Xiaomi's foldable phone will have a triple camera, EUIPO filing reveals

2021-09-13

Xiaomi has filed a design for its foldable phone with the EU Intellectual Property Office. The technical drawings show the familiar dual-fold design but also reveal a triple camera on the back. How will that work?

Official design schematic of XiaomiOfficial design schematic of XiaomiOfficial design schematic of Xiaomi
Official design schematic of Xiaomi"s foldable phone

Xiaomi posted two videos of the phone. They show how the phone is divided into three segments – the left and right segment fold behind the center segment. And in doing so, they will cover the camera on the back.

That isn’t shown in the video, but there’s no other way this will work. It will be hard to spin this as a privacy feature as there will most likely be a selfie camera on the front that will remain uncovered. Unless, of course, Xiaomi used a pop-up camera (the design doesn’t show a selfie cam either way).

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Top and bottom views • Side views

You can see it in these unofficial renders (upper left corner). The folded segments create a sort of secondary rear display, but they cover the camera.

Unofficial 3D renders of Xiaomi
Unofficial 3D renders of Xiaomi"s foldable phone

What happened to Xiaomi’s foldable phone, anyway? It was supposed to come out in Q2 and cost half what Samsung was charging for the Galaxy Fold. However, after Samsung recalled the review units and postponed the launch, all companies promising foldable phones went quiet – Samsung itself, Huawei, Xiaomi and the rest are yet to commit to a hard launch date for their phones.

Source | Via (in Russian)