Xiaomi has been doing some wild things with the secondary display on its 18 Pro series, but this might be the most unexpected yet. The company has announced the Pocket Guitar, a physical magnetic accessory that turns your smartphone into a miniature playable guitar. Yes, really.
The Pocket Guitar snaps onto the back of the Xiaomi 18 Pro or 18 Pro Max using a strong magnet and sits neatly over the secondary display when folded flat. Open it up and it splits into two halves around a central hinge. One side has a row of chord buttons labeled I through VII, and the other has a textured surface with raised ridges that act as strings for strumming. Fold it the other direction and it doubles as a phone stand. It comes in black and red.
The whole thing works through Changba, a popular Chinese karaoke and singing app. Connect the accessory over Bluetooth, jump into the app’s performance section, and you get two modes to choose from. Chord mode is the full experience where your left hand presses chord buttons while your right hand strums the textured panel. Rhythm mode simplifies things considerably since you just need to keep time with your strumming and the app takes care of the chord progression for you.
Here’s where the rear display actually earns its place. Because your strumming hand sits below the secondary screen rather than over it, you can see controls and song info while you play without awkwardly craning around your own hand. It’s a small detail but it shows that someone thought this through properly rather than just slapping a gimmick together.
That said, the rear display features are exclusive to the Xiaomi 18 Pro line. If you try to use the Pocket Guitar with a different Xiaomi phone or even an iPhone running iOS 14 or later, Bluetooth connectivity with Changba still works, but the rear screen performance and recording features are gone. Everything shifts to the front display instead, which is functional but loses some of that clever integration.
On the hardware side, the Pocket Guitar packs a 630mAh battery that Xiaomi says lasts up to 30 days on a single charge. It charges via USB-C. Those are solid numbers for an accessory this niche.
Pricing lands at 599 yuan, which works out to roughly $90, and it’s currently available in China through JD.com. No word yet on international availability.
This is the kind of product that fits into a broader pattern Xiaomi has been building with the 18 Pro’s rear display ecosystem. The secondary screen started as a shortcut to widgets and AI tools, but accessories like this are pushing it into territory that no other Android brand is exploring right now. Whether the Pocket Guitar finds a real audience or becomes a novelty that lives in a drawer after a week, it proves that Xiaomi is at least willing to experiment in ways that other manufacturers simply aren’t. That’s worth paying attention to, even if you’d never spend $90 on a phone guitar yourself.
- Magnetic attachment fits the Xiaomi 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max
- Two play modes: Chord mode and Rhythm mode via the Changba app
- Rear display stays visible while you play
- 630mAh battery with up to 30 days claimed life
- USB-C charging and Bluetooth connectivity
- Priced at 599 yuan (around $90), available now in China on JD.com