Xiaomi has been imagining the future for quite some time now with their all-screen smartphones giving a hint about how future phones will be designed and with the kind of technology they might be equipped with and now they are about to launch Mi MIX ALPHA. Xiaomi first all-screen device was launched 3yrs ago and it was called “MI MIX” and then the Mi MIX 2 which featured another kind of bezel-less design with a piezoelectric earpiece that was implemented because there was no space on the surface to house it, and in 2018, they released the Mi MIX 3 with a unique sliding mechanism.
Some of the features that are likely to be equipped on smartphones in the nearest future are already been featured one-by-one on their devices, and now they are putting the technologies from the Mi Mix to Mi MIX 3 on their new concept phone called Mi MIX ALPHA and its fire, trust me. Let’s get to the features.
The Mi MIX ALPHA is a concept device and it was originally meant to be launched last year but for some reason best known to Xiaomi, it was delayed.
Mi MIX ALPHA DESIGN
The device did look like a futuristic gadget at a first glance, just a top and bottom bezel is something you don’t get to see every day, Mi MIX ALPHA is made of an Aerospace-grade Titanium alloy frame which holds the wraparound display together, and a Glass Ceramic Back which is the vertical space that housed the triple camera with a sapphire glass at the top which is resistant to scratches in order to protect the cameras.
Like I made known in my intro, Xiaomi has it all planned and has been releasing the technologies that will be used on the Mi MIX ALPHA on some of their devices and now it here on this guy. In order to have this kind of display that takes up nearly the whole body of the device, technologies like the piezoelectric speakers instead of the regular earpiece we are used to and this was first seen on their Mi MIX 2, an ultrasonic proximity and fingerprint sensor which is kept beneath the display, and a liquid crystal polymer (LCP) antenna with just a clearance of 0.8mm, it’s so tiny.
The device is designed with just a single button at the top which is clearly not for locking and unlocking the device, but for power on and off. The mechanism for locking and unlocking the Mi MIX ALPHA is discussed below in the software section.
Mi MIX ALPHA DISPLAY
The screen of the Mi MIX ALPHA is the craziest thing about the device. It features a 7.92 inches FHD+ P-OLED display that extends all the way to the back giving it up to 180.36% screen-to-body ratio which is so freaking crazy. The device has a display resolution of 2080 x 2250p with ~388 PPI. The back screen is meant to do lots of things and according to info on Xiaomi webpage;
“The most used applications are displayed as gadgets on the back display. In the future, it will be able to perform real-time AI scene detection. For example, at an airport, the back will automatically show your boarding pass. When you are traveling by taxi, it will be able to display the real-time route.”
And I know what is running through your mind right now; will the phone screen not get hot while we hold them at the back? how are we going to operate it when our fingers will be placed on the back screen too? I had these questions too, anyways, Xiaomi has a solution for this.
Xiaomi implemented some sensors and AI on the Mi MIX ALPHA; the device features a particular screen usage detection that automatically disables areas of the device that are not used for the time being to avoid unintended or unwanted touches.
Mi MIX ALPHA HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE
Mi MIX ALPHA has equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ Processor, with a 12GB RAM, that’s huge and users will a 512GB of internal storage without memory expansion. The device will be running on a highly customized MIUI which will be controlling features like accidental touches on the screen as I discussed above, there are a “pressure-sensitive virtual side buttons” which is meant for lock and unlock button and volume rocker.
The software, MIUI which is based on Android 10 will take care of power lock (on/off) and volume and guess what? the on-screen side power button never goes off even when the display is off. According to the maker, the buttons are customizable and can move from a position to another depending on the orientation of the screen.
To the rear side screen of the device that took 80.36% of the back surface, the right half of the back has the bigger screen so it shows a series of information when needed. The software is customized in such a way that it detects when Mi MIX ALPHA is being flipped over to either take a selfie, to control smart home devices, check flight, cab or train bookings and weather reports using a real-time AI scene detection.
To the sides; we have the normal stuff we have on our regular smartphones like the network signal, battery %, alarm bell, Bluetooth when on, and other things that show on our phones, and the other side of the screen glows when a notification comes in.
Mi MIX ALPHA CAMERA
The camera is quite a big deal on the Mi MIX ALPHA featuring a 108MP Samsung ISOCELL HMX S5KHMX primary lens with f/1.7 large aperture, a 12MP telephoto x2 lens with f/2.0 aperture, double PD autofocus, and 6P lens and finally a 20MP lens with f/2.2 and 6P lens for taking ultra-wide-angle pictures.
And I don’t know if you skipped a place where I said the phone detects if it is being flipped over to take selfies, this implies that there is no special selfie camera, users get to use the back cameras for selfie shots too, so it is a good one as users will get a very high-resolution selfie shots with the huge lens and shooting 4K video with OIS is freaking great. The power of the 108MP lens has been demonstrated on their flagship device, Xiaomi Mi Note 10, so if you want to see how great it is, just move into YouTube and watch the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 camera review.
Mi MIX ALPHA BATTERY AND CONNECTIVITY
Mi MIX ALPHA housed a 4,050mAh Nano silicon cathode battery type with 40W fast charging technology. The battery should get users up to 10hrs talk-time, 8hrs of web-browsing time, 9hrs of video playback time and up to 9hrs overall usage. We have a USB Type-C for both charging and headphone jack with support for OTG, and Bluetooth v5.0 with the A2DP profile.
Mi MIX ALPHA OTHER SPECS
Mi MIX ALPHA features an in-display sound technology, a single stereo bottom loudspeaker. It also supports dual SIM (Nano type), 2G/3G/4G and we have a 5G which is made possible using the LCP integrated antenna design that supports up to 5 types of 5G bands.
The device also features cool stuff like the charging animation which takes up the entire screen when charging as seen below.
Mi MIX ALPHA PRICE IN NIGERIA
Mi MIX ALPHA is set to go on sale for approximately 2.8M naira which is up to $7,999 on Aliexpress and the presale goes for 1.8M Naira which is approx. $6,999.
