If you’re disappointed by Samsung’s relatively slow progress on foldables, say hello to the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2, which looks significantly more advanced than what we saw in this week’s announcement from Samsung. But it’s for China only, of course. Sorry.

The Mix Fold 2 closely follows the layout of the Galaxy Z Fold 4—it’s a book-style foldable that has a phone-like front screen and a tablet-like flexible inner screen. The kicker is that the device is 40 percent thinner when folded up. We’re usually not on board with the smartphone thinness craze, but the thickness of foldables is a major concern. The 16-mm-thick Galaxy Z Fold really fills out your pocket compared to a normal smartphone, so Xiaomi is making progress here.

The Mix Fold 2 is just 11.2 mm thick when folded up, with each half measuring only 5.4 mm. Xiaomi’s phone is dramatically thinner than Samsung’s, and Xiaomi also manages to fit in a slightly bigger 4500 mAh battery (Samsung’s is 4400 mAh). The trick here—aside from Samsung not changing the Fold’s thickness or battery capacity for four years now—is that the Xiaomi foldable is a bit bigger than Samsung’s. When folded up, the Z Fold 4 is 155.1 mm x 67.1 mm x 15.8 mm, while Xiaomi’s device is at 161.6 mm x 73.9 mm x 11.2 mm. That 161.6 mm x 73.9 mm measurement is still smaller than a top-end smartphone, with an S22 Ultra measuring 163.3 mm x 77.9 mm x 8.9 mm.

On the front, you get a 120 Hz, 6.56-inch, 2520×1080 OLED display, while the inner foldable display is a 120 Hz, 8.02-inch, 2160×1914 OLED. Both screens are direct from Samsung Display, and the flexible display is made of the “Flexible Ultra Thin Glass” that Samsung pioneered. Flexible glass provides some rigidity to the otherwise squishy plastic display. The outer layer should still be plastic that you can dent with a fingernail, though.

For specs, you’ve got a pretty normal high-end loadout: a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, 12GB of RAM, and generous tiers of storage at 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. The cameras start with a 1/1.56-inch 50 MP Sony IMX 766, then there’s a 13 MP ultrawide, an 8 MP 2x telephoto, and a 20 MP front camera. The 4500 mAh battery supports 67 W charging.

Starting at RMB 8,999, or about $1,335, Xiaomi’s bigger, better foldable is also cheaper than Samsung’s. The phone goes on sale in China on August 16.

Listing image by Xiaomi

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1873429