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Camera9
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Display8
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Design8
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Performance10
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Battery8
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Value for Money8.5
There are so many smartphones released each year – more than you probably realise. Put it this way – I cover these things for a living, and there are a tonne of them that escape my attention, too.
A case in point: I nearly missed the Xiaomi Mix Flip until I headed to a Xiaomi product launch back in September, where the company’s first flippable phone was shown off alongside a host of other products, including the Xiaomi 14T smartphone series.
The 14T and 14T Pro are great devices, but the Mix Flip really caught my attention. I’m a big fan of the Samsung Z Flip series, but this new contender from Xiaomi appears to have stepped things up a notch. If you’re in the market for a flip phone, it really should be on your list.
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Specs and pricing
The Mix Flip is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip and 12GB of RAM. There’s one storage tier – 512GB, and, consequently, a single price point of £1,099 in the UK.
The two displays are remarkably similar in terms of specs. Both offer 1.5K resolutions with 120Hz refresh rates and 3,000 nits of peak brightness. In terms of size, the inner display is 6.86 inches, while the outer display spans just over four inches.
There’s a 4,780mAh battery tucked inside that little frame which is compatible with Xiaomi’s 67W HyperCharge feature. There’s also Wi-Fi 7 and face and fingerprint biometric unlocking.
Design
The Xiaomi Mix Flip comes in two colours – purple and black. I was sent the latter for review and the best way to describe the design is that it is understated yet smart. It’s quite a slippery phone, but I think most of us are used to that these days – it’s just a shame that there still aren’t any notable case options for flip phones.
The design is earmarked by those two big Leica lenses and the camera company’s branding on the metal hinge – thus indicating the trump card this particular flip phone has up its sleeve. I’ll get to that in a moment.
As for the hinge, it’s a dual-link affair that’s rated for up to 500,000 folds. It feels confident and snaps open and closed satisfactorily. The only thing to note is that the Mix Flip appears to have specific angles to which it prefers to be opened. There’s not much fine adjustment on offer and at certain angles, it will creep towards the closed position.
What about
If those big lenses are one significant design cue for the Mix Flip, the outer display is the second one. At just over four inches, it’s striking and immediately usable. Xiaomi claims that there are over 100 apps which are fully compatible with the outer display, and I can confirm that Instagram, X, WhatsApp, Google Maps, Google Wallet, and several Xiaomi first-party apps are perfectly useable with the Mix Flip closed.
This is a big deal. A flip phone is of little use beyond the initial impression it inevitably makes if you can’t actually put the outer display to serious use.
Xiaomi has even seen it fit to add a dedicated mic and receiver for taking calls via the outer display. Add to that the fact that, just like every other flip phone, the Mix Flip’s outer display acts as a brilliant main camera monitor, and you’ve got the epitome of a phone which respects its form factor.
The camera
The Mix Flip features a 50MP main camera, a 50MP ‘floating’ telephoto camera, and a 32MP selfie cam. Both of those rear cameras use Leica components and the telephoto offers a 2x optical focal length which is equivalent to 47mm (although there are a bunch of other preset focal lengths for portrait shots).
As always, I’ll let you be the judge of the photo performance, but I really like the photos produced by the Mix Flip.
Thanks to the presence of the Leica Authentic and Vibrant settings, the images feel and look very similar to what the 14T series produces.
The photos have a lot of character, and I’m confident you’ll find your preferred style between the two aforementioned Leica settings.
The shutter speed is fast, and the Leica branding and tie-in are well earned. Xiaomi has worked on this partnership for many years, and the results are clear to see.
Oh, and when it comes to video, the Mix Flip will go right up to a frankly ludicrous 8K at 24FPS. I’m not sure who’s going to use that regularly, but it’s nice to know it’s there, and the video performance overall is great.
Conclusion
This feels like a shorter review than normal. Because it is. The eagle-eyed among you will have noted that I haven’t even referenced performance. That’s because the Mix Flip is running the latest Snapdragon chip, which is not only another feather in its cap but also confirmation that it will be – and is – super smooth and fast for nearly every user.
As I always say, if top-end gaming performance is something that really matters to you, you’ll probably be considering a gaming-centric phone. Although I’m sure the Mix Flip can kick it with the best in that arena, too.
What I love about the Mix Flip is the fact that it focuses on two winning formulas – the camera system and that brilliant outer display. Both make the asking price more than worth it and are features which will make their presence felt throughout the phone’s ownership – unlike the avalanche of impressive but largely useless AI features that are so often thrown in our faces.
I’m not sure why it took Xiaomi so long to make a flip phone, but the wait was definitely worth it.
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1 Comment
Honestly, this review summed up exactly what I’ve been curious about with the Mix Flip — the whole “fun but still usable” thing is tough to pull off, and you nailed why it actually works here. I was checking the best tracfone phone number earlier for a backup line and somehow ended up reading this right after, which made the timing weirdly perfect. The hinge talk and battery rundown felt super real, not the usual polished fluff. Xiaomi finally feels like it’s getting that premium-but-playful formula locked in. Now I’m low-key hyped and kinda fighting the urge to add another phone to my collection.