Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 review

Tiple camera on the back powered by Leica

The Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 features four cameras - three on its back and one on the cover screen. The rear triple-camera setup contains a 50MP wide-angle primary camera, a 13MP ultrawide-angle camera, and an 8MP 2x zoom camera. The one for selfies uses a 20MP sensor.

The main camera relies on a 50MP 1/1.56" Sony IMX766 sensor with a Quad-Bayer filter. The sensor has 1.0µm pixels, and after the 4-in-1 binning, you'd be getting a 12.5MP photo with 2.0µm equivalent performance. This sensor sits behind a stabilized 23mm f/1.8 lens; it supports PDAF; a high-res 50MP mode, Pro Mode, as well as (Auto) Night mode, are available for this camera.

The ultrawide camera uses a 13MP Omnivision OV13B10 1/3.06" sensor with 1.12µm pixels. It has a 15mm f/2.4 lens, there is autofocus available, and (Auto) Night Mode works, too.

The zoom camera packs an 8MP sensor with a 45mm f/2.6 lens, and it offers 2x optical magnification over the main camera. According to hardware scanning apps, the sensor is Sony IMX 663, which is a 12MP one - it's either an error in the reading or Xiaomi crops 8MP from this sensor. Auto Night Mode and PDAF are supported here, too.

The front (selfie) camera relies on a 20MP Sony IMX596 1/2.8" sensor of Quad Bayer design. It is coupled with a 23mm f/2.4 lens, and the focus is fixed.

Camera app

The camera app on the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 is pretty much the same as on the Xiaomi 12S Ultra. Whether you are using it on the small screen (the most convenient way) or the large screen (best for portraits and groups shots as you can show the viewfinder on the cover screen).

It is also more or less the same as on other Xiaomi's, but with a twist - the accent color here is red, presumably in honor of the Leica collaboration.

Another Leica-related touch is the processing 'mode' you need to choose the first time you launch the camera. The two options are Leica Vibrant and Leica Authentic, and once you're past the welcome screen, you can switch back and forth between them all you want. You do have to be in one or the other - there's no 'generic' non-Leica auto mode. There is an 'AI' toggle in addition to that, because of course there needs to be.

Aside from that, the app functions like on any other recent Xiaomi. Basic operation for changing modes works with sideswipes as expected, and you can also tap on the modes that you can see to switch to those directly. You can add, remove, and rearrange modes in the main rolodex by going to the More tab and navigating to the edit button, and you can access that from the settings menu as well.

At the far end of the viewfinder, you have a flash mode switch, an HDR switch, Leica mode, and the AI toggle. There's also the hamburger menu which contains additional options like aspect ratio, self-timer and grid lines, plus the shortcut to the settings. You won't find an option to set the output resolution for any of the cameras (not that we particularly care), besides the 50MP mode that outputs at full res.

On the near end, you have the camera zoom switch that operates in one of two fashions. The first one is simply tapping on one of the three dots that represent the ultra-wide, primary, and 2x zoom options. Or you can tap on the active magnification and reveal even more zoom modes - 2x, 5x, and 10x.

There's a nicely capable Pro mode, where you can tweak the shooting parameters yourself. You get to pick one of 4 white balance presets or dial in the light temperature with a slider, there's a manual focusing slider (with peaking as an option), and shutter speed and ISO control with ranges depending on which camera you're using - yes, you can access each of the three cams in Pro mode.

Camera UI

And here is the video part of the camera app.

Camera app UI - video

Daylight photo quality

We adopted the Leica Vibrant mode with the AI toggle off - this is the default state of the options and the way Xiaomi intended for most people to take their photos. Leica Vibrant and Leica Authentic are color rendition options, and they offer exactly what their names suggest - Vibrant is as advertised but with a measured approach and not in over-the-top, while Authentic offers true-to-life saturation.

Vibrant • Authentic • Vibrant • Authentic

So, the default photos we took with the main camera are excellent - they offer plenty of resolved detail, likable sharpness and a good overall look due to the often gentler (than the competition) processing. The colors are vibrant as promised, the contrast is high, while the dynamic range is good, but not extremely high.

There is no noise across the photos, and despite the 23mm lens, the extreme corners still look great.

The Xiaomi 12S Ultra offered more balanced processing and a more natural look, though, so if you've expected class-leading photos with the Fold's camera, you won't find it here. Not that these are bad, on the contrary, they are just up to par, but not the best we've seen like the Ultra's were.

Main camera, 12.5MP

There is a dedicated 50MP mode, but unfortunately, it provides simple upscales of the default 12.5MP output, and we can't think of anyone who'd need those.

Main camera, 50MP

Oddly, if you use a tripod, you will get that AI smart upscale we have hoped for, and the 50MP photos will turn our incredibly detailed, sharp and colorful.

Main camera with a tripod, 50MP

The 13MP ultrawide photos turned out very good - there is a lot of resolved detail and higher per-pixel sharpness than what we've experienced on many high-end smartphones. The noise has been cleaned proficiently, the contrast is high, the dynamic is nicely realistic, and the colors are vibrant, as promised by the color rendition.

The automatic corner correction works very well and does a great job at correcting the distortion at the price of small sharpness loss and noise introduction.

Ultrawide camera, 13MP

The ultrawide camera supports autofocus, but unlike many AF-capable others, this one cannot focus from that close. The minimum focus distance is about 20-30cm, so macro-like photos are highly unlikely. You'd be better off using the primary camera and crop for the purpose of closeups.

Ultrawide camera, 13MP

The telephoto camera saves impressive 8MP photos. There is an abundance of detail, the noise is impressively low, while the sharpening is gentler, leading to this more natural and balanced look, the best from all four cameras on this Fold.

The contrast is high, the dynamic range is more than enough yet not overboard, and the colors - punchy and lively, of course. If you don't like this slightly popping look, you should opt for Leica Authentic color rendition.

Telephoto camera, 8MP

Portrait mode on the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 has a default - generic, so to speak - state, plus a trio of 'Pro lenses' - Black and white 35mm, Swirly bokeh 50mm, and Soft focus 90mm.

The default mode shoots with the telephoto camera and saves great 8MP portraits - the rendition is really good, the separation is more than satisfying, and the blur looks quite nice. The colors are great, contrast, too. The resolved detail could have been a bit better, but even as is - the portraits are great for sharing with the world.

Portraits default 50mm, 8MP

The Swirly bokeh mode offers the same quality, but the bokeh looks different - it's, well, swirly, and it's best used with highlights in your background - you can notice the light swirls here and there.

Portraits swirly bokeh 50mm, 8MP

There is also this Soft focus mode, which applies 2x digital zoom over the tele camera. We didn't like the photos, but soft they are, indeed.

Portraits soft focus 90mm, 8MP

Finally, the Black and White mode uses the main camera and does a bit of crop-and-upscale in order to simulate the promised 35mm portrait mode. Because of the digital zoom, the subjects aren't as sharp as expected, but the monochrome portraits are spectacular and worthy if you are into this dramatic look.

Portraits B&W 35mm, 12.5MP

The 20MP selfie camera uses a Quad-Bayer filter, but in a typical Xiaomi fashion, the camera app saves their 20MP upscales instead of the default 5MP output.

The selfies are solid - the colors and contrast are superb, the noise is handled well, and the colors are excellent. They are surely not the sharpest around due to the upscale, but they look excellent on both the phone's screen and when shared and downscaled over at the social networks - and that's plenty enough.

Selfies, 20MP

You can do regular portrait selfies, and they are satisfying - the subjects are as sharp, or as not sharp, as on the regular selfies, the separation is good enough. The blur looks convincing.

Portrait selfies, 20MP

But if you really want some good selfies, then you can use the rear cameras as selfie one, thanks to the cover screen. Just open the Mix Fold 2 and tap on the arrow button to change the cameras.

As expected, the rear cameras offer outstanding selfie quality - the images are sharp and detailed, with excellent contrast and wonderful color rendition.

Primary camera • primary camera • ultrawide camera • ultrawide camera

Selfie portraits with the rear cameras are possible, too, and they are as good as the regular snaps with impressively accurate subject separation. Once again, we strongly recommend using the cameras on the back for selfie purposes.

Primary cam • Primary B&W • Telecamera swirly bokeh

Low-light photo quality

The Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 has auto Night mode processing in Photo mode, so it will apply whatever secret sauce it has as it sees fit. Usually, it uses 1s exposure for the main camera, none or 2s for the ultrawide camera, and we did not see it fire for the telephoto eye, but we will talk about that in a bit.

So, it used 1s exposure for almost all of our samples from the main camera and did not fire for the fifth one with the green bush. The photos are good - they are well exposed with this somewhat brighter than reality look, offer excellent dynamic range and good color saturation. The noise is low, while the overall detail that was left after the processing was done is satisfying even if not the best we've seen.

Main camera Auto NM

The forced Night Mode yields the same photos - you have no control over the exposure time, and usually, it's a match to the Auto Night Mode. The only difference was the first scene, where the ANM chose 1s exposure while the NM opted for 2s.

Main camera forced NM

If you are looking for a more realistic exposure and colors, you can turn the night mode off. This will result in gentler noise reduction, less HDR and more blown highlights, but the photos look more natural, not two ways about it.

Main camera NM off

The ultrawide camera behavior at night is similar to the primary one - the auto Night Mode usually chooses 2s exposure time. The photos are clean of noise, with good exposure. There is enough resolved detail for such type of camera, lens and conditions, contrast is great, the dynamic range is good, and so is the color rendition.

Ultrawide camera Auto NM

Forcing Night Mode on the ultrawide camera often leads to an extra 1s of exposure time and slightly brighter photos. Other than the exposure boost, their quality is the same as the ones from the Auto mode.

Ultrawide camera forced NM

You can turn the Night Mode off, but we would advise against that. The photos we took without Night Mode are rather noisy and underexposed, with low dynamic range, and desaturated colors.

Ultrawide camera no NM

The Auto Night Mode almost always uses digital zoom from the main came when shooting in 2x zoom mode. It does look great on the phone's screen, but zooming in 100% reveals low detail and an unpleasantly soft photo. The only exception was the last scene - it was shot with the tele camera and turned out pretty good, actually, with enough detail, great exposure, dynamic and colors.

2x zoom Auto NM

On the other hand, the forced Night Mode always uses the telephoto camera. And while the detail is rather average, everything else is superb - the photos are bright, the noise is low, the dynamic is excellent, and so are the colors.

Telephoto camera forced NM

When you turn off the Night Mode, the situation is the same as with the Auto Night Mode - it used the dedicated zoom camera only for that last scene; everything else is cropped and upscaled from the main camera and doesn't look that good in 100% zoom.

The only photo the app chose to shoot with tele camera (the last) is good with enough resolved detail, good colors and contrast, and likable exposure. The noise doesn't get in the way.

2x zoom NM off

And here are photos of our usual posters taken with the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2. You can see how it stacks up against the competition. Feel free to browse around and pit it against other phones from our extensive database.

Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 against the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 and the Huawei Mate Xs 2 in our Photo compare tool

Video recording

The main camera on the Mix Fold 2 supports 8K@24fps and up to 4K@60fps video capturing. The ultrawide camera supports 4K@30fps and up to 1080p@60fps. The zoom camera supports up to 4K@30fps and 1080p@30fps. Finally, the selfie camera supports 1080p@30fps.

There is an always-on electronic stabilization working across all shooting modes on all cameras.

The EIS works with the optical stabilization on the main camera, but the implementation is not great - there is visible focus hunting, and the video appears wobbly or jittery because of the EIS fighting with the OIS.

The audio in all of the videos is captured at 96Kbps, stereo, but despite the low bitrate (this is what the file reports), the sound seems deep and rich.

The 8K videos are shot at 24fps, offer 133Mbps video bitrate, and there is a six-minute limit for capturing. Those seem to be upscaled from the 4K footage - the detail is poor, the foliage - is smeared, and we can even notice various small artifacts from the upscaling. And while the colors and contrast are good, over the top even, we cannot think of any use for this upscaled video. Especially when 30sec of footage eats up 500MB of storage.

The 4K videos shot on the primary camera are good but far from the best we've seen. The resolved detail is mediocre, and the foliage is especially lacking. The noise is tolerable, the colors are great, and so is the contrast. The dynamic range is about average.

The aggressive and always-on electronic stabilization is partially to blame for the subpar video quality.

The ultrawide camera offers good 4K videos - the resolved detail is satisfactory for a UW camera, the noise is low, the dynamic range is outstanding, and the colors are good even if slightly desaturated.

The 4K videos from the tele camera are alright. They offer great contrast and superb colors, the dynamic range is adequate, the noise is low enough. The detail is okay, though we can clearly see it's lacking in the foliage.

The lowlight videos from the main camera offer good exposure and color saturation but are lacking in detail and overrun by noise.

The main camera also supports Night Mode video, which is shot at 1080p@30fps. It is clean of noise, with a brighter look and excellent color saturation.

Finally, here is the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 in our video tool so you can make your own comparisons.

2160p: Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 against the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 and the Huawei Mate Xs 2 in our Video compare tool