When Xiaomi unveiled the Mi MIX last year, it was one of the most beautiful and intriguing device that we ever laid eyes upon. No one had done a bezel less display before and nobody has followed Xiaomi’s route before. It was a device that had a lot of firsts for its time and even today it looks like a device from the future. Yes, today, the crown has been lifted from Xiaomi by Apple with the iPhone X but crucially the Mi MIX was the genesis of it.

So it is only natural that Xiaomi should step up the game and prep the device for a 2017 flagship standard and that brings us to the MiMiX 2. This device will is debuted for launch in January of next year and to up the anteXiaomi will be spicing up the device with goodies for a 2018 flagship. So let’s get into the pre-launch specs overview of the device to see how it will stack up with the other flagships of 2018.

Design and Display:

The Mi MIX had one of the most unique bezel less designs in the market and it’s the same case with its successor. The top of the phone has no bezels at all and I really mean no bezels. It just looked like that you are holding a piece of screen in your hand. There is however a small bezel below the camera that held the camera and the sensors for the phone but it is blended into the overall design very well. Now this is a very unusual position for the placement of the front camera because it meant that taking selfies meant holding the phone in a very awkward manner. Although I personally wouldn’t mind slight bezels around the top and bottom, I just wish that Xiaomi did something about it in future releases because it made the experience a bit irksome.

Also the device is made entirely out of ceramic which also means that it is a fingerprint magnet and requires constant cleaning unless you use a cover.

A glaring omission here is that the Mi MIX 2 doesn’t have a 3.5mm headphone jack which is insane but Xiaomi does provide you with a lightning to 3.5mm converter in the box itself.

The Mi MiX 2 features a 5.9 inch display which is quite a lot smaller as compared to the original MiX’s 6.4’inch form factor. The reduction in display size is a welcome change because it makes the device more smartphone like rather than putting it into the phablet category and the device actually feels closer to a 5.5inch phone because of the non-existent bezels. And it also helped in reducing the significant heft that the original XiaomiMi MIX lugged around. The standard device weighed around 209gms, this is just 185gms which is still on the heavier side but noticeably lighter than before. On to the display, it has a 1080 x 2160 pixels resolution to boot, giving it a pile density of 409 which is tremendous.

Performance:

The Mi MiX 2 is powered by the Snapdragon 835 which at the time of writing is Snapdragon’s fastest mobile SoC for the mass market. The SD 835 is an 8 Core chip with 4 faster Kyro cores clocked at 2.45GHz and 4 slightly slower kyro cores clocked at a lower 1.9GHz. The device ships with 6GB of RAM which is to be expected of a flagship device from the company. The graphics are handled by the included Adreno 540 which too is a very fast mobile GPU. There’s no doubt that the Mi MIX 2 is a fast device by any measure.

Software:

The Mi MiX 2 runs off Android 7.1.1 Nougat with their added MiUi version 9. This being a flagship, I would naturally assume the device to get the Oreo Update since it is touted for launch early next year. The MiUi 9 is an easy to use interface with no app drawer and modified settings panel. The device also shows no signs of lags whatsoever, but my biggest issue is exclusivity. This is a flagship device, but the software feels pretty basic. Yes, there are themes and stuff to choose from but nothing is really outstanding.

Camera and Storage:

The Mi MIX gets a 12MP rear with a Sony EXMOR-RS CMOS sensor and an f2.0 aperture. The pictures come out really nice with good details and colour accuracy in well-lit areas. The ring around the camera is made out of 18k gold which is a nice touch but I would’ve preferred some sort of laser focus instead. Pictures taken in the dark too has a considerable level of detail and although noise is present, the images aren’t unusable. Also, the device comes with Optical Image Stabilisation which results in really blur free pictures. The front of the device has a 5MP camera for selfies and video calls but the caveat here is that it is situated below the device which is a challenging position.

Storage wise, the device will be available in a range of options, starting with 64GB in the basic model and will go all the way up to 256GB for the higher end models. The device however hasn’t got expandable storage.

Battery and connectivity:

The Mi MIX gets a slightly downgraded 3400 Li-Ion battery as compared to the 4400mAh unit in its predecessor. However, it retains the Qualcomm quick charge feature that helps the device charge up very fast.

Connectivity wise, the phone gets a total of 42 Bands globally and will also work in India when it launches. Other than that, it has support for 4G LTE, 3G, 2G, Wifi 802.11 a/ac/b/g/n 5GHz with MIMO. Also it has Bluetooth 5.0 and USB Type-C and GPS with A-GPS and GLONASS to top it off.

Verdict:

The Mi MIX 2 is a beautiful device and has one of the finest bezel less display’s currently in the market. The design is simply gorgeous and it will definitely turn heads when carrying around. Think of this then as a cut price iPhone X. Yes the iPhone X is quite a lot more advanced but it also costs a whopping $1299 globally which is absurd.

Author Bio:

Simon Hopes is a renowned author and social media enthusiast. This though doesn’t as the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 price in India will be Rs.32990 or thereabouts when it launches early next year. The MiX 2 has a pretty special customer base. If looks are your thing, then this is your device in a budget.