Xiaomi’s new Mi MIX Fold has a bigger battery and a lower price than the Galaxy Z Fold 2

Xiaomi has had a pretty epic 24 hours. The Chinese tech giant yesterday launched a slew of impressive new products, including several smartphones, a smart bracelet, a smart projector and a pair of wireless chargers. Earlier today, she announced that she is working on an electric vehicle and, just now, at another launch event, the company officially presented its very first foldable phone, the Xiaomi Mi MIX Fold. .

Xiaomi had teased a foldable phone over two years ago, but it came back to it – a hint of a concept. This time around, the Mi MIX Fold is a real mainstream product ready to go in China, and it’s the biggest flex of hardware prowess for the company to date.

In terms of overall design, it is very similar to the Samsung Galaxy Fold, in that it is an “innie fold”, in that the foldable screen folds inward towards the user. The large interior display measures 8 inches, with a resolution of 2480 x 1860 and a 4: 3 aspect ratio. It is also uninterrupted without a selfie camera. However, Xiaomi made no mention of the refresh rate, implying that it should only be a 60Hz panel. The outer display is a 6.5-inch, 2520x OLED panel. 840 90 Hz with an aspect ratio of 27: 9.

Regarding the hinge, Xiaomi chairman Lei Jun claimed that the hinge of the Mi MIX Fold can withstand over a million folds without problems.

The Mi MIX Fold also has four stereo speakers, tuned by Harman / Kardon, and is powered by the Snapdragon 888. It also has the largest battery ever in a foldable phone, at 5,020mAh, and it can be charged. via 67W fast charging speeds which can charge the phone from 0 to 100 in 37 minutes according to Xiaomi.

As for the optics, the Mi MIX Fold includes a triple camera array including a 108 MP main camera, a 13 MP ultra-wide camera and a new 8 MP “liquid lens” developed by it- even which doubles as a 3x optical zoom and a macro lens.

According to Xiaomi, the liquid lens uses the human eye’s bionics principle to form a lens-like structure with transparent fluid wrapped in film. This allows the lens to achieve two different capabilities – a focal length of 80mm and a minimum focus distance of 3cm – which would typically require two lenses.

Image processing is powered by Xiaomi’s new Surge C1 image detection processor, also built in-house by the company. Xiaomi claims that the chip can process faster autofocus, better white balance, dynamic range and also improve algorithms to increase low-light capabilities.

The Mix MIX Fold seems to address one of the common complaints about other foldable phones – that despite the bigger screen, they mostly offer a bigger version of the apps and user interface. To this end, the Mi MIX Fold has a dedicated ‘desktop mode’ that turns the interface into something that looks like a traditional computer UI instead of an Android UI.

The Xiaomi Mi MIX Fold is only launching in the Chinese market at the moment and starts at 9,999 yuan (around $ 1,521) for the 12GB RAM / 256GB storage variant; 10,999 yuan ($ 1,670) for the 12GB RAM / 512GB model and 12,999 yuan ($ 1980) for the 16GB / 512GB model. These prices are significantly cheaper than the Galaxy Z Fold 2 and the Huawei Mate X2. Chinese consumers can pre-order today, and the first batch ships on April 16.

Xiaomi had a successful 2020 – Lei Jun reported that the company generated 245.9 billion yuan (about $ 37 billion) in total revenue last year, growing 19.4% over the year latest from 2018. The Mi MIX Fold is the company’s new foray into the high-end flagship space.