Xiaomi unveiled the book-style foldable phone 18 Fold at IFA 2026, promising more powerful specifications than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8. The phone, the company’s first book-style model since the Mix Fold 4 in 2024, adopts the short and wide design followed by Huawei and Samsung. The 18 Fold offers an aspect ratio of approximately 1.4:1 on both its 7.58-inch inner and 5.38-inch outer displays. While it is portable in a pocket when folded and the outer display appears suitable for one-handed use, the short screen could cause compatibility issues in some apps. When unfolded, the device is well suited for watching films and reading e-books, and it also features split-screen mode and floating windows.
The phone comes in black, white and red, and also has a pink ceramic special edition limited to 1,500 units. However, Xiaomi did not disclose an IP rating for the model, which is slightly heavier and thicker than the Galaxy Z Fold 8. The display crease also appears more pronounced than on Samsung’s foldable phones this year.
The 18 Fold is the first phone to use Xiaomi’s own Xring O3 chipset. Promising performance at the Snapdragon 8 Elite level, the processor includes Arm’s Mali G2-Ultra NX GPU, which offers DLSS-like graphics acceleration support for mobile devices on Android. The 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery exceeds Samsung’s 4,800mAh capacity; the device supports 67W wired and 50W wireless charging. The two OLED displays reach a peak brightness of 4,000 nits.
The triple rear camera system developed in collaboration with Leica features a 200-megapixel main camera with a 1/1.56-inch-type sensor, a 50-megapixel 3.5x periscope telephoto camera, and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera. The 18 Fold is available for pre-order in China starting at ¥10,999 (approximately $1,600); official sales will begin on September 10. Xiaomi has not confirmed its international sales plans.
Why it matters
Xiaomi’s return to the book-style foldable phone market following the Mix Fold 4 in 2024 is intensifying competition along the design lines adopted by Samsung and Huawei. As the first phone to use the company’s own chipset, the device makes Xiaomi’s approach of reducing its dependence on external suppliers for processor and graphics performance more visible, while the component’s real-world performance remains an open question. Although the large battery, high charging speeds, and Leica-supported camera system provide a strong position on the hardware side, greater weight, increased thickness, a more pronounced display crease, the undisclosed IP rating, and potential compatibility issues with some applications could make the choice more difficult. The uncertainty surrounding sales plans outside China limits the markets in which the device could affect this competition.
Background
Samsung is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 17 news reports mentioning the name in the last 90 days; the most recent is dated September 8, 2026.