Xiaomi Mi 8, MIUI 10 to launch on May 31: Full specifications, features

Xiaomi has officially confirmed the launch date for its upcoming flagship smartphone. Xiaomi will be launching Mi 8 smartphone at an event on May 31 in China. The launch was first confirmed on Chinese social website Weibo followed with a tweet by Xiaomi's global spokesperson, Donovan Sung.

As you may have already noticed, Xiaomi has skipped the number 7 for its Mi smartphone this year. Mi 8 will succeed last year's Mi 6. The reason behind this can be presumed to be Xiaomi's eighth year anniversary. At the same time Xiaomi will also launch the new version of its custom MIUI. MIUI 10 is expected to debut on the Mi 8 and will come with new gestures and features.

Donovan Sung's tweet reads, "To celebrate our 8th year anniversary, we'll be launching Mi 8 at our annual flagship product launch in Shenzen on May 31".

It isn't known as yet if Xiaomi will bring the Mi 8 to India this year. Last year the company launched its bezel-less Mi MIX 2 smartphone in the country instead. Xiaomi is also expected to launch its phablet Mi Max 3 sometime in July.

Ahead of its launch there have been quite a few reports circulating around the possible features and specifications of Mi 8. As seen in most smartphones this year including OnePlus 6, Xiaomi Mi 8 is also expected to come with a notch display design. Mi 8 is also speculated to feature an in-display fingerprint sensor. As the name suggests the fingerprint sensor will be embedded under the display of the phone.

The smartphone could be powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 845 processor coupled with 8GB of RAM and storage options up to 256GB. On the software front, Xiaomi Mi 8 will possibly run MIUI based on Android Oreo. Xiaomi smartphones do feature face unlock but the technology isn't at its best. With the Mi 8, the company is expected to up its game with facial recognition at par with Apple iPhone X's Face ID.

More expected features include a 5.65-inch full HD+ display, a dual-camera setup of 16-megapixel sensors, and a 4,000mAh battery. The smartphone is also rumored to come with wireless charging support. All details are currently under speculation and it's best to wait for official confirmation before jumping into conclusions.