Xiaomi 18 Pro Max vs iPhone 18 Pro Max: Xiaomi is taking on Apple’s biggest flagship with the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max, building on the approach it took with last year’s Xiaomi 17 Pro Max. The new model brings an 8,500mAh battery, 100W wired charging, a 2nm Snapdragon chip and two 200MP Leica cameras.
The iPhone 18 Pro Max counters with Apple’s A20 Pro chip, a new variable-aperture main camera, a larger battery and iOS 27.
Techloy compared the two phones across design, display, performance, cameras, battery, software and features.
Xiaomi 18 Pro Max vs iPhone 18 Pro Max: Design
The iPhone 18 Pro Max measures 163.4mm tall, 78mm wide and 8.75mm thick. It weighs 249 grams and has an aluminium unibody with Ceramic Shield 2 on the front and back. It also includes the Action button and Camera Control.
The Xiaomi 18 Pro Max is thinner at 8.39mm and lighter at 235 grams. It has an aluminium frame, glass back and IP68 rating.
Its standout feature is a 2.9-inch display built into the rear camera module. The screen can show notifications and application cards and can also work as a viewfinder for selfies using the main cameras.
Techloy gives Xiaomi the edge here because of its lighter, thinner body and rear display.
Display and performance
Both phones have 6.9-inch displays with adaptive 120Hz refresh rates.
The iPhone uses a Super Retina XDR OLED panel with a 2868×1320 resolution, 460 ppi and up to 3,000 nits of peak brightness. Xiaomi uses a 6.9-inch LTPO AMOLED display with a 1208×2624 resolution, 12-bit colour and up to 4,000 nits of brightness.
The iPhone 18 Pro Max is powered by the 2nm A20 Pro chip, while the Xiaomi uses Qualcomm’s 2nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, which can reach up to 5GHz. Xiaomi also offers up to 16GB of RAM and a new cooling system.
Techloy describes the performance comparison as broadly even.
Xiaomi 18 Pro Max vs iPhone 18 Pro Max: Cameras
The iPhone 18 Pro Max has three 48MP rear cameras, including a new Fusion Main camera with variable aperture. It also supports 4K video at 120fps, Dolby Vision HDR and ProRes.
Xiaomi uses a Leica-tuned triple-camera setup with a 200MP main camera, 200MP periscope telephoto and 50MP ultra-wide. The telephoto camera offers 3.2x optical zoom and up to 12.8x lossless zoom.
Techloy gives the iPhone the advantage for its image processing, colour consistency and video capabilities, while noting Xiaomi’s higher-resolution telephoto camera and Leica tuning.
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Battery and price
Xiaomi has a much larger 8,500mAh silicon-carbon battery, along with 100W wired, 50W wireless and 27W reverse charging.
The iPhone has a 5,567mAh battery in eSIM-only models and 5,391mAh in physical-SIM models. It supports up to 25W MagSafe and Qi2 wireless charging, with wired charging of around 60W.
Techloy gives Xiaomi the edge for battery and charging.
In China, the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max starts at ¥6,999, or about $1,043, for 12GB+256GB. The iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at $1,299 in the US for 256GB.
Xiaomi has confirmed a global launch, but did not specify its international launch timing or pricing.
