Thursday, November 14, 2024

Just look at this huge flip phone screen

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Xiaomi has announced two new folding phones for the Chinese market. The upgraded Mix Fold 4, which introduces water resistance for the first time, and the Mix Flip, the company’s first flip phone foldable featuring a 4.01-inch cover screen surrounded by a nearly non-existent bezel.

The Xiaomi Mix Flip features a 4.01-inch external display and can be used to make calls without being opened.
Image: Xiaomi

Xiaomi claims the new Mix Flip has the largest external display on a flip-style folding smartphone. At 4.01 inches in size, it’s just slightly larger than the four-inch screen on the Motorola Razr Plus 2024 but much bigger than the 3.4-inch external screen on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6.

The bezels around the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6’s 3.4 inch cover screen look massive compared to the bezels around the Xiaomi Mix Flip’s 4.01 inch front display.
Image: Xiaomi and Image: Samsung

The Mix Flip’s 120Hz cover screen includes its own earpiece and microphone, allowing the phone to be used to make calls without having to open it. However, despite being large, a sizable part of the Mix Flip’s external screen is taken up by a pair of Leica-branded cameras. A 50-megapixel main camera with optical image stabilization and a 50MP telephoto camera with two times optical zoom. Opening the Mix Flip reveals a 6.86-inch folding screen with the same refresh rate.

Powering the Mix Flip is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, which can be paired with up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. A 4,780mAh battery supports 67W fast charging with a USB-C cable, but Xiaomi hasn’t said if wireless charging is included.

You’ll still want to be careful to keep dust and debris out of the Mix Fold 4’s hinge.
Image: Xiaomi

The Mix Fold 4 features similar internals with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and up to 16GB of RAM with 1TB of storage. Like the Google Pixel Fold and earlier iterations of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold, the new Mix Fold 4 finally gets an IPX8 rating, which means that it’s protected against full water immersion, but there’s still no dust resistance.

A slightly larger 5,100mAh battery in the Mix Fold 4 can be charged wirelessly at 50W or take advantage of 67W fast charging with a USB-C cable. The foldable also carries over the same hinge durability as last year’s model, promising a lifespan of up to 500,000 folds based on laboratory testing.

When closed, the Mix Fold 4 measures 9.47mm thick and 4.59mm when opened. That’s thinner than both the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and the Pixel Fold. Thanks to a redesigned hinge that’s now 34 percent narrower and 16 percent lighter, the 226-gram Mix Fold 4 is also now 29 grams lighter than last year’s Mix Fold 3.

Further adding to weight savings is a smaller internal 120Hz display. It now measures 7.98 inches but offers a bump in resolution to 2488 x 2224 pixels, while the external 1080P cover display stays the same size at 6.56 inches.

The Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 features four Leica-branded cameras on the back. It carries forward the 50-megapixel main camera and 12-megapixel ultrawide camera from the previous model but now offers an improved 50-megapixel telephoto camera with two times optical zoom for portrait photography and a 10-megapixel periscope camera with five times optical zoom.

The Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 starts at ¥8,999 (around $1,237) for the base model featuring 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, or ¥10,999 (around $1,512) with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, in black, white, or blue. The Mix Flip, in white, purple, or black, starts at ¥5,999 (around $825) with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, the price jumps to ¥7,299 (around $1,004).

As with Xiaomi’s previous folding phones, there’s no word on whether or not these two new models will see a global release outside of China.

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