Xiaomi’s wide foldable promises more power than Samsung’s

Xiaomi is the latest shaper to merchandise a short, wide foldable phone, successful the week Apple is expected to do the same. I sewage to effort the 18 Fold down closed doors astatine IFA past week, and while it looks and feels akin capable to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8, superior specs make it consciousness for illustration the telephone I wish Samsung had made.

The 18 Fold is Xiaomi’s first book-style foldable since 2024’s Mix Fold 4, but the institution has followed Huawei and Samsung successful moving to a short, squat design. Xiaomi’s telephone goes further though: it’s some shorter and wider than Samsung’s, pinch a astir 1.4:1 facet ratio connected some the 7.58-inch soul and 5.38-inch outer screens — almost an nonstop lucifer for some world insubstantial sizes and IMAX screens, meaning this whitethorn beryllium the 1 telephone tin of playing The Odyssey without letterboxing.

In practice, this still feels akin to the Z Fold 8 though. It’s compact and pocketable erstwhile closed and the screen surface is comfortable to usage single-handed — though I expect it excessively will person issues pinch immoderate apps moving awkwardly connected the short screen. When unfastened this is simply a earthy shape facet for watching movies aliases reference ebooks, if possibly somewhat little good suited to multitasking work, though Xiaomi still includes some split-screen apps and floating windows pinch multitasking successful mind.

Where Samsung whitethorn person the separator is build quality. The 18 Fold looks great, disposable successful black, white, aliases this striking red, positive a pinkish ceramic typical version that the institution is only making 1,500 of. But it’s somewhat heavier and thicker than the Z Fold 8, and Xiaomi hasn’t announced immoderate IP standing for it astatine all. There’s besides the crease, which to my oculus feels much evident than connected this year’s Samsung foldables. Oppo remains the only institution to person all-but eliminated the foldable crease, successful its Find N6 foldable, and I’ll beryllium fascinated to spot really adjacent Apple gets to matching that this week.

While my little clip pinch the 18 Fold was focused connected getting to grips pinch the shape factor, the telephone arguably stands retired much for its specs. For one, this is the first Xiaomi telephone powered by its ain Xring O3 chipset, which promises Snapdragon 8 Elite-level performance. It includes the debut of Arm’s Mali G2-Ultra NX GPU, which brings pinch it mobile-first support for Arm’s DLSS-style graphics acceleration connected Android.

It’s not conscionable the spot though. The 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery is substantially larger than the Samsung phone’s 4,800mAh, pinch support for 67W wired charging and 50W wireless. The 2 OLED displays present up to 4,000 nits of highest brightness. Most importantly there’s a triple rear camera bolstered by Xiaomi’s long-running Leica partnership, pinch a 200-megapixel main camera utilizing a 1/1.56-inch-type sensor, a 50-megapixel 3.5x periscope telephoto, and a 50-megapixel ultrawide.

I really loved the Galaxy Z Fold 8 erstwhile I reviewed it, astonishing myself pinch really quickly I adapted to the caller design. My biggest hesitation was that it lacked the triple camera I’d expect from immoderate telephone approaching $2,000 successful price. By fixing that, while improving connected the artillery and displays, Xiaomi has made what could go my prime of the foldables connected the marketplace correct now — though the deficiency of IP standing does springiness maine pause.

Of course, that foldable marketplace is astir to alteration dramatically if Apple announces the foldable iPhone we’re each expecting it to tomorrow. In the meantime, Xiaomi has laid down the gauntlet — astatine slightest successful China. The 18 Fold is available to preorder there from ¥10,999 (about $1,600), pinch charismatic income connected September 10th, but Xiaomi hasn’t yet confirmed whether aliases not the telephone will ever spot an world launch.

Photography by Dominic Preston / The Verge