Xiaomi may not be making any huge announcements at Mobile World Congress this year, but that’s not stopping the rumor mill from going full-force on its upcoming Spring 2018 releases. Moving quickly along with other industry trends, it seems Xiaomi could be including two big new features into its upcoming flagship phone, including an in-glass fingerprint scanner instead of a dedicated button or external sensor. Just as we’ve seen from Vivo at both MWC and CES, Xiaomi may be readying a fingerprint scanner underneath the glass of the Mi 7’s display, thus eliminating the need for buttons or other sensors for this purpose.
Packing the fingerprint scanner under the glass helps keep the amount of elements on the phone itself to a minimum, eliminating the need for bezels or unnecessary thickness. We’ve seen rumors that Xiaomi could follow in Apple’s footsteps, and a number of other OEMs’ as well, in making a taller display with a notch at the top for the front-facing camera and earpiece. Given Xiaomi’s history with near bezel-less phones in the Mi MIX line, it would be a bit surprising to see them make this sort of move, especially with the other leaks we’ve seen, which show a phone more in like with the Mi MIX 2 than something out of Cupertino. We’ve also seen a resurgence in the number of alternative designs for full-screen phones, including ones that feature truly bezel-less designs all the way around.
Xiaomi is also rumored to be packing fast wireless charging on the Mi 7, up to 7.5W in fact, which would make this a bit faster than standard 5W wireless charging that some other OEMs support, although not the fastest wireless charging on the market. Xiaomi will of course pack in a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset, and while it’s rumored that Xiaomi has been working on its own SoC or AI processing chip, those chips won’t be making their way into 2018’s phones. Aside from this it’s pretty clear Xiaomi is working to make 2018 another big year, with additional products making their way into International waters, expanding sales and territories for the company.