Xiaomi had introduced earlier today that the Mi 8 flagship will be launching on May 31, and now the phone’s front panel surfaced, well, its alleged front panel. If you take a look at the provided image, you will be able to see two front panels, one is noticeably larger than the other, and one of these two allegedly belongs to the Mi 8, while the source did not mention what the other one is supposed to represent, other than it belongs to a “mysterious phone”.
Now, if Xiaomi is, by any chance, planning to release two size variants of the Mi 8, Mi 8 and Mi 8 Plus maybe, then that would explain this leak, even though the notch looks different on these two front panels, and the one with the smaller notch actually sport thinner bezel below the display. The smaller front panel has sharper corners, and its display will feature less rounded corners compared to the one that will sit below the larger display panel. Earpiece and front-facing camera cutouts are noticeable on both front panels, and that is pretty much all the info that was shared via this leak. The Xiaomi Mi 8 is actually rumored to sport 3D facial scanning, similar to the one on the iPhone X, so it’s a bit odd there are no more cutouts on these front panels, as such technology requires quite a few sensors to be active on the front.
The Xiaomi Mi 7 was expected to arrive this year, but it seems like Xiaomi decided to skip that name altogether, and jump straight to the Xiaomi Mi 8, which is a symbolic gesture as Xiaomi’s 8th anniversary is this year. The Xiaomi Mi 8 is also expected to sport wireless charging, which probably means it will ship with a glass back, or perhaps a ceramic back, we’ll see. The device will be fueled by the Snapdragon 845 64-bit octa-core SoC, and it will include at least 6GB of RAM, though an 8GB RAM variant is also a possibility. Android Oreo will come pre-installed on the phone, along with Xiaomi’s MIUI 9 skin. The Xiaomi Mi 8 is expected to be smaller than the Mi MIX 2S, even though today’s leak suggested that it will sport a 6.01-inch display, so it’s possible that we’ll see two size variants of the phone after all.