It is hard to think of a stronger phone with intent of phone design than the original Mi Mix. Naming it a “concept phone” and pouncing on the talented designer, Philippe Starck, Xiaomi made a moderate phone, which was largely covered by a huge screen with tiny bezels both above and below the screen that presaged the biggest smartphone trend in 2017.
However, the Mi Mix was not the most useful phone to actually use. But now, just less than a year later, Xiaomi has revealed a sequel of the Mi Mix, named as the Mi Mix 2, which looks like the phone which you would want to live with.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the most practical phone to actually use. But now, just under a year later, Xiaomi is ready to reveal a sequel — and on first glance the Mi Mix 2 looks like a phone that you’d be far more likely to want to live with.
The Mi Mix 2 has a 5.99 inches screen, which is a lot smaller than the huge 6.44-inch screen sported by the original Mi Mix. It might also feel a less smaller than those numbers suggest, as it has an aspect ratio of 18:9 instead of the 17:9 in the previous model, which means the phone is more narrower across. The “chin” beneath the screen has been decreased by 12%, while the corners are now more rounded.
The phone gets a break from the sharp lines used on previous occasions, and is obviously more rounded. The aluminium frame of the phone is partnered by a ceramic back, while Xiaomi has also released a special edition Mi Mix 2, that the firm claims is the first ever phone which uses a full unibody ceramic design.
The Xiaomi Mi Mix had a squarer screen
The Chinese smartphone giant has also modified some of the features of the original Mi Mix. The Mi Mix 2 now sports an actual speaker, instead of the piezoelectric ceramic driver on the back. The sound is now flown through a tiny slit on the top edge of the phone, which is an upgrade but can still be seen as a compromise.
Another downgrade is the front camera, which has been combined into the bottom panel, but it will still want the user to hold the phone upside down to capture selfies. The back camera, however, remains the same with the 12-megapixel sensor aided by the 4-axis OIS like the Mi 6, but combines with a single f/2.0 lens, without any dual-camera action.
Apart from these flaws, the Mi Mix 2 has a lot of positive things that are present in a high-end flagship phone in terms of specifications, that include:
A 5.99-inch 2160×1080 LCD at 401ppi, along with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. It also has a 151.8mm x 75.5mm x 7.7mm, 185g specification, to go with its 6GB RAM (8GB in the limited edition one), and storage options of 64, 128 and 256GB (it’s only 128GB on the limited edition one).
The phone also sports a 3400mAh battery and comes without a headphone jack, while using Bluetooth 5.0. The system is MIUI 9 based on the Android Nougat, and also has 43 LTE bands.
The 43 LTE bands means that the phone is capable of working properly on US LTE networks. However, Xiaomi is not selling the Mi Mix 2 in the US, but it has a wide presence in global markets, where Xiaomi is a giant, including Chinese markets.
Xiaomi has begun the pricing of the Mi Mix 2 from $500, for the model which has 64GB storage and 6GB RAM. $550 is the price for the 128 GB version of the phone, while the 256GB model costs $610. The special edition, which sports the unibody ceramic body, is available for $720 with with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage.
