If motorola wants to rival Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip4 with the all-new moto razr 2022, Xiaomi steps it up even further with the MIX Fold 2 — just announced a day after the launch of its direct contender, the Galaxy Z Fold4.

The thinnest foldable (yet)

Measuring at just 5.4mm when unfolded and 11.2mm at its thickest point it, the Xiaomi MIX Fold 2 might just be the thinnest foldable yet. For context, the Galaxy Z Fold4 measures around 6.3mm when it’s open and 15.8mm when closed. The trick though is that the Xiaomi foldable is just one gram lighter than its Samsung counterpart.

That being said, it has a design that’s sleek and elegant to the touch. There’s the Gorilla Glass Victus glass protection in front. Meanwhile, the inside display has Schott’s UTG flexible glass.

Image by GadgetMatch

Xiaomi also has its own hinge design with a teadrop-like inward curvature that makes less display creases and no visible hinge gaps. Along with the use of carbon fiber instead of steel, display improvements, and custom hinge mechanism processes, Xiaomi is able to achieve a slimmer device unparalleled to other existing foldables in the market today.

Consistent audiovisual experience

The Xiaomi MIX Fold 2 pioneers its 8.02-inch 2K+ Eco² OLED LTPO 2.0 display. For those unaware, it’s a new type of OLED display that’s thinner and eliminates the use of polarizer — which results to an overall brighter screen.

Image by GadgetMatch

When folded shut, the MIX Fold 2 has a 6.56-inch Full HD+ AMOLED cover display with a proper 21:9 aspect ratio. That’s 0.4-inches bigger than last year’s 6.52-inch-touting Mi Mix Fold.

Again for stark comparison, the Galaxy Z Fold4 has smaller displays at 6.2 and a 7.6-inches respectively. This explains why they have the same weight despite the MIX Fold 2 being so thin.

Image by GadgetMatch

Both displays have 120Hz refresh rates, an 8,000,000:1 contrast ratio, plus support for HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and DCI-P3 wide color gamut. Lastly, it has dual stereo speakers tuned by harman/kardon with Dolby Atmos support as well as Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless Certification.

The ultimate powerhouse

Just like any 2022 flagship, the MIX Fold 2 is equipped with Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset coupled with a 12GB LPDDR5 memory plus options between 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage configurations. For faster internet speeds, it supports both 5G connectivity as well as the new Wi-Fi 6 standard.

Image by GadgetMatch

For better cooling and heat dissipation, Xiaomi has supplied the MIX Fold 2 a Vapor Cooling chamber based on boron nitride white graphene. This improves the phone’s thermal conductivity by 33%.

Image by GadgetMatch

It also has a slightly bigger battery than the Z Fold4 at 4500mAh — but a downgrade from Mi Mix Fold’s 5020mAh, though. Still, it supports fast 67W turbo charging with a full-charge taking just around 40 minutes. Xiaomi says the MIX Fold 2 can last for up to 1.15 days. Unfortunately, no wireless charging functionality was indicated.

LEICA superiority

The flagship foldable experience would not be complete without a great set of cameras. The Xiaomi MIX Fold 2 rocks a 50MP f/1.8 Sony IMX766 main image sensor with a 7P lens, sensor size of 1/1.56-inches, and pixel size of 2.0μm.

That’s the same sensor used in recent devices like the ASUS Zenfone 9, Nothing Phone (1), ROG Phone 6 series, and the OnePlus 10T.

Image by GadgetMatch

Other than that, it also rocks a 13MP f/2.4 ultra-wide angle lens with a 123-degree viewing angle. Lastly, an 8MP f/2.6 2x telephoto zoom lens. As some of you are wondering, it only has a single 20MP front camera at the cover display. The inner display still doesn’t have its own front camera.

Image by GadgetMatch

To make it a whole lot better, Xiaomi has also incorporated their new LEICA partnership with lens coatings as well as new software features that made its debut on the Xiaomi 12S Ultra a while back.

Pricing and Availability

The Xiaomi MIX Fold 2 is available in two colorways: Moon Shadow Black and Star Gold.

It’s currently on-sale in China with the following prices and configuration:

• 12GB + 256GB = CNY 8999 (US$ 1333 / S$ 1834 / ₱74,180 )
• 12GB + 512GB = CNY 9999 (US$ 1481 / S$ 2038 / ₱82,424 )
• 12GB + 1TB = CNY 11,999 (US$ 1777 / S$ 2445 / ₱98,910 )

This shows that the MIX Fold 2 is a lot cheaper than the Galaxy Z Fold4 both in China (CNY 13,999 / 14,999 / 16,999) as well as outside the Mainland (US$ 1999 / S$ 2398 / ₱98,990).

And just like last year, it’s only currently available in China with no word about global availability.

Samsung paved the way for foldable smartphones that transform into tablets.

That engineering marvel made the Galaxy Fold possible.

After three years, the Galaxy Z Fold continues to evolve.

The Galaxy Z Fold4, while it may look almost the same as the Z Fold3, offers upgrades that one should consider.

What are those changes?

You should definitely watch our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 hands-on for you to find out.

Pre-order the Galaxy Z Fold4: howl.me/1782498420013699516

The death of the headphone jack is slowly leaking into other devices. For a while now, Apple has slowly stopped adding the port to its iPad lineup. Currently, only the base iPad still has the feature. Unfortunately, the last bastion for the iPad’s headphone jack might soon disappear.

First revealed by MySmartPrice, the upcoming 10^th-generation iPad has recently received CAD renders for cases from third-party manufacturers. While the renders certainly don’t reveal much about the device, they still give a good peek at the iPad’s external hardware. Specifically, there are two things to note about these images.

For one, the render clearly does not have a headphone jack. Since the images are meant for casemakers, it stands to reason that these companies should be aware if a jack is coming. Though things can still change, it’s not looking good for headphone jack fans.

Secondly, the renders are obfuscating what the device’s charging port. Recently, a rumor hinted that Apple is also moving the base iPad to a USB-C port. A future without the Lightning cable is a looming possibility for Apple. Various countries are pushing the company into switching its entire lineup to USB-C, fulfilling a standard throughout the industry.

Apple is expected to launch its new iPad lineup later this fall.

SEE ALSO: iPadOS 16 is reportedly delayed