In September 2019, Xiaomi held a "5G New Product Launch" in Beijing Xiaomi Science and Technology Park, and Xiaomi Mi 9 Pro 5G, MIUI 11 and Xiaomi full-screen TV Pro all appeared.
The "One More Thing" moment that belongs to Xiaomi is the debut of Xiaomi MIX Alpha.
The world's first 5G "surround screen" mobile phone, with a 100 million pixel lens main camera and the flagship chip Snapdragon 855+. No matter how you look at it, this is a sufficiently stunning and powerful model.
(Source: Xiaomi Mall)
Nearly a year after its release, Xiaomi MIX Alpha has always been lying on the cold booth, and the airtight glass blocks out the enthusiasm of Mi Fan, "can be viewed from afar and cannot be profane", it is no exaggeration to describe its situation.
In fact, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has personally responded that the mass production plan of Xiaomi MIX Alpha has been terminated, but when the smartphone form is in a dilemma of development, Xiaomi still seems to be impatient and wants to "resurrect" the project to gain a foothold in this consumer electronics market winter.
Recently, Xiaomi's recent mobile phone design patent was approved and announced, the appearance of this patent mobile phone is designed with a ring curved screen, and the whole machine is almost all screens. And isn't this exactly the Xiaomi Mi MIX Alpha?
MIX Alpha, the "white moonlight" in the heart of rice fans
In 2016, Xiaomi mobile phone released the first "full screen" smartphone Xiaomi MIX, in the era of no mature panel hole technology, Xiaomi slightly ingeniously put cameras, sensors and other complex components on the bottom of the phone, creating the visual effect of "a whole display".
Of course, from the current point of view, this approach is somewhat strange and subtle. But after Xiaomi MIX, the concept of "full screen" prevailed, and a "demon wind" blew up.
At the beginning of the popularity of "full screen", manufacturers generally had two methods: "hiding" and "shrinking". How to "hide" cameras and sensors? Do a sliding design can solve the problem, such as Xiaomi MIX3, OPPO Find X, all of them.
And "shrinking" is a popular design scheme so far, water drop screen, bang screen, digging screen. All in all, reduce the impact of the camera or sensor on the display effect, and "hide" it.
(Source: XDA)
In 2019, the same year that MIX Alpha was born, mainstream models have chosen a waterdrop screen and a sliding design, and even Apple has only made a notch screen iPhone X. It can be said that the visual shock brought by MIX Alpha to consumers is quite large.
Technology media XDA, as one of the few media to get the MIX Alpha real device, made the following evaluation of it:
The wrap-around display and bezel-less design have only a small portion of the back for three cameras, and the protective cover of the camera part is sapphire glass. The phone looks like a smartphone from science fiction.
Can become the "white moonlight" in the minds of rice fans, in fact, it is more of a pity.
MIX Alpha can be called Xiaomi's first "amazing" product since the original smartphone. For a long time, the "name" carried on Xiaomi mainly comes from the lack of appearance, such as Xiaomi mobile phone 3, Xiaomi mobile phone 4, you can find some popular mobile phone design elements on Xiaomi mobile phones, but it is difficult for you to recognize that these models are "fashionable" enough.
It can be said that the concept of "no design" has made Xiaomi mobile phones not very good in the reputation of mass consumer groups, at least people will not choose Xiaomi mobile phones because of the pursuit of "good looks".
MIX Alpha is full of technology, solid materials, and first-class visual effects, which clears Xiaomi phones of the crime of "not looking good enough". But unfortunately, in 2020, Lei Jun responded to the relevant rumors about MIX Alpha on Weibo and personally sentenced it to "life imprisonment".
Fade away, explode and return
The "failure" of the MIX Alpha was predictable.
Realistically speaking, the MIX Alpha is almost impossible to mass-produce a model, at least for Xiaomi that year, this project to really land, it is not cost-effective. At the press conference, Lei Jun introduced the design highlights of MIX Alpha, the fuselage frame chose titanium alloy, and the camera area used sapphire + ceramic as the main material. And this striking screen, although its specific model has not been disclosed, the price is already visible to the naked eye.
More importantly, the complex process has higher requirements for assembly and increased difficulty in after-sales maintenance, and from Xiaomi's point of view, the mass production of MIX Alpha will only bring unlimited troubles.
(Source: Mashdigi)
On the other hand, Samsung released the original Galaxy Fold in 2019, Huawei also launched the Mate X, and in the foreseeable future, foldable smartphones are bound to be more popular in the market. On the one hand, Samsung, BOE, Huaxing Optoelectronics and other upstream panel manufacturers are ready to launch flexible, foldable OLED panels, for Xiaomi, joining the folding screen camp can reduce research and development costs. On the other hand, folding screens are more fresh.
As a result, Xiaomi gave up the "surround screen" in 2020, which is not a wrong decision.
In the patent material recently exposed by Xiaomi, it can basically be regarded as an upgraded version of MIX Alpha, or rather, it is more like what MIX Alpha should be.
Thanks to the maturity of under-screen camera and under-screen fingerprint technology, all camera modules are hidden under the screen in the new patent scheme, and MIX Alpha can completely surround the fuselage by a screen, and there is no longer an exclusive camera area. In addition, foldable smartphones have been born for many years, and the adaptive ability to "special" display size is also increasing, and from the perspective of the two generations of Xiaomi MIX Fold, it seems that it has been ready for UI.
(Source: State Intellectual Property Office official website)
At the beginning of last month, Google released the first folding screen smartphone Pixel Fold at the I/O 2023 conference, followed by some new design specifications for Android 14 in the development of polymorphic applications. This indicates that more developers will be able to adapt to different forms of smartphones, increasing the confidence of manufacturers.
In any case, the debut of the MIX Alpha was ultimately not produced, and it was the right time and place. But with technology evolving and the supply chain maturing, now may be the perfect time for MIX Alpha to debut.
"Folding screen" is in charge, what are the chances of MIX Alpha winning?
Jingdong 618 promotion report shows that the transaction volume of folding screen smartphones has increased by 3 times compared with last year, and vivo X Flip, vivo X Fold 2, and Samsung Z Flip 4 rank among the top three in the sales list.
From the data point of view, foldable smartphones are being recognized by more and more consumers, especially vertical folding screen smartphones, which showed amazing explosiveness during this year's shopping festival promotion. Around the world, folding screen smartphones have also begun to attract more consumers.
Research institute TechInsights pointed out in the latest market report that shipments of folding screen mobile phones in the first quarter of 2023 increased by 9.2% year-on-year. Jibang Consulting estimates that global shipments of folding screen mobile phones in the first quarter of this year were about 19.8 million units. With the optimization of costs year by year and the gradual maturity of technology, more cost-effective folding screen smartphones will be launched one after another, such as the starting price of MOTO Razr 40,3999 yuan not long ago, which is no different from most smartphones.
(Source: vivo)
The increasingly mature market is an invisible pressure on the upcoming "surround screen".
In addition to MIX Alpha, Samsung, Motorola, and Huawei have all exposed related patented designs, such as the design scheme exposed by Motorola in early 2022, which not only has a screen-to-body ratio of more than 100%, but also provides stylus-assisted operation. Of course, the plans of various manufacturers have actually flowed out one after another two or three years ago, but there are no mass-produced models so far, and no one is willing to take the first step.
No manufacturer is willing to be the "first person to eat crabs", the reason is also very simple, "surround screen" is not like "folding screen" can create a lot of use needs out of thin air, just like Samsung, vivo, OPPO main "beauty mirror" function, reasonable use of the characteristics of vertical folding screen. On the other hand, the "surround screen", in addition to being visually quite shocking, has almost no use.
(Source: Xiaomi Mall)
Moreover, for the vast majority of users, the side display part of the "surround screen" is wasted, it will not be paid attention to at all times, and it may become the biggest risk of broken screen.
In contrast, practicality or functionality, "surround screen" compared to "folding screen" is always almost meaningful. This may be one of the reasons why the production version of the MIX Alpha has been delayed.
Is the MIX Alpha worth looking forward to?
In the era of "aesthetics", the embodiment of digital products may be the difference in visual experience brought by the screen.
From "curved screen" to "full screen", the higher the screen-to-body ratio, the less visual interference the audio and video experience will suffer. In other words, consumers' perception of the increase in screen-to-body ratio is very obvious.
But back to reality, can the "curved screen" bring any substantial changes to smartphones? Obviously, in addition to the look and feel, it does not make the smartphone achieve earth-shaking changes, but increases the risk of damage to the phone. According to the survey, nearly 79% of the current smart phones priced at more than 4,500 yuan on the market have chosen "curved screen" instead of "straight screen".
(Source: Samsung)
Suffice it to say that most users respect the visual experience more.
"Surround screen" is an extremely radical solution, but it is undeniable that MIX Alpha has indeed raised the public's understanding of the form of smartphones to a new level, and many users will exclaim uniformly when they see this model: the original mobile phone can still be like this.
From the perspective of "technological aesthetics", the MIX Alpha is definitely a smartphone worth looking forward to. Of course, it's hard to say when the production version of the MIX Alpha will arrive.