Xiaomi MIX FOLD hands-on experience: advantages and disadvantages of a full analysis of the article

After entering the era of full-screen, the function of the phone as well as the operation mode has converged, as far as the existing shape is concerned, it is difficult to have a particularly big innovation, are optimized and improved on the original interaction mode. In order to explore more possibilities, folding screen phone was born, from the existing trend, folding screen may be the next inflection point of the phone, but for the time being, it is still biased towards the conceptual nature, can not be a large number of popularity, like the hinge, the screen material is a difficult point of hardware, the cost is difficult to control, the price will remain high.

To a certain extent, today's folding screen, are not for the volume, more purpose is to show muscle, the purpose of the product release is to tell everyone that there is a real machine, at any time, can also be used, is not a Ponzi scheme, although it may not be a complete body, but we are cell phone manufacturers are working hard to explore the future of the field.

At present, in the domestic cell phone manufacturers, Huawei has the deepest layout in the field of folding screen, since the first folding screen cell phone Huawei Mate X listed in November 2019, more than two years, released and listed Huawei Mate X, Huawei Mate Xs, Huawei Mate X2 three generations of folding screen cell phones, although the price is speculated by the market, but Huawei did come up with goods The company has been able to get its hands on a lot of folding screen phones. As a result, this has more or less irritated Huawei's old domestic rival, Xiaomi.

These years, millet has always wanted to get rid of the early inherent image, take the road of high-end, but always a little short of the fire, such as the layout of the long-time surround screen millet MIX Alpha, stunning, but in addition to stunning, the user's operating habits as well as the functionality of the level of the role can not be transformative, coupled with the fact that this thing spot even fewer, the topic of the degree of slowly diminished. With the increasing popularity of folding screen phones, Xiaomi also had to enter the folding screen market.

Today, the object of our review is millet's first folding screen phone - millet MIX FOLD, is it good? Through a period of trial, the following advantages and disadvantages are summarized.

Advantage 1: Parallel window, efficient operation is more suitable for life

First of all, let's talk about a life in the field scene, if you want to buy a piece of clothing in a certain treasure, through the input of keywords to search for a way to find a whole lot of goods. Without this model, most people's operating habits are a breath of all the goods of interest to add to the favorites or shopping cart, as the first choice, and then open the favorites or shopping cart, back and forth to switch the interface, the second round of screening.

With parallel windows, the phone can open two windows of an app at the same time. Specific use, the inner screen to open the shopping app, the right part of the open tentative goods, the left part of the slide up and down to browse, when you find a tentative goods than the right side of the goods more feeling, directly click, the goods will appear in the right side of this interface, it becomes the new tentative goods. This eliminates a lot of switching back and forth between interfaces, and makes the process more efficient.

This feature can be applied to a wide range of scenarios, for example, when using QQ, the left half of the group to see the message, the right half to see the space, both without delay. Many folding screen phones have similar features, but transplanted to the ordinary phone almost not now, because the size of the screen, aspect ratio limitations, forced transplantation will be very chicken ribs.

To open the parallel window of the millet MIX FOLD is very simple, the settings interface to find the "application settings", select "parallel window", you can find a bunch of apps on the switch interface, but all the apps that open this feature, can be opened at the same time. All apps with this feature enabled can open two windows of an app at the same time. This is a great way to get the most out of your apps, but it's also a great way to get the most out of your apps, so it's a great way to get the most out of your apps.

Advantage #2: Small window mode on large screens makes small windows more useful

Small window mode is not unique to folded screens, but folded screens can maximize the value of the small window mode.

The above figure is the state of Xiaomi MIX FOLD when using the small window mode in the inner screen, because the screen is bigger, so the application of the lower layer of the floating window has a more open field of view, and the proportion of the blockage will not be too high, and the impact on the line of sight will be smaller. We can apply to a lot of practical scenarios, in addition to chatting while watching TV, but also video conferencing, while checking relevant information in order to make an online report, even if it is a cell phone, but also able to provide a very powerful productivity.

Xiaomi MIX FOLD's small window startup is the same as all MIUI devices, under the multitasking interface, select the small window app in the upper-left corner, a series of apps supporting small window apps list will pop up, select an app you want to use, the app will be directly in the form of a floating window on the desktop, at this time, the floating window and the underlying desktop can be operated. As far as the process goes, it's not too complicated, and doesn't have a particularly large learning curve.

Advantage 3: Quad speakers, Harman Kardon tuning, more stereoscopic

The Xiaomi Mi MIX FOLD features a quad-speaker design, including a pair of 1216 super-large-amplitude speakers, which equates to a 1.34 cc sound chamber with an extraordinary loudness. The body design has two speaker holes at the top and bottom, all of which are not hidden. Listening to the sound effects, the four speakers have a wide soundstage and a very strong sense of three-dimensionality.

I have evaluated hundreds of cell phones, do not blow no black, millet MIX FOLD is the best amplification effect in the tested models, there is no one, a lot of seemingly ordinary music, can listen to goosebumps. Its low-frequency dive is quite deep, deep to ethereal, high-frequency maximum sound playback, not broken sound, at the same time to do these two points to the extreme is really difficult. The four speakers are tuned by Harman Kardon, and the sound is really outstanding.

Benefit #4: The introduction of liquid lenses ensures a consistent zoom style

The lens at the top of the illustrated section is an 8MP telephoto macro lens, which is innovative in that it employs the design of a liquid lens, replacing traditional optics with a flowable liquid that is externally driven to regulate the pressure of the liquid inside or other physical properties, which in turn changes the external shape of the lens, realizing a change in focal length and focus although no focal length is involved. As a result, the 8-megapixel lens has both telephoto and macro functions, and it supports 3cm macro, 3x optical zoom, and up to 30x digital zoom.

In the current lens division of cell phones, both telephoto and macro are performed by two lenses. Of these, executing telephoto shots is either digital zoom from the main camera or a separate telephoto lens shot. Performing macro is either shot with a separate macro lens or is subbed by an ultra wide angle lens. With a good telephoto lens, you don't have much trouble shooting telephoto, it's the macro where things go wrong.

If the execution of macro shooting is to use a macro lens, for low-end cell phones is miserable, because the price range of many cell phone macro lens is to make up the number, on the 2 megapixels, the bottom is also very small, the phone is close to the light and then a cover, often will be photographed very bleak; if the execution of macro using ultra-wide-angle lenses, ultra-wide-angle lenses in the processing of the frame on both sides more or less a little bit of distortion, which may be magnified in macro tasks. The most critical point is that each lens has its own characteristics, and there are more or less differences in the style of different lenses even if they are post-tuned. Therefore, the introduction of macro lenses can maximize the macro and telephoto in the style of unity.

Advantage 5: Palm PC mode, the phone can become a hardcore productivity

Open the inner screen of the Xiaomi Mi MIX FOLD, the screen three-finger left slide, you can quickly enter the Palm PC mode, this mode is designed for business office.

As far as the overall style is concerned, it's very similar to Windows, and as long as you've used a computer, you'll be able to get started without any tutorials at all.

Long-pressing on an empty area of the desktop allows you to quickly create new files and new folders.

During our testing, we found that the Xiaomi Mi Mix FOLD's Pocket PC mode can open up to 5 windows, and if you want to open a 6th window, it will minimize one of the windows that is already open. We don't know whether the "5" in "5 windows" is a fixed value, and whether it will be affected by the memory space occupied by the app. Overall, it's very convenient.

Weaknesses 1: The design is flawed, and the creases are too obvious

When I unpacked the phone, I weighed it in my hand, and the first thing I noticed was that the design was very reasonable, because it's basically a symmetrical design, with the center of gravity at the center line, and the thickness of the body on both sides is almost the same, which is something that very few folding phones do. Few folding screen phones have done this before. But I changed my mind when I laid it flat on my desktop.

The back is nearly flat, but the camera protrudes out, making the phone "snap", which is a really bad experience. For example, if you're sitting on a green train watching TV with it, and the phone is sitting on the desktop, and you accelerate, your screen goes up and down, are you comfortable?

On the contrary, some less symmetrical folding screen phone, "playing fast board" phenomenon is not so obvious, they are because of the middle of the seam, forming a large area of the support line, can play a good buffer effect. I'm sure Xiaomi's designers had good intentions to make a 50/50 symmetry and hold in the phone more comfortably, but probably didn't take into account the impact of the camera protrusion on flat placement. It's 2021, and I don't expect cell phone manufacturers to "recess" the camera, but I hope Xiaomi or other accessory manufacturers will make a case that "recesses" the camera to avoid that awkward shaking.

In addition, the creases on the Xiaomi MIX FOLD are still quite visible. Large screen state, no matter what angle, you can see more obvious creases. The crease is a common problem for folding screen phones, but I didn't expect the Xiaomi MIX FOLD to be so conspicuous. I do not know that the folding screen completion era, with glass will not be much better, nowadays, even if the screen with glass folding screen, Mohs strength are not high.

Disadvantages two: system and folding screen is not fully adapted

2021 June, millet many thousand yuan machine have received the push of MIUI12.5, but we have millet MIX FOLD has been in the hands of MIUI12.0. from the current use of the situation, the system is not fully adapted at all. The system is not fully adapted to the folding screen, and many details are not in place.

Folding screen is a more essential test is the internal and external screen cutting. But millet MIX FOLD a lot of details of the optimization is not good, a lot of application interface inside and outside the screen cut each other, can not be automatically converted, close or open will be resting screen, you need to press the power button in order to re-light the screen, light the screen to unlock the desktop in order to go back to the original application of the interface. In addition, there are a lot of bugs, some apps have a certain chance of forcing the ratio when cutting between the internal and external screens, just like the picture above.

The inner screen is a big screen, it should be split very effectively, but in the millet MIX FOLD, a considerable part of the third-party app ratio does not fit, whether it is placed vertically or horizontally, the interface is forced to stretch. Although the system has prompted "the application may not work properly in split-screen mode", but it still feels a bit strange, just like buying a baby at a sky-high price, and the seller said in a very inconspicuous place that the baby has a defect in such and such a place. Shouldn't this kind of system, which doesn't address split-screen apps for the time being, be locked to disable the startup of split-screen?

It's not very pleasant to use, but it can be improved with a later OTA, and I wonder when the MIUI team will remember their folding screen product.

Drawback #3: Awkward screen design, not at all suitable for gaming

At the launch event, Boss Lei gave high marks to the phone's gaming performance, but our actual gaming experience was pretty poor because its screen is just anti-gaming design. Taking Glory of Kings as an example, we took a few shots of how the Xiaomi Mi Mix FOLD compares to a regular phone in a game.

First of all, the external screen, millet MIX FOLD used 27:9 screen ratio, the same position, not only the three bear pit can be seen in the eyes, but also see part of the grass on the right side of the river, which is a good thing, but the screen of these two big black edges, really spicy eyes.

The most critical point, the location of the keys is still in the original proportion of the position, even if it is customized can not be moved to the sides, which means that you play the game finger to be closer to the center of the screen, this design is really "wise".

Besides, the outer screen, millet MIX FOLD two sides of the field of vision narrower, the bottom of the field of vision wider, this field of vision ratio adjustment for the game, it is a debuff.

Zhong Kui, for example, the same position, with millet MIX FOLD out of hooks will fly directly out of the screen. And in fact, on the "King of Glory" this game, Zhong Kui's skills are not particularly far, a lot of big mage's poke range is far more than Zhong Kui's second skill, friends in the see me test this phenomenon after teasing: with millet MIX FOLD to play the "King of Glory", don't play in the middle of the road.

There is another point, the internal screen even if you do not play "King of Glory", play other games is also very embarrassing, because its refresh rate as long as 60Hz, and many games are open 90FPS, 120FPS mode. The big screen can not open high frame, this is not a loss of watermelon to pick up sesame seeds?

Disadvantage 4: $1000 machine main camera, no OIS optical stabilization

The introduction of the liquid lens is the highlight of the Xiaomi MIX FOLD, but this can not hide the embarrassment of the main camera of the $1000 machine, the main camera sensor for the Samsung ISOCELL HM2, the same model of its own $1000 machine Redmi Note 9 Pro, and There is no OIS optical stabilization. As the saying goes, the night scene is the watershed of the camera's photographic advantages and disadvantages, through the comparison of the night scene samples, we should be clear about the real level of photography of this phone.

Sample comparison of the same mirror position, you can find that the millet MIX FOLD night scene strength is and Redmi Note 9 Pro a level, compared with millet's own flagship Xiaomi 11 Ultra, the color is bland, smearing is also more serious, the overall tolerance is not good, the bottom of the small is too much, was pressed too dead.

Xiaomi lack of camera? Bloggers really do not think so, Samsung GN2 can take the first, completely able to tune some to the folding screen, plus folding screen itself is a show of muscle products, any manufacturer will be very willing to pile up materials. The reason for this, personal guess (only personal guess) and millet MIX FOLD focus on marketing Surge C1 image chip related, the ISP chip may not have been able to adapt those bigger bottom of the camera.

Writing in conclusion

Overall, the Xiaomi Mi MIX FOLD is a half-baked product with wow factor and obvious flaws. It's designed to execute more playfulness because of the folding screen, and there's plenty of heaps of material in many places, such as the Harman Kardon-tuned quad speakers, liquid lenses, and more. The flaws are the plastic screen, the $1000 lens, and the overall back that can "play fast and loose".

Because I am aware that the Xiaomi Mi Mix FOLD itself is positioned as an experiment, so it is understandable that it has shortcomings. At present, the machine appearance and configuration defects have been irreversible, can only look forward to millet's next generation of folding screen can be improved, but the software side of the bugs, or hope that the engineers of MIUI can be repaired as soon as possible, will be the system, the UI to fill in the whole, like the application ratio does not fit, the kind of inside and outside of the screen intersection of the kind of unsmooth as well as inside and outside of the screen intersection of the emergence of the bugs can be realized through OTA upgrade to repair, it depends on the When will MIUI remember this batch of mice who bought Xiaomi MIX FOLD.