The cameras on our phones wonât stop getting bigger. Xiaomiâs new 15 Ultra is dominated by an enormous ring of cameras on the back, Nothing has rethought its camera layout from scratch to fit a periscope into the Phone 3A Pro, and consistent rumors suggest that even Apple is going to strap a big olâ camera bar onto the back of its iPhone 17 Pro models later this year. But why stop there? What if you could get all of the heft and weight of a real camera and burden your phone with it? What if we could make your phone camera much, much bigger?
Thatâs what both Xiaomi and Realme have attempted to do at this yearâs Mobile World Congress, with two very different concept phones that each attempt to bridge the gap between a smartphone and a DSLR.
Realmeâs attempt is the most familiar. In fact, its âinterchangeable lens concept,â which mounts a full DSLR lens onto the existing camera island of its concept phone, is remarkably similar to a concept that Xiaomi already showed off in 2022. The phone here is itself custom, not based on any of Realmeâs existing smartphones, and includes two typical cameras on the rear, plus a third, customized one-inch-type sensor from …
After two years telling anyone whoâd listen that Chinese manufacturer Vivo made the best cameras in any smartphone, last yearâs Xiaomi 14 Ultra changed my tune. It became my favorite phone and camera, handling everything from holiday snaps to product review photoshoots.
With the 15 Ultra, Xiaomi took the best and made it better with a new 200-megapixel periscope lens to complement the other (largely unchanged) cameras.
The downside? The 14 Ultra was never much of a looker, and the 15 Ultraâs enormous, asymmetrical camera module has taken a bad design and made it worse. Iâm willing to put up with the awkward aesthetic when the camera is this good, but Iâd be pretty understanding if you went the other way.
Camera
I havenât mentioned much about this phoneâs specs yet beyond the camera. Thatâs intentional. Yes, this is a flagship phone through and through, but you can find most of what it offers on other phones for half the price. If youâre willing to drop £1,299 / â¬1,499 (around $1,600) on the 15 Ultra, the camera will be the reason why.
Much like the 14 Ultra, Xiaomiâs new flagship has a quadruple rear camera laid out in a large, round module that domina …
Just days after revealing the 15 Ultra in China, Xiaomi has announced a UK and European launch for its latest flagship phone, together with the base Xiaomi 15. There’s no sign of the Pro model, but there is an array of tablets, earbuds, and fitness trackers appearing alongside the phones.
The 15 and 15 Ultra are available to order from today, starting at £1,299 / €1,499 (around $1,600) for the Ultra and £899 / €999 (around $1,100) for the 15. Both are powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite and include big batteries, fast wired and wireless charging, and IP68 ratings.
The cameras are really where the two phones diverge. While both phones feature similar sounding sets of 50-megapixel main, telephoto, and ultrawide cameras, the Ultra actually uses different sensors on every lens, so should net superior results. It also features a fourth lens: a 200-megapixel, 4.3x periscope lens that dominates the already large camera module on the phone’s back. Xiaomi is also selling a Photography Kit add-on for £179 (around $225), which includes a functional camera grip accessory complete with a shutter button, zoom lever, and exposure dial.
The two phones are joined by the Xiaomi Pad 7 and Pad 7 Pro, a pair of 11.2-inch Android tablets with 3.2K 144Hz displays. The two tablets are similarly specced, but the Pro model uses a faster Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chip (compared to a 7 Plus Gen 3 on the 7) and has higher resolution cameras. They go on sale from £369 /€399 (around $465) and £449 / €499 ($565) respectively. The Pro also ships in a “Matte Glass” version which should offer reduced screen glare for £549 / €649 ($690).
Xiaomi has also announced European releases for the Buds 5 Pro, which come in a Bluetooth model and a separate Wi-Fi version for improved quality when paired with a compatible Xiaomi phone, which for the moment is only the 15 and 15 Ultra. Finally, there are two wearables too: the Smart Band 9 Pro features improved health tracking compared to last year’s model, while the Watch S4 is a simple smartwatch that features a return of the swappable bezels introduced this time last year in the Watch S3.
Photography by Dominic Preston / The Verge
Update, February 2nd:Added prices in Euros for more products, and clarified compatibility of the Buds 5 Pro Wi-Fi.
Xiaomi has given a European launch to its Buds 5 Pro, the first earbuds to use Qualcomm’s S7 Pro chip to stream audio over Wi-Fi, in addition to Bluetooth, with no increase in power consumption. Qualcomm announced the technology in October 2023, and this is the first hardware to launch.
The Buds 5 Pro were announced in China on Thursday, alongside the 15 Ultra phone, which is also launching in Europe. They come in two versions: a regular Bluetooth model, and a Wi-Fi version that uses Qualcomm’s Expanded Personal Area Network (XPAN) tech to deliver 96kHz/24bit lossless audio at a bandwidth of up to 4.2Mbps, superior to anything you can get over Bluetooth. You’ll also be able to walk away from your phone without the connection deteriorating, so long as you stay within the range of your Wi-Fi network.
There are caveats. The obvious one is that you’ll need to be on Wi-Fi, so you’re only likely to get the benefits of better audio on your home network. When it announced XPAN in 2023, Qualcomm told The Verge that your phone will pass over Wi-Fi credentials during pairing, but we don’t yet know whether the buds can handle connections to multiple networks, so that they work in the office too. Still, whenever Wi-Fi is unavailable, the buds can always fall back on Bluetooth.
For now, these buds are only compatible with the Xiaomi 15 and 15 Ultra. That may change eventually, but hardware limitations mean they could only ever work with phones featuring a compatible Qualcomm flagship chipset, such as the 8 Gen 3 or 8 Elite. That rules out ever using these over Wi-Fi with any iPhone or other Apple tech.
The 10-hour battery life on the buds (with up to 40 including the case) is better than the eight hours of the Bluetooth model, backing up Qualcomm’s claim that it can deliver lossless Wi-Fi audio at the same power consumption as Bluetooth.
Audio comes from a triple-driver system, with an 11mm main driver backed up by a PZT tweeter and planar driver. There’s support for active noise cancellation, and an array of AI features built-in including call recording, transcription, and translation.
The Buds 5 Pro Wi-Fi are available for £189.99 (around $240) and only come in black. They cost a little more than the £159.99 (around $200) Bluetooth-only version, available in white or gray.
Update, March 2nd: Added confirmation of compatible phones.
Mobile World Congress 2025 is nearly upon us, and weâre heading to Barcelona to see what the worldâs smartphone manufacturers have to offer as they launch new devices, tease new features, and talk incessantly about AI. The show officially kicks off on March 3rd and runs to March 6th, but the first announcements should arrive on March 2nd, when Xiaomi, HMD, and Honor all have press conferences scheduled.
MWC may be a long way from its glory days when the likes of Samsung and Sony used it as the launchpad for that yearâs flagship phones, but there are still some major players expected to unveil new hardware next week â most notably, Xiaomi bringing its flagship 15 series to Europe. Nothing, HMD, and Realme are among the other companies we already know are planning to launch new phones.
Hereâs what to expect from the companies we know will have news.
Xiaomi
Itâs already been confirmed that Xiaomi is launching the 15 series on March 2nd, with the regular 15 and 15 Ultra expected to appear. The base model has been available in China since October, while the 15 Ultra was only officially revealed on February 27th.
The 15 Ultra is another photography-focused flagship, wit …
The original Red Alert is going open source for the second time.
Electronic Arts (EA) is releasing the source code for four Command & Conquer titles under the open-source GPL license. The original Command & Conquer (since subtitled Tiberian Dawn) is joined by Red Alert, Renegade, and Generals, the code for all of which can now be found on EA’s GitHub page. Only the code has been open sourced, not the games’ assets and cinematics, but it will help modders and the game restoration community keep the games playable.
This isn’t actually a first for EA. Back in 2020 the company released the source code for its Command & Conquer Remastered Collection, made up of Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert. That code had already been adapted for the remaster’s engine however, while the new releases are the “fully recovered source code” of the series’ first two games, according to Luke “CCHyper” Feenan, a Command & Conquer community member who proposed and orchestrated the release together with EA.
Renegade and Generals, meanwhile, have been released under an open-source license for the first time. Renegade is a 2002 first- and third-person shooter set in the franchise’s Tiberium universe, while Generals is a 2003 strategy game that eschewed the Tiberium and Red Alert worlds for a near-future setting depicting a war between the United States, China, and the fictional Global Liberation Army. Its expansion Zero Hour is also included in the open source release.
Alongside the open sourcing, EA has also opened Steam Workshop support, and released a ‘Modding Support’ pack that includes the source XML, schema, script, shader and map files, for all the games that use the SAGE engine:
C&C Renegade
C&C Generals & Zero Hour
C&C 3 Tiberium Wars and Kane’s Wrath
C&C Red Alert 3 & Uprising
C&C 4 Tiberian Twilight
That move should make it easier to create mods and maps for the games, and to share some of those creations through Steam. To cap off the announcement, EA released a 35-minute video of archival gameplay footage from the early development of Renegade and Generals:
Xiaomi has announced its 15 Ultra flagship phone at a launch event in China, where it’s going on sale starting at 6,499 yuan (around $893). The Android phone joins the company’s Xiaomi 15 and 15 Pro, which went on sale there in October 2024. It is a mostly iterative upgrade on last year’s model, but the big change is the addition of a 200-megapixel periscope camera that the company says excels in low light. The 15 series, including the Ultra, is getting an international launch this Sunday, March 2nd, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Exactly which markets it will go on sale in remains to be seen, but it’s a safe bet that this one won’t be coming to the US.
Xiaomi’s Ultra line has always been camera-centric, even more so than Samsung or Apple’s top models, and the 15 Ultra is no different. Like last year’s 14 Ultra, the quad rear camera is arrayed in an enormous circular module on the phone’s rear. It’s designed to resemble photography partner Leica’s dedicated camera hardware, right down to the two-tone silver and black finish, and compact “Ultra” corner logo found on one of the phone’s three versions. There are also simpler black or white models.
The 200-megapixel 4.3x periscopic lens follows similar periscopes in Vivo’s X100 Ultra and X200 Pro, and Honor’s Magic 7 Pro. This is a shorter zoom than the 5x periscope on the 14 Ultra, but uses a larger sensor, faster aperture, and higher resolution, which Xiaomi says results in better light capture, bringing improvements in zoom photography, especially in lower light. Xiaomi even codenamed the phone “Night God” internally, so low light photography is clearly a focus this year.
The other three rear sensors are all 50-megapixel, and are set up similarly to last year’s model, albeit with small variations. The most noteworthy change is to the main camera, which has dropped the variable aperture tech featured on the previous model in favor of a fixed — but fast — f/1.63.
The photography focus is enhanced by the release of Xiaomi’s third-generation Photography Kit, an optional extra that includes a case and a camera grip. Beyond a new red finish, not much has changed here either: the internal battery is a little larger at 2,000mAh(allowing this to double as a small power bank for the phone), and there’s a new thumb rest, but the core camera controls remain the same: a shutter button, video button, zoom lever, and exposure dial.
Beyond the inevitable upgrade to the current-generation Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, there are few other upgrades or design changes. The 6.73-inch displayis again 1-120Hz but a little brighter at 3,200 nits peak HDR brightness.An IP68 rating returns, too. The 6,000mAh battery is significantly larger, but the 90W wired charging and 80W wireless speeds are unchanged. As with other recent Android flagships, there’s still no sign of Qi2 adoption.
I thought the 14 Ultra was last year’s best phone camera by some distance, and my colleague Allison called it “a photography nerd’s dream,” so Xiaomi has set itself a high bar to live up to. This was such a strong camera, it’s understandable that the company has kept changes to a minimum this time around. But we’re looking forward to finding out whether its one big upgrade, the periscope, will deliver.
It looks like Samsung may have an answer to Oppo’s Find N5 after all, as new leaks claim that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 will only be fractionally thicker than the world’s thinnest foldable. That’s according to renders created by OnLeaks based on leaked information.
OnLeaks, together with Android Headlines, reports that the Z Fold 7 will be just 4.5mm thick when open. The Find N5 — currently the world’s thinnest book-style foldable — is 4.2mm thick, and the previous record-holder, Honor’s Magic V3, is 4.4mm.
That would put Samsung right up there with the global competition, and make this quite comfortably the thinnest foldable phone in the US. Its Z Fold 6 is 5.6mm thick, and Google’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold runs to 5.1mm. The OnePlus Open is the thickest at 5.8mm, and the company has already confirmed it has no plans for a new foldable model this year.
The Z Fold 7’s dimensions when closed are a little less clear. The report says that the phone will be 9.5mm thick counting the camera bump, and closer to 9mm without, but that doesn’t make much sense: the camera bump itself is clearly more than 0.5mm thick, protruding quite extensively from the body in the new images, even more so than on previous models.
Interestingly, the Z Fold 7 sounds bigger in its other dimensions, with a larger 8.2-inch inner screen and a 6.5-inch outer one, which will be wider than the previous generation. That might be how Samsung has reportedly been able to fit the same size 4,400mAh battery into a thinner design.
Elsewhere, Android Headlines predicts that the phone will be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, and boast a new 200-megapixel main camera, alongside the same 10-megapixel telephoto and 12-megapixel ultrawides as the Z Fold 6.
It’s expected to launch in July 2025 together with the Galaxy Z Flip 7. Recent rumors had suggested that Samsung would use the same event to announce its first trifold phone, though that’s far from certain: leaker Max Jambor took to Twitter today to claim that the trifold will instead launch “at a later point in time.”
US President Donald Trump speaks with Tim Cook in 2019.
Apple has announced plans to invest more than $500 billion in the US over the next four years, including hiring 20,000 new employees and launching a new server factory in Texas. The announcement was teased after a meeting last week between CEO Tim Cook and President Donald Trump, and comes as the company tries to mitigate the business impact of Trump’s trade tariffs, with a 10 percent tariff already in effect on goods imported from China, and a 25 percent tariff threatened for chips.
The announcement echoes one Apple made in early 2018, during the first Trump administration. At that point Apple also promised 20,000 new jobs as part of a $350 billion spend in the US, alongside a new campus in Austin which is still under construction. The company successfully appealed for tariff exemptions for some of its products, and a new US investment may be a way to secure further protection from Trump’s new charges. Apple has not confirmed how many of the new investments were already planned before Trump took office.
The company announced a few concrete elements of the increased US spend. The most significant is a new factory in Houston, set to open next year, which will produce servers to power Apple Intelligence, the company’s suite of AI features. Apple says that this factory alone will “create thousands of jobs.”
In addition, Apple is doubling its $5 billion US Advanced Manufacturing Fund to $10 billion. Launched in 2017, the fund is intended to “support world-class innovation and high-skilled manufacturing jobs across America.” In this case, it means Apple making a multibillion-dollar order for chips from a TSMC factory in Arizona.
More generally, Apple says that over the term of the Trump administration it will hire 20,000 new employees, with the majority focused on “R&D, silicon engineering, software development, and AI and machine learning.” It will also open an Apple Manufacturing Academy in Detroit in which Apple engineers and other experts will offer consultations to local businesses on “implementing AI and smart manufacturing techniques,” along with free classes for workers.
“We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we’re proud to build on our long-standing U.S. investments with this $500 billion commitment to our country’s future,” said Cook in a statement. “From doubling our Advanced Manufacturing Fund, to building advanced technology in Texas, we’re thrilled to expand our support for American manufacturing. And we’ll keep working with people and companies across this country to help write an extraordinary new chapter in the history of American innovation.”
Apple’s most recent announcement on US investment was a 2021 promise to spend $430 billion over the following five years, including a 3,000-employee campus in North Carolina, though development on that project has since paused.
Apple has stopped offering its end-to-end encrypted iCloud storage, Advanced Data Protection (ADP), to new users in the UK, and will require existing users to disable the feature at some point in the future. The move comes following reports earlier this month that UK security services requested Apple grant them backdoor access to worldwide users’ encrypted backups.
“Apple can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection (ADP) in the United Kingdom to new users and current UK users will eventually need to disable this security feature,“ says Apple spokesperson Julien Trosdorf in a statement to The Verge. “We are gravely disappointed that the protections provided by ADP will not be available to our customers in the UK given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy.”
ADP works by protecting iCloud data with end-to-end encryption, meaning it can only be decrypted by the person who owns the iCloud account on their own devices. Apple originally launched ADP in late 2022, allowing iCloud data like file backups and photos to be protected by the feature. Removing ADP means that British users’ files will be accessible to Apple, and shareable with law enforcement, though that would still require a warrant.
Some types of iCloud data are end-to-end encrypted by default, and will remain so even in the UK. This includes passwords, health data, payment information, and iMessage logs. iCloud file backups, photos, notes, and voice memos are among the data types that will no longer be encrypted.
Apple has already stopped offering Advanced Data Protection to new users in the UK, advising them that it “can no longer offer” the service. Apple won’t be able to disable ADP automatically on existing iCloud accounts, because of the way the end-to-end encryption feature works. Trosdorf tells The Verge that UK users will be given an amount of time to disable ADP to keep using their iCloud account, though the company has not said when the deadline will be.
“Apple remains committed to offering our users the highest level of security for their personal data and are hopeful that we will be able to do so in the future in the United Kingdom,” says Trosdorf. “As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.”
Earlier this month The Washington Post reported that the UK Home Office, led by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, had demanded backdoor access to encrypted files uploaded not only by Brits, but by users worldwide. The company was reportedly served a document called a technical capability notice under the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act of 2016, also known as the Snoopers’ Charter. Apple has the right to appeal any demand made under the act, but not to delay implementation of the order.
It was reported then that Apple was likely to disable its UK encryption instead of granting security services a backdoor, but that this might not placate the Labour government, which would still not be able to access encrypted files uploaded elsewhere in the world. Apple did not issue any statement at the time, and even now has not explained why ADP is being disabled, but even revealing that the government had made a demand under the Investigatory Powers Act would reportedly be a criminal offense.
UK security services have repeatedly pushed back against end-to-end encrypted services in the past, making the argument that encryption is used by terrorists and child abusers to hide from law enforcement. “End-to-end encryption cannot be allowed to hamper efforts to catch perpetrators of the most serious crimes,” a government spokesperson told The Guardianin 2022 when Apple first introduced end-to-end encryption.
Apple has made its own arguments against the UK’s position in the past. “There is no reason why the UK [government] should have the authority to decide for citizens of the world whether they can avail themselves of the proven security benefits that flow from end-to-end encryption,” Apple told the British parliament in March 2024 during a debate on an amendment to the Investigatory Powers Act.
Apple is not the only tech company to offer end-to-end encrypted backups. Google has offered encrypted backups to Android users since 2018, and Meta also offers the option to encrypt WhatsApp backups. Both are currently still available in the UK.
ADP remains available outside of the UK, and can be enabled from iCloud’s settings options. To activate it, any devices tied to your Apple ID will have to be up-to-date, and you must turn on Apple’s Account Recovery features as well. ADP is free to use, and if you’re outside the UK we recommend enabling it.
The Nothing Phone 3A and 3A Pro have leaked in new images and videos that show off the two phones’ designs and detail the key specs. So far, the two phones appear to be almost identical, with only two camera changes — and slightly different rear camera designs — to pull them apart.
First Android Headlines leaked what appear to be official renders of the two new phones. The 3A and 3A Pro look similar, both using Nothing’s now-trademark semi-transparent design language and Glyph lighting system, in black and white versions. The two phones only appear to differ in their cameras: while the 3A has its three lenses laid out in a horizontal line, the 3A Pro has a more… avant garde arrangement, with the three lenses and flash in a sort of half-spiral in the circular camera module.
Leaker Arsène Lupin then followed up with what appear to be the official reveal videos for each phone, detailing the core specs and showing the designs off in motion. Both phones seem to be powered by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, and have the same 6.77-inch 120Hz AMOLED displays.
They also both appear to include the teased new button, shown in the videos triggering an AI assistant and a feature called “Essential Space” that “organizes content and generates action points.” That appears to essentially mean an AI-powered, visual to-do list.
The only differences between the phones’ specs so far lie in the cameras. They share the same 50-megapixel main camera and 8-megapixel ultrawide, but the other two lenses differ. The Pro model uses a 3x periscope lens, while the 3A has a shorter 2x telephoto lens, though both offer the same 50-megapixel resolution. On the front, the Pro sticks to 50 megapixels for its selfie camera while the 3A drops to 32.
The camera specs match the few details that Nothing confirmed when it released a video on Tuesday showing how the 3A series’ cameras compare to an iPhone 16 Pro Max’s. Fans quickly spotted an error in the video though: in a segment boasting about how much better the Nothing phone’s video stabilization is, the iPhone was using its ultrawide rather than the optically-stabilized main camera. Nothing fessed up to the error in a pinned comment on the YouTube video.
“Hey everyone, we shot across all lenses throughout the day (sometimes cycling one-handed on a bumpy road), and in editing, a clip shot using the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s ultrawide lens was mistakenly used in the video stabilisation comparison instead of one shot using its standard lens. There was no intent to mislead, and we’ll be more careful to ensure even greater scrutiny in future comparisons. Appreciate you all keeping us accountable!”
The two new Nothing phones will be revealed soon, with an official launch set for March 4th, in the midst of Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress trade show. Last year’s Nothing Phone 2A didn’t officially launch in the US — it was only available through a limited developer program — and it remains to be seen if that will change for the 3A series.
Today Oppo launched the Find N5, the thinnest book-style foldable phone yet, but there’s more to the phone than a slim design: it’s capable of connecting to a Mac for file transfers and even remote control. It’s not quite the first Android phone to do so, but it is the only one you can buy outside of China.
To link the Find N5 with a Mac you first have to install Oppo’s O Plus Connect app on the Mac, which will be available from Oppo’s website — I’ve been testing out a beta version. Linking the Mac to the phone is quick so long as they’re on the same Wi-Fi network, with all the phone’s controls built into the “Connection & sharing” section of its Settings app.
As long as the two phones remain on the same network, you can browse the phone’s files directly from the Mac and transfer them wirelessly — in itself a coup, given that even wired file-sharing between Android phones and Macs is clunky and reliant on third-party software.
More impressive is the remote control option, which mirrors the Mac’s display to the phone. You can use it full-screen, or better still fold the phone halfway to create a miniature laptop. This works so long as both devices are online, but unlike file-sharing they don’t need to be on the same network.
Oppo has created a few ways to use macOS from the dinky touchscreen. You can turn the bottom half of the display into a keyboard for the laptop experience, or instead use it as a trackpad — complete with multi-touch gesture support. Other options include a clunky on-screen mouse and some buttons that recreate common keyboard shortcuts.
Don’t get me wrong, using this is all still pretty clunky. The screen is too small to be entirely usable, and macOS wasn’t designed with touch gestures in mind, so tapping is a hit-or-miss replacement for a mouse. I tried it out a few times over my week with the phone, and while it was usually smooth, on one occasion it was laggy enough to be absolutely unusable. I wouldn’t even want to be reliant on this to work, but I can see the appeal in a pinch.
The file sharing is the more straightforwardly useful part of this. It’s an expansion of Oppo’s existing O Plus Connect app for iPhones and iPads, which has allowed file-sharing between Oppo, OnePlus, and Realme phones and those Apple devices since last year. A similar app supports file-sharing with Windows PCs, but the remote control option added for Macs is a first.
A first for Oppo, that is. Another Chinese phone manufacturer, Vivo, introduced a similar option in April 2024 that I haven’t had the chance to try. That’s because it’s only available on Vivo phones running OriginOS, the company’s China-exclusive take on Android. With the Find N5 launching worldwide — except for the US, where sister brand OnePlus has announced it won’t launch the phone — this is the first time Macs and Android phones have gotten this close in the rest of the world.
Oppo says there are plans to roll the feature out to more phones, but we’ll have to wait to see which and when — and whether that includes the OnePlus handsets available in the US.
Oppoâs Find N5 feels like the end game for foldable phones. Not because itâs make or break for a segment of the phone market that never quite took off like manufacturers hoped it would, but because I simply donât know where we go from here. Thereâs scarcely room to make the phone thinner without ditching USB-C entirely; battery life, performance, and even cameras are now on par with other flagship phones; and this time, Oppo even managed to fit wireless charging and water resistance in, too. This is what we were promised all along. Now what?
Hardware and cameras
Itâs hard to see how the hardware improves much further. At 8.93mm thick when closed, this is the thinnest foldable in the world, shaving almost half a millimeter off the previous record holder, Honorâs Magic V3. Itâs just 4.21mm thin when itâs open, which proves thereâs still space to trim â Huaweiâs trifold Mate XT runs to just 3.6mm â but weâre close to at least one hard physical limit. Oppo told me it had to customize the USB-C port to fit it into a phone this thin. Thereâs only a hairâs breadth of metal on the portâs outer edge. If foldable phones are going to get meaningfully thinner …
The Find N5 is thinner than any other foldable when shut.
Oppo has launched the Find N5, the thinnest foldable phone in the world. It’s launching in markets worldwide, including across Europe and Asia, at $2,499 SGD (about $1,867 USD). That’s more expensive than either the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 or Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold in Singapore, though comparable once you adjust for storage. There won’t be any US release at all though, as sister brand OnePlus has already confirmed that it has no plans to launch a foldable phone this year.
The Find N5 is slimmer than any rival foldable, so long as you measure it when closed. At 8.93mm it’s thinner than the previous record holder, last year’s Honor Magic V3, and less than a millimeter thicker than an iPhone 16 Pro. Open the phone up and it’s just 4.21mm at its thinnest point — so thin that Oppo told me it had to customize the USB-C port to even fit — though measured this way it is fractionally thicker than Huawei’s 3.6mm trifold Mate XT, which also got a global launch this week.
The phone has IPX6, X8, and X9 ratings, meaning it’s protected against both submersion and spraying water but not dust or dirt — arguably the bigger threats to folding phones. Oppo has also made the display crease both narrower and shallower, making it harder to spot or feel while swiping.
A 5,600mAh battery is surprisingly spacious for the phone’s size, and was good enough for two days of use at a time while I was testing the phone for my review. Oppo has also managed to fit in wireless charging, one of the big omissions from the previous Find N3 (there was no N4, since it’s considered an unlucky number in China).
The phone uses a 7-core version of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, and comes in just one configuration, with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The Hasselblad-branded cameras are impressive too, with 50-megapixel main and telephoto lenses joined by a 12-megapixel ultrawide.
The Find N5 is launching in Europe and Asia, with a release date of February 28th so far only confirmed for Singapore. While we had hoped for a US launch under the OnePlus brand — the Find N3 launched Stateside as the OnePlus Open — it’s been confirmed that OnePlus is skipping this generation, and so the Find N5 is just one more phone that US buyers won’t have the option to pick up.
Apple may not have given the full launch event and keynote treatment to the iPhone 16E, but it dropped a launch video for the new affordable iPhone that shows it off. The video was uploaded to YouTube and added to the company’s iPhone 16E launch page.
Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces the “new member of the iPhone 16 family,” before handing it over to vice president of iPhone marketing Kaiann Drance, who explains the phone’s key specs. The 16E is equipped with Apple’s A18 chipset, the same chip as the rest of the 16 line, which gives it enough power to run Apple Intelligence, something that even 2023’s iPhone 15 can’t do. It also includes Apple’s first-ever in-house 5G modem, the C1.
The other big upgrade from the 2022 iPhone SE is the move to a new design with a notch and Face ID, finally killing the home button for good. That nets the 16E a larger 6.1-inch display, making it the same size as the standard iPhone 16. It also jumps to USB-C and includes Apple’s customizable Action Button.
There’s only a single rear camera, though the 48-megapixel sensor could be comparable in performance to the main camera on the other phones. A 12-megapixel selfie camera is on the front, among the lenses and sensors required for Face ID.
The iPhone 16E is available to preorder starting this Friday ahead of a release on February 28th, starting at $599 with 128GB of storage and the option to go up to 256GB or 512GB. It’s available in black or white.
It’s official: the home button is dead. Apple has launched the iPhone 16E with an updated design and killed off the iPhone’s classic Touch ID interface. Instead, the 16E moves to a Face ID-enabled notch and adds the latest A18 chip and support for Apple Intelligence under the surface, with a starting price of $599.
The 16E is a kind of iPhone SE successor based on the design of 2022’s iPhone 14, meaning it fits the front-facing cameras required for Face ID (and selfies) into a notch that cuts down from the top of the phone rather than the Dynamic Island design found on the company’s latest flagship phones.
With a 6.06-inch OLED display, the 16E is now close to the same size as Apple’s standard 6.12-inch iPhone 16, meaning the company no longer offers a phone significantly smaller than its default model — at least not until the rumored iPhone 17 Air arrives. The 16E’s measurements show it’s about 0.1mm narrower and 0.7mm shorter than the standard iPhone 16.
The 16E includes the customizable Action Button but not the new Camera Controlyou’ll find on the 16 series. It does swap its Lightning port for USB-C, now a requirement for the phone to be sold in the EU. What it doesn’t have is support for MagSafe accessories or fast wireless charging, as the iPhone 16E only supports Qi wireless charging up to 7.5W, which will power you up more slowly than the 25W charging available on pricier iPhones.
On the inside, there’s an A18 chipset, the same chip as the iPhone 16. That makes the 16E powerful enough to run Apple Intelligence, the suite of AI tools that includes notification summaries. Even the non-Pro iPhone 15 can’t do that, so the 16E is one of the most capable iPhones out there. Apple has previously confirmed that 8GB RAM was the minimum to get Apple Intelligence support in the iPhone 16 series, so it’s likely that the 16E also boasts at least that much memory. The cheapest version has also been bumped to a baseline of 128GB of storage, meaning there’s no longer a 64GB iPhone.
There’s only a single 48-megapixel rear camera; the lack of additional cameras is the biggest downgrade compared to the company’s other handsets. With support for wireless charging and a water-resistant IP rating, there’s little you have to give up elsewhere.
The iPhone 16E is also the first iPhone to include a modem developed by Apple itself. The company has spent years trying to move away from modems developed by Qualcomm, and we’re finally seeing the fruits of that labor. The big questions now are how well the new modem performs and whether Apple is ready to roll out its own connectivity components in the iPhone 17 line later this year.
The new iPhone 16E is available to preorder Friday starting at $599, which is a significant price hike from the $429 2022 iPhone SE — though you get a lot more storage (128GB) in the base model and a much more modern design. The 16E ships on February 28th.
Update, February 19th: Added size details and noted lack of MagSafe support.
Correction, February 19th: Preorders open Friday, not Thursday, as initially stated.
Huawei’s trifold Mate XT phone is launching outside of China, but it won’t come cheap. The world’s first and only phone that folds at two separate points in the display costs €3,499 (about $3,660) — and like other Huawei phones, won’t officially support any Google apps.
The Mate XT launched in China in September 2024. It features a dual-hinge folding display that gives users three different screen configurations: a 6.4-inch panel when closed, a 10.2-inch tablet-sized screen when fully opened, and a 7.9-inch display when only partially unfolded.
The trifold is also impressively thin, just 3.6mm thick at its thinnest point when open. That’s even thinner than the upcoming Oppo Find N5, which is also being promoted as the “world’s thinnest” foldable. That phone will be thinner than Huawei’s when shut, helped by only having two panels rather than three.
The 5,600mAh battery should be sufficient to last the day, even with the larger screen size, and the Mate XT supports wired or wireless charging. The rear camera looks impressive too, with a 50-megapixel main sensor joined by 12-megapixel ultrawide and periscope shooters. The big downside is that like other Huawei hardware, there’s no support for Google apps and services, including the Play Store, despite running Huawei’s Android-based EMUI software. Last year the company launched its own Android-free operating system, HarmonyOS Next, but the Mate XT has not yet been upgraded to that software, even in China.
I got the chance to try the Mate XT shortly after its September unveiling, and was struck by how sturdy it feels despite the delicate design. It’s a little unintuitive having to fold each screen segment in a different direction to close the phone, but that’s a small price to pay — at least compared to the rather large price you’ll have to pay just to own the thing.
Despite releasing pricing in Euros, so far the phone is only confirmed to release in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico, though more markets are “expected.” Huawei UK public relations specialist Elliot Mulley-Goodbarne did confirm to The Verge that it’s “not coming to the UK or US for the time being.” It’s launching in a single configuration, with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.
The Mate XT launched alongside a new pair of open-ear earbuds called the FreeArc, the Band 10 fitness tracker, and a MatePad Pro 13.2 tablet with a matte OLED display.
Update, February 18th: Added confirmed launch regions and software.
The open-source code repository Codeberg has blamed the far right for a recent campaign of abuse and harassment across its systems. “Projects advocating tolerance and equal rights” were subjected to spam campaigns using abusive messages, which escalated to spam emails sent to users via Codeberg’s own automated systems. Codeberg says it stands strong “against hate and hatred” that endangers free software projects.
On February 12th, some Codeberg users received emails from Codeberg containing abusive content. The site says that this was sent by an abuser who took advantage of the site’s ability to notify up to 100 users at once, generating a notification email each time. Codeberg says that while it has blocked both the accounts and the functionality they used, “a large amount of notification emails” had already been sent, and the site itself experienced brief downtime.
“Your private data was not leaked,” Codeberg reassures users in a statement. “All emails have been generated through Codeberg’s servers using the notification feature and the abusers had no access to your email address directly.”
Codeberg is a Berlin-based nonprofit organization that provides hosting and other services for free and open-source software projects. It boasts more than 150,000 users who’ve worked on over 200,000 projects and claims a community that celebrates “free culture, openness and creativity.”
The organization, mostly run by volunteers, says that while it runs with some extra capacity to handle abuse campaigns, that capacity “was obviously exhausted this time.”
“Spamming notification emails to users is a new abuse vector to us, and we did not sufficiently prepare for this,” the statement says. “For that, we are sorry.” The team is working on plans to improve its protection against this and similar kinds of abuse in the future, while responding to users affected by the recent campaign.
One thing the attack hasn’t done is deter Codeberg’s commitment to open-source software, which it says is “endangered” by far-right forces. “By targeting some of our most active translators, nicest designers, best developers and all other motivated contributors, they are hurting the free/libre software ecosystem as a whole.”
“We will not be discouraged in our fight against far-right ideologies,” the statement continues. “They are currently on the rise in many parts of the world, and we believe it is important to protect all kinds of marginalized groups. However, if you believe this does not affect your project, you are wrong. Far-right forces pose a threat to all of us.”
Alibaba has announced that it is partnering with Apple to provide artificial intelligence features to iPhones in China. Apple Intelligence features have not yet been enabled in China, which is thought to have contributed to the company’s local decline in smartphone sales.
“They talked to a number of companies in China. In the end they chose to do business with us. They want to use our AI to power their phones,” Alibaba chairman Joseph Tsai said. “We feel extremely honoured to do business with a great company like Apple.”
The announcement doesn’t quite end speculation as to which local tech companies Apple will partner with to enable its AI features. The company reportedly evaluated models from Tencent, ByteDance, and DeepSeek, and may still partner with other companies. Apple “continues to work with Baidu” on “an AI-powered search feature that can handle images and text,” along with upgrades to the Chinese version of Siri, according to a report from The Information published today.
Outside of China, Apple Intelligence runs on a combination of Apple’s proprietary tech and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which is not available in China. It’s not clear if there’ll be a similar approach for the AI features in China, perhaps with multiple partners. Any consumer-facing AI features require regulatory approval, and according to The Information Apple and Alibaba have already submitted materials to regulators.
iPhone sales have been declining in China, and in 2024 Apple lost the top spot for smartphone sales, coming in third for Q4 behind Huawei and Xiaomi. Analysts have repeatedly attributed lagging sales to the lack of iPhone AI features in the country, and Apple will be under pressure to make up lost ground.
Leaker Evan Blass has shared a set of spinning GIFs of Samsung’s midrange Galaxy A56 that show the phone in four colors and a host of different angles. The Galaxy A56 is rumored to launch in March, right around the same time as rival devices from Apple and Google.
The new animations from evleaks show the A56 in silver, pink, black, and a pale green. They show a phone with flat edges, a chunky display bezel that’s thicker at the bottom, and a redesigned camera island that mounts the three lenses together with a black backing. The other things that stand out — literally — are the power and volume buttons, which now sit on an island that rises slightly out from the phone’s edge, rather than lying flush.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this design. Android Headlines shared renders showing a similar look in November 2024, and Samsung’s own renders were found on China’s TENAA certification site, so we’re confident that this is what the A56 will look like.
As for the specs, we’re not quite as certain. An early Geekbench score believed to belong to the A56 suggests it will be powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 1580 chipset. Certification leaks point to a 5,000mAh battery and 45W wired charging — which would be a little surprising only because the flagship Galaxy S25 is still limited to slower 25W speeds. GalaxyClub reports that the rear cameras will be similar to the last two generations, with a 50 megapixel main shooter joined by a 12MP ultrawide and 5MP macro, though the selfie camera is at least getting an upgrade to a new 12MP sensor.
The Galaxy A56 is likely to arrive alongside more affordable A36 and A26 models. Samsung released the last four generations in mid-March, so that’s when we’re expecting to see these phones too. The big question for the A56 is whether it will launch Stateside; we were mostly fans of the $449 Galaxy A54 two years ago, but the A55 skipped the US entirely.
This year Samsung may want to ensure it has a presence in the US market. Apple is expected to announce a new version of its similarly priced iPhone SE either this week or next, and Google’s midrange Pixel 9a has also been tipped for a March launch, months earlier than prior generations’ summer announcements.
