Two days have passed since the launch of the Xiaomi Mi MIX Alpha, but the discussions about it haven’t died down. If anything, they’re getting even louder. There’s still a big buzz around the new smartphone—and especially its innovative 360-degree display.
Behind the production of this unique device is a collaboration between Xiaomi and the Chinese company Visionox.
Visionox is a leader in the development of OLED panels
In China, the tech blogger “Mocha” on the social network Weibo revealed that the Mi MIX Alpha concept was developed jointly by Xiaomi and Visionox. So it wasn’t a big-name company like Samsung or BOE (the display supplier for the Mate X), as was assumed.
Xiaomi’s product director, Wang Teng Thomas, doesn’t deny this claim. He responded to the post, saying that Xiaomi works with multiple OLED panel manufacturers, including Visionox.
Visionox’s roots go back to a strong project team that originated from Tsinghua University. It’s one of the most prestigious technology universities in the world. Visionox, however, doesn’t only work with Xiaomi. It’s said that the company will soon deliver an OLED panel for Huawei as well.
They’re also known for their collaboration with ZTE, for which they supply AMOLED for the Axon 10 Pro model and they also contribute to the development of a flexible display for a watch-shaped phone – Nubia Alpha.
It looks like Visionox has become China’s new favorite company for developing experimental displays. The Chinese manufacturer currently holds around 6,000 patents for OLED panels and has two plants in China.
But let’s get back to the collaboration with Xiaomi. Besides the already introduced Mi MIX Alpha concept, there’s still ongoing work on a flexible OLED display for a Xiaomi foldable phone that you can look forward to in the future.
What about Xiaomi’s foldable smartphone?
Xiaomi wowed everyone with its Xiaomi Mi MIX Alpha smartphone featuring a 360-degree display that makes up almost the entire body of the device. In essence, it’s a permanently folded device with a curved display.
Its selling price 2550 EUR / 66 000 CZK however suggests that this will not be a phone for the masses, and mass production is not even planned.
Recently, there have been several major innovations in smartphone displays. We’ve seen various types of displays: Huawei and Samsung presented foldable smartphones with flexible screens. However, these phones face a number of problems and, for the most part, are not yet suitable for everyday use—they’re fragile and prone to malfunctions.
The main reason is wear and drop resistance
After the unveiling of Xiaomi’s very first 360° phone with a spatial display, the company’s president, Lin Bin, indicated that foldable phones are more prone to failures than 360° spatial-display technology.
According to him, bending a foldable display without wear is the main obstacle to mass production of Xiaomi’s foldable phone. The drop resistance of foldable phones and phones with 360° displays is very low, so it’s hard to manufacture them at scale, Lin Bin added.
It’s almost certain that foldable display technology will eventually make its way to everyday users. First, though, developers will have to deal with a whole set of obstacles. In this regard, it literally holds true that patience brings roses.
Don’t miss the best coupons 📩
Subscribe and we’ll email you new coupons before they expire. We only send it once a month — no spam.
