It was a busy week. Both Apple and Google offered major software events – Apple’s WWDC detailed the next versions of its iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and Apple TV software, while Google released Android 16 to the masses.
Apple’s iOS 26 has a new design called Liquid Glass with emphasis on transparent and changeable visuals, inspired by VisionOS. And yeah, we jumped from iOS 18 to 26 because of consistency. The iPad got a major update too with the addition on the Background Tasks API – now you can finally call it a computer!
Huawei’s Pura 80 series is here, and the Pura 80 Ultra is unique. It has a 1-inch type main camera, an amazing screen, a big battery, but that’s not the unique part. It packs a 50MP 1/1.28-inch sensor attached to two zoom lenses. Huawei fitted an intricate moving mechanism that shifts between the two lenses. You get 3.7x and 9.4x optical zoom with sensor-shift OIS. This effectively means that you can capture shots at f/2.4 aperture with an 83 mm equivalent focal length or at f/3.6 aperture with a 212 mm focal length.
The Pura 80 series is available in China – the Pura 80 Pro and Pro+ already, while the Pura 80 Ultra is on pre-order and will begin shipping on June 26. The vanilla Pura 80 isn’t available just yet.
Google released the stable Android 16 to its Pixel lineup, going back to the Pixel 6 series. However, two of Android 16’s biggest changes are not part of this first stable release. We’re talking about Material 3 Expressive and the new Desktop mode, which will arrive later.
There’s no sign of the Glyph Interface – and the dot-matrix display that is rumored to be replacing it.
Huawei has stepped up not just its camera game, but it has improved satellite messaging, faster chipsets, better water resistance and more.
Oppo quietly launched A5i and A5i Pro, though they are not entirely novel designs. Both are based on the Snapdragon 6s 4G Gen 1, which is a rebrand of the Snapdragon 662. The same chip was used in the Oppo A5 Pro 4G, which shares many similarities with these two new models. The Oppo A5i Pro is available in the Philippines – right now, it’s exclusively sold through Shopee, but starting on June 20 it will also be available from Oppo’s TikTok shop and Lazada. The Pro is priced at PHP 9,000, which converts to $160/€140/₹14,000.
We haven’t found Oppo A5i in stores just yet. The A5i comes in Starry Purple and Nebula Red, the A5i Pro comes in Midnight Purple.