IFA26: See Xiaomi 18 Fold - Red according to iPhone rumors, camera still cooperates with Leica
On September 7, Xiaomi introduced the Xiaomi 18 Fold, but at IFA 2026 they brought the phone to display, but placed it in a glass cage and did not let others experience it in person. The way Xiaomi did it reminds me of Samsung launching the first Galaxy Fold at MWC 2019, also displayed in a glass cage.
The design of the Xiaomi 18 Fold has the shape of a folding iPhone that has not yet been introduced by Apple, with purple or plum red colors similar to the rumored iPhone 18 Pro. Xiaomi's folding phone still has a camera cluster in cooperation with Leica and this is the most valuable thing on Xiaomi's phone.
Xiaomi 18 Fold will be equipped with XRING O3 chip developed by Xiaomi itself, this is the first chip on a phone to support LPDDR6 RAM, a big surprise in the context of memory chips currently in an extremely hot stage. According to the information I know, XRING O3 will have 10 cores, including 6 high-performance cores and 4 power-saving cores. The day Xiaomi introduced this chip in the Chinese market, it reached more than 5 million Antutu points, a score that reviewers often use to talk about the power of the chip.
Looking at the design of the Xiaomi 18 Fold, we see that it has a short and horizontal size like the rumor of the folding iPhone. Xiaomi also follows the style of the iPhone, that is, one edge is square and the other edge is rounded corners.
With Xiaomi's phone, I expect it to have a lot of cool technology while the price is accessible, although at this point that's quite fragile.
I like the way Xiaomi arranges the camera cluster with 3 cameras placed horizontally. I guess when placing the device on a flat surface, it will rock less than the Galaxy Z Fold8 I am currently using. And fortunately, Xiaomi continues to cooperate with Leica for this phone's camera cluster, hopefully it will not be cut down too much compared to the Xiaomi 18 series. Currently in the smartphone world, I still consider this cooperation to bring the best photography experience.
Now that the device is still in the glass case, I can only show you that. Hopefully, when it is officially introduced on September 7, Xiaomi will open it up for users to experience more thoroughly and then I will come back to share more with you. Some more pictures:
