Xiaomi Plans To Launch A Foldable Phone Like Galaxy Z Flip

The Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi is said to have concrete plans for a smartphone with a foldable display that can be folded along a horizontal line, similar to the Galaxy Z Flip from Samsung, according to a report from Southeast Asia.

As the portal ZDNet Korea wants to know from sources in the immediate vicinity of the companies involved, Xiaomi asked the Samsung display division to buy a foldable smartphone screen. The aim is to create a device that is not unlike the Galaxy Z Flip, which, like the previously popular clamshell phones, can be easily folded up if necessary.

Xiaomi is said to have requested delivery of a foldable OLED panel from Samsung’s display division, although it remains to be seen whether the Korean electronics giant can or wants to deliver. At the moment, this is anything but safe, the report says, because Samsung is currently planning to introduce the next generation of its own smartphones with a foldable display.

Due to limited production capacities, it can therefore be expected that Samsung would initially prefer to use the panels built in its factories for its own products rather than hand them over to third-party customers such as Xiaomi. Xiaomi should therefore also try to open up other sources of supply, whereby the Chinese display specialists BOE and CSOT could be brought in to help.

Nevertheless, Samsung is said to be the preferred partner because the Chinese manufacturers have not yet achieved the same yield or quality in the production of their foldable screens. BOE is the supplier of the folding display of the Motorola RAZR 2020, which is sold at a comparatively high retail price due to the high price of the screen, also it was reported earlier that the phone is exhibiting problems in hinges. Mass production of foldable displays at Samsung for Xiaomi’s smartphones should not be expected before the second half of 2020 at the earliest.