The Chinese Xiaomi is working hard and is among Europe’s top 4 smartphone manufacturers. In the third quarter of 2019, the manufacturer managed to sell no less than 5.5 million smartphones in the old continent.
Although Xiaomi has not yet introduced a folding phone, the company already showed a very interesting prototype of a Xiaomi folding smartphone with a double folding screen at the start of this year. Experiments with other designs are also being conducted in the background.
This time the company seems to be investigating the possibilities of a retractable smartphone, just as we saw earlier this year from Samsung and LG Electronics. The screen surface can be increased by 100% thanks to the flexible screen.
Xiaomi phone with an extendable screen
Halfway through 2018, Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software filed a design patent for a retractable phone with a sidebar. The documentation was approved and published on December 6, 2019. There are 14 product images included in which a mobile phone is shown that can be pulled out to a tablet format.
The smartphone has very thin screen edges, on the left side is a sidebar where the selfie camera is incorporated. Two camera lenses are visible. The rear also shows a dual camera, but these are not integrated into the sidebar but on the other side of the device.
The sidebar is not only used for the selfie camera but also contains a mechanism in which the flexible screen is incorporated. It is probably a rolling system, although the images do not provide any clarity in this.
The screen area is increased by 100%
The screen surface is doubled by extending the device in width, making it ideal for watching videos. The cameras at the rear move with you when the smartphone is pulled out. This also applies to the elongated frame around the camera system.
Thus, the thickness of the housing on the left remains proportional to the right. Handy, because this frame provides extra grip when you pull out the device providing extra sturdiness and stable for use.
Xiaomi is not the only manufacturer investigating a retractable smartphone’s possibilities. Samsung has also recorded an extensible smartphone model in this mid-year.
Whether Xiaomi actually intends to produce such a telephone is as yet unknown. What is remarkable is that more and more smartphone manufacturers are patenting retractable smartphones. Now that more and more manufacturers are launching a foldable smartphones, it is certainly not inconceivable that we can also purchase this type of mobile device in the future.
