Xiaomi might actually beat Qualcomm to the punch this year. The company is expected to be the first brand to ship phones running the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chipset, and if a fresh round of certifications means anything, the global rollout won’t be far behind the China launch. That’s a real change from how Xiaomi has operated for years.
Historically, Xiaomi would drop its flagship series in China around September, then make international buyers wait until Q1 of the following year. But as reported by Gizmochina, two Xiaomi devices carrying model numbers 2609BPN61G and 2611FPNFAG have now shown up in Europe’s EEC certification database. These same model numbers were spotted earlier in the IMEI database and are believed to belong to the Xiaomi 18 series. The 2611FPNFAG is thought to be the standard Xiaomi 18, and the 2609BPN61G is pegged as the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max.
So what does that mean practically? EEC certification is one of the steps a device has to clear before it can be sold in Europe. Seeing these models hit that database now, while the China launch is still weeks away, strongly suggests Xiaomi is working toward a near-simultaneous global release. That would be a big shift and genuinely good news for anyone outside China who’s been tired of waiting six months to buy a Xiaomi flagship at full price.
There’s a notable gap in the lineup though. The Xiaomi 18 Pro doesn’t appear to have received global certification, which lines up with speculation that it may stay China-only. And the Xiaomi 18 Ultra, which you might expect to anchor the high-end range, is reportedly cancelled entirely. That’s a strange call given the Ultra line has been one of Xiaomi’s strongest selling points with camera enthusiasts in recent years.
Instead, August is shaping up to be a big month for Xiaomi on a different front. The Xiaomi 18 Fold is expected to debut in China, with a wide-format foldable design that draws comparisons to the Galaxy Z Fold 8. But don’t get too excited if you’re outside China, because that one looks like it’ll stay a domestic release.
On the tablet side, tipster Bald Panda has dropped a detailed spec sheet for the Xiaomi Pad 8s Pro. Here’s what’s reportedly coming:
- 12.5-inch LCD display with 3.2K resolution
- Xring O3 chipset
- 12,000mAh battery with 120W fast charging
- 32-megapixel front camera
- Dual rear cameras: 50-megapixel primary and 2-megapixel secondary
The Xring O3 is Xiaomi’s in-house chip, and the fact that both the Pad 8s Pro and the 18 Fold are expected to run it suggests Xiaomi may launch both at the same event in August. That would make for a packed presentation. A 12,000mAh battery with 120W charging is a genuinely strong combination for a tablet, and 3.2K on a 12.5-inch panel should look sharp. The dual camera setup on the back is a bit underwhelming with a 2-megapixel secondary sensor, but tablet cameras are rarely the main attraction anyway.
The bigger story here is speed. Xiaomi is clearly trying to close the gap between its China launches and global availability. If the Xiaomi 18 and 18 Pro Max land in Europe close to the September China reveal, it changes the conversation around Xiaomi as a global brand. Right now it still feels like a company where the best deals and earliest access are reserved for buyers in China. A tighter global rollout would go a long way toward fixing that perception.