Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition With 3D Facial Recognition, In-Display Fingerprint Sensor Launched; Price, Specs, Features, And More

In an event in China, Xiaomi has unveiled the limited edition of Mi 8 smartphone – Mi 8 Explorer Edition at a price tag of 3699 Yuan (US $577). The Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition comes in transparent back and it will go on sale in China starting from June 5th. Basically, the Mi 8 Explorer Edition shares the same design as that of the standard model and looks a lot like the iPhone X.

On the specifications front, the Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition features 6.21-inch FHD+ Samsung AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 2248 pixels, 18.7:9 aspect ratio, 88.5% screen-to-body ratio, and support for Always On Display. It is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor which is paired with Adreno 630 GPU & 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM. It runs on Android 8.1 Oreo operating system with MIUI 10 on top of it and 256GB internal storage.

On the camera side, the Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition features 12-megapixel rear camera with Sony IMX363 sensor, 1.4µm pixel size, 4-axis optical image stabilization, Dual Pixel autofocus and a secondary 12-megapixel rear camera for AI portraits, AI scene recognition, and video detection. On the front, it features 20-megapixel selfie camera with f/2.0, 1.8µm pixel, AI portrait selfies with real-time background blur, AI Studio Light Effect, and beautify.

The Mi 8 Explorer Edition has dual-SIM support and comes with connectivity features like 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi (dual-band, 2.4GHz, and 5.0GHz), Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, dual-band GPS (with L1/L5 signal support, said to be the world’s first phone with this feature), NFC that supports contactless payments, and USB Type-C. Other sensors on board both include an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, barometer, digital compass, gyroscope, infrared, and a proximity sensor.

The only difference between the Xiaomi Mi 8 and Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition is of an in-display fingerprint scanner and transparent back.

The Mi 8 Explorer Edition comes with pressure sensitive in-display fingerprint sensor that has dedicated pressure sensor thereby activating unlocking phone more quickly and the activation point for the fingerprint reader is in the OLED touchscreen. It uses Synaptics FS9500 Clear ID family of optical in-display fingerprint sensor placed in the lower third of the screen. Additionally, the Mi 8 Explorer Edition also comes with a 3D face unlock feature, the company uses advanced structured lighting technology to capture 33,000 facial points, lets you create animated emjois based on facial expressions. More interesting is that the Mi 8 Explorer Edition comes with a transparent back that exposes the real parts of the logic board like camera module, the Snapdragon Chipset, Battery, and the internal connectors.

The Mi 8 Explorer Edition measures 154.90 x 74.80 x 7.60 (height x width x thickness), and weighs 177.00 grams.

The Mi 8 Explorer Edition packs 3000mAh battery with support for Quick Charge 4+.

Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition Quick Specs

• Display: 6.21-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with a resolution of 2248 × 1080 pixels, 18.7:9 aspect ratio, 600 nits brightness, 60000:1 contrast ratio, DCI-P3 color gamut
• Processor: 2.8GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 845 64-bit 10nm Processor which is paired with Adreno 630 GPU
• Memory: 8GB LPDDR4x RAM with 256GB (UFS 2.1) storage
• Operating System: Android 8.1 Oreo with MIUI 9, upgradable to MIUI 10
• Rear Camera: 12MP rear camera with 26mm wide-angle lens, 1/2.6″ Sony IMX363 sensor, f/1.8 aperture, 1.4µm pixel size, dual-tone LED flash, 4-axis OIS, Optical zoom, 4K video recording, secondary 12MP rear camera with Samsung S5K3M3 sensor, f/2.4 aperture, 1.0µm pixel size, 2X zoom
• Front Camera: 20MP front-facing camera with real-time AI portraits
• Face Unlock Yes, 3D Face unlock
• Fingerprint Sensor: Yes< , in-display fingerprint sensor/li>
• Dimensions: 154.9 × 74.8x 7.6 mm
• Weight: 177g
• Connectivity: Dual 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11ac dual-band (2×2 MU-MIMO ), Bluetooth 5, Dual-frequency (L1+L5) GPS/GLONASS/Beidou, NFC, USB Type-C
• Battery: 3000mAh battery with Quick Charge 4+ fast charging