Last week, Xiaomi teased its upcoming Mi Mix smartphone. Many thought it’d be the Mi Mix 4. However, today Xiaomi announced the Mi Mix Fold, its latest flagship model in the Mi Mix line.
The Mi Mix Fold is quite a unique smartphone. It’s the company’s first foldable phone. It operates similarly to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 2. It folds inwards and features a dual-screen form factor. Though its foldability makes it stand out from the standard phone, it isn’t exactly new. But there’s more to the Fold. One of its rear cameras is a liquid lens.
Mi Mix Fold: the first liquid lens smartphone
The Mi Mix Fold’s liquid lens is its most unique feature. This is the first time a smartphone has ever integrated a liquid lens. One of the benefits of using a liquid lens over a standard lens is it allows manufacturers to cut down the number of cameras needed. So, instead of using a multi-camera arrangement, Xiaomi can instead use a single lens. It also adjusts focus points without compromising the image quality.
Liquid lenses do run into longevity issues, but the Mi Mix Fold’s liquid lens seems to be durable enough for common conditions. It works with temperatures between -40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit (-40 degrees to 60 degrees Celcius).
Xiaomi pairs the lens with a 108MP main camera, a 13MP ultra-wide camera, and an 8-megapixel bionic camera. The bionic camera powers the lens with a motor, which manipulates the packet of fluid to change between a 3x telephoto zoom mode and a macro mode. The zoom mode offers up to 30x hybrid digital and optical zoom. As for the macro mode, it focuses down to 3 centimeters away from the subject.
Folding panel
The Mi Mix Fold’s interior screen features an 8.01-inch 2,480 x 1,860 folding panel. Its outer panel features a smaller 6.52-inch AMOLED 2,520 x 840 resolution panel. According to tests conducted by Huawei, the outer screen lasts for at least a million folds. However, the hinge lasts for just 200,000 bends. So, the hinges will likely run into issues before the screen does.
Pricing and availability
Currently, the Mi Mix Fold is only releasing in China. It starts for 9,999 yuan (around $1,520) for the 256GB version.
