Xiaomi launches its first foldable phone, Mi MIX Fold with ‘Liquid Lens’ camera

A day after introducing its Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, Mi 11i and Mi 11 Lite smartphones, the Chinese tech firm has launched its first ever foldable handset - Mi MIX Fold. This is also the company’s take on the existing foldable smartphone players like Samsung, Huawei and Motorola. The Mi MIX Fold comes nearly after two years since Xiaomi first teased a foldable device.

Like the Samsung Galaxy Fold 2, the Mi MIX Fold also folds inwards. The inner display measures at 8-inch and has a resolution of 2480 x 1860 pixels and 4:3 aspect ratio. There is no selfie camera on the inside though. On the outer side, there is a 6.5-inch OLED display with 2520 x 840 pixels and 90Hz refresh rate. It has a 27:9 aspect ratio.

Xiaomi did not talk a lot about the hinge mechanics in Mi MIX Fold. But it did mention on stage that the device can sustain a million folds without facing any issues. The smartphone is said to have four speakers, all tuned by Harman Kardon, and is powered by the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor. Backing it up is a 5020 mAh battery with 67W fast charging tech.

On the camera front, the Mi MIX Fold has three cameras. There is a 108-megapixel primary sensor, 13-megapixel ultra-wide sensor and an 8-megapixel ‘liquid lens’ that works as a 3x optical zoom lens and a macro lens as well. Xiaomi says that its ‘Liquid Lens’ is powered by company-made Surge C1 ISP that lets it focus faster and offer better White Balance with higher dynamic range.

The Mi MIX Fold also has a ‘desktop mode’ that makes the UI look more like a traditional desktop UI instead of a blown up Android UI.

For now, the Mi MIX Fold is going on sale in China only. It is priced at 9,999 yuan (around $1,521) for the 12GB RAM+256GB variant 10,999 yuan ($1,670) for the 12GB RAM + 512GB variant and 12,999 yuan ($1,980) for the 16GB + 512GB variant. This also makes it one of the cheapest foldables, as compared to what is being offered by Samsung and Huawei.