Meet the phone with a built-in GoPro — Android’s new convergence king comes with a pop-out action camera

• The Ulefone RugOne Xsnap 7 has a unique party trick
• It comes with an action camera you can take out and use separately
• The phone is scheduled to launch in the middle of 2026

There's a case to be made that the best phones are somewhat lacking in terms of innovation these days, but that's certainly not the case with the Ulefone RugOne Xsnap 7: one of its rear cameras can be popped out and used as a standalone action camera.

The handset was recently shown off at MWC 2026, and is scheduled to launch in the middle of the year. We also know that it'll feature a 6.67-inch AMOLED display, a MediaTek Dimensity 8400 5G chip, 12GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage.

While this clearly isn't going to compete with the best action cameras in terms of size or video quality, there's a certain appeal in having a unit like this built right into your phone. When the camera is detached, you can use the handset as a remote control and viewfinder, before docking it again to recharge and transfer the footage.

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Of course, this adds quite a bit of bulk to the phone itself, but Ulefone isn't trying to avoid that. The RugOne Xsnap 7 also features a hefty 9,000 mAh capacity battery as well, so this should last you plenty of time between charges.

'Designed for adventurers'

It's not clear what the actual specs of the action camera are, but the information provided by Ulefone does say that the other two rear cameras are a 50MP main sensor and a 64MP 'night vision' lens. There's also a 32MP selfie snapper around the front.

"This isn't just a smartphone; it is the world's first rugged device featuring a detachable magnetic action camera unit," promises Ulefone. "Designed for adventurers who live to capture the moment, the Xsnap 7 Pro merges high-performance mobile tech with professional-grade action camera DNA."

Having the choice of an action camera and a phone camera when shooting photos and videos sounds genuinely useful – not just a gimmick – and so we'll be interested to see the final form of this handset when it appears (and of course the pricing).

Honor has recently unveiled a phone with a gimbal camera inside it, which extends on a robotic arm, but we haven't seen the action camera idea before. Perhaps the idea of a modular phone might be about to make a comeback.

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