The Xiaomi MI MIX 2S, the phone we’ve been waiting for for 6 months, has arrived
We were really looking forward to today’s announcement and so far it seems worth the wait!
Six months ago, Xiaomi introduced the second member of the Mi MIX series. The first MIX created a new category among phones, without it there probably wouldn’t be so many frameless mobiles on the market today. For the first time since his arrival, it was not the Chinese manufacturer that knocked down the phones of the famous manufacturers, but they were tossing after Xiaomi.
The Xiaomi MIX 2 became a very good phone, but it didn’t even evoke the euphoria we expected from it. There were several reasons for this, but perhaps the main one was the built-in camera. We can’t say it went bad, but the market expected much more than that, specifically an advanced dual-camera system. At the same time, the design and hardware became convincing, so after all, we can’t say the phone wouldn’t have been a success. However, it also seems that Xiaomin also felt that something went a little wrong, which is why, in an unusual way, barely half a year after the introduction of MIX 2, the successor has already arrived, bringing a lot of novelties.
The Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S shows nothing new in terms of design, which is a small satisfaction for those - including me - who bought the predecessor model. But it’s just the visible part, the point, the serious changes are inside and on the back. But let’s start with the things that haven’t changed. The size of the phone has not changed, nor has the size of the display. The 6,01-inch image diagonal remained, and FHD +, or 2160 x 1080 pixel resolution, remained. The thickness of the frames remained as it was, and the front camera was placed in its original location, in the lower, slightly thicker frame. This is good news, many of us feared that the beautiful design would be ruined by Xiaomi with a notch on the iPhone X that protrudes into the display, the notch. Fortunately, this turned out to be nothing. Such a protruding solution does not break the display either in the middle or in the corner. The sensors already fit the upper thin frame of its predecessor, just as the speaker was crammed into such a small space.
What changed then? A lot of the leaked or leaked information ended up being correct. The central unit became the currently most powerful Qualcomm chip, the Snapdragon 845, introduced at the end of last year. As it was said at the show in Shanghai, it is quite difficult to get it right now, there is a lot of scramble for it in the market, as every manufacturer that gives something for itself wants a top phone that this chip will cost. The central unit is supported by 6 or 8 GB of RAM and 64, 128 or 256 GB of built-in storage, depending on the configuration. In the new central unit, the Adreno 630 graphics accelerator is already responsible for displaying and moving the image, which has been tested to accelerate by 30 percent compared to its predecessor, while still consuming 30 percent less energy. The phone scored 277 points in the popular AnTuTu test.
As you may have read above, the camera has received the most criticism of the MIX 2. The built-in unit is equipped with usable aperture optics and advanced vibration damping, so you can take pictures that can be evaluated even in low light conditions. However, the market did not expect this from a nozzle device, when the Xiaomi A1 already gets a dual camera, it would have been expected to install such a unit.
In the case of the new MIX 2S, this shortcoming has also been remedied, not in any way. The camera combo on the back got a camera with a 12-megapixel telephoto lens and a companion with a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens as well. Under the telephoto lens, the Sony IMX363 chip works with a fairly large 1,4 μm pixel size. The back camera also got Xiaomi MI features, plus it’s finally capable of effects like dynamic depth-of-field, Dual SLR Dual PD with full-pixel focus, and multi-function hardware noise reduction. By deploying artificial intelligence, the phone is able to recognize facial and hair features for even better quality depth of field effects. Thanks to the dual camera, we also get a hardware zoom function, the user of which is assisted by the 4-axis vibration protection.
The appearance of wireless charging can also be considered a significant novelty. The Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s has a 3400 mAh battery that supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0 technology.
As you can see, Xiaomi tried to correct the shortcomings we raised after the release of MIX 2. The proven recipe, the exterior, was not changed, although at the same time the interior was essentially completely drained. The camera has undergone a whole drastic change, we are curiously waiting for the first real tests.
