Xiaomi launched the Xiaomi 18 Fold in China today, pricing its first wide foldable at roughly $1,639 with no word yet on a global release.
Xiaomi 18 Fold specs push past the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s inner screen
The Xiaomi 18 Fold pairs a 5.38-inch cover screen (1,712 x 1,168) with a 7.58-inch internal display (2,364 x 1,672), and Android Authority reports both panels run a 1-120Hz refresh rate with 4,000 nits of peak brightness. The inner screen also carries a 2:1 aspect ratio, wider and squarer than the 4:3 inner panel on Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8, plus an anti-reflective film that Samsung’s phone does not have.
The aspect ratio difference isn’t just a spec-sheet number. A 4:3 inner screen, like the Fold 8’s, behaves more like a small tablet: two apps sit comfortably side by side, and reading a full page feels natural. A 2:1 panel, closer to a stretched phone screen, favours single-app use and video, at the cost of some of that split-screen real estate.
The anti-reflective film matters for the same reason foldables get criticised in bright rooms: the crease and the plastic top layer already scatter more light than a slab phone’s glass, so cutting glare back is a genuine usability fix rather than a marketing line. The 4,000-nit peak brightness figure is Xiaomi’s own number, not an independently measured one, but it lines up with the direction every foldable maker has been pushing outdoor visibility this year.
What’s changed since our Galaxy Z Fold 8 coverage
We reported on 1 September that demand for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 was outpacing Samsung’s own chip supply, leaving buyers facing longer waits than Samsung had planned for. Less than a week later, the wide-fold category Samsung was trying to keep up with just gained a second entrant in the Xiaomi 18 Fold, direct competition Samsung will have to answer with more than a bigger battery.
Xiaomi’s phone is a China-only launch for now, so it will not immediately draw stock away from Samsung’s markets, but it does mean a Fold 8 buyer stuck waiting has an alternative to at least compare specs against, even if it never leaves China. Read our earlier report on the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s chip supply shortage for the numbers behind the wait. That launch also follows a rockier week for Samsung’s fold line: on 28 August we reported that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra failed a bend test for the first time, the kind of durability data point that matters more on a phone built around a crease than it does on a normal slab.
What to watch
Xiaomi has not confirmed a global release for the 18 Fold, so the open question is whether the $1,639 China price and the wider inner screen make the jump to other markets, or whether this stays a domestic model. Xiaomi did show the phone off at IFA 2026 in Europe before today’s launch, which at least signals it wants attention outside China, even without a date attached to it. Samsung, meanwhile, still has not said when its own Z Fold 8 chip supply catches up with demand, so the wait time on a Fold 8 order today is still an open question too.
Image: X-SHLIED via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
