China’s Xiaomi unveils folding phone with home-grown chip as it takes on Apple, Huawei

Xiaomi unveiled a series of new products on Sept 7 – from a flagship foldable phone featuring proprietary chips to new models of its premium Skynomad SUV – underscoring the Chinese giant’s intensified push to compete against rivals including Tesla, Apple and Huawei Technologies.

Beijing-based Xiaomi launched the 18 Fold, a foldable phone featuring a 7.58-inch inner display, a proprietary Xring O3 system-on-chip (SoC), and LPDDR6 memory chips from ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), said Lei Jun, founder and CEO, at an event held in Beijing.

Lei said the 18 Fold was built for durability with a new hinge structure to protect the inner display, a high-strength aluminium frame and strengthened cover glass.

He also touted the phone’s performance gain thanks to the adoption of its Xring O3, an AI processor packed with 24 billion transistors, a 26% increase from its predecessor Xring O1 launched last year.