The upcoming September is set to bring a wave of flagship smartphone launches. Not only will Apple unveil its first foldable iPhone and the iPhone 18 series, but five major domestic Chinese phone brands are also gearing up to release their new devices.
Apple announced on August 26 (local time) that it will hold a product launch event at its headquarters in California at 1 a.m. Beijing time on September 10. The event’s theme is “Surprise and shine.”
Renowned tech journalist Mark Gurman reported that Apple will introduce its first foldable iPhone at this event. Research firm IDC predicts that the foldable iPhone will help revitalize the foldable smartphone market, achieving shipments of over 10 million units in its first year.
Additionally, Apple plans to launch the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. These new models will feature faster chips, improved battery life, and major camera upgrades, with at least the larger model boasting a mechanical aperture. Products like the second-generation iPhone Air and the standard iPhone 18 will be held off until next spring.
Huawei’s new Mate series flagship is also expected to debut in September. According to information previously posted on the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s official website, a performance to celebrate the Huawei Terminal Haco launch event has been approved. The approval was granted on August 10, with the performance scheduled for September 23 at Hall 20 of the Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Center.
Several bloggers have indicated that this event corresponds to the Huawei Mate 90 series launch, suggesting that Huawei’s new Mate flagship will make its debut on September 23. The new device is rumored to be powered by a new Kirin chip based on the Tau (τ) Law, making it the first “Tau chip” phone.
Beyond the new Mate series phones, Richard Yu, Huawei’s Executive Director, Chairman of the Product Investment Review Committee, and Chairman of the Terminal BG, officially announced on August 25 that the HarmonyOS 7 and HUAWEI Mate XT 2 launch event is scheduled for September 7.
Xiaomi founder Lei Jun has dubbed September as Xiaomi’s “mega tech month.” The Xiaomi 18 Fold, the top-tier flagship of the Xiaomi 18 series, will debut with the new Xuanjie O3 AI flagship processor. It will be unveiled alongside the Xiaomi Pengcheng series early in the month, with the Xiaomi 18 Pro series following at the end of September.
Xiaomi recently held a technical briefing for its Xuanjie chips, launching three products at once: the Xuanjie O3 flagship SoC, the Xuanjie O100 AI accelerator chip, and the Xuanjie D100 smart driving chip.According to Zhu Dan, Xiaomi’s Vice President and Head of Chip Business, the Xuanjie O3 uses a 3nm process, has a chip area of 133mm², and integrates 24 billion transistors, a 26% increase over the previous generation.
On the other Android front, Honor teased the design of its annual flagship bar phone, the Honor Magic 9 series, at its Robot Phone launch event earlier this month. The company also confirmed that the Honor Magic 9 will be officially unveiled on September 28.
Han Boxiao, vivo’s product manager, announced on August 24 that the brand-new X500 series will meet consumers in September. The series includes three models: the X500, X500 Pro, and X500 Pro Max.
The new phones are positioned as professional imaging flagships. According to reports, the X500 Pro series will be the world’s first to feature the “ZEISS Ultra-Dynamic Main Camera,” exclusively co-developed by Blueprint and Sony, capable of delivering an industry-leading 17EV dynamic range. For video, the Blueprint Guangyu 900 chip also debuts support for 4K 240fps slow-motion and 4K 120fps HDR direct output.
OPPO’s latest flagship, the Find X10, hasn’t had an official release date announced yet, but it’s expected to launch in late September.
It’s worth noting that a key backdrop to this wave of new phones is the skyrocketing price of storage. So, whether new products will see price hikes and by how much has become a major focus for consumers.
Speaking at Huawei’s launch event earlier this month, Richard Yu stated, “With memory prices soaring, all phones may see significant price increases in the future. Otherwise, selling at current prices would mean selling at a loss.”
