Xiaomi has officially unveiled its first mid-fold phone, the Xiaomi 18 Fold, at its autumn flagship event.
Lei Jun introduced the device, which is set to compete with Apple's upcoming foldable.
The Xiaomi 18 Fold features a design that sits between clamshell and book-style foldables.
It has a 5.38-inch outer display and a 7.58-inch inner screen, both with a roughly 2:1 aspect ratio.
When unfolded, the phone is just 5.02mm thick, and it measures 10.68mm when folded.
It weighs 219 grams and comes in Nishino Red, warm gold-white, and black.
The outer screen is designed for one-handed use, with a keyboard that is 8% wider than typical 6.9-inch phones.
The device also features a flat frame, rounded corners, and a racetrack-shaped camera module.
Durability and hinge
Xiaomi claims the 18 Fold can survive drops from up to 1.2 meters.
This is thanks to the Dragon Bone Hinge, a 7-series aluminum alloy frame, and Dragon Crystal Glass 3.0.
The phone has undergone 492 rounds of stress testing, and its foldable display is protected by double-layer UTG glass.
Performance and memory
The Xiaomi 18 Fold is powered by Xiaomi's in-house XRING O3 chip.
The company says it is the first AI flagship chip to score over five million points in AnTuTu.
Compared to the previous generation, CPU multi-core performance is up 60%, while power use at medium and low loads drops by 25%.
GPU performance is 85% higher, with power consumption reduced by 64%.
The NPU delivers 200 TOPS of Tensor compute and 3.13 TFLOPS of Vector performance.
The phone also uses Changxin Memory's LPDDR6 RAM, making it the first phone to adopt this new memory standard.
Battery and cameras
A 6,000mAh Jinshajiang battery with high-silicon design and 920Wh/L energy density powers the device. It supports 67W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.
For photography, Xiaomi has partnered with Leica for a triple-camera setup.
It includes a 200-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel periscope telephoto with 3.5x optical zoom, and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera.
Special edition and pricing
Lei Jun also introduced a Ceramic Special Edition with a silicon nitride ceramic back.
It is lighter and stronger than the standard version and comes only with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.
Xiaomi will produce just 1,500 units of the special edition.
The standard Xiaomi 18 Fold starts at 10,999 yuan (around $1,639) for the 12GB+256GB model.
Other configurations include 12GB+512GB at 11,999 yuan (about $1,788) and 16GB+512GB at 12,999 yuan (around $1,937).
The top-end 16GB+1TB model costs 14,999 yuan (about $2,235).
The Ceramic Special Edition is priced at 15,999 yuan (around $2,384). Pre-orders are now open in China, with sales starting at 10 AM on September 10.
