The Mi Mix was a revolutionary product in 2016, particularly in terms of display, which set a new benchmark for the industry and also finally took Xiaomi to a league of its own. Rest assured, it can no longer be ridiculed as an Apple copycat.
Also read: Huawei Honor 7X with FullView display, dual-camera launched: When will it come to India?
The Mi Mix never made it to India, but thankfully, its successor Mi Mix 2 is all set to hit stores later this month.
We spent a brief time with the new product at the launch event, held earlier this week, and we are left mesmerised with the design. Here's our first impression of the Mi Mix 2:
Design and display:
The Mi Mix 2 (5.99-inch) is a bit smaller than the first-generation model (6.4-inch), but the design language, specifically in terms of ergonomics has improved, as it can be operable in single hand.
For a person with a small hand that is a tad difficult, but thankfully the feature-rich MIUI offers the screen reduction feature, where you can adjust the operable display size so your fingers can reach all shortcuts.
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2's well-thought-out design should be a case study for rivals on how they must make the best use of the space on the smartphone's front panel.
It boasts a razor-thin bezel on three sides (top, right and left) and since the bottom houses the camera and LED notification sensor, the bezel is a bit thick there.
Mind you, the base bezel is narrower than the original Mi Mix. Kudos to the Xiaomi engineers for the benchmark-setting design.
On the back, it boasts a mirror-like shell made of high-grade ceramic, which makes the Mi Mix 2 possibly the most beautiful phone in the market. However, it's a fingerprint smudge magnet and also slippery.
The Mi Mix 2 is built to flaunt, but we advice users to use a back-cover (which comes with the package) at all times and also purchase a screen-guard just to be on the safer side.
Performance and battery:
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 houses top-of-the-line internal hardware such as the Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor, the most powerful to date from the Qualcomm.
It is backed by sumptuous 6GB RAM, 128GB storage and a 3,400mAh battery, which is more than enough to last the whole day under mixed usage.
We had very little time at the demo area, but during the brief session, the Mi Mix 2 was quick in terms of loading apps and switching between the multiple apps.
We have the review unit with us, and will detail the benchmark scores and also how it performed in other conditions.
Camera:
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 comes packed with a feature-rich 12MP shooter with dual-tone LED flash, 4-axis OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation), PDAF (Phase Detection Auto Focus) and 4K video recording capability.
On the front, it houses a decent 5MP snapper with wide-angle Field Of View (FOV) to take big group wefies, and also boasts of the facial recognition feature.
The only drawback of the Mi Mix 2 is that unlike rival smartphones it lacks a secondary camera on the back, which makes it a little handicapped, as it cannot support the Bokeh blur feature. However, it takes stunning images in natural and artificially-lit indoor conditions.
Stay tuned. We will bring full detailed review of the Mi Mix 2 by the end of October. Follow us @IBTimesIN_Tech on Twitter for the latest news on Xiaomi products.
