Slowly, but steadily, any and all major smartphone manufacturers that have access to huge resources are throwing their hats in the “foldable phone” ring.
And, of course, Xiaomi being the juggernaut that it is — it is also fighting tooth and claw to introduce a foldable phone that will get us to switch to one. The original Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold was a China-exclusive device — no doubt testing the waters with a limited edition “proof of concept” (like the first Samsung Galaxy Fold).
However, we are now hearing more and more juicy details about the new Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 and it would be kind of odd if Xiaomi doesn’t try to push the model into international markets. Also, reminder: Xiaomi decided to drop the “Mi” branding”. We are unsure if it will choose to ditch “Mix” as this usually denotes their high-tier experimental phones.
OK, first things first — the new rumor:
Posted by a Chinese leakster that has a steady track record, the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 is said to have an 8-inch display on the inside. It will be an LTPO panel and, while it is not explicitly stated that it will have a 120 Hz refresh rate, we fully expect it to.
See, LTPO is the tech that Samsung and Apple and Google use in their top-tier phones — it allows for the refresh rate to change dynamically, moment to moment. That’s why we get 120 Hz animations when we need them, yet the battery does not drain like crazy when we are looking at stills or 60 Hz clips.
The rumored 8-inch diagonal is bigger than the Galaxy Z Fold 3’s 7.6-inch screen. It also depends on what aspect ratio it would have — we found the Oppo Find N’s more square-ish look to lend itself quite good to the book-foldable form factor.
On to the next leak, and we kind of expected that already — the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 should be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 gen 1, a.k.a. The top-tier Snapdragon processor that all big players will have in early 2022.
So, will the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 launch internationally? It had better!
Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 might bridge the gap between foldable phone and iPad
With an 8-inch screen, the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 is already supposedly going to have a mini-tablet appearance and plenty of real estate to work with. It would certainly be cool if you could use it with a stylus, right?Well, a patent that was revealed earlier this month shows us that Xiaomi has been toying with the idea quite a bit — in fact, we might get a Xiaomi-branded pen that sticks to the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 magnetically and charges that way. Just like you stick an Apple Pencil to the iPad Pro.
Xiaomi has already shown that it is not afraid to go after this market niche — the newly-released Xiaomi Pad 5 tablet has a set of proprietary keyboard and stylus, mimicking the functionality of the iPad Pro, but from the Android side.
And Samsung already has an S Pen that works with the Galaxy Z Fold 3. It only makes sense that if Xiaomi wants to enter this market and throw punches with the heavy-weights, it needs to hop in with no features missing under its belt. In fact, a couple of extra quirks would be nice — at the very least, have the stylus is included in the box.
Xiaomi Mix Flip clamshell?
We are also hearing faint whispers of a Xiaomi Mix Flip, which would go up against Samsung’s Galaxy Flip. However, information on this foldable is super scarce. It would be interesting to see another player in the clamshell space, which is currently dominated by the Galaxy Z Flip 3 thanks to its price and solid quality.
Can a Xiaomi Flip… flip some buyers to Xiaomi’s camp?
