It can be expected that more foldable smartphones will hit the market next year. And Xiaomi is gearing up for that according to new foldable phone patent.
Xiaomi has recently been granted a foldable phone patent with CNIPA (China National Intellectual Property Administration) , which comes with punch-hole cameras.
The split display of this new Xiaomi patent folds right and left to the back, ensuring the shape of a normal smartphone.
At the rear, there are at least two cameras that sit far apart when expanded. It appears that these sensors sit close to each other when the device is folded.
This should no surprise because at the beginning of this year, Xiaomi teased a foldable device that speculations claims will be called Xiaomi Mi Fold or Mi Flex.
Reports back then said Xiaomi's foldable smartphone will be priced $999 in the US, €999 in Europe, and INR 74,999 ($1,087) in India and the company plans to launch the phone sometime between April and June.
The report further states that Mi Fold/Flex will cost almost half of Galaxy Fold because Xiaomi will use OLED displays made by Visionox Technology as per its requirements.
That said, like the Galaxy Fold and Mate X, the Mi Fold/Flex will also be a flagship and will come with Snapdragon 855 SoC with up to 10 GB RAM. A video showing this phone in action surfaced back in January.
But this turned out not to be true. Late last month, the company instead unveiled the Mi Mix Alpha, a smartphone with a front display that fully wraps around the back, save for a strip.
The Mi Mix Alpha’s body is made of a single piece of sapphire glass, with ceramics and aerospace-grade titanium alloy. So what does the extra display get you? Nothing much. The back display lights up and takes over the front screen’s duties when you flip the phone. Otherwise, it just sits there doing nothing.
Xiaomi says the Mix Alpha is a concept phone, so it is going to have a limited production run for the device. The smartphone will go on sale in China in December for 19,999 yuan (~$2,800).
While the size of the display remains unknown, it boasts a 180.6% screen-to-body ratio, Xiaomi said at an event in China. The Mi Mix Alpha is powered by Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 855+, coupled with 12GB of RAM and 512GB UFS 3.0 storage. And it supports 5G connectivity.
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