Mobile UX

Mobile UX

Most of my colleagues and I choose a flagship phone as our daily driver. That choice was down to the brand and its way of doing software. There was a time when we were evenly split between the current iPhone and the current Galaxy. Then came the Pixels, which had a bunch of fans for a while. Then came a sort of Samsung domination of our pockets. But that has mostly passed too (just look at last year's top 5 phones lists).

Samsung's Galaxy Z TriFold went on sale in Korea today, promptly selling out despite its huge price point (around $2,400 at the current exchange rate). Speaking of huge price points, we just found out how much a replacement for the inner folding screen will cost for the TriFold. In Korea, this repair will be priced at KRW 1,657,500 at the lowest level.

The vivo V70 was recently certified on its way to the Indian market, as was the V70 Lite before it. But these won't be the only members of the V70 family according to a new rumor. Instead, they will allegedly be joined by the V70 Elite and V70 FE. And that's it, those are the four - no Pro, Pro+, or anything like that coming, if this rumor is accurate of course.

Retro, a friend-focused, photo-sharing app with roughly a million users, is adding a new feature that lets you time-travel through your old photo memories from your phone's Camera Roll. While the app today offers a way to share photos of what's happening during your week with a private group of friends, or create shared albums, this latest addition, dubbed "Rewind," is private to you - unless you choose to share the photos with others.

Interested customers can pre-order the Magic8 Pro starting today from Honor's online store and other online retailers across the UAE. The phone is available in 12GB/512GB and 16GB/1TB variants. Those who pre-order the phone will also receive free gifts worth AED 2,299 ($815) that include the Honor Watch5 Ultra, a 3-month free trial of Google AI Pro, and Honor VIP Care+ 12-month damage protection. The pre-orders will end on December 18.

Today, Opera has announced that it's opening up public access to Opera Neon, which is its experimental browser for AI power users, "who wish to get access and make the most of the newest AI technologies as they emerge". Neon has been available in a closed "Founders" phase since October 2 - think of it like a closed beta. Now we're in the open beta phase, and anyone can join - on Windows and Mac.

Now, Apple has revealed which apps and games were downloaded the most by iPhone and iPad users in 2025. Let's talk about the top free iPhone apps first. The list was topped by ChatGPT, which was followed by Threads, Google, TikTok, and WhatsApp. Moving to paid iPhone apps, HotSchedules ranked first, followed by Shadowrocket, Procreate Pocket, AnkiMobile Flashcards, and Paprika Recipe Manager 3.

The X200T is said to be similar in size to the X200 FE, which has a 6.31-inch touchscreen. The X200T will match that with "the performance DNA" of the X200 - which we assume could mean it will use the same Dimensity 9400 chipset. The X200T will "likely" come with three rear cameras with Zeiss branding, 90W wired charging support, and a large battery that could be similar in size to the X200 FE's 6,500 mAh cell.

It's called simply the Samsung 60W Power Adapter (model number: EP-T6010NBEGWW) and it has appeared on the Samsung.com branches for various countries - all around Europe (e.g. Austria, Sweden, Romania), but also South America ( Peru) and parts of the Middle East ( Levant). The charger has one USB-C port and supports Super Fast Charging 2.0. It boasts a low standby power draw of just 5mW. It supports the following standards: USB-PD (5V, 15V, 20V) and PPS (5-20V) at up to 3A. There is no AVS support, however.

The Redmi Note 15 devices made their debut in China back in August, and they are soon going to be launching internationally as well - though keep in mind that there are usually changes between the Chinese models and the global ones despite the similar (or identical) names. We've already seen a bunch of leaks regarding the series recently, including retailer listings, so the official launch is probably very near. To further confirm that, today Redmi has started teasing the Note 15 5G in India.

The vivo X300 and vivo X300 Pro launched in India on Tuesday last week and now the flagship pair is actually available in stores. You can find the two phones on vivo's online store, here's the X300 and here's the X300 Pro. The duo is also available through online retailers like Amazon and Flipkart. The petite X300 offers three memory options: 12/256GB, 12/512GB and 16/512GB.

Tesla has added a new feature that will be great for crowded parking lots, congested parking garages, or other confusing times when you cannot seem to pinpoint where your car went. Tesla has added a new Vehicle Locator feature to the Tesla App with App Update v4.51.5. This is the most recent iteration of the app and was priming owners for the slowly-released Holiday Update.

The new 40mm dynamic drivers are backwards compatible with the original Fairbuds XL, meaning users with the older model can also enjoy the updated drivers and sound tuning. Fairphone will sell the left driver assembly for €61.95 and the right one for €39.95. But it's not just the drivers, all of the key component s on the new Fairbuds XL are user replaceable so if anything breaks, you'll be able to order the exact part and replace it on your own.

Nothing received over 700 submissions from members of its community for this one, all with different elements of design, software, accessories, and "visual storytelling". The winners were Emre Kayganacl for hardware design, Ambrogio Tacconi and Louis Aymond for accessories, Jad Zock for the lock screen clock and wallpaper design, and Sushruta Sarkar for the marketing campaign. They worked side by side with Nothing's design, software, marketing, and creative teams in London over the past few months making their vision a reality.

According to a new report, Google and Apple are collaborating on making switching between their respective mobile operating systems easier than ever before. The first fruit of this labor is to be found in the latest Android Canary build, which went live today. This is intended for developers only, and it will take a while until the improved switching functionality arrives in an Android Beta, not to mention a stable version, but the work is now being done, so it's on the way.

Following the footsteps of the Galaxy S lineup proper, the S25 FE shaves off a few grams and slims down its profile compared to the previous generation. As a result, the S25 FE is noticeably slimmer than the S24 FE and it's also a tad lighter.

Samsung started updating its smartwatches to One UI 8 Watch based on Wear OS 6 back in July, and it's been a rather slow trickle ever since. Today, the latest wearable to be graced with the update is the Galaxy Watch FE, launched in 2024 as a lower-cost model, essentially a re-released Galaxy Watch4 under a different name. Its One UI 8 Watch update is now rolling out in Korea, with firmware version R861XXU1CYK6.

Honor Magic8 Lite is not exactly a lighter Magic8 or Magic8 Pro, despite what its model name might suggest. But it sure is shaping up like an excellent mid-range offer with an attractive design, promising battery life, and a pinch of the premium photography skills the flagship models are offering. The Magic8 Lite is an IP68/IP69-rated smartphone immersible in up to 6m of deep water. And it's also drop-resistant up to 2.5m. For comparison, Magic6 Lite was IP53-rated and Magic7 Lite - IP64-certified.

Xiaomi's 17 Ultra has already been rumored to arrive much earlier than its predecessor, which got official in late February. Now, a new rumor from one of Weibo's most prolific leakers claims to shed a light on exactly when we should expect it to arrive. Xiaomi will apparently start taking blind reservations for the device on December 15, and that will go on up until December 25. Thus, the phone's announcement is allegedly going to happen on December 26.

If you missed it the first time, here's the teaser again. A gimbal camera - think DJI Osmo Pocket, not the extra fancy OIS that some brands use - can flip up from the back and form the "head" of the robot. As the video shows, you can tuck this in your shirt pocket and record a vlog. Or you can mount it on a bike or car and go on an adventure. But there's more to it than that.

Apple's Liquid Glass UI for iOS 26 is getting a lot of attention. Beyond the visual hype, it is also raising questions about accessibility and usability. Developers, however, are already trying to recreate the effect for the web and mobile interfaces. On iOS, Liquid Glass is backed by a rendering engine designed to generate high-fidelity, physics-like glass patterns efficiently. Web browsers do not expose this kind of native abstraction, but we do have SVG filters, which are powerful enough to approximate the same effect.

The EC has fined the social network €120 million (approximately $140 million), finding that its blue checkmark was deceptive since it implies a user who has it is verified, but anyone can pay to obtain this status "without the company meaningfully verifying who is behind the account". This violates the obligation, under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), for online platforms to "prohibit deceptive design practices on their services".

Apple's FaceTime video calling service and Snap's Snapchat have been banned in Russia, Bloomberg reports. The move comes as the country continues to block several major social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and X. In the report, Russian authorities alleged that FaceTime and Snapchat were being used to "organize and carry out terrorist acts" and to recruit individuals involved in such activities.

Beyond that, the feature focuses on providing an annual overview of activity on Wikipedia as a whole, but in a pretty graphical format, not dissimilar to Spotify's Wrapped. A list of the most-read English language articles is topped by Charlie Kirk and "deaths in 2025," proving that humans are incurably morbid. Wikipedia also says that editors made over 66 million changes across the site this year.