The nubia Z60 Ultra sticks to the traditional with a 35mm lens on its main camera, while most other smartphones tend to have a wide lens (around 24mm). This camera uses the Sony IMX800 sensor (1/1.49”, 1.0µm pixels) and a 7-element lens with f/1.6 aperture and OIS. There’s also a capable 85mm periscope (3.3x optical zoom) with a 64MP sensor (1/2.0”) and an unusual ultra-wide angle – at 100° (18mm) it’s not the widest, but it has both autofocus and OIS, plus its large 50MP 1/1.55” sensor produces excellent shots.
That’s not even the last of the unusual cameras, the Z60 Ultra is equipped with a 16MP under display cam. The photo quality isn’t great, but it keeps the rectangular display free of smudges and the bezels are so thin. Powering this phone is the Snapdragon 8th Gen 3 chipset and a 6,000mAh battery with 80W fast charging.
If your hobbies run more towards gaming than photography, the Red Magic 9 Pro offers the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset for £170 less. It has the same 6.8-inch 120Hz OLED display with a slightly higher-than-FHD+ resolution. It also has the same 16MP selfie camera (and here the questionable quality is less important).
The camera department obviously isn’t quite as capable, but you still get a 50MP main camera (with an OIS-enabled wide-angle lens and a 1/1.57” sensor), plus a 50MP ultra-wide (with a smaller 1/2.76” sensor). What’s more, the 6,500mAh battery is bigger. That’s plenty of juice to fill up, but it only gets the job done in 35 minutes using the 80W charger.
Note that this model has an active cooling fan to help with sustained performance – something the Nubia Z60 Ultra struggles with – though this also means you lose the IP68 dust and water resistance.
If gaming is your thing, the Poco F6 Pro is cheaper than the Red Magic but still offers a capable chipset in the form of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. It’s older, but the Adreno 740 is still fast enough for AAA games. The 6.67-inch 120Hz OLED display is smaller but sharper, with QHD+ resolution.
The 5,000mAh battery is small compared to the two phones above, but it has even faster 120W charging. The IP54 dust and water resistance is pretty basic (but at least there’s some resistance), and the 50+8MP camera is hampered by an outdated ultra-wide angle and poor video quality.
While it’s not great at photography, the Poco F6 Pro is a solid all-rounder. And so is its cheaper sibling, the Poco F6. It’s powered by the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, which offers even better value for money, coming in at £140 cheaper than the Pro.
The 6.67” 120Hz OLED screen splits the difference between FHD+ and QHD+. The 50MP main camera also gets a smaller sensor (1/1.95” vs. 1/1.56” on the Pro), but at least it retains OIS. Charging power for the 5,000mAh battery drops to 90W, so it’ll take 35 minutes to fully charge instead of 19 minutes.
We’ve seen leaks for the Galaxy Tab S10 series, but we haven’t heard anything about new FE models yet. Samsung may be skipping a generation (there was no Tab S8 FE, it went from S7 FE to S9 FE).
That means the Galaxy Tab S9 FE and Tab S9 FE+ likely won’t be replaced this year. Both have 90Hz IPS LCDs instead of OLED panels. The vanilla model measures 10.9”, while the Plus is 12.4”. Both are powered by the Exynos 1380 chipset and support DeX (though there’s no video output via the USB 2.0 port). Both tablets are IP68-rated, so you can take them to the pool or even the beach.
If you just want something cheap, the Honor Pad X9 offers a large 11.5-inch LCD with a 120Hz refresh rate. The Snapdragon 685 isn’t particularly fast, but with six speakers on board this is a great Netflix tablet.
The Honor Pad 9 is a larger one, with a 12.1” IPS LCD (120Hz) and a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1. It’s not the fastest either, but for £30 more you can get the keyboard cover and use it for work or school. You can also use a stylus for notes and sketching. This tablet isn’t all work and no play, it has 8 speakers for even better audio.
Speaking of gaming, the PlayStation VR2 headset is currently 34% off. You can of course use it with a PS5, or you can use the official adapter and connect it to your PC (note: the adapter will be released in early August).
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