Xiaomi MIX 2S Evaluation: From Concept Machine to Pragmatism

IT 168 Evaluation A few years ago, Xiaomi, who was born, turned the mobile phone market upside down with a trick of "cost performance". With the consumption upgrading in recent two years, it not only brings consumers' requirements for products, but also brings attention to brands. Therefore, all brands are looking for ways to enhance their brand image. Some brands choose to invite top traffic spokespersons, and Xiaomi, a brand that started from the Internet, chooses to speak with products, so Xiaomi MIX series came into being.

From "Full Screen Concept Mobile Phone" of Xiaomi MIX to "Full Screen 2.0" of Xiaomi MIX2, the MIX series is gradually conceptualized, from concept mobile phone to top flagship machine. As a top flagship machine, Xiaomi MIX2 is not completely grounded. For example, the most important photo on mobile phones today has always been the short board of the MIX series. Being a conceptual machine can be willful, but if you want to be practical, flagship machine needs no obvious shortcomings in all aspects. Therefore, it can be seen that the addition and removal of all-ceramic dual cameras on Xiaomi MIX 2S just conveyed the complete transformation from concept machine to flagship machine. What is the strength of Xiaomi MIX 2S in this transformation? This is what we need to find out today.

Hardware configuration:

The name of Xiaomi MIX 2S is very interesting. Everyone has seen many products with "S" suffix in mobile phones. Generally speaking, they are all changes of the previous generation products, rather than an obvious substitute product. Let's look at the improvement of Xiaomi MIX 2S through the table.

Comparison of basic parameters of Xiaomi MIX2/MIX 2S

product name

Xiaomi MIX2

Xiaomi MIX2S

Screen characteristics

5.99 inches 18:9 2 160*

1080

5.99 inches 18:9 2 160*

1080

processor

Xiaolong 835 2.45GHz

Snapdragon 845 2.8GHz

Network mode

6 mode 43 frequency

6 mode 43 frequency

Random access memory

6GB

6/8GB

Fuselage storage

64/ 128/256 GB（UFS 2. 1）

64/ 128/256 GB（UFS 2. 1）

front-facing camera

Five million

Five million

Rear camera

1200,000 pixel IMX386

1200,000 zoom dual camera IMX363

Product selling points

Four-curved ceramic

Ceramic fuselage

Fuselage size

151.8 * 75.5 * 7.7mm185g

150.86 * 74.9 * 8. 1 mm189g

Battery capacity

3400 mah

3400 mah

operating system

MIUI9

MIUI9

As can be seen from the table, the practicality of Xiaomi MIX2S is obviously improved compared with Xiaomi MIX 2: the single pixel 1.4μm of IMX363 sensor is obviously improved compared with the previous generation 1.25μm, and the dual PD full pixel dual-core focusing is also obviously improved compared with PDAF. Compared with the improvement of the previous generation in taking pictures, it is more practical for ordinary users. With the addition of Snapdragon 845, the flagship temperament of Xiaomi MIX 2S is also first-class.

Design: Continue the design of MIX2 without surprises and disappointments.

Xiaomi MIX 2S continues the previous design concept of "full screen 2.0" as a whole. From the front, Xiaomi MIX 2S is no different from Xiaomi MIX 2. It is still equipped with a 5.99-inch 18:9 FHD+ full screen with rounded corners around it, and adopts the COF packaging technology consistent with the previous generation, so the width of its chin has not been reduced.

The front camera is located in the lower right corner of the fuselage. By default, it was shot from a slightly awkward upward angle. The actual measurement does not hinder face recognition, but the self-timer needs to flip the phone. The top is a conduit hidden earpiece, and the ultrasonic distance sensors are hidden on both sides, which are the direct inheritance of MIX 2 design.

In terms of fuselage design, Xiaomi MIX 2S is a traditional sandwich fuselage structure, that is, glass front panel+aluminum alloy middle frame+ceramic back shell. The middle frame of aluminum alloy is made of 7 series aluminum, which has higher hardness and ensures the structural strength of the whole machine; The ceramic back shell has better luster than glass, which embodies a good sense of quality. Moreover, Xiaomi MIX 2 is made of four-sided ceramic materials, and the back curve fits the palm of your hand better and has a better grip.

In particular, the white version of Xiaomi MIX 2S is a combination of silver middle frame and white ceramics, while the black version is a combination of black middle frame and black ceramics. Comparatively speaking, the black version is more integrated. Perhaps due to the consideration of process yield, this time Xiaomi MIX 2S did not launch a higher-level Unidiv all-ceramic version, which made the whole machine less black technology, which has to be said to be a pity.

The back design of Xiaomi MIX 2 has changed a lot. Fingerprint identification is in the center, and the double shot is located in the upper left corner. The shape is very similar to that of iPhone X, arranged vertically and slightly protruding from the fuselage. The top is12 million pixel wide-angle main camera, the bottom is12 million pixel telephoto auxiliary camera, and the middle is flash.

On the whole, Xiaomi MIX 2S continues the design concept of "Full Screen 2.0" without many surprises.

Photo test: get rid of the short board of MIX series and enter the excellent ranks.

As far as the previous MIX series products are concerned, the imaging performance of both the original MIX and MIX 2 is somewhat unsatisfactory, and night shooting is an obvious shortcoming. Therefore, on Xiaomi MIX 2S, Xiaomi has brought more positive improvement measures, including telephoto+wide-angle dual camera collocation, image sensor upgrade, and introduction of AI algorithm. Let's explain it in detail below.

Xiaomi MIX 2S adopts the mainstream wide-angle and telephoto dual-camera scheme, in which Sony IMX363 sensor is used for the wide-angle main camera. The output of this sensor is12 million pixels, the single pixel area is 1.4μm, and it supports 2PD full pixel dual-core focusing, with a large aperture of F 1.8 and four-axis optical image stabilization. The sub-camera has an output of12 million pixels and an aperture of F2.4, which supports dual zoom and portrait mode.

In addition, the built-in Spectra 280 ISP of Snapdragon 845 has a wider color gamut and higher dynamic range than the Spectra 180 ISP adopted by Xiaolong 835. At the same time, several hardware noise reduction units are introduced, which is more efficient in multi-frame noise reduction and significantly improves the imaging performance of dark light, backlight and other shooting scenes.

Compared with Xiaomi MIX 2, the improvement is obvious.

On paper, Xiaomi MIX 2S has obviously improved compared with the previous generation products, and we also compared how much its imaging performance has improved compared with MIX 2. (left: Xiaomi MIX 2；; ; Right: Xiaomi MIX 2S)

Compared with MIX 2, the color of Xiaomi MIX 2S is more vivid and vivid, and the rendering of blue sky is more pleasing to the eye. The picture quality of the two is basically the same, and the macro performance is also at the same level, but the focusing experience of MIX 2S is obviously better.

At night, thanks to the combination of large pixels and optical image stabilization, the light input of Xiaomi MIX 2S is more guaranteed, the picture brightness is better and the purity is better. At the same time, if you zoom in, the smear will be much less and the details will be more refined. In terms of experience, the Xiaomi MIX 2S equipped with 2PD full-pixel dual-core focusing is obviously better, focusing faster and more accurately, and it is not so procrastinating in the bellows.

Artificial intelligence scene camera improves imaging

At the same time, based on the AI engine provided by Snapdragon 845 mobile platform, Xiaomi MIX 2S also introduced AI technology to assist imaging, and introduced the AI scene camera function. Therefore, Xiaomi MIX 2S can automatically identify the subject in the viewfinder, and make targeted style and parameter settings during imaging to improve the final shooting effect.

In the actual experience, we need to manually open the "AI camera" icon at the top of the viewfinder. When turned on, Xiaomi MIX 2S can automatically identify the subject in the viewfinder and give feedback immediately through the change of the top icon. According to the author's experience, the recognition time is usually controlled around 1 second. According to the different shooting scenes, the corresponding icons are different, such as green plants, flowers, knives and forks, cars and so on. These are all very interesting.

From the results, the left side was shot with the AI camera turned on, and the right side was shot with the AI camera turned on. In contrast, AI cameras enhance the imaging style to some extent. Taking the landscape as an example, the AI camera will automatically shift the color adjustment to saturation and richness, which is more pleasing to the eye than the normal mode.

At present, Xiaomi MIX 2S supports 25 kinds of labels and up to 206 kinds of scene recognition, involving weather, scenery, plants, people and animals and other shooting scenes, which can fully meet the daily shooting needs.

In addition, with the update iteration of the later system, Xiaomi MIX 2S will also support AI facula and present more artistic photos, which is worth looking forward to.

More comprehensive portrait mode

In portrait mode, Xiaomi MIX 2S recognizes the main edge more accurately, the background blur effect is relatively natural, and the picture has a strong sense of hierarchy, which is at the mainstream level.

Xiaomi MIX 2S adopts a front-facing 5 megapixel camera and a self-developed AI portrait algorithm, which can not only intelligently beautify the face, but also accurately identify the contour information of the face, and then blur the background to highlight the portrait and take a very temperament portrait photo.

Please see more proofs of Xiaomi MIX 2S below.

In general, the image performance of Xiaomi MIX 2S is surprising, which has changed our inherent understanding of MIX products, especially the night shooting performance has been significantly improved, ranking among the flagship levels.

Hardware test: The performance of Snapdragon 845, the first domestic product, is beyond doubt.

Tough hardware configuration can be said to have become the gene of Xiaomi mobile phone, especially for flagship machine. This time, Xiaomi MIX 2S, as the first work of Snapdragon 845 domestic mobile phone, is by no means as simple as buying a chip and soldering it on the PCB. Even Lei Jun is in Weibo Science Popularization: In the process of mobile phone research and development, the research and development completion of Qualcomm chips is relatively low, and terminal manufacturers need to participate in testing to help fix various bugs. Xiaomi even set up an R&D department in Qualcomm headquarters in San Diego to ensure the smooth launch of Snapdragon 845. In this part of this article, let's take a look at the performance of Snapdragon 845, which was painstakingly introduced.

Xiaolong 835 adopts the second generation Samsung 10nm LPP FINFET process, which has four performance cores and four energy efficiency cores. The main frequency of the large core is 2.8GHz, and the main frequency of the small core is1.8ghz. eight nuclear adopts KRYO 385 architecture, and the large core supports three engines, so it is probably a customized architecture based on ARM A75, but you don't have to worry about the so-called "magic change". After all, the same strain, that is, the difference between ARM's own son and adopted son.

In terms of GPU, Snapdragon 845 is equipped with Adreno 630, and its main frequency is 765,438+00 MHz. According to official data, the performance of Adreno 630 is 30% higher than that of 540 (slightly higher than that of 540), the power consumption is reduced by 30%, and the data throughput of display interface is increased by 2.5 times. Adreno also supports OpenGL ES 3.2 and Adreno. There is still no problem with the engine developed for various mobile games.

Of course, Snapdragon 845 is not absent from the hot AI. Unlike Kirin 970 using an independent NPU, Snapdragon 845 uses Hexagon 685 DSP, CPU and GPU to complete the hardware calculation of artificial intelligence in SoC. Specifically, Hexagon 685 DSP supports 8-bit fixed-point operation and is responsible for handling the application workload involving vector mathematics; For the load that needs floating-point precision, Qualcomm puts it on the powerful Adreno 630 for 16-bit floating-point precision operation; The CPU optimizes the support for 8-bit fixed-point precision. Through multi-core heterogeneous computing, these three different units can make all the parts that are good at processing different data give full play to their potential.

Run the test objectively:

Because Xiaomi MIX 2S can't run GeekBench in the engineering version, we can only "entertain" Ann Bunny for the time being. In fact, we can also see that the running score of 270,000 is the top level in Android phones. In fact, Snapdragon 845 benefited from the call of DyanmIQ micro-architecture core or the application of LPP, which made the big core of Snapdragon 845 reach the horrible 2.8GHz (basically reaching the limit state). On this generation of CPU, Qualcomm's performance improvement is still obvious.

3dmark: sling shot extreme OpenGL 3. 1 es, Xiaolong 835 score: test1is 26Fps, and test 2 is13.4 fps; Snapdragon 845 score: test 1 is 3 1.2, test 2 is14.9;

Sling shot Extreme Vulkan, Xiaolong 835 score: test 1 is 15.4Fps, test 2 is 6.8Fps, Snapdragon 845 score: test 1 is 20Fps and 9.9Fps for test 2;

In terms of GPU, the performance of Adreno series in mobile SoC is unquestionable, especially in terms of core execution efficiency, and there is basically no opponent in the Android field. However, because iPhone and Android use different APIs when testing 3DMark, the performance of iPhone in 3DMark has been poor (of course, ignoring the number of graphics named Metal in the same frame number can hang OpenGL, so you don't have to worry about the running score of iPhone). Although only looking at Android phones, Snapdragon 845 has made progress over Xiaolong 835 on old platforms such as OpenGES. Under Vulakn, the data has been significantly improved, with a comprehensive increase of about 30%, which is basically consistent with the official data.

Overall, compared with Xiaolong 835, the theoretical performance of Snapdragon 845 has been improved by 25% and 30% in CPU and GPU respectively, and AI suite has been added. Through the cooperative work of DSP, CPU and GPU, the performance of AI has been tripled, and the achievement of Xiaolong 835 has been realized. Considering that Xiaolong 835 left us a very good experience last year,

System experience:

MIUI has always been the leader of third-party customized OS for Android. Last year, MIUI 9 was highly praised for its localization and system fluency. On Xiaomi MIX 2S, in addition to these basic functions, Xiaomi MIX 2S also played the AI card and completely transplanted the voice assistant "Little Love Classmate" into MIUI. In fact, whether it is the selling point of the mobile phone itself or the terminal control of Xiaomi's huge smart home ecological chain, this step is not unexpected.

"Little Love Classmate" in Xiaomi MIX 2S can be awakened by voice or physical keys. Voice needs to set the voice template "Little Love Classmate" in advance, and then you can call out at any time. Xiaomi MIX 2S doesn't set Bixby key for it like Samsung, but directly uses the power button as one of the outgoing calls. Press and hold the power button for 0.5 seconds to bring up Xiao Ai's classmates, and press and hold the power button for 3 seconds to bring up key pages. Simply put, short press means little love for classmates, and the power button needs to be pressed for more than 3 seconds on the shutdown page.

In terms of functions, Xiao Ai can access or control the Mijia devices under the Xiaomi account of the current system in the application after installing the Mijia smart home control authorization. In other words, you can use the mobile phone as the portable terminal control center of the whole smart home. Compared with the classmate stereo that can't move at any time in Xiao Ai, the mobile phone is undoubtedly more portable. For example, in winter, you don't want to get up in the bedroom, and Xiao Ai stereo is in the living room. You want to turn on the air conditioner or TV through Xiao Ai, so you don't need to shout Xiao Ai in the living room, you can also use Xiaomi MIX 2S to achieve this.

In terms of semantic understanding, Xiao Ai can understand some commonly used localization software after some localization training, such as sending a red envelope to XXX of WeChat, and the mobile phone will automatically open WeChat to jump to the red envelope page, or ask what clothes to wear for a business trip tomorrow. Xiao Ai will also search tomorrow's weather first according to your question, and then give corresponding suggestions. Compared with Siri, the understanding of localization is definitely higher. In addition, in the built-in application, Xiao Ai students can basically support it well, including common operations such as listening to songs and opening photos.

However, at present, because it is still in the state of engineering machine version, Xiao Ai's understanding of ancient poems and tourist navigation settings are not supported yet, waiting for the subsequent opening.

In terms of AR, Xiaomi is the first product to support Google ARCore. With the continuous development of mobile phone performance, AR technology has gradually surpassed VR and become the most important technical field of mobile phones in the future. Google ARCore integrates mobile phone's understanding of the current environment through the combination of motion tracking technology, environment understanding technology and light intensity estimation technology. As the first product to support ARCore, MIX 2S also has a game called Machines built into its mobile phone. When the camera is aimed at any plane around you, the game screen can be projected onto the screen.

Moreover, the game screen can change with the change of angle and distance, and the rendering of the whole screen is also cool. Although the game story is relatively simple, it is undeniable that in the future, the addition of more AR applications will be related to our future food, clothing, housing and transportation.

In addition, in Xiaomi MIX 2S, full-screen gesture operation is supported, and the optimization has been relatively smooth. Moreover, face recognition is added (it can be more practical with raising your hand to brighten the screen). In addition, the author is surprised that the front camera of Xiaomi MIX 2S is still at the bottom of the fuselage, so it is conceivable that when entering, the chin is basically facing the camera, but it has no effect on accuracy and speed. The whole face recognition is smooth and accurate.

Evaluation summary:

From the perspective of product strength, Xiaomi MIX 2S retains the overall design of Xiaomi MIX2S in appearance, which ensures the cost and mass production of Xiaomi MIX2S, and the addition of dual cameras makes up for the biggest shortcoming of Xiaomi MIX2S. Moreover, the starting price of 3299 yuan is easier to approach consumers. It seems that Xiaomi MIX2S is defining products from a practical point of view. In addition, the release of Snapdragon 845 also brought enough attraction to Xiaomi MIX 2S to ensure the positioning of its top flagship mobile phone.

There are many mobile phones ending in "S", but most of them are improved versions of mature products. As can be seen from the naming of the name, Xiaomi MIX series has gradually transitioned from the initial concept machine to Xiaomi's top flagship machine series. Judging from the initial stunning appearance of the MIX series, Xiaomi's brand image has been greatly improved. At the beginning, the mission of MIX "concept machine" has been completed. Moreover, after a year and a half of accumulation, the product image of the MIX series itself has been known to everyone, and now it seems that it is natural to become a "top flagship machine".