Xiaomi's next flagship to sport a 6-inch OLED display from Samsung, according to report

If you thought Apple was the sole winner of Samsung Display's recent expansion of its smartphone OLED display business, think again. A new report from Korean publication The Bell says Chinese powerhouse Xiaomi has recently signed a deal with Samsung for a supply of several million panels for its upcoming 2018 flagship.

The deal reportedly went through following a failed cooperation with LG Display, which fell through due to a delay in the building of a new plant. Curiously, this shift also impacted the unnamed device's design, as LG's display was 5.5 inched in diagonal, while Samsung's is now a 6-inch one instead.

The shipments are reported to start this December, with an initial supply of 1 million, and a subsequent one of 2.2 million more the next month.

When hearing this piece of news, it's easy for one's mind to jump straight to the rumored Xiaomi Mi 7 (whose code name is reportedly "Chiron"). And on first glance, it seems to fit the bill, as reported specifications for it include a 6-inch display, and it certainly fits the bill for a "flagship." However, the source of these specifications claims the display will come from JDI, which has nothing to do with both LG and Samsung.

So there's two possible options: either that one of the two sources has their info wrong, or the device in question isn't actually the Chiron at all. So when it comes to flagships, we have a couple of other options to choose from: either something in the company's Redmi series, or perhaps even the long-awaited successor to last year's Mi MIX.

Whatever the case, though, the move to 6 inches is giving us the impression that this might be yet another device to adopt the trend of the ultra tall display ratio — sure, 16:9 6-inchers are nothing new, but they have historically been more niche devices, and usually don't sport high-end specs. Or in other words, they don't fit the bill when it comes to the term "flagship."

via The Investor