When Xiaomi announced it’s first-ever foldable smartphone – Mi Mix Fold – earlier this year, it commands a hefty starting price of 9,999 Yuan (US$1,560) in the Chinese market. Now, seven months after it’s debut, pricing of it’s base model with 12GB+256GB memory configuration had dropped significantly to just 6,899 Yuan (US$1,077).
While that is still undeniably a rather exorbitant price tag, but it’s actually an absolute steal for a foldable smartphone considering it now cost a fraction of what it’s key competitors would require you to fork out. For context, the Huawei Mate X2 is currently priced at 17,799 (US$2,778) in China.
Despite it’s huge popularity in it’s domestic market, the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold eventually didn’t make it’s way to the global market just like Huawei’s Mate X2. As such, the availability of the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold is limited only to the Chinese market, even though it’s always possible to purchase it through alternative channels at a much higher price.
As a recap, the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold features a 6.52” AMOLED panel for it;s external display which offers a 2,520 x 840 pixels screen resolution along with a smooth 90Hz screen refresh rate and 180Hz touch sampling rate.
When unfolded, it’s inner display extends to 8.01” diagonally which allows it to function as a tablet. Speaking of the inner display, it’s actually an OLED panel which offers a sharp WQHD+ screen resolution as well as an unique 4:3 aspect ratio.
In the imaging department, the Mi Mix Fold features a powerful triple-camera system lead by a 108 megapixels primary shooter that’s equipped with a 7p lens. This will be assisted by a 13 megapixels ultra-wide camera capable of capturing up to 123-degree Field-of-View.
The main highlight of its camera system however, lies in its 8 megapixels telephoto camera which is the first in the world to be equipped with the Liquid Lens technology.
This revolutionary piece of technology according to Xiaomi, “uses the principle of human eye bionics, forming a lens-like structure with a transparent fluid wrapped in film, very different from traditional optical lenses”.
With the help of a high-precision motor based on Xiaomi’s self-developed technology, the “radius of curvature of the spherical surface can be accurately changed” to achieve up to 3x optical zoom and 30x digital zoom, while at the same time doubles up as a macro camera.
To further bolster the photography capabilities of the Mi Mix Fold, the device also comes with the new Surge C1 processor, Xiaomi’s in-house image processing chip which promises “more accurate auto focus, auto exposure and auto white balance”.
Under the hood, the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold is powered by the flagship Snapdragon 888 mobile platform which will be paired with up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB UFS 3.1 storage.
In order to deliver a smooth and consistent performance, the device is also equipped with the so-called Butterfly Cooling System that’s made with multiple bendable graphite layers and a large vapor chamber.
To keep its lights on, the Mi Mix Fold is backed by a 5,020mAh battery with 67W wired fast-charging support that’s capable of delivering a full charge from 0 to 100% within a short span of just 37 minutes.
