Xiaomi has confirmed a major detail about its upcoming foldable phone at IFA 2026 in Berlin. The new Xiaomi 18 Fold will be the company’s first smartphone powered by its own XRING O3 chipset.
The Xiaomi 18 Fold is expected to compete with premium foldable phones from Samsung and Apple. Xiaomi used its first appearance at IFA to showcase the new processor and explain its larger plans for smartphones, cars, AI and smart home products.
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Xiaomi Makes Its IFA Debut
This is Xiaomi’s first official appearance at IFA, and the company used the event to talk about much more than smartphones.
Xiaomi has committed 7.4 billion euros towards AI research and development in Europe through 2028. The investment covers areas such as smartphones, electric vehicles and robotics.
The company also spoke about its XRING chip family, including the new O3 processor. These chips will play an important role in Xiaomi’s Human x Car x Home ecosystem, which connects more than 1.16 billion devices worldwide.
One of the biggest announcements was the Xiaomi 18 Fold. Xiaomi president Lu Weibing has confirmed that the phone will launch in China on September 7, 2026.
The Xiaomi Pad 9 Pro Max, which also uses the XRING O3 chip, is expected to launch alongside it.
Xiaomi 18 Fold Design and Display
With the Xiaomi 18 Fold, Xiaomi appears to be moving away from its older Mix Fold naming system. The new foldable will instead become part of the company’s main numbered flagship lineup.
Leaks suggest that the phone will use a wider foldable design, somewhat similar to the Galaxy Z Fold8.
The device is expected to feature a 5.38-inch outer display and a larger 7.58-inch internal screen when opened.
For photography, reports point to a triple Leica-tuned camera setup. This could include an f/1.7 main camera, a telephoto camera offering 3.5x optical zoom, and a 17mm ultrawide camera.
The 3.5x optical zoom could give Xiaomi’s foldable an advantage over some competing devices in the same price category.
Xiaomi is also said to be using a new dragon bone hinge. The hinge has reportedly been developed using a simulation-based durability testing process. A side-mounted fingerprint scanner is also expected.
Early images show the Xiaomi 18 Fold in a deep red colour. The finish looks quite similar to the rumoured Dark Cherry colour expected on Apple’s upcoming foldable iPhone.
What Is the XRING O3 Chip?
The XRING O3 is Xiaomi’s second-generation self-developed flagship processor. It is manufactured using TSMC’s 3nm process and packs around 24 billion transistors inside a 133 square millimetre die.
That is around 26 percent more transistors compared with the earlier XRING O1.
In simple terms, adding more transistors can give a processor more room to handle demanding computing, graphics and AI workloads.
The XRING O3 uses a 10-core CPU design. It includes two high-performance C1-Ultra cores running at up to 4.35GHz, four C1-Premium cores reaching 3.68GHz, and another four C1-Pro cores running at up to 3.15GHz.
Graphics are handled by a new 16-core G2-Ultra NX GPU.
Xiaomi claims the new GPU provides 85 percent better graphics performance while consuming 64 percent less power compared with the XRING O1.
Another major upgrade is memory support. Xiaomi says the XRING O3 is the first mobile processor to support LPDDR6 RAM.
The new memory system is claimed to deliver bandwidth of up to 113.8GB per second, which is around 48 percent higher than before.
XRING O3 AnTuTu Score Crosses 5 Million
Performance numbers are one of the biggest talking points around the new processor.
According to Xiaomi’s own testing, the XRING O3 scored 5.22 million points on AnTuTu. If the figure holds up in independent testing, it would make the O3 the first mobile processor to cross the 5 million mark on AnTuTu.
AnTuTu tests different parts of a smartphone, including its CPU, GPU, memory and storage, before combining the results into one overall score. It is useful for comparing raw performance, although benchmark scores do not always show how a phone will perform in normal everyday use.
Xiaomi also claims that the XRING O3 performs better than Apple’s A19 Pro in GPU tests.
However, it will be better to wait for independent benchmarks after the Xiaomi 18 Fold goes on sale before drawing conclusions.
AI performance is another major focus. The processor includes a redesigned NPU made to work with Xiaomi’s MiMo on-device AI models.
It can reportedly deliver up to 200 TOPS of tensor performance, with Xiaomi claiming around a 45 percent improvement in on-device AI performance compared with the previous generation.
Xiaomi Is Building More Than Smartphone Chips
The XRING O3 was not Xiaomi’s only new processor shown at the event.
The company also introduced the XRING O100, an AI accelerator designed to handle large AI models. It uses a 6nm process with 3D wafer-on-wafer stacking.
Xiaomi says the chip can offer memory bandwidth of up to 1.22TB per second and AI inference speeds reaching 330 tokens per second.
Another processor, called the XRING D100, is described as China’s first 3nm high-compute chip designed for intelligent driving systems.
These processors make Xiaomi’s larger strategy clear. The company does not want to depend entirely on chipmakers such as Qualcomm and MediaTek.
Xiaomi is building its own chip ecosystem covering smartphones, AI, smart home products and electric vehicles.
It is part of CEO Lei Jun’s larger plan to move Xiaomi from being mainly an internet-focused company towards becoming a broader technology company.
Will Xiaomi 18 Fold Launch in India?
For now, Xiaomi has only confirmed that the Xiaomi 18 Fold will launch in China on September 7, 2026.
There is no official information about its price, storage variants or global availability yet.
Previous XRING-powered products have remained limited to China. For example, the Xiaomi 15S Pro with the XRING O1 chip was not launched globally.
Because of this, buyers in India should not expect the Xiaomi 18 Fold to arrive immediately.
If Xiaomi eventually launches a version outside China, there is also a possibility that the global model could use a Qualcomm processor instead of XRING, similar to Xiaomi’s previous international flagship strategy.
Until Xiaomi confirms its global plans, buyers looking for a large foldable phone in India already have other options available.
| Product | Why it matters | Check availability |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 | A premium large-screen foldable already available in India | Check price on Amazon |
| Xiaomi 15 Ultra | Xiaomi’s current premium flagship available in India | See listing |
| Foldable phone tempered glass | Useful protection for foldable phones and their displays | Browse options |
| 67W GaN fast charger | Compact charger suitable for many fast-charging flagship phones | View on Amazon |
| Xiaomi wireless earbuds | Wireless audio option for users already using Xiaomi products | Explore on Amazon |
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 can also be found on Flipkart for those who prefer shopping there. Search on Flipkart