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Xiaomi announces portless concept phone with a four-sided waterfall display

Xiaomi has announced a new concept phone with a four-sided curved display and a portless design.
By
February 5, 2021
TL;DR
  • Xiaomi has announced a new concept phone with a four-sided curved display and a portless design.
  • The company holds 46 technical patents for it.
  • There’s no word on when or if Xiaomi plans to commercialize this tech.

Xiaomi has announced a new concept phone with a portless design sans any buttons or other openings.

The star of the show here is the new “Quad-curved Waterfall Display.” According to the company, it achieves an 88-degree curve on all four sides of the phone, eliminating any frame or bezels.

To create the unique display, Xiaomi used self-developed glass processing equipment, a hot-bending process under 800-degree temperature, four different polishing tools, and more than ten complex polishing procedures.

It is a lot like Vivo’s Apex concept phone that was the first to introduce a portless design back in 2019. The only difference is that the screen on the Apex phones curves on the left and right edges, while the display on the new Xiaomi concept phone also offers curves at the top and bottom.

Elsewhere, Xiaomi’s new concept phone includes third-gen under-display camera tech, seeing that the screen spills over to the edges leaving no room for a pop-up module. It also houses wireless charging capabilities, eSIM support, and pressure-sensitive touch sensors.

The company claims it has 46 technical patents for the whole machine.

Xiaomi portless concept phone: Is it practical?

It’s unlikely that Xiaomi will put such a design into production anytime soon. For once, we don’t think the world is ready for portless phones that lack things like a SIM tray, volume keys, microSD card slots, and other important hardware attributes.

We’re also not fans of waterfall displays. They are more prone to breakage and don’t adapt well to content. Not to forget undesirable false touches that can misfire actions on the phone.

Take our poll below and let us know what you think of Xiaomi’s new concept phone.

What do you think of portless phones with waterfall displays?

518 votes