No one needs to be introduced to the Mix series. Xiaomi's full-screen phone has set off a fashion wave that only Apple could do with the revolutionary first iPhone. The release of the first Mix was so incredible, but anyone who is familiar with the world of mobile phones knows that SonyEricsson tried such a phone (P series) and then Sharp made the real full-screen phone a reality. Only lack of marketing and an exclusive domestic market made it unprofitable and it ended up in the bin.
There was no stopping the Mix 2 and this year the Mix 2s and all Xiaomi phones have adopted this screen style. Well people are saying that we could see the next Mix phone later this year and that's not far from the truth. It's slated for Q4, that's Q4, just wait and see (sorry Mix 2s owners). It's already in the pipeline, we're relying on some inside info, but we can't reveal any more. What makes this article a rumour? Until the source is official, we'll treat it as such.
What can we expect from the next Mix phone? Thinner coffee. Or don't have it, other manufacturers have already done it. There's the clever solution of the Vivo NEX, where the selfie camera pops out of the casing when you switch to a different camera and back in when you don't need it. Or the Oppo Find X, which has all the camera modules hidden in the pop-out top cable, so it only works when you 'push' the camera module out. Here too, by launching the camera app a small motor pushes it out of the housing, very interesting solution, worth watching on Youtub.
But how will Xiaomi manage it? Will it introduce something new, or will it combine what's already been done and just do it better? That remains to be seen, but let's hope we'll be amazed at their ingenuity again.
The other big innovation will be a dedicated AI button. You can long press the button to access the MIUI10 AI assistant and use voice commands to access everything. Until now, we could bring it up by pressing the power button (now on the Redmi 6 Pro, exclusively on Chinese ROM) for 0.5 seconds, but sometimes it's a problem if we just want to turn off the screen or the whole phone and we have to watch how long we press it.
We'll be back as soon as we know more!
