Yet another year, Chinese mobile vendor Xiaomi has further build on its concept Mi MIX series. Today the company has unveiled the third-generation smartphone in this series, the Mi MIX 2Ss. You still get the gorgeous full-screen display up in the front part, leaving a too small bezel on the sides. Under the hood, hardware has been upgrading to the snappiest Snapdragon 845 SoC. There is a dual camera setup at the back, that’s backed by its AI.
First, to the pricing, Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S is currently only available in its home country China. The mobile will retail at a price tag of RMB 3,299 or approximately Rs 34,200, that’s for the 6GB of RAM and 64GB storage variant. The mid-variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage will retail for RMB 3,599 (approximately Rs 37,500). Finally, the top-most powerful model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage is priced at RMB 3,999 or approximately Rs 42,000.
The original Mi MIX never made it to India, but the second generation Mi MIX 2 was launched in India at a hefty price tag of Rs 35,999. We could expect the newest Mi MIX 2S will soon head to the Indian shores.
Design and Performance
Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S almost have the same design aspect of its last year’s original Mi MIX 2. On the front, you have the gorgeous 5.99-inch 18:9 full-screen full HD+ 2160 by 1080 display with an 18:9 aspect ratio and near bezel-less design. The bottom of the screen has a narrow bezel housing the front-camera and other sensors. The mobile uses an ultra slim aluminium frame and has four-side curved ceramic unibody construction. At the back, there is considerable change with the new vertically aligned dual-camera setup.
Under the hood, the Mi MIX 2S is powered by industries fastest and powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor coupled with Adreno 630 GPU. It’s paired with a combination of either 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, or whopping 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
The Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S runs a heavily customized MIUI 9 OS based on Android Oreo. It also comes with Google ARCore support, allowing you try out many recently released Augmented Reality experiments.
Dual Camera with AI
For Mi MIX 2S, the major upgrade has happened in the camera department. The mobile now boasts a dual camera setup at the back. This includes a combination of 12-megapixel wide-angle RGB lens and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens. The primary lens comes with 4-axis OIS or Optical Image Stabilisation support. While the dual cameras have dual PDAF support for instant focus locking. It also features Sony IMX363 sensor and f/1.8 aperture.
In addition to the hardware enhancements, the Mi MIX 2S also features Artifical Intelligence powered scene detection. It’s AI can detect 206 scenes across 25 categories. In addition, the AI-powered camera features dynamic bokeh effects, 6 customizable parameters and portraits shoots. With all these hardware and software capabilities, the camera of Mi MIX 2S has an impressive DxOMark score of 101 and an overall score of 97, standing close to Google Pixel 2 camera.
For selfies, the Mi MIX 2S comes with a moderate 5-megapixel front camera which packs Beautify mode.
Connectivity and extras
As for connectivity, the Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S covers global 4G LTE network, which also got support for Indian telco’s 4G band. It also has 4G VoLTE support for making HD voice and video calling. Other connectivity option includes 3G and 2G network support, 2.2 dual Wi-Fi technology, and Bluetooth 5.0.
For extra security, the Mi MIX 2S carries a fingerprint scanner placed at the back of the device. Finally, fuelling the device is a 3,400mAh battery which has support for Quick Charge 3.0. It also supports wireless charging by adopting the Qi wireless charging technology.