Xiaomi has announced a new concept smartphone featuring a Waterfall display that curves along the four edges. The company has designed an 88-degree hyper quad-curved screen that wraps around the phone allowing the UI to flow seamlessly across the edges. Moreover, this yet-unnamed concept smartphone has a unibody design that means it does not have any ports or buttons.
“Pushing the limits of the classic smartphone form factor, Xiaomi engineers tried to make the smartphone as simple as possible and bring the “just a screen” form factor a step closer to life,” the company says in a blog post.
The company has explained how it faced the biggest challenge in producing the 88-degree hyper quad-curved screen. Xiaomi developed its own glass processing equipment to bend the glass under 800-degrees Celsius and pressure and then used over 14 different polishing tools and procedures to make the waterfall screen work seamlessly. The glass was then stacked with a flexible display through a 3D bonding process.
Xiaomi’s futuristic phone does not have any buttons or ports on its body, giving way to a port-less unibody design phone. Xiaomi developed over 46 patents to ensure that physical ports and buttons are replaced with “more elegant alternatives”.
This concept smartphone showcased by Xiaomi features ultra-thin piezoelectric ceramics, Flexible film display acoustic technology, third-generation in-display cameras, wireless charging support, eSIM, pressure-sensitive touch sensors and more. Xiaomi has not completely revealed the features of its concept smartphone yet, however, it’s an interesting take on the future of smartphones. Being a concept phone, Xiaomi is unlikely to manufacture it commercially anytime soon.