Xiaomi Debuts 18 Fold With High-End Specs as Apple Foldable Looms
AI-generated image · Bay Street Wire
Xiaomi's latest foldable challenges the market with a custom Xring O3 chipset and a massive 6,000mAh battery.
Xiaomi has unveiled the 18 Fold, a short and wide foldable device that arrives just as Apple is expected to announce its own foldable iPhone, according to The Verge.
While the 18 Fold adopts a squat design similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, The Verge reports it is both wider and shorter, featuring a 1.4:1 aspect ratio on its 7.58-inch inner and 5.38-inch outer screens. The device is powered by Xiaomi's first Xring O3 chipset, which is designed to match Snapdragon 8 Elite-level performance and introduces Arm's Mali G2-Ultra NX GPU for DLSS-style graphics acceleration on Android.
Hardware specifications further distinguish the 18 Fold from competitors. It features a 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery—significantly larger than the 4,800mAh battery found in the Galaxy Z Fold 8—and supports 67W wired and 50W wireless charging. The dual OLED displays reach peak brightness of 4,000 nits. For photography, Xiaomi partnered with Leica to implement a triple camera system that includes a 200-megapixel main sensor alongside 50-megapixel ultrawide and 3.5x periscope telephoto lenses.
Despite the power, The Verge notes some trade-offs: the 18 Fold is thicker and heavier than the Z Fold 8, has a more visible crease than Samsung's offerings, and lacks an announced IP rating. The device is available for preorder in China starting at ¥10,999 (approximately $1,600), with sales beginning September 10th. Xiaomi has not confirmed if the phone will launch internationally.