Review of Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 - a powerful ceramic smartphone with a frameless screen

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The flagship of the popular Chinese manufacturer conquers with its appearance. What is he in work and what is wrong with him - figured out Lifehacker.

Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 is the second generation of the flagship smartphones of the Mi MIX line, which stands out for its innovative design using solid screens. It was with this line that in October 2016 the general fashion for such full-screen screens, which occupy the maximum area of the front panel, began and continues.

Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 is even more sophisticated than the first Mi MIX: thinner frames, smoother lines. In August 2017, the smartphone won the gold medal in the IDEA design competition, and in October it was added to the collection of the Design Museum in Helsinki. At the same time, the filling is powerful, and the price is affordable.

Specifications

Frame	Aluminum, ceramics
Display	5.99 inches, IPS FHD + (2 160 × 1,080 pixels), Corning Gorilla Glass 4
Platform	Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 (MSM8998) processor, Adreno 540 graphics accelerator
RAM	6 GB, LPDDR4X
Built-in memory	64/128/256 GB, UFS 2.1
Cameras	Main - 12 Mp, Sony IMX386; frontal - 5 Mp
Connection	2 nanoSIM slots; 2G: GSM 850/900/1 800/1 900; CDMA BC0, BC1, BC6, BC10; 3G: WCDMA 1/2/3/4/5/6/8/9/19; CDMA EVDO, BC0, BC1, BC6, BC10; TD-SCDMA 34/39; 4G TD-LTE 34/38/39/40/41; FDD-LTE: Band 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/18/19/20/25/26/27/28/29/30; B41 support 2496-2690 MHz; LTE B41 technology with 4 antennas, support 4 × 4 MIMO
Wireless interfaces	2 × 2 MIMO, Wi-Fi 802.11a / b / g / n / ac, 2.4Hz / 5Hz; Bluetooth 5, GPS / GLONASS / BeiDou
Expansion slots	USB Type-C
Sensors	Accelerometer, Ultrasonic Proximity Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Gyroscope, Compass, Fingerprint Scanner, Barometer, Hall Sensor
Operating system	Android 7.1.1 + MIUI 9.1.2
Battery	3 400 mAh (non-removable); quick charge 3.0, 9V / 2A
Dimensions (edit)	151.8 × 75.5 × 7.7 mm
Weight	185 g

Design, materials and ergonomics

The appearance and materials of Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 claim to be premium. Aircraft-grade aluminum base, mirrored ceramic back, 18K gold camera bezel - chic, shine, beautiful! If you like bright things, you will definitely like Xiaomi Mi MIX 2.

However, from the point of view of practicality, there are nuances. Firstly, the device gets dirty, you just have to take it in your hand. Secondly, it is slippery. So slippery that they can check the level of the slope of the surface: put the Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 on the table, and if it slowly slides to the side and falls, there is a slight deviation from the horizon. Thirdly, it does not have dust and moisture protection that expensive flagships from Apple, Samsung, LG have.

Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 is heavy, weighs 185 g. Dimensions are the same as for 5.5-inch smartphones with a conventional screen. In general, it is convenient.

The Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 does not have a 3.5 mm audio jack, so if you have ordinary headphones with a plug, you will have to connect them via an adapter to the USB Type-C port that comes with the kit. This whole design is not entirely convenient and looks quite cumbersome. It can be tolerated in winter, when the smartphone is in the breast pocket of a coat or jacket, but in summer, when it moves into a jeans pocket, the adapter will be inconvenient.

Note that Xiaomi has released headphones with a USB Type-C connection, so you can purchase them for your smartphone.

Screen

The main decoration of the Mi MIX series smartphones is a screen that occupies almost the entire frontal plane. The peculiarity of the display of Mi MIX 2 is not only in the aspect ratio of 18: 9, but also in the rounded corners - it looks nice and fresh.

The device uses a 5.99-inch matrix with a Full HD + resolution (2 180 × 1,080 pixels), but the manufacturer is silent about which one. What is clear is that it is LCD, not OLED. Brightness, contrast, color rendition are excellent. In the settings, you can turn on the reading mode, which filters blue light, change the color tone and contrast.

Performance

No one has ever had any questions about the computing and graphic resources of Xiaomi smartphones. The company uses the most productive components, and as a result, its products break all benchmarks.

Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 is no exception. It has a flagship 10nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset with 8 cores and 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM. In AnTuTu, the smartphone is consistently gaining 171-174 thousand points, in the Sling Shot Extreme test from the 3DMark package - 3,738 points. The device becomes a little warm even under serious loads, there is no throttling, and the result remains stable.

Like any other flagship, the Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 is powerful enough that its owner doesn't have to worry about performance for several years.

The amount of built-in memory can be 64, 128 or 256 GB. That's quite a lot, so the lack of microSD card support isn't frustrating.

Camera

Although Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 is a top model, the manufacturer has installed the usual mono cameras here: one at the back and one at the front.

For the main camera, we chose a 12-megapixel Sony IMX386 photo module. Here, optics with an aperture of f / 1.8, pixels of 1.25 microns, four-axis optical stabilization, phase autofocus. However, the IMX386 is a mid-level module. It can be found, for example, in last year's mid-range Honor 6X from the “smartphones up to 15 thousand rubles” squad. Why does Xiaomi use such a solution in the top smartphone? We believe in order to save money and at the same time save the warehouse of stale unused modules.

Of course, with such a camera, Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 is no match for the flagships from Apple, Samsung and LG, even last year. But what is a smartphone capable of?

The camera is fast, the autofocus is accurate but brooding. The image stabilizer allows you to grab your smartphone from your pocket on the go and immediately take a sharp photo. In video mode, the gimbal also performs well.

The dynamic range is poor: the dark tones are a problem. With a decrease in the amount of light, the amount of noise increases sharply, and sometimes cloudy weather is enough for this. The smartphone uses radical noise reduction, which shamelessly kills detail by turning lines into smudges.

The front 5-megapixel camera with a "beautifier" could be called ordinary, if not for its location. If in 99.9% of smartphones it is located on top of the screen, then in Xioami Mi MIX 2 it is in the lower right corner, which made it possible to make thin not only the side frames, but also the upper one.

Hence, there are two problems. Firstly, holding the smartphone in your right hand, you cover the camera with your palm - you need to adapt not to do this. But how? Secondly, both on selfies and during video calls, you will always be looking somewhere up. Yes, it didn't work out very well, although good for design.

Connection

Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 supports 43 cellular bands and will not leave you without communication and fast internet neither in Russia, nor in China, nor in Europe, nor in the USA. You can install two SIM cards.

Support for Wi-Fi networks is also full: 802.11a / b / g / n / ac protocols, bands 2, 4 and 5 GHz. You can simultaneously receive Wi-Fi and distribute it.

Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 is one of the few smartphones that support the latest Bluetooth 5.0. Compared to version 4.2, the range of Bluetooth 5.0 has quadrupled, the speed has doubled, and the bandwidth has increased eightfold. For the average person who uses Bluetooth to connect a smartphone with headphones, smart watches and fitness gadgets, and in the evening, perhaps with wireless acoustics, there is no benefit from such technologies. However, Bluetooth 5 is a good start for the future as more compatible devices and possibly more custom scenarios arrive.

There is an NFC module in Xiaomi Mi MIX 2. You can use your smartphone in plastic card emulation mode for contactless payments in the Android Pay system, as well as for writing data to NFC tags and transport cards.

Satellite receivers of GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou signals are working as expected.

Security

Everything is very simple here. The fingerprint scanner is located on the back under the camera. It works quickly and accurately, it is used to unlock the smartphone and authenticate the transaction in Android Pay.

Software

Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system and has a proprietary MIUI 9.1.2 graphical shell. The interface, like all Chinese smartphones, is simple, similar to iOS. However, there are many interesting features under the hood.

The most striking is, perhaps, the possibility of creating a second workspace. In fact, you get another system in your smartphone with different accounts, settings, applications. The entrance to the second space can be protected with a password and fingerprint.

Working hours

Although Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 has an energy efficient processor, it will not last longer than one day in a little bit of everything. The battery capacity of this 5.99-inch smartphone is 3,400 mAh. There is Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging technology, but it only works with a 9V / 2A power adapter. The smartphone charges from 0 to 100% in less than 2 hours.

Outcome

Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 is suitable for those who want a productive bezel-less flagship, created using the latest technologies, but do not want to overpay. In this sense, Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 has no competitors: Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 and a solid screen were combined only in the LG V30, which will cost space money, and in the OnePlus 5T, which we have not yet sold.

However, if the camera is important to you, then Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 is absolutely not suitable. Here the manufacturer saved money, deciding that it is possible to get by with last year's mediocre sensor.

In the official Xiaomi store, the smartphone can be purchased for 34,990 rubles.