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According to a new report published by iGyaan, Xiaomi’s first foldable smartphone will be considerably more affordable than Samsung’s, half the Galaxy Fold’s price, in fact. Investors in Xiaomi’s supply chain said that the company’s foldable phone will launch at the end of April, or in early May, claims iGyaan. The phone will be announced during a separate event which will be hosted in China, while several localized launches will follow in “important markets”.
As far as price is concerned, the source claims that the phone will cost $999 / €999 (depending on the market), which means it will cost half as much as the Galaxy Fold, and 2.6 times less than the Huawei Mate X. As a reminder, the Galaxy Fold is announced to cost $1,980, while the Huawei Mate X will be priced at around $2,600.
The source even offers an explanation for this price tag, in other words, how will Xiaomi be able to offer such a price tag for a foldable phone. Its display is listed as one of the reasons, as Xiaomi is expected to use Visionox Technology OLED displays, compared to Samsung and Huawei, as Samsung will use its own panel, while Huawei will use BOE’s displays.
Visionox has, allegedly, developed flexible displays as per Xiaomi’s requirements, and Xiaomi has also funded development and manufacturing resource infrastructure costs for Visionox Technology, the source claims.
Xiaomi’s upcoming foldable smartphone is rumored to be called the Mi Fold or Mi Flex, and we don’t have all that much info about its specifications, though it is expected to ship with the Snapdragon 855 64-bit octa-core processor. In addition to that, the phone will probably include at least 8GB of RAM, though it’s possible Xiaomi may include 10GB or 12GB instead, or in addition to 8GB of RAM, as the phone may ship in more than one variants.
Xiaomi’s CEO had already demoed the company’s foldable smartphone prototype via a Weibo (Chinese social network) video, though chances are that the company’s upcoming phone will differ in terms of the design, as that was just a prototype. In any case, it is possible that it will fold outwards, and that it will fold in two places, like the prototype phone. If that ends up being the case, Xiaomi’s approach will be somewhat different to those of Samsung and Huawei.
Samsung, Huawei, and Xiaomi are not the only smartphone manufacturers who are planning to offer their foldable phones for purchase in the near future, Motorola is also planning to join the fold, same goes for several other smartphone manufacturers who are currently working on foldable smartphones, like LG, for example.
Motorola will revive its Razr brand with its upcoming foldable smartphone, and that phone is expected to offer a clamshell design. It will include one large display on the inside, and once you fold it, a small display on the outside will be available. This design was shown in one of Motorola’s patents way back, and that design was widely welcomed by critics, though it remains to be seen if the final design will differ from those patent sketches.