Mi MIX 2 Comprehensive Hands On Review: World Class Piece of Art!
by mitch002 (follow me on Twitter @MI_mitch002 for my latest Xiaomi Unboxing, Reviews and Tutorials)

Welcome to the 23rd edition of the MItch Product Review, and this edition is pretty special as we take on something very very anticipated from Xiaomi as well as it pretty much landed on the number of my all time favorite NBA player, #23 Michael Jordan of the 6 time champion the Chicago Bulls. So much for that, Our focus now in on the recent launch of Xiaomi on Sept 12 2017 (1 month shy from the Oct 26 2016 release of the Mi MIX), they launched 2 flagships and a laptop: Mi Mix 2, Mi Note 3 and Mi Notebook PRO.

As lucky as I am, I was able to snag one on Sept 15th fore it got swept away in just 58 seconds and it landed to my place on Sept 17th (that was fast!). Mi MIX 2 is pretty much the decendant of the highly popular Mi MIX which was also designed by renowned French designer Philippe Starck. This time around the removed the Pizzo Electric method of transfering sound to the ears as some users complained the sounds is not as strong as that of the dedicated conventonal earpiece, and also weight has been trimmed down as well which makes me excited to explore this new concept phone by Xiaomi. Join me as I journey to venture the wonders of the Mi MIX 2.
Tech Specs of Mi MIX 2:
· Qualcomm MSM8998 Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor (4x2.45GHz Kryo and 4x1.9 GHz Kryo)
· Adreno 540 GPU
· 6GB / 8GB of RAM LPDDR4
· 5.99-inch IPS LCD display ultra bright, energy saving display, (~80.8% screen-to-body ratio)
· 1080 x 2160 pixels FHD+ (~403 ppi pixel density), 1500:1 contrast ratio
· DCI-P3 color gamut, high color saturation
· Black Ceramic Finish, White Edition Coming Soon
· 64GB / 128GB / 256GB of storage
· 12 MP, 5 lens, 1.25 um, 4 Axis OIS, f/2.0, Dark Light Enhancement, Phase Detection Autofocus, Dual-LED (dual tone) flash
· 5 MP front camera, autofocus, Mirror Function, 3rd Generation 36 intelligent beauty function
· Finger print scanner
· Dual SIM (nano sim size)
· 3G, LTE, 4G+ Carrier Aggregation, VoLTE Calls
· Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, A-GPS, NFC
· 3400mAh battery, Quick Charge 3.0 Supported 9V / 3A
· 2 x 2 MIMO Technology to support MU-MIMO
· Sensors: Ultrasonic distance sensor, Ambient Light sensor, Gyro, Vibration Motor, Accelerometer, Barometer, Electronic
Compass, Hall Sensor
· Android Nougat 7.1.1, MIUI 8
· USB-C port, UFS 2.1
· 151.8 mm x 75.5 mm x 7.7 mm
· 185 Grams
Official Trailer:
Video Unboxing:
Mi MIX 2 Design
The Mi MIX 2 has a design like no other in the market, it has inherited the bezel-less design of the original Mi MIX, but this tiem its curvier on the corners and they trimmed it down a bit on screen size. The screen size went down from 6.4" to 6.0" which is pretty much a good move for Xiaomi to cut its weight. The downsize of battery from 4400mAh to 3400mAh is probably not a good move because the big screen tends to each much more energy than normal sized phones. The embossed camera at the back is another thing to that is on the negative side, the camera lens is prone to scratches as it would be the first one to hit the desk when placed facing up. I have sandwiched the Mi MIX 2 together with the Mi A1, the size is the same, meaning you are getting a 6.0" display at a 5.5" body. Awesome isnt it?
Whats in the Box:

Triple unboxing day! Lucky me!








Following the footsteps of its smaller predecessor, the Mi MIX, the Mi MIX 2 came out with a ceramic back as well, it also sports white ceramic the same as its older brother. Mi MIX 2, is also a fingerprint magnet just like its older sibling, thats why they included a black hard case just to ease the pain of keep wiping and wiping the marks off the phone. This is simply more practical than the leather case included in the original Mi MIX, which is kinda hard to use (well I never bothered to use mine tho).







Above the frame we have the noise cancellation mic, too sad there is no more 3.5mm audio jack, why Xiaomi why?

On the right side its the useual volume up and volume down button along with the power button as well.

At the back we have the embossed Sony IMX 386 12MP Camera with 18K Gold Ring outside. Below it is the fingerprint scanner which is very fast to response in my opinion. There is also the dual LED Flash beside the camera lens.

On the left side sports the sim tray that can hold 2 Nano Sim card.



Below the phone is the USB C charging port as well as the loudspeaker and the mic holes.



Display and Audio
We were expecting a lot from the display side as we were impressed by the Mi MIX, this time the Mi MIX 2 came out displaying probably even better than the Mi MIX. The Full HD display in the Mi MIX 2 is already good in redering photos and videos, Im glad they didnt switched to AMOLED. We did watch Dragon Ball Super anime series and Train to Busan and it was superb based on our experience, the display was big and clear. Compared to the Mi Max 2, we can clearly conclude the display was better, but comparing to Mi MIX running the same movie side by side, we can hardly differentiate the differences. The sound was excellent, we have no problem kicking the sound to the max inside a small room of roughly 8 square meters and it can fill the room with sound.

We also tried to play NBA 2K18 game and it was pretty smooth and we did not experience any lag or delay in screen play, we even placed a magnetic joystick on it and it was helping us play the game even better. We tried to view the phone under the bright roaring sun and it's pretty good ( it's just that the camera cannot capture the screen under direct sunlight).
Here are the supported audio and video file format by the Mi MIX 2:
- MP4
- M4V
- MKV
- XVID
- WAV
- AAC
- MP3
- AMR
- FLAC
- APE
- DSD
Support H.265 / HEVC (the Main Profile), the H.264 (Baseline / the Main / High Profile), MPEG4 (the Simple Profile / the ASP),
the VC-1 (the Simple / the Main / Advanced Profile) video formats, support for PCM, AAC / AAC + / eAAC +,
MP3, the AMR - NB and WB, FLAC, APE, DSD, WAV and other audio formats

Snapdragon 835
One of the many devices that sports the latest chipset from Qualcomm is Mi MIX 2, the Snapdragon 835 SoC has 8 cores and can run up to 2.45Ghz of computing speed. Now of course powered together with the powerful Adreno 540, and of course a generous serving of 6GB RAM, it will give you the best experience in gaming up to date. This powerful processor combined with the power of Adreno 540 makes this phone one of the elite for they year 2017. We ran several stress test on this unit and we did not see any lags nor any slowdown on the opening of any apps in the Mi MIX 2, multitasking was a breeze. This SoC is already supporting the 64-bit architecture which means it can compute at a very fast phase. So good graphics, good multitasking plus fast processing makes Snapdragon 835 on of the beastly SoC we have handled. This processor is also present in the Mi 6 Flagship as well.
Connectivity
The Mi MIX 2 supports 24 different LTE bands for Full Netcom 4.0 Edition, unlike the Global Edition of the Mi Note 2 which supports 37 different LTE Bands for Global consumption, the Mi MIX 2 markets itself within China and the Asia Pacific region (hopefully to the Western Countries soon). It's pretty easy to switch to LTE network inside the settings but once your do the second sim will be running on GSM connectivity only. You can freely choose which sim you want to use your LTE data, since this is a Dual LTE, Dual standby smartphone. This unit also has the 4G+ equipped, and also supports multiple carrier aggregation technology (should your network provider have this feature), you can take advantage of it. Wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac is also smooth and it also supports Wi-Fi Direct. Wireless screen mirroring is also available via the Miracast protocol, tethering data is also working perfectly. Bluetooth 5.0,GPS, and GLONASS are all present, NFC (Near Field Communication) is also present as Xiaomi gears toward Mi Pay, Android Pay and it enables you to send data to a fellow NFC user with just tapping your phones together. Transfering data from older phones using Mi Mover was also a breeze as well.

Mi MIX 2 Camera
The Mi MIX 2 camera isn't as great as the Mi 6 and Mi Note 3 which has a dual camera, but this 12MP shutter can get good snaps as well, not so pretty good in low light areas but for me it already can take good shots with its Sony IMX 386 Camera Sensor which is a huge huge improvement from the Omnivision sensor back in Mi MIX (such a disappointment back then). They also incorporated the 4-AXIS OIS in this one so expect good shots in motion photos. The front snapper is a regular 5MP camera well it took good shots of myself. The manual mode has an exposure time of 32S and ISO of 3200.



Actual Photos
Good Lighting











Low Light







































Selfie



Mi MIX 2 Battery and Benchmark
Putting a 3400mAh inside a slim unibody is not in anyway easy to do, but its still a disappointment coming from a 4400mAh inside the Mi MIX, the Mi MIX 2 has a pretty good battery life for a Phablet sized smartphone. The Mi MIX 2 supports the Qualcomm Quick charge 3.0 and it takes in 3.2 Amperes based on our testing using the supplied charger and cable, glad that they supplied a Quick Charge 3.0 charger this time around, it was a pain looking for one during the Mi MIX era. We were able to charge from 10% to 25% in less than 10 minutes out the box as that’s the only factory charge they gave us together with the unit. We were able to complete charging the phone in 1 hour and 10 minutes on my estimate from 10 to 100%. We recorded a 10 hour 9 minutes endurance test Mi MIX 2 128GB version under the PC Mark battery stress test. If these statistics are true on a normal daily use, then it's really a good sign for the said smartphone, but still down from the average of 12 hours from the Mi MIX.


The benchmark of the Mi MIX 2 6GB RAM 128GB ROM rated from AnTuTu benchmark yielded a result of 158,296 points which is already impressive in my opinion .

Some Amazing Shots I want to share with you.




Isnt she lovely? Applause Please.
More Benchmarks:







Mi MIX 2, Powerful Inside and Beautiful Outside!
Now that Xiaomi has shocked the world with its concept phone being released during the Mi MIX and now the Mi MIX 2, everyone is jumping into the bandwagon to get their hands on the latest smartphone by the Chinese smartphone manufacturer giant. The Mi MIX 2 in my opinion is better looking than the Iphone X, probably can outperform it as well. The cut above in the Iphone X makes it look unappealing becuase of the bezeless display Xiaomi did without the cut above.
Overall, the Mi MIX 2 is pretty good to use, Xiaomi did listen to fans and improved on the new design of this new concept phone. The round edges and the lighter weight (205 grams to 185 grams) was a plus point, as well as the Sony IMX 386 Camera Sensor. I'm still amazed bythe partnership between Xiaomi and Philippe Starck, hopefully they can come up with more awesome phones in the future.
The 64GB variant retails for 3299 RMB, 128GB retails for 3499RMB and the 256GB variant retails at 3999 RMB.
"never seen such a masterpiece this amazing before." -mitch002
MI MIX 2


This is my happiest unboxing of 2017, happy reading to all of you!