We all started out with feature phones with tiny screens, which was succeeded by smartphones with huge screens that could easily fit in our hands. We’ve, however, now jumped into the bezel-less territory and still can’t seem to satiate our hunger for bigger screens.
This has created a space for futuristic flexible displays and foldable phones, which many phone makers are currently toying with. Xiaomi now also seems to be dipping its toes in the future foldable phone ecosystem, as revealed via a new patent filing (loosely translated from Chinese).
Xiaomi is well-regarded as a tech giant for its innovative smartphones and crowdsourced products, so it is not surprising to learn that Xiaomi may be working on its own foldable phone.
The patent application, as seen above, is titled “connection mechanism for foldable mobile terminals and a foldable mobile phone” and describes a phone with two displays that can be opened to form an angle of about 160-degrees. It doesn’t completely flatten to 180-degrees on opening from the folded state, so it will probably work like flip phones (remember those!?)
The patent further describes a device with two housings, each with its own display panel, and connected by a bendable joint.
The existence of patents does not mean that Xiaomi is actively working on it or that it will certainly find its way into upcoming phones. The company’s CEO Lei Jun recently revealed that it currently holds over 6300 patents, with 53 percent of them trademarked outside of China.
With Samsung, Huawei and Apple looking at foldable displays in the future, it’s not surprising that Xiaomi has firmed up some plans in this regard. It remains to be seen whether it will take this avatar or some other form.
