Mi MIX 2 review: Torchbearer for bezel-less phones
There’s no doubt that the Mi MIX 2 is one of the most premium-looking smartphones out there. A display with curved edges, rounded edges on the frame, ceramic rear panel, and all-black mirror finishit’s neat. The earpiece is invisible as it rests beneath the display and channels the audio to the ear by resonating it through a tube as well as onto the upper display area for a better audio quality and volume. There’s an ultrasonic proximity sensor hidden behind the display, operating through the glass. As for the front camera, it can be located at the edge of the bottom lip. However, the MIUI OS rotates by 180 degrees so that the front camera now comes to the usual top position, so as to take normal looking selfies.
The 5.9-inch display on the Mi MIX 2 is its USP, which is crammed within a 5.5-inch chassis, that covers the entire front. The 18:9 LCD panel with full HD+ (1080 x 2160 pixels) resolution produces vibrant colours, great contrasts, and adequate brightness.
Powering the Mi MIX 2 is a Snapdragon 835 chipset along with 6GB RAM and 128GB of storage. Multitasking is a breeze on the Mi MIX 2, with the phone effortlessly able to keep two heavy games and a few social media apps in the RAM. However, it runs the same MIUI 8 based on Android 7.1 Nougat that you find on cheaper offerings from Xiaomi’s stable. There are no special features or gimmicks — there’s no ‘new, unique phone’ feeling, at least as far as the UI is concerned.
A 12MP Sony IMX386 sensor for the rear camera with 4-axis OIS and PDAF takes good pictures with adequate sharpness, a wide variety of colours, great contrasts and appreciable white balance in natural daylight. Lastly, a 3400mAh battery keeps the device ticking which can comfortably last you a day.
For `35,999, the Mi MIX 2’s display is its only primary USP, with nothing unique over its rivals. However, since the display is unique, the design is great and the internal guts are powerful enough, making this a great gadget to flaunt around.