Xiaomi has issued an official statement regarding foldable smartphones, and that statement was shared with LetsGoDigital. In that statement, the company describes its foldable smartphone and shares some info about its development, design, and overcoming challenges that the flexible display brought to the table, in combination with the folding mechanism, among other things.
Based on the info (and previous information), LetsGoDigital also created 3D renders of the company’s foldable smartphone.
According to Xiaomi, the flexible foldable display was developed by the company and its (unnamed) partner, while the rest of the phone was developed by Xiaomi alone. This includes its design, folding mechanism, and software. Xiaomi actually had to adapt MIUI quite a bit for this device, and it will be interesting to see what the company came up with.
Xiaomi also said that it faced various technical challenges when it came to this device, and before it managed to find “the best solution,” the company conducted “extensive research into the development of a robust folding mechanism.” The company also said that it worked closely together with its supply chain partners, and that creating such a device is much more complicated than it seems.
In the end, Xiaomi believes that its foldable smartphone will offer an improved and heightened user experience.
Xiaomi’s foldable smartphone surfaced in a video not long ago, and soon after that, the company’s co-founder actually demoed the device in a hands-on video that was published on an official Weibo (Chinese social network) account. That, in addition to the company’s statement, gave LetsGoDigital plenty of info to work with, and create renders for the device. As a result, this design may be close to the final build of Xiaomi’s foldable smartphone, even though the UI is not reflective of Xiaomi’s changes.
Xiaomi’s upcoming foldable smartphone will fold in two places, and it will fold outwards. Left and right sides of its display will fold to the back, so when folded, almost the entire back side of the phone will be covered by part of the phone’s main display, while the middle part of the display will remain active. This means that both the left and right side of the phone will be identical at all times. This will likely prove different to Samsung’s offering which is expected to utilize a different approach altogether.
Cameras are not visible on these renders, and therefore the final product may look a bit different in some respects. For example, Xiaomi may opt to increase bezels a bit in order to accommodate the cameras. The name of this device is also still unknown, but based on some of the info that’s previously surfaced online, it may be called the “Xiaomi Dual Flex” or the “Xiaomi MIX Flex”.
It is still not clear when will Xiaomi announce this smartphone, but the company is expected to make it official during the first half of this year. Xiaomi will quite probably release quite a few teasers before this handset becomes official, and with the release expected in the coming months those teasers are likely to be sooner rather than later.
