Ever since the second, refined release of the original Galaxy Fold, Samsung has held a tight grip on the foldable smartphone segment with follow-up handsets such as the Galaxy Z Fold 2 making good on issues experienced by the previous generation. With LG seemingly out of contention, it's up to other smartphone brands to bring the fight to Samsung, and while we've no doubt that Huawei's new Mate X2 would be a contender if it weren't for the ongoing US ban, it's struggling for relevance in western markets.
Luckily, a number of other smartphone brands are taking up the mantle with Xiaomi being the first to unveil its take on the foldable smartphone, the Mi Fold that sports the Snapdragon 888 chipset, an 8.01-inch internal display, and the liquid lens camera we covered here.
While the Mi Fold follows the same inward-folding design as Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 2, it differs in that it offers slightly more real estate with an 8.01-inch instead of 7.3-inches. The inner display sports a 2,480 x 1,860 resolution with a 4:3 aspect ratio while the 6.52-inch OLED panel on the exterior boasts a 90Hz refresh rate and 2,520 x 840 resolution. Both panels support HDR10+ and Dolby Vision formats.
There's a new cooling system that uses both a cooling chamber, thermal gel, as well as numerous graphite sheets to help dissipate the heat generated by the Snapdragon 888 chip. The Mi Fold boasts 12/16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256/512GB of UFS 3.1 storage depending on the variant and runs on MIUI 12 out of the box (Android 10-based).
The 5,020mAh battery can be fully recharged in just 37-minutes thanks to the 67W wired Turbocharging technology. There are dual 5G standby and WiFi 6 connectivity, the sound is provided by Harman-Kardan via a quad-speaker 3D panoramic sound system and the fingerprint scanner is mounted on the side of the phone.
As for cameras, the Mi Fold boasts a 20MP selfie camera on the outer display, along with a 108MP HM2 main sensor (Samsung) with 9-in-1 Large Pixels, a 13MP ultra-wide-angle lens, and finally an 8MP telemacro liquid lens that offers 3x optical zoom as well as the ability to take macro shots as close as 3cm. All of this is accompanied by Xiaomi's Surge C1 Image Signal Processor (ISP).
Xiaomi's Mi Fold is already available to pre-order in China with the 12/256GB model priced at 9,999 yuan (~$1,520), the 12/512GB variant for 10,999 yuan (~$1,675), and the 16/512GB special edition for 12,999 yuan (~$1,980). There are no details on when or if the Mi Fold will launch in other markets, but would you be interested if it does become available in your region?
[Xiaomi]
