Tech
Xiaomi launches 17 Ultra smartphone, an AirTag clone, and an ultra slim powerbank
Xiaomi today launched a slew of gadgets ahead of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona including a camera-focused flagship smartphone, an AirTag clone, Xiaomi Watch 5 smartwatch, and an ultra slim power bank.
The China-based company has partnered with camera maker Leica to co-brand its Xiaomi 17 Ultra smartphone. As part of the partnership, it is using Leica lenses and creating filters in the style of the German camera company.
The phone has a 50-megapixel main sensor with an F/1.67 aperture and a 1-inch sensor. But the main attraction is the 200-megapixel telephoto camera that has a variable focal length of 75mm-100mm equivalent. That means you can zoom optically between 3.2x and 4.3x. The phone also has a 50 MP ultrawide camera with an f/2.2 aperture.
Also notable: The phone packs a 6,000 mAh battery (the Chinese version comes with a bigger 6,800mAh battery). The phone could be charged using a 90W USB PD-PPS, and it supports Xiaomi’s Hypercharge wireless tech at 50W.
The device has a 6.9-inch Xiaomi HyperRGB OLED display protected by Xiaomi’s own Shield Glass 3.0. The company has picked Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, which was also used in the recently launched Galaxy S26 series.
The company is also releasing a special Leica edition phone to celebrate 100 years of the camera company. The device has a durable aluminum-alloy body with a nickel-anodized finish. Xiaomi has also added a Leica theme on the software side.
The device has a rotating ring that mimics zoom on a physical camera. The special edition also has a “Leica Essential mode,” which has filters that recreate photos in the style of Leica M9 and Leica M3.
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Xiaomi launched the Xiaomi 17 with a larger 6,330 mAh battery, which can be charged at 100W using the company’s HyperCharge tech.
The company is also launching two photography add-ons for the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. The 17 Ultra Photography Kit is a Bluetooth-connected snap-on that has a two-stage shutter button and a video recording button.The Xiaomi 17 Ultra Photography Kit Pro aims to mimic a physical camera with a leather finish, a video recording button, a detachable shutter button, and zoom control. This kit snaps on using a USB-C connection and also has a 2,000 mAh battery for its operation. Using this add-on, users can also use a new fastshot mode on the phone.
Through this launch, the company is making these devices available in the EU and the UK. The Xiaomi 17 starts at €999, and the Xiaomi 17 Ultra starts at €1,499. The Leica edition comes with 16GB RAM and 1TB storage, and is priced at €1,999. The Xiaomi 17 Ultra Photography Kit is priced at €99.99, and the Xiaomi 17 Ultra Photography Kit Pro is priced at €199.99.
Apart from phones, the company also launched a bunch of other devices, including a scooter. Xiaomi said that its Electric Scooter 6 Ultra has 1200W peak power and 75km of range. The scooter has 12-inch all-terrain tires with front and rear disc brakes. It has a three-inch TFT display to measure things like speed and range. The scooter starts at €329.99 with five different versions, with the top version priced at €799.99.
The company also launched a new Xiaomi tag, an AirTag-like device, which works with both Apple Find My and Google Android Find Hub. The tag weighs just 10 grams and has a button cell battery that lasts over a year. You can also play a sound remotely to find the tag or the time at which the tag is attached. The company is pricing this tag at €14.9 for one and €49.99 for a pack of four.
What’s more, the company released a slim power bank with just 6mm of thickness. The powerbank weighs 98 grams and has a 5,000 mAh battery capacity. It can charge devices at 22.5W through a wired connection and at 15W through a wireless connection. The powerbank is magnetic, so it can stick to supporting phones like iPhones, and charge them wirelessly. The powerbank is priced at €59.99 for black and silver colorways. It also has an orange colorway priced at €64.99.
Xiaomi launched its new smartphone, Xiaomi Watch 5, with a 930mAh battery that could last up to six days. The smartwatch has a round 1.54-inch AMOLED display and supports gestures to dismiss calls or alarms. The watch can also prepare a health report in 60 seconds by using metrics like heart rate, blood oxygen, stress levels, sleep duration, sleep heart rate, and sleep SpO₂. The watch is priced at €299.99.
The company also launched a €69.9 Redmi Buds 8 Pro earbuds with active noise cancellation and up to 33 hours of battery life.
Tech
Revolut eyes valuation of up to $200B in eventual IPO
British neobank Revolut seems to be eyeing a major valuation bump when it eventually goes public. The company is targeting a market cap between $150 billion and $200 billion in an initial public offering, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing anonymous investor sources.
The fintech giant, which secured a full banking license in the United Kingdom in March after years of waiting, was most recently valued at $75 billion, up from $45 billion in 2024, in a secondary share sale that made it one of Europe’s most valuable private tech companies.
Revolut’s co-founder and CEO, Nik Storonsky, last week said that the company’s IPO was at least “two years away,” according to Bloomberg.
According to PitchBook and the Financial Times, the company is working on another secondary share sale, scheduled for the second half of 2026, that would value it at more than $100 billion.
As of November 2025, the company had raised a total of $5.89 billion, according to PitchBook. Revolut reported revenue of $6 billion in the financial year ended December 31, 2025, up from $4 billion in 2024. The company’s net profit grew to $1.7 billion, up from $1 billion in 2024, and counted 68.3 million retail customers at the end of 2025.
Revolut declined to comment.
Founded in 2015, Revolut offers a range of services spanning multi-currency accounts, payment and transfer services, crypto products, insurance, and more. The neobank has been pouring truckloads of cash into expanding its operations internationally, and recently applied for a banking license in the United States.
Besides the U.K., Revolut has a banking license in the European Union, and it operates in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Brazil, and the U.S. Revolut launched operations in India last October, is about to start operating in Colombia this year, and has received a banking license in Mexico.
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Tech
Amazon taps Sweden’s Einride for its electric big rigs
Einride is adding 75 of its electric heavy duty trucks to Amazon’s Relay freight network as part of a deal that gives the Swedish startup a toehold in the e-commerce giant’s operations. Einride will also provide charging infrastructure across five locations in the United States, under the agreement announced Tuesday.
Amazon isn’t buying or operating the electric trucks. Instead, Einride will own and manage (using its own Saga AI software) the trucks, which can be used by drivers in Amazon’s Relay freight network. Relay, launched in 2017, is an app that truck drivers can use to book hauling gigs with Amazon.
Einride CEO Roozbeh Charli, who took over as chief nearly a year ago, said working with Amazon is a powerful validation of the startup’s technology and strategic vision.
“By deploying our intelligent platform within one of the world’s most sophisticated logistics networks, we are accelerating growth, while continuing to build industry-leading operational expertise,” he said in a statement.
Einride has gained attention and investment for its two-pronged approach to freight. The company has developed and now operates a fleet of about 200 heavy-duty electric trucks for companies like Heineken, PepsiCo, and Carlsberg Sweden in Europe, North America, and the UAE. It has also developed autonomous pod-like trucks, which stand out for their cab-less design.
The agreement with Amazon doesn’t include the autonomous pods.
Einride has landed this agreement at a critical time: The startup is finalizing a merger with blank-check company Legato Merger Corp. and is expected to go public soon.
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While the agreement might not carry the same weight for Amazon, which has a market cap of $2.7 trillion, it does contribute to its low-carbon goals. Amazon has said it wants to reach net-zero carbon emissions across its operations by 2040.
“This rollout is an important step forward in addressing one of the toughest challenges we face in decarbonizing our transportation network — electrifying heavy-duty trucking,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We’re excited to continue to collaborate with Einride and learn from these operations as the trucks hit the road.”
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Tech
YouTube expands its AI likeness detection technology to celebrities
YouTube is expanding its new “likeness detection” technology, which identifies AI-generated content, such as deepfakes, to people within the entertainment industry, the company announced on Tuesday.
The technology works similarly to YouTube’s existing Content ID system, which detects copyright-protected material in users’ uploaded videos, allowing rights owners to request removal or share in the video’s revenue.
Likeness detection does the same, but for simulated faces. The feature is meant to help protect creators and other public figures from having their identities used without their permission — a common problem for celebrities who find their likenesses have been used in scam advertisements.
The technology was first made available to a subset of YouTube creators in a pilot program last year before expanding more broadly to include politicians, government officials, and journalists this spring.
Now YouTube says the technology is being made available to those in the entertainment industry, including talent agencies, management companies, and the celebrities they represent. The company has support from major agencies like CAA, UTA, WME, and Untitled Management, which offered feedback on the new tool.
Use of the likeness detection tool does not require entertainers to have their own YouTube channels.
Instead, the feature scans for AI-generated content to detect visual matches of an enrolled participant’s face. Users can then choose to request removal of the video for privacy policy violations, submit a copyright removal request, or do nothing. YouTube notes that it won’t remove all content, as it permits parody and satire content under its rules.
In the future, the technology will support audio as well, the company says.
Related to this, YouTube has also been advocating for similar protections at a federal level, with its support for the NO FAKES Act in Washington, D.C. This would regulate the use of AI to create unauthorized re-creations of an individual’s voice and visual likeness.
The company hasn’t yet said how many removals of AI deepfakes have been managed by the tool so far, but noted in March that the amount of removals was still “very small.”
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