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00:00What's up guys, MKBHD here.
00:13So this is a fun one.
00:14A couple days ago, Xiaomi gave me a first look at a prototype smartphone that they've
00:18been working on.
00:19So similar to some things we saw at CES, this isn't a real phone with a price tag that has
00:24a shipping date or anything like that, this is just a functional prototype to show a cool
00:29idea they had.
00:30And that idea is, what would happen if you took those curved edge displays and just curved
00:35them right over the back, all the way around to the back of the phone.
00:39So you're just looking at full 110% screen.
00:43And that is how we arrived at this.
00:45The Xiaomi Mi Mix Alpha prototype.
00:51Also, before we get into it, shameless plug, the merch is now permanently back.
01:02So a lot of the stuff you can now just get whenever you want, which is awesome.
01:06Shop.MKBHD.com.
01:08First link below the like button.
01:09That's pretty sick.
01:10Alright, let's get into the phone.
01:32So this is that Xiaomi Mi Mix Alpha, and it doesn't look like any other phone I've ever
01:37seen before.
01:38And I've seen a lot of phones.
01:40So you might remember their Mi Mix line for a while has been that line of phones where
01:44they really push the design to the limits.
01:46The first Mi Mix was one of my favorite phones for that reason.
01:49So that's why this one got the Mi Mix name.
01:52And it's definitely no exception.
01:53The materials, the specs, and of course the display are pretty next level.
01:58So there's the frame of the phone, which is this titanium alloy, which is harder than
02:01stainless steel.
02:03And the camera covers are all made from sapphire.
02:06And the camera strip on the back here is ceramic.
02:09I don't have a most pick handy or anything, but I tend to believe that because this phone
02:12is heavy.
02:14Like it's clearly dense and has a lot of extra material, extra glass for the screen, et cetera.
02:19And the specs, not that they matter, but they are pretty high end, which shows that they
02:23didn't have to sacrifice too much to make this form factor happen.
02:27So Snapdragon 855 plus, 512 gigs of UFS 3.0 storage, 12 gigs of RAM, and a 4050 milliamp
02:35hour battery.
02:36That's pretty good.
02:37If anything, you'd maybe want to see the battery even bigger, but a lot of that space, as you
02:41can tell, is going to be taken up by the screen wrapping around inside the phone.
02:47And it does have 40 watt fast charging, which I will definitely get back to in a second.
02:52So clearly the focal point of the phone here is this screen.
02:54I mean, just imagine seeing someone in person using this display where you can see it from
02:59the front, from the sides, and from the back.
03:04This is a 2088 by 2250 OLED display with a very thin top and bottom bezels that wrap
03:11around to meet the camera strip at the back, which is what I'll call it.
03:15This houses a couple of things, including the 108 megapixel primary camera, the 20 megapixel
03:21ultra wide with macro capabilities, and the 12 megapixel telephoto camera and dual LED
03:26flash.
03:27And this phone also even has an in-display fingerprint reader, impressively, and it's
03:315G enabled.
03:32And there's a whole bunch of optimizations in Xiaomi's MIUI alpha software, like the
03:37battery and status bar icons and notification counter are on the side of the phone here
03:43instead of at the top.
03:44So it kind of cleans up the top to just be a notification pull down and not have to display
03:49all that stuff all the time, which is kind of neat.
03:51And it's also just like crazy, no matter what angle you look at it, it just doesn't look
03:56right.
03:57Like it doesn't look like a real phone.
03:58It just looks futuristic before you even think about any of the sort of practicality
04:02trade-offs.
04:03Also, I told you I would mention the charging again.
04:06I think probably the coolest part of having a wraparound screen like this is the charging
04:10animation.
04:11So go ahead and plug this phone in with the screen off and the whole thing lights up and
04:14animates the battery starting to fill up the whole thing like liquid, like liquid power
04:19flowing into the phone.
04:21I love this and it doesn't stay on the whole time you're charging.
04:25That'd be kind of annoying at night, but it is pretty damn cool.
04:28You got to admit.
04:29And notifications will also do the same thing.
04:30They'll sort of glow all the way around the screen, which is super cool.
04:34So seeing this phone on video is pretty sweet and that's one thing, but actually holding
04:39it in person and considering using it is a total different thing and it brings up a lot
04:45of questions.
04:46So now that I've actually held it and sort of used it, I'm here to answer those questions.
04:50So first off, number one, just what does it feel like to hold and use?
04:55And so to that, I'll say, like I mentioned earlier, it's heavy, but what's funny is it
04:59isn't as slippery as some of those other glass phones.
05:01Like it seems like my finger is grippy with the display glass better than it is with some
05:05other materials.
05:07And just overall it feels like, well, you're holding all screen.
05:10So the immersion factor is very real.
05:12And then you might be wondering, Hey, wait a second.
05:14Where are the speaker and the selfie camera up at the front?
05:19Great question.
05:20Two different answers.
05:21So there's a regular speaker at the bottom of the device still, but for your phone calls,
05:24that earpiece is replaced by an electromagnetic speaker.
05:28Basically that's vibrating through the glass to create sound.
05:31We've seen this in previous Mi Mix phones and there is no selfie camera at the top.
05:35Instead, when you hit the selfie button, you then flip around the screen to take a selfie
05:41with the main 108 megapixel camera.
05:44Now, weirdly the selfie mode doesn't let you switch to ultra wide or do nearly as many
05:49things as the main camera modes, which is a bummer.
05:52But in theory, this whole flip action takes your selfies to the next level because they're
05:56coming from the high end main camera.
05:59So all right then, how good are those virtual side buttons on the screen?
06:05Okay.
06:06I'll preface this by saying it's a prototype, but they're pretty bad.
06:09I mean, the idea is fine in theory.
06:11So there's a power button and a volume button on the right hand side of the screen on the
06:16side.
06:17And when you hit that volume button and you get it just right while it's rejecting the
06:20palm touch all over the rest of the screen, but it's realizing that you hit the volume
06:24button, it pops up this slider and then you can adjust the volume on the front.
06:29No problem by sliding.
06:30But it really only works for me sometimes, like maybe there's a trick to holding it just
06:35right where you learn over time how to get familiar with the palm rejection, whatever
06:40it is.
06:41But I didn't arrive at this.
06:42So this was a bummer.
06:44But then there's the power button on the side that literally just puts it to sleep.
06:47That one worked more often for me, which is nice.
06:49And there's also still a physical circular power button at the top of the phone for sleep
06:55wake.
06:56That one always works, but it's also more of a reach since it's way up at the top of
06:59the phone.
07:00Okay.
07:01So how good is the palm rejection or recognition on a crazy screen like this?
07:07It's hit or miss as you might expect.
07:08So Xiaomi dropped off a little info sheet with this phone and on it, they say they're
07:13using a combination of accelerometers, gyroscopes, pressure sensors, and software algorithms
07:19to be able to tell when you're holding it versus when you're actually using it and to
07:24properly do palm rejection.
07:25To me, this seems like the biggest challenge for a phone with a wraparound screen.
07:30There were definitely times that it impressively worked just fine.
07:32But I also in tons of other times using the phone had tons of accidental presses, not
07:36including that software volume button.
07:38So it's hit or miss.
07:39It's impressive when it works, but it's really annoying when it doesn't.
07:42And then what's the back display even good for?
07:45What's the point?
07:46Well, they've so far come up with a couple cool things that number one is the charging
07:50animation that I told you guys about already.
07:52I think that's pretty sweet.
07:53Maybe the number one cool factor.
07:55And then there's the fact that it takes the stuff from up in the top bar where it typically
07:58is and puts it on the sides to keep the front looking even more clean at the top.
08:03That's all right.
08:04The camera viewfinder is also a legitimate benefit.
08:06So we've seen it before that using the main camera as your selfie camera typically gives
08:10you better selfies.
08:11So you still get that benefit.
08:13And then there's the special software mode where it detects when you flip over the phone
08:17and it activates this panel with some widgets that are a sort of a quick access type of
08:22thing.
08:23So there's a timer in there, the weather, stuff like that.
08:26That's pretty cool too.
08:27And then just looking cool like that's, that's mainly it.
08:32It just, it's pretty sweet to look at.
08:33Oh, also another question.
08:34Is there a case for it?
08:36Yes, there is.
08:37I forgot to take video of it, but I can show you this photo.
08:39It literally only has a camera strip to anchor on and then it's sort of, sort of protects
08:44the outside, but not really.
08:45I don't even know why you would put this phone in a case to be honest.
08:48Just accept that you have a super delicate phone.
08:50And then I want to point out that this display isn't flawless, not to be a downer, but just
08:55like when you're working with a prototype, you naturally find a lot of things that could
08:58be improved.
08:59And this was the biggest illusion breaker of the whole thing was the edges of the display.
09:04So right at the apex of those sides where it's rounding over the side, there's a gap
09:08in the cover glass.
09:10So it's not all one curved piece of glass.
09:12There's actually three pieces that sort of connect together, but when you run your finger
09:17over that apex, you can feel it.
09:19So it's not perfectly smooth.
09:21And then from certain angles, it even catches the light and rainbows a bit and you can really
09:24see it.
09:25So that definitely takes away from the wraparound display illusion.
09:29There's also a fair bit of yellowing at the very edges that you can sometimes notice if
09:33you're looking for it.
09:34The camera doesn't pick it up as well as your eyes.
09:36And also this sucker wobbles like crazy on a desk, but that's, I guess, unavoidable.
09:42There's no other place for it to lie flat.
09:44The camera bump is literally just a stripe down the middle.
09:46Overall, though, I got to say I'm very impressed by this functional prototype.
09:51A lot of the numbers on paper, I don't know if I can really give them full credit.
09:55Like they say it's a 180.6% screen to body ratio, but there's still bezels at the top
10:02and the bottom, 2.15 millimeters to be exact.
10:04So I don't know if just because you wrap it around the sides, you can say it's over 100%
10:08screen to body ratio.
10:10And also what's funny is on paper, the spec sheet again, they mention, they say it's a
10:157.9 inch diagonal screen, but it's not that big.
10:20They're measuring it from around the back corner to corner of the display.
10:24But really it's more like the size of a Pixel 4 or an iPhone 11 Pro Max.
10:29But yeah, that's about it.
10:31In this world where we have crazy concept cars, I'm glad that we also get to have these
10:36wild form over function concept smartphones.
10:40And maybe that idea turns into something someday.
10:42So let me know what you think of the wraparound display concept in the comment section below.
10:46Would you grab something like this?
10:47Would you want a phone that's that crazy or is this completely over the moon, form over
10:52function, no reason to exist?
10:54Let me know what you think.
10:55Thanks for watching.
10:57Catch you guys in the next one.
10:58Peace.
11:01Transcribed by https://otter.ai