Xiaomi 18 Leak Reveals Five Color Options and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6

A new year is about to begin for flagship smartphones, and if you think this has something to do with the next Snapdragon Summit, you're totally right. In the next month, Qualcomm will unveil its first 2nm flagship Snapdragon CPU. As a result, many brands are expected to launch their new flagships, and Xiaomi is among them with the Xiaomi 18 series.

It seems that Xiaomi aims to continue the cycle of being one of the first brands to launch new Snapdragon flagships.

According to reliable tipster Digital Chat Station, Xiaomi is preparing a new 2nm flagship that continues the design direction of the current lineup. The first models will come in Black, White, Pink, Blue, and Red color options. That's a wide array of color options, but the "2nm" part is what draws our attention most.

The Xiaomi 18 is expected to carry the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 CPU, which features TSMC's 2nm process. The rumors say Qualcomm is coming with two variants this time: a non-Pro and a Pro variant. Time will tell which flavor the vanilla Xiaomi 18 is picking.

Anyway, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 will have a self-developed Oyron CPU in a 2+3+3 octa-core layout. There is also a 16MP shared L2 cache and an Adreno 845 GPU. The chip also supports LPDDR5X memory.

The camera department certainly is one of my favorite parts in Xiaomi's latest flagships. Fortunately, this is mostly secured with the new devices. According to rumors, the Xiaomi 18 will replace the three 50 MP setup on the Xiaomi 17 with a new Leica dual 200 MP camera system. There will be a large 200MP sensor plus a 200 MP telephoto shooter.

We also expect a ton of camera enhancements made under the hood in HyperOS and the Leica Camera app. The Xiaomi 18 series is also rumored to be the first to run Android 17 and will presumably run HyperOS 4.0 straight out of the box.

When it comes to the pricing, the device is said to cost more. The component crisis continues to make flagships more expensive, and we should experience a CNY 1,000 price hike in the Xiaomi 18 series. In fact, the phone could start above CNY 5,499, which is roughly $814.96 in direct conversion.

We expect leaks to intensify in the coming days, as the launch draws near.