There's a new rugged smartphone that lets you pop off its main camera and use it as an action cam, GoPro-style. It's a feature no iPhone will ever get, no matter how advanced its cameras become. The phone in question is called XSnap 7 Pro, and it is generating a lot of hype at the Ulefon booth at the IFA 2026 expo.
RugOne detachable main camera
RunOne detachable camera teaser. | Image by uleFone
XSnap 7 Pro is a part of the uleFone brand, a behemoth when it comes to rugged phones. The idea behind this one, however, is rather ingenious.
Rather than using your rugged phone to record your risky endeavors, you pop off the main camera and wear it as an action cam.
The detachable camera, called RugOne, is almost cubical in shape, and it weighs only 39 grams. It comes equipped with 64 GB of built-in storage and has its own battery. The module can record 40 minutes of video footage at up to 2.7K resolution at 30 fps.
Would you buy a phone with a detachable camera?
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It works up to 50 meters away from the phone
The XSnap 7 Pro generated a lot of attention at the uleFone booth. | Image by TechEBlog
The detachable camera feeds video footage to RugOne's companion app. It can work up to 50 meters away from the phone and comes with a bunch of cool software features. You can get the full sensor area footage (square) and crop the preferred orientation later.
There's distortion correction and horizon lock as well, and the camera itself is waterproof up to five meters. The company is selling a pendant accessory separately, so you can wear the RugOne camera as a body cam, too.
The specs of the phone are nothing special, except for the night-vision camera, of course. | Image by uleFone
The phone itself is nothing to write home about, as is the case with most rugged phones out there. It uses a MediaTek Dimensity 8400 processor and has a 6.67-inch OLED display with 1,700 nits peak brightness and a 120 Hz refresh rate.
The non-detachable cameras include a 50-megapixel "AI main camera" with optical image stabilization and get this — a 64MP infrared night-vision camera with IR LEDs.
The phone has IP68 and IP69K ratings and a durable polycarbonate chassis. The phone will use a Kickstarter campaign for early-bird enthusiasts. Sales are opening on September 7th, and the pre-order price is set at 799 euros (~$930).
Do we need GoPro-style phones?
As cool as this phone might look, I'm skeptical. The price is quite steep for what the device has to offer, and a real GoPro outperforms the RugOne in every area.
It's also a niche device—and most xrteme sports enthusiasts are using dedicated cameras. The RugOne, however, creates an interesting opportunity as a spy cam the company may not have thought about. You can hide the camera and watch the feed for 40 minutes at up to 50 meters away. That's a completely different target audience, but let's not go there.
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Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.
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