Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold vs Galaxy Z Fold 2 with Camera Test: Should Samsung Worry? By Danny Winget

What's up everybody: this is Danny, and today we're going to be comparing the new Xiaomi mix fold versus the Samsung Galaxy z4 2. This one's interesting, because this is Xiaomi's first foldable device, while Samsung has been at it for a few years now, but does Xiaomi come out of the gate, beating Samsung? Well, I absolutely love my galaxy z42, but compared to the flagship, Samsung phones, the camera system could be better, so I'm also going to test the camera systems for you, since the mix fold has a flagship, 108 megapixel sensor and along with that, it has a liquid lens which allows the 3x telephoto also to be a macro lens. So we're gonna, see if this camera system is the make it or break it decision between these two phones. If you're into unboxing the mix fold, is a nice experience. I got my me mix fold from 28mobile. com.

I will leave a link in the description if you're interested in buying one of these. They also have phones like the Huawei Mate x2 foldable, so check them out for hard to find smartphones like this one for those in the US. I'm on a T-Mobile sim right now, and I'm getting 5g, so compatibility looks like a go. If you want to import and the Google Play Store is super easy to install everything is working perfectly here. The first thing that I noticed right away about the mix fold is the size and weight of the device.

It is thicker, it is taller, and it is heavier, and it's noticeable when using it on a daily basis. The button layout is the same with the fingerprint scanner on the side which I like they are both equally fast and they both charge with USB, which is awesome, but the mi mix volt does have an IR blaster, which is kind of cool. You definitely don't see that much on smartphones today. The finish is different on the model that I have of the z full 2, and if you have the gold one, then you know that it's a nice matte finish. The glossy finish on the Xiaomi gets mucky real, quick and overall.

The mix fold reminds me of the original Galaxy Z fold. It is not bad at all, and it feels extremely solid, but the z-fold 2 feels more refined in pretty much every way, and it definitely feels like a generation 2 product where this one definitely feels like a gen 1 product. So if I had to go with fit and finish and everyday feel, I would pick the z full 2. Now the bigger form factor on the mix fold does have its advantages. The first obvious ones are the displays.

Let's look at the outer one first, the mix fold has a 6.5 inch display in comparison to the z-fold to 6.2 inch, and it is a noticeable difference, but the mix fold has a 90 hertz cover display, which is nice, while the z-fold 2 has a 60 hertz display. Now I don't think this is a huge deal, because I think most people, including myself, use the internal display more. The mix fold does have the larger 8-inch internal display compared to Samsung's 7.6 inch and in the words of floss for the PPI patrol. It does have slightly higher pixel density at 387 PPI, where the z-fold 2 has 373 PPI. But it's really not noticeable.

They both look fantastic. Both have that great AMOLED contrast and color punch, so great for watching movies or content of any kind. If you're worried about being able to see the crease, you can see it on both, but honestly you do get used to it over time. The one thing I did notice is that the mix fold display gets brighter, especially outdoors. It does make it easier to use outside.

So I thought I would bring that up. You can see that the mix fold does not have a front-facing camera on the interior screen, and you will have to use the front-facing camera on the front display for selfies the galaxy z42. You have two choices: either on the front cover display or the internal screen, and there's a punch out right there, you can see it. A lot of people might not think it's a big deal, but I like having that big preview to take selfies with and if you've ever gone, live on. Instagram on this, it's awesome to have that big display.

If you have one give it a try, the mix fold does have chunkier bezels around the display, like the original Samsung fold did where the Samsung has really refined that on the z fold too, it's very noticeable. In my opinion, they both have solid hinges, but on the galaxy z4 2 it's a little harder to open. There is some resistance at almost every stop, but for a good reason that allows you to prop it open and angle it how you want- and that is really useful if you just want to watch content like this, while working and also works in the camera app to get some great shots, especially at night for night mode, landscape, shots the mix, full kind of springs open and has a nice satisfying click at the end. But this doesn't allow you to prop it up at all, and it's very similar to the original Samsung fold hinge so Samsung with the better hinge system, in my opinion, but I think the big one for me is the refresh rate of the larger screen. The galaxy z4 2 has a faster and smoother 120, hertz refresh rate, and I think that's where it counts.

Where the mix fold has a 60 hertz refresh on the larger screen. So you have to determine if that's important to you also, the mix fold is, I think, the first foldable to have quad speakers two on each side which make the sound fuller when it comes to specs. The mix fold does have the advantage with the newer Qualcomm snapdragon 888, with 12 gigabytes of ram, there's no SD card slot, but available at the heist configuration with 512 gigabytes of storage and 16 gigabytes of ram. The zfo2 has the Qualcomm snapdragon 865, plus on board, which is still plenty fast, with 12 gigabytes of ram and also available with 512 gigabyte storage at the top end, and I don't think that you would notice a huge jump in performance in everyday tasks where the mix fold wins is in battery life. It has a bigger 5020, William hour battery, combined with the improvements of that snapdragon 888 and the lower refresh rate of the internal display.

This is a full day battery with heavy usage. I couldn't kill it in a day, but granted the z-fold 2 smaller 4 500 William hour battery isn't bad by any means either. It's also an all-day battery for my usage, but I definitely noticed a difference on the mix fold, especially on the days when I did the camera testing. Remember. They both have fast charging, but the mi mix fold is significantly faster with the 67 watt fast charging over the zoo 2's 25 watt fast charging.

The next thing I want to talk about before jumping into camera performance is the software, and this is where I think they have two different approaches. Samsung has been doing split, screen multitasking for a while on other phones, so it's natural and easy on the zfo2. Even with the cover display, you can pick from your favorite split screen, multitasking combo apps, and you can launch them easily. You can even pick a third app if you want. I never use that, but it's there.

If you need it, I hope to see more software features land on the zfo3, but there are more features to take advantage of that unique form factor on the z-fold 2. This is perfect for using your z-fold 2 like a tripod, and you can even use the front cover screen to get a live view of the video that you're recording. So you can use the best cameras available and even with everyday apps like YouTube, you can watch the video, and you can look at the comments at the same time, which take advantage of this form factor with the mix fold. I didn't see an efficient way to do split screen multitasking. So if there is a way, then please let me know in the comments below, but so far all I could see is a floating window option, and you can resize it if you want to- and this is cool for watching videos, but there isn't a ton of customization here, but where things change is in the PC mode that was recently enabled.

This brings up a new desktop like interface, which I like it has a windows like button down here. That shows you all of your apps and an easy way to get to your settings. You have a taskbar down here that you can minimize apps and launch apps from then you have classic android buttons on the right side for navigation. You see notifications here so in this mode you can launch as many floating windows that actually makes sense for the screen, and you can multitask this way. It's also a neat approach because you can connect a mouse if you want, but it definitely needs some work with easier resizing of the windows with touch function, but I like the potential of this PC mode interface.

Of course, if you want a desktop mode from the z-fold 2, you can use DEX, wirelessly or wired, which is awesome, but having that DEX interface on the fold itself would be really cool. Okay, so let's go ahead and jump into the camera and on the z-fold 2 you pretty much get the same camera setup that you get on the note, 10 plus, which isn't terrible by any means, but it is nowhere near the same on something like a Samsung Galaxy, s21 ultra, which has a monster 108, megapixel, camera, 3x and 10x zoom options. I mean that is probably the best camera out right now. The mix fold does have that flagship, 108 megapixel sensor along with an ultra-wide, and it also comes with a liquid lens that allows one of the sensors to be both a 3x telephoto and a macro lens at the same time. So with daytime shots.

I think this is going to be personal preference. The galaxy z42 produces the overall brighter picture, with bumped up shadow detail and more vibrant colors. These pictures are taken with all the scene. Optimizers and AI modes turned off. The saturation bump on the Samsung side is very noticeable, but I think a lot of the public will like this more vibrant look.

Technically, though, the mix folds camera handles a lot of the overall scenes better. Here, I don't blame you. If you like the Samsung pick better but punching in you can see that the Samsung is clipping and overexposing to create that brighter picture. Look at the writing on the tin roof here on the Xiaomi. You can see it clearly and on the dome the same thing.

I also noticed that the Xiaomi has better detail when you start to look at the image. The extra contrast makes it look like the z-fold 2 has the sharper and more detailed picture, but when you crop in heavily, you can see it's a different story when shooting in the 108 megapixel mode. On the mix fold, you don't get the advantages of pixel binning, but that extra resolution is noticeable on detail crop into this balloon, and you can see how much more detail is retained. On the mix fold, it's very impressive. The ultra-wide camera is wider.

On the z-fold too, though, so you do get a much wider field of view which I like. So if you shoot a lot of ultra-wide, I think that the galaxy z4 2 is better. But overall, I really like the extra depth of field that that larger sensor brings on the mix fold and that better overall balance, the telephoto options are pretty limited on both of these phones, but they're, pretty close that little of extra reach and extra sharpness helps the Xiaomi quite a bit in certain scenarios. But I do think that the 3x shots from the mix fold are super over sharpened. Take a look at the water in those trees.

In the background those are super processed, but that liquid lens gives you incredible macro abilities. Look at the z-fold 2, it's blurry, this close, but the mix fold wow. I couldn't believe the results. I took a few other macro shots, and I was really impressed and of course you won't use this all the time, but it does give you the chance to be creative with your shots, so options are always good to have so kudos to Xiaomi. On this.

The zfo2 gives you that telephoto option for portrait mode where the Xiaomi does not, and that makes a big difference for me. I find having the wide field of view. Just doesn't work well for portrait mode, but I guess it all depends on what you like, and I also think that the front-facing camera is better on the z-fold too. It produces more usable pictures. This portrait mode, shot from the mix fold looks pretty terrible and the clipping on my shirt is awful and the z-fold ii makes it easy to shoot selfies with their rear camera.

So again you have options, so you have to determine what's more important to you when it comes to video, I feel like they flip-flop and the Xiaomi creates the brighter looking video with more shadow detail, while the zfo2 has more balanced overall video in terms of highlights, but with a little too much saturation. It's a toss-up here, but the one thing that might tip it over is that the mix fold has 8k 24 frames and 30 frames per second video. Thanks to that snapdragon 888. I do like that deep, green color and that extra contrast- it looks great in my opinion, so let me know what you think about this AK. Video low light improvements are expected because the sensor is so much larger on the mix fold, you can see that it lets a lot more light in and gives you more information, but the software in its current state is a mixed bag.

There's more information in the shadows, look at the tree here and also look at the bricks. It looks better but punching in the z-fold 2, while being noisier, picks up more detail centrally in the picture, so that is crazy. Night mode really improves the z-fold 2. It looks like a totally different picture. The mix fold also looks better, but take a look at this weird stuff happening in the sky.

I really thought that this was a one-off, but then I saw it happen again and again. What's funny is that it doesn't look as bad on the single snapshots, and you can really see the advantages of the larger sensor. Look at that brick and building detail. The entire picture just looks so much better, but when night mode kicks in the z-fold 2 does compete even with sharper details. In the background, which is impressive- and here we go with this weird artifacts in the sky again, and look at the bricks that's being affected too.

So they definitely need to fix this. In a software update, it does go back and forth on the single snapshots where sometimes the Samsung gives you a brighter image, but that bigger sensor difference is noticeable on the mix fold. But the differences aren't as big as I thought they would be. So I think that if you use night mode on the zfo2, you won't have super photo about having a smaller sensor, because the zfo2 did a lot better than I thought it would and even in extreme low light testing. Look at how dark this area was.

The Xiaomi was more realistic here, but night mode was significantly better here on the zfo2, so it doesn't make any sense. So Xiaomi has some tweaking to do on the software side of things with selfies that extra saturation and warmer white balance helped the zoo 2. Quite a bit, but on portrait mode, the mix fold is sharper in low light, but on the single snapshot is totally the opposite, which makes no sense, but there is night mode on both and the Xiaomi is sharper again with practically zero skin smoothing. But I do admit I, like the Samsung picture better here, just personal preference, the bigger sensor on low light video makes a difference. This is just with one light on in my office and nothing else.

Look at that detail in the carpet on the mix fold with less noise. It's just better. Video all around the s21 ultra is much better exposed with better color pickup and look at the top there. The noise on the zfo2 is crazy, where the mix fold does much better with noise reduction, so nighttime video win goes to Xiaomi, okay, so after seeing the camera performance, which one would you rather have in your pocket, the Xiaomi mi mix fold or the galaxy z4 2. ? If you want my opinion after using the mix fold for about a week, I still think the Galaxy Z fold.2 is a better device overall, but I think that the mix fold is very promising, especially for the price depends on where you live, and if you look at just MSRP alone, but the mix bowl could be up to five hundred dollars cheaper, but with all the incentives that are going on right now in the US, for the z full two. I think you can get this for roughly the same price right now, and I know that the z43 is right around the corner and that's probably why.

But the mix fold is definitely a solid fold from Xiaomi. For the first attempt. I just think that it definitely feels like a first attempt and if Samsung didn't exist, then this would look really great, but Samsung's been at this for a little while now, so I'm waiting to see what Xiaomi has up their sleeves, and I'm waiting to see what the z43 is like. I hope you enjoyed this review of these two phones and I hope that I helped you make a buying decision, especially if you're looking to pick one of these up. So if it did make sure you hit that thumbs up and make sure you subscribe to the channel for a lot more content like this, and I will see you in the next one.

Source : Danny Winget