Xiaomi launched the 18 Fold in China on September 7. The launch comes two days before Apple’s rumoured foldable iPhone, expected to debut this week, putting Xiaomi in direct competition with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Huawei’s Pura X Max. The iPhone Ultra was rumoured to be available in cherry red, similar to what the Xiaomi 18 Fold will be. This is Xiaomi’s first “mid-fold” phone. The form factor sits between compact clamshell foldables and larger book-style ones. Xiaomi will offer the 18 Fold in four colours: Black, Ceramic Special Edition, Warm Gold-White, and Nishino Red.
The Xiaomi 18 Fold starts at CNY 10,999 (roughly ₹1,55,000) for the base model, 12GB + 256GB. The 12GB + 512GB variant costs CNY 11,999 (roughly ₹1,69,000), while the 16GB + 512GB version is priced at CNY 12,999 (roughly ₹1,83,000). Finally, the top model is 16GB + 1TB with LPDDR6 RAM will cost CNY 14,999 (roughly ₹2,12,000)
Pre-orders are open now in China. Sales begin on September 10. Xiaomi hasn’t confirmed a global rollout yet, so India launch, price, or timeline remain unconfirmed.
Also Read: Xiaomi 17T Review: Does the “T” Deliver Leica Magic in 60K?
Full Specs:
The Xiaomi 18 Fold folds down to a passport-sized footprint. It weighs 219g and measures 5.02mm thick when unfolded and 10.68mm when folded. That makes it slightly thicker than the Galaxy Z Fold 8, but Xiaomi has focused on keeping the frame flat and the corners rounded.
The outer screen measures 5.38 inches. It uses a 120Hz AMOLED panel at 1712×1168 pixels, protected by Xiaomi’s Dragon Crystal Glass 3.0. The inner display stretches to 7.58 inches. It’s a flexible LTPO AMOLED panel at 2364×1672 pixels, also at 120Hz, with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support. Both screens reach a peak brightness of 4,000 nits.
Xiaomi also built a new hinge for this phone, calling it a “dragon bone” design. It’s a multi-link mechanism meant to spread fold stress more evenly across the crease.
Power comes from the XRing O3, Xiaomi’s in-house chip built on a 3nm process. It packs a 10-core CPU, a 16-core GPU, plus an NPU built on Xiaomi’s own large-model architecture. Memory varies by storage tier. The top-end 16GB+1TB model uses LPDDR6 RAM, making the 18 Fold one of the first phones to ship with this memory standard. Every other variant, from 256GB up to 512GB, sticks with LPDDR5X instead. All versions use UFS 4.1 storage.
The 18 Fold has a Leica-branded triple camera system. The main sensor is 200MP with an f/1.7 aperture and a 1/1.56-inch sensor size. Next to it sits a 50MP ultra-wide camera at f/2.4, and a 50MP periscope telephoto lens with 3.5x optical zoom and optical image stabilisation.
It’s got a 6,000mAh battery that powers the phone, supporting 67W wired charging and 50W wireless charging, faster than most large foldables on the market right now.
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