Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S review

Ceramic design

The hardware design is unchanged from the Mi Mix 2, although, there is one or two main differences in appearance. For one, the Mi Mix 2S has Xiaomi's updated dual-camera and has placed it over to the top left while its rear-mounted fingerprint sensor's placement has remained untouched. The vertical camera setup's appearance and location are quite explicitly designed to look like an iPhone X's.

Rear • Front

We'll come back to the phone's backside in the a bit. Let's start with the front of this beauty. The face of the Mi Mix 2S is adorned Gorilla Glass 4 and there's a 6-inch LCD display underneath with 1080p+ resolution. If you blink, you might miss the phone's in-call receiver, whose sound was routed right to the edge of the glass for maximum space saving.

Forehead

The display features gently curved corners to accentuate the phone's slim bezels. Although there is no notch above the display like the Huawei P20 or the iPhone X, the phone does have a thick lower bezel where the front-facing camera lives in the lower-right corner. The light sensor and LED notification light are also housed in the lower bezel.

Lower bezel • LED notification light

Granted, the camera's placement is a little awkward, but this is easily circumvented by flipping the phone all the way around while using the front camera. It's not ideal, but it seems to work okay.

Front facing camera

The phone's frame is cool to the touch and nicely wraps all the way around the phone and the black model has a nice matte finish which contrasts the shiny glass and glossy back very well. The top has a couple of antenna notches and a noise-cancelling mic. The only buttons are on the right of the phone: a volume rocker above a power key. These buttons are made of the same smooth matte black metal.

Phone frame • Top • Right

There aren't any keys on the left, but there is a dual-SIM tray that takes nano SIMs. At the bottom is a single USB-C port and a-symmetrical grilles. To the left is a single mic-hole for calls and the other quad-holed port is the loudspeaker. Although the phone is not water resistant, Xiaomi still found the need to get rid of the headphone jack so you'll need a headphone adapter for non-Bluetooth headphones.

Left • Bottom

The fingerprint scanner and camera setup are completely surrounded by ceramic. The fingerprint scanner is centered along the back of the phone and its appearance is glossy, so it must be made of glass. This sensor is slightly recessed so it's quite easy to find just by feeling around. The camera is no longer above the sensor so there's a much lower chance of you smudging it with your finger.

The camera setup, like the iPhone X's, has a bump and sticks out of the back of the phone. The main camera does feature OIS so it needs some room to move around. The dual-LED flash sits right between the two sensors, more on those specifics in the camera section. Finally, the camera bump features a gold-plated accent ring that contrasts the phone beautifully. On the white model, this camera ring is plated with silver.

Camera closeup

Getting around to the back of the phone, here is the phone's standout hardware feature: its ceramic back plate. Along with the plated camera ring, we expect to see far less wear on the back and camera ring over extended periods of usage.

Photos may not do it justice, but the black ceramic back plate has a distinct appearance and is very different from that of black glass. The black glossy finish is far more reflective than glass but this does come with a downside: fingerprint smudges are much more apparent. The white model does a far better job of hiding fingerprints, if this is a concern.

Backplate details

In the hand, the phone has a very premium feel to it. The phone feels dense and thin at the same time. Meanwhile, the tapered edges of the ceramic backing curve gently into the frame for a pebble or stone like feel. The rounded corners compliment the phone's ergonomics. Aside from being a fingerprint magnet, this is a slippery phone.

Mi Mix 2S in the hand

Perhaps not in this iteration, but for Xiaomi's next Mix device or a limited edition Mi Mix 2S, we'd love to see a version with a matte ceramic finish. This would certainly make the phone feel completely different in hand and may offer better grip.