Foldable smartphones have come a long way from being a niche product to now appealing to the masses. Although Samsung is the market leader, Chinese manufacturers are leading the way in innovation. Honor recently unveiled the Magic V2, the thinnest book-style folding phone yet. But Xiaomi is about to dethrone it with the new Mix Fold 3.
The company has confirmed that the Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 will launch in China on August 14, alongside the Redmi K60 Ultra. In anticipation of the official release, we have compiled all the available details of the upcoming foldable in this post. If you can’t contain your excitement like us, read on!
Design and Display
Book-style foldable smartphones have become increasingly popular with consumers. However, one thing that might deter some people from buying one is their thickness. Mainstream devices like the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Fold 4 are thick enough to be considered two bar phones.
Xiaomi has focused on making its foldable devices as thin as possible. Last year’s Mix Fold 2 (review) measured just 11mm thick and weighed 262 grams. This year, Xiaomi is taking things to a new level with the Mix Fold 3. When unfolded, it will measure a svelte 4.93mm thick. And when folded, it will be an impressively sleek 9.8mm.
To put that in context, the current thinnest horizontal foldable out there, the Honor Magic V2, measures 4.7mm unfolded and 9.9mm folded. Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 is also getting a revamped design with four separate camera rings on the back and flat sides all around.
The Xiaomi Mix Fold 3’s slim profile is thanks to its innovative new hinge design. The hinge is made from a combination of tough high-strength steel and long-lasting carbon ceramic. It features a 3-stage connecting rod setup with 14 moving parts and 198 components. This is a significant improvement over the Mix Fold 2’s hinge, which had a simpler 2-stage design with 8 moving parts and 87 components.
The hinge on the Mix Fold 3 is also more versatile. You can stop the phone at any point between 45° and 135° when you open it halfway. And it’s incredibly durable. It has been tested by TÜV Rheinland and passed a durability test involving 500,000 folds.
As for the display, Xiaomi has announced that the Mix Fold 3 will have an 8.02-inch foldable AMOLED panel with a 2K resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a peak brightness of 2,600 nits. The cover display will measure 6.5 inches and offer an FHD+ resolution.
Performance and Cameras
One obvious improvement in the hardware department is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip on the device. Mix Fold 2, for reference, uses Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. The chipset on the Mix Fold 3 could be paired with up to 16 GB of LPDDR5x RAM, and up to 1 TB of UFS 4.0 storage. Reports have claimed that the device will have an IP rating as well.
Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun also revealed that the Mix Fold 3 has impressive battery life. When a white image was continuously displayed on the internal screen at a brightness of 500 nits, the Mix Fold 3 lasted for 8 hours and 20 minutes before it powered off. This is 52 percent longer than the battery life of the previous generation Mix Fold. It could offer a total battery life of 1.34 days, however, the brand is yet to reveal the exact capacity. The smartphone could have 67W wired and 50W wireless charging.
The camera department is also star-studded this time. The Mix Fold 3 will be the company’s first foldable phone to feature a quad-camera unit with Leica’s optimizations. The main camera will be a 50-megapixel sensor, but it is not yet clear whether it will be the Sony IMX989 or IMX800 sensor. The camera setup will also include a periscope telephoto camera.
Expected Pricing
Although almost all details of the foldable have leaked online or have been revealed officially, its pricing still remains anyone’s guess. To give you an idea, the Mix Fold 2 has a starting price tag of Yuan 8,999 (~$1,335) for the base 256GB storage. The 512GB and 1TB storage options are priced at Yuan 9,999 (~$1,483) and Yuan 11,999 (~$1,780).
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