Xiaomi is planning a foldable phone very similar to the Huawei Mate Xs

We recently published our Huawei Mate Xs review, concluding that despite its heft and high price, it's a joy to use such a futuristic and solid build device. And some people do prefer its fold-out flexible screen design over the Samsung Galaxy Fold's seemingly more secure, but less convenient fold-in design, that requires an external screen.

Xiaomi seems to agree that the fold-out design is the way to go, judging by newly-discovered patents the Chinese giant filed on January 5th, 2020. Thanks to LetsGoDigital, we can see that the company behind Redmi and Poco is planning a smartphone that appears eerily similar to the aforementioned Huawei Mate Xs.


With its display unfolding from the left, turning the smartphone into a small, square tablet, this new direction Xiaomi is going for is far from the double-fold prototype smartphone the company teased us with back in early 2019.

What we see in the new patents is also a Mate Xs-like thicker portion at one of the device's edges, where four cameras, a flash, and a mystery button (likely a hinge release) reside. The Mate Xs similarly has a button that releases the screen from its folded state, so that the user can unfold it into a tablet.

On the side of the same thicker module we see volume buttons and a Power key, where on its bottom is a standard USB Type-C port. While we can't see if there's anything on its top side, hoping for a headphone jack, there's likely nothing.

We're yet to see what design Xiaomi's first foldable will use, but this one is likely more feasible than the company's earlier double-fold prototype, so we can expect to see a smartphone based on it get released by the end of the year. And with Xiaomi often being able to undercut the competition price-wise, we can hope it will also be 2020's most affordable foldable smartphone.