Xiaomi’s New Flip Phone Launches at $800, Paired with $70 Portable Printer

Xiaomi on Friday launched its first clamshell phone that can instantly print images on a separately sold portable printer.

The Mix Flip will be available for purchase starting at 5,999 yuan ($825), the company said.

Preorders will be available starting Friday, with deliveries starting Tuesday.

The portable printer will cost 499 yuan ($68), including photo paper.

The company also released the latest version of its foldable phone, the Mix Fold 4, priced at 8,999 yuan, the same as the previous version.

At the product launch, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun explained how the Mix Fold 4 can handle simultaneous translation in one language on both sides of the screen, but otherwise he didn’t highlight its artificial intelligence capabilities.

He also warned of a shortage of portable printers. The company launched its first electric vehicle, the SU7 sedan, in late March at a price lower than Tesla’s Model 3. Lei said Friday that total deliveries have topped 30,000 and that it expects to deliver 100,000 by November, a month earlier than previously announced. To meet rising demand, the company doubled shifts at its factory in southern Beijing last month to 16 hours a day, according to employees.

The factory employs about 2,000 people and about 700 robots.

Lei said an update to the SU7 in August will allow voice control from outside.

He spent the first half of the three-hour product event delivering his fifth annual speech.

In a speech this year, he noted that U.S. sanctions against the company in January 2021 had prompted Xiaomi’s board of directors to ask Lei to consider options such as building cars in case it could no longer sell smartphones.

He said he decided to do so after careful consideration, warning the board that it would require spending $10 billion. He said he turned down an offer for early investment from a venture capitalist who valued the independent car company at $10 billion.

Lei said he had driven more than 170 different cars in three years and had also obtained a racing driver’s license, along with more than 100 company executives and engineers.

“Three years ago an accident allowed me to join such an interesting industry,” Lei said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC.

Xiaomi appealed against the US sanctions in 2021 and was removed from the blacklist in May that year.

Lei said on Friday that Xiaomi wants to develop the fastest four-door electric car that can race at Germany’s Nürburgring race track in the next decade. Testing of the new SU7 racing car version will start in October.

Geely-owned Zeekr launched its limited-edition Formula 1-inspired electric car “001” in October 2023.