Xiaomi shows what a foldable could look like if Samsung had competition

The Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 has launched in China just days after Samsung announced its next generation of foldable handsets, with Xiaomi looking to gain an advantage over its competition with a slimmer design, bigger displays, and a more cheaper price.

The Mix Fold 2 has several improvements over the original Mi Mix Fold released last year that go beyond dropping the Mi branding. The Fold 2 is powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 SoC flagship chipset, with 12GB of RAM and several storage options starting from 256GB to 1TB. It also features an improved hinge and comes in either gold or black.

As a foldable, you’re getting a 6.56-inch OLED outer display (2520 x 1080) with a long 21:9 aspect ratio and an 8.02-inch LTPO 2.0 inner display (2160 x 1914), which are both slightly larger than Samsung’s 6.2-inch OLED outer display (2316 x 904) and 7.6-inch (2176 x 1812) OLED inner display found on the Galaxy Z Fold 4. Both of the Mix Fold 2 displays run at 120Hz with a brightness of 1,000 nits.

Xiaomi’s foldable features a triple camera setup with a primary 50-megapixel camera, a 13-megapixel ultrawide, and an eight-megapixel telephoto with 2x optical zoom. There’s also a 20-megapixel hole-punch camera in the front for selfies.

Xiaomi’s announcement comes after Samsung launched two foldable device of its own on Wednesday — the Galxy Z Flip 4 and Galaxy Z Fold 4— which will create some much-needed competition in the foldables market if the Mix Fold 2 ever ships to markets outside of China. One way that Xiaomi is trying to get a leg up over its Korean rivals is its claim that the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 is the “world’s thinnest foldable phone.” At just 5.4mm, it shaves almost 15 percent of the thickness off the 6.3mm Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4.

However, Samsung’s flagship offering includes a useful Flex mode (Samsung’s terminology for applications automatically reorienting to fit a folded screen) and IPX8 water resistance, two features that the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 lacks. Nonetheless, Xiaomi’s 4,500mAh battery capacity is slightly larger than Samsung’s Z Fold 4’s 4,400mAh battery. The Mix Fold 2 also supports 67W wired fast charging, with the brand claiming a full charge in 40 minutes, whereas the Z Fold 4 only supports up to 25W fast charging, with Samsung claiming the handset can achieve up to 50% of its battery capacity in 30 minutes.

At the moment, the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 is only available in China, with no word on when the phone will be available in other markets. The 256GB base model is priced at CNY 8,999 (approximately $1,300 USD), which is significantly less than the CNY 13,999 (over $2,000 USD) that Samsung is asking for the 256GB version of its Z Fold 4 in the country.

If those prices hold for an international launch, Samsung could finally face some serious competition in foldables, particularly in price-sensitive markets like India, where Xiaomi already holds the No. 1 market share and Samsung has fallen to fourth, according to IDC.

Given the lack of a competitor to Samsung’s Flex mode, you probably won’t want to hold the handset half open like this. Image: Xiaom