Xiaomi Mi Mix Review

Xiaomi called it a concept phone when it showed it on 25 October 2016, then put it on sale in China ten days later at CNY 3,499 for 4GB/128GB, around $520, with a 6GB/256GB version wearing 18-karat gold camera rings at CNY 3,999. It never sold in the US and the price here is that conversion. The front is a 6.4-inch 2040x1080 IPS panel with almost nothing around three of its sides.

The earpiece is a piezoelectric element that vibrates the frame, the proximity sensor is ultrasonic, and the 5MP selfie camera sits in the chin, so you turn the phone upside down for a selfie. The body, designed with Philippe Starck, is zirconia ceramic on the back and the frame, which made it heavy at 209 grams and lethal to drop: a cracked corner was the single most common photo Mi Mix owners posted.

The 16MP OmniVision OV16880 camera was ordinary even in 2016 terms, with no OIS and mushy low-light output. Snapdragon 821 and the 4400mAh battery, on the other hand, were as good as it got that year. It shipped with MIUI 8 on Android 6.0 and reached Android 8.0 under MIUI 10, a decent run for Xiaomi at the time. Few people bought one, and the LCD itself was nothing special, but within twelve months the Galaxy S8, the iPhone X and the Essential Phone had all followed it. Rarely has a phone this flawed mattered this much.