Did Xiaomi just make the best Foldable Phone yet?
This is the biggest change in
foldable
smartphone
s in the last four years. If you wanted a foldable
one, you pretty much had no choice but to buy a Samsung, but this looks like something special. People call it the Samsung killer. I need to know if this is enough to finally turn the tide on the foldable
market. It's called The Mix fold 2 and right from the start its packaging wows Samsung as if comparing it to the z-fold 4 which literally comes with the cable and the phone
has a more premium foldable
box with a xiaomi
VIP service card on top.![did xiaomi just make the best foldable phone yet]()
What happens if we really dial this number? This number is restricted on this
phone
. I still not only have the phone
but a hard case which is a god level inclusion because not only is it protection it's also a really solid kickstand to hold the device with a 67 watt fast charger and then Sim charging cable e eject tool and also a headphone
jack adapter this is where it gets interesting though literally the moment i took the plastic wrap off this phone
i realized for the second time that this is what a phone
should feel like foldable
phone
and i'm not even getting down to how it's one of the thinnest smartphone
s in the world when unfolded so impressive as that's what's even more remarkable is how when folded they actually managed to make
it feel like a regular phone
the combination of its slightly wider ratio compared to Samsung with the tighter hinge protruding less, the improved screen-to-body ratio on the fr Being and only the slimmer overall body of the phone
, it all make
s Samsung's current foldable
phone
look like it's at least two generations old and it's not just
a matter of aesthetics, it actually make
s the front screen more usable meaning you can watch Netflix without it feeling cramped and cut off I finally have a full size keyboard but can use my two huge thumbs to type not to mention a form factor that doesn't make
it feel like I have a third leg in my pocket just
to give you an idea, while samsung's most recent z-fold 4 is around 15.8mm thick this sits at 11.2 which is a big difference and not much more than a normal phone
which would be around 9mm and, To top it off, it does all of that while also looking neater thanks to a new type of hinge that allows it to fold completely flat instead of angled display bezels that actually match the curve. natural height of the phone
and a centralized camera module on the back that reduces the amount of table wobble.![did xiaomi just make the best foldable phone yet]()
It's not hard to see why this
phone
is called a Samsung killer and then when I noticed the following, the two may as well date. the Samsung in performance and I'm not just
talking about benchmark scores, I also noticed it with Wi-Fi download speeds and while I'm not talking about generational leaps here by any means, the simple fact that this may even be within par with this is in is Si is quite a feat when you take into account that a samsung has a thicker phone
with more space inside B the samsung is more expensive even if you pay the extra to import the xiaomi
it will still cost you 10 less and then C it's just
that the z44 is already blazing fast with this new high end snapdragon 8 plus gen 1 chip and 12 gigs of ram which xiaomi
also shares.![did xiaomi just make the best foldable phone yet]()
I can't understand how great it feels to be able to play games that look as good as this on a screen with this much space on a
phone
this thin it gets a bit hotter than Samsung when you really stress it but if you really look at what happens to the performance numbers after persistently pushing it, it's the Samsung output that actually drops much faster and To be really honest, I was hoping to tell you that I got my ass poked. I was hoping to tell you that the software is what ruins it, it has been for most other foldable
s up to this point, but that's not really the case, there's also no other way to put it other than the fact that xiaomi
has stepped up the creation of its own foldable
-only software skin called the MIUI fold you tap the power button which is also scanning your fingerprint as you do so and you're straight into a home screen which is making the most of the extra screen space now you get three extra icons on your dog that allow you to quickly juggle the latest apps that have been opened and the floating window tab on the other side is really handy that you can even play games in that floating window not to mention the vast and ever-growing MIUI Personalization Suite now I'll say I still don't think it's Snuff dependent with Samsung really having time to think about the minutiae of how op Timing every interaction, like with the xiaomi
, you can only split apps vertically, not horizontally, which means if you're trying to watch a video while doing something else, that video will be a little window in the middle, but to be fair during the two weeks i've had this i always felt like it had enough extra tools to just
ify having a foldable
phone
instead of a regular flagship the only other thing that was a little weird was this phone
doesn't really want me to use google apps as chrome just
wouldn't install and treats gboard as a security risk to the point where you have to go to a separate menu just
to enable the option to potentially switch to it, but assuming that's just
because this is a chinese model It's almost hard to see where the problem is with this phone
, even the battery and cameras are very much keeping up with its expensive arrival, to be so of By the way, yes, the mixed fold skimps on wireless charging capabilities, but it more than make
s up for it by being able to charge twice as fast as Samsung in 40 minutes instead of 1 hour 30 and then comes with the charger to do it and then to The cameras have a good quality 50-megapixel main sensor to shoot.![did xiaomi just make the best foldable phone yet]()
They're reliable mostly natural photos in all different lighting conditions, plus the classic bonus of being able to take selfies with that rear camera. I mean, tell me this isn't one of the sharpest selfies you've ever seen, but this is where the rub comes in. Although I think Samsung and
Xiaomi
are making the most of this foldable
form factor as they have loaded these phone
s with multitasking elements and foldable
features, it doesn't change the fact that this core style of phone
is all full screen on the front and then on. the larger indoor screen concept is fundamentally inefficient the way it's designed means you need two completely separate screens and three arrays of cameras even though you can only use one at a time that aside from the completely unnecessary cost also means that when the phone
is folded, it's not just
because it's impractical, but you don't even get the benefit of it being thick, like it isn't like now. the phone
is stacked inside with components that make
it run faster or take better photos its just
multiple layers of repeated metal body and unused screen and you might be thinking well xiaomi
fixes that right they have done feel like a normal phone
when folded nicely yes, but to get there while still retaining all the inefficiencies that a foldable
design like this brings, they had to remove like half of what make
s Samsung attractive in the first place, for example the hinge the only reason xiaomi
managed to make
a lower profile hinge than samsung by making it less sturdy you will notice that when you open this phone
it just
opens all the way instead of samsung's flex mode feature giving you it allows 40 degrees of freedom that the hinge can be held in and apps can adapt to it or I mean technically this xiaomi
has a Har tuned dual speaker system Man Kardon, it's not very good, although you can tune The Equalizer all you want, but the sheer physics of trying to get the Punchy sound out of a five millimeter thick phone
shell just
doesn't add up and the end result is that sounds tinny but a sub to the channel would be harmonic oh with the cameras yes the main sensor It usually takes good pictures but both the ultra wide and zoom cameras have been scaled down massively to try and minimize the bump .![did xiaomi just make the best foldable phone yet]()
Both are solid in bright lighting but fall apart when the light starts to wane. We
just
found some wild deer around here. let's see if we can use the zoom camera to take a decent photo that's not great oh dear and you also know this selfie camera inside which is really just
an ambient light sensor there's no camera here which again is something xiaomi
had to do to make
the phone
so slim but it doesn't work with a form factor like this. z-flip phone
u Unlike those phone
s and unlike some other flagships that have a second rear screen on the back with how wide it is, it's quite an awkward maneuver to perform, on top of what you do if you want to have a video call With someone you couldn't do on the main screen and I'm not even going to delve into the still huge crease that runs down the middle the lack of a water resistance rating or stylus support how videos don't fill the screen how most apps don't take advantage of the space how the only real solution is to run them in the normal aspect ratio of the phone
but then what's the point and then how even though it's great the mixed fold comes with a case included you'll never be able to adequately protect a phone
like this at all senses how it can be done so easily with a normal bathroom this could be a thing of mine but even with the case on this one i'm constantly worried about dropping this phone
because i feel like it wouldn't do very well for me.![did xiaomi just make the best foldable phone yet]()
I'm not exactly saying that
xiaomi
got it wrong. decisions with this phone
because, let's be honest, Samsung is too thick for most people, so something had to happen. I'm just
saying I don't think you can win with this phone
format. you are for a mainstream audience if you are one of the specific enthusiasts who know these foldable
s are for you then you are probably right but for most of you who are watching this market from a distance and are tempted this is your keep in mind Mind you now probably isn't the time for you to jump in to see me unbox the Tesla Electrophone
, click here and I'll see you there.