Time flies very quickly and five years have passed since the announcement Xiaomi Mi MIX. The first representative of the MIX line, which has always been famous for experimentation. The first model was interesting for the practically absent bezels on the top and sides of the screen. The front camera was removed under the screen, and instead of the classic spoken speaker, a piezoelectric emitter was used in the screen. It cannot be said that Xiaomi Mi MIX became the "ancestor" of frameless smartphones (Sharp released similar models before, but they practically did not go outside Japan), but it was definitely a kind of popularizer. Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 was interesting with a slider design with a hidden front, Xiaomi Mi MIX Alpha received a screen that wraps the body. The current Xiaomi MIX 4 is not so experimental, but it also has a number of interesting features. In particular, the updated flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+ processor, 120W ultra-fast charging (which we have already seen in action in the Xiaomi 11T Pro) and a ceramic body. But the most interesting feature was the sub-screen front camera. Xiaomi is using it for the first time in its smartphones. And in general, there are only a few such smartphones on the market so far, and the implementation is not the best. Notable examples are ZTE Axon 30 5G and Samsung and Galaxy Z Fold3. Xiaomi MIX 4 will not be on sale with us, but editions managed get hold of a sample and get to know it better. First of all, with its sub-screen camera, which is especially interesting.
There is not much sense in a full review, both because of the difficulty with buying a smartphone, and because we had a sample with a raw version of the firmware. But there is something to tell about.
Fast passage:
- Why is the Xiaomi MIX 4 front camera interesting?
- How visible and how does this camera shoot?
- What does the smartphone itself look like?
- And what about the characteristics of the Xiaomi MIX 4?
- Why is the main camera interesting?
- In the dry residue
Why is the Xiaomi MIX 4 front camera interesting?
The main difference between the implementation of the sub-screen front camera in Xiaomi MIX 4 from competitors is that the pixel density is the same as that of the rest of the display: 400 pixels per inch, translucent sub-pixels are used. At the same time, the area with the front camera, of course, is translucent for shooting and it is slightly enlarged to capture more light. Pixels in the very area of the camera are disabled during shooting. According to Xiaomi, all these features made the camera almost invisible. Xiaomi calls its technology very obviously: Camera Under Panel or simply CUP. It took about 5 years to develop, a lot of patents were obtained. This is the 3rd generation of Xiaomi's own sub-screen cameras. Apparently, previous generations were not very successful. The camera resolution is 20 megapixels.
The technology also has a reverse side of the coin. Despite the fact that in essence Xiaomi MIX 4 is a flagship, albeit not for everyone, the display resolution is FullHD. With a 2K display, the pixel density above the front camera would be significantly lower and more noticeable. And the second point, which the company itself spoke about during the presentation: Xiaomi MIX 4 is not a smartphone for those who like to take a lot of selfies. In other words, the company admitted that the quality of the images on the sub-screen camera is not the best. Let's see what happened as a result.
How visible and how does this camera shoot?
Marketing is marketing, but the average user is more important about how it works in reality. And to give credit to the engineers at Xiaomi, this is the best implementation of a sub-screen camera that we have seen so far. And probably the best implementation of any commercial smartphone available today. The camera is not really visible in most cases when the screen is active.
For the most part, the front-facing camera area is visible thanks to the factory protective film that has a hole in the corresponding location. For the rest, the front-facing camera can be seen only at a certain angle in bright light. In short, the implementation is impressive. Aesthetes, whose sense of beauty is touched by the holes in the screen, will definitely be pleased. It seems that in a couple of years the technologies will already allow us to make truly invisible sub-screen cameras with decent shooting quality and we will see them not in isolated cases, but in large quantities, as happened with sub-screen fingerprint scanners.
