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I tested Motorola’s cheaper iPhone Air alternative, but it still didn’t win me over to team thin-phone
6:00 pm | November 16, 2025
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Motorola Phones Phones | Tags: , , | Comments: Off

Motorola Edge 70 two-minute review

The Edge series from Motorola has been one of the most consistently interesting lines of Android phones for cost-conscious buyers; they’re not always the best smartphones around, but they look classy and get you unrivaled value for money in the Android world. But I’m not so sure about the Motorola Edge 70, which has fallen in with the wrong crowd by trying to follow the new thin-phone ‘trend’.

Super-thin smartphones are starting to feel like a new bandwagon that tech companies are leaping on, apparently after having noticed the huge lack of interest buyers had in the last bandwagon: AI. This bandwagon’s turning out no better: we didn’t love the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, and the iPhone Air was lambasted online, and so the Motorola Edge 70 has a lot to prove.

Before testing the Edge 70, I thought Moto would be preaching to the choir; I gave the Edge 60 a glowing review (I think it's my favorite phone of the year), and was fond of the Edge 60 Pro too. Perhaps it should have been telling that the previous generation of Edge mobiles came out only six months prior, because this new Edge is nothing to write home about.

Yes, it’s thin, and yes, it’s light, but it’s still just as wide and tall as your average Android smartphone, so these two tweaked specs don’t exactly amount to a revolutionary redesign.

Beyond its chassis, this is another solid mid-range Android phone. There’s a decent processor and enough RAM to blast through games, a good-looking screen, a classy color scheme, and a competent camera array (albeit with a few downgrades from the Edge 60 Pro in certain areas).

However, the huge price jump up from the Edge 60 – and the solid increase on the Edge 60 Pro too – throws my ‘mid-range’ argument into disarray; this is an expensive mobile which doesn’t go nearly far enough in justifying that price.

Bear in mind the number of downgrades from the still-very-fresh Edge 60 line: the new Edge 70 loses a camera from the 60 and 60 Pro, and also misses out on the fast charging and strong performance of the latter. And remember: the 60 Pro is a cheaper phone.

That’s doubly painful when you consider how much bloatware there is on this newer device; it's a symptom of a cheap phone that feels out of place when you’re buying a phone that’s only a little less pricey than the Samsung Galaxy S25 or iPhone 17.

Generally speaking, the Edge 70 runs smoothly, and there are a few things to like. I like how the Water Touch feature makes the phone easy to use when your hands are wet, the screen looks good, and the amount of on-board storage and RAM is great. And there's no denying that the Edge 70 is cheaper than its thin-phone rivals, even if that's simply because they're even more ludicrously priced.

A slightly-thinner-than-average body doesn’t make the price make sense, though, especially when the Motorola Edge 60 is basically half the price. Even though it’s a solid phone all around, the cost makes it hard to recommend the Edge 70 over its six-month senior.

Motorola Edge 70 review: price and availability

The Motorola Edge 70's home screen, while the phone is being held in a hand.

(Image credit: Future)
  • Released in November 2025
  • £699.98 (roughly $920, AU$1,400)
  • No US release expected; AU possibly

Motorola announced the Edge 70 on November 5, 2025, and put it on sale shortly afterwards.

You can buy the Motorola Edge 70 for £699.98 (roughly $920, AU$1,400). The phone won’t be released in the US, as Moto has a different Edge strategy there, but I’m expecting it to come out in Australia at some point in the near future based on precedent.

That’s a massive price increase from the £379 (roughly $520, AU$700) asking price of the Edge 60, but also more than the £599 (around $800, AU$1,250) of the Edge 60 Pro.

The Edge is, at least, cheaper than its rivals: the Galaxy Edge (Samsung’s phone, not the Star Wars theme park) begins at $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,849, while the iPhone Air goes for $999 / £999 / AU$1,799. Yikes.

Motorola Edge 70 review: specs

Motorola Edge 70 specs

Dimensions:

159.9 x 74 x 5.9 mm

Weight:

159g

Screen:

6.7-inch FHD (1220 x 2712) 120Hz P-OLED

Chipset:

Snapdragon 7 Gen 4

RAM:

12GB

Storage:

512GB

OS:

Android 16

Primary camera:

50MP, f/1.8

Ultra-wide camera:

50MP f/2.0 120-degree

Front camera:

50MP, f/2.0

Audio:

Dolby Atmos stereo speakers

Battery:

4,800mAh

Charging:

68W wired, 15W wireless

Colors:

Gadget Grey, Lily Pad, Bronze Green

Motorola Edge 70 review: design

The Motorola Edge 70 face-down on a brown table.

(Image credit: Future)
  • Thin (5.9mm) and light (159g)
  • Comes in three Pantone colors
  • Military-grade protections

I spent the introduction to this review comparing the Moto Edge 70 to its thin-phone contemporaries; it’s 5.9mm thick, and you can feel how svelte it is just by picking it up. It's so thin, in fact, that I felt duty-bound to protect it with the rigid plastic in-box case, thereby mitigating the benefits of a slender mobile in the first place.

The rest of the dimensions are more in line with your standard smartphone: it's 74mm wide and 159.4mm long. Mind you, in weighing 159g, it feels lighter in the hand than the average mobile.

Color company Pantone continues its quest to paint all the Edge phones in various distinct hues; this time around, we’ve got Gadget Grey (a mostly-boring grey but with some blue highlights), Lily Pad (olive green with some orange highlights), and the one I used, Bronze Green (dark green with lighter-green highlights – there’s no bronze to speak of).

As always, the use of some interesting colors immediately makes this Moto one of my favorite-looking phones of the year, and the textured back just adds something to the panache. I do wish that Motorola had given the Edge 70 a curved-edge screen like in some of the past generations, but presumably, this wouldn’t work with the thin body. The lack of it means that, visually speaking, the Edge 70 is ‘one of’ my favorites, but the Edge 60 family pips it to the post.

Let’s talk about ports and buttons. There’s a USB-C port on the bottom edge (no 3.5mm jack for audio), a power button and volume rocker on the right edge, and, right out of reach on the left, the AI button.

The Edge 70 is IP68/69 protected against dust and water submersion, and is also compliant with the military MIL-STD-810H standard, which means it’s tough against the knocks and bumps that a military-grade piece of kit would need to be.

If you decide to use the in-box case to protect the phone, you're not making a bad decision because it's nice and solid (not a cheapie silicon thing that many phone makers put in the box). But it's also incredibly hard to get onto the phone, and nearly as hard to remove, so you're going to need some good luck and brute strength. If you're buying this phone for your grandma, you should stick around to help her get the thing on!

  • Design score: 4 / 5

Motorola Edge 70 review: display

The Motorola Edge 70's home screen.

(Image credit: Future)
  • 6.7 inches, 2712 x 1220 resolution
  • 120Hz refresh rate, 20:9 aspect ratio
  • Water Touch adds some extra usability

The Motorola Edge 70 has a 6.7-inch screen, which is roughly the average size for an Android smartphone. The resolution (2712 x 1200) is also what you’d expect from such a mobile.

A few other specs and features help the phone’s display stand out, though. It has a nice high max brightness of 4,500 nits, a 120Hz refresh rate, support for HDR 10+, and some optimizations from Pantone.

A feature I really appreciate is Water Touch, which basically just means the screen will pick up your touches better if you’ve got wet hands or if the display has droplets on it. No longer does bathtime prohibit the use of screens.

Breaking up the display at the top is a punch-hole cut-out for the front camera, but it’s so small and unobtrusive that you’ll easily forget it was there.

  • Display score: 4 / 5

Motorola Edge 70 review: software

The Motorola Edge 70's software immediately upon booting up the device.

Here are the apps pre-installed on the Edge 70 (although I can excuse Ecosia, since that's the one I picked as my browser on load-up). (Image credit: Future)
  • Android 16 with four guaranteed updates
  • Bloatware (pre-installed apps) abounds
  • Moto's AI app has yet to prove itself

While Motorola phones have long used stock Android as their operating system, the company has slowly been tweaking the formula in myriad ways over successive generations of Edge. So, while the Edge 70 technically has stock Android 16, it’s not exactly the same as the stock Android software you’d see on Pixel phones – mostly for the worse.

The worst is that, at least on first start-up, Motorola has opted to copy some cheap Chinese phone makers in plastering its devices with bloatware. When you first boot up the Edge 70, it’s already full of apps like Amazon Music, TikTok, and Booking.com, and while you can delete them all, it doesn’t help but make it feel like your own mobile is one walking billboard.

Most of these apps are innocuous, at least, but some raise eyebrows. Perplexity is one – an AI search engine with myriad active lawsuits and accusations against it – and controversy-laden e-retailer Temu is another. It bears repeating that this phone isn’t that different in price from the iPhone 17 – seeing pre-installed apps at all, especially ones of this caliber, leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Motorola’s also pushing harder into its own AI tools than most other companies, mostly with its Moto AI, an assistant that’s slowly gaining skills and tools with each new Moto phone I test.

However, its feature list is still quite eclectic (note-taking, playlist generation, and file organization seem to be its main tools, according to Moto’s website), and none of them really solve problems I’d otherwise have on my smartphone. I used Moto AI when I was testing the Edge 70, but I no doubt would have ignored it if I were using the phone normally.

Not all the changes to stock Android are terrible, and I’ve long liked Motorola’s customization and navigation features. And if you ignore the AI and delete the bloatware, the phone runs decently well. It’s set to get four years of security updates (presumably up to Android 20), and five years of security updates.

  • Software score: 3 / 5

Motorola Edge 70 review: cameras

The Motorola Edge 70's camera bump.

(Image credit: Future)
  • 50MP main and 50MP ultra-wide cameras
  • 50MP front-facing
  • Some odd over-brightening issues

Motorola’s marketing materials make a point of how the Edge 70 has three 50MP cameras; this is technically true, but don’t imagine for a moment that the Edge 70 has three rear cameras like the Edge 60 members did. Instead, it only has two, with that third high-res snapper being the one on the front, and I’m disappointed that Moto opted to drop the telephoto lens that made the last generation surprisingly solid camera phones.

On the back, then, we’ve got a 50MP main snapper with OIS and a 50MP ultra-wide with a 120-degree field of view. Nope, no telephoto lens.

I've previously been quite negative about the cameras on Motorola phones, as the optimization software doesn't match that on rival mobiles, making pictures look a little dull. Usually, the low price of the phone justifies these shortcomings, but that's obviously not the case here. Thankfully, I wasn't too put out by the snaps either.

With sufficient lighting, pictures have a fair amount of color and detail, and autofocus was fairly quick to find objects. Manual focus was a bit of an issue, though; usually, I find tapping on an object in the viewfinder does the job, but when I tried it in the Edge 70's camera app, it also changed the brightness of the shot... quite dramatically.

Look at the two snaps of cookies in the camera sample section; the first one is default, the second is when I pressed on the snack. I like a bright picture as much as the next guy, but it's a little too much in that particular case.

The Motorola Edge 70's camera app, while the phone is pointed to plants.

(Image credit: Future)

I took quite a few low-light photos with the camera; it's that period of the year where we have about three minutes of sunlight, after all. The camera held up well, presumably thanks to a solid sensor that takes in lots of light.

Around the front, the selfie camera uses pixel binning to ensure snaps have enough light; you can see the results on a pretty gray day below.

Taking a stroll through the rest of the phone app, you'll find most of the standard options you've come to expect on a smartphone: night vision, panorama, portrait photography, slow-mo and time-lapse videography, and so on.

You can record video at 4K at 30fps or FHD at 60fps, and slow-mo switches between 120fps at FHD or 240fps at HD.

  • Camera score: 3.5 / 5

Motorola Edge 70 camera samples

Image 1 of 11

A picture of the London Eye taken on the Moto Edge 70.

(Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 11

A picture of the London Eye taken on the Moto Edge 70.

(Image credit: Future)
Image 3 of 11

A picture of the London Eye taken on the Moto Edge 70.

(Image credit: Future)
Image 4 of 11

A snap of some fireworks taken on the Moto Edge 70.

(Image credit: Future)
Image 5 of 11

A snap of two lego figures taken on the Moto Edge 70.

(Image credit: Future)
Image 6 of 11

A photo of some cookies taken on the Moto Edge 70.

(Image credit: Future)
Image 7 of 11

A photo of some cookies taken on the Moto Edge 70.

(Image credit: Future)
Image 8 of 11

An image of a bonfire taken on the Moto Edge 70.

(Image credit: Future)
Image 9 of 11

A selfie in standard mode taken on the Moto Edge 70.

(Image credit: Future)
Image 10 of 11

A selfie in Portriat mode taken on the Moto Edge 70.

(Image credit: Future)
Image 11 of 11

A photo of a scarecrow taken on the Moto Edge 70.

(Image credit: Future)

Motorola Edge 70 review: performance and audio

The Motorola Edge 70 face-down on a brown table.

(Image credit: Future)
  • Mid-range Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset
  • 12GB RAM and 512GB Storage
  • Dolby Atmos-tuned stereo speakers

Looking under the hood, the Motorola Edge 70 has a Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset, which is a mid-range piece of kit we’ve seen in a handful of Androids, including the Realme 15 Pro and Vivo V60. While seeing ‘mid-range’ may cause you to be wary, let me win you back over: there’s 12GB RAM and a hearty 512GB storage. Now those are specs I like to see!

I took the Edge for a whirl (well, many whirls over two weeks) playing Call of Duty: Mobile and Northgard, and was impressed by how close the performance was to that of phones with top-end chipsets or more RAM. Playing hectic online games, I never felt like I was lagging or dropping behind in a way that affected my performance, and the phone seemed fine to render loads of assets or enemies at once.

When I put the Edge 70 through the Geekbench 6 multi-core benchmark test, it returned an average score of 4,115 (though, notably, with a bigger variation in results than I normally see with this test). That reflects the mid-range status of the mobile, with Snapdragon 8 Gen chipsets scoring in the 5,000-6,000 range (or even higher), though it is a little way behind the Edge 60 Pro, which used a top-end chipset from a different company.

Honestly, though, when you get to a certain point, these numbers are just numbers. I never felt that the Edge 70 lacked performance when I was gaming, and that’s what matters.

Audio-wise, the Edge 70 has dual stereo speakers, which were tuned with some Dolby Atmos magic. Otherwise, for listening to music, you can use the Bluetooth 5.4 to connect wirelessly, or via a wired connection if you can find an adaptor to plug your cans into the USB-C port (there’s no headphone jack).

  • Performance score: 4 / 5

Motorola Edge 70 review: battery life

The Motorola Edge 70's Google folder.

(Image credit: Future)
  • 4,800mAh battery
  • 68W wired charging
  • 15W wireless powering

Despite being a thin smartphone, the Edge 70 has a battery that’s roughly average in capacity: 4,800mAh, which a few years ago we’d have called positively huge.

I’m not going to pretend it grants the Edge a miraculously long battery life, as it’s powering a pretty big display, but it ensures the handset will easily last a full day of use. During my testing, the Edge 70 reliably waltzed through half of day two before needing to be powered up.

Charging is done at 68W, which is the same as most past Moto Edge phones, and 15W wireless charging has been thrown in for good measure. You’re getting from empty to full in about 40 minutes if you charge with a compatible cable.

  • Battery score: 3.5 / 5

Motorola Edge 70 review: value

The Motorola Edge 70's AI button.

(Image credit: Future)

Thin phones are, unfortunately, exceedingly expensive devices. When you consider that, in the Edge 70, you’re getting one for substantially less than the iPhone Air, perhaps you can convince yourself that you’re getting a good deal.

But if you look at the Motorola Edge 70 as the sum of its parts, it’s hard to deny that it doesn’t offer great value for money. Its specs are mostly all mid-ranged, with much cheaper alternatives from various rivals beating it six ways from Sunday.

So, if you absolutely need a smartphone that’s a few millimeters thinner than your current one, no matter the price, at least this is getting you better value than the iPhone or Samsung. But if you’re happy to consider all your options, no matter their thickness, skipping the Edge 70 is a no-brainer.

  • Value score: 3 / 5

Should you buy the Motorola Edge 70?

Motorola Edge 70 score card

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Value

From another brand, a phone with the same specs would have a price tag that's half of the Edge 70's.

3 / 5

Design

Pantone wins again, but the slender body helps too.

4 / 5

Display

It's just as good-looking as the last time we saw this screen on a Moto phone.

4 / 5

Software

The bloatware's getting worse, and Moto's more preoccupied with its AI tool than fixing it.

3 / 5

Camera

The cameras are fine for the price, though I miss the better hardware of the Edge 60.

3.5 / 5

Performance

You get a solid set of power specs for the price.

4 / 5

Battery

Any kind of reliable battery is a miracle in a thin phone like this.

3.5 / 5

Buy it if...

You must have a thin phone
If you're looking at the iPhone Air or Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge with envy, then the Moto Edge 70 is your way to get a thin phone without breaking the bank.

You need lots of storage
With 512GB of on-board storage, you're never going to need to choose which photos you need to delete to get more space, or pick and choose the apps that take up that space.

You like the look
Honestly, all of Moto's Edge phones have a little extra pizzazz thanks to Pantone's decorations; they're a splash of color in a monochromatic market.

Don't buy it if...

You don't care about your phone's thickness
All thin phones are expensive... but if thinness isn't an important thing for you, your money will go a lot further with a different device.

You're on a budget
Many people associate Motorola with cheap phones, because it makes some of the best. But the Edge 70 is certainly a premium model.

You're not an AI fan
Moto's been very gung-ho about its own AI tools, but the Edge 70's bloatware includes lots more, like Copilot and Perplexity. If you're on the righteous anti-AI train, this isn't the right phone for you.View Deal

Motorola Edge 70 review: Also consider

Let's take a proper look at those phones I've been comparing the Motorola Edge 70 to:

Apple iPhone Air
Apple's thin phone is 0.3mm more slender than the Edge 70, but a little heavier. It's the one to buy if you want an Apple phone, although it's not the strongest specs-wise.

Read our full Apple iPhone Air review

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
This is a powerful phone with top specs across the board, and it's also thinner than the Moto, though not as light. It's super slow to charge, though.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge review

Motorola Edge 60
It's cheaper and it's weaker, but otherwise this slightly older phone matches or exceeds the specs of its newer relative. So, it's certainly well worth keeping on the wishlist.

Read our full Motorola Edge 60 review

Motorola Edge 70

Apple iPhone Air

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge

Motorola Edge 60

Starting price (at launch):

£699.98 (roughly $920, AU$1,400)

From $999 / £999 / AU$1,799

From $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,849

£379 (roughly $520, AU$700)

Dimensions:

159.9 x 74 x 5.9mm

156.2 x 74.7 x 5.6mm

158.2 x 75.6 x 5.8mm

161.2 x 73.1 x 7.9mm

Weight:

159g

165g

163g

179g

OS (at launch):

Android 16

iOS 26

OneUI 7, Android 15

Android 15

Screen Size:

6.7-inch

6.5-inch

6.7-inch

6.67-inch

Resolution:

2712 x 1220

2736 x 1260

1260 x 2736

2712 x 1220

CPU:

Snapdragon 7 Gen 4

A19 Pro Bionic

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy

Mediatek Dimensity 7300

RAM:

12GB

Unconfirmed

12GB

12GB

Storage (from):

512GB

256GB / 512GB / 1TB

256GB / 512GB

512GB

Battery:

4,800mAh

Unconfirmed

3,900mAh

5,200mAh

Rear Cameras:

50MP main, 50MP ultra-wide

48MP main

200MP main, 12MP ultra-wide

50MP main, 10MP telephoto. 50MP ultra-wide

Front camera:

50MP

18MP

12MP

50MP

How I tested the Motorola Edge 70

  • Review test period = 2 weeks
  • Testing included = Everyday usage, including web browsing, social media, photography, video calling, gaming, streaming video, music playback
  • Tools used = Geekbench 6, Geekbench ML, GFXBench, native Android stats

I used the Motorola Edge 70 for two weeks in order to write this review. That's the usual TechRadar test period, and a figure I use as an absolute minimum in order to ensure I've given every gadget a fair shake.

In that time, I used the Edge 70 as my normal smartphone for tasks like social media, photography, and gaming. Outside of full testing, I also took it for a few camera tests to collect more samples for the gallery. Alongside experiential use, I used a few lab tests to gauge certain metrics of the phone.

I've been reviewing mobiles at TechRadar for over six years now. I tested both members of the Edge 60 family, and have used most previous Moto Edge devices, as well as countless other handsets made by the company (and, of course, non-Moto phones too!).

Read more about how we test

First reviewed November 2025

The OnePlus 15 is the cure for the common phone, and it’s the first phone I’ve tested that’s earned a perfect score
5:30 pm | November 13, 2025
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets OnePlus Phones Phones | Tags: , | Comments: Off

OnePlus 15: Two-minute review

If a smartphone genie offered me three wishes for my dream phone, I couldn't have created a device as great as the OnePlus 15. It delivers more than the most demanding smartphone fans could wish for, with priorities that reflect the ways I really want to use my phone.

My three wishes? First, I'd wish for a battery that lasts all day. The OnePlus 15 watches my dream phone fall asleep then parties hard for another day and a half. I let this phone go uncharged for three days during my review and I still had some juice left. And that’s not to mention the incredibly fast charging speeds.

My second wish would be for a durable phone, water resistant with glass that is tough enough it won't break if I drop it. OnePlus makes its flagship phone more durable than any Samsung or Apple phone you can buy. I watched last year’s OnePlus 13 survive a run through a dishwasher, and the OnePlus 15 is even tougher than that. Bring on the hot water jets!

My final wish would be to get back some of the great smartphone features we've lost over the years. I remember when Android phones were about personality and customization. Now you can't even organize your app drawer on a Pixel phone.

OnePlus 15 in Times Square New York City on the busy street showing the cameras and sides of the phone in addition to home screen panels and Settings menus

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The OnePlus 15, on the other hand, is the phone for people who love smartphones. You can customize it, but it looks great even if you don't. It has a ton of unique widgets that add functions to your home screen, or you can hide those on a separate shelf.

Oh, and it has an IR blaster. Remember when phones had those? Every Galaxy S6 could change the channel on your TV (or the bar TV playing Fox News), and the OnePlus 15 brings that back. It can act as a universal remote control, a feature I treasure when I lose my TV remote after I turn out the lights.

The OnePlus 15 is great at everything you want to do on your phone. For gaming, it's a next-level handheld. I was able to play games with Settings in the Experimental realm. The OnePlus 15 pushes past limits you never noticed on other smartphones, and there are enough game developers on board to make the advantage worthwhile.

Call of Duty looked as good on my phone as it does running on a console, with an even better frame rate, and I say that as a long time gamer, not a casual interloper.

What's the catch? Well, you might have to explain to people who OnePlus is when they ask about your phone, because most people I talk to have never heard of them.

OnePlus 15 in Times Square New York City on the busy street showing the cameras and sides of the phone in addition to home screen panels and Settings menus

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

That's because OnePlus doesn't sell its best phones in carrier stores. You won't see the OnePlus 15 available free with a contract and a trade on AT&T or Vodafone. That means you pay more up front, which is a shame. Lots of my friends would love this phone, but don't have hundreds to shell out. At least OnePlus usually has decent trade-in offers when you buy directly from the company.

There are a few other shortcomings, but they don't amount to much when you consider this phone competes with the base model iPhone 17 and Galaxy S25, even though it offers as much as an Ultra or Pro Max.

We used to call this a flagship killer. Now I just call it the best phone you can buy, and the first phone I've tested that deserves a perfect score.

OnePlus 15 review: Price & availability

OnePlus 15

(Image credit: Blue Pixl Media)
  • Black version costs $899.99 / £899 for 12GB RAM and 256GB storage
  • Other colors available for $999.99 / £999 with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage

The OnePlus 15 is a flagship smartphone, but it isn’t the most expensive flagship around. It costs more than the iPhone 17 but less than the iPhone Air. It’s more expensive than a Google Pixel 10, but less than the Pixel 10 Pro. The Galaxy S25 Plus is more expensive than the black OnePlus 15 with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

Sadly, the best colors are only available on the more expensive model with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. I’m sure the lower-spec OnePlus 15 performs admirably, but my review sample is the Sand Storm model with more goodness inside. It’s not a necessary upgrade, but even at this $999.99 / £999 price, it’s a great deal for such a powerhouse phone.

OnePlus only makes one flagship – there isn't a Pro or an Ultra or an XL model with better cameras or a faster chip. While Samsung and Apple lure you in with aspirational models that cost more than $1,000 / £1,000 / AU$2,000, the OnePlus 15 is the company's best phone, not a step down.

In the past, OnePlus has offered great trade-in deals that knock at least $100 off the price in the US, but it hasn’t announced similar offers for the OnePlus 15.

I’d still recommend this phone at its full price. You won’t find a more capable phone without paying hundreds more, and even the most expensive phones – the Galaxy Z Fold 7 or Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max come to mind – can’t beat the OnePlus 15 in the things it does best.

OnePlus 15 pricing

Storage

US Price

UK Price

AU Price

256GB

$899

£899

AU $TBD

512GB

$999

£999

AU $TBD

  • Value score: 5 / 5

OnePlus 15 review: Specifications

OnePlus 15 in Times Square New York City on the busy street showing the cameras and sides of the phone in addition to home screen panels and Settings menus

You can use the OnePlus 15 to change channels on a TV (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The OnePlus 15 features a unique spec list that highlights it's capabilities. It's the first phone most of us can buy with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset inside, and that platform seems to pay dividends in performance and power management.

The OnePlus 15 has a 7,300 mAh battery inside, which should make the phone enormous, but it's actually just as thin as an iPhone 17. That huge battery equates to the best battery life I've ever experienced on a smartphone. The OnePlus 15 also has 80-100W charging (80W on my US review sample), and it can charge wirelessly up to 50W, if you have a OnePlus AirVOOC charger.

The display on the OnePlus 15 can refresh up to 165Hz in gaming mode. It can also force itself to draw 120fps consistently on certain competition games like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.

OnePlus 15 specifications

Dimensions:

161.42 x 76.67 x 8.1mm

Weight:

211g

Display:

6.78-inch LTPO OLED

Resolution:

2772 x 1272 pixels

Refresh rate:

1-120Hz; 165Hz for select games

Peak brightness:

1,800 nits

Chipset:

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5

RAM:

12GB/16GB LPDDR5X Ultra/Ultra+

Storage:

256GB/512GB/ UFS 4.1

OS:

OxygenOS 16.0 based on Android™ 16

Main cameras

50MP main; 50MP ultrawide; 50MP 3.5x telephoto

Selfie camera:

32MP

Battery:

7,300mAh

Charging:

80-100W wired; 50W wireless

Colors:

Infinite Black, Ultra Violet, Sand Storm (tested)

OnePlus 15 review: Design

OnePlus 15 in Times Square New York City on the busy street showing the cameras and sides of the phone in addition to home screen panels and Settings menus

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
  • Incredible durability - can withstand more than you’ll encounter
  • Restrained colors and design compared to past OnePlus flagships

I’ve tested phones that were as durable as the OnePlus 15, and phones that packed a battery just as large or larger. They were as big as school buses and just as heavy. The OnePlus 15 is a marvel of design because it looks simple and refined – totally normal. It isn’t trying to be gorgeous; it’s just a very nice looking smartphone.

Astonishingly, the OnePlus 15 packs the largest battery of any smartphone I’ve tested, but it’s only a hair thicker than the iPhone 17, which has a battery almost half the size.

Does that mean the OnePlus 15 could have been much thinner with a normal battery? Who cares, apparently nobody wants a thin phone with a small battery. The OnePlus 15 is the phone you’ve been asking for instead of the iPhone Air.

The OnePlus 15 is more restrained than previous OnePlus phones, and while I miss the navy blue curves of the OnePlus 13 and the swirling jade green OnePlus 12, I understand the impulse to be less flashy. Those camera bumps were very large. The phones were downright wobbly.

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OnePlus 12 from the back in Flowy Emerald color

The OnePlus 12 design, especially in Flowy Emerald, was gorgeous, but divisive (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
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The OnePlus 12 phone, from the back

That camera bump is admittedly very large (Image credit: Future)
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OnePlus 13 from back in blue showing cameras and H Hasselblad logo

The OnePlus 13 tried for classier color options, but the cameras still stand out (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
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OnePlus 13 in blue from back showing cameras

OnePlus reps said its own fans were asking for a smaller camera bump on the back (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The OnePlus 15 looks like it could descend from the same lineage as the Google Pixel 10. It has a prominent camera bump that feels precisely machined, taking up a square of the corner on the back. The curves of the phone, the camera bump, and the camera lens windows are all symmetrically aligned on the same axis.

The color options for the OnePlus 15 are a bit staid compared to previously flashy hues, but each comes with its own benefits. My review unit came in the Sand Storm color that OnePlus claims is slightly more durable than the rest, owing to the electrified way the color is applied to the frame. The lilac color will be more limited, which only makes me want it more.

  • Design score: 5 / 5

OnePlus 15 review: Display

OnePlus 15 in Times Square New York City on the busy street showing the cameras and sides of the phone in addition to home screen panels and Settings menus

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
  • Excellent display for gaming with special features
  • Bright, colorful, and incredibly responsive

The OnePlus 15 has a display made for serious gaming. That doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy its benefits if you don’t play hardcore, online multiplayer games. It’s still incredibly bright and colorful. But for gaming it stands out like no other phone I’ve tried.

How fast is the OnePlus 15 display? You’re going to need to find the Experiment settings in Call of Duty Mobile to truly take advantage of what this phone can do. For a number of games, the OnePlus 15 can refresh up to 165 Hz. For the rest of its functions, it refreshes from a 1Hz always-on sleep screen to 120Hz.

I was a big fan of the OnePlus 13 fingerprint sensor, and I’m pleased to report the OnePlus 15 has the most consistent scanner I’ve used on a phone this year. While Samsung phones regularly fail to register my fingerprint, the OnePlus 15 opened the first time I tried, every single time. Only Apple’s FaceID system is this consistent and quick, other Android makers haven’t been able to match this convenience.

Is this the best display around? Our lab tests say the Google Pixel 10 Pro is much brighter, with better color. I definitely preferred the Pixel 10 Pro for taking photos outdoors, but the OnePlus 15 still has a great display, and its fast response time pushes it to the top.

  • Display score: 5 / 5

OnePlus 15 review: Software

OnePlus 15 in Times Square New York City on the busy street showing the cameras and sides of the phone in addition to home screen panels and Settings menus

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
  • Oxygen OS 16 is a polished and friendly version of Android
  • Plenty of features to reward power users and iPhone switchers alike

OnePlus has its own version of Android 16, Oxygen OS, and it's a very elegant design that takes great advantage of the sharp resolution of the display. You get plenty of tools like a widget shelf and a pop-up sidebar, or you can just ignore all of those an enjoy the uncluttered, effective look.

There are tons of unique features built in that are actually useful and don't require too much digging. If you're daring, try the Zen Space, which will lock you out of your own phone for a minute. No joke, no half measures. Nothing you do can get you back in. Like I said, it's daring.

I like Oxygen OS, it's clearly inspired by iOS without feeling derivative or amateur. It rewards OnePlus owners who know other OnePlus owners with special sharing and communication features that work between devices. If you're an iPhone owner considering a switch, this is the first Android stop I'd recommend on your bus out of Apple town.

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OnePlus 15 in Times Square New York City on the busy street showing the cameras and sides of the phone in addition to home screen panels and Settings menus

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
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OnePlus 15 in Times Square New York City on the busy street showing the cameras and sides of the phone in addition to home screen panels and Settings menus

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
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OnePlus 15 in Times Square New York City on the busy street showing the cameras and sides of the phone in addition to home screen panels and Settings menus

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

There are AI tools on the OnePlus 15, and even a button that will take a screenshots to save to a special AI mind space. This is similar to Google’s Screenshot app on its Pixel phones, and it's an unobtrusive way to let AI collect your personal data on your own terms. The OnePlus AI also did a fine job transcribing my recordings, which is an AI tool I use frequently across my devices for meetings and interviews.

OnePlus says this phone will get four years of major Android updates, hopefully taking Oxygen OS 16.0 all the way up to Oxygen OS 20, though we’ll have to hold OnePlus to this promise. It will get six years of security updates as well, even after the OS updates stop.

  • Software score: 5 / 5

OnePlus 15 review: Cameras

OnePlus 15 in Times Square New York City on the busy street showing the cameras and sides of the phone in addition to home screen panels and Settings menus

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
  • Versatile cameras with effective zoom that captures great detail
  • Best action camera for fast-moving subjects in any light condition

With the OnePlus 15, you get a versatile camera array that rises to any occasion. For hundreds less than a Pixel 10 Pro XL or Galaxy S25 Ultra, you get a camera with the same capabilities – especially a real 3.5x optical zoom lens.

The photos I got from the OnePlus 15 were usually just as good as pics from the best camera phones, and in some cases the OnePlus 15 shots were the best. Compared to the Pixel 10 Pro and Galaxy S25 Ultra, for instance, the OnePlus 15 camera achieves more clarity edge to edge in most photos.

The OnePlus 15 does have some special tricks up its sleeve. It's the best camera phone I've used when I am shooting a fast moving subject. For my kid’s football games, the combo of zoom plus action mode means I get shots with the ball hovering in mid air, taken from high up in the bleachers. Other phones can manage the same zoom, but not the same speed.

Maybe there are too many modes in the camera, but there are some I'm dying to try, like the underwater mode that balances for the blue light and gives you controls to use when the screen doesn't work. I'll need to wait until it's warmer for that one.

Is the OnePlus 15 the absolute best camera phone? I still think the iPhone 17 Pro is tops, but for the price, the OnePlus 15 offers unique features and excellent quality, and it surpassed my expectations once again.

  • Camera score: 5 / 5

OnePlus 15 review: Camera samples

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Camera image samples taken with the OnePlus 15

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
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Camera image samples taken with the OnePlus 15

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
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Camera image samples taken with the OnePlus 15

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
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Camera image samples taken with the OnePlus 15

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
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Camera image samples taken with the OnePlus 15

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
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Camera image samples taken with the OnePlus 15

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

OnePlus 15 review: Performance

OnePlus 15 in Times Square New York City on the busy street showing the cameras and sides of the phone in addition to home screen panels and Settings menus

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
  • Stellar performance from Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
  • Gaming mode pushes display to 165 Hz for superlative gamers

As one of the first smartphones with the newest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset inside, I knew the OnePlus 15 would be incredibly fast, but I usually wonder where all that speed goes? Thankfully, OnePlus offers concrete examples for gamers, and if you haven't taken mobile gaming seriously before, maybe it's time.

I usually test phones by playing Call of Duty Mobile with my Xbox controller on Bluetooth. I max out the settings and play multiplayer games to test the frame rate. Not only did the OnePlus 15 play CoD better than any previous phone I've used, I maxed out all the settings, including every option in the Experiment mode, and the game ran just as smoothly. It looked like a current-gen console game running on my phone.

The OnePlus 15 even supports a 165Hz display refresh rate, which means some games will be able to run at a theoretical 165 fps. Those include: Clash of Clans, Brawl Stars, Real Racing 3, Standoff 2, Blood Strike - FPS for all, and of course Call of Duty.

Even if you're not a gamer, you'll still appreciate the smooth performance of the OnePlus 15 in everyday tasks. Oxygen OS offers a variety of visual transitions between your home screen panels, for instance, as well as other pop-up features. All of these respond instantly as you tap and swipe.

We'll probably see a slightly faster version of this chipset when the Samsung Galaxy S26 is launched in early 2026, but the big question will be what Samsung does with so much power. Will the next Galaxy have a high-refresh rate display and a stable of games ready to run fast? Or will that power be squandered on AI? The benchmarks might give Samsung a future win, but the OnePlus manages to put all of its power to use, for once.

  • Performance score: 5 / 5

OnePlus 15 review: Battery

OnePlus 15

(Image credit: Blue Pixl Media)
  • Unbelievable battery life - lasted 3 days in my testing
  • Super-fast charging, wired or wireless (with a OnePlus charger)

Last year’s OnePlus 13R was my pick for the best phone to buy for battery life, but this year’s OnePlus 15 raises the bar higher than I thought possible. Its battery seems obnoxiously large on paper, but the phone feels no heavier or thicker than any other flagship smartphone. Is there really a 7,300 mAh cell inside? Our Future Labs test say yes, indeed, and it’s more impressive than it sounds.

How long should a smartphone last? A day? Two day? I woke up on Wednesday with a fully charged OnePlus 15. I went to bed on Friday night and the phone still had battery power in the single digits. It lasted nearly three full days of use. You can leave your charger at the office for the weekend without worrying too much.

Even better, bring the charger along, because the OnePlus 15 charges faster than any other phone you’ll find. In 30 minutes of charging with the included 80W charger (it can charge to 100W in regions outside the US) I had more than 80% battery life. In less than 45 minutes I was fully charged.

That means you might get a week of real world use from this phone with just over an hour sitting on the wired charger. Want to go wireless? Like everything else on the OnePlus 15, wireless charging will demolish your expectations. This phone can charge faster on a OnePlus AirVOOC wireless charger than an iPhone 17 Pro can charge with wire.

Too bad it doesn’t have magnets built-in, then, but I highly recommend getting a OnePlus case. All of the new OnePlus 15 cases have magnets that align the wireless charging with your favorite MagSafe accessories, but I highly recommend splurging on AirVOOC. A few moments on a charging stand and you’ll be ready for hours more play time.

  • Battery score: 5 / 5

Should you buy the OnePlus 15?

OnePlus 15 scorecard

Value

Priced less than competitors’ Pro and Ultra models, with features that blow those flagships out of the water. I wish it were available on a payment plan, but it’s a fantastic value nonetheless.

5/5

Design

A more refined design gives up flashy colors and a ginormous camera bump for extreme durability and classy looks. It’s astonishing OnePlus got so much tech into this phone, especially the huge battery.

5/5

Display

Excellent display is bright and colorful, and capable of extreme gaming performance with the right titles. It can refresh up to 120Hz, or up to 165Hz on select games, and you can really see the difference when you play.

5/5

Software

Smooth and polished version of Android 16 in Oxygen OS, with plenty of useful customization options and features, and just the right touch of AI (that you can also ignore). This phone also has 4 years of updates on the way.

5/5

Cameras

Excellent camera quality beats anything at this price range and aims to be one of the best camera phones you can buy. For action shots and detailed zoom photos, the OnePlus might be the best choice, but all of my pics looked good and there are camera modes I still want to try.

5/5

Performance

Top notch performance makes this phone a benchmark champ, and OnePlus puts all of that power to use in fantastic gaming. Max out the graphics on your favorite title, this phone can defeat whatever monsters you throw its way.

5/5

Battery

Unbelievable battery life thanks to a massive cell hidden inside the svelte design. This phone beats everything by hours and hours - it lasted almost three days in my real world testing. Also it charges super fast, if you ever need to charge it.

5/5

Buy it if...

You want battery that lasts and lasts and lastsThis isn’t just the best battery life, it is so far ahead that it’s practically into next week while the iPhone is still charging today

You play the latest multiplayer mobile gamesGames on the OnePlus 15 look more like current-gen console titles than the mobile games you’ve seen before. The difference is striking

You need durability to survive a volcanic eruption
Exaggeration? The OnePlus 15 is the only phone I’ve seen certified to survive intense, high-temperature water sprays. This phone is Jurassic tough

Don't buy it if...

You don’t have the cash to shell out up frontSadly, OnePlus doesn’t have the best distribution, so you probably won’t be able to pay for this phone on a monthly plan

You love magnets and everything that contains magnets
It’s too bad there aren’t magnets built into the OnePlus 15, but the case options all have magnets, if magnets are your thing

You’re a pro photographer who uses only smartphones for some reason
The OnePlus 15 camera is one of the best, but the iPhone 17 Pro is still better all around for pixel peeping perfectionists who can’t accept less

Also consider...

Apple iPhone 17 Pro
If you want an iPhone that is as powerful with cameras this good, you’ll have to go for a Pro model, and it still can’t match the OnePlus battery.

Read our in-depth Apple iPhone 17 Pro review

Google Pixel 10 Pro
The Pixel 10 Pro is durable with a great design and fantastic software. It just lacks the battery life, performance, and even camera quality of the OnePlus 15.

Read our in-depth Google Pixel 10 Pro review

OnePlus 15

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Google Pixel 10 Pro

Price:

$899 / £899

$1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,999

$999 / £999 / AU $1,699

Processor:

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

Apple A19 Pro

Google Tensor G5

Display:

6.78-inch OLED up to 165Hz

6.3-inch 1-120Hz OLED

6.3-inch 60-120Hz OLED

Battery Test Results (HH:MM:SS)

26:25:00

15:21:36

13:43:30

How I tested the OnePlus 15

I have been using the OnePlus 15 for more than two weeks as my primary business phone, with all of my personal and work accounts loaded onto the device. I used the phone on AT&T’s 5G network in the greater New York Area, including around our Times Square offices and my home in Connecticut.

I used the OnePlus 15 as my camera, testing almost every camera feature (I couldn’t test the Underwater mode). I connected the OnePlus 15 to my OnePlus Watch 3, my OnePlus Buds Pro 3, and many other Bluetooth headsets and devices. I used Android Auto in my Kia and my friends’ Acura and Subaru cars, and connected to Bluetooth in an older BMW.

I've been testing phones for more than 20 years, since the days of BlackBerry and Palm OS smartphones and Samsung flip phones. I've tested hundreds of devices myself, and our Future Labs experts have tested hundreds more.

Future Labs tests phones using a mix of third-party benchmark software and proprietary, real-world tests. We use Geekbench, CrossMark, JetStream, WebXPRT and Mobile XPRT, and 3DMark for performance testing. We test a phone's performance on video editing tasks using Adobe Premiere Rush. We also measure display color output and brightness.

For battery testing, we have proprietary rundown tests that are the same for every phone, which we use to determine how long it takes for the battery to run down.

First reviewed November 2025

The Lenovo Go USB-C laptop power bank helps tame bag clutter thanks to a built-in cable
7:17 am | November 12, 2025
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Phone Accessories Phones | Comments: Off

Lenovo Go USB-C laptop power bank review

I rely on a power bank daily, and only the most powerful options can keep up with the demands of laptop charging or topping up portable gaming devices.

While there are plenty of great options in our guide to the best power banks, most don’t have built-in cables, so you need to carry some extras when on the go.

And that’s where the Lenovo Go slots in, with up to 65W output and a built-in cable that hides away in the power bank itself, so it's ready to go whenever needed.

Aside from the cable, it also has both a USB-C and a USB-A port and can charge three devices at once.

The Lenovo Go features a typical 20,000mAh, 74Wh (though the unit itself says 77Wh) capacity, which makes it ready to take on flights without permission, and capable of topping up a laptop at least once or keeping your phone charged for days. It’s also enough to give the 50Wh battery in the Steam Deck a full charge.

Lenovo Go USB-C laptop power bank from above showing the unfolded USB-C cable

The Lenovo Go power bank includes a built-in 44 cm USB-C cable. (Image credit: Future)

At 170 × 72 × 23 mm (6.69 × 2.83 × 0.91 inches), it’s reasonably compact, and the 390 grams (0.86 lb) weight is fairly typical considering the capacity. The design is slim enough to slip into a bag (including briefcase-style laptop bags) without adding bulk.

The built-in USB-C cable is 44 cm (17.3 in) long and wraps around a recess in the power bank for storage. While secure and easy to deploy, it’s very slightly fiddly to put back into place neatly once you are finished charging.

The USB-C end is slightly bulky, so it may not fit in some USB-C ports with tight access, such as phones with thicker cases.

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Lenovo Go USB-C laptop power bank from the top front

(Image credit: Future)
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Lenovo Go USB-C laptop power bank close up showing capacity lights

The power bank shows the remaining capacity with LEDs – each representing a 25% increment. (Image credit: Future)
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Lenovo Go USB-C laptop power bank viewed end on showing USB-A and USB-C ports

The power bank includes USB-A and USB-C ports on the end. (Image credit: Future)
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Lenovo Go USB-C laptop power bank close up from the side showing the tucked away USB-C cable

The built-in USB-C cable has a handy pull tab to help release it. (Image credit: Future)
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Lenovo Go USB-C laptop power bank close up of USB-C cable end just starting to be deployed

(Image credit: Future)
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Lenovo Go USB-C laptop power bank close up of the end of the built-in USB-C cable

The USB-C connector on the end of the cable has a slightly bulky protective cover, so may not fit in tight ports. (Image credit: Future)
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Lenovo Go USB-C laptop power bank showing that the USB-C cable does not slide cleanly back into place.

The built-in USB-C cable is tough, but does not sit neatly unless firmly pushed back in. (Image credit: Future)

The power bank uses a simple four-LED system to display remaining capacity in 25% steps, which works fine but isn’t quite as nice as a digital readout. The plastic shell feels solid in hand and is quite tough, and despite rattling around in my bag for a few weeks, it shows no signs of undue wear.

The Lenovo power bank does face stiff competition from similar-spec power banks, such as the often slightly cheaper Anker 20,000mAh 87W power bank. The Lenovo is slightly slimmer (but longer) and lighter, but to give comparative value for money, it needs to be picked up when on sale.

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Lenovo Go USB-C laptop power bank with a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra smartphone sitting on top as a size comparison

The power bank is about the same horizontal dimensions as the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, but of course much thicker. (Image credit: Future)
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Lenovo Go USB-C laptop power bank with a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra smartphone sitting next to it as a size comparison

(Image credit: Future)
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Lenovo Go USB-C laptop power bank sitting on a Yoga Slim 7i laptop to show the size

The power bank looks chunky compared to the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i laptop, but it's slim enough to slip into a bag without adding bulk. (Image credit: Future)
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Lenovo Go USB-C laptop power bank sitting on a Yoga Slim 7i laptop to show the size

(Image credit: Future)

The Lenovo Go USB-C laptop power bank outputs USB PD3.0 spec voltages on the USB-C cable and USB-C port – 5V 3A, 9V 3A, 15V 3A and 20V 3.25A. This means it will happily fast charge most phones, laptops and other devices like handheld gaming machines at up to 65W. The USB-A port supports the QC3.0 protocol, with 5V, 9V, 12V or variable from 3.6V to 12V, at up to 18W.

Notably, it doesn’t support PPS (Programmable Power Supply), so it won’t do 45W Samsung Super Fast charging like the Iniu P50 can.

The Lenovo power bank also doesn’t output 12V on the USB-C ports, which isn’t a problem for most users, but it’s still worth mentioning. There aren’t many devices that exclusively need 12V USB-C charging, but, for example, a 12V option is needed to get the fastest charging on DJI Mini drone batteries.

So while the Lenovo doesn’t have the latest protocol support, for normal use it’s still more than capable of fast charging any of your devices.

Lenovo Go USB-C laptop power bank: Price & specs

You can buy the Lenovo power bank directly from Lenovo or various other marketplaces and retailers.

List price is $140.99 / £84 / AU$138, but it's often sold for much less during sale events, so it's well worth waiting for a discount if you don't need it right away.

The power bank has a standard 1-year warranty, and we are a little disappointed that Lenovo didn’t offer at least 2 years.

 

Price

$140.99 / £84 / AU$138

Capacity

20,000mAh / 74Wh

Single Port Output

65W

Number of Ports

3

USB-C

2x in/out

USB-A

1x

Dimensions

170 × 72 × 23 mm (6.69 × 2.83 × 0.91 inches)

Weight (measured)

391 g (0.86 lb)

Phone charges

3 to 4 times

Laptop charges

0.5 to 1 times

Lenovo Go USB-C laptop power bank: Test results

Many power banks make bold claims, but in real-world testing they don't live up to the hype. So to weed out the duds, I do comprehensive testing to verify charge voltages, confirm protocol support and log capacity tests.

Overall, the Lenovo power bank gives solid results considering it is slimmer and lighter than many similar-spec options and has a built-in cable.

Test

Usable Capacity

Efficiency

Score

65W laptop charging

61.5 Wh

83.1%

3.5 / 5

30W laptop charging

62.5 Wh

84.4%

3.5 / 5

20W phone charging

65.3 Wh

88.2%

4 / 5

10W charging

68.1 Wh

92%

4.5 / 5

For 65W laptop charging, the Lenovo Go outputs 61.5Wh of the rated 74Wh available, giving a typical 83.1% efficiency rating. Lenovo also rates the power bank at just 48Wh when outputting 65W (20V 3.25A), so the real-world test results of 61.5Wh are much better.

I will note, though, that after it hits about 45% capacity remaining, it does renegotiate to a slower charge rate to protect the battery cells. This is fairly typical, and when testing it on a laptop that is being used the lower average power draw does not trigger this mode.

At an average 30W output when running a laptop, efficiency is slightly better, at 84.4%.

For phone charging at 20W, the Lenovo power bank hit an excellent 88.2% efficiency, and if charging slowly at 10W, it can output 92% of the rated capacity.

The power bank is rated for 74Wh by Lenovo online, but the actual power bank notes 77Wh. This is a slight over-provisioning of capacity by Lenovo, which is a good thing, and for the efficiency calculations above I used the 74Wh rating.

Lenovo Go USB-C laptop power bank specs close up

The Lenovo power bank includes detailed specs on the sticker underneath. (Image credit: Future)

When pushed hard with a sustained maximum output until empty (such as when charging a laptop), the Lenovo power bank reached a warm but not problematic 42°C (108°F), while phone charging only saw it reach 28°C (82°F). While it’s generally best to charge a laptop on a desk, the Lenovo power bank stays cool enough that I would have no problem using it in a bag.

The power bank can charge at up to 100W via the built-in cable or USB-C port and takes about 1.5 hours to top back up.

Rated Output Capacity

2400 mAh / 48Wh at 20V 3.25A

PPS support

No

Included cable

Built-in, 5A

IN1 (USB-C port)

5V⎓3A; 9V⎓3A; 15V⎓3A; 20V⎓5A

IN2 (USB-C cable)

5V⎓3A; 9V⎓3A; 15V⎓3A; 20V⎓5A

OUT1 (USB-C port)

5V⎓3A; 9V⎓3A; 15V⎓3A; 20V⎓3.25A

OUT2 (USB-C cable)

5V⎓3A; 9V⎓3A; 15V⎓3A; 20V⎓3.25A

OUT3 (USB-A port)

5V⎓3A; 9V⎓2A; 12V⎓1.5A

Should I buy the Lenovo Go power bank?

Buy it if…

You need laptop charging
The 65W output is ideal for quick top-ups.

You want a power bank with a built-in cable
The 44 cm cable helps cut down clutter in your bag.

Don't buy it if…

You need PPS charging
The Lenovo power bank does not support PPS so it can’t hit the full Samsung Super Fast charge speeds.

You are after a more affordable option
While not too bad when on sale, the Lenovo power bank is expensive at list price.

Also consider

The Lenovo Go laptop power bank is a great option for everyday laptop and phone charging, but below are a few other options if you are looking for something different. For even more recommendations, check out our guide to the best power banks. Or, if you are planning a holiday soon, get a full rundown on the airline rules when traveling with power banks.

Iniu P50 power bank
Need something smaller for charging a phone? With 45W fast-charge capability and a 10,000mAh (37Wh) capacity, the Iniu P50 is a great power bank to slip into your bag when on the go.

Read our full Iniu P50 power bank review

ZMI No.20
This power bank uses premium components, has a large 25,000mAh (90Wh) capacity and is able to fast-charge anything from a phone to a laptop at up to 100W.

Read our full ZMI No.20 review

What's your favorite power bank for everyday carry? Or is there a specific model you think I should test?

Let me know in the comments below.

How I test power banks

I get hands-on with every power bank I test and conduct extensive evaluations in both lab and real-world scenarios. Using tools like the ChargerLab POWER-Z KM003C, I measure charge voltage, check protocol support, and log capacity tests.

Each power bank is also tested with everyday devices, including phones, tablets and laptops, and is connected to a programmable load tester for multiple charge cycles. I carry a selection daily in both pockets and bags to assess their durability and ability to withstand everyday use.

All measurements and weights are personally verified, ensuring accuracy beyond the manufacturer’s listings. It’s worth noting that many power bank reviews don’t do this sort of testing, so they should be taken with a grain of salt.

Want to know more? Read about how we test.

I spent a week with the DJI Osmo Mobile 8, and it’s just as good as pricier Hohem and Insta360 rivals
3:49 pm | November 11, 2025
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Phone Accessories Phones | Comments: Off

DJI Osmo Mobile 8: two-minute review

To my knowledge, the DJI Osmo Mobile 8 is the first smartphone stabilizer to come with three distinct types of subject tracking. Not only is it able to track faces, bodies, and other objects when the mounted phone is running the DJI Mimo app – it can also track using third-party apps, either through Apple DockKit compatibility or the new Multi-Functional Module, a tiny camera-equipped add-on that also includes a fill light.

To be clear, none of the above is new exactly – we've seen both DockKit-compatible tracking stabilizers and those that use modules to track before. What is new is having both options in a single device. It's a best-of-both-worlds approach, and one of the things that sets the Osmo Mobile 8 apart from its myriad competitors.

The other is the low price: it's just £135 or AU$219, which is slightly more affordable than contemporaries like the Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra (£169 / AU$299) and the Insta360 Flow 2 Pro (£144.99 / AU$289.99). You'll no doubt have noticed that I haven't included a US dollar price. That's because, like other recent DJI launches, it's not coming to American stores. At least not officially.

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DJI Osmo Mobile 8 smartphone stabilizer

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
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DJI Osmo Mobile 8 smartphone stabilizer

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
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DJI Osmo Mobile 8 smartphone stabilizer

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
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DJI Osmo Mobile 8 smartphone stabilizer

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

Design-wise, it's pretty much the same as every other compact smartphone stabilizer, which is no bad thing in my book.

It folds down to near pocket-size – you'll get it in a coat pocket, maybe, but not your jeans – and powers on automatically when the gimbal is pulled out. Your smartphone is mounted via a magnetic clamp, which can accommodate a good range of device sizes and weights (if not quite as wide a range as the Hohem iSteady V3) and is easier to deploy than a clamp that's permanently fixed to the gimbal arm. The arm also includes a USB-C output, allowing you to charge your phone from the stabilizer's own battery.

The Osmo Mobile 8's handle includes a pull-out extension rod to add up to 21.5cm / 8.5 inches of extra distance between the user and the phone (which I found valuable for self-shooting, as it allowed me to get more into the frame), plus a plastic mini-tripod for setting up the stabilizer on the floor or a flat surface for hands-free use. There's also a standard tripod thread on the bottom of the handle for fixing it to third-party mounts.

DJI Osmo Mobile 8 smartphone stabilizer

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

The handle felt comfortable in my hand, and I found the controls simple and ergonomically sound; I was able to access them all with one hand, including the zoom/focus wheel. A trigger on the front offers various functions, including the ability to rotate the phone 180º or turn tracking on and off. There are dedicated buttons to stop/start recording and flip between front and rear-facing cameras on your phone, plus a thumbstick for manual gimbal arm control and a mode button to cycle through the four follow modes.

These are PTF (pan and tilt follow), PF (pan follow), FPV (pan, tilt, and roll follow), and SpinShot (a special mode that rotates the phone through almost 360º for bizarre shots). Basically, it's exactly what I'd expect from a smartphone stabilizer, and I can't see how any content creator would need anything more from one, particularly given the improved tracking capabilities.

Image 1 of 4

DJI Osmo Mobile 8 smartphone stabilizer

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 2 of 4

DJI Osmo Mobile 8 smartphone stabilizer

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 3 of 4

DJI Osmo Mobile 8 smartphone stabilizer

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 4 of 4

DJI Osmo Mobile 8 smartphone stabilizer

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

I've already mentioned the fact that the Osmo Mobile 8 has added DockKit tracking to the module-based or Mimo app-based tracking previously offered by the Osmo Mobile 7P. I should also point out that the Multifunctional Module now tracks dogs and cats as well as people, and that it can wirelessly connect to the DJI Mic Mini, Mic 2, and Mic 3, whereas the Osmo Mobile 7P's only worked with the Mic Mini. In fact, it can connect to two mics simultaneously.

Another upgrade over the Osmo Mobile 7P is 360º horizontal rotation, allowing the Osmo Mobile 8 to track a subject "infinitely" as they circle around it. This is something I've previously seen on rival gimbals, so it's good to see DJI keeping up with the competition.

Overall, the DJI Osmo Mobile 8 is yet another impressive, well-designed smartphone stabilizer that content creators looking to shoot smooth, stable footage should consider. With similar battery life and tracking performance to its rivals, I can't say it's worth ditching your existing Hohem or Insta360 stabilizer for, but if you're buying your first stabilizer and already own a DJI wireless mic, it makes a lot of sense to pick this up – particularly given its affordability.

DJI Osmo Mobile 8: price and availability

  • Priced from £135 / AU$219
  • Available in bundle with DJI Mic Mini

The DJI Osmo Mobile 8 was announced on November 5, 2025 and is available to order now worldwide – aside from in the US.

It's sold in a standard bundle including the stabilizer itself, a Multifunctional Module, a magnetic clamp, and a soft fabric carrying bag for £135 / AU$219, which I feel is a very good price considering the features and build quality.

It can also be purchased in a bundle with a single DJI Mic Mini transmitter for £165 / AU$274, which oddly doesn't represent a discount on the transmitter (it costs the same when bought separately).

DJI Osmo Mobile 8: specs

Dimensions:

190 x 95 x 46mm (folded)

Weight:

370g / 13.1oz

Compatible phone weight:

170 to 300g / 6 to 10.6oz

Compatible phone thickness:

6.9 to 10mm

Compatible phone width:

67 to 84mm

Connectivity:

Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C

Battery life:

4 hours (using tracking and fill light) / 10 hours (balanced and stationary)

Should I buy the DJI Osmo Mobile 8?

DJI Osmo Mobile 8 smartphone stabilizer

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

Buy it if...

You own a DJI Mic Mini, Mic 2 or Mic 3 already
With built-in support for the OsmoAudio ecosystem, the OM 8 works brilliant with DJI's wireless mics – aside from the first-gen model.

You want an affordable, compact gimbal
The Osmo Mobile 8 is smaller and cheaper than the Hohem iSteady V3, so if you want to travel light and save a little cash, it's the best option around.

Don't buy it if...

You own a heavy phone
If your smartphone weighs over 300g or is more than 10mm thick, the Osmo Mobile 8 can't grip it.

You want to control gimbal movements from a distance
Aside from basic gesture controls, there's no way to remotely control the Osmo Mobile 8.

Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra review: Also consider

Insta360 Flow 2 Pro
The Flow 2 Pro’s big party trick is native support for subject tracking in hundreds of third-party iPhone camera apps, plus an included LED fill light. With no tracking module, Android users are left out in the cold, however, and trackable subjects are limited to people and pets.

Read our in-depth Insta360 Flow 2 Pro review

Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra
A little pricier than the Osmo Mobile 8, Hohem's stabilizer offers excellent module-based tracking plus a touchscreen-equipped remote control unit. It doesn't have a quick-release mount option, but it can grip heavier, larger handsets than the Osmo Mobile 8.

Read our in-depth Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra review

How I tested the DJI Osmo Mobile 8

  • One week of use
  • Tested with an iPhone 13
  • Used for B-roll and vlog-style footage

I tested the DJI Osmo Mobile 8 for several days, using it both handheld and set up on its built-in mini tripod. It was used with my Apple iPhone 13's front-facing and rear cameras, both indoors and outdoors, and I recorded video using a range of apps (including the iPhone camera, DJI Mimo, and Instagram).

First reviewed November 2025

I tested a 3-in-1 MagGo iPhone and Apple Watch charger that juiced my watch so fast, I’m never going back to anything slower
12:00 am | October 29, 2025
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Phone Accessories Phones | Tags: | Comments: Off

Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station 3-in-1 Pad review

The Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station 3-in-1 Pad is a conveniently designed tabletop charger capable of charging an iPhone, Apple Watch, and compatible earbud cases. It has a list price of $99.99 / £89.99 / AU$199.95 on the Anker website and is available for purchase at Amazon too. I was provided the Stone Black model of the Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station 3-in-1 Pad, available here in the UK, the US, and Australia. Those over the pond in the US get an additional color choice of Shell White, too.

The design of the MagGo Wireless Charging Station 3-in-1 Pad is simple but attractive. All visible materials look good-quality, and there are some attractive little details like the metalized finish on the foldable stand of the iPhone charger. The top surface and sides of the charging station have a soft matt finish that didn’t appear to scratch easily, which proved advantageous as my very long (and very pink) nails can prove problematic for some matt finishes.

The iPhone charging pad is fully extended.

(Image credit: Future)

The Apple Watch and iPhone charging modules fold down to the 0.53 inch / 14mm deep base pad, but while the former sits below surface level, the iPhone charging pad sits at least 0.2 inches / 5mm above, which raised questions regarding how it would fair if packed into a drawer or bag.

The Apple Watch charger was easy to push up from underneath; however, the iPhone charging module proved more tricky to raise to a standing position. Again, I needed to push from underneath the base, but it proved awkward as the hinges of the iPhone charger’s arm were quite stiff, making it hard to extend and position it to the angle I wanted. The rigidity of the hinges meant they were sturdy enough to maintain the position while the phone was in situ though, so that’s a silver lining at least.

A close-up of the Apple Watch charging puck.

(Image credit: Future)

As expected due to the large surface area, the Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station 3-in-1 Pad gets dusty easily. For the most part, this is easily remedied by a quick wipe thanks to the smooth surface, but the, presumably silicone, ring of the AirPods charging area tends to get a little attached to its fibery friends. Anker states this charger is “easily portable”, and whilst this may be true in terms of the slab-like design, its 12oz / 340g weight makes it too heavy to be as travel-friendly as some of the best wireless chargers.

I appreciated that the format of the charging station meant every charger was easily accessible and I could see each of my devices. The only downside to this is that it takes up a lot of surface space and, while I prefer this format to that of other well-performing chargers, such as the ESR Qi2 3-in-1 Watch Wireless Charging Set, at 9 x 3.37 inches / 229 x 86mm, the Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station 3-in-1 Pad wouldn’t prove convenient if there’s limited free space on your desk or nightstand.

A close-up of the earbuds charging pad.

(Image credit: Future)

The Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station 3-in-1 Pad took just thirty-five minutes to charge a 3,095mAh iPhone 13 Pro to fifty percent, and a full charge took an hour and fifty-eight minutes, which is a fairly average speed compared to the other 3-in-1 MagSafe chargers I’ve tested.

That makes the iPhone charging speed almost twenty minutes faster than the Anker 3-in-1 Cube with MagSafe, and twenty minutes slower than the fastest wireless charger I’ve tested to date, the Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station 3-in-1 Stand – but that wasn’t surprising, seeing as I’ve yet to find another wireless charger that comes close to matching this speed.

Where the Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station 3-in-1 Pad proved above-average was with the speed of its Apple Certified Quick Apple Watch Charger. I did a double-take when it’d finished charging my series 9 Apple Watch, as it took just 55 minutes to revive it fully. This impressive speed makes it the fastest Apple Watch charger I’ve tested to date, with an eight-minute difference knocking the Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station 3-in-1 Foldable Pad off the top spot.

A close-up on the USB-C charging port.

(Image credit: Future)

Overall, I found the Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station 3-in-1 Pad to be a convenient and attractive charging station. I was happy with the charging speeds, and the outer materials appeared good quality.

Anker and I will have to agree to disagree on it being “easily portable”, and the hinges and folding of the iPhone module could be improved, but aside from this, it made a nice addition to my desktop. If you’re still considering your options, why not take a look at our selection of the best wireless chargers to see if there are any formats you’ve yet to consider?

Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station 3-in-1 Pad review: Price & specs

Price

$99.99 / £89.99 / AU$199.95

Model number

A25M1

Total power output

15W

Devices charged

3

USB-C

Yes - power in

Wireless charging

MagSafe / Qi2

Weight

12 oz / 340g

Dimensions

9 × 3.37 × 0.53 inches / 229 x 86 x 14mm

Should I buy the Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station 3-in-1 Pad?

Buy it if…

You want to have visibility of your devices
While this charger could prove a bit of a space invader, I loved that I could place it behind my keyboard as I worked at my desk, allowing me to observe the charging progress and view notifications as they came in.

You want a fast Apple Watch charger
The Apple-certified Apple Watch charger of this 3-in-1 charging station revived my series 9 Apple Watch to full charge in just 55 minutes, making it the fastest I’ve tested to date, and shortening the time I spent without my Watch on my wrist.

Don't buy it if…

You want a super-fast iPhone charger
While the charging speed was good, there are some faster chargers out there. The fastest I’ve tested happens to be from Anker too, which I talk about in more detail in the Also Consider section below.

You want something compact
If you’re looking for a 3-in-1 charging solution that won’t take up a load of surface space, or that can easily fit in any bag and be carried around all day, this charging station is not the one, due to its weight and the iPhone charging pad not folding completely flat.

Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station 3-in-1 Pad review: Also consider

Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station 3-in-1 Stand
Another fantastic 3-in-1 Anker charging station, this stable and somewhat quirky charger offers even faster charging speeds taking just an hour and thirty-eight minutes to fully charge an iPhone 13 Pro, and an hour and four minutes to charge a Series 9 Apple Watch when I tested it. Despite the difference in charging speeds, at the time of writing, the 3-in-1 stand and the 3-in-1 Pad are the same price, making it a choice between faster charging, or a design that’s easier to store. If you’d like to hear more about this alternative, why not take a look at my full Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station 3-in-1 Stand review?

I reviewed this compact Anker power bank and this one feature makes it unbelievably practical
7:42 pm | October 20, 2025
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Phone Accessories Phones | Comments: Off

Anker Nano Power Bank 10K 45W Built-In Retractable USB-C Cable: review

Anker Nano Power Bank 10K 45W Built-In Retractable USB-C Cable retractable cable slightly exposed

(Image credit: Future)

The Anker Nano Power Bank 10K 45W Built-In Retractable USB-C Cable (don’t worry, I’ll shorten it from here on out), is exactly what it sounds like. It's a small-sized portable charger with a built-in cable for on-the-go charging, and boasts a 10,000mAh capacity and 45W maximum power output.

The real draw of the Anker 10K 45W is its convenience. Firstly, that integrated charging wire is a massive plus. Simply pull it out, and it auto locks to the length that suits you best. To unwind, all you’ve got to do is pull and release – easy as you like. In addition, this model is pretty compact, meaning it can easily slot into a pocket or small bag.

Is its charging performance as efficient as its build? Well, it would be hard to answer that question with a one-word answer. First of all, there are some restrictions worth noting. A 45W maximum power output means that it can’t charge more demanding devices, like laptops, at peak levels – something that a lot of the best power banks are capable of. Its 10,000mAh capacity isn’t the largest either, though it will be plenty to charge most phones and a pair of wireless earbuds a couple of times.

Anyway, I tried charging my Samsung Galaxy S24 FE – which has a 4,700mAh battery capacity – and fast charging was activated, enabling my device to go from 0-100% in around 80 minutes. That’s as fast as I’d expect, so no complaints there.

After a while, though, I wanted to recharge the portable charger, and performance could’ve been a bit better. After about 10 minutes, I realized it was only charging at 19W. This is because the model throttles charging input to keep temperature in check. Still, I got a full charge after approximately two hours, which is still fairly decent.

And let’s go back to that temperature control note. Sure, the charger can get a little warm, especially if you’re also making use of its additional USB-A and USB-C ports and edging towards maximum power use. But it never felt overly hot. You can also check the battery temperature and health of the model using its inbuilt display.

The display itself is behind a translucent exterior, and can also update you on the power output from the integrated cable and additional ports – pretty handy. It's not the brightest display I’ve ever used, but it’s certainly a nice-to-have.

Anker Nano Power Bank 10K 45W Built-In Retractable USB-C Cable retractable cable docked

(Image credit: Future)

Something I really like about this model is its well-designed cord, which you can adjust to fit onto a backpack or a belt loop, for instance. The exterior itself also has an attractive metallic, glossy finish, as well as a textured surface, which enhances grip. It can be yours in a range of colors too, specifically: Aurora White; Phantom Black, which is the variant I tested; or Sprout Green.

For the power and build quality on offer, I’d also say that this model is priced pretty well. It has a list price of $59.99 / £49.99 / AU$99.95. We’ve tested cheaper rivals – like the Samsung 25W 10,000mAh Wireless Battery Pack – but that model has a considerably lower wattage.

Combine that with the integrated table and the fact that this model is regularly on sale already, and I’d say the Anker 10K 45W is a strong value pick worth checking out. If you need to charge a laptop or power hungry phone like the the OnePlus 13, for example, something mightier will suit you better. Otherwise, I’m generally a fan of what Anker has to offer here.

Anker Nano Power Bank 10K 45W Built-In Retractable USB-C Cable review: price & specs

Price

$59.99 / £49.99 / AU$99.95

Total power output

45W

Number of ports

2 (excluding 1x inbuilt retractable USB-C cable)

Port type(s)

1x USB-C; 1x USB-A

Dimensions

3.2 x 2 x 1.4 inches / 81 x 50 x 36mm

Should I buy the Anker Nano Power Bank 10K 45W Built-In Retractable USB-C Cable?

Buy it if...

You only need to charge your phone
For a lot of modern iPhones and Samsung phones, for instance, this is a powerful enough pick. 45W means you’ll be able to access fast charging, with the 10,000mAh capable of supplying multiple full charges.

You don’t already own a USB-C cable
One of the best things about this power bank is that you don’t need to buy a separate USB-C cable to make use of it. Simply connect your device to the integrated cable, and you’re good to go. Also, Anker says that the cable can survive more than 20,000 bends and retractions, so it should last for quite some time.

Don't buy it if...

You want to charge your laptop
Unfortunately, this model doesn’t have the firepower to charge more demanding devices like laptops or certain phones at maximum capacity. That’s due to its fairly modest 45W power output. I’d recommend a model with around 100W if you want to charge one of the best MacBooks, for example.

You’re looking for a super-cheap option
I’d argue that this model is pretty solid value for money, but there are certainly cheaper options out there if you’re looking to spend a little less. Having said that, you can often find the Anker Nano 10K 45W for less than its $59.99 / £49.99 / AU$99.95 list price, so keep your eyes peeled for a sale.

Anker Nano Power Bank 10K 45W Built-In Retractable USB-C Cable review: also consider

Anker Nano Power Bank 10K 45W Built-In Retractable USB-C Cable against pink background

(Image credit: Future)

Anker 20,000mAh 87W Power Bank
Yep, I’ve got another Anker model for you, and this one’s really special. I used this one personally for a couple of weeks, mainly to extend the battery life of my Nintendo Switch 2. However, its 87W power output also means it can charge a lot of the most power-hungry phones at maximum capacity, and even juice up a good portion of laptops. With an integrated cable, additional USB slots, and a handy display, this power bank really has it all. Read our full Anker 20,000mAh 87W Power Bank review.

I used the Honor Magic V5 for a week and it put a spell on me
5:00 pm | October 19, 2025
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Honor Phones Phones | Tags: , , , | Comments: Off

Honor Magic V5: Two-minute review

The Honor Magic V5 with a pond in the background

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

The Honor Magic V5 is a truly impressive folding phone. It’s the thinnest booklet-style folding phone ever, with two excellent displays, a design that expertly balances ergonomics and aesthetics, and fantastic battery life. Its rear camera system stands up to some of the best folding phones, while its internal hardware is as powerful as you’d expect from a device marketed on its multitasking capabilities.

The first thing you notice about the Honor Magic V5 is just how thin it is. At just 4.1mm thick (not including the sizeable camera bump), the Magic V5 is thinner than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, Google Pixel 10 Pro, and even the region-locked Oppo Find N5, only beaten by the tri-folding Huawei Mate XT (another China exclusive). It’s so thin that it’s made me ask whether folding phones should keep getting thinner – its 7.95-inch inner screen really does disappear into your hand thanks to that ultra-thin frame.

Speaking of displays, the Magic V5 sports two excellent panels. Its 6.43-inch cover screen strikes a nice balance between compact and useable, and its 20:9 aspect ratio isn’t far off that of the iPhone 17 or Samsung Galaxy S25. The inner display measures 7.95-inches, with an approximate aspect ratio of 18:19.5.

That almost-square display is one of the best I’ve used on a folding phone, and makes reading articles, watching videos, taking photos a real joy. I also can’t get over just how similar the viewing experience is between the two displays – that’s a hard thing to nail given the change in material between the glass cover screen and plastic inner display, but Honor has done an excellent job.

The winning streak continues when it comes to the Magic V5’s battery, which is huge not only for a folding phone, but for a smartphone in general. With incredible engineering and straight-up alchemy, Honor has fit a 5920mAh battery into this phone – that’s larger than the battery in any comparable folding phone, and it's even bigger than the battery in the current-gen iPad mini. Charging is fast, battery life is long.

The Honor Magic V5 is the strongest contender to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. The Magic V5 outclasses Samsung’s latest booklet foldable in so many ways, and where Samsung does take the lead it isn’t by much. At £1,699 the Magic V5 decisively undercuts the Z Fold 7, which starts at £1,899 – though like all other Honor phones, the Magic V5 is unfortunately unavailable in the US. That limited availability will keep it off of our lists of the best phones and best folding phones, but if you’re looking for a folding phone in the UK or Europe, the Honor Magic V5 should be a serious contender.

Honor Magic V5: Price and Specs

The Honor Magic V5 with some foliage in the background

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
  • Not available in the US
  • Costs £1,699 in the UK (512GB of storage)
  • Comes in three colors, including a unique gold option

Like all Honor phones, whether you can get the Honor Magic V5 depends on where you live. It’s not available in the US, but can be bought online or through carriers in the UK, Europe, and other regions.

In the UK, the Honor Magic V5 costs £1699.99 for the model with 512GB of storage – there are no other configurations to choose from. Honor is bundling a 66W power adapter and Magic Pen stylus in the UK – though as there is no stylus in the box, I'm not going to cover the accessory in this review.

Let’s address the elephant in the room – £1,699.99 is a lot of money for a phone. However, the Honor Magic V5 does manage to undercut its rivals quite significantly. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 starts at £1,899.99, while the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold starts at £1,799.99 – and both come with 256GB of storage, half of what the Honor Magic V5 offers.

And when you consider the Honor Magic V5’s impressive hardware specs, class-leading thinness and design, and impressive camera system, the value for money becomes even more apparent.

As for colors, the Magic V5 comes in Black, Ivory White (an online-exclusive option) and Dawn Gold, which has an eye-catching ripple effect on the rear panel. The specs below are for the Ivory White model I tested; the other two colors are actually a little thicker, at 4.2mm unfolded and 9mm folded, and are slightly heavier at 222g.

Honor Magic V5 specs

Honor Magic V5

Dimensions (folded):

156.8 x 74.3 x 8.8 mm

Dimensions (unfolded):

156.8 x 145.9 x 4.1 mm

Weight:

217g

Main display:

7.95-inch LTPO AMOLED

2172 x 2352, 120Hz, 403ppi

Cover display::

6.43-inch LTPO OLED

2520 x 1080, 20:9, 120Hz, 404ppi

Chipset:

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite

RAM:

16GB

Storage:

512GB

OS:

Android 15 / MagicOS 9

Primary camera:

50MP, f1.6, 23mm

Ultrawide camera:

50MP, f/2.0, 13mm

Telephoto

64MP, f/2.5, 70mm (3x)

Cover Camera:

20MP f2.2

Inner Camera:

20MP f2.2

Battery:

5,820mAh

Charging:

66W wired, 50W wireless

Colors:

Ivory White, Black, Dawn Gold

  • Value score: 4 / 5

Honor Magic V5: Design

Honor Magic V5, top edge, red tree in background

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
  • Looks simply phenomenal, and feels built to last
  • Very comfortable to use
  • Large camera bump and slightly noisy hinge

The Honor Magic V5 is the best-looking phone I’ve ever reviewed. This is a truly gorgeous piece of technology, and it’s clear that maximal attention has been given to achieving as much symmetry and ergonomic balance as the folding phone form factor will allow. The Ivory White color model is also the world’s thinnest folding phone at just 4.1mm thick when opened (not counting the substantial camera module). It’s a technical wonder that has me asking whether folding phones actually need to get any thinner.

Besides thinness, I noticed that the Magic V5 goes further than its contemporaries in providing a more comfortable experience. In the past, I’ve used folding phones with sharp edges and awkward bumps that make them uncomfortable to use for long sessions. On the Magic V5, Honor has flattened and rounded all the corners around the hinge, as well as the edges of the hinge itself – the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is almost as svelte, but has much sharper edges. The outer corners of the phone are also rounded off, which makes the unit very comfortable for one-handed or unfolded use.

Functionally, that hinge works well. It feels light to open, but not loose – it takes no real effort to open but won’t wobble much when partially unfolded.

The Honor Magic V5's smoothed hinge and corner

Check out those rounded corners - this is the first foldable I've used that feels actually comfortable. (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

As for construction, the Honor Magic V5 is composed of an aluminum chassis and a woven fiber rear panel that feels as solid as glass or ceramic materials used in other phones. The cover display is glass and the inner display is plastic, with raised plastic bezels housing the magnets that keep the phone snapped shut. Moreso than any other folding phone I’ve used the Honor Magic V5 lays totally flat when opened – and the crease on the inner display is so minimal that I had to remind myself to look for it when I set the phone up for the first time.

The camera housing is also superbly designed, and perfectly walks the line between subtlety and flair with its all-black coloring, textured metal ring, and octagonal bracketing. The phone also sports dual IP58 and IP59 dust and water resistance ratings – better than the Galaxy Z Fold 7 but not quite dust-sealed as the IP68-rated Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Fresh water shouldn’t be an issue, but keep it well away from fine dust, gravel, and sand.

The Honor Magic V5 is a wonder of engineering and the most comfortable folding phone I’ve ever used. I’m a large guy with a pretty big handspan, so I sometimes found it a bit difficult to get enough purchase on the phone to get it open, but I’m sure this experience varies.

However... after my test period for this review had concluded and about two months of use in total, I noticed that the inner screen protector had begun to separate from the folding display. That's not the type of thing we want to see from any folding phone, especially after such a short period of use. For now, we can't say whether this is a design flaw or just a one-off issue: we've contacted Honor directly to ask for comment and another test unit.

  • Design score: 5 / 5

Honor Magic V5: Displays

Image 1 of 2

The Honor Magic V5's cover display

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
Image 2 of 2

Honor Magic V5 unfolded on home screen

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
  • 6.43-inch cover display
  • 7.95-inch folding display
  • Both display have near-identical pixel density and top out at 3000 nits

The displays on the Honor Magic V5 are wonderful. The 6.43-inch cover display is amongst the sharpest and most vibrant screens I’ve used, and the 7.95-inch inner display is bright and immersive – what’s more, the viewing experience feels very consistent when switching between the two displays, something other folding phones have struggled to achieve.

In fact, when I unfolded the phone for the first time, I had to remind myself to look for a crease in the inner screen. It’s a far cry from the view-warping creases of folding phones from even a few years ago – I also noticed that, unlike some folding phones, the Magic V5 unfolds nearly perfectly flat, which makes it even easier to get lost in the expansive inner display.

In terms of technical specs, the Honor Magic V5’s cover display sports a resolution of 1060 x 2376 pixels, with 404 pixels per inch, while the inner display has a resolution of 2172 x 2352 pixels at 403 pixels per inch. What’s more, both panels top out at an absolutely ludicrous 5000 nits of brightness. Of course, those are theoretical limits, and your actual experience won't reflect those potentially harmful levels.

Compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 7, the Magic V5 offers a sharper, higher resolution inner display, but can’t quite match the resolution and pixel density of the Galaxy’s cover screen.

Of all the folding devices I’ve used, the Magic V5 feels the most frictionless when switching between the two displays. Naturally, the glass cover display is a tiny bit sharper and looks a touch clearer, but Honor has calibrated these panels such that there’s little noticeable difference in color, brightness, or detail.

If there is an issue with the Honor Magic V5’s 7.95-inch folding display, it’s the issue common to all folding phones – that being that its larger screen space isn’t always efficiently used. Videos with a typical 16:9 aspect ratio can’t fill out the almost-square panel, and games often struggle to find a suitable safe zone (particularly first person games like Call of Duty). The inner screen is wonderful to look at, and perfect for reading, scrolling, and video calls, but a proper tablet might be better for streaming the best new shows.

  • Display score: 5 / 5

Honor Magic V5: Cameras

The Honor Magic V5's camera island

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
  • 50MP main camera
  • 64MP telephoto camera with 3x zoom
  • 50MP ultra-wide camera
  • Twin 10MP selfie cameras

Folding phones have, until this year, had slightly weaker camera systems than their slab-phone counterparts – but times are changing. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 launched with a 200MP main lens, resetting expectations for the types of pictures that folding phones can produce.

The Honor Magic V5 sports three great rear cameras that come very close to producing flagship-standard images. Across a variety of shooting conditions I was able to take great photos with the Magic V5 – I was particularly impressed by how much detail the sensors captured; even noisy scenes with lots of foliage were reproduced with good definition, even if the contrast sometimes left me wanting. The image stabilization is also great all the way out to the maximum 100x digital zoom.

However, I found the post-processing could be fairly aggressive, and was often unsure of how much AI had impacted the final image, especially at long zoom ranges. That’s something to keep in mind if you prefer your photos to be a true reflection of the camera’s abilities, as there’s no way to fully disable the image processing pipeline.

The Magic V5 sports a triple-camera array housed on its rear panel, composed of a 50MP main camera, 50MP ultra-wide camera, and 64MP 3x telephoto camera. This gives the phone a lot of range and flexibility for still photography – the telephoto camera in particular strikes a nice balance between reach and usability for portraits and tighter landscape shots. Photos from all three cameras are bright and vibrant without looking unrealistically colorful, though there are some more vibrant profiles to choose from.

The Honor Magic V5 unfolded with the camera app open

Taking photos with the inner screen's huge viewfinder is a real joy. (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

Taking photos with the inner display is really intuitive – that 8-inch panel makes for a great viewfinder, and the unfolded frame allows the phone to rest steadily in-hand. However, I found the default camera app a little bit clunky, with some quick options (most notably aspect ratio) hidden behind an in-app menu.

The Magic V5 supports video shooting at 720p, 1080p, and 4K resolutions at either 30fps or 60fps. That large display is a boost for shooting video too, with plenty of blank space around the 16:9 frame to place your thumbs (though, for some reason, some controls are still placed over the viewfinder).

One of the only true let-downs on the Magic V5 is its pair of selfie cameras. The inner and outer displays house identical punch-hole 10MP selfie cameras that prove lacking in almost every situation. This is allayed by the rear camera selfie feature, which uses the cover display as a viewfinder, but that won’t always be the most convenient option.

Honor Magic V5: Camera samples

Image 1 of 10

A crossroads with a man on an e-bike riding past

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
Image 2 of 10

A building with mosaic decal

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
Image 3 of 10

A florist shop

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
Image 4 of 10

A viaduct bridge

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
Image 5 of 10

A building with gothic windows and towers

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
Image 6 of 10

A red flower up close

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
Image 7 of 10

A red tree with a bluey-grey sky

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
Image 8 of 10

A carved owl on a totem

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
Image 9 of 10

A red London bus

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
Image 10 of 10

A stream in a natural setting

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
  • Cameras score: 3 / 5

Honor Magic V5: Software and AI

The Honor Magic V5 in splitscreen mode

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
  • Android 15 with MagicOS 9
  • Honor AI and Google Gemini
  • Comprehensive multitasking tools

Like other Honor phones, the Magic V5 runs MagicOS 9, an Android iteration based on Android 15. As far as Android interfaces go, MagicOS sits somewhere between the speed and looseness of OnePlus’ OxygenOS and the stiffer, more structured feel of Samsung’s OneUI. It does the job.

As you might have guessed, the Honor Magic V5’s software shines brightest when it comes to foldable-specific features – the phone has a large suite of multitasking tools that allow for split screen and multi-windowed usage.

You can use a maximum of three apps at once in split screen mode (with one partially hidden off to one side), with another open in a floating overlay. To activate split screen mode you can either drag another app up from the taskbar or hold the bar that appears at the top of the screen. You can also open a single floating window when the phone is folded.

The situations that call for this level of multitasking are honestly pretty rare, but this is still an impressive amount of flexibility that helps the Honor Magic V5 feel like more than just a really big phone. Similarly to Apple’s Stage Manager tool for iPadOS, groups of windows stay together when you swipe up to see your opened apps, and I found it pretty easy to swap between split screen, multi-window, and full-screen modes with the on-screen buttons and contextual menus. However, some software isn't optimized for the folding display; I can give a pass to Honor on third party apps, but even pre-installed Google-made apps like YouTube sometimes gave me weird UI glitches. Luckily, this isn't too common.

MagicOS has a few more tricks up its sleeve. The phone can drive an external display at up to 1080p with the Magic Desktop feature, which is similar to Samsung’s DeX environment and allows for desktop-style usage with a keyboard and mouse. Back on the touchscreen, certain apps have a pull-down tab on the homescreen icon itself, which allows you to, say, quickly glance the time in another timezone or type down a quick note.

The phone is also loaded with AI tools from both Honor and Google (via Gemini, Circle to Search etc). These are found all over the OS, from generative note writing to AI image editing, and an uncanny feature that generates short videos from still images (first seen on the Honor 400 earlier this year). I personally found that Honor has been pretty heavy handed with implementing AI, to the point that it can be harder to find basic functions. For example, to crop an image in the photo gallery, you have to select “AI Edit”, which is now the catch-all term for photo editing.

  • Software and AI score: 4 / 5

Honor Magic V5: Performance

Crossy Road open on the Honor Magic V5

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset
  • 16GB of RAM
  • Never slow, but does heat up a bit

As is typical for high-end folding phones, the Honor Magic V5 is fully loaded with top-end internal hardware, which translates to consistently great performance across multitasking and gaming. It’s got the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset and a full 16GB of RAM – that’s as good as it gets for Android phones, so you won’t come up against hardware constraints. The Magic V5 also comes with 512GB of storage, so no matter which configuration you choose you’ll have plenty of space for photos, videos, and apps.

I was able to make full use of the Magic V5’s software capabilities thanks to this array of high-end silicon. I never encountered any stuttering in the UI, and loading various apps was snappy and seamless, whether in full-screen or in MagicOS 9’s multitasking modes. There’s no lag when switching between apps or in games like Call of Duty Mobile – everything just runs, which is, in fairness, what you want from a phone that costs this much.

However, all that power in such a thin frame does mean the Magic V5 gets pretty warm. It never got uncomfortably hot, but it did seem to warm up very quickly compared to flagship slab phones. This is an these common to thin phone designs, as we’ve recently seen with the iPhone Air – the Magic V5 never got uncomfortably hot, but heat can have negative effects on battery life and potential performance over time, so it's something to keep an eye on.

With that said, I reviewed the Oppo Find N5 earlier this year – another ultra-thin folding phone with a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset – and didn’t notice much in the way of heat.

  • Performance score: 4 / 5

Honor Magic V5: Battery

The Honor Magic V5 USB-C port

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
  • 5820mAh battery capacity would be impressive on a slab phone, let alone a foldable
  • All-day battery life with plenty to spare
  • 66W wired charging with 50W wireless charging

By some miracle of physics, the Honor Magic V5 has a 5,820mAh battery. Let’s put that into perspective – the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 has a 4,400mAh battery, the OnePlus Open has a 4,805mAh battery, and the Honor Magic 7 – a flagship slab phone – has a 5,650mAh battery. Folding phones are typically consigned to smaller batteries due to their split construction, but the Honor Magic V5 sports cells that add up to a fractionally smaller total than a massive Pro-grade cameraphone. It’s really quite something.

This translates to excellent battery life. I’ve used a few folding phones that sport ‘all-day’ battery life, but the Honor Magic V5 gets through a full day of mixed use so effortlessly that I might not think about recharging until midway through the next day. The phone supports 66W fast wired charging with Honor’s proprietary charging kit, but as there’s no brick in the box I could only test it with third party chargers (I got up to 80% in just under an hour with a 40W brick). The handset also supports an impressive 50W power draw in wireless charging. That’s much higher than the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and many slab phones.

I will concede that the Honor Magic V5 seems to chew through battery a bit faster than slab phones, but the phone’s low-power mode is a real lifesaver when you’re caught away from an outlet. I felt fine leaving the house in the morning with around 50% charge, knowing that this would carry me through half a day or more of mixed use very comfortably. Of the folding phones I've used, this has the best battery life for sure.

Folding phones are known to be less efficient with their battery capacities than their slab phone contemporaries, as the cell is typically split between the two halves of the phone. That the Honor Magic V5 offers such impressive battery life is testament to Honor's engineering prowess.

  • Battery score: 5 / 5

Should you buy the Honor Magic V5?

Honor Magic V5 score card

Attribute

Notes

Rating

Value

The Magic V5 isn't cheap by any means, but offers more than the competition for less money.

4 / 5

Design

The thinnest and most comfortable folding phone on the market, and beautifully built too.

5 / 5

Displays

Two beautiful and remarkably consistent displays.

5 / 5

Cameras

Three great rear cameras that get close to flagship standard. Selfie cameras are terrible.

3 / 5

Performance

Never slows down, even in the throes of multitasking. Warms up quickly.

4 / 5

Software

MagicOS 9 is loaded with multitasking and AI tools. It can be a little complicated at times, but flexibility is always welcome.

4 / 5

Battery

A larger battery than most flagship slabs keeps things moving all day. No notes.

5 / 5

Buy it if...

You want a powerful all-in-one device

The Honor Magic V5 has enough hardware power and software flexibility to get through most everyday tasks with ease. It's a great pick for light productivity/View Deal

You want a beautiful phone

The Honor Magic V5 is the thinnest folding phone on the global market and looks absolutely gorgeous. Everything in its construction looks and feels premium.View Deal

You want a cheaper folding phone

At £1,699.99, the Honor Magic V5 costs a lot. That said, it's cheaper than the competition from Samsung and Google, and is possibly even more capable. View Deal

Don't buy it if...

You're on a budget

Despite the above, the Honor Magic V5 is still several hundred pounds more expensive than even the best slab phones. View Deal

You keep it simple

The Magic V5 has two screens, a suite of multitasking tools, an abundance of AI, and a total of five cameras. If you don't need loads of power, you might be better off saving some money on a simpler phone. View Deal

You want a familiar experience

The Honor Magic V5 runs MagicOS 9, which is a variant of Android, but those who value familiarity might prefer the simplicity of a Google Pixel or a phone in the well-known Samsung ecosystem. View Deal

Honor Magic V5: Also consider

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7

I've spent most of this review recounting the ways the Honor Magic V5 beats the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but if you're after a more familiar software experience, class-leading cameras, or Samsung DeX, you'll only get it with the latter.

Read our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 review View Deal

iPhone Air

If you just want a thin, light, and powerful phone but don't think you'll use the folding display that much, the iPhone Air is the new thin and powerful handset that's got the entire tech world talking about it.

Read our iPhone Air review View Deal

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold

The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold isn't the thinnest or most powerful folding phone, but it is the only one on the market that offers IP68 certification (that means it's dust sealed and submersion resistant). Our phones go everywhere with us, so durability is something to seriously consider.

Read our Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold review View Deal

How I tested the Honor Magic V5

I used the Honor Magic V5 for an extended review period, culminating in a week-long stint as my daily driver. I used the Magic V5 to make calls, send messages, scroll through the internet and social media, play games, take pictures, and shoot video. I made sure to balance my use between the cover screen and folding display, and found that both screens could handle most tasks very well.

The Xiaomi 15T Pro may borrow from the competition, but I love it anyway
7:00 am | October 10, 2025
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Phones Xiaomi Phones | Tags: | Comments: Off

Xiaomi 15T Pro: One-Minute Review

Xiaomi’s T-series phones serve up an almost-flagship class experience, while making considered concessions in order to hit a significantly lower price point than typical top-tier offerings.

This year’s Xiaomi 15T Pro is a little different, however, breaking convention by toting functionality that not even the premium Xiaomi 15 Ultra has to offer, while significantly undercutting similarly-sized flagship rivals like the iPhone 17 Pro Max, Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. It's not just me saying so, Xiaomi execs made the unusual move of explicitly comparing the new phone to those rivals at the 15T Pro’s launch.

The design and software take some heavy-handed inspiration from Apple's Pro iPhones and iOS, but the 15T Pro is generally better for it. With a more elegant look and feel compared to last year's more utilitarian 14T Pro.

Software support that surpasses even the 15 Ultra helps up the value proposition, as does the assortment of launch offers Xiaomi serves the 15T Pro up with; from YouTube and Spotify Premium, to out-of-warranty repairs.

One of the largest and nicest screens we've even seen on a T-series phone sits front and center on the 15T Pro, held back only by a lower peak brightness compared to its predecessor, and the absence of a fully dynamic refresh rate that's found on full LTPO display-toting flagship rivals.

The Dimensity 9400 Plus is an excellent piece of silicon that enables top-tier everyday performance, high-fidelity gaming and decent AI capabilities too, but at least on paper, lags behind the new wave of flagship silicon now emerging from MediaTek and Qualcomm.

The Leica-backed camera experience is the best I've seen from the T-series to date, not least because of that capable new 5x periscopic telephoto camera. A rich camera user experience helps too, but collectively highlights the weaknesses in the ultra-wide in particular, which now feels like it's lagging behind the rest of the camera system.

A huge 5500mAh battery delivers great results in lab tests, but proved a little more pedestrian – in terms of longevity – in my real-world use. It nonetheless still renders the 15T Pro a capable all-day phone, and 90W fast charging gets you back up to full charge in well under 40 minutes.

All in all, this is an excellent (if a little unoriginal) next-gen entry in Xiaomi's T-series, and thanks to design, camera and software support improvements, really puts pricier rivals to shame.

Xiaomi 15T Pro review: Price and Availability

  • Starts at £649 / €799
  • Announced and on sale from September 24
  • Not available in the US

Xiaomi’s September event in Munich served as the international launch for the Xiaomi 15T series (consisting of both the Xiaomi 15T and the Xiaomi 15T Pro). Unlike the base Xiaomi 15 series, which saw a staggered rollout that started in the company’s homeland of China, before arriving in markets elsewhere.

Just like the its predecessor (and the new iPhone 17 series), storage starts at 256GB, paired to 12GB of RAM, for which you’ll pay £649 in the UK. That’s the same as its predecessor and great value considering what the phone serves up. What’s more, Xiaomi pairs it with longer software support than even the Xiaomi 15 Ultra; increasing its value in the long-term even further.

Xiaomi 15T Pro REVIEW home screen straight

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

At the phone’s launch, the company also brought Google out on stage to reveal a three-month free Google AI Pro offer and (at the time of writing), new Xiaomi 15T Pro owners also get a three-month trial of YouTube Premium, four months of Spotify Premium, a free screen replacement within the first six months after purchase and an out-of-warranty repair within 12 months, inclusive of labour costs.

While you’ll find the Xiaomi 15T series in most markets across Asia, Europe and the UK, Xiaomi doesn’t sell its phones Stateside, so US fans will have to look at importing, if you’re dead-set on getting your hands on either of these latest phones. Doing so means no warranty, none of the above offers and potential incompatibility with local mobile carriers, however, so keep that in mind.

Whilst Xiaomi listed a ton of carrier partners at the phone’s launch, in the UK it looks like you’ll need to pick the phone up off-contract; either direct from Xiaomi’s website or from retailers like Amazon UK (who at the time of writing already offer the phone with a 12% discount).

  • Value score: 5 / 5

Xiaomi 15T Pro review: Specs

Xiaomi 14T Pro

Xiaomi 15T Pro

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

iPhone 17 Pro Max

Weight:

210g

210g

218g

233g

Display:

6.67-inch OLED

6.83-inch OLED

6.9-inch OLED

6.9-inch OLED

Resolution:

2712 x 1220

2772 x 1280

3120 x 1440

2868 x 1320

Refresh rate:

Up to 144Hz

Up to 144Hz

Up to 120Hz

Up to 120Hz

Peak brightness:

4,000 nits

3,200 nits

2,600 nits

3,000 nits

Chipset:

Dimensity 9300+

Dimensity 9400+

Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy

A19 Pro

Rear cameras:

50MP wide (23mm, ƒ/1.6), 12MP ultra-wide (15 mm, ƒ/2.2), 50MP telephoto (2.6x optical zoom)

50MP wide (23mm, ƒ/1.62), 12MP ultra-wide (15 mm, ƒ/2.2), 50MP telephoto (5x optical zoom)

200MP wide (24mm, ƒ/1.7), 50MP ultra-wide (120º, ƒ/1.9), 10MP telephoto (3x optical zoom), 50MP telephoto (5x optical zoom)

48MP wide (24mm, ƒ/1.78), 48MP ultra-wide (13 mm, ƒ/2.2), 48MP telephoto (8x optical zoom)

Front camera:

32MP (ƒ/2.0)

32MP (ƒ/2.2)

12MP (ƒ/2.2)

18MP (ƒ/1.9)

Storage:

256GB, 512GB, 1TB

256GB, 512GB, 1TB

256GB, 512GB, 1TB

256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB

Colors:

Titan Black, Titan Blue, Titan Gray

Black, Gray, Mocha Gold

Titanium Silver Blue, Titanium Black, Titanium White Silver, Titanium Gray, Titanium Jade Green, Titanium Jet Black, Titanium Pink Gold

Silver, Cosmic Orange, Deep Blue

Xiaomi 15T Pro review: Design

Xiaomi 15T Pro REVIEW back straight

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
  • Refined (if unoriginal) aesthetics and ergonomics
  • IP68 dust and water resistant up to 3m
  • Available in Mocha Gold, black or gray

I wasn’t sold on the aesthetics of last year’s Xiaomi 14T Pro; it was more utilitarian than its predecessor, and lacked coherence and flow. The result was an uninspired design, that while sturdy, wasn’t all that nice to handle either.

With the 15T and 15T Pro, Xiaomi’s design team took things in a different direction, and the phones are all the better for it. The satin-finish flat-sided aluminum frame feels great in the hand, and despite sporting a larger display than last year’s Pro, this year’s entry doesn’t get any heavier (still 210 grams), also boasting a thinner waistline (7.96mm, down from 8.39mm).

Tolerances are tighter, the low-profile metal hardware controls on the phone’s right side still offer up a satisfying ‘click’ when pressed, and there’s a nice contrast with the reworked metal surround around the flush new rear triple camera system. Chamfered edges adopt a polished finish that falls on the right side of looking luxurious, rather than cheap.

Xiaomi 15T Pro REVIEW side buttons angled

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

Although not the most adventurous compared the wider smartphone space, the Mocha Gold of my review sample (pictured) is the most head-turning colorway of the three that the phone comes in (there are also black and Gray [silver] options too), lending itself nicely to the 15T series’ generally sophisticated appearance.

The finish also repels fingerprints exceptionally well, but if you are still worried about scuffs or marks, Xiaomi does also include a dark gray flexible TPU case in-box.

One of the reasons I think I like the look of the 15T Pro so much may have to do with familiarity. That new slightly rounded frame, flat back and the pleasingly thin (27% thinner than on the 14T Pro) uniform bezels surrounding the display all echo one of the most well-known phones of the last twelve months: the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

This isn't the only heavily iPhone-inspired aspect of the 15T Pro, but it's one of the most obvious (more on that later).

Image 1 of 2

Xiaomi 15T Pro REVIEW case off

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
Image 2 of 2

Xiaomi 15T Pro REVIEW case on

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

While the 15T Pro doesn't also share Apple's fleeting appreciation for titanium, Xiaomi has stated that the frame on its new phone is now even stronger (by about 17%, compared to the 14T Pro). The phone's IP68-certified protection has also improved, with support for submersion in up to three meters of water; twice the IP standard's minimum requirement.

The front is protected by Corning's mid-range Gorilla Glass 7i, which promises improved scratch resistance (it's also used to protect the camera on the Xiaomi 15 Ultra and has held up extremely well after months of use, in my tests). The pre-fitted plastic screen protector, meanwhile, doesn't repel scratches all that well, even if it is still appreciated to have such added protection out-the-box.

I was totally fooled by the 15T Pro's back, which I assumed was lightly textured glass, but as confirmed by the company's Terrence Xiao at the phone's launch, it's actually fiberglass.

While not as premium on paper, Xiaomi's efforts at imitation, in reality, pay off. Not only is fiberglass going to be harder wearing than glass in the long run (boasting a tensile strength of 3000MPa), it helps keep weight down, and is likely one of the main cost-saving measures that allows the 15T Pro to hit its competitive price point.

Xiaomi states that the 15T Pro is also twice as drop-resistant as its predecessor.

  • Design score: 4 / 5

Xiaomi 15T Pro review: Display

Xiaomi 15T Pro REVIEW water on screen

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
  • 6.83-inch 12-bit AMOLED display
  • ‘1.5K’ 2712 x 1220 resolution
  • Up to 144Hz dynamic refresh rate

The flat display on the 14T Pro was already capable, meaning the main benefit here is the larger size of the 15T Pro's panel (6.83-inches up from 6.67). Xiaomi has also adjusted the resolution to grant this year's larger iteration similar sharpness too (447ppi).

The more expansive viewing experience it serves up is made all the more immersive thanks to those dramatically thinner and even 1.5mm bezels. Something Xiaomi was able to achieve by using a LIPO ( low-injection pressure over-molding) process; just like Apple's Pro phones, as it happens.

The only real trade-off is this larger panel's lower brightness ceiling, with the phone promising a peak 3200-nit output, down from 4000nits on its predecessor.

Even so, in practice you can expect a great viewing experience; especially when soaking up HDR content. The 15T Pro's display offers all the benefits OLED tech is known for; deep blacks, vibrant but accurate colors, and respectable viewing angles, with minimal distortion, even when viewed off-angle.

Its abilities are bolstered by the likes of 12-bit color depth and Dolby Vision support, as well as 480Hz touch sampling, which paired with this year's larger-sized panel means it's a great screen for gaming, as well as watching media on.

Xiaomi 15T Pro REVIEW bezels

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

One small caveat comes with the phone's refresh rate. Just as I found with 14T Pro, while the screen is rated for super-smooth visuals at up to 144Hz, finding games or experiences that can actually hit that number eluded me. Even games like Minecraft – which supposedly supports uncapped frame rates within its own settings – topped out at 60Hz/60fps on the 15T Pro, while Call of Duty: Mobile allowed for (still impressive) 120Hz/120fps play.

The 15T Pro also doesn't use a fully-fledged LTPO panel, like you'd find on the new iPhone 17, and full-fat flagships, like Pro Pixels and the Galaxy S25 series. So although the refresh rate still adjusts dynamically, it does so in larger increments; like 30Hz, 60Hz and 120Hz. This still means power savings when possible, but when using the 15T Pro's Always-On display, for example, the panel rests at 30Hz, where an LTPO-toting phone can rest at just 1Hz, saving far more battery.

Xiaomi 15T Pro REVIEW fingerprint sensor

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

Xiaomi always spoils you, when it comes to display customization. There are three preset color profiles, plus a full custom option where you can tweak every color space attribute you can think of. Similarly to OnePlus' 'AquaTouch' screen tech, Xiaomi has Wet Touch, and there are even display options for AI-backed video upscaling, SDR to HDR conversion and motion smoothing (all of which you can turn on and off).

The 15T Pro also features an optical in-display fingerprint sensor, which while not as swish as the Xiaomi 15 series' ultrasonic sensors, worked quickly and consistently during review.

  • Display score: 4 / 5

Xiaomi 15T Pro review: Software

Xiaomi 15T Pro REVIEW apps

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
  • HyperOS 2 atop Android 15 at launch
  • Deep personalization
  • 5 years OS + 6 years of security updates

Sticking with the display for a second, one thing that Xiaomi continues to inexplicably bury is select native Android features. One of the first things I have to do on any Xiaomi phone is download a third-party Hidden Settings app, to grant easier access to frequently-used features, like Extra Dim. Why Xiaomi's software team has been hiding such functionality since the days of MIUI is beyond me; especially when the user experience is otherwise heaped in functionality.

On the flip side, one of the things I was worried about after reviewing HyperOS 1 on the Xiaomi 14T Pro, was the presence of ads littering the UI and first-party apps, but it looks like Xiaomi has thankfully reined them in for the experience on the 15T Pro. This phone may be cheaper than a conventional flagship, but for the price, users shouldn't be running into baked-in ads, and thankfully you won't.

Xiaomi 15T Pro REVIEW lockscreen

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

One other perk to bear in mind is that the Xiaomi 15T series will be the first of the company's phones to make the jump to HyperOS 3 (atop Android 16). It felt like an upgrade Xiaomi was hoping to have ready for the 15T line's debut, but they didn't quite make it (the company's has slated the update to arrive sometime in October 2025).

I tried pre-release devices running HyperOS 3 at the phone's launch and generally, it doesn't feel like a seismic upgrade, but there are some notable (if unoriginal) additions. HyperIsland behaves exactly like iOS' Dynamic Island – save for the added ability to expand island elements out into full floating-windowed apps – plus, there's a new Liquid Glass-like search bar that persists across your home screens.

Image 1 of 2

Xiaomi 15T Pro REVIEW Quick Settings

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
Image 2 of 2

Xiaomi 15T Pro REVIEW Puff the cat widget

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

In the here and now, however, the HyperOS 2 experience on the 15T Pro is otherwise generally good. It feels wonderfully snappy (and you even have the option to toggle on richer UI animations if you want), animations are smooth and playful, there are a wealth of ways to easily access multitasking, be it the Side Toolbox (shortcuts which you swipe in from the edge of the screen) or from Xiaomi's unique take on Android's app switcher.

While there aren't any ads to worry about, there are a few duplicate apps – as examples Xiaomi's App Mall and Mi Browser – which can't be uninstalled, plus a few pre-loaded third-party inclusions – like AliExpress and WPS Office – which thankfully can.

Xiaomi 15T Pro REVIEW Security app

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

HyperOS can also be a little convoluted at times. Game Centre grants access to free instant web games, but an app icon for Game Turbo (Xiaomi's gaming performance management overlay) will only appear if you dip into the Security(?) app of all places, and enable a home screen icon from there.

The Xiaomi 15T Pro's user experience does boast some of Xiaomi's latest HyperAI features; like the ability to generate animated wallpapers from your photos and one of the best gallery apps around, with regards to image editing. It also features additional AI imaging tools, that are generally useful and capable, although object and reflection removal need more work (Samsung currently offers the gold standard in object removal on mobile).

One of the best oddities about the Xiaomi 15T Pro's software experience is support, with the promise of five years of OS updates and six years of software support. On the operating system side, that's an additional year over the uber-flagship Xiaomi 15 Ultra. Whilst odd, it further improves the 15T Pro's value, and spells good things for the international release of the Xiaomi 17 series.

  • Software score: 4 / 5

Xiaomi 15T Pro review: Camera

Xiaomi 15T Pro REVIEW camera angled

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
  • 50MP ƒ/1.62 Light Fusion 900 main sensor w/ OIS
  • First 5x periscopic telephoto on a T-series phone
  • 12MP ultra-wide & 32MP front-facer

Generally speaking, you're going to love the look of the photos produced by the 15T Pro's camera setup. Xiaomi's ongoing partnership with Leica means Leica color science, which, paired with the tuning on Xiaomi's own custom Light Fusion 900 main sensor, doesn't fall foul of the over-brightened look the likes of Google's Pixels tend to produce.

Shadows are allowed to be shadows, but you can still expect detail and decent dynamic range. Colors appear rich (samples in this review use the default Leica Vibrant color profile, but you do have the option of the more muted Leica Authentic profile) too.

Image 1 of 28

Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample building angled

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
Image 2 of 28

Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample bar

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
Image 3 of 28

Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample cat portrait mode 1x zoom

1x portrait mode (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample cat portrait mode 2x zoom

2x portrait mode (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample cat portrait mode 5x zoom

5x portrait mode (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample 1x macro plants

1x macro (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample 5x macro plants

5x macro (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample 5x macro crane fly

5x macro (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample Royal Albert Hall 0.6x zoom

0.6x zoom (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample Royal Albert Hall 1x zoom

1x zoom (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample Royal Albert Hall 2x zoom

2x zoom (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample Royal Albert Hall 5x zoom

5x zoom (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample Royal Albert Hall 30x zoom

30x zoom (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample Royal Albert Hall 100x zoom

100x zoom (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample painting

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample stained glass

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample statue 1x zoom

1x zoom (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample statue 5x zoom

5x zoom (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample low light heat lamp

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample Leica Vibrant

Leica Vibrant (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample Leica Authentic

Leica Authentic (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample low light

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample corner macro

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample low light moon 5x zoom

5x zoom (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample low light moon 100x zoom

100x zoom (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample selfie 0.8x zoom

0.8x selfie (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample selfie 1x zoom portrait mode off

1x selfie w/o portrait mode (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
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Xiaomi 15T Pro camera sample selfie 1x zoom portrait mode on

1x selfie w/ portrait mode (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

The big upgrade this year is the jump to a 5x periscopic telephoto sensor; a first for the T-series and welcome inclusion that proves its worth. It's better suited to capturing subjects further away and compressing a scene, as its 115mm equivalent focal range is a little too long for general portrait shooting, but it does well enough in such scenarios too, in a pinch.

With a maximum zoom for 100x, the phone resorts to generative AI to make up for lacking raw image data past 20x, but I wouldn't bother zooming beyond 60x if you want a convincing final shot. Any further and it's too obvious where the AI is filling in the gaps.

With regards to portrait capture, the 15T Pro is a great option, with great edge detection and subject separation. If we're splitting hairs, the most obvious giveaway of the phone's smaller main sensor compared to the 15 Ultra comes with the quality of the bokeh. You'd be forgiven for mistaking shots taken on the Ultra as coming from a conventional camera, whilst the 15T Pro's equivalent images still look like (very good) smartphone photos.

As the smallest sensor on the back of the 15T Pro , the 12MP ultra-wide is great in bright lighting but suffers the most when less light is available. Expect more punchy and contrast-heavy images across the board, but lower fidelity shots when the lights go down.

Xiaomi 15T Pro REVIEW video quality

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

As a tool for creators, the Xiaomi 15T Pro seems like an excellent option, not just at its price point but in general. HDR10+ video capture across all focal lengths, up to 4K 120fps or 8K 30fps recording, plus LOG capture, LUT import and viewfinder support (i.e. an applied LUT isn't burnt into the recorded video and needs to be applied after capture), and even a teleprompter mode too.

While I feel like I'm splitting hairs, beyond physical sensor sizes, there are only subtle improvements I can think of asking Xiaomi for the next-gen T-series camera experience.

Motion tracking focus at 4K 60 and up would be great, Leica filter support above 1080p video capture, richer audio capture (most recorded audio lacked bass, in my opinion), and bigger refinements to the ultra-wide and selfie sensors, which feel as though they're being left behind.

  • Camera score: 5 / 5

Xiaomi 15T Pro review: Performance

Xiaomi 15T Pro REVIEW gaming

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
  • 3nm MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ chipset
  • 12% larger 3D IceLoop cooling system than 14T Pro
  • Xiaomi Offline Communication up to 1.9km

While Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips inhabit the majority of today's best Android phones, MediaTek's premiere Dimensity silicon does sometimes find its way inside certain combatants too.

At the tail end of 2024, I was mightily impressed with the Dimensity 9400 powering the Oppo Find X8 Pro, and the 15T Pro uses a boosted '+' variant of this same chip. Xiaomi also isn't as stingy as, say, Google, with its RAM and storage; with 12GB of fast and power efficient LPDDR5X RAM (across all storage options), pared to equally capable UFS 4.1 storage – in 256GB, 512GB (as tested here) and 1TB capacities.

Xiaomi cites 12% better CPU performance, compared to the 14T Pro's previous-gen Dimensity chip (along with 41% better GPU performance and 20% better AI performance speeds), and in testing the 9400+'s Geekbench 6 multi-core score actually put it 15% ahead of the 14T Pro's Dimensity 9300+. It also slots in just behind the likes of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, found inside this year's Oppo Find N5.

In real-world use, using the Xiaomi 15T Pro feels like a premium experience, with fast app load times, consistently smooth animation and competent proglonged gaming performance, even with demanding titles.

The Dimensity 9400+ doled out a solid 60fps in games like Zenless Zone Zero (which cap at 60fps); defaulting to a blend of 'medium' and 'high' graphical settings. Heat build-up was instantly noticeable with such titles, but nothing I became concerned about, not least because the brand's 3D IceLoop cooling system (a vapor chamber cooling solution) is 12% larger on this generation Pro T-series phone.

The Xiaomi 15T and Xiaomi 15T Pro are also the first of the company's phones to support Xiaomi Offline Communication, which allows for calls and texts with another compatible device at a range of up to (in the case of the 15T Pro) 1.9km, without cellular signal, so long as a SIM is inserted (or an eSIM registered).

While not quite as outlandish as the iPhone's satellite communication, this more localized take on cellular-free communication is a pretty cool addition, which should only improve with time as Xiaomi seeds more devices with support for the feature.

  • Performance score: 4 / 5

Xiaomi 15T Pro review: Battery

Xiaomi 15T Pro REVIEW USB

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
  • 5500mAh battery
  • Up to 90W wired charging + 50W wireless charging
  • Rated for 1600 charge cycles

On paper, the Xiaomi 15T Pro's battery setup promises great things, with the largest capacity power pack ever seen in a T-series phone (5500mAh), backed by up to 90W wired Xiaomi HyperCharge tech. In practice, I found there was a little more nuance to the 15T Pro's longevity.

Using PCMark's Work 3.0 battery test (with the screen set to 200nits), the Xiaomi 15T Pro was one of the longest-lasting phones I've tested, with a score of 15 hours 24 minutes; clocking in just behind the 6000mAh-backed OnePlus 13R and OnePlus 13.

However, in real-world use battery life was far more pedestrian; clocking in between 5.5 and 6 hours of screen-on time per charge. In my experience, that equates to a confident day's heavy use, but not much more.

For comparison, despite only possessing a 9% larger battery, both OnePlus phones delivered 9.5 and 13 hours of screen-on time, respectively. This disparity likely comes from a mix of display, OS and processor inefficiency, compared to the OnePlus phones, but doesn't mark the 15T Pro as a weak performer by any stretch.

This remains a capable all-day phone and battery anxiety can also be kept at bay thanks to those fast recharge speeds.

Whether you get a power adapter in-box will depend on which market you're buying in, but in the UK and Europe, you'll have to source one separately to get the 15T Pro's maximum recharge speeds. You also have to enable 'Top Speed' mode in the battery sub-menu, where the phone will warn you about potential heat build-up when using the mode.

Xiaomi 15T Pro REVIEW charging

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

Out the box, with standard charging enabled, the phone's 5500mAh power pack reached only 21% charge in 30 minutes and didn't reach 100% until almost 2.5 hours. However, with Top Speed enabled, the phone hit an impressive 85% in 30 minutes and was fully charged in 37, right in line with Xiaomi's claims; so it pays to pick up the right power adapter, if you want to capitalize on this fast-charging prowess.

One small note is that, despite being faster than the majority of its more costly competition, the Xiaomi 15T Pro's 5500mAh battery does technically recharge slower than the 14T Pro's; with the previous-gen phone boasting quicker 120W wired charging.

As with the 14T Pro, the Xiaomi Surge Battery inside the 15T Pro is once again rated for 1600 charge cycles, which equates to more than four years of charging before the battery loses 80% of its original capacity. Respectable.

While there's no full-fat passthrough charging, the GameTurbo overlay does include a 'slow charge' option; designed to reduce strain on the battery during extended gaming sessions, without you worrying about losing too much juice.

  • Battery score: 4 / 5

Should you buy the Xiaomi 15T Pro?

Xiaomi 15T Pro score card

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Design

An elegant – if unoriginal – improvement on its predecessor's more utilitarian aesthetics.

4 / 5

Display

One of Xiaomi's largest smartphone screens yet, and a great viewing experience, if only it had a true variable refresh rate.

4 / 5

Software

Longer software support and no baked-in ads are welcome upgrades, but feature-rich HyperOS is still a little convoluted and, again, unoriginal in places.

4 / 5

Camera

The best camera experience on a T-series phone yet, and a capable rival to some markedly pricier rivals. The ultra-wide is falling behind though.

5 / 5

Performance

A great high-end chip, delivers all-round performance, but it's no longer MediaTek's best.

4 / 5

Battery

A huge cell that impresses on paper proved a little more pedestrian in practice, but is still good for all-day use. 90W fast charging beats out pricier competition too, even if that's slower than its predecessor.

4 / 5

Value

There's a whole lot of phone on offer for the price, with sensible cut-backs (back material, no LTPO display), proving small sacrifices on what otherwise feels convincingly flagship-class.

5 / 5

Buy it if...

You want a near-flagship camera experience

The 15T Pro's Leica-backed optics, new 5x telephoto and rich imaging feature set are superb; able to tango with much pricier camera phones.

If you want that iPhone look and feel on Android

Imitation and flattery etc. If you like the look and feel of Apple's smartphones but what the flexibility of Android, the 15T Pro's unoriginality here actually works in your favor.

You need dependable fast charging

Provided you're happy to pay extra for the fast charger (in some markets), the 15T Pro's 90W recharge speeds walk all over mainstream rivals.

Don’t buy it if...

You want the longest battery life

In spite of a huge battery, the Xiaomi 15T Pro's longevity was little more than 'adequate' in real-world use. It's not bad, but there are noteworthy alternatives that last longer.

You want a clean user experience

While credit goes to Xiaomi for squashing ads, beyond the aesthetic similarities with iOS, HyperOS behaves very differently. It's feature-packed but convoluted in places and obfuscates the odd native Android feature too.

You want the best performance

The Dimensity 9400+ is a superb piece of silicon and will last you a few years, but it's built on previous-gen tech and is already outpaced by the next wave of flagship mobile chips.

Xiaomi 15T Pro review: How I tested

  • Review test period: 2.5 weeks
  • Testing included: everyday use including web browsing, social media, photography, video calling, gaming, streaming video, music playback
  • Tools used: Geekbench 6, Geekbench AI, 3DMark, GFXBench, 3DMark native Android stats, Xiaomi 120W charger

I received the Xiaomi 15T Pro just ahead of travelling out to Munich for the phone's global launch, and used it every day since taking delivery of it.

It became my main camera, I used it for everything you'd expect from the phone in your pocket; spanning social media to gaming, web browsing and more.

I dipped into developer settings to assess certain aspects of the 15T Pro's performance more closely and used industry-standard benchmarks to quantify and verify the performance I experienced.

Having reviewed smartphones for 15 years, including numerous Xiaomi smartphones, as well as devices from the company's key competition, I felt equipped to review the 15T Pro; assessing its strengths and abilities against the market it's competing in.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed October 2025

I tested the world’s most eco-friendly phone, and was surprised by this one small addition
7:32 pm | September 24, 2025
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Phones | Tags: , | Comments: Off

Fairphone 6: Two-minute review

Fairphone has always delivered on its key promise of making the most eco-friendly smartphone it can, and over subsequent generations it’s also come on leaps and bounds at making a handset that’s has green credentials yet is also a solid Android phone. We’ve always given respectable reviews to handsets from the Dutch phone maker but that’s mostly for the eco-credos, and the quality of the devices has often left something to be desired.

That gets less true with each generation though and the Fairphone 6 shows another step towards the company understanding its true potential. Case in point, while this is still a chunky Android that has one foot in the rugged phone camp, it has a few features which make it stand out in the crowded smartphone market.

The successor to 2023’s Fairphone 5, the continuing key selling point for the new handset is it's a green phone (literally, depending on which model you buy, but I’m talking about its environmental credentials). The phone incredibly easy to repair yourself, so you don’t need to toss it away should something break. It’s made with loads of recycled materials, from production processes that support fair working conditions. There’s no e-waste in the box and even the making of the phone was done with renewable energy.

While many phone brands might mutter out a line or two about how one component of its phone was made from recycled wool during an announcement, Fairphone makes its environmental mission part of the sales pitch. And with more people each year letting their carbon footprint (or desired lack thereof) inform their purchasing decisions, it remains the best part of buying a Fairphone.

But there’s more; Fairphones have often been pretty hardy but the sixth-gen model literally has military-grade certification to ensure it’s protected. I like a phone that can look after itself and you don’t need to worry with the Fairphone 6; I didn’t even put it in a case.

Like past models it’s very easy to replace damaged parts yourself using a little Fairphone-branded screwdriver, but a new change for this generation is the same process can be used to add accessories to the device (albeit ones bought separately). I found it really easy and even fun unscrewing the back panel to add a finger loop, or card holder, or lanyard, and this also encouraged me to poke around inside the device and demystify the scary-sounding self-repair process.

My biggest surprise with the Fairphone 6 was its presence of a 3D time-of-flight sensor on the back, in lieu of a third sensor. These were popular on phones a few years ago but largely as a way of bulking up a specs list, and rarely did they actually contribute much. But on the Fairphone 6, the impact is noticeable as portrait photos have incredibly accurate background blur, getting blurrier with greater distance from the subject. That’s not something you see often on smartphones and it made the Fairphone one of my favorite phones for pictures of myself (if taken on the rear camera, of course).

That’s not to say that the Fairphone is one of the best camera phones, as pictures tended to be a little dull, lacking in vibrancy and color, and the macro mode worked poorly.

Beyond the areas I’ve discussed, it’s overall a pretty average mid-range phone: its chipset, screen quality, battery capacity and charging speed are all at or slightly below what you’d expect for the price. But the software is stock Android, which provides a nice clean interface and the addition of a handy slider adds some quick functionality when you need it.

Fairphone 6 review: price and availability

The Fairphone 6 with its case and finger grip attached.

(Image credit: Future)
  • Announced in June 2025, released shortly after
  • Costs £499 (roughly $680, AU$990) but only on sale in Europe
  • Pricier version available without Android OS

After being announced in June 2025, the Fairphone 6 was put on sale across July and August, only in Europe. That’s right, Fairphone doesn’t range the phone in the US or Australia… mostly.

The handset costs £499 (roughly $680, AU$990) so it’s a mid-ranged mobile in price. The accessories Fairphone sells and you can see in review images, like the lanyard or finger grip, all cost about £25 (about $34, AU$49). For context the Fairphone 5 was quite a bit pricier at £649 (roughly $800 / AU$1,250), and the price cut is welcome.

There’s another version of the smartphones that's ‘deGoogled’ and comes with the open-source /e/OS instead of Android as the default operating system. This costs $899 / £549 (at least AU$1,000 but there’s quite a gulf between those two prices). As you can see it is on sale in the US, although at a rather high price compared to the UK and also the European pricing.

I didn’t test this version of the phone so it hasn’t been factored into this review, but specs-wise it’s the same as the Android version of the phone.

Fairphone 6 review: specs

Here's the spec sheet in full for the Fairphone 6:

Fairphone 6 specs

Dimensions:

156.5 x 73.3 x 9.6mm

Weight:

193g

Screen:

6.31-inch 20:9 FHD (1116 x 2484) 120Hz OLED

Chipset:

Snapdragon 7s Gen 3

RAM:

8GB

Storage:

256GB

OS:

Android 15

Primary camera:

50MP, f/1.6

Ultra-wide camera:

13MP f/2.2 116-degree

Front camera:

32MP, f/2.0

Audio:

Stereo speakers

Battery:

4,415mAh

Charging:

30W wired

Colors:

Green, white, black

Fairphone 6 review: design

The Fairphone 6's slider.

(Image credit: Future)
  • New slider for quick functions
  • IP55 and MIL-STD-810H adds protection
  • Easily repairable or modifable

As with past models, the Fairphone 6 is a pretty blocky handset, but it makes sense for reasons we’ll get to in a bit. It comes in white, green or black; my review unit was white but the accessories were green, hence the color clash, and I found the white model picked up marks and stains pretty easily.

The phone measures 156.5 x 73.3 x 9.6mm and weighs 193g, so it’s a little smaller than many other contemporary Androids but is pretty thick.

The bottom edge of the phone has the USB-C port but there’s no audio jack. On the left side there’s the volume rocker, which I struggled to readily reach, and replacing it on the right edge of the phone, just above the power button, is a slider.

The function of this slider can be picked from the Settings menu; you can use it to turn on Do Not Disturb, Flight Mode, Torch, Dark Mode, Battery Saver or to turn on Fairphone Moments, a stripped-back menu with quick links to the phone’s most useful functions (maps, messages etc). I personally switched it to torch, because I love it when a phone has a quick way to turn on the flashlight.

Housed in the power button is the phone’s fingerprint sensor, as the Fairphone 6 doesn’t have an under-display scanner. In testing, I found this reliable and quick to use.

The Fairphone 6 is one of the few phones that I don’t feel you need to buy a case for, as by default it feels like it’s clad in an armor of hard plastic. But there’s more; not only does it have IP55 certification against dust ingress and water, it has the military-grade MIL-STD-810H protection too. This means it’s passed tests designed by the US Department of Defense to check that it’s reliable in military situations, so it can withstand altitude, extreme temperatures, humidity, intense shocks and so on. You (hopefully) won’t need any of these protections, but it’s a useful little piece of mind so that you know the Fairphone is hardy.

The unique selling point of the Fairphone 6 is that it’s fully repairable; not by an expert or specialist but by you. If a part of your ecp-friendly phone is damaged you can easily buy a new one on Fairphone’s website and replace it with a screwdriver (the company’s video tutorials might help), saving you buying a whole new device if one component is damaged. This is that eco ethos in action.

It's also the case with accessories, as you can remove the phone’s back panel and replace it with a card holder, a finger loop or similar. The ability to be easily modded like this is perhaps the Fairphone 6’s most distinct upgrade over its predecessor and, frankly, is pretty fun to do too (Fairphone sent me each of the accessories along with the phone, though they’re not included in-box).

  • Design score: 4 / 5

Fairphone 6 review: display

The Fairphone 6's screen.

(Image credit: Future)
  • 6.31-inchd display feels small compared to contemporaries
  • New refresh rate at 120Hz beats predecessor
  • Sometimes struggles in sunlight

Compared to the behemoth screens of some flagship Android phones, the Fairphone 6 might feel a bit small (or ‘compact’, which is the diplomatic word choice). The display measures 6.31 inches across, so it matches the iPhone 17 in this regard.

The resolution is 1116 x 2484, just a hair above FHD+, and it has a 120Hz refresh rate in a notable upgrade over the last-gen Fairphone. The max brightness is 1,400 nits which is fine, but not as bright as many rivals, and I wouldn’t have minded a bit of extra shine for use on sunny days.

Most of the time, though, the Fairphone 6 display works well, especially since it totes the same number of pixels as a much bigger display but crammed down into a smaller screen to increase the pixels-per-inch count.

  • Display score: 3.5 / 5

Fairphone 6 review: software

The Fairphone 6's apps menu.

(Image credit: Future)
  • Comes with stock Android 15
  • 7 years of updates
  • Fairphone app gives extra insight into phone

Fairphone is one of the few remaining companies to use ‘true’ stock Android – not an Android fork, and not stock Android buried under so many customizations that it feels like a fork anyway.

In the case of the Fairphone 6 that means you’re looking at Android 15, and all the features that come with it: live location sharing, dodgy text warnings, screen time tracking and so on. The handset is due to get upgrades for the next seven years, which would take you up to Android 22 in the year 2033 (if that’s what Google decides to call it).

If you like a clean interface with no added bells and whistles, you’ll like the Fairphone 6’s software. You start free from bloatware and can build up your app library just how you like it.

Fairphone does have one addition: its own app is included on the device at start, and while you can remove it, there are some useful features. Firstly, it lets you find information about the device at a tap, instead of buried away in the Settings menu (although mine told me I had 0GB RAM and 0GB storage, perhaps an issue with a review unit. It lets you buy spare parts and accessories quickly too, providing video tutorials on how to add or replace parts.

But the most important is a phone health option, so you can see how much memory and storage you’ve used up, and also what the phone's temperature is, giving you a little insight into its operations. The benefit of this is for the device’s longevity, so you can keep it ticking longer.

  • Software score: 4 / 5

Fairphone 6 review: cameras

The Fairphone 6's camera array

(Image credit: Future)
  • 50MP main and 13MP ultra-wide cameras, 32MP up front
  • Pictures lack contrast and color, but are detailed
  • Rear portraits look really good

Judging by a look at the specs list, Fairphone 6 isn’t being dragged into the camera- sensor pixel wars, dropping many from the past model. Its main camera is a 50MP f/1.6 snapper and it’s joined by a 13MP f/2.2 ultra-wide as well as a 3D time-of-flight sensor. Those specs are absolutely fine for a low-cost phone (except the TOF sensor, a relic of yesteryear, which nine times out of ten doesn’t contribute anything) but nothing to write home about.

Photos taken on the phone are… fine. Forgive the boring descriptor but it’s the most apt one. Snaps have lots of image quality but not much in the way of dynamic range, with a single cloud in the sky dooming the photo with a noticeable lack of color or vibrancy.

In well-lit scenarios things fared a little better, but only a little; the greens of a natural landscape blur into one and a little extra contrast would go a long way. Still, they’re fine-looking for sharing around, especially if you don’t mind going into the edit menu and sprucing them up a little.

Fairphone’s mobiles have rarely had much in the way of photo post-processing optimization, at least compared to competitors, and that’s the case again. It won’t impress anybody but this is a phone for saving the planet, not for capturing sparkly pictures flaunting all the air miles you’ve burned by going to a remote beach for your holiday.

The Fairphone 6 front-facing camera.

(Image credit: Future)

On the front there’s a 32MP f/2.0 camera for snapping selfies and I generally found it pretty fit for purpose, if still indicative of the rear cameras’ issues; snaps could be a little washed-out and colorless.

For a brief whip around the other specs: you can record video at 4K at 30fps or 1080p at 60fps, and down to 120fps at 1080p in slow-motion mode. Most of the other modes are ones you expect: Pro, panorama, time-lapse and night mode.

There are two modes I’ll flag. First is portrait, with the Fairphone 6 surprisingly touting one of the best iterations of this mode I’ve seen. While snaps weren’t exactly vibrant, the bokeh background blur was accurate and varied in intensity depending on the distance to the phone, which is something I rarely see; that could be the TOF sensor in effect.

The other mode is macro, which really didn’t work too well. Like on most phones without a dedicated macro lens it uses the ultra-wide one, resulting in a pixel-heavy pic, missing the depth of field that such pictures should have. In testing I always turned off macro mode and relied on the main camera for such shots instead.

  • Camera score: 3.5 / 5

Fairphone 6 camera samples

Image 1 of 11

A camera sample taken on the Fairphone 6 showing a sign for 'Nessieland' covered by stickers.

A standard picture taken on the Fairphone, in fairly well-lit conditions. (Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 11

A camera sample taken on the Fairphone 6 showing a river with a mountain in the background.

An ultra-wide photo taken in overcast conditions, to contrast the following two snaps. (Image credit: Future)
Image 3 of 11

A camera sample taken on the Fairphone 6 showing a river with a mountain in the background.

A standard photo taken in overcast conditions, to contrast the preceding and following snaps. (Image credit: Future)
Image 4 of 11

A camera sample taken on the Fairphone 6 showing a river with a mountain in the background.

A 2x zoom snap taken in overcast conditions, to contrast the two previous snaps (the phone uses digital zoom). (Image credit: Future)
Image 5 of 11

A camera sample taken on the Fairphone 6 showing a selection of canapes.

A canape board taken at 1x zoom in artificial lighting at close range. (Image credit: Future)
Image 6 of 11

A camera sample taken on the Fairphone 6 showing a man before a forest.

A portrait snap of a man to show the bokeh effects (white bars added manually before adding this picture to the web). (Image credit: Future)
Image 7 of 11

A camera sample taken on the Fairphone 6 showing a purple flower.

A macro picture of some flowers... or an attempt to photograph them. (Image credit: Future)
Image 8 of 11

A camera sample taken on the Fairphone 6 showing a purple flower.

The flowers from the previous photo, but using the main camera, to show how improved it is. (Image credit: Future)
Image 9 of 11

A camera sample taken on the Fairphone 6 showing a steam train.

Another standard picture of a closer object. (Image credit: Future)
Image 10 of 11

A camera sample taken on the Fairphone 6 showing a waterfall.

Another standard photo of a further subject. (Image credit: Future)
Image 11 of 11

A camera sample taken on the Fairphone 6 showing a path in some woods.

A final standard photo showing a woodland scene with mixed lighting. (Image credit: Future)

Fairphone 6: performance and audio

  • Mid-range Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipset
  • Single 8GB/256GB model
  • Bluetooth 5.4 or USB-C port for audio, no jack

As is the way with Fairphone’s mobiles, the Gen 6 doesn’t have a top-end chip, but it has enough power that you won’t find it too slow for everyday use. The chipset here is the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, which we’ve also seen in the likes of the Nothing Phone 3(a) Pro and Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro Plus.

This is a mid-range piece of kit, capable of handling gaming in a mostly fine fashion, though maybe not at the top graphics options if you don’t want stutters, and all everyday tasks.

When I put the phone through a Geekbench 6 benchmark test, it returned a multi-core average score of 3,430, which reflects the chipset; Snapdragon 600s often sit at around 2,000 points while 800s I’ve tested recently have gone to the mid 4,000s.

Paired with the chipset is 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, and there’s only one configuration available. While 8GB RAM is nothing to write home about, a spec that flags this as a mobile not designed for power-users, the storage is a solid amount that compensates for the lack of a microSD card slot.

It’s 2025 so of course there’s no 3.5mm audio jack for audio, Fairphone ditched that years ago when everyone else did. Instead you can listen to music using the Bluetooth 5.4 support or using a USB-C adaptor. The stereo speakers aren’t exactly impressive but that’s normal for a smartphone.

  • Performance score: 3.5 / 5

Fairphone 6 review: battery life

  • Relatively slender 4,415mAh battery
  • Slow 30W charging

The Fairphone 6 with its back panel removed.

(Image credit: Future)

The Fairphone 6 has a 4,415mAh battery, one which the company estimates will keep you going for “almost two days” from 100% power. I wouldn’t go that far, and I’d put the lasting power at about a day, or a little bit longer if you’re not an intensive user.

That’s a fine battery life for a smartphone, even if 4,415mAh may seem anemic given that most contemporaries have pushed it to 6,000mAh. Fairphone’s own optimizations and software and spec choices often counter smaller-capacity batteries.

Of course, if your battery starts to diminish or go wrong, it’s one of the many parts of the phone you can swap out very easily.

Charging is done at 30W, which is again a little lower than rivals, and you’ll have to wait for well over an hour to get from empty to full. There’s no kind of reverse or wireless powering.

  • Battery score: 3.5 / 5

Fairphone 6 review: value

The Fairphone 6 with a screwdriver loosening a screw.

(Image credit: Future)

What price would you put on a phone that looks after the planet?

Rhetoric aside, the Fairphone 6 isn't priced particularly competitively when you look at the specs, but what sets its apart is its lasting power.

Not only does its IP and military certification ensure it'll survive damage much better than other handsets on the market, but the fact you can replace ailing parts ensures that the mobile's lifespan will far outstrip anything else you might be considering.

After all, the average phone lasts for under three years, especially cheaper models. The Fairphone 6 will last you longer than multiple other models if you let it.

  • Value score: 4.5 / 5

Should you buy the Fairphone 6?

The Fairphone 6 charging port.

(Image credit: Future)
Fairphone 6 score card

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Value

The potential lasting power of this phone means its price seems like a bargain, when looking at the bigger picture.

4.5 / 5

Design

It's no looker, but it's well protected, easily modifiable and has a handy new slider.

4 / 5

Display

If you want a phone with a smaller screen, the Fairphone will fit you perfectly.

3.5 / 5

Software

The software is nice and clean, as Google intended, but without the extra features Android forks bring.

3.5 / 5

Camera

Other than the impressive portrait capabilities, the Fairphone 6 cameras are bang average.

3.5 / 5

Performance

The Snapdragon chip here is fine for everyday use for most people, but gamers will pine for more.

3.5 / 5

Battery

The battery is small and the charging slow, but optimizations ensure the actual battery life is okay.

3.5 / 5

Buy it if...

You care about the planet
There's no use beating about the bush. If you want a smartphone that reflects your own climate principles, the Fairphone is the one and only to buy.

You want something a bit smaller
Compared to most modern-day beasts, the Fairphone 6 is the rare smaller Android phone (smaller, but not small).

You take lots of Portrait pictures
I've mentioned this numerous times through the review, but once more: the ToF sensor really adds something to Portrait-mode pics.

Don't buy it if...

You want a powerful phone
The Snapdragon 700-family chipset is fine, but it's not going to provide the fierce power than an 800-series chip would.

You're not going to mod or repair your phone
Repairing or modding the Fairphone is easy, but if you feel worried about using a screwdriver to tweak your smartphone, you might not appreciate the benefits of the Fairphone 6's DIY repair potential. .

Fairphone 6 review: Also consider

If you don't think this mobile is right for you, let's look at some similar-priced handsets. Just note, other than the first, these won't retain the Fairphone's green principles.

Fairphone 5
The previous-generation mobile is weaker in a few areas and doesn't come with the neat accessory integration, but being older, you can pick it up for a reduced price.

Read our full Fairphone 5 review

Nothing Phone 3a Pro
This slightly-cheaper rival looks even more alien than the Fairphone. Its specs are a little bit better across the board and it's much bigger.

Read our full Nothing Phone 3a Pro

Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro Plus
This slightly-cheaper Android turns the specs up to 11, with a much higher-res rear camera, drastically-charger fasting and a bigger screen. However, as our reviewer points out, its software isn't great to use.

Read our full Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro Plus review

Fairphone 6

Fairphone 5

Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro Plus

Nothing Phone 3a Pro

Starting price (at launch):

£499 (roughly $680, AU$990)

£649 (roughly $800 / AU$1,250)

$399 / £399 (roughly AU$800)

$459 / £449 / AU$849

Dimensions:

156.5 x 73.3 x 9.6mm

161.6 x 75.8 x 9.6mm

162.53 x 74.67 x 9.95mm

163.52 x 77.5 x 8.39mm

Weight:

193g

212g

210g

211g

OS (at launch):

Android 15

Android 13

Android 14, HyperOS

Android 15, NohtingOS 3.1

Screen Size:

6.31-inch

6.46-inch

6.67-inch

6.77-inch

Resolution:

1116 x 2484

2700 x 1224

2712 x 1220

1080 x 2392

CPU:

Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3

Qualcomm QCM6490

Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3

Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3

RAM:

8GB

8GB

8GB / 12GB

12GB

Storage (from):

256GB

256GB

256GB / 512GB

256GB

Battery:

4,115mAh

4,200mAh

5,110mAh

5,000mAh

Rear Cameras:

50MP main, 12MP ultra-wide

50MP main, 50MP ultra-wide

200MP main, 8MP ultra-wide

50MP main,. 50MP zoom, 8MP ultra-wide

Front camera:

32MP

50MP

20MP

50MP

How I tested the Fairphone 6

The Fairphone 6 with a message about battery replacement.

(Image credit: Future)
  • Review test period = 2 weeks
  • Testing included = Everyday usage, including web browsing, social media, photography, video calling, gaming, streaming video, music playback
  • Tools used = Geekbench 6, Geekbench ML, GFXBench, native Android stats

I tested the Fairphone 6 for just over two weeks to write this review, using it as my normal mobile in this time. As stated, I was sent the white version of the mobile along with all the extra accessories.

The testing process included a mix of experience and 'lab'-style, so I'd use the handset as my normal phone for some of the time but also conducted a battery of benchmarking tests as well. I also took the phone with me on holiday, hence the camera samples.

I didn't test the military-standard protection of the phone, due to not having a nearby warzone or extreme climate in which to do so. I'll have to take Fairphone's word for that.

As well as this mobile, I've tested the last few Fairphone mobiles, alongside plenty of other devices since I started reviewing for TechRadar in early 2019.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed September 2025

The Apple iPhone Air is the sexiest iPhone I’ve ever tested – it’s really a new kind of Pro
3:00 pm | September 17, 2025
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets iPhone Phones | Comments: Off

Apple iPhone Air: Two-Minute Review

The iPhone Air is, to a degree, exactly what we were expecting: Apple’s thinnest iPhone ever, measuring just 5.64mm. It feels light, balanced, and durable thanks to a grade 5 titanium frame and Ceramic Shield glass. In the hand it’s sleek and refined – I’ve been using my Sky Blue unit for a week now and it’s still turning heads.

The 6.5-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display is excellent: it’s an always-on display that supports ProMotion, HDR, and brightness up to 3,000 nits. It’s slightly bigger than the iPhone 17’s screen, which gives apps, text, and videos more room to breathe, and it looks great whether I’m scrolling TikTok, watching HDR movies, or just browsing outside on a sunny day.

iOS 26 feels tailor made for the Air, with its new Liquid Glass design that looks striking and complements the physical build. Messages now support custom backgrounds, typing indicators, and polls, while the Phone app and Visual Intelligence get useful upgrades. And while Siri’s full AI overhaul isn’t here yet, Apple Intelligence features are starting to appear.

The biggest trade-off comes with the camera setup: there’s just a single 48-megapixel lens on the rear of the phone. It produces sharp, natural-looking photos and impressive portraits, but you’ll miss the flexibility of a telephoto or ultrawide if you’re used to them. The selfie camera is excellent, though, with Apple’s Center Stage smarts for automatic wide and ultrawide framing, and Dual Capture is genuinely fun.

Performance from the A19 Pro is snappy and smooth, and it capably handled everything I threw at it, though the phone does get warm during fast charging or heavy gaming. Battery life is decent but not class-leading: enough for a workday, usually six to eight hours of use, with my best stretch hitting around 10 hours away from the charger. Power users may want to invest in the $99 / £99.00 / AU$159 MagSafe Battery Pack, which matches the phone’s slim profile and adds about 65% more life, but it’s an added cost.

The iPhone Air isn’t the best iPhone for photography or endurance, but as a design statement, it’s a gem. It feels like the most exciting iPhone Apple has released in years, and while it costs more than the iPhone 17 with fewer cameras and shorter battery life, it delivers value in other key areas.

Apple iPhone Air: Price and Availability

Apple unveiled the iPhone Air at its September 9, 2025, ‘Awe Dropping’ event alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, AirPods Pro 3, and three new Apple Watches. The Air, though, stands out with its entirely new design, and is a whole new category of iPhone.

It starts at $999 / £999 / AU$1,799 for 256GB of storage, or you can bump that up to 512GB for $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,199, or 1TB for $1,399 / £1,399 / AU$2,599. The iPhone Air is an eSIM-only device worldwide and comes in four colors: Sky Blue, Light Gold, Cloud White, and Space Black. I’ve been testing a 1TB iPhone Air in Sky Blue.

Apple will officially launch the iPhone Air on September 19, 2025, but it’s up for pre-order now from the company’s online store, authorized retailers, and carriers.

Apple iPhone Air: Specs

iPhone Air

iPhone 17

iPhone 17 Pro

iPhone 17 Pro Max

Weight:

165g

177g

206g

233g

Display:

6.5-inch OLED

6.3-inch OLED

6.3-inch OLED

6.9-inch OLED

Resolution:

2736 x 1260

2622 x 1206

2622 x 1206

2868 x 1320

Refresh rate:

120Hz

120Hz

120Hz

120Hz

Peak brightness:

3,000 nits

3,000 nits

3,000 nits

3,000 nits

Chipset:

A19 Pro

A19

A19 Pro

A19 Pro

Rear cameras:

48MP wide (26mm, ƒ/1.6)

48MP wide (26mm, ƒ/1.6), 48MP ultra-wide (13 mm, ƒ/2.2)

48MP wide (24mm, ƒ/1.78), 48MP ultra-wide (13 mm, ƒ/2.2), 48MP telephoto (8x optical zoom)

48MP wide (24mm, ƒ/1.78), 48MP ultra-wide (13 mm, ƒ/2.2), 48MP telephoto (8x optical zoom)

Front camera:

18MP (ƒ/1.9)

18MP (ƒ/1.9)

18MP (ƒ/1.9)

18MP (ƒ/1.9)

Storage:

256GB, 512GB, 1TB

256GB, 512GB

256GB, 512GB, 1TB

256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB

Colors:

Space Black, Cloud White, Light Gold, Sky Blue

Black, White, Mist Blue, Sage, Lavender

Silver, Cosmic Orange, Deep Blue

Silver, Cosmic Orange, Deep Blue

Apple iPhone Air: Design

Apple iPhone Air Review

(Image credit: Jacob Krol/Future)
  • The freshest look that Apple has delivered in years
  • Unbelievably thin and light
  • Feels great in the hand with proper ergonomics

If you were following the Apple rumor cycle, we were all expecting an ultra-thin iPhone to be released – one that would potentially go thinner than the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, be more stunning than the iPhone X, and offer a truly refreshed look and feel for the iPhone. The launch event’s ‘Awe Dropping’ tagline set the bar high – and the iPhone Air cleared it with room to spare.

It’s not the first ultra-thin phone – the Galaxy S25 Edge measures in at 5.8 millimeters – but it still feels as stunning, sleek, and sexy in my hand right now after living with it for a week as it did during my brief hands-on session following the launch event. It feels as exciting as the iPhone X, in that it might give us the playbook for the modern iPhone going forward – or at least show us one half of the purportedly incoming foldable iPhone.

The photos released by Apple, and even those shot by me for this review, only do it partial justice. The iPhone Air is the best representation yet of Apple’s vision for an iPhone that’s just glass. It weighs in at just 5.82 ounces, or 165 grams, fully justifying the ‘Air’ moniker. Much like the iPhone 17 or even a Pro Max, it feels balanced – not too top-heavy, not too bottom-heavy. It’s Goldilocks ergonomics.

I don’t know if I’d quite call it awe-dropping, but the thinness is the part that gets people excited. At its thinnest, the iPhone Air is 5.64 millimeters, or 0.22 inches, and the ‘plateau’ (Apple’s new term for the camera bump) only juts out a bit more. I was instantly wowed, and over the course of a week (well, eight days now), I’ve really become accustomed to this look and feel for an iPhone.

Apple iPhone Air Review

(Image credit: Jacob Krol/Future)

While conducting some testing over the week, I showed it to my brother and sister-in-law, who were both visibly impressed when holding it. They asked about durability and were a little stunned at the overall feel. Then came the questions about battery life and the camera – both of which I’ll address below – and whether the USB-C port was thinner.

On that last point – it’s still a regular USB-C port, but to fit it in this frame and get it this small, Apple’s design team started by 3D-printing a custom one. And given how thin this phone had to be, Apple went back to grade five titanium for the shell and sides of the device. To further enhance the looks, it has a polished finish. My Sky Blue review handset is different from the MacBook Air and iPad Air colors of the same name – it’s a bit lighter and pastel-like. I really like it, and the Air also comes in Light Gold, Space Black, and Cloud White.

While the innermost layer of the iPhone Air sandwich is made of that strong titanium, which can bend slightly under pressure but is designed to spring back, it’s topped and bottomed with glass and glass ceramic; specifically Ceramic Shield 2 on the front and Ceramic Shield on the back. The rear, like the iPhone 17, is mostly frosted matte glass, while the top bump gets the glossy finish.

Apple says the Air is three times more scratch-resistant on the front – though I’ve still been careful sliding this in and out of my front or rear jeans pockets – and the back is four times more crack-resistant.

I actually did drop it on concrete paving stones, and the iPhone Air came out completely unscathed. My dog Rosie pulled me suddenly, I dropped the Air, and it hit the ground on the top-left corner and then landed screen-down, single camera-up. Not even a scratch. Rosie was off the hook.

That incident, along with our Editor at Large Lance Ulanoff’s bend test and his fumble with the iPhone Air, gives some credence to Apple’s durability promises. Apple says the iPhone Air is more durable than any model before this and on par with the rest of the 17 lineup. In a test behind closed doors at Apple Park, I saw an iPhone Air put through the wringer, receiving a simulated force of 130 pounds, and bending and then springing back with no visible stress marks left.

It also has the same IP68 rating for resistance to dust and water as the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max – it survived a light drizzle shortly after I unboxed it at Apple Park. The weather’s been wet in my home state of Jersey, and the Air has shown no issues when being used in rain or surviving a dunk test.

Even given the extreme thinness here, you still get the usual buttons you’d expect on an iPhone. Camera Control (still not a button) has been redesigned to live on the right-hand side, and it’s slightly thinner but about the same length as on other iPhones. The power/sleep button sits slightly higher on this side, with the Action Button, volume up, and volume down on the left. The main mono speaker lives at the top with some microphones, and there are two other microphones either side of the USB-C port on the bottom.

This design does, as mentioned, only leave room for a single camera, and likely a smaller battery inside, but Apple has also dropped the SIM card slot worldwide and opted for eSIM to save some space.

The iPhone Air is stunning, attracts a lot of admiring glances, and feels like the biggest refresh in iPhone design we’ve seen in a while. Yes, it’s the same key parts, just compressed; but in use it feels like the perfect showcase for iOS 26. If you’re after Apple’s best design this year, I think it’s clearly the iPhone Air – but there's a lot more to this iPhone than just looks.

  • Design score: 5 / 5

Apple iPhone Air: Display

Apple iPhone Air Review

(Image credit: Jacob Krol/Future)
  • At 6.5 inches the front is virtually all screen
  • It’s on a par with the displays on the Pro and Pro Max

For $999 / £999 / AU$1,799 it would be a little mean of Apple not to include ProMotion or always-on functionality here, and the iPhone Air supports both. As a whole, the screen here is basically in line with those of the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, or 17 Pro Max.

The front of the iPhone Air is nearly all glass, except for a thin black bezel that turns into the sloped polished side. It’s a 6.5-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display with a resolution of 2376 x 1260, which works out to 460 pixels per inch. It tops out at 3,000 nits of brightness when needed, supports the Wide Color P3 gamut and HDR, and features an anti-reflective coating. It also has the same Dynamic Island as the rest of the iPhone 17 line.

In daily use, the display is really the main appeal here – on paper, it’s 0.2 inches bigger diagonally than the iPhone 17 or 17 Pro, but it feels a bit more expansive. It offers more lines of text, or a slightly expanded view when viewing a webpage. Games or movies feel a little more like an event, and it offers a broad canvas for iOS 26. Lay two of these phones side by side and I think you’d have some idea of what Apple is planning to bring us with its long-rumored folding iPhone – and it would look mightily impressive, but we’re not quite there yet. And it’s still smaller than the Pro Max.

Colors looked punchy and vibrant, text was inky black and crisp, and it was a great display for daily use. I found that it got bright enough to battle the bright sunshine of California, the late summer sunshine of New Jersey and New York, as well as bright artificial lighting. I liked scrolling TikTok and Instagram Reels, or watching a video on it, mainly thanks to the super-smooth ProMotion display.

And iOS 26, with its Liquid Glass makeover, looks fantastic here.

  • Display score: 5 / 5

Apple iPhone Air: Software and Apple Intelligence

Apple iPhone Air Review

(Image credit: Jacob Krol/Future)
  • Liquid Glass runs well here and feels purpose-built for the design
  • iOS 26 brings with it some really smart features

I have a feeling that the design team at Apple knew the Air was on the roadmap when designing Liquid Glass.

iOS 26 is running on the iPhone Air out of the box, and as on any iPhone, announces itself with a ‘Hello’ on the first boot. You’ll get a sense of the new translucent, glass-like nature of the software pretty quickly. It’s mostly visible in how notifications refract over your wallpaper or up top, with whatever is behind the element. I especially like the way the bottom menu bars look with this, although legibility can be an issue at times, depending on what’s behind the element. You’ll also notice a difference if you use light mode or dark mode.

The redesign is only a portion of iOS 26, as Apple’s latest OS introduces a number of new features. I’m keen to put many of the new parts of Messages to the test with my friends and various group chats. With the latter, you’ll now get typing indicators, and you can set a custom background for any Message group or individual. This will, I have a feeling, be an especially tough test for legibility with the Liquid Glass components. You also have the option to add polls in group messages, which is a fun way to decide on activities or maybe pick a restaurant.

The Phone app is entirely new, though you can switch back, placing your favorites up top and below that is a combined list of outgoing and incoming calls, missed calls, and even voicemails. It can be a lot to process at first, but after months on the beta I’m more or less used to it, although I have switched back to the original setup occasionally, as the new one makes voicemails a little harder to track down. You can also use Live Translation during calls, which can be helpful for international travel, and I especially like the wait-on-hold feature.

Visual Intelligence, which is engaged with a long press of Camera Control, is a bit smarter here, and can now identify events to add to your calendar and integrate with apps that add support with the API. However, we’re still waiting on the full AI-powered Siri, and many of the new Apple Intelligence features aren’t front and center here.

You can check out our full guide to iOS 26 here, as there’s a lot more to dig into.

  • Software score: 4 / 5

Apple iPhone Air: Camera

Apple iPhone Air Review

(Image credit: Jacob Krol/Future)
  • Single-lens 48MP Fusion camera on the rear
  • You can get some impressive shots, especially portraits
  • Front-facing camera is 18MP with Center Stage

This is where the compromises necessitated by the iPhone Air’s unfeasibly thin design begin: the iPhone Air only features a single, 48-megapixel Fusion camera on the back. It can shoot at 1x, a sensor crop in 2x, or a maximum digital 10x, but the quality falls off noticeably with the latter.

I’ll cut to the chase here – if you’re after the iPhone with the best cameras, or even just some variety for shooting, this is probably not it.

I was impressed with some of the shots I took, particularly the one taken from 36,000 feet out an airplane window in the gallery below – the Air captured a surprising amount of detail around the engine, wing, and even the clouds, and what appears to be a mountain in the distance. The night mode worked very well when capturing my Bernedoodle, the aforementioned Rosie, and I’m especially impressed with the Portrait mode here, and the work going on behind the scenes to deliver the right bokeh effect in the right spot.

Still, as someone who used a 16 Pro Max before this, I miss the telephoto camera, even if that wasn’t a Super Res Zoom like on a Galaxy or a Pixel; 2x isn’t a lot. The iPhone Air also doesn’t have an ultra-wide or a macro camera. If anything, it’s made me think about the types of shots I’d want to capture with a phone, and if an ultra-wide or zoom is a deal breaker for you, you’ll want to look at the 17 or the 17 Pro duo.

The 48MP Fusion camera here can capture photos at a full 48 megapixels or, by default, a 24-megapixel photo that saves space by combining a 12-megapixel shot and a 48-megapixel shot. It normally does a pretty good job of preserving colors and details, and is something that Apple’s been doing for several generations of iPhone.

The main lens here does an admirable job, and I’m quite happy with some of the images I got – particularly in portrait mode, with the camera keeping colors within a realistic range and not skewing warmer or cooler, as well as capturing plenty of the finer details.

In some cases, photos looked a bit washed out – for instance, landscapes on particularly sunny days, as when I took test shots at a botanical garden (although I was able to capture a sunflower quite nicely, other fauna, and even orange fish below a less-than-crystal-clear pond). Mostly, though, the camera can capture those more vibrant moments, such as a shot of Yankee Stadium or the sunset from a plane window.

Without a true telephoto or an ultrawide, you’re able to take more creative control to capture unique shots. You can see a full gallery of test images – standard photos at 1x or 2x, and some digital zoom ones, as well as Portraits at 1x or 2x – below.

Apple iPhone Air Review

(Image credit: Jacob Krol/Future)

A new feature that takes advantage of the 18-megapixel Center Stage camera on the front and the rear camera is Dual Capture. It’s not a brand-new idea, and essentially this lets you record with the front camera and rear camera at the same time, with stabilization applied. I think it’s a lot of fun, especially for sports events, where you could capture both the on-field action and the reaction of you and your friends, and I imagine it would be a blast at concerts – I could record myself belting out Born to Run along with the Boss – but also for parents with young children.

The 18-megapixel selfie camera uses a larger image sensor than on previous iPhones, and it’s actually super helpful. Essentially, it can automatically adjust a wide or ultra-wide view so you can easily fit everyone into your selfie or video, and with the tap of a button you can rotate between vertical and horizontal without needing to physically rotate your phone. It also delivers a serious, high-quality selfie.

I’ll include some video samples below – the 48MP camera isn’t a slouch here, and performs on a par with the standard iPhone 17. The end result is either up to 1080p HD at up to 60 frames per second, or 4K at up to 60fps.

  • Camera score: 4 / 5
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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air Camera Samples

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Apple iPhone Air: Performance

Apple iPhone Air Review

(Image credit: Jacob Krol/Future)
  • The iPhone Air feels responsive and fast, even with more intense workflows
  • A19 Pro chip should keep it running smoothly for years
  • Can get warm on the camera bump with gaming and other more intensive tasks

Powering the iPhone Air is Apple’s A19 Pro chip, which is a step up from the iPhone 17’s A19, and a slightly less powerful version of the A19 Pro in the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max, without the extra cooling technology. The A19 Pro here is a 6-core CPU with two performance and four efficiency cores, a 5-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine.

It’s a good lick faster than the A18 Pro or A18 found in the iPhone 16 Pro Max or 16, especially with various elements of iOS 26 – including spatializing a wallpaper – and in everyday use. Compared to the standard iPhone 17, I’d say performance is about neck and neck. The A19 Pro is arguably being used here to help regulate performance temperature.

I did notice the iPhone Air heating up during the first few days while it was still indexing and charging – especially from 0% to about 50% – before cooling as it slowed near 80%. It also warms up when multitasking with demanding apps at times.

For example, if I’m on a call and launch a game like Asphalt 9, the area around the camera housing on the rear can get noticeably warm, though it cools quickly as performance regulates. The heat doesn’t spread below the Apple logo, and a case, like Apple’s Bumper or Clear option, helps keep it from your fingertips.

Keep in mind that basically all the components do live in the plateau – including the silicon – so it makes sense that the area does heat up. When it comes to non-gaming tasks, though, the iPhone Air handles everything well, and delivers strong performance while keeping cool. That was the case with my daily workflow consisting of calls – audio and FaceTime – as well as Mail, Gmail, Slack, Safari, Chrome, Edits, Capcut, the Camera, and other apps. Even with creating a Genmoji or using Image Playground or another facet of Apple intelligence, the iPhone Air didn’t get especially warm.

In terms of quantitative testing, the iPhone Air scored slightly higher than the iPhone 17 on GeekBench 6.5, at 3,723 on single-core and 9,665 on multi-core. That’s in line with smartphones at this price range, though, as we noted in our Galaxy S25 Edge review, that phone has a thermal solution for keeping things cool.

  • Performance score: 4 / 5

Apple iPhone Air: Battery

Apple iPhone Air Review

(Image credit: Jacob Krol/Future)
  • It can deliver all-day battery for some, but more likely will last a full workday
  • You’ll likely need to recharge it during the day
  • While costly, the MagSafe Battery is a sound investment

We can only guess at the iPhone Air’s battery size for now, as Apple doesn’t officially release those numbers. It’s clear, though, that the company has squeezed as large a cell as possible inside this ultra-slim smartphone.

Instead of capacity, Apple provides viewing estimates: up to 27 hours of downloaded video playback and 22 hours of streaming. With the $99 MagSafe Battery attached, those numbers rise to 40 and 35 hours, respectively – about a 65% boost.

In my experience, the iPhone Air generally lasts through a workday – six to eight hours depending on use. That’s behind the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max, but it still meets Apple’s “all-day” standard. On one test, I took it off a charger at 7:30am and it lasted until 5:50pm, or 10 hours and 20 minutes. At best, I recorded six hours and 35 minutes of active screen time; on average, I got around four hours and 45 minutes.

During my first few fast charges, the top of the camera plateau and the area beneath it did get warm, mostly between 0% and 50%, before cooling down. This isn’t unusual for fast charging and reflects the component layout.

Power users will likely need to recharge by the time they get home. Apple’s slim MagSafe Battery nearly matches the Air’s profile, adding only a bit more thickness than the camera bump. It recharges intelligently throughout the day, manages heat well, and uses pocket detection to optimize charging times. Optional, yes – but it complements the iPhone Air experience nicely.

  • Battery score: 4 / 5

Apple iPhone Air: Should You Buy?

iPhone Air Score card

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Design

The iPhone Air is Apple’s most exciting refresh in years.

5 / 5

Display

The iPhone Air’s 6.5-inch Super Retina XDR OLED is punchy, sharp, and smooth with ProMotion and Always-On functionality.

5 / 5

Software

iOS 26 feels tailor-made for the iPhone Air.

4 / 5

Camera

The iPhone Air relies on a single 48MP lens that delivers sharp, natural photos and impressive portraits, but lacks the versatility found on other models.

4 / 5

Performance

The iPhone Air feels fast and smooth in daily use, though it can warm up under sustained heavy gaming.

4 / 5

Battery

The iPhone Air should last a workday, but heavy users will need to recharge.

4 / 5

Value

At $999, the iPhone Air feels like a new kind of Pro – trading camera and battery versatility for design.

4 / 5

Buy it if...

If you want the thinnest, lightest iPhone ever

At just 5.64 milimeters thick and 165 grams light, it’s the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever, and feels great in the hand.

If you want a gorgeous, large display

If you don’t want to pay the tax of a Pro Max or a screen that big, the iPhone Air’s 6.5-inch screen is great, and it feels like an all-screen device

If you’re ready for an iPhone that feels unlike the rest

Looks are subjective, but if you want the boldest-looking iPhone in years, this might be the one to get

Don’t buy it if...

You want the longest battery life

Depending on usage, the iPhone Air can struggle to make it through a full day, so those looking for a lasting performance will want to look elsewhere

You want the best cameras in an iPhone

With just a single lens, those who want a versatile set of lenses will need to look at the Pro or Pro Max

You want maximum performance

With an extra core and more thermals, the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max offer unmatched performance for extreme workflows

Apple iPhone Air: How I Tested

I’ve been covering smartphones for years — including iPhones since the iPhone 8 lineup — and my first personal iPhone was the 3GS. For this review, I set up the iPhone Air in Sky Blue, moving my number over from an iPhone 16 Pro Max via eSIM and starting fresh.

Over more than a week of testing, I put the Air through everyday use: calls, streaming music, gaming, watching TV and movies, capturing photos, and running my usual suite of work apps. I measured performance using both real-world applications and benchmarks, such as GeekBench 6.5, paying close attention to how it handled multitasking and more demanding workloads. For battery life, I tracked how quickly it drained during different tasks and also ran a standardized assessment.

On the camera side, I pushed the single 48MP rear lens through its paces — testing 1x, 2x crop, Portrait, and Night modes, plus video recording up to 4K at 60fps. I also spent time with the new 18MP selfie camera, trying both portraits and group shots, and had fun with Dual Capture for video.

To get a clearer sense of how it stacks up, I compared the results directly with the iPhone 17, the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max, Google Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro, and Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra.

First reviewed September 2025.

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