Xiaomi Mix Fold: Setup process and AMA

[Deuteronomy93]

Hi All

 

I posted a few days ago about wanting to reinstall the normal Android OS on a Chinese bought Xiaomi phone however it looked like that was a minefield.

 

As part of the conversation, I used my wife's cheap Xiaomi she uses for Chinese calls to test using the Xiaomi OS and just brute force my setup to replicate the experience of my Note 9.

 

It worked really well, using an APK to download PIA and Chrome I was able to download the Play Store and start customising.

 

One thing that we've both experienced with VPNs here is that most don't work, and logging in is main issue as sometimes you can't reach the login servers without a VPN.

 

I decided to take the plunge and get the Mix Fold and do the same. I started the same way with Chrome, PIA to get the Play Store, Gboard, then used a mix of APKPure and Play Store to get everything else such as Nova, Google Assistant, Drive etc.

 

It's been 2 days now and things are going quite well. There are certain things that randomly aren't working such as Teams, Outlook isn't allowing me to add my Work account, the option for "Ok Google" seems to be baked into the app/OS but is greyed out.

 

On the whole however, it is working pretty much the same as my Note 9 but things are working and apps aren't crashing.

 

Some overall notes:

• MIUI isn't great but it is tolerable with Nova.
• The fold in the center is quite noticeable when at an angle but really is t an issue when using the device. It isn't ideal when I want to show my wife something (folding devices still a single user experience) but it's still better overall due to the larger screen.
• The speakers are actually really good. We have some small speakers like Wonderboom 2 (not going to compare it to proper speakers) and the sound feels quite comparable, if not slightly better. They are by Harman Kardon, I've had collaboration speakers before but these ones do seem to actually live up to the brand, considering there are 4 small ones.
• The EQ/sound settings aren't very robust. My Note 9 has options to change the sound environment and more granular control over the EQ itself which I did play around with a lot as some songs did sound better with their auditorium option etc.
• As a side note, I got Galaxy Buds Pro with them and the app for that also doesn't seem as extensive in terms of your environment options. I'll have a look to see if I can do something else for this.
• The front screen is actually a lot more useful than I thought it would be. I thought I would just use it for calls but honestly having that portrait mode does give additional flexibility when not needing such a big screen. This may be different depending on eye sight, but they do have options to enlarge the UI as well.
• The liquid lens seems decent. My wife had a wisdom tooth removed yesterday and I managed to take a picture with good clarity to show how the surrounding area looked.
• I haven't been able to find a mode that allowed my to take a picture whilst also showing the subject a live view via the front screen. I can't remember if the reviews I saw said this was possible or also something they'd have liked.
• This is my first holepunch display (on the front), it isn't too bad but I'm sort of glad the main display doesn't have one, I haven't yet had many video calls where I've needed to switch from tablet to front display so my opinion could change over time.
• The dual SIM cards are a nice to have. I kept my 6S+ to use my UK SIM card until now but having both in this phone and the option to decide what I do with each card is nice!
• The display feels relatively snappy, I think the main one is locked to 60 but it's not too bad, I feel it more when swiping between screens but I don't do this as often now that I have a larger screen. 1 screen for all my main apps and another for widgets/security.
• The plastic screen/screen protector doesn't feel too bad, it's not glass but it's satisfactory enough.
• In terms of the main feature, the display is really nice. Great colours, love the sheer size (still small for a tablet), videos often end up with relatively large black bars but a bigger screen is just better for immersion.
• The stock Gboard has been fine for me. I don't have enormous hands but I can quite easily reach everywhere I need to without a split keyboard.
• It doesn't have wireless charging which I thought I would miss more than I have. The phone has the very fast charger which is shockingly quick so hasn't bothered me much. When it starts it will show decimals to give a better indication of the charging speed which I really like, but this seems to stop (even with always on display) which is a bit annoying. It doesn't get hot when charging, feels pretty much like room temperature.
• I haven't properly tried PC mode yet. I would like to try it more with perhaps a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse as well as a folding stand but I haven't needed it and it could well be a gimmick. I will do more testing but when I loaded apps (maybe that weren't optimised for it) I didn't get the option to just maximise the windows though I think I can drag them wider.
• The text of certain system messages can cut off as they were designed to be displayed in Chinese. Mostly not an issue but a quirk.
• The default keyboard will often come up instead of Gboard when signing into apps, again mostly a quirk.
• It could be me having set things up slightly wrong, but certain apps don't play too well with dark mode, could be the OS or Nova, need to check this more. Strangely my manga reader's loading screen is badly affected but the pages are fine.
• There was a huge amount of bloatware. I managed to get rid of most but some can't be uninstalled.
• I haven't run any speed tests yet, I need to wait until next month to get 5g.
• It is heavy, the elastic in my favourite shorts is pretty bad now and putting the phone in the pocket will slowly cause my shorts to drop...
• In terms of bulkiness, I need more time on this. With a 1 month old baby and working from home, I haven't been out much so I'm not sure how it will work depending on the clothes I'm wearing. It is a tall phone so with some pockets it does definitely hand out slightly.
• I haven't tried any games apart from a few rounds of Unblock Me quickly, seems decent enough at it.
• It does feel pretty tanky, the build quality feels really nice but obviously I do need to baby it more due to the hinge. It is the aspect I'm most concerned about and will just have to see how it holds up. I've seen people compare the hinges and say others are better, they may well be but this does feel fine, I don't want to have it as a split screen where half is on the table, but I do feel like the Samsung I briefly tested in the store was more snappy when it got to the 180 degree position.
• I am sort of missing my stylus with the Stylus apps such as the translate feature as it works much better than typical OCR from Google Translate etc. I do want to find a good alternative for this, but the stylus wasn't perfect either.

 

Overall I'm really happy with the purchase. It's like having a larger iPad mini as well as a phone with me at all times. I bought it for the same price as a Note 20 Ultra here and I feel like I'm getting a good amount for my money. It's nice to not need 2 devices, having effectively 2 devices that are constantly synced, and paying less than an equivalent phone+tablet (due to the discount) makes it feel very acceptable.

 

Feel free to ask me any questions!