Xiaomi’s foldable Mix Flip is coming to challenge Samsung
Xiaomi’s Mix Flip clamshell foldable launched in China back in July, but the phone is now available to buy in the UK and wider Europe. After spending a few days with it, I can already say it’s a great foldable phone – and a strong competitor to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 6. Sadly, it won’t be available for sale in the US.
Now that I’ve used it for a few days, I find there’s plenty to like about the Mix Flip. The outer display measures an impressive 4.01 inches and stretches all the way across the phone’s surface, with the camera units making two punch-hole punch-holes in the display. You can use the outer display for a variety of things, from checking your notifications to using the main camera to take selfies.
Open the phone and you’ll find a 6.86-inch display, bringing the Mix Flip’s overall dimensions almost exactly to those of the 2024 Motorola Razr. The internal display is bright and vibrant, and I wasn’t particularly distracted by the crease, even though it is visible under top lighting.
The phone can be left open at any angle.
The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, rather than the MediaTek Dimensity processor found in Xiaomi’s 14T Pro. The Snapdragon silicon scored highly on benchmark tests – in line with other phones using the 8 Gen 3 – and I found the phone to be generally snappy in day-to-day use. Gaming was no problem here, either.
The rear cameras are a step down from those on Xiaomi’s regular candybar phones, most notably the photography-focused Xiaomi 14 Ultra . But the dual-camera setup takes decent photos in outdoor conditions. Both the main and telephoto cameras offer 50-megapixel resolutions, meaning their images come packed with detail.
This photo from the main camera is vibrant and full of detail.
Why use the inside camera when I can take selfies with the much better rear camera? If only I could smile more often.
There’s a 32MP selfie camera housed in a hole in the inner display. But if you want better selfies, fold the phone over and use the main camera with the outer display for the best possible image quality.
The phone’s 4,780mAh battery is enough for a full day of use, as long as you’re careful. Additionally, the phone supports 67W fast charging, which allows you to juice up the battery in no time.
The phone runs on Android 14.
I’ve only had limited use of the phone, but I like what I’ve seen so far. The large outer display is bigger than Samsung’s Z Flip 6 , and with the same processor on board, performance should be broadly comparable. The biggest downside to Xiaomi’s phone is that it doesn’t have any IP-rating for water resistance, like Samsung’s Flip and Motorola Razr do.
But the big question is how much Xiaomi is charging for its compact foldable phone. The company hasn’t released pricing details ahead of the launch, but if it hopes to remain competitive against the dominant names in foldable phones, it will have to adjust the price accordingly. I’ll update this article when I learn more.
