Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S

Mi Mix 2S is a premium phone from the budget smartphone giant, Xiaomi. Priced at Rs. 41,000, Xiaomi shows its capability in producing flagship giants as well, making a statement to the smartphone market that it can hold its own.

The “S” in Mi Mix 2S indicates some significant updates that the Mi Mix 2 model has gone through – it has better cameras, a flagship high-end processor and it comes with the premium wireless charging. Mi Mix 2S enters the market as a competitive fighter standing against high-end flagship phones.

In terms of design, Mi Mix 2S has gone for some unconventional tactics. It has made the top bezel as thin as possible, and to remove the hurdle of the selfie camera – it has brought it down at the bottom of the screen – a very unique location. The rear of the phone is ceramic making it feel like an exquisite jewel. The rounded corners are comfortable to hold, and the dash of gold trim applied around the camera stack, and the fingerprint scanner makes it an excellent item. However, like many flagships, it has dropped the headphone jack. Plus, it is not water-resistant either, which is a disappointment for such an elegant-looking handset.

Mi Mix 2S has a 6-inch LCD with full-HD+ resolution, which is quite similar to LG G7’s screen. It’s sharp and accurate and produces a lot of vibrant colour which is acceptable. The fine details are present on the screen too. However, Xiaomi has opted not to include the OLED display in this flagship product. As a result, it lacks the punchy colours and deep black present in Samsung S9 or the iPhone X’s display, both fitted with OLED screens. Mi Mix 2S has a decent full-screen brightness of 441 nits, but it falls way behind Galaxy S9’s 630 nits, which is one of the best in the modern flagship market.

Mi Max 2 S has a Snapdragon 845 chipset. It is one of the first Snapdragon 845 chipsets which is partnered with an optional 8GB RAM, unlike flagships like Samsung S9 and S9+ which come with 4GB or 6GB. The sizable RAM makes Mi Mix 2S a speedy phone. It can juggle between apps without a problem and can handle heavy games without lag. Multitasking works like a breeze. To put it into perspective, the benchmark of 8GB Mi Mix 2S got up to 8,377, which is slightly better than Samsung’s 8,295 – just because of the extra boost by the RAM.

Mi Mix 2S arrives with two 12MP rear cameras. The primary camera has an f/1.8 aperture, and the secondary telephoto has an f/2.4 aperture. The real prowess lies in the AI-assistance feature that the camera comes equipped with. They are ‘smart’ and can recognise scenes and make suitable adjustments on that basis for the best photo to be reproduced. Mi Mix 2S delivers fantastic picture clarity – it has excellent capability to hold on to the details of the image, and it keeps the contrast realistic. A comparison with the flagship rival Galaxy S9+ would suffice. Mi Mix 2S’ cameras provide punchier colours and sharper contrast, making the image look better than that of Galaxy S9+. However, Mi Mix 2S performs way worse when the light source is turned off. In low-light situations, Mi Mix 2S presents a noisy photo with a muddy texture resembling the quality of a budget handset. On the other hand, Galaxy S9+ gives a clear picture with almost no noise and a remarkable clarity sailing past Mi Mix 2S’ performance by a yard.

The Mi Mix 2S’ 5Mp selfie camera is decent but underperforms when compared to the powerful rear camera. In Portrait mode, it cannot click decent shots in grey sky and often lead to blowing out the clouds in proportion. Colours are often inaccurate, and the image quality is not very sharp.

Mi Mix 2S has a 3,400-mAh battery which can efficiently perform light to moderate tasks and stay alive throughout the day. It can last for 10 hours, and 15 minutes after continuous streaming web pages which is above the average of 9 hours 50 minutes, However, it doesn’t beat the 11-hour score of Galaxy S9+ and the 12-hour score of Google Pixel 2 XL. Mi Mix 2S also arrives with wireless charging though it is slow and takes 3 hours to get from zero to full.

Mi Mix 2 has a great performance – one of the best in its flagship market. It also looks good, so Xiaomi has been able to balance both design and features. While the camera may not be the best in the market, it does give fair competition to high-end products like Samsung, when it comes to daylight photography. On the whole, Mi Mix 2 is a great set. For a prospective buyer, it is an interesting phone to get your palms on. However, OnePlus 6 is also a phone worth considering, with similar performance and a good camera.