Xiaomi co-founder and President Lin Bin has posted a hands-on video of Xiaomi’s take of folding phone on China’s micro-blogging platform, Weibo, asking Weibo users to help name the device. What a way to scream, “Hey! Look here! We are making folding smartphone too!” Before you jump on Xiaomi for being a copycat, well, you have to know that Xiaomi’s take of the folding phone is unlike Royale’s and Samsung’s. It has a completely unique design which Bin Link claims as the world’s double folding phone. That’s right. The phone can be fold on both sides, or top and bottom, depending on whether or not you are holding it in landscape or portrait orientation.
The video did not reveal much, but if there isn’t any trickery involved here, well, then I must say this yet-to-be-named device looks very promising. In the video, Bin can be seeing scrolling through the apps and eventually firing an app (Douyin app?), scrolling through various videos in the device’s tablet form. While on the app, he proceed to fold the device and demonstrated how the app transition from a large squarish aspect ratio to a regular smartphone aspect ratio. I must say the transition is not the smoothest, but it totally works like a charm. Though, the UI appeared to be extremely fluid and lag free. However, as one might have expected from a flexible panel, the display is smooth like glass.
From the video, you can see some ding here and there. Perhaps, these imperfection will be ironed out in the final device? I don’t know. Here’s to hoping it does. Obviously, such innovations do not come easy. Along with the video, Bin described it as an engineering feat that required them to overcome a series of technical challenges, including the flexible folding screen technology, a thing he referred to as “four-wheel drive folding shaft technology,” flexible cover technology and also MIUI adaptation.
The unit Bin is described as an “engineering unit” which lacks of technical details, except for those we have highlighted above. It is worthy to note that this isn’t a confirm device. Xiaomi will gauge the public reception of this device to come to a decision if it will mass produced.
Images: Weibo.
Source: Gizmochina.
