Xiaomi seems to be working on a new smartphone with a unique mechanism. It looks like your regular clamshell-folding phone but it can be detached from the middle. This is only a prototype model for now and is expected to take some time before making an official debut. 91mobiles spotted Xiaomi’s experimental phone through its patent filing on CNIPA.
Xiaomi detachable phone patent
- Xiaomi has filed a patent on the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) platform for a detachable smartphone.
- The patent filing contains sketches of the phone’s design and its detachable mechanism.
- When unfolded, it looks like a normal clamshell foldable with the screen bending in the middle. However, some diagrams show the foldable can be detached into two parts. The phone is held together with what looks like pogo pins.
- You can even swivel the top part of the foldable and possibly use it like that. How exactly it would work in reality isn’t known yet.
- On the inside, the Xiaomi phone has a tall display with the middle part quite visible.
Overall, the design looks like Xiaomi’s MIX Flip foldable smartphone. The camera design is slightly different with three sensors and what looks like an LED flash. The power button and volume keys are placed on the right side of the phone. We can also see the USB Type-C port and speaker grille at the bottom.
It’s worth mentioning that this is only a patent for now so there’s no confirmation that it will be launched in the future. However, it does give us an idea of what future foldables could look like and the kind of designs that Xiaomi is currently working on.
Honor is also working on a crazy futuristic phone that can unfold from multiple directions. This Honor phone has multiple rotating shaft mechanisms allowing it to unfold from different directions.