Xiaomi 18 Fold Takes Aim at Apple’s Foldable iPhone Duo With a 219g Powerhouse

Apple may have just entered the foldable-phone era with iPhone Duo, but Xiaomi is making sure it does not get an easy ride.

The Xiaomi 18 Fold has arrived in China with a stockier “passport” design, flagship hardware, a massive battery, and Xiaomi’s first in-house flagship processor. At 10,999 yuan (about $1,640 or ₹1.46 lakh), it immediately puts pressure on Apple’s much more expensive foldable strategy.

The timing could hardly be more aggressive. Xiaomi launched the 18 Fold just as Apple’s first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, entered the spotlight.

Xiaomi’s Foldable Is Built Differently

The Xiaomi 18 Fold features a 7.68-inch foldable display and a 5.38-inch external screen.

Instead of the tall, narrow proportions common among book-style foldables, Xiaomi chose a wider, shorter shape. The company calls it a “mid-size” foldable and uses what it describes as an A4 aspect ratio across both displays.

At 219 grams, Xiaomi says it is its lightest foldable.

The design is also deliberately distinctive. The outer display has an unusual asymmetric appearance, with rounded corners on one side and squared-off corners near the hinge.

And the red finish could be one of the phone’s biggest visual selling points.

Two Displays, 4,000-Nit Brightness

Both displays use Xiaomi’s new HyperRGB panel technology, featuring what the company describes as a full RGB subpixel structure.

The screens support 1Hz to 120Hz LTPO adaptive refresh rates and can reach up to 4,000 nits peak brightness, according to Xiaomi.

The company has also equipped the phone with a reinforced aluminum-alloy frame and Shield Glass 3.0.

The new hinge uses a three-link mechanism designed to wrap around the display. In hands-on testing, the hinge reportedly felt particularly solid, although the Xiaomi 18 Fold is somewhat thicker than Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8.

That extra thickness comes with one major advantage: battery capacity.

Xiaomi Brings Its Own Chip to the Fight

Perhaps the biggest development inside the Xiaomi 18 Fold is not the folding screen.

It is the processor.

The smartphone is the first Xiaomi flagship to use the company’s new XRING O3 in-house silicon. Built using a 3nm process, the chip combines a 10-core CPU with a 16-core GPU.

Xiaomi also says the processor is the first SoC to support the latest LPDDR6 memory technology.

The company claims the new platform delivers a 45% improvement in on-device NPU decoding performance compared with its previous flagship processor.

Those numbers will ultimately need independent testing, but Xiaomi is clearly positioning its silicon as a serious alternative to Qualcomm and Apple’s chips.

A Huge Battery and Fast Charging

Xiaomi has packed the 18 Fold with a silicon-carbon battery that the company describes as the largest-capacity battery currently available in a foldable form factor.

Charging is equally aggressive.

The phone supports 67W wired charging and 50W wireless charging with compatible hardware.

That combination could make the extra thickness easier for users to accept, especially for people who see battery life as one of foldable phones’ biggest weaknesses.

Xiaomi Refuses to Sacrifice the Cameras

Foldable phones often compromise on cameras to keep their bodies thin.

Xiaomi is taking a different approach.

The 18 Fold features a Leica-branded triple-camera system, headlined by a 200MP main camera with a 1/1.56-inch sensor.

It is paired with a 50MP Leica periscope telephoto camera.

However, there wasn’t enough hands-on time to judge real-world camera performance, and the main sensor remains smaller than the one used on Xiaomi’s 17 Ultra.

One notable omission is an official IP rating, which could concern buyers comparing foldables on durability and water resistance.

The Price War With Apple Has Started

The Xiaomi 18 Fold starts at 10,999 yuan, roughly $1,640 (₹1.46 lakh) based on the supplied exchange rate.

Higher configurations reach 14,999 yuan, or approximately $2,235 (₹2 lakh).

For comparison, Apple’s iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 in the US, while its Chinese starting price is reported at 15,999 yuan.

That puts Xiaomi in a potentially powerful position in China, where consumers already have access to foldables from Huawei, Honor, Oppo, Vivo and Samsung.

The Xiaomi 18 Fold is initially China-only, leaving its global ambitions uncertain.

But the message is clear: Apple may have finally joined the foldable race, but Xiaomi doesn’t intend to let the iPhone Duo dominate the conversation.