Xiaomi has today unveiled the Mix 4 that has a bezel-less design with a seamless screen. The new phone carries on that idea by commercializing under-display camera technology that Xiaomi has been working on for a long time with a selfie camera that’s located directly under the screen.
The camera technology is called CUP (Camera Under Panel), though it’s similar to the under-display selfie cameras we’ve seen from other companies. Like Oppo and ZTE’s latest efforts, the Mix 4’s screen has a 400ppi area that lets light pass through to the selfie camera, which Xiaomi describes as “virtually invisible.” The camera is 20 megapixels and the display is a 6.67-inch 120Hz 1080p curved OLED panel.
Xiaomi says CUP is “a technology iterated through three major generations, five years, sixty patents, a $77 million investment, and hundreds of engineers.” Last year the company promised to start mass-producing smartphones with its third-generation under-display camera technology in 2021, so it’s making good on that pledge with the Mix 4. Xiaomi first demonstrated its take on the idea back in 2019.
The Mix 4 is the first phone to be announced with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 888 Plus processor, a speed-bumped version of the flagship 888 chip with a top clock speed of 3GHz. (Honor did already say that it would use the 888 Plus in the Magic 3, but that phone is yet to be revealed in full.) The processor is paired with 8GB or 12GB of RAM and 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB of storage.
The camera system centers around a 108-megapixel Samsung HMX sensor, suggesting similar or identical performance to the slightly outdated but still pretty good Mi 11. There’s also a 13-megapixel ultrawide and an 8-megapixel 5x periscope telephoto.
The Mix 4 has a 4,500mAh battery that can charge at up to 120W wired and 50W wireless. This isn’t Xiaomi’s first phone with 120W fast-charging, but it might be the fastest — Xiaomi claims the battery will get a full charge in under 15 minutes, compared to 23 minutes for last year’s Mi 10 Ultra. 50W wireless charging, meanwhile, will take 28 minutes to get you to 100 percent.
Xiaomi will only confirm a mainland China launch for the Mix 4 so far. Preorders will start there tomorrow with general availability coming on August 16th, and the pricing starts at $770 for an 8GB/128GB model, going up to $970 for 12GB/512GB.
