Xiaomi’s Mi Mix smartphones has always been the company’s most unconventional series, and the new Xiaomi Mi Mix Alpha pushes this idea even further. See, it has a display that basically wraps around the phone – sounds crazy, doesn’t it?
Well, as far-fetched as that may sound, it’s the reality: the Mi Mix Alpha has a 7.92-inch 2088 x 2250 flexible OLED “Surround Display,” which covers almost every inch of the phone, except for a ceramic strip on the back to house the triple camera system. According to Xiaomi, this gives the Alpha an impressive screen-to-body ratio of 180.6%.
Now, with that unique wraparound display, there’s no space for physical buttons on the side, so the sides of the Mi Mix Alpha are pressure-sensitive to make up for this. The phone also relies on a linear motor to “simulate the touch of real buttons.”
We imagine it won’t be quite as seamless to use the pressure-sensitive sides than traditional buttons, but it’s hard to say without actually trying it out for ourselves. Oh, the physical earpiece has been removed too, which is replaced by a new display acoustic technology.
Other specifications of the Mi Mix Alpha include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ chipset paired with 12GB of RAM, 512GB of fast UFS 3.0 storage, a 4,050mAh battery, support for 40W fast charging, and an in-screen fingerprint sensor.
The triple camera system of the Mi Mix Alpha is also very impressive: it’s the first phone to feature Samsung’s ISOCELL Bright HMX 108MP camera sensor. Like most smartphone cameras with high megapixel count, the Alpha uses pixel binning to capture brighter, more detailed shots in 27MP.
Aside from the 108MP f/1.69 primary shooter, this phone also has a 20MP f/2.2 wide angle sensor and a 12MP f/2.0 telephoto lens that offers 2x optical zoom. Naturally, there’s no need for a selfie camera, since you can just snap a selfie by turning the phone around.
While the Xiaomi Mi Mix Alpha looks very sleek with its unique display, its form factor is not very practical. But that’s beside the point: Xiaomi wants to “make a truly disruptive product without considering the costs and return, and without considering mass production” with the Alpha.
And that really is the case. The Mi Mix Alpha will only be produced in limited quantities at the end of December 2019, and it costs a whopping 20,000 Chinese yuan, which comes up to about RM11,760.