Xiaomi today officially announced the 18 Fold, its first full-size foldable, at a product event in China, two days before Apple unveils its first foldable iPhone.
The Xiaomi 18 Fold uses a foldable design similar to that of the Samsung Z Fold8 and Apple’s upcoming foldable iPhone. It has a 5.38-inch exterior display and a 7.58-inch interior display, both with 120Hz LTPO technology and a peak brightness of 4,000 nits. The screen is protected by a new ultra-thin double-layer glass structure.
The phone folds around a redesigned hinge that Xiaomi calls the “Dragon Bone” hinge, which the company says has undergone 492 structural optimizations, facilitating a noticeably more rounded design than Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8. It is launching in four finishes, including a Nishino Red colorway and a special limited Ceramic edition limited to 1,500 units.
The 18 Fold is the first flagship to feature Xiaomi’s in-house Xring O3 chip, built using a 3nm process with a 10-core CPU clocked at 4.35GHz and a 16-core GPU. Xiaomi claims the chip offers a 60% multi-core CPU gain and 85% GPU performance gain over its predecessor, with reduced power consumption of 25% and 64% respectively, alongside a dedicated NPU rated at 200 TOPS.
The rear camera system was developed with Leica and is led by a 200-megapixel main sensor, along with a 50-megapixel ultra-wide lens and a 50-megapixel periscope telephoto lens with 3.5x optical zoom. Apple’s first foldable iPhone is expected to feature only two rear cameras, with no dedicated telephoto lens.
The device comes with Xiaomi’s HyperOS 4 software and a 6,000mAh battery with support for 67W wired charging and 50W wireless charging. Pricing starts at 10,999 yuan (about $1,638) for the base configuration of 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, and goes up to 14,999 yuan (about $2,235 dollars) for the high-end 16GB/1TB model, with a special ceramic edition limited to 15,999 yuan (about $2,384). Apple’s foldable product is expected to be priced above $2,000.
Xiaomi also introduced the Xiaomi Pad 9 Pro Max tablet at the event, which shares the Xring O3 chip, as well as three electric vehicles under its Pengcheng brand. The company has not announced global availability of the 18 Fold; its previous Mix Fold foldables have remained exclusive to China.
Apple is expected to hold its own event on September 9 at Apple Park, where the company is expected to unveil its first foldable iPhone alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.
