With a 95 percent screen to body ratio the Mi Mix 2 will be closest thing we have to a bezel-less display when it is unveiled on Monday. Read the latest rumours on the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 UK price, features, specifications and UK release date…
The Mi Mix, announced in late 2016, has kickstarted a new trend of virtually full-screen displays in smartphones, most notably with the LG G6 and Samsung Galaxy flagships, but also with countless other phones coming out of China this year. None of which are truly bezel-less, but with a 95 percent screen-to-body ratio the upcoming Mi Mix 2 is closer than ever.
Xiaomi’s updated Mi Mix has been confirmed for a launch event on 11 September alongside the Mi Note 3, which could mean it’s about the steal the iPhone 8 ‘s limelight (Apple’s new smartphone will be unveiled the following day) .
Though the Mi Mix 2 will be announced on Monday 11 September, it is unlikely to ship until later in the month.
This announcement comes earlier than we had expected, given that the original Mi Mix was announced in November 2016 and a white option followed in January 2017.
We know that Xiaomi is holding a special event on Monday 11 September at 2pm UTC+08, which is 7am in the UK.
The event is scheduled to go on for three hours, and we don’t expect there to be a live stream.
You’ll instead be able to follow live updates from the product launch on Facebook and Twitter. But we’ve always found the MIUI Forums a much better source of information.
We will also be updating this page with full details of the new phone on Monday morning.
It’s worth pointing out that the Mi Mix 2 will not be officially available in the UK, though you will be able to import it from GearBest which is already listing its product page for the upcoming phone.
When going down this route you will need to accept that your consumer rights are different in China to they are in the UK, and that you will be liable to pay import duty which is calculated at 20 percent of the value on the shipping paperwork plus an admin fee of around £11.
The entry-level Mi Mix had an RRP of 3,499 RMB, which converts to approximately £410. However, you’ll pay more than this from Chinese importers, and as a guide that same model with 4GB of RAM and 128GB storage is today priced at £645.89 at GearBest, albeit out of stock.
We’d expect pricing to stay around the same level for the Mi Mix 2, so from around 3499 RMB in China, and £600-plus in the UK.
Right now there’s a price tag of £1525.82 on the GearBest product listing, but we are taking that with an enormous pinch of salt.
French designer Philip Starck is once again onboard for the Mi Mix 2, and at the top of this page you can see his concept video for the Mi Mix 2 that was released in mid-August. It reveals an ultra-slim smartphone with a 95 percent screen-to-body ratio, an edge-less display and rounded corners.
This is Bezel-less 2.0, according to the MIUI Forums, which also suggests there is a new face-recognition feature. We’re not sure exactly how this might work though, given that the front camera still appears to be located bottom right (one of our few complaints in our review of the original, since it required you to turn the phone upside down to take a selfie) .
We’d previously heard that in partnership with Starck, Xiaomi’s Lei Jun hoped to produce the first Chinese phone with no physical buttons, and from the video we are not able to see any. We will have to wait until Monday to find out whether this is actually the case – surely there must be at least a power button.
Hardware is almost certainly going to be the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor with Adreno 540 and 6GB of RAM, and we’d anticipate 128-, 256- and potentially even 512GB storage options. Of course the Mi Mix 2 will also run MIUI 9.0, and we think feature a full-HD display and 4,500mAh battery.
A device said to be the Mi Mix 2 has popped up on Geekbench, reportedly running the Snapdragon 835 and 6GB of RAM, and scoring 1929 points single-core and 6431 points multi-core. By comparison, the original Mi Mix in our tests recorded 1828 points single-core and 4301 points multi-core, so that’s quite a boost in performance.
GearBest is giving away few details on its product pages, but suggests that as previously it will feature a 6.4in display and will be neither waterproof or support wireless charging. Cameras will likely be 19Mp at the rear and 13Mp at the front – so no dual-camera for this flagship phone. It will also come in black or white, in common with its predecessor.
In common with all Xiaomi phones, unless a Global version is announced the Mi Mix 2 will not support the 800MHz LTE frequency (Band 20) , which in the UK is the only LTE band used by O2, GiffGaff and Sky Mobile. Users on networks that support 2100MHz or 2600MHz LTE (Bands 3 and 7) will still be able to receive LTE connectivity.
The Mi Mix is a previously concept phone that is now in production. It has shaken up the smartphone market with its so-called ‘bezel-less’ 6.4in 17: 9 display, though it is in fact bezel-less on only three of the four screen edges. This results in a screen-to-body ratio of 91.3 percent, making the Mi Mix roughly the same size as any other 5.7- to 6in phablet.
Usually above the screen you would find a selfie camera and various sensors, though Xiaomi has found an intelligent workaround. The Mi Mix uses an ultrasonic distance sensor that sits behind the display rather than a standard proximity sensor, while the smaller-than-usual camera sensor is found at the bottom right of the phone, and instead of an earpiece there is ‘cantilever piezoelectric ceramic acoustic technology’ to transmit sound. Also see: Best phablets 2017
The Mi Mix’s huge display is built into a ceramic body designed by Philippe Starck. Starck is a French designer who first became known back in the 1980s for his interior, product, industrial and architectural designs. He quickly caught the attention of Pierre Cardin and it was while working for him that he set up his own design company, formerly Starck Product and then Ubik.
