After years of keeping its distance, Chinese tech giant Xiaomi has finally made inroads into the UK smartphone sector, and it has just confirmed that it will be bringing its popular Mi Mix 3 handset to British shores early next year, with a typically modest price point to match.
Launched in October in China and powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 that is found in other 2018 flagships like the Galaxy S9 and OnePlus 6T, the big news about the Mi Mix 3 is that it has a true all-screen design, with not a single notch, tear-drop or hole-punch in sight.
How does Xiaomi do this? Simple – the front-facing dual camera setup (a 24-megapixel main snapper and a 2-megapixel depth-of-field camera for portrait shots) sits on a manual sliding mechanism which hides it from view when it's not in use. Using a pair of powerful neodymium magnets, this system can apparently withstand up to 300,000 operations. That might not sound like much, but the sliders on phones from a decade ago were only tested to around 100,000 operations, so we can't imagine we'll have many complaints.
The 6.39-inch OLED screen looks incredible as a result, offering the phone a whopping 93.4 percent screen-to-body ratio. There's a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and a dual 12-megapixel camera arrangement on the back of the device, and the phone holds the distinction of getting Xiaomi's highest ever DxO score – 108 – which means that it's the third-highest scoring smartphone overall in the rankings.
The Mi Mix 3 will have 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM, as well as a 3200mAh battery. You even get a 10W fast wireless charging pad and 18W power adapter in the box. Sadly, UK buyers won't have the option of picking up a model with 8GB and 10GB of RAM, as was the case in China. There also won't be a 256GB offering in Blighty, either.
So how much will it cost, and when can you buy it? Xiaomi UK marketing director Wilkin Lee has stated that pricing and availability will be revealed soon, but the phone will hit UK stores well within the first half of Q1. He also hinted that it will be competitively priced, so don't expect to pay Apple prices for this amazing bit of kit.
Xiaomi phones have long been desirable pieces of kit but UK fans previously had no option but to buy them from Chinese resellers and risk customs fees or dodgy pre-installed software. That's finally changing, and we couldn't be happier.
by dmcferran via Featured Articles
Posts
No comments: