The Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S Review: Fantastic Overall Value
by Andrei Frumusanu on June 29, 2018 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Smartphones
- Xiaomi
- MI MIX 2S
Battery Life
The Mi MIX 2S comes with a 3400mAh battery – a relatively average size given that now we’re starting to see competitor devices with similar form-factors employ 4000mAh units, such as the Huawei P20 Pro. The larger concern for me was how the increased performance characteristics of the Snapdragon 845 as well as the JDI panel will fare in terms of overall device efficiency.
In the web browsing battery life test, the Mi MIX 2S lands with an average 9.86h runtime. This is slightly lower than the Galaxy S9+ - although the MIX 2S also shows slightly better performance. It’s interesting to see that although the MIS 2S only has a 1080p screen, it actually doesn’t really pull in any advantage in efficiency. I’m wondering if it’s in part due to the fact that this is a video-mode screen, or as I’ve simply strongly suspected over the last couple of years – the difference in screen resolution makes for very little difference in battery life, especially if you’re comparing it to a higher resolution OLED screen which doesn’t suffer from decreased light transmissivity at higher resolutions like LCDs do.
In the PCMark battery test we see a more interactive workload with varying picture levels and workload types. Here the MIX 2S also lands square in the middle of current devices; beating the Galaxy S9+ by a few minutes.
Overall the MIX 2S has very good battery life. It doesn’t quite compete with Huawei’s recent devices which are in a league of their own right now, but it more than matches anything else in the market. The only negative thing I’d say is that it’s a pity that it doesn’t really seem to distance itself from the Galaxy S9+ ; both devices have similar form-factors, the same SoC, and almost equal battery capacities. Yet the Mi MIX 2S’s has a lower resolution LCD screen, but that doesn’t really help it in terms of battery life. I’m sure that Xiaomi could have optimised the battery life through a better selection of display panel, as it seems that it’s one of the MIX 2S’s weak points.
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Arbie - Friday, June 29, 2018 - link
No microSD, no sale. I want to easily load and swap sets of media files. The lack of a standard headphone jack hurts too.Lolimaster - Friday, June 29, 2018 - link
Seems phone makers don't get it. Why depende on internet, when you can have tiny sets of mSD's on your wallet, pocket, backpack with different kind of content (favorite music, cartoons, anime, manga, popcorn/hentai)Destoya - Friday, June 29, 2018 - link
Maybe I don't get it either. I admittedly have a S8 with a 128GB SD card in it but I would have no problem going to a phone with 256GB internal storage and no SD card. I have something like 2000 320kbps songs, a bunch of games/apps, and that still is only around half of my total storage. If I really wanted to I could fill the rest of the storage with something like 40 hours of high-quality 1080p rips. More likely if I watch something on my phone I just connect to my Plex server back home with its terabytes of content.SD card support on android has always been a mediocre experience; it certainly works but has always felt tacked on at best. OTG SD/flash drive readers cover most of the remaining use-cases anyways.
FunBunny2 - Friday, June 29, 2018 - link
"Seems phone makers don't get it."their all trying to emulate Jobs: tell the consumer what s/he needs irregardless. so far, he's about the only one to pull it off.
close - Saturday, June 30, 2018 - link
I'm willing to bet their surveys showed people will complain but still buy the phones because the SD slot isn't a real *must* have. I've heard too many people claim "128/256GB is not enough" only to fall flat when they realize how much music fits in there, how many pictures, videos, etc. And the argument "my 4K videos, my lossless audio, my RAW pictures" is about as realistic and compelling as "but my mouse, my Excel, my coding project" on the phone.If you consider how much of that data has to be with you at any time it really stops making sense to insist on memory cards. Especially since they don't excel at reliability so having your only copy on that SD would be a monument of ignorance euphemistically speaking.
Over the years I heard people screaming "no [whatever] no buy" 1000 times. Yet most of them now rock a phone with no replaceable battery, no physical keyboard, no SD slot, no headphone jack, no physical button, no week-long battery, notched screen, etc. They *ALL* pull it off ;).
serendip - Saturday, June 30, 2018 - link
64 GB internal flash with no MicroSD isn't enough for me, especially when the user-accessible space is more like 45 GB after subtracting system and data partitions.Holliday75 - Tuesday, July 3, 2018 - link
How many people do we know in real life that would even know their phone has a SD slot or not? I for one can only think of a couple of cousins and maybe on uncle who would know, and even then I doubt they care.I'm in IT professionally, but even I have no use for it. How big is the market for such items? Sounds great to have and I'm sure if you told people what it was and asked if they wanted it they would mostly say yes, but in the real world I see very little use of it.
ianmills - Friday, June 29, 2018 - link
Go cheaper and you can have what you desire. Xiaomi Redmi note 5 does all that for ~$200djayjp - Friday, June 29, 2018 - link
Apparently NAND performance doesn't matter........Pallmei - Friday, June 29, 2018 - link
400MB/s read, 160MB/s write on my Mi Mix 2. I am sure 2s is no worse and AFAIK they haven't upgraded the specs either