Xiaomi 18 Pro First Look

Xiaomi recently teased the launch of its flagship, the Xiaomi 18 Pro, in India. The company has now taken the opportunity to showcase it for the first time in the country at the ongoing India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2026. Xiaomi has also confirmed that the Indian model will use a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6-class chipset. This puts it among the first wave of upcoming flagships with Qualcomm's latest platform, which also includes the iQOO 16 and Motorola Signature 27.

At first glance, the Xiaomi 18 Pro does not look much different from its predecessor. It keeps a similar rear camera setup, with the lenses and other camera elements arranged around the secondary display. That rear screen remains one of the more unusual features of Xiaomi's Pro lineup. And like its predecessor, it can show notifications and widgets.

The Xiaomi 18 Pro has a secondary screen on the rear panel, like its predecessor

The blue finish I saw at IMC, known as Starry Blue in China, looks stellar. The rear panel has a fine, shimmering pattern that looks almost like tiny specks of glitter spread across the surface. It catches the light when you tilt the phone, but looks understated when you look at it directly from the front. I quite like that balance.

Xiaomi has yet to reveal whether the Indian variant will match its Chinese counterpart's specifications. It, however, did announce that the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chipset will power the 18 Pro.

Its China specifications also give us a pretty good idea of what the phone could offer elsewhere. The Xiaomi 18 Pro has a 6.4-inch AMOLED display with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz and peak brightness of 4,000 nits. It features a triple rear camera setup: a 200-megapixel primary camera with optical image stabilisation, a 200-megapixel periscope telephoto camera with OIS, and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera. It also has a 50-megapixel front camera for selfies and video calls.

The China model packs a 7,000mAh battery and supports 100W wired charging, 50W wireless charging, and 27W wired reverse charging. It runs Android 17-based HyperOS 4 and is available with up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.

However, there is still much more to learn before drawing a firm conclusion, with its India launch date, pricing, and specifications yet to be announced. We will explore these details in our full review of the Xiaomi 18 Pro when it launches, so stay tuned.