Days after Samsung unveiled its folding phones, Xiaomi did the same with its Mix Fold 2, which has just launched in China. At the moment, Samsung is the only player in the segment outside China but it may change soon.
The specs
There are considerable improvements over the original Mi Mix Fold, which released last year. The latest Fold 2 features Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 flagship chipset with 12GB of RAM and several storage options ranging from 256GB to 1TB. More importantly, it features an improved hinge.
There are some bigger differences (literally!) when it comes to the screen. When folded, there is a 6.56-inch OLED outer display with a long 21:9 aspect ratio but unfolded, it is an 8.02-inch LTPO 2.0 inner display. Both the screens are larger than Samsung’s 6.2-inch OLED outer display and 7.6-inch OLED inner display on the Galaxy Z Fold4.
The Xiaomi device runs at 120Hz with a brightness of 1,000 nits. The outer display has the protection of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus while the main folding display uses Schott ultra-thin glass. In way of camera, there are some considerable tech chops — a 50MP main camera (Sony IMX766), a 13MP ultra-wide snapper and an 8MP telephoto with 2x optical zoom. For selfies, there’s a 20MP hole-punch camera. Xiaomi has also said that the Mix Fold 2 is the “world’s thinnest foldable phone” because at just 5.4mm, it’s about 15 per cent thinner than the 6.3mm Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4.
Samsung has an upper-hand
There are two features on Samsung’s folding phone that help users a lot. First, it has IPX8 water resistance, which is a huge benefit if you are out in the open and don’t want an expensive phone to conk out. Second, Flex mode or how applications automatically reorient to fit a folded screen. It’s a very helpful feature if you want to set the phone down and use it hands-free, like for video calls.
But Xiaomi offers…
Xiaomi has put in a 4,500mAh battery, which is slightly larger than the 4,400mAh battery inside Samsung’s Z Fold4. The Mix Fold 2 supports 67W wired fast charging while the Z Fold4 supports up to 25W fast charging. Finally pricing: Mix Fold 2 is only available for purchase in China and the 256GB base model costs around $1,300, which is significantly lower than the base model of Samsung’s Fold, which is around $2,000 in China.