The smartphone experience on the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2

The chipset and the internal memory are more than enough to make the operating system and the user interface run smoothly. All apps are loaded very fast, and multitasking is great.

The fingerprint reader works well almost always, but it also can fail to register your fingerprint correctly, from time to time. For me, it was easy to reach because I have long fingers, but for my wife, who has smaller hands, it proved to be somewhat tricky to find the sensor and touch it without looking.

The volume rocker and the power button are easy to find and tell apart, as the volume rocker is a single long piece, while the power button is a lot shorter.

We were surprised by the autonomy offered by the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2: two days on a charge. However, if you play Fortnite or any other demanding game, expect to have to charge it daily.

Regarding phone calls, the ones we had while using this smartphone were of excellent quality. We were able to hear the people we called clearly, without unwanted noise, and they could hear us just as well. We did not experience call drops either, even though the mobile coverage is not great in our area.

If you like watching movies or listening to music, you should know that this smartphone is an excellent choice for multimedia activities. The IPS display has a good color reproduction, and its brightness is high enough to make the screen visible even when you are outdoors. Videos look beautiful on the bezel-less screen, and the speakers do a great job when watching movies.

The speakers are powerful and do not distort sounds even if you push the volume to the max. Even so, if you want a richer listening experience, use a good pair of headphones - unfortunately, there aren't any bundled with the smartphone.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 is the cheapest Android smartphone that runs Fortnite, so we were curious how well it performs in this game. Fortnite configured itself to use high-quality video settings on the Mi Mix 2. Then, when we played the game, it ran smoothly, no stutter, no lags, no errors. That is great for any mobile gamer, and it's especially great for parents who want to buy a Fortnite-capable Android smartphone for their children, but do not want to spend a fortune on it.

The Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 is an excellent Android smartphone that can perform any task flawlessly. Videos look beautiful on the bezel-less screen, the speakers sound great, and it can run Fortnite at high quality settings, without any stuttering.

The camera experience on the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2

The main 12 megapixels camera found on the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 uses a Sony IMX386 image sensor. It has an f/2.0 aperture, optical image stabilization, phase detection autofocus, and a dual LED flash. We took photos in various lighting conditions and with different subjects. The camera focuses rapidly, and the photos are quickly saved because of the fast internal storage. The quality of the photos we took was good when outdoors, with vivid colors and good exposure. However, it struggles when having to work with indoor artificial lighting. Although the camera focuses fast, the photos aren't as detailed, and you can notice noise when the light is dim. An aperture of f/1.8 would have been better than the f/2.0 offered by the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2.

The front camera has 5 megapixels and can take decent selfies, of which you should be satisfied if you're not too picky. To get a better idea of the camera experience, browse the gallery below, which includes pictures taken with Xiaomi Mi Mix 2. We took various shots, in different lighting conditions, including selfies:

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 can film videos in 4K, at a resolution of up to 2160p (3840 x 2160) and 30 frames per second, but also in 1080p Full HD, at 1920 x 1080 pixels and 30 fps. In our experience, the smoothest videos with the best image stabilization results were the ones filmed in Full HD. However, it should be noted that the image stabilization is not that great, and other smartphones do a lot better in this regard. Here is a video sample in which you can see how the camera records moving objects:

And here is a panorama that we recorded, in which you can see how the smartphone handles videos with less movement involved:

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 offers a reasonable camera experience when it comes to shooting photos and recording videos. The results are better than when buying other affordable Android smartphones, but they're not impressive. If you are not too demanding, you shouldn't be disappointed by the cameras on the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2.

Android 8 Oreo, MIUI 10 and bundled apps

The Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 was launched with Android 7 and the MIUI 9 customer user interface pre-installed. However, as soon as we turned it on, we checked whether any updates are available. Android 8 Oreo and MIUI 10 are available and we installed them. According to Xiaomi, the Mi Mix 2 should also get another update for the operating system, to Android 9 Pie, which is awesome.

The MIUI interface is not the original Android experience from Google, but in some aspects, it is better. MIUI 10 is fast and looks great, and it offers plenty of customization options. The only aspect that some people might not like is the lack of an apps drawer.

You should also know that, besides the standard Google apps for Android, such as the Play Store, Gmail, Maps, YouTube, or Photos, the Chinese company also bundles a few others on the Mi Mix 2:

• Browser - a web browser from Xiaomi, which you can use to surf the web
• Calendar - a calendar app that lets you schedule your daily agenda
• Camera - the MIUI 10 default camera app for taking photos
• Clock - a simple clock app that also lets you set alarms, use a stopwatch and a timer.
• Compass - shows you where the North and the other cardinal points are
• Contacts - an app that displays your contacts and also lets you edit them
• Facebook - the official app of the most popular social network on Earth
• Feedback - sends your opinion and recommendations to Xiaomi
• File Manager - browse and manage the folders and files stored on your Xiaomi Mi Mix 2
• Gallery - displays the pictures stored on your smartphone
• Mail - the default email app offered by Xiaomi
• Mi Calculator - makes math calculations easy 🙂
• Mi Drop - an app that lets you send files from your smartphone to others, without having to connect to the internet
• Mi Pay - Xiaomi's wallet app
• Mi Video - a gallery app that plays the videos found on your smartphone
• MIUI Forum - keeps you connected with the Xiaomi community and keeps your updated with news from Xiaomi
• Music - use it to listen to music
• Notes - an app for taking notes
• Recorder - an app that records sounds using the smartphone's microphone.
• Scanner - uses the smartphone's camera to scan QR codes
• Screen Recorder - an app that lets you record your smartphone's screen and which is excellent for creating tutorials 🙂
• Security - keeps your smartphone secure by running antivirus scans and also helps you optimize it by cleaning junk files, clearing memory, or speeding up games; it also lets you lock apps so that nobody can open them but you
• Weather - it shares the weather prognosis in your location or anywhere else in the world

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 runs on a modern version of Android (8 Oreo) and it uses the MIUI 10 user interface. MIUI 10 is fast and easy to use. It is also highly customizable, but it doesn't offer an apps drawer, which some people want.

Performance in benchmarks

In 2019, the hardware specs on the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 are those of a mid-range smartphone. However, the hardware specs only tell half of the story. To find out more, we also ran a series of benchmarks. Here are their results:

First, we ran the Basemark OS II, an all-in-one benchmarking tool for measuring the performance of Android devices. Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 got an overall score of 3346 points, which is slightly better than what a Samsung Galaxy S8 can offer, and a similar result to that of a Samsung Galaxy S9 or a Huawei P20.

Then, we used Geekbench 4 to see how well Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 uses its processor cores. The single-core test is relevant because some apps do not know how to use more than one core, and many games rely on the per-core speed to work well. Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 had a score of 1682 points, which puts it close behind the Samsung Galaxy S8 (with Snapdragon 835 chipset), but far behind the Huawei P20.

The multi-core test revealed a score of 5115 points. This test set assesses the processor's speed when running multiple tasks simultaneously, using multiple cores. This time, the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 showed a weaker performance than the Samsung Galaxy S8 or the Huawei P20. However, it's almost as fast as the ASUS ZenFone 5.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 supports 4G LTE mobile data connections, so we also used Speedtest to see its performance in this area too. The problem is that our mobile operator does not offer the best internet speed. In other areas the speeds we get could be much higher. However, the results that we got were decent, as you can see in the screenshot below.

Next, we ran a few gaming benchmarks, to see how good the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 is when playing games. We used the GFXBench GL Benchmark and here are the most interesting result we got:

• In the Aztec Ruins OpenGL (Normal Tier), it rendered 1625 frames (25 fps), and in Aztec Ruins Vulkan (Normal Tier), it rendered 1631 fps (25 fps). Both results are significantly better than what you would get from a Samsung Galaxy S8, which is more expensive.
• In the 1080p Car Chase Offscreen test, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 rendered 1511 frames (26 fps). It is a result that puts the Mi Mix 2 above the Huawei P20 (1368 frames) or the Samsung Galaxy S8 (1472 frames) but beneath Samsung Galaxy S9 (1641 frames).
• In 1080p Manhattan 3.1 Offscreen, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 managed to render 2486 frames (40 fps). It is again better than a Huawei P20 (2448 frames) or a Samsung Galaxy S8 (2342 frames) but weaker than the Samsung Galaxy S9 (3741 frames).
• In 1080p T-Rex Offscreen, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 rendered 5593 frames (100 fps). This is the only gaming benchmark where the Mi Mix 2 was slower than the Huawei P20 or the Samsung Galaxy S8, which both managed to render 5808 frames.

The Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 can run all your favorite games with visual details set to medium or high quality.

For the final test, we used PCMark Work 2.0 battery life test to measure the autonomy of the battery when running common daily tasks such as browsing the web or editing documents and photos. The average time we got from Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 during three runs, was of 10 hours and 48 minutes. It is a great result for any smartphone.

The Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 offers performance numbers that confirm that this is an excellent mid-range Android smartphone. It can compete even with higher-end devices. It's also an excellent choice if you want to play the most demanding games, such as Fortnite.

Do you like the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 smartphone?

You know now that we like the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 a lot, and that we believe it offers an excellent balance between price, performance, and features. Do you feel the same? If you already have this smartphone, share your experience with it with others that might be interested in buying it. Comment below and let's discuss.