Dreame — the vacuum company — just ‘launched’ its own phones | The Verge
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Dreame — the vacuum company — just ‘launched’ its own phones
The robot vacuum manufacturer claims it’s launching a modular phone and a set of luxury devices, but I’m not convinced.
The robot vacuum manufacturer claims it’s launching a modular phone and a set of luxury devices, but I’m not convinced.
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This is just one of 29 different Aurora Lux designs.
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Dreame, a Chinese manufacturer best known for its robot vacuums but with ambitions to do much more, says it’s making smartphones now. I’m not sure I believe it.
The company showed off two phones at its own Next event, which took place in California this week, though both had previously been revealed in China in March. Neither phone has actually launched though — in China, the US, or elsewhere — and the company has revealed only a handful of specs about either.
Aurora Nex LS1 is the more interesting of the two, but also the less plausible. It’s a modular smartphone with a magnetic attachment point where the rear camera would normally be. Dreame has revealed five different modules that can be attached at that point: a triple camera that apparently includes a 1-inch-type sensor and a 115mm equivalent telephoto lens; an action camera; a fan; a satellite communications module; and a “Smart Agent Module.”
We’ve seen modular phone designs before, but this is closest in approach to the version Tecno showed off at MWC this year. That phone was only a concept device though; Dreame is at least implying that the Nex LS1 is a real product that will really go on sale.
The Aurora Nex LS1 has a selection of chunky, circular magnetic modules.
Dreame’s second phone is the Aurora Lux, though calling it a single phone is a little misleading. This is really a series of different phone designs, some quite radically different from each other, all unified by a garish sense of luxury. Some are coated in leather; others appear plated in gold. Many are plastered with gemstones. One seems to have an analog clock built into the rear camera island. And while most have matching circular camera designs, several are completely different, with the cameras sitting separately and flush with the rear, or separated from the rest of the phone by a Pixel-esque camera bar. In all, Dreame’s press release from the Chinese launch event claims that it has 29 different versions of the Aurora Lux, a number so comically large that I refuse to believe the company can seriously manufacture them.
Elsewhere Dreame has claimed camera capabilities including a 200-megapixel sensor, and support for Lofic — a new type of HDR processing so far only seen on the Honor Magic 8 Pro and Xiaomi 17 Ultra. It’s not clear which of the two phones those specs apply to though, and I would be as impressed as I would be surprised if Dreame was really committed to such powerful camera hardware on its first phones. Is a robot vacuum company really ready to release camera hardware that outclasses Apple and Samsung, the first true modular phone, and 29 different versions of a luxury, gem-encrusted handset, all from scratch?
Dreame had plenty of influencers on hand to try out its first phones.
Both of the phones will reportedly run Dreame’s own Aurora AIOS, “a proprietary operating system designed around proactive service rather than passive response.” Yes, it’s an Android skin with a load of AI tacked on.
Dreame hasn’t confirmed when or where either phone will launch, but has said that AIOS will launch in the second half of 2026. Unless it intends to release the software as a download for other devices, that presumably means the first Dreame hardware will release in the same time frame.
The two phones were just one part of an eclectic Dreame launch event that also featured a rocket-boosted electric car, a laundry robot, and a TV with moving speakers. At least Dreame knows how to dream big.
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