Photo courtesy of Saudi Basic Innovative Plastics.
He is regarded as the "Jobs of China", so will plastic mobile phones give Lei Jun's Xiaomi mobile phones a hint of the halo of Apple mobile phones?
He was wearing a black polo shirt and jeans instead of a black turtleneck. The feet are wearing Converse, not New Balance. But the image has been carefully retouched. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun aspires to become China’s Steve Jobs. Xiaomi, which he founded in Beijing less than four years ago, now has more than 3,000 employees and had revenue of 6.25 billion euros ($8.6 billion) in 2013. The company adopts a direct sales model, and its mobile phones are only sold in Xiaomi "experience" stores and official websites.
Since the company released its first mobile phone, Mi-One, in December 2011, its mobile phone series has become popular in the Chinese market. The company has now added network disk and smart TV businesses.
Xiaomi uses "beautiful and confident plastic", to borrow what Apple's design director Jonathan Ive said when the iPhone 5c was launched, and also uses the same design on the Xiaomi Mi2A mobile phone. The ultra-thin phone comes in a range of bright yet familiar colors (but note that the Mi2A came out months before and was more popular than the iPhone 5c, which was considered a major failure by Apple fans.)
To achieve the desired effect, Xiaomi partnered with Saudi Basic Innovative Plastics, a polymer manufacturer based in Saudi Arabia, to use its polycarbonate-grade Thermocomp LDS and Lexan EXL materials. Why does Xiaomi specifically choose these materials?
Matt Gray, Sabic’s consumer electronics marketing director, said that the three Sabic materials chosen for Xiaomi’s model are all based on polycarbonate. However, each resin and composite material is specially formulated with additives and fillers using Sabic's proprietary process to achieve the ideal performance expected from Xiaomi phones.
Thermocomp DX10311, a fiberglass-reinforced polycarbonate, was used for the internal frame because it delivers the balance of mechanical properties required by the customer, such as stiffness and strength, as well as good impact resistance. Thermocomp DX10311 composites can also increase the yield of non-conductive vacuum plating and painting of mobile phone surfaces, two processes commonly used in the production of device frames.
To maintain the Mi2A's slim shape, its antenna is integrated into the chassis. This requires the use of a complex high-end production process known as laser direct structuring (LDS) to integrate electronic and mechanical functions into a single part.
Sabic has specially developed composite materials as candidate materials for LDS process applications, which can help improve design flexibility and achieve spatial merging, ultimately helping device manufacturers reduce the depth of mobile phones to less than 10 mm to meet the industry trend of thinner and lighter products.
The glossy "timeless plastic" back cover is molded from Lexan EXL1414 resin. Gray said: "Lexan EXL1414 copolymer resin is a medium-flow opaque injection molding grade material. It is used for battery covers/mobile phone back covers because the material can bring many rich color choices, allowing manufacturers to design attractive and colorful mobile phone cases to meet consumer demand."
The material has other important advantages, he said, such as low-temperature ductility (down to -40°C) and chemical resistance. The material also has shorter injection molding cycle times than standard PC resin.
Xiaomi Mi2A mobile phone was launched in China in May 2013. The phone has not yet officially entered the European market, but parallel imports can already be purchased from online stores.
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