Xiaomi’s attempts at securing a top spot as one of the premiere Android foldable manufacturers has a bit of ways to go, with competitors like Honor trying their best to challenge Samsung’s dominance in the Android foldable market segment. That doesn’t mean Xiaomi’s given up, however – in fact, the Chinese tech giant has announced its newest foldable Android device with the Xiaomi Mix Fold 3, which it hopes will be more than enough to take on the big players in the industry.
With that in mind, the Mix Fold 3 promises some pretty big upgrades over its predecessor, while featuring some familiar hardware elements. After all, there’s only so many ways you can make a uniquely-performing foldable in this day and age. So what does the Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 offer? Let’s check it out.
Screens and External Hardware
The Mix Fold 3 comes with a pair of E6 OLED displays, consisting of a main 8-inch LTPO panel which features a 1960 x 2160 pixel resolution, in addition to a 120Hz variable refresh rate. For protection, the panel features Ultra Thin Glass (UTG), which should no doubt feel much more premium compared to softer plastic displays on other competing foldables. There’s also HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support onboard, which round out the Mix Fold 3’s inner display features.
For the external screen, the device comes with a 6.56-inch LTPO OLED display, that’s protected with a layer of Gorilla Glass Victus 2. It can also reach up to 2,560 nits of peak brightness when used in Auto mode, making it one of the brightest displays we’ve seen on a foldable device so far.
As far as looks are concerned, Xiaomi has decided to give users the option of going with either a glass-backed or carbon fibre-equipped variant of the Mix Fold 3, which we admit is a pretty nice move in terms of giving users something different when it comes to foldable hardware design. The foldable features a rather slim chassis, which comes with a thickness of 10.89mm when folded, and 5.26mm when open.
Xiaomi says that this design is made possible thanks to a vertically-stacked motherboard inside, which makes for some much-welcome thinness, a valuable design trait in foldable devices. The Mix Fold 3’s hinge consists of 198 components that according to Xiaomi takes up 17% less internal space. It can support 45 up to 135-degree angles, and is designed with a 3-element structure, alongside 14 micro-hinges that add durability to the inner display, as well as a carbon ceramic steel rotating mechanism.
Internal Hardware and Cameras
Unsurprisingly, Xiaomi has decided to stick one of the most powerful chipsets inside the Mix Fold 3 in the form of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset – it’s an SoC that we’ve seen on a ton of premium devices and foldables this year, thanks to its power efficiency and performance (additionally, using the latest high-end chipset only makes sense). The device also packs up to 16GB RAM and 1TB storage, a 4,800 mAh battery, and support for 67W and 50W wired and wireless charging speeds, respectively.
The device also comes with Android 13 pre-installed, as Android 14 has yet to be released at the time of writing. Of course, being a Xiaomi-branded device means that the Mix Fold 3 comes with MIUI, the company’s very own proprietary Android user interface. Users who are familiar with Xiaomi’s suite of exclusive apps and software services will feel right at home with this one.
For camera hardware, the device comes with a quad camera system developed with veteran camera brand Leica. It’s an impressive setup, which includes a 50MP Sony sensor, paired with a 12MP ultra-wide camera, as well as a 10MP telephoto and 10MP periscope lenses. Meanwhile, there’s a 20MP camera in front for selfies and video calls.
With a starting price of around $1240 for the base variant with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, the phone isn’t exactly on the “cheap” side, although you might have a bit of trouble getting your hands on the Mix Fold 3, as it’s only available for buyers in China at the moment.
