News and Updates about Smartphones

OPPO is reportedly developing a 16:9 wide-format flagship smartphone with a body wider than most conventional Android phones currently sold, according to a Weibo post from tipster Digital Chat Station, cited by Android Authority on October 9.

WhatsApp is reportedly developing a call screening feature for Android that would let unknown callers explain why they're calling before the recipient decides whether to answer. The tool, which WABetaInfo describes as a new call filtering feature, would replace the app's single-toggle Silence Unknown Callers setting with three selectable modes.

If your phone turns into a hand warmer twenty minutes into a drive, it doesn't necessarily mean something is broken. Phone overheating while using CarPlay or Android Auto can result from several heat sources piling up at once, rather than a single app or hardware issue. Navigation, music, wireless radios, and charging all draw power at the same time, and if the cabin is already warm, that heat has nowhere to go.

Hold a phone to your ear during a call, and the display should go dark almost right away. If it doesn't, a cheek pressed against the glass can mute the microphone, hang up the call, or open a menu without anyone meaning to touch anything. That small failure is usually the first time most people stop to wonder what a phone proximity sensor does: it's a tiny component near the earpiece that tells the phone something, usually a face, has gotten close to the screen, so the system can shut the...

Motorola has become the first phone maker to announce a device built around Qualcomm's new flagship chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. The company unveiled the Motorola Signature 27 at Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii, with Qualcomm and Motorola both confirming the new platform inside the phone.

Global smartphone shipments fell 20% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2026, the weakest Q3 total since 2012, according to preliminary estimates from Counterpoint Research's Market Monitor service. That's the headline behind the global smartphone market decline, but the number that matters more if you're holding a phone right now is what's happening underneath it.

WhatsApp says it is introducing guest calling, a feature that lets people without a WhatsApp account join a voice or video call through a shared link, the company announced yesterday. Guests open the link in a computer browser, type in a name, and wait for the host to let them in. No app install, no sign-up.

Apple and Xiaomi introduced their first passport-style foldables within two days of each other, and anyone running an iPhone Duo vs Xiaomi 18 Fold comparison right now will notice how closely the hardware converges.

Nothing began rolling out the stable Nothing OS 5.0 update on October 12, but so far only the Nothing Phone (3) is in the current wave. Nine more phones across Nothing and CMF have tentative rollout windows extending into mid-January 2027, according to Nothing's published roadmap and subsequent reporting.

Xiaomi's next premium phones could come with a hefty price tag in Europe — and potentially smaller batteries than their Chinese counterparts. A new leak puts the Xiaomi 18 Pro at €1,449 (approximately $1,629), just €50 ($56) below the Xiaomi 17 Ultra's European launch price, while the larger 18 Pro Max could reach €1,849 (about $2,079).

Is the Xiaomi 18 Ultra cancelled? That's the claim circulating after leaker Digital Chat Station posted on Weibo, with the information subsequently relayed by Abhishek Yadav and multiple technology outlets.

Straight Talk raised the hotspot data included with its three unlimited plans without touching the monthly base prices, according to a Verizon announcement published Oct. 20. Silver, Gold, and Platinum Unlimited still run $45, $55, and $65 a month, but each now comes with a bigger hotspot allowance, 5G Ultra Wideband access for eligible customers, and a cheaper home internet bundle.

HONOR launched three new gaming phones, the Win 2, Win RT 2, and Win Turbo 2, at an event in Hangzhou on Oct. 21, 2026. All three share a 6.89-inch QHD+ 185Hz OLED display that HONOR and Xiaomiui describe as the industry's first 2K/185Hz phone panel.

AirPods Pro 3 reserve their fullest feature set for a compatible iPhone. Pixel Buds Pro 2 reserve theirs for a compatible Android phone. But AirPods Pro 3 vs Pixel Buds Pro 2 phone compatibility doesn't split evenly down the middle: neither pair has a companion app on the competing platform.

Motorola has started pushing stable Android 17 to the Razr Ultra 2025, but only a narrow slice of owners can actually grab it today. So far, the update is confirmed only on unlocked units sold in the United States, according to TuttoAndroid and a separate report from Android Authority published yesterday.

WhatsApp scheduled messages on iPhone are now in testing, but access right now is limited to select iOS beta users, not the general public. The tool has surfaced in WhatsApp's iOS beta version 26.42.10.19, distributed through Apple's TestFlight program, according to Digital Trends. If you're hoping to schedule a WhatsApp message on your iPhone today just by updating the app, that won't work unless you're already enrolled in that specific beta.

Xiaomi is taking a different approach to the book-style foldable with the Xiaomi 18 Fold, a shorter, wider flagship that starts at ¥10,999, or roughly $1,640, in mainland China. Xiaomi unveiled the phone and opened preorders on Sept. 7, with general sales scheduled to begin Sept. 10 at 10 a.m. local time.

Two phones, same price, different stickers: one says "pre-owned," the other says "refurbished," and a third might claim "certified pre-owned." None of those words alone tells you which phone is the smarter buy (Engadget, this week). The short version: pre-owned describes a phone's ownership history, while refurbished describes a process the phone went through before resale. All refurbished phones are used, but not every used phone has been refurbished (Engadget, this week).

Phones with 8,000mAh to 10,000mAh batteries used to be a trade-show curiosity. Not anymore. The vivo T5 Pro shipped with a 9,020mAh cell, and the Redmi Note 17 Pro Max has already been confirmed at 10,000mAh, Gadgets Now reports. Batteries that size used to demand a phone thick enough to double as a doorstop, but the same chemistry now lets manufacturers fit 7,000mAh or more into bodies under 8.5mm, per Gadgets Now.

Talk to enough app developers about platform strategy and someone will eventually repeat a version of the same claim: foldable phone users spend more on apps, so building foldable-specific features is worth the engineering cost. It's a tidy story, and it fits with what everyone already assumes about early adopters of expensive hardware. It also isn't backed by any published dataset. No research reviewed for this article measures in-app spending, subscription conversion, or revenue per user by...

At roughly $1,300 apiece, the iPhone 18 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra make price almost irrelevant at the starting line. The real choice comes down to how differently the two phones approach cameras, battery life, software, design, and the features you'll use long after the novelty wears off.

Starting tomorrow, Thursday, August 6, T-Mobile customers will be able to spread the cost of a new phone, including taxes and activation fees, across 36 months instead of the previously available 24-month term, with well-qualified buyers paying nothing at checkout, according to WebProNews. The T-Mobile 36-month phone financing plan actually comes in two distinct versions, and the gap between them decides whether a customer walks out paying $0 or simply pays less than before.

Should you restart your phone regularly? The honest answer is: probably less often than you think, and for different reasons than you've been told. Your phone is not a 2003 Windows PC. It doesn't need a Sunday-night reboot to stay functional. Modern smartphones are built to run for weeks at a time without issue, and the idea that routine restarts keep a phone healthy is, at best, weakly supported by the evidence.

Oukitel is heading into IFA 2026 with three rugged phones that don't just carry bigger batteries. They build in a night-vision camera, a fire starter, and a gaming cooling rig, treating the phone itself as a chassis for gear you'd normally pack separately. The headline device, the Oukitel WP70 Ultra rugged phone, packs a 16,000mAh silicon-carbon battery that Oukitel calls the slimmest in its class, Gadgets 360 reports.

A single Galaxy Z Fold 7 wearing a Temdan MagSafe Kickstand Case went through repeated pocket-height drops onto concrete, and it came away with no damage. The reviewer at Tech with Jerad reported the phone survived the drops intact and the case itself showed only minimal wear (Tech with Jerad). That's a strong result for one case built around impact and scuff resistance. It says nothing about a major durability concern with foldables: dust working its way into the hinge and scratching the inner...

Search interest around "Xiaomi and Motorola phones launched at Snapdragon Summit" is pulling together three phones tied to Qualcomm's newer chips this week: Motorola's Signature, Motorola's Razr 60 Ultra, and Xiaomi's 17 Pro Max. Nothing in the material reviewed for this article backs up a shared Snapdragon Summit launch. Motorola's spec pages, the one available Xiaomi hands-on report, and Qualcomm's own chip announcement never place these three phones at the same event, in the same region, or...

Vivo officially unveiled the X500 Pro Max on September 21, and the Vivo X500 Pro Max camera phone is shaping up as the company's most aggressive imaging flagship yet.

Xiaomi launched the 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max in China on September 23, 2026, and the headline feature across the Xiaomi 18 Pro series is a hardware-level privacy display that switches on for a single app, a single notification, or one pane of a split screen. Both phones also bring back the rear display from last year's 17 Pro, now rebuilt around Xiaomi's Xiao AI assistant (GSMArena, yesterday).

Oppo officially launched the Find X10 Pro Max in China today, and the headline spec is hard to miss: three separate 200MP sensors on the back, one each for ultrawide, main, and telephoto. The configuration is confirmed by GSMArena and FoneArena, both reporting on today's launch.

Sony may be preparing a camera upgrade for the Xperia 1 IX that swaps out the flagship's main sensor for a larger one, which would be the first change to that specific component since the Xperia 1 V launched in 2023. The claim traces to Japanese blog Sumahu Digest and was reported today by PhoneArena.

The sources reviewed here trace the phone's reported specifications to one Gagadget article, and the phone hasn't launched yet. Gagadget reported this week that the Magic 9 Pro Max pairs dual 200MP cameras developed with ARRI, a mechanical gimbal, and support for ARRI's LogC3 color format, with a China launch planned for September 28 starting at 6,999 yuan, roughly £855/$875.

What people want in a new phone depends almost entirely on why they're shopping for one. Someone whose screen just cracked wants whatever's in stock that works today. Someone whose two-year-old flagship still runs fine wants to know whether a new camera or a smarter assistant is worth paying for.

Motorola is scheduled to unveil the Signature 27 on September 22, timed to Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii, according to Tech Advisor. The phone follows Motorola's slimline Signature flagship.

Motorola posted a short teaser video from its official X account this week, timed to land alongside Apple's iPhone Duo launch. The clip ends with a brief silhouette of an unnamed foldable phone that looks shorter and wider than Motorola's current Razr Fold, according to GSMArena and ChannelNews. The phone appears on screen for about five seconds, near the end of the clip, per Android Police. The Motorola wide Razr Fold teaser confirms one thing: the company is building a new form factor. The...

Apple has finally unveiled its first foldable phone, and the shape looks strangely familiar. The book-style design, 7.6-inch inner display, and 3,000-nit peak brightness Apple announced this week land close to where Samsung already sits with the Galaxy Z Fold 8, a phone The Verge put through a week of testing. That overlap is the starting point for any iPhone Duo vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 comparison: Apple has arrived at a form factor Samsung has already priced and had independently reviewed.

The iPhone vs Samsung Galaxy bloatware debate usually turns into a scoreboard argument: which phone maker crams in more junk you'll never open. Apple's own support documentation and Samsung's own support page tell a more useful story than any scoreboard could.