We check out Xiaomi’s all-screen flagship!

Xiaomi’s Mi MIX series of phones have always been building towards a single goal: a powerful flagship device that’s virtually all screen. And with the Mi MIX 3, the company is closer to that goal than ever before. With an almost 94% screen to body ratio, virtually no bezels, and no notch, the Mi MIX 3 is the culmination of Xiaomi’s bezel-less efforts.

What is it?

The Mi MIX 3 is the latest flagship device from Xiaomi. The phone builds on the Mi Mix line by offering an almost bezel and notch-less front and the return of a mechanical sliding system for the front cameras.

That sliding mechanism looks sleek.

It is. Anyone who has been around for a while will probably have flashbacks to Nokia devices of yore (N95 anyone?). Mechanical pop-out modules are increasingly becoming the popular way for companies to get an all-screen front without the unsightly notch, though Xiaomi’s solution is a manual one that uses magnets, and is rated for around 300,000 cycles of being opened and closed.

Sliding the phone up and down takes deliberate effort, so it’s not going to pop open unless you really want it to.

Okay, how does the rest of the phone feel?

Fantastic. Just like Xiaomi’s other devices, the Mi MIX 3 uses a mix of metal and glass in its construction.

The display is a 6.39-inch AMOLED panel with 2,340 x 1,080 resolution and a 19.5:9 screen ratio. It looks great, and since the panel is an AMOLED one, blacks are deep and images look vibrant.

The fingerprint scanner is on the rear, with the power and volume rocker on the right side. On the left side is a button dedicated to Xiaomi’s Xiao AI tech, which works a little bit like Bixby and Google’s Assistant. Sadly it’s only for China so we’re not sure yet what Xiaomi will put there as a replacement.

Unfortunately, Xiaomi had to nix the 3.5mm jack, so you’re left with a USB Type-C adapter if you want to use your wired headsets. The phone also has no kind of IP protection whatsoever, so keep the phone away from wet things as much as possible.

Both rear cameras are 12-megapixels with the main shooter possessing an IMX363 sensor, f/1.8 aperture lens along with four axis OIS. The secondary zoom sensor has a Samsung S5K3M3+ 2x f/2.4 aperture lens. The cameras can shoot 4K as well as slow-mo at 960FPS, and have AI scene recognition as well.

The selfie cameras are quite formidable too: 24-megapixel Sony IMX576 with 1.8-micron pixels and f/2.2 aperture lens and a secondary 2-megapixel camera. The camera app launches when you open the slide, defaulting to the selfie mode.

Xiaomi is proud of the Mi MIX 3’S DXoMark scores, which put it ahead of Huawei’s P20. We’ll have to see ourselves if the phone really does trump the P20’s cameras.

Powering the phone is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor, with RAM and storage options starting at 6GB and 128GB. Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon chipset has been in the heart of many of Xiaomi’s flagship offerings, and it has proven to be an extremely potent powerplant without using too much juice.

Speaking of juice, the Mi MIX 3 only has a 3200mAh battery, mostly due to space constraints because of the sliding mechanism, though fast charging via QuickCharge 4+ and wireless charging capabilities make up for it.

Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 Specs

• Snapdragon 845 octa-core processor
• Adreno 630 GPU
• 6GB/8GB/10GB RAM
• 6.39-inch 19.5:9 AMOLED display
• 12-megapixel IMX363 f/1.8, 12MP S5K3M3 f/2.4 AI-powered dual rear cameras
• 24-megapixel Sony IMX576 front camera with 2MP AI-powered dual front cameras
• 128GB/256GB of storage
• Dual SIM
• 5G LTE
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS
• Fingerprint scanner, USB Type-C connector, fast charging, wireless charging
• 3200mAh battery
• Android 8.1 Oreo with MIUI 9