It seems like Xiaomi is developing a tri-fold smartphone of its own, and a patent just showed us what the phone could look like. This design popped up at the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA).
Xiaomi seems to be working on a tri-fold too, and here’s what it may look like
If you take a look at the images provided below, you’ll see the phone’s design. Now, keep in mind that this is just a design patent at this point. The real phone, once it launches, could look entirely different.
The thing is, we really like this design, and it’s possible we’ll get something along these lines in the final products. This phone has a horizontal camera strip at the top of its back. Three cameras seem to be included back there, and it actually looks like it came from a Pixel.
The device seems to be really thin when unfolded, and not overly thick when folded. It would be really interesting to see Xiaomi’s take on a tri-fold phone, especially considering how compelling the company’s foldables are.
Huawei announced the only tri-fold smartphone thus far
This design patent dates back to September 3, by the way, but it’s just making the rounds. As a reminder, we’ve only seen one tri-fold smartphone actually launch, and Huawei is behind it.
The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design is the full name of the device. That phone launched in China, and it’s barely thicker than the Galaxy Z Fold 6, despite the fact it’s a tri-fold smartphone.
Huawei did start teasing the phone via global social media channels, which gives us hope that it will arrive to global markets too. This handset managed to get a lot of attention, for a good reason. Huawei managed to pack in a tri-fold smartphone in the size of a regular foldable, basically.
It will be interesting to see what other companies can do in that regard, companies like HONOR, OnePlus / OPPO, Xiaomi, etc. They’ve been doing a great job with foldable phones thus far.