On a trip to Bangkok, opportunity struck and we got the chance to get our hands on Xiaomi’s latest foldable smartphone, the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold 3.
Read on for our first impressions!
Table of Contents
Design and Construction
As amazingly built and premium feeling in-hand, this particular foldable is not the one to rid the foldable display race of that inner crease.
The new hinge mechanism makes the overall feel of the foldable phablet even more sturdy than before! When folded, its front is made out of glass and its rear panel seems to be made out of a synthetic leathery material (reminiscent of soft-touch panels found in cars), all seemingly held together by an aluminum frame, wink-wink.
Up top we can find a noise-cancelling microphone (for loudspeaker calls and audio-visual recording), a dual nano SIM card tray, an IR blaster, and one out of two stereo speaker drivers.
Found at the bottom is a noise-cancelling mic for regular calls, a USB Type-C port for charging and data transfers, and the second match to the stereo speaker up top.
On the right side is Mi Mix Fold 3’s volume rocker and capacitive power button that doubles as a fingerprint sensor.
At the rear, we are presented with a big stainless camera module that’s comprised of a quad camera setup and Leica Summicron branding on the right, above the PDAF sensor and LED flash.
The unit we got our hands on was in the Black color variant, but there has been a Gold color and Carbon Dragon Scale edition spotted online.
Overall the build of the device feels pretty good to say the least, comparable with most foldables released this year.
Display, Multimedia
Folded, the Mi Mix Fold 3 features a 6.56-inch 120Hz AMOLED display that supports HDR 10+ and Dolby Vision. It’s also features Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for protection from accidental drops.
Unfolded, the device features an 8.03-inch 120Hz Foldable LTPO OLED+ panel, that also features Dolby Vision and HDR 10+. This translates to a consistent viewing experience whether folded or unfolded!
Pair it up with loud stereo speakers and we are on the right track.
Speaking of those dual stereo speakers, at first listen they seem very loud but lacking in bass if any. With that being said, the resolution of the mids were absolutely clear (context: smartphone speakers).
Cameras
For optics, the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold 3 features a quad-camera setup at the rear, comprised of a 50MP (f/1.8) main sensor, a 10MP (f/2.0 | 3.2x zoom) telephoto, a 10MP periscopic telephoto (f/2.9 | 5x zoom), and 12MP (f/2.2) ultrawide.
In front whether closed or open, it features a 20MP selfie sensor.
Overall at first glance, it truly does take stunning images that can make any smartphone photography newbie seem like a professional. With Leica image processing in the works, the quality of the images taken from the Mi Mix Fold 3 seem just as good as the ones taken with the Xiaomi 13 Pro.
For video, the rear sensors are capable of shooting up to 8K at 24p, and 4K at varying frame rates of 24p, 30p, and 60p. While in 1080p we get frame rates of up to 120 to 1920 frames per second, slow motion.
OS, UI
The Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold 3 unit we had came with MiUI Fold 14 based on Android 13.
As this was a China ROM variant, we’ll be holding any comments about this till our eventual full review.
What we can say is that the interface seemed very well-optimized to take advantage of the larger display when unfolded, and its high refresh rate.
Performance
Running the show within the device is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. A 4nm chipset that features an Adreno 740 GPU.
The Mi Mix Fold 3 already comes in a slew of configurations from China:
- 12GB RAM + 256GB
- 16GB RAM + 512GB
- 16GB RAM + 1TB
With the limited time we had to fiddle with the device, it seems that multitasking is a definite non-issue on here. Split screens nor floating windows, there was never a stutter from my brief experience.
We were even able to crunch in some Mobile Legends play time, and it was a non-issue for the most part.
Battery
Powering the Mi Mix Fold 3 is a 4,800 mAh battery. It comes with a 67W charging brick in the box, that’s capable of Power Delivery 3, and Quick Charge 4 standards or lower.
Xiaomi advertises the device being able to juice up from 0-100 in 40 minutes, we’ll find out the truth behind this in a future review.
Conclusion
To conclude this hands-on, at the moment the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold 3 is not officially available in the Philippines at the time of this writing.
Whether or not it will be coming, the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold 3 seems to be a promising contender in the foldable phablet space. It’s thin, light, and sturdy and we can’t wait to put it through its paces in a future review.
Xiaomi Mi MIX Fold 3 specs:
8.03” LTPO OLED display (main)
1,960 x 2,160 pixels, 120Hz refresh, HDR10+, Dolby Vision
6.56” LTPO OLED display (cover)
2520 x 1080 pixels, 120Hz refresh, 2,600 nits peak brightness (cover)
Ultra Thin Glass (main display), Gorilla Glass Victus 2 (cover)
Snapdragon 8 Gen2 (4nm)
8-cores, 3.36GHz max clockspeed
16GB LPDDR5X RAM
256, 512GB, 1TB UFS 4.0 storage
Quad rear cameras (Leica-tuned)
– 50MP Sony IMX800 main, OIS
– 12MP ultrawide
– 10MP telephoto, 3x zoom, OIS
– 10MP periscope, 5x zoom, OIS
Dual SIM
5G, 4G LTE
WiFi 802.11a/b/g
Bluetooth 5.3
GPS, Beidou, Galileo, GLONASS, QZSS
USB Type-C
NFC
Fingerprint sensor
MIUI Fold (Android 13)
4800mAh battery
67W charging rate
50W wireless charging
Thickness: 10.89mm (folded)
5.26mm (unfolded)
259g
Moon Shadow Black, Star Glory Gold, Dragon Scale Fiber
