In late September, the Mi MIX Alpha was unveiled as the grand finale of the event. The company brought a new word to vocabulary – the wraparound screen, a flexible AMOLED screen that wraps almost the entire body. It’s allowing the display area to extend from the front to the side and back.
However, there are many people pointed out that the machine is less practical. They think that the side and back of the display area are not very useful. Recently, a set of Xiaomi patents came to light that could bring more use scenarios to the surround screen of the Mi MIX Alpha.
As you can see from the patent sketches, the new Mi Mix Alpha will allow users to drag in various application components to the side screen. Among them, we can mention recording, photographing, volume control and music control.
When turned on, the MIX Alpha’s side screen will have a shutter-like photo button, a volume control bar, weather information, or system information such as battery life.
This set of patents also gives the Mi MIX Alpha’s side screen more use. It’s still a bit of a stretch. These small improvements don’t seem to support the high cost of the surround screen. If Xiaomi doesn’t offer more differentiated application scenarios, the surround screen will inevitably become a show-off product that will be eventually forgotten.