Xiaomi launches MIX Fold 2 foldable, Redmi K50 Ultra flagship in China

Flagship performance without the foldable premium
The Redmi K50 Ultra delivers Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 power and 120-watt charging at a third of the foldable's price.
Mark

So Xiaomi just dropped five different products at once. Is this a typical launch strategy for them, or is this something new?

Mimi

It's pretty standard for Xiaomi to announce multiple devices in a single event—they like to show the breadth of their ecosystem. But the mix here is interesting: they're covering flagship phones, a foldable, a tablet, a smartwatch, and earbuds. It's a complete ecosystem play.

Luke

Right, but I want to be careful about the word "ecosystem." The source material doesn't actually say these devices are designed to work together in any special way. They're all Xiaomi products, sure, but we don't know if there's deep integration or if that's just marketing language.

Mark

Fair point. Let's talk about the foldable then. The MIX Fold 2 starts at about 106,000 rupees. How does that compare to other foldables on the market?

Mimi

The source doesn't give us competitor pricing, so I can't make that comparison directly. But for context, it's positioned as a premium device—the top model hits 141,600 rupees for a terabyte of storage.

Luke

And that's important to note: the price jumps significantly with storage. You're looking at a 35,000-rupee difference between the base model and the 1TB variant. That's substantial.

Mark

What about the Redmi K50 Ultra? It seems like it's targeting a completely different buyer.

Mimi

Absolutely. At 35,400 rupees for the entry level, it's roughly a third of the foldable's base price. But it's still a flagship—Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, 120-watt charging, 108-megapixel camera. Xiaomi is saying you don't need to pay for the foldable form factor to get flagship performance.

Luke

Though I should note: the source doesn't tell us how these phones actually perform in real-world testing. We have specs, but no benchmarks, no camera comparisons, no battery life data. These are the numbers Xiaomi is claiming.

Mark

What about the tablet and wearables? Do those feel like afterthoughts or genuine products?

Mimi

The Pad 5 Pro has solid specs—Snapdragon 870, 10,000-milliamp-hour battery, 120-hertz display. It's not cutting-edge, but it's a real tablet. Same with the watch and earbuds. They're not flagship-level accessories, but they're functional.

Luke

The watch is interesting because it has a lot of sensors—heart rate, blood oxygen, temperature. But the source doesn't say anything about the software or how useful those sensors actually are. Are they accurate? Is the health data actually useful? We don't know.

Mark

So the story here is really about Xiaomi trying to own multiple price points and product categories all at once.

Mimi

Exactly. They're not trying to compete on a single device. They're trying to be the brand you buy from for everything—your phone, your tablet, your watch, your earbuds.

Luke

Which is a real strategy, but it only works if the products are good and if they actually integrate well. The source material doesn't tell us either of those things.

  • Xiaomi entered the premium foldable arena with the MIX Fold 2, challenging established rivals with a Leica-tuned triple camera system and a razor-thin hinge design at a starting price of 8,999 yuan.
  • The Redmi K50 Ultra injects flagship-grade power — Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, 120W charging, and a 108MP camera — into a sub-3,000 yuan package, creating real pressure on mid-range competitors.
  • A simultaneous tablet, smartwatch, and earbuds launch signals that Xiaomi is not chasing individual device wins but building a tightly interlocked ecosystem designed to keep users within its orbit.
  • With prices spanning from 999 yuan for earbuds to 11,999 yuan for the top foldable, Xiaomi is deliberately leaving no market segment uncontested in China's fiercely competitive consumer electronics landscape.
  • All products are immediately available through Xiaomi's online store in China, translating announcement momentum directly into commercial action.

In a single sweeping announcement from China, Xiaomi placed itself at nearly every tier of the consumer technology market, from a Leica-partnered foldable phone to affordable earbuds — a reminder that in the modern era, a device maker's ambition is measured not by one product, but by the breadth of a connected ecosystem. The MIX Fold 2, priced from 8,999 yuan, represents Xiaomi's most refined statement yet in the premium foldable space, while the Redmi K50 Ultra and accompanying tablets and wearables signal the company's intent to weave itself into the daily rhythms of users at every income level. This August 2022 launch is less a product event than a declaration of strategic reach.

Xiaomi made a sweeping move across China's consumer electronics market this week, unveiling a full family of devices anchored by the MIX Fold 2 — its most ambitious foldable yet. Starting at 8,999 yuan, the MIX Fold 2 features a 6.56-inch outer AMOLED display and an 8.02-inch inner screen, both running at 120 hertz. It is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and carries a triple rear camera system co-designed with Leica, led by a 50-megapixel primary sensor with optical image stabilization. A 4,500mAh battery with 67-watt charging and Xiaomi's proprietary Micro Waterdrop Hinge round out the flagship package.

For buyers who want top-tier performance without the foldable price tag, the Redmi K50 Ultra delivers the same Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor in a conventional 6.7-inch OLED body. Its headline features include a 108-megapixel main camera, a 5,000mAh battery with blistering 120-watt fast charging, and Dolby Vision display support — all starting at 2,999 yuan.

Beyond phones, Xiaomi introduced the Pad 5 Pro 12.4 tablet with a large WQHD+ display and a 10,000mAh battery, priced from 2,999 yuan. The Watch S1 Pro smartwatch, offered at 1,499 yuan, brings a full sensor suite including temperature monitoring and wireless charging. The Buds 4 Pro earbuds close out the lineup at 999 yuan, offering active noise cancellation and rapid case charging.

Taken together, the launch is a deliberate statement of ecosystem ambition — Xiaomi is not competing in one category but constructing an interconnected web of devices designed to serve users from the moment they wake to the moment they sleep, at nearly every price point the market will bear.

Xiaomi rolled out a full lineup of new devices in China this week, staking its claim across multiple categories with a foldable phone at the premium end and more affordable options for budget-conscious buyers. The centerpiece is the MIX Fold 2, a foldable that starts at 8,999 yuan—roughly 106,200 rupees—for the base model with 12 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of storage. Step up to 512 gigabytes and you pay 9,999 yuan; the top-tier variant with a full terabyte of storage runs 11,999 yuan.

The MIX Fold 2 carries two AMOLED screens. The outer display measures 6.56 inches with a 120-hertz refresh rate and reaches 1,000 nits of brightness in high-brightness mode. Flip it open and you get an 8.02-inch inner display running at 120 hertz as well, capable of hitting 1,300 nits. Both are sharp—the inner screen delivers 2,160 by 1,914 pixels—and Xiaomi equipped the folding display with Gorilla Glass protection. The phone runs Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor paired with 12 gigabytes of LPDDR5 RAM. For photography, Xiaomi partnered with Leica to design a triple rear camera system: a 50-megapixel primary sensor with optical image stabilization and an f/1.8 aperture, an 8-megapixel telephoto lens, and a 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera. The front-facing camera is 20 megapixels. A 4,500-milliamp-hour battery powers the device with 67-watt charging. The hinge is Xiaomi's own design, called the Micro Waterdrop Hinge.

For those seeking a flagship without the foldable premium, Xiaomi's Redmi brand offers the K50 Ultra. The entry-level version—8 gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigabytes of storage—costs 2,999 yuan, or about 35,400 rupees. Moving up to 256 gigabytes runs 3,299 yuan; 12 gigabytes with 256 gigabytes is 3,599 yuan; and the top configuration of 12 gigabytes with 512 gigabytes reaches 3,999 yuan. There's also a Champion Edition variant with 12 gigabytes and 512 gigabytes priced at 4,199 yuan. The K50 Ultra uses the same Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor as the foldable. Its 6.7-inch OLED display runs at up to 120 hertz with 2,712 by 1,220 pixel resolution and supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+. The camera system includes a 108-megapixel main sensor, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide lens, and a 2-megapixel macro camera, with a 20-megapixel selfie camera up front. The phone packs a 5,000-milliamp-hour battery with 120-watt fast charging and carries an IP53 rating for dust and water resistance.

Xiaomi also introduced the Pad 5 Pro 12.4, a tablet with a 12.4-inch WQHD+ display running at 120 hertz. It's powered by a Snapdragon 870 processor with up to 12 gigabytes of RAM and 512 gigabytes of storage. The tablet has a 50-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front sensor, plus a 10,000-milliamp-hour battery with 67-watt charging. Pricing starts at 2,999 yuan for the base 6-gigabyte, 128-gigabyte model, climbs to 3,499 yuan for 8 gigabytes and 256 gigabytes, and tops out at 4,199 yuan for the 12-gigabyte, 512-gigabyte configuration. The tablet comes in black, silver, and forest green.

On the accessories side, Xiaomi launched the Watch S1 Pro smartwatch at 1,499 yuan for the silicone strap version and 1,599 yuan for leather. The watch features a 1.47-inch AMOLED display with 480 by 480 pixel resolution, water resistance to 5 atmospheres, and a suite of sensors including heart rate, blood oxygen, accelerometer, gyroscope, and temperature monitoring. It runs on Bluetooth 5.2 and includes a 500-milliamp-hour battery with wireless charging. The company also released the Buds 4 Pro TWS earbuds at 999 yuan. These offer nine hours of playback at 50 percent volume with noise cancellation off, or five hours with it on. A five-minute charge from the case yields three hours of playback. The earbuds support Bluetooth 5.3, have an IP54 rating, and come with three pairs of ear tips.

The entire lineup reflects Xiaomi's strategy of offering something for every price point and use case—from the cutting-edge foldable to the budget-friendly Redmi phone to the tablet and wearables that complete an interconnected ecosystem. All devices are available through Xiaomi's online store in China.

The MIX Fold 2 features Xiaomi's self-developed Micro Waterdrop Hinge for the folding mechanism.
— Xiaomi (via specifications)
The Redmi K50 Ultra offers 120-watt fast charging support, positioning it as a high-performance alternative to the premium foldable.
— Xiaomi (via product specifications)
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