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Journalism of Courage
It was too hard to ignore the Mi Mix at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, where Xiaomi unveiled the white variant of the device alongside the Mi TV 4 and Mi Router HD. The Mi Mix is an attention seeker – after all, its bezel-less design looks different and daring. Xiaomi is marketing the Mi Mix as a concept phone, a device that belongs to the future. While the phone is already available in China, Xiaomi currently has no plans to bring the Mi Mix to any other part of the world including India. I’ve had a chance to take a first look at the Mi Mix, and here’s my first impressions.
Xiaomi’s Mi Mix doesn’t look ordinary at first sight. Designed in association with French designer Philippe Starck, the Mix is refreshing to say the least. The Mi Mix is encased in a glossy ceramic material, though it ends up being a fingerprint magnet. Although I spent a brief time with the Mi Mix, I was impressed with the phone’s build quality. It really feels good in the hand.
Even though I’m not a big fan of extra large screen phones, I found the Mi Mix to be the perfect device to consume multimedia content thanks to its 6.4-inch edge-to-edge display. It is almost bezel-less with a screen-to-body ratio of 91.3 per cent. Pretty impressive. The only bezel sits at the bottom, where the 5MP front camera has been positioned. I found the position to be awkward, honestly.
The Mix is an engineering marvel, given the way the phone has been designed. Xiaomi says they used a piezoelectric ceramic driver, which basically converts electrical signals into mechanical energy and eliminate the need for an earpiece. Though not the first smartphone to come with such technology, but again a clever implementation.
The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, paired with 4GB/6GB of RAM and 128GB /256GB of internal memory. It is further backed by a 4,400 mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 technology. It was initially only available in a black colour option at the launch, but now the white colour variant is slated to hit the Chinese market later this year for $550 (or Rs 37,442).
On the back is a 16MP camera and a fingerprint scanner. I tested the camera for a few minutes, and although that’s not enough to judge the performance, I wasn’t blown by the images I shot using the Mix. I wish I had spent more time testing the Mi Mix.
I found the Mi Mix to be a design marvel. And it shows why Xiaomi chose CES 2017 to show off the Mi Mix to the global tech media. I do understand that the Mi Mix will appeal to the community of geeks and tech enthusiasts, but Xiaomi has made it clear the future belongs to bezel-less smartphones. Looks like the Mi Mix is just the beginning.
Disclaimer: The author is covering CES 2017 on the invite of Qualcomm, which is paying for accommodation and travel.
