Xiaomi Announces Foldable iPhone Rival

[zenmacx]

Apple will still sell a ton load of theirs though thanks to locking in all their customers to very high walled garden

The masters of customer “lock-in” Apple has leveraged this advantage to the extreme.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

but how did they shove a telephoto lens in there?

By having their camera module supplier design a telephoto that's thinner than Apple's, but which makes compromises in image quality that Apple isn't prepared to make, like a much smaller image sensor which allows the other parts in the module to occupy less room.

 

[frownface]

meh, it's a rip off of the huawei and it'll never see light outside of china

 

[delsoul]

Looking forward to you all sharing similar sentiments in a few days when Apple launches their copy of the Samsung Fold devices, which have been around for many years now.

Like I said…if you can’t beat them, copy them!

Don’t need to wait a few days for me to share that.

 

[LoveToMacRumors]

Huawei also, recently announced, 899USD, 3 cameras, better low light than iPhone 17 Pro Max

 

[Jasonstevens]

apple: nooo that's impossible, it cannot have 3 cameras inside such a thin phone, we worked on this for years and didn't manage to, how can XIAOMI

Apple COULD and very likely did develop a 3 camera Ultra. They love to make the future easy on themselves by developing a full featured device, then strip down some of those features, then release it.

Then they just add one or two of those features back for the next release cycle. I think their decision to cheap out on cameras is going to cost them though. It did with the Air, they should have known better.

 

[digimc]

Looking forward to you all sharing similar sentiments in a few days when Apple launches their copy of the Samsung Fold devices, which have been around for many years now.

People on here have been raking Apple over the "proverbial" hot coals ever since the rumors that they were coming out with foldable iPhone first gained credence. I fail to see what new earth shattering criticism will be thrown down the gamut on Wednesday when Apple makes the announcement official.

It will be the same posts that every new iPhone elicits here on MR. Some people will purchase the item and love it and give their rationale thoughts on how it is changed their daily lives. Others will have legitimate gripes and either hold out or return the item. "Some" people will shout obscenities into the comment section like little children and then when someone figuratively "spanks" them they will scour off into the night.

 

[MrMojo1]

In the past, Steve Jobs publicly stated/admitted...
That Apple's approach to borrowing existing concepts by stating.. "Good artists copy; great artists steal" and that Apple had always been "shamelessly about stealing great ideas".
Some things that diehard Apple lovers should learn before complaining that other companies copy Apple.

Let's see how the Xiaomi's Fold version works compared to Apple's Fold when both are released and reviewed.
Competition is good.

 

[apple2022]

this foldable is next apple vision pro XD.. with this prices.. I don't see market for it..

They are going to break records. Come back to your comment in a week.

 

[apple2022]

In the past, Steve Jobs publicly stated/admitted...
That Apple's approach to borrowing existing concepts by stating.. "Good artists copy; great artists steal" and that Apple had always been "shamelessly about stealing great ideas".
Some things that diehard Apple lovers should learn before complaining that other companies copy Apple.

Let's see how the Xiaomi's Fold version works compared to Apple's Fold when both are released and reviewed.
Competition is good.

He was being modest. Apple leads the industry in hardware and software design and the rest follow. It has been that way since the iPod.

 

[FernMam]

It would be wonderful if Apple managed to fool the competition by deliberately planting credible rumours and evidence that it was about to launch a particular product.

The competition would rush to develop the same product and beat Apple to market, as always.

But it would all be a decoy. The real product Apple was actually planning to launch would be something completely different, and by the time the competition realised what was happening, it would be too late.

I wonder if the new CEO has the same balls (colhões) to pull off this sort of stunt as Steve Jobs did.

Either way, it would be epic.

 

[iGMX]

Rather than focus on "they copied Apple!"

Let's just see which ends up being technically better and a better value product.

I have a feeling the Xiaomi may end up on top.

They don't have the track record for it. Don't even get me started with their stupid software cycles that completely ignore existing bugs and just try to copy what Samsung and Apple are doing with their UIs.

 

[delsoul]

Huawei also, recently announced, 899USD, 3 cameras, better low light than iPhone 17 Pro Max

Let’s be honest about, though. Huawei, Xiaomi, etc all are heavily backed and subsidized by state government to keep prices down. Apple is backed by itself.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I believe he was also referencing the fact that they called it the "18" Fold, as in the iPhone 18 that is about to be released. Xiaomi has a history of doing this. They went from 15 to 17 for their smart phone, completely skipping the 16 series, just as Apple was coming out with their 17 series of iPhones. When asked about it, Xiaomi admitted they did it to copy Apple.

Ok. I stand corrected. Thx.

Wow .. this is what we care about?

I sure hope they don't start using the word "phone" in their product name too!

 

[ppdix]

Today I was watching a documentary on Chery, a Chinese car company, on how their cars are made.
For decades, car makers have started with clay designs and then prototypes.
Chery and most Chinese car makers totally skip the prototype stage. The cars are designed, tested and then go into production right away. Not years later.
Apple and Samsung are like the old car makers. They lag behind because they hold back. Chinese might have copied in the past but nw they are the innovators and originators and if Apple doesn't change their strategies they will be left in the dust...
Remember there are 1.4B people living in China. That is the biggest market in the world...

 

[Circa1984]

I wish Xiaomi was available in the US market.

They are really quite junky. They only look like Apple’s products. But are not reliable, and software is glitchy.

 

[Fred Zed]

All this yapping in these comments about how they copied Apple. Well if you ask me, they done kicked Apple's behind on a product that is just 2 days to officially launch. How they got 3 camera on theirs? Look at the size of the battery, 6,000 and the Apple one is said to have like 4,800. Also it does wireless charging at 50W and the apple one 25W?

All that's needed for me is to get that Chinese phone and load iOS on it.

Last paragraph 👍🏼 some of these Chinese devices have amazing specs alas no iOS no bueno. 🤣

 

[Und Eser]

This crap isn't even in the U.S. is it?

Regardless of where it is available, never in all of eternity would I or will I ever buy a Chinese brand product.

No objection to the labour just the logo eh? The orange lad sends his regards.

 

[AlanBeyond]

No shame at all. The Chinese way!

Apple copied Samsung and Huawei, what's the difference?

 

[Fred Zed]

Huawei was one of the companies that really helped kick off the trend of Chinese smartphone manufacturers partnering with established European camera brands. Back then, Huawei and ZTE were mostly associated with cheap phones, and I doubt Apple, Samsung or HTC saw them as serious competition.

Things changed pretty quickly. Huawei partnered with Leica and started producing some genuinely impressive camera phones, beginning with phones like the P9. Without the US restrictions, I think Huawei had a very good chance of becoming the world’s biggest smartphone manufacturer.

What’s perhaps even more impressive is what happened afterwards. Despite losing access to Google services and facing major hardware restrictions, Huawei continued developing its own ecosystem and camera technology. Their flagships have repeatedly been at or near the top of DXOMARK’s camera rankings for several years.

Then you have other Chinese manufacturers following similar paths. Oppo and OnePlus work with Hasselblad, while Vivo has a close partnership with ZEISS. DJI also became heavily involved with Hasselblad.

And then there’s the iPhone.

I don’t think the iPhone necessarily needs to be the absolute best at everything. Its camera may not always be #1, but it consistently takes very good photos and, especially, excellent video. iOS doesn’t necessarily have every feature Android offers, but what it does have generally works reliably. Apple also provides fast updates and supports its phones for a long time.

For me, that’s really the strength of the iPhone. It’s not necessarily one killer feature or being #1 on every spec sheet. It’s all those smaller things—consistency, reliability, software support and the way everything works together.

Those things may not look particularly exciting in a keynote or on a spec sheet, but they’re probably the backbone of why the iPhone continues to be so successful.

And that’s exactly why they got restricted, by eliminating the competition. Mr T had to help his buddies Samsung and Apple else I feel Huawei would have taken some of their market share. Gray market aside, what mobile devices do we get here compared to the rest of the world. A very small selection.

 

[zenmacx]

They are really quite junky. But are not reliable, and software is glitchy.

Xiaomi, the most reliable smartphone brand of 2026

https://www.planhub.ca/blog/en/xiaomi-the-most-reliable-smartphone-brand-of-2025/2026

 

[code-m]

Let’s be honest about, though. Huawei, Xiaomi, etc all are heavily backed and subsidized by state government to keep prices down. Apple is backed by itself.

Aren’t some if not all of those brands are barred from selling officially in the USA market while Apple is permitted to sell globally. I would say either the scales have been balanced in this regard or Apple has a slight advantage.

 

[code-m]

Xiaomi, the most reliable smartphone brand of 2026

https://www.planhub.ca/blog/en/xiaomi-the-most-reliable-smartphone-brand-of-2025/2026

While iOS 26 has been slow and glitches, even the camera app takes ages to load, capture and save this was not the case prior to iOS 26.

 

[delsoul]

Aren’t some if not all of those brands are barred from selling officially in the USA market while Apple is permitted to sell globally. I would say either the scales have been balanced in this regard or Apple has a slight advantage.

That wasn’t until recent times. Before that, I walked into Best Buy and bought my Huawei Mate phone. Walked into a Microsoft store and bought my Huawei Matebook X Pro.

I’m all for Apple having a balanced playing field. The state sponsors in China obviously are pro-China companies and devices, but they know the demand for Apple products, manufacturing, etc is so strong that they keep Apple in the chinese market. I believe in the US, even when the chinese phones and laptops were available openly, they still didn’t have much of a market compared to Apple, Samsung, etc that are more well known and ‘trusted’ by consumers. I personally like some of the chinese phones and computers, but I’d take the Apple product any day. Ive used recent chinese phones and laptops…the software and interfaces literally look like apple ripoffs. Icons, graphics, etc are copy pasted. I would always feel like I’m using a fraud product. It’s a case of chinese brands telling chinese consumers would you rather buy American apple products or would you buy a hometown chinese apple product?

 

[code-m]

They are really quite junky. They only look like Apple’s products. But are not reliable, and software is glitchy.

Are we talking about present day devices and OS or something recalled 5-10 years ago. China moves very fast and what may have been true 5 years ago is not the case since the last couple years or so.