Tag Archives: Android

Carriers Want This BlackBerry-Style Phone – I Tried It at MWC

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When Clicks unveiled the Clicks Communicator at CES 2026, the device immediately stood out in a sea of look-alike smartphones. It pairs a physical QWERTY keyboard with a communication-first philosophy that feels intentionally different from the current slab phone crowd. Clicks also shared several specifications at the time, yet it did not confirm exactly when the phone would launch.

At a Mobile World Congress (MWC) off-site event in Barcelona, Clicks offered a clearer update on where the Communicator stands today. The company used the event to signal that the project is progressing beyond the early reveal phase. It positioned the Communicator as moving steadily toward launch.

Designer: Clicks

Clicks showcased the Communicator to media and potential partners, and I had the opportunity to briefly go hands-on with the device. The unit on display was still a mockup rather than a final production model. Even so, it offered a useful glimpse at how the hardware direction is taking shape.

In hand, the Communicator feels nice and compact, and it sits comfortably in the palm. The balance feels considered, and the overall shape makes it easy to grip without feeling slippery or awkward. Typing also felt comfortable during my short time with it, which is the “make or break” moment for any keyboard phone.

The build felt solid, even in mockup form. One of the most interesting design touches is a magnetic, swappable back panel that snaps on with a confident fit. That modular detail gives the phone a more personal, tool-like vibe, and it suggests Clicks is thinking about long-term ownership rather than quick upgrades.

According to Adrian Li, founder and CEO of Clicks, the Communicator has generated significant interest from the industry over the past few months. Li said the company has been approached by several mobile carriers as well as major retailers that are interested in bringing the device to market. For a young hardware company entering the competitive smartphone space, that attention could be critical.

Carrier partnerships in particular could play a decisive role in the Communicator’s success. While some niche smartphones rely primarily on direct online sales, carrier support can expand a device’s reach through retail stores and bundled service plans. Li noted that Clicks is currently in discussions with potential carrier partners as it explores different distribution strategies for the phone.

Although the prototype shown at MWC was not yet fully functional, the hardware design already reflects the Communicator’s core idea of efficient communication. The device features a compact 4-inch class AMOLED display positioned above a physical backlit QWERTY keyboard. The keyboard is designed to deliver tactile feedback for fast, accurate typing, and it also supports gesture controls for scrolling and navigation.

Under the hood, the Communicator is powered by MediaTek’s Dimensity 8300 processor and runs Android 16. That combination should provide access to the full Android app ecosystem while keeping the experience centered on messaging and productivity. The phone is expected to ship with 256GB of internal storage and support microSD expansion of up to 2TB, which is increasingly rare in modern smartphones.

The rest of the hardware stays firmly in modern smartphone territory. The Communicator includes a 50 MP rear camera with optical image stabilization, plus a 24 MP front camera for video calls and selfies. A 4,000 mAh silicon carbon battery powers the device, with support for USB-C charging and Qi2 wireless charging.

Connectivity options include 5G, Wi Fi 6, Bluetooth, and NFC. A combination of nano SIM and eSIM support gives users flexibility when choosing carriers. The Communicator also retains a 3.5mm headphone jack, which will matter to power users and anyone who still prefers wired audio.

Clicks is building several software features around the phone’s communication first pitch. The device includes a Message Hub that aggregates conversations from multiple messaging platforms into a single interface, which should reduce app hopping. A customizable notification light known as the Signal LED can display different colors depending on which contact or app is reaching out.

Despite its productivity focus, the Communicator is not meant to be a limited-function device. Clicks positions it as either a primary smartphone for users who prioritize messaging or a secondary device that complements a larger entertainment-focused phone. That flexibility could be a key part of its appeal, especially for people who want a more focused tool without giving up modern apps.

As for when the Communicator will reach consumers, Clicks says more information is coming soon. According to the company, the official launch date will be revealed in roughly two months. Until then, the Communicator remains in the promising middle ground between concept and product.

For now, the Communicator blends nostalgia with modern smartphone capabilities in a way that feels deliberate rather than gimmicky. The compact in-hand feel, comfortable typing, and sturdy build are encouraging signs, even if this was not yet a final unit. If carrier and retail interest continues to build, Clicks may be on track to ship a device that serves people who still value fast typing and focused communication in an increasingly distraction-heavy mobile world.

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First look of new OnePlus 15T revealed, hints two new colors and high-end features

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OnePlus has recently redefined what it means to “never settle” with its OnePlus 13 and 13T smartphones. Now, the company is back in the spotlight amid rumors of another device that appears similar in design but is expected to come with a more capable approach.

Over the past week, the OEM has faced growing speculation and anticipation surrounding the possible launch of this new smartphone. And now it seems OnePlus is openly teasing the device, sharing its images that reveal two new colorways along with details about the phone’s design and the layout of its camera array.

Designer: OnePlus

In the images that were shared on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website, the upcoming phone is revealed in green and brown colors, but with a design that seems very much inspired by the 13T. The phone in question is the OnePlus 15T, which is showing up in its real self – ahead of a launch – for the first time. Most of what we have been able to know about the handset in the recent past has been by way of speculations and hearsay only.

Now, for the first time, we are getting an official update about how the OnePlus 15T will look and the color options you should be able to get. When it comes to looks, from the available pictures, the 15T appears very similar to the 13T. Phone could have a similar 6.32-inch AMOLED display and a rounded off design with a slim bezel, and as seen, would come in new green and brown colorways.

On the reverse side, the phone reveals a dual rear camera housed within a rounded square module toward the top left corner of the phone. Inside the camera housing are the two rear sensors and an LED flash. A setup which – like the design – is similar to that of the predecessor in the same size segment. With the design and new colors, the revealed images also show that the new phone will get a matte finish on the rear panel.

According to the other details already confirmed, the OnePlus 15T will feature a slim bezel and rounded corners for a comfortable grip and usage. Arriving with an AMOLED display only 6.32 inches in size and an upgraded periscope telephoto camera alongside the 3.5x optical zoom, the OnePlus 15T, despite its compact size, gets some high-end features. The phone is likely to draw power from a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 SoC with 16GB of RAM. It will feature up to an IP69K rating, making the handset capable of handling dust, water dips, and high-pressure water sprays with equal confidence.

Before you consider size and durability as top facets of the OnePlus 15T, just spare a thought for its 7,500mAh battery, rumored to support 100W wired and 50W wireless fast-charging. OnePlus 15T is likely to launch in China later this month, and that’s really when we will have the definite details about the phone. Before that, most of it was only rumors!

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The Brax open_slate is a modular tablet that lets you actually own what you buy

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Most tablets arrive as sealed objects with decisions already made for you: storage is fixed, the battery is buried somewhere inaccessible, and the operating system is whatever the manufacturer chose. You use the device on those terms until it slows down or falls out of software support, and then you replace it. Brax Technologies, the company behind the BraX3 privacy smartphone, is betting there’s a different way to do this.

The open_slate is a 12-inch 2-in-1 tablet that treats its hardware as a starting point rather than a finished product. Inside the chassis sits an M.2 2280 slot, a standard used in laptops and desktops, allowing owners to swap in faster storage, add capacity, or eventually slot in a network card. There’s also a user-replaceable battery, which sounds mundane until you consider how few tablet makers have bothered to include one in years.

Designer: Brax Technologies

That battery holds 8,000mAh and carries a claimed 20-hour runtime, a figure that tracks given how efficiently ARM processors handle light workloads. The MediaTek Genio 720 chip pairs two Cortex-A78 performance cores with six Cortex-A55 efficiency cores. It’s a capable mid-range processor, not a desktop replacement, but paired with either 8GB or 16GB of RAM and a 120Hz display, daily use should feel smooth for the tasks the device is designed for.

That 12-inch IPS screen runs at 1600 x 2400 resolution with Gorilla Glass protection and supports a stylus at 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity. Connectivity covers Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, GPS, and two USB-C ports, one supporting DisplayPort 1.4 output. Someone writing on the go, sketching ideas, or running a Linux terminal while connected to an external monitor could reasonably treat this as a primary machine, provided the software cooperates.

On that note: the open_slate ships with BraxOS, a de-Googled Android build, and targets Ubuntu support through MediaTek’s Genio developer platform. Brax acknowledges that some Linux features may not be complete at launch, which is an honest position for a small team working outside the mainstream supply chain. ARM Linux has improved considerably, but it still surprises you at inconvenient moments.

The physical kill switches are the most distinctive feature on paper. Dedicated toggles cut power to the cameras, microphone, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS at the hardware level, not through a software setting that an app might quietly bypass. This design logic comes from the secure laptop world, and applying it to a consumer tablet is unusual enough to notice. For anyone who’s thought seriously about what their devices transmit and to whom, the appeal is immediate.

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This Rugged Phone Ships With 2 Batteries You Can Hot-Swap

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Dead battery anxiety is real, and for most people, the solution is either a power bank they forgot to charge or a desperate search for an outlet. Flagship phones have been getting faster at charging for years, but none of them have gone back to the one fix that actually solves the problem: a battery you can take out and replace with a fresh one, right there on the trail.

That is exactly what the RugOne Xever 7 does. It ships with two 5,550 mAh batteries and a built-in buffer cell that keeps the phone alive during the swap, so you never have to restart. The whole process takes under 180 seconds. There is no hunting for a socket, no waiting out a charging cycle, and no watching the percentage tick up while your plans sit on hold.

Designer: Ulefone

The phone is IP69K and IP68 rated, survives drops per MIL-STD-810H certification, and weighs 325 g, which is heavy but not unusual for a rugged device with this much packed inside. The 64 MP night vision camera uses four built-in infrared lights to shoot in complete darkness, which is genuinely useful if you have ever tried to photograph a campsite at 2 a.m. with a regular phone and gotten nothing.

There is also a 50 MP main camera with optical image stabilization, a 50 MP ultra-wide with a 117.3-degree field of view, and a 32 MP front camera. The phone supports underwater photography as well, with controls you can operate while submerged. Video tops out at 2K at 30 fps, which is fine for most outdoor documentation but a step behind phones at similar price points that record at 4K.

The display is a 6.67-inch AMOLED panel running at 120 Hz with a 2,200-nit peak brightness, which holds up well in direct sunlight. Inside is a MediaTek Dimensity 7025 chipset paired with 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage, expandable to 2 TB via microSD. That chipset is mid-range by current standards, so this is not a performance-first phone, but it handles everyday tasks without friction.

Charging runs at 33W over USB-C or 18W through the Pogo Pin dock that comes in the box. The dock charges the spare battery simultaneously, so by the time your current battery runs low, the backup is already full and ready. That closed loop is the smartest part of the whole system, and the detail that makes the swappable battery feel like a considered design decision rather than a novelty.

Android 15 runs clean here, with Google Gemini built in, a 230-lumen flashlight, an X-axis linear vibration motor, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack that has no business still being this satisfying to find on a phone. The Xever 7 does not try to reinvent what a rugged phone is. It just fixes the one thing that frustrates people most, and lets everything else do its job quietly.

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nubia Neo 5 GT: €399 Gaming Phone With a Built-In Cooling Fan

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Gaming phones have a reputation for looking like they were designed by someone who just discovered RGB lighting for the first time. Big, chunky, aggressive, and occasionally embarrassing to pull out in public. The nubia Neo 5 GT takes a different approach: keep the silhouette clean, make the back completely flat with no camera bump, and deal with the overheating problem that plagues every long session by putting an actual fan inside.

That last part is worth pausing on. Nearly every smartphone manages heat passively, relying on vapor chambers and graphite layers. The Neo 5 GT adds a built-in active cooling fan, paired with a Through-Flow Duct design that channels fresh airflow directly over the CPU and battery across a 29,508 mm² cooling area. nubia claims it’s the only device in its price class doing this, and at €399, that’s a hard combination to find anywhere else.

Designer: nubia

The processor is the MediaTek Dimensity 7400, a 4 nm chip paired with LPDDR Max 6400 Mbps memory and managed by nubia’s NeoTurbo Engine. The phone is officially certified for 120 FPS gameplay on Garena Free Fire and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and reaches 90 FPS on Delta Force. Whether sustained frame rates hold at those figures over a full match, rather than just during benchmarks, is a question active cooling is specifically designed to answer.

Physical controls come through Neo Triggers 5.0, shoulder buttons running at 550 Hz with sub-5.5 ms latency and a 3,049 Hz touch sampling rate. The 6.8-inch 1.5K AMOLED display runs at 144 Hz with 4,500 nits peak brightness, genuinely useful for outdoor play. Magic Touch 3.0 keeps the screen responsive when fingers are wet or sweaty, a detail that sounds minor until a match-deciding moment slips through an unresponsive tap.

Battery life gets similar attention. The 6,210 mAh dual-cell pack supports up to 80 W fast charging, dropping to 45 W for European markets. Bypass Charging routes power directly to the phone during gaming without cycling it through the battery, extending lifespan over time. A 5% Extreme Mode squeezes out up to 23 additional minutes of gameplay or 29 hours of standby from the last sliver of charge, useful for anyone who routinely forgets to plug in.

AI Game Space 5.0 houses AI Copilot Demi 2.0, which covers real-time Gaming Coach updates for FPS and MOBA titles, a Gaming Chatbot for mid-session queries, and automatic message replies during play. Outside of games, there’s a 50 MP triple rear camera, AI Scam Alert, AI Translate, and AI Memory for everyday tasks. The nubia Neo 5 at €299 and the larger nubia Neo 5 Max, with its 7.5-inch display, round out the series with different trade-offs.

The Neo 5 GT’s real pitch is straightforward: sustained performance at mid-range pricing, in a form factor that doesn’t announce itself as a gaming phone the moment it leaves a pocket. The flat back and the lack of a camera bump are easy to take for granted until you remember what most gaming phones look like.

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Infinix and Pininfarina Phone: Flush Camera, Hidden Display

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The camera bump problem has quietly become one of those things smartphone designers just accept these days. Every generation, the sensors get bigger, the modules get thicker, and the back of your phone starts looking like a small mountain range. Infinix decided to do something about that with the NOTE 60 Ultra, working with Pininfarina (yes, the Italian firm behind some of the most famous Ferrari bodies ever made) to create a rear panel where the triple-camera array, a hidden notification display, and a lighting strip all vanish into a single flush glass surface.

That design approach has a name: the Uni-Chassis Cam Module. It borrows from the unibody monocoque philosophy that makes sports car bodies both sleeker and more rigid, applying the same logic to a phone’s rear. The entire back is formed from a single continuous sheet of Gorilla Glass Victus, keeping the profile at 7.9mm while housing everything beneath without any visible interruption. The engineering explanation actually makes it look cooler once you know it.

Designer: Infinix x Pininfarina

Pininfarina’s influence extends to the four color options as well. Torino Black has a Kevlar-weave texture referencing basalt fiber; Monza Red borrows its surface geometry from the Daytona SP3 grille. Each colorway has a distinct material treatment, not just a tint on a shared base finish. These are details that often disappear between concept and mass production, so the fact that they survived here says something about how seriously the collaboration was taken.

Photography is anchored by a 200-megapixel Samsung ISOCELL HPE main sensor. The 1/1.4-inch sensor area and f/1.69 aperture mean the full-resolution mode captures enough data to crop aggressively without losing sharpness. Paired with it is a 50-megapixel Samsung ISOCELL JN5 periscope telephoto with its own optical image stabilization, offering a native 3.5x optical zoom that extends to 7x losslessly before reaching 100x digitally.

Tucked beneath the glass rear is the Active Matrix Display, a dot-matrix LED panel that surfaces through the glass when needed and disappears completely when dormant. It handles notification alerts, time and weather readouts, animated pixel pets, and two motion-controlled mini-games. The panel draws no power when inactive, leaving the flush rear surface completely undisturbed until it decides it has something to say.

The NOTE 60 Ultra also introduces Infinix’s XDR Image Engine, which applies a full-chain HDR workflow from capture all the way through to the 1.5K display. In practical terms, this means the phone is managing highlight and shadow detail simultaneously when shooting high-contrast scenes, rather than picking one at the expense of the other. That workflow supports 4K 60fps video recording with Full-Link HDR 10+ for footage up to 4K 30fps.

Inside, the MediaTek Dimensity 8400 Ultimate runs an all-big-core architecture where all eight Arm Cortex-A725 cores operate at full performance. Infinix’s own optimization engine manages CPU allocation and background memory compression on top, which is the kind of system-level tuning typically reserved for higher-tier chips. A 3D IceCore cooling system with a 5,142-square-millimeter vapor chamber handles heat across intensive sessions.

The 7,000mAh silicon-carbon battery has twice the silicon content of the previous generation, allowing higher energy density without a thicker body. It charges fully in 48 minutes via 100W wired charging, and Infinix included a self-healing function that runs low-current cycles to slow long-term anode degradation, recovering roughly 1% of battery health every 200 charge cycles. There is also 50W wireless charging for the days when a cable feels like too much effort.

Perhaps the most distinctive addition is the two-way satellite communication via Thuraya’s GEO satellite network, covering around 120 countries across Asia, Europe, and Africa. This goes beyond the one-way SOS messaging seen on other phones: the NOTE 60 Ultra supports actual voice calls at up to 4kbps and two-way SMS, activated through a Thuraya SIM card without any additional registration. For frequent travelers in areas with patchy terrestrial coverage, that is a genuinely useful difference.

The post Infinix and Pininfarina Phone: Flush Camera, Hidden Display first appeared on Yanko Design.

Motorola Edge 70 Fusion: 144Hz Screen, 7,000mAh Battery, IP69

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There’s a specific kind of buyer’s remorse that comes with midrange phones. You get them home, take your first few photos in decent light, and think you made the right call. Then comes the dinner, the concert, the sunset that lasted about 45 seconds, and suddenly you’re squinting at a muddy, blown-out mess, wondering where your hard-earned money went. The hardware looked fine on the spec sheet. It just didn’t survive contact with real life.

The motorola edge 70 fusion is Motorola’s attempt to close that gap without asking you to spend flagship money. It’s a midrange phone with a few genuinely noteworthy credentials, a handful of firsts, and, depending on which version you buy, a battery that could outlast your weekend. Whether the whole package adds up is worth thinking through carefully.

Designer: Motorola

The headline is the camera, specifically the 50 MP Sony LYTIA™ 710 sensor on the main shooter. This is the first time that particular sensor has appeared in any smartphone, and Sony’s LYTIA line is built around low-light clarity and accurate color reproduction. Optical image stabilization keeps things sharp when your hands aren’t, and moto ai’s Photo Enhancement Engine adds a Signature Style feature that applies consistent color grading across your shots. A 13 MP ultrawide covers the 122° wide-angle and macro territory, and the 32 MP front camera shoots 4K video, which still feels like a meaningful spec at this price tier.

The display is where the edge 70 fusion picks up another first. It’s touted to be the world’s first 144 Hz quad-curved screen with Pantone Validated™ color certification, spanning 6.78 inches of Extreme AMOLED at 1.5K Super HD resolution with a peak brightness of 5,200 nits. That brightness number is the practical one. It means the screen stays legible in direct sunlight, something that budget and midrange panels have never quite solved. The quad-curve design, where the glass flows continuously from front to back without hard edges, adds a physical refinement that usually costs considerably more.

Motorola went further than most midrange phones dare to go on the durability side. The edge 70 fusion carries both IP68 and IP69 ratings, meaning it handles submersion up to 1.5 meters and high-pressure water jets. MIL-STD-810H certification covers the drop and temperature extremes, and Corning Gorilla Glass 7i protects the front. A small but useful detail called Water Touch keeps the touchscreen responsive with wet fingers. The back uses textures inspired by nylon and linen, materials that feel warmer in hand than the cold-glass backs that have become the default on most phones.

There are two battery variants, and the difference between them is significant. The standard model has a 5,200 mAh cell rated for up to 39 hours of mixed use. The second variant ships with a 7,000 mAh silicon-carbon battery, a chemistry that fits more energy into less physical space, rated for up to 50 hours. Both versions charge at 68W via TurboPower, which Motorola says delivers enough power for a full day in just 10 minutes of charging. For anyone who has ever started a long travel day at 34%, that’s not a trivial promise.

The Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 handles processing, paired with up to 8 GB of RAM and a RAM Boost feature for smoother multitasking, with up to 256 GB of internal storage. It’s a capable mid-tier chipset, honest about where it sits. Motorola is guaranteeing three Android OS upgrades, and moto ai brings in features like Next Move for contextual on-screen assistance and Playlist Studio for AI-generated playlists. Google Gemini integration rounds out the software story.

The edge 70 fusion comes in five Pantone-curated colorways, including Orient Blue, Silhouette, Sporting Green, and Country Air, each with matching colored accents around the camera lenses. It’s a detail that suggests the design team was thinking about the phone as something you carry, not just something you use. The real question the edge 70 fusion leaves open is a broader one: at what point does the gap between midrange and flagship stop being about capability and start being about perception?

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Motorola’s First-Ever Book-Style Foldable Has the #1-Rated Camera

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The RAZR name has always carried a certain drama to it. For two decades, it meant the thinnest thing in the room, often at the expense of everything else. The new motorola razr fold, first teased at CES 2026, takes the opposite approach, asking what happens when you refuse to give anything up, and the answer turns out to be a phone that unfolds into an 8.1-inch canvas you can actually work on.

This is Motorola’s first book-style foldable, a different animal from the clamshell razr that folds vertically. Open it up, and you get a 2K LTPO display that peaks at 6,200 nits, bright enough to use comfortably in direct sunlight, and wide enough to run three apps side by side without everything feeling cramped. Close it, and the 6.6-inch external screen handles most of what you’d normally unlock the phone for anyway.

Designer: Motorola

The physical design is harder to dismiss than the numbers suggest. At 4.6mm thin when open and 9.9mm when folded, it doesn’t read as a productivity device that tolerates being a phone on the side. A stainless steel teardrop hinge guides the fold, while a titanium inner plate distributes pressure across the crease so the display returns to its original shape after each cycle. The Pantone Blackened Blue version has a matte, textured surface; the Lily White option goes for a softer, more reflective hand.

Camera performance is where Motorola appears to have placed its biggest bet. The razr fold earned DXOMARK’s #1 ranking for foldable cameras in North America, backed by a 50 MP Sony LYTIA 828 main sensor, a 50 MP Sony LYTIA 600 periscope telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and a 50 MP ultrawide with a 122-degree field of view that focuses as close as 3.5 cm. The fold-forward form also doubles as a tabletop tripod, which is a minor convenience until you stop fumbling with a prop.

Inside, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 handles the workload with 16GB of RAM and storage of up to 1TB. The 6,000 mAh silicon-carbon battery is, by Motorola’s account, the largest in any foldable currently available. The 80W TurboPower charging is supposed to deliver 12 or more hours of use from under 10 minutes plugged in, though those results depend on usage conditions that are rarely as tidy as a manufacturer’s press release describes.

The razr fold also supports the moto pen ultra, sold separately, adding pressure sensitivity and palm rejection to the large display. For anyone already carrying a stylus with a tablet, the pitch is obvious. For everyone else, it leaves an open question about whether a phone at €1,999 for the European launch bundle actually replaces the tablet it resembles, or just occupies an expensive spot between the two.

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Leica and Xiaomi Built a Phone With a Rotatable Camera Ring

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Most of us carry a capable camera in our pockets every day, yet somehow the act of taking a photo still feels like wrestling with a piece of software rather than making an actual picture. You tap, swipe, wait for the AI to decide what the scene should look like, and end up with something technically perfect and faintly anonymous. That’s the frustration the Leica Leitzphone powered by Xiaomi is trying to address, arriving at MWC 2026 as a phone designed around the idea that shooting should feel deliberate.

The most telling detail is the rotatable camera ring around the lens module. It’s a physical control you can assign to focal length, focus, or bokeh depth, borrowing directly from the tactile language of Leica’s rangefinder cameras. There’s something telling about that choice: at a time when every interaction is a touch gesture, adding a ring you can actually turn is a quiet argument that the best interface for a camera might not be a flat sheet of glass.

Designer: Leica x Xiaomi

The hardware behind that ring is genuinely serious. The primary sensor is a 1-inch format with LOFIC HDR technology, which gives it a real optical size advantage over the smaller sensors in most flagship phones, particularly in high-contrast or low-light situations. A 200 MP telephoto covering 75–100 mm and a 14 mm ultra-wide complete the system, so the focal length range maps fairly naturally onto how photographers tend to think rather than how smartphone specs sheets tend to read.

Software is where it gets more interesting, and where you’re asked to trust the collaboration a little more. Leica Essential Mode simulates the output of two specific cameras: the Leica M9 and the M3 with MONOPAN 50 film. For people who know those cameras, that’s a specific and meaningful promise. For everyone else, it’s an aesthetic reference that requires some faith, and there’s a gap between “inspired by classic Leica lenses” and actually using one that the marketing doesn’t quite close.

The rest of the phone is exactly what a 2026 flagship should be. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 handles the processing, a 6,000 mAh battery supports 90W wired and 50W wireless charging, and the 6.9-inch 120 Hz OLED display hits 3,500 nits peak brightness. Leica also redesigned the entire UI, with custom fonts, icons, and two interface themes running across every system element, which is more thoroughgoing than a co-branded phone usually gets.

One feature that doesn’t make the headline but probably should is the built-in Content Authenticity Initiative metadata support, which embeds provenance data in every image to confirm its origin and integrity. As AI-generated imagery gets harder to distinguish from photographs, having a phone that can prove a picture is real starts to feel less like a niche feature and more like an actual need.

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Honor MagicPad4 Review: The World’s Thinnest Tablet Nails Portability and Performance

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PROS:


  • Excellent portability

  • Immersive content-consuming experience

  • Great battery life

  • Powerful performance

CONS:


  • No microSD card slot

  • No IP rating

  • Underwhelming software support period

RATINGS:

AESTHETICS
ERGONOMICS
PERFORMANCE
SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY
VALUE FOR MONEY

EDITOR'S QUOTE:

The Honor MagicPad4 nails extreme portability with a gorgeous OLED screen, strong performance, and a surprisingly complete productivity toolkit that makes it feel like a real work-capable tablet.

Honor is pitching the MagicPad4 as a tablet that can travel like a notebook and work like a small laptop, without dragging you into the usual compromises. The headline numbers are bold. 4.8mm thin and about 450g, paired with a 12.3-inch OLED panel that runs up to 165Hz and hits a claimed 2400 nits peak brightness in HDR. 

Under that sleek shell, HONOR is also treating this as a proper flagship. You get Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, Wi-Fi 7, a 10,100mAh typical battery with 66W wired charging, and a cooling system designed to keep performance consistent under load. With the headline specs out of the way, let’s get into what the MagicPad4 is actually like to live with.

Designer: Honor

Aesthetics

The MagicPad 4 looks like it was designed with a single obsession. Make the body feel impossibly slim, then let the display do the talking. Its design language is clean, modern, and very display-forward, and it feels intentionally restrained in the best way. Instead of chasing flashy accents, the tablet leans into a minimalist, yet elegant look that quietly simmers.

Flip it over, and the styling stays just as composed. On the back, the MagicPad 4 features a square camera bump in the upper left corner, while the HONOR logo sits centered for a balanced, gallery-like finish. Color options are simple and confident, with Gray and White both pairing naturally with the tablet’s understated aesthetic.

Ergonomics

In hand, the MagicPad4’s defining ergonomic feature is slimness and weight, or the lack of it. The MagicPad 3 was already ahead of the pack on portability, listed at 5.79mm and about 595g, but the MagicPad4 still makes a meaningful leap at just 4.8mm thin and about 450g. The screen is slightly smaller this time around, dropping from 13.3 inches on the MagicPad 3 to 12.3 inches here, yet the reduction in thickness and weight is still impressive, even with that display size change in mind.

On paper, those numbers can sound like a modest revision. In use, they show up as less hand fatigue and less hesitation to pick it up for quick reading, quick edits, or a short sketching session. To underline how light it is for its size, HONOR even notes that the 12.3-inch MagicPad4 is lighter than an 11-inch iPad Air at around 462g, which is a helpful reality check for just how portable it feels.

Attach the optional keyboard, and that light, sheet-like feeling largely stays intact. That is when it becomes obvious the MagicPad4 is meant to be used as a full kit. HONOR’s three-piece mobile office set, meaning tablet plus keyboard plus stylus, comes in at about 852g, which is still easy to treat as a grab-and-go setup.

Typing feels surprisingly firm, but the slim keyboard has shallower key travel, so long sessions are a bit less comfortable than on a thicker, more laptop-like keyboard. Still, it is a tradeoff I am willing to take for how portable the whole setup is. Typing on your lap is doable, but the keyboard does not feel as planted as a laptop or a more rigid keyboard setup, so it can wobble a bit when you shift around.

Where the keyboard design really helps is flexibility. You fold the top half of the back cover to prop the tablet up, and it gives you a wide range of display tilt angles. It is the kind of flexibility you end up using constantly, especially on the go, when you are stuck working with whatever table and chair height you find.

Performance

Performance starts with the panel, because it sets the tone for everything you do on the tablet. There was a lot of backlash when HONOR switched from OLED to IPS LCD on the MagicPad 3, so bringing OLED back on the MagicPad4 feels like a direct response to what people actually wanted. Here, you get a 12.3-inch OLED with a 3000 x 1920 resolution and up to a 165Hz refresh rate, framed by a 4mm ultra-narrow bezel and a 93% screen-to-body ratio that makes the front feel almost all screen.

In use, the MagicPad4 feels smooth when you scroll, sharp when you read, and fluid when you bounce between apps. The high refresh rate is not something you consciously track all the time, but it helps everything look a bit more stable and refined, especially when you are moving quickly through feeds, documents, and multi-app workflows. It also supports 1.07 billion colors and a claimed 2400 nits peak brightness for HDR and strong light scenarios, which is a strong fit for both entertainment and everyday browsing.

Just like its flagship smartphones, HONOR treats eye comfort as part of the performance story, not a footnote. The MagicPad4 is TÜV Rheinland flicker-free and low blue light certified, and it stacks 5280Hz PWM dimming with Chip-Level AI Defocus Display and DOT Eye Comfort Technology. None of this is medical, but it is the kind of feature set that matters if you read, write, and edit for hours, because it gives you a concrete way to talk about comfort over long sessions.

The display performance also matters for pen input, and the MagicPad4 is compatible with the HONOR Magic-Pencil 3. For note-taking and sketching, it makes the tablet feel more like a digital notebook than just a consumption screen, and it is the accessory that turns that big OLED into something you can actually work on, not just look at.

HONOR pairs the display with an eight-speaker setup featuring HONOR Spatial Audio. It sounds excellent overall, with a wide soundstage and solid clarity. Dialogue comes through cleanly, and music has enough separation that it does not blur into a flat wall of sound, though bass is a bit limited, as you would expect from a tablet this slim.

Combined with the 93% screen-to-body ratio and those slim bezels, the MagicPad4 can feel genuinely immersive for movies and video. It is the kind of tablet that makes you want to watch one more episode, because the screen and speakers work together in a way that feels closer to a tiny home theater than a typical mobile device.

Under the hood, it runs on Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, which gives it the headroom to stay responsive when you start stacking tasks, juggling multiple apps, or pushing more demanding games and creative workloads. Configurations include 12GB RAM with 256GB storage, or 16GB RAM with 512GB storage.

The MagicPad4 runs MagicOS 10 based on Android 16, and a lot of its performance feel comes from the PC-style features and multitasking tools built into the software. For instance, the moment you attach the keyboard, the system prompts you to switch into PC Mode, which immediately reframes the tablet as more of a small desktop than a giant phone.

With PC Mode on, you can open up to four floating windows at once. You can resize them, move them around freely, and set up your own layout depending on what you are doing, like notes on one side, a browser on the other, and a couple of smaller apps layered in. It is a simple feature, but it makes multitasking feel natural on a 12.3-inch screen. On top of that, HONOR bundles a full suite of AI features, so the tablet is not just fast, it is clearly designed to help you get through work faster too.

The cameras are not the reason you buy the MagicPad 4, but they are perfectly fine for what a tablet usually gets used for. You get a 13MP autofocus rear camera for quick document scans and occasional shots, plus a 9MP fixed-focus front camera that is mainly for video calls, and both are serviceable without being a main selling point.

Sustainability

HONOR does not lean heavily on sustainability messaging for the MagicPad4. What it emphasizes instead is structural durability. The MagicPad4 uses aerospace-grade special fiber as part of its body, which HONOR says reduces weight while increasing stiffness by 30%.

There is also a practical durability caveat. There is no IP rating mentioned, so I would be careful around water and treat it like a device that is not meant to handle spills. Software support matters for longevity, too, and HONOR’s promise of three years of major OS updates and three years of security updates is far from class-leading, so it is worth factoring in if you plan to keep the tablet for the long haul.

Value

Value is where the MagicPad4 starts to make a lot of sense, because HONOR is not pricing it like a niche luxury tablet. In the U.K., the 12GB plus 256GB model is £599.99 (about $760 USD), and the 16GB plus 512GB version is £699.99 (about $890 USD). Accessories are priced separately, with the HONOR MagicPad4 Smart Keyboard listed at £140.98 and the Magic-Pencil 3 at £30, which is worth factoring in if you plan to use it as more than a media tablet.

What makes this feel like great value is the overall hardware and feature mix. You are getting a flagship Snapdragon chip, a 12.3-inch 165Hz OLED, a sleek form factor, and a software experience that leans into PC-style multitasking. At these prices, the MagicPad4 makes the most sense for people who will actually use that work-capable tablet angle, not just the big-screen entertainment side.

Verdict

The HONOR MagicPad4 nails the parts of tablet life that actually matter day to day. It is exceptionally portable, the 12.3-inch 165Hz OLED is excellent for reading and media, and the eight-speaker setup helps it feel more immersive than most thin tablets. With the keyboard attached, PC Mode and floating windows make it feel closer to a small laptop than a typical Android tablet.

The compromises are more about the physical keyboard experience and long-term ownership than the software itself. The keyboard is convenient and flexible, but the shallow key travel and slightly wobbly lap use remind you that it is still a tablet-first setup. Honor also does not say much about sustainability, and the promised two major OS updates and four years of security patches are not class-leading, so it is worth weighing if you plan to keep the tablet for many years.

The post Honor MagicPad4 Review: The World’s Thinnest Tablet Nails Portability and Performance first appeared on Yanko Design.