Xiaomi loves dropping hints, and the latest one comes in the form of a video posted on their Weibo social media profile. As you can see below, the brand has showcased its upcoming foldable phone in action, a device capable of folding into three parts that immediately catches the eye due to its size and slim profile.
Xiaomi also wants to have its folding phone
There is no doubt that this cover letter sounds more like a threat to Samsung itself than a simple preview of what is to come. To this day, Samsung has shown its foldable Galaxy in a fairly dark setting in which we could not see in detail the aesthetics and shape of its foldable phone, something to which Xiaomi has responded two months later with a video on the one who can see his proposal much more natural.
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
As we can see in the recording, the device appears to have a 4:3 aspect ratio in both its folded and full-screen modes, something we don't know how it will fit with the type of content we handle today considering that almost everything is 16:9 (it will possibly be quite comfortable in full screen).
Can't speak to the authenticity of this video or device, but it's allegedly made by Xiaomi, I'm told. Hot new phone, or gadget porn deepfake? pic.twitter.com/qwFogWiE2F
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 3, 2019
The images also serve to confirm that the phone Evan Blass showed a few weeks ago was indeed this Xiaomi model. These initial images, like the latest ones, show a slight protrusion in the curved areas, a detail that we don't know if it's due to it being a pre-production unit or if, on the contrary, the manufacturer hasn't been able to find a way to improve the screen's folding mechanism.
The brand explains on Weibo that the result is the result of overcoming several problems with the flexibility of the screen, the flexible cover and the adaptation of MIUI.
A triple-sided fold
What's interesting about the design is seeing how Xiaomi has decided to offer a double fold to achieve three different faces, a design that could be the first in the world to offer it and which, on the other hand, raises the question of to what extent the screen will offer the necessary resistance to withstand all those folds in daily use.
But don't worry, the design is currently an internal prototype that's unlikely to see the light of day anytime soon, so there won't be a foldable phone from Xiaomi for now. That said, it seems Samsung is the company closest to making a foldable device a reality, so we'll see what they have to say on February 20th . However, seeing what Xiaomi has in store, we have no doubt that Samsung must have taken notice.