Xiaomi’s new hypothetical Mi MIX Alpha, with its foldable design, is taking shape and shows us more details. It’s been a long time that Xiaomi is preparing a folding mobile, and in fact, it is that since 2019 they have been showing images of their prototypes and giving glimpses of more and more details in some leaks. This leaks are encouraging us that this year Xiaomi will also present Mi MIX Alpha.
And we already know that Xiaomi uses its Mi MIX family for its most innovative smartphones, and it’s been many months since we last saw a new Mi MIX. So everything seems to indicate that sooner rather than later we will see a foldable smartphone. And a leak showed us today Xiaomi’s first functional prototypes.
All reports agree, and this device is not too different from some renders we had seen, and in fact, its concept is essentially much more similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip and Motorola RAZR, looking for a large format mobile that folds into a small and much more comfortable size, rather than going for the hybrid experience between tablet and smartphone.
It seems that the foldable phone design will be similar to the Galaxy Z Flip and Moto RAZR looking for versatility rather than the hybrid experience between tablet and smartphone.
That yes, in the images we see it seems that the external display makes much better use of space to provide more useful information while the phone is folded, copying for the rear a design similar to that of the Xiaomi Mi 11 with a rear camera module that should not lose quality compared to the flagship of the Chinese giant.
There is also talk of better protection for the flexible panel, with the main screen that will not show holes or breaks for video conferencing and a selfie camera that will probably be located on the outer face to be used with the outer panel exclusively.
According to Chinese sources, Xiaomi will use flexible OLED panels from Samsung, so we understand that this extra protection will be based on some revision of the popular ‘Ultra Thin Glass’ of the South Korean giant, which this year should take another step further with the third iteration of its Galaxy Fold.
We do not want to conclude without also expanding on the information published in China about a multi-million dollar investment by Xiaomi both in its R&D department and in its production lines, with more than 1.3 billion dollars earmarked to improve design and development processes as well as manufacturing and assembly by Xiaomi.
Camera tests that used to take 3 or 4 days per unit have now been fully automated, and are tested on the same day of the assembly, improving the final results in the multimedia section. Likewise, audio labs have been improved to optimize the sound of Xiaomi phones, and there is also a new department for the development of 5G and the improvement of the optimization and stability of the phone’s software.
We can only hope that these investments translate into improvements, and in this case the hype around Xiaomi’s foldable is enormous.
