If you’ve been disappointed at the lack of innovation in the smartphone industry in 2016, you might be in for a surprise. As mentioned in our previous article, Xiaomi took the ribbons off a phone that looks like its straight outta a Sci-Fi movie. They even called it a concept phone; I think Xiaomi surprised themselves with this phone. I mean how can one call it a concept phone when it’s already in production, priced and going to be available to Chinese consumers from Nov 4, 2016?
Coming back to the topic, Xiaomi named the futuristic phone as Mi MIX. It has a bezel-less 6.4-inch display with a screen-to-body ratio of 91.3%. It puts the current champ in the screen-to-body ratio – Samsung S7 Edge, to absolute shame. This is what makes the phone so intriguing, so much so that the entire tech world is simply ogling at it right now.
All credits for the phone’s existence goes to Xiaomi but the praises for the design goes to Philippe Starck, a famed French designer who lead the design team.
Looking at the above image, most of you might be wondering, where the heck is the speaker?! It is present at the top bezel just like old times however this phone sports a new/different technology.
Xiaomi has made use of Cantilever Piezoelectric Ceramic Acoustic technology where the phone transmits an electric signal from the Digital to Analog Converter to a piezoelectric ceramic which turns the electric signal to a mechanical energy which reaches the phone’s metal frame and produces a sound using a sound. This is innovation at its finest and Xiaomi had to solve many issues due to the unique phone design because it couldn’t use current technologies.
CPCA technology is also what led Xiaomi to use an all ceramic body for the Mi MIX. Every nook and corner of the phone is made of ceramic to assist this new technology and bold idea from Xiaomi. We must keep in mind that the ceramic body is very expensive to produce (RMB 1000). Xiaomi also replaced the standard proximity sensor with an ultrasonic sensor. Kudos to Xiaomi for pushing technological innovations further!
The rest of the Mi MIX is just as impressive. It features the Snapdragon 821 SoC clocked at 2.35GHz, along with either 4GB or 6GB of LPDDR4 RAM, 128GB or 256GB of UFS 2.0 storage, a massive 4400mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 support, a fingerprint reader, NFC, HD audio playback, a 16-megapixel main camera and a tiny custom-made 5-megapixel selfie camera (the module is half the size of conventional ones). Like the Mi Note 2, the Mi MIX also supports LTE Cat 11 with download speeds of up to 600Mbps using tri-carrier aggregation.
It still surprises me that such a phone will be available in the market from Nov 4, 2016. But anyway, that brings us to the pricing and availability of this phone.
The base model with 4GB RAM & 128GB storage will cost CNY 3499 ` $516 ` Rs. 34,999, while the top-end model — which sports 18-karat gold rims around the main camera and fingerprint reader — with 6GB RAM & 256GB storage will cost CNY 3999 ` $600 ` Rs. 39,999. This is probably the greatest price-to-performance ratio phone present in the market. Currently, only Chinese consumers get the privilege of owning this phone. With Xiaomi looking to enter the US, they might be next in line.
India? As far as statistics goes, Indian consumers’ purchase capacity is anywhere between Rs. 5000 and Rs. 15000. Given the fact that Xiaomi’s Mi5 venture in India dint go so well, it is probably the sole reason why they’re not bringing both Mi Note 2 and Mi MIX to India. But they should keep in mind the success rates of OnePlus 3 despite being priced at $400 ` Rs. 27,999.
Dear Xiaomi, we appreciate good products and we’re more than capable of buying them just like your top marketplaces. Do not treat us any less!