This Poco phone is less than half the price of a Pixel 9a, but goes toe-to-toe with it on specs
If you're eyeing up a new smartphone, the £1000 price that the latest handsets typically come with is somewhat off-putting. That's where mid-range or budget phones come in. And this new Poco budget phone punches well above its weight. The sub-£200 Poco M7 Pro 5G costs less than half of what Google's Pixel 9a, but is alarmingly close in almost every meaningful category on paper.
Read more: Best cheap phones in 2025 reviewed and rated
Under the hood, Poco's latest got a MediaTek Dimensity 7025 Ultra chip, but it performs rather well. You'll find the base version chip in the Honor 400 Lite. We found that it 'enough oomph to run Android at a fair lick' but left us wanting more for gaming in our review. So hopefully this Ultra version delivers a little more. You get up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
The display is a 6.67-inch AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 2100 nit peak brightness. It's also TÜV-certified to be easy on the eyes, so you can stare at it for unhealthy amounts of time without them turning into raisins. Battery life clocks in at a chunky 5110mAh cell with 45W turbo charging that'll take you from dead to 62% in half an hour.
Poco is also throwing in a 50MP Sony IMX882 sensor on the back with optical and electronic image stabilisation. As you'd expect in 2025, there's some clever AI trickery that includes a pseudo-2X optical zoom and enough modes to keep your Instagram feed ticking over nicely. There's also a 20MP selfie cam up front, for some selfie-snapping action for Instagram.
Other niceties include Dolby Atmos stereo speakers with an alleged 300% volume boost, IP64 dust and water resistance, an in-screen fingerprint reader, NFC, and even an IR blaster.
You can pick up the Poco M7 Pro 5G now starting at £199 directly from Xiaomi or Amazon. At that price, this budget smartphone is almost a no-brainer.
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Stuff.tv
23-05-2025
- Stuff.tv
Here's when Apple's AR glasses might be ready for launch – it's sooner than you think
We've heard rumours of Apple's AR smart glasses for years now – even before the Vision Pro headset hit the shelves. And since it arrived, we've heard that Apple's main focus is shrinking the tech down into a pair of smart specs. Now, it looks like Apple might be finally ready to make this device a reality. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is aiming for a release by the end of 2026. The glasses are shaping up to be one of the most powerful offerings available. They're expected to come with built-in speakers, microphones and cameras, and powered by an Apple-designed chip. We're talking about a device that lets you take calls, listen to music, get directions and even use Siri without pulling out your phone. There's mention of live translation features too, though how well any of this will work is still very much up in the air. Especially given Siri's… reputation. But apparently this isn't Apple's big AR vision just yet. Gurman notes that proper augmented reality glasses are still 'years away.' Instead, this sounds more like Apple's answer to Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses – albeit with better build quality, according to sources at Apple. Considering Meta has already sold over a million pairs and Google is now working with Xreal and others on a rival Android XR platform, this could prove to be a challenge. But there's one big question hanging over Apple's effort: AI. Or rather, Apple's shaky track record with it. There are said to be internal concerns that the company's ongoing struggles with AI could hold this product back. Meta and Google are already pairing their wearables with their advanced AI systems, like Llama and Gemini. Whereas right now, Apple leans on third parties – Google Lens and OpenAI – for its iPhone-based Visual Intelligence features. That might be fine for now, but a future product like this will need something more native, more integrated. There's a lot riding on the AI chops Apple announces at WWDC 2025 in a few weeks.
Stuff.tv
22-05-2025
- Stuff.tv
My test found the Honor 400 Pro's image to video AI a bit freaky, but I still think it's a fantastic mid-ranger
Stuff Verdict An exceptionally capable all-rounder. The Honor 400 Pro might not have the same mainstream appeal as its Big Three rivals, but it easily competes with them on cameras, battery and software smarts. Pros Long-lasting battery with rapid wired and wireless charging Colourful, engaging photos in almost all conditions Extensive AI toolbox and upper-tier performance for everything else Cons Some might find all the AI photography features a little creepy A little less pre-installed bloat should be standard at this price Introduction Honor's mid-season smartphone launches have been blurring the line between mid-range and flagship for a while now. The formula is largely the same: show up roughly six months after the firm's tip-tier Magic model, packing the sort of spec you'd usually expect to pay a lot more for. The Honor 400 series also continues the firm's trend for starting with a cut-price Lite version, before following it up with a more potent bigger brother. The Honor 400 Pro feels like a very different proposition to the Honor 400 Lite, though. The iPhone-imitating styling is gone, replaced with more a bespoke look; photography is even more of a focus, with an extra-large helping of AI; and the price has put it closer to big-name rivals – while still staying the right side of affordable. At £699 (there's no US release planned, as is usual for Honor) it undercuts the Google Pixel 9 and Samsung Galaxy S25, and slips between the iPhone 16e and iPhone 16. With hardware that has all three beat in places, could it be 2025's first genuine upper-midrange model surprise? How we test smartphones Every phone reviewed on Stuff is used as our main device throughout the testing process. We use industry standard benchmarks and tests, as well as our own years of experience, to judge general performance, battery life, display, sound and camera image quality. Manufacturers have no visibility on reviews before they appear online, and we never accept payment to feature products. Find out more about how we test and rate products. Design & build: much more personality My first thoughts after taking the Honor 400 Pro out of its box? 'Now this is more like it.' I'd been disappointed by the 400 Lite's 'Me too' styling, which tried way too hard to be an iPhone at pocket money pricing; the Pro feels far more unique, with a slightly rounded frame, subtle quad-curved glass up front, and a distinctive rear camera housing. There really are three sensors underneath the three lenses this time, and it's glass on the rear rather than polycarbonate, which wraps neatly into the frame. OK, Lunar Grey and Midnight Black aren't the most exciting two colour choices, especially compared to some of Honor's more out-there offerings lately, but the materials feel suitably luxe for the money. Honor hasn't included the AI camera button found on the 400 Lite, which only further highlights how different the two phones are, despite sharing a name. I feel it would've made a lot of sense to bring it back here, given the better camera setup; maybe next year. At 8.1mm it's not the slimmest mid-ranger around; nor is it the lightest, tipping the scales at 205g. But it sits very comfortably in the hand and those subtly protruding camera lenses mean it slips easily in and out of a trouser pocket. It's also impressively durable, with both IP68 and IP69 resistance ratings. Protection from high pressure water jets probably isn't something you'll need on the regular, but it's still nice to have in a phone that doesn't cost four figures. Honor has brought back its secure face recognition, via an iPhone-esque pill-shaped screen cutout, and also offers fingerprint biometrics from an under-display sensor. I liked having both configured, so I could quickly skip the lock screen regardless of lighting conditions or the angle I was holding the phone. Both worked quickly and accurately enough. Screen & sound: easy on the eyes The 400 Pro's bright and colourful AMOLED screen isn't a huge step down from the flagship Magic 7 Pro's. It's ever-so-slightly smaller at 6.7in, but has the same 2800×1280 resolution, and Honor has carried over the subtle 2.5D glass as well. This doesn't reflect light anywhere near as much as a properly curved-edge screen would, yet feels more in keeping with modern phone design trends – without being a carbon copy of any flat-screened rivals. Viewing angles in general are fantastic, and given its an OLED panel underneath contrast is understandably rather brilliant. Black levels are suitably deep and inky, and the 120Hz refresh rate ensures scrolling is as smooth as silk. Streaming content was a pleasure to kick back with, particularly shows shot in HDR. Those really let the 400 Pro's extreme peak brightness shine. 5000nits is about as good as it gets in the phone world, although that figure only counts a tiny portion of the screen at a time. The phone doesn't get anywhere near as bright in everyday use, but I couldn't fault it for outdoor visibility. Even on especially sunny days, I could clearly see what was onscreen. It fared well against the impressively potent Google Pixel 9 XL, which costs considerably more. It's great to see all of Honor's usual eye comfort tech included here. As well as dialling out extra blue light, the phone supports high frequency dimming and automatically adjusts its colour temperature to lower eye fatigue. The defocusing mode softens the screen edges to help here too, which is something you won't find on rival Androids. I liked how dark the extra dim settings gets for night-time reading, too. The Honor 400 Pro's speakers put in a strong showing, with the earpiece tweeter and down-firing main driver delivering more than enough volume for headphone-free listening. Sound is generally clean and clear, with the usual lack of bass I expect from any phone speaker setup. Cameras: AI video arrives On pixel count alone, the Honor 400 Pro looks formidable. There's a 200MP lead snapper (with optical image stabilisation, naturally), backed up by a 50MP telephoto (also with OIS) equipped for 3x optical zoom. The 12MP ultrawide leans more mid-range, but also doubles as a macro shooter with a very short 2.5cm focus distance. A 50MP selfie can up front completes the set. Sensor cropping expands the camera's reach from 0.6x to 6x before digital zoom properly comes into play, and you're offered a trio of colour modes. These either give your snaps authentic, natural-looking hues, more vivid and highly saturated shots, or an analogue film-style treatment that ups the vignetting and strips out a little warmth. I liked experimenting with them on the Magic 7 Pro at the start of 2025, so it's great to see them return here – even if a lot of owners are likely to pick one of the three and rarely stray from it. Most of my shots were taken in Vibrant mode, which is selected by default. Honor's partnership with Studio Harcourt has also returned for the portrait mode, for moody black-and-white snaps that do a pretty decent job of preserving loose hairs and finer edge details. Algorithms are just as important as pixels, of course, and for the most part the Honor 400 Pro delivers. The lead lens captures a glorious amount of detail as you'd expect, along with convincing and vibrant colours. Colour and exposure consistency between it and the other two lenses is rather great too, if not quite up there with the class leaders. Dynamic range isn't quite as wide as some rivals can manage, leaving some of my most brightly-lit scenes looking a bit washed out as HDR processing exposed for both highlights and shadow detail. Outside of extremes, though, it held up rather well across all three lenses. The ultrawide definitely shows a detail drop-off compared to the other two, and the edges of the frame aren't super-sharp, but its narrow minimum focus distance meant I got some rather tidy close-up shots. I was genuinely impressed with the clarity of the zoom at 6x, too. In some cases I thought the colours were more convincing and the contrast more true-to-life than 3x shots taken from the same spot, despite cropping the sensor to achieve them. It quickly became my favourite 'lens' for travel snaps, so long as my subjects were far enough away from me. I'd sooner reach for this than a Galaxy S25. Honor's AI Super Zoom can take over beyond 30x, as it could on the Magic 7 Pro flagship. Your shots are optionally sent to the Cloud for processing, and come back either looking like someone took a decent stab at adding detail the sensor couldn't capture, or more like a poster illustrated version of what you saw in the viewfinder. Even without AI, there's clearly a lot of smoothing and noise reduction going on to create a usable image. There's still a bit of work to do in low light, where the colour disparity between lenses seems stronger and the ultrawide quickly runs out of pixels to preserve fine detail. The other two hold up well for contrast and exposure, though, and aren't far off the class leaders. Honor is also all-in on AI image editing at this point, and is first in line to bake support for Google's Leo Cloud processing straight into its gallery app. On top of the generation image expansion, smart subject cutouts, reflection and background object removal it could do previously, you now get AI image to video. There are a few limitations, like using single subjects and it rejecting blurry snaps, but it needs just a few minutes to turn a single static image into five seconds of video. These aren't basic clips, either: as well as animating your subject, it adds camera pans, zooms, and drone-like aerial climbs. Naturally you'll have to pay for this functionality at some point – it's labelled as a 'free trial' on my review unit. Honestly, it's freaky stuff at times: some of my test snaps looked incredibly convincing. A few were clearly AI slop, with nonsense creations and artifacts appearing mid-scene. You've also got no input over the camera movement or what your subjects are animated to perform. There's a fun side to it, but I can't ever imagine forking over cash to be able to use it. Software experience: that's magic Honor usually saves big updates to its Android skin for flagship phones, so the 400 Pro arrives running the same MagicOS 9 software as the 400 Lite and Magic 7 Pro I tested at the start of 2025. It's based on Android 15, though a lot of the styling feels very iOS-inspired. All your apps get spread over multiple home screens by default, notifications and quick settings are on separate pull-down menus, and a few of the icons look pretty familiar. There's the usual extensive selection of own-brand apps, with dupes for most of Google's defaults (which are hidden away in a folder). I was also a little disappointed my review unit had so much pre-installed third-party bloat; it's a pretty common move on budget models, and was excusable on the sub-£250 Honor 400 Lite, but less so on a phone that costs a fair bit more. Your mileage may vary as the phone will be set up differently for different regions, admittedly, and it's only the work of a minute or two to erase them if you're not a fan. With a whopping 512GB of onboard storage, it's not like you're short on space right out of the box either. Magic Portal is quickly becoming an Honor standout, letting you drag images or text to the side of the screen to bring up contextual actions and relevant apps. Highlight an address and Google Maps shows up at the top of the sidebar that appears. It's a handy way for opening two apps in multi-window, too. I'm in two minds about the Apple-like Magic Capsule, which puts music controls, call timers and alarms around the pill-shaped camera cutout. Yup, it's Dynamic Island – except far more limiting, with no third-party app support. I'd love Honor to open up the API to app developers, or at least integrate more of its stock apps. The firm gets a thumbs up for its long-term update support, though. Honor flagships get seven years of Android versions and seven years of security updates now. The 400 Pro isn't quite a flagship, but six years of each is still a great showing, and puts it just behind the likes of Google's Pixel 9 and the Samsung Galaxy A56. Of course it's all the AI additions that Honor is putting the biggest emphasis on this year – and why not, given everyone else is doign the same. A lot of the various tools use Google Gemini, so of course you get Circle to Search, the Gemini voice assistant, and Gemini Live conversational AI. The writing tools, live language translation, voice transcription and subtitles are all par for the course, too.I wouldn't say they're better or worse than any rival offering, currently. Performance & battery life: what more do you want? The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 inside the Honor 400 Pro isn't quite cutting edge today, but you don't have to go too far back in time to the point where it was Qualcomm's class-leading silicon. Paired with a healthy 12GB of RAM, it means this phone feels every bit the high-end hero, with a near-unflappable Android experience for the most part. Apps open in a blink, multitasking is no sweat, and even demanding apps run smoothly. It's not quite so fast in synthetic benchmarks, as single- and multi-core scores of 2046 and 6463 in Geekbench 6 show; flagship rivals with Snapdragon 8 Elites are some 2000 points quicker on the multi-core test. Single-core grunt is greater than Razr 60 Ultra flip phone, though – showing what a difference effective cooling can make on performance. At no point in real-world use did I feel like I needed any extra oomph. Gaming was a similar story. The 3Dmark Solar Bay test churned out a score of 7665, again putting it some distance behind the fastest phones on sale today – but not so much that games from the Play Store weren't nigh-on flawless. Horror fishing adventure Dredge isn't asking an awful lot of the GPU, so it was no surprise I saw perfectly smooth gameplay, but Genshin Impact was also stutter-free. You're in no way getting a sub-par processor for your money here. I like that the 400 Pro continues Honor's streak of offering plenty of on-board storage, too. You get 512GB as standard here, while rivals only offer 256GB – or in some cases just 128GB. Honor also puts its competition on blast when it comes to battery capacity. Admittedly the Pixel 9 and Galaxy S25 are both physically smaller phones, but there's a big gulf between their meagre cells and the 400 Pro's 5300mAh unit. Chinese brands have been quick to adopt silicon-carbon tech, and it has made a big difference to this phone's staying power. I comfortably lasted through full days of heavy use without having to plug in, and two days was achievable with lighter use. That's an excellent showing for a phone that's otherwise so capable everywhere else. I was never waiting around for the phone to charge, either. The 400 Pro supports 100W top-ups from a compatible power brick, so I could complete a full refuel in under ah hour. Wireless charging is impressively speedy at 50W, too, though compatible charging plates are a little rarer. Honor 400 Pro verdict In just a few short years, Honor has transformed its upper-midrange phones into true mainstream flagships. The 400 Pro can comfortably rub shoulders with Google and Samsung's mass market models, thanks to its capable rear camera trio, high capacity battery, and impressively wide-reaching software smarts. Not everyone wants their photo galleries filled with AI-adjusted images, and Honor still needs to remember customers paying this sort of cash have a lower tolerance for pre-installed bloat. But the colourful screen, modern (yet still unique) styling and slightly more affordable price make it a genuine alternative for those who aren't obsessed over brand names. Stuff Says… Score: 4/5 An exceptionally capable all-rounder. The Honor 400 Pro might not have the same mainstream appeal as its Big Three rivals, but it easily competes with them on cameras, battery and software smarts. Pros Long-lasting battery with rapid wired and wireless charging Colourful, engaging photos in almost all conditions Extensive AI toolbox and upper-tier performance for everything else Cons Some might find all the AI photography features a little creepy A little less pre-installed bloat should be standard at this price Honor 400 Pro technical specifications Screen 6.7in, 2800×1280 120Hz AMOLED CPU Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Memory 12GB RAM Cameras 200MP + 50MP + 12MP rear 50MP front Storage 512GB on-board Operating system Android 15 w/ MagicOS 9 Battery 5300mAh w/ 100W wired, 50W wireless charging Dimensions 8.1mm thick 205g
Stuff.tv
21-05-2025
- Stuff.tv
10 announcements from Google I/O 2025 I'm most excited about
After the biggest news from Google I/O 2025? We've got you covered. Having tuned into Google's big event and watched the flood of AI announcements cascade in, one thing's clear – Google is positioning itself as an AI brand now. From smarter search to virtual try-ons and glasses that whisper directions in your ear, here are the best 10 announcements in bite-sized format. 1. Gemini in Android XR glasses is finally here… sort of Smart glasses have flirted with AI before (I'm looking at you Meta Ray-Bans), but Google's latest Android XR push – now paired with Gemini – might actually make them useful enough to wear all the time. Running on a new Android XR platform, these glasses (developed with partners like Gentle Monster and Warby Parker) blend AI assistance with surprisingly wearable designs. They see and hear what you do, serve up helpful suggestions to an optional in-lens display, and keep your hands free while navigating your day. Whether you're translating conversations in real time, firing off a text, or snapping photos with a blink, it's like having a helpful assistant on your face. Even better, Xreal is jumping into the mix too, with plans to bring its own glasses into the Android XR ecosystem. Expect a wave of Gemini-powered headsets and wearables later this year, starting with Samsung's Project Moohan. 2. Veo 3 and Flow: film school in your pocket Say goodbye to the silent era of video generation: Introducing Veo 3 — with native audio generation. 🗣️ Quality is up from Veo 2, and now you can add dialogue between characters, sound effects and background noise. Veo 3 is available now in the @GeminiApp for Google AI Ultra… — Google (@Google) May 20, 2025 Video making just got democratised in a big way. And I'm also slightly terrified. Veo 3 is Google's newest generative video model and it doesn't just render stunning 1080p scenes – it adds sound, too. We're talking street ambience, background music, and even believable character dialogue, all from a prompt. To go with it, Google launched Flow, a new AI filmmaking tool purpose-built for creatives. You can storyboard, manage assets like characters and props, and sequence scenes with cinematic polish, all by describing your ideas. There are even camera controls, continuity features, and reference styles to keep everything visually coherent. It's available now for Google AI Pro and Ultra users in the US. 3. Imagen 4: finally, AI can spell It's a sad state of affairs when we get excited that an image generator can finally spell properly – but here we are. Imagen 4 isn't just about better textures and photorealism (although it's very good at both) – it also gets typography right. Posters, comics, and slides should all be useable now. No more garbled nonsense text that makes your creations look like a ransom note. It's fast, flexible with aspect ratios, and supports resolutions up to 2K, making it ideal for everything from Instagram flexing to full-blown print layouts. Imagen 4 is now live in the Gemini app and Workspace apps like Docs and Slides. 4. Jules can code so you don't have to Google's take on the future of software development isn't a sidekick. Jules is a full-blown autonomous coding agent that plugs into your existing repos, clones your project into a secure VM, and just… gets to work. It writes new features, fixes bugs, updates dependencies, and even narrates the changes with an audio changelog. I absolutely love that last part. You can watch its reasoning, edit its plan on the fly, and stay in control without doing the actual slog. It's powered by Gemini 2.5 Pro and available now in public beta globally, wherever Gemini is available. 5. Show, don't tell with Gemini Live We've all had those moments where describing the problem feels harder than fixing it. Gemini Live now lets you point your camera at whatever's giving you grief – be it a form you don't understand or a baffling piece of IKEA furniture – and talk it through. With camera and screen sharing now available for free on Android and iOS, it's already becoming an easy way to get help to your questions. Gemini Live will soon integrate with Google Maps, Calendar, Tasks and Keep too, meaning you can show it your dinner plan chaos and have it suggest a time, a place, and actually create the event. 6. AI Mode comes to Google Search Google Search is now less 'here are some results' and more 'here's your answer and I bought the tickets.' AI Mode is rolling out in the US with advanced reasoning, a multimodal interface, and the ability to follow up like an attentive conversation partner. It can interpret long, detailed questions, and even handle real-world interactions – like analysing ticket listings or booking appointments. You can also shop smarter, with a visual browsing experience, virtual try-ons using your own photo, and an agentic checkout that'll buy your item when the price dips. Obviously, this is what Google sees as the future of search. While some of these features definitely seem useful, I'm not sure I'm sold on using them all the time. Fortunately, AI Mode exists alongside regular Search. For now, at least. But if the God-awful AI Overviews are anything to go by, Google will transition this to the default in the near future. Though, Google says people are actually using AI Overviews. So maybe it does know best. 7. Deep Think is Gemini's new brainy mode Gemini 2.5 Pro is already a monster of an AI model, but now it's getting an experimental mode called Deep Think. Designed for tasks that require actual reasoning – like solving complex maths or competitive coding problems – it uses new techniques to consider multiple solutions before deciding what to say. It's been tested on brutal academic benchmarks and is currently reserved for trusted testers, but the results so far are ridiculously impressive. 8. Personalised AI hits a new level (impressive or creepy, you decide) Google is finally putting all that data it's quietly been collecting – sorry, respectfully managing – to actual good use. With your permission, Gemini can pull in personal context from Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and more to provide answers that actually reflect your life. New Smart Replies in Gmail promise to match your tone and include info from old itineraries or past messages. Deep Research now lets you add your own documents for richer insights, and Canvas lets you turn those insights into apps, visuals, even podcasts. It's personalisation that actually feels useful, not just creepy. Although the personalised replies I've used in Superhuman haven't been all that helpful, so hopefully Google does a better job. 9. Google Beam is actually real… which means holograms are a step closer We've all been on too many soul-sucking video calls that leave us staring at a pixelated freeze-frame of our own disappointment at this point. Beam wants to change that. Born from the now-retired Project Starline, it's a new 3D video platform that uses 6 cameras and real-time rendering to make it feel like you're actually in the room with someone. Facial expressions, eye contact, and body language all gets captured and displayed with millimetre-precise head tracking on a 3D lightfield screen. Think Apple's Personas from the Vision Pro headset. The first Beam devices are coming later this year in partnership with HP. And while it's not quite a hologram yet, it does put us one step closer. Which is undeniably cool. 10. Already shop online? Now you'll never leave the house Starting today in the U.S., you can try clothes on virtually in Labs. 👕 Say you see a great shirt, but you're not sure if it's right for you. Use our new try on tool to upload a picture of yourself and get a feel for what the product might look like on *you.* — Google (@Google) May 20, 2025 Online shopping is equal parts convenience and chaos. But Google's new AI Mode makes it feel more like chatting with a knowledgeable shop assistant. Say you're looking for a bag that'll hold up in rainy weather. AI Mode fans out multiple searches, checks waterproofing, capacity, and brand ratings, then shows you a visual panel of curated suggestions. It can bring in Personal Context, so if you're shopping for dog or kid toys, it'll know their name. But the best part has to be the fact that you can now try clothes on virtually using a photo of yourself. A number of small startups have been working on this problem, but now it's baked right into Google. The fitting rooms are the worst part of going shopping (and there are many), so this makes things more convenient than ever. And when you're ready to buy, an agentic checkout will handle it via Google Pay. It's live in Search Labs in the US today and will roll out to more users soon. If there's one theme from Google I/O 2025, it's that the search giant doubling down on making AI useful, not just smart. With so many of these tools already live or landing soon, it's clear Google is done teasing and ready to deliver. In fairness, some of Google's newest announcements are undeniably impressive. But AI fatigue is definitely setting in. And I can see a real possibility where Google Search gets ruined (even more) in the near future. So watch this space for whatever comes next.
