Xiaomi Mix Flip and Mix Fold 4 hands-on review

Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 hands-on review

Unlike the Flip, the Mix Fold is already in its fourth generation, which means it's a rather mature product. Xiaomi has further reduced the thickness and weight here and we are finally reaching a point where foldables are not that different size-wise from a regular "slab-style" phone. The Mix Fold 4 measures just 9.47mm when folded and tips the scale at 226 grams.

All the while, it houses a 5,100 mAh battery. It really feels like using a regular phone when folded, and the slightly curved edges of the cover display also help.

Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 in the hand

When unfolded, the Mix Fold 4 measures just 4.59mm in thickness. That's razor-thin. We find the power button/fingerprint reader particularly thin and kind of uncomfortable to use. The hinge on the Fold 4 feels super solid, though, much more so than that on the Flip. It offers a smooth linear motion, allowing the phone to stay open at any angle. There is a satisfying and reassuring snap when you close it fully.

Hinge

Xiaomi is calling the hinge a "proprietary hinge 2.0". It is made with 1800MPa high-strength steel and T800H high-strength carbon fiber.

Just like on the Flip, there is practically no gap between the two halves of the phone when the phone is closed.

No gap

The back of the Mix Fold 4 is made of glass, and just like the Flip, it feels very smooth and soft, almost velvety to the touch and doesn't attract too many fingerprints. Unfortunately, it's the same finish that's quite easy to scratch, and is super slippery to booth. On a more positive note, the Mix Fold 4 has IPX8 ingress protection - a first for a Xiaomi foldable.

You can get the Mix Fold 4 in Black, White, Blue or Xiaomi Composite fiber edition. Xiaomi says that its new composite fiber 2.0 has 42% more tensile strength, 25% improved rigidity and 15% improved impact resistance.

Colors

While the body of the phone is fairly thin, it has a really huge camera hump to accomodate what may well be the most capable camera setup on a foldable (pending confirmation in a full review). It sticks out quite a bit, making the phone unstable on a flat surface and noticeably top-heavy. The glass around the camera hump is patterned, and you can feel it with your finger.

The outside display of the Mix Fold 4 is a nice and spacious 6.56-inch unit, while the inner display measure 7.98 inches. Xiaomi made these two panels remarkably similar in terms of performance. Both offer a pixel density of around 418 ppi and a dynamic refresh rate between 1Hz and 120Hz. Both can also do 1,700 nits of whole display brightness and up to 3,000 nits of peak brightness and have DC dimming. This makes content appear very similar regardless of which display you choose. The internal display also has UTG protection.

Unfortunately, the situation with the crease isn't great. It is both visible and noticeable with a finger. It's even worse than, the crease on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6.

The Mix Fold 4 has a powerful set of cameras at its disposal. As we mentioned, the camera island sticks out quite a bit on the phone's rear.

Camera island

The rear camera island houses a total of four cameras. There is a 50MP main camera, a regular 50MP telephoto, and a 10MP dedicated 5x periscope-style shooter. The regular 2x telephoto has a floating-style lens and can also be used for macro shots. On top of that, there is also a 12MP ultrawide cam.

Leica is using a next-generation Leica Summilux lens for the main camera. It employs a 1G + 6P lens structure with professional-grade optical materials for high transmittance and next-level high-stability coating. This is a high-order polynomial lens.

Camera samples

We had the chance to capture a few camera samples with the Mix Fold 4. We will start with the main camera first.

Xiaomi Mix Fold 4: main camera samples

Again, we will reserve any comments on quality for the full review. Here are some samples from the short telephoto cameras - first at its native 2x and then at 4x.

Xiaomi Mix Fold 4: telephoto camera 2x zoom samples

Xiaomi Mix Fold 4: telephoto camera 4x zoom samples

Then we have the dedicated periscope camera, which offers 5x optical zoom. Here are the samples from it.

Xiaomi Mix Fold 4: periscope telephoto camera 5x zoom samples

And finally, here are some samples from the ultrawide camera.

Xiaomi Mix Fold 4: ultrawide camera samples