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There’s no wireless charging, either. This certainly isn’t a given on a flagship device, but with the Mi 8 Pro’s transparent backing showcasing the location of various real components such as the NFC reader, it would have been cool to have seen the metal coil (or at least some iconography) suggesting that the technology was present. Most likely a cost-saving measure, Xiaomi also doesn’t reference any form of IP-certification. This means that while there’s no issue using the Mi 8 Pro in a light mist of rain, it certainly isn’t equipped to survive a dunk in the sink or a shower in the way that an iPhone XS or Samsung Galaxy S9 would. Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro – Screen Based on my previous experience with the Xiaomi-made Pocophone F1, I had high hopes for the Mi 8 Pro’s display – and I haven’t been disappointed. The screen is surrounded by fairly sizeable bezels and a notable chin and notch, but the AMOLED panel at play between the two is nothing short of excellent.

The 6.21-inch screen features rounded corners, a Full HD+ resolution and it’s protected by 2.5D Gorilla Glass 5. It’s bright and colourful, displaying excellent contrast, but also boasts reliable viewing angles with only a slight drop-off in brightness and practically zero colour distortion. The panel is also HDR10-compliant and offers a heap of customisability over both the viewing experience and interaction. Related: What is HDR? You can manually configure Night Mode brightness and colour temperature independently of the phone’s standard display settings. Plus there’s Reading Mode and manual colour and contrast controls if you want to tailor things to your taste. The display is smart, too, with double-tap-to-wake, raise-to-wake and an always-on mode options.

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But the real party piece is that, unlike the standard Mi 8, the Mi 8 Pro joins a steadily expanding group of smartphones that boast in-display fingerprint sensors. Xiaomi’s implementation is more advanced than the previous-generation technology we saw on 2017’s Huawei Mate RS, for example – factoring in depth data as well. However, while the feature is unquestionably cool on paper, and more reliable than last year’s efforts, it isn’t without its faults. In comparison to more conventional smartphone fingerprint sensors, the Mi 8 Pro’s in-screen option is slow and, worse still, suffers from a high failure rate.

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I regularly found that it wouldn’t work if my hands were at all wet, damp or particularly cold. The fact that it’s invisible is somewhat amazing, but it does make it tricky to find when in a banking app, for example – or any other instance that supports fingerprint authentication (although that fact that the Mi 8 Pro’s sensor works with such experiences at all is appreciated). The nature of the sensor also means there’s no gesture support, which is a far minor inconvenience but worth noting all the same. Then there’s the notch. It isn’t as ugly as the one encroaching on the Pixel 3 XL’s screen, but it’s big, following in the footsteps of the iPhone X by dominating the majority of the top edge of the screen.