A smartphone that transforms into a tablet by folding out two parts of its display bent behind its back has been unveiled by Xiaomi.
The Chinese technology company revealed the prototype in a
post to the social media site Weibo. It promised the "double-folding" device was coming and asked the public to help name it. Samsung and the start-up Royole have previously unveiled flexible-screened phones of their own. But they only folded at a single point. "It is very interesting that Xiaomi has adopted a three-way folding option on its prototype," said Ben Wood, from the consultancy CCS Insight. "It is hard to judge the relative benefits of this versus a single fold and it will depend considerably on the user interface that Xiaomi chooses to adopt as it opens the ability to have a three-quarter screen option. "However, it certainly means there is an additional point of failing. The fold is typically the area where there are most likely to be problems over time."