2019 marks the beginning of the foldable smartphones which is made possible with flexible OLED displays. In Q3 last year, Xiaomi had introduced the all-screen Mi MIX Alpha that has a large wraparound display that boasts a “180.6%” screen to body ratio. The insane-looking device was supposed to be released at the end of December, but it is still not available for purchase at the moment.
According to Abacus, a subsite under South China Morning Post, Xiaomi appears to have postponed the Mi MIX Alpha indefinitely. They can’t share any tentative release date but they assured that they will update as soon as they can.
The MIX Alpha is currently the most expensive Xiaomi smartphone yet with a retail price of CNY 19,999 (about RM11,743). The device was listed on Alibaba’s Tmall as well as Xiaomi’s online store but you still can’t hit the buy button.
When the wraparound smartphone was announced, Xiaomi had shared that the device is very challenging to make and that’s why it carries a high price tag with very limited quantities available. Although Xiaomi has not provided an official answer to the delay, it could be due to technical challenges which are common with new smartphone concepts.
The Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X were delayed to give ample time to reinforce its foldable design. Even the latest Motorola Razr was delayed due to “high” demand.
To recap, the Mi MIX Alpha features a 7.92″ OLED display that pushes a 2088×2250 pixels resolution. It runs on a Snapdragon 855+ processor with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of UFS 3.0 storage. Powering the device is a 4,050mAh nano-silicon cathode battery that supports 40W fast charging via USB-C.
For taking pictures, the MIX Alpha was the first device to be announced with a 108MP main camera and it also comes with a 20MP ultra-wide-angle and 12MP telephoto shooters for better versatility. Similar to the Huawei Mate X, there’s no selfie camera upfront but you can snap with the main camera while using the rear display to frame your shot.
According to Xiaomi, the top and bottom portion of the device uses aerospace-grade titanium alloy while the rear panel for the camera array uses sapphire glass that’s embedded on ceramic. This is also a 5G device that supports dual-SIM.
