Xiaomi's 18 Pro series phones have the latest Snapdragon chip and a Samsung-like privacy screen
The 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max are now available in China ahead of a global release later this year.
Xiaomi has revealed its Pro 18 series phones, and while you may need to wait to get your hands on one if you're not in China, the devices seem worth paying attention to. They're among the first handsets to use Qualcomm's latest mobile chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, with the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max running on the higher-end version. (As it happens, Xiaomi showed off the devices at the Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii.)
Perhaps the most interesting thing about these phones is that Xiaomi equipped them with privacy-focused screens, similar to the tech that Samsung employed in the Galaxy S26 Ultra. The idea is to make it harder to see what's on the screen from an off angle and stop other people from catching a glimpse of what you're looking at.
Xiaomi's take on the privacy screen offers more granular settings than Samsung, as things stand. If you enable the feature for a specific app (to shield your banking details from prying eyes, perhaps), it won't just switch on when you open said app — the phones will make it difficult for anyone to see notifications, split-screen views and floating windows for the app from an acute angle. There are location-based triggers for the privacy mode. The phones can also detect potential snoops via the front-facing camera and suggest that you enable the feature. You can switch it on manually using a side button.
The main displays have LTPO AMOLED panels with a variable refresh rate of 1-120Hz, 2K resolution and 4,000 nits of peak brightness. The 18 Pro display measures 6.4 inches and the 18 Pro Max has a 6.9-inch screen. The phones retain the rear displays from the 17 Pro devices. These smaller screens can show notifications and you can generate mini apps for them using Xiaomi's Xiao AI assistant.
The phones have the same rear camera array, with a 200MP, 23mm main lens, a 200MP, 75mm telephoto and 50MP ultrawide. The batteries are a little larger than last time, with a 7,000mAh cell in the 18 Pro and a 8,500mAh one in the 18 Pro Max. The phones support 100W wired and 50W wireless charging, as well as 27W reverse wireless charging. The base versions have 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
The 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max are available in black, white, pink and blue, as well as a special-edition red with some transparency on the rear. They start at 5,999 yuan ($894) and 6,999 yuan ($1,043), respectively. Xiaomi is planning a global release for the 18 Pro Series later this year.