Huawei recently launched its latest foldable smartphone under its Honor brand, the Magic V3, which also turned out to be the thinnest production foldable smartphone in existence. Soon after, Huawei followed it up with the launch of its (rather expensive) Mate XT Ultimate, which, by the looks of things, became the world’s first production-ready tri-fold smartphone. Xiaomi also launched its latest foldable smartphone, the Mix Fold 4, in July, and now it seems it also has a tri-fold smartphone in development.
According to a report by 91 Mobiles, Xiaomi recently filed a patent application for its first tri-fold device with the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA). The application that was seen by the source also suggested the design of the device in question (which we believe is planned). This patent was filed on September 3, which is very recent.
In its report, the source has come up with renders based on the information shown in the patent and the device (at least in these early renders) appears to be significantly thicker than Huawei’s Mate XT Ultimate. The device appears to have two hinges, one of which allows the first (and outermost) part of the foldable device to flip outwards, which would turn it into a regular bar-shaped smartphone when fully closed. Is. When fully opened, it appears to take a tablet-like shape with a proper rectangular main display. Xiaomi’s take on the camera module appears to be a horizontal layout with three cameras and a flash module placed next to each other in a row.
Despite having two hinges and three body panels at the back, for some reason this phone doesn’t feel as wide as Huawei’s Mate XT Ultimate, but looks much longer and narrower. This is how it appears when opened and folded, which is very similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6, which has a narrower cover screen than most foldables currently available globally.
It’s also unclear about Xiaomi’s tri-fold smartphone (as mentioned by the source) whether it will be a production-ready device like Huawei’s Mate XT Ultimate.
The news about Xiaomi’s first tri-foldable first surfaced in an old report that came from Chinese social media platform Weibo. The tipster did not provide any details about the hardware configuration of the phone, but only casually said that such a device was in development. It also says that this tri-fold smartphone will be thicker than usual and may be announced at next year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025.
