The Mi Mix Fold is Xiaomi’s entry into the folding smartphone market

The Mi 11 Ultra wasn’t the only smartphone Xiaomi unveiled this week — the company last night released details of its Mi Mix Fold handset which, as the name very clearly points out, doesn’t fold in any way whatsoever. Wait, of course it folds. And it looks awfully familiar, but then all phones do these days.

Don’t count on seeing this one any time soon, however. The company has confirmed that it will only be available in China, so you might be able to bring one back if you’re travelling but otherwise you’ll just have to look at it from afar.

In the (Mi) Mix

That’s a pity, because the Mi Mix Fold is a bruiser of a folding device. The display, unfolded, is an 8.01in flexible AMOLED, with a companion 6.53in AMOLED on the outer side of the phone. You might be familiar with the concept, since Samsung unveiled it not so long ago.

The rest of the component bits are even more impressive. A Snapdragon 888 handles the main load, there’s either 12GB or 16GB of RAM to contend with and up to 512GB of storage to look forward to. There’s a 5,020mAh battery packed in, with support for 67W fast charging. The latter is fast becoming a Xiaomi standard. Its cameras aren’t quite the powerhouses seen in the Mi 11 Ultra but Xiaomi wants people to be able to afford this thing. There’s a 108MP main sensor, a 13MP ultrawide and an 8MP liquid telephoto/macro lens inside the Mi Mix Fold.

Although… maybe not, because that 8MP lens switches from 3x telephoto to macro by changing the orientation of the liquid housed inside the lens. It does this using a motor, controlled by the company’s own Surge C1 image signal processor, and the company reckons that it works fine between -40° and 60°. What the image quality is like… that’s something we’re waiting for a little real-world testing to see.

Want a Mi Mix Fold of your very own? First you’ll need to travel to China, and you’ll have to take about R22,500 extra with you for the base 12GB/256GB model. If you want to climb to the top of the folding phone pile (16GB/512GB), you’d best bring along R30,000 — and enough money to pay Customs on your way back into the country.