The Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S Review: Fantastic Overall Value
by Andrei Frumusanu on June 29, 2018 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Smartphones
- Xiaomi
- MI MIX 2S
GPU Performance
On the GPU performance side, I’m expecting again very good results as we’ve investigated the performance of the Snapdragon 845 and the Adreno 630 GPU in depth in our Galaxy S9 review. The Mi MIX 2S should not differ too much from the S9 – apart from maybe slight differences in thermal dissipation capabilities or maybe different thermal throttling configurations.
In Futuremark’s Sling Shot 3.1 Extreme Unlimited Physics test (I’m hoping for shorter benchmark names in the future), the Mi MIX 2S actually performed quite a bit less than the Galaxy S9+. This test is mostly CPU bound, and the only explanation I have here for the results is that Xiaomi must have had made changes to the thermal balance between CPU and GPU and limited the CPU performance more in 3D workloads.
In the graphics score results of the test, the MIX 2S performed a lot closer to the Galaxy S9, posting identical peak performance figures while having only slightly slower sustained performance. Unfortunately we’ve verified both with a second Galaxy S9+ as well as now with the Mi MIX 2S that the sustained performance degradation of the Snapdragon 845 was not an isolated case. This makes sense given that the increased peak performance of the Adreno 630 seems to have come from increased power draw, exceeding the 5W figure in ALU heavy workloads. As naturally phone thermal envelopes can only sustain 3-3.5W SoC TDPs, performance has to go down over time to keep temperatures in check.
Manhattan 3.1 Off-screen performs again nearly identically to the Galaxy S9+, topping the benchmark scores.
T-Rex also matches the Galaxy S9+. The performance of the S845 devices here seems to be lower as the benchmark is running at high fps figures and demanding a lot of memory bandwidth – it’s possible that the increased memory latency on the S845 chips is hindering the performance and efficiency of the chip compared to the S835 in this case.
Overall, in terms of 3D performance the Mi MIX 2S leaves little complain about. While the increased peak power is of a concern, I’ve only found few games and real scenarios where the higher GPU frequencies are actually currently needed. Over the coming months I’m also planning to expand the GPU testing methodology and among other things try to introduce a “real game” battery or power draw test that doesn’t actually require peak performance, but rather maximum efficiency for a given workload. We’ll also hoping to introduce Vulkan GPU tests from Kishonti as well as evaluating the recently announced Basemark GPU.
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Retycint - Friday, June 29, 2018 - link
Xiaomi's update policy is actually one of the best amongst Android manufacturers, contrary to popular belief. This is especially true for their flagships.For instance, the 2013 flagship, the Mi 3, is still receiving rom/feature updates despite being almost 5 years old
fm13 - Saturday, June 30, 2018 - link
but these are just interface updates, without new OS versions underneathserendip - Sunday, July 1, 2018 - link
Interface and security updates but the underlying Android version remains the same. MIUI decouples the OS and Android versions so it's possible to have the latest MIUI release with a Lollipop base.My Mi Max launched with 6.0 with an official 7.1 update later but 8.0/8.1 third party ROMs are available, if a little flaky. I blame both Xiaomi and Qualcomm for not updating and releasing board support drivers for new Android releases.
ppi - Saturday, June 30, 2018 - link
Is there Android One option?lilmoe - Saturday, June 30, 2018 - link
"vendors need to pay a lot more attention to it, as in the grand scale of things, the cost of writing good software just seems minuscule compared to the vast investments needed to design and manufacture faster silicon chips and to brute-force the issue"This fact is so underrated it's not even funny. Great review Andrei.
Holliday75 - Tuesday, July 3, 2018 - link
I've always wondered if most manufacturers just don't realize how important this is nor do they have any real ability to know if they are getting their money's worth out of their coders.AndrewBCraig - Saturday, June 30, 2018 - link
niceBoloMKXXVIII - Saturday, June 30, 2018 - link
For those complaining about the placement of the selfie camera, just rotate the phone 180 degrees! Now it is in the "correct" location.Andrei Frumusanu - Sunday, July 1, 2018 - link
There's still issues with some apps in terms of flipped rotation, so while that's a valid argument and workaround, it not always guaranteed to work.ionutt - Sunday, July 1, 2018 - link
felicitari pentru review...