Xiaomi is no stranger to distant concept phones. In a new teaser, the Chinese phone maker is pushing things to the extreme a concept phone showing the edges of the waterfall that wraps around the four sides of the device.
It seems that the concept is so futuristic, Xiaomi could not even give it a name, but in many ways it is an evolution of The Mi Mix Alpha concept from 2019. Xiaomi claims that the curved glass, which bends 88 degrees on each side of the phone, “has practically exceeded the technological limits of glass production”. Although this statement certainly sounds impressive, it could be a little far-reaching. The sides of the phone have nice rounded edges, but it seems that Xiaomi failed to wrap glass in the corners of the phone, leading to small diagonal cuts in each corner of the screen.
Another impact of these waterfall edges is that because there is glass everywhere, there is really no room for ports, so Xiaomi did not include any. Instead, Xiaomi says the traditional volume button, headphone speaker and power button can be replaced with new innovations, such as a built-in pressure sensor, flexible acoustic film and ultra-thin piezoelectric ceramic.
With this concept, Xiaomi is really pushing the idea of a phone without ports, without a body, and although it is somewhat a conclusion that has given up that the industry will get there at some point, I I don’t think people are ready for portless phones yet– now or even in the next few years. In addition to portless phones that are a major problem when it comes to repairability, they will also need a new generation of accessories to maintain them. These include Xiaomi’s sleek long-range wireless charger, which the company claims can power devices from a few meters away (instead of millimeters as now). But the problem is that Xiaomi’s long-range wireless charger is huge and can currently produce only about 5 watts of power compared to the 15 watts or more we get from Qi wireless chargers.
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However, one thing I like is how Xiaomi uses the glass and curved screen to display notifications, battery level, and signal strength on the side of the device. Not only does it look pretty slick, but if you’re going through the trouble of bending the bottle this way, damn good you’d better use the added real estate for something. It is a bold statement by Xiaomi at a time when Samsung – which was previously one of the biggest supporters of the curved glass screen – has recently moved to flat screens with Galaxy S21 and S21 +.
Xiaomi claims that this concept is the result of 46 different patents, so it is clear that the company is thinking big with the latest phone concept. And while so many conceptual devices exist only as renderings, according to Xiaomi PR, there is at least one functional prototype of this phone, which suggests that it might actually be available for purchase one day.