Xiaomi's new wide foldable outguns Samsung on specs

Xiaomi has launched its newest book-style foldable phone, the 18 Fold, marking the company's first release in this category since 2024's Mix Fold 4. Following the lead of Samsung and Huawei, Xiaomi has adopted a shorter, wider design, but has pushed the concept further than its rivals — the 18 Fold is both shorter and wider than Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8. Both its screens, a 7.58-inch inner display and a 5.38-inch cover display, share a roughly 1.4:1 aspect ratio, closely matching standard paper sizes and IMAX cinema screens.

In everyday use, the phone feels similar to the Z Fold 8: compact and pocketable when folded, with a cover screen comfortable for one-handed use. Opened up, it suits watching video or reading ebooks particularly well, and Xiaomi has included split-screen and floating-window multitasking features.

Build and design

Samsung may still hold an edge in build quality — the 18 Fold is slightly heavier and thicker, and Xiaomi has not announced any IP water- or dust-resistance rating for the device. It comes in black, white and red finishes, along with a limited pink ceramic special edition capped at 1,500 units. Xiaomi's crease is also more noticeable than on this year's Samsung foldables.

Hardware highlights

The 18 Fold is the first Xiaomi phone built around the company's own Xring O3 chipset, said to deliver performance on par with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite, paired with Arm's new Mali G2-Ultra NX GPU that brings DLSS-style upscaling support to Android. The phone packs a 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery, notably larger than the Z Fold 8's, along with 67W wired and 50W wireless charging. Its two OLED panels can hit up to 4,000 nits of peak brightness. On the back sits a triple camera system developed with Leica, featuring a 200-megapixel main sensor, a 50-megapixel 3.5x periscope telephoto lens, and a 50-megapixel ultrawide camera.

The 18 Fold is available for preorder in China starting at 10,999 yuan (about $1,600), with sales opening on September 10th. Xiaomi has not confirmed whether the device will launch internationally.