Xiaomi 18 recently surfaced in the GSMA product database, confirming its existence. Based on how Xiaomi rolls out its flagships, the new Xiaomi 18 series should reach buyers as early as September this year.
However, tipster Digital Chat Station in a fresh reveal says Xiaomi is switching up its usual release order this time around. Instead of launching the standard and Pro models together, Xiaomi will reportedly bring out the higher-spec Xiaomi 18 Pro series first in September, with the standard Xiaomi 18 following shortly after.
The gap between the two launches will not be large, and both phones are said to be available for purchase before the Chinese Spring Festival, which falls in February.
Now, if that sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 18 Pro in September, while the vanilla iPhone 18 is rumored to follow later in 2027. Xiaomi seems to be employing the same approach.
And…it might not be the only thing Xiaomi will copy from Apple—rumors suggest the company also plans to use the signature red color expected for the iPhone 18 series.
A price hike is the bigger issue
A bigger concern is that the Xiaomi 18 series is said to cost noticeably more than its predecessors. And this isn’t a Xiaomi-only move. Rising costs across the upstream supply chain are pushing prices up for nearly every major Android brand, not just Xiaomi.
Xiaomi founder Lei Jun has already weighed in on the memory issue. He said the current jump in memory prices is severe, and that supply prices are likely to keep climbing over the next two years. His advice to anyone planning to upgrade their phone soon is simple: buy sooner rather than later.
On the hardware side, the Xiaomi 18 series will be among the first phones to use Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 platform.
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