Lei Jun, founder and CEO of the Chinese tech company Xiaomi, unveils the new Xiaomi 18 Fold foldable smartphone at a launch event in Beijing, on September 7, 2026. Photo: VCG

Both Xiaomi and Huawei held product launches on Monday, unveiling new foldable flagship mobile phones, while Apple confirmed its own autumn event for Wednesday (US time), where its first foldable iPhone is widely expected.

Xiaomi kicked off its launch event in Beijing on Monday evening by introducing the Xiaomi 18 Fold, a new "mid-fold" phone starting at 10,999 yuan ($1,639). The design sits between traditional large foldables and compact flip phones, featuring a 5.38-inch outer screen and a 7.58-inch inner display. When folded, the phone measures just 10.68 mm thick and weighs 219 grams.

Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Xiaomi, said at the launch event that the development of the "mid-fold" design took 20 months.

The device is powered by Xiaomi's self-developed XRING O3 AI processor, the company's own system-on-chip (the main "brain" of the phone). It also uses next-generation LPDDR6 memory for faster data transfer. 

Xiaomi's newly launched foldable phone features several Chinese-made components, including a dedicated security chip that protects sensitive data such as payment passwords and biometric information through hardware-level encryption, which is harder to crack than software-only protection, according to the Securities Times, citing industry information.

Meanwhile, the ultra-slim side fingerprint sensor places a very narrow fingerprint recognition area on the phone's side, enabling slim designs and fast unlocking.

Earlier on Monday, Huawei presented the Huawei Mate XT 2, a tri-fold phone priced from 19,999 yuan. The device folds twice like a fan, creating a much larger screen when fully opened. It runs on the new Kirin 9050 Pro chip, which Huawei says delivers 42 percent better overall performance than the previous generation. 

According to Huawei, the chip employs "logic folding technology," arranging logic units in layers within a single chip - similar to upgrading from a single-level layout to a multi-story design, with vertical interconnect "elevators" added internally, resulting in shorter signal transmission paths and lower latency.

This is also the first time in six years that Huawei has presented a new Kirin chip for a flagship mobile phone.

The company also officially released HarmonyOS 7, its latest operating system. According to Huawei, devices running HarmonyOS 6 and 7 have already surpassed 85 million units.

Apple's autumn event is scheduled for 1 am Beijing time on Thursday. Media reports suggested the biggest highlight will be Apple's first foldable iPhone, tentatively referred to as the iPhone Ultra. The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are also expected to appear, likely powered by Apple's first 2-nanometer A20 Pro chip, according to observer. 

Global Times