Xiaomi Announces Foldable iPhone Rival

[code-m]

That wasn’t until recent times. Before that, I walked into Best Buy and bought my Huawei Mate phone. Walked into a Microsoft store and bought my Huawei Matebook X Pro.

I’m all for Apple having a balanced playing field. The state sponsors in China obviously are pro-China companies and devices, but they know the demand for Apple products, manufacturing, etc is so strong that they keep Apple in the chinese market. I believe in the US, even when the chinese phones and laptops were available openly, they still didn’t have much of a market compared to Apple, Samsung, etc that are more well known and ‘trusted’ by consumers. I personally like some of the chinese phones and computers, but I’d take the Apple product any day. Ive used recent chinese phones and laptops…the software and interfaces literally look like apple ripoffs. Icons, graphics, etc are copy pasted. I would always feel like I’m using a fraud product. It’s a case of chinese brands telling chinese consumers would you rather buy American apple products or would you buy a hometown chinese apple product?

Unfortunately throughout China’s history the civilization and culture have been and still are great engineers, architects, the arts, even warfare. Every civilization goes through a bell curve, this is not to say that missteps have not occurred in the past due to poor leadership. What I am saying is that China is mimicking OS art as it believes that is what appeals to the mass market not that it’s incapable of producing something original and creative it’s a balancing act of risk management and some aversion that may lead to humiliation.

China’s history has demonstrated that it’s quite capable and willing. The risk it takes with its hardware needs to be applied to software maybe it will come in the future who knows.

 

[AlanBeyond]

This crap isn't even in the U.S. is it?

Regardless of where it is available, never in all of eternity would I or will I ever buy a Chinese brand product.

Hi r@cist, I'm pretty sure you have bought tons of Chinese brand product

 

[code-m]

Hi r@cist, I'm pretty sure you have bought tons of Chinese brand product

I think the poster maybe concerned with “spying”, like other countries don’t do that already. It’s odd to me that people don’t mind buying all sorts of other electronics from China that maybe “spying” on them but have an issue with smartphones.

Or maybe you are right with your suspicion 😅

 

[zenmacx]

That wasn’t until recent times. Before that, I walked into Best Buy and bought my Huawei Mate phone. Walked into a Microsoft store and bought my Huawei Matebook X Pro.

Yes it's true!

I've relied on https://www.gsmarena.com/ for years as a trusted source of information on smartphones globally.

From day one with the advent of Android and iPhone smartphones, I became an enthusiastic supporter of the mobile experience.

Traveling internationally made it easy to obtain a wide variety of brands, sizes, shapes, various OS iterations, it's been a very interesting journey.

Network compatibility was not without its challenges, but achieving success in order to use them in the USA was worth the trouble.

 

[AgentOSX]

Is it just me or does the Fold sound more and more and more like a Beta?

 

[iPhoneFan5349]

I think the poster maybe concerned with “spying”, like other countries don’t do that already. It’s odd to me that people don’t mind buying all sorts of other electronics from China that maybe “spying” on them but have an issue with smartphones.

Or maybe you are right with your suspicion 😅

We found out from Snowden documents that those spying concerns were actually bogus and it was just a way for the US to dominate the market. As soon as they saw they couldn’t compete they blocked it. Just like with the cars.

 

[subjonas]

All this yapping in these comments about how they copied Apple. Well if you ask me, they done kicked Apple's behind on a product that is just 2 days to officially launch. How they got 3 camera on theirs? Look at the size of the battery, 6,000 and the Apple one is said to have like 4,800. Also it does wireless charging at 50W and the apple one 25W?

All that's needed for me is to get that Chinese phone and load iOS on it.

Everything is trade offs. If the rumored specs for Apple's foldable phone turn out to be true, then just like Xiaomi's foldable (and other companies' foldables) will be better than Apple's in some ways, you can be certain there are other ways in which Apple's will be better than Xiaomi's--I'm guessing in weight and volume, possibly in camera picture quality and thermal management, maybe others. Manufacturing cost is also always one of the primary trade offs, but there are a lot of variables in the business side of things and it's possible Xiaomi is either able to manufacture for cheaper or is eating more of the cost or both. But ultimately, as usual, it will likely just be a matter of which set of trade offs suits the individual.

 

[coolfactor]

Rather than focus on "they copied Apple!"

Let's just see which ends up being technically better and a better value product.

I have a feeling the Xiaomi may end up on top.

Value is in the eye of the beholder. iPhones may never have been as "open" as Android phones, and in my world, that is actually a strength because I value the safety measures surrounding the devices.

I'm hoping that Apple comes out with the industry-defining foldable, but at this point, the competition is quite a mountain to overcome!

Enjoy your Xiaomi. 🙂

 

[Dark-Signature]

It also comes in four colors:

At least Xiaomi knows how to do black - something Apple seems to have forgotten.

 

[Karma*Police]

No shame at all. The Chinese way!

You’re living in a bubble if you think the Chinese are copying Apple. They are FAR ahead of Apple on foldable hardware designs and have had some really cool phones and tablets/laptops for a while now. They’re even ahead of Samsung these days. You should check out some YT videos that aren’t Apple focused and you’ll see just how far behind Apple is on foldables.

 

[Korito]

Look, the truth is that Xiaomi is blatantly copying Apple in both design and software (design). Oh also the names itself for top tier devices. Is their hardware top notch? It is indeed, and they also develop their own chips. For past several years, their users mostly complain about their OS being buggy, bloated etc. I don't know if true, but I saw the complaints.

So, both of "camps" here are right. They copy heavily, yet at the same time have really good devices. Both can be true.
On the other hand what they are doing in automotive space is quite amazing and innovative (check out their cars).
Finally, they make tons of other products, from home appliances to networking devices and so on. They are really high quality and I own several of their products (vacuum, smart fans etc), and I have only praises for them.

 

[The Game 161]

What is the point of this though. Xiaomi products are not available to purchase here in the US and those that have tried to import them have had egregious nightmares in doing so. Yes I know Macrumors is not just a US site, but I couldn't care any less about a product that I have very little ability to own or purchase.

because it pushes through tech and all tech should be pushed forward even if it's not available in the US

 

[Big_D]

Rather than focus on "they copied Apple!"

Let's just see which ends up being technically better and a better value product.

I have a feeling the Xiaomi may end up on top.

Also, how can they have "copied Apple", when the Apple product hasn't even been seen. It is copying the Samsung Z Fold 8, and if the iPhone Ultra is the same format, it will have copied the Z Fold 8 and the Xiaomi 18... It doesn't matter who was rumoured to be making a device, what counts is actually selling it.

Apple didn't invent the GUI either, for example, they copied it from Xerox, as did Microsoft. In a lucky twist of fate, the Apple engineers remembered the Xerox system incorrectly and managed to give us overlapping windows, which Xerox hadn't managed at the time.

 

[zenmacx]

Look, the truth is that Xiaomi is blatantly copying Apple in both design and software (design).

Who copied whom is rather irrelevant, yet some people are completely obsessed with taking sides. Copying or mimicking is commonplace in many instances within many industries, like the automotive industry.

At the end of the day what really matters to a huge segment of the customers who buy iPhones without obsessing on the negative, is how well the product they're interested in fulfills their specific needs.

 

[RyanFox]

If you can’t beat them, copy them 🙄

copy a product that has not been released, right?

 

[Pezimak]

Your post literally makes no sense. Apple clearly came first in terms of smartphones. Apple released their first smartphone almost five years before Xiaomi did. And Xiaomi's first phone literally was almost an exact replica in terms of form factor as the iPhone 4S. Heck they even presented the phone in China using the same powerpoint presentation and Keynote address that Jobs and Apple had made popular.

No, they didn't, smart phones with cameras, app stores and touch screens existed long before the iPhone showed up. Ericsson really launched the first one I think. In Europe anyway.