Ergonomic keyboards have a reputation problem. They work, technically, but most of them look like they were designed by someone who’d never sat through a full workday. The splits are too wide, the angles too aggressive, and the learning curve steep enough to make you miss the flat keys you’ve always known. Plenty of people give it a try and quietly go back to what they had before.
Razer’s answer is the Pro Type Ergo, its first wireless split ergonomic keyboard, built with that frustration clearly in mind. Rather than throwing you into a radical new layout, it’s tuned to feel approachable from the very first keystroke. The split gently angles your hands into a more natural alignment, easing the sideways reach that makes most forearms ache by mid-afternoon, without asking you to completely relearn how to type.
One of the more interesting layout choices is the dual “B” key arrangement, with one on each side of the split, along with an extra backspace tucked between two space bars. The idea is that both thumbs take on common actions, so you’re reaching less and crossing your fingers over each other less throughout the day. It’s a small shift that makes more sense the longer you sit with it.
The keycaps are ultra-low-profile, fitted with subtle spherical indents that nudge your fingertips into the right position without you having to think about it. Sound-dampening layers and tuned stabilizers underneath keep the typing noise low enough for open offices and video calls. Shorter key travel also means less physical effort per keystroke, which doesn’t sound like much until you’ve been at your desk for six hours straight.
The wrist rest is permanently integrated rather than removable, which turns out to be a feature rather than a limitation. It’s just always there, supporting your wrists from the moment you sit down without any extra setup. A 10-degree base slope sets the starting angle, and five tilt positions, from flat to seven degrees forward or back, let you dial in the fit depending on your desk height and preference.
A Razer Command Dial lets you assign up to eight functions, expandable to 100 via Razer Synapse, while five macro keys along the left side keep your most-used shortcuts within easy reach. There’s also a dedicated AI Prompt Master key that handles things like drafting emails, summarizing blocks of text, or kicking off a research query in a single press, without pulling you out of whatever window you’re already in.
Connectivity spans Razer HyperSpeed Wireless at 2.4 GHz, three Bluetooth profiles, and USB-C wired mode, with support for up to five devices total. Razer Chroma RGB backlighting covers 19 customizable zones and can be switched off entirely for offices where animated key lighting might not go over well. The design is clean and understated, a far cry from the aggressively lit gaming keyboards Razer is better known for.
The Pro Type Ergo retails at $189.99, about $30 more than Razer’s conventional Pro Type Ultra from 2021. For anyone who types for a living and has been quietly working around the ache of a standard keyboard layout, that extra cost starts to feel a lot less significant once you’ve spent a full day on something that actually fits how your hands are supposed to sit.
For most people, the smartphone screen is where focus goes to die. Even when you pick one up with a purpose, the bright OLED glare, the notifications, and the endless scroll have a way of pulling you elsewhere. Screen fatigue is real, blue light is a genuine concern, and the push for digital wellness has grown loud enough that even tech companies have started quietly acknowledging it.
The Bigme HiBreak Plus takes a different approach to the smartphone entirely. Built around a 6.13-inch E Ink Kaleido 3 color display, it runs on Android 14 with full Google Play support and connects via dual 4G SIM, making it a genuinely functional phone. But unlike everything else in your pocket, it defaults to a mode that’s easier on the eyes and harder to mindlessly abuse.
E Ink displays on smartphones have always had one obvious weakness: the refresh rate. Previous devices refreshed so slowly that casual scrolling felt like a real chore. The HiBreak Plus addresses that with a remarkably high 52 FPS refresh rate for an E Ink display, making it responsive enough for reading, annotating, and light browsing without the ghost-image flicker that dogged earlier E Ink phones.
The display’s advantages don’t stop at being easy to look at. E Ink panels are naturally readable under direct sunlight without any brightness cranked up, which means you can check maps, take notes outdoors, or read in the afternoon light without squinting. There’s no backlight shining toward your face either, just a soft, paper-like surface that reflects the ambient light around it.
A front light with 36 brightness levels handles the dimmer end of things. It reads the surrounding environment and automatically calibrates brightness and color temperature, going from a cool, crisp tone for morning work to a warm amber glow at night. There’s no digging through menus or manually adjusting sliders; the phone handles it quietly in the background, adapting to wherever you happen to be.
Handwriting support, via an optional stylus, adds another layer to what the phone can do. Writing directly on the E Ink surface feels closer to putting pen to paper than tapping on glass. It makes the HiBreak Plus a natural fit for jotting down thoughts during a commute, capturing ideas in a meeting, or working through a long reading session with annotations in the margins.
The rest of the specs are functional rather than flashy: an octa-core processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, GPS, a fingerprint sensor in the power button, and a 4500 mAh battery that should comfortably outlast most conventional smartphones thanks to the energy-efficient E Ink display. The whole package weighs just 193g, light enough to slip into a shirt pocket without a second thought.
Of course, there are some downsides as well, ones that go beyond the screen refresh rate and color vibrancy. Although not exactly outdated, 4G LTE caps data speed significantly, and the rather modest RAM and storage capacity don’t do it any favors either. That said, at a $299 price point ($249 on pre-order), you are getting a pocket-sized color e-reader that can also make calls and connect to the Internet, without the usual distracting trappings of a smartphone.
On April 1st, 2026, Apple turns 50. For a company that has spent half a century rewriting the rules of consumer technology, the milestone deserves something genuinely transformative. The Macintosh redefined personal computing. The iPod gave an entire generation a new relationship with music. The original iPhone, unveiled in 2007, combined a phone, a music player, and the internet into a single glass rectangle and made every competitor look outdated overnight. The iPhone Fold is real, and it’s coming.
Leaks from early 2026 paint a detailed picture: a book-style foldable powered by the A20 Pro chip on a 2nm process, backed by a 5,500mAh battery, with a 7.8-inch creaseless OLED inner display and a 5.5-inch outer screen. Pricing is expected to start around $2,400, and while a September announcement seems likely, most analysts believe shipments may not begin until December. Designers, modders, and concept artists have spent years filling the void with their own visions of a folding iPhone, each carrying a distinct theory about what Apple should prioritize. These five concepts map the full range of that imagination and capture exactly how much is riding on the real thing.
1. iPhone iFold by Michal Dufka — The Clamshell That Makes Sense
Designer Michal Dufka’s iPhone iFold is built on restraint. Rather than reinventing the iPhone’s entire identity, it applies a clamshell fold to the form factor people already love, drawing direct inspiration from the MotoRAZR and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. The phone closes into a compact, pocketable square and opens into a full iPhone experience with a generously large display. For anyone who has quietly missed a phone that actually fits in a jeans pocket, this concept speaks to that feeling.
What sets the iFold apart is the secondary display placed beside the camera bump. When the phone is closed, that smaller screen surfaces notifications, time, and essential stats without requiring you to open the device at all. It functions almost like an Apple Watch built into the back of the phone. With Apple’s always-on display technology mature enough for this kind of ambient use, the dual-display setup feels less like speculation and more like a logical next step.
What We Like
The secondary display mirrors Apple Watch notification behavior, making glanceable information genuinely useful without ever opening the phone
The clamshell format makes the iPhone pocket-friendly for the first time in years without sacrificing screen size when it matters
What We Dislike
The clamshell form limits overall screen real estate compared to the expanded tablet surface that a book-style foldable provides
Hinge durability over sustained daily use is entirely unexplored here, and it remains the most critical engineering question for any clamshell design
2. iPhone Fold Ultra by 4RMD — When the Specs Match the Ambition
Design studio 4RMD’s iPhone Fold Ultra is grounded in credibility. Built directly from reported leaks rather than pure creative license, the concept presents a book-style foldable with dual 48MP rear cameras, a 24MP ultra-wide front camera, and the A20 Pro chip running on a 2nm process. Three color options appear across the renders: White, Black, and Deep Purple. At an estimated $2,299, this concept sits at the very top of Apple’s lineup with total conviction.
That Deep Purple colorway deserves its own moment. It is a deliberate callback to the iPhone 14 Pro’s most celebrated finish, and it lands differently on a book-style foldable. Something about that color on a device this ambitious reads as genuinely luxurious, the kind of finish that reframes a $2,299 price tag from a shock into a statement. 4RMD clearly understands Apple’s visual grammar, and this concept shows what happens when research and aesthetics share the same design space.
What We Like
Specs pulled from verified leaks give this concept real credibility, making it feel like a preview of what is actually coming rather than pure speculation
The Deep Purple colorway is a smart, crowd-pleasing callback to one of Apple’s most recognized and beloved finishes
What We Dislike
The “Ultra” label sets an expectation that demands exceptional build quality, and no concept can fully address whether the real device will deliver on that promise
Crease visibility across the inner display remains unaddressed, which continues to be the most persistent criticism of every book-style foldable on the market
3. iPhone Fold by Svyatoslav Alexandrov — The One That Replaces Two Devices
Svyatoslav Alexandrov’s iPhone Fold concept, created for the YouTube channel ConceptsiPhone, thinks in bigger terms than anything else on this list. Starting as a standard smartphone with a 6.3-inch outer display, it unfolds into a squarish 8-inch tablet that sits clearly in iPad Mini territory. This is not a phone with a bonus screen bolted on. It is a device designed to make carrying both an iPhone and an iPad feel genuinely redundant.
Alexandrov replaces Face ID with a full-display Touch ID fingerprint sensor, keeping the front notch minimal and clean. The rear carries the iPhone 12 Pro’s complete camera array: wide, ultra-wide, telephoto lenses, a LiDAR scanner, and flash. MagSafe compatibility and 5G readiness are already confirmed in the concept, adding meaningful weight to its productivity pitch. Whether the device supports the Apple Pencil is left open, but given an 8-inch inner display, its absence would feel like a missed opportunity.
What We Like
The full-display Touch ID is a clean and creative solution that keeps the front uncluttered while solving Face ID’s known complications on foldable form factors
The iPad Mini-sized inner screen makes a practical, real-world case for consolidating two devices into one without any meaningful compromise
What We Dislike
Removing Face ID eliminates one of the iPhone’s most seamless and trusted authentication features, which most users rely on dozens of times every day
Leaving Apple Pencil support unconfirmed weakens what should naturally be this concept’s strongest argument for productivity
4. iPhone Fold by Mechanical Pixel — The Foldable That Doesn’t Actually Fold
Mechanical Pixel’s concept takes the most unconventional approach on this list, and the reasoning is worth understanding. Rather than bending the iPhone itself, the design keeps the main body completely rigid and attaches a separate foldable display to the rear panel instead. The core phone experience remains exactly as people know it, maintaining the familiar dimensions and feel that iPhone users already rely on. That additional screen only enters the picture when a larger surface is specifically needed.
That rear foldable panel sits raised on a platform above the phone’s back, unfolding outward into a larger, squarish tablet surface when required. The layered profile is clearly visible from the side, giving the device a deliberately experimental and modular quality. The camera module remains in its standard position, completely unaffected by the additional display layer. The logic is unconventional, but the core argument of preserving the primary iPhone experience from any foldable compromise is genuinely hard to dismiss.
What We Like
Keeping the main body rigid entirely sidesteps the crease and long-term hinge durability problems that define every conventional foldable on the market today
The modular approach means the everyday iPhone experience is never degraded or compromised by the mechanics of the foldable element
What We Dislike
The raised rear platform creates an unrefined, layered side profile that sits well outside anything Apple’s design language has ever produced or endorsed
The prototype-like aesthetic makes it very difficult to imagine this direction surviving Apple’s notoriously demanding and detail-oriented product design process
5. iPhone V — The One Someone Actually Built
Every concept on this list exists as a digital render. The iPhone V is different. A YouTuber modder physically dismantled an iPhone X, extracted its internal components, and rebuilt the entire device inside a Motorola Razr chassis. The result is a working, folding iPhone that runs real iOS, carries a Retina-quality display, and folds in half like a classic flip phone. As a proof of concept, it is extraordinary. As a finished product, every question comes flooding in.
What makes the iPhone V genuinely compelling is not fit, finish, or polish, because it has none in any conventional sense. It is the straightforward fact that someone cared enough to prove the idea could actually work using parts that already exist. The folding mechanism and device thickness still need serious refinement. A working clamshell iPhone running authentic iOS is, in the end, a more persuasive argument for this form factor than any polished render has managed to be.
What We Like
The iPhone V is the only entry on this list that is fully functional, running real iOS inside an actual working clamshell device
Its physical existence proves the clamshell iPhone concept is viable using genuine Apple hardware, well beyond anything a render can demonstrate
What We Dislike
The repurposed Motorola Razr chassis produces a build that falls far short of consumer-grade fit, finish, and structural refinement
Hinge mechanism quality and overall device thickness remain significant engineering challenges that the mod cannot resolve, and they are exactly what Apple needs to solve
The Concepts That Made the Wait Worthwhile
Fifty years in, Apple is still the company that makes you wait. The iPhone Fold concepts here are not just exercises in creative imagination — they are a record of what designers and makers have been asking for, year after year. Some nailed the form factor. Others got the specs exactly right. A few did both. Together, they have shaped the entire conversation around a device that already feels utterly inevitable.
When the real iPhone Fold arrives, it will be measured against each of these visions. That is the power of concept design — it sets the bar before the product ships. Apple turning 50 while holding back its most ambitious device is pure theater. The design community has been writing this script for years. The only question is whether the real thing can live up to what the imagination has already built.
Four years is a long time in smartphone design, long enough for entire product categories to rise, peak, and fade. Samsung has cycled through multiple foldable generations. Google has rebooted its Pixel lineup twice. Nothing has gone from startup curiosity to legitimate contender. Apple, meanwhile, has kept the Dynamic Island exactly where it was when it debuted with the iPhone 14 Pro, same width, same height, same visual footprint. Leaked screen protectors for the iPhone 18 Pro, sourced from Weibo, suggest that Apple has finally decided four years is long enough.
According to the leak, the infrared flood illuminator that powers Face ID is moving under the display on the iPhone 18 Pro, leaving only the infrared camera requiring a physical cutout alongside the front-facing lens. The result is a Dynamic Island roughly 35% smaller than what ships on the iPhone 17 Pro today. Apple is also expected to pair this with its first 2nm chip, the A20 Pro, along with a variable aperture system on the main camera. The 20th anniversary iPhone in 2027 is widely expected to go further with a fully clean display, but the 18 Pro represents the clearest signal yet that Apple is working its way there on a deliberate schedule.
The size reduction is more significant than the percentage suggests when you look at the two side by side. The iPhone 17 Pro’s Island is a wide, commanding presence even at rest. The 18 Pro’s leaked cutout reads almost delicate by comparison, a narrow pill sitting unobtrusively at the top of the screen. Apple will still need to revisit four years of Live Activities design and the entire interaction vocabulary built around the existing Island’s dimensions, which is a reasonable explanation for why this transition is taking as long as it is.
Android manufacturers have shipped under-display cameras for years, with visible quality tradeoffs that Apple’s user base simply would not accept on a thousand-dollar phone. Holding the line until the technology meets the standard, rather than shipping it to win a spec sheet argument, is the kind of call that frustrates people in the short term and builds loyalty over time. The iPhone 18 Pro may read as a modest update on paper. That smaller pill tells a different story.
There is always a persistent tension in the watch world. Smartwatches do a lot, but they rarely look good doing it. Analog watches look exceptional, but they’ll never ping you when you’ve hit 10,000 steps. The Ganance Heir is a small, coin-sized sensor that quietly sits on the caseback of your watch and bridges that gap… no screen, no subscription, no compromise.
Developed by a Chicago-based startup with a focus on intentional technology, the Heir attaches to the caseback of most watches using a micro suction disc. At 30 mm in diameter and just 3 mm thick, it weighs a feather-light 5 grams. You’d barely know it’s there. Swap it between watches in seconds, slot it into the HeirBand for gym days when you’d rather not ruin a leather strap with sweat, and carry on.
The feature set is deliberately restrained. The Heir tracks steps, distance, and calories, pushing that data to the Ganance iPhone app and Apple Health. It vibrates to alert you to incoming calls and texts, and a single or double tap controls media playback. Three levels of vibration strength give you a degree of personalization, and tap input can be disabled entirely through the app. No heart rate sensor, no always-on display, no noise.
An Android app is currently in development, expected around late June alongside the next batch of shipments. At that point, the device will also sync with Google’s Health Connect, opening it up to a wider ecosystem of fitness apps. Future updates already on the roadmap include activity type splitting, sedentary time tracking, adaptive goals, a silent alarm, WhatsApp and Slack vibration alerts, task reminders, and weather-based activity recommendations.
The Heir isn’t without its limitations. Battery life sits at 42 hours, meaning a daily top-up via the proprietary dock is essentially non-negotiable. Early adopter reviews have flagged some inconsistencies with step tracking and connectivity, though Ganance says those issues are actively being addressed.
Ganance isn’t the first to explore this concept — the Chronos and Germany’s Trivoly tried similar approaches without gaining lasting traction. Whether the Heir has the staying power its predecessors lacked remains to be seen. The Heir is available to pre-order at $149, with the HeirBand priced at $39 or bundled together for $169. Shipping is expected this spring across the US, Canada, the UK, and select European countries.
Most people deep in the Apple ecosystem carry at least three devices that need charging every day. An iPhone, an Apple Watch, and AirPods don’t share cables, and even the cleanest wireless charging setup tends to involve multiple pads spread across several surfaces. It’s a situation that gets worse when you’re away from home and traveling without a bag full of dedicated charging accessories.
Alain Trifold is a concept that tries to answer that problem with a single foldable solution. As the name suggests, it’s a three-panel wireless charger that folds flat when not in use and opens up to power an iPhone, an Apple Watch, and AirPods all at once, entirely without cables. The whole idea is consolidating what would otherwise take three separate pads into one compact device.
The trifold format is central to what makes this concept interesting. Foldable chargers do exist in the market, but most compromise on size, stability, or the number of devices they can handle simultaneously. This design, in contrast, gives each of the three panels a dedicated charging surface, so there’s no awkward repositioning needed when you set your devices down. Everything has a place from the moment you unfold it.
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That kind of simplicity matters most when you’re away from your usual setup. Tossing a single flat charger into a bag rather than packing separate cables and pads for each device is a meaningful reduction in the friction of traveling light. You don’t have to think about which surface charges which device, or worry about leaving one of three charging pucks behind when you’re packing in a rush.
The minimal aesthetic of the Alain Trifold concept fits neatly within Apple’s own design language, which makes it feel like a natural companion rather than an afterthought accessory. A charger that looks good on a bedside table or a hotel desk doesn’t sound like a high bar, but it’s a small and genuinely meaningful advantage over the tangle of wires and mismatched pucks that most multi-device setups default to.
There’s also something to be said for the way a foldable form factor handles portability with something this useful. The Alain concept collapses into a compact profile that slips easily into a travel pouch or a bag pocket, and setting it up takes barely a second. It’s the kind of object that removes a decision rather than adding one, which is exactly what good accessory design tends to do.
As a concept, the Alain Trifold sits in a space where demand is clear but elegant solutions are few. The market for 3-in-1 Apple chargers is growing fast, but most options lean toward function over form, or portability over stability. This concept makes a case for a design that doesn’t have to choose, and it’s the kind of idea that stays with you long after you’ve seen it.
Learning to play a musical instrument is one of the most commonly abandoned pursuits in modern life. The gap between wanting to play and being able to usually involves years of lessons, expensive gear, and a dedicated practice space. That’s a lot of friction for something that’s supposed to be joyful, and it keeps most people as spectators for their entire lives.
The designers at YUPD started from a different observation. Most people are already making music, just not in any formal sense. Tapping out a beat on a desk, drumming with pens, humming a melody while doing chores, these are all musical impulses that rarely have anywhere to land. BREMEN is a modular performance system designed to change that by letting everyday objects become actual instruments.
Two of BREMEN’s four modules handle the percussive and string side of things. The Guitar Module and Drum Module are compact cylinders that slide over any stick-shaped object, whether that’s a pen, a ruler, or an actual broom handle. Once attached, they translate the way you swing or strike into guitar or drum sounds, sent wirelessly to the system’s central speaker.
The Piano Module takes a different approach. Two slim, bar-shaped units placed at opposite ends of a desk detect the distance between them and create an invisible keyboard in the space between. The sensors track finger movement above the surface and trigger the matching notes, so you’re essentially playing piano in thin air. No keys, no bench, no sheet music required.
All three modules feed into BREMEN_HEN, the system’s speaker. It receives the separate performances from the guitar, drum, and piano modules and blends them into a single ensemble output. The speaker itself has a distinctive triangular cross-section with a fabric mesh face, making it compact enough to carry by hand and functional enough to fill a room with actual band-level sound.
That last part matters. The whole point of BREMEN is that the stage can be wherever you happen to be, a classroom, a courtyard, a park. Three people with sticks and a pair of piano bars are suddenly a band. Nobody had to haul gear across town or book a rehearsal room. It’s the kind of spontaneity that music rarely allows for anymore.
YUPD’s concept goes beyond accessibility, though that’s clearly central to it. More fundamentally, it’s a rethinking of what counts as a musical instrument, one that argues the answer could be almost anything. A broom becomes a guitar, a desk becomes a piano, and a group of people with no formal training becomes something resembling a band. That’s a surprisingly generous idea for something that fits in a backpack.
The trailer industry is moving beyond wooden and wood-based, aluminum-skinned caravans toward more rugged, corrosion- and rot-resistant hard-bodied construction. Other features gaining popularity in hard-sided trailers include auto-lifting roofs and compact models that expand at the sides and rear to increase living space. A pioneer of the former, Prattline in Australia, is revisiting its lineup of lifting-roof models with the launch of the new Low Tow for off-road travel.
The 2026 Low Tow is a compact off-roading camping trailer designed for lightweight towing. It is cut out for the farthest and remotest adventures with a two-shell design featuring sliding walls for low drag and a comfortable ride on all types of roads.
The Low Tow with its dual shell body – an upper shell that resides over the lower shell – can ride low, and when at the camp, the upper shell can lift up to create a full-height camping form factor. The past generations of the Prattline Low Tow travel trailers used hydraulic cranks to lift the roof. The new generation model does the lifting and lowering of the roof electronically at the touch of a button. Resulting in a swift and instant transition.
The trailer measures under 23 feet in length, and with the roof open, the caravan becomes 9.2 feet tall. When the upper shell is closed, it is only 6.2 feet high on the inside. It folds down without disturbing the layout, furniture, or any other element on the inside. A highlight here is the caravan’s two-piece Dutch door. The vertically sliding two-part door closes and opens without hindrance of any kind, and stays flush to the body for ease of driving.
The Low Tow features a fiberglass frame, has double-glazed windows, and an anti-rot honeycomb flooring on the inside. Since it is built for off-roading, the caravan is based on a tapered galvanized chassis, features a 2,600 kg rated independent coil suspension, and twin shock absorbers. The caravan, characterized by a high ground clearance chassis, has a slide-out galley complete with a four-burner gas stove, sink, and an expandable worktop with drying rack below.
It doesn’t mean the interior is devoid of a kitchen. A little section on the inside is earmarked for the kitchen, equipped with a dual-burner induction, 12V compressor fridge, and a sink with a cover to double as a prep area. The temperature indoors is maintained by an air-conditioning and heating unit, while its 80L fresh and gray water tanks take care of the water requirements. Power needs are handled by a 600Ah LFP battery powered by a 600W solar panel and a 2,000W inverter.
A wet bathroom with a fabric upper body that collapses when lowering the roof is an interesting part of the Low Tow, which resides next to the primary bed. The cabin, outlined with modern furnishing and interlocking cabinetry, has a double island bed with a high-density foam mattress measuring 200 cm × 150 cm. A dinette just nearby can be converted to create a second bed. Other interesting features of the new AU$79,990 (about $55,000) Low Tow include an outdoor shower and a smart TV for entertainment.
The Beolab 90 has spent the better part of a decade as Bang & Olufsen’s technological flagship, a speaker so absurdly capable that it can beam-form sound to different parts of a room simultaneously. For the company’s centenary, the design team decided the speaker’s technical mastery deserved equally ambitious surface treatments.
The result is a five-edition Atelier series where each version explores a different corner of B&O’s manufacturing expertise. The Monarch and Zenith Editions, revealed today as the series finale, take wood and metal to places you wouldn’t normally associate with speaker cabinets. Angled rosewood lamellas flow across the Monarch’s aluminum body in a continuous sculptural gesture, while the Zenith Edition gets covered in nearly 1,800 individual aluminum spheres hand-assembled across six curved panels. Ten pairs of each, certificates of authenticity, miniature sculptures in matching finishes. The works.
Designer: Bang & Olufsen
The Monarch Edition reads like someone at B&O looked at classic Danish furniture, specifically the kind with slatted wood panels that wrap around curved frames, and decided a 150-pound loudspeaker needed the same treatment. Angled rosewood lamellas follow the contours of the aluminum cabinet in a 360-degree rhythm that echoes fabric speaker covers while introducing actual tactile depth. Six wooden knots connect the lamellas at strategic points, with the front knot featuring a light-through-wood stripe that breaks up what could have been a monotonous pattern. A solid rosewood top ring frames the speaker head while lower base panels continue the lamella motif, creating visual continuity from top to bottom. The ochre-colored aluminum crowns contrast with the warm rosewood in a way that feels deliberate rather than accidental, and semi-transparent fabric sections offer glimpses of the acoustic drivers hiding behind the wood. We covered the Titan Edition back in November, the one where B&O stripped the housing entirely and sandblasted the exposed aluminum with crushed volcanic rock. The Monarch takes the opposite approach, adding layers instead of removing them.
The Zenith Edition abandons wood entirely and commits to a single absurd idea: what if we covered this thing in pearls? Not actual pearls, obviously, but 1,734 anodized aluminum spheres arranged across six panels in seven bespoke pearl-inspired colors. Each panel holds 289 spheres, and the whole assembly is curved to follow the cabinet’s architectural form. The machined aluminum facemask gets pearl-blasted and anodized in dark grey to resemble an oyster shell, because apparently we’re taking the pearl metaphor all the way. A circular mother-of-pearl inlay sits on top, matching the diameter of the aluminum spheres and serving as a luminous focal point that ties the composition together. The effect is weirdly organic for something made entirely from metal, with the layered surfaces and interplay of polished and matte finishes catching light differently throughout the day. I keep thinking about the Mirage Edition we covered in December, the one with hand-applied gradient anodization that shifted from blue to magenta depending on viewing angle. The Zenith pulls a similar trick but through physical texture rather than color gradients.
Both editions preserve the Beolab 90’s core acoustic performance, which remains borderline ridiculous even by 2026 standards. Eighteen bespoke drivers, advanced beam-forming technology that can steer sound to specific parts of a room, enough digital signal processing to make most studio monitors jealous. The original Beolab 90 launched at $185,000 for a pair, and these limited editions will almost certainly exceed that figure, though B&O hasn’t published pricing yet. When you order a set, you get a miniature aluminum Beolab 90 sculpture in the corresponding edition finish, presented in a custom aluminum delivery box, which feels like the kind of detail that matters when you’re spending what a luxury sedan costs on speakers.
The five-edition Atelier series, Shadow and Mirage and Titan and now Monarch and Zenith, reads as Bang & Olufsen methodically working through its material catalog. Each variant explores a different manufacturing technique pushed to its technical limit, whether that’s volcanic sandblasting or gradient anodization or curved wood lamination or hand-assembled metal spheres. The speakers debut at B&O’s San Francisco Culture Store, the brand’s largest showroom globally, before touring to other locations. Limited to ten pairs per edition means most people will never see these in person, let alone own them, but that seems to be the point. A century of operation earns you the right to build things simply because you can.
Smartphone design has been converging on a single, almost universal ideal: more screen, less frame. Brands across the spectrum have spent the last few years shaving down bezels, flattening camera bumps, and chasing a kind of visual minimalism that would have seemed impossible a decade ago. The race to the thinnest, cleanest slab has become almost as competitive as the spec war, and no brand is immune to that pressure.
Google’s Pixel lineup has never exactly followed the crowd. Since the Pixel 9, the brand has committed to a distinctive horizontal camera bar across the upper back of the phone, making it one of the most recognizable Android devices on the market. Early CAD-based renders of the upcoming Pixel 11 suggest that Google isn’t letting go of that identity but is quietly refining it.
This marks the third year in a row that Google is expected to stay in the same design family introduced by the Pixel 9, though the horizontal camera island design actually started with the Pixel 6’s “visor” in 2021. The company has previously said it aims to redesign its phones every two to three years, making the Pixel 11 feel like the closing chapter of this particular look. These changes aren’t accidental refinements; they’re something closer to a farewell lap.
The most notable of those tweaks is the camera bar itself. On the Pixel 9 and Pixel 10, the phone’s body color would wrap around the flash and sensors inside the bar, creating a two-tone look that was bold for some and cluttered for others. The Pixel 11 drops that entirely, going with a uniform black finish across the whole housing for a cleaner, more composed result.
Google Pixel 10
Google Pixel 10
The bar is also expected to sit lower on the phone’s back, with less protrusion than the Pixel 10. That’s the kind of thing you don’t notice until the phone snags on a pocket lining or wobbles on a table, and then you notice it constantly. A thinner overall profile, rumored at 8.5mm, will keep the phone from feeling like it’s outgrown its own design.
The front of the phone appears to have gotten some attention, too. Bezels are reportedly thinner on all four sides, which means more screen real estate when you’re reading or watching something on that commute home. It’s a concession to a criticism that’s followed the Pixel series for a couple of years, and it goes a long way toward making the phone look more of its time.
Under the hood, the Pixel 11 is expected to run on Google’s Tensor G6 chipset, paired with 12GB of RAM and at least 128GB of storage. The 5,000mAh battery is the kind of capacity that should see most people through a full day without a second thought, even with a heavier workload. The overall footprint stays essentially the same as the Pixel 10, measuring 152.8 x 72 x 8.5mm.
All of this comes with the standard caveat: these are early, unofficial CAD-based renders, and finer details like exact bezel dimensions could shift before the phone hits shelves. That said, the broader strokes have a strong track record with this kind of source. Google is expected to announce the Pixel 11 in August 2026, giving it a few more months to land exactly where it looks like it’s headed.
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