Phone manufacturers are throwing everything they have at long-distance lenses in order to stand out.
Redmagic’s new 11 Air just launched in China. Sounds thin and light, right? Well, sort of — at 8mm thick and 207g it’s smaller than Redmagic’s liquid-cooled 11 Pro, but a far cry from the 5.6mm, 165g iPhone Air. Still, not bad for a phone with a 7,000mAh battery and built-in fan.
Smart lights that know where they’re placed in a room, wild designs for next-gen routers, and a glowing inedible donut.
Rollable laptops, twice-folding phones, and a ‘longevity station.’ This is the CES tech we come back for.
7
Verge Score
The company’s best phone camera yet can compete with anything around.
Realme is once again an Oppo subbrand in a bid to save money. Both were once brands under the Chinese consumer hardware behemoth BBK Electronics, which was also responsible for brands like Vivo, OnePlus, and a few more. But BBK consciously uncoupled a few years ago to avoid regulator scrutiny, creating a myriad of legal entities that occasionally shared supply chains, R&D efforts, and even marketing teams.
Soccer’s governing body isn’t at its most popular right now, from price gouging complaints to allegedly breaking its own rules giving a “peace prize” to Donald Trump. But hey, it’s a World Cup year, so you can’t blame it for trying its luck with this branded version of last year’s regular Motorola Razr.
The Verge’s Dominic Preston got a look at a static prototype of the phone this week, but unlike Boston Dynamics’ Spot robots, the phone’s fancy camera didn’t move. In case you missed the announcement for the Robot Phone and its gimbal camera (which is apparently intelligent), check out this video for a recap of what we know so far.
I only got to see (and not touch) a prototype, and the fold-out gimbal camera wasn’t operational. So it’s strictly TBC what the Robot Phone will actually do, but Honor did tell me this is no concept: after the full launch at MWC next month it will go on sale — but only in China.
There’s been a surprising development.
This China-only Android phone is the first to include the feature, along with just about every other type of cooling tech, including fans, a heatsink, and a vapor chamber, all topped by the blue liquid cooling system.
According to iFixit, however, all that cooling didn’t make up for the RedMagic 11 Pro’s limited repair options.
One of Google’s new Android updates is the beta for Call Reason, which allows callers to flag that it’s urgent. Sounds smart, but if you’re below the age of 40, “urgent” might be the only type of call you ever make.
mekalos:
Sorry but if literally anyone I know is calling me instead of texting, it’s already urgent.
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Wondering how to use the extra screen space in Samsung’s new Galaxy Z TriFold? Don’t worry, we’ve got it figured out.
airpower:
Finally, a device that lets me watch TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts all at the same time.
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In Honor’s defense, the China-only 500 and 500 Pro aren’t especially thin phones, so they’re not cribbing on the iPhone Air in that sense. But that camera module has certainly been copying some of Apple’s homework.
