Xiaomi reveals more specs of the upcoming 18 Fold. These are the weapons it will use to go up against Samsung and Apple

This time, Xiaomi didn’t hold anything back for the press event. Four days before the China launch, Lei Jun keeps posting one spec after another on Weibo, and the Xiaomi 18 Fold foldable starts to take on clear shape before anyone even sees it in person. And you have to say: the list that’s been put together looks like a catalog of records.

A trio of Leica cameras led by a 200 MPx sensor

The back hides three cameras, and all three have Leica Summilux optics. The main sensor has a resolution of 200 MPx and a 1/1.56-inch diagonal — an unusually large piece of glass for a foldable phone. It’s joined by a 50 MPx periscope telephoto with 3.5x optical zoom and a 50 MPx ultra-wide lens.

The periscope used to be the biggest casualty for thin foldables — simply because it wouldn’t fit. If Xiaomi really managed to fit a 3,5× zoom inside a phone that folds in half, that’s one of the main reasons to pay attention to this model. Engraving on the module also reveals the light sensitivity 1:1,7 – 2,8 and the focal length range 17 to 80 mm.

A battery 6 000 mAh with a density phones have never seen

A 6 000 mAh battery will fit inside, which Xiaomi calls Jinshajiang. What’s more interesting than the raw capacity is how it got in there: the cell has 20% silicon and an energy density of 920 Wh/l — a value that typical smartphone batteries can’t reach. In practice, this means the foldable may not need to be thicker just to last all day.

Charging is rated at 67 W via cable and 50 W wirelessly. These aren’t numbers meant to shatter records — Xiaomi clearly prioritized battery life and cell longevity over getting the phone fully charged in twenty minutes.

Displays in a paper-like aspect ratio

The outer display is 5.38 inches, the inner one is 7.58 inches, and both share the same √2:1 aspect ratio. It’s exactly the ratio you get with a standard A4 sheet of paper — and Lei Jun doesn’t see that as a coincidence.

According to him, this way video is shown without cropping, and documents can be read without zooming in. It sounds like a marketing detail, but for a foldable that many people buy specifically for reading and working with documents, it makes sense. Both screens are protected by dual-layer ultra-thin UTG glass.

A fall from 1,2 meters and a new generation hinge

The boldest claim is about durability. Xiaomi says the 18 Fold can handle a drop from a height of 1.2 meters, comparing it to conventional non-folding flagships. Compared to the MIX Fold 4, resistance to sharp objects should be higher by 258%, and the height from which a steel ball can fall onto it is 214% higher. These figures come from Xiaomi’s own lab, so take them with the kind of caution that such measurements deserve.

A new generation hinge is behind it, which Xiaomi calls Dragon Bone. It uses a three-step structure with a full contact seating of both halves, so there shouldn’t be any gap between them when folded — exactly the thing that owners of older foldables have gotten used to destroying the display with.

Two layers of UTG glass and aluminum from the 7 series

The ultra-thin glass over the inner display is now made up of two layers. The thicker one is 50 µm and increases strength by 178%, while the thinner 30 µm adds 29% impact resistance. Xiaomi compares it both with the MIX Fold 4 and with its own experimental 18 Fold unit, which had only a single layer.

The rest of the build follows the same direction. The front and back are covered by Xiaomi Dragon Crystal Glass 3.0, and the middle frame is made from 7-series aluminum alloy, a material commonly used in aviation. As Notebookcheck pointed out, Xiaomi confirmed these specs directly through its official Weibo account, so this is not a leak.

What we know about the 18 Fold besides that

The phone is powered by Xiaomi’s own XRING O3 chip and is the first smartphone with LPDDR6 memory, which is said to offer 113.8 GB/s of bandwidth. In AnTuTu, the setup is expected to exceed 5.22 million points. It ships with the new HyperOS 4 out of the box.

What’s still missing is the price. Earlier leaks said the 18 Fold could be Xiaomi’s first phone to cost more than 10 000 yuan, which comes out to roughly 1 200 euros — but that has not been confirmed. We also don’t know whether or when the foldable will reach markets outside China. We’ll get the answer on 7 September, when Xiaomi will also unveil the Pad 9 Pro Max tablet and new electric cars.

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