If you have been following the smartphone market over the years, you will know how shocking it was when Xiaomi released its first generation of MIX. After launching the Mix 3 slider phone, the company announced the MIX Alpha, but it wasn’t on sale to the public, and then came the MIX Fold, which isn’t a phone for most people. And today we’ve got the Xiaomi MIX 4, which is the official successor to the MIX series. Since we got the phone not long ago, we’ll start with the most relevant aspects in this hands-on.
Xiaomi MIX 4 Hands-on: Unboxing & Design
The box is not as small as the Mi 11 series, as you can see, the Mi Mix 4 box is pretty large. When you open the package, the new slogan of MIX comes into view. Translated into English, it means “There is no perfection in the world, but there is always someone in pursuit of perfection”.
Next you see the Xiaomi MIX 4 itself, let’s put it aside for now and see what accessories come with it. A phone case, a headphone adapter, a data cable, and of course the most important accessory, a 120w charger.
The MIX series has pursued a full-screen design right from its inception, and although the MIX 4 is not the first phone to use the under-display camera technology, it has done a very good job with the full-screen effect.
In everyday use, even if you look carefully, you won’t easily spot the camera area. Just from the display effect, it has reached a highly usable state. Of course, it is not perfect, as from the side view, you can still see the position of the front camera. In bright light, there will also be a sun logo to protect the front camera area of the screen. And Xiaomi has made a hole in the display panel for better front camera quality. However, I hope future versions won’t have a hole in the screen because only then it will have a better full-screen effect.
Compared to the first generation, the MIX 4’s design is kind of less impressive. Like many other phones, there is a matrix rear camera in the upper left corner. The new gray color scheme is very elegant, and the blue tint in gray looks very premium. Although the MIX 4 is relatively average in terms of the back cover design, the production quality is nevertheless superb. The Unibody ceramic body was well received by the public when it first debuted on the MIX 2, and the Unibody process is polished even further on the MIX 4.
With the new technology, the ceramic body is 30% lighter, which is one of the reasons why the MIX 4 is lighter than the Mi 11 Ultra. The back cover and frame are unibody, so it won’t pinch your hand, and it naturally feels much better than other phones. And since ceramic has a greater thermal conductivity than glass, you get the feeling that the MIX 4 will get warmer more easily than other phones with glass back covers. Honestly, the feel of the MIX 4 is really very good, and it’s hard to describe it in words. So If you get the chance, you must go and experience it yourself.
Xiaomi MIX 4 Hands-on: Under Screen Camera Quality
You must also be very curious about the quality of the front camera, right? We were curious too and tried to take a couple of selfies.
Are you happy with its quality? Personally, I’m satisfied with the front camera quality, especially considering there is a screen covering the camera. But if you zoom in, even though the AI processing has optimized the image much more than what we saw in the preview, many details of the image are not visible anymore. So, despite using a new under-screen camera solution, MIX 4 is not recommended for people who want high quality selfies.
But if you want basic selfies or just want to talk to your family and friends on video calls like I do, this front camera can handle such simple scenarios.
Xiaomi MIX 4 Hands-on: Hardware, Camera, & Battery
MIX 4 is also equipped with the Snapdragon 888+ SOC for the first time. With 780,000 points on AnTuTu and 5700 points in 3D Mark, this chip doesn’t feel much different from Snapdragon 888. Because of time constraints, we could only test PUBG on the phone, and with the performance mode on with the HDR Graphics Extreme frame rate mode, it still limits the frame rate. With an average frame rate of 53 FPS, it seems that the MIX 4 is very conservatively tuned for performance.
The MIX 4’s rear camera also takes very good pictures, and performs very well in most cases during the day. But the ultra-wide lens and telephoto lens low light photo quality is more towards average, and the dynamic range is relatively low. The main camera does not have this problem when the night mode is turned on, and the performance in low light is also very good.
MIX 4 also brings the fastest charging combination for cell phones right now, i.e. a 120w wired charging + 50w wireless charging. After turning on Boost charging speed, the wired charging got the battery to full in just 16 minutes, and when using wireless charging, it took 37 minutes for a full charge.
Some people may wonder how its 50w wireless charging solution can charge the phone in just 37 minutes. This is because, recently, China added a policy stating the power output of wireless charging should not exceed 50w. This policy was officially implemented sometime before the launch, so Xiaomi did not dare to advertise a faster wireless charging solution, even if it technically achieved an output higher than 50w. In fact, the wireless charging power of MIX 4 is much greater than 50w. If you turn off the Boost charging speed function, wireless charging can only be charged at a maximum of 50w, and it will take 50 minutes to fill up.
I know you are waiting to see more of the phone! Don’t worry, a full review of the MIX 4 is coming soon.
If interested, you can get the Mi MIX 4 from Giztop.
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