Chinese mobile manufacturer Xiaomi has just announced a smartphone that is no far cry from rivalling the yet-unborn iPhone 8, according to many. But the kicker for Indians is, it won't be coming over this side of the South China Sea.
The electronics manufacturer had earlier this year launched only the 32-GB variant of the Mi 5 range of phones.
The Mi Mix is made of — hold your breath, because your phone might crack if you breathe too hard — ceramic. It basically looks like a sheet of clear glass, no kidding. Or alternatively, like an Infinite Pool that reflects the night sky all the way to its boundaries. The ‘concept phone’, designed by the Frenchman Phillippe Starck, uses “seamless connectors to fuse Mi Mix’s body without any external adhesives”, and weighs a mere 209 grams.
The main objective of the Mi Mix appears to be an enhanced content-viewing experience, helped by the enhanced screen surface area, with a 91.3% scree-to-body ratio and OLED display panel.
Along with the Mi Mix, Xiaomi also introduced the Mi Note 2 and its Virtual Reality headset, which is similar to Sony's and costs around $30.
Expected to be released around November in China for $520, the 6.4-inch-screen phone will operate on Android Marshmallow, use a Snapdragon 821 processor, and come with 4-GB/6-GB RAM, 64-GB/128-GB storage, and a 4,400-mAh battery that is touted to charge up to 83% in 30 minutes. It is Lithium-ion, though. Oh oh. Ring a loud bell, Samsung-users?
It won't have a selfie camera, but the compact 16MP front camera, located at the bottom of the phone, will take a selfie when rotated and come with Geo-tagging, Touch-focus, Face-recognition, HDR and Panorama image capture.
The fact that Xiaomi is aping Samsung now, rather than Apple, seems to suggest that Samsung is now setting the standard for phone aesthetics
— Vinay Aravind (@vinayaravind) >October 25, 2016
When it comes to audio, the Mi Mix does not have an earpiece or regular speakers. Instead, the sound vibrates within the ceramic in a special way — using ‘Cantilever piezoelectric ceramic acoustic’ technology.
