XIAOMI

Company to Launch an "Affordable" new-phone in Q2 2019

The major highlights at this year's Mobile World Congress were foldable and 5G smartphones from various manufacturers. Samsung, Huawei, and China's Royole all showcased their foldable smartphones at the exhibition in Barcelona last month. According to a new report, Chinese brand Xiaomi may soon join the foldable smartphone bandwagon.
Affordable Pricing
Citing investors in Xiaomi's supply chain, the report claims the company is planning to launch its foldable phone by the end of April or early June. As expected, the foldable smartphone will make its global debut in China. The global debut in China will be followed by local launch events in other major markets.
While Samsung's Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X are positioned in the ultra-premium segment, Xiaomi's offering is tipped to be significantly more affordable. The report says the foldable smartphone could be priced at $ 999, which would make it the most affordable foldable smartphone on the market. In Europe, the phone will reportedly be priced at € 999. Apart from Europe and China, the Xiaomi foldable phone will also make its way to India with a price tag of INR 74,999.
Unlike Samsung and Huawei, which use AMOLED panels manufactured by Samsung Display and BOE, the Xiaomi foldable smartphone will apparently use OLED panels sourced from Visionox Technology. The Visionox foldable OLED displays have been developed by Xiaomi's requirements and happen to be significantly more affordable than Samsung and BOE OLED panels.
As of now, there is almost nothing that is known about the hardware specifications of the upcoming foldable smartphone from Xiaomi. Even though it will not be as expensive as the Samsung and Huawei foldable smartphones, it is still likely to pack the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 octa-core chipset and up to 10GB of RAM. In January this year, Xiaomi had released a video showcasing a foldable smartphone prototype. The video showed a smartphone that could fold from both the left and right sides. It is not clear if Xiaomi plans to use the same design for the final retail version of the product. Tony Barrat