Xiaomi has been showing of foldable smartphone prototypes for years. Now the company is finally launching one.
The Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold has an 8.01 inch WQHD+ flexible display that can fold in half like a book and a 6.52 inch cover display that allows you to use the phone when folded.
Like most foldables, it also has a range of other premium features. Xiaomi packed the phone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, quad speakers, a big battery, and a camera system that includes Xiaomi’s brand new Surge C1 image signal processor and a “liquid lens.”
The Mi Mix Fold goes up for pre-order in China today, and it will be available in that country starting April 16 for 9,999 CNY (~$1520) and up.
The screens and camera are the phone’s most unusual features.
Primary display
The internal display is an 8.01 foldable OLED, 2480 x 1860 pixel display with a 4:3 aspect ratio and 387 pixels per inch.
It supports up to 900 nits of peak brightness (or 600 nits “overall brightness” and support for Dolby Vision, HDR+ and DCI-P3 color gamut.
The screen has a 60 Hz refresh rate and a 120 Hz touch sampling rate.
When using the phone’s larger internal display, Xiaomi offers an optional desktop mode that allows you to view multiple apps at once in resizable windows. You can trigger this mode with a three-finger swipe.
Cover display
Fold the screen in half and you can use it like a normal smartphone thanks to a 6.52 inch, 2520 x 840 pixel AMOLED display with a 27:9 aspect ratio, support for up to 900 nits of peak brightness, and 650 nits of overall brightness.
This display also supports HDR+ content, but with a 90 Hz refresh rate and 180 Hz touch sampling rate, it should actually offer smoother visuals than the larger internal display in some situations.
Cameras
In terms of conventional camera specs, the Mi Mix Fold has a 108MP primary camera and a 13MP ultra wide-angle camera with a 123 degree field of view.
But the company notes that the camera system also has an 8MP “Liquid Lens” camera that “uses the principle of human eye bionics, forming a lens-like structure with a transparent fluid wrapped in film.” The result is a spherical surface with a radius that can be changed to adjust the focal distance for 3x optical zoom, up to 30x zoom, and minimal focal distance of 3 centimeters.
Xiaomi says the camera system allows you to shoot highly detailed photos of nearby object by getting very close, or far-away scenes thanks to the zoom features. The company also says the Liquid Lens supports “high light transmittance” and “ultra-low dispersion.”
The innovative Liquid Lens technology works like a human eye. It’s smaller and can focus faster + more accurately, with both telephoto and macro shooting capabilities. #MiMIXFOLD #XiaomiMegaLaunch pic.twitter.com/cs9QtjKhJZ
— Xiaomi (@Xiaomi) March 30, 2021
The phone also has a 20MP front-facing camera.
Other features
The Mi Mix Fold features LPDDR5-3200 memory, UFS 3.1 storage, a 5,020 mAh battery, and 67W wired fast charging.
It has four speakers with audio tuned by Harman Kardon. And the phone has a cooling system consisting of a vapor chamber, graphene, thermal gel, and a multilayer graphite sheet.
The phone supports WiFi 6 and 5G networks (with dual SIM standby), and ships with Android 10 and Xiaomi’s MIUI 12 user interface.
Xiaomi will offer the phone in two color/material options. A standard black model features a Corning Gorilla Glass back cover, while a Ceramic Special Edition version has a gold middle frame and a black ceramic back.
Configuration/pricing options include:
- 12GB RAM/256GB storage for 9,999 CNY (~$1520)
- 12GB RAM/512GB storage for 10,999 CNY (~$1670)
- 16GB RAM/512GB storage for 12,999 CNY (~$1980)
Specs
| Mi MIX FOLD | |
| Internal display | 8.01” flexible OLED 4:3 aspect ratio WQHD+ resolution, 1 billion colors, DCI-P3 60 Hz refresh rate; 120Hz touch sampling rate 900nits peak brightness, 600nits overall brightness 4,300,000:1 contrast ratio HDR10+, Dolby Vision JNCD≈0.29 and ΔE≈0.35 Supports MEMC |
| External display | 6.5” AMOLED display 90Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling rate 27:9 screen ratio, 2520 x 840 resolution 900nit peak brightness, 650nit overall brightness TrueColor display, JNCD≈0.55 ΔE≈0.52 Super Resolution, both for video and images HDR10+ |
| Connectivity | Dual 5G stand-by, Wi-Fi 6 |
| Processor | Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 888 |
| Storage | LPDDR5 3200MHz + UFS 3.1 |
| Cooling system | Battery cooling system – VC chamber + Bionic-structure graphene + thermal gel + multilayer graphite sheet |
| Rear camera | Self-developed Surge C1 image processing chip 108MP HM2 primary sensor, 1/1.52”, 7P, 2.1μm (9-in-1)large pixels The world’s first liquid lens, 8MP, 80mm equivalent focal length, 3cm minimum focusing distance 123° ultra-wide angle lens, 13MP, F2.4 aperture 1.12μm |
| Front camera | 20MP front camera |
| Audio | Quad speakers 3D panoramic sound system Dual 1216 speakers SOUND BY Harman Kardon |
| Security | Side fingerprint unlock (2-in-1 power button) |
| Battery | 5,020mAh double-cell design |
| Charging | 67W wired turbo charging 37 min to 100%1 |
| OS | MIUI 12 based on Android 10 |
| Colors | Black, Ceramic Special Edition |
| Dimensions & Weight | Extended: 173.27mm x 133.38mm x 7.62mm Folded: 173.27mm x 69.8mm x 17.2mm Black：317g Ceramic Special Edition：332g |
I think I’m a bit disappointed with this foldable. It costs oddly about the same as a galaxy fold z 2 on sale (they’ve been down around 1000-1100 GBP, this is 1109 GBP base with reseller fees on top) and gains a bigger uninterrupted inner screen, a nicer camera and faster CPU but loses laptop mode on the hinge, wireless charging and video output over USB-C.
I’m still hoping someone takes that 8″ foldable screen along with mid-range hardware and releases a cheaper folding phone.
I hope to see more innovation with bendable screens. I’m starting to feel that these folding phones are stagnating already. I guess maybe they’re more robust against real-world use at least?
That rollout display from LG was a nice change of pace but I don’t it’d ever come out.
I need to know more about the Buttery cooling system. I hope this isn’t a typo.
Gotta grease the pan for best performance.