Xiaomi Mix 4 Hands-on: The original Mi Mix vision, finally r

Xiaomi started making smartphones in 2011 — the Mi 1 was released on Aug 16 of that year. And while the company quickly achieved commercial success in its hometown China, it wasn’t really until October 25, 2016, that the company made a noticeable splash on a global stage and turned heads. That was the day Xiaomi unveiled the Mi Mix, a so-called “bezel-less phone” with virtually non-existent bezels on the top, left, and right sides of the screen. I still remember the headlines trickling out of western tech media that day, using words like “blows minds,” “made jaws dropped,” and “beautifully bonkers” to describe the device. It was the first time Xiaomi garnered such gushy praises from English media.

Of course, the Mi Mix wasn’t truly without bezels, as it sported a chin bezel that was needed to house the display controller parts and the front-facing selfie camera.

But smartphone innovations have come fast. Phone makers soon figured out how to roll the display controller bits under the screen to reduce chin bezel space, and selfie cameras wiggled their way to behind the display panel — it just needed a punch-hole cutout for the camera to see.

Eventually, brands figured out a way to not need that hole at all. OPPO introduced this tech first as a concept, ZTE then released it commercially with the Axon 20 5G, Samsung brought it to the globe with the Galaxy Z Fold 3, and now Xiaomi has adopted it for the Mix 4.



It took five years, but Xiaomi’s original vision with the Mi Mix — a truly bezel-less phone — has finally been achieved. Curiously, Xiaomi dropped the “Mi” part of its usual branding from the name of this device.



Xiaomi Mix 4: Under-screen Camera
We have to start with that selfie camera. Dubbed “CUP” (camera under panel) by Xiaomi, this 20MP camera is placed in the center-top part of the Mix 4’s front-side, underneath the display panel.



Just like the implementation in the ZTE Axon 20 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, the technology sees pixels in that particular part of the screen covering the camera lens be shrunken to allow light information to pass through the lens.


But while ZTE and Samsung’s implementations (in the Axon 20 5G and Galaxy Z Fold 3) leave a mark on part of the displays that can be easily seen, Xiaomi’s implementation is much harder to notice.

But how does the selfie camera perform? I’d use the word “okay.” Because the camera is ultimately still covered by a display panel, there’s a consistent hazy look in the camera viewfinder when previewing selfies. This is slightly noticeable if you shoot in favorable lighting conditions, like indoors with well-balanced lighting. But when shooting in tougher situations like against backlight, the viewfinder looks like I’m surrounded by smoke, and lights are all blown out.