- [Man] Every new folding phone that launches
is good news for those of us who believe
that foldables are the future.
Competition drives down prices.
It spurs innovation.
It increases choice.
So, I'm happy that Mi Mix Fold from Xiaomi exists,
even if right now,
I can't think of anyone here in the states
I'd actually recommend it to.
(upbeat music)
The Mi Mix Fold is Xiaomi's first folding phone,
but if you feel like you've seen it before,
I can't say you're wrong.
From the tongue depressor aspect ratio
to the large capsule-like hinge,
right down to the T caps
at top and bottom of the inner display,
it's a two-year-old Samsung Galaxy Fold
in everything but name,
oh, and the size.
If the Galaxy Fold2 is a gold bar in your pocket,
the mimics fold is a brick of plutonium or something.
Larger in every dimension than the Samsung
and heavier, not just in the Fold2,
but also Huawei's Mate X2
we took a look at last week.
Considering the monster scale,
it's kind of impressive.
Xiaomi managed to restrain itself to a slogan
this small on the hinge.
Though, I think I speak for most people.
when I say manufacturers,
please stop putting your tacky taglines
on four-figure phone hardware.
To be fair to Xiaomi,
the added size does come in handy.
The four speakers aren't quite as loud
as the pair on the Fold2,
but they do produce a richer, deeper sound.
There's more room for exciting camera experiments,
which we'll get to on the pizza crawl in a minute.
The battery is the largest
ever fitted to a folding phone
at over 5,000 milliamp hours
with a fast 67 watt charger in the box, as well,
and of course,
the whole reason the book type foldable category exists
is to get you as close to a tablet-sized screen as possible.
I've been using a foldable like this every workday
for about 15 months
and nearly every one of those days
has been made easier at some point
by having a bigger canvas than most phones.
That canvas is the indisputable star of the Mi Mix Fold,
a full eight-inch diagonal
with a high resolution
and competitive max brightness
compared to the Galaxy Fold2.
Now, I do miss the articulating hinge from the Samsung.
Like the Huawei,
Xiaomi is an open or closed affair
with no in-between and yes,
there is a pronounced crease.
I might also have taken points off for Xiaomi's use
of flexible plastic versus Samsung's ultra thin glass,
but if you'll recall,
I just had to send my Fold2 in for repair,
thanks to a fracturing of that glass material.
While that repair cost me $0
and was completed in seven days,
I'm still no closer to trusting ultra thin glass
in the longterm.
I'll share the story of my warranty replacement
in the upcoming longterm review of the Fold2.
Where the added scale doesn't work for the Mi Mix Fold
is mostly here on the cover display.
Oh, it's been stretched to fill
as much of the vertical access as possible,
but because the chassis is so narrow,
you still end up with a screen slimmer
than that of the Fold2.
Useful for scrolling long lists,
but cumbersome for typing and video calls,
which you have to take out here,
because as with the Huawei Mate X2,
there's no internal selfie camera.
While we're on missing features,
you won't find wireless charging
under either glass or ceramic back plate,
nor can you use the cover display as a viewfinder
to use the main camera as a selfie shooter
as you can with Samsung's foldables.
Let's talk about those cameras.
They're clustered into a typical triple array around back
with a very atypical addition,
a liquid lens.
This exotic accessory,
first teased for smartphones over 15 years ago,
makes it possible for a single lens
to switch between two focal lengths.
In this case, from a 3X telephoto
to a super macro for mega closeups,
I'm fascinated by this technology,
but it's not like we haven't seen cameras
doubling up before.
Many phones use their ultra wide cameras
as macro shooters these days,
even if it's not a liquid lens making that possible.
So while the technology holds real promise for the future,
it didn't meaningfully improve my camera experience.
I have more to say about that experience,
but as I sometimes do,
I'd like to take a break from talking
and let you experience the Mi Mix Fold cameras
without commentary.
Join me on a mini road trip review
with my friend David Cogan of TheUnlockr,
as we use a phone that folds
to photograph some food that folds.
(relaxing music)
- Step one, slice selected.
Step two.
Oh, you already jumped to step two.
Fold that slice. - Oh yeah sorry. Sorry yeah.
- Whole reason we're out here.
- It's just a habit, really.
- Step three.
Consume. - Cheers.
- A substrate of cheese on top of which
is kind of like a gelatinous continent of cheese.
Gelatinous continent, also
my code name on the CB radio.
(upbeat music)
Hello, it is 4:00
and we're only on our second slice of pizza.
- Told ya.
- I wish you hadn't kept me waiting so long this morning.
(both laughing)
(relaxing music)
- Oh man! (laughs)
This is the best decision I've ever made.
- Can I just gnaw off a corner of this thing?
- Please do.
Better than cardboard.
A little.
Good slice of pizza
that has now been soaked in grease inside a pizza box.
- Look at them dribbles.
- My lawyers tell me I have to tell you
not to attempt such a pizza crawl
as it may take years off your life
and anyway, as I told you,
I have a few things to say about these cameras.
Snapping side-by-side with the Galaxy Fold2,
I almost never preferred the Xiaomi's output,
thanks to the color science differences.
Yes, Samsung still over saturates its colors to an extent,
but Xiaomi seems to intentionally mute them,
not in a way that preserves authenticity,
but in a way that deadens the reality of those moments
as I recall them.
When you switch over to video,
filming through that telephoto camera on the Mi Mix Fold
is almost painful
and I have some speculation as to why.
See, despite using Qualcomm Snapdragon 888
as the brains of the phone,
Xiaomi is using its own image signal processor here
called the Surge C1.
That's apparently because it was necessary
to control the liquid lens,
but the later the day got,
the more obvious Xiaomi's inferior processing became,
as the light ran low.
All in all,
this camera is not one I'd care to use again,
liquid or no.
- Now, I spilled a large amount of ink
detailing all the software shortcomings
I've found in this phone,
but really there's not that much reason to go into it,
because as frustrating as I find
Xiaomi's custom user interface
with its scaling issues
and sloppy design and all that Apple aping,
it simply wasn't designed for the international market.
If you even know this phone exists,
you probably already know you'll need to do a lot of work
if you want it to even remotely approximate
a device you're used to.
You can't use Nova Launcher, for example,
because the phone literally does not allow you to.
You need to dig deep into the settings
to make sure you actually get notifications from your apps,
because the phone will put them into some kind of
deep hibernation otherwise
and what's annoying is that kind of
aggressive power management isn't even necessary,
because this thing is easily a two-day smartphone.
The only way I could kill it in less than a workday's time
was to film with it all day on that pizza tour
and the feature I was most eager to try out,
that mini PC desktop mode
doesn't seem to be enabled on retail units yet,
but hey, at least it's possible
to run Google Mobile Services on this thing,
which is more than I can say for Huawei.
Again, I'm glad that Mi Mix Fold exists,
because more players in the foldable space is a great thing.
Also, Xiaomi deserves a shout out
for treating buyers with the respect they're due
by including a charger and a free case in the box
and with an approximate price of $1500 U.S.,
this is the most affordable full-scale foldable yet.
Great news for those in the markets for which it's intended
and a needed counterbalance to Huawei's expensive Mate X2,
but if you live in the U.S.,
you can buy a Samsung Galaxy Fold2 right now
for about $1,600,
not even counting any trade-ins.
If you can't wait until the summer
to see what Samsung's third generation foldables entail,
buying a Galaxy Fold2
is probably what you should do.
Special thanks to David Cogan at TheUnlockr
for subjecting his body to the same carbo-coma
I put mine through.
- Definitely his idea.
Not my idea.
- You can find many more comparison photos
and a lot more footage from that pizza crawl
in his Mi Mix Fold real-world test,
which I will link below.
This video was produced following one week
with the Mi Mix Fold unit
purchased by Mr. Mobile,
thanks to Ben Sin of XDA developers
for connecting me with a vendor
who was able to rush shipment from Hong Kong.
As always, Xiaomi was given no editorial input
nor an early preview of this content
and it did not furnish any compensation
in exchange for its production.
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Until next time,
thanks for watching and remember to
stay safe and mask up when you're around others,
as you stay mobile, my friends.
- Why do we have to insist... (speaking faintly)
On account of...
(people laughing)
- Okay. Okay.
I see how it is.
- Ya really walked into that one.
- Physically, yes. - Folks.