Xiaomi has a foldable smartphone. When it comes to Android smartphones, the South Korean electronics giant Samsung is one of the most familiar and prominent brands to produce them. They have long impressed mobile users who prefer the Android MOS with their Galaxy S series, including the now-teased Galaxy S10 that will have 5G-capability and will be introduced in February.
But there is one other anticipated Samsung product, a prototype phone-tablet with a folding AMOLED display. Already, several Chinese smartphone-makers, allegedly working on leaked Samsung data for foldable screens, have unveiled their own designs ahead of Samsung.
The latest to do so is Xiaomi, and they have added a twist.
Xiaomi smartphone folds in three
The Verge reported that the Beijing-based Chinese electronics company Xiaomi has just released the first teaser video of their prototype smartphone-tablet hybrid with a foldable AMOLED screen. Still, in order to stand out, the manufacturers decided to do a variation on the system. While Samsung and another Chinese phone-maker, Royole, have the screen fold in half like a book, Xiaomi decided to add a second fold.
Indeed, the yet-unnamed smartphone prototype folds into three – a larger middle section and two smaller ones on opposite sides. The smaller sections fold to the back to convert from tablet to phone, resulting in a wrap-around display effect.
Xiaomi’s folding smartphone was shown being operated by the company’s co-founder and President Lin Bin, in a video uploaded on Chinese video-sharing platform Weibo, and on Xiaomi VP Wang Xiang’s Twitter page. The three-part folding setup of the phone leaves it with a size comparable to the recent trend of ‘entry-level’ smartphones that are more compact and less powerful than the bigger baseline model.
Excited to share this video of a special Xiaomi smartphone from our President and Co-founder Bin Lin. It is the world’s first ever double folding phone — that’s pretty cool, isn’t it? #xiaomi #foldingphone #technology pic.twitter.com/iBj0n3vIbW
— Wang Xiang (@XiangW_) January 23, 2019
Smartphones of that size include the iPhones SE and XR, or the upcoming Galaxy S10’s previewed low-end variant the S10E.
Bin notes that the smartphone was completed after solving a series of tech issues associated with foldable AMOLED display screens.
Other known foldable phones
The first known mention of the Xiaomi foldable smartphone prototype was shared by mobile device leaker Evan Blass, in a change from his usual fare of Samsung Galaxy bombshell images. Speaking of Samsung, while its own original folding phone is still not more publicized, the only competition Xiaomi has on the foldable screen frenzy is Royole and its FlexPai phone-tablet.
The product folds from tablet to smartphone as advertised, but it does not lie as flat as Xiaomi demonstrates in their video. All in all, it only makes mobile users look forward to what Samsung might share in their February live event other than the Galaxy S10 and variants.
