The Xiaomi Mi 8 gets pseudo 960fps super slow-mo and night mode in its latest firmware update

If you’re using the Mi 8, you’ll be happy to know that Xiaomi is rolling out a new firmware update with two notable additions to the camera app, 960fps super slow-mo and night mode. Look out for MIUI version 10.1.2.0 via OTA to your device soon.

In the camera department, the Mi 8 presents a good case for itself. You get a dual-camera setup with two 12MP sensors (one with a f/1.8 lens while the other gets a f/2.4 lens) complete with 4-axis OIS and 2X Optical Zoom. The picture quality that the Mi 8 churns out is not bad. So, it’s good to know that the decent Mi 8 camera is getting the two new features.

However, I’ve been doing some reading on the update and found out that the 960fps super slow-mo mode in the Mi 8 may not be the real deal.

The 960fps super slow-mo mode is as the name suggest, you get to shoot videos in short bursts of 960 frames-per-second. When the video is played back in normal 24 frames per second, you get a smooth super slow-motion effect. This is if the device is capable of actually recording in 960fps.

With the Mi 8, this is not the case. XDA developer member, xandreasx, reported that the super slow-mode is not actually recorded in 960 frames-per-second. Rather with the Mi 8, a slow-motion video is recorded in 240 frames-per-second, the footage is then artificially slowed down further using software to emulate a 960fps recording and as you can see in his video comparison, the results are rather…weird, to say the least.

The video is in Italian so turn on closed caption for translation. Now, in the sake of fairness, I have to also point out that he is using a Global Developer firmware on his Mi 8 for this test but it’s safe to assume that the final consumer version that is rolling out right now would behave the same way.

The Galaxy S9 does 960fps super slow-mo the right way, meaning that the video is recorded in actual 960 frames-per-second and as you can see in our test video below, the results are much better.

I can’t seem to find much information about the night mode so I’ll have to find out if we have a Mi 8 in the office and download the updated firmware to test it out for myself. In the meantime, here’s an awesome night mode comparison we did with the Google Pixel 3 XL, Huawei Mate20 Pro and Oppo R17 Pro. The findings will surprise you.

Related reading: