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
Camera - Low Light Evaluation
Moving on to low-light shots of the MIX 2S. The 1.4µm pixel pitch of the sensor along with the F/1.8 lens should give respectable results, although I’m not expecting it to beat the competition as it its optics are simply at a disadvantage in terms of raw technical specifications for low-light capture.
[ Mi MIX 2S ]
[ P20 Pro ] - [ P20 ] - [ P10 ]
[ Galaxy S9+ ] - [ iPhone X ] - [ Pixel 2 XL ]
Xiaomi’s tendency to oversaturate the scene takes on a funky result here as the MIX 2S is really bringing out the colours, especially on the blue sky in this after-sunset picture. The picture’s highlights are brought out too much as objects are too bright, but it’s still a good result. Xiaomi is lacking natural dynamic range here and thus the shadows are too dark, having too little light capture.
Although the MIX 2S produces a noisy picture, this actually helps it as it avoids the smudged textures that we see on the S9. Overall it’s still a good result, and it depends on preference on what you like more.
[ Mi MIX 2S ]
[ P20 Pro ] - [ P20 ] - [ P10 ] - [ Mate 10 Pro ]
[ Galaxy S9+ ] - [ iPhone X ] - [ Pixel 2 XL ]
In this shot Xiaomi surprisingly managed to produce a better dynamic range than the competition – bar the P20 Pro in 10MP mode which just has much better shadows. The S9 shot ended up oddly out of focus, so it’s not a valid comparison.
Detail wise the MIX 2S also actually wins out over Huawei and Apple, producing an excellent shot.
[ Mi MIX 2S ]
[ P20 Pro ] - [ P20 ] - [ P10 ] - [ Mate 10 Pro ]
[ Galaxy S9+ ] - [ iPhone X ] - [ Pixel 2 XL ]
Here the MIX 2S does really well in exposure, and beats the iPhone X and Pixel 2 XL in dynamic range. Colour reproduction seems also to be very good – something the S9 struggled with as it produces a far too warm result for the white lighting.
Detail wise the MIX 2S also beats the iPhone and Pixel, but the S9 just has more light capture to work with and does better on the textures and has more contrast. Obviously the P20 Pro wins out in the 10MP mode, as even though it’s a lower resolution image, the dynamic range advantage through the superior light capture is plainly obvious.
Extreme low light photography
[ Mi MIX 2S ]
[ P20 Pro ] - [ P20 ]
[ P10 ] - [ Mate 10 Pro ]
[ Galaxy S9+ ] - [ iPhone X ] - [ Pixel 2 XL ]
In extreme low-light environments the MIX 2S doesn’t have any special capture mode, and the resulting picture remains at a similar quality level as say, an iPhone X.
Overall the MIX 2S did not disappoint in terms of low-light capture. Its tendency to not apply too much noise reduction seems to come at an advantage for the camera as it avoids smudging out textures, resulting in more retained raw detail, although again, it’s noisy. Competitively it seems like a better low-light camera than the iPhone X and the Pixel 2’s. It’s trailing the Galaxy S9, but that was to be expected given the aperture disadvantage. While the MIX 2S beats the P20’s from Huawei in medium light in terms of details – at a certain point in sufficient low light, the P20 Pro’s vast light capture advantage turns the tide and maintains the current quality crown in terms of quality.
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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