We have seen some fascinating smartphone innovations in the past one year, but if there's one evolution that became a head-turner, it would be the original Mi Mix. When the Mi Mix was launched, it was said to be a 'concept' from Xiaomi which started off the bezelless trend across OEMs. It was the moment when the name Xiaomi crossed many untouched borders, and the industry perceived a capable name rising from China.
Xiaomi with Mi Mix made it clear that they are serious and the company has the potential to stand up against big names. Looking at the huge demand from Xiaomi fans, the company reworked on the original Mix and returned with the new Mi Mix 2, which is more refined, logical and a favourable implementation of the bezelless concept.
Since the Mi Mix, we have seen a handful of smartphones thinning down the bezels and maximising the screen to body ratio. From Samsung Galaxy S8, LG G6, Essential phone to the new iPhone X, all the phones have arrived with their best possible implementation of minimal bezel design. Since there are so many existing options in the market, it's now a little tricky for the Mi Mix 2 to make a mark like its predecessor without having the perk of being one of a kind smartphone.
The Mi Mix 2 is Xiaomi's chance to put itself firmly back on the flagship smartphone segment in India after the Mi 5, but has it succeeded? Lets find out.
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 price and release date
- Rs 35,999 for 6GB and 128GB variant
- On sale October 17 in India via Mi.com and Flipkart
As expected, this Xiaomi phone unlike its siblings sits at a higher price range. The Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 is priced at Rs 35,999, which will put it face to face against the likes of OnePlus 5 and the recently launched Nokia 8 in terms of cost.
The Mi Mix 2 will go on sale from October 17 on wards.
Design
- Ceramic back, metal on the edges and Gorilla Glass 4 on front
- Stunning finish on the ceramic back is scratchproof
- Back is fragile and attracts fingerprints
Xiaomi's latest is the second flagship smartphone after Mi 6 that the company has launched this year, hence they are betting big on this. When it comes to design the Mix 2 leaves nothing left to be desired if you have an eye for beauty. Designed by Philippe Starck, the Mix 2 is one fine piece of art that looks and feels premium right from the moment you hold it for the first time.
Although the design is strikingly similar to the original Mi Mix, having a 5.99-inch display in place of huge 6.4-inch makes the Mix 2 shorter by 7mm, narrower by 6.4mm and at 7.7mm it is 0.2 mm thinner. Also, it weighs 185g, which is around 24g lighter than the original Mix without compromising the sturdy feel of the device.
Unlike Mi Mix, the new Mix 2 is void of having a full ceramic body and has a ceramic and aluminum body instead. Still, there's both pros and cons of having a ceramic back, as it looks good and can't be scratched easily. On the other hand, it is more fragile and catches fingerprints. While the back is made up of shiny ceramic, the sides this time are made up of aluminum to give it a better grip and render sturdiness.
On the front it has Corning Gorilla Glass 4 for protection. If you are buying this phone for looks, it's highly possible that you wont prefer having a cover over the back but Xiaomi bundles a back cover that looks sleek and has a super-snug fit.
As already mentioned, the phone leaves no space for bezels except for the chin has the front camera baked in the right corner. Xiaomi did not go the Apple or Essential way by putting the notch to place the front camera on top of the display. Xiaomi didn't just got rid of bezels but this time it does not come with a 3.5mm audio jack. But thankfully you'll get a USB Type-C to 3.5mm connector inside the box. On top of the display, you'll see another fine piece of designing in the earpiece which peeps out of a tiny cut-out in the middle of the glass.
The beauty exists in small details like the gold ring around the camera and the discreetly placed antennae bands on the top and bottom. The SIM slot is on the left and whereas the right edge has the volume rocker and power/lock key. Fingerprint sensor is placed at an optimal position companied by company’s iconic branding that says ‘MIX designed by Xiaomi’ in gold color.
The phone is slippery but that shiny look and in-hand feel is the prime appeal of the design. It has subtle curves on the sides that dismisses the edgy feel on the phone. It feels like a solid glass slab that weighs even at both top and bottom.
Display
- 5.99-inch HD display
- Edge to edge FHD
- 18:9 Aspect ratio
The defining feature of the Mi Mix 2 is its front that's covered mostly by a huge display. In spite of having a QHD display, Xiaomi sticks with a 5.99-inch full HD+ display with 1080 x 2160p resolution maybe to balance out the battery consumption. Following on from the current smartphone trend, the Mix 2 also brings along the 18:9 aspect ratio with rounder corners.
If you have complains about not having a QHD panel then I must assure you that the display looks quite good. The IPS display slightly softens the punch to retain it’s eye-pleasing viewing experience. The screen brightness is somewhat like LG displays that offers the perfect balance of brightness and colors. If you compare it with AMOLED display phones like S8 or OnePlus, it is a little less saturated. The colour profile is further changeable in the settings menu with a dedicated reading mode included for minimise blue light emission to enhance reading.
Color reproduction is on point, if you are one of them who like vivid colors then you can always tweak it from the settings but don’t expect it to get anywhere near Galaxy S8’s Super AMOLED. Using it in outdoors is not a problem as it adjusts the brightness to a readable limit in almost no time.
Still if you are on a hunt for the best display, then you might like the Galaxy S8 more than this one. But on a phone with such amazing front panel, the display does not disappoint either. It works great for reading, watching video content or even for using GPS. During my experience, there was a moment when I was just exceptionally impressed while using maps, browsing websites, and obviously multimedia experience is stunning too. Also, the viewing angles of the display are really impressive even in well lit conditions.
Interface and reliability
- Cleaner Android overlay
- Number of pre-installed apps is unnecessary
Xiaomi has cleaned up its Android skin MIUI greatly over the past year or so, which doesn't mean it is anywhere close to stock but that you get a neater on-screen experience. But the missing app drawer definitely makes it look cluttered. You either need to rearrange the apps in folders or you can install a third party app drawer to get apps in place. So if you need to look for a particular app, most other UIs allow you to search for them using the search bar, but in this case you have to depend upon the Google search widget to reach an app.
Under MIUI 8 (MIUI 9 coming soon), there's Android 7 Nougat and Xiaomi claims the phone will get Android Oreo upgrade soon.
I personally prefer near stock Android experience but we cannot ignore the fact that MIUI is one of the finest Android skins presently. How can we forget MIUI is what Xiaomi started its success with. Like always the UI comes with quite a few features out of the box. While some of them feel unnecessary, there are few like the Quick Ball, which made me realise there’s no need to get down to the navigation keys, dual app lets users to use two instances of a single app like WhatsApp, Facebook or few more.
Although the UI feels smooth, it still requires some touch up. I noticed a few occasional bugs like freezing display and missing notifications but looking at how frequently Xiaomi rolls out bug fixes, it should be gone in next two updates. Apart from this, there’s still no support for 18:9 aspect ratio in apps like YouTube, neither can you tap and stretch the video to corners like on the Samsung Galaxy S8. Lastly, the camera app prompts the user to turn the phone upside down to click selfies, but when it comes to apps like Instagram and Snapchat, there’s no such option. Even when you are making video calls via WhatsApp, you cannot rotate the camera to fix the position.
We just hope Xiaomi rolls out fixes for these issues by the time Mi Mix 2 lands in India. I’ll update the software part once I receive the stable version of MIUI 9 on my Mix 2.
Music, movies and gaming
- Videos look stunning
- Gaming is smooth
- Mediocre audio experience
With tons of processing power, stereo speakers and a full HD edge to edge display, the Mi Mix 2 is a good choice for multimedia aficionados.
If you like watching video content on your phone, then the Mi Mix will surely going to spoil you with its immersive display focused design. The panel with minimal bezels pops out while streaming high resolution video content.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 is getting rave reviews when it comes to handling games. The flagship chipset along with 6GB RAM ensure impressive gaming capabilities, it literally handles anything you throw at it. Holding the phone in landscape while gaming may block loudspeaker or result in accidental touches here and there due to thin bezels, but users should get use to the correct holding position over the time.
The front-facing stereo speaker is an advantage which fires audio directly to your direction even when the main loudspeaker is blocked.
Those speakers also come in useful when you listen to music or watching a video without any audio accessory. The sound output is pretty loud, clear and crisp. But unlike the recently launched Mi A1, there's no extras when you switch to headphones or earphones. So expect a usual audio, which is good until and unless a greedy audiophile soul rests inside you.
The sad part is that there's no 3.5mm jack but the good part is that Xiaomi bundles an USB Type-C to 3.5mm converter.
Performance
- Fast, fluid operation with no lag
- Apps open quickly and multi-tasking is smooth
As I've already mentioned above, the Snapdragon 835 chipset along with 6GB RAM is a great combination to take on almost every task you will ask a smartphone to do in 2017.
The only issues are with the software which are expected to get fixed soon, and will further smoothen the performance of the device.
Apps load swiftly, Android runs smoothly, and the Mi Mix 2 will run multiple apps at the same time, it will keep your minimized tasks saved for long and let you jump between them without a hitch.
Battery life
- You'll easily get a full day's use from a single charge
- Quick-charge support and power-saving modes
The Mi Mix 2 comes with a 3,400mAh non-removable battery packed inside its 7.7mm-thick body. There's a 1000mAh cut down on battery size in comparison with the Mi Mix but the Mi Mix 2 still manages to impress with its battery backup.
Battery size isn’t the parameter to judge the battery performance, but its the optimization that makes a great impact on the battery performance. The Mi Mix 2 easily lasted us a day on a single charge with around 10%-15% battery left on moderate usage.
Moderate usage includes streaming audio on Soundcloud for an hour, around 40 minutes of TV shows, 15-20 calls, messages and browsing through social media after regular intervals, a flurry of emails and web-browsing, and an hour of gaming.
During my usage the Mi Mix 2 charged from 10% to 90% in 90 minutes.
If you do a lot of gaming and watch video content on your phone, you'll still be able get to bed with some charge left without having a need to rush and look for a power source for charging.
- 20 minutes of browsing consumed three percent of battery.
- 20 minutes of video streaming consumed five percent of battery.
- 30 minutes of gaming consumed seven percent of battery.
Another plus point here is the support for Quick Charge 3.0, that does not give users a chance to complain. So if you are about to head out for a party and have have a limited time to charge your phone, a quick plugin before you leave will do hours of job in few minutes.
Xiaomi bundles the Quick Charger inside the retail box. Just remember to keep it with you while traveling as during my testing, the Mi Mix 2 did not support all the QC 3.0 chargers I tried.
Still, if there's no scope of getting a chance to charge then you can always switch to battery saver mode.
Camera
- A good day light rear camera
- Front camera placement is aggravating
The Mi Mix 2 comes with a 12MP Sony IMX rear sensor which features HDR, face detection and 4-axis OIS (optical image stabilization). On the front, it has a 5MP camera that has been awkwardly placed at the right corner of the chin to achieve the seamless bezel-free design.
The camera software is similar to what we have seen on other MiUI based phones. The interface is clean and clutter-free and it has all the necessary modes to let you play with the shutter.
Xiaomi didn’t try to do anything extra with the rear camera on the Mi Mix 2 like the Mi 6. There isn't a lot special about the camera apart from stabilisation, 4K video and enhanced low light shooting.
Daylight pictures are very impressive but in low light, there’s no surprise served. When under natural light, the Mi Mix does a stellar job if you have even a little knowledge of photography. It captures punchy colours with great dynamic range. It does not compromise even in well lit artificial light scenarios but you cannot expect natural colours and totally noiseless images every time. No doubt, the OIS does aid the camera performance big time, I clicked a picture of the back of a truck on a moving vehicle with 2X digital zoom and the result I got was pretty convincing.
The front camera as we've been repeating is oddly placed and doing a video call using a third party app is a total mess. When you are on a video call, it seems like you are looking away from the phone and end up trying to get the camera in place.
It's not just oddly placed, but the angle is very narrow when phones are opting for wide angle front cameras. So don't expect very good looking shots from the front camera, especially in low light conditions.
In my honest opinion, the camera is nothing that can wow you but you can't underrate it too. The rear camera is fast, processing is snappy and it does not compromise with details and colours when there is enough light. But if you compare it with cameras on competing devices, I would say the Nokia 8 is a better camera phone.
Camera samples
Verdict
The Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 is one of a kind handset in its price range, and from its stunning bezelless design and powerful hardware under the hood to an excellent display and convincing battery life it has all the elements at right spot to justify the price.
It is the costliest Mi phone ever launched in India, and that obviously means it's not going to be easy for Xiaomi to break into this price range. With Nokia 8, OnePlus 5 and LG G6 all breathing down its neck, it is going to be a tight battle between these under 40k smartphones.
No doubt it is the most elegant looking smartphone among all, but there are minor tradeoffs like front camera and unfurnished software.
Who's it for?
If looks and feel matter to you, or you need a smartphone to flaunt around without compromising the essentials, then the Mi Mix 2 is not going to disappoint you. The Mi Mix 2, OnePlus 5 and the Nokia 8 boast of almost the same hardware apart from the RAM size, so there won't be a major compromise in terms of performance, so it all comes down to the camera, design, display and user experience.
Long story short, the Mi Mix 2 is the best looking smartphone that doesn't resemble like an iPhone. OnePlus 5 comes with 8GB RAM and a near to stock Android OS that gives it an upper hand in terms of performance, but if only camera is your preference, then you can make a choice between Nokia 8 or OnePlus 5 and lets not forget the LG G6 that's selling for Rs 34,000 on Amazon but runs an old hardware.
Should I buy it?
For Rs 35,999, the Mi Mix 2 definitely a good deal when it comes to overall experience of the phone. But if you prefer stock Android over MIUI and don't care about the looks, then you can go with the OnePlus 5 or Nokia 8. But there's something in Mi Mix 2 that no other phone in India has to offer right now, and it's the revolutionary bezel-less design with almost no compromise apart from the front camera.
from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/2wKOcqC
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