Xiaomi Mi Mix

From around £420 (plus import duty) gearbest.com

Xiaomi’s concept Mi Mix is entering production, and it could shake up the smartphone market more than anything we’ve seen in recent years.

Price

The Xiaomi Mi Mix has an RRP of ¥3,499 for the 4GB of RAM, 128GB storage model; and ¥3,999 for the 6GB RAM, 256GB storage model with 18k gold trims around the camera and fingerprint sensor. A straight conversion to Sterling is £422.37 and £482.69, though this is not what you will pay in the UK.

Since Xiaomi doesn’t officially sell its phones in the UK, you will need to purchase through a Chinese importer such as GearBest. Greymarket sites such as these can see prices fluctuate daily.

At the time of writing, GearBest was listing the 4GB RAM Mi Mix for £601.67, though it is currently out of stock. The 6GB RAM, 256GB,

18K model is not currently listed on the site. The firm offers free shipping to the UK, but do note that you don’t have quite the same rights when buying from China as you do from Europe, and that you may be asked to pay import duty upon the phone’s arrival in the UK.

Do also be warned that Xiaomi has not yet published which frequency bands its Mi Mix operates on, so we can’t guarantee that this phone will support all UK networks. As it stands, the Mi Mix doesn’t support 800MHz Band 20 4G, which rules out O2 and Giffgaff in the UK. These customers will still be able to access 3G, but not 4G.

Features

The most notable feature about the Xiaomi Mi Mix is its huge 6.4in edgeless display, built around a ceramic body designed by Philippe Starck. The only bezel you will find here is at the bottom, resulting in a screen-to-body ratio of 91.3 percent. This should mean it’s roughly the same size as any other 5.7- to 6in phablet.

You might be wondering where are the camera and sensors that usually sit at the top of a smartphone, and the answer is really clever. The Mi Mix uses an ultrasonic distance sensor that sits behind the display rather than a standard proximity sensor, while the smaller-than-usual camera sensor is found at the bottom right of the

phone, and instead of an earpiece there is ‘cantilever piezoelectric ceramic acoustic technology’ to transmit sound. Marie Brewis

Specifications

6.4in (2040x1080, 362ppi) IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours MIUI 8 (custom Android 6.0 Marshmallow) 2.35GHz Snapdragon 821 Adreno 530 GPU 4GB/6GB LPDDR4 RAM 128GB/256GB storage 16Mp rear camera, f/2.0, EIS (gyro), phase detection autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash 5Mp front camera Video recording: 2160p at 30fps, 1080p at 30fps, 720p at 120fps Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band Bluetooth 4.2 GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS NFC USB Type-C 1.0 192kHz/24-bit audio Fingerprint sensor 4400mAh lithium-ion battery, non-removable 158.8x81.9x7.9mm 209g