A teaser video was released by Xiaomi in which the company has taken the veils off of its folding smartphone. Li Bin, the co-founder and president of Xiaomi, posted the video on China’s social media platform.
The video shows a phone that is being folded out to a tablet and then back to the original position. According to Bin, the gadget shown in the video is an engineering model but doesn’t provide the audience with any more detail. He did, however, said that Xiaomi has been able to tackle ‘a series of technical problems such as flexible folding screen technology, four-wheel drive folding shaft technology, flexible cover technology, and MIUI adaptation.’
The device appears to be running a modified version of Xiaomi’s MIUI software. A video that is being played on the tablet undergoes conversion while the screen size of the device is changed. Xiaomi is not the only company that is working on the foldable phones. Royole has also shown its folding screen gadget at CES 2019 and Samsung, and Huawei will also be releasing gadgets that will feature folding screens.
Xiaomi’s version was leaked before the Weibo video came out. However, there is no information available as to when the gadget will be available in the market. The Mobile World Congress is slated to begin in a month, and we are sure that folding screens will be the highlight of this event.
The question that remains unanswered is that which company will be able to bring a foldable device that will dominate the market. Foldable screens need to do much more than just fold and unfold. The transition must be seamless otherwise users will not spend money on it. That is, in our humble opinion, what the companies working on foldable screens should be focusing on; providing a top-notch quality user experience!
Check out the video that features Xiaomi’s foldable phone below and let us know what you think of it!