Xiaomi’s Mi Mix 3 is an all-screen magnetic slider phone with 10GB of RAM

Xiaomi is resurrecting the slider phone, complete with magnetically assisted snap action.

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[jonah]

Article mentions bezels seventeen times in the first three paragraphs.

*looks at byline*

Yep, it's Ron.

 

[farsidius]

This year we start sliding up for the camera. Next year slide down for a keyboard?

 

[MENTALIST]

Oooh, I love that magnet-snatch feel.

I hope this concept takes off, to hell with notches.

 

[samanime]

Hopefully this will become the norm over the notches. It makes sense. Not only does it free up the screen area for... well... all screen, but it also lets those that are a little paranoid about cameras (probably rightly so) ensure that the front-facing camera isn't recording them when it is closed.

 

[ZVNexus]

10GB of RAM? Holy shit. That's more than the large majority of STATIONARY desktop PCs. We are talking about a MOBILE device. Is Android memory management really that bad? My OnePlus 3 works just fine with 6, and even that's a bit too much. The Pixel 3 XL has 4.

 

[jonah]

The problem with a phone like this is that the camera lens only gets to take up half the thickness of the phone. With a notched phone, the lens and camera can theoretically (or actually) take up just about the full thickness.

That means a much, much higher quality picture, all else being equal.

You can monkey around with machine learning all you want, but you can't change the laws of physics.

 

[onychomys]

Any phone that gets us closer to the ones in The Matrix is cool in my book.

 

[HiroTheProtagonist]

Pricey, but I can't deny that this is ticking a lot of boxes for me. I like the idea that the forward camera can be covered by the slide, plus ceramic back instead of glass is extra nice.

10GB of RAM? Holy shit. That's more than the large majority of STATIONARY desktop PCs. We are talking about a MOBILE device. Is Android memory management really that bad? My OnePlus 3 works just fine with 6, and even that's a bit too much. The Pixel 3 XL has 4.

For one, the 10gb model is the super-duper high end edition for ultra-power users, the standard edition has 6gb. For two, RAM needs are only going to go up, not down, so having large amounts will certainly help the longevity of the device.

Any phone that gets us closer to the ones in The Matrix is cool in my book.

Nokia already did a re-run of the Matrix-style bananaphones about a year ago, complete with a few smartphone amenities.

 

[Jakelshark]

That's a great way to handle the notch problem. I personally don't take selfies or speak on the phone very much (and when I do it's usually hands free in my car), so it's right up my alley. Also 10gb of ram? Way to go, you officially passed my typical work computer and aren't that far off from the gaming machine at home.

 

[Dilbert]

10GB of RAM? Holy shit. That's more than the large majority of STATIONARY desktop PCs. We are talking about a MOBILE device. Is Android memory management really that bad? My OnePlus 3 works just fine with 6, and even that's a bit too much. The Pixel 3 XL has 4.

No. However marketing is that effective. When your jiggabytes numbers are bigger than your competitor, at least some users will chose your device over competitor's. At the expense of a few tens of dollars in RAM chips... if that.

Edit: beat phobos.

 

[phobos512]

10GB of RAM? Holy shit. That's more than the large majority of STATIONARY desktop PCs. We are talking about a MOBILE device. Is Android memory management really that bad? My OnePlus 3 works just fine with 6, and even that's a bit too much. The Pixel 3 XL has 4.

It's as much about marketing as anything else. I think for the primary market it's probably along the same lines as stretched compact luxury cars. Playing to the intended audience.

 

[Ral]

I wish laptops started using this for the webcam.

That phone looks good though, especially at that price point.

 

[Pusher of Buttons]

Oooh, I love that magnet-snatch feel.

Can't read this without giggling like a farting 7 year old boy

 

[ganjadude43]

Was really hoping that it was a slide out keyboard.

still a nice concept but man i miss my droid 2 3 and 4

 

[DaveSimmons]

D'oh! I was thinking the slider part was a built-in hard cover for the screen, like a new kind of flip phone.

All this just to get rid of a bar at the top? Meh.

 

[ZVNexus]

10GB of RAM? Holy shit. That's more than the large majority of STATIONARY desktop PCs. We are talking about a MOBILE device. Is Android memory management really that bad? My OnePlus 3 works just fine with 6, and even that's a bit too much. The Pixel 3 XL has 4.

No. However marketing is that effective. When your jiggabytes numbers are bigger than your competitor, at least some users will chose your device over competitor's. At the expense of a few tens of dollars in RAM chips... if that.

Edit: beat phobos.

I guess, but it just frustrates me that people will buy things like this based off flashy advertising without doing much research. I do like the camera/speaker slider thingy though. That's neat.

 

[Dilbert]

10GB of RAM? Holy shit. That's more than the large majority of STATIONARY desktop PCs. We are talking about a MOBILE device. Is Android memory management really that bad? My OnePlus 3 works just fine with 6, and even that's a bit too much. The Pixel 3 XL has 4.

No. However marketing is that effective. When your jiggabytes numbers are bigger than your competitor, at least some users will chose your device over competitor's. At the expense of a few tens of dollars in RAM chips... if that.

Edit: beat phobos.

I guess, but it just frustrates me that people will buy things like this based off flashy advertising without doing much research. I do like the camera/speaker slider thingy though. That's neat.

People buy all things based on flashy advertising. Researching before a purchase is a rare gift. Ars is heavily biased toward techies who would research purchases. So it may appear around here that it's a common practice. It is not.

 

[j17robotdancer]

My favorite slider phone was the LG Chocolate https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com ... L1000_.jpg

 

[issor]

Hopefully this will become the norm over the notches. It makes sense. Not only does it free up the screen area for... well... all screen, but it also lets those that are a little paranoid about cameras (probably rightly so) ensure that the front-facing camera isn't recording them when it is closed.

As pointed out it affects the camera assembly depth, which affects quality. Not a big deal for second and third markets.

It also just seems impractical to always have to slide for things like taking phone calls, photos, and FaceID. Then again, flip phones were a thing not that long ago, so it's not impossible to think people would get used to taking a mechanical action when they want to use their device. It's just the opposite direction of "just look at your phone to use it".

 

[Allthecheese]

Kind of hard to put a case on a phone when the entire thing slides in half. Makes me think of the terrible hard plastic snap cases made for the sliding keyboard phones of old.

Edited for additional bezel rant: The ridiculous obsession with bezel less phones is now affecting a phones longevity. We already have manufacturers trying to make them as thin as possible, now we hiding things behind MOVING parts? Why? If the screen of my pixel 2 xl where to go to the bottom of each speaker it would gain an addition 9mm of screen height on an already 135mm tall screen, that's a 6.6% increase. 9mm of screen isn't going to do anything for anybody and we don't need our phones that are already becoming more difficult to repair to have yet another place of failure added just to get a tiny screen size increase. Articles and reviews that mention bezels a dozen times aren't helping anything.

 

[countrygolden]

I really hope designs like this that are more than just a rectangle with all the components crammed inside catch on. Phone designs have become incredibly boring over since touch screens completely took over.

 

[Zak]

I'm just not sure if I like the idea of moving parts in a phone. Water, dust and lint have their ways of getting everywhere, no matter what. I've seen flashes jammed in cameras.

 

[opencl]

The N95 could slide both ways, with the keypad at the bottom and media controls at the top. Would be neat to see something similar here, I think the portrait keyboard slider was always an underappreciated form factor and there hasn't been one since the Priv.

 

[bevel]

I have to say, this is one snazzy looking phone. I too, like others have stated, hope that this trend picks up. I don't understand why Apple (and now Google) expanded the screen just to put a huge notch into it. To me that really isn't increasing screen real estate if i have this weird notch in the screen.

I don't think many of these phones sell in the US because of the manufacturer (I could be wrong, it may not be get shipped to the US?) but with that information on hand for sales, I am curious to see if Google and Apple follow the same design trend? (I'm pretty sure even they have to admit the notch isn't ideal.)

Edit: to fix some typos.

 

[Resiroth]

The problem with a phone like this is that the camera lens only gets to take up half the thickness of the phone. With a notched phone, the lens and camera can theoretically (or actually) take up just about the full thickness.

That means a much, much higher quality picture, all else being equal.

You can monkey around with machine learning all you want, but you can't change the laws of physics.

Absolutely, but I think you're overplaying the challenge here somewhat. The difference isn't half, it's much less (maybe 2mm?) which isn't a huge deal. Make the phone slightly thicker and problem solved.

 

[Jackattak]

This year we start sliding up for the camera. Next year a keyboard?

I was very excited by the notion of a slider phone...until I found out it only hides the camera and not a physical keyboard.

I want my click back.

 

[theramenman]

10GB of RAM? Holy shit. That's more than the large majority of STATIONARY desktop PCs. We are talking about a MOBILE device. Is Android memory management really that bad? My OnePlus 3 works just fine with 6, and even that's a bit too much. The Pixel 3 XL has 4.

It's a mix of marketing and shitty memory management. I'll cover the first part since that's the part i'm familiar with: One of the biggest markets for Xiaomi and many other Chinese manufacturers is South Asia (mainly India). This is an extremely price sensitive market that values spec sheets above all (go to the comments section of any phone review on youtube and you'll see thousands of highly upvoted comments from Indians about how the pocofone or some vivo phone or whatever else is better because 6 gb > 4 gb and 3.4 GHz 8 Core couldn't possibly be worse than the A12 Bionic because 8 cores > 4 cores and so on. There is no such thing as added value from longer term support, better more stable software, better build quality, etc.).

I spent a good chunk of the last decade working for a few consumer devices companies and we constantly ran into this. The same device that sold well in the North America, Europe, Japan, Australia, South Korea, etc would do terrible in India and to a certain extent China. Our product was clearly better in terms of quality, warranty and software updates (things we considered to be valuable) but we were getting steamrolled by shitty competitors that had overblown spec sheets but worked terribly for similar price. Out of frustration we had to start creating South Asia only variants of things with pared down software and support in favor of higher end specs before we started selling more than competitors. God knows Western consumers are susceptible to this as well but tend to value intangibles (and service) a lot more than just sheer specs. It's a cultural thing. My mother is Indian and she grew up exactly like this. Should have taken her advice to begin with lol.

 

[Deleted member 330960]

This is the second phone that doesn't have a chin. The only other being an iPhone. That's the first thing I noticed. Looks great unlike the uneven corners on the Pixel 3 XL.

 

[nbs2]

The problem with a phone like this is that the camera lens only gets to take up half the thickness of the phone. With a notched phone, the lens and camera can theoretically (or actually) take up just about the full thickness.

That means a much, much higher quality picture, all else being equal.

You can monkey around with machine learning all you want, but you can't change the laws of physics.

Couldn't they use some of the extra space they save by not having the display system in the back end for mirrors to increase the focal length?

 

[Otus]

The problem with a phone like this is that the camera lens only gets to take up half the thickness of the phone.

How much of a difference is it really? A significant part of the thickness is front glass and back regardless. The screen itself is pretty thin is it not? Maybe you could taper the front part to be thinner at the top and the back part thicker.

 

[bthylafh]

Oooh, I love that magnet-snatch feel.

I have nothing to add, I just wanted to quote you out of context.

 

[Dark Pumpkin]

This really seems like the solution phone companies should be using.

When I had a phone with a slide out keyboard, I'd fiddle with it opening and closing the keyboard repeatedly. Even with an abnormally high number of slides, the spring based sliding mechanism still worked well. It's a tried and proven system, and magnets will make it even better by reducing the number of moving parts.

I'd still rather leave some bezel space for good stereo speakers and all the sensors, but at least this isn't a notch or a motor that you have to hope won't fail or get jammed eventually.

On another note, I'm curious how it will handle touches on the screen while sliding it. Maybe I just don't have a good idea of how the sliding will happen in hand, but it seems like there will be erroneous touches while doing that which it needs to detect and ignore somehow.

 

[solomonrex]

This is the second phone that doesn't have a chin. The only other being an iPhone. That's the first thing I noticed. Looks great unlike the uneven corners on the Pixel 3 XL.

It's a bit of a copy, but actually a better design. This is a strange new direction for the Chinese OEMs, and what timing given the current trade situation.

 

[TheNewShiny]

The problem with a phone like this is that the camera lens only gets to take up half the thickness of the phone. With a notched phone, the lens and camera can theoretically (or actually) take up just about the full thickness. That means a much, much higher quality picture, all else being equal.

Simple partial solution: keep part of the screen-side assembly at the full thickness (e.g. along the left edge), and have the rear-facing camera part of this thicker section. The front-facing camera would still be in the thin and now slightly narrower sliding half. It might not look as elegant though.


Edit: explaining is hard..

 

[srh]

For one, the 10gb model is the super-duper high end edition for ultra-power users, the standard edition has 6gb. For two, RAM needs are only going to go up, not down, so having large amounts will certainly help the longevity of the device.

I have it on good authority that 640K should be enough. *

* Also that there's a world market for maybe five computers.

 

[Otus]

The problem with a phone like this is that the camera lens only gets to take up half the thickness of the phone. With a notched phone, the lens and camera can theoretically (or actually) take up just about the full thickness. That means a much, much higher quality picture, all else being equal.

Simple partial solution: have the rear-facing camera part of the screen-side assembly, and have only the front-facing camera in the sliding half. It might not look as elegant though.

The back camera doesn't have to lose any space if it's in the completely covered part of the phone and slides against the back of the screen.

 

[stewski]

This is the second phone that doesn't have a chin. The only other being an iPhone. That's the first thing I noticed. Looks great unlike the uneven corners on the Pixel 3 XL.

It's a bit of a copy, but actually a better design. This is a strange new direction for the Chinese OEMs, and what timing given the current trade situation.

Strange like being first to adopt larger screens phablets, slide out cameras, dual sims, larger battery capacities etc.

I've had a lot of Junk phones/tablets from smaller brand manufacturers and honestly diversity is a crap shoot, but less boring and often inventive or at least different.