Xiaomi launched the Mi CC9 Pro, also known as the Mi Note 10, in China earlier this week. It’s a Snapdragon 730G-powered upper-midrange device whose main attraction is the penta-lens setup on the back that includes a whopping 108-megapixel Samsung ISOCELL Bright HMX sensor as the primary camera.
Understandably, Xiaomi hyped up the Mi Note 10’s camera a lot and, for a change, it indeed appears to be the best in the market, at least according to DxOMark's smartphone camera rankings. While we can argue about the validity of the exact DxO scores, there is no denying that the comparison pictures in their review show that the Mi Note 10 performs exceptionally well in a variety of situations. This proves, among other things, Samsung’s 108-megapixel ISOCELL Bright HMX sensor is a top-notch performer.
Prior to the launch of the Mi Note 10 and the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, Samsung’s 2019 Galaxy flagships stood at the top of the DxOMark rankings for a large part of the year. A mid-range Xiaomi device beating these flagships is bad news for the Korean tech giant in the short run, but it can be good news for the company’s upcoming Galaxy S11.
This is because the Galaxy S11 will reportedly use an improved version of the same ISOCELL Bright HMX sensor as its primary camera. When you combine that with the Galaxy S11’s flagship SoC with a superior ISP (Image Signal Processor) over the Snapdragon 730G, you suddenly get a hardware package that is capable of beating the best in the market.
If that’s not enough camera hardware for you, the Galaxy S11 will supposedly feature a periscope camera system as well to enable 5x optical zoom. Not just hardware, Samsung is generally better than Xiaomi when it comes to image processing as well. When you take all of this together, the Galaxy S11 indeed has the potential to top the smartphone camera rankings when launched.
We have opined in the past that the Galaxy S11 should be a camera champion. Thankfully, all the rumours and evidence we have come across so far suggest that the camera will indeed be the focus of the Galaxy S11.
