Xiaomi’s leaked Z Flip rival could herald cheaper foldables

By Prakhar Khanna January 18, 2022

The foldable smartphone segment is gaining traction in 2022 with Chinese manufacturers leading the new launches to compete with Samsung. Another entrant in the clamshell foldable market is expected to be Xiaomi. According to a new leak, the company is stated to be working on a foldable smartphone to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3.

As per information from Weibo’s tipster Digital Chat Station, Xiaomi is working on a new foldable phone that will feature a clamshell design. It is said to be targeted toward women, like the new Huawei P50 Pocket foldable that comes equipped with a circular display on the cover screen. More interestingly, the device is likely to be priced like a mainstream flagship smartphone. Of course, mainstream smartphones run the gamut from the Pixel 6’s $599 to the iPhone 13’s $799, but that’s still an encouraging sign.

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Coming to the specifications, the upcoming Xiaomi foldable could be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, which is the latest flagship chipset. On the optics front, it might sport a 50MP primary camera. It will be pretty thin and light, as per the report. It could have a display with FHD+ resolution and a 120Hz high refresh rate.

For reference, the upcoming clamshell foldable wouldn’t be Xiaomi’s first folding smartphone. The company has its Mi Mix Fold, and while earlier Mi Mixes have come to parts of Europe, that one has remained China-exclusive. We don’t know yet if Xiaomi would be rolling out this particular foldable worldwide.

Foldables gaining momentum in 2022 could drive the prices down for the growing device segment. As of now, the cheapest mainstream foldable device selling globally is the Galaxy Z Flip 3 with a $1,000 price tag. It’s the cheapest, but it is still pretty expensive. As we get more competition and smartphones in the segment, we are likely to see a price floor drop by a couple of hundred U.S. dollars. While devices like the Honor Magic V won’t be making their way across the border, we can expect something more homegrown like the Motorola Razr 3 to help in this area.

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Prakhar writes news, reviews and features for Digital Trends. He is an independent tech journalist who has been a part of the…

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