News and Updates about Smartphones

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.

Google began rolling out the Android 17 QPR3 Beta 3 Pixel update on October 29, with a changelog listing 26 fixes, according to 9to5Google (yesterday). The report names three of those fixes directly: a foldable's inner display staying black after unfolding, intermittent crashes clustered around the lock screen or shortly after startup, and a Recents overview that flickers when a home gesture follows quick app-switching (9to5Google, yesterday).

The Audiophile.fm free lossless radio app, a FLAC radio aggregator that requires no account and runs with no in-app ads, is now available as a native app on iPhone and Android, after launching first as a web player.

Tom's Guide put the iPhone Duo and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 through a 20-minute 3DMark Wild Life Extreme stress test earlier this week, and the result reads backwards at first glance. The phone that ran hotter to the touch also posted the stronger sustained performance. In Tom's Guide's test, the Duo registered approximately 103°F on its rear surface, compared with roughly 96°F for the Galaxy Z Fold 8.

Some Samsung Galaxy phones can now send photos, videos, and files directly to an iPhone using a version of Quick Share built to work with AirDrop, WIRED reports. Figuring out how to use Quick Share from Samsung Galaxy to iPhone starts with one specific setting, because the feature isn't automatic on every Galaxy model the way it is on Pixel phones.

Nothing's official changelog for the Phone (3a) Series, posted three days ago, confirms a new camera feature called Tuning: seven adjustable effects plus a single reset button built into the Camera app. That makes Nothing Phone (3a) camera tuning controls a documented part of the OS 5.0 release rather than something pulled from a leak or forum rumor, according to the changelog.

Peak Design's new Wireless Kickstand Travel Battery is advertised with a 25W charging specification, but that number only shows up under one specific condition: when the power bank is plugged into a wall adapter, not when someone is using it as a portable battery. The $99.95 accessory appeared in Cult of Mac's coverage of a four-product Peak Design lineup launched yesterday, and on its own 5,000mAh cell, it maxes out at 15W wirelessly, according to the same report. The faster figure only kicks...

WhatsApp has started suggesting the newest photo or video from a phone's gallery directly inside open chats, skipping the usual tap-to-attach-and-browse routine, according to GSMArena and Digital Trends today. When someone opens a conversation, WhatsApp can now offer to send whatever was most recently saved to the gallery, per GSMArena. The feature, called Recent Media Suggestions, is rolling out gradually to some Android and iOS accounts and turns on automatically rather than requiring anyone...

Picking between the Pixel 11 Pro XL vs iPhone 18 Pro Max usually comes down to three different kinds of buyers, and a reader poll crowning the Galaxy S26 Ultra the top Android alternative doesn't settle much on its own.

Apple's first foldable iPhone goes on sale this Friday, Oct. 23, after preorders opened Oct. 16. The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999, and Apple says the device has an IP68 dust-and-water rating and a stiffer polymer cover layer to protect the folding display.

Amazon introduced two new Bee AI devices on October 15, 2026: the $74.99 Bee Frontier wearable, available now, and the $99.99 Bee Eclipse magnetic phone attachment, which Amazon says will arrive soon with no confirmed release date.

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.

Sony has officially canceled the Android 17 update for the Xperia 10 VI, abandoning a software commitment it made when the midrange smartphone launched in 2024. The device was originally promised three major Android upgrades, but it will now stop at Android 16 after receiving just two.

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.

A new leak claims the standard Xiaomi 18, not the Pro or Pro Max, could ship with a 200MP main and 200MP telephoto Leica camera system, a 7,200mAh battery, and a 6.4-inch display, according to Trusted Reviews. That would give the base model a notably high-end spec sheet, well ahead of anything Xiaomi has confirmed about the standard phone directly.

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.

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.

Samsung's Galaxy S26 FE and Google's Pixel 11 offer two different routes to a flagship Android experience, with roughly $100 separating their 256GB models in the United States. The Galaxy S26 FE costs $799.99 at its regular retail price, while the Pixel 11 starts at $899. Choosing between them comes down to more than the price difference.

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).

Fenix 8 and Forerunner 970 owners are reporting serious battery drain tied to Garmin's "OK Garmin" wake word, with battery estimates falling from 15 days to nine in some cases and from 12 days to six in others, according to TechRadar, reporting October 19.

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.

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.

A developer has published an open-source tool that lets you pair Apple Watch with Android and skip the iPhone step entirely, at least on one specific device combination.

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.

Huawei launched the Mate XT2 tri-fold phone in China yesterday, calling it the first foldable with a built-in privacy display. In its home market, Huawei is marketing the device under the fuller name Mate XT2 Ultimate Design.

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.

RAM used to be a straightforward performance purchase. More meant smoother multitasking, faster app switching, fewer cold reloads when you returned to a backgrounded app. That calculus has shifted in a specific and practical way: RAM is now a feature-gating purchase. According to Android Authority last month, current flagship AI implementations on both Android and iOS require 12GB as a hard minimum the point below which those tools simply won't run. Meanwhile, the memory inside most mid-range...

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.

Flagship launches often foregrounded the processor: bigger cores, faster benchmarks, a new chip name printed across the marketing slide. In 2026, the component actually straining a flagship's budget isn't the chip doing the thinking. It's the chip doing the remembering.

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.

Apple's iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 for 256GB, and pricing is expected to climb to roughly $3,000 at the top storage tier, according to Gurman's reporting (Apple, this week; MacRumors, this week). Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8 sits close behind at a reported $1,900 (9to5Google, 6 weeks ago). At that price, "it's a foldable" stops being an excuse for missing features on either side, which raises the obvious question: which iPhone Duo features Android foldables should copy, and which Apple claims...

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...

The phrase "military-grade" shows up on phone cases that have almost nothing in common. One brand slaps it on a case without listing a single drop or impact figure. Another, Poetic, claims 20-foot drop protection, five times the 4-foot benchmark described in Android Central's testing (Android Central, last month). If you're trying to figure out what to look for in a protective phone case, the label on the box turns out to be the least useful place to start.

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.