A Power Bank With Liquid Cooling? Gadget Makers Are Getting Weird Again

I thought power banks were basically finished.

Make them smaller. Give them more capacity. Add faster USB-C charging. Stick a screen on the side. Add magnetic wireless charging. Maybe build the cable into the body so I don't have to dig through my bag looking for one.

What else could you possibly do?

Apparently, put liquid cooling inside one.

UGREEN has introduced the MagFlow Pro Magnetic Power Bank, a 10,000mAh magnetic power bank with something called CryoPulse. This isn't just a fancy name for a metal heatsink either. There is an actual micro-pump circulating coolant inside the power bank, and UGREEN even added a transparent window so you can watch it moving. (IFA Exhibitor News)

I have been playing with gadgets long enough to remember when a power bank was basically a chunky battery with a USB-A port. Now we're talking about cooling systems that sound like they belong inside a gaming PC.

And I kind of love it.

There is a real reason behind the madness. Wireless charging generates heat, and faster wireless charging generates even more of it. The MagFlow Pro supports Qi2 25W wireless charging, so managing that heat becomes increasingly important if you want charging speeds to remain consistent instead of throttling as temperatures rise. (UGREEN US)

UGREEN claims its cooling system can reduce peak temperatures by as much as 10°C compared with its stated industry reference. Those are manufacturer testing figures, so I'd want to see independent testing before getting too excited about the numbers. But the engineering idea itself makes sense. (IFA Exhibitor News)

The rest of the power bank is fairly serious too. There's a 10,000mAh battery, up to 45W wired output, a built-in USB-C cable that doubles as a carrying strap, and a display showing charging information. (UGREEN Official Site)

But nobody is going to talk about the strap.

They're going to talk about the tiny liquid-cooling system inside their power bank.

And this is what I find interesting about gadgets right now.

For a while, consumer technology started becoming a little predictable. Phones became rectangles with better cameras. Chargers became smaller. Power banks became thinner. Every year brought improvements, but fewer things made me stop and say, wait, they actually built that?

A liquid-cooled power bank does.

Is it necessary for everyone? Probably not.

Is it slightly ridiculous? Absolutely.

But I'd rather see manufacturers experimenting with strange engineering ideas than another power bank whose biggest innovation is being 3mm thinner.

After 20 years of playing with gadgets, the weird stuff is often what makes technology fun again.

More weird gadgets, please.

Reference: UGREEN MagFlow Pro and CryoPulse technology

A Phone With a Detachable Action Camera? Now This Is the Kind of Weird Gadget I Like

Phones have become incredibly good.

They're faster, cameras are better, screens are brighter and batteries last longer.

There's just one small problem.

They're getting a bit boring.

Most new phones now follow roughly the same formula. Big screen. Multiple cameras on the back. Faster processor. Bigger battery. Some AI features. Then spend 45 minutes during the launch explaining why this year's camera is dramatically better than last year's camera.

So when I see someone trying something genuinely strange, I pay attention.

And this one definitely got my attention.

A phone with a detachable action camera.

Now we're talking.

Wait, The Camera Comes Off?

The RugOne Xsnap 7 Pro is one of the more unusual phones appearing around IFA 2026.

Instead of treating the rear camera as something permanently attached to the phone, part of the camera system can actually be detached and used independently.

Think about that for a moment.

Your phone becomes the main device, but the camera doesn't necessarily have to stay on the phone.

Mount it somewhere.

Put it somewhere your phone can't easily go.

Use it more like an action camera.

Then attach it back to the phone.

Is this going to replace a GoPro or Insta360 for serious action-camera users?

Probably not immediately.

But that's almost beside the point.

Someone looked at the smartphone and asked:

What else could this thing do?

I miss that.

Phones Used to Be Weird

Anyone who has followed mobile phones long enough will remember when manufacturers experimented with practically everything.

Phones that flipped.

Phones that twisted.

Phones with physical keyboards.

Phones designed specifically around cameras.

Gaming phones.

Music phones.

Phones with projectors.

Some ideas were brilliant.

Some were terrible.

But at least they were interesting.

Eventually the industry figured out what worked, and almost everything slowly became variations of the same rectangular slab.

That's probably good for consumers.

It's just not particularly exciting for gadget geeks.

This Is the Kind of Experiment I Want to See

What I like about the detachable-camera idea isn't necessarily the implementation.

I haven't spent enough time with the Xsnap 7 Pro to tell you whether you should actually buy one.

What I like is the thinking behind it.

Phone cameras are already ridiculously capable.

So instead of adding another 50 megapixels or another AI photography mode, why not change where the camera can physically go?

That potentially creates completely different ways of shooting.

Clip it somewhere while cycling.

Mount it inside a car.

Put it somewhere awkward for a group shot.

Use the phone as the viewing screen while positioning the camera somewhere else.

Suddenly the improvement isn't just another number on a specification sheet.

It's something you couldn't easily do before.

That's the sort of gadget innovation I find interesting.

Weird Gadgets Don't Always Need to Win

There's another thing I've learned after watching technology for more than 20 years.

Not every strange idea needs to become the future.

Some experiments will fail.

Some will disappear after one generation.

Others will eventually be copied by everybody.

That's how gadgets evolve.

I'd rather manufacturers occasionally build something slightly ridiculous than spend the next ten years competing over whether the camera bump should be round, square or slightly more square.

Give me strange cameras.

Give me modular accessories.

Give me unusual form factors.

Give me gadgets that make me stop scrolling and think:

"Hang on. How does THAT work?"

That's part of what made technology fun in the first place.

MY TAKE

Would I buy a phone simply because its camera comes off?

No.

Would I immediately pick one up if I saw it at a gadget store?

Absolutely.

That's the difference.

The Xsnap 7 Pro may or may not become an important smartphone. The detachable-camera concept might disappear completely.

But at least somebody is experimenting.

After years of phones becoming thinner, faster and increasingly similar, I'll happily take a little weirdness.

More weird gadgets, please.