The Mi MIX 3 is a powerful, chunky handset that’s great value for money
WHILE the cost of Samsung and Apple's flagship phones skyrockets year-on-year, a group of Chinese gadget makers is quietly making some of the best handsets on the market for a fraction of the cost.
Xaomi's £499 Mi Mix 3 is packed with great features but is half the price of the iPhone XS (£999), boasting a sleek design with a fun sliding gimmick that makes it stand out from other top end handsets. After a few days with it, I feel it's one of the best value phones money can buy.
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi was founded in 2010, bringing out its first phone a year later with the Xiaomi Mi 1.
Since then the company has seen a meteoric rise and they now comfortably jostle with some of the world's biggest phone firms, releasing mid-priced handsets that consistently offer great value for money.
The Mi MIX 3 is Xaomi's latest handset, but can it compete with the likes of Samsung and Apple?
One of the Mi MIX 3's big selling points is its moving front face, which slides down around half an inch when you press on the display.
This reveals the front-facing camera and antenna, and automatically opens your camera app so you can quickly snap a selfie on the go.
The slider has allowed Xaomi to hide the Mi MIX 3's front facing camera inside the phone rather than slotting it into the 6.39-inch display, and the phone's screen has a beautiful uniformity to it as a result.
It's almost all screen, with the Amoled display covering 93.4% of the front face.
The back of the gadget is made of a tough, glossy ceramic that combined with its two sliding parts means the Mi MIX 3 is certainly on the chunky side at 8.5mm thick.
Weighing 218 grams, it's even heavier than the hefty iPhone XS Max, meaning the gadget is probably better for bags than your pocket.
A glass back can also mean the device feels a little slippy in your hands – particularly given its weigh – though a case will give you a bit more grip.
The device comes in two colours in the UK: Saphire Blue and Onyx black.
Overall, I think the Mi Mix 3 is a solid hunk of metal and glass, and its sliding front face adds a fun twist to the design that will likely turn heads on the bus or train.
Back to the screen, and Xaomi has opted for a 6.39-inch, Amoled panel.
Colours and vibrancy pop well thanks to the Mi MIX 3's Full HD Plus display, which squeezes in 2340 by 1080 pixels – about 40 pixels-per-inch.
The quality really is something to behold, and combined with the lack of the "classic" notch found on most modern phones makes watching videos on full screen a special experience.
While it's not the best out there, overall the panel is a quality bit of kit given the device's price.
The Mi MIX 3 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, which is very fast and has no trouble juggling multiple tasks at once.
This is helped along by the gadget's 6GB of RAM, which is backed by 128GB or 256GB of storage – though there's no SD card slot for those wanting more space.
The battery life is decent if a little underwhelming, as I typically got down to about 20% after a single day of normal use.
But this is almost made up for with a 10W Qi wireless charger shipped in every box, which is a welcome addition.
Rather than an electronic slide, the front face slides mechanically using powerful neodymium magnets that Xaomi says will last you 300,000 cycles.
While using the slider is great fun (particularly with the wacky selection of sound effects you can pair it with) the magnets that drive it are a little too powerful for my liking.
You really have to push down on the screen to get the front to snap up and down, which takes away a bit from what I'd hoped would be a silky smooth action.
I'm also not a huge selfie taker, which renders the slide a little useless – though you can assign it to open the calculator, weather app or other tool if you'd prefer.
The Mi MIX 3 features a 12MP + 12MP rear dual camera that is an impressive piece of kit given the gadget's price.
With both a telephoto and wide-angle lens, there's plenty to play around with, and it's even capable of taking 960fps slow-motion video.
Xaomi's camera AI can combine pixels to boost your pictures, mashing four pixels together as though each set of four were a single, larger pixel.
It's also got a decent night mode that adeptly brightens up photos taken in poor lighting to give them a bit more pop.
A 2MP + 24MP dual selfie snapper is hidden beneath the gadget's front face, and opens automatically when you pull the slider down.
The 2MP camera is there to add bokeh effects to your selfies, while the 24MP snapper does the bulk of the work.
There's even an LED flash to help you take that perfect selfie shot.
The Xaomi Mi MX 3 is fantastic value for money, and is definitely the best phone the firm has built so far.
Its camera and display are brilliant considering the device's price, and its design is smart even though the phone is a little on the chunky side.
While it doesn't quite hit the heights of the iPhone XS or XS Max, the Mi MIX 3 definitely goes toe-to-toe with some of the best Android handsets on the market.
I'd argue that if you're after a quality smartphone for a fair price, then you need look no further.
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