Xiaomi 18 Fold: New images and Xring O3 chip details
Xiaomi’s next foldable smartphone, rumored to be called the Xiaomi 18 Fold, has surfaced in the first live images, showcasing a short and wide design. A new video has also emerged, highlighting Xiaomi’s own Xring O3 chipset, which is expected to power the device.
Xiaomi 18 Fold live images
The Xiaomi 18 Fold, whose market launch is confirmed for September with the brand new Xring O3 chipset, appeared in two pictures on Weibo.
According to the article, this is a prototype of the Xiaomi 18 Fold, so the final version may look different. The device pictured is a dark cherry red, which is expected to be the trend color for the iPhone 18 Pro series and almost all Android smartphones in the coming months. Three cameras are also visible on the back, arranged in a kind of aperture.
Xiaomi Xring O3 chip review: Next-generation energy efficiency
Xiaomi has announced that the upcoming Xiaomi 18 Fold will be equipped with its own Xring O3 chipset, the successor to the Xring O1. What happened to the O2? Well, the O3 is so good that Xiaomi skipped a number – though that’s only half a joke, because Geekerwan examined the new chip and found that it offers two generations of improved energy efficiency compared to the O1.
The Xring O3 is a contradiction in terms – it uses older technology and yet seems capable of competing with the upcoming Dimensity 9600 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chips. The chip is manufactured by TSMC using the 3nm N3P process, an improved version of the N3E process already used in the O1. N3P is also used for the outgoing Dimensity 9500 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. MediaTek and Qualcomm are relying on a new 2nm process for their upcoming 9600 and Gen 6 chips.
But that’s not all – Xiaomi uses Arm’s C1 processor cores, which are already used in the Dimensity 9500 and the Exynos 2600. The upcoming Dimensity 9600 will almost certainly switch to the C2 processor cores, which are expected to be unveiled soon.
Nevertheless, the results are quite impressive – the Xring O3 significantly surpasses the Dimensity 9500 in terms of performance and energy efficiency and comes very close to Apple’s A19 CPU cores.
When the CPU is running at full load, it achieves 15,000 points in the Geekbench multi-core test, coming very close to the performance of an Apple M5. However, you’ll never see this level of performance in a smartphone, as it consumes over 20 watts. Under more moderate load, it achieves 12,000 points – equivalent to the performance of a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 – while consuming only half the power of the Gen 5.
Since the Xiaomi 18 Fold has not yet been officially announced, the Xring O3 is currently only available for testing on a development board. Geekerwan will repeat the tests as soon as a smartphone version is available to check whether the more compact design has any negative effects.
While the CPU uses the older C1 cores, the GPU is brand new – the first of its kind: the Arm G2-Ultra NX MC16 GPU. This 16-core GPU features two core types – a regular one and one with the NX extension. This extension provides additional hardware for AI-powered upscaling and frame generation in games.
The GPU is a true powerhouse – if it were ever to be used in a laptop, it would outperform laptops with Intel Lunar Lake and almost match the performance of MacBooks with an M5 processor. In other words, it beats a desktop GeForce GTX 1060 with 6GB (while consuming significantly less power – though still more than is available in a smartphone). For smartphone use, the primary application for this chip, the GPU offers an excellent balance of performance and energy efficiency – it surpasses the GPUs in the Apple A19 Pro and Dimensity 9500.
This performance was again achieved on a development board. The board was equipped with LPDDR6 RAM – each module has a 24-bit data bus, compared to 16 bits for LPDDR5X (which the chip also supports). The board was configured with four modules for a 96-bit bus with a transfer rate of 10,667 MT/s, which equates to a total speed of 113.8 GB/s. Whether such configurations are feasible in a smartphone remains to be seen. Furthermore, an LPDDR6 configuration will be more expensive than an LPDDR5X configuration. We’ll see how things develop.
Xiaomi has also integrated an internally developed NPU, which, with INT4, offers an enormous performance of 200 TOPS. The NPU alone has 8 MB of L2 cache, and the chip as a whole has 16 MB of SLC cache.
The Xring O3 is a very large chip – Geekerwan measured it at 138.3 mm², and it’s worth noting that the chip doesn’t have an integrated modem. It’s larger than the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 at 126.2 mm², which does have a modem, and almost as large as the Dimensity 9500 at 140.6 mm², which also has a modem. However, there should be enough space for it in a foldable device like the Xiaomi 18 Fold.
One area where the team can improve is the chassis design. The O3 uses the outdated package-on-package method, where the RAM is located directly above the chipset. While this results in very short connections between the chipset and RAM, it is inefficient for cooling. A more modern approach places the chipset and RAM side by side, allowing for more targeted cooling.
We’re eager to see how the Xring O3 compares to the next-generation chips from MediaTek, Qualcomm, Samsung, and Apple. While these manufacturers will have a manufacturing advantage, Xiaomi’s advanced design might be enough to keep the O3 competitive.
Incidentally, there are reports that Xiaomi is prohibited from using TSMC’s 2nm manufacturing technology for political reasons. This could be the reason the company opted for the N3P process. However, there is no official confirmation of this theory yet.
