While most phones are just slabs with a side of glass, the Xsnap 7 Pro attempts to do merge something a little unusual – being rugged – with something wholly unique: a built-in detachable action camera. That earned it an Innovation Award at IFA 2026.

The concept seems to have a little in common with the best POV cameras – like the Insta360 Go Ultra or the DJI Osmo Nano – but the detachable camera pops out of a phone, not just a charging case, as we see in my colleague Gareth's reel:

The 'rugged' phone category is a major niche, popular amongst tradespeople and people who'd just rather the handset – rather than a case – could survive a few impacts. the best rugged phones have also been home to some of the most interesting experimental features, with thermal and night vision cameras, not to mention laser measures amongst some of the options out there.

Indeed, this device also features a 64MP night vision camera, but that's far from unique.

The Xsnap 7 Pro builds on this tradition, but targets creators with a detachable POV (Point Of View) camera. This is a tiny action camera, like a tiny GoPro.

The device isn't going to trouble the best action cameras in terms of resolution – it maxes out at 2.7K – but so too did the Insta360 Go 3, and that device, so light it could easily be worn on a helmet, or tied to a pet's collar.

The detachable camera is a 50MP unit and uses magnets to keep it in place (and charge itself via pogo pins on the device). It can, thus, be easily popped out and attached to any ferrous metal structure: the fridge door, a railing, a tent pole and so on.

Accessories available include a charging dock and a magnetic pendant, not unlike those seen with other POV action cameras.

Away from the phone, the 39g camera has up to 40 minutes of recording time.

It has a dedicated capture button on the camera, and a 133-degree field of view, as well as image stabilization software called 'SteadyX' which even features a horizon lock function, as well as slow-mo, distortion correction, and free-frame video, putting it up there with recent action cams.

The phone also boasts a 6.67-inch AMOLED display, 12GB RAM, MediaTek Dimensity 8400 chipset, and a 9300mAh battery (enough to recharge the detachable camera 20 times).

There are more details of the Xsnap 7 Pro on RugOne's own site, but until we test it here, we can't vouch for the quality. And, despite an award at IFA, the camera also has a "Launching Soon" page on Kickstarter, which suggests that the company might not be as confident as the award suggests.

IFA was the official debut, so perhaps that Kickstarter just needs tidying away?

Poco’s wallet-friendly flagship destroyer is back, just 8 months after the last one. But this early arrival has a downside: it means that the F9 Ultra doesn't get Qualcomm's next-gen processor, and instead uses the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 as its predecessor.

In lieu of a processor upgrade, Poco has super-sized the battery, upgraded to a brighter, faster display, and added a 200MP main sensor.

Are these changes enough to remain competitive? I’ve been using it as my main phone for the past week to find out.

Specifications

Price

The Poco F9 Ultra starts at $799, with early bird deals bringing that down to $729. Last year's F8 Ultra started at $729, so the price has increased by $70.

There are three models to choose from. The base model gets 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, while the 512GB model and (all-new) 1TB variant both get 16GB of RAM. They cost $949 and $1,199, respectively, but each has its own early-bird discounts available.

The pricing puts the phone in competition with other upper-mid-rangers like the Oppo Reno 16 Pro, Honor 600 Pro, and Xiaomi 17T Pro. It's also up against the base model Samsung Galaxy S26 and iPhone 17. In any case, the spec sheet holds up well against all opponents. It has the largest battery, the best processor around, and solid cameras, too.

Design & Handling

The Poco F9 Ultra looks very similar to its predecessor; only this time, there's no crazy denim-coated option. Instead, you can choose between a rather understated Black model or a slightly more eye-catching Dark Cherry, and I have the latter in for testing.

I absolutely love the colour. It manages to stand out from the crowd without being too bright or garish. The hue is perfectly matched on the aluminium side rails and camera island, and the glass-fibre rear panel has a smudge-resistant finish with a little texture to it.

It's no doubt an iPhone-inspired design, and rumors say Apple will have its own Dark Cherry colourway, but the Bose-branded subwoofer helps to ensure that it doesn't look too much like a copycat. There's a hidden new feature with this button-shaped speaker grille, too. It now has a white LED backlight encircling it, and it can pulsate along with your music, or when someone calls you. It's not the most useful addition, but it's cool, and I think that matters.

The phone is as sizable as ever, with a 6.9-inch display, and it's fairly hefty, at 235g. This is essentially a gaming phone, though, and that comes with territory. Unlike some competitors, there are no extra buttons or triggers, just the usual volume rocker, lock button, and SIM tray.

I was pleased to see that Poco has kept the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner; it's incredibly quick and reliable, outshining most similarly-priced competitors. It's also IP68-rated and has Corning Gorilla Glass 7i protecting the screen, along with a factory-applied plastic screen protector and a free hard-shell clear case included in the box.

The display has a blazing-fast 185Hz refresh rate, making it one of the fastest we've ever come across. Sadly, apps that will make use of this feature are few and far between, but at the very least, it should offer a competitive advantage in games like CrossFire: Legends and Blood Strike, while games like Call of Duty will cap out at (a still impressive) 165Hz.

It's also a super-bright panel. Poco says it can reach 10,000 nits covering 1% of the display area, or 4500 nits for 25% of the display. They're slightly confusing metrics, but all you really need to know is that it's one of the brightest screens around, and it's more than bright enough to compete with direct sunlight. Equally important, it can dim all the way down to 1 nit for late-night doomscrolling.

Otherwise, it's the type of crisp, vibrant OLED panel that you'd expect from a 2026 flagship, with fairly slim symmetrical bezels on all sides. Strong haptic motors aid the gaming and typing experience, but the speakers are the real star of the show.

Poco has, once again, teamed up with Bose to engineer a 2.1 sound system with a dedicated subwoofer. This time, Poco says the system has been refined to produce deeper bass and clearer sound overall.

I never tried the F8 Ultra, but I spent a lot of time with the Honor Magic 8 Pro, which also comes with a built-in subwoofer. I often found Honor's solution to be too bassy, and eventually ended up turning the bass down in the software, so I didn't have the highest hopes for the F9 Ultra, but it surprised me.

These speakers are shockingly well balanced. The bass is deeper and fuller than most phones, without being overpowering; the mids and highs are clean and detailed, and there's a good amount of stereo separation. It makes for a great experience when watching videos or playing games around the house.

Of course, we are still talking about phone speakers, so keep your expectations in check. They can't match an affordable Bluetooth speaker or a pair of headphones, but they come closer than most.

Camera Performance

The Poco F9 Ultra's main camera has been upgraded significantly. It now uses a 200MP 1/1.56-inch sensor from the HP5 family. It's slightly smaller than last year's 50MP 1/1.31-inch sensor, but the extra resolution should help a lot with digital crops between 24mm and 115mm, before the dedicated telephoto takes over. I think that's a good thing, because I find 5x telephotos to be a little more zoomed-in than I'd like for a lot of situations.

Said telephoto is unchanged from last year, but that's fine, because it was already pretty great. I believe it's also the same unit that the Xiaomi 17T Pro uses, and I was impressed with it there, too. I just can't help but wish it was an 85mm-equivalent instead.

The ultrawide is also unchanged, with a 50MP resolution and a respectable 1/2.88-inch sensor size. Its weakness is that it's fixed focus, so it's no good for close-up shots. The selfie snapper is 32MP. It does a decent job and has a nice wide FOV, but the lack of autofocus means you have to stand in the sweet spot to get the sharpest shots.

Aside from the lack of AF on the ultrawide and selfie camera, it's a very well-rounded camera setup. All sensors are high resolution, and the main camera can focus pretty close up; combined with a bit of digital zoom, it does a solid job for macro capture. The telephoto is also decent; it has a minimum focus distance of around 30cm, but with its 115mm equivalent focal length, you can get nice and close for some detail shots.

Poco lets you zoom up to 100x in the camera app, but I wouldn't recommend pushing it that far. The AI image processing gets very heavy-handed at such zoom levels, and the finer details become filled with oil-painting-like artifacts. At 10x, though, the image quality is superb, and you can even push it a bit further when the situation calls for it.

In low-light conditions, you'll want to stick to the main camera as often as possible. The larger sensor, combined with pixel binning and software enhancement, results in the cleanest images of the trio, mostly free from noise and blurring. The other cameras do a decent job, but smaller sensors mean they're quite prone to motion blur

If you want to give your photos some more personality, there are lots of filters to choose from in the camera app. They're mostly the same as the ones you'll find on other Xiaomi phones, but of course, you don't get the Leica-branded ones. That said, my personal favourites, the Positive and Negative film simulations, are both available here - and they look as excellent as ever.

Video capture is also impressive on this phone. Not only can you shoot at 4K 60fps on every single lens, but you can do so with Log enabled, and you can even apply preview LUTs. You can also shoot at 8K, if you fancy, but that only works on the main camera.

Sadly, there's no 4K120, but there's nothing unusual about that in this price bracket. The Poco F9 Ultra still offers more than most of its direct competition.

Phone Performance

The Poco F9 Ultra, somewhat strangely, is powered by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor as its predecessor. Normally, the Poco F-series devices always feature the latest Snapdragon chip, but this time, the brand has jumped the gun and released devices before Qualcomm’s next-gen chips are announced.

I suspect this was done to keep the phone in its affordable price bracket without sacrificing specs elsewhere. That's fine by me; it's still the fastest SoC that money can buy (right now), and it's more power than most users need.

This move also means that we haven't seen a RAM downgrade, as we have elsewhere. The 256GB base model still comes with 12GB, and the higher storage capacities both come with 16GB. I have the fully loaded 1TB option for testing.

Unsurprisingly, the phone is a rocket. It’ll handle all of your daily needs without breaking a sweat, and if you're into graphically intensive games, the F9 Ultra will handle them with finesse.

I loaded up my usual performance-hungry favourites, NTE and Wuthering Waves, and the phone was able to run both on high graphics settings at 60fps. It didn't get too hot in the process, and a solid game overlay let me tweak my settings further.

The experience is made all the more pleasurable by the super-bright screen, powerful speakers, and absolutely gigantic 8050 mAh battery.

The Poco F9 Ultra has the largest battery capacity of any phone I have tested to date, and despite frequent gaming sessions and plenty of camera use, I was getting two days from a charge on a regular basis. You could probably go longer with more conservative usage.

What's more, it charges super quickly. It supports up to 100W speeds with a wire or 50W wirelessly, with a compatible Xiaomi charging stand. There's no charger in the box, though, just a USB cable.

As for the software, it's the usual Hyper OS experience. I found it to be reliable and bug-free throughout my testing, and it's extremely customisable, so you can easily make it your own.

It isn't my favourite Android skin from an aesthetic standpoint, but that's easy to tweak. And there's a bit of bloatware when you first set it up, but it's all easy to remove.

There aren't really any standout features to mention; you get all the same stuff that we've seen on recent Xiaomi and Poco devices. That includes plenty of AI assistance like translation, transcription, and photo editing tools - plus the usual Google goodies like Gemini and Circle to Search.

Poco says you can expect six years of security patches and four major OS upgrades for the F9 series. It's not a class-leading promise, but decent enough at this price.

Verdict

Historically, Poco phones have been my go-to recommendation for people who want flagship-level gaming at an affordable price. Now, though, I feel like Poco has something to offer for just about everyone.

The F9 Ultra has one of the biggest batteries around; it's super powerful, it looks and feels premium, the speakers are top-notch, and the cameras are really impressive, too. No matter what you want from your phone, you'll likely find it here.

At this price, I don't think you'll find a better all-rounder - and with the way prices are trending, I don't see that changing any time soon.

Alternatives

Samsung's budget-conscious almost-flagship for 2026 has arrived, and if you were hoping for big updates, you might be a little disappointed. Aside from the obligatory processor upgrade, some minor aesthetic tweaks and some new colours, the hardware is very, very familiar.

Thankfully, on the software side, there are many new features making their FE-series debut. Most are pulled from either the Z-series foldables or the mainline S26 models, but they've never been available at such a low cost. Let's dive in and figure out exactly what's new.

Design

So, let's start with the things that have changed. The S26 FE uses Samsung's own Exynos 2500 chip, rather than the 2400. It's still one generation behind the base-model S26, but it should be more than powerful enough for most people's needs. It still starts with 128GB of storage; 256GB and 512GB versions are also available, and each comes with 8GB of RAM.

The only other change is with the design. The camera lenses are now on a slightly raised island, matching the other S26-series handsets, but otherwise the phone is just about the same size and weight as its predecessor.

It's available in three new colours, Graphite, Blueberry and Pistachio. Each has a fairly glossy finish, which looks great, but is a bit of a fingerprint magnet. Meanwhile, the side rails have a contrasting brushed aluminium finish. It's a nice-looking phone overall, and I'm particularly keen on the Pistachio option.

Otherwise, everything is carried over from the previous model. You still get an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, a 4900 mAh battery with 45W wired and 15W wireless charging, and a 6.7-inch 120Hz OLED screen with a peak brightness of 1900 nits.

The cameras are unchanged, too. It has a 50MP main camera, a 12MP ultrawide, and an 8MP 3x telephoto on the back. Around front, there's a 12MP punch-hole selfie snapper.

Performance

While the hardware offers very little to get excited about, the software has lots of new features to try.

Starting with the cameras, the S26 FE now has full 360-degree horizontal lock stabilisation, which debuted on the S26 Ultra earlier this year. In addition, zoom quality is said to be improved, as is nighttime video. But as I've only tried it in a controlled-lighting environment so far, it's hard to comment on how much of a difference it makes.

My Fancam, a feature that launched with the Z Fold 8-series last month, has been ported over, too. This lets you take a wide video clip, choose a subject from that video, and it'll automatically crop and follow them around the frame. You can choose from a wide range of aspect ratios, very handy if you need to repurpose landscape videos for a vertical format, for example.

Audio Eraser is also included this time around, and it'll work to remove distracting background sounds on both videos that you have recorded and on apps like YouTube. On a slightly less exciting, but still useful, note, Samsung has also added its new Document Scan mode.

Most of the flagship Galaxy AI features are also present here, including Now Brief, which provides at-a-glance updates to help plan your day. Samsung has upgraded this feature with the ability to add custom cards to your Now Brief. So, for example, if you want more health metrics included, you can add them manually.

Now Nudge has all the latest updates and should appear automatically in the right situations. For instance, if someone texts you suggesting a meeting time, Now Nudge might pop up and ask if you want to add this event to your calendar.

Of course, Samsung's close collaboration with Google continues here as well. Gemini has more features than ever, and it can take more agentic actions, performing complex tasks across multiple apps. Circle to Search and Gemini Live both have enhanced capabilities, too.

Early Verdict

Samsung's FE models always have the same problem. They launch a lot later than the main S-series models, so while they are a cheaper option, the main S-series phones have usually already been reduced to narrow the gap.

This year, the problem is even worse. Thanks to the AI-induced component shortage, the S26 FE is more expensive than usual. The 128GB base model is $699/£699 and the 256GB is $799/£799. Compared to last year, that's a $50 price hike on the 128GB model, and a $100 increase for the 256GB.

The base model S26 (256GB) currently sells for £779 brand-new here in the UK on Samsung's official website. So (assuming you want 256GB), it's actually cheaper to get the real flagship. It's a smaller phone, with a smaller battery, but otherwise, it's better in just about every way.

Of course, that only applies if you're buying outright; I'm sure there will be plenty of contract offers to sweeten the pot. I'll reserve my judgement until I've spent more time with it, but on first impressions, last year's model seems like a smarter buy.

The Redmi Note series has always occupied that incredibly competitive space between cheap phones that simply get the job done and more ambitious mid-range models that start borrowing features from flagships.

However, for Digital Camera World readers, the Pro Max moniker doesn’t signal better camera sensors or a collection of more elaborate lenses, as it might do on other devices like the iPhone.

Xiaomi still talks up the phone's photography credentials, including a 50MP optically stabilized main camera, 4K video, Pro modes and a collection of AI-assisted editing tools, but the hardware itself is relatively simple. Alongside the main camera, there is just an 8MP ultrawide, with, like last year, no dedicated telephoto at all.

However, the phone does pack in a frankly ridiculous 10,000mAh (9,210mAh on the European model) silicon-carbon battery, paired with 100W charging, inside a phone that remains just 8.65mm thick in most finishes.

Xiaomi has also given the Note 17 Pro Max an impressive 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED screen, Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 processor, up to 12GB of RAM, and a tougher body protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2.

So has Xiaomi created the perfect mid-range all-rounder, or does the Note 17 Pro Max leave photographers wishing some of that enormous battery had been traded for another lens?

Specifications

Price & Availability

At £499, the Redmi still offers excellent value, with an excellent AMOLED display, unusually robust construction, fast 100W charging and, above all, that enormous 10,000mAh / 9,210mAh battery.

There are compromises, though. The Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 is perfectly capable rather than particularly powerful, and photographers are getting just a 50MP main camera and 8MP ultrawide, with no 200MP sensor (as found on the Redmi Note 15 Pro+) or dedicated telephoto lens. That puts it up against the Pixel 10a with its two-camera system.

But as an all-round phone, particularly for anyone who values battery life, I think there is plenty here for the money.

Design

The Redmi Note 17 Pro Max is a perfectly nice-looking phone, although my black review unit is especially understated and hard to really get excited about. There is little accenting or contrast between the back and sides, and while there is nothing inherently wrong with that, it isn't exactly eye-catching. Xiaomi also offers more interesting Green, Purple and Cloud Blush versions.

Cloud Blush is the most glamorous. Xiaomi says its fiberglass back uses photochromic technology to shift from white towards a pink-orange finish when exposed to sunlight. I haven't had that version to test, but from the marketing images it reminds me strongly of some of the finishes Vivo has used in recent generations. It is eye-catching, certainly, although not enormously original.

This isn't really a Xiaomi problem specifically. Smartphone design has reached the point where an awful lot of devices from Vivo, Oppo, OnePlus, and Xiaomi are converging on essentially the same formula: flat sides, softly rounded corners, a large rectangular screen, and a camera block pushed into the top-left corner. And yes, a lot of them owe at least some debt to recent generations of iPhone.

Still, I prefer this design to the previous generation of Redmi Note. Moving the cameras into the corner rather than placing them inside a large circular central island makes more practical sense to me. It keeps my fingers further away from the lenses while I am holding the phone, which means fewer greasy fingerprints and fewer opportunities to get my fingers in photos.

The actual camera bump is refreshingly small. I spend a lot of time testing Ultra phones with huge camera housings, so having something this restrained is a pleasant change. Of course, Xiaomi has managed that partly because there simply isn't a telephoto camera hiding underneath it.

The Black version feels fine in the hand, although the rear panel has a slightly hollow sensation when handled. But it doesn't feel fragile, and Xiaomi has given the phone its latest Titan build. Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protects the display, while the phone carries IP66, IP68, IP69, and IP69K dust and water resistance, so you can take it swimming in fresh water.

Xiaomi also cites certified testing involving drops of up to three meters onto granite and water immersion at two meters for as long as 72 hours. I have dropped the phone a few times (onto concrete, not granite) to investigate that claim, and it has held up fine with some minor scratches to the frame.

What impresses me much more is what Xiaomi has managed internally. The Note 17 Pro Max contains a colossal 9,210mAh silicon-carbon battery (10,000mAh in some markets) yet measures only 8.65mm thick in the Black, Green and Purple versions. At 225.1g, it doesn't feel disproportionately heavy against rivals considering the battery capacity.

There are the usual power and volume controls around the edge. I am quite glad Xiaomi hasn't felt compelled to add one of the increasingly common dedicated camera buttons, which I still don't find especially necessary on most phones. I would, however, happily take a customizable Action-style button on the opposite side for launching a favorite setting or function. That would be more useful to me on a daily basis.

My sample also came with a simple silicone case. There is nothing particularly luxurious about it, but I will always take a functional case in the box over having to go online and overpay for one.

The under-display fingerprint reader is quick, but it sits noticeably lower than on many phones I use, below the point where my thumb naturally lands when I pick up the device. I eventually adapted, but even after several days I still found myself having to slightly reposition my grip.

Xiaomi has fitted an excellent screen for its class. The 6.83-inch AMOLED panel has a 2772 x 1280 resolution and refresh rate of up to 120Hz, and it looks fantastic. It is sharp, colorful and, to my eyes, pleasingly accurate. Brightness is impressive. Xiaomi quotes a peak of 3,500 nits, and I had no difficulty using the display in brighter conditions outside.

There is also 12-bit color, DCI-P3 coverage, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and 3840Hz PWM dimming, alongside TÜV Rheinland certifications for low blue light, circadian-friendly viewing, and flicker reduction.

Camera Performance

The camera system consists of a 50MP main camera with optical image stabilization and an f/1.5 aperture, paired with an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide. There is then a 32MP front-facing camera. This has been reduced from the 200MP sensor included in last year's Redmi Note 15 Pro Plus, and again, there is no dedicated telephoto lens.

That is the single biggest weakness of the Note 17 Pro Max as a photography-focused smartphone. I don't necessarily expect every mid-range phone to offer some enormous periscope camera, but a useful short telephoto would have made this a substantially more compelling all-round camera.

The main camera itself is respectable. In good conditions it can produce plenty of detail, and one area where I think Xiaomi has done particularly well is color. Images generally looked true to life, without excessive saturation or dramatic tonal shifts. Although there is none of the Leica co-engineered processing here from more premium Xiaomi phones.

Xiaomi's default sharpening and processing can be a little overeager. Photos often have a slightly crisp, processed appearance when viewed closely. I wouldn't describe the results as bad, but there is a visible "phone photo" quality that keeps them from feeling particularly natural.

HDR performance could also be stronger. On bright days, I encountered blown highlights in skies where I would expect a more sophisticated camera phone to recover substantially more information.

The 2x option is useful and produces perfectly respectable results in decent light. Beyond that, things deteriorate quickly. This is where the 200MP sensor, or a dedicated telephoto, would transform the experience. The phone has a good-enough main camera, but I think it's asking too much for a 50MP 1x camera to handle zoom for anything past 4x, at a push, in good light.

There is no dedicated macro camera or macro mode that I could find either. Instead, I relied on the main camera and its 2x option to get closer to subjects. It can focus reasonably close, and the results are usable for details and casual close-ups, but I wouldn't call it true macro photography.

Portrait mode fares better. The artificial background blur looks reasonably convincing and subject separation is generally good. Hair remains the classic issue, and the Note occasionally gets confused by finer strands, but overall I was pleased.

There is also a Pro mode for both stills and video. Phones obviously have fixed apertures, so you don't get anything resembling the complete creative control of an interchangeable-lens camera, but having access to manual shooting controls remains useful. You can also switch into the full 50MP mode when maximum resolution matters.

There is a trade-off, however. Shooting at full resolution means giving up some of Xiaomi's computational low-light processing, so bigger numbers don't automatically translate to better pictures in every situation.

The camera app includes several built-in filters. I find some of them a little tacky straight out of the box, but Xiaomi at least allows adjustments to color, contrast, and other characteristics, which makes them much more useful.

One slightly worrying performance quirk appeared when I launched the camera and immediately hit the shutter. On a handful of occasions, the resulting image came out completely corrupted (see below), producing a kaleidoscopic nightmare. It wasn't frequent enough to really cause an issue, but it also wasn’t a one-off occurrence. Hopefully this is the sort of software problem Xiaomi can eliminate with an update.

Phone Performance

The Redmi Note 17 Pro Max is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 6 Gen 5, which is clearly a compromise to keep the overall device cost down, as it's actually a weaker processor than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 that powers other devices in this bracket.

Storage configurations run from 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage up to 12GB and 512GB. One detail worth noting is that the 128GB model uses slower UFS 2.2 storage, while the 256GB and 512GB capacities move to UFS 4.1.

My Geekbench results came in at 919 single-core, 2,829 multi-core, and 3,279 for the GPU test. (3DMark was not available at the time of testing).

Those aren't numbers that are going to trouble many new phones, but my day-to-day experience was largely fine. Apps opened quickly enough, general navigation felt smooth, and I didn't encounter persistent hanging, with only some minor operating-system sluggishness.

However, editing photographs in Xiaomi's Gallery app can take a beat longer to preview changes than I am accustomed to on more powerful phones. It doesn't ruin the experience, but there is a noticeable difference if you regularly use premium devices.

Xiaomi's HyperOS 3 is generally straightforward to navigate, although it has some quirks and a fair bit of bloatware out of the box. But I particularly like Xiaomi’s built-in Gallery editor. It strikes a nice balance between giving me useful tools without being overly complicated.

There is also the now-obligatory collection of AI features. Xiaomi offers generative expansion, object removal, sky adjustments, simulated bokeh, and other computational edits.

For straightforward jobs, they can be genuinely handy. Removing a small reflection or adding a little artificial background blur can work surprisingly well. But more complicated edits reveal that Xiaomi still has some catching up to do with the best tools I've used from Adobe and Google.

The AI eraser in particular can struggle around shadows and complex edges. Generated areas can appear visibly softer or more pixelated than the surrounding photograph, and I occasionally saw repeated textures that gave away exactly where the image had been reconstructed.

Finally on to the mammoth battery. Xiaomi has achieved that 9,210 mAh capacity using silicon-carbon battery technology, with 100W wired charging and up to 27W wired reverse charging also supported.

In my own use, battery life was outstanding. With a mixture of web browsing, streaming, photography, photo editing, and general everyday use, I comfortably exceeded two days between charges. For lighter users, it could go substantially further. I left the Note 17 Pro Max sitting on standby largely untouched for four days, and it used only around 20% of its battery.

Final Verdict

So Xiaomi has chosen the Pro Max in the Redmi Note 17 Pro Max to represent battery capacity, rather than cameras. And I can’t really fault that. I comfortably got more than two days of fairly heavy use from it, while lighter use can stretch much further. More importantly, Xiaomi has achieved this in a device still just 8.65mm thick. There is also an excellent 6.83-inch AMOLED screen, good durability, and smooth enough everyday performance – despite the processor downgrade.

But the camera system has taken a bit of a backseat. The 200MP sensor in last year's model has become a 50MP main camera. It takes decent photographs with pleasantly realistic color, but processing can be too aggressive, and HDR needs improvement. The 8MP ultrawide is fairly basic, while the complete absence of a telephoto camera feels like the most obvious compromise Xiaomi has made.

That won't matter to everyone. But for Digital Camera World readers, and anyone buying a phone partly because they want a versatile camera in their pocket, this might be the deciding factor.

Alternatives

If you're in the market for a new high-end camera phone, three brands are likely to spring straight to mind: Apple, Google and Samsung. Thanks to their huge marketing might, they enjoy unrivalled brand recognition. It's therefore easy to assume that these industry titans must produce the best camera phones on the market - after all, how could a smaller brand possibly compete?

But the reality is that the competition isn't just catching up, or even equalling the camera phone giants - it's already overtaken them. Massive brand recognition can become an easy way to generate sales, reducing the need for genuine hardware innovation. We’ve seen exactly this from the last few generations of iPhone and Galaxy S Ultra phones, with the latter reusing camera sensors not just for one phone generation but three, and counting. Incremental upgrades are now the order of the day. This is currently somewhat understandable, as the skyrocketing cost of NAND flash is increasing the overall price of camera phones, thereby preventing manufacturers from making substantial camera hardware upgrades without raising unit costs still further. However, this alone doesn't excuse what is now multiple years of stagnating camera phone hardware from the major players.

So if the latest iPhone or Galaxy S Ultra isn't going to give you the most advanced camera experience available right now, what will? For that you need to turn to China. Not content with dominating almost every other area of consumer electronics, China also now gives us the most innovative and impressive camera phones on the market. The three brands at the top are Vivo, Xiaomi and Oppo. For the last few years all three have consistently produced more compelling flagship camera phones than anything from Apple, Samsung or Google. The Chinese contenders pack bigger image sensors, more optical zoom, and extra features that make recent iPhones and Galaxy S Ultra handsets look downright dull.

I've been lucky enough to long-term test Oppo's current flagship, the Find X9 Ultra, for the past three months. With a launch price of £1449, it can't rely on being substantially cheaper than its rivals, but it doesn't need to be. In its Tundra Umber colorway, it's immediately more distinctive than the comparatively bland Galaxy S26 Ultra, even to those not in 'the know'. And if you are a photographer that recognises the Hasselblad design cues, the Find X9 Ultra just looks better still.

Start shooting and the consistency of image quality from the four separate camera modules is immediately apparent. There's seamless focal length transitioning from 0.6x (ultrawide) through to the maximum 10x optical (230mm-equivalent) zoom. But the Find X9 Ultra’s zoom capability doesn't stop there. Through a combination of on-sensor cropping and clever AI zoom, up to 120x reach is possible, and with surprisingly competent image quality. Stick with the default photo mode and shots look immediately appealing, with strong vibrancy and contrast, as well as bags of fine detail. Dynamic range is high, but thankfully stops short of looking over-processed. If you'd rather have an even more natural image aesthetic, there's always Hasselblad Master mode. This has been tuned to emulate the more subtle image quality from Hasselblad's medium format cameras, and it opens up various manual controls. I’m also a fan of the X-Pan mode, which enables instant panorama recording and is a lot more convenient than using the much slower and fiddly sweep panorama mode.

All well and good, but most flagship phones have plenty of optical zoom, along with manual control and a plethora of shooting modes. Where the Find X9 Ultra really pulls ahead of its rivals is its ability to be teamed with Oppo’s Hasselblad Earth Explorer Kit. This contains a bespoke 300mm teleconverter lens, along with a special phone case to which the lens mounts, plus a tripod collar and other small accessories. You might assume this is all a bit gimmicky – after all, clip-on telephoto lenses can be plasticky garbage – but you’d be very wrong. With aesthetics and build quality that are truly befitting of the Hasselblad branding, this is so much more than just a publicity stunt: it turns what’s already a darned good camera phone into a genuinely usable option for capturing sports and wildlife. Check out our full review of the teleconverter lens for more details.

Oppo isn’t the only Chinese brand pushing camera phone boundaries. Vivo also offers a similar case+teleconverter kit for its flagship camera phone, the X300 Ultra, and though I’ve yet to test this, it looks just as impressive as Oppo’s implementation.

I fully admit that optional teleconverter lenses aren’t going to change the camera phone world: as effective as they are, they’ll always be a niche product. Rather, Oppo and Vivo’s camera cases and teleconverters serve as symbols of China’s desire to innovate and enhance the camera phone industry, while also highlighting the comparative lack of hardware development we've seen from the more established brands.

So when the time comes to choose your next phone, and you want something that’s been designed for enthusiast photographers, I implore you: don’t just default to the current iPhone/Pixel/Galaxy S: check out the competition from Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi, as these are now the brands at the forefront of phone camera development.

If you like foldable phones, it's the best time of the year. Samsung's latest just landed, with an exciting new form factor in the mix, and it sounds like Apple is gearing up to deliver something similar in the near future.

Google, though, has not jumped on the bandwagon. In fact, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold looks almost identical to its predecessor at a glance.

Of course, there's a new processor and fresh colours; there's even a fancy LED indicator on the rear, but does the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold do enough to keep up with the innovations elsewhere? Let's find out.

Specifications

Price

The Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold starts at $1899 / £1799 / €1999 for the base model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. That's a £50 price hike in the UK, and a $100/€100 jump in the US and EU.

As always, we have the RAM shortage to thank for that, but at the very least, we can be thankful that it still comes with 16GB of RAM in every storage configuration.

Compared to the competition, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold is firmly in the middle. It's cheaper than Samsung's book-style Z Fold 8 Ultra, but it's pricier than the short/wide Z Fold 8. Similarly, it's cheaper than the Magic V6 (at full MSRP), but it's more expensive than the ongoing introductory price of £1499.

Design

As I mentioned, the 11 Pro Fold looks quite similar to the 10 Pro Fold, and it's almost the exact same size, but if you look closer, there are a few more differences.

For starters, it's slimmer. Only by about 1mm, but you can just about tell when you're holding it in your hand. The camera island also has a fresh new design, with the dark glass camera coverings spanning the entire width of the module.

Hidden inside this camera module, there's a new feature called HiLight, an array of RGB LEDs that illuminate around the flash unit. I'm always a fan of superfluous lighting; I love what Nothing has been doing for the past few years, for example, but Google's implementation left me wanting more.

As it stands, the HiLight only does two things: it shines when you're talking to Gemini, and it can flash in a colour of your choosing when a contact calls you. Google hasn't confirmed if it will ever do anything else, but I certainly hope there's more planned.

The animation that shows you when Gemini is listening or talking is really well done. It looks like a shifting aurora, which is super neat. However, I'm not fully convinced that it's necessary. I know when Gemini is listening or responding because I have ears, and Gemini makes sounds. As for the call indicator, I'm not sure what the prerequisites are, but it never seemed to illuminate for me.

Google has switched up the colours for the new release, and the Olive option I have for testing is particularly fetching. It has a matte green rear panel with contrasting dull-golden accents on the sides and around the camera. If that's not your thing, there's an Obsidian option with darker grey hues throughout.

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is aiming to be one of the hardiest foldables around. It's still one of the only folding phones with an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, and a new glass ceramic coating on the cover screen should help to prevent scratches. The inner screen should be stronger, too, thanks to a thicker coating and dual layers of anti-impact film.

Another thing it has going for it is built-in PixelSnap magnets. Just like an iPhone, this phone can attach to MagSafe accessories without a case attached. I'm not sure why Google is still the only Android brand to do this; it seems like an easy win to me - regardless, as of right now, that's just a Pixel thing.

The screen specs are quite similar to the older model, with the largest difference being the peak brightness. Both panels can now reach 3600 nits, up from 3000. The cover screen also has slimmer bezels, which brings the screen size to 6.5 inches from 6.4 inches, without increasing the size of the phone.

Of the two changes, the bezels make the biggest impact. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold looks so much more modern because of it, and it feels closer to a normal phone when folded shut. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold was already bright enough for my needs, but more brightness never goes amiss.

Google has also improved the crease on the folding display; it's not a massive change, but it's visibly a bit better. What makes a bigger difference is the way it feels. The older model had a weird bump on the hinge that always drove me crazy, and that seems to have been fully flattened out. Unfortunately, of all the foldables I have tested this year, this crease is still the most noticeable.

The speakers seem to be unchanged, but they're still decent. They're plenty loud enough and can produce some bass despite the slender chassis. I also appreciate that you get a stereo effect in almost every orientation, although it can be quite easy to muffle one speaker with your palm in landscape mode.

Camera Performance

Only the main camera of the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold has been upgraded. It now sports a 48MP 1/1.56-inch sensor, while the older model only had a 1/2-inch sensor. This means it's now equivalent to the base model Pixel 11, but still behind the Pro models.

You also get a 10.5MP 1/3.4-inch ultrawide with macro focusing and a 10.8MP 5x telephoto with a 1/3.2-inch sensor. Each screen has its own 10MP punch-hole selfie snapper, too.

Starting with the new main sensor, it's a notable improvement. Images look cleaner in low-light situations, shutter speeds are slightly faster, and there are fewer denoising artifacts. You'll even get a bit of background softening on close-up shots.

The other lenses, as the spec sheet suggests, aren't quite so impressive. I'm not a big fan of the 5x focal length; it's too zoomed in for a lot of situations, and combined with its poor minimum focus distance, it's only really useful for taking photos of things that are far away.

Google has increased the maximum digital zoom to 30x, rather than 20x, but I'm not really sure why. This tiny, low-resolution sensor can't deliver anything usable at such distances, and while computational image processing does its best to clean things up, it can't quite manage.

The ultrawide is decent, and it can focus extremely close up - but the distorted image of an ultrawide is never my favourite for macro shots. It also struggles in low-light situations, as many ultrawides do, but Google's Night Mode always ensures a decent exposure (if a little on the noisy side).

Arguably, the biggest upgrade to the Pixel 11 Pro Fold cameras is not the hardware, but the software. All of the Pixel 11 phones now give you much more control over the way that your images look. You get four default looks to choose from: Original (the normal Pixel look), Natural, Shadows, and Vanilla.

The differences are subtle, but all of the new options produce colours that are a bit less exaggerated than classic Pixel shots. I preferred Vanilla in most situations; it adds a bit of extra warmth to the shots, which I think looks quite good.

If you want to take things a step further, there are six additional looks that can be applied on top. They're a bit like filters or film simulations, but they're built into the imaging pipeline, so you can't apply them after the fact. This list includes pretty dramatic styles like "Black Tie" which is a very high-contrast black-and-white option, or "Digi" which delivers low-dynamic-range shots that look like they came from an old compact digital camera.

You also get some familiar Pixel-exclusive features like Camera Coach, which is designed to help newbies frame better shots. There's still the group photo-faking Add Me feature, and Made You Look, which plays animations on the cover display to get the attention of babies and young kids. The latter has a couple of new animations to choose from, too.

There's a new addition called Magic Capture, which can automatically pull still frames from a short video clip and apply light edits like cropping, straightening, and unblurring. As a photographer, this one doesn't really appeal, but if you ever find that you can't decide between shooting a video and taking some snaps, maybe it'll be useful.

Google has also been hard at work improving its video performance. Video stabilisation has been improved, and the recordings should be better quality, too. In addition, there's a new suite of creator-focused tools to help with the video-making process.

You can now bring up a smart teleprompter that keeps pace with your speech, an audio visualiser to monitor mic levels, and gridlines to help you frame vertical videos for TikTok or Reels. There's even a new way to manage your files, and you can sort your video clips into project folders to keep things nice and organised.

What frustrates me, though, is that despite the "Pro" moniker, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold is lacking any real pro video features. There's still no Log profile, no APV codec, no high frame rate 4K options, and so on. It's behind almost all of the competition in this area.

Phone Performance

The Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold has the Tensor G6 chip inside, just like the rest of the Pixel 11 lineup. Google tells us it's 25% faster in web browsing, opens apps 15% quicker, and has 50% more TPU compute for local AI tasks.

It comes with 16GB of RAM in every configuration, and you can select either 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage depending on your needs (and budget).

Google neglected to mention any improvement in graphics performance, and in my testing, it doesn't seem like there is any. Graphics benchmarks score similarly to the previous model, and games play similarly, too. Considering it was already behind the competition, that's not great news for gamers.

When I played some Wuthering Waves, I had to lower the graphics settings by a couple of notches compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 or Honor Magic V6 to get the same kind of performance. And the game looked far less pretty because of it.

Of course, that only matters if you're into graphically demanding games. This phone can breeze through daily tasks without a hiccup, and it always feels quick. At a price like this, though, you shouldn't need to make performance compromises, and you are.

Another strange concession is that the battery is actually smaller this time around. It has a 4806 mAh pack, down from 5015 mAh. In fairness, it seems to last just as long, and the phone is slightly slimmer and lighter than before - but personally, I'd take a bigger battery over marginal weight savings.

One upside is that the wireless charging speed has improved; it's now 25W, up from 15W, taking full advantage of the Qi2.2 charging standard. Wired charging is still 30W, which isn't too impressive, but it managed to reach just under 60% in half an hour by my count, which is hard to argue with.

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold runs Android 17 with Pixel UI on top. Previous Pixel owners will feel right at home here, as it doesn't shake up the formula too much.

There are a lot of great things about this software, including fantastic features like Now Playing, Call Screening, and At a Glance updates. There are still a couple of things that drive me crazy, though. You still can't select multiple apps on the home screen and move things around in bulk. You also can't get rid of the Google search bar on the home screen, for some reason.

Multitasking is a big deal on foldable devices, and sadly, I think Pixel UI does it worse than most. You can only have two apps side-by-side in split-screen mode, and there's no easy way to switch the position or orientation of these apps when they're open.

A new feature called Bubble Anything aims to improve matters, and it does, but it's not the most elegant solution. You can now open apps in bubbles, a lot like what Facebook Messenger does by default. You can move these bubbles around on the screen, or they'll dock in the corner of the folding display, and then open them as required in a smaller floating window. I never really liked this feature on Messenger, so unsurprisingly, I'm not a big fan of it here either.

One feature I actually do love is called Rambler. This is built into Gboard, and it's a new AI-assisted speech-to-text tool. You just hit the button, speak naturally with all the usual pauses, "ums", and repetition, and Google's AI model will clean it all up, turning it into intelligible sentences with perfect grammar. It works exceptionally well, but it won't be exclusive to Pixel for long. Samsung already teased the feature on its Z Fold devices, and I believe it'll be rolling out to other Android handsets, too.

There are many more Gemini Intelligence features to come. Some are restricted to certain regions, while others will roll out globally, and it's not clear which will remain exclusive to the 11-series phones. Soon Gemini will be able to take agentic actions on your behalf, Maps will use Gemini to suggest dishes or find loyalty cards, and Circle to Search will work with the camera so you can search in real life, too.

As we've come to expect, Google promises seven years of software updates and security patches for the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, matching the likes of Samsung and Apple.

Verdict

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is a lovely-looking phone that feels extremely high quality and well built. I really want to love it, but the sad fact is that it's a long way behind the competition, and it's just as expensive.

For instance, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra has a slimmer chassis, a shallower crease, a bigger battery, better multitasking, better cameras, and a more powerful processor. Sure, it's a little more expensive, but all the same could be said of the Honor Magic V6, and that currently sells for less than the Pixel.

If you love Pixel UI and want PixelSnap magnets, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold is the way to go - but with so few upgrades since last year, you could save a tonne by opting for the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. You needn't feel like you're missing out on much.

Alternatives

Patent applications are always worth keeping an eye on for a hint of what might be coming down the pipeline from major manufacturers – and Canon has just filed an interesting one.

Patent JP 2026-132879 (P2026-132879A), just published by the Japanese Patent Office and reported by Japanese news outlet Asobinet, was filed by Canon and includes multiple lenses with a diffractive optical system that are designed for use with very small sensors – the kinds of sensors that are used in camera phones.

The three lenses themselves are listed as having focal lengths of 5.53mm, 6.79mm and 8.70mm, which on a smartphone sensor would work out to equivalent focal lengths of 45mm, 55mm and 70mm. The listed f-numbers for the three lenses are f/2.5, f/2.7 and f/2.9 respectively.

Naturally, patenting the lenses could mean any number of things. Personally I doubt that Canon is about to start producing its own smartphones, but it could be that the manufacturer is planning on releasing standalone lens attachments for smartphones.

Alternatively – and personally I think this is most likely – it could be that Canon is partnering up with a smartphone manufacturer to lend its tech to a handset’s camera module, the way that Leica does with Xiaomi phones like the Xiaomi 17 Ultra and Hasselblad does with the Oppo Find X9 Ultra.

Our own Gareth Bevan described the Oppo in particular as one of the best camera systems he had ever used on a phone.

I’d definitely be excited to see a smartphone come equipped with Canon camera tech – particularly if Canon’s excellent color science also arrived as part of the package!

Like many tech companies, Canon files patent applications all the time – indeed, it has actually been the Japanese company that files the most patents for more than two decades – and many of them never become released products.

Nevertheless, I’ll be keeping an eye on this one and will be interested to see whether anything more comes of it – after all, Canon has time and again shown itself to be a manufacturer that isn’t afraid to take risks and try new things.

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Check out our roundups of the best Canon cameras and the best camera phones – and who knows, maybe one day soon we will see some crossover between the two?

Meta has found itself in hot water thanks to growing concerns about the privacy implications surrounding the Meta Glasses with built in cameras. Apple is planning on putting cameras into AirPods, but solving privacy by not using the cameras to take photos or video.

What is it for then? Apple's integration of cameras into AirPods is designed he process might be quite advanced, as the leaking of this promo video – doing the rounds everywhere today – shows.

The video in the tweet shows Siri's upcoming "visual intelligence" feature, so the cameras are helping it see the world around the user but not being used to record images, which (arguably) solves privacy concerns.

It certainly would silence the immediate worries of many about capturing photos and video by stealth.

Except, well, there is a bit of a problem.

Firstly the video, leaked by @Aaron, doesn't appear to feature the same camera lenses seen in some other rumor images? Is it a fake? That'd be my immediate suspicion were it not for the fact that the video has been reposted online by probably the most famous Apple rumor merchant, Mark Gurman (see his re-post on x.com here).

That lends a degree of credibility. Not only that, but according to Gurman and other sources, Apple has been investigating these privacy issues and perhaps even delayed its own Meta-like glasses as a result.

These were internally codenamed N50, but Apple has had to face the reality that courts in New York, among others, have established bans (not to mention some casinos). It's also true, of course, that the Apple Vision Pro goggles don't seem likely to win the mainstream market.

AirTags were once also associated with stalking – privacy-related publicity seems like an area Apple is keen to avoid, even if it means being slow to the mark in this fast-growing category.

All of which adds up to Apple wanting to get a product out in this growing space, but having good reasons not to get involved in ongoing privacy debates. So, in short, restricting access to cameras to the AI and not a camera app makes sense.

It also, of course, sidesteps any discussion about image quality from such a small device.

Will the cameras actually see the world well from the ear? That'll be another question for another day...

As well as Meta, other brands are releasing glasses. Google is expected to this fall, featuring Gemini integration, built by Samsung and powered by Qualcomm chips. They will bear no relation to the Google Glass I wasted my money on to be part of the future in 2013!

After a long series of teasers, the first smartphone to come from the partnership between cinema camera maker ARRI and Chinese mobile phone brand Honor is here – but the unusual Honor Robot Phone may be just the start of the collaboration.

Unveiled on August 12, the much-teased Honor Robot Phone has an unusual camera design: a folding gimbal that sits at the top of the phone. That gimbal camera powers steadier video, but also tricks like following subjects as they move and stitching three photos together for a wider group shot. The gimbal even has a party trick – it can dance if you ask the Yoyo AI assistant.

That gimbal houses a 200MP telephoto camera and a 50MP wide-angle camera. There’s a 50MP selfie camera too, though the gimbal can turn the camera around as far as 300 degrees.

The gimbal tucks away into the back of the phone when not in use, despite still being under 10mm (0.37 inches) thick. Weather resistance is still part of the Robot Phone’s design – though not as much as some devices, and the camera needs to be tucked away to earn the IP54 rating.

Beyond the camera’s unusual gimbal design, cinema camera maker ARRI’s influence is evident. The Robot Phone uses ARRI color science, but the brands say the colors were rebuilt specifically for a smartphone’s smaller sensors and optics.

Integrating ARRI camera tech into a smartphone puts capture and editing in the same device. The camera captures 10-bit ARRI Log C3, allowing for more highlight and shadow detail, while Looks and Wide Gamut 3 help boost color edits.

The Honor Robot Phone, however, has so far only been announced in China – availability in additional countries has not yet been released, and Honor does not currently have a presence in the US. Regardless, the unusual design is eye-catching.

The two brands' partnership points to the potential for further collaborations down the road.

“The companies’ joint imaging technology lab is exploring further developments in three areas: sensor-level optics and dynamic range; end-to-end cinema industry workflows from capture through postproduction; and imaging realism and aesthetic standards in the era of AI,” the announcement reads. “As part of this ongoing work, the companies will continue to refine and advance the integrated imaging technologies.”

In China, the Robot phone costs 9,999 RMB, which is about $1,483 / £1,099 / AU$2,100.

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Take a look at the best smartphones for photography, or dive into gimbal cameras like the DJI Pocket 4 or the Insta360 Luna Ultra.

Google has just unveiled the latest Pixel camera phones – the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro XL – with promises including "major camera upgrades", Google's "fastest, most powerful chip" and, of course, lots of AI.

There's also a new, one-swipe Magic Capture mode "which catches the moment while you live it".

In terms of the cameras, the Google Pixel 11 boasts a larger 48MP main sensor (1/1.56-inch) that the company claims will deliver 56% more light sensitivity. The 5x telephoto lens takes advantage of the new Tensor G6 processor to deliver 30x Super Zoom.

The Google Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL likewise get a brand new sensor in the main 50MP camera (1/1.3-inch) that is claimed to be "Pixel's best camera yet". The 48MP telephoto also gets a larger sensor (1/1.95-inch) with 30% more light sensitivity and Portrait Mode at up to 5x, with up to 120x Pro Zoom.

The Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold gets upgrades that appear to be in line with the base Pixel 11, in the form of a new 48MP main camera (1/1.56-inch) and up to 30x Super Zoom.

Google Pixel 11 series camera specs

What is Magic Capture on Google Pixel 11 phones?

New to the Pixel 11 generation is Magic Capture mode, "which catches the moment while you live it".

According to Google, "You don’t have to stress out over perfectly timed shutter taps, or stare at your viewfinder the whole time you’re capturing content. With one tap, get a video and high-quality photos which are share-ready, thanks to automatic cropping and unblurring."

Google does, however, point out in the small print that "results may vary".

Also new this year is Camera Looks, which enables you to "create your own set of distinct, professional-grade film styles and unique photo aesthetics, so you can take HDR+ photos that feel true to you.

"Developed with Pixel’s Real Tone philosophy in mind, Camera Looks ensures that even with highly stylised or personalised effects, we still deliver consistent, equitable results across all skin tones."

All four phones are available for pre-order now, with an August 20 official on-sale date. Prices start at $899 / £879 for the Pixel 11, $1,099 / £1,079 for the Pixel 11 Pro, $1,299 / £1,279 for the Pixel 11 Pro XL and $1,899 / £1,799 for the Pixel 11 Pro Fold (international pricing to follow).

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See how the new Pixels compare to the best camera phones and the best iPhones for photography.

Samsung just launched its latest foldable phones, and alongside the usual Flip and Fold formats, there's a new, shorter, wider model, shaped a lot like a passport. Somewhat confusingly, it's just called the Galaxy Z Fold 8, while the traditional book-style foldable is now called the Fold 8 Ultra.

This new foldable sits in the middle of the lineup; it's more premium than the Flip 8, but the cameras aren't quite as advanced as the Ultra model. Samsung reckons it's the model to choose if you're all about content consumption, but that doesn't mean it can't make content, too.
The Z Fold 8 might lack a telephoto camera, but it has some surprisingly advanced features for photography and video. There's RAW shooting, a Log profile, and the fancy new APV codec - to name but a few. Plus, by all accounts, it seems to be the same shape that Apple's first foldable will adopt, so it might be a taste of things to come. I've been using it for the past week to find out what it's like to live with.

Specifications

Price & Availability

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is up for pre-order now, and it's expected to land on store shelves and with customers around August 7th (at least in the UK).

There are three versions to choose from. The base model comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for £1699 / $1899, there's a 12GB+512GB version for £1869 / $2099, and a 16GB+1TB model that will set you back a whopping £2119 / $2499.

It's available in Graphite, Cream and Lavender as standard, with a rather fetching Pistachio colourway exclusive to Samsung's online and retail stores.

Design

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is unlike any phone I have used before. It's almost exactly passport-sized, and while other devices have toyed with this form factor before (like the OnePlus Open and the original Pixel Fold), I think this one is noticeably shorter and more compact.

It immediately sparks excitement and intrigue; everyone who sees it is desperate to have a go with it. And that makes sense, as phones, even foldables, have become quite homogeneous, and this stands out as something truly unique (for now),

Aside from the shape, though, the Fold 8 retains Samsung's signature look. It has sharp corners, just like the last few Folds, flat edges, and the classic traffic-light-style camera layout (with one less camera). The front is covered with a flat pane of Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3, while the back is made from Gorilla Glass Victus 2, with a smooth matte finish.

Just like last year's Fold 7, the Fold 8 is impressively skinny. It measures just 4.3mm thick when unfolded, and 9.7mm when closed. It's also very lightweight, tipping the scales at 210g. This means it's lighter than the S26 Ultra, and not too much thicker, either.

One of the more subtle changes is that Samsung has added a new bevelled edge and changed something about the magnets to make the new foldables easier to open. It's almost impossible to notice, visually, but the difference is very noticeable in practice.

The crease has also been greatly reduced thanks to a new display manufacturing technique that incorporates a flexible titanium layer. When viewed head-on, you can barely notice the crease at all, and you'll barely feel it with your fingers, either.

To make matters even better, the screen is far less shiny, so you won't get as many distracting reflections. I was a little concerned that the less-shiny screen would be a fingerprint magnet (as they often are), but this one fares well. It might not be quite as smudge-resistant as the Fold 7, but I think it's a fine tradeoff overall.

Both screens are brighter than ever, now able to reach 3000 nits at peak, which makes them very easy to see outdoors. However, it's worth noting that the Z Fold 8 dims both displays to prevent overheating, and with the recent spate of hot weather in the UK, that happened to me a lot, which was quite frustrating.

The best thing about these screens is the aspect ratios. The cover display is 16:10, a lot like a laptop screen (when held horizontally), while the inner display is 4:3, like a retro TV or an iPad Mini. Usually, foldable phones give you a pretty normal phone shape when folded shut, and open into an almost-square shape, so this feels extremely unique.

It means that there's a very big difference using the foldable screen in portrait or landscape mode, and the experience is much closer to a traditional tablet screen. Held vertically, it's amazing for watching TikToks, browsing websites and reading ebooks or comics, and horizontally, it's excellent for watching YouTube, movies and gaming.

My favourite thing to do with the 4:3 screen is watch old TV shows and skate videos, as they're natively 4:3 and fill the entire display. For the same reason, it's also perfect for emulating old game consoles from the SNES to the PS2. It's also great for reviewing images, as a lot of cameras shoot 4:3, so it has the same benefit.

16:9 content is also great, as the black bars are much smaller than they are on a traditional folding phone. However, don't go into this thinking the screen will be significantly larger than a book-style fold, because the actual size of the content is about the same - it just takes up more of the screen.

The cover display is more of a mixed experience. It's adorably tiny, and some apps look great on it, while others can feel a little cramped.

Typing is the most divisive thing about it. The on-screen keyboard takes up about half the screen when it pops up, and if you're using both hands, it feels excellent. It's significantly wider than normal, which makes it much easier to type on. The flip side of that is that typing with one hand is pretty challenging, especially if you have smaller hands. It's a real stretch to reach the left side of the screen, and that can get tiresome.

Camera Performance

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 only has two cameras on the rear. There's a 50MP 23mm equivalent with an f /1.8 lens and a 1/1.56-inch sensor, and a 50MP ultrawide with an f/1.9 lens and a 1/2.51-inch sensor. Each screen also gets a 10MP punch-hole selfie camera, but the one on the folding screen has a wider FOV than the cover selfie camera.

Obviously, the biggest downside to this configuration is the lack of a telephoto camera. Natively, you can choose from a wide shot or an even wider shot, and that feels extremely limiting. Of course, there is digital zoom, but you can't go much past 4x before seeing an obvious drop in image quality. It maxes out at 10x, and doesn't look great when you go that far.

Photos taken on this phone have the signature Samsung look to them. They're very sharp, with natural colours and a pronounced HDR effect. They seem inoffensive by design; they'll rarely exceed your expectations, but they'll rarely let you down. It's essentially the polar opposite approach to the Honor Magic V6 that I tested recently.

I like my photos to have a little more personality than the default look delivers, but thankfully, that's not hard to achieve. You can either play with the built-in filters, which are all highly customisable, or you can shoot RAW and process the images as you see fit.

Daylight photography is where this device shines, and despite wide apertures and fresh imaging pipelines, low light is still a weak point. In fairness, nighttime images are well exposed and don't require super-long exposures, but they're pretty grainy compared to the competition.

The selfie cameras are decent enough, but they're not going to knock your socks off. I like how wide the internal selfie camera is; it's well suited to video calls, and that's likely how it'll be used most often.

The portrait blur effects are quite reliable, which adds to the appeal, but with a device like this, you can easily use the rear cameras and get some genuine background softness from the larger sensors.

When it comes to video shooting, I was pleasantly surprised by the wealth of options available. The Fold 8 has a Pro Video mode, complete with Log recording options, audio meters and APV codec support. Samsung is one of the few brands offering PAL recording formats in its default camera app, too. So if you need to shoot at 25p or 50p, it's all right here.

You can shoot at up to 8K30 on both rear cameras, and the main camera can shoot 4K120 for some buttery-smooth slow-motion shots. As ever, the stabilisation is solid, and the microphones are very decent, too.

Samsung also gives you some fun new video tools to play with. There's full 360 horizontal lock, just like we saw on the S26 Ultra, and a new dual-video recording mode that lets you capture your face and your surroundings at the same time.

The FanCam mode is particularly novel. If you have a wide shot, you can select a subject in the frame, and the software will automatically crop in and follow this person about in an aspect ratio of your choosing. I don't have a particular need for this feature, but I suppose it's an alternative to having a gimbal follow you about when shooting solo.

Phone Performance

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 inside, and it's a specially tuned "for Galaxy" version. If you opt for the 256GB or 512GB version, you'll get 12GB of RAM, while only the pricey 1TB variant gets 16GB of RAM. I have the 12+256GB model in for testing.

For the most part, the Z Fold 8 is as powerful as its specs suggest. Apps open quickly, multitasking is a breeze, and it'll run almost any game you throw at it. Popular titles like Genshin Impact are very well optimised on this device, but newer, heavier titles like Wuthering Waves pose more of a challenge.

To play at 60fps on the folding display, I had to lower the graphics preset to "balanced", and even on this setting, the frame rate would often dip to the low 40s. It's perfectly playable like this, and still looks good, but with my other 8 Elite Gen 5 foldables (like the Oppo Find N6) I am able to bump up the graphics settings a couple of notches and achieve similar performance.

I believe it's all due to thermal throttling. The Fold 8 has plenty of power on tap, but there's much less surface area to dissipate the heat, so it has to rein itself in. It's all the more disappointing because games scale so much better to this 4:3 screen than they do on other foldables.

Of course, this only matters if you're trying to play graphically demanding games. Most mobile games will run perfectly, and if you're into retro emulation, you're going to have a field day with this 4:3 screen.

Samsung has finally started experimenting with silicon battery tech, and as a result, the Z Fold 8 gets a bigger battery than the Fold 7, despite being significantly smaller. It's now 4800 mAh, up from 4400 mAh, and it charges faster, 45W with a wire and 25W wirelessly.

These figures don't sound too impressive, with Chinese brands touting 100W+ speeds and 6000mAh+ packs, but the reality is better than you'd expect. For instance, I found that the Fold 8 could go from 0 to 70% charged in just half an hour - keeping pace with the 80W Honor Magic V6.

The battery was also good enough to last me through the day with ease. I had to charge it every night without fail, but considering how often I was using the larger folding display and how many photos I was taking, that's a very good showing.

As for the software, Samsung hasn't rewritten the formula with its latest updates, so it'll look and feel very familiar if you've used a recent Samsung flagship.

The things I love are all still present, like the customisation options, the smooth, speedy animations and the slick default look, but the downsides are still there, too. My main issue with One UI is that it feels cluttered, as it comes loaded with all of Samsung's first-party apps and most of Google's, too. A lot of these apps serve the same purpose, which can make things confusing and messy.

The update I'm most excited about is the ability to run three apps side-by-side in split-screen mode. It really takes advantage of the wider format screen, and it turns this pocket-friendly device into a productivity powerhouse.

There's also a new app from Google called Notebook, which allows you to upload almost any kind of media: audio, video, PDF documents, etc. Then you can generate audio summaries, infographics, or just chat with Gemini about the contents. It seems to be a rebranding of Google's web-based Notebook LM, but it's a handy tool, and it's now easier to access.

There are, however, a few areas where One UI doesn't feel like it's fully optimised for this new shape. The one that bugs me the most is that it will only allow four apps on each row on the homescreen. Weirdly, the home row can have five. Every Samsung phone I have used, even relatively narrow ones like the Fold 7, allows for more apps on the grid, so I have no idea why this wider display is so restricted.

Another annoyance is that your apps change positions when you rotate from horizontal to vertical on the main display, and you can't add apps to the homescreen when it's held vertically. It's a minor issue, but when you're used to your apps being in a certain order, it can be quite frustrating.

I'm sure Samsung will iron out these issues before long, and it has plenty of time to do so, as this phone should receive updates and security patches for the next seven years.

Final Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is one of the most interesting phones I have tested in recent years. And while rumours say there will be many more like it in the near future, for now, this is a wholly unique experience.

It's really fun to use, and the new shape has some tangible benefits, especially for content consumption and gaming. The cameras, though, aren't too special, and the lack of a telephoto is hard to deal with - especially at a price like this. I do wonder if the novelty will wear off and the small frustrations will begin to overshadow the fun that this shape brings - but after using it for a week, that hasn't happened yet.

As ever, whether or not you should buy this phone all comes down to your personal needs. I'm a photographer who enjoys playing graphically intensive games, so it's probably not the ideal device for me, but the shape shows real promise.

If you don't have such high performance demands, and you're just looking for a compact phone that can extend to give you a big screen experience, you will almost certainly fall in love with this device.

Alternatives

We're fast approaching the 25th anniversary of the camera phone, at least in the West. Sure, the first commercially available camera phone - the Kyocera Visual Phone VP-210 - launched in 1999, but that was a Japan-only product. It wasn't until late 2001 that Nokia announced its first camera phone - the 7650 - and Europe got its first look at a digital camera packed into a mobile phone.

This was seriously cutting-edge kit. Standalone digital cameras were still in their infancy in 2001, with it being a couple more years until sales of digital cameras would overtake film. So to have a digital camera built into a svelte slider phone must have seemed almost worthy of something Q might give to James Bond.

The quality of the 7650's camera was never going to compete with a half-decent digital point-and-shoot of the era, as it had to make do with a VGA (0.3MP, 640 x 480 pixels) sensor, but it was the novel ability to have a camera with you wherever you went that set the 7650 apart.

And the cost to be at the bleeding edge of mobile imaging? 600 Euros, or around 1000 Euros in today's money. That might sound pretty reasonable in comparison to the cost of a flagship phone today, but for perspective, the legendary Nokia 3310 would have cost roughly one quarter of the price at the time.

This 2001 BBC news report covered the phone's announcement, but it wasn't only the camera hardware that made the 7650 special. Nokia didn't just want you to snap photos with the phone; it also wanted you to share them. Of course, this was years before social media and internet-based instant messaging services, so the only way you’d be able to wirelessly send photos (beyond line-of-sight infrared transfer) was using the (then) new MMS service.

The Multimedia Messaging Service was devised as an upgrade to existing SMS tech and meant that it wouldn’t just be text messages that could be sent between phones; you’d also be able to send photos. However, while the future was bright back then, the sun hadn't quite risen above the horizon for the mass sharing of camera phone images.

I was 16 in 2001, and therefore exactly in the demographic that had made SMS so popular. Back then in the UK a single 140-character text message cost 10 pence to send, and we would try our hardest to ruin the English language in order to send as much information as possible within that 140-character limit. Conversations that read like 'U gota d8 w/ ur gf l8r?' became standard between teens in the early 2000s, such was the financial constraints placed upon us by the strictly limited phone credit at our disposal (go just 1 character over that 140 limit and you're paying twice as much - the jeopardy was real!). Now consider that a single MMS would cost around three times the price of one SMS, while also requiring you and your recipient to both have compatible high-end handsets, and you can appreciate why the industry experts featured in that 2001 BBC report didn't expect the camera phone and instant picture messaging to take off straight away. In my personal experience, it wasn't really until 3G-capable phones and internet-based messaging took off in the late 2000s that mobile image sharing became commonplace, as there was no longer a specific cost associated with sending a photo between phones.

So next time you’re casually sharing a snap in Instagram or WhatsApp, remember that at the start of the millennium most would have thought that was science fiction.

Huawei was one of the first out of the gates to push the smartphone as a genuine photography tool. The Huawei P20 Pro and P30 Pro were particularly compelling, and the company has continued producing ambitious camera phones even as international restrictions have made them increasingly difficult to recommend outside China.

The Huawei Pura 90s Pro Max is the return to the global stage for Huawei flagships, which, in recent years, have rarely launched outside China. Why the international model has gained an additional “s” remains something of a mystery, but the important differences are the global version of its EMUI 16 software and international network support, including 5G.

The Pro Max is the largest and most camera-focused model in the Pura 90s range. Its headline feature is a 200MP periscope telephoto camera with a large 1/1.28-inch sensor, but it also includes a 50MP main camera with a physical variable aperture and a 40MP ultra-wide camera.

With specs like that, Huawei is clearly targeting photographers who might be browsing our guides to the best camera phones or the best Android phones for photography. However, it enters a market now packed with impressive alternatives from Oppo, Xiaomi, Vivo, Samsung, Google, and Apple, several of which offer equally ambitious camera hardware without Huawei’s software complications.

Specifications

Design

The Huawei Pura 90s Pro Max looks gorgeous. The Orange Ocean version I tested blends blue at the top into a rich orange across the lower portion of the rear panel. Huawei says the same transition continues around the aluminum frame, although it mostly just looks gold to me; however, it is still very pretty and complements the finish nicely. It is not a phone for anyone hoping to go unnoticed. The ombré effect is bright and eye-catching. More restrained buyers can choose Blush Gold or Graphite Black.

The phone feels suitably premium in the hand. At 230.5g, it is weighty without feeling excessively heavy, although it remains amongst the larger flagship phones, sitting around the same weight as a Vivo X300 Ultra or Oppo Find X9 Ultra. The outer frame is smooth but not particularly slippery, and the gently tapered edges prevent it from digging into my palm during longer periods of use.

Huawei has also returned to a completely flat screen, which I much prefer for photography, reviewing images and video (and just in general). Curved displays should be consigned to a footnote of phone design. The display itself is excellent. The 6.9-inch LTPO OLED panel is sharp, bright, and richly saturated, with strong viewing angles. Its adaptive refresh rate ranges from 1Hz to 120Hz, which keeps motion smooth while allowing the phone to reduce power consumption when the screen is static.

The front uses Huawei’s Anti-Reflection and Scratch-Resistant Kunlun Glass. Huawei claims this reduces reflections by up to 70%, increases scratch resistance by 16 times, and improves drop resistance by 25 times compared with conventional glass. The phone also carries both IP68 and IP69 ratings. I don’t tend to throw my review units around or drown them, but from sliding in and out of bags and pockets, getting splashed and bumping up against my keys quite a few times, it's still looking good as new.

The P90s’ camera island remains one of the most unusual designs on any phone. I’m not sure how I feel; I don’t love it, but I certainly do not hate it. The rounded triangular arrangement spreads the three lenses across the upper-left corner rather than collecting them into a huge central circle or a small squircle like almost every other phone. It is noticeably different from almost everything else available, and I respect that.

That positioning has one practical advantage: my fingers rarely wandered over the lenses while I was holding the phone. I cannot say the same for several devices with large, centrally positioned camera modules. The bump itself is significant, although Huawei has softened its effect with a sloping outer edge. There is some minor table wobble, but it is less severe than on phones where several individual camera rings are clustered along one side *cough* Samsung. Because Huawei’s module occupies more of the phone’s width, it distributes the weight a little more evenly.

Box contents likely vary by region. Huawei included a charger, USB-C cable, and transparent case in my review unit.

Camera Performance

The Pura 90s Pro Max has three rear cameras. The main camera uses a 50MP, 1/1.28-inch RYYB sensor behind a 24mm-equivalent lens. Its standout feature is a 10-step physical aperture that moves between f/1.4 and f/4.0, with optical stabilization also included.

Beside it is the headline 200MP telephoto. This uses another big 1/1.28-inch RYYB sensor, but places it behind an 89mm-equivalent f/2.6 periscope lens. That provides approximately 4x optical zoom. Although interestingly, Huawei offers a 10x crop as the default “optical” zoom in the camera app, which defies the usual optical crop of twice the standard focal length, which shows how confident Huawei is in its zoom. Finally, there is computationally enhanced zoom for 20x and beyond.

The third camera is a 40MP, 13mm-equivalent ultra-wide with autofocus. Huawei also adds a dedicated True-to-Colour Camera 2.0 sensor to gather additional color information and produce more accurate white balances and skin tones, similar to what we have seen from Oppo and others on recent models.

At their optical focal lengths, all three cameras are very good. The main and telephoto cameras are the clear standouts, but the ultra-wide also produces very nice images, and doesn’t feel like the usual afterthought.

With the Pura 90s Pro Max its just remarkably easy to get good photos. In its standard photo mode, point it toward a scene, and I know I will reliably get a well-balanced, usable image. Exposure is consistently good, white balance is usually effective, and skies in particular retain a realistic blue.

However, while Huawei’s processing does an excellent job of giving photographs immediate impact, it can become overenthusiastic. Images are slightly over-reliant on sharpening, even at the cameras’ native focal lengths. This makes photographs look crisp and detailed at normal viewing sizes, but zooming in reveals fine textures taking on a slightly squiggly, processed appearance. It is not bad, and most people will never notice it. However, it prevents images from looking quite as natural or photographic as those from the best modes available on Oppo and Xiaomi phones with their Leica and Hasselblad input.

HDR is similarly aggressive. The Pura 90s Pro Max is exceptionally good at preserving highlights and pulling detail from shadows, but the result can be a photograph in which almost all the highlights are borderline too bright. I could not find a way to disable HDR capture in the standard camera mode, which is an odd quirk. HDR has its place, particularly in strongly backlit scenes, but I do not necessarily want every photograph to look that way. Editing afterward can tone down some of that effect, but I would prefer more control at the point of capture.

Color consistency across the three cameras is good, but not perfect. Each lens can produce a slightly different white balance, which becomes noticeable when shooting a sequence intended to sit together. The differences are not dramatic, but they make matching photographs more work than it should be. Below you can see the color and contrast become a little moodier between the 1x and 4x cameras, with the 4x not quite capturing the warmth of the day as well.

The 200MP telephoto is enormously capable. At its native 4x focal length, it captures excellent detail with attractive compression and dependable exposure. Results beyond the optical range are also impressive. Huawei’s high-resolution sensor gives the processing system plenty of data to work with, so photographs at 8x and 10x remain incredibly usable and up to optical quality.

However, some limitations appear once I examined the files a little more closely. At approximately 240mm equivalent and beyond, I occasionally saw odd blurring around the edges of subjects, along with small processing artifacts in areas of complicated texture. These effects become more obvious as the light falls and the phone has less genuine image information to work with.

Huawei’s 20x output can look remarkable at first glance, but it should not be confused with optical zoom. It remains a crop enhanced by significant computational reconstruction. It works well for a record shot or social-media post, but pinch in, and there are a lot of smoothed textures and digitally sharpened outlines.

Macro performance is excellent. Both the ultra-wide and telephoto cameras can focus at close distances, giving me a choice between an exaggerated wide-angle perspective and a tighter telephoto composition. The telephoto macro is particularly impressive. I could photograph extremely fine details without placing the phone directly on top of the subject, and in one image of a bee, individual grains of pollen were visible among the hairs on its body. This is one of the best macro cameras I have used on a phone.

The main camera’s variable aperture is another welcome feature, although it's not the game-changer that it could be. On a sensor this small, changing from f/1.4 to f/4 does not transform depth of field in the way it would on a mirrorless camera, but it can help control exposure and extend shutter speeds for more creative long exposures. I would love to see Huawei push the concept further. A smaller minimum aperture, combined with more direct manual control, could make the feature even more valuable for light trails or moving-water effects.

The camera application itself is straightforward, but it has several unnecessary frustrations. There is no direct 20x shortcut, nor are there convenient buttons for intermediate focal lengths such as 1.5x or 2x. Most rival applications let me tap or cycle through their zoom icons to reveal additional options, while Huawei makes me use the imprecise zoom slider.

Pro mode offers manual exposure control, but creative customization is limited. The main color options are essentially Standard, Vivid, and Bright. Oppo’s Hasselblad Master Mode and Xiaomi’s Leica profiles offer much more control over the character of an image, including less-processed output and customizable recipes.

Video quality is good in the standard mode, and the phone can record up to 4K at 60fps from every rear camera and the front camera. Footage is clean, detailed, and easy to capture, while the stabilization makes longer telephoto clips much more practical than I expected.

Unfortunately, the more advanced options fall behind rival flagships. There is no Log capture or LUT support, manual controls are limited, and Huawei’s Advanced Image Stabilization restricts recording to 2.7K. Subject tracking is more limited still, topping out at 1080p. That is difficult to overlook when phones from Apple, Samsung, Vivo, Oppo, and Xiaomi are offering Log profiles, 4K120 recording, advanced codecs, LUT previews, and support for external storage.

Phone Performance

My global Pura 90s Pro Max uses Huawei’s Kirin processor, paired with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The international model also restores 5G connectivity, something that had been missing from several previous Huawei flagships sold outside China.

In ordinary use, I had few complaints. The phone feels quick when browsing, switching between applications, streaming video, and navigating the camera interface. I did not encounter meaningful hangs or slowdowns, and it handled on-device photo and video editing without any obvious difficulty.

However, Geekbench 6 figures show that Huawei remains considerably behind the latest Qualcomm-powered flagships. Devices using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 deliver more than twice Huawei’s multi-core result. Those benchmark differences do not make the Pura feel slow in normal use, but they matter for demanding games and heavy use.

The more significant issue is EMUI 16. Huawei’s interface is clean, responsive, and generally easy to use, but the global phone does not include Google Mobile Services. That means there is no native Google Play Store, Google Wallet, Android Auto, or properly integrated Gemini. Huawei offers alternatives through AppGallery, Huawei Wallet, Celia, Petal Maps, and Huawei Cloud, and many of those applications are perfectly competent.

The problem is that much of my digital life is tied to Google. My files are in Google Drive, I sign into countless services with my Google account, and I use Google’s applications across several other devices. Replacing one app is manageable, but replacing an entire connected ecosystem is considerably harder.

There are third-party methods for installing many Google applications, including containerized services and manually installed APK files. These can work surprisingly well, but they remain workarounds. They do not provide the same deep system integration, and applications that rely closely on Google Play Services, device certification, payment security, or background synchronization may behave unpredictably.

The global model also has a confusingly restricted set of AI editing tools. Huawei promotes AI De-glare, AI Move, AI object removal, and other generative features in some markets, but the global version is missing these options. That leaves the global Huawei well behind Google, Samsung, Oppo, and several other brands for AI-assisted photo editing, despite the strength of the cameras producing those photographs.

Battery life is excellent. My review unit comfortably lasted around a day and a half with a mixture of photography, video recording, browsing, and general use. Huawei officially rates the battery at 6,000mAh outside the European Union, while the EU version has a 5,270mAh rated capacity. Charging is very fast. The phone supports up to 100W wired charging and up to 80W wireless charging with compatible chargers.

Final Verdict

The Huawei Pura 90s Pro Max is a hard phone to assess. It has built an excellent camera system and wrapped everything in one of the most distinctive designs around. It is comfortable to hold, the display is excellent, battery life is strong, and ordinary performance is smooth.

The cameras are capable of producing outstanding images, particularly at their native focal lengths. I also enjoyed how little effort was needed to get a successful photograph. Exposure, color, and white balance are usually dependable without intervention. However, the processing can look too sharp and too HDR-heavy, while Huawei provides fewer tools than its competitors for dialing that processing back. Its video hardware is impressive, but the lack of Log recording, LUT support, and full-resolution stabilization makes it a less convincing choice for serious video makers.

Then there is Google. Many applications can be made to work, but I never stopped noticing what was missing. The limited AI editing tools on my global unit were also missed. For photographers willing to accept those compromises, the Pura 90s Pro Max is a remarkable imaging device. For everyone else, other Android and Apple phones offer more complete all-round experiences.

Alternatives

The DJI Osmo Pocket series went viral for its unusual gimbal-clad camera design, but the feature that made the series so popular is about to come to a smartphone. Honor has released additional details about the previously teased Robot Phone as the first smartphone collab with cinema giant Arri nears the official launch.

The Honor Robot Phone's most unusual feature is the gimbal that’s sitting at the top of the smartphone, which will not only stabilize video but power features like AI-based subject tracking and automatically centered video calls.

The Robot Phone’s unusual design, however, was teased earlier this spring – but at an event in China, the company has revealed more of the camera’s features. The gimbal houses a 200MP camera. The camera uses a 1/1.28-inch sensor and the lens has an f/1.6 aperture.

The camera will also have a periscope camera with a 1/1.4 sensor and f/2.6 aperture, but the company hasn’t shared details on the focal length.

Honor says that the gimbal’s motor is the industry’s smallest micro motor at 2.6g. The gimbal will help power both stabilization and tracking, including predicting motion and double-tapping to follow a subject while filming. Photos of the phone from the World AI Conference show that the gimbal can tuck into the back of the camera when not in use.

Those camera specs don’t beat out the DJI Osmo Pocket 4’s one-inch sensor, but the 1/1.28 sensor is far more competitive when compared to other smartphone cameras. (Another thing the Honor Robot Phone has in common with DJI? Honor phones don’t typically come to the US, though it is no longer part of Huawei.)

But while the gimbal is the most obvious unusual feature about the Robot Phone, the smartphone is also the first to be built in collaboration with cinema camera maker Arri. Among the innovations that are stemming from Arri is the camera’s color science. High-end video features also include Log-C encoding, which helps enhance dynamic range when color grading, LUT color gamuts, and a cinema mode.

While Honor’s latest event brings a slew of new camera details, there’s still much that remains to be seen about the Robot Phone. Full details are expected during the Honor Robot Phone’s launch scheduled for August 12.

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Smartphone makers are in a race to cram in the latest AI-built features, but the smartphone brand known for its unplugged phones is building an anti-AI flip phone – and it’s full of Y2K charm, including a space for actual keychain charms.

The Light Flip is an upcoming US$299 flip phone that still includes essentials like driving directions, music, a calendar and, of course, phone calls. But Light is also positioning the Flip as the phone for those tired of the AI-focused modern smartphone launches. There’s no chatbot and no touchscreen, just the classic phone number keypad.

While Light says Flip strips the phone down to just the essentials with no AI and no social media, app store, or internet browser, the camera still made Light’s list of what’s essential on a phone. The Flip can take 12MP photos from the camera’s rear 50MP sensor. There’s no front-facing camera on the Flip.

While the Light Flip is designed to bring back the nostalgia for flip phones, this dumb phone has a few modern touches. The charger is USB-C, it’s IP54 rated for accidental water exposure, and there’s a small light on the phone that highlights missed notifications when the phone is shut.

The Light Flip may be more about what’s not included than what is, but the flip phone does still include a 3.5mm aux for wired headphones. There’s still a flashlight function as well.

Light notes that the battery is replaceable, so a tired old battery doesn’t mean needing an entirely new phone.

Adding to the Y2K charm is a keychain loop, which can also be used to add actual charms and accessories.

The Light Flip retails for $299 (about £ 224 / AU$428 / CA$421), with the first pre-orders expected to begin shipping in April 2027. The Flip will be available in six different colors.

The Flip joins Light’s list of phones that embrace minimalism and are built to go light on the distractions, using the stripped-down operating system called LightOS. While the Flip is Light’s first flip-phone, it’s not the brand’s only AI-free phone. The company’s fourth phone joins the ranks of the Light Phone II and Light Phone III.

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Samsung's latest foldable phones have arrived, and this year, the brand has changed up the formula. Rather than just the usual flip and fold formats, there's a new phone in the mix, with a wider, more squat cover display, around the same size as a passport.

It's a similar form factor to Huawei's China-only Pura X device, and rumours say Apple's long-awaited foldable will adopt this form factor, too. Alongside the new wider foldable, the classic Flip and Fold models get a refresh for 2026 as well, and Samsung reckons there's a distinct market for each design. I got an early hands-on look at the devices, so let's take a closer look at each model.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8

Rumours were calling it the Fold 8 Wide, but Samsung has kept things simple; the new model is called the Z Fold 8, while the taller book-style foldable that we know so well is now called the Ultra.

As this naming suggests, the Fold 8 isn't quite as high-end as its Ultra counterpart. It still gets the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset, so it's plenty powerful, but it has one less camera and not as many megapixels.

This model has a 50MP main sensor and a 50MP ultrawide, but no telephoto. You still get dual 10MP selfie cameras, but as with all foldables, it's easy to use the cover screen to take higher-quality selfies with the rear cameras. As a photographer, the lack of a telephoto stings. So while the new form factor is very appealing, the camera compromise makes it a harder sell.

The main new features in the camera department are software-based. You now get a mode that Samsung calls FanCam, which can automatically track a subject in a wide frame and crop a new video in an aspect ratio of your choosing. There's also a new dual video recording mode that can output video from the front and rear cameras at the same time, in a variety of different layouts.

If you're more into consuming content than creating it, though, this new shape has a lot of merit. The folding screen is 4:3, rather than the usual almost-square aspect ratio, which means the black bars are a lot smaller when you're watching 16:9 videos.

The outer screen, meanwhile, is 10:16 (or 16:10 when held horizontally) - the same aspect ratio as most laptop screens. It's wider than normal, which takes a bit of getting used to, but I'm quite fond of it. Surprisingly, the cover screen is really good for watching vertical content like TikToks, Shorts, and Reels. The UI scales well and moves the clutter to the sides of the video, rather than on top of it.

The Z Fold 8, despite being smaller, packs a 4800 mAh battery, outdoing the full-size Fold 7. The charging speed has also dramatically increased, now supporting 45W speeds with a wire. Samsung says you can expect to go from zero to 63% charged in just 30 minutes. Wireless charging is faster, too, at up to 20W.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is available in Lavender, Cream, and Graphite colourways, with a Pistachio option available exclusively on Samsung's online store. It starts at $1,899.99 / £1699 / AU$2,699 with 256GB storage, $2,099.99 / £1,869 / AU$2,999 with 512GB, and $2,499.99 / £2,119 / AU$3,599 with 1TB of space, which is cheaper than the Z Fold 7 was, but it's also not quite as high-end.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

The Z Fold 8 Ultra is the classic book-style foldable that we're all used to. It's the priciest of the lineup, starting at a cool $2,099.99 / £1899 / AU$2,999 with 256GB of storage, $2,299.99 / £2,069 / AU$3,299 with 512GB, and a whopping $2,699.99 / £2,319 / AU$3,899 if you fancy 1TB of storage, which starts at £100 more than last year's equivalent base model (RAM shortage induced, no doubt).

On the surface, it looks quite similar to last year's model, but subtle changes to the design make a big impact. It's now even slimmer, and it's likely the slimmest foldable on the market right now. It's also significantly easier to open and close, thanks to the reengineering of the hinge, bezel, and magnets. It's an invisible change that's immediately noticeable when you have the phone in your hands.

What's easier to see, though, is the improvement to the crease. Samsung has almost completely eliminated it by using a flexible titanium film and titanium supporting plates under the OLED panel. It's an excellent improvement, and viewed head-on, you can barely see the crease at all. The screen also now opens completely flat, rather than sitting at a very slight V-shape. Again, it's a subtle change, but it's one you'll notice in use. If I'm honest, I think Oppo's Find N6 folding screen is still flatter, but that's not available in most regions, and Samsung has leapfrogged the rest of the competition.

Of course, it also gets the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy treatment, a larger 5000 mAh battery (matching the S26 Ultra), 45W wired fast-charging, and 20W wireless charging.

When it comes to the cameras, it's only the ultrawide that gets an upgrade. You still get a similar 200MP main camera to the S26 Ultra, the same 10MP 3x telephoto, but the ultrawide makes the jump from 12MP to 50MP, which is a very welcome change.

On the software front, though, things are a little more exciting. The Z Fold 8 Ultra benefits from the same near-lossless APV codec that was introduced with the S26 Ultra. It can also shoot at 8K on the main and ultrawide cameras, and there are 4 new CineLUT styles for your Log footage. HDR is now supported for 200MP stills, and you get the same dual video recording options and FanCam modes here, too.

The Z Fold 8 Ultra will be available in Cream, Graphite, and Violet finishes, with a Green version exclusive to Samsung's website.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8

The Z Flip 8 received a little less love than the other two models. It's 13.1% slimmer, 3.9% lighter, and the crease is improved, but otherwise, it looks a lot like the model that it replaces – and has the same camera hardware, too.

As you'd expect, you get the newest Snapdragon SoC, but as far as I'm aware, the battery capacity and charging speeds remain unchanged. So what does the Z Flip 8 bring to the table?

Well, much of Samsung's presentation focused on what you could do with the cover screen. It now supports Now Brief, and you can access AI automations directly from the cover. FlexWindow home has been redesigned, and there are new custom cards that can be added, too.

Samsung claims these changes are designed to make AI experiences more seamless and easy to access. It also said the Flip 8 is the brand's most AI-native phone to date. The skeptic in me thinks they just didn't have a lot else to talk about, but hey, maybe I'll be more convinced after spending quality time with it.

There are also some new software features for the cameras. Horizontal Lock video stabilisation is now available in FlexCam mode (the half-folded camcorder-style shooting), and the phone uses Samsung's ProVisual engine to improve night photography. It also benefits from the new FanCam and dual video recording options, like the other phones in the lineup.

The Z Flip 8 starts at $1,199.99 / £1149 / AU$1,949 for the 256GB version, and $1,399.99 / £1,319 / AU$2,249 for the 512GB model, which is again £100 higher than last year. It's available in Cream, Graphite, and Pink as standard, with Mint available on Samsung's website.

What you need to know

The new Galaxy Z phones are available to pre-order from today in most regions globally. Units are expected to be on shelves and with customers from August 7.

Prices are higher across the board, but the Z Fold 8 complicates things a little. It's cheaper than last year's Z Fold 7, but it has one less camera. The new shape will be great for some people's needs, but not as good for others. For instance, the traditional book-style shape allows for two apps to display properly side-by-side, while the new shape is better for content consumption.

• Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (US 🇺🇸)
• Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 (US 🇺🇸)
• Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 (US 🇺🇸)

• Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (UK 🇬🇧)
• Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 (UK 🇬🇧)
• Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 (UK 🇬🇧)

• Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (AU 🇦🇺)
• Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 (AU 🇦🇺)
• Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 (AU 🇦🇺)

At this stage, I've only had a quick go with these devices at a preview event, so I'm still formulating my opinions. Stay tuned for full reviews; we'll soon find out how these devices compare to the best foldables on the market.

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Check out more of the best flip and folding phones in our guide, or for the ultimate in phone photography, check out the best camera phones you can buy right now.

OnePlus has announced that it is exiting North America and Europe. No new products will be launched in these regions, though existing users will continue to receive software updates and aftersales service, and OnePlus will still honor warranty obligations.

The decision to wind down North American and European operations was apparently a carefully-considered long-term strategy plan, and one which wasn't dictated by parent company Oppo, nor made unilaterally by OnePlus. OnePlus will continue to operate in the Indian market, where it believes it can better serve its customers. To fill the gap left by the OnePlus departure from Europe, Oppo said it plans to increase investment in its European operations, placing a greater emphasis on its flagship phones, as well as increasing its overall product availability. This direction builds on its existing efforts to increase brand awareness in Europe, such as its sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League. However, OnePlus users in North American don't have such an easy alternative: Oppo phones aren't officially sold there, meaning there's no direct OnePlus replacement brand.

The news that OnePlus is leaving two of its largest markets will come as a surprise to many. It's hard to overstate just how big an impact OnePlus had when it burst onto the smartphone scene back in 2014. Its first phone model, the OnePlus One, was a true disruptor in the Android sector, offering flagship-level performance at a significantly lower price point than more established contemporary brands like Samsung and HTC. OnePlus traded heavily on this, evidenced by its ‘Flagship Killer’ slogan. The appeal of the OnePlus One was heightened not just by its value, but also its exclusivity. In the early days of OnePlus, you could only buy a OnePlus One by entering an invite system, reducing available supply and thereby increasing demand. The phone itself ran on OnePlus's new OxygenOS - fresh in name, but also in nature, as it was close to stock Android and largely free of speed-sapping bloatware.

In the years that followed, OnePlus continued producing phones with a strong value-for-money ethos, but fast forward to 2026 and the brand finds itself in a very different smartphone market. There is now far more competition in the value sector, with brands like Nothing (and its sub-brand CMF), Redmi, Poco and Realme (also an Oppo sub brand) all competing directly with OnePlus. OnePlus's pricing has also increased in recent years as it's sought to develop a more premium market position, and we've seen a closer relationship with parent brand Oppo. Oxygen OS and Oppo's ColorOS share the same platform, and it’s easy to see similarities between the two brands when it comes to hardware, with the OnePlus 15's rear panel looking suspiciously similar to the Oppo Find X9 Pro.

The close tie between the two brands' operating systems is now about to become a fusion. Oppo has stated that going forward OnePlus phones will run ColorOS, with ColorOS being rolled out to OnePlus phones in North America, Europe, and other regions, such as India, over the coming months. Users will be able to choose whether or not to switch from OxygenOS, while older OnePlus models that are not included in the ColorOS update scope will continue to receive version maintenance support.

So there you have it: the end of an era for what's been an integral element of the Android phone story in the west. OnePlus, you will be missed.

Samsung’s next Galaxy Fold and Flip phones look set to receive a new generation of foldable screen with reduced crease visibility and "a more refined foldable experience". Called Flex Titanium, the technology integrates two titanium-based components — a titanium-alloy film and a titanium plate — which are said to work together to balance slimness, flexibility, and strength within the foldable display structure.

Titanium is known for its excellent strength to lightness ratio. It's been used in demanding applications like satellite antennas and the wheels of a Mars rover. It also provides an ideal basis for Samsung's new display structure, as it ensures the screen will withstand external shock and be flexible enough to endure repeated folding, while also being thin enough to be practical for a foldable device.

The drawback to using titanium in a folding application is the material's stiffness - it doesn't want to bend! To solve this rather fundamental issue, Samsung has integrated titanium in two key components: a titanium-alloy film and a titanium plate. The titanium-alloy film supports the display from within, sitting below the OLED panel. Compared with a conventional polymer film, titanium provides 20 times greater mechanical stiffness. It's also thin - really thin - measuring roughly one-third the thickness of an average human hair, enabling a slimmer-overall display panel.

Below the titanium-alloy film sits a robust titanium plate; a flexible structure that provides stable support underneath the display when unfolded, while retaining the flexibility needed to accommodate repeated folding. The new tech is said to display deliver ultra-vivid display resolution with reduced power consumption, thereby delivering a dramatic boost in overall power efficiency.

Flex Titanium technology will debut with Samsung’s next-generation Galaxy foldable devices: the Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8, which will be revealed at the next Galaxy Unpacked event on July 22, 9am EDT.

While Huawei might not be the name it was several years ago in the West, it remains a dominant powerhouse in its home market, offering up some of the best camera phones around. Huawei is now stepping back into the global market, unveiling the Pura 90s Pro Max and Pura 90s Pro, bringing its latest pair of 5G photography-focused flagship phones to Europe.

The phones are known simply as the Pura 90 Pro Max and Pura 90 Pro in Huawei’s home market, with a mysterious “s” added to the international versions. Huawei has not explained what the letter stands for, although the overseas lineup appears to retain the same camera hardware that made the Chinese models so interesting.

The headline act is undoubtedly the Huawei Pura 90s Pro Max, which has a 200MP telephoto camera built around a large 1/1.28-inch RYYB sensor. That is around the same size as the main camera sensors used by many competing flagship phones, except Huawei has placed it behind an approximately 96mm-equivalent f/2.6 lens, offering roughly 4x optical zoom rather than the more common 3x.

Huawei also claims the telephoto camera offers optical stabilization equivalent to seven stops, as well as a close-focusing telephoto macro mode. The company is particularly promoting its performance at longer digital zoom settings, including a new 20x ultra telephoto video mode.

Video also now sends more of the original image data to the phone’s processor before enhancement – which Huawei claims produces cleaner, more detailed footage.

A full-resolution 200MP photo mode will be available at the native 4x focal length. But for more conventional shooting, the sensor will use pixel binning to improve light gathering and produce more manageable image files.

The telephoto is joined by a 50MP main camera with the latest LOFIC tech for high dynamic range, as well as a proper 10-step physical aperture running from f/1.4 to f/4.0. Whilst variable aperture is an unthinkable omission in a digital camera, it is still very rare to find this in a phone. This should give photographers greater control over exposure and depth of field than the fixed apertures found on most rival phones. There is also a 40MP, 13mm-equivalent f/2.2 ultra-wide camera.

Huawei’s also included its second-generation True-to-Colour Camera 2.0, which works alongside all three cameras to analyze the light and colors within a scene. Huawei says this should improve color accuracy in difficult conditions, particularly when shooting under mixed artificial lighting where skin tones, neon lights and strongly saturated colors can quickly confuse a smartphone’s processing.

There are plenty of AI features as well, although one of the more interesting additions is designed to help photographers before they press the shutter. The phone can analyze a composition and suggest that the photographer physically moves forward, backward, or sideways to improve the framing. This seems to be a new frontier of camera AI, with Google, Samsung, and Sony all debuting versions of this tech in the last 12 months.

The smaller Pura 90s Pro retains the 50MP main camera with its f/1.4-f/4.0 variable aperture, but swaps the 200MP telephoto for a 50MP f/2.1 telephoto macro camera. Its ultra-wide camera also drops to 12.5MP, although it keeps the True-to-Colour Camera 2.0 system.

Away from the cameras, the Pura 90s Pro Max has a 6.9-inch LTPO OLED display with a 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate and a 2880 x 1308 resolution. The screen uses Huawei’s anti-reflective and scratch-resistant Kunlun Glass, while the phone weighs approximately 230.5g.

The Pura 90s Pro is a little more manageable, with a 6.6-inch 1-120Hz LTPO OLED display, a 2760 x 1256 resolution, and a weight of around 213.5g.

Both phones have a 6,000mAh battery in their Chinese specifications, but the international version will ship with a 5,200mAh cell to meet EU regulations. The Pro Max supports charging at up to 100W over a cable and 80W wirelessly, while the Pro offers 66W wired and 50W wireless charging, so long as you use a compatible charger.

Not afraid of standing out, the design is an interesting one, with one of the more unique camera bumps around. The standout Pura 90s Pro Max finish is Orange Ocean, which blends orange and blue across both the rear panel and metal frame. More demure Blush Gold and Graphite Black versions will also be offered, while the Pura 90s Pro comes in White, Mulberry Black, and Orange Soda finishes.

Huawei has not yet confirmed final pricing or precise country-by-country availability for Europe. Buying and living with a new Huawei phone still remains more complicated than it should be. The Pura 90s phones do not officially include the Google Play Store or other Google apps and services. Huawei offers its own AppGallery store, and many popular apps can be installed through alternative methods, but software that depends on Google Play Services may not work correctly.

That remains frustrating because on camera hardware alone, the Pura 90s Pro Max looks like it could be one of the most interesting camera phones of the year.

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

Apple has increased orders for its new foldable phone to 10 million, up from previous targets of 7 or 8 million. This news comes at the same time that other major phone brands are slashing their production plans.

According to Nikkei Asia, Apple has booked parts and components for 80 million phones – across its whole late 2026 range, which is expected to include an iPhone Pro and Pro Max, and Apple's first-ever foldable.

How can Apple be putting its orders up while other big names like Xiaomi and Oppo are reducing orders? These are big firms producing a lot of phones on the global market, but Apple is the biggest name with the strongest bargaining power.

It doesn't mean Apple customers won't face higher prices, as we've seen. Tim Cook has already increased Apple prices, but this might not affect the company's bid to remain "cool" – key to the new CEO John Ternus's mission.

Apple traditionally launches a new generation of phones in September, regardless of demand for the existing models.

An executive of an Apple supplier is quoted as saying: "The demand for the iPhone 17 series in the markets is still quite good, but we are told to purposely reserve common chips and components for the iPhone 18 series,"

There is another way to read this, however.

Apple's bargaining power is the strongest in the business, so the company might choose to spread its launches out, taking advantage of the fact it can order more chips and save its launches (or some of them) for Spring 2027.

The delay would mean Apple gets to enjoy the success of its existing models even longer – backed by the advantage it has in getting memory. It could then throw all the fanfare of a big launch against any potential competition from the large Chinese and other companies in Spring, and stay ahead.

It might also be the only solution to the engineering issues that have, according to some rumors, plagued the folding phone, and might be especially problematic when large volume production is required.

Nevertheless, according to sources, the more likely releases for the early 2027 window at the moment are the standard (non-Pro) iPhone 18 and a new iPhone Air.

That's interesting for several reasons – not least because some of us thought that the iPhone Air might just be a way of testing half a folding phone on customers, but if there is a new model this soon, perhaps Apple is in it for the long haul.

If you're into the Apple ecosystem, you'll likely need to decide what kind of phone you want – and be prepared to wait if a think light 'Air' or the cheaper iPhone 18 doesn't arrive in the September wave.

Apple sold more smartphones than Samsung, the next largest company, in 2025 and in order to maintain that lead it is devoting a lot of energy to the supply chain.

It is known to have made connections beyond China, too, with companies including Japanese glass fibre company Nittobo, seeming looking to get the lead on components needed by chip manufacturers.

That is a reminder that Apple – a company which produces its own chip designs, after all – is also in a complicated game against the likes of Nvidia.

Will it be worth waiting for the folding iPhone? And just how long a wait? Check our guide to the best iPhone for photography now – and the best folding phone.

While the Honor Magic V6 got a lot of attention at MWC earlier this year, it took its sweet time to reach UK shelves. Now, though, it's finally available to order across Europe, and it's aiming to be the very best foldable on the market.

Looking at the spec sheet, it may just be that. It has Qualcomm's most powerful chip inside, the biggest battery of any foldable so far, and some seriously well-equipped cameras. It's also the first folding phone to come with an IP69 rating for dust and water resistance.

On the other hand, the competition is stiffer than ever. There's the wildly impressive Oppo Find N6, for one, and Samsung (and maybe Apple?) are set to unveil their latest foldables in the coming months. Is the Honor Magic V6 enough to keep up? Let's dive in.

Specifications

Price & Availability

The Honor Magic V6 has an eye-watering £1999.99 MSRP in the UK, which is a significant increase over the Magic V5's £1699.99 price tag. However, for a limited time, you can nab it for just £1499.99, and if you get it on the Honor UK site, they'll throw in £500 worth of freebies.

So, that makes discussing the pricing a little tricky. On one hand, the big (likely RAM shortage-induced) price hike is a tough pill to swallow, but on the other, the introductory price is a solid deal. If you're keen on this phone, it probably makes sense to jump in early.

At full retail, the Magic V6 is one of the priciest book-style foldables around. But we don't know what Samsung's next-gen pricing looks like yet, and the way things are trending, that won't come cheap, either.

Design

The Honor Magic V6 has a similar overall design to the Magic V5, but there are a few visual differences to set it apart. Firstly, there's a new shape to the camera bezel, which now has a more angular octagonal design.

The cover screen is now completely flat, and it has a more symmetrical shape, with matching curved corners on every side. The hinge still sticks out a little, with its squared-off corners, but there's not a lot that can be done to remedy that.

As always, there are some fresh colour options to further differentiate the two models. I have the gold version in for testing, and it's pretty boujie. It has a shiny golden back panel with a subtle repeating triangular pattern across it, and a matching pattern on the hinge.

It reminds me of Ferrero Rocher packaging, and when combined with the included cream leather-effect case, it gives off designer handbag vibes. You get the idea, it's fancy and shiny. Despite the glossy surfaces, though, it's completely immune to fingerprint smudges, so it'll keep up appearances even when you've been using it for hours.

The red model is the standout, in my opinion. It has a deep blood-red shade to the rear panel, complete with a textured finish that looks a bit like craft paper. However, if you're more concerned about dimensions than colours, you'll want to go for the white one, as that's the slimmest of the bunch.

Speaking of which, this is one of the thinnest foldables on the market, to the point where it's noticeably slimmer than some flagship Ultra bar-phones. I'm not convinced it's any slimmer than the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but who really cares? It's slim enough to feel great in your pocket, and that's all that matters.

Now, these svelte dimensions might lead you to expect a fragile device, but thankfully, that's not the case. In fact, it's quite the opposite. The Honor Magic V6 has the highest IP rating of any foldable to date, IP69, which means it's effectively immune to dust and water (except for salt water).

It's also built with toughness in mind. It has NanoCrystal scratch-resistant glass on the cover screen and an impact-resistant Super Steel hinge. SGS has awarded it 5 stars for drop resistance, too. As ever, the foldable screen will be the weak point, but otherwise, it should handle some rough treatment without issue.

Both screens are super impressive, but the highlight is the almost 8-inch foldable panel. It's a 120Hz OLED with a supposed peak brightness of 5000 nits, and it's more than bright enough for outdoor use. The square-ish aspect ratio makes it excellent for displaying two apps side by side, and it's a great way to review and edit your photos, too.

There is a crease, but it's impressively shallow, and until recently, I would have said it's one of the best I've ever seen. Unfortunately for Honor, the Oppo Find N6 is in a completely different league, and having used that as my daily driver for months, this isn't too exciting. That said, the N6 isn't officially available in most Western countries, and this is probably the most crease-free foldable that's sold in the UK.

The cover display is also fantastic, boasting an even higher peak brightness. The aspect ratio is very slightly narrower than most flagship bar-phones, but other than that, there's very little difference. There's no downside to using the outer display most of the time, and only opening the hinge when you need some extra real estate - and that's exactly what I found myself doing.

It's also worth mentioning the speakers, as they're quite decent. There's a bit of bass response, and they project a wide soundstage that's great for gaming and movie immersion. They're not as impressive as the Honor Magic 8 Pro speakers, but considering the size constraints, Honor has done a remarkable job.

Camera Performance

The Honor Magic V6 appears to have identical camera hardware to last year's V5. So, while there's nothing to get too hyped up about, the V5 already had some of the best cameras on a foldable, and the competition hasn't been pushing in that direction too much. These snappers are likely still among the best.

On the rear, there are three cameras. You get a 23mm equivalent 50MP main camera with a fairly large 1/1.56-inch sensor, a 64MP 70mm periscope with a 1/2-inch sensor, and a dramatic 15mm ultrawide camera. There's also a 20MP punch-hole selfie camera on each screen.

As is often the case, the main camera is the best-equipped and provides the most consistent results across all lighting conditions. It's the sharpest, and its large sensor handles dim conditions better than the other lenses, resulting in less motion blur.

However, the telephoto camera is no slouch, and it's likely the best telephoto on any foldable phone right now. The sizable 1/2-inch sensor, combined with the 70mm lens, creates some lovely compression and background softening for close-up shots. And while I wouldn't necessarily call it a macro camera, it can get closer than most. It's able to focus from around 20cm away, and when combined with some digital zoom, you can get stunning close-ups.

Long-range zoom is more hit-and-miss, but I was able to get usable results up until around 20x. Going beyond that range, images start to look very unnatural - especially if you toggle on Honor's AI Zoom enhancement feature. Sure, it'll clean up the pixellation, but it also makes up details and isn't very photo-like.

The ultrawide is the least impressive of the trio. On the plus side, it's super-wide, so you can get loads in the frame, and you can get some fun distorted angles with it. It also has autofocus, so you can use it for macro shots, if you fancy. On the other hand, it's not very sharp, and the tiny sensor struggles in the dark.

The twin selfie cameras are fine, but they're nothing too special. There's a noticeable drop in quality compared to the rear cameras, but for video chats, they get the job done nicely - and they're still better than most laptop webcams. Since this is a foldable, if you want excellent selfies, your best bet is to unfold the device and use the rear cameras instead.

Honor's default colours are a little too saturated and punchy for my tastes, but thankfully, there are lots of picture styles available, and they change the look quite dramatically. I'm really fond of the Nostalgic Negative mode, which produces moody high-contrast images with cool tones in the shadows - it looks especially good at night.

The Studio Harcourt portrait mode is also available on this phone, and it can take some super-impressive, highly stylised snaps with either the main or telephoto cameras. You can also digitally crop up to 6x, if your subject is a little further away.

Overall, I'm really impressed with the cameras on the V6. My only real complaint is that I seem to get a lot of motion blur when using portrait mode, and it's much less of a problem in the other modes. I hope Honor can figure that out, as otherwise, it's a really strong camera system.

For video shooting, the Honor Magic V6 supports up to 4K 60fps on all the rear cameras, and 4K 30fps on the selfie cameras. Stabilisation is strong, and the microphones are very decent, too. I was a little disappointed, having used the Find N6 so much, that there are no 4K 120fps options, and the Log profile only works on the main camera. But, to be fair, these features are niche, and most casual users won't mind.

Phone Performance

The Honor Magic V6 is powered by Qualcomm's most powerful chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and that means, no matter what you demand of it, this phone can likely keep up. For the global launch, it's paired with 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM.

Performance has been great throughout my testing. I demand a lot from foldable phones, often running two or three apps side-by-side and streaming music or a YouTube video at the same time, and this phone can do it without issue. It always feels smooth, no matter what I'm doing.

It can game pretty well, too. I've been playing NTE, a graphically challenging title with a large open-world city map, and while some phones struggle, the V6 powers through it. It ran the game on the "Extreme" preset at 60fps quite solidly, and though it got hot after a while, especially around the camera area, the performance didn't seem to drop.

The phone runs MagicOS 10, Honor's customised version of Android 16. Stylistically, it's very Apple-influenced. There's a Dynamic Island clone, some Liquid Glass-like elements, and even a Standby mode - but almost all of this is optional.

Where MagicOS excels is with its customisation options. You can tweak and change most things in this OS, so even if it's not your vibe by default, you can probably configure it to your tastes. It's also absolutely packed with features, including all the latest AI-powered tricks like translation, transcription, image generation and writing assistance.

What I found most interesting, though, is the way the Honor Magic V6 works with Apple products. As a MacBook and Android user, I often face hurdles, but the Magic V6 makes life much easier. If you install Honor Workspace from the Mac App Store, you can share your clipboard, transfer files, and even use your Magic V6 as a wireless secondary display - it's very cool.

The Magic V6 can also natively browse and share to iCloud accounts, and you can wirelessly transfer files to and from iPhones with Honor Connect. If you're currently an Apple person, this phone will make transitioning out of the walled garden much easier.

The problem I have with MagicOS is the same as it ever was. The OS kills background apps like crazy to save on battery life, and this can lead to delayed or undelivered notifications from important apps. It's fixable, but you need to dive into some settings menus to sort it out, and that's a hassle you don't get elsewhere.

Lastly, we need to talk about the battery. The Honor Magic V6 has a mammoth 6660 mAh battery inside its skinny frame, the biggest of any foldable I have used to date. As you might expect, this results in brilliant battery life.

Most of the time, I get about a day and a half's use from a charge. Of course, battery life always depends on your usage, and if I were playing demanding games or shooting lots of video, it didn't last quite as long, but it never failed to get me to the end of the day, despite using the larger fold-out screen at every opportunity.

Charging is super quick, too. It supports up to 80W speeds with a wire, and I found I could go from flat to around 70% charged in just half an hour. If you like wireless charging, that's also super quick, at up to 66W. Neither adapter is included in the box, though, just a USB-C cable.

Final Verdict

The Honor Magic V6 is a pleasure to use, and it's easily one of the best foldable phones on the market today. It has the best battery, the cameras are among the best, and it should be one of the most durable, too.

The pricing complicates things a little, though. At the introductory price of £1499.99, it's a solid deal, but the full MSRP of £1999.99 is tough to stomach. I think the stiffest competition comes from Honor itself. The Honor Magic V5 feels almost identical in use, and you can currently grab that for just £1099.99. The biggest downside to doing so is losing out on that larger battery, but it's still super powerful and has almost identical cameras.

You should also factor in that Samsung is likely to launch its next foldables in the next month or so, and then maybe Apple, too. The competition is about to get very interesting, and personally, I'd hold off and see what they bring to the table.

With all that said, if you need a foldable phone right now, it's hard to fault the Honor Magic V6. It's an excellent all-rounder that doesn't fall short in any particular area. Whether you're looking to shoot impressive photos, get work done on the go, or play some games, you're in for a good time with this one.

Alternatives

Oppo's Reno series phones have always aimed to give you a lot for your money, and the latest 16-series models are following suit. The Reno 16 Pro boasts a 200MP main camera, one of the most impressive selfie cameras around, a premium build, top-class software, and a sizable 6700 mAh battery.

Oppo told us that, unlike the flagship X-series phones, the latest Reno models are aimed at a younger audience. Rather than professional-level imaging, these handsets are all about creating quick, hassle-free Instagram-ready snaps to brighten up your feed.

As such, there are loads of excellent filters to play about with, and some novel collage effects that are more impressive than they might first sound. I've been having a lot of fun with the Reno 16 Pro, and after slipping my SIM card in for the past week, here are my thoughts.

Specifications

Price & Availability

The Oppo Reno 16 Pro is available in Europe in a single 12GB RAM and 512GB storage configuration, priced at €1,099, with a launch discount bringing it down to €899 until July 31. There’s no confirmed US release, which is a shame, as this would be a strong option for creators looking for flagship-adjacent camera features without paying true flagship money.

Design

The Oppo Reno 16 Pro stands out from the crowd in its signature Pop White colourway. While it might not be to my particular tastes, I can imagine younger, more feminine users being quite taken with it. (There's also a more sensible black version that might be more my speed.)

So, what makes this phone stand out so much? Well, the glossy rear panel has a subtle glittering finish when the light hits it, complete with a 3D planet motif that's unique to this phone.

When I say 3D, I really mean it. Oppo is calling this tech HoloVerse 3D, and it uses multiple layers of material and millions of micro lenses to create a sense of 3D depth without requiring glasses. Not only that, but the design actually casts a shadow on the back of the phone when you shine a torch at it.

Fancy rear casing aside, the phone looks and feels premium throughout. It has matte aluminium side rails and a flat, boxy, iPhone-like shape. It has a 6.32-inch screen, which makes it much more compact than many of its rivals. As such, it's much easier to reach the top of the screen, and it won't make such a bulge in your pocket. If you have smaller hands, you'll definitely appreciate it.

In addition to the usual power button and volume rocker combo, this phone also has a "Snap Key", which is Oppo's version of Apple's Action Button. I love this button. I use it all the time on my other Oppo devices, mainly as a way to quickly toggle my torch on, but it can do a lot more than just that.

Oppo seems most keen on this button being used like Nothing's Essential Key. By default, it's set to save screenshots to the Mind Space app, which will then use AI to organise your screenshots and make them searchable. It's a handy feature, but as a frequent ecosystem-hopper, it's not ideal for me. Instead, I'm more excited about the ability to quickly launch translation tools when travelling or open my favourite camera mode in a flash.

The screen is pretty impressive. It's an OLED panel with a speedy 144Hz refresh rate, and it can reach up to 3600 nits at peak brightness. There are slim symmetrical bezels on all sides, and while the selfie camera cutout is slightly larger than usual, there's a good reason for that, which we'll dive into a bit later.

The Reno 16 Pro is IP69K certified, a slight increase over the previous model's IP69 rating. Essentially, dust and water don't pose much of a threat to this handset, even at high temperatures; you'll only need to be careful around salt water - but that's always the case.

You also get a hard plastic transparent case included in the box, so you can keep your phone scratch-free and show off the rear design without needing to purchase additional accessories. This case is clearer than the usual soft TPU freebies, and may be more immune to yellowing - but time will tell.

Camera Performance

The Reno 16 Pro has three cameras on the rear. There's a 200MP main snapper with a decently sized 1/1.56-inch sensor, a 50MP ultrawide, and a 50MP 3.5x telephoto. The latter two sensors are smaller at 1/2.88-inch and 1/2.75-inch, respectively, but I was pleased to find that the ultrawide has autofocus.

Arguably, the most exciting camera on this phone is the selfie camera - and considering the target audience, it's probably the one that'll get used the most often. This camera uses a Samsung JN5 sensor - the same sensor the main camera of the Reno 13F used last year.

The specs aren't too wild, but considering this is a selfie camera, they're pretty darn impressive. It's a 1/2.75-inch sensor with a 50MP resolution and a wide 18mm-equivalent f/2.0 autofocus lens. This setup makes it perfect for wide group shots and matches (or perhaps surpasses) the quality of rear ultrawide for vlogging.

Having just tested the latest batch of "flagship killer" phones like the Xiaomi 17T Pro and Vivo X300 FE, I was quite surprised by the Reno 16 Pro. It might not have a legacy camera logo slapped on it, but this phone is probably the most versatile shooter of the lot. Every single camera is at least 50MP and has autofocus; none of the others can match that.

Of course, these aren't quite flagship-grade optics, but with the slew of filters and styling options that Oppo has included here, most people aren't going to notice.

There's a new mode in the camera app called "Pop" which gives you quick access to a bunch of preset looks. There's a mode that makes photos look like Polaroids, there's a CCD digicam mode with the compulsory Y2K excessive flash, and plenty of film simulations, too. My favourite filter from the X9 Ultra's Master Mode also makes an appearance. It's called Primrose, it's inspired by Portra film, and it delivers some lovely warm tones.

I was also pleased to see that the excellent Soft Light option is available on this phone, and it works in both the normal photo mode and Pop. If you're not familiar, this is like a digital mist filter, softening skin textures and making highlights bloom a little more. It's a great way to get away from the typical hyper-sharp smartphone look.

Otherwise, the usual mid-range caveats apply. At night, you'll want to stick to the main camera as much as possible, as the relatively small sensors elsewhere struggle to keep up. That is, unless you're going all-in on that flash look.

The flash on this phone is surprisingly well-engineered. It's not just on or off; you actually get three strength settings ranging from "soft" to "high contrast". I've never been much of an on-camera flash kind of guy, but it's a trendy look, and it's well worth exploring on this phone.

Overall, it's a really solid camera system, but its weak point is macro photography. The telephoto can focus from around 30cm away, which isn't awful, but it's only an 85mm lens, so you'll need to do a fair bit of digital zoom to get into macro territory. The actual macro camera is the ultrawide, which is never my favourite option, and even then, it can't get as close up as some of its rivals.

Video shooting is pretty decent on this phone. You can capture at up to 4K 60fps on every single camera, and stabilisation is respectable across the board. There's a new feature built in that automatically straightens your horizon by up to 5 degrees of tilt, which is quite handy, and the Dual-View video capabilities have been boosted, too.

If you're looking for pro video features, though, you might find this handset lacking. It doesn't support 4K120 recording like some of its rivals do, and there's no Log profile, either. That said, you do get a Pro Video mode with manual controls, so you can get a little creative with it.

Phone Performance

The Oppo Reno 16 Pro is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 8550 SoC, and it comes with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. It's not a full-fledged flagship chip, but it's more powerful than you might expect, and I dare say it's more than most users would ever need.

In general use, checking social media, editing photos and videos, and streaming content, the phone was buttery smooth. I never noticed any hiccups or performance slowdowns. You have to boot up a very graphically demanding game if you want to spot the difference between this and a top-tier flagship.

I've been playing a lot of NTE, an open-world gatcha game that requires some serious horsepower to run smoothly. I had to lower the graphics preset to "balanced" and run it at 30fps to get a consistent experience. But when I did, the game was perfectly playable. This phone won't satisfy hardcore competitive gamers, but for everyone else, it's more than good enough.

When it comes to the software, the Reno 16 Pro runs ColorOS 16, just like Oppo's flagship devices. I've been hopping between the Find X9 Ultra and Find N6 as of late, and I felt right at home here, as the software is almost identical.

The OS has a slick look with iOS-inspired elements like transparent liquid-glass icons and Oppo's Dynamic Island clone. However, if that's not your thing, you can make it look completely different. There's an abundance of theming options to choose from, and loads of different lockscreen styles, too.

ColorOS continues to offer some of the most useful AI features around, including everything from screen translation, narration, transcription, and writing assistance. It also pairs well with a MacBook, as you can use the O+Connect app to share files, your clipboard, and even use your keyboard and trackpad to control the phone.

One of the newer additions is the AI bill manager. It can log your digital payments or physical receipts, using the Mind Space via the camera app. It'll keep a total of your expenses and even cross-convert different currencies.

What I found much more exciting, though, are the new collage modes that are perfect for posting on Instagram. Oppo gives you tonnes of options for different layouts and styles, and the new pop-out feature means you can superimpose your subject over multiple shots. It even works with motion photos.

The battery life was excellent throughout my testing. This phone has a fairly large 6700 mAh cell, and that easily got me through a day and a half of normal usage; I could even stretch it to two days, on occasion. Charging is rapid, too. It supports up to 80W speeds, and the speedy charger is included in the box (that may vary from region to region). The only disappointment is that there's no wireless charging available.

When it comes to long-term support, Oppo promises 5 years of OS updates and 6 years of security patches. Perhaps more importantly, though, it comes with a 6-year fluency guarantee, which means (according to Oppo's testing) the phone should still feel quick and responsive after 6 years of daily use.

Final Verdict

To be completely honest, I didn't have especially high hopes for the Reno 16 Pro. I knew it would be decent enough, but Oppo's mid-range cameras haven't wowed me too much in the past, and I wasn't expecting anything different here, but I was mistaken.

Not only is the hardware on point, with high-resolution sensors across the board, but the selfie camera is probably the best of any phone I have ever tested. The super-wide FOV is great for vlogging and group photos, and the autofocus and high resolution make for super-sharp photos.

Plus, there's a plethora of fun filters and effects to make your photos stand out, and the collage mode is so good that it's a little bit addictive. The only downside, really, is the lack of professional video options.

Elsewhere, the phone is solid on all fronts. It's powerful enough, it feels premium, the software is among the best, and the battery is great. The design might not be to my taste, but at least it stands out, and you can always opt for the black one.

Alternatives

As much as I prefer using my mirrorless camera, my smartphone is the camera that’s always with me – and sometimes, I spot wildlife when I wasn’t expecting to. The native zoom lens on my iPhone isn’t nearly close enough for these unexpected photo ops, but mobile lens maker Moment has a new option with 200mm worth of reach.

Moment has launched telephoto smartphone lenses in the past, but what’s unusual about the new lenses that arrived this week is that the new Moment 240mm SuperTele is designed for the iPhone’s periscope camera lens. That means the new telephoto lens must be placed in front of the iPhone’s zoom lens rather than the main 1x camera, extending the reach even farther.

Placed over the iPhone Pro’s 100mm lens, the optics create a reach that’s equivalent to a 240mm lens.

The iPhone 17 Pro does some unusual lens math to advertise its 200mm lens. The longest optics on the smartphone is just a 100mm equivalent. The 200mm advertised reach that Apple says is the longest “optical quality zoom ever” is actually made possible through computational photography and the smartphone’s 48MP sensor behind that longer lens.

Using the Moment 240mm Super Tele achieves that reach using optics rather than cropping and computational photography, preserving the 48MP resolution. But the camera can also be used with the iPhone 17 Pro’s 200mm computational zoom for an impressive 480mm reach.

The other thing that struck me about the new Moment 240mm SuperTele is that the sample photos have lovely background blur and compression, something that’s hard to achieve with a small smartphone sensor. But, telephoto optics can also increase that depth and background blur.

Because the telephoto lens is designed specifically for the iPhone’s periscope lens, it’s not compatible with the 1X camera and has a shorter list of compatible smartphones. The lens will work with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. The lens is mounted using Moment’s T-series case.

The 240mm SuperTele launched alongside Moment’s refreshed Mobile II series that now spans across ten lenses. The second-generation series is “the sharpest and best mobile lenses that we’ve ever made,” Moment says, improving several existing lenses as well as adding the 240mm, the longest mobile zoom Moment has made yet.

That list of new Mobile II series lenses also includes the 58mm Tele II, a smaller lens with a 2x reach over the iPhone’s built-in lens. Where the 240mm is meant for travel and distant subjects such as wildlife, the 58mm is meant more for portraits and more cinematic video.

The series also includes anamorphic lenses for cinematic flares, along with a wide-angle, a fisheye, and two different macro lens options. The full Moment Mobile II series is available directly from Moment.

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Oppo has revealed the Reno16 Series, its latest mid-range smartphone lineup, with a bigger emphasis on AI-powered camera and editing tools than raw hardware alone.

The series is led by the Reno16 and Reno16 Pro, with additional Reno16 F models also appearing in selected markets. Oppo is pitching the phones at social-first creators, with a mix of eye-catching design, high-resolution cameras, and built-in tools for shooting, editing, and sharing images more quickly.

The most distinctive visual touch is Oppo’s new 3D Pop Planet Design, although this is limited to the Pop White edition. But the more interesting photography angle is the suite of AI features, including Pop Cam, AI Remix Collage, 4K Auto Straighten Video, and Dual View Video 2.0.

An impressive 200MP camera

We'll get to the AI features in a moment, but first, the camera specs. At the rear, all models in the Reno16 Series boast a triple-camera system comprising a high-resolution main camera with OIS, a telephoto portrait camera with 3.5x optical zoom, and an ultra-wide camera.

This collection of cameras provides, what Oppo says, is enough flexibility to deliver the right shot in most scenarios. Still, if it's maximum resolution that you're after, then the Reno16 Pro is the top-spec model in the lineup. It delivers a 200MP Ultra Clear Main Camera for maximum image clarity and flexibility with cropping, while the Reno 16 and Reno F are "limited" to a 50MP sensor.

Turning our attention to the front, all models feature a 50MP ultra-wide selfie camera with a 100-degree field of view. And for an idea of what this front camera is capable of, here's a sample image provided by Oppo.

AI imaging capabilities

As good as the hardware is on paper, Oppo hopes to attract potential customers with its expanded set of AI imaging features, which are new to the Reno16 Series. First up is the Pop Cam feature, which introduces a dedicated creative shooting experience directly within the Camera app.

With it, users can "apply vintage-inspired styles such as Digicam, Instant Film and Light Leak effects with a single tap, making it easy to create distinctive photos with different moods and aesthetics."

That's not all. The Reno16 Series also features a new Create hub within the Photos app for expanding creative AI editing capabilities. This includes AI Remix Collage, which allows users to combine multiple photos or short videos into layered visual compositions with animated stickers, outlines, and text.

Video creation hasn't been forgotten. With 4K Auto Straighten Video, users are better able to capture footage that is level even while walking or moving. There's also a Dual View Video 2.0 feature for improved stabilization and seamless switching between rear lenses during recording.

Specs and availability

The Reno16 and Reno16 Pro boast a compact 6.32-inch display, an aerospace-grade aluminum frame, and a 6,700mAh battery. The Reno16 F extends these specs by offering a larger 6.57-inch screen and a bigger 7,000mAh battery.

If it's mobile gaming that you're into, then the Reno16 Pro includes the best gaming specs. These include the MediaTek Dimensity 8550 Super Platform, along with AI HyperBoost 3.0, enhanced cooling, and support for up to 144Hz refresh rates.

The Reno 16 Series is available today in select markets, which include the UK and Europe, although, as per usual for Chinese phone brands, don't expect this to pop up in any stores in the US. We are still waiting on final confirmation on the price, but the Reno Series usually slots into Oppo's mid-range.

The Reno16 and Reno16 F will be available in Pop White, Twilight Violet, and Dream Purple, while the Reno16 Pro will be available in Pop White and Starlight Black.

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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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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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