Xiaomi Mi Mix – A Concept Phone Goes Real with Borderless Display

In addition to Mi Note 2, Xiaomi launched another – Mi Mix smartphone which they call as a “concept phone” has a borderless display but it’s not a concept anymore as the phone is real and will go on sale in November.

Mi Mix carries a custom resolution display with aspect ratio of 17:9 on 6.4 inch display that makes up a screen-to-body ratio as large as 91.3%. The handset has only the bottom bazel which is actually significant; all left-top-right are completely invisible where the display joins the body after curvature.

Feature wise, the Mi MIX runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow (MIUI 8) and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821. There are two models Mix Millet, and Millet Exclusive Edition featuring respectively 128GB storage with 4GB of RAM and 256GB storage with 6GB of RAM. Both feature 16 megapixel rear camera with PDAF and 4K video, and the front camera is 5 megapixels. The phone also has dual SIM connectivity. 4,400mAh battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging is what backing up this design.

Exclusive or premium model will also feature 18-karat gold around the camera lens and fingerprint sensor on the back. The body is fully made up with glossy black ceramic including the frame, back panel and the buttons as well. The phone doesn’t use glue or adhesive, instead it uses Tenon joints to secure the phone tightly.

With no physical navigation keys on front, Mi Mix will be the first device from Xiaomi to feature on-screen navigation buttons. Having that considered, the Mix smartphone will give you the exact 16:9 wide screen display if the on-screen buttons are not counted.

Some intelligent people like you will quickly ask questions about all the sensors a smartphone requires today. Well instead of an optical one, the phone uses an ultrasonic proximity sensor and instead of traditional earpiece, the Mix equips with cantilever piezoelectric ceramic acoustic technology that uses metallic frame to generate sound.

The front-facing camera which is not prominent but actually present at the bottom bazel along the right corner. Front camera has a reduced size and when taking selfies you can rotate the phone upside down to position the camera at upper-left corner.

Xiaomi Mi Mix will be available in China on November 4 for 3499 yuan (approx. $516 or PKR. 52,000/-). It will come with a leather case in box. The exclusive or premium version will cost 3,999 yuan (approx. $590 or PKR. 60,000/-).

Let me remind you here, Sharp released Aquos in 2014 with a similar design but that wasn’t so intuitive to impress consumer market but recently Sharp introduced Corner R which actually has pretty similar design as we are seeing with Mi Mix. So it definitely shouldn’t be called as innovative design but I must say, it’s an innovation with practical implementation in consumer product which Xiaomi has done a brilliant job. Performance is yet to be seen with its tidbits of tech parts.