Xiaomi President Lu Weibing says the company seriously explored an Xiaomi Air style phone with an ultra-thin form factor, but cut the project just before launch because the compromises were too big.
Speaking during a livestream, Lu said the team had already completed planning and early research work, and the device had reached a stage that was close to mass production. Even so, Xiaomi decided not to commercialize it after concluding that pushing thickness and internal volume down too far would hurt the overall user experience.
According to Lu, the biggest issue was that an extreme thin-and-light design would force unacceptable sacrifices in two areas that matter most in daily use: battery life and sustained performance. In other words, Xiaomi believed the product could look interesting on paper but still fail the company’s own usability standard once people actually lived with it.
Lu also tied that explanation to Xiaomi’s current naming strategy around the Xiaomi 17 Max. He said a Max model is not meant to be just a bigger-screen version of the standard phone. Instead, Xiaomi sees Max as a broader upgrade that should also improve imaging, performance, and endurance, which makes the name feel more accurate than simply calling it a Plus model.
That makes Xiaomi’s position fairly clear: the company did test the idea of an ultra-thin flagship, but in the end it chose practicality over novelty. For now, Xiaomi would rather ship a more balanced large-format device than release a sleek concept product weighed down by battery and performance tradeoffs.
