Mi MIX 3 Comprehensive Hands On Review: Bezeless Sliding Beauty
by mitch002 (follow me on Twitter @MI_mitch002 for my latest Xiaomi Unboxing, Reviews and Tutorials)
Welcome to the 205th edition of the MItch Product Review, and finally we have passed 200 edition this year and it was a blast, and probably this is the last phone Xiaomi would release this year after releasing such a phenomenal numbers of phone this year. Imagine Redmi Note 5 and Note 6 released in the same year, Mi MIX 2S and Mi MIX 3 got released also in the same year as well. Not sure who is Xiaomi chasing but it was really a year for the Chinese company as they also debuted in the IPO Stock Market this July.
Mi MIX 3 is probably the 2nd best phone behind the successful Mi 8 series this year for Xiaomi as we have yet to see its full potential in the market as this unit is still pretty scarce at the moment after debut. There are several first for Xiaomi on this phone, first 5G phone, first 512GB storage phone, first slider phone, first Mi Series with a dual front camera and the first 93.4% screen to body ratio phone which is the deal breaker for me on this series. I have been a faithful user for the flagship series of Xiaomi and probably this Mi MIX 3 would sway me back to using a slider phone since my Nokia E66. Lets see if I will give up on my Mi 8 Explorer Edition just for this one.
Tech Specs of Mi MIX 2S:
- · Qualcomm SDM845 Snapdragon 845 Octa-core processor (4x2.8GHz Kryo 385 Gold and 4x1.8GHz Kryo 385 Silver)
- · Adreno 630 GPU
- · 6GB / 8GB / 10GB of RAM LPDDR4x
- · 6.39-inch AMOLED display ultra bright, (~93.4% screen-to-body ratio)
- · 1080 x 2340 pixels FHD+ (~403 ppi pixel density), 60000:1 contrast ratio, 19.5:9 Ratio
- · DCI-P3 color gamut, high color saturation, 430 nit
- · Black Ceramic Finish, Green, Blue
- · 64GB / 128GB / 256GB of storage
- · 12 MP, wide angle lens, 4 Axis OIS, f/1.8, 1.4µm Dark Light Enhancement, Dual Phase Detection Autofocus Sony IMX 363
- 12 MP, telephoto lens, portrait lens, f/2.4, 1.0µm, AI, Samsung Sk53M3+
- · 24 MP front camera, f/2.0, 1.8µm, autofocus, Mirror Function, Portrait Mode, Sony IMX 576
- · 2MP front secondary camera Omnivision 02A10 1.75µm
- · Finger print scanner (Rear)
- · Dual SIM (nano sim size)
- · 3G, LTE, 4G+ Carrier Aggregation, VoLTE Calls
- · Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, A-GPS, NFC
- · 3200mAh battery, Quick Charge 4.0
- Supports Wireless Charging 10W
- · 4 x 4 MIMO Technology to support MU-MIMO
- · Sensors: Ultrasonic distance sensor, Ambient Light sensor, Gyro, Vibration Motor, Accelerometer, Electronic Compass
- GPS L1+L5, Gallileo E1+E5a, QZSS L1+L5, GLONASS L1. Beidou B1
- · Android Oreo 8.1, MIUI 10
- · USB-C port, UFS 2.1
- · 157.89 mm x 74.69 mm x 8.46 mm
- · 218 Grams
Official Trailer:
Video Unboxing:
Mi MIX 3 Design
The Mi MIX 3 debuted as the first Mi series device which gets as close as almost 95% screen to body ratio, meaning there is virtually almost no border on the display panel which is the original plan of the Mi MIX series which catapulted Xiaomi to fame years back. But the original Mi MIX and the Mi MIX 2/2S sported a camera at the lower bezel of the phone which is quite a bad idea if you ask me, needing to turn your phone 180 degrees just to take a photo. Now we saw that OPPO Find X did a mechanized slider wherein the rear panel of the phone will slide up whenever you press the camera button, but in Find X, everything is hidden under the slider, be it the front or the rear camera. However, the Mi MIX 3 did a design on its own, having the front camera hidden under the magnetic sliding mechanism wherein you just need to physically pull the screen down whenever taking a selfie. This slider is said to survive a 300,000 slide, probably you wont reach that number in 2 years if you not too much of a selfie person. This time Xiaomi included a dedicated Xiao AI button wherein you can just press the button when you want to talk to your friendly personal assistant.
What's in the Box:
Typical Black Box which comes with every MIX series phones.
8GB/128GB Variant
A message from CEO Lei Jun.
The presentation looks just like Mi 8 Explorer Edition
Manual, QC 3 Charger, USB C Cable, Back Cover, MIX 3, USB C to Audio Port Adaptor, Sim Ejector Pin, Wireless Charger
Hard Case
QC 3 Charger
USB C Cable
Manuals
Sim Ejector Pin and USB C to 3.5mm audio jack
10W wireless charger
Returning back to the orginal footsteps of the Mi MIX Series, the Mi MIX 3 came out with all ceramic phones no matter what configuration it is loaded inside. The Mi MIX 2 and 2S sort of cost down on the lower variants to keep cost low, which sort of killed the MIX series flagship. This time the redemption is really important and it seems to me that Mi MIX 3 should be able to let people forget the not so premium experience they had buying the lower variant of the Mi MIX 2 or 2S.
The front pack a 6.39 Inch Screen together with a dual front camera
The back sported 2 12MP Cameras, and the finger print scanner
Behold the slider.
USB C, loudspeaker and mic in
Sim card trey and dual sim card
Noise Cancellation Mic on Top
Power Button and Volume Rocker on the right
More Photos on the Mi MIX 2S
The bottom of the front screen when using the slider
Showing off All 3 Colors of the Mi MIX 3 Family
Which color is your favorite? I choose Green as my top choice.
Display and Audio
We were expecting a lot from the display side when Xiaomi has announced the the Mi MIX 3 will sport an AMOLED display as compared to the FULL HD IPS from the Mi MIX 2S. The predecessor has already done a good job on the display rendering department, its just that the Mi MIX 3 just took it a little further on that department. We had ourself a copy of the Civil War in Blueray copy, and we also watched this on the Mi MIX 2S before, I could hardly tell the difference to be honest with you, both are really good.
The sound was excellent, we have no problem kicking the sound to the max inside a small room of roughly 8 square meters and it can fill the whole room with sound. We also used our Xiaomi Mini Bluetooth Headset and the sounds rendered is quite good while listening to music while hitting the gym.
We also tried to play PUBG and man it was hell of a experience, the display was pretty good, most user are pretty much using a smaller display in playing this graphics intense game, but on the Mi MIX 3, it was simply a walk in the park in terms of rendering its requirements. NBA2k19 was also tested and playing 3 full games was simply a breeze.
Lockscreen default wallpaper
Here are the supported audio and video file format by the Mi MIX 3
- MP4
- M4V
- MKV
- XVID
- WAV
- AAC
- MP3
- AMR
- FLAC
- APE
Snapdragon 845
The top chipset for 2018, most of the flagships this year sported this SoC and Mi MIX 3 was not an exception to this one as its predecessor the Mi MIX 2S already used this chip. We would only imagine how much fire power the phone would have if this SoC gets paired with a 10GB of DDR4x RAM. Its gonna be totally mind blowing for sure. AnTuTu gave this unit with a 8/128GB config a 281,443 points out of the box.
Xiaomi has also deployed the AI Voice in Xiao Ai, you can now talk to her and ask for whatever you wanna know, like weather, direction or even sing a song. One downside, its just only supporting Chinese language at the moment. This can easily be accessed using the AI Button on the left side of the phone.
For Google Play Store installation, refer to this guide: [Device Team] How to Install Google Play on Mi MIX 3 running China ROM
Connectivity
The Mi MIX 3 supports 5G connectivity, 24 different LTE bands for the 8GB/256GB and the Museum Art Edition. A total of 15 Bands is deployed for the 6/128GB and 8/128GB Edition. It's pretty easy to switch to LTE network inside the settings, and it also supports Dual 4G mode as well. You can freely choose which sim you want to use your LTE data, since this is a Dual LTE, Dual standby smartphone. This unit also has the 4G+ equipped, and also supports multiple carrier aggregation technology (should your network provider have this feature), you can take advantage of it. Wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac is also smooth and it also supports Wi-Fi Direct. Wireless screen mirroring is also available via the Miracast protocol, tethering data is also working perfectly. Bluetooth 5.0,GPS, and GLONASS are all present, NFC (Near Field Communication) is also present to support Mi Pay, Android Pay and it enables you to send data to a fellow NFC user with just tapping your phones together. Transfering data from older phones using Mi Mover was also a breeze as well.
Mi MIX 3 Camera
The Mi MIX 3 is one of the best camera that Xiaomi has released by far for this year, garnering one of the top spots in DXOMark, this puts MIX 3 together with the elites like the Mate 20 Pro. While Xiaomi has already unlocked another achievement so far, we can say that this camera performed very well under good lighting, there was a good improvement on darker places. The rear camera are both 12 Megapixels, one being the Sony IMX 363 Sensor and the other being the Samsung S5k3m3. They also incorporated the 4-AXIS OIS in this one so expect good shots in motion photos. The front snapper is also dual camera with a combinaton of Sony IMX 576 (24MP) and an Omnivision 02A10 2MP. The manual mode has an exposure time of 32S and ISO of 3200. Face Unlocking is also present as well, its not 3D unlike the one in the Mi 8 Explorer Edition.
Full Camera Specs
AI Powered
One observation that I made is that the Face Unlock Feature is not easy to use, as it will require you to slide down just to unlock, which is quite a hassle on my opinion and it will be the fastest way to reach 300,000 actuation lifespan as mentioned by Xiaomi.
Actual Photos
2X Zoom
Front Camera:
No Beautify
With Level 1 Beautify
Sample Video
Mi MIX 3 Battery and Benchmark
Putting a 3200mAh inside a beast is quite a bit not enough if you ask me, I can surely see the drain of the battery based on daily usage and its not really something nice for this phone. The Mi MIX 3 supports the Qualcomm Quick charge 4.0 and it takes roughly 59 minutes as I charged the phone from 22% to 100% based on careful timing. Im glad that they supplied a Quick Charge 3.0 charger this time around as it has been the trend with other manufacturers as well. Wireless 10W charger was supplied but its pretty slow, as I achieved better speed on a fast wireless charger also sold by Xiaomi. We recorded a 10 hour 54 minutes endurance test Mi MIX 8 8GB/128GB version under the PC Mark battery stress test. If these statistics are true on a normal daily use, then it's really a good sign for the said smartphone.
More Benchmarks:
For full evaluation of the Mi MIX 2S by DXOMark, check the article here.
Video Samples
Now that Xiaomi has shocked the world with its concept phone being released during the Mi MIX and now the powerful
Mi MIX 3
