Xiaomi MIX Alpha - one eye crying, the other sobbing - review article

I waited a long time, it arrived, I was amazed, I was searching for the state, and I have been sad ever since.

When the first Xiaomi MIX arrived I couldn’t buy it, I just really wanted to. It was a wonderful phone with minimal clutter, an almost square design, a slim housing, a large display and strong hardware. It struck me so much that for the first time in Xiaomi’s history, the world began to copy them, not them the world. Okay, I know, the MIX wasn’t the first phone of this shape, but it’s undeniable that it launched the frameless mobiles market.

Then came the second edition. I already had that. I loved it, the camera alone got a little weaker than expected, but this Xiaomi improved on the crease stitching, so the MIX 2s became almost perfect. I also thought a lot about replacing the plain MIX 2 with it, but then I just waited for the third release.

I bought it, I use it, but I really don't like it. Of course, the hardware is perfect, I don't even use a camera for online photos or articles, the phone is also very good for it. In my opinion, however, the company made the mistake of definitely wanting a phone without a camera island (that’s not the mistake yet) and chose the slider solution for that. I'm not saying it's interesting. It looks good in the pictures, but when I first got my hands on it after MIX 2, I didn’t want to believe they could make such a bumpy and heavy phone. Since then, of course, I’ve gotten used to it, but I’ve never really loved it. Now I’m sure more people are pulling their mouths out that nothing is good enough for me, and you’re right somewhere, as it’s likely that many people want a phone in this category but can’t buy it for themselves. So don’t get me wrong, I’m not ungrateful to fate for letting it be bought, just after MIX 2 it felt a bit like holding a Cubot made with a 5000 mAh battery. Somewhere a little lost in the MIX 2 feeling.

Then, last week, the MIX Alpha arrived. It is now fully understood why no information about the phone was leaked in the weeks before its release. The MIX Alpha looks something quite sensational, and of course the hardware is also bit strong. But what's wrong then?

Well, the thing on the hardware front is obviously complete. It is powered by the most powerful central unit, the Snapdragon 855+, which is a very modern bitang fast chip made at a bandwidth of 7 nanometers. There’s 12GB of memory next to it, 512GB of built-in storage, so the stuff is damn strong, and we didn’t even mention the cameras then. Once I recover from the shock of the phone, I might be writing a more detailed presentation on the cameras, so now only briefly.

Interestingly (I’m glad for him) not four cameras were on the back, only three. This is about following the tradition of the MIX 3, where instead of the three cameras we were used to when we found it, we only find two, which are only 12 megapixels. I would add, it beats circles for most 48-megapixel wonders, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you also pounded the Note 8 Pro’s 64-bit sensor to the ground. So, going back to the MIX Alpha, there are only three cameras here, essentially in the Mi 9 configuration, only here everything is much better.

The main camera uses Samsung's 108 megapixel sensor, of course with a 4 in 1 pixel solution like the previous 48 megapixels and the 8 megapixels used in the Note 64 Pro, only here the actual number of pixels of the captured images will be multiples of the former. An aperture value of f / 1.7 was given in the specification, which is not a bad thing to say the least. As an auxiliary camera, we get a 12-megapixel telephoto camera with twice the optical zoom and a 20-megapixel wide-angle solution. This looks very good on paper, and since the Xiaomi Mi 9 camera system is still among the top 10 (or has it slipped out?) Among the phones on the market, it is expected that the MIX Alpha will also be among the top 10, obviously ahead of the Mi 9-et.

I would make a small critical remark about the cameras here, though. I don’t really understand why if the phone is so extreme, why not fit in a camera with a larger optical zoom. Maybe you are not ready for Xiaomi yet? Also, of course, 108 megapixels sounds really good, but as with the MIX 3, it came out that they weren't tricked with the number of pixels, it could have come in here as well. I could have been much more happy with a 20-meg solution, or maybe two 20-meg solutions, with really correct, “large” pixels. The double optical zoom could have been possible anyway, a third would still have fit a wide-angle camera, and you wouldn’t have had to juggle this 4 in 1 pixel. But that’s just my opinion, the real tests will hopefully come soon, and it could easily be refuted by me. I wish it was that way!

So the hardware is essentially perfect, but that didn’t surprise anyone. We knew it would be, basically everything came out of what we expected. Except, of course, the self-camera under the glass, which I’ve been saying for months is unnecessary to wait for because it won’t. So, the hardware didn't cut anyone's chest, not the look of the phone!

Xiaomi has built something quite form-breaking display on the phone that wraps around almost the entire device. There is only a thin section in the line of the cameras that is not a display. It looks amazingly good throughout, with plenty of stands tapped on the floor during and after the show. I confess, I searched for mine for a long time too, but then as the initial flash started to pass, and especially when I found out the price of the phone, something broke inside me.

I was planning on buying a MIX 4. The MIX 3 is still for sale at a good price, I want to write an article out of the four, so that would have been the case if… if Alpha wasn’t coming. But it came, so I already know, if just something miracle doesn’t happen and Xiaomi doesn’t release another phone called MIX 4, then I won’t have a new MIX or a new MIX article this year. The nice thing about this is that it's not just because of the price, because even if I could buy it (I find out, but who gives that much money to a phone ???), it shouldn't, because this phone is essentially useless in everyday life. . No, that's not true, it's usable, but who wants to keep worrying about not scratching the screen? 180 percent front panel display rate? Bullshit!

Think about it, you sit on the bench on the shore of Lake Balaton, you look at the bridge of the setting sun on the water, but you don't dare leave your phone in your pocket, but you don't dare put it on the bench next to you. You get in your car, but you don’t dare put your phone in either the box or the phone holder. In the former, all sides will be scratched, in the latter only the edges. Tempered glass cannot be placed on it, but there should be a person on the base who puts on a plain display protective film so that it is not skewed, dust does not fall, etc. This phone is simply unusable in everyday life. It must be good to brag about it, to blink in front of your buddies, just don't drop it, don't hold it together, don't put it down anywhere, because it's guaranteed to get hurt. I'll keep a sheet of soft material on my desk to put down so I don't take it out of the apartment, you made him a showcase. Great!

Clearly, this phone wasn’t made for us, it was made to show they can do it. They can do that too. It’s a concept phone that went into production, and it shows well on the $ 2800 price tag as well.

What have we gained with this? Nothing! What did we lose? The hope is to buy ourselves something a little new, a little form-breaking, instead of the usual, boring, stenciled devices. Because that’s the MIX series so far, including MIX 3, even if it’s not my favorite. For us, if only Xiaomi doesn’t release a MIX 4 for field users, the MIX series is lost, and that’s sad.

This phone makes just as little sense as the Samsung and Huawei foldable cell phones. Technology just isn't ready for it yet (dear Samsung?). Because who’s going to need a thick, heavy phone that needs to be taken care of like a male egg? Sure, there will be, but 99 percent don’t want that. The vast majority want a simple, slim, lightweight phone with good cameras. Let the edge of the display be folded down if someone really needs it, but I’d be much happier if they made sure the selfie camera was really behind the glass, the cavities shouldn’t be half- a millimeter wider anywhere if there were up to three cameras on the back, but let's get an aperture that can be adjusted within correct limits, and the pair of optics and the sensor should be at its best f like my partner Xiaomi Mi A1.6 phone.

So I don’t want much, just reasonable improvements, and that they give me back the MIX and not be a showcase concept phone series. I don’t want a drop-shaped camera island anymore, I don’t want a glass back cover, I don’t want a stenciled phone, I want the ceramic back cover, wonderful, thin and light MIX back, which was taken from me.