The Xiaomi 18 Fold was just revealed in full in China; I got the opportunity to check it out last week, and I think it’s likely to be a winner.

So yes, the Xiaomi 18 Fold is very much in the vein of the Galaxy Fold 8 and what we know of the first folding iPhone, which is to say the outer screen is shorter and wider than a typical smartphone. The inner screen, meanwhile, unfolds in landscape orientation with a wider aspect ratio than other foldables, making it better-suited for video and other content.

This is Xiaomi’s first fold-style phone in a couple of years; the Mix Fold 4 came out in July 2024. Xiaomi is treating the 18 Fold as a whole new category of device; indeed, it’s the first phone announced in the 18 series. The company refers to it as its “first ever mid-sized foldable smartphone”, which is not standard industry language but makes some sense given the smaller passport-ish footprint when folded.

Xiaomi’s take on the idea is a little shorter and wider than Samsung’s; the company says both screens have the same 1.41:1 aspect ratio as A4 paper. The outer screen is 5.3” diagonal while the inner screen is 7.58”, making it a reasonably close match for an iPad mini. It works well in landscape mode for video, but also in portrait orientation for other tablet-style tasks like web browsing.

I didn’t get a ton of time to spend testing things like the multitasking interface, which is designed to enable up to three apps side-by-side; I look forward to seeing how that works in practice once I’m more used to the device.

The 18 Fold is Xiaomi’s lightest foldable phone yet, weighing in at 219g, though that’s a little heavier than the 201g Galaxy Z Fold 8. Xiaomi’s device is also thicker at 5.02mm when unfolded, compared to the 4.5mm-thick Z Fold. I don’t think this is necessarily a problem; the squatter form factor means the 18 Fold doesn’t really suffer in comparison to a traditional smartphone, instead coming off as its own thing.

And Xiaomi has crammed a lot more into this device than Samsung managed. The battery is 6,000mAh, a big increase on the Z Fold 8’s 4,800mAh. There’s also a triple camera system including a 200-megapixel main sensor, a 50-megapixel ultrawide and a 50-megapixel telephoto. The setup is Leica-branded, meaning it’ll benefit from Leica and Xiaomi’s always-great collaborative colour science.

As for the processor, it’s a bit of an unknown — the 18 Fold uses the XRING O3, which is Xiaomi’s second-ever flagship chipset for phones and tablets. It’s also showing up in a new flagship tablet called the Xiaomi Pad 9 Pro Max.

This is a 3nm chip where the headline feature is the new Mali G2-Ultra NX GPU from ARM, which offers a suite of DLSS-style neural rendering and upscaling features — at least when games support it.

Based on my brief hands-on experience, there’s a lot to like about the Xiaomi 18 Fold. It outguns Samsung on specs, albeit in a slightly chunkier design, and the form factor should be a great fit for the Xiaomi-Leica camera experience.

Unfortunately, though, Xiaomi is only launching the 18 Fold in China right now. It starts at 10,999 yuan ($1,600) for a model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, going up to 14,900 yuan for 16GB + 1TB. There are black, white and red models available, as well as a limited-edition ceramic version only offered in the highest storage and memory tier.

China is, of course, the world’s leading market for folding phones by some distance, so we’ll see whether Xiaomi is able to make a splash with its latest effort. And in two days, we’ll have a better idea of how Apple plans to compete.

More recently, Samsung has pioneered foldable phones seemingly without much consideration as to whether they’re ready for primetime. The original Galaxy Fold launched with obvious flaws like a tiny outer screen and questionable durability, while the first Galaxy Z Flip felt a little more mature without offering much functionality beyond the flashy clamshell design.

This year, Samsung is launching a new foldable form factor that competes directly against an existing one, setting up a fascinating A/B test of which one the public will go for. It also happens to be taking place as Apple looms with its long-awaited entry into the space.

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Apple kicked things off in March with the MacBook Neo, a $599 laptop that felt like an aggressive attempt to do to the low end of the market what the MacBook Air did to the middle. Even with a subsequent $100 price hike due to the rising cost of components, it remains a cheap and cheerful MacBook that puts its Windows competition to shame on the merits.

But at Computex Taipei last month, it felt like the rest of the industry awakened. Dell revived its XPS line as a MacBook Neo rival. Qualcomm announced its Snapdragon C chip, aimed at Windows laptops priced as low as $300. And Nvidia finally made its long-rumoured move into PCs with RTX Spark, an ARM-based and inevitably AI-focused chip.

Unsurprisingly for the hardware-heavy Computex show, US players like Microsoft and Dell, along with Taiwanese OEMs such as Asus and Acer, are banking on a future where they can compete on local performance, battery life and tighter integration between software and silicon.

But just before Computex, Google announced its new “Googlebook” initiative, which is set to launch later in the year.

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As it does every year, Apple announced new versions of each of its operating systems, now all unified under the “27” banner; this fall will see the release of macOS 27, iOS 27, visionOS 27 and so on. But the most intriguing hardware-related news was exactly which of Apple’s gadgets will actually get the updates.

The most interesting case is watchOS 27. Apple’s next smartwatch operating system will only run on the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, Series 11, Ultra 2, Ultra 3 and SE 3. Anyone running an older model is out of luck, meaning it won’t even be available on the original Apple Watch Ultra.

That’s a little surprising. The first Apple Watch Ultra came out in 2022, so this decision means it will only have received three operating system upgrades over the course of its entire life cycle. And this wasn’t a throwaway product — it was Apple’s first significant expansion of the Watch lineup, coming with an all-new design and a $799 price tag. Mine is still going strong; I wasn’t particularly tempted to upgrade to the Ultra 2 or 3.

But now Apple is rendering it obsolete. watchOS 27 is a fairly significant update, bringing a redesigned app grid and the new version of Siri, and it won’t be coming to the Ultra.

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In a world of overprocessed, HDR-heavy smartphone photos, Leica contributes realistic, tasteful color science to Xiaomi devices. While all smartphones need to operate in accordance with the laws of physics, the phones that Leica and Xiaomi have been working on together take photos that really don’t look like they came from a phone.

Most recently in Vienna, Xiaomi announced the latest in its line of collaborative Leica-branded phones, the 17T and 17T Pro. I was able to speak to representatives from Leica about the philosophy and technology behind its collaboration with Xiaomi.

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What is the T series? It hasn’t always been easy to pin down, often reusing various parts from Xiaomi’s vast supply chain. Last year, t…

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Although the Keirin is yet to become a commercial device, there’s a lot of its DNA in what VWFNDR has decided to …

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The naming convention here is admittedly a little confusing. Last year’s Titan 2 was a rugged, wide-format device clearly inspired by the BlackBerry Passport — it was, in every sense, “titanic.” But this new Elite successor isn’t a turbo-charged version of that phone; it’s a completely different animal. It ditches the ultra-wide, ruggedized footprint for a much smaller design that feels like a spiritual successor to the BlackBerry Q10.

The Elite 2’s industrial design is a departure from Unihertz’s recent “brick” aesthetic. This isn’t a rugged phone, and it feels better for it. That said, I would personally avoid the iPhone 17 Pro-inspired orange model, which seems unlikely to age too well; this black model I’ve been using is much more in keeping with the BlackBerry heritage.

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Ternus has been a senior vice president of hardware engineering at Apple for five years, and a VP since 2013, but beyond that he hasn’t been credited with steering the company in a particular direction. All anyone can really say for now is that Apple will be led by someone who is strongly experienced in hardware, which sounds like a meaningful change from Cook.

Of course, Ternus’ stewardship will be defined by a lot more than how he chooses to manage the hardware portfolio. The state of Apple’s software and how it handles developer relations will continue to be hot topics, not to mention how it adapts to the destabilizing impact of AI. As CEO, those issues will land at Ternus’ door.

Still, as a hardware enthusiast myself, I have to admit it’s encouraging to think that Apple will soon be led by someone who may share some of the same passions. And following many years of Ternus’ influence, it’s hard to say that Apple’s hardware is in a bad spot. The iPhone 17 lineup is excellent, while the new $599 MacBook Neo might be the most impressive example yet of the Apple Silicon advantage.

But as someone who uses a wide range of devices, I do know that Apple doesn’t always ship the best hardware available. Let’s dream for a minute and imagine that Ternus makes it a priority to change that reality. Here’s where I’d want him to focus.

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Last year, for instance, the company enjoyed record U.S. sales in September after the launch of the Pixel 10 line, according to Counterpoint Research. But despite achieving 28% year-on-year growth, the Pixel still only accounted for 6.1% of the $600-and-up smartphone market in the US, which is dominated by Apple.

There is one market, however, where Google has managed to turn the Pixel into a big hit, and surprisingly it’s in a country that was one of the last to adopt its search engine. The entry-level Pixel 8A and 9A have been some of the best-selling phones in Japan over recent years, and this seems to have prompted Google to pull out all the stops for the latest iteration.

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Which is fine for now, because there’s actually quite a lot to talk about on that front.

Readers, I am sm…

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So, this past weekend I went to New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Sakura Genesis show at the Ryogoku Kokugikan, which is better known as the national venue for sumo in Tokyo. I don’t follow pro wrestling very closely but I am somewhat into NJPW; this was the first show I’d been to in a little over a year.

Anyway, great show. I thought the best match was the tag title contest between the Knockout Brothers (Oskar and Yuto-Ice) and TMDK (Zack Sabre Jr. and Ryohei Oiwa).

As for the camera setup, I brought the Find X9 Pro as well as its dedicated 10x Hasselblad teleconverter kit.

Here’s the hardware you get with the Find X9 Pro:

• 23mm-equivalent lens with a 50-megapixel 1/1.28” sensor and f/1.5 aperture

• 70mm-equivalent telephoto lens with a 200-megapixel 1/1.56” sensor and f/2.1 aperture

• 3.28x teleconverter that attaches onto the 70mm lens for a 230mm-equivalent field of view

• 15mm-equivalent ultrawide with a 50-megapixel 1/2.76” sensor and f/2 aperture

But I relied almost entirely on the teleconverter, for a few reasons. First off, these were our seats:

Secondly, in order to use it you have to attach a case and then a mounting plate that covers all the other camera lenses. You also have to use the teleconverter in a dedicated mode within the camera app, because it inverts the image from the 70mm lens.

And thirdly, well, what else is an unwieldy telephoto lens attachment for if not taking close-up photos of professional wrestlers.

No edits, as ever.

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Infinix is a sub-brand of Chinese company Transsion, which also owns the smartphone maker Tecno. The manufacturer is particularly successful in developing smartphone markets like Africa and the Middle East; across all of its brands, Transsion accounts for about half of Africa’s smartphone market share, according to figures from Canalys last year.

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Vivo X300 Ultra announced

Vivo has announced the X300 Ultra, the latest in its series of high-end flagship camera phones. This is looking like one of the most capable options that’ll see release in 2026.

The X300 Ultra’s main camera uses a 200-megapixel 1/1.12” sensor, which is a little bigger than last year’s but not quite up there with the X100 Ultra’s 1” chip from a couple of years ago. Still, Vivo continues to stand out by pairing the sensor with a 35mm-equivalent f/1.85 lens. I’ve written before about how the ever-widening focal lengths on phone cameras might not be a good thing, and Vivo continues to release the highest-end phones to lean into that concept.

What if you want to go wider? Well, what if the ultrawide camera was actually good? The 14mm-equivalent f/2 lens has a 50-megapixel 1/1.28” sensor, the same size as the main camera from last year and the largest ultrawide sensor on any phone I’m aware of. There’ll certainly be a tradeoff compared to the main camera, but you should still be able to get decent 28mm results simply by using a 2x crop.

As for the zoom story, Vivo is using a 200-megapixel 1/1.4” sensor with a 85mm-equivalent 3x lens, which is a similar setup to the excellent 100mm telephoto on the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. Vivo is also offering Zeiss-branded 200mm- and 400mm-equivalent teleconverters that attach onto the 3x sensor, along with a heavy-duty grip accessory with extra buttons and a dial.

This is Vivo’s first high-end phone in a while to see release outside of China, although precise details on the launch (or pricing) haven’t yet been announced; preorders are set to start on April 16. I’ll definitely try to check it out, because it looks like a very strong competitor.

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Izu Oshima is larger and closer to Tokyo than Hachijojima, where I took the Xiaomi 17 Ultra by Leica last month. That trip involved an overnight ferry, whereas this took a couple of hours on a much faster jet-propelled hydrofoil.

Izu Oshima is famous for a large active volcano called Mount Mihara, which most recently erupted in 1986. It’s also known for a diverse array of wildlife and tsubaki flowers, known as camellias in English; this past weekend marked the end of the annual Tsubaki Matsuri festival.

In this photo essay you’ll see the cooled lava formations on Mihara-yama, a lot of animals both at a well-kept zoo and around the island itself, a volcanic ash desert, a bunch of camellias and some pizza.

As a reminder, here’s what we’re dealing with on the Find N6 in terms of camera hardware:

• 21mm-equivalent lens with a 200-megapixel 1/1.56” sensor and f/1.8 aperture

• 70mm 3x telephoto lens with a 50-megapixel 1/2.75” sensor, f/2.7 aperture and telemacro close-focus capability

• 15mm-equivalent ultrawide with a 50-megapixel 1/2.75” sensor and f/2.0 aperture

The setup isn’t hugely different to last year’s Find N5, which I wrote about a year ago; the big changes are the higher resolution (to say the least) main sensor and the much-improved ultrawide, which is now in line with higher-end phones like the X9 Pro.

Also like the X9 Pro, the N6 also has an extra spectral sensor to help with colour rendition across the whole frame, and it makes use of Oppo’s Lumo image engine for processing.

I shot all these photos in the camera app’s Hasselblad Master mode, which I always feel gives much more natural results than the standard photo mode, and as ever they’re all unedited.

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But Poco’s newest phones somehow manage to cover both angles. One of them has unprecedented endurance, and the other literally has Tony Stark’s badge on it.

Let’s start with the latter.

The Poco X8 Pro is a global version of the C…

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That sounds like a typically Apple feature to prioritise, and it could well explain why the company is late to the category. Folding phones are cool, but the creases in their inner screens are undeniable imperfections. Whether it’s capacity with music players, user interface with smartphones or the overall form factor with tablets, Apple tends to avoid making products with clear compromises in their defining elements.

But is it even possible to make a crease-free folding phone? There are huge engineering challenges to making a phone with a glass display that bends back and forth and flattens seamlessly, much less one that stays that way over time.

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A little over a year later, here’s the Find N6. In most regards, it’s an iterative upgrade. But in one area, it’s truly groundbreaking — and it might be the phone that finally sells some holdouts on fol…

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I’ve been using the Find N6 for a while, but the full reveal and review isn’t until next week. What I can tell you about today is that…

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