Xiaomi yesterday showed the world what its new foldable looks like. This was through posts from Xiaomi president Lu Weibing on Weibo. The phone launches in China on 7 September 2026, alongside the Xiaomi Pad 9 Pro Max and Xiaomi’s first extended-range SUVs, the Sky Nomad N70 Pro, N70 Max and N90 Max.
This will be the first Xiaomi foldable named for the numbered flagships rather than the Mix Fold line.
The images and videos show a red finish and a horizontal pill-shaped camera module carrying three lenses and a flash. The cover screen is 5.38 inches. The folding screen inside is 7.58 inches.
It will be a short and wide foldable. Closed, the phone is a squat rectangle instead of a long one, and Xiaomi says it is roughly passport-sized shut and light enough for one hand.
Book-style foldables
Back in December 2021, OPPO launched the Find N with a 5.49-inch cover screen at 18:9 with a 7.1-inch inner display at 8.4:9. This was the first foldable that opened into landscape rather than a square. It was short enough to pocket.
Google followed with the Pixel Fold in 2023, a 5.8-inch cover screen at 17.4:9 that reviewers called passport-shaped. Samsung stayed with a tall 21:9 cover screen through the Z Fold 7, until this year.
In July, Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Fold 8 with a 5.5-inch cover screen at 10:16 and a 7.6-inch inner display at 4:3.
Xiaomi’s 18 Fold dimensions are 5.38 and 7.58 inches. That’s within a fifth of an inch of Samsung’s Fold 8.
We call it book-style, some call it passport size, Xiaomi has a name for this design: mid-fold. They’re placing the design between book-style foldables and the flips. Lu says he expects it to become the common direction for foldables.
Apple is expected to show its first foldable iPhone on 9 September, two days later, and we went through the leaks in April.
Xiaomi 18 Fold Specs
The 18 Fold is powered by the Xring O3, Xiaomi’s own 3nm chip. It is the first phone to ship CXMT’s LPDDR6 memory. Geekbench entries filed before launch list up to 16GB of RAM and Android 17.
For optics, you get a Leica Summilux triple set with an f/1.7 main lens, an f/2.8 telephoto at 3.5x and a 17mm ultrawide. There’s also a side-mounted fingerprint reader.
In Kenya?
Xiaomi has never sold a foldable outside China, not once since the Mix Fold in 2021. This will be a China only release. But of course we’ll see it here through back-market imports.
We’ll however, definitely see more wide-style passport/book foldables. A wide foldable closes into something that sits in a trouser pocket, the complaint most people have about tall ones, and opens into a screen shaped for video rather than a square. Transsion, Honor and OPPO are all capable of building one.
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