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

China’s Xiaomi unveils folding phone with home-grown chip as it takes on Apple, Huawei Introduction comes on same day as Hauwei launches its latest foldable, with Apple expected to enter the fray on Wednesday Xiaomi unveiled a series of new products on Monday – 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. 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 adoption of its Xring O3, an AI processor packed with 24 billion transistors, a 26 per cent increase from its predecessor Xring O1 launched last year. Lei said the Xring O3’s CPU performance was 60 per cent higher than that of O1, while power consumption in certain tasks was reduced by 25 per cent. The Xiaomi 18 Fold will sell from 10,999 yuan (US$1,639), with sales kicking off at 10am on Thursday.