The “surround screen” on the Alpha wraps all the way around till it meets the camera module on the back of the phone. The whole phone is almost completly cover in screen, with status icons like network signal and battery charge level displayed on the side. Pressure-sensitive volume buttons are also shown on the side of the phone. Xiaomi is claiming more than 180 percent screen-to-body ratio.
The Mix Alpha uses Samsung’s new 108-megapixel camera sensor, which was co-developed with Xiaomi. Neither Samsung nor Xiaomi have announced which phone will be the first to use this sensor. However, its large 1/1.33-inch size, which Engadget notes is around three quarters of the size of the 1-inch sensor found in the Sony RX100 VII compact camera, means it might not be an ideal fit for every smartphone out there.
We’ll have to see how that works in action, but the 1/1.33-inch sensor is unusually large for a phone and should give the Mix Alpha a lot of light-gathering capability. To take selfies, since there is no front facing camera, you just turn the phone around and use the rear portion of the display as a viewfinder for the 108-megapixel shooter.
As for the phone’s more traditional specs, there’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ processor, 5G connectivity, 12GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, 40W wired fast-charging, and a 4,050mAh battery. Xiaomi describes the Mix Alpha as a “concept smartphone” and isn’t going to be mass-producing it in the near future. The phone will go into small-scale production this year and go on sale in December for 19,999 yuan, or about $2,800.
However there is another leak stating they'll be releasing a Mi Mix 2 as a more mainstream device about a year from now. This device poses issues with cost, battery life, durability but we are hoping that it's looks speaks for itself and hopefully get a version that really tackles all these issues.
