Xiaomi MIX 4 evaluation: an attack on Tsing Yi! mobile phone screen

First, the preface and picture appreciation

Note: The preface is long, mainly reviewing the course of Xiaomi's impact on high-end and MIX series, so you can skip the preface directly and save time.

A few years ago, Xiaomi mobile phone was synonymous with cost performance and brand name.

1999 yuan, Xiaomi has been known for its cost performance in the mobile phone circle since the release of its first mobile phone. With its unique internet operation, the cost of dealers has been reduced, but also, the cost performance has become the bondage of Xiaomi mobile phone.

With the important premise of cost performance, Xiaomi dare not invest too much in R&D, especially in the high-end market. At that time, no one would want to buy a 5000-yuan millet phone, so it was difficult to break the ice.

At the beginning of 20 15, Xiaomi Note, which focuses on high-end, appeared. The top version rarely uses a 2K resolution screen, and the price is 3299 yuan. Moreover, Xiaomi, who was still ignorant at that time, released a high-end series.

The final response is also known, and the performance is not satisfactory. The most important thing is that the tonality of Xiaomi brand has not been established. There is almost no warning for the release of the Note series, and the products are piled up blindly, ignoring the experience.

20 16, Xiaomi Note 2 conference, Lei Jun finished this model in half an hour. When everyone thought the press conference was over, MIX appeared on the big screen. When the screen was lit, the audience was filled with joy.

It's really beaming. I crouched beside the computer to watch the conference, and I was deeply impressed.

At this time, the smartphone is faced with a choice. What form should it develop into, folding? Is it a somersault? Xiaomi MIX first gave the answer-full screen. After many years, the proportion of smart phone screens began to expand, from 18:9 to Liu Haiping, to dripping screens, and then to digging screens.

A curator of the Finnish National Design Museum commented on the first generation of Xiaomi MIX and pointed out the design direction of smart phones in the future.

In the following years, Xiaomi laid out the high-end market and released MIX 2/2S one after another until MIX 3 in 20 18. This series pressed the pause button and began to focus on the digital series. The Redmi brand was independent, and the latter took over the banner of cost performance. As we all know, with Xiaomi 10 series and Xiaomi 18,

During the period, although there were also models such as MIX Alpha and MIX FOLD released, they did not belong to the basic sequence, and rice noodles were still iteratively updated-MIX 4.

Now, here it comes.

In terms of color matching, Xiaomi MIX 4 offers three colors: shadow blue gray, ceramic white and ceramic black, all of which adopt Unibody all-ceramic body, which is the first lightweight integrated precision ceramics. What's the use? Let's look at the pictures and enjoy the links.

Mobile phone packaging

Mobile phone packaging

It says "there is no perfection in the world, but there are always people who pursue perfection"

Open the package

After the protective film of the mobile phone is removed and put into the mobile phone, it looks like a whole piece of glass. Let's say that MIX 4 is a hyperboloid screen, but some users still like straight screen, some say that curved screen is easy to touch by mistake, and some say it is not as good as straight screen. But for now, the slightly curved form of MIX 4 is still very suitable for the present. Personally, I think the value of information screen is definitely higher than that of straight screen (everyone has his own opinion to prevent leverage), and MIUI also has an algorithm.

Front of mobile phone

Front of mobile phone

This screen is the most important part of MIX 4. It uses a brand-new cup full screen. It is said that after three generations of technical iterations, the camera area and display area have reached 400ppi. No matter the front, side or other colors, the lens in the center is completely invisible (the obvious area in the center is the hole dug by the original protective film), which completely shows the actual screen.

Front of mobile phone

Front of mobile phone

In order to achieve such a display effect, Xiaomi MIX 4 pioneered the micro-drilling arrangement, which reduced the sub-pixel area and reduced the light occlusion while keeping the number of pixels and RGB ratio unchanged, and realized the 100% full pixel display. It also has a unique circuit design and ITO transparent wires. Compared with the first generation shown last year, there are still problems such as mosaic, screen window and pixels per inch. This time, the screen of MIX 4 really achieved the display effect.

Front of mobile phone

The exhibition area of the cup is 0.2cm? , which accounts for 0.2% of the whole screen area, is said to be such a small area, but the cost is higher than that of a whole conventional flagship machine screen, the cost is greatly increased, and the manufacturing process is complicated.

In terms of parameters, the screen of MIX 4 is 6.67 inches, made of AMOLED, with a resolution of 2400x 1080, supporting P3 color gamut, JNCD 0.34, dE 0.4, HDR 10+, supporting 120Hz refresh rate +480Hz touch sampling rate,/kloc-.

After inspection, Xiaomi's screen came from Huaxing Optoelectronics, precisely, it was jointly developed by Xiaomi and Huaxing. According to the official introduction, they invested a special team of 100 people, which took three years and the total investment cost exceeded 500 million yuan. They applied for more than 60 patents, including high transmittance screen design and self-developed algorithms for underlying software.

How to evaluate this screen? Before I say anything, let me talk about an important issue, that is, the conflict between the off-screen camera and the upper and lower cameras. Both of them have achieved a comprehensive screen without holes, and can display a screen completely. But the latter is a mechanical structure, which increases the weight and thickness and occupies an inch of internal space, so it is more suitable for transition. The camera under the screen conforms to the upgrade law, from bangs to water droplets, and then from hollowing out to the screen.

Let's talk about the advantages first. Although there are models of off-screen cameras on the market, visually speaking, MIX 4 is the best off-screen camera I have ever seen, and there is no one, which is exactly the same as other screen areas.

Of course, there are also regrets, that is, the screen quality. At present, flagship models are basically high resolution+high refresh rate, including peak brightness, color accuracy and panel quality. For example, Xiaomi 1 1 Ultra is in the top ranks, and the off-screen camera is still a new technology. Insisting that it is the top display is of course bragging, but as mentioned earlier, the display effect of Xiaomi MIX 4 is completely sufficient in my personal opinion.

Back of mobile phone

Back of mobile phone

Back of mobile phone

Back of mobile phone

In terms of design, the rear of MIX 4 is a rectangular camera module, which is located in the upper left corner and belongs to the conventional shape. It is not as unique as Xiaomi 1 1 Ultra, and the overall design language is still Xiaomi's in the past two years. It can only be said that it is quite satisfactory, and there is not much eye-catching place. Just when I was a little disappointed with this design, I took it in my hand and changed my mind.

The first feeling it gave me was the texture of MIX 2 all-ceramic. After careful observation, it is found that it is indeed a Unibody all-ceramic body, and a brand-new lightweight integrated ceramic has been introduced.

In my impression, there is no other reason for the large-scale use of mobile phones in traditional ceramics, except that the cost is higher than that of glass, and then the weight, but there is a saying that the texture of ceramics is as warm as jade, which is incomparable to glass or other materials.

Back of mobile phone

Back of mobile phone

But MIX 4 is not that heavy. After investigation, the weight of the fuselage is only 225g, which is similar to some flagship models made of glass. The reason is attributed to the lightweight ceramics of the machine. It is difficult to understand because it is made of high-purity nano-zirconia composite materials. I only know that it is 30% lighter than traditional ceramics, but it is still the original texture of ceramics.

According to Xiaomi, the manufacturing process of Xiaomi MIX 4 lightweight integrated ceramics is quite complicated, which is 25% more than traditional ceramics and requires 46 processes. If something goes wrong, the whole ceramic furnace will be scrapped. I have to say that this is another exploration of MIX series in ceramic technology. MIX 4 has achieved acceptable weight for all-ceramic fuselage and various parts of the fuselage.

Back of mobile phone

Back of mobile phone

Porcelain has a long history It can be traced back to more than 3000 years ago and was divided into five famous kilns in the Song Dynasty. So for China people, porcelain is a symbol of long history and gentleness.

In terms of color, Xiaomi MIX 4 not only has ceramic black and white, but also has this kind of shadow celadon, which is said to be inspired by the traditional ceramic treasure celadon of the Northern Song Dynasty. Its color is turquoise and light blue, like jade.

In order to achieve this color matching, the machine adopted the formula of high-purity nano-materials, supplemented by niobium oxide, rare earth metal oxides and various metal oxides as pigments, and then dissolved, precipitated and calcined at high temperature respectively, resulting in the current color matching. At first glance, it seems a bit messy, but on closer inspection, it has a translucent texture.

Back of mobile phone

Back of mobile phone

The author, a layman, knows that the most difficult thing to fire ceramics is light color, such as shadow blue gray, and there can be no impurities in the process. If you are not careful, it will go a long way. Some people may ask, why is white ok? This is because the original color of most ceramics after firing is white, so the firing process of shadow green ash is definitely more difficult.

Maybe everyone has seen it. None of the mobile phones I evaluated before had such a detailed introduction to the body. This is because the MIX 4 real machine in my hand makes me feel an artistic sense, so I talk too much, but it's useless. If you have time, you can go offline and experience the real machine. It will be amazing to get started, especially the delicate feel of ceramics.

Let's take a look at several Unibody all-ceramic bodies and different shades of blue and gray.

Back of mobile phone

Back of mobile phone

Back of mobile phone

The top of the fuselage is marked with infrared, UWB, microphone and Harman Kardon.

At the bottom of the fuselage are speakers, microphones, USB-type interfaces and SIM card slots.

Fuselage r angle

The package comes with 120W charger, data cable, Type-C to 3.5mm data cable, and mobile phone case.

In addition, MIX 4 also makes up for a shortcoming of Unibody's all-ceramic body, that is, the signal, ceramics have very strong hardness, what about the antenna strip? The author found that Xiaomi's designer is very attentive. There is a small A shell (face shell) between the screen and the frame of MIX 4, which is generally used to buffer the broken screen of the mobile phone. Xiaomi MIX 4 makes shell A metal. If you look closely, you can see the narrow strip of antenna hidden inside.

Second, the system experience

This MIX 4 in my hand is running MIUI 12.5.3 based on Android 1 1 It has been said many times before that Xiaomi mobile phone was evaluated. Here are some unique features of MIX and some new features of MIUI.

In terms of functions, this screen is basically complete, such as DC dimming, eye protection mode and color style, and supports 120Hz refresh rate. At the same time, it supports AI master image quality engine, and has display functions such as super-resolution enhancement, video image quality enhancement and dynamic picture compensation.

The system has a built-in setting called edge misoperation prevention, which is mainly to reduce the misoperation caused by hyperboloid. There are three modes to choose from, and the area size can be customized. Some waterfall screen models also have this function before, and the actual use effect is obvious.

MIX 4 charging supports wired/wireless fast charging, including four charging modes, which are conventional constant temperature charging by default, and fast charging mode, wireless charging 50W and 100W, which will be introduced in detail later.

The machine has added an intelligent charging system, which claims to extend the battery life by 25%, including night intelligent charging mode, time domain intelligent charging mode and battery health display. Among them, intelligent charging at night is to solve the problem of charging when sleeping at night and avoid the battery being fully charged.

For example, charging the mobile phone before going to bed is basically 1 hour, and the remaining hours are full, which affects the battery life. Therefore, the algorithm of MIX 4 is that if the user is detected to be asleep, the mobile phone will be intelligently charged to 80%, and then the mobile phone will be fully charged when the user wakes up according to the alarm clock time. This is an AI learning aid. It's definitely not something you can feel in a day or two, and it will take half a month to study it.

In terms of safety, in addition to the previous flares and hidden masks, it mainly increased the loss prevention function, which is officially called the strongest loss prevention mechanism in the history of Xiaomi.

The main functions are divided into five types: no power off, no internet access, no disclosure, no theft and incompatibility with other mobile phone cards. When the lost mode is triggered, not turning off the phone means that the screen lock needs to verify the password and normal operation.

Always online is very interesting. As we all know, when a mobile phone loses its card, it will be disconnected, and it is useless to retrieve the function of the mobile phone. However, MIX 4 has a built-in virtual SIM card, which can locate and automatically connect to the network even if the card is unplugged, and the generated traffic is completely free.

If it is not stolen, the SIM card is bound to the mobile phone and can only be used after it is unlocked. Moreover, the bound mobile phone is not compatible with other mobile phone cards and can only be used after being unlocked. In other words, as long as Xiaomi MIX 4 has electricity, it can achieve lost positioning. Then the problem is coming. What if the battery is directly removed? So this function feels more like a gimmick, so it's better not to lose your mobile phone.

Finally, talk about advertising. I have said many times before that the latest version of MIUI 12.5 has been reduced a lot, such as weather, calendar and so on. All the advertisements at the bottom are gone. I hope there will be fewer and fewer advertisements in the future.

Third, performance and highlights

In terms of core configuration, Xiaomi MIX 4 is equipped with Snapdragon 888 Plus processor for the first time, which is actually familiar to most users. Compared with Snapdragon 888, it mainly upgrades Cortex-X 1 kernel, and its main frequency is increased from 2.84GHz to 3GHz. At the same time, through high frequency and software optimization, the comprehensive performance of AI engine is improved, and the computing power of 32 trillion operations per second (32 TOPS) is improved, and the AI performance is improved by more than 20%.

Judging from the performance of Snapdragon 888 before, the performance is the absolute flagship, but the power consumption and heating are somewhat unsatisfactory. On the contrary, Snapdragon 888 Plus has increased its frequency again, and its power consumption is expected to be higher. MIX 4' s solution is to add a balanced mode.

According to the official introduction, the balanced mode will limit the energy consumption of mobile phones and achieve the purpose of controlling fever. In fact, to put it bluntly, it is to reduce the frequency of the processor and turn on the performance mode to release the performance, which is a common practice in the industry to control the temperature. According to official data of Xiaomi, the temperature of MIX 4 in balanced mode is even lower than that of Snapdragon 888 mobile phone.

The other is the newly added memory expansion. MIX 4 can expand 3GB of running memory, call some free ROM space for RAM operation, improve the equivalent memory capacity, and integrate RAM and ROM through algorithm optimization.

In addition to Snapdragon 888 Plus, this machine also has a full blood version of LPDDR5 memory +UFS 3. 1 flash memory, and the first 3D graphene temperature equalizing board, which is a graphene temperature equalizing board with a thickness of 280 microns. Compared with the previous steam chamber, this machine has higher heat conduction efficiency, with an area of 1206mm? The processor and motherboard are covered all around.

Having said that, let's run a score.

After practical testing, Xiaomi MIX 4 Antu Bunny scored 830,506, among which CPU and GPU scored higher than ordinary Snapdragon 888 model. The performance obtained by increasing the frequency is slightly improved.

In terms of storage, MIX 4 is equipped with UFS 3. 1 flash memory, with a sequential reading speed of 1950MB/s and a sequential writing speed of 737 MB/s. ..

Fourth, image.

In terms of images, MIX 4 is more conventional. Compared with the current flagship models, such as Xiaomi 1 1 Ultra, it can only be said that it is quite satisfactory, but its comprehensive performance is better than Xiaomi 1 1, with a telephoto lens.

In terms of parameters, Xiaomi MIX 4 rear 1 100 million pixel main camera (HMX,11.33 inch, OIS optical image stabilization)+13 million pixel freeform surface super wide angle (FOV120,6p)+8 million pixels.

What is the specific performance? Let's take a look at the proofs. It should be noted that because the area where the author is located is epidemic prevention and control, I can't go out to shoot tall buildings, so I can only shoot them simply in the community. I hope I can understand.

1, daytime proofs

Architecture (default for main camera is16 megapixel f/2 ISO-49)

Architecture (default for main camera is16 megapixel f/2 ISO-50)

Architecture (5X zoom shooting f/3.4 ISO-50)

Plants (default for main camera is16 megapixel f/2 ISO-82)

Plants (default for main camera is 16 megapixel f/2 ISO- 100)

Super wide angle is not turned on (default for main camera is16 megapixel f/2 ISO-50).

Turn on super wide angle (8 megapixel f/2 ISO-50)

Among them, the free-form lens can achieve a large field of view of 120, and the hardware level is anti-distortion. Super wide-angle lens adopts a brand-new algorithm. After the super wide-angle lens is enabled, the main shot will also be taken, and the two photos will be combined into one, in which the central area is the main shot picture and the edge is the super wide-angle shot picture, so as to maintain the resolution of the proofs.

2. Proofread at night

Architecture (default for main camera is16 megapixel f/2 ISO- 1603)

Plants (default for main camera is 16 megapixel f/2 ISO-34 12)

Plants with no light at all (the default for the main camera is16 megapixel f/2 ISO-8400)

Plants with no lights at all (turn on the night scene f/2 ISO- 160 1)

The night scene is not turned on (the main camera defaults to16 megapixel f/2 ISO-4386).

Turn on the night scene (the main camera defaults to16 megapixel f/2 ISO- 1604).

Judging from the shooting proofs of MIX 4, the algorithm is still Xiaomi's usual dark brightening and highlight suppression, and the night scene mode is changed to shoot more Zhang Hecheng, and then the calculation is made, but the effect is better than Xiaomi 10 which was evaluated before, and now the algorithm of Xiaomi 10 has also come up. It can be predicted that in the future, mobile phone cameras will begin to develop into computational photography, instead of focusing on large background and high pixels.

Verb (abbreviation for verb) battery life and charging

In terms of battery life, MIX 4 has a built-in MTW multi-polar ear battery with a 4500mAh battery. Since it is equipped with Snapdragon 888 Plus with higher frequency, what is the power consumption performance? Test super power consumption with Ann Bunny's stress test function.

Stress testing is a built-in function of Ann Bunny evaluation. Testing the stability of equipment performance through high-load calculation requires a lot of calculation by CPU, so the power consumption is greater than that in video, daily use and other scenarios.

Test conditions: SIM card is not inserted, the device is connected to Wi-Fi, positioning is turned on, the battery is fully charged, the screen brightness is adjusted to the highest, and all background services are turned off. Open Ann Bunny's stress test, test continuously, and record the remaining power of the equipment every 30 minutes.

Under the super power consumption test, the battery life of Xiaomi MIX 4 is 180 minutes, which is equivalent to the last evaluation of Snapdragon 870 model (4500mAh). The main reason is the newly added balanced mode, which controls power consumption and fuselage heating by frequency reduction, making MIX 4 even longer than some Snapdragon 888 models.

What's impressive is that the stress test in the first 30 minutes of the machine only consumes 9% electricity.

Finally, the battery life is estimated, because this result is based on the condition that the CPU is always fully loaded, taking into account our daily use and screen opening time, so this data should be converted into multiples, and it is concluded that MIX 4 can be used continuously for more than 6 hours. Note that it is continuous use, not daily screen closing and message returning.

Charging has always been the strength of Xiaomi mobile phone. Almost every flagship has made a breakthrough. Xiaomi MIX 4 has reached 100W wireless fast charging, but the default value is 50 W, so the charging mode of 100 W needs to be turned on manually.

Wired, the default is 120W wired fast charging, but not continuous high power. Manual startup option is also provided, and the full speed of 120W can only be played after fast mode is turned on.

According to the actual test, Xiaomi MIX 4 was charged to 100% at 2 1 min in constant temperature mode, of which 55% was released at 9 minutes, and 120W was completely released at fast mode, 15 minutes 100% and 72% at 9 minutes.

Then look at wireless charging, which needs to be matched with Xiaomi 100W air-cooled wireless charging base and 120W charger.

There are two wireless modes: 50W and 100W, in which 50W wireless charging takes 48 minutes to 100% and 100W wireless charging takes 29 minutes to 100%, which directly doubles the speed, exceeding most wired charging speeds.

Sixth, the road to exploration of MIX 4

Before the release of MIX 4, it took 1000 days, but the project was established at the end of 20 18, which means that Xiaomi has been polished for nearly three years.

After polishing a model for three years, the effort behind it can be imagined. It is this expectation, coupled with the amazing generation, that makes MIX 4 invisibly expected too much. Although its performance is absolutely in line with the significance of exploration, it seems that there is not much innovation after giving the MIX series.

To talk about this problem, let's put aside the comprehensive screen and lightweight integrated ceramics of CUP and look directly at the product itself. According to the paper parameters, MIX 4 is equipped with Snapdragon 888 Plus processor, and the rear camera is still 1 100 million pixels, 120W wired charging+100W wireless charging, which is a regular update.

So what is the significance of MIX 4 exploration? In fact, it is "internal strength." Lei Jun has repeatedly mentioned that Xiaomi's high-end mobile phone will have a dead experience in the future. What is experience? At present, I think it should be available when needed, such as cell phone signal, and then temperature control. According to Xiaomi's previous style, it can be said that it is only 120W slow charging, but this time, the constant temperature mode, balance mode and anti-loss function are specially added.

This is done to make MIX 4 more practical, rather than blindly piling up parameters to make the data look good. It can be said that it is different from the previous MIX series models. On the basis of exploration (full screen cups, lightweight ceramics), we began to pay attention to user experience.

It's been a few days since I got MIX 4, and the previous tests have been basically completed, but I didn't write this piece because I didn't want to draw a conclusion too early. So after reading the press conference, I saw many netizens' views on MIX 4. One problem is that the configuration of MIX 4 is not as good as Xiaomi 1 1 Ultra?

In addition to the normal upgrade, the imaging ability is really not as good as Xiaomi 1 1 Ultra. As for the self-timer performance, Lei Jun admits that it is not as good as digging a hole in front of the screen to take pictures, but we must know that MIX 4 still has the above characteristics, so we can only say that the positioning of the two is different and each has its own advantages. Generally speaking, Xiaomi digital series is a breakthrough, from 1 to more than 2, while MIX is an innovation, from 0 to 1.

Finally, a digression, in Lei Jun's annual speech, talked about a past event, 20 14, the first world internet conference. At that time, when Lei Jun said that Xiaomi wanted to be the number one in the world, he was ridiculed and burst into laughter. Almost everyone thinks this is impossible. Now Xiaomi has achieved the second place in the world (Q2,2021), so when Lei Jun said that Xiaomi's mobile phone was the first in the world within three years.

To tell the truth, every time I see Lei Jun on the Internet, it is hard to imagine that he can make Xiaomi mobile phone the second in the world within 10 years, completely changing the rules of the mobile phone market, just like the MIX series, always on the road of exploration, brave and full of passion.