Leaked Xiaomi 18 Fold prototype shows a wide-folding design and Xiaomi's own chip

If you have been waiting to see whether book-style foldables are the only shape worth buying, Xiaomi's next one suggests otherwise. Leaked images of the Xiaomi 18 Fold show a wider body with a horizontal camera module, three cameras sitting inside a visor on the back, and a deep red finish described as "Dark Cherry", the same colour name expected to be the hero shade of the iPhone 18 Pro series.

The unit in the photos is an engineering prototype, so the shipping version may not look like this.

What the shape recalls is the Huawei Pura X Max, the wide fold that reached the market before either Samsung or Apple got there. Xiaomi's design is very close to it.

The naming is the other change. Dropping Mix Fold in favour of 18 Fold lines the foldable up with the number series, and it lands at the same moment Xiaomi moves its flagship silicon in-house.

Xiaomi has confirmed the 18 Fold will be the first phone powered by its new Xring O3 chipset, which pulls the company's flagship away from the Qualcomm Snapdragon parts it has leaned on, and the early numbers suggest it is not a token effort: the O3 has reportedly scored 5.22 million on AnTuTu and 15,221 in Geekbench multi-core. Those are benchmark leaks, not verified retail results.

Xiaomi's own claims are more specific. The company says the O3 delivers up to 85 percent better graphics performance than the Xring O1 that came before it, and that it supports LPDDR6 memory running at 113.8GB/s of bandwidth.

On the rest of the hardware, the phone is expected to arrive with a 7.6-inch display, a 6,000mAh battery, wireless charging and a 200MP primary rear camera. Treat all four as rumour until Xiaomi puts them on a slide.

Xiaomi has said the 18 Fold launches in September 2026. A day inside that month has not been given.