Xiaomi is undoubtedly raising its own bar when it comes to rolling out innovative technologies across its entire product suite.
Major Chinese phone manufacturer Xiaomi Corp (HKG: 1810) has launched its first foldable phone dubbed the Mi Mix Fold, fueling the upward surge in the shares of the company. As reported by CNBC, the foldable phone from Xiaomi contains the Surge C1 camera chipset, designed in-house and offers improved features for the smartphone’s camera feature.
The Mi Mix Fold features an 8.01-inch 4:3 OLED panel with a 2480 x 1860 resolution screen when fully opened with a smaller 6.52-inches display screen on the outside with a 90Hz refresh rate. While the company said that the phone can withstand being folded over 200,000 times, it also notably has support for Dolby Vision HDR, and the sound system is powered by four Harman Kardon-tuned speakers to give the phone a 3D panoramic sound according to the company’s description.
Smartphone manufacturers including Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KRX: 005930), and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd have pioneered the launch of foldable phones including Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold Series and Huawei’s new Mate X2 respectively. Xiaomi’s debut in this foldable phone production niche now positions it as a competitor to watch.
The launch of foldable smartphones “remains a highly experimental segment where Samsung is leading the charge and it is interesting to see all the different approaches from various players,” said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight. “Foldables remain an experimental niche. Although Xiaomi’s new device will generate lots of interest, it is still unclear how to take the design concept to mass-market consumers. I expect several more generations of experimentation.”
Xiaomi’s Mi Mix Fold revelation sent its stock up to close Tuesday’s session with gains, and the shares are currently trading at HKD25.75, up 0.59% in the past 24 hours at the time of writing.
Xiaomi Foldable Phone: Pricing and Pride in Own Technology
Xiaomi is undoubtedly raising its own bar when it comes to rolling out innovative technologies across its entire product suite. The Mi Mix Fold smartphones are a gem to the company’s semiconductor design strides, following the likes of Samsung and Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) in exploring alternative ways amidst the US-China tensions that limited access to such semiconductors from US suppliers.
The chipset, dubbed Surge C1 is used in the Mi Mix Fold’s camera design, and the firm’s CEO Lei Jun noted that the chips “greatly improves” the image quality of photos taken with the foldable device even in low light.
Per pricing, the Xiaomi foldable phone will start out at 9,999 Chinese yuan (approximately $1,521) for a model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage and go up to 12,999 yuan (or $1,978) for an edition designed with ceramics coating and a 16GB / 512GB storage capacity. The new Mi Mix Fold will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 with a battery strength of 5,020 mAh. A full charge can be attained in 37 minutes. Only Chinese customers will be the first to get access to the new products starting April 16th.
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