The Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 officially launches - is this the Galaxy Z Fold 4 killer?

August truly is the month of foldables. In the span of 3 days, we have seen no fewer than 3 prominent foldable smartphones being revealed - the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4, and the Moto Razr 2022.

And while the Flip 4 and Razr 2022 are busy waging battle on one another, a silent contender has come out of the blue to challenge the OG foldable itself (i.e. the Z Fold) - the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2.

Display and design

Mix Fold 2 is truly a marvelous piece of technology. It takes the foldable form factor to the next level, measuring just 5.4 mm unfolded and 11.2 mm folded. For reference, this makes it nearly 30% thinner than the Galaxy Z Fold 4. The hinge mechanism has also been refined and the crease is barely detectable.

The main display of the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 is a stunning 8” OLED panel, with 1914x2160 resolution, and a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. The cover screen is no slouch either - it comes in at 6.56” and has a much more natural aspect ratio (21:9) than the one of the outer screen of the Galaxy Z Fold 4.

The Mix Fold weighs 262g, which is in line with most foldables with similar dimensions. The sleek smartphone comes in two tints - gold and black.

Technical specifications

The Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 is powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, currently, Qualcomm’s most powerful SoC. Given the latter’s improvements in power efficiency and the 4,500mAh battery of the device, the Mx Fold 2 should be able to last you a full day of usage.

Still, charging the Mix Fold 2 is a breeze, as the smartphone supports wired fast charging at up to 67W. The foldable features 12GB of RAM, and comes with up to 1TB of internal storage, with the base configuration having a quarter of that - 256GB.

The camera module is one of the main focal points (you see what I did there) of the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2. The primary shooter has the Sony IMX766 main sensor at its heart and optical image stabilization on top of Leica optics. If that were not enough, you also get a 13MP ultra-wide camera and a 8 telephoto one. For vanity’s sake, you also get a 20MP selfie camera.

The smartphone runs the latest version of Xiaomi’s custom UI (i.e. MIUI Fold 13) on top of the latest version of Android - Android 12 - out of the box.

Pricing and availability

The Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 starts at CNY 8,999 (the equivalent of roughly $1340). Even the specced-out model costs about $20 less than the base one of the Galaxy Z Fold 4. The pre-orders for the Mix Fold 2 have already started in China and the device will officially go on sale there on August 16th. There is currently no word on availability outside China.