Thanks to a tweet by Donovan Sung, Director of Product Management at Xiaomi, we have the first real look at the company’s foldable smartphone which has been rumored for quite some time. In the video, the phone is in the hands of the company’s founder and president Bin Lin with the phone’s multiple forms shown off to the world.
From the outset, the phone’s form factor looked rather similar to the Royole FlexPai. The screen is almost edge to edge, without any noticeable chin or bezel around the suspected 7-inch display. The interface is reminiscent of Xiaomi’s Mi UI, with a smooth transition between screens and apps.
Check out this special video from #Xiaomi President and Co-founder Bin Lin, showing off a very special phone prototype… 😎
What does everyone think we should name this phone? 🤔#InnovationForEveryone pic.twitter.com/1lFj3nM7tD
— Donovan Sung (@donovansung) January 23, 2019
Bin Lin then turns the device 90 degrees and folds the phone outwards to the rear of the phone like a menu. It then turns into a standard-looking smartphone with edge display. The folds are very tight, unlike the FlexPai. The transition from tablet to a phone is also quite seamless, as no stutter was seen in the video. Mi UI also transitions nicely between tablet and phone mode.
There are some unpolished bits seen in the video. The laminate display surface looks pre-production, and there are no cameras on any side visible for snapshots or selfies. The cameras may be under one of the folds, which was not shown in the video.
The Xiaomi foldable phone may be very close to production if the company is pushing ‘preview’ videos online. Hopefully, we can see the finalized version of the phone sometime this year.
(Source: Donovan Sung)
