, 4cm macro support

Front (Primary) 20MP, all Xiaomi AI beauty functions supported



Camera Samples

To complement the reveal of the Xiaomi Mi 9’s camera specifications, Lei Jun also shared multiple camera samples.

Lin Bin, President of Xiaomi, shared the following ultra wide-angle sample photo taken on a Mi 9. Lin Bin says the 16MP sensor, combined with Xiaomi’s anti-distortion algorithm, can produce “movie poster-level” shots.

Xiaomi Mi 9 Design

Body

Xiaomi says the Mi 9 has a sapphire glass covering 243 square millimeters on top of all three rear cameras for protection. Furthermore, the Mi 9’s frame is stainless steel. As for the screen-to-body ratio, Xiaomi claims that they’ve made a 40% reduction in the chin size when compared to the Xiaomi Mi 8. The Mi 9’s chin size is a tiny 3.6mm. We’ll withhold judgment on the front design until we see the top bezel, which Xiaomi has yet to share in any images. Leaked images show the device will have a waterdrop notch, though.

Colors

We’ve shared some of these images before, but in case you haven’t seen them yet, we’ve attached them here for your convenience. Xiaomi has revealed 4 color options for the Mi 9 so far: a gradient blue, gradient pink, solid blue, and solid black/gray.

That’s all the information that Xiaomi has shared so far on the Xiaomi Mi 9. We expect the device to run Android Pie-based MIUI 10, but details on the device’s RAM, storage, display size, display technology, and other features have yet to be confirmed. We’ll find out soon, though, as the device’s launch event is only a few days away.

Source 1: XiaomiGlobal on FacebookSource 2: Lei Jun on WeiboSource 3: Lei Jun on WeiboSource 4: Lei Jun on WeiboSource 5: Lei Jun on WeiboSource 6: Lin Bin on WeiboSource 7: Lin Bin on Weibo