The best part of my job is the access to some of the coolest gadgets, especially the latest and greatest smartphones. Even then, I often found myself gravitating towards compact phones. At this point, I’d even skip a premium foldable just so I could have something a little more handy.
But every now and then, a larger phone would have this one feature or show me why a bigger phone is still so popular. I also want to play games, watch videos, and occasionally keep two apps open without fighting for every inch of screen space. A smaller phone makes many parts of my life easier, but the compromises aren’t nonexistent. Simply making the phone wider may solve those problems, but eventually it becomes harder to handle again.
The Xiaomi 18 Fold has me thinking there might be a better way to approach the whole argument. Its 5.38-inch outer display opens into a 7.58-inch inner screen, giving it a genuinely compact front and a much larger canvas whenever that smaller display becomes restrictive. Xiaomi is calling this a medium-fold design, and I think that description gets at something important about where smartphones could go next.
The compact phone dream is almost perfect
My recent experience with the Galaxy S26 reminded me why I still like smaller flagships. At 167g, with a 6.3-inch display, it is so much easier to carry and use one-handed than the enormous phones that increasingly dominate the premium market. I spent around a month reviewing it, and that everyday comfort remained one of its biggest strengths.
Yet even a relatively compact 6.3-inch phone can become restrictive once I start doing more than the basics. A good example is when you’re typing a longer email, managing a packed calendar, reading an e-book, or even gaming. I can make those activities work on a small screen, even if it’s not ideal.
A wider conventional phone gives me more room for content. Though it does increase the distance my thumb has to travel and makes one-handed use less comfortable. I don’t think there is one fixed screen size that solves this for everyone. The more interesting way to look at this problem is whether I should have to choose a single size at all.
A small screen should handle the small things
The Xiaomi 18 Fold’s proportions make that question particularly interesting. Its outer display measures 5.38 inches, with a 1,712 x 1,168 resolution, while the inner display measures 7.58 inches at 2,364 x 1,672. Both support adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz. smaller exterior is exactly where I would want to keep the quick interactions. Making a call, checking a notification, and replying to a short message.
I prefer this interaction, where I treat the cover screen as the place for brief uses. Meanwhile, you still have access to the “bigger picture”. Want to do something more involved? Just open it up. This option has existed for a while now with current-gen and older foldables. Still, the older models weren’t such an easy solution.
Opening it changes the kind of phone I’m using
This is where my experience with the Motorola Razr Fold has already changed my thinking. During my month-long review, I found myself using split-screen mode regularly instead of occasionally testing it for the sake of the review. A lot of interactions became much more natural on the larger display. I also appreciated being able to move floating windows aside temporarily without closing what I was doing.
Imagine opening a slim diary whenever you need a little more room. A notification comes in while you are reading, so you slide it into a floating window or open the relevant app beside your current task. You can respond without surrendering the entire screen to the interruption, then return to what you were doing.
The larger canvas also changes entertainment. Games have more room for their controls and environments, while reading, comics, and longer videos become more comfortable. A foldable’s aspect ratio can still introduce black bars in widescreen content, so the benefit is not identical for every movie or game. I encountered that limitation on the Razr Fold, even while finding its larger display considerably more useful for gaming and reading. But wide foldables were a different story entirely.
The hardware is finally getting out of the way
Foldables used to be thick and heavy. Larger screens came with a substantial physical penalty. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 demonstrates how far the category has come, with a shorter, wider design that our own hands-on found surprisingly pocketable. The Xiaomi 18 Fold takes a similar direction, weighing 219g and measuring 10.68mm when closed. Its unfolded thickness is 5.02mm.
Those figures do not make the Xiaomi as light as a conventional compact flagship. My Galaxy S26, for example, weighs 167g. The difference is still substantial, and anyone prioritizing the lightest possible phone still has a good reason to choose a regular slab. But for the same heft as the iPhone 17 Pro, the Xiaomi is carrying two displays, a folding mechanism, a 6,000mAh battery, and a flagship camera system inside a body that remains relatively manageable for a book-style foldable.
I won’t pretend that durability isn’t a concern, but some of the ones I’ve used have survived some pretty rough falls. My Razr Fold review showed how much polish the category has gained, while also revealing software and gaming limitations that still deserve attention.
Compactness should be a choice, not a restriction
The Xiaomi 18 Fold starts at 10,999 yuan (roughly $1,640) in China, so there is still a very literal price attached to this idea. Global availability has not been confirmed, and I would not recommend buying one based on its form factor alone without proper testing. A compact wide foldable is the perfect middle ground. You get to keep the smaller screen for the activities that benefit from it, then open the device when the limitations start getting in the way.
I don’t need every phone to become a miniature tablet, and I certainly don’t expect everyone to agree with my preference. I just want a small phone without committing to a compact display. It’s still better than carrying around two devices. The Xiaomi 18 Fold has made me think the future of compact phones might involve letting them become something bigger whenever we need them to.
