What do noodles have to do with Xiaomi's foldable phone?
Xiaomi riffs on popular iPad meme with a cup of noodles
Xiaomi has released another video showing off what its new foldable phone is capable of. And it's… weird.
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When you’re making your noodles, of course, you don’t want all that heat to escape. So Xiaomi offered this helpful suggestion: "When working overtime, it’s recommended you cover your cup of noodles with a folding phone, they will be tastier."
So why the cup of noodles? Well, as with so many things on the internet, it started with a meme... but it can also be seen as a jab at Apple’s iPad.
Using iPads to cover instant noodles has been an ongoing joke among Chinese internet users, who claim it shows the only real use they’ve found for their expensive tablets.
It’s not clear whether Xiaomi meant to allude to Apple. Amazon’s Kindle has become the butt of jokes for the same reason, and the ecommerce company has even used the meme in its own marketing on Taobao. But Xiaomi is tapping into a well-known habit among Chinese technology users to use their smartphones for almost everything: Playing games, reading books, shopping and much more.
Xiaomi hasn’t revealed pricing for its unnamed foldable phone yet, but media speculation has put the price at around US$1000.
Xiaomi’s foldable phone might have a while before it’s released, though, because the new video still doesn't show a front-facing camera. For a country as selfie-obsessed as China, a smartphone without cameras would be an extremely hard sell, even one with an innovative double bend.
The lack of a front-facing camera probably means that Xiaomi's folding smartphone remains a work in progress, but at least we know it’ll be good for covering a cup of noodles.
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