MI MIX 4: Unexpected Back, Long-Awaited Under Display Camera

By Mara Anton

Posted on August 11, 2021

Xiaomi managed to defy expectations once again, this time with the flagship Mi Mix 4. The phone was announced this week with a surprising change on the back and the long-awaited under display camera.

Mi Mix 4: Where is the secondary display?

Everyone was almost certain Mi Mix 4 was going to pull an Ultra and come with a secondary display on the back of the phone. In fact, there were renders that implied that this time around, the selfie display was going to be bigger than even the one sported by the Mi 11 Ultra which was… insane, to say the least.

However, Xiaomi defied the odds and came with an ordinary camera island, one filled with lenses but with no screen in sight, keeping the main one as the only one the phone was going to sport.

Mi Mix 4: Under display camera is IN!

This didn’t mean Mi Mix 4 lost all its appeal. The feature that saved the device from oblivion was the under display camera. After missing from the latest Mi 11, I confess I was worried whether it could make an appearance at all on a Xiaomi phone.

I’m happy to have worried for nothing. Mi Mix 3 hid the 20MP selfie camera under a 6.67-inch AMOLED display. To manufacture a flawless screen, no interruptions in sight, Xiaomi had to come up with a new flexible display and redesign the circuit array.

Minimum light refraction was achieved by pairing a new micro-diamond pixel pattern with reimagined algorithms. Even the text above the camera position can be read, thanks to this new tech.

As for the display’s refresh rate, you’ll be thrilled to know that an 120Hz refresh rate is in the cards.

The camera itself is a great combo of an 108MP main with an 8MP periscope that grants you 5x optical zoom and a 13MP ultrawide.

Mi Mix 4: Battery, price

The phone runs on Snapdragon 888+ chip and has two memory options: 8 or 12GB of RAM with storage up to 512GB.

Mi Mix 4 is every bit the flagship you’d expect from this line. Even the battery – a 4,500mAh cell – can handle 120W wired charging and 50W wireless. Plus, connectivity-wise, you should know this is the first phone from Xiaomi that comes with ultra wide band support.

As for price, the starting tag is a decent CNY 4,999 ($770) but goes up to CNY 6,299 ($970) for the 12/512GB options.

Mi Mix 4 will hit the market in China this August 16.