Earlier today Xiaomi held a press conference tied into MWC, which is set to officially begin this coming Monday. On the agenda was the Mi 9, Mi Mix 3 5G, and some fancy LED lightbulbs, but not the foldable phone we saw a video of back in January. A lot of people wondered what was up with that, especially since Huawei went and announced their foldable phone just a few hours later. In turns out it’s not ready yet.
This information comes from Xiaomi Senior VP Wang Xhang who revealed this fact during an interview with Pocket Lint. According to him, despite the reveal from Xiaomi’s CEO, development on the foldable phone is still in very early stages.
“The foldable device can offer a unique service, but it shouldn’t just be about having a device that’s foldable. We are still working on it. The foldable display is only one technology and you have to integrate others. We are still studying what should be offered. There are lots of internal discussions. Everything is possible.”
The foldable phone revealed in January is different to everything we’ve seen so far, since it involved two hinges that unfold into a single larger display. Essentially you get a phone and tablet display that has similar proportions to the devices most people are used to.
So while Samsung, Huawei, Royole, and countless others have foldable devices that are ready to be sent off to consumers sometime this year, Xiaomi still has some catching up to do. Sadly that means we have no idea when it might arrive. Next year? The year after? It’s impossible to say. Which is a shame, considering Xiaomi’s dedication to only make around 5 per cent profit on its hardware sales. With the £1,800 Galaxy Fold and the €2,299 Mate X, we could do with a foldable device that’s as cheap as humanly possible.
This post originally appeared on Gizmodo UK, which is gobbling up the news in a different timezone.