Prefer WhistleOut in Google
With a form-factor akin to that of passport-style foldables like the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 and iPhone Duo, Xiaomi’s first mid-size foldable was the most high-profile handset to be shown off at this year’s IFA conference in Berlin.
We were lucky enough to have the chance to take a closer look at the device on the showfloor of Europe’s biggest consumer electronics tradeshow, and we came away impressed.
Here are a few of our firsthand impressions of the high-end handset.
Bigger and brighter
To the eye, Xiaomi’s take on a middle ground between larger foldable devices and more compact ones isn’t too different from the competition. At 219g, it’s lighter than the likes of the iPhone Duo but not quite so lightweight as the Galaxy Z Fold 8. Having said that though, Xiaomi did tease a special ‘silicon nitride’ edition of the device – which is said to be even lighter than the standard incarnation found on the IFA show floor.
The Xiaomi 18 Fold features a 7.68-inch LTPO OLED screen on the inside and a 5.38-inch cover display on the outside. In terms of size, the former is narrowly larger than the screens found on both the likes of the iPhone Duo and the Galaxy Z Fold 8. However, when it comes to the cover display, Xiaomi’s effort falls slightly short.
Of course, size is hardly everything when it comes to smartphone screens. The Xiaomi 18 Fold also leverages the manufacturer’s “HyperRGB” display tech to offer a higher peak brightness of 4,000 nits on both sides – easily beating the benchmark set by both Apple and Samsung’s mid-size foldables.
Granted, on the IFA show floor, that difference wasn’t particularly pronounced. At a glance, the screen on the Xiaomi 18 Fold seemed to hit a high level of clarity and colour saturation. However, it’s hard to know how meaningful another 1000 nits of peak brightness really is without putting the device next to one of its rivals.
Full-throttle foldable
In some ways, the outside of the Xiaomi 18 Fold isn’t nearly as exciting as the inside. The mid-size foldable is the company’s first flagship to run on Xiaomi’s own in-house silicon in the form of the XRING 03 processor. This setup will see the foldable armed with a 10-core CPU, a 16-core GPU, and support for faster LPDDR6 memory.
Given the success that some smartphone manufacturers – like Apple – have had with opting for their own silicon over suppliers like Qualcomm and MediaTek in the past, this spec bump could well see Xiaomi devices like the Xiaomi 18 Fold (and beyond) move significantly closer to the cutting edge of mobile performance. However, there are just as many smartphone manufacturers out there whose bet on bringing their processing components in-house hasn’t quite paid off. We’ll have to wait and see which camp Xiaomi falls into.
The gains that the silicon carbon battery found inside the Xiaomi 18 Fold might add are likely to be more predictable. At 6,000mAh, this is one of the largest batteries you can find in this flavour of foldable form-factor. Fortunately, the fun doesn’t end there – with Xiaomi’s latest offering support for faster charging speeds of up to 67W via USB-C and up to 50W via compatible charging kits.
No compromise camera setup
While the jury is still out on how Apple’s first foldable will fare when it comes to photography, the Xiaomi 18 Fold promises to eschew the usual compromises that the form-factor entails. On the back, the premium device features a hefty 200MP main sensor, flanked by a 50MP ultrawide lens and a 50MP periscope telephoto lens.
As with the manufacturer’s other premium hardware, Xiaomi is looking to leverage its partnership with Leica when it comes to the camera on the Xiaomi 18 Fold. Whether that alliance will add up to a mobile photography experience that’s a step above the rest of the foldable landscape remains to be seen. We didn’t have the chance to put the phone through its paces on the IFA show floor, but when it comes to the specs involved, there’s plenty of reason to believe that the Xiaomi 18 Fold could sit alongside the likes of the OPPO Find N6 when it comes to camera performance.
Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that the device will make its way down under. For now, Xiaomi is pitching the Xiaomi 18 Fold as a China-exclusive.
Getting one shipped to Australia via a grey-market reseller isn’t likely to be impossible, but it’s likely to come with plenty of caveats and an even steeper asking price than the hardware here already commands. Overseas, the Xiaomi 18 Fold will retail for around CNY¥10,999. At current exchange rates, that's about $2,300.
Still, if you found the Galaxy Z Fold 8 a little underwhelming and aren’t interested in seeing what Apple might be able to add to the foldable conversation, then the Xiaomi 18 Fold might be the device you’ve been waiting for. Unfortunately, if you’re based outside of China, then you might be waiting a little while longer.
Disclosure: Ahe author of this piece travelled to IFA 2026 as a guest of Lenovo.
Fergus Halliday
Digital Content Editor
Related Articles
