The Xiaomi CIVI is a beautifully designed Vivo phone


Launching today in China, can easily be mistaken for the Vivo V21 or the Vivo X60 Pro, especially the Shimmer Blue colour variant.

Only a few more hours left before the reveal of Xiaomi’s new Vivo phone, the Xiaomi Civi (pronounced “CV”, as in “Aircraft Carrier” or your resumè) . Before the actual launching, Xiaomi has given users a sneak peek of what to expect from it.

One of the teaser posters for the Xiaomi CIVI

First off is the quite inspired design. The phone sports three rear cameras with a pyramid-like placement almost similar to either the Vivo V21 series or the Vivo X60 Pro. The colour also does not help to avoid confusion, as it is similar to the Vivo X60 Pro’s Shimmer Blue gradient. You know what they say, “Identity Theft is the sincerest form of flattery”. It’s quite obvious which phones the Civi is competing with, heck, even the name “Civi” sounds like an off-brand “Vivo”.

Other manufacturers such as Meizu with their Meizu 18x also used this particular arrangement. This design was popularized by Vivo through their Vivo X50 series and has since became their signature design for their other phones, such as the Vivo V21 series.

Another poster for the Xiaomi CIVI

Another specification announced is the processor of the phone. It will use the Snapdragon 778G which is a slightly weaker variant of the Snapdragon 780G, although the performance difference is mild and they should offer similar performance to an average user. The phone would be using a curved display as well as AG Glass back. The phone would also be using a metallic frame, instead of the plastic frame seen on the Oppo Reno 6 series, which it would be competing against.

The battery has also been confirmed. The phone would have a fairly modest 4500mAh battery, although the charging rate has not been announced. We expect fast charging though, typical of many luxury midrangers from Xiaomi. Rumors say that 55W fast charging is coming with the Civi.

The main point of the Civi is its camera, both on the hardware and software side. In this case, the selfie camera. The company has revealed a feature called “facial beautification”, explaining how they’ve used machine learning to map someone’s face on a ‘per-pixel’ basis, preserving the skin texture when the image is processed instead of depreciating it. In simple terms, it’s Xiaomi experimenting on “retouching”; capturing a person’s face on different angles and then using a neural network to preserve details.

The phone will use a 32mp selfie camera. The triple camera at the rear is yet to be announced. Other features seen include the IR Blaster, Dolby Atmos-enhanced speakers and USB-C port.

Sources: GSMArena, GizmoChina