For this week of Tech Unboxed, Apple received criticism for the Liquid Glass design language of iOS 26 and the rest of its ecosystem, while HUAWEI has finally unveiled the Pura 80 series with a unique telephoto camera system on the Ultra variant.
Here are the Tech Unboxed stories you need to know for the Week of June 7-14:
The Vistafication of iOS 26. Apple unveiled its Liquid Glass design language for iOS 26 at WWDC, and not everyone’s happy about it. Critics pointed out that the design reminds them of Windows Vista in the mid 2000s, and several “new” features of iOS 26 have been available on Android phones for quite some time. Even Samsung poked fun at it, emphasizing that Galaxy AI is superior over Apple Intelligence. At the very least, Apple gave iPadOS the MacOS-like revamp everyone has been asking for several years–especiallly with recent iPad sharing the same processor as MacBooks.
The Pura 80 series pushes inovation once again. It took a while, but HUAWEI has unveiled the Pura 80 series in China. The Ultra variant this time trades in the pop-up mechanism on the main camera with a switchable telephoto system that gives you two focal lengths while using one sensor. It’s a clever variation of what Sony has with its variable zoom mechanism on the Xperia 1 VI. We’re excited to try out the Pura 80 Ultra if HUAWEI has plans of making it available outside of China, and we think this will be the new camera king for 2025.
ROG Ally gets an Xbox edition. Yes it’s real: ASUS teamed up with Microsoft for an Xbox gaming handheld, and it looks promising on paper. While it runs Windows 11, Microsoft toned it down, leaving only the essentials that gamers will need for the ROG Xbox Ally. The shape looks weird, but it’s inspired from Xbox gaming controllers so it makes sense. There will be two versions, with the ROG Xbox Ally X using a Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor and having 24GB RAM and 1TB storage on board. There’s no pricing yet, but we hope that they will not be expensive.
Region lock no more. Those who want to play PlayStation titles like Helldivers 2 on PC can rejoice, as multiple reports confirmed that Sony removed the region lock on its games to most countries–particularly those what don’t have PlayStation Network. It’s a win-win for both Sony and players, as this should give Sony additional revenue as it expands to the PC market. For the players, this development comes at a great time, with the next Steam Sale happening on June 26.
The most epic raffle? The HONOR 400 is launching on June 17, and the brand is going all in with its raffle, as those buying have a chance to win a Rolex Watch or a Hermes Bag. That’s on top of the preorder freebies that include a JisuLife portable fan, a JBL portable speaker, and HONOR’s clip-on TWS earbuds. We find the HONOR 400 very promising in our first impressions, and it all boils down to its official price in the Philippines to see if this is an AI midrange phone that’s worth buying.
