Only A Small Part Of This Xiaomi Phone Is Foldable: Patent

Xiaomi has been granted a new design patent, and this time around, the company patented a phone a small part of which folds. This may sound odd, and quite frankly, it is.

If you take a look at the images provided in the gallery down below, you'll see the device itself. Only a small part of this phone is foldable, and it folds outwards. The top 10-15-percent of the device is foldable.

Only a small part of this Xiaomi handset folds, and it includes three cameras

As you can see, on that foldable part, the company plans to include three cameras. Those three cameras can be used as rear-facing ones, when the phone is folded, and front-facing ones when it's fully unfolded.

When unfolded, you get rather large display camera holes at the top, but you can keep it unfolded, if you want. That part of the device also has a secondary function, it can help you prop up your phone.

This design has been patented with the CNIPA, in China. As it's usually the case, just because Xiaomi patented this, doesn't mean that the company will actually make the device.

Xiaomi has yet to release its very first foldable smartphone. The company did show off its demo foldable smartphone last year, but since then, the company has been rather quiet.

Some rumors suggested that its very first foldable smartphone will arrive by the end of 2019. Well, that did not happen, and we're still waiting for some more information from Xiaomi.

Chances are that the company's first foldable smartphone will not look like this patent. It will probably be a proper foldable smartphone, that folds right down the middle. This design does look quite interesting, but it's hard to imagine Xiaomi releasing a phone on which only such a small part folds, as its first foldable handset.

The device that the company demoed was actually quite interesting. It folded outwards, and it did not include any cameras whatsoever. The final product almost certainly will not look like that, though.

Xiaomi is expected to introduce its first foldable smartphone sometime in 2020

Xiaomi is expected to announce its first foldable smartphone this year, but we still don't know when will that happen. Samsung, Huawei, and Motorola, on the other hand, already released its foldable offerings. Samsung and Huawei released two of them already.

Foldable smartphones do have their issues, quite a few of them, but they're quite exciting nonetheless. People in the industry are going crazy over them, as they represent a new form factor, and something new in the industry in general.

Such smartphones are still not for the vast majority of regular consumers, though. Not only are they too expensive, but they're simply not worth spending all that cash considering how many compromises you need to deal with. That may change in the future, though.

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