Xiaomi has announced its first foldable device under the Mix branding, the Mi Mix Fold. The foldable device also marks the return of the Mi Mix series, which Xiaomi typically uses to showcase its innovative and pathbreaking products.The Mi Mix Fold packs a number of innovative new features and many world-first features for a smartphone, including a quad-speaker setup, liquid lens tech, and more.

Conventional Folding Design With an 8-inch Display

The design of the Mi Mix Fold is similar to Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold series. It features an AMOLED cover display on the outside measuring 6.52-inches with a 90Hz refresh rate.

Unfolding the device reveals the 8.01-inch OLED display with 2480 x 1860 resolution and a 4:3 aspect ratio. This is a regular 60Hz display with a peak brightness of 900 nits and support for Dolby Vision HDR. Xiaomi boasts of this being the largest foldable device on the market right now.

In a blog post, Xiaomi claims it has tested the panel for over 200,000 bends and up to 1 million bends in its extreme reliability testing. The Mi Mix Fold features a U-shaped hinge design to help with weight distribution and reliability.

Xiaomi will be offering the Mi Mix Fold in Standard and Ceramic Special Edition. The standard edition features Corning Gorilla Glass at the back with ceramic texture. The ceramic edition features a ceramic back with special laser engraving. It also has a gold frame along with gold volume buttons.

Related: Report: Samsung Is Secretly Working on a Double-Folding Phone

The Mi Mix Fold is the first smartphone to feature a quad-speaker setup. There are symmetrically designed dual speakers positioned on both sides of the screen, which Harman Kardon has tuned for the best sound output possible. Xiaomi is also using its quad-speaker array algorithm to offer 3D panoramic sound.

Xiaomi has also improved its software to take advantage of the bigger display. You can run up to four apps in multi-window mode on the Mi Mix Fold.

Mi Mix Fold Marks the Debut of Xiaomi's Surge C1 Chip, Liquid Lens Tech

The Mi Mix Fold also marks the debut of Xiaomi's own Surge C1 processor. This is an image processing chip (ISP) that has taken Xiaomi two years to develop. Along with Xiaomi's improved algorithm, the Mi Mix Fold offers more accurate autofocus, auto exposure, white balance, all of which help improve overall image quality.

The Mi Mix Fold is the world's first smartphone to use liquid lens technology. This allows the camera to offer a minimum focusing distance of 3cm and optical zoom of 3x and 30x hybrid zoom. The liquid lens tech basically acts as two different lenses, with Xiaomi controlling the spherical surface of the lens using a high-precision motor.

Mi Mix Fold Liquid Lens

Other camera sensors on the Mi Mix Fold include a 108MP main camera, a 13MP ultra-wide with 123-degree FoV, and an 8MP macro sensor.

Internally, the Mi Mix Fold's packs a Snapdragon 888 chip that uses a butterfly-type cooling system, 12/16GB RAM, and 256 or 512GB of storage. There's also a 5,020mAh battery with 67W fast charging that can fully charge the device in just 37 minutes.

Mi Mix Fold Price and Availability

The Mi Mix Fold will be available in China from April 16, with pre-ordering starting from March 30.

The Mi Mix is priced at RMB 9,999 ($1,500) for the base variant, with the 12GB RAM/256GB variant priced at RMB 10,999 ($1,675). The top-of-the-line 16GB RAM and 512GB storage variant will be available for RMB 12,999 ($1,975).