After Samsung, Xiaomi unveils a wider foldable phone

The next contest in the premium smartphone market is unfolding horizontally. After Samsung introduced the wider Galaxy Z Fold8 last month, Xiaomi has entered the race with a foldable phone designed to resemble a passport when closed.

A red Xiaomi 18 Fold stood unfolded at the company’s booth at IFA 2026 in Berlin on Sept. 4. Visitors could see the device in person for the first time at the exhibition, but Xiaomi did not allow them to pick it up or fold and unfold it themselves.

Xiaomi plans to place the 18 Fold at the center of its fall new-product event in China on Sept. 7. The phone’s defining feature is its broad, relatively short form when folded. Materials cited in the article list the unfolded screen at 7.58 inches.

The 18 Fold also marks the first flagship smartphone to use Xiaomi’s next-generation mobile application processor, the company-developed XRING O3. The article also identifies Xiaomi’s proprietary artificial-intelligence model and neural-processing technology as part of the device’s technology package, although the supplied text ends before giving further details.