It’s no surprise that Xiaomi has a foldable phone in
the works. We’ve seen a couple of videos of it including one with the company’s
founder giving a hands-on demonstration of it in action. Xiaomi has issued an official
statement to LetsGoDigital where the company describes the foldable phone and
some background on its development, design, as well as overcoming some of the
challenges with the flexible display and folding mechanism in addition to the
way the MIUI reacts to the phone’s different folding configurations. It also
explains that the display is being developed in partnership with a supplier.
In addition, LetsGoDigital has published some really
cool 3D renders of the foldable device based on those previous leaks. The UI
shown isn’t reflective of the final MIUI skin that Xiaomi will use on the
phone. Xiaomi is considering two names for the prototype. One of them is
“Xiaomi Dual Flex” and the other “Xiaomi MIX Flex”. Of course, the company
might decide not to use either of these in the end.
Xiaomi’s foldable device has two folding sections
that bend backwards and wrap behind the phone, which shifts the UI to use the
middle section of the device as the only useable area of the phone. When
opened, the phone turns into a larger tablet mode with thin bezels and the
entire area of the display can be used to view apps, watch videos or anything,
really.
Interestingly, the renders leave out a camera since
we couldn’t see one in the video. There might be one behind the center section
of the device, so you’d need to actually have either one or both “flaps” of the
display unfolded in order to use a camera. It would make sense to off-center
the camera so you can take a selfie by folding back one section of the screen
to use as a viewfinder.
There’s a button at the center of the very top of
the phone while the bottom has a USB-C port. An earpiece is assumed to be at
the top bezel of the phone as well. Otherwise, the rest of the phone is left to
the imagination.
The smartphone industry has become somewhat stale
over the last several years and we’re becoming increasingly excited to see how
smartphone companies (several of which have already confirmed a foldable phone
in the works) push the limits of innovation in entirely new form factors for the
future of mobile computing and communication.
