It’s only been a few days since the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 shipped to enthusiastic buyers, and now Xiaomi has announced a foldable phone that might make Samsung fans seem a little less fond of their purchase, as the new Xiaomi The Mix Fold 3 could outperform the Z Fold 5 in several ways.
To begin with, this is a great-looking phone. While we subjectively dislike the camera design, the rest of it looks as good as you’d expect from a premium foldable, and you can get it with a glass or fiber-composite back, the latter being a more unusual option. It’s also incredibly thin at just 5.3mm thick when unfolded (surpassing both the 6.1mm Z Fold 5 and the 5.8mm Google Pixel Fold).
The Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 also looks impressively durable, as it’s rated to survive up to 500,000 folding cycles, compared to just 200,000 for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Pixel Fold. Notably, though, Xiaomi’s phone isn’t IP-rated, meaning it’s unlikely to be as waterproof as those two rivals.
This is very important because one criticism we have of most foldable phones is that their camera setups can’t match the best non-foldable phones.
Big screens and powerful battery
And we haven’t talked about the screens yet. Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 sports a large 8.03-inch 1916 x 2160 pixels foldable OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, while the cover display is a 6.56-inch 1080 x 2520 pixels OLED with a 120Hz refresh rate. 120Hz. Both are larger than the screens found on Samsung and Google foldable.
The Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 also packs a high-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, up to 1TB of storage, up to 16GB of RAM, and a 4,800mAh battery, with 67W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.
So this is a phone with impressive specs and features by all accounts, but unfortunately, this presentation was only for China, and the Mix Fold 3 is unlikely to be available in most other places. Too bad, because at least in China it costs much less than the competition, with a starting price of 8,999 CNY (about €1,130).
If the Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 is released worldwide, we will let you know. In any case, we hope Samsung and Google take note.
