5 ways Xiaomi's Mix Fold 4 beats Samsung Galaxy Z Fold and Google Pixel Fold

The Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 just launched in China, and it makes the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Google Pixel Fold design look last-gen by comparison. The Mix Fold 4 edges ahead of the Z Fold 6 with bigger screens, a thinner body, Leica co-engineered cameras, and a bigger, faster-charging battery.

Packing the latest-gen Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 power and an ultra-thin vapour chamber cooling system, it looks set to be a serious contender for best foldable and all fronts. And while past Xiaomi foldable haven’t launched outside China, the rumour mill suggests that could change this year.

1. Thinner body

The Google Pixel Fold is a hefty paperweight alongside the Mix Fold 4, weighing 281g and clocking in at 12.1mm thin when folded. The Mix Fold 4, by contrast, is much lighter, weighing 226g and measuring 9.47mm, and looks and feels like a standard phone when using the cover screen, especially next to Google's clunky Fold.

Samsung deserves credit for making its Galaxy Z Fold 6 lighter than iPhone 14 Pro Max 139g, but even it can’t outdo Xiaomi, with its comparatively chunky profile measuring 12.1mm. When unfolded, the Mix Fold 4 is barely thicker than a USB-C port, looking and feeling like a sliver of tech rather than an unfolded phone.

2. Bigger screens

The biggest issues with Google and Samsung’s foldables are their screens. The Z Fold series’s cover screens have been too narrow for comfortable typing for generations. Yes, the Z Fold 6 improves this with a slightly better aspect ratio, but it’s still narrower than a non-folding phone.

While the Pixel Fold’s outer screen is a great width, the inner screen doesn’t fold completely flat, making it almost feel like a Beta phone. After three generations, though, Xiaomi’s Mix Fold 4 packs two large, bright, crisp screens that are 120Hz smooth and punchy.

The cover screen is 6.59 inches making it a perfect size for typing, being wider than the Z Fold 6, while the large 7.98-inch main display unfolds totally flat and looks fantastic on first impression. Both screens beam at an eye-searing 3000 nit peak brightness and sport crisp 418PPI clarity, so you get a virtually identical experience whichever you’re using.

3. Leica cameras

Foldable cameras always take a hit on quality, but the Leica co-engineered Mix Fold 4’s quad camera setup looks fantastic on paper.

While Samsung's Z Fold 6 lacks a periscope zoom camera, giving it less reach than flagships like the Galaxy S24 Ultra, the Mix Fold 4 packs two zooms: a 2x 50MP portrait camera and a 5x 10MP periscope camera, as well as a 50MP main camera and a 12MP ultra-wide.

If you’re wondering where Leica comes in, the main camera sports a Leica glass element, while the 2x telephoto camera gets a Leica floating lens for close-up focus as near as 9cm. The Mix Fold 4 also captures in two styles, a punchy, saturated Leica Vibrant or Leica Authentic for a more subdued aesthetic. Leica also has a hand in tuning the portrait mode to match the styles of its pro-grade lenses.

4. Big battery

Most foldables shrink down their batteries, with both the Pixel Fold and Z Fold 6 packing less than 4820mAh. This is great if you’re mainly using the smaller cover screen, but heavy inner display use at high brightness will drain foldables in double time.

The Mix Fold 4 by comparison squeezes in an ample 5100mAh battery, bigger than most flagships including the Pixel 9 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. This isn’t the highest capacity battery of any foldable, with the chunkier, Asia-only Vivo X Fold 3 Pro cramming in a massive 5700 mAh cell. Nevertheless, considering its svelte profile, the Mix Fold 4’s battery spec is seriously impressive.

Faster charging

Another feature to take a hit on foldables is charging speed and wireless charging. Because they struggle to dissipate heat given they’re effectively tech sandwiches, foldables typically feature low-speed, heat-light wired charging, with the Z Fold 6 powering up at 25W and the Pixel Fold at 21W. With 67W fast charging, Xiaomi’s Mix Fold 4 significantly outpaces the main competition in the West.

Other foldables with nippy wired charging like the Honor Magic V2, meanwhile ditch wireless charging to squeeze everything in, but not the Mix Fold 4 with its 50W wireless charging.

Initial impressions

So if ever a phone announced in China was going to make its way to Western shores, after an hour with the Mix Fold 4, we hope it's this one. The Fold 4 feels like a slice of the future on first impression, and its specs outclass the established competition across the board.

We've started seeing more China-only foldable makers launch their wares globally, with the Honor Magic V2 launching in Europe and the UK, Oppo's Find N3 launching as the OnePlus Open globally, and the Vivo X Fold 3 dropping in India. Chinese phone makers tend to make the best foldable phones of 2024, whether they're widely available or not, so if  Xiaomi did launch in the West, it might be the competition Samsung needs to up its foldable game from good enough to world-class.