LetsGoDigital, a Dutch technology blog, discovered a new design patent of the company. The illustrations depict shapes similar to those of Huawei Mate Xs and Yu Rou Flexpai 2.
It is reported that Xiaomi submitted a design patent to China National Intellectual Property Administration at the end of 20 19, and it was officially announced on June 5, 2020.
From: LetsGoDigital.
The application document contains 19 previously unseen pictures of Xiaomi folding screen smart machine, which shows that it adopts an everted flexible screen, and the display area after expansion is almost the same as that of Huawei Mate Xs and Yu Rou Flexpai 2.
There is almost no screen frame reserved on the front of the fuselage, and there is a thick grip extending backwards on the right side. The back screen is slightly narrow, with embedded four-camera+flash module and oval buttons on the right (or for power switch/volume adjustment).
Relative to the plane of the flexible screen, the four lenses slightly raise the height of the holding area. The screen body can also be released by mechanical locking structure, with microphones at the top and bottom, speakers and USB-C charging/data ports at the bottom.
Although Xiaomi has not actively released news about folding screen smartphones recently, it is believed that the company is still expected to bring new surprises in the second half of 2020.
Figure via LetsGoDigital
Three weeks ago, GregglesTV interviewed Ross Young, CEO of display supply chain consulting company, during which he shared his expectations for the flexible screen smartphone market in the second half of 2020.
For example, Huawei expects to release a new folding screen machine similar to Samsung Galaxy Fold in August/September, and the price is expected to be less than 2,500 euros. In addition, Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 is also expected to appear at the same time.
When asked about other manufacturers, Ross Young said that Xiaomi will also launch a new folding screen machine soon, but unfortunately did not disclose more details in the interview.
In addition, last month, LetsGoDigital also reported another Xiaomi folding screen smartphone, but it adopted a flip design similar to Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. By choosing a rotatable camera system, it will be provided with enough unique functions.
I personally think that Xiaomi will not produce high-end folding screen mobile phones, even if most of them are produced, they will not be mass-produced.
First of all, Xiaomi does not have such large-scale investment in product research and development. At present, Lei Jun has confirmed that the Xiaomi MIX Alpha project has stopped. You should know that this epoch-making product was hosted by Lei Jun at that time. At the press conference, boss Lei was full of confidence and determined to mass-produce. Very big, and have high expectations for this mobile phone, and want to lead the next trend. But unfortunately, it is still impossible to mass-produce for more than a year, and it is impossible to form a sniper on Huawei's folding screen. Recently, Lei Jun confirmed in Weibo that the Alpha project has stopped, so he will not invest in the folding screen project again.
Another semi-finished project is Xiaomi's pine cone surging processor. Lei Jun was also full of confidence at that time, vowing to be China's Intel, and boldly made the chip into a sand price. However, there was no follow-up after one year. Although I haven't said give up now, I haven't made progress for so many years, which is very empty.
Now that Xiaomi is on the market, it pays more attention to the profit of the product, so it seems that investing in a new folding screen machine can't bring much profit and it is not necessary.
Secondly, the introduction of folding screens is of little value. At present, there are two manufacturers of folding screen mobile phones, one is Samsung and the other is Huawei's mate Xs. Samsung's folding screen is mass-produced, but the market has been tepid, and consumers are not interested in it, more like the previous W series, as a luxury.
As for Huawei MateXs, this phone is also high and low. At that time, it cost hundreds of thousands when it was sold. I finally found one every time. As a result, everyone knows that this mobile phone is basically a hot potato in the second-hand market, and everyone is afraid to smash it in their hands. Therefore, at this time, Xiaomi's launch of a folding screen mobile phone is tantamount to suicide, and the effect is not as good as Alpha, and this investment is obviously unrewarded.
Therefore, Xiaomi has neither the ability to fold screens nor the need to produce folding screens. Now the folding screen is chicken ribs, which are tasteless to eat and a pity to discard. The key is that chicken ribs are not cheap, and Xiaomi is not willing to invest this spare money to play.
According to well-known foreign scientific and technological media reports, Samsung's next-generation folding screen mobile phone Galaxy Fold 2 will adopt the latest ultra-thin screen technology. Compared with the current screen scheme, the ultra-thin screen will bring greater user experience improvement. Shortly after the news came out, a new patent of Huawei also surfaced, indicating that Huawei is also developing its next-generation folding smartphones, namely Mate X and Mate Xs, which look more like the design of Samsung Galaxy Fold.
In the patented picture, the mobile phone can be folded like a book. In the fully folded state, it is equipped with a smaller display screen, which is very similar to the Galaxy Fold. Compared with the previous scheme, Huawei Mate X and Xs are folded in the opposite way, and even in the closed state, the main display can be kept outside the mobile phone.
However, there is also constant news on Xiaomi's side, and there are also patent exposures similar to ultra-thin screens. This is enough to prove that Xiaomi company is also developing folding smartphones. According to the data, the design of the mobile phone is similar to Huawei's Mate X and Xs. When the mobile phone is in the folded state, the display screen is turned outwards and displayed to the outside.
So far, neither Huawei nor Xiaomi has come forward to confirm whether the above news about the patent of ultra-thin flexible screen is true, but the digital chat station (through Android Authority), a well-known digital blogger in Weibo, said that both Huawei and Xiaomi have purchased ultra-thin flexible glass for the next generation of folding screen mobile phones and will produce ultra-large curved mobile phone products.