I don't envy the Xiaomi 17 Ultra making its debut during MWC 2026. It comes hot on the heels of a different brand's ultra flagship, which is no doubt hogging some attention that Xiaomi would otherwise be getting. But fortunately for the 17 Ultra, it's not really playing in the same league as the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Xiaomi's ultra phones are designed to be content creation machines, and with the addition of a variable zoom telephoto camera, the 17 Ultra takes new strides in that area. While I am a bit disappointed that the 17 Ultra doesn't follow from the Xiaomi 17 Pro and its rear display design, its singular obsession with camera hardware arguably justifies leaving it out.

So how good is it? Let me show you.

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra is all about cameras

Xiaomi's new ultra phone features a 1-inch 50MP main camera, far larger than a typical smartphone camera. A larger sensor generally means higher quality images, so having a sensor close in size to an actual DSLR camera is obviously a big plus point for the Xiaomi 17 Ultra.

There's also a 200MP telephoto with adjustable zoom level, between 3.2 and 4.3x zoom. The Xiaomi 15 Ultra from last year had two zoom cameras to cover the same magnification levels, so combining these two sensors in one is quite a feat of engineering. And since this camera has a huge number of megapixels to play with, Xiaomi offers a max of 17.2x hybrid lossless zoom by cropping in on the hi-res sensor's output.

And if that wasn't versatile enough for you, you can also use the telephoto camera for macro photography - often a better option than the ultrawide camera mode that most other phone makers use for this purpose.

Joining these two headliner cameras are a 50MP ultrawide camera and a 50MP front camera. But these have seen some alteration in a sense too, since the 17 Ultra's whole rig has been tweaked by Leica as part of Xiaomi's partnership with the camera company.

Photo samples

So let's get into some samples taken against the brand new Galaxy S26 Ultra and the faithful iPhone 17 Pro Max.

First, this comparison between the Xiaomi 17 Ultra and iPhone 17 Pro Max, showing a square near Kings Cross. I think the iPhone's overall color balance is better, but the Xiaomi's more interesting, dynamic lighting is fun too.

This Xiaomi vs. Galaxy S26 Ultra comparison is a lot closer. There's perhaps more detail in the Xiaomi's image of this church, but Samsung's typically vivid colors have an appeal too.

At night, back against the iPhone 17 Pro Max, we see how the Xiaomi's large sensor benefits low-light image capture. The glow that the lights cast on the surrounding branches on the right are a detail that the iPhone doesn't really show.

Samsung phones take some of my favorite selfie portraits. The Xiaomi does a decent job of matching what the Galaxy S26 Ultra has produced, except my skin texture is weirdly flat, and it's not cut my glasses out from the background as neatly as the Samsung has.

Using the ultrawide mode of the Xiaomi and iPhone, we see how dark the iPhone's normally strong-performing sensor is compared to the Xiaomi. Perhaps that's more the fault of these metal sculptures I'm using as subjects, but it does to show that Xiaomi's camera performance claims are not hot air.

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra and Galaxy S26 Ultra both effectively have two telephoto cameras. It just happens that the Xiaomi combines its cameras into one. Anyway, zooming in on one of these paparazzi dogs, we can see so much more color in the Xiaomi's image, even if the Samsung still provides a reasonable amount of detail.

It's a shame for the Xiaomi that its 4.3x max optical zoom doesn't match the Samsung's 5x. But even if it can't get in quite as close, the big sensor behind the lens still produces an impressive image.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max's 4x telephoto camera is more on par with what Xiaomi has. Except in the color department, where we see in this zoom shot of the mural atop the Camden council building that there's a lot that the Xiaomi grabs and the iPhone does not.

That goes at 8x too, where both phones have to switch to hybrid zoom. The Xiaomi's image is perhaps sharper than it should be, but it catches the eye a lot more than the iPhone's does.

Lastly, here's a macro shot of some carved letters on a wooden bench. Xiaomi's bringing the color here again, and makes the crevices in the wood much more obvious. But perhaps the Samsung still gives a better impression of the overall detail we're zooming in on.

What else is it capable of?

Let's quickly check out the other highlights of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra's spec sheet. First off, we have its design, which has been lightened and thinned since last year's Xiaomi 15 Ultra despite the upgrades the 17 Ultra has received, to make the lightest Ultra Xiaomi phone yet. This is due in no small part to its fiberglass back and aluminum frame, an unusual combo on any phone, let alone a flagship device.

The 17 Ultra's up for grabs in either Black, White, or the entrancing Starlit Green you see in these images. I would never have thought I'd like the look of a literally glittering phone, but I am quite fond of this one. I'm also fond of the fact that the Xiaomi 17 Ultra's IP68-rated for water and dust resistance. It's good to know that this phone will stay safe even if it takes a dive into the kitchen sink.

The screen, a 6.9-inch OLED panel with 1 - 120Hz and a listed 3,500 nits peak brightness, is probably my favorite feature of the phone aside from the cameras. It's big, super-smooth when needed, and looks great even when just swiping through the menus. That's partly to do with Xiaomi's HyperOS 3 software too, which has some of the cleanest, snappiest animations I've seen on a phone.

Xiaomi went for the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset in the 17 Ultra, an appropriately top-tier chip that offers the best performance you're likely to find on any Android phone this year. It's joined by a spacious 16GB RAM and either a similarly generous 512GB or 1TB storage.

The last highlight is the 6,000 mAh battery, which, thanks to its silicon-carbon construction, meant I could easily get two days of moderate use from the Xiaomi 17 Ultra without charging. The phone supports 90W wired charging and 50W wireless charging, which should fill up the battery rapidly, if you have the correct charger to hand.

Accessories

As this is meant to be a phone for discerning photographers, Xiaomi has created two different peripherals especially for the 17 Ultra. The first of these is the Photography Kit, which is a case that gives the 17 Ultra a camera-like grip for easier handling, plus buttons on the top edge for more convenient photo and video taking.

The second is the Photography Kit Pro. This comes in two parts - the case and the grip. The case is familiar other than the removable camera surround, which you can swap for a rotating one that can be fitted with a standard DSLR filter to give extra texture to your images. The grip adds the same camera buttons as the standard Photography Kit, along with a zoom lever and a built-in battery to give your 17 Ultra some extra survivability.

While it's impressive how much proper camera tech Xiaomi is trying to fit onto its phone, I do wonder who would want to carry these extras around with them on a daily basis. Maybe if the price is right I'd be tempted to add this onto my own hypothetical purchase, but these accessories seem to exist more for the sake of showing off than actual practical need.

Final thoughts

Assuming it's available where you live (if that's Europe, it's possible, if it's North America, it's very unlikely), the Xiaomi 17 Ultra could be a reasonable choice if you want the ultimate camera experience that still fits in a single pocket. But as much as we've focused on the cameras (and deservedly so - they're really good cameras), it's Xiaomi's efforts to improve other elements of the phone that have impressed me more.

Enlarging the battery and slimming the once-bulky design, while also making the display larger and keeping the chipset and RAM up to par, helps give you more than a single reason to consider the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. It's a smart move - if you want to buy a camera, then buy a camera. The Xiaomi 17 Ultra wants to be as much like a real camera as possible, but remembering its core function at the same time should make for an ideal balance.

Let us know if you'd like a full review when we're back from Barcelona. But for now, check out what else we've seen at MWC 2026.

More from Tom's Guide

• Apple's Tim Cook teases 'big week ahead' starting Monday — cheap MacBook, new iPhone 17e and everything else we expect to see
• I spent 24 hours with the Galaxy S26 Ultra — what I like (and don’t) so far
• Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs S25 Ultra: What's different?

In the lead up to MWC Barcelona 2026 and on the heels of Xiaomi renewing its partnership with Leica, Leica revealed its first-ever international smartphone at the Xiaomi Launch Conference on 28 February, and it's called the Leitzphone. Powered by Xiaomi, the Leitzphone brings advanced imaging capabilities to a sleek, premium-looking smartphone.

With the Leitzphone, Leica is diving straight into the vast world of smartphones, and its bringing some of the tech found in its best mirrorless cameras to the palm of your hands. The Leitzphone packs a triple-camera system based on the Vario-APO-Summilux 14-100mm f/1.67–2.9 ASPH. lens, and the smartphone can capture 200MP images. A powerful processor and operating system are packed into a sleek, premium-looking body.

For the last few days, I've been spending hands-on time with the Leitzphone, and as someone who reviews the best cameras at Tom's Guide, this phone has me excited for the future of smartphones. My first impressions are extremely positive and as someone who's loyal to my Google Pixel, I'm seriously considering changing sides. Without further ado, let me take you through what I think of the Leitzphone so far...

A quick rundown

• What is it? The Leitzphone is Leica's first-ever smartphone, and it's powered by Xiaomi. It packs Leica's imaging tech, such as a 75-100mm optical zoom, optical image stabilization, autofocus and more. Xiaomi has "provided a powerful mobile platform that enables high-performance processing and efficient workflows," but this is a Leica through and through.
• Who is it for? It's a smartphone aimed at mobile photographers, or anyone who wants to take their photography to the next level. Sporting Leica's classic red dot on the back, it's the cheapest way of getting a Leica right now.
• How much does it cost? The Leica Leitzphone has a suggested retail price of approximately $2,100 / £1,700.00 / €1,999.00, and Leica is yet to confirm whether this is for the 512GB or 1TB model.
• When is it available to buy? Starting today (28 February), the Leica Leitzphone will be available via the official Leica website, Leica Stores and through select partner channels. More details yet to come.

The mindblowing 200MP camera is a winner

The Leitzphone is a well-endowed smartphone when it comes to its imaging specs, and as a photographer, its cameras are what had me most excited when I first heart of it — and they don't disappoint. The Leitzphone is fitted with four cameras: three on the back and a selfie camera on the front. Its main camera captures 50MP images at an f/1.67 aperture, and it has a 23mm full frame equivalent focal length. You also get an ultra-wide 50MP f/2.2 lens with a 115° FOV and a 14mm full frame equivalent focal length.

The photos in the gallery above were taken with the 50MP main camera, and I love how the colors have turned out. The oranges are bright while the greens are vivid, and the Leitzphone has captured plenty of detail in the photos of the birds and the squirrel. You can get really close to your subjects without moving an inch, thanks to the 120x zoom. Though you lose some sharpness and the image quality drops in terms of detail, such as in the last shot of the squirrel, the image has still turned out lovely.

And you see the photos of the European robin? I captured these when the robin was right overhead, perched on a tree branch that must have been thrice my height (so approximately 16.5 feet), and yet, the Leitzphone has done an excellent job of capturing it. The Leitzphone's triple-camera system features autofocus, and I found it quick to lock onto the animals. You also get optical image stabilization (OIS), which means that the smartphone eliminates camera shake and captures in-focus shots — handy for when you're shooting zoomed in or at slow shutter speeds.

But the main event is the 200MP 75-100mm telephoto lens with a variable f/2.39-2.96 aperture, and an optical zoom resulting in up to 400mm (17.2x) optical-level zoom. Images taken with an optical zoom are more highly detailed than ones taken with a digital zoom as the camera has to digitally crop the image rather than optically magnifying it. The Leitzphone's 200MP camera stitches nine images together to create one image, and the results are incredible.

As someone who absolutely adores her Google Pixel 10 Pro XL's cameras, I have to say, the Leitzphone blows Google's offering out of the water. While the Pixel 10 Pro XL uses AI to upscale images shot at long focal lengths, the Leitzphone doesn't, and that's something I really appreciate as images then turn out true-to-life. You can see samples in the gallery above.

The Leitzphone also features Leica's color profiles, which you'll find on its mirrorless cameras, such as the Leica Q3 43 and the Leica SL3. These include Vivid, Chrome, and Monochrome High Contrast. The last one is my favorite, and it's one I've used a fair bit on the likes of the Leica M11-D (black-and-white photos in the gallery above were shot with this color profile applied).

Alongside all of this, you also get a Leica Essential Mode, which recreates the iconic style of the Leica M9 and simulates the Leica M3 and ultra-fine MONOPAN 50 black-and-white film. Shutter speed, exposure and ISO can be manually adjusted, and to add to the photography experience, there's a Control Ring around the cameras for zooming in and out — but I have a bone to pick with it (more on that soon).

A sight for sore eyes

Every time I test a Leica camera, I'm blown away by the build quality and design. The German giant's cameras are sleek and extremely good-looking — they look as expensive as they cost. The same applies to the Leica Leitzphone.

This is a beautiful phone, sporting a black fibreglass rear panel with a knurled metal frame. The ridges along the edges of the phone make it more tactile to hold and use, and I never once felt like it was slipping out of my hands — as I often feel that way when using my Google Pixel 10 Pro XL without its case on.

Located in the top left corner around the back is Leica's classic red dot which adds to the Leitzphone's premium look and feel. You know you're holding and using a high-quality smartphone. I've found the Leitzphone an utter delight to use and carry around. The smartphone is compact and lightweight too, measuring 6.41 x 3.05 x 0.32 inches and weighing 7.88oz. If you're worried about the smartphone getting scratched, Leica includes a phone case as well as a lens cap for its camera system and a wrist strap in the box.

The 6.9-inch Xiaomi HyperRGB OLED display is also bright and colorful. According to Leica and Xiaomi, the Leitzphone can reach a peak brightness of 3,500 nits, and features a 120Hz refresh rate. In my testing, I found the screen easy to read, even in direct sunlight, and the touchscreen was extremely responsive and quick to register my touches and taps. I also like that the Leitzphone is IP68 dust and water resistant, as this enabled me to use the smartphone even when it started raining (which happens very often in the U.K. where I'm based).

"Best of both worlds" OS

The Leica Leitzphone is powered by Xiaomi, which means it uses the Xiaomi HyperOS 3 operating system and a Snapdragon® 8 Elite Gen 5 processor. As someone who has mostly used iPhones and Android phones in her life, I've been thoroughly enjoying the Leitzphone's operating system. It feels like the best of both worlds to me. You can add dynamic elements to its lock screen wallpaper — similar to the ones on iOS 26 — to create a 3D effect. This is something I always wished my Google Pixel 10 Pro XL had, so I'm happy to see it appear here.

Also similar to iOS is the fact that you need to pull down from the screen's top-right corner to access quick settings, such as WiFi, Bluetooth, etc., and pull from the middle to access the notifications drawer. Other aspects of the OS feel similar to Android, which I appreciate as a long-time Android user.

Battery life seems solid too. After six hours of being out and about and using the camera extensively, I still had 75% battery remaining, which blows my mind. This is thanks to a 6,000mAh Xiaomi Surge battery. The Leitzphone supports 90W HyperCharge (fast charging) and 50W wireless HyperCharge, so there are plenty of ways to top up the smartphone between charges.

But the camera Control Ring could be better

For the most part, I adore the Leica Leitzphone, but I have a bone to pick with the Control Ring located around the camera system on the back. The Control Ring enables you to zoom in and out, and it can quickly launch the camera too when your phone is locked. However, this free-moving wheel (which provides haptic feedback when turned) makes an annoying sound when you shake the smartphone ever so slightly. At first I thought something was wrong with it, but turns out that's just how it behaves (if you don't have the included lens cap on).

Another issue I have with the Control Ring is that it moves freely. There's no resistance so even if you have its functions disabled via the settings menu, it still moves. I suppose it can act as a fidget toy, as I often found myself playing with it while sitting idly. But it still isn't great news, and I wish it would stay locked in place when you weren't using it.

Leica Leitzphone: Outlook

The Leica Leitzphone is a mighty impressive phone, based on my week of use and first impressions. It's a delight to use thanks to its OS that blends the best of Android and iOS operating systems. Its sleek and extremely good-looking. Its Leica-powered cameras feature a 75-100mm optical zoom, optical image stabilization, autofocus, and can capture hi-res 200MP images that are sharp and very detailed.

It's also the cheapest way of buying a Leica, as most of Leica's mirrorless cameras and rangefinders retail for five grand, if not more. The Leitzphone's price feels just right, as the smartphone has a suggested retail price of $2,100 / £1,700. For the cameras, clean operating system, and the sleek design, it's a price I'd be willing to pay.

The Leica Leitzphone powered by Xiaomi is available to order from 28 February either directly from Leica or select retailers, and it comes with either 512GB or 1TB of internal storage.

More from Tom's Guide

• I tested the Leica Q3 43 for a week and fell in love — there’s just one problem
• I tested and loved the controversial Leica M EV1, but I’d choose this 4.5-star camera instead
• The Leica M11-D is one of the most challenging cameras I’ve reviewed — and it has made me a better photographer

There have been a lot of rumors around the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro, but the latest claim has revealed a potential upgrade for the phone that could be a big win for camera fans.

Well-known leaker Digital Chat Station posted on Chinese social network Weibo that Apple is currently working on two big camera upgrades: a variable-aperture main camera and a large-aperture telephoto lens. While DCS doesn’t specify which particular models this upgrade could come for, other rumors might provide an answer.

Back in 2024, leaker Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that Apple was planning to work on variable aperture rates for the iPhone 18 series. This was later followed up in October 2025, when a Korean report stated that Apple was proceeding with these plans, but only for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, and was in contact with its suppliers for the necessary components. With this in mind, it seems fair to assume that the upgrades mentioned by DCS are the same.

What does a variable aperture actually do?

The idea behind a variable aperture is simple - It allows a device to control how much light reaches the built-in camera sensor. How wide the aperture opens is represented by an f-stop number, with lower numbers meaning a larger opening, and vice versa. So, if you’re in dark conditions, the aperture will open so the sensor can receive more light, and close in bright conditions. This allows for more detailed, better-lit images.

This is commonly found on DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, but this tech is far less prevalent on smartphones. Also, phones that do feature a variable aperture often do not offer free control over the aperture. Instead, the devices allow the phone to adjust between two presets. For instance, the Honor Magic 7 Pro offers f/1.4 and f/2.0 aperture modes for its main camera. While that's not a lot of choice, that’s still more than the iPhone 17 series, or any of the other best camera phones we've tested have. These all use cameras with locked apertures instead.

Apple isn’t the only company looking into the technology, as there are rumors that Samsung has been working on the upgrade for the upcoming Galaxy S26 Ultra. Interestingly, the Korean company was one of the first to actually feature a two-stop variable aperture on mainstream phones, with the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S10. However, this was later dropped on the Galaxy S20 series and later to allow Samsung to focus on larger, higher-resolution sensors.

While the rumor concerning variable camera apertures has been around a while, Apple is well known for keeping any changes close to its chest. For now, we can only wait and see what Apple announces when it unveils its next generation of phones.

We’re expecting Apple to showcase the iPhone 18 Pro series alongside the iPhone Fold in September, but in the meantime, let us know what you think about the possibility of advanced cameras in the iPhone 18 Pro series.

More from Tom's Guide

• Siri 2.0 could be with us in just two weeks — here's what we have to look forward to
• iPhone 17e may be just as expensive as the iPhone 16e — and that's a huge disappointment
• iPhone 16e was overpriced and poor value — Apple needs to fix that with iPhone 17e

Washing machines haven't changed much visually over the years. But, there's something happening amongst the big home appliance brands. Increasingly, we're seeing multi-drum machines being unveiled which offer a whole new approach to how we do laundry.

Take the Hoover Multi-Wash, for example, which is quite possibly the weirdest washing machine I've ever seen, but it solves a major problem. With three drums, it offers you the change to wash and dry at the same time. But, Hoover isn't the only one making waves. At CES 2026, Hisense led the washing machine innovation with its newest model, which has an unusual name.

What's better than one drum?

Called the X-Zone Master, Hisense has called its latest innovation "the world's first infinitely scalable modular washer-dryer system." We're talking the a multi-drum design that starts off with one main unit and can be expanded over and over again with matching mini-modules to suit your needs.

If you want, you could have a home full of mini drums washing everything you need at the same time from baby clothes, to delicates, sports gear, pet bedding and more. Though I'm not sure I'd like to see my water bill after I get my multi-drum cleaning on rotation.

Apart from the name sounding like a spaceship straight out of sci-fi movie, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the way Hisense's newest innovation looks and I'd be a little worried that my home would quickly turn into a laundromat.

But, no-one's asking me to put in all the mini-drums, instead the X-Zone Master could simply be the main drum and two additional mini-modules – and that's an idea I can get fully on board with. Running separate loads simultaneously is a bit of a dream, especially with two small kids, and when I discovered that the entire system operates at under 46dB, I was even more impressed.

Hisense and Hoover aren't the only companies revolutionizing the washer-dryer though. Back in September 2025, Xiaomi also unveiled the Xiaomi Mijia Three-Zone Washing Machine Pro Drum 10kg, capable of three loads at the same time, which apparently is the magic number. Or five, or seven, or nine, if Hisense has anything to say about it...

The future of laundry?

It's certainly hard to innovate on a tried-and-tested method that's worked for years. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? But, with the new washer-dryer machines from Hoover, Xiaomi and now Hisense, I'm starting to become pretty convinced that multi-washing could be the staple in homes of the future. Or, a lot sooner than we think.

With these three huge companies all entering the market with the unique configuration of separate washer-dryer zones (akin to one big shocked mouth and two smaller eyes), there's certainly competition already emerging. But, are they competitively priced?

Well, it's pretty hard to say since they're not quite available to buy yet. In China, you can pick up the Xiaomi Mijia Washing Machine Pro for CNY 4,699, which is around $670/£500. Compared to some of the best washing machines, that's actually a surprisingly affordable price, but we'll have to wait and see what these prices actually look like when these models hit the global market.

More from Tom's Guide

• How much laundry can you fit into a full load and still get your items clean?
• You could be ruining your washing machine without knowing it — try these 3 cheap hacks to extend its life
• This one item is your secret weapon against washing machine mold — and it's not vinegar or baking soda

Often major phone manufacturers are accused of copying one another leading to a series of smart phones that essentially lookalike. Phone makers like to pretend they don't, but the Chinese company Xiaomi has no such qualms.

With the just announced Xiaomi 17 Pro and Pro Max, the company is going right at Apple with its latest flagship handsets. However, the new Xiaomi 17 phones are a bit more unique with a secondary screen on the back and a massive battery.

If the design of the phones weren't an obvious nod to the iPhone 17 series, CEO Lei Jun made it very clear with multiple references to Apple's latest phones with direct comparisons during the Xiaomi launch event in Beijing. It was repeatedly claimed that the Xiaomi 17 series wins on battery, performance, photography and more.

Earlier this month Xiaomi President Lu Weibing posted on Weibo that the new naming convention is meant to directly compete with Apple.

"We are directly competing with the iPhone in the same generation and at the same level," they wrote (machine-translated).

The Xiaomi 15 series just wrapped with the 15T, also revealed this week, but the company skipped straight to 17 to align against Apple.

Xiaomi 17 Pro vs iPhone 17 Pro

On paper, the Apple and Xiaomi devices aren't going straight head-to-head as the new phones feature the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and run on Xiaomi's Android-based HyperOS 3 arriving in October.

It's more in the design like the camera plateau that Apple introduced in the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max models this year. Xiaomi is filling that area with a display that looks very similar to the cover displays that you might see on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7.

It appears to act as a viewfinder for selfies, as well as a display for gaming, interactive widgets and media playback. There's even an official Gameboy-esque case for gaming on the tiny display.

Xiaomi's 17 Pro features a 6.3-inch display and the Pro Max goes up to 6.9-inch, the same as Apple's, though Xiaomi's phones weigh slightly less.

Humongous batteries

One of the other differences will be the enormous batteries crammed into the Xiaomi 17 Pro and Pro Max featuring 6,300mAh and 7,500mAh batteries, respectively. Plus, these phones support 100W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.

Apple doesn't release technical information on how large its batteries are in any iPhone. However, a leaked Chinese regulatory form suggests the iPhone 17 Pro features a 4,252mAh battery while the Pro Max has a 5,088mAh one.

In the Tom's Guide battery test, the iPhone 17 Pro Max lasted 17 hours and 54 minutes, three and a half hours longer than the Galaxy S25 Ultra and 20 minutes more than the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Xiaomi claims just over 22 hours on the base model Xiaomi 17, which features a 7,000 mAh battery.

In a pretty wild move, Xiaomi showed off an iPhone 17 comparison in a video playback test with the Xiaomi 17 and then slapped on a 5,000mAh MagSafe battery on the iPhone to show that Xiaomi's handset still beats Apple's device.

Chinese manufacturers have leaned heavily on silicon-carbide batteries in the last couple of years, which enables them to put larger capacity batteries in the same space as a lithium-ion one. Where in the US we see numbers around 5,000mAh, in China they're flirting with nearly 10,000mAh on some handsets.

Rumors and leaks claim Samsung and Apple might start using this technology in future phones, but for now, both firms have stuck with lithium-ion.

...but not for you and me.

The three Xiaomi 17 phones are available for preorder for Chinese customers with a release on September 27. At this time, Xiaomi has not announced any global plans.

It's possible the company could launch one or all three in Europe next year around Mobile World Congress which typically takes place in February. The company could also reveal its Xiaomi 17 Ultra.

As for the United States, the ongoing ban on Chinese phones means we likely won't see either of these phones here. The Xiaomi US website doesn't even list smartphones anywhere.

More from Tom's Guide

• Xiaomi 15 Ultra review: One of the best designed phones I’ve ever seen
• This could be the 2025's greatest camera phone, and it’s not from Apple or Samsung
• Qualcomm announces Xiaomi will have the first phone featuring the next Snapdragon 8 Elite

I've been trying out the Xiaomi 15T Pro, a smartphone that could be the best deal in mobile photography in 2025. So it's frustrating that it's going to be hard to get hold of for wannabe users in a number of countries.

Xiaomi makes excellent premium phones — the Xiaomi 15 Ultra one of the most fully-loaded photography phones in the world right now (with the price to match). But the "T" version of each Xiaomi flagship generation, coming about six months after the initial release, tones things down, and takes the cost down with it.

So what we have is a phone with 50MP rear cameras and 5x optical zoom, basically the same as you get on the iPhone 17 Pro Max or the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL. Except at 799 euros, you get that hardware for closer to the price of an iPhone 16e or a Galaxy S25 FE.

What's so good about the cameras?

To get specific, the Xiaomi 15T Pro features a 50MP 5x telephoto, rare for a phone of its price. You also get 10x "optical quality" zoom on top of that, just like the premium phones Xiaomi’s going after.

Xiaomi hasn’t neglected the main camera, which is also armed with a 50MP sensor. The ultrawide camera is the weakest of the trio, with a 12MP sensor; while the front camera gets a 32MP sensor.

So let's look at some camera samples, taken on a recent trip to Munich. We'll start with this main camera comparison between the Xiaomi and the iPhone 17 of a retro tourist bus.

Xiaomi and Leica's color processing has helped the blue and cream stripes of the bus pop. That being said, the iPhone handles the light better, especially in the reflections on the bus' chrome fixtures.

This selfie comparison, also taken against the iPhone 17, look pretty similar in terms of coloration, with the Xiaomi's most obvious difference being its stronger contrast, visible in my hair and beard. Interestingly though, the portrait effect of the Xiaomi has managed to cut out my glasses correctly, while the iPhone has not.

And when it comes to the telephoto camera, I took a series of shots aimed down a large avenue with the Pixel 10 Pro XL as my yardstick phone. While there are things I like and dislike about the Xiaomi 15T Pro's zoom camera, as I'll explain in a moment, it's still wild to see it go toe to toe with a phone that costs almost twice as much.

As we move from 2x zoom to 5x and finally to 10x, the 15T Pro's image is brighter, and sharper in places. However, the fountain jet comes across better in the Pixel's image, which manages to capture the water droplets more clearly.

Like we saw with the selfie, the sharpening in Xiaomi's algorithm remains quite strong, which helps with larger details like the lines fo the road and bridge. But examining finer details, especially at 10x magnification, reveals some weird artifacting that the Pixel smartly decides to smooth over.

Just like Xiaomi's other flagship phones, the 15T Pro uses Leica color science to prove its photographic chops. And for video, the phone offers 8K at 30fps or 4K up to 120fps, and HDR10+ on all cameras. Or if you want to get professional, you can record in Log format and color-correct your footage later with a LUT profile later.

What about the rest of the phone?

With its flat, aluminum-framed design, the Xiaomi 15T Pro falls in line with the current flat-sided crowd, although with a less prominent camera bump and a restrained overall look.

The available hues are either Black, Gray, or the Mocha Gold color of my review unit. I'd call it more of a bronze, but it's a beautiful color all the same.

Xiaomi went for Gorilla Glass 7i to protect the 15T Pro’s display, which is as good as protection gets without going for a flagship-grade Victus or Armor glass material instead. There’s also an IP68 rating, including water resistance up to 3-meters deeo (just under 11 feet) — three times the depth required for such a rating.

Returning to the display, the 15T Pro’s 6.83-inch screen is the largest of any regular phone that Xiaomi has produced, and enhanced further with a 144Hz refresh rate for a little extra smoothness in scrolling or gaming compared to the typical 120Hz panel of premium phones.

Xiaomi promises a 3,200 nits peak brightness, which is higher than what Apple rates the iPhone 17 series. Sure enough, side by side with a base iPhone 17, the 15T Pro looked a touch brighter to my eye. But the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, the brightest phone we've tested so far, is still a little brighter again.

But before you start worrying about accidentally dazzling yourself with the screen, the 15T Pro is equipped with DC Dimming brightness control and eye safety certifications from TÜV Rheinland to give users who find phone screens give them headaches some peace of mind.

The MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ chip is a 3-nanometer rival of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, seen in most of the Android phones of this price. In my hands-on testing with Destiny Rising, the Xiaomi happily handled the mobile version of Bungie’s MMO shooter at full settings — likely with the help of not just the chip but the latest LPDDR5X and UFS 4.1 standards for speedy RAM AND storage.

Xiaomi is selling all 15T Pro versions with 12GB RAM, the newly established standard for flagship phones. Your storage options are either 256GB, 512GB or 1TB, three typical memory specs for more expensive phones, but again rare at this price.

The 5,500 mAh battery inside the Xiaomi 15T Pro is claimed to last over 15 hours of "constant use," and while I didn't have the chance to run a full battery drain test, I didn't struggle to make it through a day with the 15T Pro as my sidekick.

In typical Xiaomi fashion, you also get rapid 90W wired and 50W wireless charging for quick refueling - a 50% charge in 15 minutes for the wired charger. Xiaomi also boasts that, in the unlikely event you drain the phone's battery entirely, its chargers will wake the phone up again in only four seconds, letting you quickly get back to what you were doing.

For software, the Xiaomi 15T Pro arrives with HyperOS 2, complete with "HyperAI" features such as real-time translation and captioning. But the HyperOS 3 update should apparently arrive in October this year, giving users an Android 16 upgrade fairly quickly.

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As we enter the doldrums of summer, Qualcomm, like many companies, is sharing revenue and future forecasting in its quarterly earnings call (via Android Central). The company hit double-digit growth, earning $10.4 billion in Q3 2025.

Qualcomm announced that the next Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset will come out at the end of September and that Xiaomi will be the first OEM to get the powerful chip.

"We are already working with several OEMs for launch of new devices based on a tremendous interest in it," Amon said. "And what you are seeing is really people getting ready for launch of new devices."

The company announced that Chinese phone maker Xiaomi will be the "first OEM to launch with our next Snapdragon 8 Elite chip." Not a huge surprise since the Xiaomi 15 was announced as the first device to feature the Snapdragon 8 Elite last year. It was quickly followed by options from Honor and OnePlus.

Some details of the expected Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 have already leaked, hinting at a huge performance boost. The chip could have a CPU running at 4.6GHz and a GPU at 12GHz, faster than the current chip, which is set at 4.47GHz.

Qualcomm earning notable information

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Snapdragon has released its latest chip: the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, which could appear in some of the best Android phones.

Originally reported by Android Authority, Qualcomm announced the new chip in China, although without the expected Snapdragon 8s Elite moniker that you might expect after the Snapdragon 8 Elite, Qualcomm's current top-performing smartphone chip was announced last year.

The biggest difference between the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 and its predecessor is that the new chip does not have any small cores in its design. Dropping the small cores will have the benefit of improving the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4’s multi-core performance. Qualcomm has stated that users can expect a 31% CPU improvement over last year's Snapdragon 8s Gen 3.

The new chip also uses the same Adreno GPU with the sliced architecture that featured on the Snapdragon 8 Elite seen in the Galaxy S25 series. A slide shared by Qualcomm China on Weibo suggested that the chip will feature two slices, meaning it is designed to be used in conjunction with other identical chips to improve processing power.

For reference, the Snapdragon 8 Elite features three slices. The new Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 also features 12 MB of dedicated memory. As such, we can likely expect a 49% graphical boost over the older model, as well as ray tracing support and the firm’s Game Super Resolution 2.0 tech.

The Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 also promises to improve AI performance on devices, due to featuring a faster NPU and twice the shared memory compared to the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. As such, Qualcomm claims that the chip will allow for 44% faster AI performance for devices with the chip.

The new chip will reportedly also support 320MP images, 108MP single camera support with multi-frame processing and 36MP cameras. When it comes to video, the new chip can support 4K videos with 30 frames per second in low light, as well as offering real-time skin tone and sky tone correction.

The Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 also introduces two connectivity upgrades, namely Bluetooth 6.0 and XPAN support. XPAN, if you’ve not heard of the term, means you can connect to compatible wireless earbuds over WiFi, rather than requiring a Bluetooth connection.

The chip also includes an unspecified 4nm design, which would allow the chip to offer improved performance while being smaller in size, 144Hz refresh rate support at QHD+ or WQHD+ resolution, aptX Adaptive/Lossless/Voice integration, Quick Charge 5, and Wi-Fi 7. Qualcomm also stated that the phone will bring a 5G modem with peak download speeds of 4.2 gigabytes per second, although it appears to lack mmWave support.

While we don’t have any word on which models will see the chip, we expect that it will feature in cheaper devices from brands like Xiaomi and OnePlus in the near future. The previous chip, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, is expected to be included in the Nothing Phone (3), so perhaps we'll see a future Nothing handset use it too.

Overall, the Snapdragon 8s gen 4 looks to be a marked improvement over the older model, but we won’t know for sure until we have a chance to put a device with it installed through its paces. We would expect, however, that any phones with it installed would be in with a chance of finding a place in our best cheap phones list.

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Global smartwatch shipments dipped 7% in 2024 compared to the year prior. This is the first time since the original Apple Watch model debuted in 2014 that the market has seen any decline.

Based on data from the market research firm Counterpoint, Apple was hit hard by sluggish sales numbers. Compared to 2023, the Cupertino King shipped customers 19% fewer Apple Watch units. That’s quite the drop.

Why are Apple Watch sales dropping?

Source: Counterpoint Research Global Smartwatch Shipments Tracker by Model, Q4 2024

Blame it on the highly-anticipated Apple Watch Ultra 3 failing to materialize or the fact that the tenth-anniversary Apple Watch — the only new release we did get in 2024 — isn’t all that different from the Series 9 that came before it, even if it is the best smartwatch you can buy today.

Apple’s patent dispute with Masimo — which Apple recently effectively won — over the brand’s blood oxygen sensor tech also hurt sales early in 2024. For a short time, sales of the Series 9 and Ultra 2 were banned in the U.S.

Finally, Apple has yet to meaningfully incorporate Apple Intelligence features into the Apple Watch (though AI-generated notification summaries are pretty sweet).

All this adds up to a lack of excitement surrounding the Apple Watch. And without something truly groundbreaking or eye-popping in the pipeline for this year, I suspect Apple will continue to see its sales numbers shrink.

That said, with rumors pointing to a forthcoming Apple Watch Ultra 3 that could sport a larger display, significant battery life improvements, and high blood pressure warnings, along with a potential Apple Watch SE 3 at a more wallet-friendly price point, don’t count Cook and Co. out just yet.

Some smartwatch brands saw growth

On the flip side, Samsung noted a slight uptick in smartwatch sales of 3%. Google, meanwhile, was absent from the report.

Smartwatch makers focused on budget-friendly models managed to fare even better. The Chinese manufacturer Huawei, for instance, shipped 35% more devices in 2024 than in 2023. Xiaomi, meanwhile, noted a massive 135% increase in smartwatch sales.

While both manufacturers have a modest presence in the U.S., they’re selling smartwatches like hotcakes in other markets, most notably in Asia.

According to Xiaomi, the wallet-friendly Xiaomi Redmi series — which starts at around $50 — and the higher-end Xiaomi S1 proved especially popular.

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I have made no secret about the fact camera bumps are getting too big. Just look at the iPhone 16 Pro Max and Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Some phones have been able to incorporate those bumps into quite smart designs, but what if we could eliminate the bump altogether? That's the idea behind Xiaomi’s Modular Optical System (or MOS).

MOS was on display here at MWC 2025, and the idea behind this concept device is that you can attach compact camera lenses onto the back of your phone. Forget the iPhone's MagSafe; this takes things to the next level.

This essentially turns your phone into a mirrorless camera, rather than relying on the traditional camera lenses that live on the back of the phone.

Move over, MagSafe

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen phone makers offer ways to attach beefier camera lenses to the back of their phones.

The difference here is that the MOS doesn’t require any cases or adapter rings. The lens simply snaps onto a magnetic ring on the back of the phone, much like the myriad of MagSafe accessories that are on sale.

The only real difference is that the MOS relies on a pair of contact pins, forming a physical connection between the phone and lens. According to Xiaomi this offers a “LaserLink” communication that allows for “nanosecond RAW data transfer”.

In other words, this is fast and likely much more convenient than a wireless connection as a result.

Other points of note include a f/1.4 aperture, a M4/3 sensor and a design that’s up to 50% shorter than your typical camera lens. There’s also a spinning dial on the lens itself, though it isn't clear whether this has a clear purpose or if you’ll have the option to tinker with it.

Since the concept model on show at MWC is all in Chinese, there was a limit to how much information I could glean from it.

The MOS concept felt pretty comfortable in my hand, not particularly heavy but also not that light either. That said, the real star of the show was the ability to quickly snap the lens into place.

The connection was near enough instant, and should Xiaomi decide to develop this technology further things could get pretty interesting.

But for now, this is simply a proof of concept, and the Modular Optical System isn’t scheduled to be going on sale anytime soon. But it does look promising.

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Xiaomi is reportedly working on one of the largest batteries we've ever seen for the next generation of Redmi phones.

There has been much talk recently about the increase in battery sizes, especially with the recent OnePlus 13, which came with a massive 6,000 mAh battery. However, veteran leaker Digital Chat Station has taken to social media platform Weibo to reveal that Xiaomi plans to exceed this with its Redmi brand. According to DCS, the Chinese brand has confirmed a 7,500 mAh battery will be coming to a future device, and an 8,000 mAh battery is currently being tested.

Now, this isn't the largest battery on the market at the moment. It is possible to find several rugged phones with batteries as large as 10,000 mAh. However, in the report from Android Authority, the new Redmi is expected to be more like conventional smartphones. If this is accurate, it would mean that the next Redmi's battery life could exceed phones like the RedMagic 9 Pro and even the upcoming Galaxy S25 Ultra.

However, this larger battery does appear to have some issues. The main, stated in a response by DCS to one of the comments, is that the increased battery would not support wireless charging. It should also be noted that, while the unnamed Redmi might exceed the Galaxy S25 Ultra's battery life, it might struggle against the Galaxy S26. According to a recent post on X by Jukanlosreve, the Galaxy S26's batteries could include a silicone-carbon battery, meaning more power in a smaller package.

This isn't the only news we've heard about Xiaomi this week, as another recent post from DCS revealed some of the hardware specs for the Xiaomi Mix Flip 2. According to the post, the phone will come with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, improved cameras, full-size NFC, and a side fingerprint sensor. Meanwhile, another post on X indicates that the phone will come with a 5,600-5,700 mAh battery.

The news of an improved battery in the next Redmi is interesting, however, the real question is if the phone will be released in the US. If it does, then I do not doubt that it could find a place on our best phone battery life page.

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Several leaks have revealed the apparent specs for the Xiaomi Mix Flip 2, including improved batteries and a more powerful chip — and Samsung should take note.

While last year's Xiaomi Mix Flip had some issues, like weaker foldable-centric features and clunky design elements, the phone had a lot to offer users. The phone offered a great basis for Xiaomi to build upon, and recent social media posts have indicated that the Xiaomi Mix Flip 2 will be quite the upgrade. While we don't have full details of the phone's specs, the few mentioned upgrades look impressive.

The first leak comes from known source Digital Chat Station, which mentions on Weibo that the Xiaomi Mix Flip 2 will feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. Alongside this will be a 50MP main camera, a 50MP ultra-wide camera and a 6.85-inch display. Finally, the post mentions a "hyperbolic super-large secondary screen," full-size NFC and a side fingerprint scanner. Meanwhile, @That_Kartikey posted on X that the Xiaomi Mix Flip 2 could get a 5,600-5,700 mAh battery while also being thinner and lighter.

If accurate, these would be some pretty decent changes over the older model, and it represents a bit of an issue for Samsung. While there are indications that the Galaxy Z Flip 7 will be thinner and lighter, other leaks have indicated the phone could see a downgrade by coming with the Exynos 2500 chip over the more powerful Qualcomm chip.

It's a sad statement that Samsung foldable phones appear to be in a trend of offering fewer hardware improvements. For instance, while the Galaxy Z Fold 6 did offer some improvements over the Galaxy Z Fold 5, they were minimal enough that upgrading wasn't a necessity.

This wouldn't be such an issue if Samsung was still the main name in the game, but that isn't the case. Many developers released new and improved foldable phones in 2024. We saw devices like the Pixel 9 Pro Fold and Nubia Flip 5G offering customers more variety at a lower cost, while the One Plus Open is still in the top place of our best foldable phones list. Meanwhile, reports from Korea indicate that Samsung is reducing the production of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 by up to 39%.

At this point, there is still a lot we don't know about the Xiaomi Mix Flip 2, including if it will even be released in the States. However, like the OnePlus Open 2, it represents the competition that Samsung is facing in the market. While we don't know all of Samsung's plans for its next generation of foldables, it has a lot of ground to make up.

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Even though it's made four generations of book-style foldables, Xiaomi has steered clear of making a foldable flip phone. But now we have the Xiaomi Mix Flip, and it’s here to subvert your flip fold expectations for both good and bad.

The benefit of entering a smartphone niche late is you can crib from your rivals' previous models. The Mix Flip has certainly done that. It has elements you can spot as originating with the Galaxy Z Flip line or the reborn Moto Razrs, along with Xiaomi staples like a stylishly restrained design, strong performance and high-quality photography hardware.

But decisions like the weirdly chunky hinge and worst-of-all-worlds cover screen layout design just don't make sense, even if there is some underlying logic to Xiaomi doing things this way with the Mix Flip. Plus you can’t ignore the fact you won't find the Xiaomi if you shop for phones at many wireless carriers. It's also unlikely to be available to U.S. shoppers..

Although I think most flip phone buyers are better off looking elsewhere, I promise this Xiaomi Mix Flip review is still positive about the phone overall. If phones like the Z Flip and Razr haven't appealed to you before, I hope to show you how you might finally get your flip fix with the Mix Flip.

Xiaomi Mix Flip: Specs

Xiaomi Mix Flip review: Price and availability

Xiaomi's selling the Mix Flip for £1,099, now that the phone officially launched in the U.K. on September 26.. That just so happens to be the same price as the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 in the U.K. (That phone costs $1,099 in the U.S. to give you some idea of what a Mix Flip might cost should Xiaomi ever expand its markets.) The Moto Razr 50 Ultra — or Moto Razr Plus 2024 as it's known in the U.S. — costs £100 less than the Mix Flip

Xiaomi phones aren't sold in the U.S. through your typical stores and carriers, but determined users can import one via various online retailers. Always check the compatible cell bands though, as phones not intended for certain markets may not work with the frequencies available there.

Xiaomi Mix Flip review: Design and display

With a 4.01-inch outer screen and a 6.86-inch inner display, the Mix Flip has a lot of display even for a flip foldable. Bezels are on par with its Samsung and Moto rivals, while the outer screen's curved edges on all four sides give the Mix Flip some extra personality while also making it feel better when trying to use it closed up.

The rounded square shape of both halves of the Mix Flip mean it feels nice when unfolded too, but it also leaves a big gap between the halves when open. That's a contrast to other foldables, which keep that gap as small as possible. Also, the Mix Flip's rounded hinge protectors that sit at either end of the mechanism seem prominent, and I caught my fingers on them a fair amount.

Otherwise, what you're getting with the Mix Flip is a well-built, classically understated Xiaomi design, save for some Leica branding on the hinge. You also get your pick of black, white and purple colorways, which are rather tame for a flip foldable, but probably enough variety for most users.

Compared to the Motorola Razr, the Xiaomi's screen is brighter and cooler-colored, while offering slightly higher resolutions. Even though the Razr has the larger displays inside and out, I prefer using apps and watching video on the Xiaomi.

However that might change if I had to take a flip foldable outside into the elements. The Razr and Galaxy Z Flip 6 are both IP-rated for water resistance, but the Xiaomi is not, meaning you could be in trouble if it starts raining heavily outside.

Xiaomi Mix Flip review: Cameras

The Mix Flip offers Leica-tuned lenses just like Xiaomi's regular flagship phones. You only get two rear cameras — a 50MP main camera and 50MP 2x zoom telephoto — plus the 32MP selfie camera within, but this is in line with other flip foldables.

We can see how well these cameras perform in the below comparisons against the Razr 50 Ultra/Razr Plus. Starting with a main camera shot of Sheffield's Castlegate bridge, the Xiaomi's shot is far brighter, helping bring out the colors of the bridge and making the grey sky a little more appealing.

As for this 2x shot of a fish sculpture near the city's train station, things are reversed. The Moto's image is much livelier and full of detail, although it also has a redder color cast that looks a little too artificial. While it can't reproduce the intricacy of the sculpture's scales so well, the Xiaomi offers more honest coloring this time.

Finally, we have a pair of portrait selfies. I look brighter but flatter in the Razr shot, while the Xiaomi captures the dynamic range in more detail. The Mix Flip has done a much better job with the portrait effect too, cutting out my glasses cleanly.

Xiaomi Mix Flip review: Performance

A top-flight Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip powers the Mix Flip's activities, along with a single memory spec of 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. That's generous even for a standard phone, let alone a flip foldable.

Armed with the same chip as the Galaxy Z Flip 6 (and the bigger sibling of the one in the Razr Plus), we see some big scores in the CPU and GPU tests from the Xiaomi Mix Flip. The only areas it falls down compared to the Z Flip 6 are in the multi-core section of the Geekbench benchmark and in its time to transcode a 4K video into a 1080p one.

One other boast the Mix Flip can make is that it's WiFi 7 ready. This is the latest Wi-Fi standard, and one you're unlikely to find on a router you regularly use for several years, so it's a nice bit of futureproofing from Xiaomi.

Xiaomi Mix Flip review: Battery and charging

Xiaomi's way ahead of the competition when it comes to the Mix Flip's battery specs. The 4,780 mAh battery is larger than several regular-sized non-foldable devices, and 67W wired charging is far speedier than all but a select few phones on the market today.

In our own testing, the Xiaomi Mix filled up to 33% from empty in 15 minutes, to 64% in 30 minutes and to full in 59 minutes. The Galaxy Z Flip gets to 55% in half an hour, which is not only a smaller percentage but is fewer mAh filled overall too. Motorola offers up to 45W charging with the Razr Plus, but it doesn't bundle the phone with a charger like Xiaomi does.

The Mix Flip's capacious battery dropped 18% over 3 hours of Wi-Fi YouTube playback at 50% brightness. The Moto Razr lost 21% in the same time, which does show the extra milliamp-hours are making a difference for the Xiaomi. I had hoped for a wider margin considering the almost 20% size difference in these phones' batteries though.

Xiaomi Mix Flip review: Software and special features

Android 14, combined with Xiaomi HyperOS, runs operations on the Mix Flip.The basics are recognizably Android, but Xiaomi continues to heavily modify the look of the interface, including adding elements like split notifications/quick settings and custom app icons.

Xiaomi currently offers four years of Android updates for its phones, and five years of security updates, which beats the 3 years full /4 years security updates offered by Motorola for its Razrs. Samsung promises 7 years of full updates for the Z Flip 6, besting Xiaomi.

Xiaomi's paid attention to how other folding phones have used their flexibility and their cover displays, but its attempt to synthesize what's come before hasn't had the best result. The Mix Flip's outer screen is huge, even accounting for the cameras taking up space within it, which is a great start. It offers a widget stack in the top right corner to quickly swipe between a few pre-determined widgets and the option to use a few pre-selected apps on the main grid that you can then use somewhat as normal in a narrow window to the side of the screen, with the widget stack and cameras taking up the rest of the space.

This system's kinda clever, but it's splitting the difference between the Moto Razr's ability to place or use anything on its cover screen or the Galaxy Z Flip 6's more tailored widget experience with its home screen option. The result on the Mix Flip feels like an unsatisfying compromise.

The Mix Flip includes a hover mode, which holds the hinge open at 90 degrees or sharper angles for special app modes. That's not so unique, but it proves just as useful as the other foldables' version of the same feature. However, Xiaomi's version bugs out in apps like YouTube, stopping you seeing half the video you're watching until you restart the app. This could of course be fixed down the road, but it's an issue I experienced multiple times during my testing.

Xiaomi's benefitted from some of Google's exclusive AI features becoming openly available. The Gemini assistant and Circle to Search are yours to use on the Mix Flip, and so are Xiaomi's takes on AI live and text translation, notes summarizing and organizing, recording and generative image editing. You'll find more, and more polished, features on the Galaxy Z Flip 6, but the Mix Flip's version is plenty serviceable for the typical user.

Xiaomi Mix Flip review: Verdict

I like the Xiaomi Mix Flip a lot, even if it doesn't take as much advantage of its foldable status as rival handsets do. If you consider the Mix Flip as a well-specced regular smartphone that happens to fold in half, you'll better appreciate its strengths. But there are strong foldable options out there.

Even with the big outer screen, the way Xiaomi wants you to use the Mix Flip isn't well-optimized, and since flip foldables have a regular-sized inner display, you can't take advantage of tablet-style multitasking in the same way you could on a largeable foldable. But having access to a few key apps even with the phone shut and being able to use them with that excellent inner display, quick chipset and frugal battery life, means you can easily get the best out of the Mix Flip in more mundane ways.

Users wanting the best flip foldable experience are going to be better served by the Moto Razr 50 Ultra/Plus 2024 or the Galaxy Z Flip 6. And if you want the best possible value for the Mix Flips £1,099 asking price, going with a Galaxy S24 Plus, Pixel 9 Pro or OnePlus 12 will give you the best overall experience. But despite listing a handful of other great phones you could get for the money, I'm still going to miss the Mix Flip once I'm done with testing. What the Mix Flip does, it does well, even if I wish it could do more.

Xiaomi has released its latest Redmi phones, the Redmi Note 14 series, and it could be decent competition to the Galaxy S24 FE.

The company has announced three variations of the Redmi Note 14, the most powerful being the Redmi Note 14 Pro Plus. This phone comes with some heavy-duty durability with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the front and Gorilla Glass 7i on the back, as well as IP68 and IP69 ratings. The Pro Plus model also has a 6,200 mAh battery and 90W wired charging. However, what sets it apart is a 50MP 2.5x telephoto camera with 5x lossless zoom, a 50MP primary camera, an 8MP ultrawide and a 20MP front camera. It's an impressive setup and blows the Galaxy S24 FE's 8MP telephoto zoom and 10MP selfie camera out of the water.

These are some impressive specs worthy of one of the best camera phones, and the images will look great on the 6.67-inch OLED screen. It's not all fantastic, as the phone comes with the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, which is relatively decent but falls behind the more current Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. It will be interesting to see how it compares to the Exynos 2400e found in Samsung's latest affordable phone. There is also a Redmi Note 14 Pro model that has a smaller battery, a Dimensity 7300 chip and no telephoto camera option. However, it does come with a 2MP Macro shooter instead.

Finally, the Redmi Note 14 base model isn't quite as impressive as the other phones in the series. It has a Dimensity 7025 Ultra chip, a 6.67-inch FHD+ OLED screen and a 5,110mAh battery. Meanwhile, the camera options are limited, with only a 50MP main camera, a 2MP depth sensor and a 16MP selfie camera. 

Speaking of price, all of the phones look to be pretty great value, depending on exchange rates. While we don't know when or if the phone will ship outside of China, we can expect to find out in the next couple of months as the company tends to delay for a while after the initial release. The Redmi 14 Pro Plus currently costs 1,999 yuan, which comes to about $285, for the 8GB/128GB model and 2,399 yuan, about $342, for the 16GB/512GB model. If the price stays the same, we could have one of the best affordable phones. 

The other two phones are also pretty cheap, with the Pro model only costing 1,499 yuan, about $214, for the low-end stats and 1,199 yuan, around $171, for the Redmi Note 14 base model. 

The Chinese smartphone market has been making some surprising reveals recently, For instance, the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate, the world's first tri-foldable phone. However, we never know when or if the phones will be released on the global market. All we can do is keep our eyes open and let you know when we discover more. 

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Samsung is working on the Galaxy Z Fold 6, which will be announced at the next Galaxy Unpacked event. It's not the only company working on a new foldable, though, as a new leak showed off the Xiaomi MIX Fold 4, which looks like an attractive foldable smartphone.

The leak comes from an image posted by Evan Blass on X, and it shows off the back of the phone, which is perhaps the least exciting part of a foldable. After all, we want to see the giant screen and hinge to see how the foldable works. Still, we can see the large camera array with Leica branding on the back of the phone. We can also see four lenses, a flash and a mirrored panel.

Blass also shed some light on the camera hardware, revealing that it has a 50MP primary sensor leading the charge. Leica is returning to lend its lens and processing power to the camera, which should help it capture high-quality images. 

The advanced look at the phone also shows off a powdery silver colorway that looks slick and attractive without being too bright and in your face. The image also shows off a bright silver hinge, barely peaking out from the side of the device. 

Finally, we learned some more about the specs of the phone. It's reported to have a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with wireless charging capabilities, a 5,000mAh or larger battery and an IPX8 water resistance rating (which is standard on foldable, which never seem to have a dust rating). 

Important to note is that Blass said the image may be "non-final." That means we could see some significant changes as the device moves through its development process. It could also go the other way and not see many changes, so we'll have to wait until the phone is officially announced or more leaks come out before we know more. 

Based on the August MIX Fold 3 release date, we could see the new phone launch as soon as next month. However, the reports indicate that the phone won't launch globally, but we'll have to wait to see in which regions Xiaomi launches it. 

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The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is so focused on being a great photography phone, you can also buy an optional accessories kit to make it look and behave more like an actual purpose-built digital camera. But since this is still a £1,300 flagship Android phone, albeit one equipped with a quad rear camera array, it'll still take care of all your phone needs.

Xiaomi's selling the 14 Ultra globally this year, although still not in the U.S. So without the home turf advantage of staying a China-exclusive device, the comparisons against the other best camera phones we've tested are quite relevant. And in particular the phone at the top of our guide - the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

As you'll see below, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra has several impressive on-paper advantages over the iPhone 15 Pro Max, but when you take the two phones out into the real world, things become more complicated. We've got several sample comparisons for you to check out, as well as our opinions on which photos are better, and why, below.

Xiaomi 14 Ultra vs. iPhone 15 Pro Max: Camera Specs

If you ever forget the resolution of one of the cameras on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, guessing it's 50MP is a fairly safe bet. The phone features four 50MP cameras, serving as main (also used for intermediate 2x shots), ultrawide, 3.2x and 5x telephoto, with a maximum of 120x zoom on offer. These, plus a 32MP front camera, were developed in association with the team at Leica, as the prominent branding on the big round camera block wants to remind you of.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max offers the same maximum optical zoom range, but lacks a second telephoto camera, and maxes out at just 25x zoom. It also lacks resolution in comparison, coming close with its 48MP main camera but lagging behind with its remaining 12MP sensors front and back.

Xiaomi 14 Ultra vs. iPhone 15 Pro Max: Photo samples

Now let's actually see what the cameras of these two phones can produce. For reference, all of the Xiaomi images were taken using the "Leica Vivid" color profile, one of two options you can switch between while in the camera app (the other being Leica Authentic). Otherwise, I used default settings for both phones.

There's immediately a noticeable difference in the colors of this image of Camden Town Underground station, taken with the two phones' main cameras. The whole scene — but especially the station's trademark oxblood tiles — look richer in the Xiaomi image, and it's a touch sharper too when you look at fine details like the mech around the top of the building. 

The iPhone has a bit more color in the sky though, which makes for a more balanced image but if you want to focus on the tube station, the Xiaomi's the better of the two.

Winner: Xiaomi 14 Ultra

A little down the road at Camden Lock, we see the same color difference. However, the iPhone's image is a fair bit brighter, which brings out the detail in dark areas like the walls along the canal. There's also more contrast between the tree and the water in the iPhone's shot. 

Winner: iPhone 15 Pro Max

It's the iPhone that's brighter when the sun goes down too, as this snapshot of my backyard at night shows. There's still detail to be found in the Xiaomi photo, but it disappears as you look at the darkest parts of the image on the right hand side of the frame. 

Winner: iPhone 15 Pro Max

Moving now to the ultrawide lens, this shot from the middle of Camden Market Buck Street still shows the Xiaomi image as the more vividly colored. This is particularly visible in the clothes on the stalls and the keychains in the souvenir shop. You can also make out more details in the shadowy areas. 

Winner: Xiaomi 14 Ultra

Now we return to the main camera for the first of our zoom comparisons - a 2x zoom using the main camera sensor. Back at Camden Lock, this image of the tree overhanging the canal is best shown off in the iPhone's brighter image. The Xiaomi's image is still detailed; it just doesn't pop as much. 

Winner: iPhone 15 Pro Max

Moving to 3x, the Xiaomi can use the first of its two telephoto cameras, while the iPhone has to make do with digital zoom. It's obvious with upon close inspection that the Xiaomi shot is much more detailed in the sign. The iPhone offers a more saturated photo but it's not nearly as sharp. 

Winner: Xiaomi 14 Ultra

At 5x, where both phones can use dedicated zoom lenses, there's not much difference between them. There seems to be a bit more texture to the Xiaomi's photo though, especially in the bricks. 

Winner: Xiaomi 14 Ultra

The Xiaomi's party trick is its 120x zoom range, which I demonstrate above with several images of the Camden Lock bridge. I'm astonished at how good everything looks even at the full 120x magnification, although it took several tries and the support of a nearby streetlamp to steady myself enough to get the shot you see here.

We end the comparisons as always with a selfie portrait. The Xiaomi phone's applied some skin-smoothing beautification to my face, which means it's less accurate to my actual appearance but is perhaps a worthwhile feature to keep enabled for your social media posts' sake. Both phones have done an excellent portrait effect, though I enjoy the iPhone's blurrier default bokeh more. And both have missed the mark with my hair. It's too dark in the Xiaomi image, and too light in the iPhone's in this instance.

Winner: Draw

It was for this that I appreciated the camera accessory kit the most, since it makes it easier to keep a stable grip on the phone when trying to zoom in. Zooming in's also made easier by the camera-style sliding switch, as you don't need to adjust the way you hold the phone like you would if you needed to use the on-screen touch controls.

Verdict 

It's safe to say the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is a very capable camera phone, even without diving into advanced features like its fully adjustable main camera aperture or its in-depth Pro controls for photo and video. Its zoom abilities are astonishing, and the color you get from its images makes the iPhone look drab at points. About the only weakness is how it processes the shadows in its images, something the iPhone has no issue with. Nonetheless, the Xiaomi won this face-off after tallying up the wins, winning or drawing five times compared to the iPhone's four.

Despite the Xiaomi's great showing in this review, I think the iPhone 15 Pro Max is still the better camera phone choice for most users. Other than the lack of availability for American buyers being an issue, the Xiaomi's very expensive, even for a flagship phone. And as phone cameras are primarily meant to be used for point-and-shoot purposes (at least to me), the iPhone still deserves its top spot on our best camera phones guide, along with other flagship phones like the Galaxy S24 Ultra or Pixel 8 Pro, which follow the same philosophy. 

But if you'd rather your phone cater to a deeper enthusiasm for photography, acting more as a pocketable DSLR, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra may satisfy that need better than anything else on sale right now.

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If there’s one thing that Mobile World Congress continues to prove to me time after time, it’s that there’s a lot of innovation found in phones launched outside of the U.S. Case in point: this past MWC introduced us to the Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s quad-lens Leica camera system, which seemingly would be a best camera phone contender based on the amount of cameras it’s packing. What’s most impressive, though, is that the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is sporting a variable aperture that gives users even more control over the camera. 

And you know what? Every phone maker needs to copy it.

Even though we’ve seen variable apertures in phones before — remember the Galaxy S9 back in 2018? — what makes Xiaomi’s implementation better is that it’s a motorized system. Xiaomi refers to it as a “Stepless Variable Aperture,” which unlike the Galaxy S9, can adjust the aperture in 0.01 stop increments. Other phones emulate this through software, much like how the portrait modes in many phones let you dial in the aperture to either enhance or lessen the background blur effect, but it’s not the same as a physical aperture.

The average person may not think much about why this is important, but as content creation continues to be a main function for many, this ability to adjust the camera’s aperture will increasingly be important.

Today’s best camera phones, like the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S24 Ultra, can make the average person seem like a seasoned portrait photographer — but I think every phone maker should copy this Xiaomi 14 Ultra camera feature with their future releases, including the iPhone 16 Pro and Galaxy S25 Ultra. Here’s why.

More seamless exposure adjustment with video

There’s a more practical reason for variable apertures to exist in phones to record video because it helps to minimize those jarring jumps with the exposure of the scene. If you’ve ever recorded video in bright conditions and then quickly point the camera to a darker scene, you can sometimes see the exposure trying to adapt to the sudden change, resulting in a jarring exposure change.

With a variable aperture, the transition from light to dark and vice versa won’t be as dramatic because the aperture will adjust accordingly with the other camera settings. This setting could also work in tandem with how these phones also adjust other camera parameters, like the shutter speed and ISO level, so that the result makes video look more seamless with the sudden shift in lighting conditions.

Maintains that ‘cinematic’ look

When it comes to capturing that "cinematic" look with video, it often pertains to the camera’s frame rate. Yet, many forget that it’s also impacted by the camera’s shutter speed. Most films and movies achieve this by shooting at the frame rate of 24 fps with a shutter speed of 1/50.

When you have a fixed aperture that’s recording video at 24 fps, the only way it’s able to record video while maintaining the same exposure throughout the scene is for it to adjust the shutter speed — which can make the video look like it has too much motion because the shutter speed jumps up to a faster rate like 1/500. That shutter speed is more appropriate for action scenes like those in Gladiator when Russel Crowe’s cleaning up house in the Colosseum, but it doesn’t look great for everything else.

By having a variable aperture, camera phones will be able to better maintain the cinematic look with video — with that "just right" amount of motion blur that we’re all used to watching in films. As more people lean on their phones to capture cinematic looking video, having access to a variable aperture allows them to have more control over the way it looks.

And yes, it’ll make your photography better

So far, I’ve explained how a variable aperture camera benefits video recording, but it also has a practical application with photography. Portrait photos can look even better with the help of a variable aperture camera because it would help to isolate your subjects better from the rest of the scene.

Take for example how the iPhone captures portrait photos. It does it by producing a nine-layer depth map with the help of the ultra-wide camera running through the scene, while the telephoto camera focuses on your subject. With the data it acquires, the iPhone applies the bokeh or blur to every part of the short apart from your subject.

Now, the problem with this current implementation is that it can still show imperfections, like how some things should be blurred out but they’re not. By adding the data from a main camera with a variable aperture, it can produce a more realistic portrait photo.

This would extend to other types of photography as well, like how you can have more stuff in focus when capturing macro photos. One of the problems with macro photography is that when you try to get extremely close to your subject, you often have an isolated spot that’s in focus — while everything else is blurred out. By closing the aperture, you’ll have more of the subject in focus.

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It's a real shame that the Xiaomi 14 is not going to be offered for sale in the U.S. because it's exactly the sort of phone that buyers left wanting by Samsung, Google or Apple's base flagship models are looking for.

As other manufacturers pour their focus and best tech into their larger phones, Xiaomi's ensured that its smaller new phone still gets some fun toys. Its triple 50MP cameras are rarely found on phones like this, plus it's got a great battery, charging and display specs than its rivals, while still offering similar performance chops.

Aside from Xiaomi not selling phones in the U.S., it is a little more expensive than the typical basic flagship phone, though you'd expect that for the specs it offers. Also the hype Xiaomi's been generating around its new HyperOS software seems misplaced, at least right now. If you're not too fussed about software tricks or AI features though, the Xiaomi 14 is here to satisfy your craving for flagship features while being a little more hand- and pocket-friendly.

Xiaomi 14: Specs

Xiaomi 14: Price and release date

Xiaomi's not announced when the Xiaomi 14 will launch for the global market, but we know it’ll cost 999 euros for the basic model.

Xiaomi sold the 14's predecessor, the Xiaomi 13, from £849 last year. If Xiaomi keeps with the same pricing this year, that would put the 14 between the £799 Galaxy S24 and £999 Galaxy S24 Plus in price. Or a fair bit more than the £699 Pixel 8 but still cheaper than the £999 Pixel 8 Pro if you're Google-minded.

Xiaomi 14: Design and display

The Xiaomi 14 is a 6.36-inch handset, making it a little larger than the basic Galaxy S24, Pixel 8 or iPhone 15 Pro, but smaller than many other flagships like the 6.7-inch iPhone 15 Pro Max or the 6.8-inch Galaxy S24 Ultra. It barely qualifies as small enough for the best small phones, but it’s still smaller than the average.

The 14 has an iPhone-like profile at first glance, with its flat display and flat aluminum sides. But turning the Xiaomi over reveals a rounded back panel for a comfier fit in your palm. Although the square camera block does look very Apple-y still.

Xiaomi claims the 14 is IP68 rated, and uses Gorilla Glass Victus to protect the display. That’s an older standard of toughened glass than the newer Victus 2 or latest Gorilla Armor Glass, but it should still be on par with the majority of Android flagship phones in terms of durability.

You have a relatively limited color selection of Black, White or Jade Green when picking out a Xiaomi 14 for yourself. All these colors do look good on the matte-textured back glass of the phone though, with even the liveliest green option looking quite dignified.

Flipping the phone back over, the display is an OLED unit with an adaptive 1 - 120Hz refresh rate, just like other leading Android phones. It's a little unusual however in that it features 1.5K resolution, which sits between common FHD and QHD resolution standards. This means more detail on-screen than other compact flagship phones, which tend to plump for FHD as a standard.

Xiaomi's official claims are that the 14's display is capable of producing up to 3,000 nits of brightness, or up to 1,000 nits under more regular use. To my eyes, the OnePlus 12 and the Galaxy S24 Ultra with its Extra Brightness mode enabled are brighter than the Xiaomi, while the Pixel 8 Pro is similarly bright. So while the Xiaomi doesn't appear to have class-leading brightness, it's still strong in this area.

Xiaomi 14: Cameras

Even though it's not a Pro or Ultra-branded phone, the Xiaomi 14 has an impressive selection of cameras. All three of its rear cameras have 50MP sensors, covering, main, ultrawide and 3.2x telephoto duties. There's also a 32MP selfie camera on the front, rounding out a phone that's not short on megapixels. Xiaomi's relationship with camera company Leica continues with the 14, offering different color profiles and pro settings in the camera app, plus refreshed camera lenses for greater brightness in images.

Starting as usual with a main camera test, we have below a shot across Paddington Station's interior against the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The Xiaomi's shot is much more colorful than the iPhone's, perhaps selling a lie about how sunny it was that day but otherwise producing a more attractive image. The iPhone's slightly higher contrast brings out some extra detail concealed in the Xiaomi photo though, such as the lines between the floor tiles.

Staying with the main cameras but moving to this night mode photo of St. John the Evangelist Church in Archway, we now see a brighter, higher contrast shot from the iPhone shot. That said, I do like the color of the image that the Xiaomi's produced here.

This ultrawide shot, taken outside the station, is brighter and cooler in the Xiaomi example, but lacks detail when compared to the iPhone image. The rainslick ground's reflections are present in both photos but are easier to see through the iPhone's lens.

Switching out the iPhone to the Galaxy S24 Ultra, I pointed the Xiaomi's 3.2x telephoto camera, and the Samsung's 3x camera, at the crest at the top of Paddington Station's main entrance. The Xiaomi 14's image is a bit dark, although it offers just as much detail as the Galaxy. 

Finally, the portrait selfie test, again with the Xiaomi 14 against the Galaxy S24 Ultra. Samsung's phone does the bokeh-style cutout better, nailing the tricky interface between my glasses and the background while also emphasizing the image's highlights, most notably in my hair.  The Xiaomi's image is smooth all around, from bringing the highlights in check to "beautifying" my face by flattening the texture of my skin. It looks good in a way, but I'm not used to seeing myself like that in selfies, making it simultaneously a bit odd.

Xiaomi 14: Performance

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 sits within the Xiaomi 14, along with 12GB RAM across all models, the same chip as many rivals but higher than average memory for its size. For instance, the Galaxy S24 and Pixel 8 both use 8GB of RAM, which should translate to better multi-tasking on the Xiaomi.

You can pick either 256GB or 512GB storage for the 14, which is on the generous side for a compact flagship. 128GB is the going default for Samsung, Apple and Google's base flagship phones.

Xiaomi 14: Battery and charging

Inside the Xiaomi 14 is a 4,610 mAh battery, which is a little larger than what you get in the Pixel 8 (4,575 mAh) and several hundred milliamp-hours larger than the Galaxy S24's or the iPhone 15 Pro's cells (4,000 mAh and 3,274 mAh respectively). 

The Xiaomi's battery drained by 23% after three hours of playing a YouTube video at mid screen brightness and volume. Considering a larger, 5,000 mAh phone like the Galaxy S24 Ultra drains by 21% on the same test, it appears that the Xiaomi 14 has good battery life, but not a class-leading one.

The Xiaomi 14's 90W wired charging and 50W wireless charging are indicative of the company's long-standing focus on charging speed. In our testing, the 90W brick included in the Xiaomi's box powered up the phone to 45% in 15 minutes, 80% in half an hour and full after 44 minutes. That's a long way ahead of the 25W charging offered by the Galaxy S24, which gets to 54% in half an hour, or the Google Pixel 8, which charges to 60% in half an hour with its 30W charger.

Xiaomi 14: Software and special features

You'll be using the Xiaomi 14 through HyperOS, Xiaomi's reinvented interface that replaces the old MIUI skin. Based on Android 14, HyperOS looks a lot like Xiaomi's old OS with lots of custom design elements and animation. But it does add a reworked Quick Settings menu that looks a lot like the iOS Control Center. This includes a redesigned lock screen system that also resembles the magazine-style lock screen of recent iPhones, plus new underpinnings for inter-device connectivity and AI features.

That said, there's nothing new to speak of beyond that, which is disappointing for what's being sold as a brand-new operating system. Perhaps HyperOS will grow into something interesting with future Xiaomi phones, but for now it's still very close to the familiar MIUI.

Xiaomi offers four years of full updates and five years of security updates for its phones, which until recently we'd have said was very good. But now that Samsung and Google offer seven years of full updates for their latest flagships phones, Xiaomi's policy looks a bit lacking.

Xiaomi 14 review: Verdict

Xiaomi's made another excellent flagship phone, and one that even U.S. users may be tempted to import from abroad to try. Just make sure you check the cell bands the phone and your carrier support before you do though.

Although it's easier to buy a Pixel 8 or a Galaxy S24 or an iPhone 15 Pro, they all make sacrifices in areas where the Xiaomi excels, and with only a slight size difference. You could also go smaller with a clamshell foldable like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 or the diminutive Asus Zenfone 10, but neither of those will keep in up with the Xiaomi in terms of photos, charging speed or performance. 

If you're in a country like the U.K. that will have the Xiaomi 14 regularly on sale, you should definitely give it a look alongside the other premium Android brands' latest offerings. The Xiaomi will fit the bill just as well if not better than its rivals. And that's both metaphorically and likely literally too.

Xiaomi’s flagship handsets have historically been amongst the best Android phones you can buy. They’re extremely tricky to get hold of in the United States, but those who do jump through the hoops to buy one are rewarded by sleekly designed phones with solid specs.

The Xiaomi 14 will be officially unveiled tomorrow alongside a souped-up Pro version, but rather than waiting unitl then, the Chinese manufacturer has posted some enticing teaser shots, key camera specs and sample photos from the regular model to Weibo to build momentum ahead of the big day.

Promotional shots of the Xiaomi 14 show a stylish pearly white smartphone with a shiny frame that looks like it could be stainless steel. The 6.36-inch AMOLED screen dominates the front of the handset, with a single hole-punch camera at the top of the display.

Xiaomi takes aim at Apple in another post, showing exactly how thin those bezels are compared to the iPhone 15 family. On the Xiaomi 14, they range from 1.61mm around the top to 1.71mm on the bottom, beating both the iPhone 15 (2.25mm all the way around) and iPhone 15 Pro (1.75mm).

The back of the Xiaomi 14 features a large black square in the top left-hand corner, which houses the handset’s Leica-branded triple-camera array, and in yet another post, Xiaomi revealed that the main sensor in that block will be 1/1.31-inch and 50MP, with 1.2um pixels and a f/1.6 aperture. That’s wider than the Xiaomi 13’s f/1.8 aperture, allowing shots to absorb more light for better snaps in darker conditions. This main lens will be supplemented by 14mm 0.6x ultrawide lens and a 3.2x f/2.2 telephoto sensor.

Xiaomi included a whole bunch of sample photos in another post, which all look packed with detail, but we wouldn’t read too much into that. Bluntly, promotional sample images from smartphone manufacturers the world over often bear very little resemblance to what the average user can achieve in the real world, so it’s best maintain some skepticism and await hands-on testing.

We shouldn’t have too long to for real-world camera samples to appear. Xiaomi is set to unveil both the 14 and the higher-end 14 Pro at an event tomorrow, though how many surprises will be left remains to be seen. A recent leak suggests that both handsets will feature the freshly announced Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor with variants featuring 16GB RAM. Both will run Android 14 out of the box.

What a time it is for foldable phones. Not only do we have a more robust selection that spans multiple smartphone makers, but we’re starting to see bolder designs that increase the utility of these devices. 

You can now add the Xiamoi Mix Fold 3 to that list, which is yet another engineering marvel because of its impressive durability rating of withstanding up to 500,000 folding cycles. That’s a 2.5x improvement over the 200,000 folding cycles claimed by both the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Google Pixel Fold.

Durability has always been one of the concerns for foldable phones, especially given how there are far more moving parts involved with their designs when compared to conventional smartphones. Xiaomi’s claim about the Mix Fold 3 holding up at around 500,000 folding cycles is an ambitious one, but it’s also noteworthy given that the Mix Fold 3 costs 8,999 yuan ($1,240/£980/AU$1,920). That pricing undoubtedly undercuts the competition, but the new Xiaomi phone is only going to be available in China.

While its durability claim is an impressive one, there’s actually another part about the Mix Fold 3 that’s even better.

The only quad-camera system in a foldable

Unlike the mainstream flagship phones you can buy, there are some compromises when opting for a foldable phone. The cameras in particular tend to be pared down, but that’s not the case here with the Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 because the new phone packs a quadruple camera system that's co-engineered with Leica. That’s a rarity of its own when you look at some of the best phones out there, so it’s like a unicorn sighting in the foldables space.

The Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 looks to be a substantial upgrade over its predecessor, giving it also a leg up over the triple camera arrangement of the Google Pixel Fold — which features a telephoto camera with a 5x optical zoom range. The Mix Fold 3, however, ups the ante with not one, but two 10MP telephoto lenses cameras with 2.5x and 5x zooms. They’re accompanied by the 50MPIMX800 main camera and a 12MP ultra-wide lens with a 125-degree field-of-view.

This adds a tremendous amount of utility for capturing faraway subjects, especially when we saw a big difference in that area with our Galaxy Z Fold 5 vs. Pixel Fold face-off. There’s no denying that the Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 is shaping out to be a top contender for the best camera phones around.

Incredibly thin and lightweight

Remarkably, the Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 flaunts a ridiculous 0.43-inch (10.86mm) thinness when it’s closed, which makes the 0.52-inch (13.4mm) chassis of the Z Fold 5 look chunky by comparison. This level of engineering was achieved by using a new rod structure with the phone's hinge design. Not only do the 14 micro-hinges help in making the Mix Fold 3 extremely thin and lightweight, but it also adds to its durability.

In some magical way, Xiaomi is able to cram a 4,800 mAh battery into the Mix Fold 3’s design, which could possibly be enough to dethrone the current foldables battery king in the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5. Just like Samsung's phone, the Mix Fold 3 relies on the battery efficient Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip. We’ve seen the boost in battery life to many flagship devices packing Qualcomm’s chipset, like the Galaxy S23 Ultra, so it’s safe to assume that the Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 isn’t a slouch in this category either.

However, Xiaomi didn’t disclose an official IP rating for its foldable. Its svelte construction and increased durability could’ve been at the expense of this. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, by comparison, features an IPX8 rating that protects it from submersion under water for a period of time.

All great, but unlikely to make a dent

The Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 is another testament to how far foldable phones have come. While it has the cool features to draw people in, this Xiaomi phone is unlikely to produce the kind of sales that the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Pixel Fold are able to achieve stateside because it’s a China-only release. You could import the Mix Fold 3, but you run the risk of missing 5G support on different bandwidths that your wireless carrier offers.

Still, you’ve got to hand it to Xiaomi for designing an ambitious foldable phone — it’s built for productivity and content creation. Looking ahead, we'll see more competition in this space from upcoming foldables such as the OnePlus Open. Apple's on tap to announce its iPhone 15 lineup next month, but it could also be yet another opportunity for the company to perhaps tease a foldable iPhone.

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Now that MWC 2023 is drawing to a close, it's time to reflect on what some of the expo's highlights have shown us.

Among the big announcements during the past few days in Barcelona were the Honor Magic5 Pro and Xiaomi 13 Pro, a pair of phones with 50MP sensors for all three of their rear cameras. Although neither of these phones are coming to the U.S. (as far as we know right now), they'll stand out to any phone buyer who happens to compare specs with two of the top-selling phones right now, the iPhone 14 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.

To be fair to Apple and Samsung, their latest phones' main cameras do impress. The iPhone 14 Pro's 48MP main sensor was a long-requested upgrade that allows greater freedom with digital zoom and impressive 48MP ProRAW shots. The Galaxy S23 Ultra's 200MP main camera has proven equally versatile; able to switch between 12MP, 50MP and 200MP capture modes as the user sees fit, as well as take RAW images for enhanced editing possibilities.

The problem comes with the other cameras on these phones. Both the iPhone 14 Pro and Galaxy S23 Ultra still use fairly pedestrian 12MP ultrawide cameras, and 12MP and 10MP 3x telephoto cameras respectively. The Galaxy also has a 10MP 10x zoom camera on its back, which is a level of optical magnification neither the Honor or Xiaomi can match (they max out at 3.5x and 3.2x optical respectively), but the Galaxy S23 Ultra's zoom is still being fed through a smaller, lower resolution sensor with a small aperture, which limits the situations where these zoomed-in shots will look at their best

We see this on foldable phones too. The Honor Magic Vs doesn't get 50MP cameras across the board, but there are still 54MP main and 50MP ultrawide cameras, beating the Galaxy Z Fold 4's 50MP main camera by a few megapixels and its 12MP ultrawide camera by a whole lot more. 

This is something we see time and again with flagship phones from companies outside the phone world's no. 1 and no. 2 players. Samsung and Apple's hardware tends to only get big upgrades every few years, while the smaller companies (smaller on a global scale anyway) are adopting the latest tech much sooner.

We have to make clear that megapixels aren't the only thing that governs a camera's quality. The sensor size, aperture size, shutter speed and numerous software processing tasks can all impact the final photo from a smartphone. But these are areas where non-Galaxy or iPhone phones also have advantages here.

For instance, the Xiaomi 13 Pro's main camera uses a 1-inch main sensor, and the Honor Magic5 Pro a 1/1.2-inch sensor (about 83% of the size). For comparison, the iPhone 14 Pro's main camera has a 1/1.28-inch sensor and the Galaxy S23 Ultra's a 1/1.3-inch sensor.

We've already seen a big shake-up in our best camera phones rankings this year with the Galaxy S23 Ultra knocking the iPhone 14 Pro down to second place, due in part to Samsung's new 200MP camera. It shows that new camera hardware can still have a big effect on image quality, meaning that after more testing, it's entirely possible that the Honor Magic5 Pro or Xiaomi 13 Pro could secure places among the top phones for photography. And even if they don't, Samsung and iPhone users would be right to ask why the biggest phone companies in the world are so complacent with their sensors.

When most people think of AR glasses, they think of Google Glass or maybe the reportedly delayed Apple Glasses. After MWC 2023, though, there’s a chance Xiaomi just entered that augmented reality conversation. 

But even with a great concept design to show off at this week's trade show, Xiaomi finds itself in the same position as other companies who've dealt with AR — struggling with the concept despite a relatively impressive showing.

Xiaomi AR glasses: The future of AR is wireless 

At MWC 2023, Xiaomi unveiled the Wireless AR Glass Discovery Edition, a concept design for augmented reality glasses. The glasses promise some incredible features, from advanced hand tracking to revolutionary displays. But the biggest headline is that the Wireless AR Glass Discovery Edition is completely wireless, as its name might imply.

The Discovery Edition promises a wireless link to your smartphone with latency as low as 50ms. To pair the smart glasses to your smartphone, NFC technology allows you to just tap your phone to the side of the glasses — though you may want to pair before heading out as it's definitely a noticeable gesture.

While wireless connectivity may not seem like a big deal to some, it would represent a small leap forward in what’s currently available for consumers. Many recent AR glasses, like the TCL Nxtwear G smart glasses, require a cable to tether the AR glasses to a smartphone. 

However, Xiaomi was always going to need to feature wireless connectivity on the Discover Edition to stay in line with the competition. Google and Apple’s rumored AR glasses will almost certainly be wire-free, and TCL’s latest concept also appears to be ditching wires as well.

At CES 2023 last month, TCL announced the RayNeo X2 AR glasses, its own attempt at wireless AR glasses. These glasses aren’t available for normal consumers yet — TCL is currently limiting them to developers, but Xiaomi needed to keep pace with TCL and that made wireless connectivity a must. 

Xiaomi AR glasses: Powerful features that could price out consumers 

Aside from the wire-free connectivity, other features that stand out are the processor and the displays. The Discover Edition features a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 processor — the same platform found in the Meta Quest Pro. Given that the Quest Pro costs $1,499, that guarantees that the Discover Edition won’t be cheap if it is ever available to the masses.

The displays are also unlikely to keep the price down. Xiaomi says that the microOLED displays can crank out a peak brightness of 1,200 nits and pixels per degree (PPD) resolution of 58 PPD. Xiaomi refers to this as a “retina-level display” because it nearly hits the 60 PPD mark where the human eye can no longer distinguish the display, making it appear as if the user was seeing things through their own retina.

Xiaomi AR glasses: AR’s biggest issues unresolved

As much of a step forward as the Xiaomi Wireless AR Glass Discovery Edition seem like — and it is a technical step forward — the smart glasses highlight the issues with AR glasses that prevent them from becoming mainstream.

First, the glasses are likely to be fairly expensive. It would be surprising to see the AR glasses be affordable for the average consumer, especially with a beefy processor, advanced hand tracking, “retina-level” displays and many features besides. VR headsets are seeing similar price concerns hamper their mass acceptance.

Second, these AR glasses are still bulky and awkward despite Xiaomi’s lightweight 126g design. They aren’t likely to blend in when you wear them, an issue that was partially to blame for the failure of Google Glass, which was comparatively subtle even if its users weren’t. For AR glasses to succeed, they will need to blend in as much as possible. 

Finally, early hands-on testing indicates that the AR glasses don’t hold a ton of juice. While we haven’t yet gone hands-on, XDA did and the AR Glass Discovery Edition's battery didn’t even make it through a 30-minute demo. For mass appeal, they’ll at least need to survive a couple of hours. 

When you add up all these factors, it's easy to see why these are still a concept, despite the impressive tech they pack. It’s also easy to see why Apple, a company with a CEO that thinks AR is the future and nearly unlimited money still is struggling with its rumored Apple Glasses. Until AR tech can become affordable or practical — if not both — cool concepts like the Discovery Edition will remain exactly that. 

Every box I could want to be ticked in a premium smartphone is checked by the Xiaomi 13 Pro. It’s got the hardware and software I want. So the question shifts from “is this phone good?” to “why should I buy this instead of a Samsung or Google Pixel?”

Fortunately, the Xiaomi 13 Pro, freshly announced at MWC 2023, provides some good answers. Its trio of 50MP main cameras, its fast 120W charging and lengthy battery life speak for themselves in our testing. But equally, its limited availability and high price make it a tougher sell. So does its performance, which can’t match up to its rivals in quite the same way its other features can.

Read on for our full Xiaomi 13 Pro review, and you’ll see the kind of heavy-duty, camera-focused flagship is worth your consideration, and why we think it's a new contender for our best Android phones list. 

Xiaomi 13 Pro: Specs

Xiaomi 13 Pro: Price and availability

Xiaomi doesn't sell its phones in the U.S., but you can at least get them in the U.K. For customers on the east side of the Atlantic, you can expect to pay £1,099 for the 13 Pro, slightly more than you would have paid for the Xiaomi 12 Pro last year.

With this pricetag, the Xiaomi sits at a strange spot in the market. It's more expensive than a £1,049 Galaxy S23 Plus, but does feature some tricks that the Samsung can't match. However, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is just £150 more, and the iPhone 14 Pro Max £100 more, which are arguably two more tempting phones.

You do at least get 256GB default storage for your money on the Xiaomi, as you do on the Galaxy S23 Plus and Ultra. The iPhone 14 series still starts with 128GB, which is starting to look a little stingy.

There's also the Pixel 7 Pro to consider. At £849, it's much cheaper than any of these other phones, but can still compete with them directly when it comes to display and camera quality.

Xiaomi 13 Pro: Design 

Xiaomi seems to have firmly settled on its basic design for its Pro phones with the 13 Pro, using a curved 6.7-inch display and a grid-like camera block on the back once again. The camera block has a slightly different flavor this time because of its rounded sides which blend more smoothly into the back of the phone, which helps give the 13 series, including the 13 Pro, a bit of its own identity still.

For materials, Xiaomi went with Gorilla Glass Victus for the display, not the latest Victus 2 or the older Victus Plus, but still a flagship-worthy level of protection. For the back, it chose a "bio-ceramic" material instead of more glass, offering it in either Ceramic Black (pictured) or Ceramic White. The black finish I tested gives the phone a unique and luxurious feel in your hand, but also is easily smudged up with fingerprints.

The final feather in the 13 Pro's durability cap is its IP68 dust/water resistance rating. You'll find this on the majority of flagship phones, but it's still nice to know that this handset won't suffer too badly if if ends up briefly submerged.

Xiaomi 13 Pro: Display

As for the screen, the Xiaomi 13 Pro offers a 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate and a QHD resolution, much like other top Android phones. Comparing it to a Galaxy S23 Ultra with the Tetris Apple TV Plus trailer playing, the Xiaomi's colors were not quite as saturated, and it was not quite as bright at its maximum, but it's still a perfectly pretty flagship panel.

In testing, we found that the Xiaomi's display offers a Delta-E score for color accuracy as low as a 0.21, a 113.3% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut and a maximum brightness of up to 1,287 nits. Those scores allow the Xiaomi 13 Pro to trade blows with the iPhone 14 Pro Max and Pixel 7 Pro, but don't beat the reigning king of smartphone displays, the Galaxy S23 Ultra. 

Xiaomi 13 Pro: Cameras

The 13 Pro cameras are designed to impress with three 50MP sensors on the back, covering main, ultrawide and telephoto duties. The main camera deserves extra special attention since it contains a 1-inch sensor, the same size as some regular DSLR cameras.

The main camera, as we can see in this shot of London’s Coal Drops Yard versus the iPhone 14 Pro Max, captures plenty of light in its large sensor and gives us a nice colorful image  The iPhone sharpens the image more and offers the brighter picture of the two, which helps bring out some details like the lettering on the shop signs.

In night mode outside Kings Cross railway station, the Xiaomi does particularly well. The glow of the lights hung in the tree is subtler than in the iPhone image, giving a more true-to-life impression. It’s a brighter image overall that captures some of the blueness of the night sky, which I don’t mind the look of here. I know in some shots I’d prefer the moodier night mode of the iPhone.

One extra setting for the main camera we’ll look at is the Xiaomi 13 Pro’s color profiles. You can pick from either Leica Vivid or Leica Authentic in the app, and switch at any time. I took the rest of the images you see in the Vivid color profile, which appropriately seems to up the color saturation significantly compared to the Authentic version of this market sign shot.

Moving now to the ultrawide lens and the Galaxy S23 Ultra as our comparison device, we see the Xiaomi’s depiction of this piece of public art is lacking brightness and color. It reduces the definition of the more distant bars of the sculpture, something the Samsung seems to have had no trouble doing while still keeping the foreground in focus and attractively hued.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro's telephoto has a 3.2x optical zoom, slightly outdoing the zoom on the iPhone 14 Pro, but not matching up to the Galaxy S23 Ultra's maximum 10x optical zoom, or the Pixel 7 Pro's 5x magnification. The Xiaomi does have the 50MP megapixel advantage, but that doesn’t help in this 10x shot of the Samsung sign at CDY. It’s remarkable how much color and definition the reflections lack in the Xiaomi image.

Comparing the 3.2x telephoto against the iPhone’s 3x telephoto with an image of a restaurant shot from across a canal, we see how much difference megapixels can make. Not only does the Xiaomi image offer richer colors, it is much more detailed, thanks to the 50MP sensor, versus the 12MP iPhone. (You can shoot in 48MP mode on the iPhone 14 Pro if you use ProRAW mode.)

Moving around the front of the Xiaomi 13 Pro, the punch-hole selfie camera has a 32MP sensor. It took a brighter and less saturated portrait selfie of me compared to the Galaxy S23 Ultra, a phone noted for its saturated photo coloring.

We also see that while the Galaxy S23 Ultra didn’t manage to capture my glasses fully in the portrait cutout (despite it doing this well in previous testing) the Xiaomi does a worse job of figuring out where my frames end and the background starts.

While I didn’t have time to test everything in my brief time with the phone, other features the Xiaomi 13 Pro promises include 8K video recording, 4K video at up to 60fp, 4K night mode video and 10-bit RAW photography.

Xiaomi 13 Pro: Performance

Xiaomi certainly didn't skimp on the 13 Pro's power. Running the show is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, with 12GB RAM and the option of 128GB or 256GB storage. That matches or beats what you get by default with rival Android phones.

Compared to other similarly priced phones, the Xiaomi performs quite well. It beats the Galaxy S23 Ultra and its customized Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chip, and the Tensor G2-powered Pixel 7 Pro on the Geekbench CPU benchmark. No doubt the 12GB default RAM helps against the Galaxy S23 series, as Samsung only provides 8GB in the basic models. 

For the other tests however, including GPU and video transcoding benchmarks, the Xiaomi falls behind the Samsung and Google phones. It also doesn’t win in any category against the iPhone 14 Pro's A16 Bionic chip, the current phone performance champion. You can see the full results in the table below.

One other extra that Xiaomi's crammed in is support for the latest Wi-Fi standard, Wi-Fi 7. You'd be hard-pressed to find a router or other devices using this standard just yet, but it's an excellent bit of future-proofing for the 13 Pro to offer.

Xiaomi 13 Pro: Battery and charging

Compared to other phones in its category and of its size, the Xiaomi 13 Pro doesn’t offer quite as much battery space, featuring a 4,820 mAh cell rather than the more typical 5,000 mAh like you see in the Galaxy S23 Ultra or Pixel 7 Pro.

Does that gap matter though? In our custom battery life test, which makes phones constantly load web pages over LTE until they run of juice, the Xiaomi lasted 12 hours and 24 minutes, and as long as 13 hours and 35 minutes when locked to a 60Hz refresh rate.

That’s a tad better than the Galaxy S23 Ultra in the same 60Hz / adaptive tests, despite the Samsung’s larger battery apacity. The Xiaomi also comes out well ahead of the Pixel 7 Pro, but still can’t quite match the champs of phone battery life like the iPhone 14 Pro Max or Asus ROG Phone 6.

In addition to a long-lasting battery, the Xiaomi 13 Pro also gets super-fast 120W wired charging and 50W wireless charging. We weren't able to try the wireless charging speed since that requires a Xiaomi-made charging pad, but with the included 120W power brick, the 13 Pro was able to fill up to 64 % in 15 minutes and to full in 26 minutes.

That's fast, beating its Samsung, Google and Apple competitors by a considerable margin, but it’s not as fast as what Xiaomi promises (full in 19 minutes). I assume this is because we perform our charging test from 0% rather than 1%; a small percentage difference that can have a major effect on overall charging speed

Xiaomi 13 Pro: Software and special features

Android 13 in the guise of Xiaomi's MIUI changes a lot of Android's basic look, in a way that makes things a little less familiar but a bit more friendly-looking at the same time. A lot of Android phones resemble each other in various ways, but at least with the screen on, there's no mistaking the stylish rounded icons and neatly laid-out menus and settings of the 13 Pro.

Xiaomi does pre-install a lot of apps though. That includes things you'd expect like it own versions of staple features like an internet browser and email, but also social media apps like Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn, Spotify, Booking.com and the Opera browser. That's a lot of stuff you may not want taking up space on your phone stuffed in there by default, although you can delete them all or banish them to the app drawer with a little time and effort.

There are still Xiaomi's usual positives to be found though. I particularly like how MIUI separates your quick settings and notifications via swiping on different sides of the display (like how iOS does it), for instance. 

For updates, Xiaomi currently promises three years of full updates plus one extra year of security updates. This isn't that generous when you look at the four-year and five-year policies that companies like Google and Samsung have for their phones.

Xiaomi 13 Pro review: Outlook 

Xiaomi continues to be bold with the Xiaomi 13 Pro, attempting to eat Samsung's lunch with a similarly specced phone. From my time with the phone, the good news is that the Xiaomi 13 Pro is once more worthy of standing among the best Android phones from top brands like Samsung, Google and even Apple, even if Xiaomi's now comfortable charging you the same as or more than its competitors for its flagship phone.

You'll be the right user for the Xiaomi 13 Pro if you prioritize battery charging speed and longevity, a highly customizable and effective camera package and a premium build quality. Unfortunately, it'll be more trouble than it's worth trying to get one in the U.S.. The Galaxy S23 Ultra is a better choice if you want some extra performance, particularly for gaming and other GPU-heavy apps, but for most users who can buy one, the Xiaomi 13 Pro has all the power you need.

We’re also testing out the regular Xiaomi 13, which shares several of the 13 Pro’s best features, but aims for the lower end of the flagship phone market. Take a look at our review if you're interested in what we made of it.

One of the contenders for the best Android phones title has just debuted, though U.S. phone shoppers are unlikely to ever lay their hands on it. Still, it's worth paying attention to the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro even if they never make it to these shores, as the two phones introduce new features that other Android phone makers could stand to adopt.

As reported by our friends at Tech Radar, the Xiaomi 13 models officially launched in China, with a global launch expected to come sometime in 2013. That's likely to mean a European release for both the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro even if Xiaomi phones don't make it to the U.S.

The Xiaomi 13 will start at CNY3,999 for the 8GB RAM/128GB storage model — that's around $575 / £465 / AU$845 based on current exchange rates. There's also a 12GB/512GB model for CNY4,999 ($715 / £585 / AU$1,060). As for the Xiaomi 13 Pro, it will start at CNY4,999 ($715/£585/AU$1,060) for a phone with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. There's a 12GB/512GB version, too. 

There may still be another phone coming. The rumored Xiaomi 13 Ultra was noticeably missing from Xiaomi’s launch announcement and could bring a massive quad-lens setup to the rear camera. So photographers may want to hold out for that one when — or if — it comes. 

Xiaomi 13 and 13 Pro: Flagship phones on a next-generation chipset 

Even if you don't live in a country that's going to see the Xiaomi 13 models, it's worth paying attention to these new devices. That's because these are the first phones to run on the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, which we expect to power many of the leading Android devices in 2023.

We've had a chance to run some Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 benchmarks using a reference device supplied by Qualcomm, and the results impressed us. Our Gen 2-powered device scored 1,500 in single-core performance and 5,249 in multi-core performance, which not only bests Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered devices but also challenges the iPhone 14 and its A15 Bionic processor. (The iPhone 14 Pro models fare better, given their more powerful A16 chipset.)

We don't know how Xiaomi's latest phones will compare until we can conduct our own testing, but the most recent leaked scores for the Xiaomi 13 are 1,477 and 5,178 respectively, which tracks with what we saw in our Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 testing. Those same leaked numbers show the Xiaomi 13 Pro doing a bit better in single-core performance and a bit worse in multi-core performance, scoring 1,494 and 5,087 respectively. 

If those numbers hold out, it's encouraging for other devices running the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 — and that's likely to include the latest Samsung Galaxy S23 models, including the Galaxy S23 Ultra. We're expecting the new Samsung flagships to appear in February 2023.

Xiaomi 13 Pro: Gorgeous curved display and incredible cameras 

The Xiaomi 13 Pro really shines once you get past its shared features with the Xiaomi 13. The display is a larger 6.73-inch OLED display compared to the 6.36-inch OLED on the Xiaomi 13, and the 13 Pro’s screen is curved rather than flat. 

The battery also gets an upgrade on the Pro model, with an increased capacity of 4,820 mAh compared to the Xiaomi 13’s 4,500 mAh. The 13 Pro also gets a charging speed boost with 120W wired charging compared to the 67W max on the Xiaomi 13. Both phones handle 50W wireless charging and feature 10W reverse wireless charging.

Then there are the cameras. Both phones have a three-camera setup that some have compared to the iPhone 14 Pro. They can also shoot video in 8K at 24fps and have a 32MP f/2.0 selfie camera.

The Xiaomi 13’s camera specs are respectable. It features a 50MP f/1.8 main camera, a 10MP f/2.0 telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, and a 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera.

But the Xiaomi 13 Pro gets a serious camera upgrade. Its 50MP primary camera sports a boosted f/1.9 aperture and a massive one-inch sensor size that should take incredibly high-quality shots. You'll also find a 50MP f/2.0 telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and a 50MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera that dwarf their counterparts on the Xiaomi 13. 

The ultra-wide camera on the 13 Pro can take macro shots and has a 115-degree field of view. This may now be the bar for camera phones to clear, but it’s impossible to say without head-to-head testing with devices like the Google Pixel 7 Pro, currently our favorite camera phone for Android. We'd be especially interested to see if Xiaomi's photo-processing software can match what Google does with computational photography.

Xiaomi 13 and 13 Pro: Can you get it in the US? 

As noted above, you can’t buy the Xiaomi 13 or Xiaomi 13 Pro in the U.S. Our friends at AndroidCentral do a great job explaining why, so we recommend reading that for more detail. But in short, if you want a Xiaomi phone you’ll need to import one and check to see if it works on your network — which it might not.

So if you need an Android phone now and don’t want to risk it, make sure to check out our Android phones buying guide to choose the best one for you. Or, if you’re a budding smartphone photographer, check out our guide to the best camera phones. Then head over to our phone deals coverage to make sure you get your phone at the best price. 

Samsung is expected to launch the the Galaxy S23 early next year, and I'm looking forward to it — especially the Galaxy S23 Ultra model and its rumored 200MP camera. And while I don't claim to be psychic, I have had a glimpse of that hi-res future thanks to another phone that already uses it.

The recently launched Xiaomi 12T Pro is one of a few existing phones on the market using a 200MP camera. So while on a recent trip to the Norfolk coast in the east of England, I took some sample photos to see what you can do with a 200MP shooter, and whether it's worth looking forward to such a feature on the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

With the iPhone 14 Pro Max and Google Pixel 7 Pro sitting comfortably at the top of our best camera phones guide right now, it'll be good to get an indication of how Samsung could get an advantage as well as ways it can improve upon the 200MP experience once the Galaxy S23 Ultra arrives.

The samples

Before I show off my 200MP shots, it's worth saying that while Xiaomi is using a Samsung-made 200MP sensor in the 12T Pro, the rumors for the S23 Ultra suggest Samsung will opt for a different sensor. In other words, this won't be a full 1:1 comparison, but there should still be plenty of valid conclusions we can draw by looking at how the Xiaomi 12T Pro's camera performs.

The first of those is an obvious one: detail. More megapixels means larger images, and that means clearer views when zooming in. Just look at the difference between this 12MP and 200MP shot from the top of a cliff overlooking the beach. You can zoom in all the way to read the sign on the fence on the 200MP if you wish, or to the far end of the beach so you can count up just how many people are in shot. There's no chance of doing that with the 12MP image.

However, one downside with using the full resolution of the camera is that the colors can go a bit weird. Take for example this shot of me holding belemnite fossils. The highlight on the edge of my palm is brighter on the 200MP shot, almost to the point of being pure white, where all detail is lost. Also, on the main belemnite in the center of my hand, the 200MP shot does a worse job of capturing the subtle changes in color along its length; in the 12MP image, you can spot the almost green areas quite easily. 

This is one of the main arguments against phone makers like Samsung ramping up their camera resolutions every few phone generations. How much does extra detail on the grains of sand or pitting in the surface of the fossil matter if you're going to lose color detail instead? Samsung will need to pull some software post-processing trickery if it wants to overcome this issue with the S23 Ultra's camera.

Other than detail, another advantage of taking 200MP shots is actually being able to take lower-resolution shots. This can be done through the camera app by using "pixel-binning" (combining pixels into virtual super-pixels to capture better light information at the expense of detail), but it can also be done by cropping an image afterward. Any of the 200MP images on this page could easily be cut down in any number of ways without losing too much detail.

Rumors for the Galaxy S23 Ultra claim it will also have a 50MP photo mode between the default 12MP and maximum 200MP. As it happens, the Xiaomi 12T Pro has this too, so I took 50MP and 200MP shots image look down the length of a groin (the beach erosion-preventing kind, to be clear) to see the difference.

Although you can't zoom in to enjoy all the little grooves in the wooden pillars of the groin quite as much on the 50MP image, it's got a warmer, more appealing color temperature that better captures how the beach looked on that October afternoon. Taking that into account along with the smaller file size (14MB vs 48MP for the 200MP shot), the 50MP version seems like an ideal everyday image size for users who want their shots to contain the best of both worlds —making the most of the 200MP sensor, but without clogging up their phone's storage too fast.

200MP camera outlook

Playing with the Xiaomi 12T Pro's 200MP camera has definitely whetted my appetite for 200MP photography on the Galaxy S23 Ultra, so I'm certainly hoping that the rumors of such a powerful sensor turn out to be correct.

But if Samsung is indeed installing a 200MP camera on the next Ultra Galaxy, then it'll need to do something about the two main flaws I noticed in 200MP photos. It'll need to improve on Xiaomi's color science so that 200MP photos don't look less attractive than other shots, and it'll have to deal with the file size issue, either by figuring out some ingenious compression solution or just by making sure users have plenty of on-board storage for photos.

By itself, 200MP photography isn't going to help Samsung gain an edge over the excellent photos produced by rival devices like the iPhone 14 Pro Max or Google Pixel 7 Pro. But it would certainly prove an effective tool in the Galaxy S23 Ultra's belt, and one that neither Apple nor Google can match right now. 

If the Galaxy S23 Ultra can cement itself again as the camera phone that goes all-in on hardware, it could gain the advantage that Samsung needs to convince users to buy its flagship handset next year.

If you like a phone with big specs and a surprisingly small price, then the Xiaomi 12T Pro could have enough to lure you away from other Android phones.

The Xiaomi 12T is a mid-life revision to the Xiaomi 12 Pro. It's still not coming to the U.S., but it does mean that U.K. buyers have a new option when searching for a flagship phone, particularly if they were waiting on the Google Pixel 7's arrival but were disappointed by the leaked rumored specs.

Like the Xiaomi 11T Pro and Xiaomi 12 Pro before it, the 12T Pro offers one of the fastest charging standards on any phone, with 120 watts of power on offer from the in-box charger. It also offers a 200MP camera, beating out most other Android phone makers to adopt the new super-detailed sensor, and a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset for the best available performance on Android phones right now.

Our opinion of the Xiaomi 12T Pro may change once we've had more time to test the phone's capabilities. But so far it's made a great first impression, and one that could land it on our best phones or best Android phones guides if it proves to offer flagship photography and performance for less than its competitors.

Xiaomi 12T Pro: price and release date

You'll be able to buy the Xiaomi 12T Pro from October 20, and for the price of £699. There's only one version available for purchase in the U.K., which comes with 256GB storage and 8GB RAM.

That's an unusual price point for a flagship phone. It's lower than the iPhone 14, Samsung Galaxy S22 or Google Pixel 6 Pro (and likely the Pixel 7 Pro too), which is good news. However, the standard Pixel 6 sells for £100 less, and it's a fantastic phone. Xiaomi's going to have to do a lot of things well to beat Google's entry-level flagship, especially if the Pixel 7 proves to be even more capable but no more expensive.

Xiaomi 12T Pro: design and display 

Xiaomi's provided another restrained handset design with the 12T Pro. Its flat 6.7-inch OLED display with an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate and centered selfie camera offers what's basically the default design for the front of an Android phone.

On the back, the camera block is dominated by the main camera, which makes sense since it's the largest upgrade on the phone. You also get curved edges, unlike on the front, which helps the phone sit cozily in your hand.

The Xiaomi 12T Pro color options are a bit limited. You can pick from Black (pictured), Silver and Blue. They all look good, but even the blue version isn't that exciting-looking if you want a phone with more presence.

Xiaomi 12T Pro: cameras

The headline camera upgrade to the 12T Pro is its 200MP main camera, something we've only seen on a couple of Motorola phones so far, and something that's tipped for the upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra. You can take 200MP photos with this camera, but it's only 12MP by default or 50MP if you set it to high-rez mode without also pressing the 200MP button specifically. You also get 2x in-sensor zoom, which helps makes up for the lack of a telephoto camera.

The other cameras on the phone don't dazzle at first. The 8MP ultrawide and 20MP front cameras are fairly typical resolutions, while the 2MP macro camera is a baffling inclusion. It's not even the excellent 5MP telephoto macro camera used on other recent Xiaomi phones, which is extra confusing. 

You can check out some of my sample photos using the Xiaomi 12T Pro's main, ultrawide, macro and selfie cameras in the gallery above. I'm not sure about the macro camera as I said, given how the phone's struggled to pick up all of the details of the red flower, but the Xioami's ultrawide camera, main camera (both in regular and 50MP modes) and the main and selfie portrait modes all seem capable.

The Xiaomi 12T Pro has some tough competition if it wants to make it onto the TG best camera phones list. 

Xiaomi 12T Pro: performance 

Xiaomi's given the 12T Pro a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset, with 8 or 12GB RAM and either 128GB or 256GB storage. That should mean plenty of power for your everyday productivity and gaming needs, particularly the latter because of the 480Hz touch sampling mode for responsive touch controls.

As with previous Xiaomi flagships, the 12T Pro also features stereo speakers tuned by Harman Kardon, with support for Dolby Atmos, too. We weren't that impressed with the HK-tweaked speakers earlier in the year, but with six extra months of work, we're hopeful there's going to be some improvement this time around.

Xiaomi 12T Pro: battery and charging 

The 12T Pro has a roomy 5,000 mAh battery with incredibly speedy 120W wired charging, inherited from the past Pro Xiaomi phones. Xiaomi promises that the chunky power brick will charge the phone to full in 19 minutes, although in our own test of the Xiaomi 12 Pro, it took us 22 minutes to fill the 4,600 mAh cell. That's still incredibly fast though, and should still make the 12T Pro a member of the fastest charging phones club.

It's a shame there's no wireless charging option of any kind on the 12T Pro, since it's near enough a standard feature for flagship phones. The 12 Pro offered 50W charging for rapid wireless power, but there's no such luxury on the 12T Pro.

Xiaomi 12T Pro: outlook 

There's still more testing for us to do before we make up our minds about the Xiaomi 12T Pro. But we're expecting a strong performance from Xiaomi's latest phone, and with its below-average price, it has a strong chance to become one of our best phones.

While it's a bit frustrating you can't use the full potential of the 200MP camera, it and the other cameras on the phone produce good-looking shots, and we're confident from previous testing that it'll beat basically any other phone on the charging speed front.

If it had wireless charging and a proper telephoto camera, then Xiaomi 12T Pro would be an even stronger competitor to the Pixel 7 or Galaxy S22. Stay tuned for our full rated review. 

With a price lower than the Samsung Galaxy S21 and the offer of superior specs in several areas, the Mi 11 will delight anyone who fancies picking one up with just how much it packs into the phone.

In fact, the Mi 11 is one of my favorite phones I've tested. 

Throughout this Xiaomi Mi 11 review, you'll see that this phone isn’t lacking when it comes to hardware. Its display and performance specs together make this a great phone for gaming, streaming or using CPU-intensive apps.

Its user experience is also enjoyable, the software adding smart enhancements to the basic Android experience and its battery offering an effective mix of long life and speedy charging. Plus it's a pretty handsome piece of glass and circuitry to boot.

But while U.K. shoppers can find the Xiaomi Mi 11, U.S users won’t be able to. And when it comes to cameras, the Mi 11 starts to stumble a bit. 

Xiaomi Mi 11 review: Price and availability

Xiaomi brought the Mi 11 to the U.K. on March 16, where it retails for either £749 for the 128GB storage version, or £799 for 256GB.

As a comparison, a Galaxy S21 with 128GB storage sells for £769, while a 128GB iPhone 12 goes for £849. It's not as big a price difference as we were hoping before the announcement, but the Mi 11, particularly the 256GB version, is quite the bargain compared to its rivals.

There's no U.S. availability for Xiaomi, with the company currently in dispute with the U.S. government. (Not that Xiaomi phones were readily available in the U.S. before that.) You'll probably be able to find it available for import if you've got your mind set on a Mi 11, but given the additional cost and potential trouble with 4G/5G band compatibility, you're probably better off buying a phone that's already sold in your country. Our guide to the best Android phones is a good place to start if you need alternative ideas.

Xiaomi Mi 11 review: Design

From the front, the Xiaomi Mi 11 resembles many other Android flagships, but it's still a looker. It's set apart by its quad-curve display, which gives the phone a stylish profile that catches the light attractively.

I can't make up my mind on the look of the Mi 11’s back though. The camera bump in the top-left corner throws me off, since its three-part structure looks muddled, even if the rounded square shape and silver ring around the main lens look the business from a distance.

It doesn't help that the rest of the back is plain aside from logos and regulatory text toward the bottom, which only makes it easier for your eye to settle on the cameras.

The Xiaomi Mi 11 screen's made of Gorilla Glass Victus, the same glass found on the Galaxy S21, so you shouldn't have to worry too much about small scratches appearing by accident. You'll need to be more careful about exposing the Mi 11 to water and dust though; while Xiaomi says the phone is water-resistant, it doesn't have an official IP rating.

U.K. shoppers have a choice of three basic colors: a plain white, Midnight Gray and Horizon Blue. The gray of my review unit looks classy with its satin-style finish (aside from all the fingerprints it picks up), although I like how the blue and white add a little more visual interest to the phone.

Xiaomi Mi 11 review: Display

With a 6.8 inch-AMOLED panel, the Xiaomi Mi 11 is on the larger side of this year's Android flagship phones. However a QHD resolution, 1,500-nit maximum brightness and a variable 120Hz refresh rate mean this isn't just another big screen phone.

Those impressive features don't cause battery life to suffer excessively, either. The Mi 11 offers both a variable resolution and variable refresh rate, so under certain conditions, the phone will scale down to FHD, while opting for a 90Hz, 60Hz or 30Hz refresh speed to save you power. The approach isn't as versatile as the LTPO display on the identically-sized Galaxy S21 Ultra, which can vary anywhere between 10Hz and 120Hz. But Xiaomi’s approach with the Mi 10 is still effective.

I loved watching video on the Mi 11. Poring over the trailer for the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, the bright colors, be it the green of the four testudine protagonists or the purple of their enemies' jumpsuits, were positively glowing. Ironically, the high-resolution display let me really appreciate the grainy, retro animation style that the game's cinematic uses to call back to the original cartoon.

Technically the Mi 11 display curves around the side of the phone on all four edges, but this is only noticeable on the left and right, and even then the curved portion is mostly bezel. The top and bottom curves are very subtle, with a particularly obvious bottom bezel. However the phone does feel nice to hold horizontally as a result.

Xiaomi's added a "hardware-level mistouch sensor" to avoid you accidentally swiping the screen just by holding the curved edges. I didn't notice the phone being particularly sensitive to accidental touches, so this system seems to do its job. If you want, you can alter the settings so the dead zone around the edges is larger or smaller if the automated system isn't to your liking.

Xiaomi Mi 11 review: Audio

Evidently quite proud of its Harman/Kardon- tuned stereo speakers, Xiaomi emblazons the speaker company's name on the top edge of the Mi 11. 

Listening to British rap artist Dave's "Location", I was impressed with the phone's depiction of his vocals and the mid-range instrumentation behind him. But as is often the case with phone speakers, the bass frequencies were lacking power.

Still, listening to the same song on an iPhone 12 Pro, it became clear that percussion is a lot more prominent on the Mi 11, which if anything made the listening experience a bit worse. However, I also noticed an impressive sense of width from the Xiaomi's speakers too. Whether or not the speakers deserve the Harman/Kardon badge for quality, they deserve them for the mini soundstage effect they conjure. 

Xiaomi Mi 11 review: Cameras

Although not the most powerful or diverse camera array available, the Xiaomi Mi 11 covers the basics. The back three cameras consist of a 108MP main camera, a 13MP ultrawide camera and a 5MP macro camera, plus a flash. On the front, you have a single 20MP selfie cam.

While you can set the main camera to take 108MP photos via the Pro mode in the Mi 11’s camera app, the phone takes 27MP photos by default. The Mi 11 manages this by combining sensor data from four pixels into one virtual pixel, a process called pixel binning. This saves you space in your phone's storage, plus it's ideal for low-light shots, at least in theory.

That doesn't seem to have helped the Mi 11 capture this view over an inner London park. It's much darker than the iPhone 12 Pro's image I'm using for comparison, which makes it hard to notice any additional detail the 27MP shot gets over the 12MP iPhone photo.

Switching to 108MP mode on the Xiaomi Mi 11 goes some way to addressing this problem. The straight lines and bright colors of the playground apparatus stand out much more, and makes it a far better rival for the iPhone shot. That's fine, except 108MP images can take up to nine times as much storage space as 12MP shots. That will fill up any phone's onboard storage pretty quick.

The ultrawide camera on the Mi 11 has a magnification of 0.6x — common for Android phones but less extreme than the 0.5x camera on the iPhone 12 Pro, hence the different look of these two images of Archway. Either way, this round belongs to the iPhone thanks to its much richer colors.

The only thing missing from a typical flagship camera set-up on the Mi 11 is a telephoto sensor, but these tend to appear on more expensive models of flagships, such as the expected Xiaomi Mi 11 Pro. What you get instead with the Mi 11 is a "telemacro" camera. A lot of cheaper Android phones include macro cameras, but the Mi 11's version offers variable magnification to better achieve good close-up shots.

The result is the best macro shot I've taken with a dedicated macro lens on a smartphone. I tried taking the same shot of this daffodil with the main camera too, and while I was able to get a better focus on the stigma in the center, I couldn't focus on the petals at the same time, and the colors are far less vivid. It's convincing enough proof of the camera's inclusion is worth your time, rather than it being a cynical attempt by the phone maker to bump up the lens count. 

It's still very hard to take these macro photos without any stabilization. The one you see here was from a selection of 17 attempts. Normally, it takes me five at most to find a shot I'm happy with.

I have to hand it to Xiaomi when it comes to the selfie cam. Normally I enjoy the more vivid colors you see in an iPhone 12 Pro selfie, but here I just look sunburnt. The Xiaomi has supplied a much more natural-looking selfie, plus does a slightly better job of cutting my head out from the trees in the background. The tradeoff is a much smoother image, which looks more artificial despite the colors better reflecting those I saw in the viewfinder.

Xiaomi Mi 11 review: Performance

Under the hood, the Xiaomi Mi 11 features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. While you get the latest chipset Qualcomm has to offer, you only have 8GB RAM, which pales in comparison to the 12GB you can now find on top performing Androids like the Galaxy S21 Ultra or Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

It's still enough for the Xiaomi to really impress. On the Geekbench 5 general benchmark, the Mi 11 scored 1,112 on the single core section and 3,379 on the multi-core section. The basic Galaxy S21 only manages 1,048 and 3,302 respectively.

The Galaxy S21 Plus, which uses the same chip and RAM capacity, beat the Mi 11's single core score with 1,116, but the Mi 11 edged out the S21 Plus’ multicore score of 3,300. The S21 Ultra easily beats the Mi 11 on both tests, but has an easy advantage thanks to 12GB of RAM.

In 3D Mark's Wild Life graphics test, the Mi 11 achieved a score of 5,676, which averages to 34 frames per second. That tops the Galaxy S21's 5,504 point/33 FPS result while finishing in line with the Galaxy S21 Plus (5,650/34 FPS). 

Trying out Marvel Contest of Champions proved that these scores are reflected by real-world performance. Watching Spider-Man beat up rival superheroes looked great and displayed smoothly on the Xiaomi Mi 11. The Mi 11's 480Hz touch sampling rate allows the display to react faster to taps than the average phone's.

There's also a vapor cooling chamber built into the Mi 11, which is likely why I didn't notice the phone heat up even after trying out all the games I downloaded, or during the benchmark tests. Even charging up the phone didn't noticeably increase the temperature of the casing.

Xiaomi Mi 11 review: 5G

The badge on the back of the Mi 11 tells you it's a 5G-ready phone. However making sure you'll actually be able to use it on a faster network is a little more complicated.

5G networks work on one or more signal bands, which some phones can pick up and others can't. This is why if you're determined to bring a Mi 11 over to the U.S., it's crucial you check which bands your mobile carrier offers and which the Mi 11 will work with. 

U.K. customers shouldn't have to worry though. There's much greater unity between the 5G carriers over here, and all of them should offer 5G support with the Mi 11 according to Xiaomi's specs.

Xiaomi Mi 11 review: Battery life and charging

The 4,500 mAh battery in the Xiaomi Mi 11 is smaller than average for a phone of this size. The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has a 6.8-inch screen like the Mi 11, but gets a 5,000 mAh cell.

Nonetheless, the Mi 11's battery does a good job at keeping the phone powered up. After watching an hour of YouTube in full screen mode (the main battery-intensive activity I use my phones for), the Mi 11 lost 8% of its total charge. That equates to a full day of binge-watching the remakes of Hamilton songs in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which means the Mi 11 will probably handle a day of actual work capably without needing an emergency trip to a charging plug.

The Mi 11 also gets points by not only including a charger in the box, but by offering you a 55W block to match the phone's maximum charging speed.

There are a few faster charging standards out there, for example, the 65W one used by the OnePlus 8T. But filling your phone to 45% in 15 minutes, 80% in 30 and 100% in 48 minutes as you can with the Xiaomi Mi 11 is still respectably fast. It certainly beats the 25W charging offered by the Galaxy S21, which doesn't come with an included charger in the box.

The 50W wireless charging on the Mi 11 means you should achieve almost identical speeds to those above without cables. However you'll need one of Xiaomi's own charging pads to hit that speed and since we don't have one we couldn't check the speed for ourselves.

Finally, the Mi 11 offers reverse wireless charging up to 10W to give a friend's phone a boost of power or to keep your wearables and wireless earbuds topped up. 

Xiaomi Mi 11 review: Software

The typical Android 11 features come wrapped in Xiaomi's MIUI 12 on the Mi 11. It balances the super clean look of stock Android seen on phones like the Google Pixel 5 with the more modified feature set of something like the Galaxy S21's One UI, which is an overall positive.

Among the unique enhancements in MIUI 12 are floating windows, which let you open a fully functional resizable window of one app over another, either from a notification or via the recent apps screen. All modern Android phones can open two apps in split screen, but this gives you more freedom to look at the areas of the apps that you want, quickly taking notes from a browser window or even copy and pasting between them just as one example.

Other handy but less notable features include an always-on display, an optional app drawer, and security offerings like blurring app previews and removing location data from shared photos. MIUI also offers an iOS-style option to divide the notification shade and quick settings menu into two, accessed separately by swiping down from either the left or right side of the top edge of the screen.

The phone ships with a fair number of bundled-in Xiaomi and third-party apps. But the Mi 11 is thoughtful enough to pack these away into a handful of folders for a less messy home screen, assuming you don't want to just delete them all.

Xiaomi Mi 11 review: Verdict

Our Xiaomi Mi 11 review finds an impressive phone, with very few omissions. It would have been nice to have a telephoto camera on the back instead of the telemacro lens, and a bigger battery would have been welcome, too. But even without those features, this phone still comes with premium capabilities comparable to more expensive phones.

We have little hesitation in recommending this to an Android fan looking for an alternative to Samsung, particularly if you prioritize streaming videos or playing games over capturing photos. However photography addicts, and especially U.S. shoppers, should look elsewhere for the time being.

When looking at our best phone battery life list, the longest-lasting players have one thing in common — massive batteries. But often, these batteries bring bigger form factors and heftier weights with them. For some phone users, that's a trade-off worth making if it means their device lasts as long as possible. 

The engineers over at Xiaomi have been working on new battery technology that aims to deliver additional battery life out of the same volume. 

Per PhoneArena, Xiaomi announced via Weibo that it had created new smartphone battery technology that will deliver 10% additional battery life out of a pack of the same size. Xiaomi has done this in a novel way. Instead of pushing for some breakthrough form of amassing more energy in lithium-ion cells, the company has shrunk the control circuit, allowing for additional room for more battery. What this means is that the space for a 4,000 mAh battery pack can now fit 4,400 mAh. 

A smartphone battery is more than the lithium-ion pack. It also incorporates connectors for the motherboard as well as a board to help regulate the power. Think of the board as the brain for the battery. It protects the battery from overcharging, over-discharging and over-drain, all of which can lower battery life in the long term. Figuring out ways to condense all this tech is how Xiaomi was able to pack in more material. It's fair to assume that other phone manufacturers will attempt to do the same thing. 

Now, 10% might not seem like a massive jump in battery life, but it's still a significant amount. For the Samsung Galaxy S21, this could mean an additional hour of battery life. 

Apart from more cramped circuitry, Xiaomi also announced something called the "fuel gauge chip," which aims to intelligently charge batteries to ensure the longest life possible. Much like adaptive charging found on the Galaxy S21 and Google Pixel 6, this will potentially use AI to learn a user's charging habits. For example, it might slowly charge to 80% overnight while a user is sleeping, and in the last hour of sleep, top it off at 100%. Keeping a battery at a constant 100% could be bad for overall health. 

Unfortunately this technology is unlikely to make it to the upcoming Xiaomi 12, which had its camera array recently leaked. Hopefully we'll see these denser, smarter batteries appear on future flagship Xiaomi phones in the not too distant future.

Update: A new batch of claimed leaked renders show off how the standard Xiaomi 12 will look more understated than its Ultra sibling.

Qualcomm has take the covers off the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip. Formally, predicted to be called the Snapdragon 898, the chip maker has gone for a new naming convention. But ultimately this is an evolution of the previous Snapdragon flagship 8-series chipsets, only this time sporting a new 4-nanometer process and a suite of improvements. 

These have been touted to be focussed on camera improvements, gaming, 5G and AI benefits. However, we won't know just how good this chip is until we get it in a real production phone. And the companies who will make the first round of these have now come forwards to ail the colors to Qualcomm's mast. 

The first company already with its name down for Snapdragon Gen 1 chips is Xiaomi, which has confirmed during Qualcomm's launch event that its next flagship, named Xiaomi 12, will arrive with the chip soon. 

The last equivalent phone, the Xiaomi Mi 11, first appeared in December of 2019, meaning we could see the Xiaomi 12 at debut in Xiaomi's native China before the end of this year, then get a wider release in early 2022. 

After Xiaomi, there's Oppo, which confirmed that a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip-equipped phone will arrive in the first quarter of 2022. If this phone is the follow-up to the Oppo Find X3 Pro, then it could launch in March, a year after its predecessor.

Leaks for the tentatively-named Find X4 aren't comprehensive yet, but the details we have are quite enticing. The phone will supposedly use a high-resolution QHD display and 12GB RAM, and most excitingly, 80W charging. That would be faster than almost any other phone we've tested here at TG, plus since Oppo is now intertwined with OnePlus, it could mean we see 80W charging on the OnePlus 10 later in 2022 too.

Finally, we've got Motorola. It announced its also launching its first Gen 1 phone in China, with the title of Edge X30, on December 9. The leaks we've heard for the phone make it sound far more luxurious than the average Moto handset, featuring a 6.67-inch 144Hz display, 50MP main and ultrawide cameras, a 60MP selfie camera, 5,000 mAh of battery capacity and 68W charging.

While these are only the first phones with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, we'll no doubt see it in more phones in due course. 

Snapdragon's flagship ships are widely used by Android phone makers, with the most obvious being Samsung's U.S. flagship phones, the next being the Galaxy S22 that's expected to arrive in February. However, companies like OnePlus, ZTE, Realme and Vivo have all used this line of chips too, and will likely do so again on their premium phones of 2022.

The only Android phone-making company we expect to not to use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is Google. With the launch of the Google Pixel 6, it's moved away from buying in Qualcomm-made chips and started designing its own, named Tensor. Samsung's phones outside the U.S. are also unlikely to use Snapdragon-branded silicon, as Samsung prefers to use its own line of Exynos chips, such as the upcoming Exynos 2200, when it can.

Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker, is known for slapping its brand on all sorts of different products — regardless of whether they link to its core smartphone business or not. That includes things like smart bulbs, escooters and even suitcases.

But now the company has announced it’s going a step further, with the promise that the first Xiaomi electric car will launch in the first half of 2024. Yes, really. It sounds like an absolutely bonkers idea, but is it?

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We’ve all heard about how Apple is another company that’s hoping to make its way into the electric car business. However, the fabled Apple Car has reportedly been in development since at least 2014, and Apple has reportedly had issues trying to make that project a reality. 

Whether it’s a loss of key executives, issues finding an automotive partner to aid production or the actual difficulties of switching from phones and computers to a moving car that may, or may not, be completely autonomous — it's clear that Apple is facing some major obstacles. 

With that in mind, and considering the automotive industry is already pretty competitive, it seems that jumping from phones to cars would be a pretty crazy idea. Especially given the promise it would be done in such a short amount of time.

Xiaomi group chairman Lei Jun, who made the announcement at the company’s investor event, certainly doesn’t think so. In fact, Lei claimed that if Xiaomi doesn’t take part in the electric vehicle transition it would “be eliminated” all because “electric cars have now transformed from a mechanical industry to an information industry.” 

And this doesn’t seem to be a case of Xiaomi slapping its label on products made by other companies, as it has done with so many other products. The company announced that it is setting up a wholly-owned subsidiary to run its EV business, and will be making an initial investment of $1.54 billion, suggests this is the real deal. 

That investment is also expected to reach $10 billion over the next decade too. Which is no small amount of money.

Cars are connected devices, whether we like it or not

Of course, Lei is not wrong when he says that the automotive industry is now more of an information industry than a mechanical one. Cars are becoming more and more advanced and hi-tech, and are going to be increasingly reliant on data and connectivity to operate.

That’s especially true where autonomous cars are concerned, since the tech industry has sold people on the idea that self-driving cars will be linked via enhanced connectivity networks. That would, in turn, make them more aware of the presence of other cars, and be able to alter their speed, route and positioning accordingly.

According to price comparison website Uswitch, electric cars of the future could only benefit from the expertise and experience afforded by tech giants like Xiaomi, Apple or Google. “Approaching building a car from a tech POV is going to allow the sector to thrive in a connected world that embraces new advancements in technology,” Uswitch said in a statement to Tom’s Guide.

Prof Sergio Savaresi, Full professor in Automatic Control at Politecnico di Milano, also pointed out that “the technology content of an autonomous vehicle is largely biased towards digital technologies.” While we’re not at the point where cars can drive independently, the auto industry is working hard to accomplish that. These cars will end up relying on electronic hardware, sensors, telecommunications, as well as algorithms and other software to operate. 

In other words, exactly the kind of things tech companies are already equipped to handle. The prospect of the autonomous driving future is, according to Prof Savaresi, “a very attractive opportunity for consumer-electronics giants to enter in the automotive market, with a leading position thanks to their high tech knowledge.”

The electric car is just a means to an end, acting as an intermediary step for tech companies to get their foot in the door. It also helps that a lot of essential EV parts —  like power electronics, lithium batteries, and electric motors — are much closer to the field of consumer electronics than they were to the internal combustion engine.

On top of that, Uswitch believes that brand recognition from these companies will also help consumers get on board with greener vehicles. “For some drivers [EVs] are a new and strange concept that we are still getting used to,“ uSwitch said, “having a well known tech brand, such as Apple and Xiaomi, can help customers feel confident in their research and eventual purchasing choices.”

Developing a car is expensive, and hard work

That being said, having strong brand awareness can’t magic an electric car out of thin air. It still relies on a tech company from actually making the jump from small personal devices like smartphones and tablets to actual moving vehicles.

However Matas Buzelis, head of communications at automotive data company carVertical, pointed out that the differences between electric cars and internal combustion engines play a crucial role in allowing newcomers to enter the market.

“The days when Volkswagen Group, GM, Toyota, or any other well-known car manufacturer had their advantages in engines departments are almost gone,” Buzelis said. “It is much easier to start a car manufacturing business that builds vehicles with no conventional drivetrain, transmission, and ICE (internal combustion engines) powerplants. However, the entry ticket to the car market is extremely expensive.”

According to Buzelis, producing a single mass market EV could cost a few billion dollars R&D investments, which may take too much time for a return on that investment. The fact that EVs are missing a lot of components deemed essential to a gas car isn’t likely to be an advantage either since electric components aren’t actually easier to work with. More importantly, cars are subject to stringent safety standards, which will likely be the biggest issue for newcomers in the automotive industry.

There’s also the fact that the automotive industry is already pretty packed, and these newcomers would have to compete with existing auto industry leaders — many of whom have already been in the business for over a century.

Bottom line

It’s unclear how far along into development Xiaomi’s electric car actually is. However, it seems that the idea of a tech company joining the auto industry isn’t as zany as it first sounds. It is a lot of hard work, not just to actually pay for and develop the car, but also to compete with automakers that have a head start of several decades.

Then again, a company like Xiaomi has historically been focussed on the software side of things. The hardware was, by its own admission, a means to get people into its ecosystem where the real money can be made. That’s why its phones are so darn cheap compared to the competition. 

It stands to reason that this same philosophy would also be applied to its electric car, which could keep the machine at a very competitive price point — something EVs sorely lack. 2024 still seems like a pretty ambitious target, especially when someone like Apple has spent so long working on a similar product with nothing to publicly show for it.

So we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens. And whether other big tech companies decide they want in on the EV action, too.

• More: Apple Car: Everything we know so far

Figuring out how to hide apps on Android can be frustrating. Not every brand of Android phone gives you the option to do it, and on those that do, there's a different process for each one. 

It's needlessly tricky to work out how to conceal apps that frequently distract you, or private ones that you'd rather keep away from other people who use your phone.

Although Android 12 is introducing native support for locked folders when it leaves beta later this year, hiding apps isn't coming any time soon. So for the time being, your only options are to use a Samsung, OnePlus or Xiaomi phone, which have this capability as part of their unique Android skins.

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• How to install the Android 12 beta right now
• How to get the Android 12 Privacy Dashboard

Follow our guides below to find out how to use those three brands' hidden app systems. If more phone makers offer the ability to hide apps in future, we'll be sure to add them to our list.

How to hide apps on Android on a Samsung phone

Samsung's method for hiding Android apps is rather limited. While you can hide apps from the main screen, there's no way for you to access them again until you reverse the process. 

1. Enter the Home Screen Settings section of the Settings app. You can do this by pressing an empty spot on your home screen, then tapping the "Settings" cog in the bottom right corner.

Alternatively, navigate to the main Settings app by pulling down the notification shade and tapping the cog icon in the top right. Then find "Home Screen Settings" within the options.

2. Once you're in Home Screen Settings, swipe down to find the "Hidden Apps" option and tap it.

3. Now select the apps you want to hide from your home screen and app drawer. 

The apps you choose to hide will appear in a box at the top of the screen as you pick them.

4. To unhide your apps, go back into this menu and tap the apps in the top box to remove them from your hidden apps.

How to hide apps on Android on a Xiaomi phone

These steps apply to any phones made under the Xiaomi umbrella. That includes Xiaomi's own "Mi"-branded phones, budgets brand Redmi and Poco and the gaming-focussed Black Shark. For some reason you can't choose any installed app to hide, but hopefully the ones you wish to keep hidden will appear on the still lengthy list.

1. Open the Security app. By default it will be on your first home screen.

2. Scroll down and find the App Lock option. Tap it and then set up a pattern lock as requested. You can now turn on App Lock and Hidden Apps.

3. Once that's complete, go back to the main Security app using the back button at the top, and open the App Lock option again. 

However, feel free to lock apps as well while you're here. Locking apps will make them prompt you for your fingerprint or pattern lock password when you open them, but it won't hide them from your home screen.

4. Now you will have two tabs to pick from. Choose the tab on the right labelled "Hidden apps."

5. Select the apps you want to hide.

6. To access your hidden apps, tap the screen with two fingers then spread them apart, either vertically or horizontally. The phone will prompt you for your fingerprint or pattern lock password. You'll then open the hidden folder containing your nominated apps.

How to hide apps on Android on a OnePlus phone

OnePlus' hidden apps are sneakily hidden within the main app drawer. However it doesn't automatically require a password, so if you're hiding apps for security reasons, you'll need to enable one in the Hidden Space menu.

1. From the home screen, swipe up to access the app drawer.

2. Now swipe to the right. An eye icon will appear. Release your finger to go to the Hidden Space drawer.

3. If you don't have any apps in the drawer yet, tap the plus icon in the top right corner. 

4. Now you can select your apps from the list.

5. To add a password for Hidden Space, tap the three dots in the top right corner, and then "Enable password." You can now choose whether to use a typed password or your thumbprint to reveal your hidden apps.

• More: How to update Android apps
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Many of us charge our phones up overnight, but no doubt we'd all prefer the ability to fill our phones up in less than ten minutes whenever we needed to do so. That's something that Chinese phone maker Xiaomi's been working on.

If the 67W charging speed of the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra isn't enough for you, the company claimed it has broken the world record for phone charging speeds. In a Twitter video published on the company's official profile, Xiaomi's prototype charged fully in about 7 minutes and 6 seconds with a 200W wired connection. Over a 120W wireless connection, the phone took around 15 minutes to charge to 100%.

• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra review
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These impressive numbers were achieved via a couple of unique methods, as detailed by Weibo user Fei Wei (via Engadget Chinese) who was briefed on the experiments. 

The phone itself, a modified Xiaomi Mi 11 Pro, used a 4,000 mAh graphene battery,  a fairly low capacity cell compared to most modern phones. However graphene is thought to be the next frontier in mobile device battery development, thanks to its faster safe charging speeds and lighter weight compared to lithium-ion batteries currently used.

Xiaomi's special chargers use emerging technology too. The wired charger featured gallium nitride components instead of the typical silicon ones, allowing it to produce 200W of power safely and in a compact form factor. Meanwhile, the wireless charger used an unspecified dual-coil design, different from the usual single-coil wireless chargers we have right now.

Xiaomi's impressive achievement puts current fast charging standards to shame. It almost doubles the performance of current leaders in rapid charging, such as the 65W wired and 50W wireless charging abilities with the OnePlus 9 Pro, let alone other common phone standards. 

The iPhone 12 can charge at a maximum of 20W wired and 18W wireless (only via a MagSafe charger), while the Samsung Galaxy S21 can only manage 25W wired and 15W wireless. 

This is just an experiment for now though. Xiaomi doesn't mention when these impressive chargers will work with its retail phones, though we might predict it'll be a year or two if we're lucky. But remember that these record-breaking speeds were achieved with currently available technology, which means such charging speeds will be within reach for average users at some point in the near future.

• More: Google caught hiding location settings in Android

As far as “ultra” phones go, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra is hard to comprehend. Its monolithic design, enormous cameras, stunning display and secondary rear display give it an unmistakable look — one that shows Xiaomi means business when it sets its sights on taking down its Samsung, OnePlus and Apple rivals.

Those specs aren’t just for ticking boxes either. All of them work as well as you’d expect, with a few, such as the QHD resolution, 120Hz panel, zippy 67W charging or the telephoto camera, offering class-leading performance. 

However, this model’s ultimate fate rests on how much Xiaomi wants to charge for it. The basic Xiaomi Mi 11 is already a great value, and uses several identical parts to the Mi 11 Ultra, so arguably the Ultra could be too expensive for its own good. However, with careful pricing, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra could make itself the most accessible ultimate smartphone around.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra review: Price and release date

We know that the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra will be coming to the U.K, though it will skip the U.S., given Xiaomi’s ongoing dispute with the U.S. government over alleged risks to national security.

Xiaomi has yet to name a date and price for the U.K. version of the Mi 11 Ultra. Given the basic Xiaomi Mi 11 costs £749, just a little less than the £769 Galaxy S21 or £829 OnePlus 9 Pro, it follows that the Ultra version would cost well over £1,000, perhaps similar to the £1,149 Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and £1,099 iPhone 12 Pro Max.

However, the price of the Ultra in India, the only market with an announced price so far, gives us hope. At 70,000 rupees, the Mi 11 Ultra costs less than a Galaxy S21 Plus, and the same as a OnePlus 9 Pro. We can't account for how regional differences will affect that price when it comes to the U.K., but if Xiaomi can afford to sell the Mi 11 Ultra for less than £1,000,, it would undercut its rivals significantly, and become an incredible bargain for the hardware it offers, even accounting for the already cheap Mi 11.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra review: Design

You might mistake the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra for the basic Mi 11 from the front. The curved punch-hole display looks smart, but it's indistinct from both other Mi 11 models and other Android phones.

Flip the phone over, and everything changes. You’re immediately drawn to the huge rectangular camera bump that stretches almost the entire width of the phone, and the top third of the back. The three large camera openings look foreboding, and that’s not to mention the secondary rear display sat to their right.

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra comes with a tough ceramic body, in either black or white. I prefer the white version since it helps the camera bumps stand out even more, but both colors look elegant and the Mi 11 Ultra should shrug off scratches better than a glass- or plastic-backed phone.

Both the front and back of the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra curve into the metal side rails, which makes it fit surprisingly well into your hand and comfortable to use even with just one hand. You’ll notice the weight of this phone the moment you pick it up, though.

At more than 8 ounces, the Mi 11 Ultra is heavier than the Galaxy S21 Ultra or the iPhone 12 Pro Max, though I didn’t find it tough to use over long periods. What did get a little annoying however was how easy it is to snag the Mi 11 Ultra’s large camera bump on a jeans pocket, stopping you from putting the phone away as effortlessly as you’re likely used to.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra review: Display

Xiaomi has equipped the Mi 11 Ultra with an exquisite display. The 6.81-inch AMOLED panel comes complete with a QHD resolution and a 120HZ maximum refresh rate and has a subtle curve on all four edges to make it easier to hold.

If you prioritize battery life over refresh rate and resolution, Xiaomi has made it easy to tone down these settings. You can set the display to an FHD resolution instead, and the 120Hz resolution can dynamically scale down to 90Hz, 60Hz or 30Hz if the content you’re looking at won’t be hurt by a lower refresh rate.

Watching the Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings trailer to try out the Mi 11 Ultra’s display, I was not disappointed. The floating water effects, neon lights and burning hot blade that all appear at various points in the trailer all looked fantastic, but as I watched the teaser for the next installment of the MCU, I had a nagging thought — the Mi 11 Ultra’s display is a bit underwhelming. It’s the exact same as the one on the Mi 11, which is far cheaper to buy.

That means despite the display being one of the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra’s best features, the screen is not a good enough reason to pay up for this phone on its own.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra review: Rear display

The displays don’t stop with the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra’s 6.81-inch main display. The back of the phone features a secondary 1.1-inch panel, about the size of a fitness band’s screen. You’ll find the secondary display within the camera bump, and it’s one of the Mi 11 Ultra’s signature features. Unfortunately, the display offers surprisingly limited functionality.

With the phone locked, the rear panel acts as a miniature always-on display when you tap it, showing you the time, date, battery level and whether you have notifications. When the phone’s open, you can use the rear screen as a preview window for the rear cameras, allowing your subjects to see themselves before you hit the shutter button. Unfortunately, you can only enable this when in normal photo mode, not when taking portrait mode shots.

Both of these are practical applications for a secondary display, putting us in mind of how the foldable Samsung Galaxy Z Flip or Motorola Razr use their mini external displays. I can’t say I’m convinced this is going to be the next hot trend in smartphone design though — it feels too light on features to make it worth adding a second screen. Plus the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra’s rear panel is very dim. Any above-average amount of light makes it impossible to read, particularly from extreme angles.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra review: Cameras

The Mi 11 Ultra aims for camera quality over quantity, offering just three rear sensors. The ones that are there feature impressive specs. The main camera uses a 50MP sensor, with the ultrawide and telephoto cameras both featuring 48MP sensors. The telephoto camera, as text on the back of the phone reminds you, is capable of 120x zoom, although you’ll be better off sticking to its 5x optical or 10x hybrid zoom levels instead.

The Mi 11 Ultra’s front camera has a 20MP sensor, but it almost doesn’t need to be there. The secondary display allows all the rear cameras to be practically used for selfies.

To put the Mi 11 Ultra through its paces, I compared it with shots taken by the iPhone 12 Pro, one of the best camera phones around. In this first comparison of the phones’ main cameras, I took a shot of the London Eye that turns out to be a narrow win for the iPhone. The Mi 11 Ultra’s image is oddly dark, while the iPhone manages to capture the sky just as well as it recreates the detail of the Eye’s structure.

In a slightly darker environment however, the Mi 11 pulls ahead. See how the colors of the leaves and grass in the sunken square of Paddington Central are much richer than that of the iPhone’s shot, plus how the Mi 11 Ultra still manages to capture the sky without the light blowing out the color.

However when it’s a proper night mode shot, I think the iPhone has the edge. The Mi 11 Ultra’s image of the Euston Station war memorial is brighter but fails to capture the color of the sky or the street lamp light cast on the stonework in quite the same way as the iPhone.

Switching to the ultrawide sensor, the Mi 11 Ultra’s larger sensor has produced a brighter image that also retains the detail of the light playing on the metal installation and concrete bridge above. However it is more obviously distorted than the iPhone’s image, which looks all right overall.

The Mi 11 Ultra’s strongest photos come from its telephoto lens. Xiaomi’s phone has one of the largest, highest resolution sensors combined with a powerful periscope zoom, so it’s unsurprising to see that it takes a clearer image at 2x zoom than the iPhone’s 2x optical zoom lens does.

Even increasing to 10x zoom, the Mi 11 Ultra still keeps the Elizabeth Tower, a.k.a. Big Ben, looking sharp, even from the other side of the River Thames.

The maximum 120x zoom is impressive, as you can see below. However it’s not a good quality image, and I found it hard to aim without a tripod due to the subtle movements of your hand causing the view to bob and weave.

The last test is to look at how the selfie camera performs. We see the Mi 11 Ultra’s image is not as saturated, and has a more subtle bokeh effect in the background. While I prefer how I look in the shot from the Xiaomi phone, the iPhone’s done a better job with the background.

I also tried taking a selfie using the rear display and the Xiaomi’s main camera. This was fairly easy to manage on the Mi 11 Ultra, and resulted in the highest resolution selfie I’ve ever taken. 

It’s this kind of shot, along with the telephoto camera, that sets the Mi 11 Ultra apart from all other flagship phones. Even the images where I picked the iPhone version as the better one, there was nothing actually wrong with the shot from the Xiaomi. It seems safe to say the Mi 11 Ultra has earned the right to its colossal camera bump.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra review: Performance

Xiaomi has shoehorned a Snapdragon 888, 12GB RAM and 256GB storage into the Mi 11 Ultra. There aren’t many phones with better specs, so you can rest assured the Mi 11 Ultra will handle any app or game you want to run on it.

On the Geekbench 5 app that measures general performance, the Mi 11 Ultra posted a single-core result of 1,136 points, and a multicore score of 3,724. That’s slightly ahead of the OnePlus 9 Pro (1,126 and 3,685) and the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (1,123 and 3,440), but still a ways off the iPhone 12 Pro Max (1,603 and 4,111) and its all-conquering A14 Bionic chipset.

Moving to the 3DMark graphic benchmark and its Wild Life Unlimited test, and the Mi 11 Ultra scored 5,617 points and managed an average of 33.8 frames per second. Comparing to the same phones as before, the OnePlus 9 Pro and S21 Ultra beat it (5,755 and 34.5fps, 5,739 and 34.37fps) as does the iPhone 12 Pro Max (9,113, 54fps).

I tested the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra’s performance for myself by playing Mario Kart Tour, and I didn’t notice the performance gap between this Xiaomi device and the other phones. The game plays excellently, and Xiaomi’s Game Turbo software streamlines the phone’s performance to make sure you get the best from the device, and can play without being disturbed.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra review: Battery and charging

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra is fitted with a 5,000 mAh battery, a hefty power pack for most phones. The Mi 11 Ultra’s battery is unique in that it uses nano silicon oxide, which allows it to stuff the same capacity into a smaller footprint compared to a traditional lithium-ion smartphone battery.

I drained the battery with my informal YouTube binge-watching test, and after 6 hours of non-stop video, the Mi 11 Ultra had gone from 100% charge to 64% charge. As you'd expect from a phone with two screens, the main one being among the best currently on offer on any phone, the battery life takes a severe knock. Even with the phone sat on my desk with the always-on display enabled, 

Impressively, you can charge at the same 67W speed with a wired or wireless connection, assuming you have the right plug and Xiaomi's sold-separately charging stand. While you will get the wired charging block in the Mi 11’s box, sadly Xiaomi was unable to provide us with either of these for testing. Its own figures claim that charging with one of these fills the phone 100% full in only 36 minutes. That beats both the Galaxy S21 Ultra and the iPhone 12 Pro, neither of which come bundled with chargers. However, the latest OnePlus 9 flagships can pull off the same feat while taking a few minutes less, due to their dual-cell 4,500 mAh battery designs.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra review: Software

The MIUI 12 spin on Android 11 is a good one, so we’re glad Xiaomi kept this interface for the Mi 11 Ultra. Xiaomi has successfully balanced the straightforward stock Android experience with its own exclusive features, such as floating windows, always-on displays, and an attractive look with nicely animated transitions.

The only new feature worth mentioning is the options menu for the rear display, found within the special features section on the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra. It allows you to pick whether the display shows a clock, signature or image, what color it uses, which notifications show, if you want to turn it on with a double-tap and how long it stays on for before disappearing. You can also disable it completely, which seems like a waste of one of the phone’s biggest features.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra review: Verdict

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra is a powerful phone that’s either going to be the smartphone bargain of the year or repakcage what the Xiaomi Mi 11 already offers. Because of how generous Xiaomi was with the basic Mi 11, which shares the same main display and chipset while still offering competent photography, the Mi 11 Ultra offers less additional value to the Mi 11 compared to what a Galaxy S21 Ultra offers on top of a base Galaxy S21, for example. Therefore, Xiaomi will make or break the Mi 11 Ultra based on how much it charges for the new phone.

This is a moot point for U.S. users, who still have to look at other phones by default, such as the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra or OnePlus 9 Pro. U.K. users however could find themselves in one of two worlds. If Xiaomi sells the Mi 11 Ultra for around the £1,000 mark like the Indian retail price suggests, then we will be offered an Android phone with iPhone-rivalling photo quality, two displays and some of the fastest charging speeds around for the price of a mid-level Samsung flagship. It would be hard to deny the Mi 11 Ultra a spot on our best camera phones or overall best phones guides if this comes to pass.

However if Xiaomi follows the example of the S21 Ultra and iPhone 12 Pro Max and charges around £1,200, then the Mi 11 Ultra becomes an overgrown Mi 11 that doesn’'t offer the extra £400 to £500 of value. In this case, it's still a great phone, but one that gets outshone by the nearly identical Xiaomi Mi 11.

If you're convinced of the utility of the extra display, the 67W charging and the power of the rear cameras, then buy a Mi 11 Ultra, you won't find these features replicated anywhere else any time soon. Most users in the market for a premium phone might want to wait though, in case we live in the timeline where Xiaomi is about to drop the best value flagship phone of the year.

Xiaomi is already nicknamed "China's Apple" — and now it's set to follow the U.S. tech giant's lead by building its own electric cars.

The company, best known for smartphones such as the new Xiaomi Mi 11, announced its plans during its 2021 New Product Launch event in China today, tweeting confirmation that it would invest $10bn into the project over the next decade.

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In a shareholder filing, Xiaomi said it will create a standalone division for its new electric cars, headed by co-founder Lei Jun, and added that it “hopes to offer quality smart electric vehicles to let everyone in the world to enjoy smart living anytime, anywhere.” 

The news has been rumored for some time. Just last week, a report from Chinese site 36 Krypton said the plans were already in progress, and that Lei had held talks with Chinese luxury EV manufacturer Nio about working together on the car.

The project will pit Xiaomi against fellow tech titans Apple and Huawei, each of whom have their own electric car plans, and into an increasingly competitive space where long-established auto makers are battling the likes of Tesla.

Unlike Apple, Xiaomi already has a history in the automotive world. Last year, it teamed up with Lamborghini to make the Ninebot GoKart Pro — a (you guessed it) supercar-inspired GoKart with a 432Wh battery and a 25 mph top speed. And back in 2019, it produced the Redmi Bestune T77, an SUV with a 1.2-liter turbo engine, 6-speed manual gearbox, and 143hp.  

Apple's plans for the Apple Car appear to have stalled in recent months, with recent reports suggesting that the Cupertino model might not arrive until 2024. Potential partnerships with the likes of Nissan, Hyundai and Kia all appear to have fizzled out, and a recent story suggested it might even turn to iPhone makers Foxconn or other existing contractors to make the Apple Car.

When it does eventually arrive, the Apple Car is expected to be something quite special, with LiDAR-based navigation, AI management and monocell battery tech among the many standout features.

Whether Xiaomi's electric car will be as technologically advanced remains to be seen, but it's certainly doing well enough on the smartphone front. Last year it overtook Apple to become the world's third-largest smartphone maker, and we recently gave the Mi 11 a glowing 4-star review.

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This is Xiaomi's week, it seems. Hot on the heels on announcing the eye-catching Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra phone and an AirPower-style wireless charging mat, the Chinese company revealed its first foldable, the Mi Mix Fold. The foldable looks a lot like the Galaxy Z Fold 2, including an in-folding display.

But there's a key difference between the Mi Mix Fold and the Galaxy Z Fold — the price. Though Xiaomi is limiting sales of its new foldable to China, the Mi Mix Fold starts at 9,999 yuan, which is roughly $1,521 USD. That means the Mi Mix Fold theoretically clocks in at $500-ish less than the Galaxy Z Fold 2.

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There's a lot about this Xiaomi foldable to like. The 8.01-inch full OLED display sports a resolution of 2,480 x 1,860 and a 60Hz refresh rate. When folded up, the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold has a 6.52-inch OLED display with a 2,520 x 840 resolution with a 90Hz refresh rate.

Inside, you'll find the Snapdragon 888 and a huge, dual-cell 5,020 mAh battery. The Mi Mix Fold supports 67W charging to top everything off or fully recharge the battery in 37 minutes. All of this means you'll get top-tier performance for an Android phone, though it remains to be seen how fast that 8.01-inch display chews through the battery.

Xiaomi didn't skimp on cameras with the Mi Mix Fold, either. The 108MP sensor joins a 13MP ultrawide, and an 8MP liquid lens. The latter is interesting. It can act as a 3x telephoto (30x digital) or a macro lens. Xiaomi teased this leading up to the launch, and we'll have to see how it performs in real life. For selfies, there's a hole punch cutout for the 20MP shooter in smartphone mode, but not one in tablet mode.

In hopes of creating the best photography experience possible, Xiaomi included its new Surge C1 image processing chip in the Mi Mix Fold. The theoretically brings better low-light performance, plus faster autofocus, and better auto white balance and auto exposure.

There's a PC mode, too, but we don't know if it'll support external displays like Samsung's DeX mode or the new Ready For mode Motorola just launched. For software, the Mi Mix Fold strangely runs Android 10 underneath MIUI 11. It's weird to use a year-and-a-half old Android version, especially when Android 11 has been out for plenty long enough now, and includes explicit support for foldable devices.

The Mi Mix Fold is limited to China, and Xiaomi doesn't plan to change that. It'll launch for 9,999 yuan (~$1,521) for the 12GB/256GB model and 10,999 yuan (~$1,674) for 12GB/512GB variant. There's a special edition with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, plus a ceramic back, for 12,999 yuan (~$1,978). 

It's a bummer that we'll probably never see the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold outside China, because this foldable sounds pretty good.

Xiaomi announced a lot of new products today (March 29), Highlighted by the new Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra. But in addition to rolling out a new phone and fitness band, the Chinese company took aim at Apple in a new way by offering a charging accessory that Apple never quite could bring to market.

That would be AirPower, Apple's attempt to make a wireless charing pad that was supposed to charge multiple products at once. Announced in 2017 but scrapped in 2019 without ever shipping, Apple said it killed AirPower due to heat dissipation concerns. And yet, here in 2021, Xiaomi has taken up the charge with a new wireless charging pad of its own.

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Though it bears no fancy name, Xiaomi's charging pad sure holds plenty of promise. Thanks to its 19 Qi induction coils, this pad can charge up to three devices. Each device will receive 20W of power, which is pretty standard for wireless charging pads. While not blazing fast like OnePlus' 50W wireless charger or Xiaomi's newly-announced 80W Mi Wireless Charging Stand Set, that's still fine in exchange for the convenience of going wireless to charge multiple devices at once.

With so many coils packed into one spot, your device — be it phone, watch, earbuds case, and so on — will find one that works for it and start accepting the juice. The really wide base means that you can fit three devices on to Xiaomi's pad if you're strategic about placement.

Beyond just the announcement, Xiaomi wanted to poke fun at Apple's failure to figure out a solution. The Chinese company claims it spent the better part of two years getting this right, and even showed off an iPhone charging on the new pad. These shots off the bow don't seem all that unwarranted. After all, we've all been conditioned to think that if any company can figure out a solution to a technological problem, it's Apple.

Xiaomi claims that the new wireless charging pad is virtually silent, basically saying that "you can't hear it." The pad will retail for 599 yuan in China, which equates to roughly $90 in the U.S.. That's an expensive wireless charger, but it might all be worth it for the promise of ultimate convenience. Now all we need is contactless charging and we'll be set.

Xiaomi better watch out, as it seems that AirPower has been reborn.

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It looks increasingly likely that Xiaomi will launch a revolutionary new type of lens in a smartphone soon. A poster with an enigmatic water design has appeared on Twitter showing what could be an exciting liquid-based lens in the new Xiaomi Mi Mix. 

The post, which comes from Ben Geskin, quotes Lei Hun, co-founder of Xiaomi, and describes a lens which is both telephoto and macro at the same time. He claims that the principal is the same as the human eye, which uses muscles to change the shape of your lenses, allowing you to focus very quickly. 

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The only slight confusion here is that claim of both macro and telephoto in the same lens. This might be a slight error, because an optical zoom would be many times more complicated than a simple fixed focal length. However, the idea of focusing at infinity, and then back down to a macro scale is certainly exciting even if there’s no zoom involved.

It’s quite possible Xiaomi has indeed developed something which can also adjust the focal length, too, which would allow for a lens like this to zoom. It’s hard to imagine this maintaining the quality of an optical lens, but perhaps there’s a surprise ahead of us. 

The idea of a water lens isn’t actually new, and the technology is used in manufacturing already. You may know Corning from Gorilla Glass, which protects your phone glass from scratches or breakage, but the company also has a range of lenses that use technology similar to this already. 

In these lenses water and oil are used. Because they won’t mix, when they’re trapped together the surface they create can be used as a lens. That surface can be expanded or contracted with an electrical current and used to focus an image incredibly quickly. You can see the result of that in the video below. 

The big advantage of these lenses is that they are not mechanical. That means they don’t wear out and can be used in places when a mechanical system might malfunction. That’s not necessarily a big problem in a smartphone, but the simplicity of the system and the speed at which it can operate might make for a more responsive camera. 

The Xiaomi Mi Mix will launch March 29.

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The iPad dominates the tablet market, but Apple hasn't killed its Android competitors just yet. A recent leak suggests that Xiaomi may be set to re-enter the ring and take the fight straight to Apple.

This leak comes courtesy of Chinese social media site Weibo (via MyFixGuide) from a user named "Bald Panda," which has some key specs. All told, this seems like a powerful tablet, but it still might struggle to match the iPad Pro's sheer power.

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Of course, treat every leak you see with a hefty dose of skepticism, but these specs seem legit. We don't know much else about what we think is called the Mi Pad 5, not even an announcement date, but specs a key part of the story.

Bald Panda revealed a couple of things. First, the LCD screen will be 10.95 inches with a 2K resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and a 480Hz touch sampling rate. This is in line with the iPad Pro. 

There might be two rear cameras, a 20MP and 13MP. We expect the latter to be a ultrawide angle lens, though that's just speculation. Bald Panda also claims the fingerprint sensor will be side-mounted in the power button, much like latest iPad Air.

For the processor, the Mi Pad 5 will apparently use a Snapdragon 870, which is a step down from the top-tier Snapdragon 888. The tablet also ought to run Android with Xiaomi's MIUI on top.

Leaked Geekbench results of the Snapdragon 870 give it a single-core score of 1016, and a multi-core score of 3332. This is lower the A12Z chip found in the current iPad Pro. At the moment, the A12Z sits at 1122 in single-core performance and 4670 in multi-core. 

Pricing remains a mystery for the Mi Pad 5, but we expect that it will be quite competitive in comparison to Apple and Samsung. This leak suggests that the tablet will come close to matching the iPad Pro on paper, but that says nothing about the state of Android on tablets right now, which is a whole other topic of conversation.

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Meet the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro — a budget phone with a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra-rivalling 108MP rear camera.

It's one of four phones newly launched by the Chinese company, alongside the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10, the Redmi Note 10S and the Redmi Note 10 5G. The standard Note 10 won't be available in all regions, but the other three are getting a global launch — although we wouldn't necessarily expect them in the US. Here's a little look at each of them.

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Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra's 108MP rear camera is one of its best features — so to see a budget phone arrive packing the same number of megapixels is something of a surprise.

And Xiaomi really has gone all in on the Note 10 Pro's photographic skills. As well as that super-high-res 108MP sensor, it also has 8MP ultra-wide, 5MP telemacro and 2MP depth-sensing round the back. The front-facing camera uses a 16MP sensor.

And there's more: Xiaomi says its 9-in-1 binning tech should help it capture more light, plus there's a fancy RAW algorithm that uses multiple exposures of the same shot to improve night photography. We'll have to wait until we've tried it to see how it performs, but it certainly sounds good on paper.

That camera set-up is far from the Redmi Note 10 Pro's only impressive feature. It also has a 6.67-inch AMOLED screen with a super-fast 120Hz refresh rate — another feature you don't typically see outside of premium smartphones.

As reported by The Verge, the Indian version of the Redmi Note 10 Pro is called the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max and starts at Rs. 18,999 (~$260) for a model with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. 

You also get both a USB-C port and a 3.5mm headphone socket, and there's a fingerprint sensor on the side. Other highlights include a 5,020mAh battery and fast-33W charging. 

In fact, the only real nod to its mid-range status is that it runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 732G chip; this only supports 4G rather than 5G and isn't at the top of the Snapdragon line. The phone will be available in either 6GB or 8GB flavors, with 64GB or 128GB of storage.

Whether the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro makes it into our list of the best Android phones will depend a lot on how much it costs. The Redmi line is not typically expensive — the Redmi Note 9 retails at only £130 in the UK — but we don't yet have any price details. We do know that it should arrive in the UK in early April.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 10

The standard Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 is the model that's not getting a full release — it certainly won't be available in the UK, although we don't yet have details about which countries will get it.

It lacks the top-end features of the Note 10 Pro, but still has a 43MP rear camera backed up by 8MP ultra-wide, 2MP macro and 2MP depth-sensing sensors, plus a 13MP front camera. The screen is a 6.43-inch AMOLED with 2400 x 1080 resolution, while there's a decent-sized 5,000 mAh battery and fast-charging tech also on board.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S

The Redmi Note 10S sits below the Note 10 Pro and shares some of its headline features.

Like the 10 Pro it has a fingerprint sensor, USB-C port and 3.5mm headphone jack, but its main camera is slightly smaller: it has a 64MP sensor, backed up 8MP ultra-wide, 2MP depth-sensing and 2MP macro efforts. There's a 13MP camera round the front. 

Like the standard Note 10, it has a 6.43-inch FHD+ display, with a 60Hz refresh rate — no 120Hz here. Its 5,000mAh battery is also slightly smaller than that in the Pro, although again it gets fast 33W charging.

Powering it all is a MediaTek Helio G95 mid-range processor, plus 6GB or 8GB RAM and 64GB or 128GB storage. 

Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G

Finally, there's the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G — as you might have guessed, the only model out of these four to come with 5G compatibility.

Outside of its connectivity, it has a larger, better screen than the 10S: it's a 6.5-inch display with FHD+ resolution and a faster 90Hz refresh rate. The camera is a downgrade from that in the 10S though, with only a 48MP main sensor backed up by 2MP macro and 2MP depth-sensing. There's no ultra-wide lens on this model, and the front snapper is only an 8MP affair.

The battery is also slightly downgraded — it has the same 5,000mAh capacity as the 10S, but it only supports 18W charging. 

Under the hood there's a MediaTek Dimensity 700 chipset, plus 4GB or 6GB RAM and 64GB or 128GB storage.

The 5G could be a good contender for the best cheap 5G phone, but otherwise it's the Redmi Note 10 Pro that really has us interested. We'll find out more about it soon.

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Xiaomi is a name that’s likely unfamiliar to many smartphone buyers in the West. The Chinese firm’s handsets have never been officially sold in the U.S. — the new Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G is no exception — and the full range of products the company offers typically don’t make it past Asia. But those who have heard of Xiaomi know that the company has earned a reputation for quality at a cut-rate price.

Right off the bat, let’s make one thing clear: The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G is indeed a quality phone, but it’s not being sold at a cut-rate price. Last year’s Mi 9 Pro cost the rough equivalent of $520; the Mi 10 Pro 5G is priced at €999, which translates to $1,080. If OnePlus moved to a richer part of town by bumping its prices with the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro, then Xiaomi just bought a mansion.

But the Mi 10 Pro 5G doesn’t feel like it came from a company that doesn’t know how to build an expensive, exquisite product. In fact, Xiaomi’s phone is every bit as polished and complete as the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus.

However, it’s also not without its quirks. And even though it lasts remarkably long on a charge, has a beautiful display and takes a unique (and mostly successful) approach to camera hardware, the Mi 10 Pro 5G’s high price, difficulty to buy and overwrought software keep it from making our list of the best phones — very good though it is.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G review: Pricing and availability

The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G isn’t sold in the U.S. or U.K., though it is available in Europe, where it costs €999 and only comes in one configuration with 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. There is no microSD slot to expand storage on this device.

Therefore, if you live in either the U.S. or U.K. and would like to own a Mi 10 Pro 5G, you’ll have to import an international model from a site like Giztop. As always with international models of phones, you’ll have to ensure the bands it can connect to align with those used by your carrier of choice.

Our Mi 10 Pro 5G had no issues connecting to T-Mobile’s LTE network, though the device isn’t wired to receive every single band the Uncarrier utilizes. This may result in some lacking coverage in certain parts of the country. Additionally, while the Mi 10 Pro 5G supports sub-6GHz 5G, it couldn’t connect to T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G network during our testing, so we couldn’t enjoy the benefits of faster connectivity.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G review: Design

While testing the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G, I frequently compared it against Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Plus. Both phones are sized similarly, cost about the same and sport an identical number of camera lenses on the back, so it seemed like an appropriate pairing, even if Samsung’s phone costs a little bit more. Our S20 Plus is of the Aura Blue variety, and Xiaomi calls the shade of our Mi 10 Pro 5G review unit Solstice Grey — which is odd, because it definitely comes across as blue to my eyes.

Frequently I’d have both phones face up on my desk, and when I’d go to reach for one, oftentimes and much to my surprise, I’d mistakenly pick up the other. I often gripe that flagship smartphones these days all look the same, but the resemblance these devices share is unlike anything I’ve encountered before. The only immediate giveaway is that the Mi 10 Pro 5G is heavier than the S20 Plus by about seven-tenths of an ounce, which you can definitely feel.

None of this is to say the Mi 10 Pro 5G’s design is disappointing, necessarily — just very familiar. It has that copycat aluminum frame you see on lots of Android flagships these days, that gets all thin in the middle and flares out as it approaches the top and bottom. You’ve got your two slabs of curved glass, with the one on the back bearing a pleasing matte finish, and a quartet of camera lenses broken into an unusual cluster — three lined in a pill-shaped module, and the ultrawide lens all by its lonesome quite a way down from the rest.

That camera module is one of two of the Mi 10 Pro 5G’s only distinctive design traits. The other is its duplication of speakers. Not only will you see a set of drilled holes on the bottom, but there’s another along the top edge as well. Rather than using the earpiece for front-firing sound, the Mi 10 Pro 5G shoots audio out its sides when you’re holding the device in landscape orientation. And the speakers get awfully loud, too.

But there’s a problem. When you’re gaming or watching a film, it’s only natural that your palms will cradle the phone at exactly both spots in which the stereo speakers sit. This isn’t an issue for devices that place one driver behind the earpiece and another in the frame. But when both are housed in the frame, then you have a bit of a dilemma. There were numerous occasions in which I was playing Fortnite on the Mi 10 Pro 5G and tightened up my grip for a firefight only to have the phone sound like it had immediately plunged to the bottom of a pool.

Oh, and speaking of pools, here’s something else: The Mi 10 Pro 5G, despite its four-digit sticker shock, doesn’t boast any IP rating for water resistance. All you get is a liquid-repellent nano-coating that might fend off some rain or a spilled drink, but isn’t going to save your phone from a dive. One of the best waterproof phones this is not.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G review: Display

• 6.67-inch OLED
• 2340x1080 resolution
• 90Hz maximum refresh rate

It’s becoming increasingly common to see fast refresh-rate displays in flagship phones, and the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G follows that trend with a 90Hz, full-HD AMOLED panel that delivers smooth animations and either realistic or robust colors, depending on the display profile you select.

The Mi 10 Pro 5G’s screen might not quite match the 120Hz refresh rates and quad-HD resolutions of the Galaxy S20 series and the OnePlus 8 Pro, though I don’t consider that a loss worth pining over. Animations at 90Hz are still far more fluid than what you get from conventional 60Hz displays, and make the entire experience of using the phone tangibly more immediate and responsive. More pixels and faster refresh rates also exert an adverse affect on battery life, and the Mi 10 Pro 5G happens to last very long on a charge — but more on that later.

I was dazzled by the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G’s screen while watching the latest trailer for the upcoming James Bond flick, No Time To Die. Bond’s stunt-driving antics wheeling an Aston Martin DB5 through the sun-kissed Italian town of Matera looked especially dramatic thanks to the panel’s excellent dynamic range.

But the Mi 10 Pro 5G’s display can get awfully bright too, with a peak full-screen brightness of exactly 800 nits. That’s just shy of the Galaxy S20 Plus’ 847 nits, though I was hard pressed to notice a difference in visibility between both devices while using them outside on a sunny day.

The Mi 10 Pro 5G sports a range of display modes, from Original — which is more natural and tuned to the sRGB color space — to the more vivacious Saturated mode that lifts those hues into the stratosphere.

The default Auto mode, which is somewhere in between, delivers a picture that compares nicely with what the OnePlus 8 Pro offers; with this configuration, the Mi 10 Pro 5G rendered 109.6% of the DCI-P3 color space, compared to the slightly bolder 116.9% of the premium OnePlus handset. However, the Mi 10 Pro 5G’s colors do appear to be slightly more accurate, as it notched a 0.22 score in the Delta-E test, where numbers closer to zero are better. The OnePlus 8 Pro finished at 0.26.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G review: Camera

• Triple-lens rear camera: 108MP wide (ƒ/1.7); 20MP ultrawide (ƒ/2.2); 12MP “portrait” 2X telephoto (ƒ/2.0); 8MP 10X lossless telephoto (ƒ/2.0)
• Front camera: 20MP (ƒ/2.0)

Samsung’s 108-megapixel camera sensor is reaching more models from other phone makers. Not only is it featured in the quad-lens Motorola Edge Plus, but it also headlines the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G’s four-lens stack.

Xiaomi has flanked that super-high-resolution shooter with three other lenses: a 20-MP ultrawide optic, and, strangely, two telephoto cameras. One is rated at 12 MP and touts 2x optical power, and is used for shallow depth-of-field portraits; the other captures 8 MP shots but can see further, with up to 10x lossless zoom. A 20-MP selfie camera rounds out the repertoire. 

If you leave that main 108-MP sensor to its own devices, it’ll capture binned 27-MP shots that allow more light to reach the sensor. The results are good, but not perfect; if you look closely, you’ll notice the wood fibers at the center of the torch are a bit blurry, and not quite in focus. The Galaxy S20 Plus didn’t suffer the same issues getting everything in the middle of the frame all nice and crisp, and avoided the smoky, warm cast over the background as well.

But if you ratchet the Mi 10 Pro 5G’s main shooter up to 108 MP, it can take some pretty remarkable images you can just keep zooming into for days. This suburban scene may not look particularly exciting, but I have to stress that in this instance, Xiaomi’s device nailed the white balance, reflecting the somewhat cloudy conditions of the afternoon. The S20 Plus — which was set to its full-resolution 64MP mode for this shot — delivered a very sharp result, though the contrast is a bit too dramatic and the sky more of an idyllic blue than it really was in actuality.

The Mi 10 Pro 5G’s ultrawide optic delivered a less praiseworthy result, clearly suffering some distortion at the fringes and sucking all the depth out of the shadows. The boosted colors in both shots are owing to the fact that both handsets’ AI scene optimization modes were turned on. And while the Galaxy’s version of events isn’t perfect either — the trees have a very eerie glow to them — the more natural saturation and contrast from Samsung’s phones earns the S20 Plus the thumbs up.

That ultrawide optic is the same one the Mi 10 Pro 5G employs to capture macro shots. My colleague Philip Michaels isn’t a fan of dedicated macro lenses, and my sentiments echo his. However, the Mi 10 Pro 5G is different from most macro-enabled phones. Because the camera responsible for those hyper-close shots also serves double duty for ultrawide photos, I don’t mind Xiaomi’s inclusion of a macro mode here. In fact, I’m decently pleased with the intricate texture the Mi 10 Pro 5G can convey in the leaf in the example above, using that special lens.

Overall, though, I came away far more impressed by the Mi 10 Pro 5G’s zoom camera, which uses a hybrid of optical power and software to deliver what Xiaomi calls “lossless” 10x zoom. Both shots of a street sign you see above were captured using 10x zoom on the Mi 10 Pro 5G and the Galaxy S20 Plus, but the Mi 10 Pro 5G’s example is noticeably more detailed, with better color and sharpness. Xiaomi’s phone is able to capture the paint chipping away from the sign within the letters — a detail Samsung’s flagship misses. I wouldn’t consider either “lossless," though it's still impressive.

To test the other telephoto lens on the Mi 10 Pro 5G — the one used for portraits and bokeh shots — I asked a friendly bear to smile for the camera. The Mi 10 Pro 5G excelled here as well, churning out a brighter image that more accurately separated the foreground from the background, and crisply rendered our stuffed friend’s fur. The Galaxy S20 Plus applied some blur to his ears and totally blew out the light from the window in the distance — a detail Xiaomi’s camera navigated better.

When things get dark, you’d probably expect to turn to the Mi 10 Pro 5G’s Night Mode to inject some light and detail into dim scenes. Unfortunately, that’s not exactly what happened when I snapped a photo of a fireplace in an otherwise pitch-black room. The way Xiaomi’s software selectively applies color — like how the fire enveloping the embers below is blue, but the large flames above are off-white — is admittedly captivating, though hardly realistic. And while the S20 Plus’ take isn’t perfect either — it’s generally noisier and washed out in places — at least its fire feels warm and inviting, and not quite so spooky.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G review: Performance

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 CPU
• 8GB LPDDR5 RAM
• 256GB non-expandable storage

The combination of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 system-on-chip and the 8GB of fast LPDDR5 RAM in the Mi 10 Pro 5G ensures a speedy and fluid user experience, whether playing games or just swiping around Android.

Unsurprisingly, the Mi 10 Pro 5G’s performance is right in line with rival handsets that pack similar hardware. In Geekbench 5, a test that measures overall system performance, the Mi 10 Pro 5G delivered a multi-core result of 3,300 points, which compares well to the OnePlus 8 Pro (3,379) and Galaxy S20 Plus (3,076). The A13 Bionic chip in the iPhone 11 Pro (3,509) remains the performance champ.

Turning to graphics performance, the Mi 10 Pro 5G produced 1,294 frames at 20 frames-per-second in GFXBench’s Aztec Ruins OpenGL test for high-tier phones. That result is dead even with the OnePlus 8 Pro (20 fps) and a tick behind the Galaxy S20 Plus (21 fps). Indeed, the Mi 10 Pro 5G handles demanding titles like Fortnite about as well as any other phone; you might observe a handful of dropped frames here and there at full resolution, but the experience is largely consistent, smooth and pretty.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G review: Battery and charging

• 4,500-mAh battery
• 50-watt wired charging, 30-watt wireless charging
• 13 hours, 29 minutes in Tom’s Guide’s battery test

Smartphone batteries are getting bigger and bigger all the time, and so there’s seemingly nothing special about the Mi 10 Pro 5G’s 4,500-mAh pack — until you witness how long it lasts on a charge.

Xiaomi’s flagship averaged an extremely impressive 13 hours and 29 minutes on Tom’s Guide’s custom battery test, which measures runtime while streaming websites endlessly over an LTE network. That result was compiled over four tests, with the phone set to 60Hz mode for maximum efficiency.

That isn’t just better than Sansung’s latest flagships — it mercilessly trounces them. The similarly-priced Galaxy S20 has a battery that is 500 mAh smaller, but clocked just 9:31 — four hours less than the Xiaomi. The S20 Plus, which has a battery with identical capacity to the Mi 10 Pro 5G’s, barely fared any better, at 10 hours and 31 minutes. Even the OnePlus 8 Pro, one of our best Android phones, managed 11 hours and 5 minutes. That’s still awfully good, but incomparable to the Mi 10 Pro 5G which ranks high among the devices with the best phone battery life.

Xiaomi packs a 65-watt fast charger in box with the Mi 10 Pro 5G, yet the phone only supports a maximum of 50 watts. That’s a bit strange, but regardless the company claims that users should see the battery gauge go from empty to 100% in just 45 minutes. Unfortunately, given that our model shipped with an EU charger, we’re unable to verify that claim. For what it’s worth, the Mi 10 Pro 5G can also top up wirelessly at 30 watts, which equals the wireless charging speed of the OnePlus 8 Pro.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G review: Software and special features

For those who have never used a Xiaomi phone before, the company’s MIUI interface is a bit of a surprise when you first begin poking around. The Mi 10 Pro 5G comes with Android 10 out of the box, though it also has MIUI version 11 installed over top of it, which makes for an experience that is as far away from stock Android as what you’ll find in any Android phone.

For one, there’s no app drawer, and so a swipe up from the shortcuts tray on your home screen brings up a page within Xiaomi’s custom browser featuring a Google Search bar and various YouTube videos and news stories the phone thinks you may find useful. The recent apps screen has a tiled look to it, rather than the cards stacked sideways that you may be more familiar with from iOS and conventional Android. On that screen, you’ll also find options to either “clean” or “deep clean” your Mi 10 Pro 5G, which seems a little redundant.

Speaking of redundancy, there are quite a lot of tools on the Mi 10 Pro 5G dedicated to phone maintenance. Aside from those two tools, you also have RAM Jet, which, as far as I can tell, just plays a little animation of a rocket ship every time you worry a greedy background app might be hogging memory on your device. There’s even a Mi Community app, where you can offer advice or pose questions to other users, and keep up on the latest news surrounding Xiaomi’s phones.

The focus on optimization feels a bit frivolous given that modern phone operating systems are already quite good at prioritizing tasks and taking care of all the back-end stuff so users don’t have to. Nevertheless, I can excuse that window dressing. What’s less excusable is the bloatware that the Mi 10 Pro 5G sports from the moment you boot it up for the first time, which is unexpected for an unlocked phone.

There are five games, all of which are ad-supported: Block Puzzle Guardian, Crazy Juicer, Dust Settle, Bubble Story and the hilariously-named Bubble Shooter With Friends. And in the More Apps folder, you’ll find Facebook, WPS Office, Netflix and LinkedIn. Usually, when you pay $1,000 for a phone directly from a manufacturer, you aren’t forced to do spring cleaning from day one, and so the Mi 10 Pro 5G regrettably feels a bit more like a subsidized budget handset in that sense.

The software on Xiaomi’s phone merits two points of praise: First, the Mi 10 Pro 5G’s haptics are surprisingly quite nice. The in-screen optical fingerprint sensor works quite well, but my favorite thing about it is actually the “hummm-pop” that happens as you authenticate, which offers a pleasing bit of feedback every time you unlock your Mi 10 Pro 5G. I also enjoy the feedback when typing, which evokes the excellent keyboard haptics on Google’s Pixel 4.

Second, it should be noted that Xiaomi’s flagship is one of an endangered species of handsets in the modern era to feature an IR blaster, meaning you can use it as a universal remote for just about any television. It’s a really neat inclusion you don’t often see anymore, and allows the Mi 10 Pro 5G to easily rank among our admittedly short list of the best phones with IR blasters.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G review: Verdict

If the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G were easy to purchase all around the world, I’d recommend it as a no-brainer Samsung Galaxy S20 alternative for anyone concerned about battery life. Not only does the Mi 10 Pro 5G look like Samsung’s flagship, but its cameras, display and performance are comparable, too. There isn’t much buyers will give up here; in fact, they only stand to gain hours and hours on a charge.

But that caveat — ease of purchase — is why the Mi 10 Pro 5G is not a device we can wholeheartedly recommend to everyone reading this review. On its merits alone, this is indeed a very good flagship phone, and one of the best Android phones of the year. But importing one if you live outside Europe or Asia is risky, given that the device doesn’t support all the necessary bands carriers use west of the Atlantic. And even if the Mi 10 Pro does connect to your network’s towers, 5G support is sure to be spotty, given the emerging nature of those networks and the fact that different carriers employ different bands for those connections, too.

It also doesn't help Xiaomi's case that a string of reasonably-priced premium phones, like the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE and OnePlus 8T, are on the horizon and look to beat the Mi 10 Pro 5G from a performance-per-dollar standpoint.

And so, the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G ends up feeling like a great phone without a good home, at least for prospective customers in the Americas and the U.K. However, if you reside in a place where the Mi 10 Pro 5G is guaranteed to work as designed — or better yet is officially sold — you shouldn’t hesitate to buy one. It really is that good.

For its 10th anniversary, Chinese tech giant Xiaomi has gifted everyone with a TV that nobody asked for. Xiaomi is rolling out the Mi TV LUX OLED Transparent Edition, the first mass-produced transparent OLED television.

According to Xiaomi, the transparent TV will have an "ultra immersive viewing experience" that looks like "pictures floating in the air." And it won't be cheap: The Mi TV LUX OLED Transparent Edition will go on sale in China on August 16 for 50,000 yuan (or $7,200).

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The 55-inch set features a 120Hz refresh rate, 150000:1 contrast ratio, DCI-P3 93% color spectrum support, an extra-wide color spectrum, Dolby Atmos support and a 1ms pixel response time. 

During the launch event, CEO Lei Jun demonstrated how the new transparent TV works by putting his arm behind the screen to make it appear like a butterfly landed on his hand. When the TV is turned off, it appears to be a clear glass display.

The Xiaomi model isn't the first transparent OLED in the market. LG has the 55EW5F-A, which is used primarily as signage. You've probably seen transparent screens used as futuristic-looking billboards in shopping malls. In fact, Xiaomi's press release touts the use of Mi TV LUX OLED Transparent Edition in galleries, museums, shopping malls, and theaters, as well as the home.

Having a transparent TV in the home is more for the novelty factor. Even Xiaomi says their new set is "not a TV but an art piece." 

Xiaomi has not indicated if or when the Mi TV LUX OLED Transparent Edition will be available in the U.S. or anywhere outside of China. But we would very much like to test it. 

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The Xiaomi Mi 10 has been unveiled, as Chinese phone maker Xiaomi looks to make more of a splash outside its home market. Xiaomi is still establishing itself in the UK — and it's not a presence at all in the US — and the Mi 10 could be a big step forward for the company.

Coming in standard, Pro and Lite variants, the Mi 10's main selling point is how much tech each handset has stuffed into it. But shoppers will notice how much less the different Mi 10 models cost compared to their premium rivals with comparable specs.

The Xiaomi Mi 10 was meant to be launched at MWC 2020, but since that was called off in the early stages of coronavirus outbreak, Xiaomi held a domestic Chinese launch instead, waiting until now to bring its new phones to Europe. Here's a breakdown of their key features, and why you might want to pick up one of these instead of splashing out on a Samsung Galaxy S20.

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Xiaomi Mi 10 specs

Xiaomi Mi 10 price and availability

The Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro are launching in various mainland European countries in early to mid April. There are no specific dates given for the UK yet, although that country will miss out on the Mi 10 Pro according to TechRadar. That's a strange decision since it's the more luxurious model, so we hope this decision will be reversed by Xiaomi in future. The budget Mi 10 Lite is being held back however, and will instead arrive in June.

There is no US carrier support for Xiaomi phones, but if you import them or find them for sale on an online auction site, you'll likely be able to use them as normal. Just make sure if you do this that the handset you're buying is compatible with the mobile signal bands that your chosen mobile carrier uses.

The price has only been given in euros so far: €799 ($880/£716 converted) or €899  ($990/£806) for the Mi 10, €999 ($1100/ £895) for the Mi 10 Pro, and €349 ($384/£312) for the Mi 10 Lite. Even when you do direct currency conversions, these are very reasonable asking prices compared to rivals like Samsung and Apple, particularly since all three Xiaomi phones are 5G compatible.

Xiaomi Mi 10 design

On the front of the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro, Xiaomi has changed the flat display panel with its pop-up selfie camera for a 6.67-inch punch-hole number with curved edges. The punch hole itself bears the adorable name of Tiny DotDisplay, and is set in the top-left edge of the display, which Xiaomi says is a better place for it to go than the center (where you'll find the camera on Samsung's Galaxy S20). That prevents your thumb from inadvertently covering up the punch-hole when you hold the phone sideways.

On the back of each phone, you have a vertical row of four cameras going down from the top left corner in a 3-plus-1 formation, with the flash sitting beneath them, along with a small Mi logo at the bottom center. It's fairly plain, but that just means you can enjoy the color options more.

The standard Mi 10 comes in two gloss options, either Twilight Grey or Coral Green. The Mi 10 Pro has two matte options, Solstice Grey and Alpine White. These two have a slightly different texture to their backs which also means fewer fingerprints and a firmer grip for the user, which is always welcome.

The Mi 10 Lite differs a little from both of these. The phone is slightly smaller, doesn't feature curved edges, and uses a waterdrop notch instead of a punch-hole. Its rear cameras are arranged in a square on the top left corner, with the flash built into the camera bump. You can get this version in three colors unique from the other two phones — either white, grey or green.

Xiaomi Mi 10 display

Both the standard and pro Xiaomi Mi 10 variants use the same 6.67-inch (2340×1080) FHD AMOLED display. It has a 90Hz refresh rate, which matches the Google Pixel 4, Huawei P40 Pro and OnePlus 7 Pro, but falls behind the 120Hz display on the Galaxy S20 series.

The Mi 10 Pro's screen also boasts a maximum brightness of 1200 nits (1120 on the Mi 10), and a high color accuracy, with a Delta-E measurement of less than 1.1. (The lower this number is the better.)

Xiaomi Mi 10 cameras

Both the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro have four rear cameras, but that's just about the only similarity in what you'll get from the two phones. 

The Mi 10 features a 108MP main sensor with a 7-part lens and optical image stabilization (OIS), a 13MP ultra wide-angle lens, a 2MP macro lens and a 2MP depth sensor.

The Mi 10 Pro uses the same 108MP OIS-equipped main sensor (except with an 8-part lens), but then has a 20MP ultra wide-angle lens, a 12MP 2x optical zoom telephoto lens and a 8MP 10x hybrid zoom telephoto lens with OIS, which has a 50x maximum magnification of 50 times.

Both phones then round off their camera packages with the punch-hole mounted selfie camera, which contains a 20MP sensor.

The Mi 10 Lite hasn't had all its camera tech announced yet. We know it also has a quad camera setup on the back, with the headliner being a 48MP sensor, while on the front it has a 16MP selfie camera.

Xiaomi Mi 10 performance

Xiaomi has installed a Snapdragon 865 CPU and 8GB RAM in both versions of the Mi 10. Both phones also have a maximum storage option of 256GB, but the Mi 10 also comes in a 128GB version that costs less.

Whichever specs you get, you'll be running the phone on Xiaomi's MIUI 11, which is based on Android 10. Both phones also feature stereo speakers, which work properly either way up and are identical, unlike most smartphones which have a larger and smaller speaker, meaning the sound should be better balanced than other stereo smartphones like the iPhone 11 Pro or Galaxy S20 Ultra.

The Mi 10 Lite turns to a Snapdragon 765G CPU, a less powerful but still capable chip. We don't know the RAM or storage options for this phone yet, but we'll update this page once Xiaomi announces them.

All three phones contain an in-display fingerprint sensor for unlocking, which will hopefully be the same fast and accurate sensor we've seen on previous Xiaomi phones.

Xiaomi Mi 10 5G networking

The Snapdragon 865 chip found in the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro has 5G as default, and the Mi 10 Lite's Snapdragon 765G even has an integrated 5G modem. So all of these phones will be able to connect with 5G, where the faster networks are available.

Xiaomi Mi 10 battery life and charging

The capacity of the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro might confuse you at first glance. The Mi 10 has a larger 4,780mAh battery and the Mi 10 Pro a smaller 4,500 mAh battery. The reason Xiaomi gives for this is that the Mi 10 Pro gets better charging instead.

The Mi 10 can charge at a maximum of 30W, which is fairly respectable, going from an empty battery to 100% full in 65 minutes. However, the Mi 10 Pro can charge at 50W, which Xiaomi claims will fill the battery from empty in 45 minutes. Both the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro can wirelessly charge at 30W too, and can reverse wireless charge another phone or compatible accessories.

The Mi 10 comes with a 30W charger in the box, but the Mi 10 Pro includes a mighty 65W charger. This means you could in theory run your laptop or portable game console like the Nintendo Switch all off this single charging block, which could prove very useful if you're stuck for space in your bag.

The Mi 10 Lite contains a 4,160mAh battery capable of 20W fast charging. We don't know if this also comes with the same 30W charger in the box as the Mi 10, or if Xiaomi will only be providing this one with a 20W charger.

Outlook

It's a great pity that Xiaomi phones are so hard to get a hold of in the US, since these phones would make for excellent Galaxy S20 rivals. The price of Xiaomi's latest phones is very competitive while still offering almost all of the same features as Samsung's own flagships.

There's likely a considerable number of users who aren't bothered with ultimate computing output or 120Hz refresh rates, but are curious to try out these fancy hi-res cameras and 5G networking. If you're a UK resident, or live in the US and fancy trying out some importing, then you should definitely give the Mi 10 series a look when you're looking for a new Android phone.

The European Union is back to the rescue of consumers worldwide, as a new law may force smartphone manufacturers to make their batteries completely user-replaceable. 

According to the Dutch financial newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad (via XDA Developers), the EU “wants to force electronics manufacturers to facilitate easier battery replacements.” 

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While the EU can only enforce laws in its territory, the European market is so gigantic that the measure may have an impact around the world. Designing all phones to have replaceable batteries rather than offering multiple variations could be more cost effective to multinational companies like Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi or Oppo. The latter will not only be pricier to produce but also will double service costs.

There is a precedent on the EU changing the course of consumer electronics design: after past EU guidelines invited companies to adopt a single charging port standard for their smartphones, we saw a move to USB-C across all brands — except Apple. 

Tired of Apple‘s defiance, the EU parliament voted earlier this month to force all device manufacturers to use a single port standard to reduce waste. Despite Tim Cook's objections, the vote will result in a law specifying which port phone makers should use by this summer. Most likely, this means that we will have an iPhone 12 (or 13, if the law goes into effect too late) with a USB-C port instead of the Lightning port.

The hard battle for user replaceable batteries

The new law to enforce batteries that are easy to replace by users may face a more uphill battle. 

As Apple discovered first with the iPhone, it’s a lot better for the company to have a tightly closed phone that users can’t access. That leads to users depending on the manufacturer for repairs, forcing them to either buy extra warranty like AppleCare — which represents a big source of revenue for Apple — or use the company’s official repair services. 

And batteries frequently need replacement. As devices get older, the battery quickly loses its capacity to hold power. As a result, an iPhone will see its daily battery life greatly reduced. That’s why by year one, you may find yourself looking for your phone's power adapter in the middle of the day.

Some people choose to change the batteries. Most manufacturers force them to bring their phone to an official repair service to change the battery at a great cost. Then, many people feel that their phone is performing poorly, which prompt them to buy a new phone. 

Indeed, Apple got in serious trouble for lowering the performance of the processor as an iPhone's battery got older. The Cupertino company says that it throttles down the processor to “safeguard the battery." The most logical thought is that, by reducing the phone’s performance and making it sluggish, Apple pushes users to upgrade the full phone. 

The company certainly didn’t warn users about it or told them that by exchanging the battery, they will get the full speed back out of their phones. This caused a great uproar and Apple was forced to reduce the replacement cost on an iPhone battery from $79 to $29. Not only that, but the company had to add an option to disable the throttling and tell users about the battery’s health.

And still, that didn’t stop Apple from trying to scare users about using non-official batteries.

The same, albeit to a lesser extent, could be said about other big brand manufacturers like Samsung. Companies saw what Apple was doing and thought they could do the same in the name of alleged product safety and quality. Most phones used to have replaceable batteries — now most models require expert hands to get opened and serviced. 

If the EU forces manufacturers to get user-replaceable batteries back, they will be attacking one of the profit lines of Apple and all these multinationals. 

Cost and sustainability

That will cause lots of resistance despite the fact that most of these brands claim to be working towards sustainability efforts. 

Apple may argue that it make its devices so hard to service is because this allows for benefits like water and dust resistance, and thinner phones.

That is true. Like watches, if you want something water and dust proof, you really need to make them tight. But, phones are neither water nor dust proof. They are resistant. And many water- and dust-resistant watches that don’t have to descent to the Laurentian Abyss to have user replaceable batteries. The engineering challenge is there, but it’s doable.

Even putting aside the well being of the planet and the damage that consumer electronics waste generate, do we really need to spend hundreds of dollars every two years to get a new phone that does things marginally better than the previous generation? Do companies need to make things hard for people who don’t want the latest and best but just to have fast, functional phones that are usable through an entire day of work?

The answer to both of those questions is a resounding no. Let’s hope the EU actually passes this law and brings back user-replaceable batteries.

According to a new report, Apple, Samsung, Oppo and other manufacturers will very soon start using new gallium nitride technology developed that cuts the size of power adapters while keeping the same wattage.

This means that Apple may adopt the tech in its new iPhone 12, iPad 2020 or MacBook Pro 2020.

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As reported by Chinese IT publication Caifa News (via Gizchina), the new fast charging tech was developed by Xiaomi and it’s already in use in the new power adapter seen below, which comes with the company’s new Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro. 

Compare that to Apple’s current power 61W brick for the MacBook Pro, which is massive by comparison. 

The difference in size is obviously quite shocking. The Xiaomi 65W adapter comes with a USB-C port and it can charge its new flagship phone in just 45 minutes.

This also means that chargers that are not as powerful will get reduced to almost half their size, which will result in incredibly tiny devices. Just take a look at your current iPhone charger and imagine it cut in half.

Tiny size, big power, adaptable output

The tiny size is the result of replacing current silicon-based technology with gallium nitride (GaN). The usage of GaN tech can reportedly reduce the size of existing solutions by 48%. It uses two integrated circuits made of that metal alloy, the Nanomicro NV6115 and NV6117.

Aside from its ridiculous tiny size, another benefit of this new technology is that it senses the needs of whatever you connect to them, sending just the right amount of power that the devices demands. This means that Apple will be able to ship a single adapter that could feed anything from an AirPods case to the latest MacBook Pro 16-inch.

Apparently these chargers are already available for about $21 in China, but we will probably see them coming to the rest of the world soon).

One of the biggest consumer electronics manufacturers in the world wants to monitor health through a new type of facial mask capable of monitoring atmospheric and body conditions in real time, but its patented technology may arrive too late to defend ourselves against this first wave of coronavirus.

Chinese company Xiaomi is working on a new type of facial “smart mask” that will keep track of the air around us and coming out of our lungs using built-in sensors and electronic systems. The company — which is the fourth largest smartphone manufacturer in the planet and sells everything from TVs to electric scooters worldwide — is already selling masks in China as fast as it can make them thanks to the coronavirus epidemic. 

But the new patented mask does a lot more than its current Xiaomi Youpin F95 Face Mask (seen above). The patent — published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office — describes a new type of high tech wearable equipped with sensors that capture information about the environment and the wearer’s health. 

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Constant monitoring of environment and user’s breathing, activity

Inside, there is also the necessary processor and electronics to collect that data in real time, storing it for access by other devices like smartphones or computers in the cloud. The mask also has its own battery power to both feed these electronics and the device’s air filter.

The mask is also designed to know what the user is doing using accelerometers and gyroscopes. According to Xiaomi, this will help computers to make a more exact calculation about pollution absorption: the more active the user is, the more air will be taken in. These sensors help record “total wearing time, pollution absorption, breathing volume, breath counts” and others.

Talking to your smartphone or smartwatch, the facial device will be able to tell users about both the quality of the air around them, as well, as alerting the user or doctors of any potential breathing abnormalities.

The unstoppable rise of the health wearable

We have seen the rise of wearables to keep track of our health in the last few years. The Apple Watch has become the epitome of this wave of devices. Apple’s tiny gadget can monitor some aspects of your heart’s health and body activity but it still missing a lot of stuff. It seems that Xiaomi, given the current climate of fear, uncertainty, and doubt, wants to go a lot further with active monitoring of a lot more external and internal parameters. Plus, a mask — unlike a watch — can actually protect you against many environmental threats.

Can you imagine a future in which everyone is wearing masks along with their smartphones? In China — and many other parts of the globe — they don’t have to imagine it. They have been doing it for years now and it’s only going to keep happening. So it makes total sense to make those masks smart and more useful. 

Still, it’s a bloody scary world when consumer electronics companies are making devices like this to keep us safe. But this, I’m afraid, is exactly were we are headed. Too bad that the miniaturized technology to detect pathogens in real time doesn’t exist yet. It will happen eventually, but all we hypochondriacs can use some of that action right now.

One of the biggest consumer electronics companies in the world is now offering a 60-year cloud storage plan for the ultimate savings. I don’t even know if I’m going to be alive next Monday and these people are trying to make me think six decades down the line.

Xiaomi — the fourth-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world and one of the most popular consumer electronic brands on the planet — has announced two new plans that made me go what the whaaaaaaa this morning. According to a report unearthed by Gizmochina, the Xiaomi Cloud service will give you 200GB for 10 years for $92 and 200GB for 60 years for about $230.

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If my math is not wrong, the 60-year plan gives you a cost of only $0.31 per month for 200GB. Or, $0.00155 per GB per month. And that’s even without counting inflation, because a dollar today will cost a lot less over the next six decades.

For comparison, Apple charges you $2.99 per month for 200GB on iCloud, which is $0.01 per GB per month. Google One also gives you 200GB for $2.99 per month (they also have a 2 terabyte annual plan for $99.99, which offers considerable savings). Meanwhile, Dropbox is a crazy expensive $19.99 per month for 200GB — almost 10 cents per GB a month.

Obviously, Xiaomi’s 60-year (and 10-year, for that matter) plans bring insane savings compared to anyone else. 

The only question is: will the company be around in 60 years? Who the hell knows. Not many consumer electronic companies survive that long. But maybe! Although there’s nothing certain — not with tech companies, anyway.

And, of course, the other question is if ANY of us will be around in 60 years. The entire human species may be gone by then, who knows. Still, it will be cheaper to get the 60-year plan than any other option, even if Xiaomi or Earth implodes in a decade.

Huawei, Xiaomi and key semiconductor manufacturers are keeping workers on the line despite contagion risks, according to reports out of China.

Reuters reports that “some Chinese technology firms” continue producing goods despite the government order to halt production. The idea is that work at factories is helping spread of the virus, so stopping the assembly lines will help slow down the microscopic critters.

The most important one is Huawei, which said today that it has resumed production of everything, from big industrial equipment to build 5G networks to appliances and phones. According to the company, which incidentally built the 5G communications at the new coronavirus special hospital in Wuhan — “operations are running normally“ thanks to a special permit to avoid the production ban issued by the Chinese authorities. 

Semiconductor companies keep churning out chips of all kinds, from memory to CPUs. Among them, Yangtze Memory Technologies — which is based in Wuhan proper — and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation. The former says that “production and operations at YMTC are proceeding normally and in an orderly manner,” noticing that it has implemented some ‘isolation and partition‘ measures to keep employees “safe”.

Affecting the supply line and even marketing

However, despite this special dispensation, the supply chain is still being affected by the virus.

Reputed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has pointed out that Apple will see its production cut by 10% because of the virus outbreak. Last week, veteran industry analyst Patrick Moorhead said that coronavirus threatens iPhone 9 production and the entire electronics industry: “I can't imagine a scenario where the supply chain isn't disrupted.”

The Wuhan area is not only one of the biggest producers of iron and steel — it’s considered a ”crucial hub in the middle of China”, with the Yangtze river going across it, three railway stations and an airport. To give you an idea of its importance, 230 of the Fortune 500 companies have investments in this area. The Chinese government ban is also affecting other cities beyond Wuhan, as Reuters reports. And it seems it’s not getting any better, as the contagion and reported deaths keep spreading through continental China.

The virus is also affecting the Chinese companies‘ marketing operations. Beyond Apple and other companies closing shops across China, companies like Xiaomi and Blackshark — a manufacturer of specialized gaming phones — have cancelled their live press release events for the Xiaomi Mi 10 and the Blackshark 3. Instead, they will move these events into cyberspace following fears of the virus. But they will keep making the phones and selling them, of course.

• Apple to see production cut by 10% because of coronavirus
• Coronavirus threatens electronic industry supply chain
• Coronavirus: what you need to know

Qualcomm has announced its next generation CPU, which will power most non-Apple flagships in 2020. But who will be the first to adopt the Snapdragon 865?

We know few technical details about the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, but we do know that there is a race to see who will be the first manufacturer to use the chip in a product. And of course, it probably will come from China. The Chinese manufacturers are keen on beating the competition in bringing new technology to market, even if they release phones within days from each other.

Here's every Snapdragon 865 phone we know about so far. 

Xiaomi

The popular Chinese brand Xiaomi announced that it was going to be “one of the first” phones to feature the 865 yesterday. In fact, the company is likely to include it in more than one model, as it is planning to release 10 models with 5G capability built-in in 2020 (some of these may be mid-range models based on the new 5G-enabled Snapdragon 765, though).

Xiaomi co-founder Bin Lin said that its first 865-based model will be the Xiaomi Mi 10, which means that the Mi 10 Pro will have it too.

Oppo

Oppo has also announced that it will release a Snapdragon 865 flagship phone in the first quarter of 2020. According to the company’s president of global sales Alen Wu, there will be a new flagship that hasn’t been named yet. 

Like previous Oppo flagships, the core functionality of these phones will be photography. The company claims that the 865 will enable new, more powerful camera functionality, which aligns with Qualcomm’s claims that the 865 will support 200MP sensors and AI speeds that will enable new photography and video tricks for night mode and real time combination of different camera sensors into one superior synthetic image.

Meizu

The Chinese manufacturer — known for its bold designs — is not claiming they will be one of the first to bring Snapdragon 865 to the masses but the very first with the Meizu 17.

That doesn’t align with the dates that it has provided because, according to Gizmochina, Meizu says that its upcoming Meizu 17 will come out in Spring 2020. That will effectively put them on the edge of Q2 2020.

Samsung

The Korean company uses its own Exynos processors for the international version of the Samsung Galaxy but, for the US, it uses the Snapdragon family. 

It’s very likely that the Samsung Galaxy S11 will use the Snapdragon 865. We can’t imagine them releasing the inferior 855+ when they will have to compete with the updated 2020 iPhone 12. 

Samsung may beat all the Chinese manufacturers to the punch, as it usually releases its flagships at the beginning of the year, around February.

Huawei

The banned Chinese company has its own chipset family — the Kirin — and doesn’t use Snapdragon, so don’t expect anything from them.

All we know about the Snapdragon 865

The new chipset will come with a 5G modem, as expected. It can also handle some really crazy functionality, including a 200-megapixel camera and support for smooth 8K 30fps video recording (some 855+ phones support 8K 30fps in experimental mode, but it gets choppy if you move the camera fast). 

Qualcomm’s senior VP and general manager Alex Katouzian said that the company expects the new chip to boost gaming performance by 25% compared to the latest chip, the 855+. The chip will also include a new fifth generation AI engine that can process 15 trillion operations per second, which doubles the company’s previous record. According to Katozuian, this will enable more photography tricks and real-time translation.

Finally, the chipset’s 5G model will enable connectivity up to 7.5Gbps, which is quite faster than what the current 5G networks can provide. According to our own tests, the fastest speed we have recorded is Verizon’s 1.07Gbps.

We don’t know a lot more about the technical features of the 865 at this time. The rest of the details will be coming this week from the chip foundry’s developer conference.

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 revealed: Everything we know
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Samsung is moving full speed ahead with the Galaxy S11 and the leaks are unstoppable. Today we learned that it may come with a 5000mAh battery and a new “SpaceZoom” that combines optics and AI for dramatic, crystal clear zooming abilities.

Together with other previously rumored features, the Samsung Galaxy S11 is poised to become a real iPhone 12 killer — at who knows what crazy price tag.

Not that Apple will not push the envelope on their own: If the rumors are true, the iPhone 12 will be a completely redesigned device inspired by the iPhone 4 that may also come with a 120Hz display. But it’s hard to believe that Apple would take the drastic steps that Samsung may be taking with the Galaxy S11 — especially when it comes to the camera package and the battery size. 

Here are the five features that may set the Galaxy S11 as the flagship to beat in 2020:

SpaceZoom

Dutch tech blog LetsGoDigital is reporting today that Samsung has patented a new brand with the European Union Intellectual Property Office: Space Zoom. 

This is in line with the latest rumor about the camera abilities in the S11: Apparently, Samsung‘s codename for the new camera is “Hubble” because of its amazing zooming powers.

Other brands —like the 50X hybrid zoom in the Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro pictured in the video below — are already deploying this type of zooming mechanisms that result in crystal clear images instead of blurry zoomed in pics.

108MP Quad Bayer camera sensor

According to reliable Samsung leaker Ice Universe, the camera pack will also include Samsung’s new 108MP Isocell Bright HMX — a very large Quad Bayer sensor that can group pixels in groups of four for better low-light performacen. That sensor, according to Samsung, is designed to crush Sony’s mobile sensors. It is also the sensor used in the Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro, which has already made it to the very top of the DxOmark camera ranking.

There are no rumors about insane zoom abilities in the new iPhone 12, which already had a major camera upgrade in 2019. Apple also tends to use Sony sensors rather than Samsung’s Isocell line. It’s unlikely that the California company will be using this technology.

In-display hidden selfie camera

For notch, teardrop, and punch hole haters like me, this is perhaps the best rumor about the Galaxy S11: the selfie camera may be totally hidden behind the display. At least according to Korean publication The Elec, which claims that Samsung will use a technology called Hole-in-Active-Area (HIAA) to enable an under-display camera sensor to look through a transparent AMOLED screen. The paper claims that mass production will start in 2020.

Unfortunately, this is perhaps the weakest rumor, since Ice Universe believes that the under-display camera will not debut in the Galaxy S11 but the next Galaxy Fold device. There are also rumors that Samsung will be implementing a facial ID technology similar to Apple and Google. This technology uses infrared sensors to capture 3D information and make this biometric method to work under dark lighting conditions. 

On the other hand, both Xiaomi and Oppo have demonstrated how a selfie camera hidden under a display works. Following the Galaxy S10’s disappointing sales numbers, Samsung knows it needs to knock the S11 ball out of the park so a totally clean display will be a major feature to make this possible.

120Hz super-smooth display

Samsung is reportedly planning to use a 120Hz display in the Galaxy S11. This information that has been confirmed by Ice Universe. The Asian rumorologist thinks an S11 with OneUI 2.0 animation effects on the 120Hz display “will be the best combination.”

We know that the rumored Exynos chip in the Galaxy S11 supports upt to 6 cameras and 120Hz displays.

According to Ice Universe, Apple may also be exploring the use of a 120Hz AMOLED panel made by Samsung or LG for the 2020 iPhone 12, so this may be a tie between the Cupertino flagship and the Galaxy S11.

Giant 5000mAh battery

The only drawback of these advanced displays is the battery consumption. Since the graphics processor needs to produce 120 frames per second and the screen has to refresh at the same speed, the power needs are considerably higher.

So, with this power-hungry screen, it’s only natural that Samsung is planning to pack a much bigger battery in the 2020 Galaxy flagship. According to Ice Universe, “we can guess that the S11+ battery will reach nearly 5000mAh, which [he thinks] is prepared for high refresh rate screens and 5G.”

If Samsung finally confirms these features, they may have a formidable flagship on their hands. It’s yet to be seen that if having these specs will help the Korean company to boost sales in a depressed market, especially when other brands are offering formidable phones for a fraction of the price of the Galaxy S and iPhone series.

According to Samsung’s CEO DJ Koh, the company is going full speed ahead with foldable phones in 2020. He claimed that they are planning to increase Galaxy Fold sales and added that we will see a lot more foldables next year, with the company unveiling details on a new model “shortly."

Gizmochina reports on Koh's words from the 2019 Samsung AI conference in Seoul, Korea, where he told the audience that “consumers will witness a large number of foldable smartphones next year.” He seems to be referring to both Samsung and other brands. Samsung Electronics is the main manufacturer of flexible OLED panels along with LG, so we can assume Koh has information about projected panel sales and made that comment based on this data.

The Samsung Galaxy Fold clamshell

Samsung had already previewed a clamshell foldable phone last month at its annual developer conference in California. The tease was shown during a presentation of the next revision of the One UI interface — Samsung’s user experience layer that sits atop Android. During that event, Samsung exec Sally Hyesoon Jeong insisted on the Korean company’s commitment to foldable designs.

Our colleague Phillip Michaels — who was at this presentation — reported that the concept animation of the Galaxy clamshell got the biggest reaction from the crowd.

Obviously, Koh’s words are consistent with this message. At the conference, he mentioned that the company plans to boost sales of the $2,000 Galaxy Fold next year, planning to sell 6 million folds globally by 2020.

Koh also said that the company will offer more details about the next foldable phone “shortly.” Since we are already in November, it seems possible that we may see a new model of Galaxy Fold coming at CES 2020.

“Large number of foldables”

It looks like Samsung’s fabled foldable clamshell will not be the first to arrive to the market. The foldable Motorola Razr will hit first. We have already seen the RAZR in both marketing images and in the wild. The phone — which shows a rather thin unfolded body but a prominent chin — is supposed to launch on November 13, just in time for the 2019 holidays.

We know that Xiaomi and Oppo have been playing with this format but there have not been any official announcements. And Apple is — as usual — mum about this space, most probably waiting for the technology to mature before making a move — disregarding the risk of getting beaten to the punch by other brands. It’s probable that Koh knows something we don’t know but, then again, it may all be marketing smoke to put some momentum behind Samsung’s products.

However — aside from the foldable RAZR, the Huawei Mate X, an obscure Chinese phone, and the Microsoft Surface Duo — we are not aware of any other foldable phones coming in 2020. It’s hard to tell what Koh is referring to as “large number of foldables” coming in 2020.