XIAOMI has announced its latest phone concept: a quad-curved waterfall display. This means that the unnamed phone’s screen not only has deep 88-degree “waterfall” curves on the left and right sides, but also on the top and bottom, leaving no room for ports or buttons. Xiaomi says this is intended to “extend the limits of the display to infinity” and enable “a true, port-free unibody design.”

The obvious question is how that could possibly work at the screen’s corners, and based on the promotional imagery it looks like Xiaomi is simply leaving them blank with small, rounded cutouts. The display is the result of “countless breakthroughs in glass bending and laminating technology,” according to Xiaomi.

Beyond all the screen cleverness on display, this latest concept is also notable for its complete lack of physical controls and ports. Instead, the company leaned on 46 of its patents and built-in clever alternatives like pressure-sensitive touch sensors in place of buttons and “industry-first flexible film display acoustic technology” in lieu of a traditional speaker and grille. The lack of a USB-C port also means wireless charging and perhaps it’s meant to work with another of Xiaomi’s recent announcements, a remote wireless charging system the company calls Mi Air Charge.

Rumors have long suggested that Apple would like to ditch ports across its iPhone line entirely. If Xiaomi and Apple were to release portless devices, the pressure would be on for the rest of the industry to go full unibody, and it’s hard to imagine the status quo would remain the status quo for very long.(SD-Agencies)