Tag Archives: phones

We just reinvented Phablets: Huawei’s Wide-body Pura X View feels oddly nostalgic to the touch

Posted on by

Seventy percent of Samsung’s record 1.44 million Galaxy Z8 series pre-orders went to the wide 4:3 model over the traditional tall one, a number that makes product planners cancel their afternoon meetings. Huawei saw it coming. The Pura X View, launched in China on August 20, is a slab phone with a 16:9.5 screen, no hinge, 6.68mm of thickness, and a 7,000mAh battery packed into 201 grams. Run the panel geometry and the body lands near 144 by 86mm, which is essentially the 2011 Galaxy Note’s 146.9 by 83mm with fifteen years of thinning applied on top. The first phablet just came back, and it skipped the hinge entirely.

Huawei shipped its first 16:10 phone in March 2025, roughly seventeen months before Samsung’s wide Fold 8 and eighteen before Apple’s expected iPhone Ultra. That head start counts for plenty editorially and almost nothing commercially, because the Pura X View runs HarmonyOS 7 without Google services and has no confirmed launch outside China. The width also brings a problem nobody involved has solved yet. Fold 8 reviewers keep flagging that one-handed typing on a wide cover screen demands a thumb stretch most people just do not have. Huawei is asking you to live inside that stretch full time, with no fold to escape into.

Designer: Huawei

I keep coming back to the battery number because it should not work the way it does. Cramming 7,000mAh into a 6.68mm body usually means a phone that feels like a coaster, but Huawei leaned on the extra width instead of stacking cells vertically, and the reported silicon-carbon anode chemistry lets the pack sit flatter than lithium-ion ever could. The screen-to-body math backs it up too, a claimed 96.1 percent with bezels measured at a uniform 1.05mm on all four sides, which is tighter framing than most flagships bother chasing. Around back, Huawei kept the pill-shaped camera bar and striped texture from the Pura X Max, so this reads as a family member rather than a one-off experiment.

The historical parallel only gets stranger the closer you look at it. Samsung built the Galaxy Note on a 16:10 panel in 2011 specifically because it read and wrote better than 16:9, and that logic held until the LG G6 and Galaxy S8 dragged the entire industry toward 18:9 in 2017. At the start of that year, over 95 percent of phones sold still ran 16:9. Within about eighteen months it had nearly vanished, replaced by taller and taller screens that eventually made “phablet” sound like a word from a dead language. At 1.68:1, the Pura X View is actually squatter than any of those old 16:9 phones, closer in spirit to the doomed Dell Streak than to the Note it resembles in the hand.

None of this makes the Pura X View an easy recommendation, and I would rather say that upfront than let the nostalgia do all the talking. Pricing remains unconfirmed, early Chinese estimates swing wildly between 4,499 and 7,500 yuan, and Huawei has a recent history of catching real backlash over Pura pricing. There is also no path to a Google-services version, which locks most of the world out regardless of cost. What the Pura X View does prove is that the tall screen was never physics, just a decade of consensus that Samsung and Apple are now both quietly abandoning. We covered the Pura X Max when it doubled down on this same wide logic inside a folding body, and the View feels like Huawei betting the shape works even better without the crease.

The post We just reinvented Phablets: Huawei’s Wide-body Pura X View feels oddly nostalgic to the touch first appeared on Yanko Design.

Hisense Just Made an E Ink Phone With a Color Screen That Snaps Off

Posted on by

Every smartphone screen is a compromise, built to do everything reasonably well and nothing perfectly. The Hisense A10 Ultra rejects that premise outright. Instead of one panel stretched thin across every task, it pairs a 6.13-inch E Ink display with a 4.96-inch color touchscreen that clips onto the back magnetically, then walks away again the moment you don’t need it.

The E Ink layer is the phone’s permanent identity, a 300 PPI Carta 1300 panel that renders text with the same paper-like calm as a dedicated e-reader. A 36-level front light shifts between warm and cool tones without flickering, so a page read at noon and one read at midnight both stay comfortable on the eyes. Nothing about this half of the phone asks for your attention beyond what you came to read.

Designer: Hisense

Snap the color module onto the back, held by magnetic pogo pins, and the same device suddenly handles video, maps, and camera framing without fighting the E Ink panel’s slower refresh. A dedicated T2000 controller chip in the main display keeps scrolling responsive, but color and motion still belong to the LCD module. The two screens divide labor instead of splitting attention, which is a distinction worth sitting with.

Imagine spending a long commute finishing a chapter on the E Ink side, then arriving at a destination and needing turn-by-turn directions or a quick selfie. Rather than tolerating a grayscale map or waiting through refresh lag, the color module goes on for exactly as long as the task requires. Afterward, it comes right back off, and the phone returns to its lighter, quieter default state around 190g.

That detachability is the real design statement here. Most phone makers treat a second screen as permanent architecture, bolted in and powered whether you use it or not. Hisense instead treats it as optional equipment, closer to a lens you’d attach to a camera than a component soldered into a chassis. The color panel exists for exactly the moments that call for it, then disappears when it doesn’t.

An “Ink Smart Button” on the side backs this up practically, letting you switch modes, wake an assistant, or force a full refresh without digging through menus. Paired with a Qualcomm QCM6690 processor, up to 12GB of RAM, and a 4,000 mAh battery, the hardware underneath doesn’t feel like an afterthought bolted onto a gimmick. It reads more like a phone that happens to know when to get out of its own way.

There’s something clarifying about a device willing to admit that no single screen does everything well. The A10 Ultra doesn’t try to hide that tension behind clever software or a single do-it-all panel. It just hands you the two halves separately and lets you decide, task by task, which one earns a place on your phone that day.

The post Hisense Just Made an E Ink Phone With a Color Screen That Snaps Off first appeared on Yanko Design.

The Galaxy S26 FE Beats Samsung’s Own Flagships to One UI 9 at $700

Posted on by

The “Fan Edition” label has historically meant a Samsung phone that trades some flagship firepower for a more accessible price. The Galaxy S26 FE keeps that tradition mostly intact at $699.99, but it comes with something the Galaxy S26 Ultra, S26+, and S26 don’t have yet: One UI 9 running on Android 17 out of the box. The FE getting there first is a small reversal of the usual order.

That software distinction matters because One UI 9 is where most of the new things actually happen. The hardware story is relatively familiar: a 6.7-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display at 120Hz with 1,900 nits peak brightness, an Exynos 2500 chipset on a 3nm process, 8GB of RAM, and a 4,900mAh battery. The Exynos 2500 is a step up from the Exynos 2400 in the S25 FE, with a beefed-up AMD RDNA 3-based GPU and a more capable NPU.

Designer: Samsung

One of the new One UI 9 features making its debut here is My FanCam, which automatically tracks a person in a video by zooming in and keeping them centered in frame. It works with videos already in your gallery, not just footage shot in a special mode. Record someone’s performance or activity, pull it up afterward, and My FanCam can isolate the subject for a clean, social-ready clip without any manual editing.

Horizon Lock addresses a different problem: shaky handheld footage. It keeps video level even if the phone rotates up to 360° during recording, which is useful for any situation where you’re moving while shooting and can’t stop to stabilize the frame. Add that to Photo Assist’s AI editing tools, and you have a camera experience that does more of the grunt work automatically than any previous FE has offered.

The triple rear camera system uses a 50MP main sensor with OIS, a 12MP ultrawide at 123°, and an 8MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom and up to 30x digital zoom, all with OIS. The 12MP front camera handles video calls and selfies with a wide 85° field of view. The camera design itself has been updated to align more closely with the rest of the S26 series, which gives the FE a less immediately distinct look from the higher-end models.

Charging is 45W wired, which gets the 4,900mAh battery to 69% in approximately 30 minutes. Wireless charging tops out at 15W, and Wireless PowerShare is included. The build uses Gorilla Glass Victus+ on both the front and back, an aluminum frame, and IP68 water resistance. Connectivity covers Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and 5G, along with an in-display fingerprint sensor.

Seven years of OS updates and security patches are promised, which extends the phone’s useful life considerably. In Pistachio, Blueberry, and Graphite, it goes on sale September 4, with select carriers beginning a day earlier. It’s the FE format doing what it’s always done, just this time with a software stack the rest of the lineup hasn’t caught up to yet.

The post The Galaxy S26 FE Beats Samsung’s Own Flagships to One UI 9 at $700 first appeared on Yanko Design.

MagSafe Wallets Leave Your Cards Exposed but This $24 One Closes

Posted on by

The TUCCH PU Leather Mag Wallet does something most MagSafe wallets don’t bother with: it folds closed. Rather than leaving your cards exposed in an open slot on the back of your iPhone, this one shuts like a traditional bi-fold and stays that way thanks to internal magnets. At $23.99, it holds six cards, blocks RFID signals, and includes a clear window for your ID.

The problem with most MagSafe wallets is that they’re really just an open pocket attached to your phone. Your cards sit loose, there’s nothing stopping them from sliding out when you dig into your bag, and pulling the wallet off doesn’t make it any more secure. If you’ve ever watched a card quietly escape an open MagSafe slot mid-commute, you already understand why a wallet that actually closes is a more useful object.

Designer: TUCCH

The folding design here means the same magnets doing the MagSafe work also keep the wallet shut when it’s off the phone. Pop it off your iPhone before going through airport security, tuck it into your jacket pocket, and your cards stay in place rather than fanning out freely. It’s a small shift in how the accessory behaves, but it makes the difference between something that feels like a wallet and something that just holds cards.

Six slots is more than most MagSafe wallets offer, and the layout is more thoughtful than a generic card stack. One slot is a dedicated clear window for your ID or driver’s license, something the category almost universally skips. Two of the remaining slots have cutout openings for the cards you grab most, so you’re not pulling out a chunk of plastic to find your transit card or gym membership every time.

RFID blocking is built into the PU leather shell, which is worth having without having to think about it. Contactless card skimming isn’t something most people worry about until it happens, and having that protection passive rather than optional means one less thing to consider. The wallet handles it quietly, in the same way that the best security features tend to stay out of your way entirely.

Magnetic strength is strong enough to hold through a firm shake of the phone, which is about what you’d expect from a well-built MagSafe wallet at this price point. Compatibility extends beyond TUCCH’s own cases as well. Any MagSafe-compatible case from another brand works just as well, which matters if you’re already committed to a case you like and don’t want to switch just to add a wallet.

The wallet stays flat even when all six card slots are filled, which isn’t guaranteed with wallet accessories in general. A lot of them start to bow under a full card load, adding enough thickness to make a slim phone feel bulky. At approximately 0.4 inches thick fully loaded, the TUCCH keeps things compact enough that adding it doesn’t noticeably change how the phone sits in your hand or your pocket.

Compatibility covers the iPhone 12 series through the current lineup, excluding Mini models and cases without MagSafe support. The $23.99 price puts it well below what most leather MagSafe wallets ask without trimming the features that make this one worth buying. A MagSafe wallet that closes, organizes, and works as a standalone is simply a more complete object than the category norm.

The post MagSafe Wallets Leave Your Cards Exposed but This $24 One Closes first appeared on Yanko Design.

Rear Screens Were a Flagship Trick, so Honor Put One on a Budget Phone

Posted on by

Secondary rear displays have been a flagship trick for a while, the kind of feature that premium phones use to justify their price tags. The Honor Play20A throws that logic out. It’s an entry-level 4G phone with a 6.9-inch main screen, a 6,000mAh battery, and a small secondary display built into the camera module on the back, at a price that isn’t anywhere near flagship territory.

The rear screen isn’t just decorative. It shows the time, incoming call details, and what’s currently playing, so you can pause or skip tracks without flipping the phone over. It also works as a viewfinder, letting you frame shots with the 13MP rear camera rather than the 5MP front camera inside the notch. In practice, that means group photos taken with the better lens rather than settling for the weaker front sensor.

Designer: Honor

That 13MP rear camera is the only functional one despite the module’s appearance. There’s no telephoto, no depth sensor, no second anything hiding behind the glass. It’s a single lens, and the design leans into the secondary screen to make up for the hardware economy. For everyday shooting, the combination works reasonably well, and it sidesteps the common frustration of front cameras that can’t match the quality of the back.

The main screen is a 6.9-inch IPS LCD running at 90Hz with an HD+ resolution of 1600×720. It’s a big panel with slim bezels and a waterdrop notch, and 90Hz makes scrolling feel noticeably smoother than phones still running at 60Hz. That refresh rate isn’t guaranteed at this price point, which makes its inclusion here more meaningful than it might look on a spec sheet.

The 6,000mAh battery is the other headliner. It charges at 15W via USB-C, which is modest given the capacity, so filling it up from empty takes some patience. The trade-off is that you’re unlikely to drain it before the day is done under normal circumstances. A battery this size in a budget phone tends to last considerably longer than comparable handsets that prioritize thinness over endurance.

Running all of this is the MediaTek Helio G81, an octa-core chip built on a 12nm process. It handles messaging, browsing, video streaming, and social media without issue. Intensive tasks aren’t what this phone is built for, and the chip doesn’t pretend otherwise. Paired with 4GB of RAM and up to 128GB of storage, expandable to 1TB via microSD, the Honor Play20A is configured for people who need a phone to do a lot of everyday things reliably.

Connectivity stays at 4G, with no 5G on board, which fits a budget positioning but is worth noting for anyone in a market where 5G coverage has become the practical standard. The triple tray accommodates two SIM cards and a microSD card at the same time, without asking you to choose between extra storage and a second line. The secondary rear display is the feature that makes this phone worth talking about, but the battery and the large screen are what most buyers will end up living with daily.

The post Rear Screens Were a Flagship Trick, so Honor Put One on a Budget Phone first appeared on Yanko Design.

The Xperia 10 VIII Has Rare Android Features, but £549 Is the Catch

Posted on by

The Sony Xperia 10 VIII is a compact 6.1-inch Android phone with a 3.5mm headphone jack, a dedicated microSD slot, a 5,000mAh battery, and an IP68 water resistance rating. In 2026, that combination is genuinely hard to find on any phone, let alone a mid-ranger. It also costs £549, which is where the conversation gets complicated.

The display is one of the few areas where the 10 VIII makes a clear step forward. Sony says the OLED panel is roughly 50% brighter at maximum than last year’s model, and it pairs that with an automatic color-adjustment system that reads ambient light to keep text and maps legible in direct sun. For a compact phone that goes everywhere, screen visibility in bright conditions matters more than any benchmark.

Designer: Sony

The camera setup stays at 50MP on the main sensor and 13MP on the ultrawide, which is the same hardware as the Xperia 10 VII. The lens combination covers most of what everyday shooting actually demands, and Sony’s imaging tuning has always leaned toward natural color reproduction rather than the overly saturated processing that many phones default to. It’s a camera made for people who shoot, not people who want to appear to shoot.

Battery longevity is built into both the hardware and the software. The 5,000mAh cell comes with Sony’s battery-care system, which manages charge cycles to minimize long-term degradation. The company is also promising six years of software updates here, a notable jump from the four years offered on its predecessor. Getting six years out of a mid-range phone is a meaningful practical advantage.

The Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 inside is the same chip that powered the Xperia 10 VII, which launched a year ago. It handles social media, streaming, and everyday tasks without issue, but it doesn’t offer much over what existing owners already have. Sony added a Point & Pay shortcut for faster contactless payments, improved the speaker output, and redesigned the back panel with a translucent matte finish in Frozen White, Frosted Grey, and Misty Lilac.

The headphone jack and microSD slot are worth more than they might initially seem. Most phones at this price tier have dropped both, forcing wireless-only audio and fixed internal storage. For anyone who owns wired headphones worth actually using, or needs to carry large media libraries on a card, those two ports turn the 10 VIII into one of the few phones in this segment that doesn’t demand compromises to accommodate them.

At £549, the Xperia 10 VIII doesn’t have an easy answer to the competition. For similar or less money, there are phones with faster chips, bigger batteries, and more capable camera systems. Sony’s argument is that none of them are this compact and this fully equipped with legacy features in a single package. That’s a narrower pitch than it sounds, but it’s also a pitch that doesn’t have many other phones making it.

The post The Xperia 10 VIII Has Rare Android Features, but £549 Is the Catch first appeared on Yanko Design.

Carrying a Separate Power Bank Was Always Annoying, so Nokia Fixed It

Posted on by

The idea of carrying a power bank separately has never been particularly glamorous. It’s another thing to charge, another thing to forget, and another thing to dig out of your bag just when you need it. The Nokia 300 Charge sidesteps that by folding the power bank into the phone itself, a feature phone with a 3,700mAh battery that can share its charge with other devices.

That 3,700mAh figure sounds modest until you consider what it’s sitting inside. Most feature phones top out well below 2,000mAh, and the Nokia 110 Power only packs 1,750mAh, despite the name. The 300 Charge has more than double that, giving you up to 37 hours of talk time and over 40 days of standby. For a phone living in a drawer or a travel bag, those numbers genuinely matter.

Designer: HMD Global

The reverse charging works through the same USB-C port the phone charges from, activated by a dedicated button on the side. Press it, plug in a cable, and the 300 Charge starts pushing 10W out to whatever’s connected. An included 4-in-1 cable covers most devices you’d commonly carry, and the phone itself charges at the same 10W speed when it’s on the receiving end.

Long travel days and power outages share a common anxiety: a smartphone dying when there’s no wall socket in sight. You’d normally be counting on someone else’s power bank to get through. With the Nokia 300 Charge in your bag, you’re already carrying the solution. It’s the kind of device that makes sense stashed in a go-bag, a glove compartment, or a festival backpack before a long weekend.

Then there’s the torch. The Nokia 300 Charge has a high-power LED flashlight that’s reportedly four times brighter than the one on the Nokia 105. That kind of output actually matters when the power goes out, or you need to navigate somewhere dark. Rather than a gimmick, it’s one of the more immediately useful things on the device, especially given what the phone is designed to handle.

The phone is built for situations where things get knocked around. A rugged chassis with a textured, anti-slip grip keeps it secure in your hand, while the overall package comes in at 138 grams and about 15mm thick. It doesn’t feel like a compromise between durability and portability. Available in Sandstone, Green, and Black, the colorways lean practical rather than flashy.

On the inside, the Nokia 300 Charge keeps things simple. A 2.4-inch display, a microSD slot expandable up to 32GB, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and dual SIM support cover the basics. Connectivity is 2G only, which limits it to regions where that network infrastructure is still active. It’s worth confirming coverage before picking one up for travel, since some markets have already shut down their 2G networks.

The Nokia 300 Charge launched in the Philippines at around $32, with a wider international rollout expected. The battery is removable, a practical detail that most phone makers have quietly dropped. It charges at 10W via USB-C, matching the same output it provides when sharing power. A feature phone that calls, texts, lights your way, and tops up other devices at that price doesn’t need a complicated pitch.

The post Carrying a Separate Power Bank Was Always Annoying, so Nokia Fixed It first appeared on Yanko Design.

Apple is Building a Short, Wide iPhone Ultra… Now It Owes Us an Actual iPhone Mini

Posted on by

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.

Huawei Pura 90s Pro Max Review: A Beautiful Comeback With Caveats

Posted on by

PROS:


  • Distinctive design with bold color options

  • Large, sharp display with anti-reflective treatment

  • Excellent main and telephoto cameras

CONS:


  • Performance is not class-leading

  • Weak cross-platform file sharing

  • No clear update policy

RATINGS:

AESTHETICS
ERGONOMICS
PERFORMANCE
SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY
VALUE FOR MONEY

EDITOR'S QUOTE:

The Pura 90s Pro Max feels less like a safe flagship and more like a characterful one, which makes it easier to admire than to recommend without hesitation.

It has been a long time since I last reviewed a Huawei phone. The last one was the Huawei P50 Pocket Premium Edition. I still remember that phone well because it was genuinely beautiful. It had the kind of design that instantly felt premium, and it reminded me how good Huawei can be when it wants to make a phone stand out.

A lot has changed since then. The P series is now called Pura, but Huawei’s approach to hardware and design still feels very familiar. The company still knows how to make a flagship look different, and in a market where so many phones are starting to blend together, that still matters.

Designer: Huawei

This time around, Huawei is offering the Pura 90s Pro and the Pura 90s Pro Max. What is interesting is that there is no Ultra model in the lineup, unlike before. That means the Pura 90s Pro Max now sits at the top of the range. It also brings back 5G, which makes this release feel a bit more important than just another yearly update.

The Pura 90s Pro Max has all the right flagship ingredients at first glance. Big screen, ambitious cameras, premium build, and fast charging are all here. The question is whether that is enough to make it a great phone overall.

Aesthetics

The Huawei Pura 90s Pro Max carries the now-familiar triangular camera island that has become a signature since Pura 70. It features two black circular cutouts for the ultra-wide and main cameras, along with a larger black circle for the telephoto camera. A pill-shaped LED flash also sits within the module, completing the layout. It is the kind of design detail that makes the phone instantly recognizable from across a table.

Huawei has also put real effort into the color finishes this year. The Pura 90s Pro Max comes in four colors, and two of them stand out immediately because of their dual-tone gradient treatment. The Blaze Purple unit I received pairs a purple upper half with an orangish-pink lower section, matched with a glossy gold frame that adds even more flair. It is bold, but it never tips into looking gaudy. Instead, it still feels polished and premium.

The other standout is Orange Ocean, which arguably takes the two-tone concept even further. It combines light blue at the top with orange at the bottom, while the center transitions smoothly between the two shades. Even the side frame follows the same color story, which makes the overall design feel more cohesive and more intentional. It is the kind of finish that feels playful at first glance, yet refined enough to belong on a flagship.

For those who prefer something safer, Huawei also offers Blush Gold and Graphite Black. These are more traditional options, but that is not necessarily a drawback. Not everyone wants their flagship phone to double as a statement piece. Still, if you are buying a Huawei at this level, the more expressive finishes are where the personality really comes through.

Ergonomics

In hand, the Pura 90s Pro Max feels better balanced than its bold design might suggest. I was unsure at first whether the large triangular camera island would make the phone feel awkward, but in daily use it never really did. If anything, when I held it one-handed in my right hand, the raised module gave my index finger a natural place to rest.

There is a tradeoff, though. When holding the phone horizontally for gaming, the camera island becomes more noticeable and can get in the way a bit. It is not a huge problem, but it stands out more in landscape use than it does during normal day-to-day handling.

The finish also looks better from a distance than it does up close. Both the glossy back panel and the glossy side frame tend to pick up fingerprints and smudges quite easily, so the phone does need regular wiping if you want it to stay looking clean. That is a little disappointing for a device that puts so much emphasis on design.

Huawei has also gone with a side-mounted fingerprint scanner rather than an in-display one. The power button on the right side doubles as the fingerprint reader, and in practice it feels intuitive enough. It is a small detail, but one that fits naturally with the overall handling experience.

Performance

The Pura 90s Pro Max is powered by Huawei’s Kirin 9030S, paired with 12GB of RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of storage. It also supports 5G, which makes it feel more competitive than some of Huawei’s recent flagships. In daily use, the phone feels fast enough. Scrolling is smooth, apps open quickly, and multitasking is handled well. For things like web browsing, social media, messaging, navigation, and streaming, it behaves like a proper flagship.

The bigger question is whether that is enough at this price. Huawei is not really chasing benchmark dominance here, and that may matter more to enthusiasts than to casual users. If all you want is a phone that feels quick and responsive day to day, the Pura 90s Pro Max delivers. If you expect class-leading performance, though, it is less convincing.

The phone runs EMUI 16, and Huawei has spent years building a more workable ecosystem around its devices. The experience today feels much less daunting than it used to, and most of the apps people need can be downloaded easily through GBox, which is now available via Huawei AppGallery.

For me, one of the biggest remaining inconveniences is file sharing across different phone ecosystems. Huawei does offer solutions such as Huawei Share for transferring files to other devices, but the experience still does not feel as seamless or as universal as what you get with iPhones or across the wider Android ecosystem. That becomes especially noticeable if you regularly share photos and videos between phones from different manufacturers.

The display is one of the easiest things to like about the Pura 90s Pro Max. It is a 6.9-inch panel with a resolution of 2880 x 1308 and a refresh rate that scales from 1Hz to 120Hz. It is large, sharp, and well suited to a phone of this size and price.

Huawei says the anti-reflective screen reduces reflections by up to 70 percent compared with conventional glass. It is not as effective as the matte-style display treatment Huawei uses on some of its tablets, but it still makes the screen easier to view outdoors under bright sunlight.

The speaker setup is solid too. The stereo speakers are good enough for videos, games, and casual listening, with enough volume to avoid sounding weak in everyday use. They do not deliver especially rich or powerful sound, but they do the job well and help round out the phone’s media experience.

Main Camera, 1x

Telephoto Camera, 10x

Main Camera, Macro Mode

Cameras remain one of the main reasons to pay attention to Huawei’s flagship phones, and that is still true here. The Pura 90s Pro Max has an ambitious camera setup, even if some of Huawei’s decisions this time feel a little unusual. On paper, it is a system that feels both impressive and slightly puzzling at the same time.

Telephoto, 4x, Portrait Mode

Telephoto camera, 4x, Snapshot mode

Telephoto Camera, 10x, shot from a moving car

Most notably, Huawei has moved from a 1-inch main sensor to a smaller 1/1.28-inch sensor. That is not entirely unprecedented, and other brands have made similar moves before, but it still feels surprising at this level. The new 50MP main camera uses an RYYB sensor with LOFIC technology, OIS, and a 10-step physical aperture from f/1.4 to f/4.0, though aperture control is limited to Pro mode.

Huawei has also dropped the dual telephoto setup with sensor-shift technology. In its place is a 200MP 4x telephoto camera with a 1/1.28-inch RYYB sensor, an f/2.6 aperture, and OIS. The rear setup is completed by a 40MP ultra-wide camera with an f/2.2 aperture, while the front camera is a 13MP unit.

Main Camera, 1x, Night

Telephoto Camera, 4x, Night

Telephoto Camera, 20x, Night

In actual use, though, the cameras are excellent. The main and telephoto cameras are the standouts, but the ultra-wide and front cameras are also very good. Colors are generally accurate thanks to Huawei’s True-to-Color Camera system, although the XMAGE Vivid profile can look a little oversaturated in some scenes.

Switching to XMAGE Original gives images a more natural look. Photos also tend to be slightly bright and a touch over-sharpened. Even so, the overall image quality is consistently strong and easy to like.

Ultra-wide Camera, 0.6x

Main Camera, 1x

Video is strong too. All four cameras can record at up to 4K 60fps, and the footage is crisp, sharp, and pleasingly colorful. The tradeoff is that there is no 8K, no 24fps option, and no Log recording, which may be down to chipset limitations.

The weaker part of the experience is usability. There is no timer shortcut in the main camera interface, so you have to dig into settings to find it. Double-tapping the preset zoom levels also does nothing, unlike on many rival phones.

Telephoto Camera, 10x

Telephoto Camera, 20x

Telephoto Camera, 100x

They are small issues, but they make the camera app feel less polished than the image quality itself. It is a little frustrating because the hardware and output are strong enough to deserve a more refined shooting experience. Huawei gets the fundamentals right, but some of the smaller interface decisions still feel oddly behind the curve.

The EU version of the Pura 90s Pro Max comes with a 5,270mAh battery, while other regions get a larger 6,000mAh cell. Even so, battery life was still solid in my use. The phone comfortably lasted a full day with a mix of camera use, browsing, and general daily tasks.

Main Camera, 2x, B&W

That said, 5,270mAh does not feel especially big by current flagship standards. The good news is that charging is very fast. The phone supports up to 100W wired charging and up to 80W wireless charging with compatible chargers.

Sustainability

On paper, the Pura 90s Pro Max looks well protected. It is rated IP68 and IP69 for dust and water resistance, and Huawei says its Kunlun Glass offers 25 times better drop resistance and 16 times better scratch resistance. Those are strong claims, and they help reinforce the sense that this is a phone built to handle daily wear reasonably well.

The bigger issue is what happens over time. Huawei still does not clearly say how long the phone will receive software updates or security patches, and that matters just as much for a flagship at this price. Good physical protection is important, but long-term software support is what really determines how well a phone ages.

Value

Starting at €1,149, or roughly $1,250, the Pura 90s Pro Max sits firmly in flagship territory. That is still a lot of money, but compared with some other camera-focused flagships like the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, Vivo X300 Ultra, and Oppo X9 Ultra, it is around €500 to €800 cheaper. Huawei is also offering the kind of hardware you would expect at this level, including a standout design, strong cameras, a large high-quality display, and very fast charging.

At the same time, that price leaves less room to overlook the phone’s weaker points. Performance is solid rather than class-leading, the software ecosystem still comes with some friction, and Huawei remains unclear about long-term update support. That makes the Pura 90s Pro Max feel less convincing on value than some of its rivals, even if the hardware itself is often impressive.

Verdict

The Pura 90s Pro Max is a phone I ended up liking more than I expected. It looks distinctive, feels premium, and delivers where Huawei has long been strongest, especially in camera performance. There is a lot here that feels thoughtfully done, even if some of Huawei’s decisions remain a little hard to understand.

At the same time, it is not a flawless flagship. The chipset does not feel best in class, the software ecosystem still asks for compromises, and the lack of clarity around long-term support is difficult to ignore at this price. The Pura 90s Pro Max is still a very good phone, but whether it makes sense for you depends a lot on how much you value Huawei’s design and camera strengths over a more complete all-round flagship experience.

The post Huawei Pura 90s Pro Max Review: A Beautiful Comeback With Caveats first appeared on Yanko Design.

iPhone Ultra lands September 18 at $2,000 and kills the visible crease

Posted on by

Every foldable phone you have ever held has a crease in the middle of the display, and that crease has been the category’s most embarrassing open secret since 2019. Samsung has refined it, minimized it, and shot their devices in lighting specifically designed to hide it. Google’s Pixel Fold was a little better. The Honor Magic and Xiaomi Mix Fold each took their own runs at the problem. Seven years of collective engineering effort from the Android ecosystem later, the crease is still there, still catchable in certain light, still the thing reviewers mention in paragraph three of every foldable review. Apple has now looked at all of that and said, with characteristic confidence, that the iPhone Ultra has no visible crease.

Leaks from Fixed Focus Digital and Weibo sources describe a liquid-metal hinge from Apple’s Liquidmetal Technologies contract, but no publication has explained the actual engineering mechanism in any detail. The hinge manages bend geometry at the fold axis, paired with a display stack built to lie flat when open, eliminating the optical crease. Apple is announcing this at a September 8 or 9 keynote, with the device going on sale September 18 at a confirmed price above $2,000. That price is Ming-Chi Kuo’s floor, with his ceiling at $2,500. The design decisions behind the crease claim, the Touch ID placement, and the unusual 4:3 aspect ratio of the 7.8-inch inner panel add up to a product making several unusual bets simultaneously.

Designer: Apple

The liquid-metal hinge is the piece nobody has properly dissected yet, which is strange given how central the crease claim is to Apple’s entire design argument. Liquidmetal alloys are amorphous metallic glasses, meaning they lack the crystalline grain structure that causes conventional metals to deform plastically under repeated stress. A teardrop-shaped hinge cavity distributes the bend radius across a longer arc than a flat-fold design would, which is how Samsung has incrementally reduced crease visibility across Galaxy Z Fold generations. Apple’s version reportedly goes further, with the Liquidmetal alloy’s higher elastic recovery meaning the hinge springs back to a genuinely flat resting position. The inner display layer stack is engineered to match that geometry, reducing the optical ridge that ambient light catches and reads visually as a crease.

Touch ID came back on the side button, and it came back on Apple’s most expensive phone ever, inverting everything the fingerprint sensor stood for over the past several years. Since Face ID debuted on the iPhone X in 2017, Touch ID has been associated with the affordable tier: the SE, the iPad Air power button, the devices Apple built for people watching the price. The iPhone Ultra flips that because the physics left no alternative. The Face ID sensor stack requires a structured light projector, an infrared camera, and a flood illuminator, none of which fit inside a chassis measuring 4.8mm when open. The side-button Touch ID solution is actually more elegant for a dual-display device: one biometric input, two screen states, no awkward sensor positioning on either panel.

At 7.8 inches with a 4:3 aspect ratio, the inner display reads closer to an iPad mini than your average foldable. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 uses a 7.6-inch 22:9 inner panel, tall and narrow, better suited to scrolling than to content consumption. Apple’s near-square format is a deliberate software bet: iOS 27 developer betas already contain “foldState” and “angleDegrees” APIs, along with WWDC-previewed “app adaptability” tools designed for variable aspect ratios. The A20 Pro chip on a 2nm process, paired with 12GB of RAM, has the headroom to run genuinely iPad-grade app layouts on the open panel. Apple is essentially arguing that a foldable phone gets actually useful when its inner display is wide enough to run two apps side by side without either one feeling like a column.

Two thousand dollars is, give or take, what a MacBook Pro costs, and Apple is asking that for a phone. The design argument for that price sits across the four decisions above: a crease claim no Android foldable has credibly made, a liquid-metal hinge that actually supports it, a Touch ID side button that solves biometrics at 4.8mm, and a 4:3 inner display with the software infrastructure to back up the form factor. Supply at launch will be extremely limited, with Weibo leakers suggesting it could take three to five months for Apple to hit its 10 million unit production target. The September 18 on-sale date will be the easy part. Getting your hands on one before the holidays is the less certain proposition.

The post iPhone Ultra lands September 18 at $2,000 and kills the visible crease first appeared on Yanko Design.