I’ve always been impressed with TCL’s easy-to-read Nxtpaper technology. Sitting somewhere between E Ink and a more traditional screen with built-in anti-glare tech, there’s a softness both to the look and feel of a Nxtpaper display that makes it a real pleasure to use.

But if I were asked whether I’d be happy to replace my regular phone with one that had an LCD Nxtpaper display, the answer has always been no, for one simple reason: brightness. The vivid colors that we’re accustomed to on most phones screens tend to look dull on Nxtpaper, and I just wouldn’t be willing to compromise on radiance, in spite of the many good qualities Nxtpaper brings to the table.

Until now, that is. Among the cool phones and weird tech on display at Mobile World Congress 2026, I saw a Nxtpaper phone that might have changed my perspective. TCL showed off an upgraded AMOLED version of Nxtpaper stopped me in my tracks. It blended the luminosity of AMOLED and the softness of Nxtpaper to stunning effect, in a way that would genuinely make me reconsider my stance on owning a Nxtpaper phone.

The screen offers 3,200 nits of brightness, and has a circular polarization rate of 90%, which means it closely resembles natural light. TCL has managed to reduce blue light emission as low as 2.9%, and the display dynamically adjusts brightness and color temperature in tune with the body’s natural circadian rhythms.

The one drawback I can see for using Nxtpaper on a phone screen is that it might not be ideal for taking, viewing and editing photos. In my brief demo at MWC, I took a selfie and noticed the colors didn’t look especially true to life. But it’s important to note that TCL is still developing this technology, so it remains a work in progress and my brief time using it likely won’t be an accurate reflection of a final product.

In all, this is real leap forward for Nxtpaper. Although TCL hasn’t announced any devices featuring the technology yet, it likely will do in due course. I’d personally like to see it on a laptop — as I spend all day staring at my screen both reading and writing, it seems like the perfect application of this tech. I can’t wait to see where it ends up.

When people find out I’m a journalist who covers AI, they often ask about the drastic energy consumption of AI data centers. Are these centers using up all of our drinking water? How is this tech affecting the environment? Is AI going to kill us all? The questions range from curious to downright dystopian. 

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, recently faced criticism after calling some of these concerns, particularly those around water, «totally fake.» It all stems from a Q&A session hosted by The Indian Express newspaper. Around the 26-minute mark of the interview, Altman was asked to defend certain criticisms of AI, including the amount of natural resources it takes to power large language models like ChatGPT. 

Altman responded, «(criticism of AI for overuse of) water is totally fake,» saying that while extreme water use «used to be true,» OpenAI no longer does evaporative cooling. He said estimates that 17 gallons of water are used for every chatbot query are no longer accurate. 

«This is completely untrue and totally insane, [and has] no connection to reality,» he said. He then goes on to address AI energy consumption, calling the concerns «fair» but arguing that it should be evaluated as a whole, not per query, since some queries, like videos, are more intensive to generate than text conversations. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Still, Altman says, «we need to move toward nuclear or wind and solar (power) very quickly.»

Questions involving data centers and water are complicated.

Do AI data centers strain land and power systems?

Altman’s remarks come amid timely, ongoing debates over data centers and their energy use. 

CNET’s Corin Cesaric dove into the issue of AI’s energy use last year and found the cost of training and running ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and other generative AI tools to be «staggering.» The US accounted for the largest share (45%) of global data center electricity consumption in 2024, according to the International Energy Agency. 

As for water: Two Google data centers in Council Bluffs, Iowa, alone used 1.4 billion gallons of water in 2024, enough to fill about 28 million standard bathtubs. Google has 29 data centers worldwide. Meta’s data centers also accounted for about 1.39 billion gallons of water used in 2023. 

While we don’t currently have statistics from OpenAI, Meta, or Google on their natural resource consumption in 2025, it’s safe to bet that data center energy and water use will rise as more people use generative AI. 

How do AI data centers use water?

Considering ChatGPT now has close to 1 billion weekly users, and OpenAI has estimated that it handles close to 2.5 billion prompts every day, that’s an astronomical amount of data to manage. And because of this demand, the powerful computers that train the AI models and process their prompts get extremely hot. Think of how your phone and laptop heat up when running demanding tasks. If servers overheat, they can slow down or become damaged. This is where water comes in. 

Traditionally, water in AI data centers is used in two ways: evaporative cooling (consuming water) and closed-loop systems (recirculating water). 

Evaporative cooling is a ventilation technique that uses the natural process of evaporation to convert liquid water into water vapor, which absorbs heat during the process. Closed-loop cooling is a more resource-efficient process that reuses the water to dissipate heat without evaporation or consumption. 

OpenAI said in a January announcement that it is «prioritizing closed-loop or low-water cooling systems» to minimize water use. This does lend credence to Altman’s recent claims that OpenAI’s water use is not as high as the 17 gallons per query estimate, but we don’t yet have exact figures for OpenAI’s 2025 water use. 

OpenAI says it is moving away from the more costly evaporative cooling systems. However, 56% of data centers still use this method in some form over closed-loop systems, according to a January 2026 report from global water technology company Xylem and market research firm Global Water Intelligence. The research anticipates that AI water consumption will spike nearly 130% by 2050. 

How much energy does AI use?

Powering AI and these massive data centers is demanding. 

Generative AI chatbots use more energy than traditional search engines like Google or Bing. One estimate calculated that a single chatbot query requires 10 times more electricity than a Google search. On average, a single text query takes about 0.24 to 3 watt-hours, but AI-generated videos and images require much more electricity. 

An August 2025 report from Google details Gemini’s energy use. The report states «the median Gemini Apps text prompt uses 0.24 watt-hours (Wh) of energy, emits 0.03 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent (gCO2e) and consumes 0.26 milliliters (or about five drops) of water.» Google equates this energy consumption to powering a microwave for 9 seconds. 

Is solar a valid alternative?

Even though AI models require 24/7 power, solar energy is a viable and scalable option for powering AI data centers. 

OpenAI announced a multi-billion-dollar venturein October 2025 to explore new energy generation with solar and battery storage. Meta, Microsoft, Google and Amazon all expanded their solar power use across the US in 2025. 

While renewable solutions could be the path forward, solar (or wind) energy is still only part of the mix of energy generation used by data centers. They generally rely on the grid itself, which is still largely powered by the burning of fossil fuels like natural gas. 

Where we stand

The conversation around AI and water use is moving from unconfirmed claims to measured scrutiny. Communities and policymakers are now pushing for transparency and sustainable practices, aiming to ensure that AI’s rapid growth doesn’t come at the expense of local water resources or the local electricity grid. As AI continues to grow, so, too, will the debate about how best to balance technological innovation with environmental responsibility.

At MWC 2026, we have — surprising nobody — seen a ton of phones.

This year’s Mobile World Congress is particularly plentiful with phones packing unique features appealing to different mobile fans, like Honor’s Robot Phone, which is part handset and part camera gimbal. While Xiaomi predictably unveiled another premium device, its photographic capabilities are next-level. Motorola finally revealed its book-style foldable. The brands may be expected, but the phones aren’t.

This year’s MWC comes with its own set of challenging circumstances. The Samsung Galaxy S26 phones have arrived just before the show to set the stage for this year’s premium Android phones, and they’ve come with a $100 price hike for their basic and Galaxy S26 Plus models. This could be the result of the RAM shortage, which is expected to pressure phonemakers to raise prices on many phones. How they choose to balance new features and affordability could be the biggest hurdle of 2026 for the phone industry.

Amid all that uncertainty, manufacturers have still graced the biggest phone show of the year to debut their new handsets. Here are all the best phones we’ve seen at MWC.

Xiaomi’s Leitzphone 

We’ve seen the Leica name attached to phones for years, but Xiaomi’s Leica Leitzphone takes phone-and-camera-company partnerships to the next level. There’s a laundry list of great photo-centric features: Leica’s famous high-quality Summilux lenses, the new Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor image sensor to enable better dynamic range and moving elements in the telephoto lens that allow it to gracefully transition from 75- to 100-millimeter focal lengths. Plus, a large mechanical lens ring on the back of the phone that serves as a customizable control for zoom, exposure, or other settings.

Best of all, as CNET Editor at Large Andrew Lanxon noted in his review, the Leitzphone has the exact same color profiles that you’ll find on Leica’s actual cameras and film — and the photos he took look like they came from a pro camera, not a phone. In short, Lanxon wrote, the Leitzphone is so advanced it earns our Editors’ Choice award, and competitors like Samsung’s new Galaxy S26 Ultra need to catch up. 

Honor Magic V6

The Honor Magic V6 is a foldable that seems, at least at early glance, to have largely mitigated one of the persisting problems of flexible displays: the crease over the fold line is pretty much gone. This alone would make the Magic V6 attractive for cutting-edge phone fans, but it has other pristine touches — it’s only 4.1mm thick, is one of the first foldables to be IP68 and IP69 water and dust resistant (meaning it should survive spilt drinks and dust), has a 6,600-mAh battery (larger than the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s 4,400-mAh one) and has a triple-rear camera array with specs that seem better than any rival: a 50-megapixel main, 64-megapixel telephoto and 50-megapixel ultrawide.

For all those refinements, expect to pay up. While the Honor Magic V6 doesn’t have an official price yet (and won’t be sold in the US), its predecessor, the Honor Magic V5, was £1,699 (which converts to around $2,285). 

Motorola Razr Fold

After years of sticking with clamshell-style small foldables in the Razr series, Motorola is finally bringing a larger book-style foldable to take on its rival Samsung and its Galaxy Z Fold 7. Motorola is continuing to distinguish its handsets with alternative materials and textures like a wooden finish on the Razr Ultra, and the new Motorola Razr Fold has a «silk» textured back that adds a touch of luxury.

Motorola’s new book-style foldable has a triple-rear camera system (50-megapixel sensors with a trio of lenses: wide-angle, telephoto and ultrawide) as well as some specs advantages over Samsung’s big folding phone. The Razr Fold has a 6,000-mAh battery and 80-watt wired and 50-watt wireless charging, which easily outstrips the 4,400-mAh capacity of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and its paltry 25-watt wired and 15-watt wireless charging.

Honor Robot Phone 

We first got a teasing look at the Honor phone with a discrete camera on the end of a robot arm (think one of those DJI pocket-size cameras on a gimbal) during CES 2026, but finally got to see it properly at MWC 2026 just a couple of months later. With its separate, stabilized camera, the Honor Robot Phone lives up to its name, capturing footage that could be far higher quality than that from standard phone cameras at the end of our (shaky human) arms. When it’s not in use, the Honor phone’s gimbaled arm folds back in and tucks into a notch in the back of the phone. It’s a neat return to, and even an expansion upon, the neat pop-up phone cameras from yesteryear, stabilized with all the best modern mobile photography tech.  

ZTE Nubia Neo 5 GT 

The ZTE Nubia Neo 5 GT brings features from premium gaming phones down to a handset that’s half the price. At around 450 euros (about $525), the Neo 5 GT has several perks inherited from the around $1,000 RedMagic 11 Pro: touch-sensitive shoulder triggers, a neat rear design and, neatest of all, an internal fan that combines with a thermal-absorbing sheet to lower the phone’s internal temperature by 4 degrees Celsius, ZTE says. 

The Nubia Neo 5 line is part of ZTE’s efforts to make phones for mobile gamers who don’t have deep pockets. The other devices in the lineup are neat enough, with the around 350 euros (about $405) Neo 5 Max boasting a colossal 7.5-inch display, but it’s the Neo 5 GT that consolidates the best gaming features (and style) in far more affordable handsets. 

Tecno Modular Phone Concept

It’s only a phone if you don’t want it to be anything else. Chinese phone-maker Tecno revealed a new concept phone with modules that snap on the back. The base 4.6mm phone is incredibly thin, even slimmer than the Samsung Galaxy Edge and iPhone Air, which gives plenty of room to stack on extras like a 200-megapixel zoom camera. Considering you can pull off the lens from the housing, it’s possible Tecno is envisioning even more lenses that can be attached. 

Not into photography? Other modules you can clip to the back include an external speaker, charger, wallet and additional phone-style cameras. It brings to mind the Moto Z phone from 2016, but advancements in slimming down smartphones make the Tecno concept even more appealing. Then again, it follows in the footsteps of other prospective mobile photo attachment ideas, like Xiaomi’s external camera unit from last year, that haven’t progressed to market-ready products — but we phone photographers can dream.

Honorable mentions: The Samsung Galaxy S26 and the Apple iPhone 17E

While Samsung and Apple weren’t at MWC 2026, they seemingly still wanted to be in on the fun, conveniently releasing smartphones just before and during the show, respectively. They aren’t part of the conference, but they deserve mention anyway.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 is the company’s latest and greatest flagship, with a slightly bigger 4,300-mAh battery and more AI features than its predecessor, but it feels largely the same as the Galaxy S25 before it. But this time around, it’s $100 pricier, starting at $900, and it’s unclear whether that’s due to last year’s tariffs or this year’s RAM shortage — though the base configuration does bump storage to 256GB. Still, with the powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, a slightly larger 6.3-inch screen, a still-slim 7.2mm thickness and more AI tricks, the Galaxy S26 is the Android phone to beat for other flagships coming later this year. 

The iPhone 17E is now the most affordable phone in Apple’s lineup. Despite keeping the same $599 price as its predecessor, the iPhone 16E, the new handset has double the storage at 256GB and comes with support for MagSafe charging and accessories (many critics didn’t like that the 16E didn’t have it). It once again cuts some corners to achieve a lower price than the iPhone 17 released last fall, with a quad-core (rather than a five-core) GPU, only a single 48-megapixel rear camera, no Center Stage feature on its selfie camera, no Dynamic Island, no Camera Control button and no always-on display. But its 6.1-inch screen is more scratch-resistant on the 17E than on its predecessor, which is something.