Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 review: Showing its rivals what an all-screen flagship really looks like

XIAOMI MI MIX 3 • £499 (as tested)

• FOR – All-screen design • Sliding mechanism is truly innovative • Ceramic back panel feels extremely premium • Quality cameras • Wireless charging • Remappable Google Assistant button
• AGAINST – Mediocre battery life • Slider can be awkward to use in certain conditions • Heavy Android skin

Chinese tech behemoth Xiaomi launched in the UK back in November and showed it was serious with its expansion by giving customers a laundry list of products that could be purchased at either its online or physical store.

However, when the Chinese OEM debuted in Britain it positioned its Mi 8 Pro device as its hardware designed to compete with the likes of the OnePlus 6T.

Notably absent was its Mi MIX 3 flagship that was shown off in its home market back in October.

The Mi MIX series has long been positioned as Xiaomi’s most premium device and the product line was actually one of the first to radically cut down the size of borders on the top and bottom of a screen.

The Mi MIX 3 is the firm’s latest attempt to deliver a compelling flagship and is decidedly premium while also offering a few features that differentiate it from its most immediate competition.

But is the Mi MIX 3 worth picking up over the likes of the OnePlus 6T and Honor View 20? Here is Express.co.uk’s full review.

Design and display

The Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 is immediately striking for its incredibly small bezels that give it a laudable all-screen aesthetic.

While the hardware is certainly not free of borders thanks to its slightly noticeable chin, it is certainly a step forward for smartphone innovation.

Xiaomi claims the phone delivers an astonishing 93.4 percent screen-to-body ratio.

The Mi MIX 3 achieves its all-screen look by housing its front camera system inside a slider mechanism.

Mi MIX 3 is essentially made up of two different panels, the front that flaunts the phone’s display and the rear that plays host to the entire phone’s internals.

If you hold the Mi MIX 3 up to a light, you can actually see right though the device; this is done so when the front panel is sliding up and down it does not actually come into contact with the rear one.

The slider used by Xiaomi is manual, meaning the user has to apply pressure on it for the process to be achieved.

Although the longevity of such a system is still unclear, it appears to be more durable than the motorised methods harnessed by the likes of the OPPO Find X and some of Vivo’s offerings.

Using the slider is not a flawless process; in cold conditions it can be difficult to grip the front of the display, meaning in some situations we had to perform the action with two hands.

Moreover, once the slider has been opened it does not present an easy way for the user to hold the device.

Once the front cameras have been exposed it means the thin front panel is the only item for your pinkie finger to tuck underneath in order to keep the phone from dropping in selfie situations.

The awkward manner in which you have to hold the device when its front-facing cameras are exposed makes taking selfies feel more like a chore than something you actively want to do.

However, we personally think the added thought that needs to go into taking front-facing snaps is certainly worth trading off for the beautiful all-screen aesthetic offered by the device.

This opinion will surely be shared amongst those that are not fussed about taking selfies or rarely engage in them.

It is worth noting during this outlet’s testing of the handset, we frequently experienced occasions where dust built-up in the area between the front and back panel.

This meant when we took advantage of the sliding mechanism, we habitually found the camera lenses on the device were covered in lint.

While this can easily be cleaned with a microfibre cloth, it is still an annoyance nonetheless.

The Mi MIX 3’s rear panel is made of ceramic rather than the glass present on most other devices.

While the difference in material is not immediately clear just by holding the device, during Express.co.uk’s testing we noticed the hardware did not scratch as easily as other glass devices we had tested.

For this reason we were more happy to use the Mi MIX 3 without a case for most of our extensive testing.

The Mi MIX 3 comes in black and blue colours, the former was tested for this review and looks incredibly premium thanks to its small Xiaomi branding text in gold.

Housed on the Chinese phone’s body is a single speaker at its bottom in addition to a USB-C port.

It is worth noting the hardware also has a dedicated Google Assistant button on its left-hand side.

However, this is can be reconfigured to perform other functions such as opening the camera application and Xiaomi should be applauded for the fact.

In terms of the phone’s display, the Mi MIX 3 comes with a 6.39-inch AMOLED panel that offers a resolution of 1080×2340 and a density of 403-pixels-per-inch.

The screen itself is stupendously vibrant, offers gorgeous viewing angles and looks all the more attractive thanks to its absence of a notch.

Xiaomi really needs to be praised for its drive to rid the Mi MIX 3 of bezels entirely.

While the phone’s bottom border is still slightly noticeable, the Chinese firm’s effort not only has us excited for future all-screen phones, but also wishing other manufacturers were as keen to be experimental to deliver futuristic-looking devices.

Performance

While the Mi MIX 3 is certainly a standout when it comes to design, it certainly conforms to established norms when it comes to performance.

The version of the Mi MIX 3 that is available to purchase in the UK is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset and 6GB of RAM.

That means the device is incredibly capable, delivering swift performance across Android 9 Pie, but is certainly not rapidly faster than its rivals, if at all.

The biggest downfall of the Mi MIX 3 is its software; MIUI 10 is one of the heaviest Android skins we have used in a long time thanks to its unique-looking notification shade and multitasking menu.

The former is certainly not as intuitive as we would have liked; the software does not let users dismiss notifications by swiping to the left for instance, as is standard for most other Android devices.

Instead a swipe to the right is needed, and while this may seem like a very minor complaint, it serves to highlight that Xiaomi’s software tries to fix aspects of Google’s operating system that were not broken in the first place.

Furthermore, MIUI 10 does not allow the user to turn on a traditional app drawer for the software, meaning all programmes need to be scattered across the user’s home screen.

For us such an admission is simply bizarre and prompted us to quickly install a third-party launcher on the device.

On a more positive note, Xiaomi’s approach to multitasking is certainly an appreciated one.

Instead of having different app cards presented in a horizontal format, the Chinese tech giant has opted for a vertical one that positions two apps on either side.

While this does mean seeing the status of each application is slightly more difficult, it does allow the user to view more opened programmes at once.

One of the biggest annoyances of MIUI 10 is the litany of duplicate applications that appear if the user wants to use software offered by Google instead.

Having two contacts, clock and messaging applications is a frustration that cannot be altered thanks to Xiaomi’s refusal to allow the user to delete some of their native apps.

What is most concerning is the fact if the user chooses to use Google’s programmes instead, they are seemingly punished for it.

We chose to use Google’s Messages app as our main SMS client for instance and noticed we were not receiving certain texts.

A switch to the Messaging programme offered by Xiaomi quickly addressed such issues and highlights the fact the user is seemingly forced to use the Chinese firm’s offerings or miss out on a reliable experience entirely.

While some of the Chinese OEM’s apps are perfectly usable, they can in no way stand up to some of the offerings from Google and it is extremely disappointing owners of the Mi MIX 3 are prompted to use inherently worse software at times.

Mi MIX 3 comes with a single-firing speaker at the bottom of the device that is fairly standard when it comes to audio quality.

Nothing sounds too tinny but equally it will not give audiophiles anything to write home about.

The placement of the speaker at the bottom of the handset means it can be easily covered up, detracting from the immersion offered by the all-screen design.

Although performance is certainly a mixed bag for the Chinese handset, it is worth noting Xiaomi has already announced it will be bringing a new version of the Mi MIX 3 to Europe later this year that is powered by Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 855 chipset and is capable of delivering 5G speeds.

While the capabilities of such a device have not been tested by this outlet, it shows Xiaomi is intent on improving the Mi MIX 3 in an effort to make it more appealing to Android enthusiasts.

Battery

The Mi MIX 3’s battery is easily its most uninspired aspect.

The handset comes with a 3,200mAh pack that failed to deliver a solid day of performance in our testing.

Instead, the hardware routinely needed at least one charge during the day to keep it going.

After waking up early in the morning, there were some days where the Mi MIX 3 had a 60 percent charge by 10am.

A battery with supreme endurance is not always necessary for those that are able to charge their device during work hours, but for those that need longevity for travelling or other circumstances, the Mi MIX 3 is certainly not the device for you unless you are willing to regularly employ an external battery bank.

The life offered by Mi MIX 3 is all the more disappointing when its closest rivals, the OnePlus 6T and Honor View 20, are both able to easily get through an entire day of heavy use on a single charge.

Camera

The Mi MIX 3 comes with a dual camera system on its rear that is comprised of two 12-megapixel lenses with one acting as the main sensor and the other offering telephoto capabilities.

During our testing the Chinese device produced superb shots with great colour accuracy.

Moreover, the handset was also able to handle HDR shots laudably.

In fact, the device outclassed the Honor View 20 in these situations.

Several photos we took that had multiple objects in the frame and the sky in the background were much more pleasing on the Xiaomi handset.

The Mi MIX 3 was most commendable for its ability to accurately display colours in the sky for instance.

In comparison, such details on the View 20 were blown out on regular occasion.

When snapping photos in low-light conditions, the Chinese flagship is capable but is certainly not industry leading.

The handset’s dedicated night mode does not come close to toppling Night Sight offered on Google Pixel devices and even succumbs to the View 20 here.

When taking photos on the Mi MIX 3 in dark conditions we noticed some details were not as prominent as we would have liked them to be.

Moreover, any lights that were present in a shot were typically more blown out than on competing devices.

While we did not find the phone’s front-facing sensors to apply any smoothing effects, they did produce images that were slightly colder than we thought they should have been.

Moreover, the front cameras also struggled to capture some details in HDR conditions.

The Mi MIX 3 has two front snappers; one acting as the main lens and the other that is used as a depth sensor.

The latter appears to be responsible for producing accurate portrait mode shots during our testing.

Xiaomi’s mode ensured for the most part nuanced details such as the fur on a coat were not obscured by any bokeh effects.

While the Mi MIX 3 does not offer camera systems on either its front or rear that are industry-leading, it is incredibly capable, reliable and will be more than sufficient for the needs of users.

Price

The Mi MIX 3 is priced at £499, meaning it directly competes with the likes of the OnePlus 6T and Honor View 20.

It is worth noting Xiaomi has made it incredibly easy to buy the Mi MIX 3 thanks to the single variant of the product available.

The Chinese device being sold in the UK comes with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage.

Xiaomi has included a wireless charger and a case inside the packaging for the Mi MIX 3 and certainly makes unboxing the phone a more exciting experience than that offered by its competitors.

Xiaomi’s flagship serves as compelling evidence that innovation does not need to come at an eye-watering price.

The hardware does not feel compromised in performance or design for its price and the Chinese firm should be congratulated for the fact.

Verdict

The Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 is an admirable offering for Android fans that are tired of increasingly homogenous smartphones.

The handset’s unique sliding mechanism allows for an all-screen design that is not only incredibly rare amongst more affordable devices, but top-tier offerings too.

Moreover, the flagship also touts an incredibly capable camera system that trumps its closest competitors in a number of scenarios.

The device is certainly not perfect though with its biggest caveats coming from its battery capacity and software.

But for anyone that wants a smartphone that performs well and stands out from the crowd, the Mi MIX 3 is certainly the handset for you.