Xiaomi 18 Fold Is Already a Hit, With Sales Up 310%

Xiaomi's new foldable appears to be off to a very strong start. The Xiaomi 18 Fold sold around 36,000 units on its first day, despite carrying a price that puts it firmly in ultra-premium territory.

Even more impressive is how that compares with Xiaomi's previous foldable. The company says sales jumped 310% compared with the previous generation in the same price segment.

The Xiaomi 18 Fold was announced on September 7 before going on sale in China on September 10. According to industry insider RD Observation, Xiaomi sold around 36,000 units during that first day. That may not sound huge next to the millions of regular smartphones sold every year, but foldables are a very different market. These are expensive devices aimed at a much smaller group of buyers. And the Xiaomi 18 Fold certainly isn't cheap.

Prices start at 10,999 yuan, or around $1,500, while the 16GB RAM and 1TB storage version costs 14,999 yuan, or roughly $2,050. There's even a ceramic special edition with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage for 15,999 yuan, which works out to around $2,190.

Selling tens of thousands of phones at those prices in one day is a good start.

Xiaomi had already hinted that demand was strong before the first-day numbers appeared. On September 8, Xiaomi Group Vice President and CMO Xu Fei said the new foldable was selling very well. Xiaomi China President Wang Xiaoyan later revealed that sales had increased by 310% over the previous-generation foldable in the same price range.

That's probably the more important number here. The foldable market is no longer new, and buyers now have plenty of alternatives from Samsung, Honor, Vivo, OPPO and Huawei. Xiaomi isn't simply selling an unusual new form factor anymore. It has to convince people to choose its foldable over some very good rivals.

A 310% increase suggests the 18 Fold is doing exactly that, at least during its launch period.

The Xiaomi 18 Fold brings some major upgrades over Xiaomi's previous foldable devices. It uses a 5.38-inch outer display and a 7.58-inch folding screen inside. Both displays use a full RGB pixel layout and can reach up to 4,000 nits of peak brightness.

The inner display also gets an anti-reflective film, which should make it easier to use outdoors. But the most interesting change is inside.

Xiaomi has equipped the 18 Fold with its own XRING O3 chipset instead of using a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip. That makes the phone an important product for Xiaomi beyond its folding design, as the company continues to develop more of its own core hardware.

The phone also uses LPDDR6 memory, while Leica once again plays a major role in the camera system.

Xiaomi has been making foldable phones for years, but Samsung and several Chinese brands have often received more attention in this part of the market.

The 18 Fold could change that. I wouldn't call 36,000 first-day sales enough to declare it a massive success yet. Launch-day buyers are usually the most enthusiastic customers, and we'll need several months of data to see whether demand stays strong.

But the 310% increase over the previous model is difficult to ignore. It's even more interesting when you consider the price. Xiaomi isn't trying to win buyers with a cheap foldable. The 18 Fold starts at around $1,500 and can move well beyond $2,000, putting it against some of the most expensive phones on the market. For now, there's one big limitation: the Xiaomi 18 Fold is only available in China. A global launch hasn't been confirmed.

That's a shame, because the foldable market outside China could use more competition. Samsung now has Apple entering the fight with the iPhone Duo, while Honor continues to push thinner and lighter designs.

Xiaomi clearly has a foldable that Chinese buyers are interested in. Now I'd like to see whether it has the confidence to bring the 18 Fold to the rest of the world.