Xiaomi launches first flip cellphone at simply over $800, with a $70 transportable printer

BEIJING — Xiaomi on Friday launched its first flip cellphone with the power to print footage immediately utilizing a individually bought transportable printer.

The Combine Flip begins at 5,999 yuan ($825), the corporate introduced.

Preorders begin Friday with deliveries starting Tuesday.

The transportable printer prices 499 yuan ($68), together with picture paper.

The Chinese language firm additionally launched the most recent model of its folding cellphone, the Combine Fold 4, on the similar value because the prior model at 8,999 yuan.

On the product launch, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun described how the Combine Fold 4 may deal with simultaneous translation with one language on both sides of the display. However he didn’t in any other case emphasize synthetic intelligence capabilities.

He additionally warned that provides of the transportable printer had been tight.The corporate in late March launched its first electrical automobile, the SU7 sedan, at a less expensive value than Tesla’s Mannequin 3.Lei mentioned as of Friday that cumulative deliveries had exceeded 30,000 autos, and that he anticipated to ship 100,000 vehicles by November, a month sooner than beforehand introduced.The corporate final month doubled the shifts to 16 hours a day at its manufacturing unit in southern Beijing to satisfy increased demand, in accordance with a workers member.

The manufacturing unit has about 2,000 human staff and about 700 robots.

Lei mentioned updates to the SU7 in August would enable it to be voice managed from the skin.

He spent the primary a part of the three-hour product occasion giving his fifth annual speech.

This 12 months’s speech performed up how U.S. sanctions on the corporate in January 2021 prompted Xiaomi’s board of administrators to ask Lei to consider choices, equivalent to constructing a automobile, within the occasion they may not promote smartphones.

He mentioned after a lot consideration he determined to take action, and warned the board it could require $10 billion in spending. He mentioned he turned down early funding provides from enterprise capitalists that valued a standalone automobile enterprise at $10 billion.

Lei mentioned he tried driving greater than 170 completely different vehicles in three years, and even acquired a race automobile license together with greater than 100 firm executives and engineers.

“Three years in the past an accident allowed me to affix such an attention-grabbing business,” Lei mentioned in Mandarin, translated by CNBC.

Xiaomi appealed the U.S. sanctions in 2021 and was faraway from the blacklist in Could that 12 months.

Lei introduced Friday that Xiaomi aimed within the subsequent decade to have the quickest four-door electrical automobile to drive the Nurburgring race observe in Germany, with assessments of a brand new SU7 race automobile model beginning in October.

Geely-owned Zeekr in October 2023 launched a restricted F1-inspired model of its 001 electrical automobile.