Here’s A First Look At Xiaomi’s First Clamshell Foldable – Talk Android

The foldable segment is more fun now than it has ever been. There’s so much exciting stuff going on in the space that I feel almost tempted to make my next device foldable (though I’m still unlikely to pull the trigger on that). There’s more choice than there’s ever been, though.

Xiaomi is one of the big foldable players, with the Mix Fold series of devices. Notably, those are all book-style foldables and the company doesn’t have a single clamshell foldable to its name. Fortunately, we’ve known that that was going to change, and now, we finally have a first look at what will be the Xiaomi Mix Flip.

A Leaked Image Of The Xiaomi Mix Flip Shows What Is Certainly A Unique Design

Leaks are part of the DNA of the mobile industry in 2024. There’s pretty much no company that can keep its smartphone completely under wraps until launch; not even Apple. Thankfully, it does give us enough time as consumers to make decisions ahead of time. For instance, we don’t know exactly when the Xiaomi Mix Flip will launch but we already have the opportunity to pass judgment on its design.

The image leaked on Weibo shows a clamshell foldable device from the back side, flipped completely open. The bottom half of the back looks to be a beige or champagne color with Xiaomi branding near the bottom. There’s a metallic lip at the top of the bottom half and at the bottom of the top half, and they meet in the middle when the Xiaomi Mix Flip is opened completely.

The top half is more interesting. There’s a rectangular cover display with rounded corners taking up about two-thirds of the height of that panel. However, Xiaomi made an interesting choice not to use the entire upper half for the cover display. Instead, there’s a black rectangular panel with chamfered corners above the cover display, which holds the dual cameras and the LED flashes. It also has visible Leica branding.

That’s pretty much all the insight we get into the upcoming clamshell foldable but I don’t know what I think of the aesthetic. Perhaps Xiaomi wants a smartphone that is easy to recognize among a sea of clamshell foldable, and if that’s the case, that seems to have been achieved. However, I wonder why they didn’t simply merge the cover panel and the camera module, even without the camera panel adding to the screen’s area. Also, why are there rounded corners on the screen and chamfered corners on the camera module? Odd choice with that one.

The Upcoming Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 Might Also Be The Thinnest Foldable Ever

According to a leak from Digital Chat Station on Weibo, it seems like the upcoming Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 might be the thinnest foldable ever made. Its predecessor wasn’t chunky by any means, so it is a bit interesting to see how Xiaomi wants to shave off even more off the device to put it in a comfortable lead.

Foldables are like two phones stacked on top of each other, so thinness is a priority, and we’ve got a few sub-1 cm options these days, so things are going well.