Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 review

09 January 2019
Once a prop for the communicating devices in sci-fi flicks, today the edge-to-edge screen has become a must-have feature for any flagship smartphone. It was Xiaomi who made the first steps in this direction back with their original Mi Mix phone a year before Apple came up with their notched iPhone X. The Mi Mix 3 proves once again that nothing is impossible and delivers a truly bezel-less screen with a twist (or rather, with a slide).

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GregLu, 10 Jan 2019I think this is a good idea yeah, specially considering whe... moreHi! Nothing is different in the battery tests themselves. Just that the test sequence is now automated so that it doesn't require human input and interaction as much as it did before. We also record much more data about the system variables data during the runs so if anything - the score is more accurate now thanks to the SmartViser involvement. They help manufacturers and operators automate phone testing.

    Aspros, 10 Jan 2019I really really rate bezelness and really really hate the i... moreYes it still has a chin visible in photos and invisible during use. You don't look below the lowest part of the display, so the chin is invisible in practical use and the rest is fairly bezelless without risking too thin bezels in this round. Maybe eventually they will make the Mix series have bezels around 2mm, like lenovo Z5 pro, but palm rejection is very important then.

    Apple's patent didn't disappear just into thin air, so the chin remains until Samsung, LG or other panel manufacturer finds a new way to connect the display.

      I really really rate bezelness and really really hate the iPhone notch.
      But as much as i like the mi mix 3 for being notch less, it is NOT bezeless, it has a chin!
      Also its it only has 85% screen to body ratio, which is worse than some 2018 flagship with teardrop notch, like the 1+ 6T
      We better keep the bezeless tag for +90% stb ratios.
      Because of that, imo, the compromises the mi mix 3 made, added weight, smaller battery capacity, integrity and water/dust vulnerability, thicker body, etc
      Are wasted. Slider idea is a failure!!
      On the top of that, availability and price ranges are extremely problematic, esp in Europe, the phone is still not available after months of waiting and by the time it will arrive the 855 batch will already be nearly there. I really doubt that the 500euro price tag mentioned in the article holds any water, as the 2S 128gb is still around there.
      Gsmarena is prolly referring to external Chinese options, that lack guarantee and use the chinese ad infected UI
      The 1.8 aperture is IMHO unacceptable for a flagship and bellow 75db ringing power is unacceptable on every phone
      A pleasant surprise is that despite the pitiful battery capacity it scored a great battery performance score, however considering how hard gsmarena is promoting mi mix 3, i think that Xiaomi may have sponsored this review...

        • ?
        • Anonymous
        • PGq
        • 10 Jan 2019

        Pros
        -Great 6.39" Super AMOLED screen
        -A unique slider, feels secure enough
        -Flagship performance
        -Good battery life given the 3,200 mAh capacity
        -All-round good camera experience
        -MIUI 10 and Android Pie out of the box
        -Rich retail box with fast wireless charger inside

        Cons
        -Lacks water-proofing
        -Very slippery
        -Single loudspeaker
        -EIS available only for 1080p capturing
        -No 3.5mm jack as STANDARD
        -No microsd slot as STANDARD
        -Ads on MIUI (Solution: Unlock bootloader, install TWRP, then install Xiaomi.EU ROM for fuss-free, faster performance, ad-free with all the bells & whistles specific to each device.)
        -No app drawer (Solution: Install Poco launcher from Play Store.)
        -No FM Radio
        -Somewhat OVERPRICED$$ for the lack of ESSENTIALS as mentioned above.

        Okay, done :)

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • PGq
          • 10 Jan 2019

          Anonymous, 09 Jan 2019128gb and 256gb of storage, why do you need an sd card? Because we DO NEED CHOICES for every smartphone to decide where to store, regardless of price. Also, not everyone has unlimited data to store their stuff to cloud, not to mention privacy issues etc.

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            • Frost
            • Svg
            • 10 Jan 2019

            It is vera sad, that all designers died, this is normal derivation of iPhone X, like all 2018 phones. Stupid removal of 3,5 mm jack, rounded corners of display (why??? - it is ugly!), slider mechanical weak body. Not interested again...

              Anonymous, 09 Jan 2019you're right. they are keeping out and out many useful feat... moreThe FM network here is shut down, with some local stations still running. DAB+ and internat radio has taken over for those who use radio.

              TV out has been wireless for so long now. DLNA, Miracast, Google cast and airplay to name a few possibilities. The days of 8, 16, 32 and even 64GB internal storage as a max is long gone. With phones having 128-512GB storage, the SD slot point is a bit pointless. Espescially with google automatically backing up photos and videos for free.

              You say you don't want big screen, powerful CPU/GPU etc, but rather minijack, SD slot, FM Radio etc. The look no further than the Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite.

                Anonymous, 10 Jan 2019If you watch some reviews on YouTube some have shown a wide... moreThey won't mention dancing screen part here tho

                  • c
                  • c?
                  • kZr
                  • 10 Jan 2019

                  riflo, 10 Jan 2019you will care when your android or IOS will stop supporting... moreThat seems unlikely bro, Xiaomi will probably upgrade this phone to new versions of Android for at least three years and upgrade it to new versions of MIUI for even longer. The original Mi Mix has Oreo and MIUI 10. Not to mention the fact that the installed userbase of Android usually lags largely 1-2 major versions behind (or more in some cases, a lotta phones are still running Marshmallow out there), so it's not really likely for developers to cut support for the old platforms. The version of Android they target is a cost benefit analysis of the additional difficulty of implementing workarounds for features they need. Relatively simple apps will support really old versions of Android, though I would say at this point it's probably fair to drop 4.x and even Lolipop

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                    • Professional
                    • S3u
                    • 10 Jan 2019

                    Din't expect the battery management so good!!!

                      • G
                      • George
                      • SeW
                      • 10 Jan 2019

                      Face unlock is enabled on mi mix 3 chinese version ,must be in eu version too

                        • r
                        • riflo
                        • 0we
                        • 10 Jan 2019

                        Anonymous, 09 Jan 2019you're right. they are keeping out and out many useful feat... moreyou will care when your android or IOS will stop supporting your version, and you will not be able to use useful software

                          Anonym, 09 Jan 2019Looks like the LG G6 of 2019, in the sense this is the year... moreThis is a 2018 device and there is a 5G SD855 version on it's way within Q1.

                            Anonym, 09 Jan 2019Looks like the LG G6 of 2019, in the sense this is the year... moreIt won't. The chip is powerful enough for 99% of the users and even two years, it will be powerful enough. Don't forget, this phone was I troduced some time back and was released prior introduction of the new chipset. They will use new one in the next generation.

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                              • lol
                              • txr
                              • 10 Jan 2019

                              Gandalfdenvite, 10 Jan 2019Mechanically moving parts are never good, they break and co... morepretty sure mechanical thing last enough compared to ageing battery and other component inside... -shame apple for bringing unremoveable battery trend.

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                                • Gandalfdenvite
                                • 38E
                                • 10 Jan 2019

                                Mechanically moving parts are never good, they break and collect dust...! A mechanical camera slider is really not good at all, and almost as bad as removing the 3.5 mm headphone jack! There should not be any need for any mechanically moving parts on a phone at all, not even volume buttons and power buttons (fingerprint scanner can be used to turn the phone on and used to turn the screen/phone off)!

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                                  • 123
                                  • 0BE
                                  • 10 Jan 2019

                                  Anonymous, 09 Jan 2019Camera does worse compared to Mi8. Samples are kinda blurr... morereal life samples from mi8 are worse. dont go for the review ones
                                  I believe mi mix 3 has better cam than mi8
                                  I need mi9, can't wait for it, when was the launch date ?

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                                    • 123
                                    • 0BE
                                    • 10 Jan 2019

                                    SpiritWolf, 09 Jan 2019Camera seems to be worse than one in Poco F1. Strange. Then... moreI dont believe pocophone has better cam though!

                                      Anonymous, 09 Jan 2019im gonna wait until Xiaomi launch a sd855 phone and the pri... moreI think this is a good idea yeah, specially considering when it is available on a SD845 (Which is pretty capable still, but new CPUs are coming).

                                      Also, question @GSMArena, now that you use ViSer, is there a difference about the old rating ? Because 84 hrs isn't that much I think tbh ...

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                                        • s-pen pusher
                                        • PMT
                                        • 10 Jan 2019

                                        just a suggestion to gsmarena- being that the razer phone and razer phone 2 are the ones with the best ever speakers on smartphones, shouldn't they be the reference for comparison in your speaker tests? i'm not saying it's me, but it is sort of.

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