Chinese smartphone makers are preparing to release phones with screen sizes around 7 inches, signaling a shift away from the recent brief obsession with ultra-compact flagship phones. According to industry insider Panda is Bald, Vivo is working on both a small tablet and a smartphone near 7 inches in size. Honor reportedly follows a similar strategy, developing a compact tablet, a large-format smartphone, and experimenting with wide-folding devices. Oppo is said to be moving in the same direction, developing a foldable phone with a wider aspect ratio.
Xiaomi is rumored to be launching a new foldable phone alongside a 7-inch model under its Redmi brand. Huawei, however, is taking a different path, reportedly building a large monoblock smartphone without any folding mechanism. This is notable because while foldables with internal displays between 7.6 and 8 inches have become more common, traditional smartphones approaching the 7-inch mark remain rare due to their bulky size and increased weight.
This wave of leaks aligns with how quickly the compact phone trend has fizzled out. Over the past two years, Chinese brands have released several smaller flagship models, including the Vivo X200 Pro mini and Oppo Find X8s, but these never caught on widely. Meanwhile, foldable smartphones continue to lead design trends-Samsung, Google, and Honor already offer foldables with internal displays from 7.6 to 8 inches, and Huawei has historically pushed unconventional form factors in its previous generations.
Panda is Bald has a solid track record for early leaks on Huawei Mate and Xiaomi lineups, although not all prototype concepts reach production unchanged. What’s intriguing here isn’t just the list of brands but the fact that five major manufacturers are simultaneously exploring larger monoblock phones alongside wide foldables. This appears less like a one-off experiment and more like a broader trend in Chinese Android devices. The first concrete confirmations or refutations will likely surface at fall and winter launches in 2026 when these brands roll out their next flagship lines.
For international readers, this move contrasts with how Apple and Samsung have approached screen sizes. Apple’s largest iPhones max out at around 6.7 inches, while Samsung’s foldables push beyond 7 inches but dominate the large-screen niche mostly through flexible display technology. The Chinese brands’ dual-track strategy-balancing bulky non-folding phones around 7 inches with wider foldables-could set a new standard for Android device form factors next year.
Chinese brands’ dual-track smartphone strategy
As the race heats up, watch how these 7-inch smartphones handle the trade-offs between display size, device weight, and ergonomics. Will traditional slab phones regain appeal in this larger format, or will foldables continue to define big-screen Android innovation? The answers will shape the high-end smartphone landscape well into 2026.