A crazy new leak shows that Xiaomi is possibly working on its own folding phone

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If something is good, why stop at one? An intriguing video posted by serial leaker Evan Blass has a mobile device that folds not once, but twice.

Foldable devices might end up being a short-lived fad, but 2019 is looking to be full of electronic origami. This double-folded device is supposedly made by Xiaomi, although Evan does hedge his bets as even he’s not completely sure of its origin.

Watch it in action

Can't speak to the authenticity of this video or device, but it's allegedly made by Xiaomi, I'm told. Hot new phone, or gadget porn deepfake? pic.twitter.com/qwFogWiE2F

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 3, 2019

Presented without comment, we can only go on what we see in the video. It certainly looks like the device is running Xiaomi’s MIUI flavor of Android. Transitions between apps and both scrolling and zooming look fluid, hinting at a powerful CPU under a massive screen.

Using the unfolded device to display Google Maps is a good use case, although you’d need a bigger mount for your car if you’re one of those people who uses a phone as your GPS in the morning. The tri-fold device is only shown folding backward, with both sides wrapping around the back. Once folded, it looks like any regular phone, and the software knows to just show the home screen on the part of the screen still visible.

We’ve seen folding devices from Samsung and even a production version from Royale, who make flexible screens. This leaked device looks far more polished than those early efforts, although it still has a few rough edges.

Honestly, we don’t really know much about this

There’s some minor screen warping visible where the folds are along the upper edge. We can’t say if that’s because it’s a prototype or even due to the filming angle. Presumably, the device is fairly thick when folded in, so that might cause issues with pocket space. We can’t see the thickness in the video, so perhaps the edge panels are thinner, so it’s not so unwieldy when folded down.

I really hope this is genuine. I’ve wanted to get hands-on experience with a Xiaomi phone for a while now, and this looks like a great place to start. With both Steam Link and AMD’s latest drivers letting you stream gaming to your mobile handset, the more screen size, the better.

Do you think this is real or just hype? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Samsung’s new folding phone will cost the same price as a cheap used car
• Samsung finally unveils its folding phone and it looks surprisingly good
• Samsung may finally be ready to release a folding phone, which should fit nicely in your fanny pack
• Samsung folding phone patent reveals a half-sandwich of stupid
• Patent shows that Apple could be working on its own foldable iPhone

Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.