So just when people were saying smartphones are getting boring, Xiaomi enters the chat with the Mi Mix Alpha which fundamentally is all display smartphone.
Xiaomi is the one who kinda kickstarted the bezel-less trend with the original Mi Mix and now three years later, when everyone was anticipating that the successor should the Mi Mix 3 with some minor improvements, Xiaomi took a whole new different direction and introduced a brand new concept phone which has a wrap around display with a screen to body ratio of 180.6% , let that sink in for a second.
Honestly, for the past few days Xiaomi was teasing this smartphone and I thought it was their foldable smartphone. But it isn’t.
It’s a as usual glass similar to the one we find on devices like the Galaxy Note 10, iPhone 11 Pro, Huawei Mate 30 Pro etc, which uses flexible OLED to bend the display at the sides.
Xiaomi is calling this screen a 4D surrounding curved display. Like I’ve said, it has a 181% screen to body ratio, the rest 19% is occupied by small border up top and bottom and the rear cameras eat some of that screen to body ratio full real estate.
Speaking of which, the phone has 108MP camera. As we have talked in the past, Samsung is the supplier of this camera which uses tetra cell technology to take full 108MP images in daylight and 27MP images on low light and combine it to from one detailed image. There is a wide-angle and telephoto camera present as well.
As you can see, there’s only one set of cameras on this phone. So if you want to take selfies or make video calls then you’ve to flip the phone which shouldn’t be a problem because there’s a display at the back as well.
All in all, it looks identical to the Huawei’s foldable smartphone the Mate X, but the difference isnt the Mi Mix Alpha is a foldable smartphone.
It still amazes me how fast the technology is evolving. I mean, I knew we would see smartphones that would look like this in the future but didn’t expect that would happen in 2019 itself.
To be clear, this is still a concept phone which means Xiaomi is not mass producing it like their other smartphones. They’re not even planning to sell this internationally,
it’ll be limited to China and is priced at almost $3000.
It’s the only trend that I don’t like about
current smartphone. Technology is getting better and improving at a rapid rate but it comes with a high value price.
But be fair to the Xiaomi, it is a concept phone only. They have no plan of selling it, it’s about bragging rights I guess but if you’re crazy enough to spend $3000 for this phone then Xiaomi is ready to ship one for you in December, provided you live in China, and the last time I checked, you don’t.
So have to pay way more than $3000 and import
it from China.
Anyway, the biggest question you might have
right now is, why?
Look I totally understand that it doesn’t
provide much of value other than the fact that it looks freaking cool.
Listen, Phones are getting ridiculously expensive, to the point that they are not just phones anymore but a status symbol as well. It reflects your personality if that makes
sense. When I’m buying a car, my top priority is looks and then comes the rest. Same for the phones as well.
When I’m buying a budget or midrange phone, looks are not really that important, the specs and features are. But when I’m getting a flagship, looks are one of the top priorities before making a purchase. And I’m sure there are millions out there with a similar mindset as well.
That’s why looks are important, and that’s why this phone matters. Phone companies aren’t dumb that they are running in a race to increase the screen to body ratio because they know there’s a huge demand for this. And that’s the reason this phone exists and probably more companies would follow suit and come with similar phones as well.
One more thing I need to mention is that accidental touches are not going to be a problem because they can just ignore the side areas with the help of software just like Huawei did with the Mate 30 Pro and Samsung does with their flagships.
With that being said, what are you thinking about this phone, let us know in the comments bellow 🙂
