GoKawiilFirst look: Xiaomi has unveiled the 18 Fold, its first wide-format foldable phone and the first flagship device powered by its Xring O3 processor. The launch puts Xiaomi's own chip in a high-end foldable, a category that requires the difficult task of balancing processing power, battery life, and camera hardware inside a thin chassis.
The phone has a 5.38-inch cover display and a 7.58-inch internal display. Both use 120Hz LTPO panels and can reach 4,000 nits of peak brightness, according to Xiaomi. The folding display is protected by a new double-layer ultra-thin glass structure.
Xiaomi built the 18 Fold around its redesigned "Dragon Bone" hinge. The company said it made 492 structural changes to the hinge, which gives the phone a more rounded shape than the Galaxy Z Fold8. The device will be sold in four finishes, including Nishino Red. Xiaomi is also releasing a Ceramic Special Edition, limited to 1,500 units.
The Xring O3 is manufactured on a 3nm process and features a 10-core CPU running up to 4.35GHz, a 16-core GPU, and an NPU rated at 200 TOPS. Xiaomi said the chip improves multi-core CPU performance by 60% and GPU performance by 85% compared with its predecessor. It added that CPU power draw is 25% lower and GPU power draw is 64% lower.
The company also introduced the Xiaomi Pad 9 Pro Max, which uses the same Xring O3 processor. Elsewhere, Xiaomi announced three electric vehicles under its Pengcheng brand during the event.
Xiaomi developed the 18 Fold's camera system with Leica. It includes a 200-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel ultrawide camera, and a 50-megapixel periscope telephoto camera with 3.5x optical zoom.
A 6,000mAh battery powers the device, which ships with HyperOS 4. It supports 67W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.
The base model, with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, starts at 10,999 yuan, or about $1,638. The version with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage costs 14,999 yuan, or about $2,235. Xiaomi's Ceramic Special Edition is priced at 15,999 yuan, or roughly $2,384.
Xiaomi has not announced whether it will sell the 18 Fold outside China. Its earlier Mix Fold phones have been limited to the Chinese market, so it could continue that pattern.
The release comes just days ahead of Apple's September 9 event at Apple Park. Apple is expected to announce its first foldable iPhone alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. Cupertino's foldable is expected to have two rear cameras and cost more than $2,000.