Xiaomi has unveiled its new flagship phones, the Xiaomi 18 Pro and Xiaomi 18 Pro Max, in China. I managed to track the phones down at Snapdragon Summit, where Qualcomm has just announced the launch of its new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 hardware, including a new Extreme version.
Before diving into my impressions of the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max, it’s worth saying that the Xiaomi 18 Pro uses the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, while the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max uses the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. The phones are a different size with minor differences in the specification, but with Qualcomm offering two flagship-tier chips, there’s now differentiation between the top models in terms of performance too.
The Xiaomi 18 Pro Max introduces a couple of interesting features that we’ve not seen from Xiaomi before. The first is a rear display, and the second is a privacy display for the front, offering a feature that we previously saw from Samsung on the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
I say we haven’t seen these features before, but Xiaomi offered a rear display on the Xiaomi 17 Pro. That phone was exclusive to China, but Xiaomi now seems confident that it’s worthy of international release. Having got my hands on the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max, I agree: the rear display is an interesting addition.
The advantages of a flip phone, without the compromise
The first thing I did with the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max was fire up the camera and start taking selfies, using the rear display as a guide. This has been a major selling point for folding phones in the past, allowing a preview on the cover screen while using the best camera on the phone.
That’s something that the Xiaomi 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max offer. It’s a little small, but it’s large enough to compose an image and make sure you’ve got everything in the frame.
The integration of the back display is interesting because it sits in the camera island, wrapping around the cameras. Rather than this being dead space like it is on most phones that have inherited the design ushered in on the iPhone 17 Pro, Xiaomi puts it to good use.
I didn’t get to test the full range of functions, but found it could show custom images (including an AI generator), there were various interactive cartoon characters and you could swipe through to access other information, like your calendar.
It’s an interesting addition and while we’ve seen Google adding Hi-Light to the Pixel 11 Pro and Nothing with various Glyph elements on its devices, having a proper display makes for a lot more potential. Admittedly, there’s the potential for distraction too, but it’s a feature that I like.
Privacy display that beats Samsung?
Xiaomi Privacy Display adopts a feature that Samsung debuted. But it’s not the same implementation, and the underlying technology is slightly different. Xiaomi told me that its screen uses a HyperRGB panel, where each pixel has RGB subpixels, allowing it to retain quality while putting privacy dimming in place.
That’s the official line, but my observations (having used the S26 Ultra too) are slightly different. Xiaomi’s approach aims to avoid the downside of Samsung’s Privacy Display, which results in dimming across the entire panel when using it and a loss of quality.
That’s something it achieves, but the oblique dimming on the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max didn’t look as extreme as on the Samsung phone. Yes, both dim so that people can’t look over at your phone and see what’s on the screen, but Samsung’s solution looks a lot darker from an angle than Xiaomi’s does.
The result is that Xiaomi Privacy Display is a little more subtle. Yes, it preserves the brilliance when looking head-on, but it isn’t as dark for those looking over your shoulder. Put another way, it might not be quite as private as Samsung’s solution.
It’s versatile though, not only offering full-screen privacy, but also offering per-app privacy if you prefer, while also supporting that in Windows or split-screen.
The rest of the phone is interesting too
There’s premium design to the Xiaomi 18 Pro and Pro Max, with the new core hardware promising performance gains and greater efficiencies. The 8500mAh battery is huge, supported by 100W charging, so it should last for an age.
Then there are two 200-megapixel cameras, with the main using a Light Fusion 960L sensor with f/1.67 aperture, and the telephoto using a Samsung HP5 sensor with f/2.4 aperture. There’s also a 50-megapixel ultrawide, although this drops into the rear of the phone beneath the camera bump.
The phones I tested were running HyperOS but were Chinese models, so I didn’t spend too long looking at the software or testing the cameras, although everything seemed snappy during the time I had with the phone.
The 6.9-inch AMOLED display was impressive, as were the narrow bezels and the 4000 nits peak brightness. The display was still clear under the Hawaiian sun at Snapdragon Summit.
Xiaomi wouldn’t tell me when the phones would see a wider release, but it’s confirmed for later in 2026. That’s something of a departure from previous release cycles where we’ve seen models launch in China then get a launch in February or March the following year for the rest of the world.
It seems that Xiaomi is keen to get the Xiaomi 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max into the hands of customers, and from what I’ve seen, I can understand why.
