There's a new casualty of the global NAND flash memory shortage: CMF's next phone. The current CMF Phone 2 Pro offers stunning value for money, being one of very few phones to offer a telephoto camera module in a phone priced at less than $300/£250. That phone launched in April 2025, so we were eagerly awaiting the follow-up - the CMF Phone 3 Pro - to drop very soon.

Sadly that won't now happen, as Nothing’s co-founder Akis Evangelidis has confirmed the phone has been scrapped:

“…with memory prices where they are right now, we can't build a phone that feels like a genuine step forward at a price that makes sense for CMF.”

That said, he goes on to say that other new CMF products are still planned, including some “entirely new categories”. Whether that means a new CMF phone at a higher price point is coming remains to be seen, though such a product would be risky, as a higher-priced CMF phone would potentially encroach on Nothing's market segment. So as it stands, don't expect a new sub $300 CMF phone any time soon, as the RAM crisis is showing no sign of abating.

Why is flash memory in such short supply? It's all thanks to the proliferation of AI. AI data processing centers devour high-bandwidth memory and fast SSD storage, causing AI companies to buy up huge stocks of solid state memory. This in turn is having a knock-on effect in other sectors that require DRAM and NAND flash memory, such as the memory card, portable storage, and even phone industries. These sectors have to fight for the remaining memory stock after the AI tech giants have paid top dollar to fuel their data centers. And when demand is high, prices go up. When you then have a budget product like the CMF Phone 3 Pro that must meet a strict price point, the only option is to discontinue the product, as hiking the retail price to cover the increased component cost isn't an option.

According to the most well-known Apple-gossip source, Mark Gurman, the company's incoming CEO, John Ternus, will be trying to bring back the company's sense of cool by focusing on the look and feel of products.

Cameras are set to be a huge part of that new wave of cool, too, apparently. One of the drivers of that cool will be AirPods with cameras in them (see Gurman's pay-walled story for Bloomberg).

Other leakers have nicknamed called these 'AirPods Ultra', including YouTuber Matt Talks Tech, as you can see below:

They're in development now, although they are not expected to arrive until 2027. They are one of three significant new product categories we’re expecting, which are all perceived as relatively new and exciting – and that Apple has, until now, kept out of.

The others are folding phones and smart camera glasses (as opposed to the sophisticated Vision Pro) – both of which are, of course, camera-equipped.

Personally, I do tend to buy Apple products – I'm well into the ecosystem – and I enjoyed trying the Vision Pro, but I didn't find myself reaching into my pocket for the large sum of cash to buy something I wouldn't actually use.

Sure, the equivalently-priced MacBook Pro wasn't revolutionary – but it does a lot more of what I actually need to do, day to day, and I don't see that changing for a while.

But smart glasses like those from Meta are a price that people can comfortably reach and – thanks to piggy-backing on the Ray-Ban brand – are definitely cool. So it's easy to see why Apple would see the need to compete there.

As for the last one of the three, there are already a good number of folding phones on the market – and have been for quite some time.

We were expecting Apple to launch one this September, also rumored to be called the iPhone Ultra, as software developers have found evidence in the next version of iOS.

The Independent has reported, however, that the production line now suggests the phone is more likely to arrive in early 2027 – and cost over $2,000.

That follows news from Apple – discreetly left in the hands of the outgoing CEO – that all iPhone prices will be on the rise, too.

Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal that prices would “inevitably” rise with the arrival of the iPhone 18. The company traditionally launches a new phone every September, but what is being called an ‘AI boom’ is pushing up the prices of computer chips.

Now, personally, I wasn't that sure about a folding phone anyway. I really want to be convinced that the screen isn't going to be damaged or full of dust. But now I'm starting to worry about my wallet, too!

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Can't wait until 2027? Check our guides to the best camera glasses and the best folding phones.

It's been rumored that Apple could be planning to reduce the size of the iPhone’s dynamic island by around 50% for the iPhone 18 Pro, shrinking its width from 20.76mm down to 13.49mm. This would help enlarge the overall screen area of the iPhone's display, although even at this shrunken size, the island would still considerably wider than the tiny selfie camera punch holes now sported by the vast majority of Android phones. As for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max's other island - the camera island - that's expected to remain the same as on the iPhone 17 Pro, stretching the full width of the rear panel.

We’ve not yet had any compelling tips that suggest changes to the image sensors in the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. Instead, there have been persistent rumors that Apple could be planning to fit a variable aperture lens to the iPhone 18 Pro's primary camera. Sounds intriguing, but I remain sceptical that this will have a significant impact on image quality. Several Android phones have previously used variable aperture lenses, but they've yet to really make an impact. With a camera phone, you almost always want as much light as possible to reach the sensor, meaning the aperture will always be set at its widest. Narrowing the aperture does theoretically give you more depth of field, but the small 1/1.28" image sensor in the iPhone 17 Pro's primary camera already produces a large depth of field by virtue of being relatively small. There will be very few scenarios where you'd need to stop down the lens to increase depth of field still further, especially as this would also require longer shutter speeds and/or increased ISO sensitivity, and therefore more image noise.

Another report claims the next iPhone Pro and Pro Max could receive LPTO+ displays. These OLED panels utilize IGZO (Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide) transistors to help lower display power consumption, while also increasing refresh rates. The tech enables granular control over the current sent to each OLED pixel, so the display can better adapt its power consumption to on-screen content. It's also claimed that the iPhone 18 might be one of the first phones to feature Samsung's latest M16 OLED screen technology, which promise better brightness, power efficiency, and more accurate colors.

iOS 27 is expected to bring numerous improvements to Siri, including a new Siri AI mode for the Camera app, while Image Playground may be able to create wallpaper backgrounds based on your prompts.

The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are due to launch in September, assuming Apple follows its usual release schedule. Pricing is rumored to rise due to increasing costs in the component supply chain, most notably that of NAND flash memory, but it's also claimed that the cost of a variable aperture camera lens could be much as 50% higher than the fixed aperture glass used in current iPhones.

Story credit: Phone Arena

There's a hot new acronym in the world of camera sensors: LOFIC. Standing for ‘Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor’, the tech is said to increase dynamic range by enabling a sensor to store extra charge from intense highlight saturation when a scene is being exposed. This can then be rendered in the captured image, where otherwise the data would have been clipped, thereby over-exposing the corresponding areas in the image. The result is what's being called ‘ultra-high dynamic range’, achieved without traditional multi-exposure techniques, which have the potential to introduce artefacts when shooting moving subjects.

Until now LOFIC has only been connected to Samsung image sensors, specifically the ISOCELL HP6, which has previously been rumored to appear in the forthcoming Galaxy S27 Ultra. But while that's still just a rumor, Sony has now revealed a new LOFIC-enabled sensor of its own: LYTIA L910. This is a 50 megapixel 1/1.28 stacked CMOS chip capable of high-quality video recording at 4K 60 fps, even when shooting in HDR.

In addition to its LOFIC ability, the L910 also employs Triple Conversion Gain-HDR (TCG-HDR) technology, which is said to read out the charge obtained from a single exposure at three different conversion gains. This further reduces highlight over exposure in bright areas of a scene, along with noise in shadows and mid-tones. Furthermore, Sony's Ultra High Conversion Gain (UHCG) circuits technology is claimed to reduce random noise by approximately 30% compared to Sony's more conventional LYTIA 828 image sensor.

With all these technologies combined, Sony states that the LYTIA 910 can achieve 100 dB high dynamic range images with a single exposure - that equates to 16.6 stops - and with it the ability to easily preview images in HDR quality on a phone screen. Power consumption is also said to be reduced thanks to a reduction in the time required for analog-to-digital signal conversion, which should result in lower battery consumption for phones.

Sony says the LYTIA L910 will be available to camera phone manufacturers in summer 2026, which presumably means its arrival must be imminent. However, we’ll likely have to wait several more months before those first phones actually materialize.

There seems to be two constants in the tech world at the moment: anything requiring NAND flash (memory cards, SSDs, etc.) is getting more expensive, and Samsung seems to be doing its very best not to give us significant camera hardware upgrades in each new Galaxy S-series generation.

There has been precious little camera hardware innovation in recent S Ultra phones. I've recently written a lengthy critique of this, suggesting that it may not be unreasonable to propose that if Samsung's flagship phones continue to stagnate, it could potentially lead to the downfall of high-end Samsung camera phones. Well, now rumors are claiming that the base Galaxy S27, due early next year, may also not get any significant camera upgrades.

In a tip from Lanzuk on Naver Blog, it's claimed that the vanilla S27 is unlikely to receive camera or display upgrades due to there being no notable development activity in the component supply chain. Component cost increases could also be a factor here, as phones also rely on NAND flash, which as we know is now considerably more costly than around a year ago. In order to bring the S27 in at an acceptable price point, it's possible screen and hardware upgrades have been omitted in order to compensate for the increased cost of flash memory.

If we do get the same camera set-up as in the current S26, then expect a 50 MP 1/1.56" primary camera fronted by a 24mm f/1.8 lens, teamed with a 10 MP 1/3.94" telephoto module giving 3x optical zoom, and a 12 MP 1/2.55" 13mm-equivalent ultrawide camera.

Obviously please take this very early speculation with a generous helping of salt. We don't expect to see the Galaxy S27 launch until February or March next year, so there's still plenty of time for Samsung to change course on this, and I for one hope it does, although I won't be betting on it.

According to Mark Gurman from Bloomberg, the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro could get “the biggest leap in camera hardware” in some time. We're unable to see if there's any detail behind that claim as the article is paywalled, but at this stage the iPhone 18's exact hardware details will still be closely guarded anyway. The most widely rumored upgrade has been the addition of a variable aperture lens for the primary camera. While potentially useful in a few scenarios - being able to increase depth of field in macro shots, for instance - it's hard to argue that this would constitute a "big leap" in camera hardware. I've gone into much more detail about why a variable aperture lens really isn't a big deal in camera phones here. A physically larger, higher resolution sensor for the primary camera would be much more noteworthy, but I wonder whether Apple would want to move away from using 48MP sensors across all three modules just yet.

It's also been speculated that the iPhone 18 Pro's telephoto camera could receive a larger aperture lens. The 48MP 1/2.55" sensor was new for the iPhone 17 Pro, so that may well be carried over for the '18 Pro, but replacing the current f/2.8 lens with something faster would result in quicker shutter speeds, which is always a good thing when shooting at long focal lengths. However, what will likely be a small increase in aperture is also nothing like a leap in camera hardware. A more impressive hardware change for the telephoto camera would be to increase its zoom. Due to switching to the larger 48MP sensor for the iPhone 17 Pro's telephoto module, zoom was reduced to 4x (down from 5x in the '16 Pro). For context, the Oppo Find X9 Ultra (which is almost the same price as an equivalent iPhone 17 Pro Max) sports a 10x telephoto camera, with a sensor only marginally smaller than that in the iPhone's 4x telephoto module.

Other rumors point to the iPhone 18 Pro potentially having exclusive, pro-focussed camera software features. Quite what these could be is unknown - Apple already reserves its ProRAW image capture for iPhone Pro models. The speculation suggests that Apple "is looking to give the built-in camera app on its smartphone an upgrade...the existing iPhone camera app contains mostly basic controls."

A big leap in camera hardware for the iPhone 18 Pro would be very welcome though. Recent iPhone generations have offered incremental improvements where rival Android flagships, most notably those from Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo, have pushed camera hardware forward at a far more rapid pace. It's about time the iPhone started being revolutionary again, not merely evolutionary.

Story credit: 9 to 5 Mac

You may not have heard of Core Image RAW – but if you've shot or opened a RAW photo on an iPhone, you've already used it. Now, the software that Apple uses to process RAW photos is getting a key upgrade to reduce noise.

Apple has announced the latest updates to Core Image RAW, the software that processes RAW images taken on iPhones and handles RAW processing in Apple image editing tools. This software is used everywhere from the native Photos app to some third-party apps like Pixelmator Pro.

Core Image RAW 9 was announced in a YouTube video released earlier this week, and is slated for rollout as part of macOS 27 and iOS 27 across Apple devices and image editing apps in September of this year.

The major upgrade is the software’s ability to de-noise RAW images, now heavily driven by machine learning (ML).

By infusing ML, an artificial intelligence (AI) model, into demosaicing – the process of ensuring all image pixels contain the colors red, green, and blue – RAW files appear drastically less grainy, and unwanted color artifacts are reduced.

Above: Apple imaging engineer explains the updates coming with Core Image RAW 9

In the video, Apple imaging engineer David Hayward presents several examples demonstrating the denoising power of Core Image RAW 9, but it’s the close-up image of crayons that most impresses me.

First we see the image rendered with the previous Core Image RAW 8 model, which relies on traditional, hand-tuned algorithms for demosaicing. Then we see the same image processed by the latest software version.

To my eye, the results are significantly better, with fine details becoming much clearer and grain drastically reduced, albeit with some slight softening.

Above: swipe to see Apple Core Image RAW Version 8 vs Version 9

Core Image RAW 9 is the eighth upgrade Apple has made to its RAW processing engine, with the stack of programs currently able to process RAW files captured on 846 cameras across all the major brands.

While version 9 of the processing engine is more resource-intensive for devices, iPhone photographers and people who edit RAW files in Apple applications can expect much crisper images.

In the video, which came out as Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2026 kicked off, Hayward also mentions that activating Core Image RAW 9 requires making some slight adjustments to the underlying code of some image editing apps.

However, he doesn’t state whether this will be the case once the latest iOS and macOS versions are released later this year.

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At WWDC Apple announced Spatial Refeaming, one of two new imaging tools for its iOS 27 operating system used on iPhones and iPads.

The other significant AI update was AI generative improvements to the photo editing, but the idea of being able to move the camera after taking the picture.

Rather than just AI reframing that extends the image – such as many of us have become used to in Photoshop – what Apple showed was a feature that allowed the camera to be re-positioned around the subject, with the AI re-shaping the subject using AI, and generating a suitable background generated using AI.

You can see the effect working in this example from Apple. For an example of the extend that AI is involved, look closely at the boy’s legs, and you’ll see that it has clearly created a 3D model and adjusted the image according to the spatial position that the camera would be in.

However, current iPhone users will have experienced a feature a little like this before – I know I have. Above, my wife is holding her phone with one of our wedding pictures as the background. When she chose it iOS 26 automatically added layers of depth unprompted.

The effect is more subtle, but it's effective; the AI correctly picked her and I out from the elements of the background that are further behind (the door) and kept us more or less at the same apparent distance as the flower arch, and the effect is shown whenever you tilt the phone.

So everyone is getting rightly excited about the progression – but I woudlnt' call it 'new'.

Apple also mentioned in passing that AI generation will be used to turn panoramas into Spatial Scenes for the Vision Pro, but presumably, given the product’s relatively low sales this clever bit of AI didn’t warrant a lot of discussion at the WWDC announcement!

iPhone users will likely be a lot more excited by the news that photos will load “up to” 70% faster and AirDrop will be 80% faster, with work on the CPU scheduler that should make even older phones (as far back as the iPhone 11) faster.

Check our guide to the best iPhone for photography and the best camera phones.

The launch of the new iPhone 18 is likely only a 3-4 months away, and the rumor mill is spinning up with chatter about what camera hardware it may ship with. The latest tip reiterates previous speculation that the iPhone 18 could feature a variable aperture lens for its primary camera module. The rumor comes from respected industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, though it has also been reported by a separate source in Apple's supply chain.

In the current climate where phone manufacturers often prefer AI image processing improvements over camera hardware upgrades, the news that Apple could be developing a new lens for its next iPhone seems welcome. However, I remain to be convinced that such a feature will have a noticeable improvement to camera usability or image quality.

A variable lens aperture is essential in a lens designed for a conventional, large-sensor camera like a full-frame DSLR or mirrorless body. This is because the larger the sensor, the shallower the depth of field at a given aperture. With a full-frame camera, if you want a subject close to the camera and a more distant background to both be in focus, you'll need to significantly reduce the lens aperture. But shrink the sensor down to 1/1.28" - the size of the sensor in the iPhone 17 Pro's primary camera - and, even at the module's native f/1.8 aperture, there'll still be a huge depth of field.

As background detail is almost always clearly visible behind a subject snapped by a camera phone, we've seen the implementation of portrait modes which use software processing to artificially blur background. The aim here is to emulate the shallow depth of field effect you 'naturally' get from a large-sensor camera/wide-aperture lens combination.

So if a camera phone is inherently good at producing a deep depth of field, there's little reason for having a lens with a variable lens aperture. You may as well fix the aperture to be as large as possible to get the maximum amount of light through to the sensor, thereby keeping shutter speeds high and ISO sensitivity low - the ideal recipe for sharp, low-noise shots. Having a variable aperture lens sounds impressive, but the benefits are few and far between when it comes to real world use in a camera phone.

What's more, a variable aperture lens could actually be a bad thing for iPhone 18 buyers. Kuo's tip also states that a variable aperture lens could costs as much as 50% more than the current fixed aperture glass used in current iPhones. At a time when flagship phones are likely to increase in price on account of continual rises in the cost of flash memory, paying even more for an iPhone in order to get a new camera lens with limited practical benefit is a bitter pill to swallow.

Story credit: 9 to 5 Mac

An excellent article by PetaPixel highlights how Samsung produces some of the world's most advanced image sensors, yet opts to equip its latest phones like the S26 Ultra with ageing sensor hardware. Not only that, it's also happy to provide rival phone manufacturers with newer sensors than it uses in its own products, thereby giving the competition a hardware advantage. It seems like a baffling business decision - to voluntarily hamstring your own products while simultaneously supplying your rivals with more modern tech - but this is exactly the position Samsung has chosen.

PetaPixel's interview with a Samsung Senior Executive reveals several reasons for the brand's reluctance to use its own cutting-edge image sensors in its flagship phones, but none are particularly convincing. The gist is that Samsung has stuck with the same 200 megapixel ISOCELL HP2 sensor since the S23 Ultra as it is tried and tested hardware that provides a stable, known baseline for Samsung to develop its AI image enhancement. According to Samsung, the physical sensor is only one piece in a much bigger picture: “What ultimately matters are the results. Our approach is focused on delivering consistent, high-quality performance for real-world use cases, and we’re confident our customers will be very happy.”

There is something to be said for this approach. In conventional cameras the image sensor is a major component that has a huge influence on image quality, but equipping a new camera phone with the latest and greatest image sensor isn't quite so important. This is due to a phone's immensely powerful image processing, which has the power to turn an old or mediocre sensor into an imaging powerhouse. Google proved this in past generations of Pixel phones: the Pixel 2, 3, 4 and 5 all used the same 1/2.55" 12.2MP sensor, yet image quality consistently improved with each phone generation, mostly thanks to better processing. Samsung has also followed this model, leaning heavily on AI to boost the image quality of the last few generations of S Ultra phones. There can be no doubt that this approach has yielded positive results, even in spite of Samsung's negligible improvements to camera hardware over the same time period. But the question is: is Samsung doing enough? The S26 Ultra is undoubtedly an excellent camera phone, but the competition is fierce, and like Samsung, they're bringing AI and advanced image processing to the fight. What’s more, those rivals are also embracing cutting-edge camera hardware.

It could be argued that Samsung phones don't need to be at the forefront of camera hardware any more. After all, iPhones rarely blaze a trail in this respect, and that doesn't seem to hurt sales. Google also follows a similarly conservative approach with Pixel camera hardware, again with positive results. However, Samsung isn't in quite such a privileged position as those brands. Apple's carefully curated iOS ecosystem and its steadfastly loyal consumers place the iPhone outside of Samsung's - or indeed any Android phone brand's - competitive reach. Pixel isn't quite so untouchable, but Google has managed to carve a slightly Apple-esque niche, positioning Pixel as the 'pure Android' experience. Granted, there will also be a large number of users loyal to Samsung's One UI interface, but I'd wager there's a greater percentage of Samsung users who'd be willing to jump ship to an alternative Android phone brand than there are iPhone or Pixel users ready to defect.

And when you consider the quality of phones which are ready to tempt Samsung users away from the brand, things start to look decidedly shaky for the Korean giant. I've recently been using the new Oppo Find X9 Ultra, which in 12GB/512GB guise costs the same as the equivalent Galaxy S26 Ultra. But when it comes to camera hardware, it’s clear which phone is superior. Sure, both have a 200MP sensor for their primary cameras, but where Samsung is still using its dated ISOCELL HP2 chip, Oppo has implemented a bang-up-to-date Sony LYT-901 sensor, which is also usefully larger in size. The Find X9 Ultra also packs a bigger sensor for its ultrawide module, but its telephoto hardware where Oppo really blows Samsung into the weeds. Where the S26 Ultra has to make do with a tiny 1/3.94" 10MP sensor for its 3x telephoto camera, the Find X9 Ultra boasts a huge 200MP, 1/1.28" chip behind its 3x lens. For context, that's physically larger than the sensor in the S26 Ultra's main camera. Both phones use a 50MP sensor for their long-range telephoto modules, and here the S26 Ultra's sensor is marginally larger than Oppo's. However, that's only because Samsung's optical zoom tops out at just 5x, whereas the Find X9 Ultra can achieve a 10x, 230mm-equivalent reach.

Then there's Oppo's close collaboration with Hasselblad, which results in Hasselblad Master Mode: a whole suite of film-style pre-sets, extensive manual control options, and a more natural photo aesthetic that convincingly emulates the image quality from the brand's medium format cameras.

What's more, it's not just the internal camera hardware where brands like Oppo are showing a clean pair of heels to Samsung. Where you could be forgiven for mistaking the S26 Ultra for one of Samsung's mainstream A-series phones, the Find X9 Ultra is a bespoke design that adopts numerous Hasselblad design cues and consequently looks like nothing else on the market - it feels like a truly special device in the hand. And if you want to stand out from the crowd even more, there's the Find X9 Ultra Hasselblad Earth Explorer Kit. This includes a Hasselblad-inspired case and grip with integrated 2-stage camera shutter button and a physical zoom rocker. The case can then be fitted with a gorgeous Hasselblad telephoto lens to give 300mm of optical zoom, increasing to 690mm when using a combination of optical zoom and on-sensor cropping.

Obviously the S26 Ultra does still have a lot going for it, but when it comes down to camera hardware and camera innovation, Oppo, along with other Chinese brands like Vivo and Xiaomi, are producing flagship phones with significantly more wow factor than the S26 Ultra offers. Right now this doesn't seem to be hurting Samsung - its decades of global phone dominance, along with the huge power of the wider Samsung empire - means it hardly needs to alter the S Ultra recipe for a new generation to be a sales hit. But seemingly invincible phone brands have been toppled before. Nokia's demise can largely be attributed to the disruptive market influence of the iPhone, along with cornering itself into a reliance on the doomed Symbian OS. Its death wasn't due to the kind of stagnating design innovation that we're seeing from Samsung, but the Nokia case study does at least serve as a warning that even an industry giant can fall. A more pertinent comparison to Samsung's current position is that of HTC. Once a major player in the Android phone sector, with flagships like the HTC One M7 and M8 being widely considered to be the best camera phones of their period, the HTC brand seemed to disappear almost overnight. There were multiple reasons for this, but one major factor was lacklustre design and innovation: HTC appeared to rest on its laurels after the One M8, with subsequent flagships offering little in the way of meaningful improvements. Sound familiar?

Now, I'm not suggesting Samsung is on the brink of collapse due to its last few generations of S Ultra being mildly underwhelming. But there is only so long it can keep recycling the same camera hardware and tired design language when the Chinese brands are innovating in these areas so relentlessly, while also bringing their flagship phones to market for the same or less money than Samsung charges. If Samsung continues to play it safe like this, it’s only a matter of time before customers of its flagship phones are tempted away to more enticing options, at which point the brand may find it very difficult to win them back.

Despite making some of the best camera phones over the last several years, Vivo still might not be a name familiar to many in the Western hemisphere. Vivo’s previous top-end phones have rarely made it outside of Asia, with the brand focusing on more budget devices in Europe. However, that is on its way to improving with the Vivo X300 Ultra, which will be launching in select European markets.

And the X300 Ultra arrives as another serious best camera phone contender. It brings a top-end 35mm main camera, a 14mm ultrawide, an 85mm telephoto, 8K video, 4K up to 120p, 10-bit Log recording, Dolby Vision, powerful stabilization, and optional 200mm and 400mm telephoto adapters that make the whole setup feel closer to a camera system.

That does not mean it is an easy recommendation. The price is high, and the full setup only gets more expensive once the optional accessories are added. But in stills, it is one of the most enjoyable camera phones I have used this year, and when it comes to video, it might be the first Android phone I have tested that feels like a genuinely convincing iPhone rival.

Specifications

Price & Availability

Despite this being the widest release yet for a Vivo Ultra phone, that still doesn't include the US or the UK; however, European buyers can get their hands on the phone. The kicker is that it is almost certainly too expensive to really recommend. The phone is launching for €1,999, which is a huge premium over devices like the excellent Xiaomi 17 Ultra and Oppo Find X9 Ultra.

It’s not like the price is completely unjustified. The 35mm main camera, 85mm telephoto, and 14mm ultrawide are all serious modules that produce fantastic photos and the best video I have seen from a phone.

But as good a phone as the Vivo X300 Ultra is, I am just not sure I can justify paying the same as a decent camera system, which, try as it might, the X300 Ultra does not outcompete. Optional accessories like the photography case and telephoto lenses that make this phone a truly great alternative to cameras push the full creator setup considerably higher.

Design

The Vivo X300 Ultra is a good-looking, if very minimalist, phone. I tested the black version, and while it is clean and understated, it is also a little too simple for a flagship Ultra phone. Other colors and finishes, particularly the green and white options, look more interesting, but even then, I am not convinced the X300 Ultra has the kind of design identity that immediately screams “top-tier camera phone.”

Overall, the design feels a little uninspired. But that is not to say it feels uninteresting – it does not. The phone has a very premium finish, feels really nice and solid in the hand, it has IP68 and IP69 dust and water resistance, and a large 6.82-inch flat display, but visually it does not feel as special as its camera hardware deserves.

The camera bump is very large, around the same diameter as the Oppo Find X9 Ultra and Xiaomi 17 Ultra, but it is noticeably deeper. The phone is slightly top-heavy with that big camera bump, but it is still relatively well balanced. A minor complaint, but the hard edge and overall size of the camera island also meant it caught slightly on my jeans pocket. A more tapered edge would help it slide in and out more easily.

Vivo has not added a dedicated camera button, which I don’t mind at all, as I rarely, if ever, use them. I think they often exist more for chasing Apple than for practical shooting. You can double-tap volume down to open the camera, which is enough for me. I would, however, have liked a separate action button for a quick setting such as alerts, translate, or flashlight, as we have seen on Apple, Oppo, and Honor phones recently.

The display is a beautiful display; it’s a 6.82-inch 2K Zeiss Master Color Display that sports a 144Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, SGS Low Blue Light certification, and TÜV Rheinland flicker-free certification. It is a large, sharp, smooth screen, and Vivo’s eye comfort features are welcome for long editing or shooting sessions.

Accessories

The real design interest comes from the optional camera kit. I am really not a fan of the shiny silver finish. It is certainly eye-catching, but I would much rather it were more discreet while I am shooting. The disappointment is that the case itself feels a bit plastic and cheap, especially compared with Oppo’s new Find X9 Ultra camera case. There was also some minor wobble on the case’s ring mounts and handgrip, which adds to the slightly less premium feeling. At this kind of level, I would like a little more polish.

So Oppo and Xiaomi’s cases might look and feel better, but I think Vivo’s is the most functional. The diamond-pattern grip is nice and grippy, and the deep handle makes the phone feel far more like a real camera. The manual controls are also genuinely useful, with zoom, flash, exposure compensation, record, and a two-stage shutter button all available.

I tested both the second-generation 200mm and new 400 lenses; both the teleconverter lenses themselves feel much more premium than the case they slot into, with solid metal bodies and mounts. I do wish, like the case, they came in black option as well as the silver. They are large, especially the 400mm equivalent lens, but still nowhere near the size of a real 400mm camera lens and smaller than Oppo’s new 300mm accessory.

The 67mm filter attachment is a major plus; it makes the X300 Ultra much easier to take seriously as a video phone, because ND filters are essential for controlling shutter speed in bright conditions with camera lenses fixed apertures. Vivo has also partnered with SmallRig to produce a Pro Video Rig Kit with control buttons, a grip handle, a back plate, a cooling fan, cold shoe mounts, and 1/4-inch mounting – although I unfortunately don't have this to test out.

Camera Performance

The Vivo X300 Ultra’s camera system is unusual because it does not follow the standard phone camera formula. Instead of a very wide main camera around 23mm or 24mm, Vivo has gone for a 35mm main camera. I actually like 35mm as a native focal length. It can be a little harder to work with in tight spaces, and it is a big jump from the 14mm ultrawide, but it gives photos a more natural and pleasing perspective.

The 35mm lens is dubbed by the marketing department as the “Zeiss Documentary Camera”. With 1-inch sensors in phones seemingly falling out of fashion again, it uses a 200MP Sony LYTIA 901 sensor, with a still pretty large 1/1.12-inch format paired with an f/1.85 aperture. The lens also gets a Zeiss T* coating to reduce ghosting and flare.

In practice, the main camera quality is very good. Sharpness is strong, there is lots of detail, and the 50mm and 70mm equivalent crop options hold up really well, with no perceptible loss in quality to my eye anyway. I like the look of Vivo’s images in the Zeiss natural color mode; lighting is well balanced with colors looking true-to-life. If you are looking for a little more pop, then there is also a vivid mode (which is actually the default camera style), as well as numerous other styles to stylise images or attempt to mimic film with some mixed results.

However, Vivo’s processing is still a little too sharp and HDR for my taste. Vivo does include a Raw Lighting setting, which, when switched on, should reduce some of the sharpening, HDR, and other processing that makes phone images look, well, processed. Raw lighting does make a welcome difference; I do prefer the overall feel of images with this setting on, although it doesn’t magically make images look any less like they are shot on a phone. I think Xiaomi's Leica Authentic profile or Oppo's Hasselblad Master Mode both do a better job of making photos look a little more camera-like.

Night photos are very good. The X300 Ultra retains lots of detail and rarely needs to kick into long exposure mode to produce a usable result. That said, night images can show slight oversharpening, and Vivo’s processing tries a little too hard to brighten the scene rather than allowing natural depth in the shadows. I often found myself dragging exposure compensation down to make my photos a little more atmospheric.

I am never really a fan of an ultrawide camera, but the 14mm ultrawide is one of the best I have used on any phone. This is made all the more important as the jump from 14mm to 35mm is significant, and on a weaker ultrawide, that would leave a real gap. Here, the 50MP sensor gives enough quality that you can crop into ultrawide images somewhat without losing too much detail – although don’t expect miracles.

The lens also controls aberrations and color casts really well, which is also not usually a strength of most ultrawides, and it is one of the cleanest I have seen on a phone. Vivo says the ultrawide uses Zeiss T* coating, Multi-ALD low-reflection coating, and Super Blue Glass.

The 85mm telephoto lens is outstanding, and despite the 35mm giving it a very good run, it's the standout stills camera for me. It features a 200MP sensor, with a 1/1.4-inch size, APO optics, and what Vivo says (and I’m inclined to agree with) is gimbal-grade stabilization. All this translates into images that are sharp and detailed, with great lighting and color.

Macro is excellent too. Vivo uses the 3x lens for macro rather than the ultrawide, which gives the right perspective for close-up work. The blur looks pretty genuine, more like a proper camera than the distorted ultrawide macro modes used by some rivals.

Portrait mode is one of the best on any phone right now; it did really well cutting out subjects, although it still had some minor issues with flyaway hair. The results looked natural, and what I liked most was that Vivo softened the edges in a way that made the transition to the background look more like natural falloff rather than a computational cutout that can make the subject look composited onto the background.

Zooming in, the 170mm crops are excellent and look optically close to lossless. Beyond 170mm, the X300 Ultra relies on in-sensor cropping and then generative AI to boost longer-range images. Vivo’s SuperZoom is among the best in the business; up to around 600mm images without too much complication are sharp and natural-looking, although lots of detail does start to look squiggly. After this, you can see the effects of AI kicking in with a more smoothened texture and loss of fine detail. It is very good, although it is still outclassed by the optical power of the Oppo Find X9 Ultra’s 10x lens.

Where the Vivo fights back is with its teleconverter accessories; it's not the only brand to be pushing these add-on lenses, but as one of the first to really go hard on these accessories, it has the most developed system. Oppo’s new telephoto lenses is good, but the brand has yet to settle on a mount that works across phone models, and in the camera, the telephoto can’t be used in all modes, which are two frustrating limitations that thankfully the Vivo doesn’t share.

The 200mm (2.35x) and 400mm (4.7x) equivalent lenses are excellent. The optics from both are outstanding, and they make the X300 Ultra feel much more like a modular camera system than a normal phone. You can go to 800mm using in-sensor cropping, and the results are still impressive, although there is some minor sharpening detail visible in textures such as fur and hair. Stabilization with the telephoto adapters is excellent. I do not have the steadiest hands, but even at 800mm, I was getting sharp and shake-free photos.

The camera app is one of my favorites, although it might be a little overwhelming to some. There are a lot of modes, and some of them have varying levels of usefulness, but most are tucked away in the “more” menu (or can at least be moved there to clean up the clutter).

I really like how many shortcuts Vivo lets you keep on the screen, with four icons at the top and three on the side for quick settings. You can also have none if you prefer a clean viewfinder screen. The AI will occasionally pop up with suggestions to change modes, which can be useful, though it also adds to the sense that there are perhaps too many options.

Video

Video performance is where the X300 Ultra really comes into its own. This is the best Android phone I have used for video, and it is finally a real challenger to the iPhone’s dominance. Video is clean and crisp, dynamic range is excellent, and footage from the sensors looks genuinely professional. You do not get the same depth as a larger-sensor camera, of course, but results can still look cinematic.

The Pro Video mode is packed with useful tools, including LUTs, full manual controls, audio levels, waveforms, and histograms. You can even use Pro Video mode with the telephoto adapters. The X300 Ultra is capable of 4K 120p 10-bit Log video across the rear cameras, as well as APV 422 encoding, ACES workflow support, and custom 3D LUT monitoring. The one caveat from my use is that LUTs are preview only in-camera, with no option to burn them directly into final footage, so this needs to be done in post.

Stabilization for video is outstanding. The X300 Ultra has additional modes with horizon lock and an ultra-steady mode, and both are very effective. It gets closer to gimbal-level stabilization and is on par with a lot of action camera stabilization I have used for heavy action. Panning is smooth, without the jerkiness you get from systems trying too hard to fight the movement, and static handheld shots are rock steady.

There are also a couple of minor modes and options I want to shout out. The built-in teleprompter is a great addition, and I wish more phones did this. I also really like how easy it is to see and swap which microphone you are using to record; not every brand makes this clear, and it can be a huge annoyance.

Phone Performance

The X300 Ultra uses the latest and greatest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, supported by Vivo’s Pro Imaging Chip VS1+. The VS1+ imaging chip is designed to handle image pre-processing, raw processing, noise, sharpness, dynamic range, and faster image output.

In my own testing, the X300 Ultra scored 3632 single-core and 10619 multi-core in Geekbench, with 3DMark scores of 6620–4299, which puts it among the best Android flagships right now.

More importantly, it feels extremely fast in real use. The Snapdragon processor flies through day-to-day tasks, but more relevant is that it is excellent for video editing and photo editing. I noticed no meaningful slowdowns when scrubbing through video or exporting 4K footage.

OriginOS 6 is slick, enjoyable to use, and easy to navigate – and a bonus for MacBook owners who use Android; it is also now compatible with AirDrop. OriginOS still has a bit of its own identity, but the big negative, though, is bloatware. There was a lot installed out of the box, and while I can forgive that on budget phones, it cheapens the experience on something this premium.

The AI Suite is very comprehensive, with AI retouch, expand, re-color, eraser, and UHD tools. Most do a good job. The eraser is particularly good at recognizing people, and for quick edits, it is genuinely useful. There are still some obviously AI-looking artifacts, especially when using Gen Expand, where the generated content does not quite match the resolution of the cameras. In a way, it’s a compliment to the imaging hardware that the cameras are so good that the AI fill has a hard time keeping up.

Battery life is excellent. The 6600mAh BlueVolt battery got me through around a day and a half with normal use, although heavy video shooting cut into that quite a lot. Vivo says the battery supports 100W wired FlashCharge and 40W wireless charging, and that the phone includes bypass charging with smart temperature control for intensive use. In my charging test, the phone reached 37% in 15 minutes and 61% in 60 minutes using PD charging.

Final Verdict

The Vivo X300 Ultra is not the most ultra-looking phone, but it is one of the most compelling ultra phones I have used. Vivo has built something that ticks nearly every box on my wishlist. The main camera is excellent, the ultrawide is one of the best around, the 85mm telephoto is outstanding, and the teleconverter system gives it a practical reach that most phones cannot touch.

What really separates it, though, is video. The X300 Ultra is not just good “for an Android phone”; it is a genuine contender for best video on any phone full stop. The stabilization, Pro Video mode, LUT support, 4K 120p options, teleprompter mode, and accessory compatibility make it a phone designed for pro video workflows. As a video-first phone, the X300 Ultra is exceptional and the strongest contender to an iPhone for serious video creators.

There are still a few frustrations. I think Vivo’s image processing still leans slightly too sharp and bright, the design is generic, the camera bump is huge, the bloatware is unwelcome, and the shiny silver camera kit isn’t to my tastes – but mostly the lack of availability and exceptionally high price make it so difficult to recommend when options like the Oppo Find X9 Ultra and Xiaomi 17 Ultra are so so good.

Alternatives

"[Equipment] doesn’t matter at all. People say what’s the best camera, I always say the one in my pocket or the one round my neck. It’s not the camera that takes the picture, it’s the person."

Those were the words of David Bailey, speaking in a radio interview over a decade ago. It's a spin on the well-worn photography cliché, 'the best camera is the one you have with you' – but clichés exist for a reason.

Case in point, the photographs on this page. I want to make clear, first of all, that I'm not saying these are works of art. They're not. But photographing lightning strikes can be tricky – and the point I'm making is that I wouldn't have been able to take these pictures if I didn't have my iPhone in my pocket.

My iPhone 13 Mini, at that – a phone that's 5 years old at this point, with an ultra-wide camera that only has a tiny 1/3.4-inch sensor and a measly 12MP resolution.

Could I have taken better pictures with my Canon EOS R5 or Hasselblad X2D II? Absolutely. And I could have taken the best pictures of all with my OM System OM-3, which has a Live Composite feature that is perfect for photographing lightning strikes.

But I didn't have those cameras with me when I was driving home through this storm. (Okay, the OM-3 was in the trunk. But I'll be honest; pulling into a layby surrounded by trees, while the gods hurled thunderbolts that lit up the entire sky, getting out of the car wasn't my top priority.)

So I pulled the phone out of my pocket and spammed that little white button until I got my shots. Low resolution. Crappy quality. Fully automatic. But I got the shots – and under the circumstances, I wouldn't have got them any other way.

As if there was any doubt, Bailey was right: the best camera really was the one in my pocket. Because the one in the trunk and all the others sitting at home did me no good whatsoever!

So buy all the gear you want. But at the end of the day, if you don't have it with you, that creaky old phone with a crappy camera that you turn your nose up at might just be the one that snaps the decisive moment.

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Want to make sure you have the best camera in your pocket? Take a look at the best camera phones and the best compact cameras.

My current day-to-day smartphone is an iPhone 17, which has a 2x (52mm equivalent) optical zoom. My previous iPhone - the 16 Pro - had a 5x (120mm) optical zoom, and I really miss that extra reach when it comes to street photography. With my older iPhone 16 Pro’s 5x zoom, I could enjoy capturing candid street photos without distracting the subject or photographing distant architectural details. Thanks to the Apexel TeleMacro Pro 10x Kit, I can finally enjoy the versatility of a powerful optical zoom on my iPhone 17 without blowing my budget by purchasing a pro iPhone 17 model.

Founded in 2011, Apexel is a China-based company that specialises in smartphone lenses, and I’ve tested and reviewed a few of their products for Digital Camera World, such as the impressive Apexel 36x Telephoto that uses a powerful optical zoom to capture wildlife at a distance.

At the other end of the zoom spectrum is their smartphone microscope, which enables you to photograph far more detail than your smartphone’s built-in macro lens can see.

As the product’s name indicates, the Apexel TeleMacro Pro 10x Kit provides a 10x optical zoom when aligned with your smartphone’s main 1x camera. The Apexel TeleMacro Pro 10x Kit also ships with a 10x macro lens that screws onto the end of the lens’s metal barrel, enabling you to capture beautiful close-ups of flora and fauna with a very narrow depth of field, producing an attractive abstract bokeh in the foreground and background.

Specifications

Price

The Apexel TeleMacro Pro 10x Kit is reasonably priced at £68.99/$89.98, especially if you want to expand a non-pro iPhone’s telephoto and macro capabilities without forking out hundreds more £/$ for an iPhone Pro model. I tested the version of the kit that ships with a universal clip mount and as you’ll see from this review, I’m not a fan of the universal clip mount as it took a while to align with my iPhone’s lens. Fortunately you can order an iPhone-specific Apexel case alongside the TeleMacro Pro 10x Kit and surprisingly, it won’t cost you anything extra!). Then you can simply screw the lens onto the thread that’s nicely aligned with your iPhone’s main camera. You should only buy the universal clip mount version of the kit if you don’t own an iPhone.

Design & Handling

With its long (5.51-inch) metal barrel and clip-mount, you’d expect the Apexel TeleMacro Pro 10x lens to cause your lightweight smartphone to sag a bit, but thankfully that’s not the case. The barrel is constructed of aircraft-grade aluminium, so it only weighs a manageable 145g.

The cold metal lens certainly feels nice and solid, and gives off a sense of being well built. A small rubber lens cap and a rubber protector at the other end of the lens keep the glass component safe when in transit. Talking of glass, the lens itself consists of 12 elements and is coated with a multi-coating designed to reduce glare and reflections.

Midway up the lens is a focus ring, which is easy to rotate thanks to a series of fine grooves that make it easy to get a good grip. The focus distance for the telephoto lens is between 1m and infinity. At the tip of the lens is a thread where you can attach the supplied 10x macro lens.

This small add-on enables you to capture macro images between a focus distance of 20 and 24 cm. The thread also fits the kit’s supplied screw-on adapter ring, enabling you to attach 37mm filters to the lens.

The Apexel TeleMacro Pro 10x Kit and all its accessories ship in a resilient yet compact carry case, which has a cut foam interior that holds everything in place. The case also has a webbed section, which is really handy to hold its small fiddly items, such as the detachable rubber eyepiece that transforms the telephoto lens into a monocular (or mini telescope!). The case is about a handspan in width and length, so it will fit easily into a small camera kitbag.

One thing that the kit is missing is a mini tripod, such as the one that ships with the Apexel 36x telephoto kit. Without a tripod, it’s impossible to shoot steady video using a 10x telephoto lens, as I discovered on my test shoot…

Performance

To test the Apexel TeleMacro Pro 10x Kit, I headed to London’s sunny Southbank district. Jumping off the train at Blackfriars station, I was treated to a stunning panoramic view of various London landmarks, so I immediately decided to start shooting. Because I was using the kit’s supplied universal clip mount (instead of a dedicated Apexel iPhone case), it took me about five minutes to align the clip with my iPhone 17’s main camera.

Once the clip looks aligned, you need to screw the lens into its thread. Invariably, the lens wasn’t perfectly aligned with the iPhone’s camera, so I had to unscrew the plastic screw that keeps the grip attached to the iPhone and fine-tune the lens’s alignment. The effort was worth it, though, as I immediately had a new perspective on a familiar view.

When viewing through the Apexel telephoto lens using my iPhone’s 1x camera, I could see my subject inset into a circular window surrounded by a black vignette. At 10x magnification, distant subjects looked very close, so I could just about fit the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral into the circular field of view.

However, to lose the black circle around the edge of my subject, I needed to tap my iPhone Camera app’s 2x camera icon. This cropped into the frame, losing the circular black vignette but zooming even tighter into the subject. So I could no longer fit the entire Cathedral dome into the shot.

This extreme cropping can limit your compositional choices, but it also enables you to capture familiar scenes in new ways. I was able to compose a shot that juxtaposed the Millennium Bridge in the bottom of the frame with the far older Tower Bridge in the background.

Due to the powerful 10x zoom, the 1.6 miles between these two bridges was dramatically compressed, so they looked much closer together. This compression of distance gives you a more cinematic look than you’d get using a smartphone’s built-in lenses.

I regretted not bringing a mini tripod to my test shoot, as I would have been able to capture some cinematic-looking video clips. If you plan to shoot video with this lens, then a tripod is essential, as at 10x zoom, every small hand movement is dramatically magnified.

Indeed, although I was only shooting photos, the excessive camera shake made it a challenge to compose shots. Fortunately, it was a sunny day, so the iPhone defaulted to using a super-fast shutter speed. This enabled me to capture great shots of moving subjects, such as a passing police helicopter.

The fast shutter speed meant that these shots were free from motion blur. For a lens under $100, the quality was pretty good, though I did notice a little chromatic aberration towards the edge of the frame in high-contrast subjects.

It took a while to get used to focusing with the Apexel 10x telephoto. I noticed that the iPhone was trying to use auto-focus, which caused it to hunt between foreground and background objects. I solved this issue by locking the iPhone’s focus on the most distant subject and then tweaking the Apexel lens’s focus ring until the subject looked sharp. The iPhone 17’s large and bright display enabled me to adjust focus accurately and effectively for the most part.

I then headed to the busy Borough Market to meet a photographer friend - Shaughn - for lunch. I’d recently been on a street photography shoot with Shaughn in Borough Market using my iPhone 17. Due to its limited telephoto reach, I wasn’t able to capture many candid street photography pictures on that earlier shoot, and I was a bit shy about getting close to my subjects. Thanks to the Apexel 10x telephoto, I was able to camp at the edge of the market and capture documentary-style shots of people from a great distance, without intruding on their lunch break.

My next job was to test the Macro component of the Apexel TeleMacro Pro 10x Kit. When you get close to a subject using the iPhone 17, it automatically switches to Macro mode, using the .5x (13mm) camera. By being close to a subject, you often find that the iPhone’s shadow is obscuring it. The Apexel macro lens has a very narrow focal range of 20 - 24 cm, but it means that you don’t need to be so close to your subject, and the shadow is avoided.

After attaching the Macro lens to the thread at the end of the barrel, I popped into my garden to try and photograph bees pollinating flowers. With fast-moving subjects such as insects, it’s almost impossible to keep them in focus for long, especially if they are sitting on a wind-blown flower.

There’s no time to pull focus, so you need to move a few centimetres closer or further away from the insect until it is sharp. The trick to capturing a macro image of an insect is to shoot HD slow-motion video at 240 fps. Then, a bee that was only in sharp focus for a second or so is now on screen for much longer, so you can export a sharp frame as a still. Check out my supporting video to see this technique in action.

Verdict

If you’re a smartphone street photographer or a budding member of the paparazzi, then thepexel TeleMacro Pro 10x Kit will give you a close-up candid photo from a great distance. It also compresses distance, enabling you to capture cinematic shots where the foreground subject and the background appear much closer together. I also enjoyed the option to screw on the macro lens and capture small subjects such as bees, flattered by a strong bokeh.

The downside to using this third-party lens accessory was having to fiddle around with aligning the telephoto lens’s universal clip with my iPhone’s camera, but this won’t be an issue if you include an iPhone-specific Apexel case in your order. All in all, I found that the powerful Apexel telephoto’s 10x optical zoom opened up a new world of photography subjects in locations that I’ve been visiting for years, and I had fun shooting superior macro pictures too.

Alternatives

There are countless impressive phones at almost every price point, but in 2025, the Xiaomi 15T Pro managed to stand out from the pack. It offered features that were almost unheard of in the sub-flagship/upper mid-range category, like an excellent 5x telephoto camera, 4K120 recording, and Log at up to 4K60.

Now, after only about 8 months, its successor has landed. I had such a good time with the previous model, I had my hopes up, but at least on the surface, the Xiaomi 17T Pro doesn't look much different.

However, dig a little deeper and you'll find that this phone has a much bigger battery, faster charging, and a newer, quicker processor - as well as some new software features. Is that enough to remain one of the best camera phones in 2026? I've been using it for the past week to find out.

Specifications

Price

The Xiaomi 17T Pro is launching in Europe and the UK, at the time of writing I only have the Euro price, which will be €899 for the 12GB RAM and 512GB storage configuration. Which is €100 more than last year, but with global supply chain shortages, it is hardly a surprise. I'd expect similar price rises in the UK.

That said, the Xiaomi 17T Pro still manages to undercut many flagship rivals, with near enough flagship specs that most people won't even notice what you're missing out on on top end devices.

Design & Handling

As I hinted at earlier, the Xiaomi 17T Pro looks very similar to the 15T Pro. It's the same size and shape, and the only major difference is the lack of a bevelled edge around the camera island. This time around, though, we get some slightly flashier colours.

The phone is available in Black, Deep Violet, and Deep Blue options, and I have the latter in for review. It's a really nice shade of navy blue that looks almost metallic. It's very similar to the finish on the blue Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, and I was a big fan of that one, too.

The 17T Pro looks and feels like a top-tier flagship, with colour-matched aluminium sides and a matte glass-fibre back that doesn't attract fingerprints and smudges. It's weighty and dense, and the boxy corners give off an iPhone-like vibe.

It's a pretty big phone, not too dissimilar to the iPhone 17 Pro Max or Google Pixel 10 Pro XL. It's nothing unusual if you're used to carrying a flagship handset, but if you have smaller hands, it could feel a bit unwieldy.

The Xiaomi 17T Pro comes with a basic matte-black TPU case in the box, so you can keep it protected from the get-go, and it also has a plastic screen protector installed as standard. It's also IP68 certified, so it'll handle a heavy rain shower or a dunk in fresh water without issue.

The screen is completely flat, and it has slim symmetrical bezels on all sides. The specs are identical to last year's model, but that was already an impressive screen, so I have no real complaints about it.

It's an OLED panel with a zippy 144Hz refresh rate, but it's not LTPO, so it'll only dip down to 30Hz to conserve battery life rather than 1Hz. On the other hand, I was impressed that it can dim as low as 1 nit, which makes a big difference when you need to check your phone in the middle of the night.

If you're concerned about eye health, you're going to love this display. It supports DC dimming and carries TUV Rheinland certifications for Low Blue Light, Flicker Free, Circadian Friendliness, and Intelligent Eye Care. In theory, it'll keep your eyes feeling fresh for longer, but I'm not particularly sensitive to such things, so I can't say I noticed a massive difference.

Camera Performance

The camera hardware on the Xiaomi 17T Pro matches that of the 15T Pro. This means you get a 50MP f/1.67 main camera with a 1/1.3-inch sensor, a 50MP f/3.0 5x telephoto, and a slightly less impressive 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide. Around the front, there's a 32MP punch-hole selfie camera.

It's a very impressive camera system overall, but it shares the same shortcomings as the previous generation, so I'll get those out of the way first. The ultrawide lacks autofocus, so it's no use for close-up shots, and the smaller low-resolution sensor isn't very good when the light gets low. The selfie camera also lacks autofocus, and while it's decent, it's not likely to wow you.

When it comes to the main and telephoto cameras, though, it's a different story. The 1/1.3-inch main sensor is the largest you'll find in this price category, and it even matches the base model flagship, the Xiaomi 17. It's excellent in all lighting conditions, and it can produce some lovely natural bokeh when you get a little closer.

The 5x telephoto is also a rarity, with most rivals opting for a 3x lens. This longer focal length helps with long-range zoom and creates a lot of compression, which looks stunning in close-up shots.

I wouldn't say it has macro capabilities, but it can get a lot closer than you might expect; it's able to focus just 30 cm away from the lens. And if you combine that with some digital zoom, you can get in pretty tight. If you want to do this, though, you'll need to turn off the automatic lens switching in the camera settings, as Xiaomi is a little over-enthusiastic about switching back to the main lens.

This phone benefits from Xiaomi's partnership with Leica, which means you get a lot of the same awesome picture profiles as the 17 Ultra. As ever, the film simulations and bokeh styles in portrait mode make taking Instagrammable pics as easy as can be.

What's new with this model is a feature called Leica Live Moment, which basically works like Apple's Live Photos. The difference is that it supports all the picture styles, you can use it in portrait mode, and there are some exclusive Leica watermarks to go along with it.

I'm not a massive fan of this shooting style; I prefer my photos to be photos and my videos to be videos. However, I do see the appeal. The best part is that you can go through the short video clip and choose a different frame if you didn't click at the opportune time, but you also get the ability to share short looping or boomerang-style clips.

Honestly, there's not much new stuff to get excited about here, but regardless, the Xiaomi 17T Pro still stands out as having one of the most impressive camera systems in its class. I was impressed with the results in almost every situation.

Arguably, it's the video features that really set this phone apart. It can shoot in Log at up to 4K60 on the main and telephoto cameras, or 4K30 on the ultrawide. You can even import and apply your own LUTs.

It can also shoot 8K30 and 4K120, but only on the main lens, and not in Log. This is an impressive array of pro video features for a phone of this class, and it easily outshines similarly priced rivals like the Honor 600 Pro and Vivo X300 FE.

Phone Performance

The Xiaomi 17T Pro is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9500, the same flagship chip that's found in phones like the Oppo Find X9 Pro. It comes with 12GB of RAM and either 512GB or 1TB of storage. The 9500 doesn't quite match Qualcomm's latest in raw gaming performance, but it's still super powerful, and likely more than most people will ever need.

I played a few hours of NTE, a beautiful-looking open-world title that makes even the most powerful phones struggle. I wasn't able to max out the settings, but on the balanced preset, I got a solid 60 fps throughout.

The frame of the phone gets quite warm after a while, but that's not a bad thing, as it means the cooling system is doing its job effectively. If you use the included case or a grip-style controller, it'll keep the heat away from your palms. But even without that, it never gets too uncomfortable.

Of course, outside of gaming, the performance is top-notch, and the phone feels quick even under heavy multitasking.

The software is Hyper OS 3, Xiaomi's custom version of Android 16. There aren't too many surprises here; it has essentially the same look and features as Xiaomi's flagship phones and most Poco phones, too.

There's an obvious Apple influence with some of the styling choices. For example, Xiaomi has its own version of Dynamic Island, some lock screen themes have oversized clocks and depth effects, and the quick settings shade looks very familiar, too. Personally, I'm alright with that; it looks good, and all the features work as they should.

There's also plenty of AI features to play about with, and Google's Gemini and Circle to Search are enabled as standard.

Overall, I had a good time with Hyper OS 3. The only thing that detracts from the experience is that there's a bit of bloatware to clean up when you first set up the phone. It's not a crazy amount, it'll only take a few minutes to uninstall the unwanted apps, but it's a hassle that you might not have to endure on similarly priced mobiles.

The super-sized battery is one of the defining features of the Xiaomi 17T Pro. It has a 7000 mAh pack, the largest in any Xiaomi phone to date, and as you'd expect, the battery life is very impressive. With my typical use, the phone would easily get me through the day, and usually a second morning before I was reaching for the charger.

It's not a bad showing, but the Honor 600 Pro has a significantly smaller battery, and it lasted me longer than this. Perhaps Xiaomi needs to do some more software optimisation. In all fairness, most of my testing was done well ahead of the launch, so there's plenty of opportunity for it to improve further.

As it stands, it's very easy to live with, and part of the reason for that is the extremely quick charging. You get a 100W wall adapter included in the box, and it takes the phone from completely dead to well over 50% charged in half an hour. It also supports wireless charging at up to 50W, but you'll need a suitably powerful official Xiaomi charger to reach that speed.

Verdict

The Xiaomi 17T Pro is a great all-rounder. The cameras are excellent, it's powerful, it looks and feels premium, and it comes at a lower cost than most flagship devices. The only problem is that it's very similar to last year's 15T Pro.

If you own the older model, there's not really any reason to upgrade, unless your battery keeps dying prematurely. And if you're a savvy shopper, opting for the older model, or the frequently discounted base model Xiaomi 17, might make more sense.

That said, if you're looking for a phone in this price range, the Xiaomi 17T Pro still stands out as one of the best options. It has a more versatile camera system and better video features than its closest competitors, the Honor 600 Pro or Vivo X300 FE, and it rivals them in performance, too.

So, while it might not be the most exciting update, the Xiaomi 17T Pro remains competitive in 2026. I had a great time using it, especially the 5x telephoto, which continues to surprise me with its excellent results.

Alternatives

Last year's Vivo X200 FE left me wanting more. It wasn't a bad phone, and it could take great photos, but it didn't feel like a proper flagship, despite being on the higher end of the pricing scale.

Now, the Vivo X300 FE has arrived, and it's looking much more tempting. This model gets a healthy upgrade to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip, adds fast wireless charging support, and even supports Vivo's excellent external teleconverter lens.

It's a smaller handset, similar in size to the Galaxy S26 and iPhone 17 base models, but it doesn't skimp on the specs, with a bright display and a massive battery inside. If you're not keen on carrying a mammoth Ultra flagship, but you still want some of that Vivo magic, this could be a good bet.

Specifications

Price & Availability

The Vivo X300 FE came as a bit of a surprise, launching alongside the X300 Ultra in global markets. As usual, European availability is a little limited, and this one isn't coming to the UK or the US.

Vivo tells us it will be available soon in Spain, Austria, Hungary, and Poland. As well as Asian markets, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, India, and Pakistan.

At the time of writing, Vivo hasn't been able to share the European pricing, but some sources say it'll be equivalent to around $730 when it finally lands on shelves next month.

Design

The design of the Vivo X300 FE reminds me of the iPhone Air, with its elongated camera bar shoved all the way to the top of the frame. However, don't be fooled, this isn't a particularly slim phone. At 8.2mm thick, it's decidedly average.

What is impressively slim is the camera bump. It only protrudes from the rear panel by a few millimetres, and since it's up at the top, it's well out of the way when you're holding it. It also feels surprisingly well-balanced, despite this configuration. I can imagine this setup working well with a MagSafe-compatible case.

I have the Mist Purple version in for testing, which has a very pale lilac rear panel and silver siderails. There's also a white model, complete with a shimmering finish, and darker black and green versions, if you'd prefer something a little more professional-looking.

The phone comes with a basic silicon case in the box, with an opaque matte finish that's color-matched to the phone. I also got a charger and a charging cable with my sample, although I'd imagine that will vary from region to region.

The phone has the usual volume rocker and power button combo on the right-hand side, and there are no additional buttons. Vivo has been a little inconsistent in its approach. The X200 Ultra had a Camera Control-clone, the X300 Pro had an Action Button-clone, while the latest Ultra and FE have neither.

The phone benefits from IP68 and IP69 water and dust resistance. This means it's protected against full submersion, as well as blasts from jets of hot water. So, if you drop your X300 FE at a car wash, it just might live to tell the tale.

One of the defining features of this phone is its size. If you prefer a smaller handset, you're sure to enjoy this. It has a 6.3-inch screen, basically the same size as the base model Galaxy S26, iPhone 17, and Xiaomi 17. It feels much more comfortable in your pocket, and it's much easier to reach the top of the display if you have smaller hands.

Speaking of the display, it's quite impressive. It can reach up to 5000 nits of brightness output in certain conditions, and I never had trouble seeing when out in the spring sunshine. It also has a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, and it's an LTPO panel, which means it can dip down to 1Hz to conserve battery when displaying a static image.

The colours look vivid and accurate, and fairly slim, symmetrical bezels complete the flagship screen experience. I can't help but wish the selfie camera cutout was a little smaller, but hey, it's a lot less intrusive than Apple's pill-shaped void.

Camera Performance

The camera stack on the Vivo X300 FE is largely unchanged from last year. There's still a 50MP main camera with a 1/1.56-inch sensor, a 50MP 3x telephoto camera (1/1.95-inch), and a rather disappointing 8MP ultrawide with a tiny 1/4-inch sensor.

The only real upgrade is that the main camera now has a slightly wider aperture; it's f/1.57, up from f/1.9, which might help slightly in low light conditions.

Of course, another big change is that the phone is compatible with Vivo's 200mm external teleconverter lens, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to test that. I did have a look through the options in the camera app, and just like its bigger siblings, the teleconverter works across all modes. So, you'll be able to shoot RAW, high-res, or even use portrait mode filters with the external optics.

If you're not so keen on carrying external lenses, the video shooting upgrades might get you more excited. You can now capture up to 8K 30 fps or 4K 120 fps on the main lens. Meanwhile, the telephoto and selfie cameras max out at 4K 60 fps, and the ultrawide is stuck at 1080p 30 fps. I love to see 4K120 becoming more prevalent on affordable devices; it makes such a huge difference for slow motion.

The camera app is largely the same as it is on Vivo's pricier handsets. This means you get the same awesome filters and picture styles, including Zeiss-approved color tuning and bokeh simulations. You can really elevate your photos by playing around with these options. I have become particularly fond of the "Humanistic" street photography mode, which makes the UI look more like a vintage camera, and lets you adjust the film simulations and save them as presets.

You also get a lot of professional settings, including the ability to manually control things like ISO and shutter speed, as well as the option to shoot in RAW. One big difference between this phone and the rest of the X300 lineup, though, is that there's no Log option in video, which I found very disappointing. Vivo has a really good Log profile, and I can't think of a reason why it would be excluded here.

Photo performance is very good on the whole, but this phone has the same limitations as its predecessor. The ultrawide just isn't very good; it really falls apart at night, and it doesn't have autofocus, so it's not very versatile.

The telephoto looks great, but the design of the optics means it doesn't have great macro capabilities. Of course, that's not a massive issue in itself, but with the rest of the X300 lineup excelling in telemacro shooting, this one stands out as a weak performer.

The selfie camera, on the other hand, is a highlight. It has autofocus, so shots always look super sharp, and the ample 50MP resolution means you can take very high-quality images when the light is on your side.

The main camera also offers very strong performance in all lighting conditions. The relatively large sensor and wide aperture mean it's by far the best lens in low light, and Vivo's excellent image processing makes portraits look stunning.

The Vivo X200 FE featured the Aura-light bi-color ring flash that's present on most Vivo V-series phones, but with this model, you get a more traditional single color LED flash. It might not be as flattering for videos, but it works really well for photography. The flash adapts to the focal length you're shooting at, so you'll get a more concentrated flash when using the telephoto, and a wider, more diffused flash for main camera close-ups.

Phone Performance

The Vivo X300 FE is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, which is not to be confused with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 found in the X300 Ultra. It's a powerful chip, and a healthy upgrade over last year's Dimensity 9300+, but it's not on the same level as the top flagship devices. It's paired with 12GB of RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of storage.

In use, the phone feels flagship-level. It's super speedy, and no matter what I was trying to do, the phone kept up and remained snappy throughout. It's only in benchmark scores, and while playing demanding games, the performance discrepancy becomes apparent. Hardcore gamers may want to look elsewhere, but for everyone else, this handset is more than capable.

The chipset is helped along by Origin OS 6, Vivo's customised version of Android 16. It has a focus on smoothness and efficiency, and it shows. The animations are always smooth and speedy, which makes for a delightful day-to-day experience.

It's also super customisable and has tonnes of gorgeous-looking themes to choose from. There's definitely an Apple influence on the aesthetics, which is very obvious when you see the lock screens with super-sized clocks and Vivo's Dynamic Island impersonation. But they look great, and they're functionally quite useful, so I'm not complaining.

Vivo has extended the software support terms; it's now offering 5 years of major Android OS updates and 7 years of security patches for this model. They're not industry-leading figures, but they're respectable and mean that the X300 FE will remain useful until at least 2033.

The X300 FE has a 6500 mAh battery, which is the same capacity as last year's model, and oddly, larger than the X300 Pro and Ultra (at least in Europe). I would have loved to see an upgrade in capacity, but honestly, the FE doesn't really need it, because the battery life has been excellent throughout my testing.

Despite plenty of screen-on time and camera use, the X300 FE easily lasts me around a day and a half per charge. If I'm more careful, two days on a charge is a possibility, too.

To make matters even better, the X300 FE charges very rapidly. It supports up to 90W speeds with a wire, which will take the phone from dead to 100% charged in just over half an hour. It also adds wireless charging for the first time and boasts up to 40W speeds using Vivo's official wireless pad.

Final Verdict

The Vivo X300 FE is a compact handset with a charming design that's sure to appeal to anyone looking for a smaller phone with quality snappers. I have really enjoyed using it, and while the cameras aren't quite on par with the rest of the X300 lineup, they're still impressive - and I often preferred shots from the X300 FE over similar snaps from the S26 base model.

As for whether it's worth buying, it all depends on the pricing. The cost of Vivo's global models often varies significantly between regions, and my opinion rests on how big the price gap is between this and the standard X300.

The X300 is almost exactly the same size as the FE, but the cameras are much more versatile, and the video capabilities are a big step-up, too. If it won't cost you much more, then it's the obvious choice. However, if the X300 FE is significantly cheaper, then it's a great option, just don't expect too much of the ultrawide camera.

Alternatives

Back in June 2025 we reported on the Trump T1: the first cell phone to be launched by The Trump Organization; the company behind Donald Trump's business portfolio. At the time the phone was only available to pre-order, with deliveries said to be starting in September 2025. However, that delivery date came and went, and we've still yet to see a T1 actually materialize.

Well, after a long period of silence regarding T1 availability, Trump Mobile has now posted on its Facebook page that:

“Those who pre-ordered the T1 Phone will be receiving an update email. Phones start shipping this week!!!”

If you're wondering why it's taken so long for the T1 to make it to market, company CEO Pat O’Brien told CNN in a statement:

“The technology business is more difficult than some may realize as parts must be tested for quality assurances. With demand being incredibly high, orders are being fulfilled as quickly as possible, and we anticipate all will be completed within the next several weeks.”

It's a pity Trump Mobile didn't anticipate this timescale difficulty before it made its September 2025 retail estimate. But even if you may now actually receive a Trump T1, it might not be the phone you originally signed up for. At the time of its announcement, the most compelling feature of the T1 was that it would be "made in the USA". That sounded great, but right from the off there were major doubts about this actually being possible. With very few domestic manufacturing facilities equipped to produce cell phones, it would have made it tough - if not impossible - to manufacture the T1 on American soil for anything close to the advertised $499 retail price. For context, one of the few existing manufacturers of US-made phones - Purism - produces a handset called the Liberty Phone, but this will set you back a cool $1,999.

Cynical commentators speculated that Trump T1 might actually just be a Chinese phone assembled in the USA. Well, turns out the "Made in USA" claim was soon dropped completely, being instead replaced by “designed with American values in mind”.

As for the tech in the T1, that's also changed since the initial June 2025 announcement. It’s now said to include a triple-camera array consisting of a 50MP primary camera, 8MP ultra-wide module and a 2x telephoto camera. A 50MP front-facing selfie camera sits within the 6.78-inch, 120HZ AMOLED screen, while the phone is powered by a 5000mAh battery capable of 30W fast charging. Other advertised features include a fingerprint sensor and AI Face Unlock. However it’s worth noting that the T1 webpage does state that exact phone specifications, along with the final product appearance, may be subject to change.

Alongside the T1 handset, The Trump Organization will also launch a new wireless service plan. Named The 47 Plan, it costs $47.45 per month, in reference to Donald Trump being the 47th and 45th US president.

Earlier this year at MWC, Honor announced its 200MP AI-powered robot cinema phone. While on the face of it, the Robot Phone resembles almost any other flagship phone designed in recent memory. It’s super thin, has gorgeous rounded corners, and boasts incredibly thin bezels for an edge-to-edge display experience. But it’s none of this that sets the Robot Phone apart from the competition.

It’s actually the strange gimbal camera which protrudes from the top of the phone which is guaranteed to turn heads, but not necessarily for the right reasons. This four-degrees-of-freedom (4DoF) gimbal system is driven by a highly miniaturized internal micro-motor and folks away into the rear panel.

To fit the machinery into a tight 7mm internal chassis, Honor has engineered a micro-motor that is 70% smaller than standard industry components. The mechanical arm is constructed using high-performance titanium and steel alloys, utilizing the same simulation tools and structural materials developed for the company’s Magic V6 foldable hinge.

While the phone effectively addresses the consumer demand for stabilized, high-quality social video, the industry is not so sure this is the answer. As strong as the mechanical arm is, it’s always going to be vulnerable to getting knocked and damaged. It's also unlikely to ever outperform the best smartphone gimbals. And would you ever want this thing in your pocket?

Could the ARRI partnership be the difference?

As well as a feat of engineering, the Robot Phone marks the debut of a collaboration between Honor and ARRI, the Academy Award-winning industry leader in professional cinematography equipment. For the first time, core elements of ARRI’s renowned image science are integrated directly into a consumer smartphone, aiming to deliver natural color reproduction and cinema-grade highlight roll-off.

This partnership will undoubtedly turn heads. ARRI has a proven track record, and the thought of being able to harness their technology within a smartphone gimbal means it won't be discounted out of hand. Users will love the natural reproduction of skin tones as well as the gentle highlight roll-off for bright areas. This will all be made possible by the 200MP sensor, which is tuned to preserve a natural sense of dimension and depth of field.

When is it coming?

Honor has officially confirmed that the Robot Phone will launch in Q3 of 2026, which means anytime between July and September. Like many of Honor's high-concept tech devices, it will launch in China first. After its initial Chinese release, Honor will decide whether there's market demand to go for a global release.

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Check out more of the best camera phones or the best Android phones for photography in our guides.

Sony has announced the Xperia 1 VIII, its latest flagship smartphone, and once again, the emphasis is firmly on photography with hardware upgrades for the cameras and an interesting, perhaps controversial, new AI Camera Assistant feature that thinks it can make you a better, or at least, less involved, photographer.

Let's start with that new AI Camera Assistant, powered by Sony’s Xperia Intelligence. When you open the camera, it can analyze a scene and suggest one-click creative options, including color tones, lens choices, and bokeh effects. Sony says the recommendations are based on its Creative Look system, drawing on imaging ideas developed through its Alpha camera line, with the aim of helping you get more creative results without having to actually manually do any settings or editing.

I get that some people just want photos without the photography – and this is perfect for that, but firstly, I’m just not sure those people are buying an Xperia phone, which are generally renowned for their often quite geeky cameras. But also, it is a strange move from the world’s largest photography company to want to encourage people to do less actual photography. I know no one is forcing you to use these AI features, but it just feels like another little step in AI devaluing the skills of photographers.

But onto the phone hardware, and the telephoto camera has had a significant update, dropping the interesting, but expansive, 85-170mm mechanically zooming lens for a fixed 70mm equivalent focal length. The Xperia 1 VIII telephoto uses a new 1/1.56-inch sensor, which Sony says is around four times larger than the sensor used in the Xperia 1 VII – although not quite as large as many rival Ultra phones. But it should be a step forward for better long-range shooting in lower light, where telephoto cameras on phones often struggle most.

Sony says all three rear cameras, covering 16mm, 24mm, and 70mm focal lengths, deliver low-light performance comparable to a full-frame sensor in terms of noise reduction and dynamic range – on which I eagerly await our review (coming soon). The phone also applies RAW multi-frame processing across all lenses, combining HDR expansion with noise reduction to preserve detail in both highlights and shadows.

Style-wise, the Xperia 1 VIII also has had a significant redesign – introducing a new “ORE” design, inspired by natural textures and gemstones. It will be available in Graphite Black, Iolite Silver, Garnet Red, and a limited Native Gold, with tactile surface textures intended to improve grip. Sony’s dedicated camera shutter button remains, as does the 3.5mm headphone jack – a rarity on modern flagship phones.

Otherwise, the phone is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 platform, with Sony claiming a 20% performance boost over the previous model. Sony rates battery life at up to two days and four years of battery health. There is also a Bravia-branded screen and Sony Walkman audio.

The Xperia 1 VIII is available to pre-order now, priced at £1,399 / €1,499 for the 256GB model, and during the pre-order period, Sony is bundling its WH-1000XM6 headphones.

A 1TB Native Gold version will be sold exclusively through Sony online stores in select countries for £1,849 / €1,999.

Honor's number-series phones attempt to find the balance between flagship performance and affordable pricing, nestling themselves in between upper mid-range phones and lower-tier flagships. We were quite impressed with last year's 400 Pro, and now, its successor has arrived.

The Honor 600 Pro has adopted a very different look, and it's not hard to figure out where the inspiration came from. It also sports a more premium finish, with matte aluminium side rails, rather than a plastic frame.

There's a healthy upgrade to a more powerful chip, a bigger battery, and a brighter, flatter display, with slimmer bezels. When it comes to the cameras, though, the changes are quite subtle. Is this phone worth considering? Or can you save yourself some money and grab last year's instead? Let's find out.

Specifications

Price & Availability

The Honor 600 Pro is only available in one configuration in the UK, with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. It carries an MSRP of £899, which puts it in competition with the likes of the Xiaomi 17, Google Pixel 10, and Samsung Galaxy S26.

However, there's a promotion running to celebrate the launch, which knocks a whopping £200 off the asking price. With that discount applied, the phone is competing against the likes of the Xiaomi 15T Pro and base model Pixel 10.

As usual, it won't be launching in the US, but availability is broad elsewhere. It's available to order now via Honor's official store and through third-party retailers like Amazon.

Design

Honor has taken the design of the 600 Pro in a very different direction. While the previous generation featured soft curves on all sides, the latest model has a flat front and rear, with boxy, squared-off side rails.

The camera bump also looks very different, and now spans the top of the phone, mimicking the iPhone 17 Pro's style. Something is off about this version, though. The dimensions make it look a little squished, and the elongated ultrawide lens looks weird, too.

The Pro model comes in Golden White (pictured) or Black, while the standard model adds a very iPhone-like Orange. The colour choices are nice enough, but the similarities with Apple's latest are just a touch too far, in my opinion. Honor shouldn't feel like it needs to copy Apple to get attention, and yet, at a glance, 99% of people will see this phone as a cheap iPhone knockoff, which is a real shame.

Otherwise, the build is decidedly more premium than last year. Honor has ditched the plastic frame, and you now get matte aluminium sides that are immune to fingerprint smudges. I can't quite tell what the rear panel is made from, but it also has a smudge-free matte finish, and the camera platform has a more glossy translucent finish carved from the same material.

The Honor 600 Pro has the usual power button and volume rocker on the right-hand side, but this model also gets Honor's "AI-button", a lot like the one we saw on the Magic 8 Pro a few months back. However, while it might look the same at a glance, this one isn't quite so advanced.

The AI Button on the 600 Pro is just a button; it's not sensitive to swiping like the Magic 8 Pro's button or Apple's Camera Control. You can use it to take a photo, but it's not a two-stage button, so there's no half-press to focus. Still, I like buttons, and this is a handy way to open your favorite app or snap a quick photo, so I appreciate the inclusion.

The phone now boasts IP69K dust and water resistance, on top of the IP69 rating from last year. The ratings essentially mean the same thing, but the "K" testing is even more stringent. In real life, it means this phone will probably survive an accidental trip through the dishwasher. SGS also rated it 5-stars for drop and crush resistance, so it should be able to take a beating.

Display

As mentioned, the screen is now flat, with no micro curves at the edges, and the bezels are much slimmer, too. Honor claims they're less than a millimetre thick, and they're symmetrical the whole way around, which makes for a super premium look. The cutout for the selfie camera is also much smaller, now a typical circular punch hole, rather than a pill shape.

Honor claims an astonishing 8000 nits peak brightness for this panel, but I'd take that number with a grain of salt. All that matters is that it can get very bright, and it's easy to see in bright sunlight. Otherwise, you get all the usual flagship display perks, including a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, deep inky blacks, and rich vibrant colours. It just looks great.

Camera Performance

The Honor 600 Pro has a very similar camera setup to its predecessor. You still get an impressive 200MP main camera with a 1/1.4-inch sensor, and a slightly less impressive 12MP ultrawide camera. This time, though, the 3x telephoto has been replaced with a 3.5x, so you get slightly more optical reach.

All three of the rear lenses have autofocus, but only the ultrawide has macro capabilities. It's not my favourite setup, I much prefer using the telephoto for macro shots, but in fairness, you can still get decent close-ups with that lens if you digitally crop to 7x or higher.

As for the selfie camera, it has the same specs as the previous generation. It takes very decent snaps, and Honor's skin tones have improved a lot, but it still lacks autofocus. So you'll need to stand in the sweet spot to get the best snaps, and group photos might not look as crisp.

I haven't been the biggest fan of Honor's image processing in years past, but something has changed recently. The Honor Magic 8 Pro felt like a turning point, with more accurate colours and less extreme sharpening.

I'm happy to report that those positive changes have all made their way to the 600 series, too, and I really enjoy the default look of the images. There are also loads of filters and film simulations to play with, and they make it easy to give your photos a more stylised look. My only gripe is that beautification is enabled by default, so you have to remember to turn that off if you don't want your portraits looking unnaturally smooth.

The excellent Studio Harcourt-backed portrait mode effects also make an appearance here, and I still love the look - especially the moody black and white option.

Overall, I have been quite impressed with the Honor 600 Pro's photographic abilities. Photos look excellent in the daylight, and while this phone might not quite match the Magic 8 Pro for low-light snaps, it still does well, especially with the main camera.

It's really only the ultrawide that lags behind the other lenses. It's not awful, but the smaller, lower-resolution sensor doesn't resolve nearly as much detail as the other cameras. It's especially noticeable in darker scenes.

When it comes to video capture, the Honor 600 Pro can shoot at up to 4K 60fps on the main camera and telephoto, and 4K 30fps on the others. I was a little disappointed in the lack of 4K 120fps recording, as we're starting to see that more from rivals like the Vivo X300 FE and Xiaomi 15T Pro. There's also no Log profile, despite the phone having a Pro Video option.

That said, videos taken with this phone look pretty great. The stabilisation is decent, and autofocus is reliable. So, as long as you keep your expectations in check, you're in for a good time.

Phone Performance

Following in the footsteps of the Honor 400 Pro, rather than using a current-gen mid-range chip, the Honor 600 Pro opts for last year's flagship instead. It's powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, and while it might not be the latest and greatest, it's still overkill for the majority of users.

This time, it's paired with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, along with Honor's largest vapor chamber to date. In tandem, these components provide an excellent experience for power users. No matter if you're editing large 4K video files, multitasking, or playing games at the highest graphical settings, the Honor 600 Pro can handle it all.

After using it for the past week, I have no complaints about the performance. It feels super quick, no matter what you're doing with it, and it handled a Wuthering Waves session at max settings without any issue. It does heat up when you're pushing it that hard, but it doesn't become uncomfortable to hold, which is all you can really ask for.

The 600 Pro runs Honor's latest software, Magic OS 10, which is a very heavily customised version of Android 16. Matching the outside of the phone, there's a lot of Apple influence in the software, too. Some elements have Liquid Glass-like styling, there's a Dynamic Island clone, and the default layout is very similar to iOS.

Where Magic OS differentiates itself is with the customisation. If you browse through the theme options, you can make the system look completely different. So, if you're not feeling the default aesthetics, you can change them completely with a few taps.

There are also boatloads of AI features to play with, including all the usual writing assistance, translation, and transcription tools. One of the most interesting additions is Image to Video 2.0. This tool is powered by Google, and it's debuting on the Honor 600 series before anywhere else.

It's similar to the Image to Video feature that debuted with last year's Honor 400 series phones, but this updated version supports multiple images, custom prompts, and also generates audio. The app gives you a selection of starting points, but there's also a freestyle option where you can enter whatever prompt you want.

It's definitely more of a novelty feature than something that you'd use for content creation, but it's a lot of fun. The output can be very unpredictable, and my friends and I had a great laugh generating bizarre videos of each other.

The problem is that this isn't really an Honor feature, so while it may be available on the 600-series first, it'll likely come to other phones in the near future. And even more importantly, it's not free. I don't have exact details on pricing, but Honor will give you 10 free uses per day for the first 3 months, then you'll need to pay Google for any additional slop generation.

The Honor 600 Pro has a sizable 6400 mAh battery inside, and the battery life has been pretty fantastic throughout my testing. I can easily go a day and a half between charges, and if I'm careful, it's possible to squeeze two days from a charge.

It also charges very quickly. It supports up to 80W speeds with a wire, and 50W wirelessly. There's no charger in the box, though.

Overall, my experience with the Honor 600 Pro has been quite positive. The OS has some really handy features, and the performance from the 8 Elite chip is as impressive as ever. The only real downsides are that there's a lot of bloatware preinstalled when you first set the phone up, and the battery optimisation has a habit of killing your background apps. But both can be remedied with a bit of tinkering.

Final Verdict

The Honor 600 Pro is a great all-rounder that's equally adept at gaming, productivity, and image creation. I'm not a big fan of the looks, but it feels premium and well-built, and it comes with a gorgeous display, a sizable battery, and speedy charging.

Whether I can recommend getting one all comes down to the pricing. At the full-price MSRP of £899, the competition is stiff. You can currently get the Xiaomi 17 for less than that, and it's a better phone in almost every way.

However, at the discounted launch price of £699, the Honor 600 Pro is a great deal, with better specifications than competitors like the Pixel 10. In that case, it's a much more compelling option.

Alternatives

I’m a little obsessed with smartphone camera kits. I’ve tried everything from Xiaomi’s ergonomic grips to Vivo’s teleconverters and Oppo’s own take on the concept.

I’m a firm believer in these kits, as although the setup can be cumbersome, I’ve taken shots that I wouldn’t have been able to without these accessories. And most importantly, they let me leave my heavy full-frame setup at home more often, and my spine is very thankful for that.

Clearly, camera-focused Chinese phone manufacturers feel the same way, as more and more of these devices keep popping up. Until now, Honor had neglected to jump on the trend, but that changes with the new Honor Magic8 Pro Professional Imaging Kit developed in collaboration with Telesin.

I’ve been testing this kit for the past couple of weeks, and it’s another impressive showing that blends elements of all the other camera kits that came before it. So, let’s take a closer look.

What’s in the box?

Honor’s photography kit comprises three main parts. There’s a phone case, a magnetic grip with tactile controls, and a teleconverter lens with a bayonet mounting system. You also get a 67mm filter adapter, along with both a neck and wrist strap.

As mentioned, there are parts of this kit that remind me of the other brand’s efforts. For instance, the bayonet lens mounting system is almost identical to Vivo’s, as is the neck strap, while the magnetic grip is quite similar to Oppo’s system. But that’s not to say there’s nothing new here.

The phone case has a thermally conductive material on the inside, and it looks like there’s a small heat sink in the middle of the magnetic ring. Telesin offers additional accessories that work with this magnetic mount, too, like a fill light and an active cooling fan for long shoots.

The case and grip are mostly made from plastic, but they feel very high-quality. Meanwhile, the lens and its mount are entirely metal, and they seem like they’ll stand the test of time.

The grip

The grip handle adds familiar DSLR-style controls to the Honor Magic 8 Pro, and attaches via super-strong MagSafe-compatible magnets. It’s a small detail, but I really like that the grip has these magnets on both sides, so if you want to use a MagSafe tripod, for example, you can attach it without needing to remove the grip first.

There are a couple of other advantages to this design when compared to a USB-C grip like you’ll find in Vivo and Xiaomi’s equivalent kits, too. Firstly, it can be rotated, so if you’re shooting vertically, you can still have an ergonomic grip with easily reachable controls.

Secondly, this design doesn’t block the USB-C port on the phone. Other kits offer a USB-C passthrough for charging, but they don’t usually support data transfer. So, for instance, if you want to use a wireless microphone receiver or an SSD, you can do so with this grip, and you wouldn’t be able to do so with others.

Of course, there are downsides, too. This grip doesn’t charge your phone, and you’ll need to remember to charge it from time to time, as it’s basically a fancy Bluetooth remote.

As for the controls, there’s a two-stage shutter button (half press to focus), a video button, a zoom rocker, a power button, and a very satisfying ratcheting control wheel. Unfortunately, though, there doesn’t seem to be a way to reprogram these controls; they’ll just work in their default configuration.

It’s not a huge problem, but it’s a slight annoyance. For instance, the control wheel switches camera mode (from photo to video and so on), which is fine, but I’d much rather have it control my EV compensation. All the other grips I have tried give you more options.

The teleconverter

The teleconverter looks and feels very similar to Vivo and Oppo's efforts. I have no way of actually knowing, but I wouldn't be shocked if these were all made in the same factory. To be clear, that's a good thing. These lenses are all extremely high quality, with a weighty metal build and glass optical elements.

The bayonet mount looks very similar, too, but it's not cross-compatible with the Vivo and Oppo kits, in case you were curious. It comes supplied with a rubber rear cap and a metal top cap to keep the glass protected.

The metal lens cap is another premium touch, but mine is extremely loose, and it falls off if you look at it the wrong way. It's an easy fix with some foam tape, but I shouldn't have to be DIY-ing a solution. Keep in mind, though, that this is a sample size of one, and other units might have a better fit.

This lens gives you a 2.35x magnification, and it works with the phone's built-in telephoto, just like the other examples. When attached, it gives you an FOV equivalent to around 200mm, in full-frame terms. But, of course, you can digitally zoom much further than that.

Compared to digitally zooming with the built-in lens, the teleconverter makes an immediate difference to the level of detail. It looks best at 200mm, but you can go all the way to around 1600mm and still get pretty usable results.

As I found with the other teleconverters, though, it's not long-range zooming that makes these lenses so appealing. If you shoot medium close-ups, the compression created by this longer lens produces stunning results with a shallow depth of field. These photos look like they were shot with a larger mirrorless camera, not a phone, and, in my opinion, that's the best thing about these external lens kits.

It's also great in low-light conditions. When you shoot at 200mm, you're using the whole 1/1.4-inch sensor, rather than cropping in on it. This means photos and videos are brighter, with less noise and motion blur.

Of course, this lens is just as useful for video shooting, and I was immediately impressed with the stabilisation when doing so. Autofocus is decent, too, but it does better with human subjects than birds. Still, it's nothing that tapping the screen can't fix, and there's a manual focus option if you want further control.

The software

If you try to use the teleconverter lens without first setting up the software, you'll be greeted with an upside-down image that's very shaky. To fix it, you'll need to dive into the settings menu on the camera app, find the Accessories section, and toggle on the Teleconverter option.

Once that's done, there will be a new Teleconverter mode available in the quick settings (swipe up in either Photo or Video mode).

You get a decent amount of options here, including a dedicated Stage mode for concert photography, as well as a selection of filters to use. In video, you can capture at up to 4K120, but the stabilisation isn't so good on that setting, so if you want to keep things looking smooth, you'll need to stick to 4K60 and below.

It's similar to the way Oppo's camera app handles the teleconverter, and it comes with the same downsides. There's no way to shoot in RAW or high-res mode, and there's no Log profile available for video shooting, either. Vivo is a step ahead here; the teleconverter for the X300 Pro is accessible in every camera mode.

Final thoughts

I have been impressed with every teleconverter kit I have tried so far, and the Honor Magic 8 Pro kit is no different. It has a very similar level of optical quality (despite lacking the Hasselblad/Zeiss branding) and produces very similar results.

This Telesin kit has some distinct advantages, too. It's the only solution that factors in thermal performance, with its conductive layer on the phone case, and the ability to rotate the grip and keep the USB-C port accessible gives it a leg up over Vivo's options.

If you own the Honor Magic 8 Pro, and you want to take your phone photography to the next level, this is a great purchase. However, getting your hands on this kit could prove tricky. Currently, it's available to buy in China, Malaysia, Singapore, the UAE, and Bangladesh. When I asked about a European release, I was told it was unconfirmed.

This means that for now, the only way a lot of our readers can get one is by importing. It's a bit of a pain, but on the plus side, I have the UK model Magic 8 Pro, and the software supports this accessory just fine. So, the only hurdle is physically getting one.

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Has the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S26 and its siblings reignited the debate over the "death of truth" in photography?

Computational photography has been the standard for well over a decade, but the S26’s new suite of features joins other phone manufacturers in shifting the needle uncomfortably towards artificial photography, where the phone essentially "imagines" details that were never there.

It all begins with the new ProScaler feature that predicts detail rather than capturing it. We’re all guilty of using software to edit our photos and introduce detail, but we’ve always got the original photo, and we can make informed and, at times, moral decisions about the changes we’re making.

ProScaler is different from this because it not only takes the human out of the decision but also uses AI to deliver you the image that it thinks you want. Take the example of zooming 100x on a building. The sensor might only be able to see a grey smudge, but ProScaler can recognize the object as bricks. It then proceeds to overlay a high-resolution brick texture, but with no guarantees that it is identical to what was present in reality.

Are we taking photos anymore or just capturing a prompt image for AI to then do its work? That’s an interesting thought that I don’t think many people are considering. It might only be small changes to photos at the moment, but it may well become so ubiquitous that the very idea of photo capture becomes redefined.

AI interference continues with the AI ISP feature. This real-time reality correction tool is applied at the level of the image signal processor and applies generative tweaks the moment you press the shutter. This means the processor is moving beyond mere brightness adjustments towards the modification of skin tones, smoothing of textures, and even altering light sources in real-time – all in an attempt to make a “perfect” image.

Is anyone else feeling uncomfortable? By adjusting photos at the point of capture, Samsung is moving dangerously close to assuming the position of truth teller in our lives. I don’t like the idea of it prioritizing aesthetic appeal over factual accuracy or messing with my images before I even see them. It’s one thing for a photo editor to edit a photo; it’s another thing altogether to hand that process over to AI, especially if you don't even have access to the 'original'.

Thankfully, at this moment in time, bypassing these features is as simple as switching to either Pro Mode or Expert RAW. Doing this means the phone will bypass the heavy AI ISP pipeline and ProScaler upscaling, giving you a raw data file (DNG) that represents what the sensor actually saw. It’s not as convenient as snapping simple images, but as far as I’m aware, it’s the only way to kill it off.

For now, truth-seeking photographers might just about have a handle on controlling the output that comes from their smartphones, but for how long? What if we use a phone to capture an image that doesn’t align with the values of the company that manufactured it? Are they going to start stepping in then?

Whatever the future holds, I’ll be trying to find ways to minimize AI interference. Call me a dinosaur, but I think the capturing of truth isn’t something we should easily let go of.

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Physics dictates that a camera phone can never be as good as a high-end conventional camera. This is the conclusion reached by Marques Brownlee in a recent YouTube video where he presents his thoughts on the Oppo Find X9 Ultra: Oppo's latest flagship, which pushes the boundaries of what's possible from a phone camera.

Taking that conclusion in isolation, you'd be forgiven for thinking Brownlee is not impressed by the Find X9 Ultra, but it's quite the opposite. He is very complimentary about the phone's incredible versatility, from its quad-camera array (plus additional color spectrum sensor), to its uncanny ability to help you take great shots, time and time again.

I personally use a Find X8 Pro as my daily phone and can concur with Brownlee: even though the Find X8 Pro's tech is now 18 months old, it's still an awesome camera phone that produces incredible images, even in scenarios where most phones would struggle.

But what of the assertion that it's physically impossible for a phone to ever be as good as a high-end, 'proper' camera? I lab test cameras for a living, from relatively mundane compact cameras, right up to full-frame and medium format powerhouses. If you judge a good camera to be one which provides the highest possible resolving power, while also giving the lowest possible image noise and the widest single-exposure dynamic range, then a big sensor (and in turn, big pixels) are paramount. My lab results verify this correlation, with cameras like the medium format Fujifilm GFX 100 II reigning supreme for detail capture. Bigger is better, and biggest is best. Judged purely on these traditional performance metrics, it's true: a camera phone can't compete. But here's the thing: does it need to?

The case for the camera phone

We could actually flip Brownlee's physics argument on its head, in favor of the camera phone. For the conventional camera to compete with (or better) a phone’s image quality, it must be physically larger, but that in turn makes it increasingly more inconvenient. Sure, if you're a committed photographer and are happy to lug around a dedicated camera and lenses, then credit to you. But like it or not, you're now in a tiny minority.

The goal for most people is to get the best possible image quality in the most convenient package, and it's this compromise that the camera phone nails so perfectly. While a phone-captured image won't match the fine detail of a photo from a full-frame or medium-format camera (even if the phone has a 200MP sensor), when you're viewing your shots primarily on the phone itself, who cares?

What's far more important than something like outright resolution (and as Brownlee points out) is the ability to get the maximum number of great-looking photos from the minimum number of shutter button presses. Judged on this metric, even a $5000+ pro camera cannot come close to the hit rate of a phone like the Find X9 Ultra. The immense processing power of a camera phone means it can compensate for user error, as well as the phone's camera hardware limitations. As a case in point, Google re-used the same image sensor for four consecutive generations of Pixel, yet image quality still noticeably improved each year.

Image processing is key here: it can take what would otherwise be a mediocre-looking image and turn it into a vibrant, detailed shot with incredible dynamic range, all without you doing a thing. This is noticeable on my Find X8 Pro: there's a split second where you see the initial, rather bland image upon immediately reviewing a photo, then the processing does its thing and boom, you're hit with a stunning image. The difference is most obvious when shooting at focal lengths exceeding the phone's native optical zoom. Then AI is employed to add fine detail where there would otherwise be none. At this point an image goes from being enhanced to partially fabricated. But again, I'd argue that this doesn't need to be a problem. Unless you're very familiar with the subject matter, you'll never know that the texture AI has applied to a certain portion of the image doesn't match the actual texture of the real subject. After all, photographs are most often used as memory aids, and to effectively fulfil this purpose they don't have to be exact emulations of the source material.

So is there still a place for 'proper' cameras?

This entirely depends on what you want a camera for. If you simply want to take photos, then stick with a phone. It has made a dedicated camera obsolete for this purpose, for the reasons above. However, if you want to learn or practice photography, as a hobby or a profession, then a phone is still no match for a 'real' camera.

For hobbyist photographers, the vastly superior ergonomics and plethora of physical controls you get with a camera like the Fujifilm X100VI or OM System OM-D E-M10 IV will make your shooting experience far more immersive and therefore more enjoyable. Phone manufacturers like Oppo, Xiaomi and Vivo have tried to improve their flagship phones' ergonomics with optional add-on grips, but even these can't match the level of physical control you get with a dedicated enthusiast's camera.

Then there's the professional photographer. A key requirement for the pro is to record not just attractive images, but also to achieve faithful subject depiction. When it comes to sports, reportage, or nature photography, a large part of these photos’ appeal (especially in the age of AI) is their authenticity and accurate representation of the moment or subject. These are scenarios where eye-popping dynamic range or AI-fabricated elements are at best jarring, and at worst wholly inappropriate. Sure, premium camera phones do have manual modes and Raw capture that'll give you more honest subject reproduction, but phones rely so heavily on image processing to compensate for their small image sensors that disabling this trickery will noticeably reduce image quality.

If you want both high image quality and accurate, trustworthy subject depiction, then a high-end dedicated camera is still the tool of choice. In these scenarios their bulk, potential inconvenience and complexity become almost irrelevant: it's the camera’s ability to record a moment as accurately as possible, without autonomously applying its own spin, which matters most. And it's this authenticity, rather than just physics, which gives a high-end camera unrivalled appeal.

Building on its Best in Show award at the Global Mobile Awards 2026, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has now been honored as the Best Photo Smartphone at the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) World Awards.

The TIPA World Awards 2026 recognize the best new photo and imaging products each year, celebrating innovation in technology, design, and user experience across the industry. The awards are widely regarded as one of the most respected honors in the imaging world.

The winners are decided at TIPA's General Assembly, where leading photography publications – including Digital Camera World – vote on the most impressive launches. Out of 40 categories, Samsung's flagship was named the top camera phone for photography.

200MP image power: the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

The TIPA highlighted that the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is a standout example.

"The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra features one of the most advanced smartphone camera systems available today, with a quad-camera setup, a 200MP main sensor and powerful zoom capabilities. Those ultra-high 200MP resolution images result from utilizing the “wide camera” f/1.4 sensor.

"In all, the S26 Ultra camera sets the new standard in zoom capability and range, low light and night shots, and high-detail photos, making it a good choice within the smartphone field."

Samsung's flagship features a 200MP main, 50MP ultra-wide, 10MP 3x telephoto, and 50MP 5x periscope lens – and excels in zoom versatility. While competitors like Oppo and Vivo may edge ahead in pure image processing, Samsung offers one of the most complete and consistent camera experiences in an Android flagship.

That said, improvements over the previous generation are incremental, and Samsung's image processing can sometimes appear slightly over-enhanced. Even so, the Galaxy S26 Ultra remains a top-tier choice for users who want a powerful, all-in-one smartphone camera system.

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While Leica has been co-branding Xiaomi phones for some time, its own Leitzphone line has historically been a niche Japan-only curiosity. However, this latest model changes that, becoming the first globally available Leitzphone, or to give it its full title: Leica Leitzphone powered by Xiaomi. Coming from Xiaomi and Leica's longstanding partnership, it pairs Xiaomi’s latest flagship hardware from the Xiaomi 17 Ultra with a more overtly Leica design and user experience.

So what exactly is different from the Xiaomi 17 Ultra I previously reviewed? While the Xiaomi is a Xiaomi flagship with Leica-tuned cameras, the Leitzphone is positioned much more as a Leica-designed phone, with Leica cameras, that runs on Xiaomi hardware. It's a little confusing, but in practical terms, that means the same core internals, screen, battery, and camera hardware, but the Leitzphone has a redesigned exterior, a new rotatable camera control ring, Leica-specific software touches, and a far more obvious Leica identity.

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra was already one of the closest things I’ve used to a genuine compact camera replacement. So the real question with the Leitzphone is not whether the camera hardware is good; I already know it is. The question is whether Leica’s changes make this feel more enjoyable or more desirable to justify the steeper price.

Specifications

Price & Availability

This is where the Leica Leitzphone most clearly separates itself from the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. Leica is selling it globally in a single 16GB/1TB configuration for £1,700 / €1,999 / AU$2,299, which is a fair jump over the Xiaomi’s pricing (£1,299/€1,499 for 16GB+512GB, or £1,499/€1,699 for 16GB+1TB).

Leica is effectively asking you to pay a premium not for radically different hardware, but for design, branding, software, and a some Leica-inspired camera filters. The Xiaomi 17 Ultra already felt premium at its asking price, and the Leitzphone goes beyond that. If you are choosing with your head, the Xiaomi remains the sensible buy, but if you are swayed by the Leica design or that red dot, then the Leitzphone is the only choice.

Design

The main differences between the Leica Leitzphone and the Xiaomi 17 Ultra are concentrated in the exterior design. Leica has given the phone a black fibreglass rear, a knurled metal frame, and its own pared-back Leica styling. The phone also adds a rotatable camera control ring and a more Leica-specific user interface with bespoke looks, sounds, and filters. Beyond that, much of the underlying experience, including the screen, dimensions, and weight, remains very similar.

The Leica Leitzphone is a very handsome device. Leica has leaned into its usual design language of restraint, and the result is a phone that feels very Leica – much more so than the sparkly green Xiaomi I've been sporting for the last few months. The black finish is understated, the textures are premium, and the overall aesthetic feels much closer to a Leica camera than a typical phone. And, perhaps most importantly, the Leitzphone gains the iconic red dot.

The fibreglass rear panel gives the Leitzphone a slightly softer feel in the hand, although the downside is it's an absolute fingerprint magnet. While the knurled metal rail around the outside feels really nice in the hand, it adds a level of grip that I now miss with other phones. Combined, there is a real attempt here to make the phone feel camera-adjacent, not just visually but physically too, and it pays off.

That camera-like idea is reinforced by the rotating camera ring, which Leica has used to bring a little more mechanical interaction into the shooting experience, letting you adjust zoom, exposure settings, and Leica Looks. But, while I appreciate the ambition here, in practice, I found the ring to be more irritating than useful.

The ring just turns far too easily. I would knock it when shooting and zoom in or out, sometimes far enough to jump between cameras. The camera ring can also open the camera with a twist, followed by a quick reverse twist, but with how easily the ring turns, I just kept accidentally opening the camera app while just handling the phone.

Even when I was intentionally trying to use the ring, it felt too unwieldy to do it with one hand, and like I might drop the phone. But too awkward having to use the phone with two hands. Ten out of ten for invention, but the execution needs more work.

The camera bump is also pretty substantial. The Leitzphone is built around some serious camera hardware, and that means it comes with the kind of size you would expect from a device with a huge 1-inch main sensor and a mechanical zoom module. But if you want one of the best camera phones available, some physical bulk comes with the territory. However, the phone still manages to stay relatively lightweight at 223g, which is in line with a lot of other flagships with far less ambitious camera hardware inside.

The display is the same 6.9-inch OLED screen used on the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, which is just about as large as I can manage with one hand. It's a really nice panel. It's bright, sharp, colorful, and exactly what I would want on a flagship phone aimed at photographers and video creators. Images look punchy and detailed, the high refresh rate keeps everything feeling smooth, and there is plenty of brightness for outdoor shooting and playback.

Camera Performance

Like the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, the 50MP 1-inch Light Fusion 1050L main camera remains the hero, and it is still one of the best phone cameras I have used for producing images that feel photographic rather than overly processed, with a depth here that most phone cameras still struggle to match. Sharpness is outstanding, and even using in-sensor cropping for a 2x (46mm equivalent) image, I can’t spot any visible loss of detail.

The Leitzphone is also debuting new LOFIC tech, which expands dynamic range by storing greater charge directly at the pixel level, which essentially means the camera can capture more detail in the high and lows as well as at night – and it really works.

The dynamic range on the main camera is fantastic; skies that could easily be blown out kept their color and definition, and there was a lot of detail held in the shadows. I am continually impressed by the way Leica/Xiaomi has managed the HDR. It's not extreme, and there is also no tacky HDR effect where it looks like the software has just dragged the highlights and shadows sliders; the results look natural and like you might get from a larger sensor digital camera.

The downside? The main camera has noticeably better control over highlights and colors than the other two sensors. Introducing LOFIC on just the main camera has proved to be a bit of a double-edged sword, as on one hand it shows what a powerful development LOFIC actually is, but on the other hand introduces some less-than-ideal inconsistencies between cameras, as the other two cameras just can't match the impressive results, as you can see below. But it makes me very excited to see this technology employed on more of the sensors in future models.

However, with all that said, in isolation, the 200MP 75-100mm periscope telephoto is actually incredibly good. At 75-100mm, the optical zoom is a very useful length for portraits, and the large 1/1.4-inch sensor, along with Leica’s processing, gives it a level of subject isolation that looks, again, like a larger camera and lens. Image quality is superb, and even in low light, the large sensor captures a lot of detail. But as mentioned, if you want the absolute best dynamic range or night shots possible, I'd try to stick to the main lens if possible.

The Leitzphone also introduces a mechanical zoom that physically moves between 75mm and 100mm, the same as a camera lens. However, as clever and technically impressive as this I didn't really find it revolutionary.

The idea of physically moving through 75mm to 100mm in a phone is very cool, and it is technically a better solution than in-sensor cropping, as you use the entire 200MP sensor throughout the whole zoom range. But in practice, it is still a relatively modest zoom range, and I struggled to really notice day-to-day that 25mm made any difference in how I could shoot.

It is nice to have, but it is not a reason to buy the phone on its own. But I admire the ambition, and I do hope Leica and Xiaomi stick with the idea and can extend the range next time around.

The mechanical lens also makes close-up shooting more impaired than the previous model, as it can't focus nearly as close. The Leitzphone can capture very attractive closeish-focus images when you work within the telephoto’s sweet spot, where you can get striking shots with plenty of depth and character, but it's not quite a macro specialist. The ultrawide lens can also shoot macro images, although the perspective is far from ideal for flattering shots.

Superzoom is very impressive, largely because Leica has such a strong base to work from, with the large 200MP telephoto sensor, which means cropped zoom shots hold together well until around 400mm-equivalent.

After that, AI steps in to clean up the images. The AI is decent up until around 60x, although once you push further, the usual smartphone issues do appear, with fine detail starting to look overprocessed and the image losing some natural texture, and the phone inventing some minor details like getting the numbers on the clock all wrong on the example below. But for fun rather than photography, the AI superzoom is incredibly useful.

But what really makes the Leitzphone’s cameras stand out is their photographic character. A lot of that comes from the Leica color profiles, which give JPEGs a more photographic feel straight out of the camera rather than the flat, overly clean look so many phones default to.

You can choose between Leica Vibrant and Leica Authentic. Vibrant is the more conventional option, with punchier color and a brighter, more immediate rendering of the scene. However, Authentic is the one I keep coming back to. Color is a little more restrained, with a more muted saturation, and it adds a subtle vignette and a slightly moodier contrast that gives images a more cinematic feel.

The Leitzphone also adds two more with profiles made to match the classic Leica M9 and M3 cameras – both of which produce really beautiful photos, almost enough to convince you that these photos weren’t taken on a phone.

Alongside those profiles, there are a lot of filters, with Leica’s black-and-white and film-inspired looks genuinely some of the best I have used on a phone. I have used plenty of filters and color modes on phone cameras over the years, but Leica’s still feel among the most convincing.

If all you want is a neutral point-and-shoot result, an iPhone or Pixel may still be the more obvious choice. But for photographers who care about mood, tone, and a stronger visual identity in their images, the Leitzphone offers something more distinctive than almost anything else on the market.

Phone Performance

Because the Leitzphone shares its core platform with the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, which I rated so highly, performance is predictably excellent. The flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, paired here with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, has more than enough power for any photography-centric workflow you are likely to throw at it, from shooting and editing images to handling demanding video capture and rendering.

The battery is also unchanged with a 6,000mAh cell. In use, though, I still wouldn’t call battery life class-leading. It is good and comfortably usable for a day away from a charger, but I wasn't getting nearly enough life out of it as I do from many rivals like the Oppo Find X9 Pro or the OnePlus 15, with their colossal batteries.

Thankfully, the Leitzphone charges incredibly quickly. There is 90W wired plus 50W wireless charging – if you have a Xiaomi Hypercharge compatible charger – although PD charging is also surprisingly quick. I went from empty to around 40% in 15 minutes, and around 70% in half an hour.

Support for Content Credentials is interesting, with so many AI photo-editing tools built into the phone. It's not unexpected, as Leica is a major proponent of the Content Authenticity Initiative and has pioneered Content Credentials in camera, like the Leica M11-P.

However, Leica says the phone can embed cryptographically secured metadata via a dedicated security chip in line with C2PA standards, echoing what it has already done with the Leica M11-P. That will not matter to everyone, but for editorial, documentary, and authenticity-conscious users its essential for proving your images are accurate and untouched by AI.

The general Android experience is still underpinned by Xiaomi's operating system, but Leica has skinned parts of the experience with new fonts, app icons, and widgets. On the surface, it feels distinct enough from Xiaomi's OS, but under the hood, it is not entirely separate from it.

If you look beyond the Leica polish, then this is the same experience as any Xiaomi phone. That said, HyperOS is very good, although it still has limiting frustrations with things like UI scaling and app management compared to slicker OS like Oppo's ColorOS or Google's Pixel OS.

Final Verdict

Strip away the Leica design and, yes, this is still the Xiaomi 17 Ultra I already rated so highly. But Leica has done enough here to change the feel of the device. The fibreglass body, knurled frame, rotating camera ring, Leica-inspired interface, and excellent Leica Looks give it a stronger sense of Leica identity and make it feel more like a photographic tool than just another camera-centric Android flagship.

The 1-inch main camera is superb, and still clearly the star of the show, especially thanks to the way LOFIC helps it handle highlights and color in difficult lighting. The telephoto is ambitious and very good, but it has a few inconsistencies with the main camera, and the 75-100mm mechanical zoom remains impressive as an engineering feat, but 25mm is limited in practice.

The real sticking point is price. Leica has taken the brilliant Xiaomi phone and definitely made it look more desirable, but also more expensive. For most people, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra will be the more rational buy. But rationality has never been the whole point of Leica.

Alternatives

Apple announced that John Ternus, Apple's existing senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, will be taking over from Tim Cook as CEO on September 1, putting an end to months of rumor and discussion.

The official Apple statement is out. Now we can look back at some of Tim Cook's successes and most notable missteps (cough Apple Vision Pro, anyone?). He has been at the helm of the company since the single-camera iPhone 4 was the company's leading product, but had only just started to have an impact on compact camera sales.

Tim Cook has overseen Apple's release of the iPhone 7 Plus in 2016 – the first with multiple rear cameras – and taken the stage to announce every subsequent iPhone, but during his tenure, John Ternus has been rising the ranks and overseeing the development of some of those devices.

Apple fans, and perhaps investors, will no doubt be reassured to know that Ternus is a longtimer at Apple – explaining why in his own statement, the quote: "Having spent almost my entire career at Apple, I have been lucky to have worked under Steve Jobs, and to have had Tim Cook as my mentor" appears.

The legacy of Steve Jobs is strong at Apple amongst fans, while Tim Cook's success in steering the company through a value of $1bn right up to $4bn has pleased investors. Jobs was something of a risk-taker, Cook the steady-as-she-goes.

Perhaps some might see them as the personalities of Kirk and Spock?

Things are different now, however, with Cook being seen by many as having failed to anticipate the significance of AI, there is pressure on the former 'hardware guy' to solve Apple's apparent delays there out of the gate.

What will his personality be? Scotty the engineer? That is the roots many used to feel Apple should listen to. Given Ternus' recent experience developing hardware, he might be well placed to pull the realities together. One such example is computational photography – the processing behind getting phones to emulate shallow depth of field, for example, or take maximum advantage of their multiple cameras.

In the space of cameras, it's worth remembering that Ternus is very familiar with the cameras, but members of his team have long been all about mixing hardware and software. "We apply deep learning models for demosaicing, which constructs the image from the raw output" said Patrick Carroll, manager of iPhone camera architecture, of the "Photonic Engine" – and this may be increasingly true with devices like the iPhone Air which has fewer physical cameras.

Apple's press release notes that before joining Apple in 2001 Ternus worked at Virtual Research Systems, though the phrasing of Apple's release is careful only to link the Vision Pro to Tim Cook, even though it was one of the things he oversaw at Apple. That's as close as it'll come to Apple admitting the Vision Pro was not a success.

It does connect Ternus to a lot of Apple hardware, including the Apple Watch and AirPods. The text also links him to the aforementioned iPhone Air – which might yet prove to be the underpinning of a rumored folding phone – and explicitly highlights Ternus's involvement in reliability and durability.

That, then, will be the basis of Apple's play for the future. The company seems keen to explain how it will continue to grow now Cook has helped it reach $416 billion yearly revenue, and a sensible play will be trust – Ternus, Mr reliability & durability, won't be the end of that.

Ternus is one of Apple's more publicly friendly figures. He is seen above presenting the new cheaper MacBook Neo, and was outside the London Regent Street Apple Store, greeting customers, at the launch of the iPhone 17.

That suggests, I suspect, a tenure more like Cook than Jobs is coming up, but we won't know until September.

Oppo’s Ultra phones have been on a steady march toward replacing a camera for a while now. I will often grab my Find X8 Ultra on the way out of the house instead of my Fujifilm X100VI.

Ultras aren't your everyday flagships. From the outset, Oppo's Ultra series has been clearly aimed at photographers, videographers, and enthusiasts who care more about optics, character, and control. Yes, a novice can still take beautiful images with these phones, but it's a phone designed for someone who will really appreciate what the cameras can do.

The Find X9 Ultra is the latest in the line, arriving not only looking like the compact camera version of the Hasselblad X2D II, but with a new-generation Hasselblad Master Camera system inside.

That means a 200MP main camera, a 200MP 3x telephoto, a 50MP 10x optical camera, pro-level video recording features, an optional camera grip, and a 300mm teleconverter to make this the most ambitious camera phone I have ever used. And, after using it, I think that ambition has paid off – Oppo has just built the best camera phone you can buy right now.

Specifications

Price & Availability

The Oppo Find X9 Ultra is launching in the UK for £1,449 for the 12GB+512GB version, with the 16GB+1TB exclusive to China alongside the Arctic White colorway. Currently there is no confirmed price for the Hasselblad Explorer Kit with the telephoto adapter.

Design

The Find X9 Ultra is one of the coolest-looking phones I’ve used in a long time. In Europe, the phone comes in two colors, although the hero is Tundra Umber, which is the version I have. It looks like a mini Hasselblad X2D camera, and I absolutely love it.

Oppo has really nailed the details, from the vegan leather two-tone back that feels soft and warm in the hand, to the horizontally aligned Oppo and Hasselblad branding. The camera housing has a knurled ring that echoes a lens focus ring, and the orange accent on the camera button adds just enough playful contrast without ruining the look. Overall finish is just really premium, and it's a phone I genuinely enjoy picking up and using.

I am much less convinced by Canyon Orange. It does look better in person than in the press shots, but next to Tundra Umber, it loses all the understated Hasselblad chic. It is bold, bright, and far more attention-grabbing, which I'm sure some people will like, but for me, only one of these colorways really looks like a photography tool.

In the hand, this is a big, hefty flagship at 235-236g, which is around 30g heavier than a Samsung S26 Ultra, but if you want this sort of camera capabilities, you roll with the punches.

Like most modern flagships, the X9 Ultra has IP66, IP68, and IP69 ratings for dust and water resistance, plus Armour Shield drop-protection architecture. Despite a few minor drops and being thrown in and out of bags while I'm travelling, I've found that after a couple of weeks, there's no obvious wear, especially on the soft leather back. There is also a factory-applied screen protector, love them or hate them, but this has already taken the hit on a few minor scratches, so I'm grateful for it.

The usual power and volume buttons are present, alongside Oppo’s customizable action button, which replaced the old alert slider a few generations ago and can be assigned to functions like alerts, flashlight, Do Not Disturb, AI features, and more.

There is also Oppo’s dedicated camera button, finished in orange on the Tundra model, and I like the visual pop. The camera button supports swiping to zoom, and a half-press for focus and exposure lock, but I still found myself preferring the on-screen controls most of the time, as, for me, they are just far faster and easier to use, as I find camera buttons so fiddly. It also does not work in Portrait mode, which is my default orientation.

The Find X9 Ultra is also launching alongside an optional Hasselblad Earth Explorer Kit – also inspired by the Hasselblad X2D – and no, there is no orange version, thank god. The case adds a small grip, a two-stage shutter button, a zoom rocker, and interchangeable rings for 67mm filters or Oppo’s 300mm teleconverter.

It feels really well-made and really premium, and it really does make the whole package feel more like a compact camera. It's the best-looking and feeling camera photography kit I have used, and it puts Vivo's slightly plastic-y kit to shame. The design matches the phone itself, with the same vegan leather across the back, while the adapter rings are all solid metal, which feel very sturdy.

The zoom rocker works well, and the shutter button is excellent, but I still wish Oppo had either added an exposure compensation dial or let me remap the zoom control for exposure compensation, which, for me, feels far more useful in fast shooting. Oppo might have the prettiest photography case, but Xiaomi's and Vivo's are still the more practical.

There is also an optional 300mm teleconverter. It is a big lens, it's all-metal with 16 glass elements in 11 groups, including four ED elements, and it mounts to the optional camera case. Frustratingly, the lens mount is different from the teleconverter for the Find X9 Pro, so the two lenses/phones are not interchangeable. I really hope that, going forward, Oppo has thought about a standardized lens mount, as buying a new lens for each new phone is going to get expensive and wasteful.

The lens is not discreet in the slightest, still, I actually prefer the design here to some rival approaches because the all-black finish is a little more discreet than the shinier silver alternatives we are now seeing elsewhere. But the lens is big and bulky enough that once you have it attached, the phone basically becomes a real camera rather than anything you would casually slip into a pocket.

The display is another stunning panel. It has a 6.82-inch QHD+ LTPO AMOLED panel with a 1-144Hz refresh rate, 510ppi, up to 1800 nits full-screen brightness, and 3600 nits peak HDR brightness.

In use, it is superb, with sharp details and clear text, and the refresh rate also keeps everything smooth when switching in and out of apps or scrubbing video. Colors are fantastic – bright and rich. Oppo gives some control over screen colors with Standard, Natural, and Vivid modes, and I found Natural the most pleasing for accurate photo and video work, though I still wish Oppo offered a little more granular control over saturation, as I think my perfect level is somewhere between Natural and Vivid.

I didn't struggle to use the screen outdoors, even in bright sunshine. The feature I find more useful is that it can also drop to 1 nit for comfortable nighttime viewing, helping with late-night eye strain, or without disturbing others in the room. Oppo has also added 2160Hz PWM dimming for better eye health, plus circular polarization for better visibility with polarized sunglasses.

Camera Performance

The Find X9 Ultra’s camera setup is kind of outrageous. Five cameras and no filler. Too many phones still have one genuinely great camera, and then some others to tick boxes.

You get a 50MP ultrawide with a 1/1.95-inch sensor, a 200MP 1/1.12-inch main camera, a 200MP 3x telephoto with a 1/1.28-inch sensor, a 50MP 10x telephoto, and a new True Color camera for more accurate color information. Oppo calls this the Hasselblad Master Camera System, and the focal length coverage stretches from 14mm to 230mm optically, while sensor crops extend that even further to a whopping 460mm equivalent. And for once, I didn’t really care which lens I was using, rather than sticking stubbornly to the main sensor.

Main camera

The main camera is built around a 200MP Sony LYT-901 sensor measuring 1/1.12-inch, which is the largest 200MP sensor yet used in a phone. It’s a size reduction from the 50MP 1-inch sensor in the previous Ultra, but it is now a higher resolution for combining pixels, and paired with a wider f/1.5 aperture, Oppo claims gives it the same light intake. The main sensor also benefits from Oppo’s Real-Time Triple Exposure HDR processing, which combines several photos into one to improve dynamic range.

In use, it is a very very good main camera. Detail is excellent, dynamic range is strong, and colors in the standard mode are generally very accurate. I suspect some users may think the default color is a little understated, but for my taste, it is pretty spot on.

The default processing in regular photo mode can push sharpening a bit too far, and in some scenes, the HDR had a slightly overdone look. It is not bad by any stretch, and it will probably please plenty of people who just want “perfect-looking” images straight from the camera, but it is not my preferred rendering style. Coming off the back of testing the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, I think Xiaomi’s LOFIC sensor tech just produces some cleaner HDR that looks more natural rather than processed.

That said, Oppo’s answer to this issue is also one of the best reasons to buy the phone at all: Hasselblad Master mode. I absolutely love it. This strips away a lot of the more obvious phone-style processing and gives you images with more natural sharpness, more believable shadow handling, and a more camera-like overall feel. I found it especially effective at night, where the standard mode can lean too hard on processing, while Master mode gives you deeper shadows and more natural highlights.

3x telephoto

If I had to pick just one camera on the X9 Ultra, it would be the 3x telephoto. It's a 200MP periscope camera with a 70mm equivalent focal length, a huge 1/1.28-inch sensor, and an f/2.2 aperture. In other words, it is absurdly over-specced by the standards of most phone telephotos, with a bigger sensor than other flagships’ main camera.

Image quality at 70mm is absolutely superb. Photos are super sharp, and there is good falloff around the subject, and images have a genuinely photographic quality to them that makes them feel closer to a proper camera than most phone telephoto shots do. This is the lens I kept gravitating back to because it looks so good, and because 70mm is such a useful focal length for portraits, detail shots, travel scenes, and more compressed street images.

It also crops brilliantly. Because of the 200MP resolution, Oppo can offer a 6x in-sensor crop that still produces 50MP images with what it describes as optical quality. In good light, I found there was no perceptible dip in quality. Once you get into darker conditions, the crop starts to look a little grainier, with some detail becoming slightly oversharpened. But even then, it remains incredibly usable, and I was genuinely shocked by how much detail I could pull from very low light at a relatively long focal length. For me, this is easily one of the best telephoto cameras I have used on any phone.

Macro

Macro performance is superb; you can get in as close as 15cm. The camera isn't quite enough to pull out microscopic details; you'll still need a proper macro lens and some focus stacking, but for most things you'll want to shoot day to day, you can get some excellent macro shots.

10x telephoto

As the world’s first 50MP 10x camera, it's by far the most interesting camera of the X9 Ultra because it is just such an ambitious focal length to squeeze into this size, while still giving it a decent-sized sensor. It is a 50MP 230mm-equivalent telephoto with an f/3.5 aperture, a 1/2.75-inch sensor, and sensor-shift stabilization.

And there is an obvious jump in quality compared to normal digital zoom, and even once you start cropping further, at 460mm equivalent focal lengths, I was getting such remarkable results. I am also so impressed by how capable this camera is in lower light. It’s not the largest sensor in the system, but it held up much better than I anticipated.

The 10x just wipes the floor with some other mainstream zooms. Take a look below at the Oppo versus the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, which really shows the limits of computational photography versus good hardware.

Ultrawide

The ultrawide is probably the least special camera in the lineup, but that says more about the strength of the other lenses than any weaknesses. It uses a 50MP sensor with autofocus, and in good light, it is very good indeed. It captures a strong amount of detail, colors remain nicely in line with the rest of the system, and it performs better at night than I expected. That said, it is still the camera where I saw the most noise, the most oversharpening, and the longest exposures compared to the others.

Master Mode

Hasselblad Master mode is easily my favorite feature on the phone. Beyond the more natural default rendering, Oppo has also expanded it with a selection of new filters, which it has referred to as film simulations. They are not really simulations in the Fujifilm sense, as they are not based on Fujifilm’s library of film emulations as a starting point to build on. They are closer to a photo LUT, but they do offer a level of deeper customization or tonal control I love. I particularly like Oppo’s take on Portra. It is not going to fool anybody into thinking they are looking at film, but it gives images a pleasant warmth and softness in the shadows that makes for very nice results.

I still think Oppo could go further. There is no way to shoot a stylized JPG and keep a RAW backup at the same time; you have to shoot in RAW and then convert it to a JPG after, which just adds an unnecessary step to the process, and is annoying if I want a fast, stylized shot for social media but also a clean file to work on later. There also seems to be a slight film grain applied to some of Oppo’s presets, but I can’t find anywhere in the custom settings to do this. Maybe I am just seeing the film grain when it’s not there, but I’d love to see the app update to add this, as it's a key element of emulating film photos.

Finally, this goes for all photo modes, but as Master Mode is the most “Pro” mode, I would love finer control over the autofocus reticle, as it’s just one size, which is reasonably big, so quite often when trying to focus through a crowded scene, the autofocus couldn’t pick out the exact thing I was tapping on. You can switch to manual focus, but I feel a single point autofocus option is the easiest solution.

Hasselblad Teleconverter

I love this teleconverter. There is such an obvious quality improvement over digital zoom, and the results can look genuinely photographic in a way that I don’t think you could tell that this was a phone and not a dedicated camera.

The problem is that Oppo separates it into its own mode, which means you cannot use it in Master mode, so you can’t use any of your presets. That is just such a frustrating limitation on a device this good. I want a simple toggle to enable the lens from within the regular shooting modes, which is how it is done on Vivo phones. I am hoping that this can be fixed with a software update, rather than having to wait for the next generation.

Video

Oppo has gone properly big on video in the X9 Ultra. Every rear and front camera supports 4K 60p Dolby Vision, while the main and 3x cameras can also shoot 4K 120p Dolby Vision and 8K 30p. Oppo has also added O-Log 2, ACES support, real-time LUT preview, and the ability to burn in LUTs from standard .cube files.

Video quality is fantastic, autofocus is quick, and video stabilization is very good. There are a few minor quirks. I can’t find anywhere in the video app that tells me what microphone I am using, so plugging in a receiver, there is no indication in the video app that it's actually using my external mic to record. The autofocus is also just a little bit too jumpy. I can manually lock on to subjects, but I would love to see more subject detection and tracking similar to a digital camera to make the whole process a little easier.

Phone Performance

Like most 2026 flagships, the Find X9 Ultra is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and in day-to-day use, it feels incredibly speedy, and I did not notice a single stutter in normal use. More importantly, I had no issue editing 4K 120p or 8K footage shot on the phone in CapCut, and exports were quick. For photos, snapping 200MP images in the Hasselblad high-res mode was far quicker than on the X9 Pro, and there was none of the mosaic style capturing requiring me to hold the camera steady.

Thermals also seem reasonably well managed, with Oppo saying the phone has a new Encapsulated Thermal Unit, vapor chamber cooling, and graphite layers designed to deal with heat spikes. I am not a gamer, but for tasks like capturing 8K and 4K120 video, while the phone got a little warm, I certainly did not run into alarming heat problems in my use.

The battery isn't quite the monster squeezed into the Find X9 Pro, with a slightly smaller 7050mAh cell. Although the silicon-carbon battery is pretty enormous for a flagship camera phone, and in my own use, I was getting around a day of heavy shooting, and a day and a half of mixed use from a charge.

Wired charging tops out at 100W, wireless at 50W, and while you need the right SuperVOOC or AirVOOC charger to hit the headline figures, you can still get 55W charging with USB-PD, and I managed to charge to around 34% in 15 minutes and 63% in 30 minutes from empty, which is enough to relieve any battery anxiety.

The software is ColorOS 16 based on Android 16, and I am a big fan, and, in fact, it is my favorite Android skin. It looks clean, feels fluid, and adds genuinely useful features without becoming irritating. This time around, Oppo has added a cleaner lock screen, which can hide notifications in a notification drawer at the bottom of the screen, removing them as a distraction. Oppo is also promising that Apple Airdrop support via Google's QuickShare will be coming soon.

The software has Oppo's usual suite of AI photo editing tools. There is nothing new on the Ultra that we haven't seen before, but then Oppo already had one of the most well-rounded groups of tools. There are options to AI erasers, reflection removal, perfect shot to change expressions or open blinking eyes, enhance clarity, or change the lighting in portraits.

The tools generally work well, or at least as well as I have seen gen-AI on other devices. For small fixes with easy-to-replicate backgrounds, the results are usually very good, but more complicated generations do tend to trip it up, and occasionally, there are some interesting hallucinations. The less gen-AI heavy tools are better, the reflection removal tool is usually pretty solid, and the unblur has saved my shaky hands a couple of times.

Final Verdict

For me, the Oppo Find X9 Ultra is hands down the best camera phone I’ve used yet. Does a phone need four cameras? It depends on who you ask, but now that I have spent a few weeks with the phone, my resounding answer is yes. The 3x camera is phenomenal, the 10x camera zoom range is incredibly useful, and the quality far exceeds any digital zoom. Hasselblad Master mode is also a standout; it finally gives me exactly the kind of less-processed, more camera-like images with custom film recipes I've been wanting from a flagship phone. Add in superb video, excellent battery life, a gorgeous screen, and a design in Tundra Umber that I absolutely love, and Oppo has made my perfect camera phone.

It is not completely flawless. Standard mode can still look too processed for my taste, the teleconverter integration is more limited than it should be, and there are still some minor settings tweaks I'd love to see. But if your priority is having the most capable, most versatile, most photography-focused phone possible, the Find X9 Ultra is exceptionally hard to argue against.

Alternatives

If you ever been wondering what it would look like if Hasselblad made a compact camera, then you're in luck, as Oppo has just officially launched the Find X9 Ultra, with looks inspired by the legendary Hasselblad X2D camera, and one of the most ambitious camera systems we have ever seen on a phone. Although, the best news – Oppo is finally taking its Ultra phone global.

Of course, every brand says its latest Ultra device is a “camera in your pocket”, but the Find X9 Ultra backs that up with a frankly ludicrous camera spec sheet with a total of five different cameras on the back covering 14-460mm with optical quality, and secondary sensors larger than you’d find as the main sensor in most mainstream flagships.

Starting with the big headline five-camera system that Oppo is calling its New-Generation Hasselblad Master Camera System. Designed in collaboration with Hasselblad, the hardware includes a 200MP main camera, a 200MP 3x telephoto, a 50MP ultra-wide, a dedicated multispectral True Color camera, and, most excitingly of all, a 50MP 10x optical telephoto.

Oppo’s made this possible with what it calls a Quintuple Prism Reflection Periscope Structure, which folds the light path five times in order to fit a 10x optical zoom lens into the camera bump roughly the same size as the previous generation. The company says this is the world’s first 50MP 10x optical telephoto, which pairs a 1/2.75-inch sensor with an f/3.5 aperture, alongside sensor-shift optical stabilization for keeping things steady at massive zoom ranges. Oppo also says the camera can use in-sensor cropping to achieve 20x (460mm-equivalent) optical-quality zoom, thanks to the high-resolution sensor, which should make this one of the best long-range zoom systems we have seen on a smartphone to date.

The main camera uses a 200MP Sony LYTIA 901 1/1.12-inch sensor with an f/1.5 aperture, which Oppo says delivers light intake comparable to the previous generation’s 1-inch main sensor. The camera has a native 23mm-equivalent focal length, but can also crop in to 2x without losing quality, doubling as a nifty-fifty. There is also Real-Time Triple Exposure support and its own HDR pipeline designed to maintain high dynamic range and compete with developments like the Xiaomi 17 Ultra’s LOFIC sensor tech, which I raved about in my review.

The 200MP 3x (70mm-equivalent) telephoto uses a large 1/1.28-inch sensor with a fast f/2.2 aperture and a 15cm minimum focus distance, letting it double as a telemacro camera. Oppo says this sensor can also crop to deliver 6x (139mm) shots with 50MP of native detail without leaning heavily on digital zoom.

And rounding out the system for cameras you can actually use is a 50MP ultra-wide camera with autofocus, a 1/1.95-inch sensor, and a fast f/2.0 aperture, which, according to Oppo, captures 56% more light than the previous generation.

Finally, the X9 Ultra debuts the second generation of Oppo’s True Color camera, which is a dedicated multispectral sensor designed to improve white balance and color accuracy across photos, motion photos, and, for the first time, video.

The X9 Ultra also comes with an updated version of Hasselblad Master Mode, which is designed to avoid the over-processed look that plagues a lot of smartphone photography, with Oppo promising a more natural rendering, less aggressive tone mapping, and absolutely no AI. It also supports 50MP JPEG MAX and 50MP RAW MAX across multiple focal lengths, along with nine film simulations and custom presets.

Video also gets a major push, with Find X9 Ultra supporting 4K 60fps Dolby Vision HDR recording across the zoom range from 0.6x to 30x, while the main and 3x telephoto cameras can also capture 4K 120fps and 8K 30fps video. There is a new O-Log2 profile, ACES support for professional color workflows, and even 3D LUT support with real-time preview and LUT burn-in. Oppo even made a dedicated video rig for the X9 Ultra with handles and a cooling fan – although, sadly, this is unlikely to make its way outside of China.

An accessory that is coming to global markets is the optional Hasselblad Earth Explorer Kit, including a compact camera-style Explorer Case finished to match the Hasselblad X2D styling of the X9 Ultra, with a two-stage shutter button for half-press focus, and a physical dial for smoother zoom control, and quick switching between modes, as well as an adapter ring to mount standard 67mm filters.

There is a brand new 300mm Explorer Teleconverter, a full-metal add-on lens designed to attach to the 3x telephoto camera and extend it to a 300mm equivalent focal length, which is around 13x optical zoom, or can go up to 600mm optical quality using in-sensor cropping. These telephoto adapters are popping up everywhere now, but having tested quite a few of them, I will say they are no gimmick.

Outside of the cameras, the Find X9 Ultra is every bit the expected flagship. It has a 6.82-inch 144Hz QHD+ AMOLED display, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, and a massive 7,050mAh silicon-carbon battery with 100W wired and 50W wireless charging. It also arrives with the latest ColorOS 16, with improvements to silence the clutter on your lock screen and upcoming AirDrop support, and for durability, IP66, IP68, and IP69 ratings.

The Oppo Find X9 Ultra will be available from May 8 in the UK, Europe, and most global markets with the exception of North America. 

As you’d expect from one of the most ambitious camera phones ever the price is at a premium. Although, starting at £1,449 for 12GB+512GB it's not a big a shock as I expected. The price of the Hasselblad Explorer kit with the telephoto lens is to be confirmed.

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I’ve long been a fan of Vivo’s phones for their Zeiss co-engineered cameras, so the launch of the Vivo X300 Ultra has me very excited. This is the first time Vivo has given one of its Ultra-series imaging flagships a proper international debut, even if “global” still, frustratingly, stops short of the US.

As you’d expect from an Ultra phone, the X300 Ultra puts photography front and center. Vivo is calling its camera system the Zeiss Master Lenses Collection, built around a triple-prime setup with 85mm, 35mm, and 14mm equivalent focal lengths. Which immediately makes this phone feel a little different from rivals, as instead of the usual 24mm-first approach, Vivo is leaning into focal lengths that will look more familiar to photographers.

The standout for me is the 35mm Zeiss Documentary Camera. That is a noticeably narrower field of view than the 24mm-equivalent main cameras found on most flagship phones, but 35mm is one of photography’s most loved focal lengths for street, travel, and documentary work. Vivo says it is designed to offer a more natural, human-eye-like perspective, and it pairs that lens with Sony’s LYTIA 901 sensor in a large 1/1.12-inch format, with support for 200MP direct output. It still does not quite match the sheer sensor size of some 1-inch rivals, but on paper, it looks like one of the most interesting main cameras on any phone right now.

The 85mm Zeiss Gimbal-Grade APO Telephoto Camera also sounds incredible. It uses a 200MP sensor, with Zeiss APO standards, and adds a Zeiss T* coating plus Super Blue Glass to reduce flare and ghosting. Vivo is also promising 3-degree gimbal-level OIS and up to 60fps AF tracking in Snapshot mode, which could make this one of the most capable telephoto cameras on a phone yet for shooting fast-moving subjects like wildlife, sports, or concerts.

Rounding out the rear cameras is a 14mm Zeiss ultra-wide, which Vivo describes as an “industry-leading main-camera-grade ultra wide-angle” camera. I am not usually the biggest ultra-wide shooter, but this is one area where phone makers still too often ask users to accept obvious compromises in image quality. Vivo is clearly pitching this as something more serious.

And, as we’ve started to see from a few recent Chinese launches, Vivo isn’t stopping with the cameras built into the phone. The X300 Ultra supports two optional telephoto adapters: a new 400mm equivalent Vivo Zeiss Telephoto Extender Gen 2 Ultra and a lighter second-generation 200mm equivalent extender. The 400mm option is the more eye-catching of the two, with Vivo calling it a breakthrough in magnification, optical performance, stabilization, and structure. It is co-engineered with Zeiss, uses a Kepler-inspired optical design, and supports 200MP optical output. Meanwhile, the 200mm extender has slimmed down from 210g to 153g, which at least makes the whole idea a little more practical.

These external lenses still sound slightly wild, but they are also one of the few genuinely fresh ideas in smartphone photography at the moment. After seeing more brands experiment with modular long-lens add-ons, I am increasingly convinced they are more than a gimmick.

The X300 Ultra is also pitching itself as a video powerhouse. The X300 Ultra supports 4K 120p 10-bit Log video and 4K 120p Dolby Vision video across all rear cameras, which is the sort of spec sheet that will immediately catch the attention of serious creators. There is also a new Pro Video mode, support for custom 3D LUT monitoring while shooting in Log, and compatibility with ACES workflows, which makes the X300 Ultra feel more deliberately aimed at professional video users than most phones.

Vivo has gone even further with an optional SmallRig Pro Video Rig Kit, which includes an expandable cage, cold shoe mounts, quick-release ports, dual-hand grips, physical shutter and zoom controls, plus a cooling fan for longer recording sessions. It is undeniably niche, but it shows Vivo is thinking about building a broader ecosystem around the phone for people who actually want to shoot seriously with it.

Vivo is also introducing an all-new color science system, built around a 5MP multispectral sensor with 12 color channels and an upgraded flicker sensor. The company claims this helps it deliver more accurate color and tonal rendering, while also offering film-inspired color styles and deeper manual control for both stills and video.

Away from the cameras, the rest of the phone reads like a flagship. The X300 Ultra is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, alongside Vivo’s VS1+ imaging chip, and backed by a substantial 6600mAh battery with 100W wired and 40W wireless charging. It also gets a 6.82-inch 2K ZEISS Master Color display with up to 4,500 nits local peak brightness, plus IP68 and IP69 durability.

The Vivo X300 Ultra will be available in 16GB/512GB and 16GB/1TB configurations, and comes in black and a two-tone white mabled or soft green finish. On paper, at least, this looks like one of the most ambitious camera phones of the year, and one that should be on the wishlist of any serious phoneographer.

The new Insta360 Snap is a very particular device for content creators with a unique purpose. It is a snap-on touchscreen that lets you treat the superior main cameras on your phone as selfie cameras, and Insta360 has introduced not one, but two versions...

If you've ever tried capturing a picture of yourself with any of your phone's main cameras – except perhaps an exceptionally wide-angled one – you'll likely have found that framing the shot is near impossible.

The Insta360 Snap is a 3.5-inch touchscreen that connects to most mainstream phones via a USB-C cable – including the iPhone 16 and 17 – and acts as a second monitor, offering real-time preview. It essentially is the phone's camera app, seen from the other side.

The screen has a reversible cover which protects it when not in use, but flips around the 7.3mm thick screen and covers most of your phone's main touchscreen when you are casting to the Snap, meaning

Other features include a power button (enabling you to leave it attached to your phone even when not using it, and a 'mirror' button, allowing you to flip the image to whichever way is most comfortable to work.

At the base of the more expensive 'Selfie Screen with Light' – developed with Amiro – are two additional buttons, allowing the control of the brightness between five levels (and off), and the color temperature.

The key advantages of the design are that, by using USB-C, it has low lag compared to Bluetooth alternatives, requires no battery, and offers touch control. It has a 60Hz refresh rate and 550 nits of brightness.

A full list of compatible phones can be seen on the Insta360 Store FAQ, but it includes all the best camera phones of the last few years (iPhone 15 was the first with USB-C). If your phone doesn't support MagSafe charging, a sticky magnetic ring can be attached.

The Insta360 Snap Selfie Screen is available now, and I will be posting my full review shortly (I'm testing the version with a light). It is priced at $79.99 / £72.99 / AU$139.99, or $89.99 / £82.99 / AU$154.99 if you want the version with the light.

Spend any time around the latest big-name devices, and it is easy to find yourself staring at four-figure prices as if they are somehow reasonable. Apple’s current iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max line starts from $1,099, while Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Ultra starts at $1,299, and even the "flagship killers" from OnePlus have crept up to $899 for the OnePlus 15.

Against that backdrop, the Nubia Z80 Ultra landing at $799 suddenly feels less like an awkward question aimed at the rest of the market.

Because this is not some stripped-back “flagship killer” in the old sense, the Nubia Z80 Ultra still packs a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, a 6.85-inch 144Hz OLED display, a 7,200mAh battery with 80W wired and 80W wireless charging, plus IP68 and IP69 protection. On the camera side, it also has three top sensors: a 50MP 35mm main camera, a 50MP ultra-wide, and a 64MP telephoto, along with a dual-stage physical button that feels very deliberately aimed at photography fans.

The big brands can still charge a premium partly because they sell marketing polish, a wider ecosystem of devices, decades of built-up trust, and, often, more cool-factor. But the Z80 Ultra does make it harder to pretend that every $1,200 flagship is expensive purely because cutting-edge hardware costs that much. Sometimes it is just because brands know they can get away with it.

What I like about the Nubia Z80 Ultra is that it exposes how inflated the top of the market has become. If a phone can offer this kind of display, battery, performance, and camera ambition for this amount of money, then a lot of so-called premium pricing elsewhere starts to look less like necessity and more like positioning.

Maybe the Nubia Z80 Ultra is not proof that all flagships are overpriced. But it is a very good reminder that many of them probably are.

You can buy the Nubia Z80 Ultra from Nubia's official US store.

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It's funny, really. We photographers love being given tactile ways to interact with our cameras. We adore physical dials, dedicated buttons and satisfying clicks. Yet at the same time, our pockets are filled with featureless glass slabs. There is an irony there that a new phone, the Unihertz Titan 2 Elite, quietly exposes.

The concept is simple: a compact Android smartphone with a full physical QWERTY keyboard built into the lower half, much as BlackBerry did at its peak. That might sound like nostalgia dressed up as innovation. But spend a moment with what this thing can actually do, and the appeal starts to make real sense.

What the Titan 2 Elite offers

To start with, unlike the BlackBerrys of old, the Titan 2 Elite does have a decent camera. Specifically, a dual 50MP rear camera system, primary plus telephoto, covering a broad shooting range and up to 20x zoom.

Those are solid mid-range numbers, and the combination covers most situations a travelling photographer actually encounters. The Elite Pro version adds optical image stabilization to the main camera, which is the one to consider if you are serious about low-light or video.

Where the phone really earns its keep, though, is in the workflow that follows the shot. Captioning images, responding to clients on location, writing up notes before they evaporate: all of these are slow and error-prone on a flat touchscreen. The Titan 2 Elite is built to solve exactly that.

There's also a dedicated programmable physical button on the side that launches the camera instantly, which is precisely the kind of hardware shortcut camera manufacturers keep trying (and mostly failing) to bring back to phones.

Why this matters

Unihertz has been producing physical-keyboard Androids since 2019, and the Titan 2 Elite is its eleventh Kickstarter campaign. The launch drew genuine attention at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, and the campaign has since raised more than $2.2 million from nearly 5,000 backers. This is not a fringe pursuit.

The timing is spot on, too. The Clicks keyboard accessory for iPhones has generated considerable online discussion, but the Reddit community following the Titan 2 Elite has noted one telling difference: Unihertz arrived at MWC with a fully working device, while rivals showed renders. For a community that has been burned by crowdfunding promises before, that distinction matters.

Impressions from the MWC booth are cautiously positive. The phone is more compact than its predecessor, which some users welcome and others don't. The orange colour option, while striking in photographs, drew mixed reactions from people who handled it, with several noting the keycaps were harder to read than on the black version. The black model looks and feels more considered.

The AMOLED display is a meaningful upgrade on the previous model's LCD, and it gets bright enough to check images comfortably in sunlight. Battery life should cover a working day.

What do they cost?

Kickstarter early-bird pricing starts at $349, with a standard price of $397. The Pro version is $479 during the campaign. The base model ships in June; the Pro follows in October. And while crowdfunding campaigns always carry risk for the buyer, Unihertz has successfully shipped 10 previous devices through the same platform.

Overall, for photographers who type as much as they shoot, and who quietly mourn the large-scale disappearance of physical controls from mainstream devices, the Titan 2 Elite will be worth checking out.

The GoPro action camera has been a staple of the outdoor photography and videography scenes for quite some time, enabling bungee jumpers, shark divers and volcano spelunkers to document their exploits without needing to lug large camera bodies and lenses around with them. Being able to edit this footage in the field is a huge advantage, as waiting until you get home can try the patience of even the most hardened extreme sports enthusiast, and there's nothing more important than getting that footage out on the internet as soon as possible.

Asus’ original PX13 was well-received when it arrived back in 2024, and this GoPro edition absolutely supercharges it, pumping the specs sky high to create a compact workstation laptop that can tear through video and Photoshop tasks and potentially beat the latest MacBook Pros at their own game. Will it be one of the best laptops for video editing? The signs are all good.

Specifications

Price & Availability

This is a laptop that will set you back $3,999 or £2,999. That’s an awful lot for something so small and specialised, and you can get powerful gaming laptops or a MacBook Pro with an 18-core M5 Pro CPU and 64GB of RAM for the same sort of cash. You do get a lot of processing power (and a lot of RAM) for your money, however, and it may well be an essential buy for a group of videographers looking for an editing solution they can take with them wherever they go.

Design

It’s unclear how much input GoPro had in the design of the PX13 GoPro Edition, but the camera company’s footprint is light. It comes in a strap-fastened case that’s both GoPro and ProArt branded, and there's also a softer carrying case with the ProArt logo on it. On the laptop itself, you won’t find GoPro apart from one logo on the back and another on the F8 key, which, when pressed, will summon the GoPro Player software for playback, trimming, and export of files from all the company’s cameras. The keyboard backlight is also a soft cyan colour rather than the usual white, which also ties in with the company’s identity.

There are some grooves cut into the back of the laptop’s lid, but that’s all that’s new compared to the original PX13 - it’s still a black rectangle, and all the other changes are on the inside. This is a good thing, because Asus’ portable workstation is well-equipped, with a pair of USB4 ports that are good for hooking up to all kinds of fast external storage, docks, and external screens, and the OLED touchscreen is nice and bright, though a little bit shiny and reflective if you’re working near strong artificial lights. It’s a shame it only has a 60Hz refresh rate, as GoPro’s cameras are capable of producing much more than that, and it would be nice to play it back, but that’s probably what the full-size HDMI 2.1 port is for, connecting to a large external screen with a higher maximum framerate and playing back on that. 

Particularly notable is the trackpad, which has a section at the top left that acts as a dial. Older ProArt laptops actually had a physical control here, but now we get a touch-sensitive circle you can twiddle your finger on to adjust brush sizes, zoom in and out, move sliders around in something like Lightroom, or just about anything else you can think of, customised in the Asus software.

Otherwise, this is a well built 13in laptop. It’s not trying to be a thin and light model, so it weighs a bit more than something like a MacBook Air, and can feel a bit chunky as a result. This is easily forgivable, however, when you consider how uncompromising this mobile workstation is in terms of its performance. It feels remarkably small if you’re carrying it about, however, especially if you’re used to larger 15- and 16-inch models.

Performance

Asus hasn’t held back with its choice of components in the PC13 GoPro Edition. The 16-core AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is an absolute sledgehammer, with a powerful integrated GPU that’s almost as good as some discrete Nvidia chips and beats Apple’s efforts in benchmark tests. 

In the Geekbench 6 benchmark, which works both the CPU and GPU hard with a range of tests, the PX13 GoPro edition scores well. Its Ryzen AI Max chip is up there with Intel’s Core Ultra 9, and is just behind Apple’s M5 in the multi-core CPU score, though it falls behind a bit when just a single core is used.

The GPU, which is especially powerful for an integrated model, posts a score that’s not too far away from that of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4060, a lower mid-range card from 2023 that’s still relevant today (you could certainly play games on the PX13 GoPro Edition if you wanted to, though more recent GeForce cards will outclass it), and handily beats the graphics capabilities of the base-model M5. The extra graphics cores in the Pro and Max models of the M5 may well propel them past this score, but they’ll also increase the cost of a Mac using them.

For video editors, the inclusion of that GPU will be the most interesting thing about the laptop. Scrubbing through multi-track timelines and complex sequences remains fluid and responsive, while export times will also be cut as GPU effects take less time to render. Having 128GB of RAM will help speed up complex workflows too, though at a time when the cost of memory is being pushed up by the demands of AI data centres, having this amount looks like a serious luxury. It means an editor can comfortably run Premiere Pro, After Effects, and maybe even Photoshop simultaneously alongside browsers, and even carry out on-device AI model processing, without needing to close and re-open apps because they’re slowing the PC down.

Battery life, while improved over the original PX13, which used an Nvidia GPU and therefore sucked more power, tops out at only about six and a half hours. That’s fine, and will get you through many edit sessions, but doesn’t come close to that offered by laptops like the MacBook Pro or Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 15 Aura.

Final Verdict

The choices Asus and GoPro have made for the PX13 GoPro edition make a lot of sense if you’re building a mobile workstation for photo and video editing. The enormous amount of RAM, backed by strong CPU and GPU performance, makes it a smooth and responsive laptop to use in editing apps, and also as a general-purpose PC for whatever else you need to do. The high level of connectivity means you can set it up with external SSDs and monitors at the heart of a desktop setup only to whip it away when you need to head into the field for filming, and there's real value in that. The major downside of the PX13 GoPro Edition is its high price, though this has become par for the course for highly specced laptops, especially those with so much RAM.

Alternatives

I recently reviewed the Nubia Z80 Ultra, and at a starting price of just £579/€759/A$1,311, I was astonished by the quality of the camera hardware. The phone packs a flagship-level triple camera array on its rear, including a 35mm equivalent main camera with a 1/1.3-inch sensor, an ultrawide with a massive 1/1.55-inch sensor, and a 1/2-inch 70mm telephoto.

These days, it feels like no Chinese flagship camera phone is complete without a dedicated photography kit that turns it into a compact camera. We've seen it with the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, the Vivo X300 Pro, and most recently, the Oppo Find X9 Pro. Despite being a budget-friendly option, the Nubia is following suit, and the brand sells an optional Retro Photography Kit to make this slab a little more ergonomic.

The Retro Photography Kit sells for slightly over one hundred pounds in the UK, so it's a sizable investment, especially when you consider that's one-sixth of the cost of the phone. I wanted to find out if it was worthwhile, so I've been playing with it for the past week or so.

The Hardware

Upon opening the package, I was surprised by how many pieces came included in this kit. It's a very modular design, and you can easily switch from a minimal rig to something more substantial.

The core of the kit is essentially a phone case. It pulls apart into three sections; there's a plastic and vegan leather middle section, which needs to be attached to the phone first, and two aluminium end caps that affix on either side.

With just the phone case attached, there isn't any added utility other than a couple of lanyard attachment points, but it certainly makes the phone look and feel a lot more like a vintage camera. The ergonomics are almost certainly worse in this configuration, but it looks awesome. It brings the Sigma BF to mind.

The case has metal buttons, including a nice textured red shutter button, but they're passive. What I mean by that is the buttons are just poking through to the buttons on the actual phone. If you want some added functionality, you'll need to attach the Neo Bar.

The Neo Bar connects to the top of the case with some sturdy hooks, and it adds a tactile two-stage shutter button, a zoom rocker, two ratcheting control dials, and a cold shoe mount. All the parts that you'll touch are made from aluminium, and they're extremely satisfying to use.

Unlike most of the other photography kits I've tried, the Neo Bar connects to the phone over Bluetooth. There are positives and negatives to this decision. The upside is that it leaves the phone's USB port free, so you can use it for charging or connecting an external microphone. You can also use the Neo Bar as a wireless remote, although the form factor doesn't readily lend itself to that.

The main downside is that you'll need to remember to charge it from time to time. There's also likely some latency between the buttons and the phone, but it was quick enough that I couldn't really notice.

By default, the shutter button and zoom rocker work as you'd expect them to. The right dial adjusts the exposure compensation, and the left dial switches between colour profiles. However, these controls are very customisable in the camera app, and you can use them for anything from switching aspect ratio to focus and sharpness level adjustment.

The next modular piece is a leather-effect half-case with an integrated grip. It really completes the vintage look; it's just like the protective casing my grandfather kept on his analogue SLR cameras when I was a kid. This piece is mostly ergonomic, but it does add a 1/4-20 thread for use with a tripod. It's awkwardly positioned under the handle, though, so your phone will look a little lopsided when mounted.

The kit includes an adapter to use 67mm filters with the main sensor, but sadly, it blocks all the other cameras when it's in place. The main lens is also compatible with Fotorgear lenses, but I don't have any to try out.

Finally, there's a nice neck strap made from a thick rope-like material, and an additional cold shoe mount that can be used without the Neo Bar in place.

What's it like to use?

As a lifelong photographer, the experience of shooting with smartphones can be frustrating, but the reality is that's what I do most often. Cameras are all about ergonomics and quick access to your most needed settings; in many ways, the touchscreen interface of a phone is the polar opposite.

Photography kits like this one will always be a niche proposition, but I don't think they're a gimmick; there's genuine utility to a setup like this. It's not something you'll bring with you every day, but if you're taking your phone out with the express purpose of shooting photos, you might find you have a better time with a photography grip attached.

I found that with the Z80 Ultra dangling around my neck, I took more photos than usual, as I didn't need to pull it out of my pocket. Being able to quickly launch the camera with the shutter button meant I never missed a candid shot, either.

I also found myself using the different picture profiles and filters more often, as I can just quickly rotate a dial to switch to the next mode. Of course, if you're more of a control freak, you could set these to manually control things like the ISO and shutter speed, and you'll have a much more pleasant experience than trying to do the same with clumsy touchscreen settings.

When it comes to ergonomics, this kit isn't my favourite. It's unusually tall, and if you have smaller hands, reaching the shutter button could be a real chore. The grip is quite shallow, too, so one-handed use without a strap feels quite precarious.

Aesthetically, though, the Nubia Retro Kit stands out above the rest. It's a real head turner, and it's no accident that this kit makes the phone resemble a Leica M7. As soon as you pull this out, people are going to want to know what it is. Whether that's a good or a bad thing will likely depend on your personality type.

Should I get one?

The Retro Photography Kit for the Z80 Ultra is by no means a necessity. You can do all the same things without the kit attached, but it's much more fun with it on. It's a tactile and satisfying experience that a touchscreen just can't compete with.

Plus, you can experiment with photographic filters or even attach external lenses. I wouldn't imagine the lens quality will be on par with Vivo's Zeiss Teleconverter or Oppo's Hasselblad extender, but I did stumble across an adapter in my research - so you might actually be able to combine the two kits.

At around £100, the kit doesn't come cheap, but considering the quality of the components, it seems like a perfectly fair price. Whether it's worth spending that much on an accessory for a £579 phone is completely up to you.

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Looking to up your mobile photography? Check out our guide to the best camera phones and the best Android phones for photography.

There's a saying you'll have heard a thousand times: the best camera is the one you have with you. It's long been a rallying cry for the smartphone generation: a way to stop worrying about gear and just make pictures.

But a new study suggests something has gone badly wrong with that idea. The device we carried everywhere to capture life is consuming it instead.

Research published by Jolt, a screen-time app, reveals that average daily mobile use in the UK has more than doubled in a decade, rising from 1 hour 17 minutes in 2015 to around 3 hours 21 minutes today. That's an extra 31 days a year spent staring at a screen that fits in your shirt pocket. A whole additional month, every single year, thumbing through content you'll have forgotten by Tuesday.

In the USA, the survey shows that Americans spend 85 hours a year (over two working weeks) scrolling on their phone as soon as they wake up, before the day has started.

For photographers especially, this should land with a sting. We're supposed to be the ones who look at the world; it's our whole deal. Yet here we are, eyes sunk into our screens, deep in an Instagram rabbit hole at 11pm.

The great irony

Henri Cartier-Bresson called it "the decisive moment": that fraction of a second when composition, light and gesture align into something true. You can't manufacture it. You can only be present for it. Yet we're increasingly choosing not to be present at all, staring at a feed of other people's decisive moments rather than looking up and finding our own.

The smartphone didn't just give us a capable camera, it handed us a portal. Open the camera app or open TikTok? The choice is always one swipe away, and much of the time, TikTok is winning.

Three hours and twenty-one minutes per day is a lot of walking around with your eyes open. It's a lot of early mornings in interesting light, afternoons spent studying how shadows fall, evenings noticing how a café window glows. Instead, for most people, it's Reels, news alerts, WhatsApp threads that could have been a phone call, and shopping for things you don't need.

What to do with 31 days

At the same time, it would be absurd to suggest that smartphones are the enemy of photography. They are, simultaneously, the most democratising force the medium has ever seen and its most effective saboteur.

But 31 days is a remarkable number to sit with. If you spent even a fraction of that extra phone time actually shooting (wandering somewhere unfamiliar, revisiting somewhere familiar with fresh eyes, learning something new about light or post-processing), the compound effect over years would be transformative.

The phone in your pocket is a remarkable photographic instrument. It's also, if Jolt's data is to be believed, one of the most effective ways ever devised to stop you from actually using it as one.

The conclusion is obvious. Put it down. Go outside. The light is doing something interesting. TikTok will still be there tomorrow.

See our guide to the best camera phones, and if you want a simpler handset that won't allow you to spend so many hours doomscrolling, check out the best dumbphones

It’s no secret that we were big fans of the Oppo Find X8 Ultra. With its large sensors, refined Hasselblad color science, and incredible focal lengths, the Find X8 Ultra only fell short of a coveted five-star rating because it wasn’t available globally.

In his review, Gareth Bevan called it his “favorite camera phone last year”, but with the imminent launch of its successor, the Find X9 Ultra, and based on these new teased specs, I think he might have a new champion.

Zhou Shijie, product manager at Oppo, shared on Weibo how they’ve managed to cram a 10x optical quality camera – a focal length you'd usually need a teleconverter for – inside the latest X9 Ultra. This announcement could well be the beginning of the end for the humble compact camera.

World's first phone camera technology

According to Zhou Shijie's posts, the Find X9 Ultra will feature Oppo's most advanced imaging system to date, and with a continued partnership with master Swedish camera makers Hasselblad, as Oppo looks to continue to define and disrupt the phone-camera market.

The new 50MP 10x optical telephoto lens boasts a five-reflection prism that has enabled OPPO to shrink the module length from 41mm to a super-thin 29mm, all the while maintaining a huge 230mm focal length.

Oppo has an incredible track record of delivering telephoto innovations, so these new developments come as no surprise. In 2017, it showcased a prototype with a 5x dual camera zoom system. In 2023, it released the Find X6 Pro, featuring a large-sensor periscope lens. And in 2024, it pioneered an inverted periscope lens, achieving a breakthrough in slimness.

The latest innovation delivers native 10x optical zoom, 20x optical quality zoom, and up to 120x digital zoom. This world-first five-prism setup is made possible by nanoscale prism cutting and an air diaphragm, triple AOA active calibration, and a customized JNL 50MP Fusion Sensor. Oppo has also “optimized the microlens and color filter, significantly reducing color shading and ensuring accurate and consistent colors.”

With the OPPO Find X9 Ultra having a planned global release on April 20, 2026, we’ll only have to wait just a little longer to witness, firsthand, just how this new 10x lens performs, but when we do, and it finally lands on European shores, I wouldn’t be surprised if it's finally awarded it's five star rating.

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Interested in upping your mobile photography? For more of the best camera phones, check out our guide. And check out the best add-on lenses for smartphones that are already on sale

Nothing has built its reputation by making phones that feel different from the samey slabs, and the Phone (4a) Pro continues that, but with a more mature design while not losing its sense of fun. But this mid-ranger is up against some very strong competition from phones like the Pixel 10a, Samsung Galaxy A57 5G and iPhone 17e, so it needs to offer more than looks alone.

This is the second model the duo of new devices in Nothing’s more affordable (a)-series launched earlier this month, and sits just above the regular Phone (4a). The (4a) Pro offers a more premium metal build, a new Sony main camera, superior zoom processing, the Glyph Matrix from the flagship Phone (3), and a more powerful Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chip.

Specifications

Price & Availability

The Nothing Phone (4a) Pro starts at $499 / €479 / £499 for the 8GB + 128GB version, while the 12GB + 256GB model rises to $599 / €549 / £549 / AU$949. The 8GB + 256GB configuration will be exclusive to India only.

That pricing puts it right into one of the busiest and most competitive parts of the phone market, where it faces off against dozens of devices from Chinese brands like Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo, and Realme, as well as big hitters like the Pixel 10a, Samsung Galaxy A57 5G, and iPhone 17e. The (4a) Pro also shares a fair amount of DNA with the regular Phone (4a).

With so many devices sharing the same processor and camera setups, it's becoming increasingly more difficult to separate these devices on hardware alone; however, the metal build, NothingOS, and distinctive Glyph Matrix do help the (4a) Pro stand out a little more against the competition, where I think choice now comes more down more than ever to the look of a device rather than its spec sheet.

Design

The (4a) Pro brings a fairly substantial change in design direction for Nothing phones, with the (4a) Pro stepping away from its signature full transparent-back look to move to an “aircraft-grade” aluminum unibody. While this does sound like every other phone on the market, Nothing has still kept a distinctly Nothing twist. While the rear panel is mostly solid metal, the camera island still keeps that industrial, exposed internals aesthetic. The design feels like a clash of two competing ideas, but somehow they come together really well, and the result, I think, is that the Phone (4a) Pro is one of the best-looking phones around right now.

That is obviously subjective, and I think it will still have a bit of a polarising appeal, but it is also a little more restrained than models, which I actually think is a good thing. Its phone equivalent of the Headphones (1). If this is the direction Nothing is taking its design language, I’m all for it.

I have the Silver version, which I think looks fantastic, especially with the industrial details around the camera block. Black is the safer, more understated option, while Pink is fresh and fun. I do think the Pink finish would have looked better with a color-matched camera island rather than the Silver one, and the mismatch makes it feel slightly less considered than the other two options, but that is a small complaint in the grand scheme of things.

Then there is the Glyph Matrix, which I absolutely love, although maybe part of that is just that I am a 90s kid and it taps into some Tamagotchi nostalgia. The Glyph Matrix is made up of 137 mini-LEDs, and it can display practical information such as timers, a battery indicator, a digital clock, and custom contact notifications. It is the sort of thing that sounds like a novelty, but actually living with it for a few days, I did come to appreciate that every time I put the phone face down on a desk and still got useful information without picking it up. Next to the Glyph Matrix, there is also a tiny red recording indicator, which is invaluable if you are filming yourself and cannot easily see the front screen.

Button layout is the same as previous Nothing phones. On the right, you have separate volume buttons and the power button, which can be long-pressed to summon Gemini, while a double press opens the camera. On the left-hand side, there is Nothing’s Essential Key, which is slightly shinier and more rounded than the other buttons to visually and physically stand apart. This button lets you quickly capture screenshots, voice notes, and other bits into the Essential Space (but more on that later).

The display is great for a phone at this price. It is a 6.83-inch AMOLED with a 1260 x 2800 resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, and a quoted peak brightness of 5,000 nits. There is also 2,160Hz PWM dimming for sensitive eyes. In use, the screen looks sharp, colorful, and bright. I did find it a little reflective, but it is easily good enough for viewing or editing photos and video outdoors.

The screen is protected with Gorilla Glass 7i on the front alongside a factory-applied screen protector. For durability, the (4a) Pro also comes with an IP65 water resistance rating, so it can survive a dip in fresh water and low-pressure water jets. Nothing also says the (4a) Pro is 42% more bend-resistant than the previous model, although I have resisted the urge to test this.

Camera Performance

Whether you love or hate the new design, the cameras are the main reason to pay closer attention to the Phone (4a) Pro over the regular Phone (4a). The headline upgrade is the superior Sony LYT-700C main camera, which replaces the Samsung sensor used in the cheaper model. On paper, both sit at the same 50MP resolution, 1/1.56-inch size, and f/1.88 aperture, but the Pro’s sensor is more capable, especially in lower light, where it produced cleaner results that are genuinely pretty impressive.

In the day, the main camera performs well. Images are sharp; if you pixel peep, detail isn’t as strong as flagships, but the (4a) Pro avoids attempting to fix this with too much oversharpening, which can just make the situation worse. The 50MP sensor also allows for a 2x in-sensor crop, which, unlike some images I captured on the regular (4a), looks as good as a 1x image.

The ultrawide is not bad, but it's the weakest of the three cameras, though that is hardly unusual, especially at this price. It is still decent enough, especially in good light, but it does not have the same sharpness or consistency as the main and telephoto cameras.

The telephoto is a 50MP periscope with a 3.5x optical zoom equivalent to 80mm, and is backed by OIS, and is the same sensor as found on the Phone (4a), but the more premium Snapdragon 7 chip allegedly improves the imaging pipeline, which enables better processing and the headline 140x zoom.

The telephoto is usually always my favourite lens on a phone as it's the best for capturing details, and tighter framing, which fits my style perfectly, and the (4a) Pro’s is the one I gravitated to again here as it's just a really good one. Images from the telephoto came out clean and sharp. In the daytime, I can’t say that I see any noticeable difference between this and the regular Phone (4a), but at night, the shots on the (4a) Pro do look slightly cleaner and suffer from less motion blur.

You also get a 7x in-sensor zoom, which produced some solid photos with only a very minor loss of detail if I pinch in, but generally, you wouldn’t notice. Up to around 10x, I still found the zoom performance pretty good, which is enough reach for most real-world situations.

Where the phone falls over is at the long end of the zoom. Nothing advertises up to 140x ultra zoom, but I personally wouldn’t ever really stray over 30x if I wanted anything I might actually use. While AI-assisted super zoom does visibly improve on the raw capture, the results look very synthetic and overprocessed. At extreme zoom levels, the images get that unmistakable AI-painted look that just gives me the ick.

Overall, I would also say the consistency across all three cameras is good, but I did see some white balance and color discrepancies when switching between the cameras, especially in blue skies.

And on the subject of color, if I am being picky, while colors generally look pretty good, they feel generally more muted and not as exciting as other brands. Take a look below at the same photo taken on the (4a) Pro and the Oppo Find N6. I personally much prefer Oppo’s more accurate and vibrant colors.

HDR balance is good, and I like that Nothing tends not to overdo the deep-blue that some rivals use to force a more dramatic look, but one ongoing frustration is the preview-to-capture mismatch.

Like the regular Phone (4a), the Pro does not always show an accurate live preview of what HDR processing is about to do, so the final image can look noticeably different from what I thought I was taking. Other brands are better at showing something close to the final image in the viewfinder, and if you are trying to be intentional with your exposure, just trying to imagine it is quite annoying.

My absolute favorite Nothing camera feature, though, is the ability to add LUTs, which are custom photographic styles you can save as camera presets. You can create your own, import them via QR code, or browse community-made options online.

These are essentially the same idea as Fujifilm’s uber-popular film recipes, and you can do anything from tweaking colors, contrast, white balance, and adding film grain for ready-to-share images without editing.

Macro is handled by the telephoto rather than the ultrawide, so you get a much more flattering perspective. Sharpness is excellent across the frame, but especially in the centre. Nothing does employ a little less artificial falloff (blur) than some other brands, I think plenty of brands really overdo it, but I would like to see a little more from Nothing, just to make the photos look a little more “proper” camera, rather than a phone.

Phone Performance

The Phone (4a) Pro runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, which is a reasonable step up over the non-Pro (4a) model with better multi-core and graphics performance. And in day-to-day use, the phone feels quick and responsive. App launches are snappy, and the UI is smooth. Speaking of, Nothing OS 4.1 remains one of my favorite Android skins, built on Android 16; it is one of the cleanest Android skins, and not far off the stock Pixel experience. But NothingOS still manages to stand apart enough with Nothing’s fonts, icons, and widgets. Nothing promises three years of Android updates and six years of security patches, which is respectable, even if some rivals now go further.

However, Nothing’s AI features are a bit more mixed for me. Nothing’s Essential System (Essential Space, Essential Search, and the Essential Key) is a clever idea. You can capture voice notes, screenshots, and thoughts on the fly, and the AI will analyse them to pull out useful information you can use as well as make it searchable. And there is some real usefulness there, although it's just not really how I interact with AI. I find it easier to drop all my assets in a single conversion with Gemini or ChatGPT. However, Essential Space does just generally stay out of the way, so if you don’t want to use it, it doesn’t hassle you to.

Nothing has also added some AI editing tools to the Phone (4a) Pro through the Gallery app, including an AI Pedestrian Remover for removing unwanted people and a Reflection Remover, for well, removing reflections. These two tools fall pretty far behind the bevvy of options found on other devices, but they are two fairly useful ones.

The pedestrian removal tool is fairly hit and miss; sometimes it just won't find people in a shot, and there is currently no way to manually draw around them. The generation behind the people is also fine, but quite obviously AI if you pinch in.

The reflection remover is the one I’d actually keep coming back to. It feels far more useful than pedestrian removal, as it's a much less "gen-AI", and I regularly shoot cute things behind glass in store windows. I wouldn’t call it flawless, but it's pretty good.

The (4a) Pro handles photo and video workloads well enough. Lightroom and CapCut both run better here than they do on the regular Phone (4a), and the faster chip clearly helps unlock more grunt, but this is not an editing powerhouse. In CapCut, I noticed some sluggishness when scrubbing the timeline, and exports are nowhere near the speed of flagship Snapdragon Elite phones. If you are the kind of person who just does the odd quick social edit or tweaks a few photos on the move, the Phone (4a) Pro is absolutely fine, but if you are regularly editing clips, you might want to invest in a phone with more power under the hood.

Battery life is decent without being a standout. The global version has a 5,080mAh battery, which is pretty average by current Android standards, though still in the same ballpark as Google and Samsung. In my testing, it comfortably lasted a full day of medium to fairly heavy use, but I usually ended the evening in power saver mode by the evening. My lab tests put it at 14 hours and 12 minutes in a mixed-use workload of productivity, video playback, video editing, and photo editing, which is solid enough but not exceptional.

The phone supports up to 50W wired charging. In Europe, there is no charger in the box, although other territories might differ, but you can achieve these speeds with most PD chargers, which most of us probably already have several of. These speeds are behind some proprietary charging solutions, but, in my testing, the (4a) Pro reached 33% in 15 minutes and 59% in 30 minutes, which is quick enough to make topping up painless, and the phone reached full in slightly over an hour. There is also 7.5W reverse wired charging for topping up accessories, though notably no wireless charging.

Final Verdict

The Nothing (4a) Pro is my favorite looking Nothing Phone yet, and one of the best looking phones I have used in some time. The design is excellent, it's mature but still a little playful. While it's polarising, I do really like the gimmicky Glyph Matrix, the front display is bright and sharp, and the camera system is genuinely good for the money, especially if you value having a proper telephoto camera at this price. I also love what Nothing is doing with custom LUTs as camera presets, which, for me, push the (4a) Pro out in front as one of the most personalisable camera experiences you can get at this price.

That said, the (4a) Pro isn’t perfect. The natural image rendering could use a bit more personality, the HDR preview still does not always match the final shot, and the AI zoom becomes AI mush well before Nothing’s headline 140x figure. Likewise, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 is strong enough for everyday use, but it does not turn the Phone (4a) Pro into a serious editing machine. But still, I think Nothing has made a very appealing mid-range camera phone, and easy to recommend to photographers on a budget.

Alternatives

Oppo has spent the last few generations steadily refining its book-style foldables, focused on making foldables thinner and lighter. The Oppo Find N6 is the latest model in the company’s Find N line, and Oppo’s big pitch here is a new “Zero-Feel Crease”, which promises to make the inner screen crease – a long-held criticism of folding phones – a thing of the past.

There are also the usual new phone expectations. Oppo is upping performance, adding new productivity features, and enhancing the Hasselblad-branded camera system that borrows from the company’s recent camera-focused flagships.

From my perspective, the Find N6 sits in an interesting place. It is clearly competing with other premium foldables such as the Honor Magic V-series and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold for productivity, but foldables have always been behind the best bar-style camera phones when it comes to photography. Oppo might be edging ever closer to the perfect design for its foldables, but can it also produce a foldable camera phone that is not a compromise?

Specifications

Price & Availability

Another year, another huge disappointment for international Oppo/foldable fans. The N series is again not officially available in Europe, the UK, or the US. You can import the phone thanks to its global ROM, and you will have full access to everything Google, but as ever, you likely forfeit any warranty, and overseas imports may not work with your network carrier.

In China, the phone will cost ¥10,099 for the 16GB+512GB version. Direct conversions from Chinese prices are never quite accurate, but that works out as around $1,500 / £1,200 / €1,300. Although I'd expect it to be more expensive if launched on Western shores and comparable to the Honor Magic V6 (which will at least launch in Europe).

Design

Oppo really nailed the design with last year's Find N5, with one of the thinnest and lightest foldables yet, and honestly, I don't know how they even improve on that. So perhaps unsurprisingly, the Find N6 doesn't really rock the boat. At just 8.93mm folded and 225g, it's still incredibly slim and light for a book-style foldable, to the point that, in my hand, it feels only barely different from a normal flagship bar phone. I have said this before about the recent Oppo and Honor foldables, but it is worth repeating: we are now at the point where folding phones just feel like normal phones, and I would be perfectly happy carrying this as my daily driver even if I only opened the inner screen occasionally.

Oppo’s headline design feature is the so-called Zero-Feel Crease, and while that name oversells things slightly, there is a marked improvement on the last model. The crease is remarkably shallow, genuinely on par with the best I have seen from rivals, and I do not really know how much shallower foldables can get from here. This could genuinely be close to peak crease.

Still, it is not magic. You can see it when the screen is off and light catches it the right way, and you can still feel it under your finger. I found it especially noticeable when using the stylus, where the slight unevenness over the crease interrupts the smoothness of writing just enough to remind you that this is still a folding display. I don't want to downplay it; it is much better than the previous model, even if not as transformationally so as marketing might have you believe.

Visually, Oppo has stayed close to the previous generation. The camera sits in the familiar centered “Cosmos Ring” rather than moving to the squarer island look of the Find X9 Pro. Despite Oppo claiming the centered layout keeps the phone stable on a table, when open and laid flat, there is still a decent amount of wobble, which especially makes stylus use a little more uneven than ideal.

There is a side-mounted fingerprint reader in the power button, which is fast and accurate, even if it does require a little relearning if, like me, you have muscle memory for in-display scanners. Face unlock is present too, but like most single-camera solutions (except the Pixel’s), it's not secure enough for sensitive apps like banking and locked folders.

The biggest difference is the replacement of the old Alert Slider with the Snap Key, Oppo’s take on the action button. This doesn't really come as a surprise, as Oppo has been steadily removing it from all its recent models, but I do miss the tactile charm of a proper alert slider. However, I will concede that the Snap Key is objectively far more useful; it can launch the camera, toggle alerts, turn on the torch, translate text, capture content to Oppo’s AI-driven Mind Space, and more.

Both screens are strong too, although similar, if not the same, as those found on last year's model. The 6.62-inch cover display and 8.12-inch inner panel are sharp, bright, and colorful. Both displays have a good white balance out of the box, but you can also tweak this to your liking in the settings.

However, I said this before, and it's a general complaint with the current slate of foldables, the almost square ratio of the inner screen just isn't quite right. For multitasking two apps side by side, that shape works fine. However, for video, you end up with a viewing area that is not dramatically bigger than the outer screen once black bars are factored in. Similarly, with apps like Lightroom, menus can end up on top of images rather than alongside them.

Similar small but wider displays like the iPad Mini just handle layouts better. Oppo has done some work here with more flexible floating windows, which are very useful, but do make the content smaller, and it’s not the big screen app experience I want from an inner screen. I'd love to see a Fold N7 with a shorter but wider inner display, and it is exactly this kind of idea that makes tri-fold phones seem increasingly sensible.

Finally, durability is still a key concern for folding phones. Oppo says the Find N6 uses a second-generation titanium hinge that has been tested by TÜV Rhineland for a million folds, which is definitely way more than you'll do in the lifetime of the device. The frame is reinforced 7000-series aluminum, with an aircraft-grade fiber rear panel, and nanocrystal cover glass. The Find N6 gets an IP56, IP58, and IP59 certification, which is impressive for a foldable, though it still trails the latest Honor Magic V6's IP68/69 rating.

Camera Performance

For me personally, the Find N6 has big expectations to live up to, because Oppo’s recent camera phones have been excellent, and the Find X9 Pro was my phone of the year in 2025.

On paper, the setup on the Find N6 is a slight improvement on the N5. There is a new 200MP 21mm main camera – up from 50MP on the N6 – a 50MP 70mm telephoto, and the 8MP ultrawide is replaced by a 50MP 15mm sensor. The N6 also benefits for the first time in the series from Oppo’s True Color Camera, a multispectral sensor designed to improve white balance accuracy.

Sensor sizes are broadly similar to the previous model, with the main upgrade being the jump in resolution on the primary and ultrawide cameras, which should improve both the quality of the in-sensor zoom between 1x and 3x, but also handle low light better with more room to combine pixels and do computational wizardry.

I'm going to caveat this with: for a foldable phone. But for a foldable phone, the Find N6 cameras are excellent. They can't quite compete with the best camera phones, but this phone isn't a 1-inch sensor beast or packing multiple complex periscopes, but for day-to-day snapshots, they are fantastic.

The look of Oppo images remains one of the brand’s biggest strengths. I am a big fan of the color science from the Oppo Lumo Engine and Hasselblad collaboration; colors are balanced and natural, but with just enough saturation to make scenes lively without tipping into gaudy. The added True Color Camera seems to help here too, delivering usually quite dependable white balance, although I did see some noticeable color shifts on occasion between the three lenses.

HDR is another plus. It does not crush highlights or over-lift shadows, which makes images feel a lot more natural, rather than other brands that aggressively process images.

There is not a huge amount of fall-off in the background, so images can look slightly flatter and more two-dimensional than those from phones with larger sensors and wider apertures. That doesn't make the results bad, but it does stop them from having an almost camera-like rendering shown by models like the Xiaomi 17 Ultra.

Low-light performance squeezes a lot out of relatively modest sensor sizes. Night shots retain a lot of detail, with a strong balance between the highlights and shadows. Again, like daytime HDR, Oppo does a good job here of flattening images while keeping them natural and without overprocessing them. Although I saw a little more light blooming in some shots than is ideal.

The N6 also relies more heavily on long-exposure night processing than rivals with bigger sensors and faster apertures. Not a bad thing, just something to be aware of if you have unsteady hands or like to capture fast-moving subjects in low light.

When it comes to zoom, the telephoto camera is the only sensor that remains the same as last time out. That said, the 3x (70mm equivalent) telephoto is excellent, and Oppo’s in-sensor crop gives very good results out to around 6x (effectively 139mm), and even 10x remains genuinely usable if your subject is still and doesn't have too much intricate detail.

Up to about 30x, the superzoom still holds together surprisingly well, especially on buildings, where Oppo strikes a good balance between detail enhancement and realism, and crucially, it does not seem to descend into obviously fabricated generative AI.

The limitations arrive with more complex subjects and at the far end of the zoom range. Animals, birds and people are less consistent, and 120x is well, unusable. That sounds harsh, but it is fair; max zoom figures on phones are still mostly marketing.

Finally, macro performance is excellent. Oppo uses the 3x camera for macro, which gives a more flattering, more natural working perspective than the ultrawide macro systems found on some rivals.

Detail is strong, especially in the center of the frame, though the depth of field can become a little too narrow and there is some minor oversharpening. Even so, this is the kind of macro mode I actually want to use.

Phone Performance

The Oppo Find N6 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, though in this case Oppo is using a custom 7-core version tailored to the thermal limits of an ultra-thin foldable. On paper, that might sound like a compromise, but in actual use, I never really found it one.

Day-to-day performance was excellent, and creative tasks in Lightroom and CapCut ran quickly, exports were fast, and there was no annoying lag or stutter when scrubbing through a video timeline. With the inner screen being incredibly useful for photo and video work, the performance more than keeps up if you want to do some light editing on the move.

Battery life is a small but welcome step up. The N6 sports a 6000mAh silicon-carbon battery, which is 400mAh up on the previous generation. It might not sound huge, but in my lab conditions battery test, the Find N6 got a result of 16 hours 20 minutes, a healthy two-hour improvement on the previous model. Although it does pale in comparison to bar-phones, with the 19 hours 43 minutes of the reigning champ Oppo Find X9 Pro.

But in practical terms, the phone lasted me around a day to a day and a half of mid to heavy use. It easily survived a twelve-hour flight from London to Hong Kong while watching video, messaging, and typing up this very review with around 20% battery remaining when I got to my hotel.

If you do run low, charging is incredibly quick, while Oppo rates it at 80W wired and 50W wireless with its SuperVOOC chargers, the N6 also supports up to 55W over PD. In my testing, PD charging got it from empty to 29% in 15 minutes and 59% in 30 minutes, which is quick enough that a top-up while I shower is enough before I leave the house in the morning.

ColorOS remains my favorite Android skin. It's clean, fast, and visually slick. Settings are easy to navigate, customization is present but not exhausting, and Oppo’s overall design language feels polished. The only minor downside is that there is still some pre-installed bloat, and Oppo duplicates most system apps with its own. Those apps are actually very good, but if you are deeply committed to Google’s ecosystem, you may find yourself uninstalling quite a few of them.

It's 2026, so of course, AI features are front and centre here. Oppo’s Photos app also remains a genuinely good alternative to Google Photos, and Oppo has one of the best mobile suites of AI image tools around, including face enhancement, object removal, reflection removal, portrait glow, unblur, and more.

These tools are generally very effective, even if they are not always fully convincing. You can definitely get away with some AI tweaks for social media, but if you can zoom in or really study an image, it's not that hard to spot the AI at work.

Below, top to bottom: AI 4K Detail Enhance, AI Eraser, and AI Reflection Removal

Oppo also has an AI repository called Mind Space for collecting screenshots, which the AI then aims to pull useful information from. Mind Space itself sounds clever, though it's just not the way I personally interact with AI, and I find simply throwing information into Gemini or ChatGPT still feels like a more natural way to get what I want out of AI helpers.

Finally, there is an optional stylus. This isn't the first Find N phone with a stylus, but this is the slickest implementation yet. The stylus slots into a case on the rear of the phone that diverts the phone's wireless reverse charging to automatically keep the pen topped up. It’s nowhere near as discreet as Samsung’s S-Pen in the Ultra, but good luck finding a spare millimeter of internal space in the N6 for a pen.

The stylus features a click-button shortcut for screenshots, notes, and text capture. The stylus is a little short for longer writing or drawing sessions, but it works well for quick note-taking. The most entertaining feature is its ability to turn doodles into finished AI artwork; hardly essential, but definitely fun. There are also productivity tricks like turning circled notes into charts, though workplace AI tools such as Gemini or Copilot will usually do a better job.

Final Verdict

The Oppo Find N6 is my new favourite foldable. Last year’s model felt like Oppo’s first foldable flagship that was slim and light enough to actually replace my bar phone, and the N6 doubles down on that, as well as improves on a few of last year's weaknesses with enhanced cameras and a nearly invisible (in most lights) crease.

Phone performance is excellent, powering through creative tasks, with a battery that lasts all day, and often a little more. I also continue to think Oppo makes some of the nicest smartphone software around. The cameras are also impressive enough that I never felt regret that I was just carrying a foldable. Oppo’s continued Hasselblad partnership and Lumo image engine produce really nice colors with balanced HDR and a good amount of detail, especially from the new 200MP sensor.

Still, the Find N6 does not quite rewrite the rules. The crease may be shallow, but it is not gone. The inner display is great for multitasking, but not ideal for every app. And while the cameras are very good, the best camera-focused bar phones still offer better results. Then there is the biggest practical issue of all: if you live in the UK, Europe, or the US, this is not officially on sale for you anyway.

Alternatives

Oppo has unveiled the Find N6, its latest flagship foldable that promises to tackle one of the category’s oldest complaints – the inner screen crease – as well as improving on the Hasselblad camera system to challenge the best foldable cameras.

Starting with the cameras, the new phone packs a triple camera system co-designed with Hasselblad, led by a 200MP 23mm main camera, alongside a 50MP 70mm (3x) periscope telephoto camera and a 50MP 15mm ultra-wide. There is also the debut of Oppo’s dedicated True Color Camera for the first time in a foldable. The True Colour Camera adds a spectral sensor designed to improve white balance and color accuracy.

Other improvements to the cameras include better tele-macro shooting, with the telephoto camera able to focus from as close as 10cm. While the ultra-wide sensor now gathers 50% more light than the previous generation.

The N6 is also leaning hard into its renewed Hasselblad partnership. The Find N6 includes flagship Hasselblad features like Hasselblad Portrait Mode, XPAN mode for cinematic 65:24 stills, as well as Hasselblad Master Mode with extensive manual controls and color tuned to mimic the Hasselblad X2D.

When it comes to video, all three rear cameras support 4K 60fps Dolby Vision, while the main camera goes a step further with 4K 120fps Dolby Vision and Log capture for more advanced grading workflows.

Beyond the cameras, the Find N6 has a 6.62-inch cover display and an 8.12-inch inner screen, with both panels rated at up to 1,800 nits brightness. The device is among the thinnest book-style foldables on the market, although it is marginally beaten by the Honor Magic V6, and it is backed by IP56, IP58, and IP59 dust and water resistance ratings, which again, lag a little behind the Honor’s IP68 and IP69 ratings.

The crease, or lack thereof, is the big story here. Oppo says its second-generation Titanium Flexion Hinge and new Auto-Smoothing Flex Glass reduce hinge height variance to 0.05mm (basically it's shallower) and improve long-term crease resistance significantly compared with the previous model. Diligent device testers at TÜV Rheinland have certified the device's crease and durability across up to 600,000 fold cycles.

Inside, the Find N6 is powered by a 7-core version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 platform alongside a 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery, which is the largest yet in the Find N series, with 400mAh more capacity than the N5. The N6 can be recharged with up to 80W wired and 50W wireless charging using Oppo's SuperVOOC tech, or up to 55W wired with PD-certified chargers.

Oppo has also redesigned its multitasking, with a new Free-Flow Window system, which can run up to four apps at once in floating windows in a desktop-style environment. There is also a new Oppo AI Pen with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and features including quick notes, global annotation, and AI-assisted tools that can turn sketches into artwork or handwritten notes into editable charts.

The Oppo Find N6 will be available in two colors – Stellar Titanium and Blossom Orange – the latter of which is a softer version of Apple’s signature color. The phone will launch in Asia and Australia starting from March 20, although much to the disappointment of Western foldable/Oppo fans, there are currently no plans for a wider launch. Currently only Chinese pricing is available, with the Find N6 costing from ¥9999 (~$1450/£1090) 12GB+256GB version tup to ¥11999 (~$1742/£1308)for 16GB+1TB.

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I’ve been reading about a supposed backlash towards the recent announcement that Arri and Honor will collaborate on the forthcoming Robot Phone to bring cinema-grade color science to smartphones.

Aside from some initial reaction videos on YouTube, I haven’t found any opinions online remotely close to what I’d call a backlash, but I do have some thoughts of my own.

While I certainly don’t feel angry towards the announcement, I am struggling to see how the Robot Phone will “revolutionize” cinematography as claimed.

What seems more likely is that Arri and Honor have pumped a whole lot of money into marketing this “revolutionary” device, but this won’t stop it from being a flop.

Don’t get me wrong, the Robot Phone is an exciting prospect. The camera is infused with Arri color science, widely considered the creme de la creme for superior highlight roll-off and natural color reproduction.

Add in the behemoth 200MP sensor and AI-powered subject tracking, and mount it all on a three-axis gimbal that folds into the body of the phone, and on paper you’ve got some serious filmmaking capabilities.

But looking at the phone, it takes about two seconds to start picking it apart. Firstly, there’s the mechanical arm joining the camera to the phone.

While this is made of titanium alloy and “super steel” – which is just marketing speak for modern alloy steels like those used in kitchen knives – it looks flimsy as the camera folds out above the phone, and I fear that a hard knock could send it flying.

Then there's the ergonomic constraints, especially how the camera is geared towards filming in portrait orientation – which don’t seem versatile enough for professionals, despite the alluring AI subject tracking and stabilization.

I just can’t see any cinematographers or professional content creators choosing this device over high-end mirrorless cameras or something like an iPhone 17 Pro Max with gimbal setup.

No doubt the Honor Robot Phone packs cinema-grade potential but, from the techy name to the moving parts, I think it’s general tech enthusiasts, not filmmakers, who are going to have a field day with it.

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Nothing is still one of the youngest smartphone companies around, but it has quickly built a reputation for doing things differently, leaning heavily into transparent industrial design, playful software touches, and a community-driven approach to product development.

The Nothing Phone (4a) is the latest model in the company’s more affordable “a-series”, designed to bring elements of its flagship devices to a lower price point. It builds on the Phone (3a) with refreshed cameras, revamped Glyph lighting system, a faster Snapdragon processor, and an upgraded AMOLED display.

Nothing is trying to differentiate the Phone (4a) from other mid-rangers as a more creative smartphone, emphasising its camera presets and LUTs built right into the camera app. I have loved these on previous Nothing phones, and it brings me ever closer to my dream of having my Fujifilm film recipes on my smartphone.

On paper, with a triple camera setup, including two 50MP sensors, the Phone (4a) looks like a strong contender for the best budget camera phone – but the real question is whether the photography experience matches the ambition.

Specifications

Price & Availability

The Nothing Phone (4a) starts at $349 / £349 / AU$649 with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, rising to $399 / £399 / AU$699 for the top 12GB RAM configuration.

That price pits it against devices like the Google Pixel 10a and Samsung Galaxy A-series phones. For the money, the hardware is reasonably competitive: a large AMOLED display, a modern Snapdragon chip, and a surprisingly ambitious periscope telephoto camera. But here, the value lies in the device's style, with the Phone (4a) offering a much more eye-catching and unique design that will stand out from the crowd.

Design

Nothing has built its identity around its distinctive design, and the Phone (4a) continues that philosophy. At a glance, it looks very similar to previous Nothing devices, but the company has refined several elements of the design language while keeping the signature transparent aesthetic that has become its calling card.

The rear of the phone still uses a clear glass panel that reveals stylised internal components beneath it. This isn’t a literal view of the electronics inside, but rather a deliberately arranged design that mimics them, and it gives the phone a chic industrial look. Its three cameras sit high on the back, out of the way of my fingers, and fit inside a pill-shaped bump, with a distinctive aluminium surround swirl around it. Overall, it's just a cool-looking phone.

Nothing has expanded the range slightly this year. The Phone (4a) is available in white, black, blue, and pink, and the brighter finishes help emphasise the industrial design beneath the glass by providing a little more contrast. The pink in particular feels slightly softer, while the blue version adds a bit more energy, but both add a bit more pizazz than the more subdued monochrome options.

If you already own a Phone (2a) or Phone (3a), you may struggle to immediately tell them apart unless you look closely at the details. Normally, that would feel like a criticism, but in this case, it’s not a problem. Nothing’s design is still unique enough in the smartphone market that it hasn’t yet become stale, and the Phone (4a) still stands out on a table full of generic-looking rectangles.

Build quality feels solid for a mid-range device, and Nothing has improved durability compared to its predecessor. The Phone (4a) is rated IP64 for dust and water resistance, which means it can handle splashes and rain without issue, though it’s not designed for full immersion like some flagship devices. Nothing also claims improved structural rigidity and stronger glass protection, which should help the device survive the usual bumps and drops of everyday use.

Despite any tweaks, the overall shape and layout remain extremely close to earlier Nothing phones. Physically, the Phone (4a) measures 163.95 x 77.57 x 8.55mm and weighs 204.5g, putting it in the same general size category as most modern mid-range Android phones. The large footprint is mainly driven by the 6.78-inch display, which dominates the front of the device with relatively slim bezels and a centred punch-hole selfie camera.

That display is one of the phone’s highlights. It’s a 6.78-inch AMOLED panel with a resolution of 1224 x 2720 and a pixel density of around 440ppi. The panel supports a dynamic refresh rate up to 120Hz, which helps keep scrolling smooth and responsive, while the brightness can reach up to 1,600 nits outdoors and 4,500 nits peak for HDR content. In everyday use, it looks sharp and vibrant, easily competitive with other phones at this price.

Nothing also gives you two main display color profiles. The Standard mode aims for a more neutral presentation, but I found it slightly undersaturated. The alternative Alive mode boosts color a little more and gives photos and videos more punch, which I ended up preferring most of the time.

Under the display is an optical fingerprint sensor, which works reliably but isn’t quite as fast or consistent as the ultrasonic sensors used in some higher-end phones. That said, it still unlocks the phone quickly enough that it never felt frustrating in day-to-day use.

Along the sides, the button layout is fairly conventional. You get the usual power button and volume controls, all of which feel well-positioned and easy to reach when holding the phone. The only additional control is Nothing’s Essential Key, which sits separately on the left side of the device. Pressing it captures screenshots, voice notes, or screen recordings and sends them to the company’s new AI-powered organisational tool called Essential Space.

Personally, I never found this feature particularly useful. Essential Space is designed as a repository that collects screenshots, notes, and recordings and uses AI to analyse them and extract useful information. It’s an interesting concept, but it's just not the way I interact with AI assistants, and I don't find it as useful as dropping whatever I need into Gemini or CatGPT when needed. I’d have preferred the option to remap that key to something more practical for me, like launching the camera or toggling silent mode.

The most distinctive part of the Phone (4a) design continues to be the Glyph system on the rear of the phone – this time taking the form of the new Glyph Bar. This is Nothing’s latest iteration of its signature lighting system, which has evolved from the lights used in earlier models to 63 tiny LEDs arranged in segmented zones. It can display notifications, timers, progress indicators, and recording lights when shooting video with a little more contextual information through patterns than the previous Glyph lights.

While the Glyph interface has always been a little bit of a novelty, I actually find it useful in practice. I tend to keep my phone face down on my desk while working, and the subtle light patterns make it easy to see when something important has happened without having the screen constantly lighting up for every weather alert or marketing email.

Camera Performance

The Nothing Phone (4a) packs a fairly ambitious camera system for a mid-range phone. Two cameras from the Phone (3a) make a return, with a 50MP main camera, and an 8MP ultrawide, but the 50MP telephoto lens has got an upgrade – from 2x optical zoom to 3.5x – and Nothing claims it can digitally zoom up to 70x.

The main camera uses a 50MP 1/1.57-inch sensor, which is relatively large for a phone at this price. Combined with optical image stabilisation (OIS), it’s designed to capture more light, helping improve dynamic range and low-light performance. The telephoto camera uses a periscope-style lens with an 80mm equivalent, which is an ideal focal length for portraits and tighter compositions.

In practice, though, the camera experience is a little more complicated. One of the first things I noticed when shooting with the Phone (4a) is that the HDR preview isn’t particularly clear. In scenes with strong contrast, the camera preview often makes photos look significantly overexposed, even though the final processed image comes out correctly balanced. It meant that while composing shots, I often had to ignore what I was seeing on screen and trust the processing pipeline to fix things afterwards. The final images usually looked good, but the shooting experience itself felt less composed than I’d like.

Once the phone finishes processing the image, the HDR output actually looks quite pleasing. Compared with many smartphones that push aggressive HDR processing, the Phone (4a) tends to produce a more restrained result. Highlights are controlled, and shadow detail is preserved without creating that artificial “over-processed” look that some phones suffer from. The results might not always be technically the most dramatic, but they can feel more natural and photographic.

Color rendering is where things become more subjective. In the default color mode, images can look slightly flat, with colors that feel a little muted and contrast that doesn’t quite pop. For some phone photographers, this might actually be desirable; it's perhaps more true-to-life, and it gives images more flexibility for editing later (although the extent to which you can edit a JPEG is limited). But straight out of the camera, the photos sometimes feel a bit lifeless compared to other brands like Apple's warmth or Xiaomi's film-like tones.

However, where Nothing’s camera colors redeem themselves is when paired with the ability to apply LUTs (look-up tables) directly within the camera as presets. LUTs are essentially color profiles that transform the look of an image. The Phone (4a) allows you to import new presets easily via downloads or even QR codes and save them to the device. There are also a few preinstalled presets, although frustratingly, you can’t edit any of these. You can even replace the default camera with a preset of your choice.

This is the one camera feature I truly wish all phones had. It gives a way to build a style into the capture process rather than relying entirely on editing afterwards. As someone who abandoned being a Canon user for over a decade to jump into Fujifilm’s film simulations and film recipes, I have been itching for a phone to give me the flexibility over my phone images so I can color match my camera and phone – and the Phone (4a) comes the closest yet. You can even add grain effects to images, helping create a slightly more film-inspired look.

Of course, LUTs don’t improve the actual camera hardware. So while they can make photos look more interesting, they can’t fix limitations in sharpness, dynamic range, or sensor performance.

Image detail from the main camera is generally good in decent lighting. However, I did notice that motion blur can appear more often than expected, even when shooting in fairly bright conditions. It’s difficult to pinpoint whether this comes from the sensors, the camera choosing slower shutter speeds, or the imaging pipeline itself, but it does mean you need to be careful when photographing while moving.

A proper telephoto camera is a welcome inclusion at this price point (last year's 2x telephoto does not count). The 3.5x optical zoom produces pleasant portrait perspectives and is genuinely useful for everyday photography. The camera also includes optional retouching tools and adjustable bokeh effects. Some of these effects allow you to change the shape of the blur highlights, including novelty shapes like stars or snowflakes. They’re fun to experiment with, but they feel more like playful extras than tools aimed at serious portrait photographers like Vivo's excellent Zeiss lens bokeh options.

But while the optical zoom performs well, the phone’s more extreme zoom modes are less convincing. Nothing advertises up to 70x “Ultra Zoom”, but in practice, I found photos start to become fairly unusable beyond around 10x zoom. Image quality drops rapidly after that point, and the highest zoom levels are just plain bad.

Macro photography is handled using the telephoto camera rather than the ultrawide lens. This actually works well because it produces a more natural perspective and avoids the distortion that ultrawide macro cameras often create. The results are solid, if not particularly remarkable.

Phone Performance

The Nothing Phone (4a) is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7s Gen 4, a mid-range chipset designed to deliver solid everyday performance while maintaining good power efficiency. In real-world use, that generally holds true.

For everyday tasks, the phone feels quick and responsive. Browsing the web, scrolling through social media, switching between apps, and streaming video all happen smoothly with very little slowdown. In typical daily use, I didn’t experience any noticeable lag or stuttering. Apps opened quickly, multitasking was smooth, and general navigation around the operating system felt snappy.

Where the limitations of the chipset begin to show is when you start pushing the phone harder. Tasks like photo and video editing can put more strain on the processor, and during heavier workloads, I did occasionally notice slower processing times with my Lightroom or CapCut exports taking noticeably longer than they would on a flagship device. Although this doesn’t mean the phone struggles with creative work entirely, it’s still perfectly usable for editing photos or short clips on the go, and I just wouldn’t rely on it if you are a heavy mobile editor.

Battery life is pretty good. The device houses a 5,080mAh battery, which Nothing claims can deliver up to 17 hours of combined usage. In my experience, that estimate feels a little ambitious. In my controlled battery test, using a mix of video editing, photo editing, video playback, and productivity tasks, the Phone (4a) lasted 14 hours and 12 minutes, which falls a little behind rivals with larger cells.

In the real world, the phone did comfortably last through a full day of medium to heavy use, although I usually came home in the evening with the phone in battery saver mode. However, recharging is super quick; the phone supports 50W wired fast charging, which in my tests creached 35% in 15 minutes, 61% charge in roughly 30 minutes, and a full charge in just over an hour. So a quick top-up while getting ready in the morning was often enough to provide enough charge for the day.

The Phone (4a) runs Nothing OS 4.1 based on Android 16, and it remains one of the cleanest Android interfaces available. The design leans heavily into Nothing’s minimalist aesthetic, with monochrome icons, custom widgets, and subtle animations that match the brand’s overall visual identity.

In many ways, it feels similar to the software experience on Google Pixel devices: close to stock Android, but with a few carefully designed additions rather than heavy customisation. Nothing also promises three years of Android updates and six years of security patches, which is respectable support for a mid-range device.

Nothing also includes a handful of AI-assisted editing tools, including reflection removal and pedestrian removal, but this pales in comparison to the AI editing suite available on other devices. However, both tools can run directly on the device without requiring an internet connection, which is convenient when editing photos on the go.

However, their effectiveness varies. The pedestrian removal tool, in particular, is quite inconsistent. Sometimes it correctly identifies people in the scene and removes them cleanly, but other times it fails to detect obvious subjects entirely. Even when it does work, it can leave behind slightly blurry patches where the removed person used to be. It's a nice-to-have, but Nothing is lagging far behind the competition here.

Final Verdict

The Nothing Phone (4a) continues the company’s tradition of making smartphones that feel a little more interesting than the competition. Its transparent design and Glyph lighting system still stand out in a market full of near-identical devices.

For photographers, the camera system isn’t a mid-range champ, but it puts in a decent performance. The cameras produce pleasingly natural images, however the ability to apply LUTs directly in-camera is genuinely a gamechanger for me, and adds a whole new dimension to the average camera hardware. However, inconsistent HDR previews, muted default colours and limited usability of the higher zoom ranges mean it doesn’t quite deliver a fully rounded camera experience.

Performance is solid for the price, with smooth everyday use and dependable battery life that easily lasts a full day. The screen is really nice to use, large and bright and Nothing OS provides a clean, fast Android experience.

Overall, the Phone (4a) isn’t the outright best camera phone in its class, but it offers a refreshing design that I really like. It is still one of the few mid-range phones with any design personality, and if you care more about style than photographic perfection then the Phone (4a) might be perfect.

Alternatives

Feiyu (or FeiyuTech) is a China-based company that is well known for camera stabilisers such as the Feiyu Scorp 3. Unlike a gimbal with its motorised tilt, roll, and pan arms, the Feiyu Phone Rig Pro relies on the human operator to keep the phone level and smooth. The Feiyu Phone Rig Pro is marketed as an iPhone rig, but given that it has a universal clamp and a USB-C cable, it should also prove useful for those using Android phones.

Modern smartphones use a physical sensor-shift OIS (optical image stabiliser) system to help keep a handheld iPhone’s footage looking smooth. This involves rapidly moving the sensor in the x, y, and z axes to counteract camera shake. They also use software solutions to crop into the footage and reposition it frame by frame to counteract shake (especially if you engage an iPhone’s Action mode when shooting video). So, why would you need to mount your modern iPhone in a rig like the Feiyu Phone Rig Pro? There are several compelling reasons…

For starters, the sensor-shift technology designed to keep your iPhone’s footage looking gimbal smooth isn’t applied when shooting with a modern iPhone’s Ultra Wide camera, so that will look smoother when shooting with a cage-mounted iPhone. Another reason to mount your smartphone in a rig/cage is that the wider handles that bolt onto the sides of the rig’s smartphone grip move your hands further apart. This wider two-handed grip enables you to perform smoother moves such as pans, tracks, tilts, and cranes. If you held the phone in both hands, it would be more susceptible to micro movements and a tilted horizon due to your hands’ closer proximity.

Another bonus of using a rig is that, unlike a more expensive gimbal, it won’t run out of power in mid-shoot or start shaking if your smartphone is not perfectly balanced. To date, I’ve tested six rigs/cages for Digital Camera World, and the Feiyu Phone Rig Pro boasts a couple of unique features, as I’ll explain in this review.

Specifications

Price

At the time of writing, the FeiyuTech Phone Rig Pro has dropped from its recommended retail price of $149/£149 to $119/£119, which is a significant price cut. This is slightly cheaper in price than the similarly specced SmallRig Universal Phone Video Rig Kit, which retails at £156, and that slightly more expensive rig ships with an LED that slides into the rig’s cold shoe mount. However, the Feiyu Phone Rig Pro does offer the unique option of enabling you to capture footage while shooting with your iPhone directly to a memory card slotted into the rig’s shaft, so you don’t need to clog up your smartphone with huge video files. So if you want to shoot in ProRes format, then this makes the Feiyu Phone Rig Pro a more attractive purchase.

Design and handling

At first glance, the Feiyu Phone Rig Pro looks and behaves like a classic smartphone rig/cage. The main rig and grips consist of an aviation-grade aluminium alloy, so it’s relatively light to carry and manoeuvre (weighing in at 70g/1.08lb, which is much lighter than a gimbal/stabiliser). The two handles screw into each side of the rig, offering you a secure dual-handle grip. Each handle offers the option to add extra kit to the rig in the form of six 1/4” screw holes. The base of the main rig has an Arca-Swiss quick-release plate, so you can slide the rig into third-party tripods. The rig also ships with a mini tripod that enables you to stand it on a surface or collapse the tripod to give you another handle for single-handed shooting when the side handles are detached.

Your iPhone is attached to the rig by a spring clamp, so it should fit any iPhone model. The clamp can be rotated so that you can switch between shooting horizontally (landscape-oriented video clips) and vertically (portrait-oriented video clips). We did have an issue with this design feature, as I’ll explain in the Performance section. The central grip has a handy cold-shoe mount at the top, which is handy if you want to slide in an LED or a mini shotgun mic.

Another unique design feature is the presence of a memory card slot in the main body of the rig. If you connect the built-in rig’s cable to your iPhone’s USB-C socket, you can record ProRes or Log footage directly onto an SD card slotted into the rig (though you will need to use an SD card cable to digitise at a fast enough speed, or your footage could suffer from jerks and pauses!). Oh, the rig’s cable enables you to charge your iPhone while it’s mounted on the rig. When shooting video, I often find that my iPhone battery drains quite quickly, so this pass-through charging capability is a very welcome feature.

The rig’s sprung iPhone clamp offers a unique design feature that I've not encountered in the other smartphone rigs/gages. It has a built-in mini fan that rests directly against the body of your smartphone. When shooting video, an iPhone can begin to run hot, especially in direct sunlight! I have had an iPhone become temporarily disabled due to overheating when shooting video in Tunisia, so the fan could prove useful in the right circumstances. However, overheating wasn’t an issue when I tested the Feiyu Phone Rig Pro in the 4ºC temperature of the English Lake District in January, so I can’t vouch for the efficacy of the Feiyu Phone Rig Pro’s built-in cooling fan, but it might save the day for some hot weather smartphone shooters.

Performance

To test the Feiyu Phone Rig Pro, I took it to the Lake District in the UK to document a family enjoying the location’s beautiful hills and lakes. I popped my iPhone 16 Plus into the rig’s expandable universal phone clamp, and it sat there nicely and securely. I attached the supplied USB-C cable to the iPhone so that it would benefit from being charged by the fully charged rig’s internal battery. You can see that the rig is fully charged by a series of vertical status lights. I pressed the fan button on the rear to power up the little cooling fan at the rear of the rig, but given the 7º temperature of the Lake District, I turned this off, so I could devote the rig’s power to keep charging my iPhone.

I could have used the rig’s built-in cable to capture ProRes footage directly to the memory card plugged into the shaft of the rig, but this would have been overkill as I tend to shoot in standard definition 1080 HD for most of my video projects to save storage space on my external video editing hard drive and most of my footage is consumed via social media platforms so doesn’t need to be shot in ProRes. I’d already tried recording ProRes to an SD card plugged into the rig, but the footage was too jerky. This was because I hadn’t used a card capable of writing ProRes footage quickly on the fly.

I attached the two support handles on either side of the rig and screwed the supplied mini tripod onto its base. The handles can be a bit loose and ‘rattly’ if you don’t tighten them enough, and they benefited from the occasional re-tightening during the shoot. The mini tripod can be collapsed into a stick that provides the option to hold the rig by one hand. Normally, I might use a gimbal to document this sort of activity, but gimbals can be a bit less robust than a cage/rig that has no moving parts. As I walked along country roads, I could let the rig dangle by one hand, ready to sweep it up and start filming with a two-handed grip, a subject within seconds of noticing a suitable subject (such as passing cyclists). With a gimbal/stabiliser, I’d need to power it up when I wanted to use it, missing sudden video opportunities.

The combination of the rig’s widely spaced handles and my iPhone 16 Plus’s built-in hardware/software stabilisers meant that I could capture gimbal-smooth moves without using a gimbal. Having my phone mounted in a rig encouraged me to perform a range of camera moves, such as crouching below a bush and slowly standing, while craning up to reveal the majesty of the distant mountains. I also found it easy to perform smooth sideways and forward tracking shots to capture a wide range of camera moves that would give visual variety to the video that supports this review.

As I was also filming spaniels enjoying their walk, I was able to set the iPhone 16 Plus to Slo-Mo mode. The rig’s dual grip meant that I was easily able to pan and tilt to track their every move (without having to change the gimbal to a suitable mode such as Pan Tilt Follow or Pan Tilt).

Towards the end of the walk, we headed back to the car through winding country lanes. I decided to get experimental and set the iPhone’s Camera app to Time-lapse mode. I then gripped the rig by both handles and walked behind my friends, attempting to keep them in the centre of the frame for a few minutes. This became more challenging when we went off-road, and I had to hold the rig by one handle while darting my gaze between the iPhone’s screen to check composition while watching out for hazardous tree roots as we headed downhill. I wasn’t expecting any of the Timelapse footage to be usable, but as you’ll see from the supporting video, the resulting hyperlapse was super smooth, and on the winding roads it looks like footage captured from a camera mounted on a motorbike!

Verdict

I found the Feiyu Phone Rig Pro to be surprisingly useful and effective. When filming video on my iPhone, I shoot to edit, so I try to capture a wide range of camera moves such as pans, cranes, tilts, and tracks. Having the rig dangling in my hand throughout my set shoot meant that I was ready in an instant to capture a sudden video opportunity - which makes the Feiyu Phone Rig Pro a more useful tool for documentary filmmakers than a gimbal would be (and unlike a gimbal, you don’t need to worry about the Feiyu Phone Rig Pro running out of battery power!). As you’ll see from my supporting video, the rig’s widely spread handles enabled me to make smooth moves.

I did encounter a couple of snags. The mini tripod that slots into the base of the rig isn’t that useful as it doesn’t have an adjustable ball head. You can’t tilt your rig-mounted iPhone when the rig is resting on its tripod on the floor. However, you can attach the rig to a third-party mini tripod that does have a ball head thanks to the 1/4" screw thread at the base. The smartphone clamp can be rotated so that you can shoot horizontally or vertically. However, due to the large size of my iPhone 16 Plus, I couldn’t get it to rotate to a vertical orientation (which isn’t a major problem, as I prefer to shoot video in landscape orientation anyway).

Alternatives

Rugged phones are brilliant in theory, but in practice they often feel like you’re carrying a paving slab in your pocket. The AGM G3 Pro sets out to fix that, promising proper durability, built-in thermal imaging and even wireless charging; all in a body that’s slim enough to live with day to day. So does it finally hit the rugged-phone sweet spot, or is it just another compromise? I’ve been using it as my daily phone for the past month to find out.

When I reviewed the Tank 4 Pro last year, I was impressed that it had slimmed down from the Tank 3 Pro’s frankly absurd 696g to a still-hefty 538g. The AGM G3 Pro takes things even further, tipping the scales at 375g.

Yes, that’s still a lot heavier than a standard smartphone (around 170–190g for a typical flagship), but in rugged-phone terms, it’s certainly not the heaviest. You’ll notice the weight at first, but your pocket (and your jeans) won’t resent it nearly as much as they would with something like the Ulefone Armor 29 Ultra, which is an eye-watering 688g and almost comically chunky.

It doesn’t have the Tank 4 Pro’s built-in projector, or the Armor 29 Ultra’s dual AMOLED screens and one-inch sensor. But it does have two party tricks neither of those rival ruggeds can pull off: thermal imaging and wireless charging. So, how does it hold up everywhere else?

AGM G3 Pro: specifications

AGM G3 Pro: Price and availability

Pricing is… complicated. At the time of writing, Amazon has the G3 Pro at $699 in the US, making it more expensive than the Tank 4 Pro ($529.99) but cheaper than the Armor 29 Ultra ($807.49). In the UK, though, it flips the script: £599, which undercuts both the Tank 4 Pro (£674) and the Armor 29 Ultra (£639.99).

As your recent news alerts may have hinted, international pricing is currently a bit chaotic for a number of reasons, so I’d strongly recommend checking current prices before buying. The value of this phone will depend entirely on where you are, and possibly whether it's a Tuesday or a Wednesday.

AGM G3 Pro: Build and design

The biggest surprise with the G3 Pro is how… nice it feels. AGM has clearly tried to move away from the “industrial accident” aesthetic most rugged phones embrace. The alloy frame and textured polymer shell feel solid without being aggressive, and the phone sits flatter than expected thanks to a large, flat wireless charging pad on the back.

That charging pad also helps reduce the usual lumpiness you get with rugged phones. Between it and the camera cluster sits a genuinely powerful camping LED, while the camera module itself houses the main sensor, macro lens and thermal camera, plus a rather serious-looking speaker grille.

Durability is excellent, as you’d expect. IP68/IP69K and MIL-STD-810H mean it’ll laugh off drops, water and pressure washing. I was a little surprised to find “Panda Glass” instead of Gorilla Glass on the front, though – it’s fine for scratches, but generally not quite as tough when it comes to drops.

On the right side of the phone, you'll find the volume rocker and power button. The power button is slightly indented and doubles as a fingerprint sensor, which works reliably once you get used to its preferred touch technique. It's not the fastest fingerprint implementation I've encountered, but it's consistent enough for daily use.

The left edge houses the SIM/microSD tray (protected by a screw-secured rubber cap) and, below that, a customizable action button. Unlike the Armor 29 Ultra's two programmable buttons, the G3 Pro has just one, but it supports three different actions: single-tap, double-tap, and long-press. This makes it more versatile than the Tank 4 Pro's simpler implementation, and in practice, three customizable actions proved sufficient for most situations.

A small but welcome detail: the rubber port covers are screwed in, not glued. That suggests they’re replaceable when they wear out, which is exactly what you want on a phone designed to take abuse. Finally, one small visual quirk: the main camera is offset to one side to make room for the speaker. It’s not a problem functionally, just slightly odd to look at.

AGM G3 Pro: Performance

The Dimensity 7300 processor puts the G3 Pro firmly in mid-range territory. It’s nowhere near as quick as the Tank 4 Pro’s Dimensity 8300, and it can’t touch the Armor 29 Ultra’s flagship chip. On paper, it scores about a third of what a top-end processors like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3/4 manages. In real life? It’s absolutely fine.

With 12GB of RAM and fast UFS 3.1 storage, everyday use feels smooth. Apps open quickly, multitasking is painless, and the 120Hz refresh keeps everything feeling responsive. Nor did I run into the camera lag issues that plagued older rugged phones. Heavy gaming will push it, and you’ll need to dial settings down for demanding titles, but that’s hardly a shock on a phone like this.

The display is the most obvious compromise. It’s a perfectly decent IPS LCD – bright enough, sharp enough, and colour-accurate – but once you’ve used AMOLED on competing rugged phones, the difference is hard to ignore. Battery life, on the other hand, is reassuring. The 10,000mAh cell easily got me three days of moderate use, and standby drain is impressively low. After a week unused, I still had around 50% left.

Charging is decent rather than exciting at 33W wired (around three hours from 20%), but the real win is 18W wireless charging. On a rugged phone, where opening port covers repeatedly isn’t ideal, this is genuinely useful – and I ended up using it far more than I expected.

AGM G3 Pro: Cameras

The camera system is something of a mixed bag. The 64MP Sony IMX682 main sensor is the same one used in various mid-range phones, and it delivers respectable results in good lighting. What I appreciated most was the natural color reproduction and realistic contrast; none of the over-processed HDR look that plagues some smartphones.

Its photography capabilities are certainly a step down from the Armor 29 Ultra, with its 1-inch Sony IMX989 sensor. However, it still produces images that are perfectly usable for documentation, social media and general photography. The lack of optical image stabilization is frustrating, though; I had to discard several photos that looked sharp on the display but turned out blurry in the final result. Also, the 2MP macro camera is, as on most phones, fairly useless, producing muddy, low-resolution images.

Where things really fall apart, though, is night photography. Compared with the Tank 4 Pro's decent low-light performance and the Armor 29 Ultra's exceptional night capabilities, the G3 Pro struggles badly in darkness. The camera has trouble focusing, and results are soft and noisy even with the LED flash. If you frequently need to photograph in low light, this camera will disappoint.

The 50MP front camera, meanwhile, is overkill for its actual capabilities. While it's technically capable of 4K video, AGM has limited it to 1080p, making the high resolution rather pointless. It does produce decent selfies and video calls, though.

Video recording maxes out at 1080p at 60fps, which feels a little outdated for a new phone in 2026. The Tank 4 Pro and Armor 29 Ultra both support 4K recording, with the Armor 29 even offering 8K. The one plus point here is that electronic stabilization works adequately, but this is clearly not a phone designed for serious videography.

AGM G3 Pro: Thermal imaging

The thermal camera is the G3 Pro's standout feature and its main reason for existing. AGM claims 512×384 resolution, though this appears to be interpolated from a 256×192 sensor.

While professional thermal cameras offer higher resolution, for a phone-integrated solution, this performs impressively. The dedicated Thermal AGM app provides good functionality, including the ability to bracket specific areas for temperature tracking, record video and set thermal alarms. The frame rate drops significantly when "Super Resolution" mode is enabled, but the quality improvement is noticeable.

A thermal camera might seem like a gimmick, but for a number of professions this could be genuinely essential. You could use it, for instance, for spotting heat leaks around windows, checking which components were heating up on electronics, and even detecting warm areas in walls.

Having thermal imaging literally in your pocket is incredibly convenient, and I've found myself using it more than I expected. However, let's be clear: this is a first-response tool, not a replacement for professional thermal imaging equipment. The resolution and accuracy are adequate for initial assessment, but serious engineering work will still require specialized devices.

AGM G3 Pro: Special features

Two special features deserves special mentions. Along with the normal flashlight, the 1K-lumen flood light is genuinely bright and useful. Combined with the thermal camera, it makes the G3 Pro a very practical tool for night work or emergencies.

The 5W speaker is another standout feature, capable of hitting 116dB. That's loud enough to potentially damage hearing, so I'd caution against using it at maximum volume. Still, for outdoor use or noisy worksites, having this much volume available is undeniably useful. Just please, don't be that person blasting music or TikTok clips on public transport. (Headphones, wonderful invention.)

AGM G3 Pro: Connectivity

The G3 Pro offers some excellent connectivity options. 5G support provides fast data where available, while Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 handle wireless connectivity efficiently. NFC enables contactless payments, and there's even an infrared port for using the phone as a universal remote. It's a feature you don't see much any more, but I've often found it useful, especially when staying hotels where the remote is broken or has run out battery.

And here's another old-school favourite: a 3.5mm headphone jack. So many devices only offer a USB port for wired headphones these days, which is no use if you want to charge them, so this went right up my flagpole.

When it comes to your phone connection, the dual SIM setup uses a combined tray that accepts either two nano SIMs or one nano SIM and a microSD card. With 512GB onboard, most users won't need expansion, but personally, I'd have preferred AGM to offer space for both SIMs and a card simultaneously.

AGM G3 Pro: Verdict

The AGM G3 Pro makes smart, deliberate compromises to deliver something rare: a rugged phone you can genuinely use every day.

It’s lighter, thinner and more refined than most of its rivals, while still offering full IP68/IP69K protection and genuinely useful professional features. Thermal imaging, wireless charging and a powerful LED light give it a clear identity, and battery life is reassuringly strong. Yes, the LCD display and mid-range processor are compromises, and the camera struggles badly in low light. But if you’ve been put off rugged phones by their sheer bulk, the G3 Pro might finally win you over.

In conclusion, if thermal imaging matters to you, and you want a rugged phone that won’t feel like a punishment to carry, the AGM G3 Pro is a great option.

Samsung's 2026 flagship is a camera upgrade and downgrade on paper, with faster lenses but a smaller 3x sensor and a few other less obvious drawbacks compared to the S25 Ultra. Alongside the iPhone 17 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro, though, it's still a powerful player packing impressive specs and plenty of shooting modes. Set against the best from Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi, though, the camera struggles to stand out. But can features like Privacy Display and the new AirDrop support help it shine? Actually, yes.

Starting with the camera, the most notable changes in the S26 Ultra’s specs are an aperture upgrade for the primary 200MP camera, which now has a faster f/1.4 lens (down from f/1.7), and the 5x periscope telephoto. There’s also an on-paper downgrade: the 3x bridge camera between the primary and periscope has a smaller, albeit newer, sensor, and both the primary and 5x cameras don't focus as near as the S25 Ultra, so it's generally much weaker for macro photography.

With the latest Snapdragon for Galaxy power, an excellent new feature – Privacy Display – which keeps prying eyes at bay, the most seamless AirDrop support we've ever seen on an Android phone, faster charging and plenty of smarts under the hood, though, the S26 Ultra could still be an excellent smartphone even if it isn't the best camera phone around.

Galaxy S26 Ultra design and screen

The Galaxy S26 Ultra feels immediately familiar, but Samsung has softened the harder edges of the S25 Ultra, giving the phone a slightly gentler, more cohesive look. It still feels every bit the flagship, with premium materials, matte-finished sides and an integrated S Pen that remains a genuine differentiator. The small hardware tweaks are modest rather than transformational, and anyone upgrading from a Galaxy S25 Ultra or even an S24 Ultra should feel right at home.

The S26 Ultra is 7.9mm thick and weighs 214g, which makes it 0.85mm thinner and 17g lighter than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, despite the fact both phones feature 6.9-inch displays. Samsung’s panel is excellent: a 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X running at 3120 x 1440 with a peak brightness of 2,600 nits and a pixel density of roughly 498ppi. By comparison, Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro Max uses a 6.9-inch OLED at 2868 x 1320, 460ppi, and claims up to 3,000 nits outdoors. The real standout, though, is Samsung’s new Privacy Display, a hardware-based system that dynamically controls wide and narrow pixels to reduce off-angle visibility in public spaces. This works exactly as advertised and can be set to specific apps, making it a true point of differentiation.

One caveat for photographers is the rear camera layout. While there's no MagSafe or Qi2 built into the phone, the large camera array can still make cases that add the feature incompatible with wallet-style accessories and many MagSafe chargers and mounting accessories. Even so, between the excellent display, slim build and genuinely useful Privacy Display, the S26 Ultra remains a strong design package.

Galaxy S26 Ultra camera specs

Samsung’s quad-camera formula has held strong since the S23 Ultra, with an ultra-wide, primary, 3x, and periscope camera.

The S26 Ultra’s primary camera is a 200MP 1/1.3-inch sensor, the same physical size as the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s main sensor. But with its faster f/1.4 lens, it captures a shallower depth of field and should do a fine job in low light, even if it can’t match the 1-inch sensor size of the new Xiaomi 17 Ultra.

The ultra-wide camera is a 1/2.52-inch sensor and f/1.9 combo, a solid spec for an often-neglected element in the smartphone camera mix. It’s also very wide at 13mm equivalent, so it captures plenty of detail, and the 50MP resolution means it can benefit from pixel binning to capture native 8K content.

The 10MP 3x camera remains a weak point. Because it uses a small 4:3 sensor, it lacks sufficient native 16:9 resolution for full-detail 4K capture, which shows up as softer results, especially in low light. This year, Samsung has actually shrunk the sensor, dropping the pixel size from 1.12 microns to 1 micron, resulting in a tiny 1/3.94-inch size. It is a newer sensor, so it could still offer improvements, but its spec is still an across-the-board head-scratcher, especially when set against the improvements to the other cameras and what else is on the market from Honor, OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi.

Finally, the 5x periscope camera with a 115mm equivalent focal length combines a faster f/2.9 lens with the same 1/2.52-inch sensor as the S25 Ultra, which should help in low light, when capturing moving subjects, and compensate a little for hand shake.

All things considered, the hardware mix isn’t necessarily exciting, but it’s still competitive with Apple and Google, Samsung’s main competition in the West.

Processing, AI, and camera software

Samsung loads up the S26 Ultra with its latest computational photography smarts, but at a base level, its photo processing remains very Samsung. Colors are handled with the same characteristic boosting, sharpening is aggressive in auto mode, and pinching in on shots reveals the mottling characteristic of Samsung’s specific brand of noise suppression.

Shooting modes – Standard + resolutions

Shooting modes are mostly unchanged, with modes including Portrait, Photo, Video, Pro, Pro Video, Food, Panorama, Slow Motion, Hyperlapse, Portrait Video, and Expert RAW, which can be downloaded through the Galaxy Store. Photos are captured at 12MP by default, with a 200MP option available for the primary camera, and 50MP options for the ultra-wide and 5x cameras.

Expert RAW and Camera Assistant

Expert RAW, Samsung’s downloadable bracketing RAW capture mode, gets an added feature for 2026: Virtual Reflector, which simulates a reflector to create more balanced exposure in shadows. This gives you a live preview and seems to work best with faces. It doesn’t work with the front camera, but it’s a novel on-device tool for RAW fans.

In addition to Expert RAW, you can download Camera Assistant through the Galaxy Store, and this is a must for photographers picking up the S26 Ultra. It's where you can customize which zoom shortcuts appear on-screen, turn off auto lens switching, and enable handy video tools like audio monitoring via Bluetooth headphones.

Shooting experience

Samsung’s camera UI is very flexible. You can rearrange and remove shooting modes that appear on-screen when you fire up the camera, and Quick Launch is on by default, so a double-tap of the power button quickly gets you into the camera.

The camera is really fast in bright light, so you can snap without waiting. Like with most phones, when the lights drop, computational photography extends the shutter speed, and a steady hand means you’ll get a much sharper shot. This is especially true of the 3x and selfie cameras, which have the smallest sensors and the slowest lenses.

In auto mode, Samsung does have filters, but we would have really liked a Vivo or Xiaomi-style set of default shooting modes, like Zeiss Natural, which dials back punch and over-processing a bit while retaining the benefits of computational photography. In Pro mode, you can adjust contrast, saturation, and more, but in doing so, you sacrifice some of the dynamic range and processing benefits of auto mode.

On the plus side, the Pro photo and video modes are fully featured. And the addition of APV video on top of Log and Expert RAW means enthusiast photographers and videographers will have plenty to sink their teeth into.

Galaxy S26 Ultra photo quality

The good

The S26 Ultra’s 200MP primary camera remains the star of the show, not because you’ll be shooting 200MP all day, but because it gives Samsung a ton of latitude to work with. In default 12MP mode, it’s reliably sharp across the frame, with enough micro-contrast to make textures pop without you having to fight focus or motion blur in decent light. It’s also one of those cameras you can lean on in almost any scenario: landscapes, food, quick street shots, indoor portraits. It rarely feels out of its depth, and when you do want to crop in, there’s still meaningful detail there, even if Samsung’s sharpening is excessive when you start pixel-peeping.

Night photography is also better than previous Ultras, and it’s one of those improvements you notice without having to go hunting for it. The S26 Ultra still brightens scenes aggressively, but it’s less heavy-handed with the sky. Older Galaxy phones often lifted night skies until they turned into a weird, muddy, overly saturated gradient, like the phone was allergic to true blacks. Here, Samsung seems more comfortable letting darkness look like darkness. You still get that Samsung punch, but it’s toned down just enough that night scenes feel cleaner and more believable, with fewer strange color shifts where street lighting meets the sky.

The ultra-wide is another solid shooter. Samsung’s f/1.9 lens paired with a 50MP sensor means it pulls in a lot more light than many ultra-wides, and that helps in exactly the situations where ultra-wides usually struggle: indoors, at dusk, and in mixed lighting. It also gives you a touch more subject separation than you’d expect at 13mm equivalent, which makes close-up shots feel less flat. And because it doubles as a macro camera, it’s versatile. Detail holds up well, focusing is quick, and it’s the kind of ultra-wide that won't totally distort your shots. That said, fans of expansive photos and videos should check out the Vivo X300 Ultra, featuring a best-in-class ultra-wide setup.

Samsung’s 5x periscope remains a strong option, especially if your comparison set is the iPhone and Pixel rather than the China-first camera champs. It isn’t best-in-class for raw detail or natural rendering, and if you’ve used the top Vivo or Xiaomi flagships, you’ll know Samsung still isn’t matching that level of finesse. But alongside the phones most people are realistically buying in the West, the 5x holds up well. I still prefer Apple’s slightly wider 4x focal length for general portrait and everyday tele work, but Samsung’s processing does a better job of keeping hand shake and noise under control when light drops, so you end up with more consistently usable shots.

One area the S26 Ultra compromises is macro photography, with the primary and 5x cameras doubling the nearest focus distance. This results in significantly weaker detail for close-up shots and, ultimately, a worse phone for fans of that specific type of photography.

Anyone considering an alternative that excels in this area should look to the Oppo Find X9 Pro and Vivo X300 Pro.

A subtle wins this year is how smoothly the S26 Ultra moves between cameras in photo mode. Switching focal lengths feels less like jumping between four different cameras and more like moving through a single system. Exposure and white balance still aren’t perfectly matched in every situation, but the transition itself is fast and fluid, and that matters when you’re shooting quickly and don’t want the phone to feel like it’s catching up to you.

HDR is also generally handled well, especially with backlit subjects. The S26 Ultra is happy to lift shadows, but it doesn’t always turn the scene into that over-processed HDR look where everything is equally bright and equally flat. Backlit faces tend to be protected well, highlights are usually controlled, and the end result is often pleasing rather than obviously “fixed.” It’s not the most natural HDR style on the market and can pull up ghosting with moving subjects, but it’s typically one that works, and it keeps the camera feeling dependable in tricky lighting.

Samsung’s AI processing improvements are mostly incremental, but they do add up in day-to-day use, especially when zooming in. The phone feels a little better at resolving fine detail without turning everything into a crunchy mess, and it’s slightly more controlled about how it cleans up noise in darker scenes. You can still spot Samsung’s heavy processing when you zoom in, but the straight-out-of-the-camera success is higher than it used to be.

The selfie camera has been leveled up by software. Skin tones are still warm, mostly flattering, and very Samsung, but they’re less hit-or-miss, especially under indoor lighting.

The bad

Color is the S26 Ultra’s biggest weakness. Skin saturation is pushed hard and regularly swings too far into red, especially indoors and in mixed lighting. It’s a very Samsung look, but it isn’t subtle, and it can make people shots feel more stylized than lifelike.

Color accuracy also varies between cameras, and it’s most obvious once light drops. Jump from the primary to the ultra-wide or telephoto and you can see shifts in white balance and overall tone, so a scene that looks neutral on one lens can look warmer or more saturated on another. It doesn’t always ruin a shot, but it chips away at the “pro” feel when you’re shooting across focal lengths.

Noise reduction is another recurring issue. Samsung cleans up grain so aggressively that it creates a mottled texture, particularly in shadows and night scenes. At a glance, it looks tidy, but as soon as you crop in, fine detail gets smeared and then sharpened back up, which leaves images looking a little synthetic.

That processing pipeline ties into the phone’s default warmth. The S26 Ultra often prioritizes a warm, punchy look over realism, which can be flattering in some scenes, but it also means neutrals drift and skin tones get an extra push toward orange-red.

Bright light sources can also bloom and bleed at night, softening parts of the image and making high-contrast scenes look less clean than they should.

And then there’s the 3x camera, which remains the weak link by a wide margin. In anything but strong light, it produces softened images that are then over-sharpened, and the results don’t hold up to cropping. It’s usable, but it’s the least “Ultra” part of the whole setup.

While the 5x camera is mostly reliable, its nearest focus distance is frustratingly limiting. Unlike phones like the Honor Magic 8 Pro and Vivo X300 Pro, the S26 Ultra doesn’t support telemacro, so it won’t capture close-up shots with super-high-impact detail.

Finally, contrast is still dialed up too high in auto mode. It makes shots look bold on a phone screen, but it can crush subtle tones and exaggerate the already heavy saturation.

Samsung Galaxy S26 video quality

Video is where the S26 Ultra feels a bit more consistently “Ultra,” given it’s a weak area for all phones.

The big upgrade is night video. Samsung’s latest Nightography video processing makes a meaningful difference, pulling in more usable detail and keeping scenes cleaner than older Galaxy Ultras. It still can’t match the low-light video you’ll get from the 1-inch-sensor crowd like the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, but if you’re upgrading from a Samsung phone, you’ll notice the improvement.

In daylight, video is a strong point. Clips are smooth, detailed, and nicely impactful, especially when you’re shooting close-up subjects on the ultra-wide and primary cameras. Focus is mostly reliable, but it can get a bit fiddly when you’re moving between subjects, and the lack of telemacro on the 5x limits your creative options for close-up detail work.

All that said, the primary camera makes the S26 Ultra an excellent quick-capture and vlogging tool when you turn it around. Point it at anything when the light is right and 4K footage looks great, and in bright light, 8K is genuinely usable if you want the option to crop in later.

The pro features are also a real plus, but APV Log comes with a major caveat: file sizes are huge – around 2GB for a 10-second clip – which means you’ll want an external SSD like the Lexar ES5 if you plan to shoot in the codec. And a point to note when picking up a Lexar or SanDisk SSD: pairing it with a MagSafe-style case is a must so you can keep the drive attached as part of your workflow.

Galaxy S26 Ultra performance and battery

Performance is one of the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s clearest strengths. Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, the spec boost compared to the S25 Ultra translates well. Whether gaming, multitasking or exporting high-resolution video, the S26 Ultra feels fast, stable and unflustered. Samsung has also redesigned the vapour chamber and says it now spreads heat across a larger surface area for a 21% thermal improvement, which helps explain how well the phone sustains performance under load. In testing, it also handled APV clips relatively swiftly, and that is a lot of data to move around on a phone.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra comes in 256GB and 512GB versions with 12GB of RAM, while the 1TB model steps up to 16GB. That compares reasonably well with the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which offers 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities. Future-proofing is also a strong point: the S26 Ultra ships with Android 16 and One UI 8.5, and Samsung promises seven generations of OS upgrades alongside seven years of security updates.

Software adds value too. Galaxy AI and One UI remain useful, but the bigger win is Samsung’s new AirDrop support inside Quick Share, which rolled out at the end of March 2026. Transfer speeds still do not quite match Apple-to-Apple for very large files, but the integration is impressively frictionless.

The S26 Ultra's battery life is solid rather than class-leading: the 5,000mAh cell is good for a full day of moderate use, and Samsung claims up to 31 hours of video playback. Charging is stronger, with Super Fast Charging 3.0 rated for up to 75% in around 30 minutes, and Samsung’s own charger guidance confirms USB PD/PPS support, so you aren't locked into a proprietary ecosystem.

So is the S26 Ultra's camera really "Ultra"?

After six weeks with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, it is clear Samsung has built one of the most complete flagship phones of the year. Its excellent Privacy Display is a genuine point of difference, the software support is class-leading, performance is consistently strong, and the new Quick Share support for AirDrop makes it one of the most seamless cross-ecosystem Android phones yet. Add in a premium design, long-term software support and faster charging, and the S26 Ultra feels thoroughly future-proofed.

For photographers and videographers, there is still plenty to like. Samsung continues to offer one of the richest pro-grade camera experiences on any mainstream phone, with deep manual controls, advanced shooting modes, and enthusiast-friendly codecs, including Log, Expert RAW, and APV. Video is also a strength from the main camera in particular, especially with the improvements to Nightography.

The problem is that the camera hardware doesn't stand out. The main and ultra-wide cameras are dependable, and the 5x telephoto remains competitive against Apple and Google, but the weaker 3x camera and the loss of close-focus flexibility on the primary and 5x modules hold the system back. Samsung’s processing also leans too heavily on saturation, contrast, and noise reduction.

As a result, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is not the best camera phone you can buy, especially when Oppo and Vivo are currently delivering more impressive pure photo quality. But it may still be the best Android flagship overall for buyers who want a brilliant screen, outstanding software longevity, polished performance and a camera system that is versatile, ambitious and very capable.

Motorola has long been associated with flip phones, from its hugely successful Razr V3 released in 2004, through to its current foldable screen Razr flip phones. But the brand hasn't tried producing a book-fold foldable phone... until now. The new Razr Fold goes up against foldable heavyweights like the Samsung Galaxy Fold 7 and Honor Magic V series, and with a launch price of $1,999/£1,799, Motorola is clearly aiming the Razr Fold at the ultra-premium end of the market.

Foldable phones usually have compromised camera systems, as they have to be as thin as possible in order not to be too bulky when folded, and this doesn’t leave much space for decent camera hardware. But the Razr Fold manages to pack a relatively large 1/1.28-inch 50MP Sony Lytia 828 sensor for its primary camera, which is capable of recording 8K Dolby Vision video. A 50MP Sony Lytia 600 sensor is used for the 3x telephoto module, which benefits from Motorola's AI-powered 100x Super Zoom Pro mode. The third camera in the trio is an ultrawide snapper which uses another 50MP sensor and features a 3.5cm macro mode. You also get a 32MP internal selfie camera, along with a 20MP external selfie camera.

How effective is this camera system? Well, the good folks over at DxO have had a sneak preview, and they rate the Razr Fold as the best foldable phone right now for camera quality. More information on that here.

Naturally, the centrepiece of any foldable phone is its screen. The Razr Fold boasts an 8.1-inch 2K LTPO unfolded screen which is said to be the brightest interior display of any foldable on the market. Beneath the display is a titanium inner screen plate designed to help distribute pressure evenly across the fold, allowing the screen to return to its original shape after every open and close. Combined with Ultra-Thin Glass and an Anti-Shock Film, the folding screen has been designed to last, and is said to retain a smooth, creaseless look. The Razr Fold's 6.6-inch external display benefits from Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3 - the first smartphone to use this version of Gorilla Glass. Motorola says the Razr Fold achieved "over 75% better drop performance compared to previous-generation devices", which bodes well for the phone's longevity.

Processing power comes from a Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 Mobile Platform, with 16GB RAM and up to 1TB of storage. This is fuelled by a large 6000mAh battery that's capable of 80W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.Despite the big battery and commendable camera system, Motorola has still managed to keep the Razr Fold Slim. It measures just 4.6mm thick when open and 9.9mm thick when closed. In addition to these usage modes, the Razr Fold can also be transformed into laptop mode for comfortable typing, or you can fold it into tent mode to watch content.

The Motorola Razr Fold will be available soon, with a choice of three color options: Pantone Lily White, Pantone Blackened Blue, or a special edition FIFA World Cup 26 Collection.

If you were to guess which foldable phone would have the best camera system, you'd probably assume it'd be something like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold, Google Pixel Fold, or a Chinese heavyweight brand like Honor with one of its Magic V-series phones. But there's one foldable that's just trounced the competition to win 8th place on the prestigious DxOMark smartphone camera ranking. That makes it by far the highest-placed foldable phone DxO has ever tested, with the next-best foldable - the Honor Magic V5 - down in 29th spot. And who's responsible for this world-beating new Foldable? Well, it's Motorola, of course!

The new Razr Fold has a camera system so good that it beats some of the best camera phones on the market, like the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, iPhone 16 Pro Max, and Oppo Find X8 Pro.Heck, it's even close to matching the awesome Xiaomi 17 Ultra for image quality. You could argue that as the Razr Fold costs $1999, it darned well should have a stellar camera system. But historically, foldable phones are a compromise design that have to be as thin as possible in order not to be too bulky when folded. That means there's less space within each foldable section for cameras, thereby restricting the size of image sensors and lenses that'll fit inside.

But somehow Motorola has managed to cram in a 50MP Sony Lytia 828 sensor for the Razr Fold's main camera. This is a relatively large 1/1.28-inch chip with 2.44um pixels and is fronted by a large aperture f/1.6 lens. It's teamed with a telephoto module that uses a 50MP Sony Lytia 600 sensor for its 3x zoom lens, while a 50MP wide-angle module with a 122-degree field of view completes the triple-camera array.

DxO praised the Razr Fold for its "Well-rounded camera performance that is adapted for a variety of use cases", along with its good low light image quality, natural-looking portrait shots, and high-performing telephoto camera. Only some minor focus inconsistencies in video recording and noticeable noise in challenging lighting conditions kept the Razr Fold from scoring even higher.

So there you have it: if you want a foldable phone which also has a camera system that doesn't compromise on image quality (and you've got a spare $2,000 burning a hole in your pocket!), then Motorola should be top of your shortlist ahead of it going on sale from April 13.

Nothing might sound like a weird name for a phone company, but this London-based brand is well worth paying attention to. Not least because, in an industry dominated by sameness, their products stand apart from the crowd. We're talking transparent backs, sculptural notification lights, a stripped-back operating system... fun, right? What the brand lacks in Samsung's scale and Apple's R&D budget, it makes up for with a genuine point of view.

Which brings us to 2026. A few weeks ago, they published a letter announcing they wouldn't be releasing a flagship phone this year. No cynical annual refresh. The tech press applauded. Then this morning, at an event held at London art and design college Central Saint Martins, Nothing has announced two new phones – Nothing Phone (4a) and Nothing Phone (4a) Pro – along with some colorful new headphones.

For journalists, that's confusing. For photographers, though, what matters is what these highly affordable devices can do... and the answer is more interesting than you might expect. Let's look at them in turn.

The Phone (4a): a capable foundation

The Phone (4a) starts at £349 / $349 / AU$649 (while it won't see a traditional carrier release in the States, US enthusiasts can snag it for via Nothing’s expanded US Beta Program).

The Phone (4a) brings high-end optics to a mid-range price, featuring a 50MP Samsung GN9 main sensor and, for the first time on a base model, a 50MP Samsung JN5 tetraprism periscope lens capable of 3.5x optical and 70x digital zoom. This is rounded out by an 8MP Sony IMX355 ultra-wide and a 32MP front camera.

Everything is processed through TrueLens Engine 4, which supports Ultra XDR: a Google co-developed feature that combines 13 raw frames to reconstruct highlight and shadow detail. It's now directly shareable to Instagram without re-exporting, and extends to motion photos.

The AI Photo Eraser handles object removal entirely on-device, with no internet connection needed, which is a meaningful advantage in the field. The Glyph Bar on the back, with 63 individually controlled mini-LEDs, can also double as a subtle fill light for photos and video.

The Phone (4a) is built around a vibrant 6.78-inch 1.5K AMOLED display featuring a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and an impressive peak brightness of 4,500 nits, ensuring clarity even in harsh sunlight. Under the hood, it boasts a massive 5,400mAh battery (the largest ever in a Nothing phone) paired with 50W fast charging that can hit a 60% charge in just 30 minutes.

The Pro: where things get interesting

The Phone (4a) Pro is what warrants serious attention from mobile photographers, described on stage as delivering "flagship level photography", despite its very much less than flagship price.

This model elevates the experience with a more advanced 50MP Sony LYT700C main sensor for faster autofocus, and while it shares the 50MP 3.5x tetraprism periscope found in its smaller sibling, it leverages the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4’s ISP to push AI-assisted Ultra Zoom all the way to 140x. It pairs this with the same 8MP ultra-wide and 32MP selfie unit, but adds the ability to shoot 4K Ultra XDR video with Dolby Vision-style color grading; a major leap forward.

The design, too, is a step up: a metal unibody at just 7.95mm with an IP65 rating, so it’s fully protected against dust and low-pressure water jets (perfect for shooting in a drizzle, though you'll still want to avoid a full dunk in the pool). While the 4a runs the efficient Snapdragon 7s Gen 4, the Pro utilizes the more powerful Snapdragon 7 Gen 4. This extra overhead powers the Glyph Matrix on the Pro; a complex array of 137 mini-LEDs that offers far more granular light-painting for your night shots than the 63-LED Bar on the base model.

The Pro model pushes the display boundaries further with a slightly larger 6.83-inch AMOLED panel that bumps the refresh rate to 144Hz and hits a record-breaking 5,000 nits peak brightness for HDR content. To maintain its record-thin 7.95mm metal frame, it utilizes a high-density 5,080mAh battery, which still promises over 17 hours of mixed use and shares the same 50W rapid charging capabilities as the standard model. The metal construction also promises to help with heat: the Pro runs five degrees cooler under load than its predecessor, which matters on long shoots or extended video sessions.

The Pro starts at £499 / $499 / AU$949 for 8GB + 128GB. When this pricing was revealed on stage – a fact kept secret even internally until that moment – the crowd at Central Saint Martins responded with audible applause. That reaction tells you something.

The camera remote hiding in the headphones

Here's another reason today's announcements are interesting for photographers. Alongside the phones, Nothing launched the Headphone (a) at £149 / $199 / €159 — significantly better than its predecessor at half the price, according to early reviews. Buried in the spec sheet, beneath the noise cancellation figures and the 135-hour battery life claim, is a button function most people will scroll past: Camera Shutter.

The ear cup's mechanical Button can be remapped via the Nothing X app to trigger your phone's camera remotely. Bluetooth 5.4, 10-metre range, no additional hardware needed. Quite simply, you're wearing the remote.

For photographers shooting solo — self-portraits, flat lays, tripod work — this sounds like it could be genuinely useful. The two-second timer is a workaround; a dedicated shutter button on your ear is cleaner, and unlike a standalone remote, you'll actually have it with you.

The headphones themselves, by the way, are a serious upgrade: wider soundstage, better bass, ANC blocking up to 40dB, and fast-charging that delivers eight hours from five minutes. White, Black and Pink go on sale 13 March; Yellow follows 6 April.

A toolkit, not a coincidence

Look at today's announcements together and what Nothing has assembled – perhaps deliberately, perhaps not – is a compact photography toolkit at accessible prices. A mid-range phone with a tetraprism periscope and offline AI editing. A Pro model with a Sony sensor, 140x zoom, and 4K HDR video. A pair of headphones that double as a wireless shutter remote for less than most dedicated remotes costs on their own.

Nothing promised it wouldn't make a flagship in 2026. It kept that promise. What it made instead is a surprisingly coherent set of tools for photographers who want capable hardware without flagship prices — and one clever headphone feature that has serious practical benefit.

Last year’s Oppo Find X8 Ultra was hands-down my favorite camera phone last year – it’s Hasselblad cameras offering some of the most consistent and high-quality camera-like photos I have yet used on a phone. However, the reason why it is conspicuously absent from my list of the best camera phones is that the phone was essentially impossible to buy outside of China.

However, some good news! At MWC 2026 in Barcelona, Oppo has just confirmed its next-generation flagship, the sequentially named Oppo Find X9 Ultra, but the most exciting news is that it will finally make its global debut, and Europe is included in the initial release.

Oppo has said the new X9 Ultra is “built to be your next camera”, integrating what Oppo describes as its most advanced imaging system to date, with the camera system again being co-developed with the master Swedish camera makers Hasselblad.

In my review of the Oppo Find X8 Ultra, I described it as one of the most complete camera phones I’d ever used. Its combination of large sensors, refined Hasselblad color science, and genuinely useful focal lengths made it feel less like a phone with good cameras and more like a rival to compact cameras. It even convinced my colleague Kallum to leave his dedicated behind on a trip to Sweden and shoot his entire trip with just the X8 Ultra instead.

Speaking at Oppo’s event in Barcelona, Elvis Zhou, CEO of Oppo Europe, said: “In 2026, many devices will carry the ‘Ultra’ label. We believe the title must be earned.” After the bar set by the X8 Ultra, that’s a bold statement – but one that, if history is anything to go by, Oppo might just be able to back up.

Check out some sample images from the Oppo Find X8 Ultra below:

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Modular smartphones have come and gone before, but at MWC 2026, Tecno is taking another swing at the idea – and this time, it’s photography that’s firmly in the spotlight.

The brand has unveiled what it calls its Modular Magnetic Interconnection Technology, a concept ecosystem built around an ultra-thin base phone that measures just 4.9mm thick. Instead of bolting on bulky accessories, Tecno's device uses a precision magnetic array and pogo-pin connectors to snap slim, purpose-built modules onto the back of the device.

I had some hands-on time with the concept, and it's one of the most ambitious (and polished) modular systems I have ever seen, and the one with the most potential to catch on outside the walls of MWC.

For photographers and content creators, the system includes several camera modules. The most interesting component is perhaps the detachable telephoto lens module. Rather than simply extending the built-in camera, this acts as a standalone imaging sensor, using the phone’s display as a viewfinder with low-latency live preview. It’s not a million miles from what Xiaomi showed off last year at MWC – although Tecno has gone much further with designing an entire ecosystem rather than just the one lens.

There’s also an Action Camera module to compete with the likes of GoPro and DJI, with wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and even mmWave built in automatically, so you don’t have to have the camera attached to the phone.

There are also functional modules like an ultra-slim power bank that doubles usable capacity without dramatically increasing thickness. The modules can even stack on top of one another, while remaining comparable in thickness to a typical smartphone.

It’s still just a concept, but the idea of carrying a super-slim pocketable phone that can transform into a creative toolkit on demand is undeniably appealing. If Tecno – or anyone else – can make modular photography genuinely effortless, this could finally be a form factor that catches on.

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No sooner has Samsung launched its S26 Ultra flagship, rumors are already circulating about the camera tech that could be in next year's S27 Ultra. In late February prolific leakster Digital Chat Station claimed Samsung is working on a brand new sensor set to launch in 2027, called ISOCELL HPA. This is said to have a 200MP resolution like previous flagship Samsung sensors, but with a claimed 1/1.12" sensor size, it would be slightly larger than any previous 200MP Samsung sensor. This would also make it the same size as Sony's new 200MP LYT-901 sensor. A physically larger sensor is good news for image quality, as more sensor area leaves room for larger, more light-sensitive individual pixels, which in turn should reduce image noise and increase dynamic range.

More recently, renowned tipster Digital Chat Station has stepped in to suggest that the S27 Ultra could use a derivative of the ISOCELL HPA sensor, called HP6. This is said to be slightly smaller at 1/1.3", but could pack exciting new technology that would negate any image quality shortcomings from its smaller physical size. The tech in question is called LOFIC: an acronym for Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor. This would store extra charge from intense highlight saturation and render it in the final image, instead of clipping that data and over-exposing the corresponding areas in the image. The result is what's being called ‘ultra-high dynamic range’. This seems like good news for the S27 Ultra's image quality, but Samsung will have to be careful how it processes additional dynamic range. HDR done right can work wonders for preserving highlight and shadow detail, but we've all seen over-processed HDR images that look completely unnatural.

If the S27 Ultra does ship with LOFIC technology built in, and assuming Samsung implements it successfully, then this could be a welcome camera hardware improvement - the kind we haven't really seen for several generations of flagship Samsung camera phones.

Vivo has offered the first official look at its next flagship imaging powerhouse at MWC 2026 in Barcelona – the X300 Ultra – and crucially, it has hinted that this time the Ultra model will be heading to more global markets.

For now, the design is still under wraps, and the X300 Ultra is only showing behind a camera case at Vivo’s booth, but the X300 Ultra has teased some key camera info as the company looks to build on its growing reputation for top smartphone photography.

The headline feature is a new 400mm equivalent Vivo Zeiss Telephoto Extender Gen 2 Ultra, its longest mobile telephoto extender yet at a whopping 400mm. Like previous lenses, this new model is again co-engineered with Zeiss and designed to meet APO standards to combat chromatic and spherical aberrations. Vivo says the lens supports the full 200MP readout from the sensor, and using all those megapixels, can stretch to a huge 1600mm optical quality zoom using in-sensor cropping. Vivo also says the lens is backed up by “gimbal-grade OIS” and motion-tracking autofocus.

Vivo has also previewed a pro camera cage for the X300 Ultra, complete with cold shoe mounts, dual-hand grip, physical shutter and zoom controls, and even an integrated cooling fan for sustaining high-resolution recording.

Perhaps the biggest news, though, is availability. Vivo has stated that the X300 Ultra will launch to a more international audience than its previous phones – a significant shift for a brand whose most adventurous camera phones have often been limited to China.

In a statement from the company, it says, “Vivo’s presence at MWC 2026 underscores its steadfast commitment to engaging more deeply with the global mobile ecosystem and competing at the forefront of the premium segment”.

In DCW’s review of both the Vivo X200 Ultra and Vivo X300 Pro, we found Vivo’s telephoto cameras amongst the best in the Android world – delivering incredible detail with a polished, almost proper camera-like feel. The X300 Ultra looks set to double down on that, and I for one can’t wait to try it out.

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