Xiaomi Mix Flip review - Foldable smartphone with Leica cameras finally puts Samsung under pressure

With the Mix Flip, Xiaomi introduces an additional competitor to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 into the market. A glance at the data sheet of the Mix Flip looks very promising, since the Flip smartphone from the Chinese manufacturer surpasses the Samsung smartphone in many regards. The highlight of the Mix Flip is the relatively large, almost bezel-less 4.01-inch secondary display with a refresh rate of 120 Hz, which even allows you to use (some) third-party apps. 

In contrast to its larger brother, the Mix Fold 4, friends of foldables should be pleased with the global availability of the Mix Flip outside of China. At an earlier press conference, Xiaomi Bulgaria had revealed that the flip smartphone will officially come to Europe. The global version of the compact foldable smartphone will be available starting September 26 at an MSRP of 1,299 Euros (~$1,456). In China, the basic version of the Mix Flip (12 GB RAM, 256 GB storage) is available for about 5,999 Yuan (~760 Euros or $852), with the top model with 16 GB RAM and 1 TB storage costing the equivalent of about 930 Euros (~$1,042). As an import, the prices start from about 850 Euros (~$953), which is relatively affordable for a foldable with this kind of equipment. 

Note that we have updated our rating system and that the results from version 8 are not compatible with those from version 7. You can find additional information on this here.

The case is protected by the inhouse Longjing glass, internationally also called Xiaomi Shield Glass - with the nylon fiber version correspondingly only using this on the front. The workmanship is first rate, and with its metal frame, the Mix Flip offers a high-quality feel when holding it in the hand. Due to the matted back, fingerprints are not a problem - except on the aluminum hinge with a high-gloss finish between the exterior and interior of the smartphone. 

The bezels around the foldable OLED panel turn out slightly slimmer than in the Galaxy Flip 6. Expressed in numbers, the display to surface ratio of the foldable OLED display inside the Mix Flip is 87.5%, while the Samsung model only offers 85.5%. The large 4.01-inch external display of the Xiaomi smartphone also looks significantly more modern. In terms of durability, Xiaomi advertises about 500,000 folding operations for its flexible Schott UTG display. What is remarkable is that the crease is hardly noticeable anymore, not even by touch. 

In addition to more information on the software updates, with the global introduction of the Mix Fip, Xiaomi could also offer some specifications on the materials used and their recycling quote. But at this point, we lack this information. The packaging of the foldable smartphone appears to be mostly free of plastic. The device itself is wrapped in foil, but the rest of the packaging is made of cardboard.  

In your network at home, the Xiaomi smartphone can use WiFi 7 including MU-MIMO support, but the Mix Flip can only use the 2.4 and 5-GHz ranges for creating a connection - at least with the Chinese version that we are testing. Without the 6-GHz band, we determine transfer rates of about 1,000 Mbit/s in combination with our Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 router. In terms of stability and constancy of the wireless transmission, there is little to complain about.

For mobile internet access, the foldable phone supports 5G network access and offers a wide selection of supported frequency bands, with the same going for the LTE standard. Even band 20 and 28 (needed in Germany) are already included in the Chinese version. Users in German speaking countries are well-equipped with this. Even though you should still check which frequency bands are needed before traveling abroad, with 22 4G and 18 5G bands, you should be able to use the Mix Flip in most countries without any trouble.  

Videos can be recorded in 720p, 1080p, or 2160p at a maximum of 4K30. You can also make time lapse recordings with both lenses on the back at up to 960 fps in 1080p. In contrast to the main camera (OIS + EIS), the tele lens only uses electronic image stabilization.  

We analyze the color reproduction of the main camera in the lab under controlled light conditions and compare it to the actual reference colors. Even though we see some noticeable brightening of the Mix Flip here, the camera software is very satisfactory overall, ensuring low color deviations in the ColorChecker Passport. The only real outliers in the color accuracy (>10) are noticeable in green and cyan color tones. 

Xiaomi uses PWM to control the display brightness, which brings the typical display flickering. Although the Mix Flip doesn't use the same high frequency (3,840 Hz) as the Xiaomi 14 smartphones, the flickering also comes at a high frequency (2,160 Hz). We can confirm this with our measurements (1,923 Hz). The visually noticeable variations in the light density should still be perceived as eye-friendly by sensitive users, even though the panel shows a basic backlight strobing (BFI) that is low at 120 Hz. The amplitude in the Oscilloscope is very even across the whole brightness spectrum, and the amplitude depth is fairly flat at 16.5%.

In the graphics test, the foldable smartphone achieves very competitive results with its Adreno 750, although the Galaxy Z Flip6 still performs significantly better at times in the 3DMark tests. On the other hand, the Mix Flip performs at the level of the Samsung smartphone in the GFXBench. 

When surfing with the Chrome browser, the Mix Flip impresses with fast load times, and the Xiaomi smartphone also reaches solid values in the benchmark tests.  

In terms of its storage connection, the Mix Flip is really able to score, and particularly the write rates of the UFS 4.0 storage are very strong. 

In everyday operation, the cooling system of the small foldable is easily able to manage the surface temperatures of the case. But in our Burnout benchmark, we measure some pronounced heat development above 46 ºC (115 ºF) in the area of the cameras. In the Wild Life Stress Tests of 3DMark, the heat development also leads to some moderate to high throttling of the system performance by about 30 to 45%.

The Flip Mix uses a dual-speaker system with Dolby Atmos support. The Xiaomi smartphone is unable to reproduce bass sounds, and our Pink Noise measurement also shows a rather uneven frequency curve.  

If you want to use external sound devices, you can either connect them to the USB port or wirelessly using Bluetooth 5.4 including Auracast. The selection of supported codecs is very extensive with AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX adaptive, LDAC, LHDC 1-5, and LC3.

With a capacity of 4,780 mAh, the battery of the Mix Flip is significantly larger than that of the Galaxy Z Flip6 and can also be fast charged at up to 67 watts. Using the included charger, it takes less than 45 minutes to recharge the battery, with more than 50% reached after about 20 minutes. If you don't always want to use an adapter with the Chinese version, you can also use the usual quick chargers (QC 2-4, PD2.0, PD3.0, PPS) with the Xiaomi smartphone. However, wireless charging is not supported.

The power consumption during idle operation is very good at less than 1 Watt. Under load, the power consumption is slightly above the level of a Galaxy Z Flip6 or Magic V Flip.