Xiaomi 18 Fold launching soon in China to rival the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8

TL;DR

Xiaomi will launch the Xiaomi 18 Fold in China in September 2026, bringing a short, wide foldable design similar to the Galaxy Z Fold 8.

The phone will use Xiaomi’s in-house Xring O3 chip, which the company says beats the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.

Xring O3 is built on TSMC’s 3nm process and also powers the upcoming Xiaomi Mi Pad 9 Pro Max.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 has definitely turned heads, thanks to its compact design. It has proven popular with users, as pre-orders reached record-breaking levels. However, it will face direct competition soon. Alongside Apple, Xiaomi is also preparing to release a wide foldable phone next month.

Xiaomi announced (via @yabhishekhd) earlier today that it will launch the Xiaomi 18 Fold in China in September 2026. The upcoming foldable features a short and wide form factor similar to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and is powered by the company's in-house processor, the Xring O3. Xiaomi claims this latest flagship chip outperforms even the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.

While details on the foldable hardware remain sparse, Xiaomi has shared detailed specifications for the new chipset. The Xring O3 is fabricated on TSMC's 3nm process node and uses a 10-core CPU layout that completely omits power-efficiency cores, following MediaTek's performance-focused design principle.

Xiaomi

Xiaomi's Xring O3, Xring O100, and Xring D100 chipsets

CPU: 10 cores (2 x 4.35 GHz C1-Ultra, 4 x 3.68 GHz C1-Premium, 4 x 3.15 GHz C1-Pro)

GPU: 16-core G2-Ultra NX GPU

NPU: 4-core low-power NPU delivering 200 TOPS of AI performance

Memory Support: LPDDR6 RAM

Node: TSMC 3nm process

Benchmarks: 5.22 million on AnTuTu; 3,945 (single-core) and 15,221 (multi-core) on Geekbench

The Xring O3 will also power Xiaomi's upcoming flagship tablet, the Xiaomi Mi Pad 9 Pro Max, which is planned for a September launch. At this time, it remains unclear whether either device will see a global release, but it will be interesting to see how it fares against the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and the rumored iPhone Ultra.

Asif Iqbal Shaik - Senior Editor

[email protected]

First Samsung device: T100

Asif is a computer engineer turned technology journalist. He has been using Samsung phones since 2004, and his current smartphone is the Galaxy S23 Ultra. He loves headphones, mechanical keyboards, and PC hardware. When not writing about technology, he likes watching crime and science fiction movies and TV shows.

Phone China Galaxy Z Fold 8 Xiaomi

Galaxy Z Fold 8 rival with a wide design to debut in China next month

TL;DR

Asif Iqbal Shaik - Senior Editor