Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S is somehow our first contact with a ceramic back phone, even though there’s been a few so far. This is also one of the real edge to edge devices, with a very narrow top bezel and the front camera has been moved at the bottom. It’s priced at around $500 to $600 and we unboxed it below.
Launched internationally in April, the device came to us in the black version, with 64 GB of storage and 6 GB of RAM. The first thing I noticed is that the device is quite heavy, maybe heavier than I expected. The box opens up to a quote from Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi, with a message of hope and inspiration. The facade is pretty similar to the Mi MIX 2, including diagonal-wise.
It has the same 18:9 5.99 inch panel. Inside the box, aside from the message from Lei Jun we find an USB to 3.5 mm adapter, the charger with fast charge, USB Type-C cable, a manual and a case, used to protect the back side and sides. The handset has an aluminum frame and it’s no regular phone, as it’s the winner of an IF Design Award.
There’s also a white version out there, if black is not your cup of tea. The Mi MIX 2S does wireless charging and measures 8.1 mm in thickness, plus it weighs 189 grams. The screen is a 5.99 inch IPS LCD with Full HD+ resolution and HDR support. Inside we find a Snapdragon 845 CPU, 6 GB of RAM or 8 GB of RAM, plus 64, 128, 256 GB of storage. No microSD slot here.
The battery is a 3400 mAh unit, which should be enough for this diagonal. Camera-wise we get a dual combo of 12 MP + 12 MP, with a wide angle lens and OIS, plus a tele lens, with 2x optical zoom. The camera does Bokeh, Dual Pixel AF and has a LED flash. Upfront things sounds a bit underwhelming, at 5 MP for the selfie camera, in the lower right corner.
The handset debuted with Android Oreo and MIUI 9.5, but our version came with MIUI 10 installed, feeling very intuitive, closer to stock Android and with a fresh volume level meter (big, squared and funky). We’ll be back with a full review pretty soon, but these are the first impressions: good looking, heavy, nice new MIUI and promising camera.
You can get the device here.
