Opening thoughts. Motorola is partnering with GrapheneOS. That’s the headline, which may have probably got more folks to sit up and take notice in 2014 than it does in 2026, but it’s important nonetheless.
Motorola, a Lenovo company, is well-known in the Android smartphone ecosystem. GrapheneOS Foundation builds what it says is a privacy and security-focused mobile OS that’s based on Android. What does this mean? Future Motorola smartphones will support this OS, if a user wishes to switch.
GrapheneOS says the first such Android devices under the Motorola brand name will arrive at some point in 2027, though it isn’t confirmed if anything from the current portfolio will adopt this OS support anytime soon.
Are we returning to the days when Android enthusiasts could really tweak their phones? A more refined version of “rooting”, perhaps?
EDITOR’S CORNER
Xiaomi Vision Gran Tourismo
There is something quite crazy happening at the intersection of electric mobility and technology companies, and I’ve a few opinions on that.
Xiaomi Corp., along side an impressive 17 Series smartphones as well as a few other product line-ups, also made another move in the automotive space. Even as they confirm that more than 500,000 EVs were delivered by the company in 2025—the company’s EV portfolio includes the SU7 sedan and its variants, the SU7 Ultra high-performance sedan and the YU7 SUV—they clearly are learning fast about making cars that would worry European automakers as well as a brand that seemingly has a superiority complex—Tesla Inc.
At the Mobile World Congress, the company showed off their all-electric hypercar concept—the Xiaomi Vision Gran Turismo. Jaw-droppingly impressive. The silhouette, contours, the cutouts and sculpting of finer elements, need to be absorbed and appreciated, rather than just looked at as you typically would in a car.
“Electric hypercars must answer a fundamental question. Do we pursue extreme low drag for straight-line speed, or maximum downforce to conquer corners? The optimal solution lies in finding the perfect balance between the two,” Tianyuan Li, design head of Xiaomi EV, said at the unveil. While it is primarily a digital-only concept, Xiaomi has detailed the high-performance architecture underpinning the design. The powertrain is built on Xiaomi’s proprietary 900V Silicon Carbide (SiC) platform, and power levels are expected to be close to 1,900 horsepower—a theoretical beast in the making.
The cockpit includes a “sofa racer” driver’s seat and a butterfly-shaped steering wheel with integrated display, as well as a panoramic screen stretching across the dash, and a drive selector styled like an aircraft throttle.
The driver will interact with the Xiaomi Pulse system, which uses light and sound. This is a strengthening of Xiaomi’s Human X Car X Home philosophy. And a first for a tech company, that puts it in the same hypercar conversation as the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut, the Bugatti Tourbillon, the Pagani Zonda as well as the upcoming Ferrari F80 and McLaren W1. That is no mean feat.
TECH SPOTLIGHT
Stuffcool Zeno 65W
There’s an age old adage, good things come in small packages. The smartphone industry doesn’t seem to believe much in that anymore, but the accessory ecosystem surely does.
Stuffcool’s latest gallium-nitride (GaN) charger, the Zeno 65W, follows the template of something we’ve had a conversation about earlier, the Zeno 30W charger. The key difference, you’d have perhaps figured this out with the naming scheme itself, is that there’s now more power, which makes this a better fit for fast charging smartphones, tablets and even enough grunt for certain laptops.
In terms of size, there’s negligible difference between the siblings, while retaining the uniqueness of a retractable USB-C type cable with the flat design that extends as much as 25 inches. The key is to be gentle with this extension and retraction.
This is essentially an incredibly versatile travel accessory and a workstation charger, with the retractable cable plus a USB-C port on the charger itself. Each method will deliver 65W charging speed when used singularly, and will be shared at around 30W when both are in use.
At ₹2,999 for the Zeno 65W (this is PD PPS output, or Power Delivery Programmable Power Supply Standard), it is hard to argue against its utility, value and convenience. After an initial surge for a couple of minutes, it is impressive how this compact charger manages to stay cool.
If you travel a lot, with a couple of phones or indeed a phone or tablet combination in tow, you would be hard-pressed to find a charger that’s so capable, whilst being this compact. Every gram matters, when you’re lugging that weight around an airport.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Leica Leitzphone, powered by Xiaomi
Those of you who follow my pieces on Hindustan Times regularly would remember what I had written about the Xiaomi 17 Ultra By Leica edition a few weeks ago. That was an early access at the version of the smartphone otherwise meant for China, but, well, the extraordinary camera capabilities don’t change regardless. The same phone will now arrive in some markets, as the Leica Leitzphone powered by Xiaomi. Leica’s heritage doesn’t make its red dot logo available for a product, just like that.
In my book, the big takeaway is the evolution (and strengthening of) the Xiaomi and Leica partnership, at a time when OnePlus has lost the Hasselblad ticket and Zeiss’ alignment with Vivo is more about maintaining status quo.
All the ingredients are there on the camera front, something I had detailed in my experience piece. The Leica and Xiaomi collective philosophy that tugs at the strings of my heart—hardware and image processing finesse cannot be replaced by AI. And to that point, AI is kept absolutely optional in the Leica Leitzphone powered by Xiaomi. No prizes for guessing, I’d kept it off even at 120X zoom levels.
That’s all folks. Stay tuned for next week’s Neural Dispatch and Wired Wisdom. And subscribe, will ya, for there’s tons coming your way. Want this newsletter delivered straight to your inbox? Subscribe here.
