It’s not every day that we get the chance to try out a new foldable, especially from a company other than Samsung. Xiaomi recently invited SoyaCincau.com to check out its latest smartphone on the market, the Xiaomi Mix Fold 3.
As the company’s third-generation foldable, it comes with some nice updates and upgrades versus the predecessor and the competition. Unfortunately, it’s still out of reach of the vast majority of Malaysians, as you’ll see later.
Thin and svelte folding action
The Mix Fold 3 is a book-type foldable, similar to the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the Honor Magic Vs. From the outset, the phone is pretty light in the hand, weighing in at only 255 grams. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is lighter, but only by two grams.
The phone is also svelte. When unfolded, it measures 5.26mm while when folded, it measures 10.86mm. Contrast that with the Galaxy Z Fold 5, which is 6.1mm when unfolded and 13.4mm when folded. Imagine something that is essentially a mini tablet, folded down to only a centimetre thick. The Mix Fold 3 is 2.6mm thinner than the Samsung option—and it shows.
Bright screens for content consumption
Measuring 8.085 inches diagonally, the internal screen is larger and has a higher resolution than the Galaxy Z Fold 5. The Eco OLED Plus foldable display has a resolution of 2160×1916 pixels.
Once folded, you control the phone with the external 6.56-inch Full HD+ AMOLED screen with a 21:9 aspect ratio, which is wider than the Z Fold 5—thus making the on-screen keyboard less cramped—and is covered with Corning’s Gorilla Victus 2.
Both screens support a 120Hz refresh rate, which means using the phone will be buttery smooth either folded or unfolded. They also have a peak brightness of 2,600 nits, which is very high by smartphone standards.
The inner screen features Flexible Ultra-Thin Glass. For the hinge, it feels as sturdy as its competitor which is a plus. It is also stiff enough for flex mode, staying at 90 degrees for content playback or even shooting photos/videos. To prevent any obvious creases, the inner screen uses a teardrop fold, and it works. When we were trying the phone out, the crease was very minimal.
Pretty impressive imaging with Leica
For the second year running, Leica is the imaging partner for Xiaomi – and the partnership has been great for both sides. The Mix Fold 3 continues the tradition with a set of Xiaomi and Leica co-engineered Summicron lenses.
The main camera uses a 50MP Sony IMX800 sensor measuring at 1/1.49-inch. It is paired with a 23mm equivalent focal length lens with a f/1.77 aperture. It is much larger than what you will find on most foldables, so you should get better image quality.
Along with the main camera, you also get a 12MP ultra-wide camera with a 15mm equivalent focal length and an f/2.2 aperture, a 10MP telephoto with a 75mm equivalent focal length and f/2.0 aperture lens and lastly, a 10MP periscope telephoto camera that goes all the way to 5x optical zoom.
For selfies, you get two cameras – one on the cover screen and another on the inner screen. Both cameras are 20MP with a 23mm equivalent focal length and have a f/2.25 aperture. The inner selfie camera is not hidden underneath the display—unlike the Z Fold 5—so it should be much sharper and clearer. Also included are the Leica-powered filters: the Leica Authentic Look and the Leica Vibrant Look for the classic rangefinder aesthetic with your images.
Something special about the main camera is the inclusion of Ultra-high Transmittance Glass Lens on the outermost element to reduce the thickness of lenses in the sensors. Similar lens technology is being used in high-end mirrorless lenses, so it bodes well for photography with the Mix Fold 3.
High-end performance
Underneath the slim body, the Mix Fold 3 runs the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Leading Version chip. This is rebadged version of the Galaxy-branded SoC found in the Z Fold 5, clocked at 3.36 GHz. It’s paired with either 12 or 16GB of the latest LPDDR5X RAM and either 256 or 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage.
Juicing all of this 4,800mAh battery, which is much larger than the one in the Z Fold 5, so you can expect better battery life on the Xiaomi. When you need to juice the battery back up to 100%, just plug the phone into the included 67W wired charging power brick.
Xiaomi claims you can get 100% charge in just 40 minutes. If you need wireless charging, the Mix Fold 3 supports up to 50W wireless turbo charging. You can get a full charge in only 50 minutes—less than a third of Oppenheimer‘s runtime.
Other notable features include WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, a side-mounted fingerprint scanner and Xiaomi’s trademark IR blaster—you know, for when you need to adjust your air con settings. Now you can reach for your phone instead of the remote.
Snazzy looks to go with the fold
For material choices, you get two—a Gorilla Glass Victus 2 back in either Black or Gold, or a composite fibre variant Xiaomi calls “Dragon Scale Fiber”. This material is a blend of ceramic fibre and aramid fibre and is lighter than glass, which contributes to the lightweight nature of the phone. Unfortunately, the Mix Fold 3 does not come with an IP rating for water resistance, unlike the Z Fold 5’s IPX8 rating that means it can be submerged.
So there you have it, the Xiaomi Mix Fold 3. A worthy foldable phone to own, packed with features one would want. The biggest thing stopping us from recommending it outright is that the phone is only in sale in China for now, and there are no official plans to bring it to the Malaysian market. What a pity, as it is a great alternative to the competition here.
