Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 review: Foldable high-end smartphone with cosmetic flaw

Despite the Leica branding, we weren’t entirely convinced by the camera setup of the Mix Fold 2 predecessor, as the imaging performance of the additional lenses left a lot of room for improvement. For the successor, however, Xiaomi has really gone the extra mile and not only integrated more cameras, but also upgraded the quality. Starting with the selfie cameras.

Unlike the Mix Fold 2, there is now a selfie camera equipped with the Omnivision OV20B in the inner display, which increases the total number of cameras to 6. The same camera is also used on the outer display and takes good portrait photos, although they do not show a lot of contrast.

Instead of a triple camera, there is now a quad camera setup with two telephoto lenses on the back of the foldable, which was developed in cooperation with Leica. The main sensor is the Sony IMX800 (Mix Fold 2: IMX766) with 54 MP, of which 50 MP is effectively utilized. The same sensor is installed in the Xiaomi 13 and its Leica Vario-Summicron 1:18-2.9/ 15-115 ASPH nickname is immortalized on the back of the foldable.

Thanks to the collaboration with Leica, the two image modes Leica Vibrant (default) and Leica Authentic, which each work with slightly different color calibrations, are once again on board alongside numerous photo setting options. In daylight, the Mix Fold 3 with its 50 MP main sensor takes very good quality photos that impress with high image sharpness, natural colors and a strong dynamic range. Difficult lighting conditions pose no issue for the Mix Fold 3, as the sensor is able to capture lots of detail in low ambient light.

The 12 MP ultra-wide-angle camera (Omnivision OV13B10) only offers standard fare compared to the main camera and is actually much less than you would expect in this price range. The photos are solid, but still a little too pale overall.

Things get interesting again with the two telephoto cameras, both of which use the Samsung S5K3K1 as the image sensor. The 10 MP camera works with 3.2x optical magnification and is also used as the standard sensor for portrait shots. Its 12 MP colleague has 5x optical zoom. Digital magnification of up to 50x is possible. Both telephoto cameras take high-contrast and sharp photos and achieve very decent imaging performance overall. If you use the digital zoom, however, the quality of the images deteriorates rapidly and are visibly noisy.

The Mix Fold 3 records videos in 4K at up to 60 frames per second and in 8K at 24 FPS. Videos in the latter resolution can be recorded for a maximum of 6 minutes. If you activate HDR, videos can be recorded in a maximum of 4K at 30 FPS or alternatively at 24 FPS.