Xiaomi has officially unveiled the Xiaomi 18 Fold and Xiaomi Pad 9 Pro Max, introducing its latest flagship devices powered by the new Xiaomi XRING O3 system-on-chip (SoC).
The Xiaomi 18 Fold is the company’s first mid-size foldable smartphone, combining a compact form factor with a 7.58-inch tablet-like display when unfolded.
Weighing 219g and measuring just 5.02mm thick when unfolded, the device folds to the size of a passport, according to Xiaomi.
The phone measures 117.8 × 83.6mm when folded and has a 10.68mm thickness. Its 5.38-inch outer display is designed to support one-handed use, including typing, pull-down gestures and back gestures.
When unfolded, the device reveals a 7.58-inch main display built around a √2:1 aspect ratio, the same ratio used by standard A4 paper.
Xiaomi said the design improves screen utilisation across different types of content, including 16:9 video, 4:3 photos and documents. The inner and outer displays share the same aspect ratio to provide a more natural transition between screens.
The Xiaomi HyperOS software has also been optimised for the foldable, supporting multi-window functions. A two-way split provides two similarly sized viewing areas, while a three-way split divides the display into sections comparable to mainstream full-screen smartphones.
Focus on durability
Xiaomi has strengthened the 18 Fold’s folding architecture with a 7000-series aluminium alloy frame and Xiaomi Shield Glass 3.0 on both the outer display and rear panel.
The cover glass uses ion implantation to improve drop resistance, while the new-generation proprietary hinge adopts a patented three-link design that wraps around the display for additional protection.
The inner display uses a dual-layer Ultra Thin Glass structure consisting of a 50μm upper UTG layer and a 30μm support layer.
Xiaomi has also replaced the previous inorganic insulating material in the touch layer with a more stretchable organic film, alongside reinforced construction around the hinge.
The company said these changes deliver a 258% increase in inner display impact resistance and support drops from heights of up to 1.2 metres.
The optimised display structure also produces a flatter inner screen, with an average crease depth of no more than 30μm.
XRING O3 brings flagship processing
The Xiaomi 18 Fold is the first Xiaomi flagship device to use the company’s second fully in-house designed SoC, the Xiaomi XRING O3.
Built on a 3nm process, the chip contains 24 billion transistors and features a 10-core all-big-core CPU and a 16-core GPU.
The CPU comprises two Ultra cores, four Premium cores and four Pro cores. Xiaomi said the configuration delivers 60% higher performance and 25% lower power consumption than the previous generation.
For graphics, the XRING O3 introduces the G2-Ultra NX GPU, with its 16-core configuration delivering an 85% increase in graphics performance while reducing power consumption by 64% compared with its predecessor.
The chip also supports LPDDR6 RAM, with data rates of up to 10,667 Mbps and a 24-bit interface width.
Xiaomi said the memory system provides bandwidth of 113.8 GB/s, representing an almost 50% increase over LPDDR5X-9600.
Artificial intelligence is integrated throughout the XRING O3 architecture, with AI acceleration units incorporated into key processing blocks. This allows lightweight AI workloads to be processed without unnecessarily activating the NPU.
The SoC’s quad-core low-power NPU uses a SIMT architecture, with each core combining a Tensor unit with two Vector units. It delivers 200 TOPS of tensor performance and 3.13 TFLOPS of vector performance.
Combined with Xiaomi MiMo’s proprietary five-value quantisation technology, Xiaomi said the XRING O3 provides 45% faster on-device decoding than the previous-generation flagship processor.
Leica camera system
Photography on the Xiaomi 18 Fold is led by a 200MP Leica triple-camera system featuring a 200MP main camera with a flagship HP5 1/1.56-inch sensor.
The main camera supports native high dynamic range and in-sensor lossless zoom.
It is accompanied by a 50MP Leica periscope telephoto camera featuring an inverted design intended to reduce the size of the camera module while producing naturally rounded bokeh.
The telephoto camera has an 80mm focal length suited to portrait photography, while its in-sensor zoom extends the range to 160mm with lossless zoom, providing additional flexibility for landscape photography.
Alongside the Xiaomi 18 Fold, the company unveiled the Xiaomi Pad 9 Pro Max as the latest addition to its flagship tablet line-up.
The tablet is designed around professional productivity on a large display and combines flagship performance with functionality aimed at work, creativity and entertainment.
Together, the two devices represent Xiaomi’s latest push into large-screen mobile computing, with the 18 Fold combining a compact folded form with a tablet-sized display and the Pad 9 Pro Max targeting productivity on a larger screen.
