It was launched at an event held in Shenzhen, China[3] as the successor to the Xiaomi Mi 6.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, with 6 GB LPDDR4X RAM and Adreno 630 GPU.

The handset features a fingerprint scanner on the rear or on the screen under the display, in the Explorer Edition.

[6] It features a 3,400 mAh battery with a USB-C reversible connector which supports Quick Charge 4.0+.

[7] Explorer Edition also introduces a 3D optical facial recognition with the standard IR Sensor for dark condition[8] and a dual band GNSS which allows reception of L1 and L5 signals simultaneously.