Xiaomi 18 Fold hands-on

Passport-sized folds are the trend these days, and the freshly announced Xiaomi 18 Fold wants to capitalize on the momentum. We already brought you an “eyes-on” preview from the Xiaomi showbooth at IFA 2026, and we can now share our first impressions after spending some quality time with the device.

Right off the bat, the 18 Fold feels decently light considering the 7.58-inch folding display. Xiaomi’s numbers claim 219 grams, placing the 18 Fold in the same weight class as the Xiaomi 17 Ultra but a cool 18 grams heavier than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8. And yes, we managed to snap some side-by-side shots with Samsung’s foldable for your reference.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 and Xiaomi 18 Fold side by side

Xiaomi 18 Fold is reasonably slim at a hair over 5mm when unfolded, and you get a reassuring premium feel when holding the device in hand. The sides have that cool aluminum touch while the back features a matte glass finish, which is actually a lighter shade of red than the metal bits. This gives a nice bit of contrast, which is a welcome sight.

Xiaomi 18 Fold design

Moving on to the big question: how visible is the crease on the folding display? We can say that we did not notice it 99% of the time. You can certainly feel a small indent in the middle of the panel, but it's nothing major.

Xiaomi 18 Fold main display

And the folding screen is genuinely impressive. It features a 7.58-inch diagonal with a 2:1 aspect ratio. This means you automatically get landscape mode without having to turn the device around as you do with Samsung’s Z Fold8.

And it’s a proper landscape mode, which is perfect for watching videos. In practice, this means less letterboxing. The main panel gets impressively bright. Xiaomi claims up to 4,000 nits, and it features a 120Hz refresh rate.

The cover screen brings a 5.38-inch size with the same 2:1 aspect ratio, 120Hz refresh rate and 4,000 nits peak brightness. Due to the 18 Fold’s design, the right side features a more pronounced curvature, which eats up a small chunk of the cover screen’s real estate. It’s still quite usable with one hand and easy enough to type thanks to its wide stature.

Xiaomi 18 Fold cover screen

As for the rest of the specs, the Xring O3 chip, which is paired with 12GB RAM, felt just as zippy and smooth as the Qualcomm and MediaTek flagships at launching apps and multitasking.

The triple camera setup is a welcome addition with the presence of a 200MP main shooter, a 50MP ultrawide and a 3.5x telephoto (50MP), giving the 18 Fold an instant leg up over Samsung’s Z Fold8. And somehow, Xiaomi manages to fit a 6,000 mAh SiC battery with support for 67W wired and 50W wireless charging.

Xiaomi 18 Fold brings a proper triple camera setup

Despite the impressive hardware, there’s a major caveat with the Xiaomi 18 Fold. It will be exclusive to China. So that makes this yet another Xiaomi flagship that will sadly not get to see daylight in most of the world. Here's to hoping its successor will get a wider rollout.