Not even high phone prices can get you off true flagships and I'm not surprised

You can't always get what you want, as the Poet with the Prominent Lips once said (just another way of saying: Mick Jagger). In the smartphone realm, this profound revelation translates into millions of people window-shopping for the iPhone 18 Pro Max, for example.

Unless your predecessors have been big in the ancient art of banking or money lending, you get the phone you can (afford), not the phone you want (unless, you know, you want a $100 cheap and cheerful plastic toy).

But we don't always let price alone dictate our lives. Sometimes, price is not the most important feature of a flagship phone.

The votes are in

Recently, my colleague Adrian asked you, "Would you ever consider the Xiaomi 18 Pro or 18 Pro Max?" when these exotic beasts debuted.

Here's how you voted:

• With those specs and designs, absolutely. – 50.11%
• Yes, but only if they're not too expensive in my region. – 34.61%
• No, I'm sticking with Samsung. – 9.66%
• No, I'm sticking with Apple. – 2.92%
• No, I'm sticking with another brand. – 2.7%

Leaving aside those loyal phone users, I want to focus on the first two replies. Half of you say that the design and the specs of the Xiaomi 18 Pro can make you dream and switch.

Only a third of overall respondents are concerned about the price. The Xiaomi 18 Pro starts at ~$899 in China and that's not pocket change. If the phone makes it to the UK or the EU (you can leave all hopes for US release behind), the price will certainly be well over $1,000.

Yet the phone is so advanced that its price is not what bothers you the most. That's how you spot a phone aficionado.

Is the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max so special?

Apart from its uninspiring, bland and lazy moniker, the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max is a true-blooded flagship. It's got what it takes to take on any flagship today and then some.

It comes with a 6.9-inch AMOLED screen with up to 4000 nits of brightness, a 2.9-inch secondary AMOLED screen (also up to 4000 nits of brightness) on its back and the state-of-the-art Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 processor.

For photographers, it offers a 200 MP main camera, a 200 MP secondary periscope telephoto snapper, a 50 MP ultra-wide and a 50 MP selfie. To top it off, there's a massive 8,500 mAh battery with 100W wired, 50W wireless, and 27W reverse wireless charging speeds.

It's pretty, too

There's a transparent red variant of the Xiaomi 18 Pro and the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max and it's just stunning. As I've already argued, this is the best-looking 2026 smartphone in my book.

To me, the Red Transparent Edition strikes a nice balance between futuristic and refined. It has that cyberpunk feel without going full gamer aesthetic, mixing a bit of sci-fi flair with a surprisingly classy look.

More Xiaomi for you:

• Xiaomi Pad 9 Pro Max undercuts the iPad Pro 13-inch by more than half
• Xiaomi 18 Fold is official, and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 just lost a big bragging right
• Another Xiaomi phone made official with 10,000 mAh battery and ridiculously low price