Xiaomi is finally entering the niche club of smartphone makers betting on foldable smartphones to contribute to the innovation. The Chinese company has officially showcased its first foldable smartphone, joining the likes of Samsung, Motorola, and LG that are also expected to release their foldable phones this year. Xiaomi Senior Vice President, Wang Xiang has shared a video of what looks like a double-folding phone from the company.
In the video shared by Xiang on Twitter, the Xiaomi devices can be seen folding from either into the centre, turning it into a smartphone with only the active screen on front. There are minimal bezels on the device, as seen in the video. Moreover, the MIUI on the device has been optimised for the change in the display orientation – in the full tablet mode, the UI is vertical while in the smartphone mode, it’s the regular phone UI.

Xiaomi SVP revealed in a post on Weibo that the company’s ‘double folding phone’ uses a four wheel drive foldable shaft technology to implement a foldable display. Xiaomi also claims it’s the “world’s first double folding phone”. Meanwhile, Samsung is also gearing up to reportedly launch its Galaxy F foldable phone at its Unpacked event.
The Xiaomi foldable phone is seemingly a prototype at this stage, which means there could be many improvements that will be made before the device is ready for commercial announcement. Xiaomi has not detailed on the timelines for the announcement of its foldable phone, although, it is expected the company could showcase it at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019 slated to kick off in February.
Talking to the commenters on his post, Xiang asked for name suggestions for the phone. While there were many names being proposed, a few that piqued Xiang’s interest were OrigaMi, Mix Flex, and Dual Flex. It will be interesting to see whether Xiaomi comes up with its own name for the foldable phone or chooses one of the suggested ones.

Source: financialexpress.com