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This concept phone wants you to go app-free, but not entirely
It’s not unlike the Rabbit R1, but in a more familiar form factor
Imagine a phone that knows what you want to do next and that proactively helps you move forward with your tasks. That’s what T-Mobile parent Telekom and the folks at Brain AI have teamed up to achieve, presenting their Concept AI Phone at MWC 2024. The vision is to replace the familiar app-based interface and workflow with an AI that naturally processes your requests and generates its own UI on the fly. In practice, things are a little less glamorous right now, but it’s still an interesting attempt at reinventing the smartphone wheel.
Tecno's Phantom Ultimate concept phone is the fake rollable of your dreams
With a double-sided screen capable of turning into a small tablet in under two seconds, you'll wish it was headed to market
Like any trade show, IFA is filled with all sorts of gadgets coming to storefronts near you very soon. Of course, while brand new smart lights or innovative earbuds can be exciting, it's just as fun to look at concept devices. These sorts of products — think the OnePlus 11 Concept's mobile cooling tech or Xiaomi's ultra-weird removable lenses — are unlikely to ever be available for purchase, but they help push development of future devices. Hell, foldables were nothing more than a dream just a few years ago, and look where we are today.
Xiaomi built this wild concept phone designed to tantalize serious photographers
Sony’s best 1-inch sensor is paired with Leica’s M-series lenses
Smartphones have been slowly encroaching on the territory of dedicated cameras for the last decade. The combination of rapidly improving camera sensors and very clever software has broken many of the long-held rules of digital imaging. However, the larger sensors and interchangeable lenses have allowed dedicated cameras to retain the lead in image quality. Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi is experimenting with building the first smartphone to truly support interchangeable lenses, and it looks pretty incredible — even if you'll probably never get to buy it.
Motorola's concept over-the-air wireless charger can juice up 4 phones at once
Even when blocked by your hand or pocket
Wireless chargers are pretty standard at this point. You probably have a few spread throughout your house, sitting on coffee tables and kitchen counters. Maybe your car even has a built-in dock, so you don't have to fuss around with cables on the go. Real next-gen chargers are over the air, delivering power to a device without requiring it to align with a pad or stand perfectly. Motorola might not be the company you expect to bring forth a futuristic charging experience, but it's teasing some pretty impressive stuff.
Oppo X 2021 flexes its impressive rollable screen in these hands-on videos
It’s basically a Transformer that fits your palm (and is real)
The advent of flexible OLED screens has let the smartphone industry experiment with some pretty unorthodox form factors. While foldables have slowly been creeping into the mainstream, companies like Oppo have been playing with rollable designs. Following its showcase as a concept last fall, some lucky users are getting an early chance to go hands-on with the Oppo X 2021.
Xiaomi's latest concept phone maximizes screen real estate... and accidental touches
It clearly didn't get the memo about curved screens being out of fashion
Xiaomi is known for its affordable but powerful handsets, but the company also loves to push the boundaries of what's possible with its concept phones. It introduced the Mi Mix Alpha in 2019 with a wrap-around screen, only interrupted by a small strip with the camera. And today, the company is back with another interesting concept sporting a quad-curved waterfall display — i.e., tons of space for accidental touch input.
OnePlus 8T concept phone boasts stunning color-changing design with mmWave-sensing tech
Created by new creative studio OnePlus Gaudí
The first OnePlus concept phone — inventively dubbed the Concept One — was unveiled at CES at the start of this year, featuring an electrochromic color-changing glass panel that could hide and show the rear cameras when needed. Building on that theme, the company has announced a OnePlus 8T concept phone with an abstract pattern on the rear that can shift between dark blue and light silver.
TCL doesn't have a folding phone to sell you, but it does have more ideas for one
Say hello to the world's first tri-fold smartphone
The folding phone market is heating up, and while smartphone manufacturer TCL has shown off concepts for some of its potential foldables, the company has yet to announce a concrete product. That isn't changing, but TCL today unveiled two new form factors it's exploring: a phone with a pull-out display, and one with a tri-fold design.
OnePlus has a 'surprise' planned for March 3
The company says its neither a phone nor a commercial product
OnePlus knows how to conjure hype out of thin air. Back when it introduced its first phone, it unveiled one hardware feature after the other without spending a cent on traditional marketing, and even these days, the company loves teasing new products and has us speculate what they could be. Enter its latest announcement. OnePlus India and UK both have tweeted a teaser video that shows off a ... strange device, for lack of words.
OnePlus turns 6 today, and it's come a long way since its first budget flagship killer. We now get four phones from the Chinese brand each year, including higher-specced Pro models, but we've not yet had the pleasure of a OnePlus concept phone — until now.
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You've heard of folding phones, but those are so yesterday. Xiaomi thinks it has something better up its sleeve. The Chinese company today introduced the Mi Mix Alpha, a surround-screen "concept" phone with a display that is only interrupted by a camera seam on the back of the device, which sports a 108MP sensor.
Front-facing cameras that are able to see through smartphone display panels were theorized long before we thought it even possible to produce them and some see them as something of a holy grail in the oh-so-noble fight against bezels. Recent teases from Xiaomi and Oppo would lead us to believe the technology could make it into a consumer product sooner rather than later, and now I've had a chance to see what stage it's currently at. It's not ready quite yet, but it shouldn't be too far out now.
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- SamMobile has a series of wallpapers based on these designs. If you have a Galaxy S10, they're worth checking out.
The iPhone X started a trend of companies using dark wallpapers to hide (or at least obscure) screen notches. It has been clear since the first press renders leaked that Samsung is also using this tactic to make the Galaxy S10's hole-punch camera less of an eyesore. But as it turns out, you can actually embrace the hole-punch design, given the right background.
For nearly two years, the Mi Mix has served as Xiaomi's experimental flagship. The original model was released in late 2016 as a 'concept phone,' and a sequel came out about a year later. The Mi Mix 2S only arrived five months ago, but it looks like Xiaomi is already close to replacing it.
Display notches are the controversial smartphone design trend du jour: while the Essential Phone beat Apple to the punch, the notch is the defining trait of the iPhone X, and, for better or worse, it's being aped by a whole bunch of Android OEMs. Reactions have been mixed. If you're not a fan, avert your eyes—ZTE has a concept it's calling "Iceberg" that features not one, but two display notches: one at the top, one at the bottom.
In-display fingerprint scanners on phones had been prophesied for some time, but few expected relatively unknown Chinese manufacturer Vivo would be the first to release a consumer product to the market. The X20 Plus UD went on sale last month, exclusively in China, for around $565.
I'm sure that you've heard all about Razer's Project Linda, which has caught the attention of many media outlets here at CES. David and I dropped by Razer's booth to take a look at the concept, and while the wide-eyed technology enthusiast in me thought it was super neat, my pragmatic side remained unconvinced.
Ever since the original V10 was released in 2015, LG's V series of phones has been the company's most expensive lineup - even pricier than the flagship G series. The V10 included a top ticker display, and the V20 further refined that feature. Evan Blass, known as @evleaks on Twitter, has released some of LG's early renders for the V30.
If you have read any tech sites, including Android Police, you probably know how common product leaks are. There was almost nothing new about the Google Pixel when it was finally announced, due to months of continuous leaks. Intentional leaks are often used by companies to generate hype, as is likely the case for the LG G6. Rumors even trickle out of Apple occasionally - how many months in advance did we learn about the iPhone 7's lack of a headphone jack?
Photoshop and other Adobe programs are big, complicated, and expensive, the domain of professional graphic designers and photographers. Not everyone can handle them - not even their toned-down "Elements" versions - but Adobe would very much like for everyone to still give them some money. To that end, the company has introduced a concept for what it calls "intelligent digital assistant photo editing." It's a voice-controlled photo editor, and it's kind of insane - check the video below to see what I mean.