Huawei plans to beat Samsung in launching the first foldable smartphone with a flexible display, Nikkei reports, thanks to an OLED display developed by obscure Chinese panel supplier BOE Technology Group.

Beijing Oriental Electronics (aka BOE) is a little known name outside of specialist Asian supply chain circles, but it is a good enough display maker to even hold some Apple iPhone LCD business. Currently it is pushing into more innovative territory, thus the deal with Huawei the production of a flexible smartphone. BOE has already shown off flexible display prototypes at tradeshows, including a tablet-size device one can fold into a smartphone.

A "person familiar with Huawei's plan" tells Nikkei the foldable device will probably be a luxury item, with initial planned volume of just 20000-30000 units (if not less) for a small section of the first-wave adopter market. As such, the device will be more of a technology demo in the name of attracting industry and media coverage towards Huawei.

Microsoft confirms rumours of a smaller Surface tablet as it announces the Surface Go-- a smaller and lower cost Surface device featuring a 10-inch screen and a Pentium Gold 4415Y processor.

The Go might be smaller, but it retains all core features of the Surface line, including the 3:2 display aspect ratio (1800 x 1200 resolution), built-in kickstand, 5MP front-facing camera with facial recognition login, 8MP rear-facing camera and the Connector port for charging and connecting to a dock. On the tech spec side it is something of a downgrade though, with 4/8GB RAM, 64/128GB storage and reduced battery life (around 9 hours).

A tweet by Microsoft Surface chief Panos Panay reignites rumours the company is working on a "new and disruptive" device-- one, according to the The Verge, is a "folding, dual-display device" produced in collaboration with LG Display.

The idea of a Microsoft dual-screen device has been around for years. In 2010, a group of Microsoft engineers lead by then Xbox lead J Allard pushed the Courier, a Windows-based dual-screen tablet complete with stylus one could fold and carry around like a notebook. The Courier was killed off (reportedly because it failed to align with the Windows and Office franchises), but the concept persisted within Microsoft.

Xiaomi announces the next device in the Mi Pad Android tablet line-- the Mi Pad 4, an 8-inch device featuring a Snapdragon 660 chipset, 6000mAh battery and a 5MP front-facing camera with facial recognition capability.

As an upgrade on the previous Mi Pad 4 has a slimmer design even if the display gets something of a downgrade from 2048 x 1536 resolution to 1920 x 1080. The internals however get a boost, with 3/4GB LDDR4x RAM, 32/64GB internal storage (expandable via microSD card) and f/2.0 13MP front-facing camera.