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Visionox Delivers Wrap Around Display for Xiaomi
October 07, 2019
 
Earlier this month, Xiaomi launched the Mi Mix Alpha which is an extraordinary looking smartphone. Following its launch, it was revealed that the OLED display manufactured by Visionox that also supplied Xiaomi’s two-way folding smartphone. Visionox has set up an all new assembly line in Guangzhou, China that will be used to manufacture flexible AMOLED displays. Notably, to bring the production line together, a total of 11.2 billion yuan ($1.6b) has been invested which has been raised via public capital, state-owned enterprises of Guangzhou and Visionox.
Xiaomi unveiled the Mi Mix Alpha, with a screen-to-body ratio of more than 180 percent, achieved by wrapping the display around the back. And, it includes Samsung’s new 108-megapixel camera sensor. Xiaomi calls this screen a Surround Display as it runs across the whole front of the device, around both sides, and across most of the back. The two edges meet about a quarter of the way across the back, at a thick strip that runs top to bottom and houses the cameras. 

Xiaomi suggests the narrow screen on the back could be used for selfies with the rear camera, since there isn’t one on the front. Even the sides don’t go to waste. The small icons normally seen along the top of a phone screen – like remaining battery, Wi-Fi, alarms and Bluetooth – are displayed down the sides, like in Samsung’s Edge devices. The physical unlock and volume buttons on the sides have been replaced with pressure-sensitive on-screen versions, and the edges themselves can also be squeezed like other phones.
The traditional earpiece receiver has also been switched out for what Xiaomi calls “a brand-new display acoustic technology.”
 
Figure 1: Xiaomi's Mi Mix Alpha w/108-megapixel Camera

Source: Company

Of course, with so much more screen comes more anxiety of cracking it – and that’s made worse by the fact that it’s harder to wrap the phone in a case. Xiaomi says that the Mi Mix Alpha is made with a durable protective layer, but we’re not sure how much we’d really trust that. For those few parts of the phone that aren’t screen, Xiaomi has made them out of a strong but lightweight, aerospace-grade titanium alloy. The strip on the back is made of ceramic, covered in a single piece of sapphire glass. The main camera sports 108 MP with a 1/1.33-in sensor, snapping shots with a resolution of 12,032 x 9,024 pixels and a 20-MP ultra-wide angle and a 12-MP telephoto camera. It’s powered by a Snapdragon 855+ processor, 12 GB of RAM, a 4,050 mAh battery, and comes with 512 GB of storage. While Xiaomi calls the Mi Mix Alpha a concept phone, it does look like it plans to sell them – albeit not many. A small production run is due to start by the end of the year, and the handset will carry a hefty price tag of RMB 19,999, which roughly converts to a little over US$2,800.
 
Performance of cameras for the ‘Galaxy S11’ (tentative name) to be released in 2020, will be improved drastically. Samsung is planning to apply many camera parts with new functions such as super-high quality shooting with 108MP and 5X optical zoom. They are currently working on development of three models for Galaxy S11 series with ‘quad-camera’ and ‘triple-camera’ on the back of top two models and the bottom model respectively.

• Quad-cameras consist of four camera modules with a combination of ‘wide-angle, telephoto, ultra-wide angle, and TOF (Time of Flight) 
• Triple-cameras consist of ‘wide angle, telephoto, and ultra-wide angle’.
• TOF calculates distance through the time it takes for light to reach the subject and come back and delivers a 3D effect, information on space, and movement. Samsung Electronics started applying this technology to Galaxy S10 5G model and it will apply this technology to top two models of Galaxy S11 series.