With MWC kicking off, this was an exciting week. Xiaomi brought the 15 and 15 Ultra over to Europe. Meanwhile, Nothing unveiled its (3a) series of phones.
Over at Cupertino, it was “Air” week as Apple announced new iPads and MacBooks with upgraded chipsets. Note that the new Apple devices are on pre-order and will be available from March 12 (Wednesday).
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra impressed in our review (also check out the video review) and has a solid claim of being the best camera flagship of 2025. It is pricey, though. Luckily, Amazon is offering a £130 voucher and is throwing in a free Redmi Watch 5.
The Xiaomi 15 may lack the 1” main sensor and the impressive 200MP periscope, but it is one of the more capable camera phones of its size (it’s slightly larger than a Galaxy S25 and about the same size as a Pixel 9 Pro). We have a video review for that one as well. Here, the deal is even sweeter – a £180 voucher plus the free Redmi Watch 5.
Nothing decided to get the more affordable a-phones out first, before moving on to its 2025 flagship. Actually, the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro won’t be out for a few more days yet, so we’ll leave that for next week.
For some reason Amazon has the Nothing Phone (3a) listed as being on pre-order, even though it should be on sale already. Anyway, you can pick up the base 8/128GB unit for £330 or upgrade to the 12/256GB variant for £50 more.
The outgoing Nothing Phone (2a) is having its last hurrah and it is cheaper than the (3a) – up to £100 less, if you’re looking at the 256GB models. The (3a) has worthwhile improvements like a 50MP 50mm (2x) portrait lens, for example. The Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipset is faster, though not by a huge margin.
Moving over to Apple, the vanilla iPad 2025 was upgraded to the Apple A16 chip, which makes it the only new iPad without Apple Intelligence support (the 2024 mini uses the A17 Pro chipset).
At least Apple bumped up the base storage to 128GB, which is tolerable (64GB was tricky and upgrading took you to a pricey 256GB model). It has been three years since the vanilla iPad got an upgrade and while we appreciate the extra performance and storage, we would have appreciated something extra – AI, a 120Hz display, anything.
If you’re going to miss out on Apple Intelligence, you can just grab the 2022 iPad. We wouldn’t recommend the 64GB model, but the 256GB variant is £50 cheaper than the new model. There isn’t much difference between the 2022 and 2025 tablets besides the chipset, but £50 isn’t huge savings either – you’re probably better off with the new one.
The iPad Air was previously upgraded last year with the M2 chip, now those are gone in favor of the M3 chip. That’s pretty much the only upgrade to the 2025 iPad Air 11” and 13”. Apple claims these are twice as fast as the older M1-based Airs, so the company is trying to entice owners of 2022 models to upgrade.
Also new this week are the 13” and 15.3” MacBook Air models with the new M4 chip and a $100 price cut. The new chip supports up to two 6K 60Hz displays (up from just one on the previous generation). The new Airs also feature new 12MP Center Stage cameras (well, not new – it’s the same as on the MacBook Pro). There’s also a new color, dubbed Sky Blue.
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