OnePlus Ace 7 series leaks reveal a 185Hz display, active cooling, huge battery tests and possible Pro hardware, with availability still unknown.

The post OnePlus Ace 7 Series: Latest Specs, Rumors, and Release Clues appeared first on TechRepublic.

Huawei’s Mate XT2 starts near $3,000, adding an inward-folding design and new Kirin chip as Apple reportedly prepares its first foldable iPhone.

The post Huawei’s $3,000 Mate XT2 Takes Aim at Apple’s Foldable Plans appeared first on TechRepublic.

Xiaomi has chosen an interesting moment to return to foldables. The company has not released a book-style foldable since the Mix Fold 4, which launched in 2024, and now it is back with the Xiaomi 18 Fold just as compact foldables are starting to get more attention. Samsung has also added a foldable in this compact format to its lineup, and Apple is widely expected to unveil its first foldable iPhone at its September 9 event with a similar form factor in mind.

That puts the Xiaomi 18 Fold in an interesting spot. It is not just Xiaomi coming back to foldables after a break. It is also arriving just as this smaller book-style format looks like it could become the next big thing.

Designer: Xiaomi

Xiaomi is positioning the 18 Fold as its first mid-size flagship foldable. It weighs 7.73 ounces (219g), measures 0.42 inches thick when folded (10.68mm), and opens out to just 0.20 inches thick (5.02mm), with a folded footprint of 4.64 x 3.29 inches (117.8 x 83.6mm). In person, it feels thin, though not unusually thin by the standards of today’s premium foldables. More importantly, it feels expensive in a good way. The matte texture on the back and frame gives it a softer, understated finish, while the rounded corners and flat frame help the phone look clean and modern.

The unit I handled was the deep red version, and it is a bold color in person. It stands out more than the usual black or silver foldable palette without feeling too loud. It also happens to echo the deep red finish rumored for Apple’s first foldable, which makes the comparison hard to miss. The 18 Fold comes in Black, White, Red, and a Ceramic Version.

In practice, though, this is still a two-handed phone whether it is folded or unfolded. Even closed, the body is compact in one sense but still broad enough that I did not think of it as something built for easy one-handed use. That is not really a criticism. It just comes with the territory.

The outer display is a 5.38-inch panel, while the inside opens up to a 7.58-inch main screen. Xiaomi says both displays share the same aspect ratio, which is meant to make the transition from one to the other feel more natural. I could not fully judge how well that works in daily use from a short demo, but one benefit stood out right away. Video felt more immersive than on squarer foldables because there was less black bar space above and below the image.

The software also looked well suited to the shape. Animations felt smooth in my brief demo, and I did see split-screen and floating window support in action. The unfolded UI felt more like a small tablet than a stretched phone, which is what you want on a device like this. Xiaomi has also placed one speaker on the top edge and another on the bottom edge on the opposite side, which should help give the phone a more balanced stereo effect when it is open.

The hinge left a good first impression too. I cannot really say whether it felt especially firm or especially smooth, because my time with the device was limited, but it did feel sturdy. The crease was handled well too. Looking straight at the display, I only really noticed it from certain angles rather than all the time. More importantly, I could barely feel it when running a finger across the center, which was better than I expected.

Left: Xiaomi 18 Fold, Right: Galaxy Z Fold 8

Left: Galaxy Z Fold 8, Right: Xiaomi 18 Fold

Left: Galaxy Z Fold 8, Right: Xiaomi 18 Fold

I also compared the Xiaomi 18 Fold side by side with Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8. Samsung’s device measures 4.88 x 3.22 x 0.38 inches when folded (123.9 x 81.9 x 9.7mm), 6.35 x 4.88 x 0.18 inches when unfolded (161.4 x 123.9 x 4.5cm), and weighs 7.09 ounces (201g), so it is a little lighter and a bit thinner than Xiaomi’s foldable in some areas. But the difference was not just about dimensions. Samsung’s inner screen was noticeably brighter to my eyes. At the same time, the Xiaomi 18 Fold had one practical advantage that stood out immediately. When placed on a desk, it did not wobble, while the Samsung did.

Left: Galaxy Z Fold 8, Right: Xiaomi 18 Fold

Left: Galaxy Z Fold 8, Right: Xiaomi 18 Fold

Top: Xiaomi 18 Fold, Bottom: Galaxy Z Fold 8

The biggest surprise for me was the camera. Xiaomi is using a 200MP Leica triple-camera system, led by a 200MP main camera and backed by a 50MP Leica periscope telephoto with an 80mm equivalent focal length. In my short time with the phone, the telephoto camera was the part that stuck with me most. I tried zoom, and the 3.5x telephoto setup immediately felt like one of the most interesting parts of the device. Stability also felt good even at higher magnification, which made the zoom feel more usable, not just more dramatic. The camera bump also did not seem overly large, and its oval-shaped, two-step raised design gives it some presence without taking over the whole back.

My time with the Xiaomi 18 Fold was brief, and this hands-on really only scratched the surface. Even so, the phone already feels like a polished return to book-style foldables. Pricing starts at RMB 10,999, or roughly $1,640, for the 12GB/256GB model, and Xiaomi said it will be available in China only for now.

The post Xiaomi 18 Fold Hands-On: Got Here Before Apple, Can It Beat Samsung? first appeared on Yanko Design.

The BSP is proposing a 12-month pause on new payment system operators as it tightens QR merchant identification and transaction-tracing rules.

The post Philippines’ BSP Proposes 12-Month Payment Operator Freeze as QR Rules Tighten appeared first on TechRepublic.

Learn how to add emergency contacts and medical information to iPhone and Android so important details can be accessed from the lock screen.

The post Your iPhone or Android Can Help in an Emergency: Here’s How to Set It Up appeared first on TechRepublic.

See what you missed in Daily Tech Insider from Aug. 31–Sept. 4.

The post Powerful AI, Cyberthreats, and Industry Upheaval Define This Week in Tech appeared first on TechRepublic.

Apple’s Sept. 9 event could bring the iPhone 18 Pro, its first foldable iPhone, and a split release schedule extending into 2027.

The post Apple’s Sept. 9 Event: What to Expect From the iPhone 18 Pro and the Reported $2,099-Plus Foldable appeared first on TechRepublic.

TCL’s P80 Ultra and P80 Pro prove a phone screen doesn’t have to pick one personality and stick with it. Unveiled at IFA 2026 in Berlin, both handsets fold a vivid AMOLED panel and TCL’s paper-like NXTPAPER technology into the same sheet of glass, letting the display shift moods with a flick of a switch instead of forcing a trade-off between color and comfort.

Run a finger along the frame, and you’ll find a thin slider, a small physical detail that carries plenty of weight in daily use. Slide it, and the 6.83-inch panel drops its saturation, taking on a warmer, textured look that mimics a printed page. A commuter buried in a novel or someone proofreading a document late at night gets a screen that behaves like paper, without losing the sharpness underneath.

Designer: TCL

Push that same slider one notch further, and the screen drops color entirely for Max Ink Mode, a stripped layout that silences notifications except for calls and texts. It reads like a design decision as much as a software one, TCL betting people want to quiet their phone rather than mute it completely. The payoff is a battery that can stretch across roughly a week of steady reading.

That reading-first mindset carries into the software too. Both phones can convert e-books into audiobooks or podcast-style narration using on-device AI, giving Max Ink Mode a voice to lean on when eyes need a break instead of ears. It is a small addition, but it treats the slower, paper-like mode as a genuine feature rather than a bolted-on gimmick for a keynote slide.

None of that would matter if the screen looked washed out the rest of the time, so TCL leaned on a 1.5K AMOLED panel that hits 3,200 nits and covers the full DCI-P3 color range. A Nano Crystal Shield coating cuts glare enough to keep the display readable under direct sun, marking TCL’s first pairing of NXTPAPER with OLED rather than the LCD panels it used before.

The frame wrapping that screen is aluminum rather than the plastic often found at this price, giving both phones a sturdier grip without piling on bulk. TCL backs that up with an IP68 rating against dust and water, plus MIL-STD-810H certification for the inevitable drop. Buyers get to pick between Sunlit Gold, Burgundy, and Midnight Blue, three finishes that lean more toward jewelry-box color choices than typical slab-of-glass smartphone palettes.

Where the two models part ways is around the back. The P80 Ultra carries a 50-megapixel main camera next to a 50-megapixel periscope lens for 3x optical zoom, tucked into a housing shaped to avoid throwing off the phone’s balance. The P80 Pro drops the periscope for a simpler dual-camera arrangement, trading reach for a slimmer build that still shares the same main sensor and 8-megapixel ultrawide.

TCL is rolling both phones out across Europe first, with the P80 Ultra priced from €549 (around $635) and the P80 Pro starting at €429 (around $500), before a Latin American launch follows in October. A wider release is expected to reach additional regions afterward. In a category full of identical glass rectangles, these two phones actually behave differently depending on what someone needs from them that day.

The post TCL’s P80 Pro and Ultra Are the Phones That Replaced Your Kindle Too first appeared on Yanko Design.

Slapping a famous badge on a phone’s back panel is the easy version of a brand partnership. TECNO and Tonino Lamborghini clearly wanted the harder version instead. The POVA 8 Pro 5G Tonino Lamborghini Limited Edition builds its entire identity around a black-and-red palette and a hexagon pattern lifted straight from Lamborghini’s mechanical heritage, then carries that language past the glass and into the software running underneath.

The rear panel does the heaviest visual lifting. A dual-layer stacking process gives it a reflective quality built from countless internal mirror structures that refract and redirect light, so red accents seem to surface and sink back into shadow as the phone tilts in your hand. A physical height difference between the two layers adds genuine spatial depth, echoing the layered geometry found in actual mechanical engineering rather than faking it with a printed graphic.

Designer: TECNO x Tonino Lamborghini

That commitment doesn’t stop at the hardware. A bespoke interface theme reworks dozens of icons in matching black-and-red tones with glass-like material effects, while a custom boot animation and ringtone carry the same mechanical energy into everyday use. Opening the phone in the morning feels less like waking up a generic Android device and more like starting an engine built around a specific mood.

Underneath the styling sits a dual-chipset setup pairing a MediaTek Dimensity 7400 Ultimate platform with a TECNO-built P1 Graphic Chip, backed by a vapor chamber cooling system spanning over 22,000mm² of dissipation area. That combination pushes supported titles as high as 144FPS, turning a commute or a lunch break into legitimate gaming time instead of a compromise. A dedicated one-tap button on the side keeps favorite apps and gaming shortcuts one press away.

Photography leans on a Sony-engineered LYTIA 700C sensor with a larger light-sensitive area, giving low-light shots and handheld video noticeably steadier results thanks to built-in optical stabilization. A 50MP high-pixel mode and 2x lossless zoom cover the detail-obsessed shots, while an 8MP ultra-wide lens handles group photos and landscapes without anyone needing to step backward to fit everyone in frame.

The 6.78-inch AMOLED display pushes brightness to 4,500 nits and refreshes at 144Hz, numbers that matter most outdoors under direct sun or during fast-paced gaming sessions where lag ruins the moment. A touch layer rated for wet and oily fingers keeps the screen responsive through rain, sweat, or sunscreen-covered hands, useful for anyone who refuses to put their phone down just because the weather did.

Durability rounds out the package rather than acting as an afterthought. Corning Gorilla Glass 7i, IP69-rated water and dust resistance, and SGS 5-Star Drop certification mean the phone can survive a dropped call turning into a literal drop without ending the relationship. A 6,500mAh battery retains over 80% of its health after 2,000 charge cycles, translating to roughly six years of daily use before a real decline sets in.

TECNO and Tonino Lamborghini spent more effort here proving that a licensing deal can produce something with actual mechanical thinking behind it, rather than a badge glued onto commodity hardware. The result reads less like a co-branded accessory and more like a phone that happens to share a bloodline with the cars.

The post TECNO and Tonino Lamborghini Prove You Can’t Fake a Real Collab first appeared on Yanko Design.

Google is rolling out AI-powered Battery usage summaries to Pixel 10 and Pixel 11 phones to help users understand what may be draining battery life.

The post Pixel’s New AI Feature Can Now Explain What’s Draining Your Phone appeared first on TechRepublic.

Explore the Honor Robot Phone’s 200MP gimbal camera, flagship specs, China pricing, key trade-offs, and whether this experimental phone is worth buying.

The post Honor Robot Phone Cheat Sheet: Specs, Price and Who Should Buy It appeared first on TechRepublic.

The 5.3-inch Enough Phone promises Android 17, a removable battery and microSD storage, but the compact smartphone still faces a difficult path to launch.

The post Enough Phone Brings Back the Removable Battery in a Tiny Android Body appeared first on TechRepublic.

Redmi Note 17 Pro and Pro Max pricing varies by country, while the Pro Max adds a larger battery, faster charging, storage, and 4K video.

The post Redmi Note 17 Pro vs Pro Max: Battery, Price and Specs Compared appeared first on TechRepublic.

OnePlus 16 camera leaks point to a 200MP main sensor, larger 50MP 3x telephoto and new ultrawide, but global availability remains unclear.

The post OnePlus 16 Camera Leak Reveals 200MP Main Sensor and New 3x Telephoto appeared first on TechRepublic.

Packard Bell spent a century teaching people that new technology doesn’t have to feel intimidating, and its 100th birthday present to itself leans hard into that idea. Under Acer’s ownership, the brand relaunched at IFA 2026 with a philosophy it calls “Tech it easy,” built around a lineup that trades beige plastic and quiet corporate design for colors loud enough to notice from across a room. Four products anchor that comeback, and each one argues that everyday tech gains something when it stops taking itself so seriously.

The DotBook carries the heaviest expectations as the collection’s flagship, a 14.5-inch laptop finished in a red-orange shell bright enough to spot on a crowded coffee shop table. Weighing under 1.3 kg and measuring just 17.9mm thin, it’s built for browsing, streaming, and everyday work rather than chasing benchmark scores, backed by up to 512GB of storage and 16GB of memory running quietly under Windows 11. It’s a laptop designed to disappear into a bag, not a spec sheet debate.

Designer: Acer

Where the DotBook plays it relatively straight, the DotLoop commits fully to spectacle. Housed inside an actual briefcase shell with a 1970s silhouette, the turntable pops open to reveal a working tonearm flanked by RGB-lit speaker grilles that glow while a record spins. Two built-in 3W speakers handle sound on their own, though Bluetooth and RCA outputs let the DotLoop hand audio off to a proper stereo system whenever the moment calls for something louder.

That willingness to have fun with format extends into the DotLine, a feature phone built for anyone tired of feeding a smartphone’s constant appetite for attention. A 2.8-inch display and physical keypad keep the experience deliberately simple, while an 1800mAh battery stretches across roughly two weeks between charges, a number that sounds almost mythical next to a modern flagship’s overnight anxiety. Four color options keep it from feeling like a consolation prize.

Rounding out the focus lineup, the DotCombo bundles a keyboard and mouse into a single color-matched purchase, eliminating the usual mismatched beige-on-black desk setup that so many peripherals default to. Both pieces run on rechargeable batteries good for hundreds of charge cycles, connecting over Bluetooth or a 2.4GHz receiver without a single AA battery required. Round keycaps borrowed from typewriter design give the whole thing a tactile, almost toy-like presence on a desk.

Beyond these four, Packard Bell rounds out its centennial collection with a portable speaker (DotTune), audio glasses (DotLook), a ring light for creators (DotShine), matching headphones (DotBass), and even a countertop food steamer (Steasy), all sharing the same saturated color palette and straightforward pricing. None of them ask for much attention individually, but together they paint a lineup unwilling to blend into a beige office shelf.

Pricing stays approachable across the board, with the DotBook starting around €499 (around $578), the DotLoop at €149 (around $173), the DotLine at €69 (around $80), and the DotCombo at just €39 (around $45). Packard Bell’s return proves that a century-old brand can still find something new to say, mostly by refusing to whisper it.

The post Acer’s Packard Bell Crashed IFA 2026 Like a Box of Crayons first appeared on Yanko Design.

Samsung’s One UI 9 puts warranty checks, diagnostics, repair estimates, and service booking in Settings on the latest Galaxy foldables.

The post Samsung One UI 9 Puts Warranty Checks and Repair Support Right in Settings appeared first on TechRepublic.

Google’s Pixel 11 Pro Fold and Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 take different approaches to productivity, portability, durability, and everyday use.

The post Pixel 11 Pro Fold vs. Galaxy Z Fold8: Which $1,900 Foldable Is Better for Work? appeared first on TechRepublic.

Apple’s foldable iPhone Ultra could bring a 7.8-inch display, dual 48MP cameras, new iOS 27 layouts, and pricing around $2,000. Here’s what we know so far.

The post Apple iPhone Ultra: Price, Features, and What We Know So Far appeared first on TechRepublic.

I have a friend who still uses an iPhone 13 mini held together by a case and pure spite, and every single time a new iPhone launches, she asks me the same question. Is it small yet. It never is. Apple has spent years telling us, implicitly, that small phones do not sell, that the market has spoken, that everyone wants a bigger canvas for videos and games and doomscrolling. Fine, sure, the sales numbers backed that up in 2023. But sales numbers do not mean the desire disappeared, they mean the alternative was not good enough to fight for.

Which brings me to the iPhone Ultra, Apple’s rumored first foldable, expected to close into a short, squat, almost passport-shaped little brick before you unfold it into something the size of an iPad mini. That folded shape is the closest thing to mini energy Apple has shown in years, and it is buried inside a two thousand dollar folding phone nobody asked to be the delivery method. My friend does not want an iPad mini that folds. She wants her 13 mini, but new. Apple already built the shape. It just built it around the wrong phone.

Designer: Apple

The Air existed to answer a question almost nobody was asking at checkout, namely how thin can a phone get before the internals start filing complaints. It was a genuine engineering flex, the kind of thing that looks incredible in a teardown video and slightly pointless in daily use. I understood what it was trying to prove. I just never needed it proven to me personally, and I doubt I was alone in that.

The Ultra is rumored to repeat that exact flex, except this time the thinness gets folded in half, closing down to somewhere between 9 and 9.5mm shut and reportedly as thin as 4.5mm open, according to recent leaks. That is a genuinely wild number for a phone with a hinge in it. Apple is once again proving it can do the hard, borderline unnecessary engineering thing. The difference is that this time, buried inside that flex, is an actual shape people have been begging for since 2023. Apple just does not seem to have noticed it yet.

Go back and look at what the 13 mini actually was for a second, because I think people forget how unremarkable the compromise really was. It measured 131.5mm tall, 64.2mm wide, weighed 141 grams, and ran the exact same A15 chip as the standard 13. You gave up battery life and screen real estate. You did not give up the flagship experience shrunk down to fit an actual hand. Compare that to where the standard iPhone lineup sits today, regularly north of 6.1 inches before you even get to Pro Max territory, and the gap the mini used to fill has only gotten wider and lonelier.

Now put the Ultra’s folded footprint next to that. Reports point to a 5.5 inch cover display when shut, in a short, wide, passport style shell that is about as close to mini adjacent proportions as Apple has shipped since the mini died. The catch is that this compact shell only exists as a doorway into a 7.8 inch, 4:3 inner screen and a starting price rumored to land somewhere between 1,999 and 2,499 dollars. Nobody buying that phone is buying it to have something small in their pocket. They are buying an iPad mini that happens to fold shut, which is a completely different pitch than the one my friend has been asking me about for three years running.

There has been some loose speculation, mostly a 9to5Mac piece from last year, that Apple’s new staggered launch schedule could theoretically clear a runway for a smaller phone somewhere down the line. Even that piece called the odds slim to none, and nothing currently on Apple’s roadmap for the 18, 18e, 18 Pro, or Ultra includes a mini in any form. Samsung, for what it is worth, has stuck with its Z Flip clamshell as its own answer to compact, so the appetite for small has not vanished industry wide, it has just gone unanswered on Apple’s side of the fence for a while now.

So here is the pitch, and it is not a complicated one. Apple has now proven twice, once with the Air and once with the Ultra’s folded shell, that it can engineer real compactness without breaking anything important. Skip the fold. Skip the tablet trapped inside a phone shaped envelope. Take that exact short, wide, passport sized footprint and wrap a single, non folding screen around it, call it a mini, and ship it. Apple does not need a new idea here. It already built one. It just keeps hiding it inside features nobody was asking it to attach to.

The post Apple is Building a Short, Wide iPhone Ultra… Now It Owes Us an Actual iPhone Mini first appeared on Yanko Design.