As phone cameras mature, companies are finding new ways to experiment with their design. First, it was Honor with a built-in gimbal camera on the Robot Phone; now, it’s Ulephone with its sub-brand, RugOne.
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The all-new Xsnap 7 Pro rugged phone has a detachable camera that can double as an action cam for your adventures. I went hands-on with it at IFA 2026, and it might just be the coolest modular phone this year.
The RugOne Xsnap 7 Pro has three cameras on the back, and one of them is a detachable action camera. It uses magnetic pogo pins to attach to the back of the phone, and there’s a physical safety lock to keep it in place. Just press that button and pull it out to remove it from the phone.
It sounds simple, but the process was actually kind of tedious in my hands-on experience; I was afraid I’d break the camera when pulling it out. The magnetic force is just too strong for this type of mechanism to work intuitively.
Once it’s pulled out, the action cam records at up to 2.8K at 30fps or 1440p at up to 50fps. You can shoot both vertical and horizontal video, and it can store the footage without the phone, thanks to the 64GB of built-in storage. It supports up to 40 minutes of shooting time, and can be charged in 35 minutes by docking it inside the phone, according to RugOne.
In comparison to dedicated action cameras from GoPro, DJI or Insta360, the quality isn’t as polished, but it is great for on-the-move PoV footage. Like those devices, you can attach the Xsnap 7 Pro’s camera to your cap or mount it on a stand. It connects to the phone via Wi-Fi 6, which allows it to operate up to 50 meters away from the phone. It is also waterproof to a depth of 5 meters.
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RugOne has also built a standalone app to operate the detachable camera module (but it doesn’t show up in the phone’s viewfinder). You’ll need to open the dedicated XSnap Pro to access the footage on the phone as well as to see what the camera is recording. In my brief hands-on, I wore the camera on my cap, attached the module back to the phone and transferred the footage. It was a quick process.
What about the rest of the phone?
The RugOne Xsnap 7 Pro is built for adventurous people; outdoor enthusiasts and content creators who are drawn to modularity. It has a 6.67-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate and is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 8400 chipset. This hardware is paired with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage (in addition to the 64GB storage on the detachable camera module).
The other two cameras on the back include a 50MP primary camera with OIS and a 64MP infrared night-vision camera paired with dedicated IR LEDs. It’s rated IP68 and IP69K for dust and water resistance, and has a 9,300mAh battery, supporting 45W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.
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While I always carry a dedicated action camera on my adventures, I can see the appeal of this phone for casual videographers who don’t want to pack additional tech gear. The RugOne XSnap 7 Pro is priced at 799 euros (roughly $930) for early-bird booking. It will then go on sale globally sometime next month at $999. You’ll be able to buy it from Amazon and RugOne’s online store in Sand Dune and Classic Black.
