Xiaomi Mix Flip: small display fans unite

The Mix Flip is the first folding smartphone Xiaomi has launched in Europe. With its easy-to-use external display and features, it shakes up the current top dogs from Samsung and Motorola.

Get a lot done without unfolding

After a bit of practice, I can open the Mix Flip with one hand. But I don’t even always have to, as I can do a lot from the external display. The 4.01-inch device should be a hit with anyone who wants to go back to a small smartphone. The resolution of 1392 × 1208 pixels (460 ppi) ensures a detailed display, and with up to 3,000 nits, it’s bright enough in sunlight.

Xiaomi divides the screen into two areas so that apps on the external display don’t interfere with the cameras. The area under the two camera lenses is intended for widgets. I scroll through all the ones I’ve selected in the settings. The second area of the screen next to it is for opening apps the standard way.

I also have to select these in the settings, as the Mix Flip doesn’t automatically show everything on the outer display. Not all apps are available, but many are. For instance, I can control music playback, read and write text messages – albeit with a small keyboard – or display a map route. I have to scroll if there are more than twelve apps. Unfortunately, you can’t create folders.

If I need a larger display, I open up the Mix Flip to reveal a 6.86-inch touchscreen, which also achieves a pixel density of 460 ppi with 2912 × 1224 pixels. The refresh rate can be automatically adjusted between 1 and 120 Hertz and the maximum brightness here is also 3,000 nits.

I only notice the crease in the middle of the flip display when I pay attention to it, either with my eyes or fingers. It doesn’t get in the way during everyday smartphone tasks.

Limited zoom and no ultra-wide angle

There’s space for two cameras on the outside of the Mix Flip, with photos boasting a resolution of 50 megapixels. The main camera uses the Light Fusion 800 sensor, features an f/1.7 aperture and a focal length of 23 mm (converted to 35 mm format). The telephoto camera with the OV60A sensor isn’t quite as bright at f/2.0. Its 47 mm focal length produces a 2× optical zoom. The inside camera takes selfies with 32 megapixels and an f/2.0 aperture. However, the smartphone doesn’t come with an ultra-wide-angle camera.

Xiaomi continues to work with Leica for the Mix Flip. This is most noticeable in the choice of two image modes: Leica Authentic and Leica Vibrant. I took my test photos in Authentic mode. With Vibrant, colours are a bit more intense.

For videos, you can fold the Mix Flip in half like a camcorder. You can also put it on the table for video calls or selfies:

Impressive colour and contrasts

The Mix Flip’s main camera wowed me with its natural colour reproduction and high level of detail. Strong contrasts are no problem for this camera.

Like all manufacturers, Xiaomi also uses what’s known as pixel binning for the high-resolution camera sensor. The process involves merging four adjacent pixels into one. This is meant to increase light sensitivity and, ultimately, image quality, resulting in photos with a resolution of 12.5 megapixels. Consequently, they require less storage space than files with full resolution.

Limited optical zoom

With its 2× optical zoom, the Mix Flip’s telephoto camera only gets a bit closer to the subject compared to other smartphones with a telephoto camera. The image quality remains high and I don’t notice any major changes to the main camera in terms of colour.

The 4× zoom offered in the camera app is purely digital, but thanks to the image sensor’s high resolution, it’s perfectly acceptable. You only get quality losses when magnifying further.

Always use night mode

If you’re shooting in the dark, it’s worth using night mode, so your picture doesn’t look as pitch black as real life. This mode compensates for overexposure of light sources, making images appear more detailed without losing their nocturnal flair.

Selfies with the main camera

For selfies, I prefer the outer main camera over the inner one, despite the fact the latter doesn’t rely on pixel binning and the selfies have a higher resolution. Nevertheless, images from the main camera still seem sharper. Colour reproduction from the main camera also looks more natural. The black of the jacket is darker, the sky bluer and the picture less yellow overall.

I have the same impression of the different cameras when it comes to selfies. The main camera delivers sharper images and more natural colour reproduction. In this instance, the yellowish colouring matches the surrounding street lighting. It’s also best to activate night mode for selfies.

Great performance with minor compromises

With the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and 12 GB of RAM, the Mix Flip is well equipped in terms of performance. For classic smartphones like the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, a slightly better cooling system would score a few more points when testing. And Samsung has already gone through more generations and iterations in order to optimise the Flip 6. But when it comes down to it, the differences are too small to notice in daily tasks.

Average battery

With 4,780 mAh, the Mix Flip battery life is OK, but nothing to rave about. It gets me through the day, but if I use the smartphone a lot I have to recharge it. When using the main display, the PCMark battery test clocks 9.02 hours. This puts it roughly on a par with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, whose slightly larger battery at 5,000 mAh lasts 8:58 hours.

That being said, the Mix Flip doesn’t perform as well compared with other folding smartphones. The Galaxy Z Flip 6 Samsung achieves 11.51 hours with a smaller battery, almost three hours more. That’s a big difference.

At least you can charge the battery quickly between uses. It can take up to 67 W. However, the power supply unit has to be compatible with HyperCharge, Xiaomi’s fast charging technology.

Xiaomi and Google AI services

Android 14 comes installed by default on the Mix Flip. But Xiaomi prefers to call the combination of Android 14 and its user interface HyperOS. It adds visual adjustments and, most of all, allows you to use various Xiaomi services. The Mix Flip also offers Google’s Gemini AI as well as Circle to Search gesture searching from your screen.

You can find other AI services in the Notes app (summaries, corrections, layout help and translations), image editing and the Recorder app (transcription, speaker recognition, summaries and translations). There are also translations for videos and an interpreter for conversations with other people.

As is so often the case, pre-installed third-party apps irritate me the most. However, there are only six of them on the Mix Flip, and you can uninstall them with just a few clicks.