Xiaomi announced the Mi MIX Fold on Day 2 of its Mega Launch. The new Mi MIX device is its first foldable, but that is not the only “first” title it has. It is also the first foldable powered by the Snapdragon 888 processor, the first phone with a liquid lens camera, and the first Xiaomi phone with an in-house image processing chip.
Mi MIX Fold Design
The Mi MIX Fold has an inward folding design like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 and the Huawei Mate X2. It is covered in Gorilla Glass 5 but has a special ceramic edition with a textured back. This special edition also has a gold middle frame and volume buttons and a special laser engraving on the back.
Xiaomi has settled for a 4:3 aspect ratio for the inner display while the outer display has a 27:9 aspect ratio, thus giving the device in its folded state an elongated form factor akin to some Sony phones. This cover display also has a punch hole at the top left corner of the screen for a camera for video calls and selfies.
For the rear design, Xiaomi has modified the design of the Mi 10 Ultra. Rather than an elongated camera housing, it is much shorter but wider and protrudes but not as much as the Mi 11 Ultra.
Mi MIX Fold Specifications
The main foldable display of the MIX Fold is an 8.01-inch WQHD+ OLED panel with a 4:3 aspect ratio. That extra 0.1 inch earns it the title of the foldable with the largest main display as it is just a tiny bit larger than the Huawei Mate X2’s 8-inch display. Xiaomi’s foldable is also the first with a Dolby Vision display.
There are no holes or notches on the main screen neither does it have a high refresh rate like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 and the Huawei Mate X2. The 1 billion color display has a DCI-P3 color gamut, a 4,300,000:1 color contrast ratio, and a JNCD value and Delta E value of 0.29 and 0.35 respectively
The cover display is a 6.52-inch AMOLED (2520 x 840) HD+ screen with a 90Hz refresh rate and a 180Hz touch sampling rate. It has a 27:9 aspect ratio, a maximum brightness of 900 nits, and HDR10+. Xiaomi says both displays use an in-house algorithm to generate images and videos in super-resolution. They are capable of doubling the resolution of images from 720p to 1440p and the resolution of videos from 480p to 1440p.
Along with the Snapdragon 888 processor, you get up to 16GB of LPPDR5 RAM and 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage. There is no support for storage expansion, so what you buy is what you are stuck with. There is a butterfly-type cooling system that uses a combination of large-area VC liquid cooling, thermal gel, and multiple layers of graphite sheets for heat dissipation
Just like the Mi 11 series (excluding the Mi 11 Lite), the Mi MIX Fold has Harman Kardon tuned speakers. There are quad speakers – two on each side of the screen and they are said to be 40% louder than the Mi 10 Pro thanks to a 15V Smart PA. The speakers can also create a 3D spatial audio experience using Xiaomi’s own quad-speaker array algorithm.
The Mi MIX Fold has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner that doubles as the power button, NFC, Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 with support for AAC, LDAC, and LHDC.
The Mi MIX Fold packs a 5020mAh battery (dual battery design – 2460mAh + 2560mAh), the largest in a foldable phone, and also supports 67W fast wired charging, the fastest on a foldable phone. Xiaomi says users will be able to charge the phone from empty to full in just 37 minutes. It also supports Quick Charge 4+ and Power Delivery 3.0 but doesn’t support wireless charging.
Xiaomi ships the Mi MIX Fold with MIUI 12 based on Android 10 (that is what the spec sheet says) and it has features that make using it a breeze. You can run multiple apps at the same time side-by-side, drag and drop content from one screen to another, use a parallel windows mode, and also switch to a desktop mode.
Mi MIX Fold Cameras and Surge C1 Image Sensing Processor
The Mi MIX Fold has three rear cameras. The main camera is a 108MP HM2 sensor with a 7P lens. It is paired with an 8MP camera with a liquid lens that allows it to double as a telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and up to 30x telephoto zoom and also as a macro camera with a focus distance of 3CM. The third camera is a 13MP f/2.4 123° ultrawide angle camera. The cover display is home to a 20MP front-facing camera.
The Surge C1 Image Sensing Processor provides an improved 3A algorithm and low-light focus capabilities that result in more accurate autofocus, autoexposure, and auto white balance. Xiaomi says the chip provides exceptionally high performance while using low CPU and storage space.
Mi MIX Fold Price
The Mi MIX Fold is available in three variants. The 12GB RAM + 256GB version is priced at ¥9999 (~$1521) and a 12GB RAM + 512GB version that has a ¥10999 (~$1673) price tag. The Ceramic Special Edition which has 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage is ¥12,999 (~$1976).
Both versions will be available for pre-order starting today and will go on sale on April 16 in China. There is no news of an international release.
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