A while back, Xiaomi showed off the Mi Mix, quite deserving a category of its own because of its enormous screen, its breathtaking design, and its stark aberration from tried-and-tested smartphone designs that have now aged. The Mi Mix flaunts an almost bezel-less display, which is just a fancy phrase for what's essentially a device that's almost entirely a screen.
The svelte monolith had tech enthusiasts in munificent fanfare when it was showcased, and although the phone won't be heading to the U.S. market anytime soon, the same phone has now been spotted in a white variant, as announced by the company at this year's CES.
A White Xiaomi Mi Mix
Rumors of this now-confirmed white variant first surfaced late November. Boasting the same internals as the black Mi Mix, the white variant's most alluring feature is without a doubt its screen: a 6.4-inch display, which takes up 91.3 percent of the phone's front panel.
The Mi Mix was launched late last year in China, where the phone was more than warmly received. The first batch of Mi Mix devices sold out 10 seconds after availability, a huge feat considering it's the most expensive entry in Xiaomi's portfolio, costing nearly $600 when converted.
Xiaomi Mi Mix Specs
The device, at that price tag, logically comes with top-tier hardware, but it's starkly different in terms of aesthetics. Whereas phones reserve space in the front panel for the earpiece, the Mi Mix's design has it embedded underneath the huge display, by virtue of what Xiaomi calls "cantilever piezoelectric ceramic acoustic" technology. Because of this, the proximity sensor has been eliminated in place of an ultrasonic technology that performs the same function, all housed stealthily beneath the screen.
Such a striking and futuristic looking design bears resemblance to the phone found on Black Mirror's Nosedive, although that episode covers another conversation altogether. The point is, the Mi Mix will surely leave — has already left and is still leaving — many people awestruck, and it's a bit of a disappointment that it won't land on U.S. shores in 2017, or ever.
Here's what the U.S. market is missing out on: a bezel-less display with a resolution of 2,040 x 1,080, a 2.35 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, an Adreno 530 GPU, 4 or 6 GB of RAM, and 128 or 256 GB of internal storage.
On the back is a 16-megapixel camera that can record 4K video at 30 fps and 720p at 120 fps. On the front — on the panel's bottom right corner — is 5-megapixel camera, which is a bit on the average side by today's standards, although still decent and passable for selfies.
There's also a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner on the smartphone, which rounds out its stunning spec sheet so far. As for juice, the device runs on a 4,400 mAh battery, which can be charged up to 83 percent in just 30 minutes thanks to Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0 technology.
The White Xiaomi Mi Mix starts shipping in China later this year.
Still hoping for a U.S. release for the Xiaomi Mi Mix? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
