Xiaomi will launch the Xiaomi 17 sequence telephones throughout September, and has now launched a teaser to point out what’s going to separate its new telephones from the Apple iPhone 17, which it sees as its primary competitor.
The large new characteristic? It’s known as the Magic Again Display screen, and it’s half iPhone 17, half Galaxy Z Flip 7, half smartwatch, and sadly, set as much as fail earlier than it is even on sale.
What’s the Magic Again Display screen?
A rear-mounted display screen
You’ve seemingly seen the Apple iPhone 17 Professional and Professional Max’s design already, with its so-called Plateau digicam module, which units the cameras off to 1 aspect and leaves the opposite aspect clean except for the flash and a sensor. It’s considerably unfinished, visually, however not unattractive.
Xiaomi has used a really related design for the Xiaomi 17 Professional and 17 Professional Max, nevertheless it has not left the Plateau clean. It has crammed the area with a display screen. Within the teaser video the Magic Again Display screen takes up the highest third of the telephone’s rear panel, and like the duvet display screen on a compact folding telephone, it encapsulates the cameras.
Whereas the video focuses consideration on the Magic Again Display screen, the eagle-eyed will discover there are solely two cameras, and no signal of a flash unit, or smaller digicam for depth, macro, or telephoto duties. In a second video, Xiaomi has given us a a lot clearer look of the Magic Again Display screen, and you will note these have been moved beneath the Plateau-style module, permitting Xiaomi to make use of as a lot of the area for its display screen as attainable.
No want for a smartwatch
Or a compact folding telephone
The Magic Again Display screen itself is proven with a clock, wallpaper, and presumably a card associated to an incoming name displayed. The performance is more likely to be pretty much like a smartwatch, which reveals the time, wallpaper, and incoming calls in your wrist. The Magic Again Display screen will most likely present notifications and different glanceable data too. Because of the display screen and digicam’s proximity to one another, the pair will most likely work collectively to take selfies, identical to on the Galaxy Z Flip 7.
On paper like this, a rear-facing display screen appears to be like like a good suggestion. It blends performance from different units into one telephone with an ordinary, accepted form. No want for a folding telephone or a smartwatch. I’ll wager Xiaomi will promote it on leaving your telephone face down however nonetheless with the ability to see essential data too.
Not the primary we’ve seen
None have been successful
These are all strong causes to make a telephone with a display screen on the again, however this isn’t the primary time one has come alongside. Sadly, they’ve all disappeared as a result of sadly, it’s a bit too gimmicky.
Xiaomi itself has had a go earlier than with the Xiaomi Mi 11 Extremely. It had a tiny 1.1-inch secondary display screen on the again, subsequent to the cameras, which confirmed the time, notifications, and labored as a digicam viewfinder too. It was deserted for the sequel, and hasn’t made a reappearance on a Xiaomi telephone till now.
It’s not the one one. ZTE tried with the Nubia X and Nubia Z20, Vivo gave it a shot with the Nex Twin Display screen Version, and Indian telephone model Lava noticed the Xiaomi Mi 11 Extremely and made its personal model known as the Agni 3. Earlier than all these telephones, now defunct model Yota put an E-Ink display screen on the again of the YotaPhone 2, and LG messed round with secondary screens on the entrance of a number of V-Collection telephones.
That is certainly not an exhaustive listing. Meizu, Asus, and Ulefone amongst others have all tried variations on the rear display screen, whereas the Nothing Cellphone 3 is the latest to include a easy display screen on the again of a telephone.
It by no means lasts
Possibly the Xiaomi 17 can be totally different?
The rear-mounted display screen has by no means caught on sufficient to change into a mainstream characteristic. It’s a enjoyable tech showcase, cool as a gimmick to amaze your pals, and a helpful characteristic for the selfie-obsessed, however by no means has it gone past this. It’s a shock to see Xiaomi, a model which has already experimented with a rear display screen, return to the effectively when it clearly didn’t actually work the primary time round.
What the rear display screen does effectively is look good within the advertising supplies, and it actually can seize preliminary consideration. I’m writing about it, in any case. Nevertheless, as soon as the preliminary “oh!” second has handed, the rear display screen is a redundant characteristic. All of us take a look at the entrance of our telephones more often than not, leaving rear screens to be forgotten.
When compact folding telephones just like the Galaxy Z Flip 7 exist, together with a massively various vary of smartwatches, including a rear display screen to a telephone in 2025 is an sudden transfer, particularly given what number of have failed prior to now. Nevertheless, maybe the Xiaomi 17 Professional and Xiaomi 17 Professional Max will do one thing actually totally different with the characteristic, and it’ll be the primary to be greater than a gimmick with area of interest attraction. Xiaomi will launch the Xiaomi 17 sequence in September in China, however the precise date has not been confirmed but.