Xiaomi 18 Ultra Was Cancelled, and It Could Have Been a Monster

Xiaomi may have cancelled the Xiaomi 18 Ultra, and the latest leak gives us a good idea of what the phone could have been. On paper, it was shaping up to be one of Xiaomi's most ambitious camera phones yet.

The details come from tipster Digital Chat Station, who shared several specs of the cancelled model. The main reason for the cancellation is said to be its high cost. And looking at the rumored hardware, that makes a lot of sense.

The Xiaomi 18 Ultra was reportedly planned with a flat display and bezels of around 1mm on all four sides. That would have given the phone a very clean look. Xiaomi was also said to be testing a top-end chip that could pass the 5 million mark in benchmark tests.

The exact chip and benchmark were not named. So, I would not treat that part as confirmed yet. The source also does not say how the final phone would have performed in daily use.

The camera setup is where things get really interesting. The Xiaomi 18 Ultra was reportedly going to use three 200MP rear cameras. The main camera was said to use a large 1/1.12-inch LOFIC sensor.

The ultra-wide camera was also expected to use a large 1/1.56-inch sensor. Then there was the third camera: a 200MP periscope telephoto with a 1/1.28-inch LOFIC sensor.

That telephoto camera was said to support continuous optical zoom. If true, this would have been a major feature for Xiaomi's Ultra range. The phone was also expected to include a multispectral sensor and support a magnetic external lens. Other reported hardware included a 0916 vibration motor and symmetrical stereo speakers.

This was clearly not meant to be a normal flagship camera setup.

According to the leak, Xiaomi was considering a 12GB RAM and 256GB storage version at around 9,999 yuan. That works out to roughly $1,490 before taxes and local pricing.

That is a lot of money for a Xiaomi phone. The reported price seems to be one of the main reasons the 18 Ultra was dropped. Higher memory costs may have also made the project harder to justify.

Personally, I can understand Xiaomi's decision. The hardware sounds fantastic, but a $1,500 Xiaomi would face a very different market.

With the Ultra reportedly cancelled, the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max is expected to become the top model in the series. That does not mean Xiaomi is giving up on high-end camera hardware. Some of the technology developed for the Ultra could still appear in future phones.

For now, though, the Xiaomi 18 Ultra seems to be staying on the drawing board.

And that is a little disappointing. Three 200MP cameras, a large periscope sensor, continuous optical zoom and a flat 1mm-bezel display could have made this one of the most exciting phones of the year.

The problem is simple: Xiaomi may have designed a phone that was too expensive to make sense.