Xiaomi revealed its new phone concept: a “quad-curved waterfall display.” This implies that the screen of the unnamed phone not only has deep 88-degree “waterfall” curves on the left and right sides but also on the top and bottom, leaving no space for ports or buttons. Xiaomi claims that this is intended to “extend the display limits to infinity” and enable “a true, port-free unibody design.”
The obvious question is how that could possibly work at the corners of the screen, and based on the promotional imagery it looks like Xiaomi is simply keeping them blank with a small, rounded cutout. Not quite infinity, but still a neat trick, although this sounds like a nightmare for people who don’t like the comparatively modest curved displays on phones like the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
Announcing a concept device entirely through renders does not quite have the effect of showing it off in person. The Verge is told by a Xiaomi representative that this phone really exists and that they have used it themselves, for what it’s worth. According to Xiaomi, the show is the product of “countless breakthroughs in glass bending and laminating technology,” and “represents the sum of 46 groundbreaking patents.”
This concept phone follows last week’s launch of its “Mi Air Charge” completely wireless charging system, the seemingly outlandish Xiaomi tech. And Xiaomi announced the Mi Mix Alpha phone back in 2019, which featured a display that wrapped almost the entire handset around, although it eventually never went on sale. This latest idea might well never make it into a device that is commercially available.