Xiaomi MIX Fold 3 could be a Z Fold 5 beater, but UK users might never know

The race to be the best foldable phone is becoming incredibly competitive, and Xiaomi has just thrown its latest MIX into the mix.

The Xiaomi MIX Fold 3 has impressive specs including an intriguing quad-camera setup tuned by camera legends Leica, and the entry level price comes in at roughly £972. That's not much for a high-spec folding phone, but it looks like UK users won't be able to pick one up without going the import route.

That's a shame, because this looks like a very impressive foldable.

The processor is an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with Adrenon 740 GPU and the battery is 4,800mAh with three dedicated power surge chipsets and a reported battery life of 8 hours; according to Xiaomi you can get up to 1.38 days from a single charge.

There's 12 or 16GB of LPDRR5X RAM and up to 1TB of storage, and the foldable screen is an 8.03-inch AMOLED with 120Hz and peak brightness of 2,600 nits. The cover display is another AMOLED with 120Hz, this time with a size of 6.56 inches.

But the real draw here is that Leica-tuned quad-camera setup.

Xiaomi MIX Fold 3: what cameras does it have?

The front camera is a 20MP selfie shooter with an f/2.45 aperture, but the interesting stuff is happening round the back. That's where you'll find the 50MP Sony IMX 800 main camera, which has optical image stabilisation and an f/1.77 aperture; the 13MP ultrawide camera with f/2.2 aperture; the 10MP telephoto lense with optical stabilisastion, f/2.0 and a 3.2x optical zoom; and the 10MP periscope lens, again with optical image stablisation. That has an f/2.92 aperture and a 5x optical zoom.

The MIX Fold 3 launched earlier this week (on 14 August) alongside the same firm's Redmi K60 Ultra, Xiaomi Pad 5 Max and the Xiaomi Band 6 Pro. The Redmi will be rebranded as the Xiaomi 13T Pro for the global market, and the Xiaomi Band 8 Pro is also going to be sold globally. 

However for the time being the firm has no plans to sell either the MIX Fold 3 or the Pad 6 Max outside Xiaomi's home territory of China. That's a shame, because a more affordable rival to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 would be awfully nice to see.