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Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s Hands-on review

by on24 April 2018

Index


SD 845 meets great cameras

Not that long ago, China-based phonemanufacturers were considered being copycats of the well-established phone companies, mainly from California. A lot of things have changed over the last few years. 

In November 2016, Xiaomi introduced the first Mi Mix device which was a concept phone showcasing what a China-based phone company can achieve. It was an instant success as this is exactly what the market was craving for. After that, Xiaomi established itself as one of the leaders in mobile phone design and innovation. 

Fudzilla realized that Xiaomi has a different mindset and that is the company understands the market needs, even a few years before the breath-taking Mi Mix. The company that is rumored to IPO between $70 to $100 billion has to be doing something right. 

After the initial success with a bezel-less device, Xiaomi decided to continue and offered the phone to the masses.  Xiaomi Mi Mix2 amazed the world one more time with updated hardware and the Snapdragon 835. This time we are going to tell you if its successor, the Mi Mix2s will be continuing the trend. 

{gallery}MiMix 2S Launch Shanghai 27 March 2018{/gallery}

Fudzilla was present at the unveiling event that took place in Shanghai a few weeks ago. Although the device's exterior looks almost identical from the front, on the back, we can see a dual camera setup. This is a big difference from its predecessor. Inside of the smartphone beats the heart of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845. There are three versions of the phone - one with 6GB RAM and 64GB of storage, second 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, both Chinese market versions, and the third phone featuring 8GB RAM and 256BG storage with global LTE bands support. We played with the last one on the list. 

Specs

Operating System

MIUI 9.5 based on Android 8.0 Oreo

Display

5.99-inch 18:9 IPS LCD 2160 x 1080 
Gorilla Glass 4 
403ppi pixel density

Chipset

Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 
Four Kryo 385 cores up to 2.80GHz 
Four Kryo 385 cores at 1.70GHz 
10nm

GPU

Adreno 630

RAM

6GB/8GB LPDDR4X

Storage

64GB/128GB/256GB UFS 2.1

Expandable

No

Battery

3400mAh

Charging

USB-C 
Quick Charge 3.0 (9V/2A) 
Wireless charging

Water resistance

No

Rear Camera

12MP f/1.8 1.4-micron pixels + 12MP f/2.4 telephoto lens 
Sony IMX 363 + Samsung S5K3M3 
PDAF, 4K@30fps, 720p@120fps>

Front Camera

5MP

Connectivity

Wi-Fi 802.11 ac MU MIMO, 2x2 MIMO 
NFC, LTE with VoLTE, Bluetooth 5.0 
GPS/AGPS/GLONASS/BeiDou

Security

One-touch fingerprint sensor (back)

SIM

Dual Nano SIM

Network

LTE: Band 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/18 
19/20/25/26/27/28/29/30/34/38/39/40/41

Dimensions

150.9 x 74.9 x 8.1mm

Weight

191g

Colors

Black, White

IMG 20180327 160318
MiMix2S front white

The Mi Mix2s is a beautifully designed phone dominated by the gorgeous IPS LCD 5.99-inch screen and thin bezels. On the top, there is a tiny bezel with thin speaker aperture for handling the calls and beneath it the ultrasonic sensor which acts as a proximity sensor. On the bottom right corner, there is a front 5MP camera. You can still take selfies as the camera will rotate when you rotate the phone. The phone sides are made from grade 7000 aluminum and the back from ceramics material which looks classy and has enough grip.

The dual camera is slightly raised and has a nice silver accent in a white version and 18k gold in the black version. At the bottom, there is a USB-C port for charging and audio output (cable converter to 3.5 mm audio jack is included) and loudspeaker. The phone comes preinstalled with the latest MIUI 9.5 android customization based on Oreo 8.0.

 


 

Display 

A gorgeous 5.99” LCD IPS display with 1080 x 2160p resolution in 18:9 ratio dominates the front of the device. The colors are vibrant, and it can be easily mistaken for an AMOLED screen. The screen calibration is very accurate, and it’s a pleasure to use. 

Even in bright environments, the screen is very readable. You can further tweak the color balance and saturation in the settings as well as night reading mode aka, blue light filter. 

Camera 

The camera is one of the updates that come with the new Mi Mix 2S. Actually, there are two of them at the back and one 5MPat the front. Rear cameras are 12MP f/1.8 1.4-micron pixels + 12MP f/2.4 telephoto lens and are equipped with Sony IMX 363 sensor. The biggest news is the new AI mode which detects the right setting for the scene that you are trying to capture and it will optimize the camera parameters.  

The Bund - twilight
The Bund - twilight

We must admit the AI on the camera works pretty well. The Dual Pixel technology ensures that the camera can adjust autofocus very fast in all environments. The color balance is impressive and the phone captures great white balanced photos.

The Mi Mix 2S - thanks to the Snapdragon 845 chip noise reduction algorithms and the combination of two lenses and 1.4-micron pixels - manages to produce some outstanding results even in low light. It had a DxO Mark score of 101 which is one of the best in the photography department. 

Please check the Image gallery below to view the slideshow and full-res shots. 

{gallery}stories/2018/April/MiMix2S_Review{/gallery} 

 


 

Performance 

Mi Mix2S at this moment is one of the fastest phones that were tested on Antutu where it scored a remarkable score of over 266.584. This is a great score and it definitely outsuns the Exynos 8895 based Galaxy S8, Snapdragon 821 and last years Snapdragon 835 based OnePlus 5T.  In the charts below, you can see how the Mi Mix 2S compares with the other phones. 

Antutu


Geek1

We saw a similar situation in the Geekbench single thread score. the Snapdragon 845 dominates the competition. In this particular test, the phone is 26 percent fastest from the fastest SoC in last year, the Snapdragon 835. It is even faster from Older Qualcomm SoC's and Exynos 8895. 

Geek2

Again a great leap with the Xiaomi Mi 2S. this is the fastest Geekbench multi score we ever saw on the Android based phone. The new SoC is really doing a good job. 

PCmark2

Xiaomi Mi 2S is again the fastest SoC. if you compare the score with two years old Google Pixel phone you can see that the new SoC scores almost 40 percent better. This is what the people who are upgrading after two years should expect from the new phone. Xiami Mi 2S is much faster and it has the camera that gets close to the performance of the PIxel 2 device. 

During intensive use, the phone almost never gets hot not even warm, thanks to its ceramic shell which dissipates heat. 

Battery 

The Mi Mix 2S has 3400 mAh battery which might suggest that it’s not that much considering the size of the screen and the powerful internals, but Xiaomi managed to get a very respectable battery life out of this unit. With moderate use, the device can last 1.5 to 2 days on a single charge and in heavy usage scenarios it can last the full day which seems is a rarity these days with phones with big screens and powerful specs. 

In our recent trip to Shanghai we managed to shoot more than 200 still photos and few dozens of video files with usual browsing, checking social sites and syncing several email accounts, and it got us through the day. For comparison, my daily driver, a Google Pixel phone, would die in the middle of the day after all this use.

 


 

Conclusion 

The Mi Mix 2S, as we said, is an upgrade from last year's Mi Mix 2 phone. On the surface, the differences might look subtle, but in reality, the upgrade is noticeable and welcomed. 

You get a beautiful device with a gorgeous 5.99” screen, powerful and more than capable camera, great battery performance and a better price that is in some cases almost 50 percent cheaper than its direct competitors. With just small software tweaks, this phone will outshine its competitors in almost every aspect while the return of investment is greater than any other competitor. 

The Xiaomi MI MIX 2S 4G Phablet Global Version in white can be preordered at Gearbest for €558 and it is expected that it ships between May 12 and May 25.

We give it a thumbs up and fully recommended purchase. 

MiMix2S front black version

 

Last modified on 09 May 2018
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