Xiaomi is no stranger to some wild concept phones and experiments with display technology, with the Mi Mix Alpha being a prime example of that. Today, though, the company has a new concept for a "quad-curved waterfall display" phone, where the screen extends over all four edges of the body for added immersion.
The design itself is a significant feat, according to Xiaomi, because it achieved a tight 88-degree bend for the display at each of the edges. This requires heating the glass up to a whopping 800°C and high pressure, along with multiple polishing tools and procedures to make the final result come together. Xiaomi goes as for as to say it has "virtually broken through the technological limits of glass production", and it took thousands of attempts to make it work.
Of course, with the display covering all sides of the phone, there"s no room for buttons or ports, and instead, the concept has a unibody design, and it leverages 46 patented technologies developed by Xiaomi to replace the typical features of a phone with alternatives. These include "ultra-thin" piezoelectric ceramics, new acoustic technology built into flexible display films, third-generation under-display cameras, and more. At least some of these technologies have shown up in some phones before, but they have yet to come together in a single device.
Of course, this is a concept phone, so it"s not like Xiaomi can claim it"s mass-producing this concept. Still, it"s an interesting look at what could be the evolution of the current smartphone slab designs.