After 1 year, we finally waited for Xiaomi's third-generation folding screen - MIX Fold 3.
Do you remember how we rated the MIX Fold 2 last year?
"The Xiaomi Mi MIX Fold 2 is a folding screen phone with an extremely obvious trade-off."
That's right.
MIX Fold 2 relies on the ultra-thin body of "unfolded 5.4mm and folded 11.2mm", and rushes into the era of thinness and thinness with the inner folding model, making the inner folding model close to a straight mobile phone for the first time in terms of feel.
But it's a bit of a pity that in order to be extremely thin and light, the MIX Fold 2 has compromised in configuration, such as not having the wireless charging that Miró likes very much...
So, at the time, we also had a small look forward to the MIX Fold 3:
"I wonder if one day's MIX Fold 3 can take the lead in becoming the folding screen flagship of 'both, want, and want'?"
And this time the MIX Fold 3 really knows Tony too well.
Without selling, let's start with the conclusion:
Tony felt that the machine did exactly what we expected.
On the basis of the previous generation of thinness, it has a larger battery, better Leica quad camera, wireless charging, etc., it can be said that a high-end flagship should have, it has it.
But before talking about how its experience is all-powerful, Tony wants to tell you how it achieves a combination of thin and light experience.
Because, before the thin and all-round experience for the folding screen, it was a "fish and bear's paw" problem - there must be a trade-off between being thin and light, and even sacrificing the experience.
How to achieve "I want it all" with folding screens is a problem that once plagued the industry.
What's the difficulty?
The difficulty lies in technology, in technology, and in innovation.
So how did the Xiaomi Mi MIX Fold 3 solve it?
Let's say the same next, starting with the most important thing.
As we all know, the folding screen has an intermediate connection structure - hinge compared to the straight plate machine, and if you want to make light and thin, you can't bypass this key component.
Only by making the hinge thin and small can there be a way to free up more internal space to accommodate more components.
That's right, this time Xiaomi did just that, they designed a new self-developed "keel hinge" for the MIX Fold 3,
According to Xiaomi, compared with the miniature water drop shaft of the previous generation, the thickness of the keel shaft is reduced from 3.0mm to 2.7mm in the unfolded state, and the thickness is reduced from 8.8mm to 7.7mm in the folded state, and the width is also reduced by 8%, and finally the internal space is released by another 17%.
Good guy, Xiaomi is using technology to "steal" space.
But speaking of which, Tony thought of another question:
The hinge is thinner, which means that the space left for "water droplets" becomes smaller, and after the bending radius of the inner screen UTG glass is smaller, it will be easier to produce stress concentration, resulting in deeper screen creases and shortened folding life, so how does Xiaomi do stress dispersion?
Regarding this question, some friends may not understand it very well.
You can take a piece of paper and try to bend it from the middle, use your hand to make the bend into a droplet shape, and then you will find that as the shape of the droplet gets smaller and smaller, the bending marks of the paper will become more and more obvious.
Emmm。。。 Maybe the example is not particularly accurate, but it probably means something like this.
In order to understand how Xiaomi solved it, Tony also specifically asked Xiaomi's engineer friends.
Simply put, this keel shaft has a very interesting improvement in structure, that is, the traditional two-stage connecting rod is replaced by a three-link design.
Compared with the secondary link with 8 movable joints, the triple link design has up to 14 movable joints, which can better fit the screen.
Like a pair of hands, it holds the screen securely when unfolded and folded.
Under the premise of better fit, the keel shaft can also control the shape of the water drop more finely.
At the same time, Xiaomi also used simulation models to find the most natural and comfortable one from more than 600 water drop shapes.
A set of combination punches down, so that the screen can better avoid stress concentration when bending, so that the crease control performance is better and the folding life is longer.
This is one of the reasons why Xiaomi dares to say that "even after 200,000 bends, the crease change is controlled to only 10μm".
But do you think that's all the benefits of keel spines?
No, this time the keel shaft has also been greatly improved in reliability.
On the one hand, the multi-link design can better protect the screen.
Like the traditional two-stage linkage design, the contact between the inner screen and the connecting rod belongs to "line contact", which is equivalent to two connecting rod components "pinching" the inner screen.
When the mobile phone falls, because the contact area between the inner screen and the hinge is a "line", under the influence of the impact force, the inner screen will deform to both sides of the "line", and when the degree of deformation reaches the upper limit that the material can bear, the contact area will be damaged.
The contact between the multi-link design and the inner screen belongs to the "surface contact", which is more suitable for the screen, equivalent to wrapping the bending area of the screen, when impacted, the inner screen is not prone to excessive deformation, and the impact force can also be better dispersed by the hinge.
Needless to say, Xiaomi's idea is still quite wonderful.
On the other hand, the strength and wear resistance of the shaft have increased.
The supporting structure of the keel shaft is made of super steel with a yield strength of up to 1800Mpa, and the rotating structure is made of carbon ceramic steel with four times the wear resistance of conventional carbon-ceramic steel.
This high-strength + high-wear-resistant material solution is reflected in daily use, which is a greatly increased folding life.
So Xiaomi also said that this time the MIX Fold 3 passed the Rheinland 500,000 folds worry-free certification.
In short, I think that this Xiaomi's keel shaft is already a very mature solution, and its solution ideas and technical paths can reflect Xiaomi's thinking about the hinge, the "most soulful component of the folding screen".
Of course, Rome was not built in a day.
Xiaomi can come up with today's mature hinge scheme, which must have gone through a lot of technology accumulation in the early stage.
In fact, since the era of Snapdragon 845, Xiaomi has been self-developed hinges, and with the deepening of research and development, the iterative scheme is also constantly evolving.
(Illustration) Slide rail hinge for Xiaomi folding screen engineering machine in the Snapdragon 845 era, source: NonxCirno
Therefore, in the self-developed hinge, Xiaomi is really doing things seriously.
In terms of reliability, in addition to the keel shaft, Xiaomi also came to a "super double".
The "dragon scale fiber" version in my hand, although the surface of the back cover looks like ordinary aramid fiber, but in fact, there is a lot of articles inside.
In fact, this is a composite laminated material made of aramid fiber and ceramic fiber by high temperature and high pressure.
The advantage of this material is that it has both the toughness and puncture resistance of aramid fiber, and the high strength and impact resistance of ceramic fiber, which is equivalent to the strong combination of the two materials, which can further improve the strength.
This time I have thought of the advertising slogan of MIX Fold 3 for Xiaomi: stronger than strong.
And it's not only reliable, but also the image performance.
As we all know, because of the limited internal space, the folding screen cannot pile up images like the straight flagship, resulting in the image performance of many folding screens before being only 4,000 yuan flagship standard version.
"I spent nearly 10,000 yuan to buy a folding screen, and the ability to take photos is almost the same as the flagship standard version..."
Xiaomi has crammed Leica's full-focal four cameras into an extremely limited space this time, making the MIX Fold 3's photo level comparable to that of a straight image flagship.
And how does this work?
Simply put, Xiaomi used technology to perform another "space magic".
First of all, Xiaomi uses stacking technology to reduce the area of the motherboard to "steal" more space for the camera module.
Secondly, it starts from the overall thickness reduction and height reduction of the camera module.
The lenses of all four cameras use aspherical lenses, and the optical path design of aspherical lenses can be more free than spherical lenses, thereby reducing the height of the lens.
At the same time, the addition of high-transparency glass lenses also brings a higher light refractive index, which can further reduce the thickness of the lens.
But this is not enough, because the anti-shake motor used in the lens also has thickness, so you can't cut the optical image stabilization...
Xiaomi's method is to replace the traditional ball motor with an SMA suspension motor, which saves a magnetic base compared to a ball motor and can reduce the overall thickness of the module.
In addition, Xiaomi also lowered the main camera's motherboard to further reduce the module height.
I compared the MIX Fold 3 to its predecessor and found that its camera module was not much higher in the case of a significant improvement in image.
Thanks to the addition of Leica four cameras, the focal length coverage of this machine is also larger, which can meet the shooting needs of more scenes.
For example, I really like the 75mm portrait lens and 115mm periscope telephoto lens, 75mm is very good for shooting people, and 115mm gives me more freedom in framing the frame.
In addition, I must say that the "Leica flavor" of the MIX Fold 3 is also the same as that of the 13 Ultra, with strong color expression and strong chiaroscuro, which is really great for shooting sunsets or plant landscapes.
This color, I really love!
After talking about the previous ones, let's talk a little about daily experience.
In this piece, MIX Fold 3 adopts a new generation of silicon-carbon anode technology Xiaomi surging battery, with the capacity increased to 4800mAh under the same volume.
Using two G1 power management chips at the same time can further improve power efficiency.
The addition of P2 fast charging chip also makes the charging process more stable and safe.
Speaking of charging, I mention more, this time MIX Fold 3 supports 67W wired fast charging and 50W wireless fast charging, which is definitely a plus for small partners who just need wireless charging.
In addition to starting from the battery and power management, the Pol-Less Plus ultra-low-power screen technology and LTPO adaptive refresh rate technology of the inner screen can also reduce some power consumption, thereby achieving the effect of energy saving and power saving.
Judging from the 3-hour battery life test results, MIX Fold 3 even if it is a pure inner screen battery life, it is also a middle and upper level in straight mobile phones, and there is no problem in using it properly for a day.
In terms of performance, how strong the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 leading version is, I don't need to say more, everyone should also know something.
Because this is a non-commercial version in Tony's hand, there is no way to run test software such as 3DMark and perfdog, so he can only simply run an entertainment rabbit (not connected to the Internet) to give everyone a reference.
In terms of screen, the inner and outer screens are all E6 materials, and they all support a high refresh rate of 120Hz, whether it is brightness, fineness or smoothness, there is no problem.
In the large screen adaptation piece, Xiaomi has also worked hard this time.
The small window function, which was already very easy to use, has also been optimized this time and added some active guidance functions, so that everyone can make more use of the small window and feel the immersive experience brought by the large screen.
There is also this real-time translation function that supports the same screen display is also very useful, I heard that Xiaomi said that this function is based on AI large model translation technology.
I found that this function, combined with the hover mode, can realize the first half of the English speech playback, and the second half of the real-time translation, which is quite practical to experience.
Other aspects, like stereoscopic double lift, X-axis motor, this time the MIX Fold 3 also has it.
Finally, Tony believes that this MIX Fold 3 is greatly enhanced in practicality after balancing the thin and light and comprehensive flagship experience.
Since the category of folding screens, manufacturers have been struggling with an ultimate problem, that is, practicality.
"Flashy", "expensive toys", "fragile and beautiful" are many people's views on folding screens before.
However, as manufacturers gradually improve the experience of folding screens, the public's recognition of folding screens is getting higher and higher, and the growing sales are the best proof.
It is undeniable that Xiaomi has a lot of credit for this, from the previous thin and light MIX Fold 2, to this time leading the "thin + all-round" MIX Fold 3, Xiaomi is using products to tell everyone: the folding screen officially entered the second half.
There is no doubt that the folding screen has passed the stage of simple and thin, and constantly meeting everyone's needs for practicality is the right direction for the next folding screen.
Speaking of which, I'm already looking forward to the next generation of the MIX Fold 4.
Images and sources:
Xiaomi, Sandalwood, B Station @NonxCirno, Xiaobai Review