Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 versus Xiaomi Mix Fold 3

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold series has become a benchmark in the foldable smartphone segment, and thanks to Samsung’s production capacity, the company can compete in virtually all markets around the world. But as the market matures, there are a few alternatives available if you’re based in the right country, which in this case is China.

Many of the Galaxy Z Fold5’s direct rivals come from China and are exclusive to the country, such as the vivo X Fold2 or the Xiaomi Mix Fold 3. And since the latter is fresh on the shelves, it is natural for people to wonder which one will be suitable their best.

You can compare the full specsheets or check out our editor’s rating further down.

Even though the Galaxy Z Fold series has become synonymous with foldable smartphones, the competition is catching up. The Mix Fold 3 has a lot of tricks up its sleeve and even does a few things better than the Z Fold5. Stay here to find out more.

Size comparison

Xiaomi
Mixed fold 3

255g

Open: 161.2 x 143.3 x 5.3mm
Folded: 161.2 x 73.5 x 10.9 mm

The Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 definitely has the upper hand in terms of size. Even though the two weigh about the same, the Mix Fold 3 has a bigger battery and bigger screens. It’s also the thinner of the two, especially when open; the difference is remarkable.

It could be argued that when folded, the Z Fold5 is the most compact device because it is narrower and shorter than its rival. Naturally, this comes at the expense of the internal screen diagonal, which is 8.03 inches on the unfolded Mix Fold 3 and 7.6 inches on the Z Fold5.

View comparison

Aside from the diagonal, the Z Fold5 and Mix Fold 3 have very similar main displays, almost identical, in fact. They are both LTPO and support an adaptive refresh rate between 1Hz and 120Hz. Both are foldable and both have at least HDR10+ certification. The Mix Fold 3, however, also has Dolby Vision.

As far as brightness goes, the two are neck and neck, as far as auto-brightness goes. In manual mode, the Z Fold5 offers nearly 150 more nits. Not a big difference, though.

View the cover

The Galaxy Z Fold5’s display coverage is once again LTPO, so granular refresh rate control is available, and manual brightness is higher. The Mix Fold 3’s cover screen may not be LTPO, but it does have Dolby Vision support, just like the internal one. But these two details are minor in light of the striking difference between the sizes and aspect ratios of the two phones’ screens.

We’re big fans of the more natural aspect ratio on the Mix Fold 3’s cover screen. The Z Fold5’s screen quickly starts to feel cramped due to its narrow width. Thanks to the incredible thinness of the Mix Fold 3, it can almost feel like holding a regular non-foldable smartphone, albeit a slightly thicker one.

Battery life

As expected, the Mix Fold 3 scores with longer battery life in both usage scenarios: main display and cover display. The Xiaomi has a slightly larger battery (4,800 mAh vs 4,400 mAh) and as a result, has around 14% longer web browsing time and almost 19% longer video playback. It’s not a trivial difference.

Charging speed

Samsung has never been interested in charging speed, so naturally, the Galaxy Z Fold5 falls behind the competition. While not particularly fast for a 67W device, the Mix Fold 3 still beats the Z Fold5 by a significant margin.

Xiaomi’s foldable takes more than 30 minutes less to charge to 100% and beats the Z Fold5 at the 30-minute limit with a difference of 20%.

Also, Mix Fold 3 supports 50W fast wireless charging while Z Fold5 settles for 15W.

Speaker test

Volume-wise, the two laptops are nearly identical, but the Mix Fold 3 has a clear edge in terms of quality. It sounds cleaner and more balanced. Low frequency sounds are well pronounced without muting the voice.

On the other hand, if you like heavier bass and a fuller sound overall, the Galaxy Z Fold5 might be your cup of tea.

Performance

Since both phones run on the same chipset, you can expect nearly identical performance, and the benchmark attests to that. There is a clear trend, however, that CPU-heavy benchmarks show a negligible difference in favor of the Z Fold5.

On the other hand, the Mix Fold 3 performs better in GPU-intensive tasks. In most cases, however, the difference is within the margin of error.

There is more to this story, however, as any phone’s hardware will slow down, causing performance to drop as the phone heats up under pressure. And this is where we saw a huge difference between the two devices. Once unfolded, the Galaxy Z Fold5’s CPU will slow down to 73% of its maximum performance under load, and drop to 54% in the same test when closed. At the same time, the Mix Fold 3 also failed to complete our CPU throttling test due to overheating regardless of its folded state – a rare sight, indeed.

Other than that, there is no significant difference in memory configuration between the two phones. Both start at 12GB/256GB, but the Mix Fold 3 gets 16GB of RAM in the top-tier configurations. The jump to 16GB is hardly justified, as 12GB is enough anyway.

Xiaomi
Mixed fold 3

AnTuTu 9
1,235,547

Geekbench 6
2,046 single-core

Geekbench 6
5,296 multicores

Camera comparison

Many of us were waiting for an update on the cameras of the Galaxy Z Fold5 this year, but instead we got a huge increase in the camera specs of the Mix Fold 3. The latter has the clear advantage of Samsung’s foldable in that it is more versatile and a more competent shooter with better hardware overall.

Galaxy Z Fold5: 0.5x • 1x • 3x • 5x

Mixed Fold 3: 1x • 0.5x • 3.2x • 5x

The Mix Fold 3 not only matches the Z Fold5’s 3x zoom camera, but also adds a 5x periscope camera to the well…mix. In the real world, Mix Fold 3 produces more beautiful images with more detail, better dynamic range, less noise, and overall sharper. The difference is quite noticeable after dark. You should keep in mind that in the case of the Galaxy Z Fold5, 5x photos are taken by its 3x camera.

Galaxy Z Fold5: 0.5x • 1x • 3x • 5x

Mixed Fold 3: 0.5x • 1x • 3.2x • 5x

The Mix Fold 3 also tends to deliver more traditional photos, color-wise and ambience-wise. The Galaxy, on the other hand, offers more vibrant and pleasing to the eye images. The same goes for video recording.

While both devices’ selfie game falls short, the Z Fold5 is arguably a better choice – depending on which camera you choose to use, of course. The one on the cover screen offers a higher quality than the Mix Fold 3 thanks to its more vibrant colors, sharper and more detailed rendering and somewhat natural skin tone. Dynamic range is also slightly better on the Z Fold5.

Cover Screen Selfie: Z Fold5 • Z Fold5 • Mix Fold 3 • Mix Fold 3

However, the Z Fold5’s internal selfie cam is hard to recommend. The 4MP under-display shooter is no match for the Mix Fold 3’s 20MP snapper that sits within the cutout. The ‘inner’ galaxy appears blurry and lacking in detail, and image quality is decidedly disappointing.

Inner screen selfie: Galaxy Z Fold5 • Galaxy Z Fold5 • Mix Fold 3 • Mix Fold 3

Here’s a taste of how the Galaxy Z Fold5’s main camera compares in terms of image quality to that of the Mix Fold 3 in our image comparison tool.

And here’s how the video quality of the Galaxy Z Fold 5’s main camera compares to that of the Mix Fold 3 in our video comparison tool.

Verdict

If we’d pretended that the Mix Fold 3’s availability wasn’t limited to China, we’d have flagged it as the winner in this head-to-head in an instant. Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 clearly beats Samsung at its own game.

While display quality and performance are fairly comparable, the Mix Fold 3 impresses with a more competent camera setup, faster charging, and better endurance. And while the Galaxy Z Fold5 is more pocket-friendly thanks to its smaller size, the Mix Fold 3 is one of the slimmest foldables out there, and when folded, it really does feel like a normal smartphone in your hand.

But when we look at reality, if you were to get a gray import of the Mix Fold 3, you would be out of warranty coverage and would be faced with a Chinese version of MIUI, which would never get proper localization for other countries. Not to mention the lack of Android staples like Google Pay, Nearby Share, or Android Auto, just to name a few. And you should feel comfortable getting familiar with some ADB command-line wizards to remove all the unnecessary pre-installed Chinese software and services.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 is at the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to software. Not only do you get the most refined folding experience, but you’ll also enjoy a great Android implementation with long software support.

There’s far less CPU throttling when under load on the Z Fold5, and you’ll get the extra peace of mind afforded by the IPX8 rating.

Samsung USA Limited Time Offer: Get Galaxy Z Fold5 512GB for the price of 256GB.