Chinese language tech large Xiaomi is formally the primary phone-maker to make use of Qualcomm’s freshly unveiled premium chipsets in its new flagship telephones. The Xiaomi 18 Professional and 18 Professional Max have been introduced on Wednesday in Beijing and are powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and eight Elite Excessive Gen 6, respectively, making them two of probably the most highly effective smartphones available on the market proper now.
However that market is initially restricted to China, though a worldwide launch for the telephones will happen earlier than the tip of 2026. Like different Xiaomi telephones, they received’t be coming to the US.
I went hands-on with the telephones on the Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii, the place Qualcomm had lifted the lid on the brand new chips simply 24 hours earlier. The 2 fashions look virtually an identical except for measurement and bear greater than a passing resemblance to the iPhone 18 Professional and 18 Professional Max, that are additionally new this month.
One main distinction is the rear OLED display, which sits beside the digicam module (and was additionally on the 17 Professional collection). Xiaomi says this show can present vital notifications when your cellphone is face down on the desk — a bit of like Nothing’s light-up glyph system — permitting you to mindfully disengage from scrolling with out utterly slicing your self off. For this explicit use case, I believe Nothing might need the sting, as much less time taking a look at screens might be higher for us. However I loved the widgets and animated wallpapers, in addition to the upgraded selfie-shooting expertise the show unlocks.
Although front-facing cameras have improved dramatically lately, photograph high quality can by no means fairly evaluate with the images rear cameras ship. However the second display enables you to use the rear digicam for selfies and vlogging, simply as you may use the entrance digicam in your cellphone.
I’m a longtime fan of Xiaomi’s cameras, and whereas I haven’t had an opportunity to completely take a look at the 18 Professional Max, the corporate’s earlier telephones and continued partnership with Leica give me each purpose to hope this new era will proceed to ship. The 18 Professional Max has a 200-megapixel fundamental digicam, a 200-megapixel telephoto digicam that helps macro pictures as shut as 12 centimeters (4.72 inches), and a 50-megapixel ultrawide digicam. In my transient hands-on time with the cellphone, I used to be happy with the standard of the selfies I snapped — they’d have been straight to Instagram if it had been my very own cellphone.
Privateness Show
One other standout function of the 18 Professional and 18 Professional Max is the Privateness Show, which works equally to Samsung’s know-how of the identical identify on the Galaxy S26 Extremely. Privateness Show restricts viewing angles so you may see solely the display whenever you’re taking a look at it straight on.
With Xiaomi’s model, you may select whether or not to use the tech to the complete display, particular person apps or break up display, in order that it blocks solely the highest or backside. I attempted this out with Privateness Show utilized to the gallery on the high half of the display. I might nonetheless make out the final shapes on the show, nevertheless it did obscure and darken the main points, so I couldn’t see the content material of the images after I turned the cellphone to the facet.
The 18 Professional and 18 Professional Max that I noticed have been each China editions that includes 7,000-mAh and eight,500-mAh silicon-carbon batteries, respectively. The variations that finally go on sale in Europe and different areas could have totally different specs, however we received’t have lengthy to attend to seek out out, with the worldwide launch coming inside the subsequent few months.
Editor’s word: Katie Collins’ journey prices for the Snapdragon Summit have been coated by Qualcomm. The judgments and opinions of CNET are our personal.
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