• A leaker claims there will be a Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 this year instead of a Watch 9 Classic
• They shared renders of the Ultra 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9
• They also claimed there will be beige, black, and silver colors for them

This year it looks like we might get a successor to the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra, as a new leak has revealed fresh details along with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9.

Over on X (via 9to5Google), leaker Galaxy Techie has claimed that these are the two new Samsung smartwatches we’ll see this year — and that there won’t be a Classic. That post has also now suspiciously been removed.

That’s at odds with some earlier leaks which suggested we might get a Classic instead of or as well as a new Ultra, so we’d take this with a pinch of salt. But it would make sense, since Samsung usually only launches new Classic models every other year, and we already got one last year with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic.

A successor to the 2024 Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is certainly due — and according to this source, the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 will have a slightly boxier design than its predecessor, along with thinner bezels and an orange outline on the side button, rather than it being all orange.

Three colors and some software changes

The leaker also claims that both the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and the Watch Ultra 2 will have new band designs and colors, listing beige, black with a bluish band, and silver with a green band variants — though it’s unclear whether they mean both models will come in all three of those shades.

Finally, they’ve also shared some renders which — while lacking in detail — do give us a look at the possible design of these wearables, along with the redesigned Samsung Health app and what looks to be a new watchface picker, as you can see above.

In any case, we probably won’t have to wait much longer to get an official look at whatever wearables Samsung is cooking up, as this year’s Galaxy Watches will probably launch in July.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is a balanced flagship phone, but can it compete with Ultra-branded camera phones from China? To find out, I pitted the best Samsung phone against the Oppo Find X9 Ultra, which is widely considered the best camera phone available right now. But while the Oppo flagship was the favorite going into my photo walk, the Samsung surprised me in a few ways.

With the S26 Ultra, the Korean giant doubled down on software and bundled it with larger apertures on two sensors, whereas Oppo went all-in on hardware upgrades and paired them with meaningful software advancements. It also added 10x optical zoom, making the Find X9 Ultra the only Ultra phone with this feature in 2026. Oppo says its 10x telephoto camera is 3x more light-sensitive than the Galaxy S23 Ultra's 10x camera.

The resulting camera system beats the Galaxy S26 Ultra in most scenarios, but Samsung's flagship phone surprised me on multiple occasions. It's certainly a better camera phone than the Galaxy S25 Ultra, despite having seemingly similar hardware.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. Oppo Find X9 Ultra: Specs

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra covers 13-111mm focal lengths. It has a 50MP 13mm f/1.9 ultra-wide camera with a 1/2.5-inch sensor, a 200MP 23mm f/1.4 main camera with a 1/1.3-inch sensor, a 10MP 67mm f/2.4 3x telephoto camera with a 1/3.94-inch sensor, and a 50MP 111mm f/2.9 5x periscope telephoto camera with a 1/2.52-inch sensor. It looks formidable until you see what Oppo has on offer this year.

The Find X9 Ultra covers focal lengths from 14mm to 230mm. It has a 50MP 14mm f/2 ultra-wide camera with a 1/1.95-inch sensor, a 200MP 23mm f/1.5 main camera with a 1/1.2-inch sensor, a 200MP 70mm f/2.2 3x telephoto camera with a 1/1.28-inch sensor, and a 50MP 230mm f/3.5 10x telephoto camera with a 1/2.75-inch sensor.

I took more than 500 photos on each phone and narrowed down this comparison to 25 images. Here's how the two Ultra phone cameras compare:

Main camera

Both Samsung and Oppo shoot pixel-binned images from their 200MP sensor by default. I recommend using a higher resolution mode (like 24MP or 50MP on the Galaxy S26 Ultra and 50MP on the Oppo), but I kept the default settings for this comparison.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra boosts color saturation to add a pop, whereas Oppo's shots look more natural. While I like Samsung's contrast, there's some artificial color sharpening going on, making it look less natural.

On the other hand, the Find X9 Ultra gives you a more pleasing bokeh, thanks to a bigger sensor. Both phones captured good amount of details, as you can see the texture on the leaves.

However, I prefer Oppo's color science and Master Mode, which give me natural tones with minimal phone-like color processing.

In evening shots, the Galaxy S26 Ultra gave my photos a teal hue, whereas the Find X9 Ultra had a pink hue. My skin tone was better captured by the Oppo phone, and it had more details. In comparison, the Samsung shot looks slightly noisy and less appealing overall.

Samsung has been working on improving its night mode photos for a few years now, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra beats its rivals in this scenario on most occasions. I want my low-light photos to look like low-light shots instead of artificially brightened photos. That's why I like Samsung's saturated colors on the entrance board versus Oppo's brightened picture quality at night.

However, if you switch to the Master Mode, things change drastically. The Find X9 Ultra handles night light well and doesn't overexpose the shots to brighten every detail. In my testing, Master Mode consistently delivered better results than Oppo's default processing, and I relied on it for night shots.

Telephoto cameras

This is one of the scenarios where Samsung surprised me. I like its cooler tone versus Oppo's warmer look, which gave my skin a yellow tint. It doesn't look bad, but I'm simply not that pale. Again, this could be fixed by using the Master Mode, but I expected better color science from the default processing. However, Oppo's shot captured rich details as compared to a slightly smoother-looking skin on the Samsung flagship.

In challenging lighting situations like the above, when the setting sun was directly hitting my face, Samsung processed the photo better than Oppo.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra managed to get the golden hour look, while the Find X9 Ultra's shot looks washed out. Both photos were captured with tap and shoot, so the focus was set, and the cameras didn't struggle to find the subject automatically. Again, I wish Samsung captured more details with a more natural-looking bokeh. It looks soft and slightly artificial in comparison to the Oppo's.

Oppo's bigger lens and smarter processing comes in handy when you need rich details in shots like above. Samsung struggled to focus on the thick webbing, while the Find X9 Ultra focused and captured even the single strands. And this extends to the 10x telephoto camera.

Oppo demolishes the Galaxy S26 Ultra in macro shots. This was a tricky subject because the small flower kept moving in the slightest breeze. I struggled to get it in focus with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which it simply couldn't do. That's why I don't have a comparison photo for this shot. The Oppo Find X9 Ultra, by contrast, focused on the same subject with a single tap and even captured those white threads in the picture.

One of the reasons I love having big telephoto cameras, like the one on the Find X9 Ultra, is that they allow me to get so close to small subjects and capture things I'd never be able to focus on with my eyes. Oppo's macro mode is right up there with Vivo's, and Samsung doesn't have a match for it.

Ultra-wide camera

When it comes to my ultra-wide testing, the Oppo Find X9 Ultra was able to get more contrast and highlight the blues of the sky without blowing out the green leaves as the Galaxy S26 Ultra did.

Overall, I prefer Oppo's shot here because it has more details on the tree trunks and didn't overexpose the leaves. However, Samsung's processing focused on better exposing the leaves and didn't have the same halo effect as its rival.

Verdict

The Oppo Find X9 Ultra consistently captured richer details compared to the Galaxy S26 Ultra. However, the Samsung flagship stood its own and even beat the Oppo phone on a couple of occasions. While I prefer having bigger sensors, the Galaxy phone surprised me in the best ways.

That said, Oppo easily wins in most scenarios. It is, hands-down, the current king of smartphone telephoto cameras. TechRadar's Cameras Editor Timothy Coleman also compared the Find X9 Ultra to two dedicated cameras and concluded, "It feels like this flagship Chinese phone renders most travel zoom compacts redundant," which can't be said about the Galaxy S26 Ultra. The Master Mode is an added benefit if you like shooting film-like colors. I simply can't stop shooting with this phone.

I couldn’t get enough of Pokémon Champions at launch. The Nintendo Switch 2 pokémon battler was a game I’d been waiting for since its announcement and it was close to everything I hoped for— but after a couple of weeks I fell off.

Between a mixture of other games releasing, not always having my Switch 2 on me, and several real life commitments taking up my time, my quest to climb up through Mater rank petered out.

Now Champions has hit smartphones — launching on iOS and Android earlier this week — and the game feels more at home here than it ever did on Nintendo’s hardware. The quest to be the very best is back on.

There’s something somewhat surreal playing an official full-on Pokémon battling game on mobile, especially a mobile game that’s so microtransactions light compared to other Android and iOS releases from the franchise — it’s possible to spend real money on more storage space, teams and a Battle Pass for premium rewards, but nothing beyond cosmetics is exclusive to folks who pay up and the free-to-play experience is fantastic especially if you have transferred in critters from Pokémon Go or a mainline entry via Pokémon Home.

Despite this strangeness, Pokémon Champions works so well because any time your phone is connected to the internet (via wi-fi or a cell network) you can boot into a battle. I’ve battled on London’ tube while commuting to work, when kicking back in bed, while sat at a restaurant waiting for friends to arrive, and I might have snuck a game or two from my work desk….

Because this is all on a device you can slip into your pocket it’s super easier to pick up an impromptu game or two when the moment arises — there’s no prior thought or prep required compared to playing on a Switch. Wile the graphics are a little tuned down compared to what you’ll get on Switch 2, my experience so far has been very smooth on mobile.

I started out using my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 with the tablet-like inner display giving me a great view of battles even with menus sharing the screen, however I didn’t feel the experience was especially cramped when I switched to its smaller front display, or the screen of my Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

In fact, there was a strange nostalgia to using the Ultra, with the S Pen stylus making me feel like I was back in 2005 playing Pokémon Diamond on Nintendo DS.

No matter what Android or iOS device you have, the Pokémon Champions experience should feel like a delight and much more fulfilling than other free mobile games out there, but if my words so far aren’t enough to convince you to hop onto the ladder The Pokémon Company is sweetening the deal…

Let’s Go Raichu!

To celebrate the Android and iOS launch all players (who log in by September 1) will receive a free gift: Raichu and both of its Pokémon Legends Z-A DLC Mega Stones to mega evolve it into either Mega Raichu X or Mega Raichu Y.

Having fallen down the ladder in my hiatus I decided to climb back up to Master Rank using Raichu, and as some expected ahead of its debut Raichu Y and its No Guard ability is an absolute beast. A speedy special attacker with 100% accurate Zap Cannon and Focus Blast is a force to be reckoned with, and this pocket monster pairs very well into many of Champion’s biggest threats.

Life Orb Garchomp, or Raichu itself (with its un-mega evolved Lightning Rod ability), are two solid counters if you’re struggling against it on other teams, but I’ve found it’s a lot more fun to ride the Mega Raichu Y wave than try to fight it.

Mega Raichu X is nothing to sniff at, though in Champions’ current doubles meta — which is low on sleep control or future paradox pokémon — its ability to set up electric terrain isn’t super impactful. If/when the future paradoxes and threats like Amoonguss rear their head I see Raichu X finally emerging from hibernation.

That’s the joy of Champions’ approach so far. Slowly rolling out new ‘mons and items to mix things up often enough to keep the game fresh, but not yet so often to feel overwhelming for more casual fans.

If you’re still here I’m not sure what excuse you have. Go download Pokémon Champions, there’s nothing better you could be doing with your phone.

If your phone of choice is a Samsung Galaxy handset, then you'll know that the Android-based One UI software that comes with it is packed with handy settings and features. There's more to explore than there is on many other Android phones, including the Google Pixel series.

In fact there are so many options that Samsung has hidden some of them away. One UI includes a Connectivity labs menu, which includes a variety of useful features, but you have to jump through a number of hoops before you can find it.

Once you do have it enabled, you can check the strength of the Wi-Fi all around your home, troubleshoot problems you might be having with the network, change the way your phone switches between mobile data and Wi-Fi, and more besides.

Here's how to find Connectivity labs, and how to use it.

Enabling Connectivity labs and Wi-Fi scans

To get this menu visible, you need to head to Settings on your Galaxy phone and tap Connections then Wi-Fi. Tap the three dots in the top right corner, and select Intelligent Wi-Fi. You then need to tap the Intelligent Wi-Fi label at the bottom of the next screen seven times (you'll see a countdown appear after a few taps).

Hey presto — you now have a new Connectivity labs menu to make use of. Open this up and you'll see a host of different statistics about your network, and numerous features and options to explore. Right at the top, for example, you can see how long the device has been connected to Wi-Fi today, and what the daily average is.

Go further down the screen and there's a breakdown of the Wi-Fi bands that your Galaxy phone has been connected to, and the standard of Wi-Fi it's been using (so you can check that your new Wi-Fi 7 router is working as advertised). You're also able to see how many Wi-Fi networks are saved to the phone.

One of the most useful features in Connectivity labs for me is the Home Wi-Fi inspection. If you select this then choose Start, your phone will take you on a tour of your home, showing you in real time the Wi-Fi signal strength from your router and giving you warnings about areas with weaker connectivity.

Fortunately, the Wi-Fi in my home is relatively strong, but there are a couple of spots where the signal is weak, and the inspection tool flags them up. It can also be useful to make changes to the Wi-Fi setup (such as moving the router somewhere else) and seeing how that effects the signal coverage.

Other features you'll find in Connectivity labs

There's lots more you can do with Connectivity labs, as you'll see if you keep scrolling down the page. Turn on Auto reconnect to carrier Wi-Fi, for example, and your phone will automatically connect to public Wi-Fi hotspots operated by your carrier. There's also a Wi-Fi 7 toggle switch, to make sure you're always using the latest Wi-Fi standard, on networks where it's available.

If you enable the Switching to mobile data faster toggle switch, your phone then automatically hops to a cellular connection when it detects that the Wi-Fi it's using is spotty and weak. It means you might end up using more data, but you'll have fewer problems with interruptions when the Wi-Fi you're connected to isn't the best.

The Intelligent Wi-Fi Handover and Switching to mobile data with AI features work in a similar way. The former will hand over some tasks to cellular data on a weak Wi-Fi signal without disabling the Wi-Fi completely, while the latter uses your typical usage patterns (in terms of downloads, browsing, and so on) to decide when to switch off Wi-Fi.

You can use the Connect to 2.4GHz for IOT setup to force your phone to use the 2.4GHz band on your router — this is the one a lot of smart home devices attach themselves to, so you might have to do this to configure them — while L4S is a special low-latency connection protocol that can speed up your connection, if your router supports it.

There's also the option to Show network quality info in the list of networks when you're connecting to Wi-Fi, so you can see what the best pick is when you've got multiple options to choose from. These are all genuinely useful features to have access to, and it's not really clear why Samsung thinks they should stay hidden by default.

• Samsung MAX VPN officially retires on June 15, 2026
• The app will remain on devices as a dead shell unless uninstalled
• Former users should transition to a reliable third-party VPN

Samsung MAX VPN is officially shutting down for good, leaving its over 50 million mobile users urgently searching for the best VPN to secure their everyday online activity.

Once a helpful background utility app for masking IP addresses and compressing mobile data on Galaxy devices, Samsung MAX VPN retires as of today (June 15, 2026). This means its privacy and data-saving features will stop working entirely.

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) encrypts your internet connection, effectively scrambling your web traffic so that third parties, like hackers on a public coffee shop network, cannot monitor what you are doing.

Samsung MAX was a convenient, built-in way to achieve better online privacy and security, while also helping users stretch their mobile data allowances.

If you have been relying on Samsung MAX to protect your smartphone, here is everything you need to know about today's shutdown and how to quickly find a suitable replacement.

The end of the road for Samsung MAX VPN

Samsung Max VPN was designed to act as a privacy assistant exclusively for Samsung users. According to a report from SammyFans, the software was "never a famous app on a Galaxy phone, and it rarely made headlines."

Its Google Play page, however, counts more than 50 million downloads. Some of these users have expressed their disappointment with the shutdown.

One reviewer wrote: "I am so bummed. 15 June 2026 is the last date for use, it seems. Wish there were another app available like this. This app was great and then became good; and then, somehow, things were not as good: it saved data, and then it wouldn't for whatever reason. Sad to say goodbye."

Instead of an abrupt cutoff with no explanation, users who opened the app in recent days were greeted with a brief farewell message instead of their usual data-saving dashboard. The in-app notice plainly stated: "This is the final version of the app, and the service will be available until June 15, 2026."

After today, the VPN connection and all background data-saving features will cease to function. The application itself will not automatically delete itself from your smartphone; instead, it will likely just sit on your home screen as a "dead shell" until you decide to manually uninstall it.

Finding an alternative

So far, Samsung has not announced a like-for-like successor to fill the void. This might change, as seen when Google axed its premium One VPN but later ensured that Google fully launches VPN for Pixel users as a built-in system feature.

For now, however, Samsung MAX users are left without a native replacement. So, if you rely on the app to keep your data safe on unsecured public Wi-Fi networks, you need to be proactive. Browsing without protection on public networks can leave your passwords, banking details, and personal communications exposed to bad actors.

The good news is that the Google Play Store is filled with highly rated third-party applications that offer much stronger security protocols and wider server networks. I recommend checking our best Android VPN guide to compare today's top picks.

If you want to maintain top-tier privacy without spending a dime, we recommend checking out our guide to the best free VPN services.

When choosing a new provider, always make sure to read up on their logging policies and server locations to ensure your browsing data remains strictly your own.

“Which smartphone should you buy your child?” This question has been bouncing around in my head for a while now. My eldest child is 10 years old, and he’ll be starting secondary school soon. We tested the Garmin Bounce 2 smartwatch to see if it could be an alternative to buying a smartphone, but found it lacked sufficient LTE coverage in rural areas.

As a result, I’ve spent countless hours researching smartphone options because there’s a lot at stake when you put a phone into the hand of a child. The Australian government has realized this and put in place a social media ban for under-16-year-olds. There is a similar concern in the US; a landmark court ruling found that Meta and YouTube had knowingly designed addictive social media products.

The numbers are bleak. Bertie Aspinall, co-founder of SafetyMode, has revealed that "every day, on average, a child is exposed to two pieces of inappropriate or harmful content.” No parent wants their child to see or experience anything harmful, but at the same time, we’re not sure how they could function in the modern world without a phone.

So, to help you — and me — make an informed choice, I’ve collated several different options and categorized them into 'dumbphones', 'hybrid phones', and 'smartphones'. I’ve also outlined the pros and cons of each, and shared some advice on how to narrow down your search.

Dumbphones

Maybe your first thought is to keep your child as far away from anything 'smart' or internet-based as possible. You've read the articles, experienced the negative impacts of social media yourself, and don't want your child to have access to anything that might expose them to something potentially harmful.

If that's you, buying your child a so-called dumbphone is a great option. Your child might not agree, but I'm not getting into parenting advice here! Dumbphones offer limited functionality and instead focus on essential tools such as calling, texting, and alarms. Most of them lack browsers, and if they are present, they are super basic and therefore discourage doomscrolling.

These types of phones are also fantastic for parents who are not particularly tech-savvy. You don't have to worry about apps, filters, or tracking. If you want to know where your child is, you pick up the phone and call them or drop them a text. Dumbphones are simple to set up and simple to use.

Hybrid phones

If a dumbphone is a little too limiting and you're not ready to go all out on a smartphone, then a locked-down hybrid phone is an ideal middle ground. These devices offer a number of the benefits found in smartphones but with a lot more parental controls that significantly restrict a child's access to apps and features.

I first discovered this type of phone when a fellow parent recommended the Balance Phone. Rather than a traditional app drawer and access to an app store, this device boasts a minimalist interface with text links to parent-approved features, such as calling, the camera, and photos. You can even allow WhatsApp access if that's the only way your child's friends communicate online.

The hybrid phone type has predominantly emerged out of a need to provide a safer mobile experience for our children. As a result, they often, although not always, include an AI feature that "watches" over your child's phone use and restricts harmful content before it's seen. The HMD Fuse, for instance, features HarmBlock+ software that prevents nudity from being shown, shot, and stored on the phone. This is an ideal feature that can help bring protection in the realms of pornography and sexting.

Smartphones

If your child is a little older or you'd like them to have greater freedom, then you could go for a budget smartphone. This type of phone provides access to all types of apps for learning, news, sports, games, and more. Your child will also be able to access their favorite social media apps.

It's worth noting, though, that all-out smartphones are much harder to lock down, and if a child really wants to find a way around your parental controls, they'll probably be able to do so if they're tech-savvy enough. If that's an issue for you, then a hybrid alternative might be your best bet.

The very best phones are overkill for children (no matter how hard your youngster tries to convince you otherwise), but the best cheap phones from the likes of Apple, Google, and Samsung still provide the full smartphone experience.

It's worth noting, too, that Apple recently announced a slew of new child account upgrades coming to iPhones in iOS 27, so any iOS 27-compatible iPhone will become easier to manage as a parent later this year.

How to choose

One of the first places to start is to decide how restricted a phone experience you want for your child. You could call this your ideal position. Begin exploring the options within this category and weigh up the pros and cons. If you find a perfect fit, then you're good to go. If not, give some thought to the other categories, each of which has pros and cons that will helpfully feed into your decision-making.

The use of social media by children is a hot topic, and so it's worth keeping an eye on the latest news as it relates to the law and what smartphone brands are offering in terms of dedicated child-friendly handsets. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, for instance, recently took the stage at London Tech Week to give major tech firms, including Apple and Google, a three-month ultimatum "to prevent children from sending and receiving sexually explicit images."

Hisense introduced RGB mini-LED to the world in 2025, and while I was impressed by the 116UX (the first RGB mini-LED model) in many ways, I anticipated it would be a high-end tech for some time, sitting at a premium price and size that kept it from competing with the best TVs.

I didn’t anticipate how quickly the new tech would come to more mid-range options, and how many brands would take on RGB (check out our guide here). As luck would have it, a budget RGB model has landed in TechRadar’s testing lab: the 65-inch Hisense UR8.

I’ve also been testing the Samsung QN80H, which uses standard mini-LED, and the timing means I can put the new school RGB against the traditional mini-LED tech.

You’re probably wondering why I’m testing these two side-by-side: surely the new tech is significantly pricier? Surprisingly no: in fact, it’s nearly identical. A 65-inch Samsung QN80F costs $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,199 at the time of writing, while a 65-inch Hisense UR8 costs $1,799 / AU$2,395 (it’s yet to appear at UK retailers). So, can the new tech surpass the traditional?

A quick note on the photos below: the UR8 appears to have a red tint. This is the result of its matte screen interacting with my camera. In reality, there is no hint of this red tint.

Also, we obviously had different sizes of the TVs in, and that can make a difference to the backlights involved. It's what Hisense and Samsung sent us, respectively, so bear this in mind during the comparison — but there's plenty worth talking about by putting them side by side anyway.

Colors

One of RGB mini-LED’s primary sales pitches is how vibrant and bold its colors are and from my experiences so far, its color reproduction is impressive. Samsung on the other hand is known for its own dynamic color reproduction, in both its OLEDs and mini-LEDs.

For this test, I put both TVs in their default HDR Cinema modes and starting with Wicked, I was surprised by what I saw. While the UR8 did deliver some natural colors that appeared accurate (more on that at the end), the QN80H’s colors were much more vibrant.

The pink flowers of a tree and the blue decoration on the walls had much more pop on the QN80H. The UR8’s colors had some nice punch, but fell a little short compared to the QN80H.

There were some instances where the QN80H’s color brightness made things look a little artificial and this is again where the UR8 triumphed, showing some nice richness without going too far. But again, that color pop I was anticipating from the UR8’s RGB tech wasn't really there.

Switching to La La Land, the same was true again. At the Spring party, Mia’s yellow dress was much more vibrant on the QN80H, dazzling on screen. The same dress looked natural on the UR8 but didn’t have that wow factor.

Switching the UR8 to Standard, its colors suddenly had more pop, but looked a bit too artificial for my taste, so I reverted back to Cinema.

This is not to say the UR8’s colors looked bad during testing, but they didn’t have that saturation I expected from an RGB TV, even in scenes where they should have it.

Contrast and backlight control

Switching both TVs to their Filmmaker Modes, I put on The Batman, which has always served as a challenge for some TVs, and while the best OLED TVs can generally handle its low brightness comfortably, mini-LEDs sometimes struggle.

The QN80H demonstrated higher perceived contrast, with deeper dark tones and punchier highlights. Flashbulbs from cameras and lamps on walls in Mayor Mitchell’s house balanced well with shaded walls and corners to create dynamic contrast.

The UR8 still showed good contrast between dark and light tones as well as solid shadow detail, but dark areas took on a more washed-out, gray look. This was evident in the scenes in the Batcave and when Batman stands on the subway platform, where shadowed areas on screen looked too bright.

There was however a way to improve this. In the UR8’s picture settings, I dropped its brightness from the default 50 to 49, and it made a huge difference: the brightness control had been one of the more aggressive I’d seen.

After the tweak, the UR8 had much deeper black tones and stronger contrast. In the interest of fairness, I tried to tweak the QN80H’s settings, but its brightness control was much more subtle. Lowering it took away the impact from the highlights so I left it as is.

A note on the above photos: the QN80H's clouding was not this bad in-person, but this does illustrate the UR8's better backlight control (more on the in a second).

The same experiment with a brighter but still contrast-y movie in Dark City had mixed results. Dropping the UR8 down to 49 brightness resulted in deep blacks, but at the expense of detail.

As John speaks to the desk clerk in the opening scenes, the texture in his black hair was difficult to see, but less of an issue on the QN80H. Both TVs showed some black crush, but the UR8’s was slightly more noticeable. The default brightness showed nice contrast and better shadow detail, but again at a sacrifice to the dark tones.

But one thing that was apparent in my dark room testing was the UR8 had better backlight control and better viewing angles. Unless viewed head-on, the QN80H showed a clouding effect on dark backgrounds where the backlight bled through. The UR8 showed no signs of this and demonstrated no signs of clouding or blooming.

This was also evident in black and white content. Watching Sunset Boulevard, the QN80H showed backlight bleed on the edges of the screen. The UR8 did have a subtle brown tone over some blacks, whites and grays, but it was better than the QN80H.

So when it comes to reducing backlight bleed and wider viewing angles, the RGB panel gets us closer to the excellent performance of OLED in these areas — but not necessarily closer when it comes to contrast overall.

Brightness

Measuring the UR8’s peak HDR brightness in a 10% window, it clocked in at 2,087 nits in Filmmaker Mode and 2,394 nits in Standard. The QN80H registered 1,189 nits in Filmmaker and 1,204 nits in Standard.

Fullscreen HDR numbers are similar between the two, with the UR8 clocking in at 771 nits and 767 nits in Filmmaker and Standard respectively, while the QN80H hit 603 nits and 672 nits in Filmmaker and Standard respectively.

How does the brightness look in practice? That’s where things get interesting. Watching brighter, more colorful scenes, I found that the QN80F seemed to have more impactful highlights. In the end of the ‘Wizard & I’ scene from Wicked, as Elphaba stands over a white cliff, the whites definitely seemed brighter on the QN80H.

In some shots from Spears & Munsil demo footage, brightness seemed to trade off from shot to shot. In the opening snow scenes, whites looked vibrant on both TVs. In a later shot of a lit-up ferris wheel, it seemed brighter on the QN80H. A shot of a white lizard in a darkened studio was far brighter on the UR8 than the QN80H.

This was surprising, considering just how much of a leap there was in measured peak brightness between the two. One shot from Dark City, where John is in the Automat, the overhead lights appeared brighter on the UR8, but it wasn’t as substantial as I’d expected.

One area where the UR8 did succeed was reflection handling, but this was down to its anti-glare layer rather than its brightness.

While the QN80H had its own anti-reflection layer, it wasn’t nearly as effective as the UR8’s, which did a great job at limiting reflections without raising black levels.

Couple this with its excellent viewing angles, and you have a great TV for daytime sports — a timely release with the World Cup arriving. (Unless you're in the UK — what an own goal by Hisense there…)

A step forward, but…

Between these two TVs, it’s a tough call on which one I prefer. While the QN80H has bolder colors and crisper textures out-of-the-box, the UR8 has better viewing angles and better backlight control, resulting in more uniform pictures.

It shows that the next-gen RGB Hisense tech can definitely still learn from the traditional Samsung mini-LED. While the UR8 is decent out-of-the-box, it requires some adjustment (namely in its brightness), and its color accuracy isn’t great (registering a surprising 7.9 delta-E score in Filmmaker Mode, when we aim for a score of below 3…).

But the UR8 is a step in the right direction towards bringing OLED's strengths in viewing angles and uniformity to mid-range mini-LED. For that reason, I’d just about recommend the UR8 in this battle, but the QN80H proves there’s still life in the old mini-LED dog yet — it's a very appealing TV.

• Samsung's XR headset will help you meditate while giving blood
• Employees recently tried the demo, and it'll be available at AWE
• Further expansions are already planned

There are plenty of things in life we know we should be doing but don’t for one reason or another — like eating more vegetables, exercising several times a week, giving our time to good causes, or reading a good book. But for one such activity, giving blood, Samsung and healthcare company Abbott have just showcased a way to make it a bit more bearable: immersive meditation.

To mark World Blood Donor Day, Samsung employees in South Korea had the opportunity to give blood while experiencing immersive meditation, and the company plans to expand the program globally, with events scheduled for the US and Malaysia.

One such activation is happening in just a few days. Attendees at Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, California, next week (June 15 to 18) can take part in Samsung and Abbott’s four-day blood drive.

I’m currently taking part in a medical trial, and as part of it every couple of months I have to get a lot of blood taken. While I am now used to it, I always get stressed out in the moments before the needle goes in, and I can’t relax until I know it’s all over — so some kind of immersive XR experience would be a help.

It would certainly beat my current method of trying to distract myself by talking the nurse’s ear off.

Analysis/subhead section

We’ve seen XR used in similar ways before, for example, some flights now offer VR headset meditation to help calm nervous fliers, and schools have used VR to help bring education to life. These examples give some ideas for how XR can make other mundane parts of our lives a bit more fun.

Gamifying exercise to make it more exciting is a trend that's always being chased, but too often it struggles to pull folks away from a more traditional routine. So instead, I’d like to see an XR glasses app that can work with any gym equipment.

Imagine having an XR coach there to talk you through a routine, with advice for each machine and stats about your last visit, like what weights you were lifting and pushing you to go a little harder if you can. Treadmill runs could come with immersive routes to jog through, or perhaps you could have a virtual you/rival joining you at each machine, giving you someone to compete against.

My next proposal: a reading companion. I know a few teachers, and many have said it’s harder than ever to get kids to read. If you do try to set a reading and then quiz the kids on what the book is about, they’ll just use AI to summarize the story for them.

So what if an XR glasses or headset app could leverage eye-tracking to follow along as you read to see that you’ve actually gone through a book properly. Parents and teachers can then know their kid has been reading and deserves some congratulations, and for the kid, the glasses could help with understanding or pronouncing words, perhaps provide some visual cues to what they’re reading, and help them find similar books once they’re finished.

I’m not envisioning anything supremely immersive, just a few bits to help readers of all ages engage with a story.

Or perhaps we could use XR to help make doing chores less of a, well, chore.

MR apps have been made to show us where we have and haven’t vacuumed, so something similar for dusting, cleaning the bathroom, and other tasks would be great at keeping my home spotless in every way.

I also love listening to music while I clean, so perhaps an XR app could turn my home into a rave that only plays while I’m tidying, helping me push through chores.

These are just a few fun possible examples, but they showcase some of the reasons and ways XR could be an awesome technology as it develops. We’ll just have to wait and see what Samsung, Google, Meta, Apple, and the rest have up their sleeves.

Whether you call it football or soccer, the Beautiful Game is the best. As someone whose soul is nourished to an unhinged degree by watching 22 millionaires bashing a synthetic sphere around a field, I’m incredibly excited about the upcoming 2026 World Cup, which kicks off on June 11.

That said, I’m much less enthused by the prospect of huge amounts of people watching the world’s biggest sporting event on the wrong type of TV. Okay, maybe “wrong” sounds absolutely obnoxious to say. I’ll retract that. How about a ‘less than ideal’ type of display?

A huge number of people are buying (or plan to buy) bigger screens for the World Cup, and these days you can get amazingly cheap TVs in giant sizes. These will be LCD TVs with basic backlights (which means a set of LED lights that shines through the pixels, creating the light your eyes will actually pick up), but they're exactly what I want to warn you against.

But a super-cheap LCD is quantifiably the last type of TV I’d want to watch the World Cup on, due to one extremely annoying screen defect you're likely to encounter if you TV is too basic. Let me explain.

The dreaded dirty screen effect

Before I break down exactly what ‘dirty screen’ effect or ‘DSE’ is, I’ll flat out admit I utterly loathe this particular screen quirk that can be particularly obvious on many cheap LCD TVs.

How much do I detest DSE? As a coulrophobe who hates mushrooms and is also deathly afraid of heights, I’d rather go on a date with Pennywise involving a 10-course sampling menu of nothing but portobello-based appetizers atop the CN Tower, before I’d watch a single World Cup match on an LCD display.

What exactly is the dirty screen effect? It’s an issue where inconsistencies in a TV's backlight levels quickly lead to visible onscreen blotches.

These smudgy areas, where particular areas of the panel look darker or lighter than others, are especially easy to spot while watching something with a pretty uniformly colored portion of the screen, and with lot of fast-paced camera pans.

And wouldn’t you know it? Football/soccer has a whole lot of constant back and forth camera swings every time the ball is booted from the center circle to the edge of the opposition’s D.

Dirty screen effect is easiest to identify when watching content where large parts of the screen are made up of a single uniform color. Whether that’s pans across blue skies or across a green field, whenever a camera is swinging from side to side against large patches, DSE will rear its ugly head on lower-quality sets.

What causes the dirty screen effect?

Rather than being caused by a single factor, there are multiple issues that can lead to the dirty screen effect occurring. Though I’ve finally stopped worrying about OLED burn-in thanks to Light-Emitting Diode displays combating the issue through features like pixel cleaning cycles, DSE on huge cheap LCD panels remains as bad as it was on smaller cheap LCD panels a decade ago, because the fundamental problem hasn't changed.

The production process that goes into making LCD TVs is largely to blame for the soccer-ruining dirty screen effect. LCDs use multiple layers and diffuser sheets, which often leads to backlight uniformity issues when panels are being assembled.

If a cheaply-made panel is combined with not having enough LEDs behind the screen to illuminate it all uniformly (you can even end up with parts of the panel's interior casting shadows), you'll end up with some areas being more strongly illuminated than others.

In order to make TVs today so much bigger than they were, but affordable at the price most people want to pay, corners have to be cut — and the quality of panel assembly and backlighting can end up as a casualty.

And yet, giant screens are where you're most likely to notice these issues, because there's so much more space for you to notice the imperfections.

Despite, some folks will be completely oblivious to DSE. I get that. But as someone who is cursed with obsessive eyes that still hates myself for enabling motion smoothing on a TV when switching on sports (but you should do it — as I explained in that article), my peepers are constantly drawn to the lighting defect while watching soccer in a bar.

And trust me, as someone who watched over 60 Arsenal games last season (hoo-boy does that Champions League Final defeat in Budapest still sting), I know a thing or two (times 30) about watching football on subpar screens out in public.

What can you do about it?

Personally, I'd buy an OLED TV. I’ve watched nearly all of my football at home on OLED panels since 2015. If you have the budget for it, and watch to enjoy the World Cup with the best image quality and least distracting visual issues, check out the best OLED TVs. If you go OLED, your eyes will never be bothered by LCD’s biggest deficiency when watching footy/soccer. The LG G5 is a bargain while stocks last, as is the cheaper LG C5. The Samsung S95F, with its anti-reflective screen, is particular good for daytime sports viewing.

However, big-screen OLED TVs are expensive. They're also nowhere near as bright for fullscreen viewing as decent mini-LED TVs, meaning they're more prone to distracting reflections if you're watching during the day (though the Samsung S95F and LG G6 are better for this — but they're still pricey).

So here's some very basic advice: get a mini-LED TV instead of a regular LED TV and you're less likely to have a noticeable dirty-screen problem. All mini-LED TVs use a grid of LEDs across the whole back of the screen with support for local dimming — and more premium sets use much smaller LED and fit in many more of then, which helps with the uniformity of lighting. And they'll pack in more LEDs are larger sizes, to avoid any problems from going big.

If a mini-LED doesn't fit in your budget at the size you're thinking, you should drop down a size, rather than getting a poorer-quality but larger screen. You don't want to spend a whole tournament getting distracted by a strange shadowy effect on the screen.

The cheapest TV TechRadar's reviewers recommend to avoid a major dirty screen effect is the TCL QM6K in the US, or the TCL C6K in the UK. The uniformity on this set still isn't always perfect, but it's as good as you get for the price.

If you step up to the TCL QM7K (US) / TCL C7K (UK) or the Hisense U7N, you're at the point where you're unlikely to notice it.

Going further to the premium Samsung QN90F (which we rate as the best TV for sport), the TCL QM8K (US) / TCL C8K (UK) or the Hisense U8N means you won't need to worry about DSE.

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We are less than one week away from the start of the World Cup, with the first game kicking off on June 11, and if you're still deciding on a new TV, I'm here to help.

As TechRadar's TV tester, I've reviewed tons of the best TVs over the past few years and I always include sports viewing in my testing routine and I pretty much always use Soccer as my sport of choice.

For a TV to be good for sports, some of which feature in our 5 essential features to look for in a World Cup TV, it needs to have excellent motion handling, high brightness and ideally good reflection handling. Good color reproduction and screen uniformity (the ability to display a large area of the same color effectively) is key too.

Below, I've picked three TVs that I think fit the bill, all of which I've personally tested.

Samsung QN90F

Reasons to buy

• Superb motion handling
• Anti-reflection matte screen
• Excellent price for a flagship TV

The Samsung QN90F was the brand's 2025 flagship 4K Neo QLED model and earned the full five stars in our review. It was our pick as the best TV for sports last year on several of our best-of lists: here's why.

The QN90F has excellent motion handling, perfect for accurately delivering all the fast-paced action of the World Cup. Whether it's a trailing ball or a winger charging down the field, the will look smooth on the QN90F.

Equipped with the Glare Free anti-reflection matte screen first introduced in the Samsung S95D OLED, the QN90F is perfect for viewing in bright rooms. It expertly handles mirror-like reflections that can plague other TVs. This will be perfect for the earlier, daytime games of the World Cup.

The QN90F also has solid fullscreen HDR brightness (661 nits in Standard mode) and effective local dimming, meaning it has very good screen uniformity which is necessary to display the green field. Both of these will make the picture even better.

Right now, a 65-inch QN90F costs $1,399 / £1,399 (stock seems low in Australia) which is a great price for this TV. But, stock looks like it's running very low across big retailers (it's gone from Amazon US).

TCL QM7K/C7K

Reasons to buy

• Very affordable for what it offers
• Bright, vibrant picture quality
• Solid motion handling

TCL delivered a strong lineup of mini-LED TVs last year, but the best in terms of value was the TCL QM7K, knows as the TCL C7K/Q7C (depending on retailer) in the UK.

The QM7K/C7K first and foremost delivers excellent brightness levels for an affordable mini-LED TV. Clocking in at over 600+ nits fullscreen brightness in both HDR and SDR, it's a seriously bright TV for the money which is important for daytime sports viewing and accurately rendering the field during World Cup games. We noted in our QM7K review that it did have a reflective screen, but if you can control this, the QM7K/C7K is worth the investment.

With the right settings, the QM7K/C7K also solid motion handling. When I tested the C7K, setting judder reduction to between 3 and 5 produced a smooth image that didn't look artificial as I watched footage of soccer games on it.

The QM7K/C7K also has new Halo Control technology for more effective local dimming and blooming reduction and it works. Expect uniform picture when watching the World Cup.

The QM7K/C7K's real highlight is the price. A 65-inch will cost $799 / £799 / AU$1,399, which is a superb price for this TV. Stock seems stable in most places, but these will fly out the door: especially when Prime Day hits June 23-26. You can even pick up a 98-inch version of the QM7K for $2,199 right now!

LG C5

Reasons to buy

• Razor-sharp performance
• Rich picture quality
• At a great price right now

So, while we do generally recommend mini-LED over OLED for sports, I'd be remiss not to include the LG C5: one of the best OLED TVs I tested last year. It doesn't have the brightness of a mini-LED so it isn't as good for daytime viewing, but here's why you should consider it.

The C5's motion handling is brilliant. By simply switching to the Natural present in the TruMotion settings, I found the C5 was excellent for sports viewing, expertly handling the sharp twists and turns of the camera during an intense soccer match. The image looked natural and smooth throughout, regardless of what happened on screen. If you're a purist who hates motion smoothing, it doesn't do a bad job then either.

Putting the C5 in Standard mode, it delivers bold, rich colors that are sure to make player's uniforms stand out on screen. It also delivers crisp textures and detail that OLED are renowned for that will make World Cup games look very good. The C5 is also excellent at upscaling, which will be great for any games shown in HD/SDR.

The C5 does have a reflective screen so if you've got a seriously bright room with no means of controlling it, then one of the mini-LEDs above will be better. But while the C5 in a 65-inch is available for $1,399 / £1,399 / AU$2,599, it's hard not to recommend it. Stock looks good now, but with Prime Day happening soon and the excellent LG C6 now on the scene, the C5 may not have long left.

2026 could be a big year for foldable phones, as Apple is rumored to finally be launching a foldable of its own, reportedly called the iPhone Ultra.

This could push foldable phones into the mainstream, and Samsung — as well as welcoming the competition from its biggest rival — looks set to cash in, as it’s reportedly launching a foldable phone in a new wider form factor, so that it can better compete with Apple’s device, which itself is expected to be quite wide.

This new phone was once referred to as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide but is now rumored to be launching simply as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, with the more familiar, narrower model said to be landing as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

Obviously, we don’t know for sure how the iPhone Ultra and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 will compare just yet — nor even whether they'll officially launch — but thanks to leaks, rumors, and previous foldables, we’re starting to get a good idea of what to expect.

iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumors: price and availability

We haven’t yet heard much about what the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 might cost, but there’s a good chance it will either be in line with or slightly cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, since it will reportedly have one fewer camera and sit beneath the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. That would mean a starting price of $1,999.99 / £1,799 / AU$2,899 or less.

As for the iPhone Ultra, leaks suggest that it might start at over $2,000 (around £1,485 / AU$2,785), which could mean it’s at least slightly more expensive than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8.

As for availability, it’s likely that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 will launch in July, alongside Samsung’s other 2026 foldables. If it really launches with that name, it will probably be available globally, though there's a chance Samsung could limit the Galaxy Z Fold 8 to a few regions to test the waters, just as it did with the Galaxy Z Tri-Fold.

The iPhone Ultra will probably launch in September alongside the iPhone 18 Pro series, though there has been some talk of a possible delay until 2027. Whenever it does land, it’s likely to be sold globally.

iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumors: design and display

The iPhone Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 might have quite similar designs, with both being rumored to have wider, shorter screens than typical book-style foldables like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

This form factor could give you a more widescreen experience when they’re unfolded, but would leave you with a slightly squat device when folded shut.

Going by dummy units, the iPhone Ultra might be 117.71 x 84.27mm when folded, and come in at 11.02mm at its thinnest point and 16.57mm at the camera bump. It could be just 5.24mm when unfolded, though some other leaks put it at a slightly slimmer 4.5mm when unfolded and between 9 and 9.5mm when folded. We’ve also heard repeatedly that there will be no visible crease on the iPhone Ultra.

Various leaks also suggest that it will have a roughly 5.5-inch cover screen and an approximately 7.8-inch foldable display.

As for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, that phone might have a roughly 7.6-inch main screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio, and weigh around 200g according to TechManiacs. That same screen size, along with a 5.4-inch cover display, has been put forward by Android Headlines, which adds that the phone will be 123.9 x 161.4 x 4.9mm when unfolded and 123.9 x 82.2 x 9.8mm when folded.

So, Samsung’s phone might be marginally smaller — at least in terms of screen sizes — and thinner than Apple’s, though there’s a high chance it will also have a more visible crease.

iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumors: cameras

It’s expected that the iPhone Ultra will have two cameras on the back: specifically, a wide and an ultra-wide, both of which will be 48MP, according to leaker Digital Chat Station. The iPhone Ultra is also expected to have cameras in both its screens, and while no specs have been leaked yet, they might be 18MP like the selfie cameras on the iPhone 17 line.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 likewise looks set to have a dual-lens camera, and as with the iPhone, you’ll probably get wide and ultra-wide lenses. Leaks also point to similar numbers of megapixels, with both sensors apparently being 50MP. The phone is also almost certainly going to have a camera in each screen, with these rumored to be 10MP.

So, on paper, there might not be much to choose between these phones when it comes to the cameras, but it will be interesting to see how they compare in practice.

iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumors: performance and software

The iPhone Ultra will almost certainly have the same chipset as the iPhone 18 Pro Max if it launches this year, which likely means a top-end A20 Pro chipset. Leaker Fixed Focus Digital suggests the phone could also have a vapor chamber, which would further boost performance.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, meanwhile, is likely to have a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, which is also very powerful — this is what you’ll find in the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, for example.

So, both of these should be very powerful phones, though the iPhone Ultra, with its slightly newer chipset and rumored vapor chamber, could have the edge in terms of performance.

As for software, the iPhone Ultra will likely run on iOS — specifically the yet-to-launch iOS 27, if it lands in September — though there's a small chance that Apple could debut some foldable-specific software for its first foldable device.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, on the other hand, will run Android — most likely Android 17, overlaid with Samsung’s One UI. These are both highly capable operating systems, so it really comes down to personal preference as to which is best.

iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumors: battery

The iPhone Ultra could have a surprisingly high-capacity battery for a foldable phone, with one leak putting it at 5,800mAh. A slightly earlier leak from Lanzuk puts it at between 5,400mAh and 5,800mAh, but even at that lower end, it would still have a lot of foldables beat.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is rumored to have a 4,800mAh battery — so not as good as the iPhone, though still better than the 4,400mAh-equipped Galaxy Z Fold 7.

iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumors: early verdict

Based on what we’ve heard so far, the iPhone Ultra could have a more powerful chipset and a bigger battery than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, as well as a less visible crease.

But it could also be thicker and have a higher price, and there may not be much to choose between the two phones' cameras and screens.

So, it’s sounding like the iPhone Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 might be quite evenly matched overall. We'll likely find out for sure before the end of the year, as we're expecting Samsung to debut the Galaxy Z Fold 8 in July, and Apple to debut the iPhone Ultra in September.

Which foldable phone are you most excited for? Let us know in the poll or comments section below.

The 2026 World Cup is imminent, with the first game kicking off on June 11 (next week!) and while it can be difficult to choose what your next TV upgrade should be, we here at TechRadar lean towards mini-LED as the TV tech you should be choosing.

Not only can you get mammoth-sized 100-inch+ screens for reasonable prices, but their big fullscreen brightness helps to display sports in brighter rooms (perfect for daytime World Cup games) without suffering from mirror-like reflections as badly as OLED. Don’t get me wrong, the best OLED TVs can still be fantastic for sports viewing: it’s just mini-LED covers a lot of the bases better.

While we often talk about Hisense and TCL’s mini-LED TVs, thanks to their price vs performance balance, I can’t overlook Samsung, one of the most premium purveyors of mini-LED TV tech on the market. In fact, the Samsung QN90F, last year’s flagship 4K Neo QLED (mini-LED), is still our pick as the best TV for sports because of its superb motion handling, matte screen for reflections and solid brightness.

But what about some new, more affordable mini-LED options from the brand? Fortunately, the Samsung QN80H and Samsung M80H have arrived at our testing rooms. Interestingly, the QN80H is a Neo QLED, which uses mini-LED in its panel, and the M80H is labelled as just ‘mini-LED’. So, how do the two compare, and are they a good choice for the World Cup?

The right TVs for the World Cup?

I decided to start my testing with some soccer, to see how these affordable Samsungs could handle the fast-paced action. BBC iPlayer is running a ‘classic World Cup’ channel at the moment with tons of match highlights from previous World Cups so I used that as my test.

I set both TVs to Standard mode, as I find it to be the best mode for sports viewing, and set motion settings to Blur reduction 0 and judder reduction to 3, as I’ve found these to be effective with Samsung’s TVs in the past.

Throughout the various highlights I watched, which included Italy vs France in the infamous 2006 final, both TVs demonstrated solid motion handling, though the M80H was prone to some judder no matter what settings. As players frantically cleared the ball down the field and the camera followed, both TVs only showed minimal judder with no obvious artifacts. Judder reduction could be turned up to 5 before any artifacts, such as the ghosting of the ball, appeared.

As for actual picture quality, the QN80H was the most impactful. It was much brighter with bolder colors which meant the player's uniforms really popped on screen. The green of the field was also more eye-catching on the QN80H, again due to its higher perceived brightness. The M80H’s picture did have a natural look to it though, with the green of the field looking more true-to-life. The same was true with the player's skin tones. Still, the QN80H had the more visually engaging picture.

New for Samsung in 2026 is the AI Football Mode, and while I don’t typically use AI picture enhancements, I gave it a shot. Not only did brighten the picture for both TVs, it also sharpened textures and made colors that bit more vibrant. It was bordering on artificial at times, but it was impressive nonetheless. The most impressive part was what it did for the commentary. The AI Football Mode brought the speech of the commentator to the forefront of the TV, making it crystal clear and it did so without affecting the quality, as I’ve found can happen with some AI Voice modes on various TVs I’ve tested.

Throughout my testing though, one thing became very obvious: the M80H was prone to reflections, even during bright scenes. In fact, for a mini-LED, it looked very dim, especially next to the QN80H.

Bright scenes and bright room viewing

Measuring both TVs brightness, focusing on SDR and HDR fullscreen brightness as these will be relevant for the World Cup, the QN80H clocked in at 634 nits HDR and 325 nits SDR fullscreen brightness (in Standard Mode). The M80H on the other hand clocked in at 179 nits SDR and 269 nits HDR fullscreen brightness, also in Standard Mode.

Elsewhere, the M80H clocked 252 nits HDR peak brightness in Movie mode and 259 nits peak HDR brightness in Filmmaker Mode, which across the board are disappointing results. The QN80H on the other hand clocked in 1,152 nits and 1,149 nits peak HDR brightness in Movie and Filmmaker Mode respectively: more in-line with what I expect.

These brightness measurements go some way to explain why the M80H struggled with reflections in our brightly lit testing rooms. Testing out some brighter scenes with these TVs, the brightness gap really showed. Scenes of snow from the Spears & Munsil HDR footage looked more vibrant and impactful on the QN80H, with whites looking much brighter compared to the M80H.

In another scene, as a lightly-colored tree is hit by the sun, the M80H showed signs of clipping (where detail is lost in brighter scenes). Any cracks or marks in the tree’s bark were impossible to see, whereas the QN80H did a much better job maintaining these details. This was using the 1,000 nits HDR10 footage from Spears & Munsil, my go-to footage for all TVs. While the M80H delivered some bright highlights well, such as a sunset, the QN80H was obviously better.

Movie viewing

I next tested both TVs using reference 4K Blu-rays I use for testing TVs. My first port of call was to effectively ‘torture test’ them with The Batman, a dark movie with low brightness that I’ve found can be a real banana skin for some TVs, particularly cheaper mini-LED and QLED.

One thing I found was that each TV benefitted from different picture modes to the other. The M80H needed to be in Movie mode (Filmmaker mode was too dim) and the QN80H needed to be in its Filmmaker Mode (its movie mode was too bright for some dark scenes). With these settings in place, both TVs demonstrated solid contrast, but the QN80H’s brighter highlights meant high contrast scenes looked more dynamic.

I did find that the M80H had a more natural contrast though, with its lower brightness suiting the dim nature of The Batman. It did however show signs of black crush, where details in Batman’s suit were lost when he was in shadow.

The M80H did struggle in dark conditions as it doesn’t have a local dimming setting, whereas the QN80H does. This meant that during dark scenes, such as Batman in the subway, a clouding effect was present, with the backlight showing in dark areas, indicating poor screen uniformity. The QN80H’s black levels were much more accurate.

I next moved onto colorful scenes and the QN80H demonstrated more vibrant colors. In The Sound of Music, where Maria and the children are at a market stall, the fruits and vegetables on display were bolder and brighter on the QN80H. They did look accurate on the M80H and had a nice color depth to them, but lacked that visual punch I’d expect from this scene. It’s the same story with The Wild Robot too: more dynamic colors on the QN80H, but a nice authenticity on the M80H. Ultimately though, the animation deserved the much bolder QN80H.

Strangely, for colorful scenes, the picture modes were switched on the two TVs. The M80H suddenly looked much brighter in Filmmaker Mode, whereas the QN80H suited the more vibrant Movie mode. The other modes didn’t look bad, but the vibrant colors all needed more vibrancy.

An opportune time

In terms of which TV I’d recommend, it’s the QN80H. The M80H does produce some natural images, but it’s just not as good for movies as the QN80H and it doesn’t have the QN80H’s motion handling or brightness. But, there’s a third option to consider: the QN90F I mentioned in the intro.

As the QN90F is a year old, its prices have dropped significantly. In fact, it’s cheaper than the QN80H. A 55-inch QN80H costs $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$1,795, while a 55-inch QN90F sits at $1,299 / £999 in the US and UK (sadly it’s out of stock in Australia). And with Prime Day starting partway through the World Cup (it runs from June 23-26), there's no better time to pick one up.

The M80H is a tempting option at $699 / £799 / AU$1,199, but this is a situation where it’s worth investing the extra. If you have the option, the QN90F is the obvious choice, but if you don’t, the QN80H is easily the better option.

You could also consider TCL and Hisense’s TVs I mentioned above, as 2025 models like the TCL QM7K/C7K are still around for cheap prices. If you want a Samsung mini-LED though, go with the choices I listed above.

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• Samsung Galaxy Watch users are getting a completely redesigned health app with new features
• These new features include Vitals, Cardio Load and a dedicated Heart Health score
• The app is now AI-first, designed to turn Galaxy Watches into 'AI-powered health companions'

Samsung Galaxy Watch and Samsung Galaxy Ring users are going to see some big changes in the Samsung Health app. Referred to as 'a new experience' by Samsung press material, the redesigned health app includes new metrics and AI-powered summaries to break it all down for you.

Samsung says the new app 'uses AI to translate overnight and daily biometric data into personalized health guidance, helping users better understand everything from recovery and heart health to training load and overall wellbeing'.

This sounds familiar. Fitbit has recently undergone a complete AI-first redesign, too, including a name change to Google Health. It's not all been sunshine and roses, as many Fitbit users intensely dislike the forced pivot to AI, with what was Fitbit Premium now entirely revolving around its new AI Google Health Coach tool.

Samsung Health already uses AI in the background, such as using machine learning to calculate stats like your Energy Score, but this redesigned app is also shifting generative AI to the forefront. The timing of this move is likely to draw serious ire from Samsung users.

Don't panic, Samsung users

Fortunately, it's not as bad as all that, despite Samsung's similar AI-forward messaging and app redesign, so Galaxy Watch users can lower their pitchforks (for now). For one thing, Samsung hasn't introduced a paywall to Samsung Health; otherwise, there would be riots in the streets.

Second, on closer inspection, the redesign is also slightly less drastic than Google's: rather than being entirely oriented around an AI chatbot, as Google Health has chosen to do, Samsung has instead decided to use GenAI to summarize and explain your metrics, adding new ones so the user can drill down into different aspects of their health in more detail.

Existing tools such as Samsung's Sleep Score, Energy Score, and Antioxidant Index remain, and Samsung hasn't announced that it's removing any features — again, unlike Fitbit and Google, which removed features like Badges and Challenges.

I've listed all the new features below. Each of these features will get contextual AI summaries, explaining what the numbers mean and, where necessary, how to improve them.

• Vitals: Similar to Apple Health's feature, Vitals will analyze 'five key overnight bio-signals — heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, skin temperature, and blood oxygen — against their true resting baseline'. Essentially, Samsung will notify you if one or more of these metrics are abnormal, indicating you might be getting sick.
• Heart Health Score: Combining Samsung's Vascular Load metric with the Body Composition features on its watches, which can measure muscle and fat in the same way as the best smart scales. If you've got low Vascular Load and an in-range body fat percentage, your Heart Health Score is likely to be good.
• Daily Cardio Load: Accumulated strain based on recent cardiovascular exercise, like runs and cycle rides. Will contribute to your Energy Score.
• Fitness Index: A radar chart of five different metrics (Strength, Flexibility, Endurance, Cardio, Body Composition). The strangest so far: how Samsung intends to accurately measure flexibility with a Galaxy Watch remains a mystery to me. I've reached out to Samsung to clarify this.

The timing of this upgrade is certainly interesting: reports recently surfaced of a Samsung Galaxy Fit 4 that, when paired with this AI-powered Samsung Health upgrade, would make for a real Google Fitbit Air contender.

2026 will be the year foldable phones sink or swim. Samsung has been chipping away at the category for several years now — its latest book-style foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold 7, is the best foldable phone money can buy — but these niche, expensive devices still represent less than 3% of the global smartphone market.

Could that be about to change? Apple is strongly rumored to be launching its first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Ultra, in September, and I’ve been itching to ask Samsung for its thoughts on whether Apple’s entry into the foldable market will boost or threaten its own success.

Given that the iPhone Ultra doesn’t exist yet, and that Samsung rarely acknowledges its competitors by name, I’ve been waiting to broach the subject with the Korean tech giant — but in my preparation for this year’s Galaxy Unpacked event, I stumbled across a revealing 2025 interview in which Samsung addresses the potential implications of a foldable iPhone head-on.

Here’s how the President and COO of the company’s Mobile eXperience (MX) division, Won-joon Choi, responded to questions posed by Bloomberg’s Shery Ahn about growing competition in the foldable market:

Shery Ahn: How does Samsung think about competition? Because you have so many Chinese makers coming out with foldables with good cameras.

Won-joon Choi: You know, rather than focusing on the competition, I think we have been focusing on our consumers. What is the experience that we can bring to consumers, and how complete are those experiences? I think healthy competition with other companies will bring more innovations, and then bring more benefits to consumers. So we are welcoming others to join this category, which we created back in 2019.

SA: Even if Apple comes out with a foldable next year, which is what people are saying, how do you keep that edge?

WC: We've been doing this for many years, and we have accumulated a lot of technologies and know-how. Having another global company join this category, I think it's good for the industry, and also, it's going to be great for consumers.

Now, for obvious reasons, Samsung isn’t going to publicly admit that it’s fearful of Apple’s entry into a market that it’s dominated for years, but I do think Choi was being more honest than diplomatic in his response.

The emergence of improbably thin and lightweight foldables like the Honor Magic V3 and Oppo Find N5 forced Samsung to step up its game with the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and I expect that the market-leading IP68 durability rating of the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold won’t be market-leading any longer once the Galaxy Z Fold 8 arrives later this year.

Choi’s assertion that “competition with other companies will bring more benefits to consumers” has already proven itself to be true, then; and if Apple delivers something unique with the iPhone Ultra — whether that’s a hardware- or software-related innovation — you can bet that the likes of Samsung, Honor, and Oppo will endeavor to replicate that innovation in their own future products.

As for whether “having another global company join this category” is “good for the industry,” Choi will likely be proven right about that, too.

Counterpoint Research predicts that global foldable smartphone shipments will grow 20% in 2026 following Apple’s entry into the category, and I suspect that this rise will be driven by existing iPhone users upgrading to a foldable iPhone, rather than existing Galaxy Z Fold users switching to a foldable iPhone. The market will expand, but I don't think Apple will eat Samsung's lunch (existing foldable-averse Android users aren't going to be convinced by an iOS-powered foldable, that's for sure).

Of course, Samsung won’t want consumers to forget that it stuck by and popularized foldable phones when other companies wouldn’t — just as it pioneered the large-screen phones we’ve all become accustomed to using today.

But Choi’s addendum — “we are welcoming others to join this category, which we created back in 2019” — suggests Samsung won't simply share the foldable stage with Apple without reminding buyers of its heritage in this long-existing market.

• A code leak points to three new Galaxy Watch models
• They might all get the Pixel's 'raise to talk' feature
• Users still have concerns about the battery life of the devices

We're expecting successors to the Galaxy Watch 8 and the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic from Samsung within the next couple of months, and a fresh leak gives us a better idea of the models to expect — plus one of the features they might bring with them.

The team at Android Authority has found three smartwatch codenames buried in the latest Google Wear OS app for Android: Fresh 9 (most likely the Galaxy Watch 9, based on past codenames), Wise 9 (the Galaxy Watch 9 Classic), and Project V2 (possibly the long-awaited Galaxy Watch Ultra 2).

Samsung's smartwatch launches aren't quite as easy to predict as they are for its smartphones, and we don't always get a Classic or an Ultra addition. We have previously seen a Pro model, too: the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, from 2022.

This goes some way to settling the question of what we're about to see, though it'll be interesting to find out what the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 brings with it. The original Ultra made its debut back in 2024.

Raise to talk

The same digging into the Wear OS app code has revealed something else: these upcoming Galaxy Watch models may well feature the 'raise to talk' feature that's available on Google's smartwatches, including the Google Pixel Watch 4.

Changes in the code, including a "3p" tag that could mean third-party, suggest the feature won't be a Pixel exclusive for much longer. It enables the user to lift their smartwatch up towards their head, and Gemini will instantly launch — ready to receive voice commands.

As for the online reaction to Samsung's upcoming smartwatch refresh, there's approval of the current circular face design, but questions over battery life. Of the three rumored models, one Redditor says "none of them solve the reason I moved to Garmin" — the reason being weeks rather than days of battery life.

Another commenter suggests "we don't need annual releases of Samsung watches", saying "they evolve very little year-to-year". With the approval of Reddit or not, it looks like these wearables are on the way — and we'll bring you all the details when they arrive.

We’ve finally reached that point in the year where all of the biggest tech brands have released their flagship phones for the 2025/26 season, so what better time to take stock of the landscape and highlight our favorite models from the past few months?

I’ve covered this very subject in a dedicated YouTube video, which you’ll find below, but if you’d rather read my words rather than listen to them (I’ve heard that before), scroll down for my roundup of the best phones you can buy right now.

A quick disclaimer: I’ve only included phones available for purchase in at least one of TechRadar’s core reader regions — namely the US, UK, and Australia — so China-only models like the Vivo X300 Ultra and Honor Magic 8 Pro Air are excluded, despite being great products in their own right.

iPhone 17 Pro

Let’s kick off with a phone you’ve all seen and heard about already: the iPhone 17 Pro.

I tested the regular Pro model, but everything I’m about to say also applies to the larger iPhone 17 Pro Max (though with that phone, you do get a larger screen, a slightly bigger battery, and up to 2TB of internal storage, which is, quite frankly, ridiculous).

On the design front, the iPhone 17 Pro boasts a stunning Super XDR OLED display, an aluminum chassis, a dedicated Camera Control button, and all of the usual bells and whistles that we’ve come to expect from Apple's best iPhones.

This is the only non-Android phone on my list, and the only device to use a chipset that isn’t made by Google or Qualcomm. But Apple’s A19 Pro chipset is just as powerful as the competition's (in some cases, it’s more powerful), and in this price range, it’s hard to separate phones by performance alone.

Apple has paired that chipset with 12GB of RAM and a dedicated vapor cooling chamber, meaning the iPhone 17 Pro can handle 4K video editing and triple-A games with ease.

One area where we *can* separate the iPhone 17 Pro from the Android crowd is software – for good and bad reasons.

iOS 26 is probably the easiest OS package to master, and even if you don’t like the look of Liquid Glass, it features some genuinely life-improving tools like Call Screening and Adaptive Power Mode.

Apple’s AI features, though, leave a lot to be desired, especially when it comes to things like image editing and voice assistance. At the time of writing, we’re still waiting for Siri 2.0, so if you’re looking for a true AI companion, you’re better off choosing a model from Samsung or Google (we are, however, expecting to hear more about Apple’s future AI plans at WWDC 2026 on June 8).

The iPhone 17 Pro’s cameras, meanwhile, are among the best of any phone we’ve tested. Our favorite of its three lenses is the 4x telephoto, which also offers access to an impressive 8x zoom by way of a sensor crop. At those shorter zoom lengths, the iPhone 17 Pro is ridiculously good, and it’s also among the best phones for portrait photography, high-res video recording, and selfies.

What’s more, the iPhone is the only phone on this list to have a front-facing camera that uses subject tracking to automatically keep you in the frame *and* that lets you switch between portrait and landscape modes. It sounds like a fad, but Apple’s Center Stage camera is the real deal.

There’s also a nice Dual Capture mode on the iPhone 17 Pro, which lets you record from the front and rear cameras at the same time, so this is definitely the best phone for content creators (its ProRes and ProRes RAW support is a boon for videographers, too).

All told, then, this is the most technologically advanced iPhone Apple has ever made, and if you’re already embedded in the Apple ecosystem, it’s the obvious flagship choice.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

Of all the phones on my list, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra offers the most unique features, with special tools for photographers, artists — and even those who just like to scroll through TikTok.

Yes, the Ultra uses the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, and yes, it’s got more than all-day battery life, so in terms of performance and endurance, it’s right up there with the best phones around. But where else can you get a built-in stylus for note-taking and precise video editing? Or a Privacy Display that stops prying eyes from viewing content on your screen?

There’s Super Steady Horizontal Lock for stabilizing videos even when you turn the phone a full 360 degrees, and DeX for transforming your mobile interface into a desktop PC.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra offers something special for every type of user, and although Samsung’s OneUI software can be convoluted at times, this is a phone that rewards exploration and those willing to dig through its many customization options.

And, of course, being a flagship Samsung phone, the Ultra’s cameras are some of the best around (which, to be honest, is true of every phone on this list, so apologies in advance for the continued repetition).

The S26 Ultra is as versatile as camera phones get, but it’s especially good at night photography and zoom photography.

The 200MP main camera picks up so much color and detail that pictures are never grainy, even in low light, and you’ve got two telephoto cameras to pick from here, which can’t be said for a lot of phones on this list.

Samsung’s AI features like Audio Eraser and Object Eraser are also industry-leading, so there’s plenty of scope for tidying up your photos and videos once you’ve shot them.

What you don’t get with the Ultra is any form of magnetic charging, but if you’re not easily overwhelmed by having hundreds of settings and features at your disposal, then Samsung’s latest flagship is an absolute beast of a phone.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

Of all the phones on this list, the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL is the one that will likely get replaced soonest, but there’s still a good few months to go until the Pixel 11 line is unveiled (we’re anticipating an August launch). That means, if you’re into Pixels or you want to try out Google’s hardware for the first time, the Pixel 10 Pro XL is the best option available now.

So, what do you need to know about Pixel phones? First, they run the cleanest version of Android you’ll find on any phone, because, well, Android is owned and developed by Google. There’s no bloatware or unnecessary apps, and the Pixel 10 Pro XL gets the latest and greatest AI features straight from Google’s production line.

With genuinely useful features like Call Screen, Magic Eraser, and Photo Unblur, this feels like a phone that’s at the cutting edge of smartphone software, and its built-in Gemini assistant is leagues ahead of Apple’s Siri and Samsung’s Bixby.

Now, the Pixel 10 Pro XL isn’t the performance powerhouse that both the iPhone 17 Pro and Galaxy S26 Ultra are, so this isn’t the phone to buy if you’re planning on loads of 4K video editing or super high-end mobile gaming.

Having said that, Google’s Tensor G5 chipset is absolutely powerful enough for most people, and you won’t have any problems streaming, scrolling, and gaming on most titles.

As for cameras, the 10 Pro XL’s lenses are supremely versatile, even when not used in combination with those aforementioned AI editing features. They deliver accurate colors and plenty of detail at every focal range, and you can get some really great zoom shots with the phone’s 48MP telephoto lens at 5x optical zoom.

In other words, the Pixel 10 Pro XL is a clean, easy-to-use Android phone with the best software around, but it’s not a heavy lifter in the same way that other flagships on this list most definitely are.

OnePlus 15

The OnePlus 15 is the jack-of-all-trades pick among the best flagship phones. It’s not full of flashy AI features, and it doesn’t look particularly unique, but this phone delivers in pretty much every other way you could hope for.

Its display, for instance, is as bright and colorful as the rest, but a refresh rate of up to 165Hz makes the OnePlus 15 extra suited to high-end gaming.

Under the hood, the phone’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset can tackle whatever you throw its way, and it’s paired with an almighty 7,300mAh battery, which is the biggest and longest-lasting of any phone we’ve ever tested.

Honestly, this thing lasts for days (and days, and days), with our reviewer managing to eke out almost three days of use from the OnePlus 15 on a single charge. It can also charge at up to 100W (or 80W if you’re in the US), and OnePlus will actually include a charger in the box, which is definitely a luxury these days.

On cameras, the OnePlus 15 gets a trio of 50MP snappers, all of which deliver detailed and well-balanced photos. It’s not quite as impressive a camera phone as some of the other phones on this list, but the OnePlus 15 is particularly good as an action camera for fast-moving subjects.

As for downsides, there are no built-in magnets, and OnePlus’ software isn’t quite as feature-packed as other OS packages. But as an overall offering, the OnePlus 15 is probably the best-value flagship money can buy.

Rumors are also swirling that OnePlus is winding down operations outside of Asia, so this might also be the last OnePlus flagship phone you’ll ever be able to buy.

Oppo Find X9 Ultra

The Oppo Find X9 Ultra isn’t officially available in the US, but if you’re living in Europe, it’s probably the best camera phone on the market.

I won’t spend too much time on the Ultra’s other specs, as it really is a device that’s all about photography, but like the OnePlus 15, it boasts a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, a gorgeous 6.8-inch display, and a long-lasting silicon-carbon battery.

On the back, you’ll find four high-res cameras: a 200MP main lens, a 50MP ultra-wide lens, a 200MP 3x telephoto lens, and a second 50MP 10x lens. The last of that quartet is the most exciting, as it’s almost like having a built-in external teleconverter for the Find X9 Ultra, though Oppo does actually sell a 300mm teleconverter lens for the phone, should you want to extend its zoom capabilities even further.

Regardless of which lens you use, you can expect exceptional detail and clarity from the Find X9 Ultra in all lighting conditions

Its default image processing gives you vibrant and contrasty images, but if you want photos that look more like they were shot with a DSLR, you can switch to the phone’s Hasselblad Master mode, which is not something you’ll find elsewhere.

Oppo even throws in a 50MP selfie camera for good measure, so the Find X9 Ultra really is at the top of the pile when it comes to smartphone photography.

Is it heavy? Yes. Is it expensive? Yes. But this phone wears its USP on its sleeve, and it’s worth considering if you’re serious about cameras.

Xiaomi 17 Ultra

Like the Oppo Find X9 Ultra, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is another photography-focused smartphone from China. It too is available in Europe, though US buyers aren’t so lucky once again.

The 17 Ultra rivals the Oppo Find X9 Ultra with a 50MP 1-inch main lens, a 50MP ultra-wide lens, and a single 200MP telephoto lens — but don’t be fooled by the Xiaomi phone’s smaller number of cameras compared to its compatriot.

I say that because this phone’s 200MP telephoto lens features a mechanical optical zoom, giving you a continuous optical zoom range of between 3.2x and 4.3x. The 17 Ultra will also maintain optical-quality zoom up to 17.2x, so this really is another champion when it comes to zoom photography.

Xiaomi’s partnership with Leica means colors captured with the 17 Ultra are vivid without looking cartoonish, skin tones are well reproduced, and there’s minimal noise even in low-light scenarios.

The 17 Ultra isn’t quite so adept at video as the iPhone 17 Pro or Oppo Find X9 Ultra, but only when it comes to very specific features like lens switching in 4K and using that mechanical zoom lens for specific frame rates and video codecs.

As for the phone’s non-camera specs, the 17 Ultra sports a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, a 6.9-inch OLED display, and a 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery.

In our testing, we managed to use the phone for two days on a single charge, which is in line with most other models on this list, save for the stupidly long-lasting OnePlus 15.

All told, then, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is another extremely impressive phone for a very specific type of user. But hey, that might be you!

Honor Magic 8 Pro

Lastly, we have the Honor Magic 8 Pro, which rounds out our trio of Chinese phone picks that, unfortunately, aren’t available in the US.

Honor’s latest flagship doesn’t put quite so much emphasis on crazy camera hardware as the Xiaomi or Oppo, and should instead be thought of as a great all-rounder like the OnePlus 15.

There’s the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset for lightning-fast performance, the long-lasting 6,270mAh battery in regions outside of China, and the 6.7-inch OLED display that makes the health of your eyes a priority.

On that last point, the Magic 8 Pro features high-frequency PWM dimming for reduced eye strain, and can intelligently adjust the color temperature of its display according to your local sunrise and sunset times. These features might sound gimmicky, but they make an already good-looking display even more enjoyable to use, and you might feel a bit less guilty about scrolling for hours on the Magic 8 Pro.

The phone is also awash with AI features, though they vary wildly in quality. There’s a dedicated AI Button, but it’s essentially a dupe of Apple’s Camera Control button, and while the AI Photos Agent lets you upscale images and remove reflections with ease, the AI Settings Agent and AI Memories apps are pretty much useless by comparison.

Still, these tools are there to be used, or not used, so you can still enjoy the best bits of the Magic 8 Pro without engaging in its hit-and-miss software.

And a quick word on the phone’s cameras: its three rear lenses deliver plenty of color and detail, particularly in nighttime environments, though Honor is guilty of some rather aggressive AI processing if you zoom in much further than the Magic 8 Pro’s 3.7x optical capabilities.

So the Honor Magic 8 Pro is a strong Android contender that performs well in most areas, though it’s not as specialized as some of the other phones on this list.

And there you have it: my roundup of the best flagship phones you can buy in 2026. Every model has its own strengths and weaknesses, but rest assured that, whichever you choose, you’ll be getting a powerful, long-lasting, and versatile phone for your money.

Which model is your favorite? Let me know via the poll below, or feel free to vote with your keyboard in the comments. Please also tell me which phones you’re most excited to see released in the coming months.

• Smartphone shipments could drop by 13.9% this year
• That would bring them to the lowest levels since 2013
• The fall is largely thanks to rising memory prices

2026 looks set to be a bad year for the smartphone industry, as it’s predicted that shipments will fall 13.9% year-on-year. That would mean 1.08 billion units shipped, which is the lowest annual volume since 2013.

That’s a huge drop and a massive change in direction for the industry, which, prior to 2026, had seen nine consecutive quarters of growth.

This 13.9% drop prediction comes from Counterpoint, which is revising its previous forecast of a 12.4% drop. So, in other words, things are getting even worse than previously predicted.

This downward trend is largely driven by the ongoing memory supply crisis, with AI gobbling up much of the available RAM, leading to steep price rises. As a result, Counterpoint predicts that “the sub-$150 segment faces an effective permanent removal in some markets.”

With cheap phones disappearing, brands that focus on low-end devices and emerging markets will particularly struggle, which is part of why Samsung and Apple are reportedly the “most insulated” brands — that and the fact that they have integrated supply chains.

Smaller drops and even some increases

As a result, iPhone shipments are expected to remain broadly flat this year, according to Counterpoint, and to grow by 5% next year. Samsung, meanwhile, could see a 4% drop this year, which is far less than the industry as a whole.

The only other brand that Counterpoint highlights as being in good shape is Huawei, which actually managed to grow 1% in the first quarter of the year. This was apparently achieved by it keeping its prices static in order to grow its market share.

Conversely, Xiaomi’s shipments dropped more than any of the other top five phone brands in quarter one, with a 19% drop.

The big winner of all this, though, looks to be the refurbished market, which is predicted to grow by 13% this year, as new phones become too expensive for many buyers.

Counterpoint predicts that the market won’t rebound until 2028, but the landscape could be very different by then if some brands fail to weather the storm.

• Samsung could be developing the Galaxy Fit 4 for a 2026 launch
• It won't be showcased at Galaxy Unpacked 2026, and will instead go on sale in September
• We don't know how much it will cost or what its new features are, but Samsung could give it a GPS boost

Affordable fitness trackers are rising in popularity, and Samsung could be gearing up to launch its next Galaxy Fit model — just as Google launched its budget-friendly Google Fitbit Air.

SamMobile first reported on the rumor, who claims it received information that Samsung is currently developing the next gen device in its lineup of budget wearables, which it says will launch later this year. It would mark the first Galaxy Fit device since the Galaxy Fit 3 from 2024.

The Fit 3 made our list of the best fitness trackers, and it's easy to see why:, they’re solid options for fitness novices who want a simple device with enough health monitoring tools.

The original report says the Galaxy Fit 4 is due for a September launch around the time of IFA 2026, which is set to take place from September 4-8. That said, the outlet also mentions that it’s unlikely that we’ll see the device make an appearance at Galaxy Unpacked 2026 in July, and will instead go straight to launch alongside the Galaxy Tab S12 and the Galaxy S26 FE.

Despite the launch date information, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what improvements Samsung plans to make with the device, but we have a hunch at what it won’t be getting.

It’s unlikely that the Galaxy Fit 4 will be able to run Wear OS like its Galaxy Watch sibling range, and will probably still run on the RTOS system like its predecessor. This is because of Samsung’s cost-cutting strategy, skipping the full power of Wear OS so it can list the device for a more affordable price, though we don’t know how much the Galaxy Fit 4 will cost just yet.

As for health tracking features, it’s unclear if there’ll be any new additions joining its roster of basic functions, but we’re confident that it’ll allow you to make the most of tools such as step, heart rate, and sleep tracking, as well as control music playback and phone notifications. It may even get some more AI-powered Samsung Health features to steal the Fitbit's lunch.

The most likely upgrade would be the addition of GPS, which the Galaxy Fit 3 doesn’t have. If Samsung gave the Galaxy Fit 4 a GPS boost, it would not only allow you to track outdoor activity more precisely, but it would also mean you can use your on-wrist device without needing to have it connected to your smartphone.

As we’ve seen with the Google Fitbit Air, basic fitness trackers seem to be all the hype at the moment. I can see why this is; why spend money on a premium smartwatch like the Apple Watch Ultra 3 if you know you don’t need all the advanced bells and whistles?

Although Samsung’s Galaxy Fit devices aren’t screenless, they still sit in the same ballpark as screenless fitness trackers due to their limited, yet sufficient health functions, adequate smartphone controls, and affordable price points.

Now that everyone’s flocking to the Fitbit Air, it creates tough competition for Samsung to really pull through with the Fit 4. However, Samsung could have the upper-hand if it chooses to bestow GPS upon the Galaxy Fit 4 — which the Fitbit Air doesn’t have.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra are the two most obvious choices if you want a no-compromise flagship phone in 2026.

Both are big, powerful, expensive, and built around the same basic promise: you get huge displays, elite cameras, long battery life, high-end performance, and a growing number of AI tools if you're willing to pay the high asking price.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max and Galaxy S26 Ultra are also very different phones. Apple’s flagship is the cleaner, more tightly integrated option, offering iOS and MagSafe. Samsung’s Ultra is the more maximalist device, with the S Pen, a sharper display, a more flexible camera setup, and a software experience packed with Galaxy AI and Google-powered features.

For many people, this choice will come down to ecosystem.

If you already use Apple products like the Apple Watch, MacBook, and iPad, the iPhone 17 Pro Max has an obvious pull. If you prefer Android, multitasking, stylus support, and more control over how your phone works, the Galaxy S26 Ultra makes a very strong case.

But there are still big differences in price, design, display, cameras, performance, software, and battery life between these two phones — so let’s break them down.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: specs comparison

Before we dig into the details, here’s an overview of both phones’ key specs:

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: price and availability

The iPhone 17 Pro Max went on sale in September 2025, with prices starting at $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,149 for the 256GB model. The 17 Pro Max is also available with 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB of storage, with the top configuration rising to $1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,799.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra arrived later, in March 2026, and starts at $1,299 / £1,249 / AU$2,149, making it slightly more expensive than Apple’s flagship in the US, slightly more affordable in the UK, and level in Australia at launch.

It's worth noting that the Galaxy S26 Ultra's storage runs from 256GB to 1TB; there is no 2TB option, unlike with the iPhone.

Both phones are widely available through their makers, carriers, and major retailers, so this is less about finding stock and more about finding the right deal that suits you.

Winner: Tie — unless you specifically need 2TB of storage, in which case the iPhone 17 Pro Max takes it.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: design

There is no getting away from the fact that these are both very large phones, but Samsung does more to make its Ultra feel slightly more manageable.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra is slightly taller and wider than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but it is much thinner at 7.9mm and noticeably lighter at 214g.

The softened corners also help it feel less slab-like than older Ultra models, while the built-in S Pen remains Samsung’s clearest hardware advantage.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has the more dramatic redesign versus its predecessor. Apple moved to an aluminum unibody (which facilitates the inclusion of a new vapor cooling chamber), added a full-width camera plateau, and kept both the Action button and Camera Control.

As such, the 17 Pro Max feels like a clearer break from the previous few Pro Max models, and the new thermal design gives the changes a practical purpose beyond looks.

Still, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is the easier phone to live with day-to-day, giving you the same 6.9-inch screen size in a slimmer, lighter body, while also finding room for a stylus.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: display

Both phones give you an almost tablet-sized 6.9-inch OLED display with an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, so either one is built for streaming, gaming, editing photos, reading, and general big-screen phone use.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has the brighter panel on paper, with a peak outdoor brightness of 3,000 nits, which gives it an edge if you often use your phone outside.

Samsung fights back with resolution and features. The Galaxy S26 Ultra’s screen is sharper than the iPhone’s display, and its 1-120Hz refresh range gives it the same smooth scrolling and power-saving flexibility you would expect from a top-end flagship.

Samsung's new Privacy Display feature also gives it a practical advantage in public spaces, especially if you often work from cafes or public transport.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: cameras

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has a simpler camera pitch: it's got three 48MP rear cameras, covering main, ultra-wide, and telephoto shots, plus a new 18MP Center Stage front camera.

Apple is offering a more balanced system than previous Pro Max models — especially now the telephoto camera can handle 4x optical zoom and 8x optical-quality shots — and the selfie camera is also a real upgrade; it uses subject tracking to automatically keep you in the frame, and lets you switch between portrait and landscape modes.

Samsung gives you more hardware to play with. The S26 Ultra has a 200MP main camera, 50MP ultra-wide, 10MP 3x telephoto, and 50MP telephoto for longer-range shots, plus a 12MP selfie camera with a wider field of view.

Its camera setup is less of a clean overhaul than Apple’s, but the extra lens and longer zoom range make it more flexible, especially if you often shoot subjects at a distance.

For video, the Galaxy S26 Ultra supports 8K shooting at 30fps, whereas the iPhone is capped at 4K at 120 fps. That said, with its Apple ProRes and ProRes RAW support, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is our favored option for consistent, high-quality video results.

This comparison is a close call because the iPhone 17 Pro Max has the stronger selfie upgrade, a very consistent rear camera setup, and impressive video capabilities. The Galaxy S26 Ultra still has the edge for pure versatility, with more lenses, more zoom reach, and the bigger main sensor.

Winner: Tie

iPhone 17 Pro Max camera samples

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra camera samples

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: performance and software

The iPhone 17 Pro Max runs on Apple’s A19 Pro chip, with improved cooling to help it hold high performance for longer.

The 17 Pro Max feels built for heavy use, from gaming and video editing to AI features, and iOS 26 also benefits from Apple’s usual joined-up approach, with the chip, hardware, software, and wider ecosystem all working together.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra counters with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, plus either 12GB or 16GB of RAM. It is a true ultra-premium Android flagship, with more flexibility for multitasking, split-screen apps, S Pen notes, customisation, and productivity.

Samsung is better for flexibility, stylus support, and Android customisation, but the iPhone’s combination of Apple silicon, iOS, cooling, and ecosystem integration gives it more cohesive performance in our testing.

Winner: iPhone 17 Pro Max

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: battery

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has a 5,088mAh battery, based on reported capacity figures (Apple does not share these details officially), and Apple rates it for up to 37 hours of video playback.

In our day-to-day use, it's comfortably an all-day phone, with enough headroom for heavy camera use, navigation, streaming, and gaming. It also supports fast USB-C charging and 25W MagSafe/Qi2 wireless charging.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra has a 5,000mAh battery, so there is very little difference between these two devices in terms of raw capacity, and indeed it carried well past 24 hours of operation in our testing.

Samsung has the advantage for wired charging, with 60W speeds that should get you topped up faster than the iPhone. The S26 also supports 25W wireless charging, putting it on par with Apple there, though there's no MagSafe-style wireless charging to speak of.

So, this comparison is close... again. The iPhone has excellent endurance and the convenience of MagSafe, but Samsung’s faster wired charging is more useful when you need a quick refill before heading out.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: verdict

The iPhone 17 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra are — unsurprisingly — close enough that the “best” choice depends less on raw power and more on how you actually use your phone.

Choose the iPhone 17 Pro Max if you want the smoother all-round experience. Its biggest strengths are consistency, ecosystem integration, long-term performance, and a camera system that feels easy to trust. It's also the better fit if you already use Apple's other products.

Choose the Galaxy S26 Ultra if you want the phone that simply does more. The S Pen, sharper display, lighter design, longer camera reach, faster charging, and broader AI toolkit make it the more versatile device, especially for power users.

Overall, the Galaxy S26 Ultra wins more individual categories, but the iPhone 17 Pro Max may still be the better buy for many people. Samsung has the stronger spec-sheet argument; Apple has the more cohesive flagship experience.

Winner: Tie (sorry!)

• A photo has been taken of what appears to be the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8
• This is the rumored new wider foldable Samsung might be working on
• We've also seen a comparison image showing it alongside the more conventional Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

The long-rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide — which, confusingly, will reportedly launch simply as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 — might be Samsung’s worst-kept secret, and now we’ve seemingly seen the phone in the flesh for the first time.

A photo shared on DCInside’s forum (via @UniverseIce) shows what appears to be the phone being used in a restaurant, presumably by a Samsung employee.

It’s housed in an anti-leak case, designed to hide the details, but you can see that it has a wider screen than a typical phone, and that there’s a dual-lens camera on the back.

Short and squat

If you’re wondering just how much wider than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7’s successor — now reportedly called the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — this device will be, @UniverseIce has also shared comparison images, as you can see below.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra appears tall and narrow, and has a triple-lens camera, much like its predecessor, while the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 (Wide) has a shorter, wider appearance.

That should make the latter phone good for viewing wide-screen content like movies when unfolded, but it leaves it with a rather unusual form factor when folded and used like a conventional smartphone.

So, it will be interesting to see whether it’s successful, but given that the taller model apparently has the ‘Ultra’ suffix, it’s likely that this new wide version will be cheaper, and it’s also expected to be closer to Apple’s foldable iPhone Ultra’s form factor. Odd or not, then, it’s a form factor that Apple might be about to make popular.

In any case, we probably won’t be waiting too much longer for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, as both of these phones — along with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 — will likely launch in July.

• We've got a newly leaked look at the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide
• It could be the thinnest Samsung foldable to date
• A 'wide' foldable iPhone from Apple is also expected this year

This could be the year when the foldable phone market really gets interesting, and a new leak has given us what could be our best hint yet at the design of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide — and it looks to be an impressively thin phone.

Well-known tipster Sonny Dickson described the thinness as "insane" when showing off a short clip of a Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide dummy unit. These physical mock-ups are made from information sourced from the supply chain, and give accessory makers a chance to get their wares ready ahead of time.

The leaker compares the thinness of the foldable to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge — when unfolded, at least — but the replies to the original post are less positive, with adjectives like "weird" and "chunky" used to describe the handset.

Based on information recently sourced by SamMobile, this 'wide' foldable will actually be called the Galaxy Z Fold 8, while the true successor to last year's Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is going to be named the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

Here comes Apple

If you're wondering where this 'wide' nomenclature has come from, it describes the shorter, wider aspect ratio for the phone display — both when opened and closed. It's a move away from the tall and narrow screens of current book-style foldables.

While the currently popular form factor — used on the Galaxy Z Fold 7, for example — means foldables are more like standard phones when closed, when they're opened out they're rather square-ish. With wider displays, foldables will be more like conventional tablets when opened (and better for use cases like watching movies).

This change hasn't come out of nowhere: the long-rumored iPhone Fold is expected to use a wide form factor, with something like a 4:3 aspect ratio when open. Samsung clearly wants to get ahead of Apple on this, as Huawei has already done.

All the indications are that the foldable iPhone is launching in September, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro, perhaps with new hinge technology that makes the crease almost invisible. For foldable phone fans, there's a lot to look forward to.

Samsung HW-Q990H review: Two minute review

The Samsung HW-Q990H continues the high standard set by its predecessors, which are reliably among the best soundbars on the market, delivering a full, multi-box Dolby Atmos experience for one of the most competitive prices around. While it doesn’t offer that many changes from its predecessor, it’s still a fantastic system.

An 11.1.4 channel soundbar system, the Q990H is packed with superb sound-enhancing features such as SpaceFit Sound Pro and Q-Symphony, which add more layers to its already excellent sound. Sound Elevation (where sound is raised to the height of the TV itself) is one of two new features introduced, and while I didn’t use it for much of my testing, it could be useful depending on your circumstances.

It supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X enhanced audio formats, and there’s even support for 4K 120Hz and VRR passthrough in the soundbar’s two HDMI 2.1 In ports — perfect for those who don’t own one of the best gaming TVs.

The Q990H’s performance is phenomenal. It delivers an immersive, powerful sound with bass that’s both meaty and controlled, aided by the returning small-sized, dual-driver subwoofer introduced in last year's Q990F. Sound mapping is accurate, with details placed precisely to the correct channels and connected with the action on screen. Speech is consistently clear, and Dolby Atmos effects are re-created faithfully with real clarity. While it doesn’t innovate much on last year’s Samsung HW-Q990F, it’s still a superb soundbar.

Design-wise, the Q990H benefits from the compact subwoofer, which is easy to position while still delivering excellent sound. While the soundbar itself feels sturdy and has a nice color to it, the actual grated design doesn’t feel as premium as 2024’s Samsung Q990D, and the alphanumeric display isn’t always the easiest to read, but is a welcome feature. It would be nice to see Samsung mix up the design of the flagship model in future.

The Q990H is incredibly easy to set up and use. Actual installation took a few minutes, and I used the SmartThings app to control EQ and other features, never running into any issues. There is a supplied remote for those who don’t want to use the app, but I suggest you give the app a try.

The Q990H is a premium soundbar system, and while it delivers the performance to back up its asking price of $1,999 / £1,599 / AU$1,999, there aren’t a great many changes over its predecessor the Q990F. The latter is available for $1,599 / £999 / AU$1,599 at the time of writing, so it's the better option in my view. Once it disappears though, the Q990H is a more than worthy successor.

Samsung HW-Q990H review: Price and release date

• Release date: May 2026
• Price: $1,999 / £1,599 / AU$1,999

The Samsung HW-Q990H is the flagship model in Samsung’s 2026 soundbar lineup. It sits above the Samsung HW-900H, HW-Q800H and the HW-QS90H, the latter of which is a follow-up to the Samsung QS700F from 2025.

The HW-Q990H’s launch prices are pretty consistent with its predecessor, the HW-Q990F, from last year. The Q990H is launching for £100 cheaper in the UK and AU$100 cheaper in Australia, however.

Samsung HW-Q990H review: Specs

Samsung HW-Q990H review: Features

• 11.1.4 channel soundbar system
• Dolby Atmos and DTS-X support
• HDMI 2.1 input ports rated for 4K 120Hz gaming

The Q990H doesn’t bring many new features to the table compared to last year’s Q990F, but that’s not a bad thing, as that soundbar's features were pretty impressive. The Q990H is an 11.1.4 channel soundbar system comprising four units: a main soundbar, a subwoofer (the same compact unit introduced with the Q990F), and two rear speakers. It has the same 23-speaker layout as the Q990F.

In terms of audio support, the Q990H supports Dolby Atmos and DTS: X sound formats, and there’s support for Eclipsa Audio, Samsung and Google’s joint foray into the 3D sound world. Wireless Dolby Atmos and DTS:X are also supported.

Connections are the same as last year, with an HDMI eARC port for connection to your chosen display, as well as two HDMI In ports. Both are HDMI 2.1 and rated for 4K 120Hz gaming, and both support HDR10+ HDR. There's also Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity for music streaming.

The Q990H introduces two new sound features. Sound Elevation is designed to direct the sound towards the screen itself in order to create a more natural listening experience, while Auto Volume aims to reduce sudden spikes in volume when changing channels or content.

Returning sound-enhancing features include SpaceFit Sound Pro, which optimizes the sound profile to suit the environment you’re in; Adaptive Sound, which analyzes the content being played and adjusts it in real time; and Active Voice Amplifier Pro, which analyzes voices within a scene and optimizes them. The Q990H also supports Q-Symphony, which enables a compatible connected Samsung TV’s speakers to be employed to enhance the audio further.

There are a number of night-mode listening features as well, such as Private Audio, which directs the sound to the rear speakers, and Moderate Bass, which mutes the subwoofer and directs the bass to come from the soundbar itself.

The Q900H can be controlled by the SmartThings app, where adjustments to the EQ and sound levels for each channel can be made. You can also choose from the soundbar’s four listening modes here: Standard, Surround, AI and Game. The aforementioned sound enhancements can also be controlled via the app.

• Features score: 5 / 5

Samsung HW-Q990H review: Performance

• Detailed expansive sound
• Powerful, controlled bass
• Great Atmos reproduction

Of the Q990H’s four sound presets (Standard, Surround, Game and AI) I chose Surround, as I felt it gave the most consistently immersive sound. I also used the SpaceFit Sound Pro setting to calibrate the soundbar to our testing lab, and this created a more immersive sound profile.

The Q990H’s sound placement and mapping are superb. Watching the Death Star attack run from Star Wars: A New Hope, the whir of the X-Wing’s engines came from the rear speakers, laser fire came from all around, and the flight paths of the various TIE fighters and X-Wings was accurately placed, making me feel like I was in the cockpit.

Watching The Batman, as Penguin fired a spray of bullets towards Catwoman, the sound travelled from the front to the rear channels, following the direction of the action on screen. In the chase sequence itself, the swerving of tires and blaring car horns travelled across the soundbar, again mapped perfectly.

The compact subwoofer first introduced in last year’s Q990F returns here, and I was reminded of how good it was. Despite its smaller stature, the Q990H’s subwoofer packs a mighty punch. As the Batmobile’s engine fires up in The Batman, the subwoofer delivered an almighty rumble that filled the room, accurately delivering the roar and the crunching gear changes during the driving sequences. Crucially however, the bass never got ahead of itself, as the subwoofer demonstrated excellent control, with the same gear changes delivered with great detail.

Speaking of detail, the Q990H delivers it in spades. During the Darkstar test flight in Top Gun: Maverick, subtle sound effects, such as the wind passing through the jet’s outer panels and the tightening of Maverick’s gloves are all well balanced with the bass of the jet engine and the loud beeps of the various displays.

The Q990H benefits from four height channels, meaning Atmos effects are reproduced accurately. As Maverick flies over Admiral Kane in Top Gun: Maverick, the sound of the Darkstar’s flight path went over my head, delivering an expansive sound. The same was true as TIE Fighters flew overhead in Star Wars, with height channels precisely following their iconic howling sound.

Throughout my testing, the Q990H’s front channels delivered crystal-clear speech, even in complicated scenes such as the Batmobile chase, accurately delivering the Penguin’s frantic shouts over the loud explosions and impacts.

As I tested the Q990H with the Samsung S95F, one of 2025’s best OLED TVs, I tried out the Q-Symphony setting. This added extra volume and more power to the front channels by using the S95F’s speakers, giving everything extra punch. If you don’t own a Samsung TV, fear not — this Q990H still sounds fantastic without Q-Symphony.

I tried out the new Sound Elevation feature, and while it did move the height of the sound effectively, it wasn’t necessary for my viewing. This could be a useful feature for those who wall-mount the soundbar, but I’d recommend giving it a try to see if it fits your environment.

The Q990H is also a solid soundbar for music. Listening to a Dolby Atmos version of Bad Bunny’s BAILE INoLVIDABLE, the Q990H delivered tightly controlled low-end from the track’s heavy bass synths and drums later in the song. The piano sounded detailed, and Bunny’s varied vocals were delivered accurately. High notes had plenty of brightness without sounding overbearing, and the horn section sounded punchy and detailed.

Switching to a heavier track, Dir En Grey’s Un Deux, the Q990H did a great job delivering the pounding guitars, crunching drums and Kyo’s soaring vocals, capturing the wide production of the track with its big soundstage. While other soundbars, such as the Sonos Arc Ultra, are better for music overall, the Q990H is still great.

• Performance score: 5 / 5

Samsung HW-Q990H review: Design

• Return of the brilliant compact subwoofer
• Sturdy build quality
• Design becoming familiar

The Q990H is almost identical in appearance to last year’s Q990F, which in turn felt like a cheapened design of the 2024 Samsung HW-Q990D. While the Q990H does have a sturdy, weighty build that feels premium, my criticisms of last year’s design remain.

The highlight is once again the compact subwoofer design. The dual-driver unit is weighty, but has a much more visually appealing cubed design. Due to its more compact size, it’s much easier to conceal than most subwoofers. The main soundbar measures 1232 x 70.8 x 138mm (48.5 x 2.8 x 5.4 inches), which was the exact width of the 55-inch Samsung S95F OLED TV I tested the soundbar with. It’s quite a deep soundbar however, so you may need to consider this when placing it.

The actual look and materials of the Q990H are the main issue. While the metallic grille that’s been used for years remains, the cheaper-looking grated design introduced in the Q990F is still here, and it doesn’t look as appealing as older models. The same is true of the rear speakers, which don’t feel or look as premium.

The alphanumeric display included can still be a challenge to a read, but it’s still welcome. While the Q990H’s overall design is fine, Samsung could stand to learn from other multi-box units, such as the JBL 1300Mk2.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Samsung HW-Q990H review: Setup and usability

• Easy, hassle-free setup
• SmartThings app for control as well as remote
• Wireless connection between soundbar and other units

As I’ve found with the last few iterations of Samsung’s flagship soundbar, the Q990H was a breeze to set up. I simply connected the main soundbar to the TV via HDMI eARC, and then paired the subwoofer and rear speakers by holding down a button. At one point during my testing I had to disconnect and re-connect the same units due to a brief Wi-Fi issue, and this again took a matter of minutes.

The Q990H can be controlled by the supplied remote or the SmartThings app. I opted for the latter, and it allowed me to easily make adjustments to the EQ and sound levels as I saw fit, with said changes happening almost instantaneously. It’s worth trying out the app, but the Q990H also sounds great out of the box.

One quick note: Samsung advertises its new Samsung Sound app as the new control, though at the time of writing it doesn’t offer the full compatibility or support all the features of SmartThings, so you’re best sticking with the latter for now.

• Setup & usability score: 4.5 / 5

Samsung HW-Q990H review: Value

• Great flagship performance and features
• Still a premium price
• Only minor upgrades over predecessor

The Q990H is undoubtedly at the premium end of the soundbar market. Priced at $1,999 / £1,599 / AU$1,999, it’s pricier than a lot of all-in-one options such as the Sonos Arc Ultra and Marshall Heston 120, as well as more budget surround sound models from the likes of JBL, Hisense and Ultimea.

Major rivals such as the JBL 1300MK2 are also available for less, with the 1300MK2 priced at $1,699 / £999 in the US and UK (it’s pricier in Australia at $AU2,299). That said, the 1300MK2 did launch several months ago, so its prices have had time to drop.

Still, the Q990H is a flagship soundbar that delivers phenomenal audio quality and comes with a ton of useful features, most prominently its HDMI 2.1 ports for gaming. Compared to said multi-box rivals, it’s also pretty fairly priced.

There is the small matter, however, of the Q990H’s predecessor, the Q990F, still being available. While the Q990H offers a couple of upgrades, the Q990F is still a fantastic soundbar in its own right, and at $1,599 / £999 / AU$1,599 it’s the better option right now. Once it disappears, though, the Q990H will make a worthy successor — and we’ll have hopefully seen some discounts by then.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Should I buy the Samsung HW-Q990H?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Samsung HW-Q990H review: Also consider

How I tested the Samsung HW-Q990H

• Tested with the Samsung S95F OLED TV
• Tested using different sources
• Dolby Atmos, 5.1 surround and stereo sound tested

I tested the Samsung HW-Q990H with the Samsung S95F OLED TV, which allowed me to test out the Q-Symphony feature, which employs the Samsung S95F's speakers in conjunction with the soundbar.

To test the Q990H soundbar, I used reference Dolby Atmos scenes that I also use to test TV speakers, namely The Batman and Top Gun: Maverick on 4K Blu-ray, and Star Wars: A New Hope for 4K streaming.

I used the Samsung SmartThings app to test out its sound features, including SpaceFit Sound Pro and Sound Elevation, as well as testing out its different sound presets.

I also tested the Samsung HW-Q990H's music capabilities using Dolby Atmos tracks such as Bad Bunny's BAILLE INoLVIDABLE, as well as stereo tracks such as Dir En Grey's Un Deux.

• First reviewed: May 2026
• Read more about how we test

• Leaked case renders show the possible design of the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE
• The only real change appears to be a new camera block
• Samsung users aren't happy with how familiar it looks

There’s likely to be one more member of the Samsung Galaxy S26 series, with the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE expected to launch later this year — but if leaks are to be believed, it might not prove very popular.

X user and tech journalist @Mohammed_K_2010 has shared what appear to be marketing images for cases designed for the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE, revealing the look of the phone in the process, and visually it doesn’t appear much different to the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE.

The only real change seems to be that the three rear lenses are now housed in a raised camera block, rather than jutting out individually, but otherwise this looks much the same as its predecessor.

While we’d take this leak with a pinch of salt, it’s a design that makes sense, as the standard Samsung Galaxy S26 had the same minor visual change. But it’s also a design that seems to be disappointing Samsung fans.

Over on Reddit, comments include a sarcastic “wow, what an unexpected design”, along with “not really an upgrade”, “the design has become as cheap-looking as the Galaxy A series”, and “this has to be a joke.”

Few upgrades under the hood either

If you factor in previously rumored Galaxy S26 FE specs, things don’t get much better. The incoming phone will reportedly have a 6.7-inch FHD+ AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, an Exynos 2500 chipset, a 5,000mAh battery with 45W charging, an IP68 rating, a 50MP wide camera, a 12MP ultra-wide, an 8MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and a 12MP front-facing camera.

Of those, the only real upgrades are a new chipset and a battery with a 100mAh capacity boost, so this could be just a very slight improvement over its predecessor.

It might at least come in some different colors, with leaks pointing to purple, black, gray, and white shades, but that’s hardly likely to tempt many buyers.

We’ll probably find out how accurate this all is — and whether many people actually want to buy the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE — in September or October, as that’s around when it’s likely to launch.

The 2026 World Cup kicks off on June 11, so that still gives you plenty of time to upgrade your TV if you’re looking for a bigger and better view of the tournament.

Over the last few years, bigger screens — 75 inches and over — have become a lot more popular, and they certainly will be for the World Cup. The big question is what kind of TV to get at these size, because the prices can get really expensive.

When it comes to big-screen sports, there’s one type of TV we recommend above the others: mini-LED.

Why would I recommend mini-LED over OLED? There are several key reasons, and they're mostly practical concerns about getting the best value, but I’ll get into them properly below. As TechRadar’s TV tester, I always include sports as part of my testing, so I'm speaking from experience of actually watching sports on every kind of TV.

Brightness

OLED TVs are getting brighter, but mini-LED will always have the advantage in the brightness department. But, where mini-LED has a big advantage is in fullscreen brightness. The same G6 OLED I mentioned earlier hit 387 HDR fullscreen brightness in Standard mode. The same Hisense U75Q mini-LED I mentioned above? 887 nits: bordering on three times the brightness.

Fullscreen brightness is important for sport, as it not only means it can give a large area on the screen more impact, say the field during a soccer game, but it’s crucial for helping with viewing in bright rooms.

The brightest OLED I’ve measured to date is this year’s LG G6, which clocked in at 2,524 nits peak HDR brightness in Standard mode (the picture mode I often recommend for sports viewing). While this is a great result, even mid-range mini-LEDs will dwarf this number. Last year’s Hisense U75QG (the US mid-range mini-LED in Hisense’s lineup) hit 3,372 nits in the same Standard mode.

This peak brightness will make a huge difference when it comes to highlights on screen, such as the sun on the horizon, giving them more impact. This will likely have an effect on the color brightness of a team’s kits during the World Cup, giving them more punch.

While peak brightness is important, fullscreen brightness is a game changer when it comes to bright rooms, often limiting mirror-like reflections compared to OLED — and let's talk about those now.

Reflections

As games during this year’s World Cup are being played at all sorts of times, including during the day, this brightness can make or break your viewing, because you don't want reflections in a bright room to obscure your enjoyment.

While OLEDs like the Samsung S95F, with its OLED Glare Free matte screen, and the LG G6, which has effective anti-reflection layer, are getting better at limiting reflections, most OLEDs still struggle. Their glossy screens are often magnets for reflections.

Even budget mini-LED TVs do a pretty good job of limiting reflections, purely thanks to their high fullscreen brightness — reflections being visible is a simple question of whether the light shining through the screen is brighter than what's being reflected, so a super-bright screen is a major advantage.

While they can still be subject to some screen glare, during my testing of TCL’s models last year (called the C-series here in the UK and headlined by the TCL C8K) I found that they more than held up to the scrutiny of the overhead lights in our testing labs. The same couldn’t be said for LG’s mid-range and budget OLEDs.

Samsung introduced the Glare Free matte screen to its Neo QLED (mini-LED) last year in the flagship Samsung QN90F, which was our pick as the best TV for sport and bright rooms in a lot of our best-of lists. Coupled with its high brightness and excellent motion handling, it made for a superb sport for TV, though it's a pricier model, and obviously value is important if you're buying a really big screen — so let's dig into that side of things.

Value for money

OLED TVs come at a premium. A mid-range model, such as last year’s LG C5, will set you back $1,399 for a 65-inch model at the time of writing. A 65-inch Hisense U75Q will cost you roughly $699, again at the time of writing. That’s 50% cheaper. As great as the C5 is, double the price is a tough ask.

In the UK, the numbers get a bit tighter, but it’s still a similar story. A 65-inch C5 costs around £1,299 right now, whereas a 65-inch TCL C7K (also called the TCL Q7C at some retailers) will cost £849. It's another big price gap that’s tough to justify if you’re on a budget, especially when the C7K boasts a lot of similar features, such as a 144Hz refresh rate for gaming.

The gap gets bigger as the screen sizes get bigger. A 75-inch Hisense U8Q costs $1,599, whereas a 77-inch LG C5 costs $2,199. And the gap gets even bigger when stepping up a size as an 85-inch U8Q costs $1,799, while an 83-inch LG C5 will set you back $3,299: almost double the price. The same is true on budget and premium models for each as well. If you're looking for the best value screen, it's mini-LED.

Stadium-sized screen? No-brainer

If you’re looking for a big screen for the World Cup, a mini-LED is your best bet. As more people look for cinema-sized screens at home, mini-LED has proved itself to be the better value option.

The largest OLED TV you can currently get is 97-inch, and these models are at the very premium end of the market. A 97-inch LG G5 will set you back $24,999 / £24,999. You can now get a 100-inch mini-LED screen for $2,999 / £2,999: just under 10% of the price of a big-screen OLED.

While you may think these 100-inch mini-LEDs will be super-cheap and dodgy models, you’d be wrong. The Hisense U8Q and TCL QM8K (TCL C8K in the UK) are just two of the models available in this 100-inch size, and these are two of the best mini-LED TVs available.

If you're in the UK, you can even pick up a 115-inch Samsung QN90F, our pick for the best TV for sport that I mentioned above, for £7,999, still a fraction of a 97-inch OLED. It’s available in the US too, but at a much higher $24,999 price. So, if you’re after the largest, readily available screens for the best price, mini-LED is your best bet.

The arrival of RGB

RGB TVs made a big splash when they were announced at CES 2025, with the Hisense UX serving as the first model. Since then, brands including Samsung, TCL, Sony and LG have followed suit, announcing their own RGB TVs.

These TVs use RGB LEDs to boast incredible colors with the contrast of premium mini-LEDs. While we worried that it would take years for these screens to become more affordable, smaller screens, it only took a year.

The Hisense UR9, TCL RM9L and Samsung R95H are the headliners for 2026. We’ve tested the UR9, and as well as a staggering 93% BT.2020 HDR color gamut coverage, it has incredible brightness. While the HDR numbers are high, it’s the SDR number that impressed us.

In Standard mode, we measured the UR9’s peak brightness at 2,486 nits, which is the kind of level that elite OLEDs reach in HDR — it's way beyond what they can do in SDR. Considering some sports are broadcast in SDR, this number means watching in daytime sports should be a breeze for RGB TVs, especially because the Hisense UR9 and Samsung R95H both have a matter anti-reflective coating.

You’d think this new tech will cost seriously premium money, but again you might be pleasantly surprised. The UR9 75-inch is available for roughly $3,000 / £3,500: again, that's cheaper than rival OLEDs. We’re waiting on prices for other brands, but we’d expect them to be in a similar region.

We’re still early doors in our testing of RGB TVs, but it’s an exciting tech for sure, and for it to be priced at this level this early is only good news. If these TVs prove to be the real deal, they could become the number one choice for sports.

Wondering what size of TV is right for your space? Use our screen size calculator!

You tell us how far you sit from your TV, we'll tell you what size to buy based on viewing angle advice from image quality experts.

If you're thinking about upgrading your TV in time for the World Cup, you may already be discovering that the world of TVs is incredibly confusing these days. With different screen-tech options, a wide range of sizes, and prices ranging from a few hundred dollars or pounds to several thousand, making a decision isn't straightforward.

Don't worry, because we're here to help. Our team of reviewers has tested the best TVs on the market, paying particular attention to sports viewing, since live sports demands smooth handling of fast-moving action. And in this guide, I'll explain the features that matter most when buying a TV for sports, and why they're important.

Note that not everything you should consider will be listed on the box. I've highlighted the key things to look out for, but much of this information is more likely to be found in reviews and online store descriptions, rather than on the packaging itself.

Good upscaling and motion handling

Technically two features, but upscaling and motion handling go hand in hand to deliver clarity when watching sport — and if only one of the two is good, you’ll end up disappointed.

Upscaling is the process by which a 4K TV takes lower-resolution video and turns it into higher-resolution video to fill all of its pixels. Most people won’t be able to watch the World Cup in 4K natively, so upscaling will be necessary. There are many ways that TVs can do this, and many models these days will advertise themselves as using AI-assisted upscaling.

Motion handling is a similar process but for the movement of objects on the screen. A TV will tweak the image to improve the appearance of objects in motion, because in digital video, fast movement of something like a ball being kicked is difficult for video encoders to keep up with. This means it can lose a lot of detail in motion, causing fast-moving objects — such as a football — to appear blurred or smeared, or even leaving ghostly trails behind them.

Motion handling is designed to track fast-moving elements such as the ball and players, then process them to reduce blur and other motion issues to action is clear and easier for the viewer to follow. Some TVs can even generate new frames, creating the impression of a higher frame rate and smoother-looking motion.

The downside of poorly implemented motion handling – in some cheaper models, for example – is that such changes can look odd and unnatural. The ball might have an odd halo around it, players will appear strangely hard-edged, and the overall look will be very artificial, instead of naturally more detailed.

And this is the reason motion handling and upscaling tech need to work together to deliver the best results. For example, an upscale might be adding plenty of detail, but if motion processing is poor, that detail can become blurred in fast-action shots and difficult to see . Equally, if motion processing is great but the upscaler is adding weird edges to the ball, that again will undo the hard work.

LG’s OLED TVs, such as the LG C5 or LG G6, are excellent at upscaling and motion, as are Samsung’s higher-end TVs, including the Samsung QN90F and Samsung S95F. Sony’s TVs had a great reputation for this for years, but most recently we’ve found LG and Samsung to be superior. TCL and Hisense TVs generally handle these elements well in the more mid-range models, with the Hisense U8QG and TCL QM7K (both are US models) being especially impressive for their respective prices. Amazon’s Ember QLED TV is also decent out of the box compared to most budget-friendly TVs, as is the Roku Plus Series in the US.

Good screen uniformity

You might have heard this talked about as the "dirty screen effect". Basically, screen uniformity is a TV's ability to display an evenly lit image across the entire screen, without patches that appear darker. It's an issue that mainly afflicts LCD-based TV, including LED, QLED, mini-LED and RGB models.

LCD TVs work by shining a backlight made of LEDs through a grid of pixels, and the design of this backlight plays a major role in screen uniformity. If LEDs are unevenly arranged or lit, some areas of the screen can appear slightly darker or brighter than others. This is especially noticeable in scenes where there are large areas of solid colour – the grass on a football field, for example.

If your TV's screen uniformity is poor, you'll see odd dark patches rippling across the field as the camera follows the ball. Some people might mistake it for dust, hence the informal name.

The larger a TV, the more susceptible it can be to the dirty screen effect, simply because there’s a bigger area that needs to be lit evenly. This is why opting for a super-large budget model can sometime work against you, since they're less likely to come with the higher-quality backlighting required to maintain consistent screen uniformity.

While you can’t know for sure how a particular TV will perform, you can get a clue by considering the number of "dimming zones" listed in a TV's specs. In general, more dimming zones means more control over the backlight, which often goes hand in hand with a higher number of LEDs in the panel and better screen uniformity.It's also worth checking out reviews where people discuss screen uniformity.

I’ve talked about LED TVs a lot here — but what about OLED? In theory, OLED TVs display issues with screen uniformity, because every single pixel is its own LED. OLEDs can have problems with the evenness of the image, but it’s more likely to be the result of an actual fault rather than just a poor-value TV.

A reflection-beating screen

Watching sports generally means a lot of daytime viewing, and that tends to mean a lot of light. Even if you’re watching in the evening, you might still have lots of lights on in your room. The glossy screens of most TVs means they reflect like a mirror, making it difficult to see what’s on-screen.

Mirror-like reflections are particularly distracting, not only because they pull your attention away from the game, but also because your eyes will naturally try to focus on the reflection, rather than the image on the TV. Since the reflection appears to sit at a different distance to the TV image, constantly refocusing between the two can cause eyestrain.

TVs use a several methods to reduce reflections, and almost all TVs have a polarizer built in to help control how light travels through the panel. However, in budget TVs this can be very basic, and so won’t appear to make a huge difference in bright rooms.

So, in a more affordable TV, higher brightness can often present the best method of counteracting any reflections. Mini-LED TVs excel here because they use a huge number of tiny LEDs, allowing them to produce much higher brightness across the whole screen over what OLED TVs can achieve.

Some TVs also have specific anti-reflection layers. Samsung’s higher-end mini-LED and OLED TVs come with a “Glare Free" coating, which is basically a matte layer that scatters light rather than reflecting it. Any reflections instead appear as a dim haze rather than an object of focus, making it more easily handled by the TV's own brightness to overcome and therefore less distracting for the viewer. Hisense has also added a less-aggressive matte layer to its high-end and mid-range mini-LED TVs. The LG G6 OLED TV includes a very impressive layer that massively reduces the brightness of mirror-like reflections.

Basically, if you’ll be watching your TV in a bright room, then the higher the level of brightness in your TV the better — and a premium TV with an extra anti-reflection layer will help even further.

Sound that extends beyond the screen

When you're watching the World Cup, you want to feel immersed in the atmosphere of the event, and the sound is a major part of that. If the crowd noise seems confined to the TV itself, it’s hard to forget that you’re simply watching a screen. But when the sound feels like it's coming from beyond the box, you'll feel more like you’re part of the action.

Similarly, audio with deeper bass and clearer highs will deliver a more immersive feeling, because drums, stamping feet, voices and the roaring of a whole crowd will sound more full and realistic.

Once again, while there’s no way to know for sure from the specs alone if a TV will deliver a decent, you can make an educated guess.

Budget TVs are likely to have a very basic speaker system, usually comprising just two small speakers that point downwards. As such, their ability to engulf you in audio will be limited. If a TV has just a 2.0-channel speaker system, odds are that will be small-sounding.

A TV with forward-firing or side-firing speakers is far more likely to deliver expansive audio. Look for models whose specs feature a bass system (either a subwoofer or just passive bass radiators), which achieve a much fuller sound.

The good news is that mid-range TVs and upwards are increasingly capable of delivering full, well-handled sound straight out of the box. Models such as the TCL QM7K and Hisense U7 perform well in this area, but step up to the TCL QM8K, Hisense U8 or especially the Samsung QN90F, and you'll experience a much bigger and more spacious feel.

Of course, another way to ensure superb sound quality is with a soundbar or speaker system. Around this time of year, you'll find plenty of TV deals with soundbars thrown in, or offered at a low price, so keep a lookout. It’s possible that a mid-price TV with an affordable soundbar turns out to be the best-value combination overall for mixing a big screen with big sound.

A big screen size balanced with price

A lot of people looking to buy a TV for World Cup viewing will be tempted to go for the biggest screen possible, and there many huge sizes available for not much more than the cost of an 65-inch model, which will tempt people even more so to go big.

But big isn't necessarily best, because of all the factors I’ve mentioned above. All the potential dangers I’ve mentioned. Poor motion handling, weak detail, uneven screen uniformity, distracting reflections and limited sound are all more noticeable on a larger screen, where flaws have nowhere to hide.

If you have a budget of $1,000 to spend, you could buy a basic 85-inch TV, or a good 75-inch model, or a higher-quality 65-inch set. How you balance size, quality and budget is ultimately a personal choice, but it's important to note that unless your budget increases alongside the screen size, you’ll usually be trading performance for acreage.

If you're wondering what the "right" screen size is for your particular setup, check out this calculator, which will help you figure it out:

Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra review: Two-minute review

If you need a big tablet, you can’t go wrong with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra, which sports a gigantic 14.6-inch display that offers a 16:10 aspect ratio, which not only offers plenty of screen real estate compared to alternatives like iPads but also makes the S11 Ultra perfect for watching widescreen movies and shows. Of course, the large screen also lends itself well to productivity and gaming as well.

Staying true to Samsung’s other ‘Ultra’ devices, the Tab S11 Ultra brings all the bells and whistles to justify its high asking price. Like the Galaxy S26 Ultra, an S Pen stylus is included in the box, while the full Galaxy AI suite takes advantage of the larger display with features like screen sharing in Gemini Live and drawing tools like Creative Studio and Sketch to Image. It also retains the IP68 water- and dust-resistant rating from its predecessor, which is still rare for most modern tablets. Granted, these features are also available in the smaller (and cheaper) 11-inch Tab S11, so it’s hardly the reason why you would buy the much larger Ultra.

Otherwise, this is another iterative update from the Tab S10 Ultra, which was a disappointment in itself. Our tester wasn’t happy with the older tablet’s lackluster battery life and the MediaTek processor in our Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra review. The good news is that the Tab S11 Ultra has better CPU performance and the battery lasts 1.5-2 hours longer, but the bad news is that MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ doesn’t compare well with the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor in the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which is faster. And that makes me question Samsung’s decision to switch from Snapdragon CPUs in the Tab S9 series to MediaTek in the 10th- and 11th-generation slates.

Admittedly, the MediaTek provides better graphics performance, and can also handle ray-tracing better than the Snapdragon to reinforce the Tab S11 Ultra’s gaming focus but, when compared to a similarly priced iPad Pro with an Apple M5 chip — a desktop-class CPU that is more powerful than many Windows laptops — the Tab S11 Ultra feels overpriced even for a top-of-the-line tablet.

The minor upgrades come with a price hike over the S10 Ultra, and you won’t be able to reuse the older cases and keyboards from the Tab S10 Ultra and Tab S9 Ultra because of the thinner chassis, so you’d have to shell out more cash for new ones.

If you want the biggest, best display to run Android apps and games on, and watch widescreen movies and shows, the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is a great choice, but if you want to run pro-level software, you’re better off with a similarly priced iPad Pro.

Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra review: price and availability

• Available since September 2025
• Price starts at $1,299 / £1,269 / AU$2,099
• A 5G model is also available in the UK and Australia from £1,419 / AU$2,349

With a starting price of $1,299 / £1,269 / AU$2,099 for the base model featuring 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is Samsung’s biggest and most expensive tablet to date, comparable to the iPad Pro 13-inch that will set you back $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$2,199.

In some aspects that’s a win, given that the Samsung offers 65% more screen area with the 14.6-inch display, but the flip side to that is the OLED display on the iPad Pro is brighter and sharper.

An S Pen stylus is included in the box with the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra, while an Apple Pencil is sold separately for $129 / £129 / AU$219. It’s a nice bonus, as is the fact that Samsung does multitasking better than Apple.

However — and this is the biggest issue I have with the S11 Ultra’s price — the MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ chipset is a disappointment compared to Apple’s M5 silicon in the iPad Pro, and it doesn’t even top the Apple M4 in the iPad Air, which is $300 / £300 / AU$650 cheaper.

The larger screen makes the Tab S11 Ultra a good laptop replacement, but Samsung sells the accessories separately. You can pick up a slim keyboard and case combo for $199.99 / £189 / AU$399 or an aluminum Pro Keyboard that makes the Tab S11 Ultra work like a laptop for $349.99 / £329 / AU$599. That added cost makes that combination more expensive than more powerful laptops, including ones with discrete GPUs.

Unless you need a water-resistant tablet or if your games are only available on Android, it’s hard to justify the price tag for the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra. I think the older Tab S10 FE is a much better buy at $449 / £429 / AU$849.

• Value: 3/5

Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra review: specs

Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra review: display

• Massive 14.6-inch screen makes for a big and heavy device
• Samsung retains Wacom tech for the S Pen

Like its predecessor, I’d be hard-pressed to find a bigger and better display on an Android tablet than the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra’s huge 14.6-inch OLED screen. It’s even brighter than the S10 Ultra’s 930 nits (now 1600 nits), which is the same as the M5 iPad Pro.

The screen brightness is great indoors, which is a given for most tablets these days, but it was also bright enough to use outdoors. I watched an entire movie during a 3.5-hour bus ride while at a window seat and I didn’t have to draw the curtains in.

If you are considering a tablet as a laptop replacement, the Tab S11 Ultra gives you more screen space than a 14-inch Macbook Pro and outdoes its competition in the similarly priced iPad Pro. The latter, however, has a sharper OLED screen with a 264 pixel per inch density, compared to 239ppi on Samsung’s display.

Because it’s from Samsung, the Tab S11 Ultra has HDR10+ support, while iPad Pros favor Dolby Vision.

Samsung has also retained Wacom’s electromagnetic resonance (EMR) technology for its S Pen, meaning the stylus is passive and it doesn’t need a battery to write or draw with. That said, no battery means the S Pen doesn’t support Bluetooth anymore — just like the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s included S Pen.

• Display: 5/5

Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra review: design

• Water-resistant design
• Thinner and lighter than the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra

A tablet this size prioritizes the viewing experience over design, which means the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra isn’t anything special to look at. I like the clean design, but otherwise it’s just a big slab, much like every other Android tablet I’ve seen.

Like the Tab S10 Ultra, the S11 Ultra has four direct-firing speakers hidden around the edges to provide full stereo stage audio when the tablet is in landscape mode for movie watching. During testing, the audio sounded clear and full-bodied, and was loud enough to fill a medium-sized room, and I never felt like I had to reach for my headphones or hook the tablet up to a portable speaker.

The tablet now has just one front camera instead of two from the Tab S10 Ultra, which in turn reduces the notch size. The camera is still in the centre of the Tab S11 Ultra’s long side to favor landscape orientation for video calls, providing a natural head-on eyeline. Apple’s iPads, on the other hand, have cameras on the short side (meant for vertical or portrait orientation).

The Tab S11 Ultra retains the same button layout as the S10 Ultra, with power and volume on the top edge in landscape mode (or the right edge when in portrait orientation).

The S Pen attaches to the Tab S11 Ultra on its edges magnetically instead of having a dedicated strip on the back like on the S10 Ultra, similar to how an Apple Pencil attaches to iPads. However, I would recommend buying Samsung’s back cover if you want a more secure way to store the stylus via a recessed groove to cradle it — I found the magnetic attachment wasn’t strong enough and the S Pen would invariably come away when traveling with it in my bag.

As mentioned, the Galaxy S11 Ultra can be used as a laptop replacement thanks to its large screen and Samsung sells keyboard cases that will cost you extra. During my testing, however, I paired it with a wireless keyboard (Logitech MX Keys Mini) and used a laptop stand to prop it up and it was fine, but hardly a setup portable enough to bring to a cafe.

• Design: 4/5

Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra review: software

• The best tablet software for multitasking
• Now has more gaming-specific software

Samsung’s One UI software, running on top of Android 16, is packed with features that shine on a big tablet compared to a smaller smartphone display. I found multitasking to be a breeze, with up to three split-screen apps (one large, two small) running at the same time, and five pop-up windows can be layered on top of these. That’s a total of eight active apps all at once! Tiling and arranging windows are as easy as dragging them where you want them to go.

Like other Galaxy Tabs, apps and conversations can be opened via pop-up bubbles, and the S Pen enables pop-up notetaking when you just need a quick. I used it for work research and taking notes in Samsung Notes, and the process was easy and comfortable.

To test the multitasking, I joined a video call on one side while playing a game on the other, and also had a YouTube video in a floating window. The Tab S11 Ultra handled all applications well, with no crashes or slowing framerates.

While Samsung’s operating system is great, I couldn’t really think of too many Android apps that would truly maximize the large screen. I downloaded the drawing and painting app Krita, and the display accommodated the extensive menus and the canvas well to make it look like the app’s desktop version. I also downloaded the video editing app LumaFusion, and the tablet’s screen was able to display a longer timeline, although this really isn’t the best example for recommending an expensive tablet as I think most people would find an app like LumaFusion would be fine on a smaller screen too.

It’s evident that Samsung also made this tablet with DeX (desktop experience) in mind, where you can either use the mode on the device itself to emulate a laptop-like interface or with an external monitor plugged in. DeX looks like a hybrid of Windows and macOS, with both a persistent taskbar and a floating dock with app icons available at your disposal. My favorite feature is being able to snap windows to the side to take an entire half of the screen, or a corner to automatically resize into a quadrant.

DeX runs the tablet’s apps in windows, which can result in some weird ‘stretching’ when you maximize some apps that aren’t fully supported. One workaround I found is to forgo the apps altogether and just open their web version with the Samsung Internet browser (instead of Chrome) to load their desktop versions. This extra layer of friction takes points away from the Tab S11 Ultra as a true laptop replacement, and you may be better off getting the real thing.

One UI 8.5 now provides a real dual-screen mode on DeX while you plug in an external monitor, where the cursor can move through both screens, and windows can be dragged and dropped from one display to the other. Some apps now adapt depending on the screen, defaulting to desktop mode on the external monitor, then reverting to the touch-optimized version when the window is moved to the tablet.

As someone who finds that a single display just doesn’t cut it anymore for productivity, this mode made the Tab S11 Ultra a viable work machine during my testing.

When Samsung said this tablet was aimed at gaming enthusiasts, it sure meant it. One UI 8.5 introduced new gaming software in the Tab S11 Ultra, including per-game CPU and GPU tuning, native controller mapping and High-Performance mode. There’s also MediaTek HyperEngine to customize ray-tracing and variable rate shading, as well as some AI-powered features to let you skip game intros and automatically mute ads found in free-to-play games.

I tested several of these features and, while they didn’t improve my experience with the games I tried, I can see them being potentially beneficial for competitive multiplayer gamers.

Of course, there’s the full Galaxy AI suite, headlined by a dedicated button found on the Samsung keyboards to activate Gemini or Bixby. A few Galaxy AI features maximize the Tab S11 Ultra’s size, like Sketch to Image (which converts sketches to an AI-generated image), Note Assist (cleans up handwriting) and Math Solver (more room to show complex equations and graphs).

Like most of Samsung’s phones and tablets, the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra has 7 years of support, which includes 7 generations of Android/One UI upgrades, security patches, hardware support and self-repair. Since tablets are usually replaced less frequently than a smartphone, long-term support like this is welcome indeed.

Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra review: performance

• Decent for Android, but nowhere near the iPad Pro
• I wish this had a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset instead

As I’ve already mentioned, Samsung has once again used a MediaTek chipset in the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra, which puts it at a disadvantage over the iPad Pro with its desktop-class Apple M5 chip — which is more powerful than many Windows laptops. While the Dimensity 9400+ is a decent mobile processor and a meaningful upgrade over the Tab S10 Ultra’s Dimensity 9300+ (Samsung is claiming a 15-20% CPU boost), the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra doesn’t come close to the M5’s performance.

The MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ is designed for gaming and marketed to gamers, and while it wins some benchmarks on the graphics side, it falls short on processing performance compared to even Qualcomm’s newest Snapdragon CPU being used in Samsung’s phones. Again, given its high asking price, it’s hard to justify the S11 Ultra for gamers only and I question why the South Korean tech giant didn’t use the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset from the Galaxy S25 Ultra handset instead.

Geekbench rates last year’s S25 Ultra higher than the Tab S11 Ultra in three out out of four benchmarking tests, beating the tablet in single-core (2,847 vs 2,633), multi-core (9,408 vs 8,633) and even the GPU-focused Vulkan (23,871 vs 22,023). The only test the Tab Ultra wins is in OpenCL, which also measures GPU performance, with a score of 20,468 versus the S25 Ultra’s 17,871.

And that was evident in my testing. A resource-intensive game like Asphalt Legends ran very smoothly at max settings. However, its on-screen controls felt unwieldy and it’s better used with a third-party controller — so it’s good news that Samsung has improved external controller support with the S11 Ultra. The flip side to this is that you would have to lug around an additional item if you want to play while on the move.

With a tablet being able to dissipate heat better than a phone, I can only imagine how much better the Snapdragon 8 Elite could have performed in the same tests without the same thermal throttling it has to deal with in a smartphone chassis. Samsung could have also considered the laptop-class Snapdragon X processors found in the Samsung Galaxy Books if the company wanted to match the tablet up with the iPad Pro. Instead, the Tab S11 Ultra remains a mid-range tablet with a giant screen like the Tab S10 Ultra.

Even taking the M5 iPad Pro out of the equation, it’s hard to justify the S11 Ultra over a similarly priced laptop with better specs, like the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 CPU and an Nvidia RTX 5060 GPU ($1,249 / £1,150 / AU$2,199). Not to mention, the Lenovo includes a keyboard, while the Tab S11 Ultra needs the $349.99 / £329 / AU$599 Samsung Pro Keyboard to become a serious contender as a true laptop replacement.

• Performance: 3/5

Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra review: battery

• More battery life than the Tab S10 Ultra despite the slimmer chassis

Battery life on the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra has improved a little from its predecessor, thanks to an extra 400mAh in the new pack and the MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ being a more power-efficient chipset. I tested the battery by streaming a 1080p video with the screen at full brightness, and it took 11 hours for the Tab S11 Ultra battery to drain. In comparison, the Tab S10 Ultra lasted 9 hours in a similar test done by our Future Labs last year.

The 45W fast charging also topped up the battery just as quickly, with the Tab S11 Ultra reaching 20% in 15 minutes, 35% in 30 minutes, and full at just 1 hour and 45 minutes. The Tab S10 Ultra has the same 45W rating, while the M5 iPad Pro is officially rated at 40W, (though Apple claims it can support up to 60W fast charging with higher-wattage power adapters like a MacBook power brick).

• Battery: 4/5

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

How I tested the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra

I used the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra for two weeks as a work tablet and my main device for watching content and gaming outside of office hours. I also brought it with me on a holiday to watch movies and play games while in transit. I loaded it with my work accounts and apps, including Slack and Google Meet. I also downloaded SimCity Build It, Age of Empires Mobile and Asphalt Legends — as well as streaming games via Steam Link — to test the gaming features. I paired the tablet with an 8BitDo controller via Bluetooth to complete my gaming setup for this review.

To test the tablet’s durability, I dunked it in my kitchen sink filled with water and rinsed it repeatedly. I did not get the Samsung keyboard with trackpad cover as a test unit, but I paired it with my Logitech MX Keys Mini keyboard and a Logitech MX Anywhere mouse to test it as a laptop replacement. The Tab S11 Ultra was also connected to my ZSUS portable USB-C monitor. I independently tested and benchmarked the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra, using software like Geekbench and a battery test for video playback.

First reviewed May 2026

• Samsung might launch a Galaxy S27 Pro next year
• This would apparently be a compact alternative to the Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra
• It could have a 6.47-inch screen and launch alongside the base, Plus, and Ultra models

Samsung could be going from three Galaxy S models to four next year, and we’re not talking about a return of the Edge line. Instead, the company might launch a new ‘Pro’ phone.

This is according to a report in ETNews (via 9to5Google), and while this isn’t quite the first time we’ve heard of a Pro-branded Galaxy phone (rumors of a Galaxy S26 Pro swirled last year), there are some new details here. For one thing, it will reportedly have a screen that’s just 6.47 inches in size, making it only marginally larger than the 6.3-inch Samsung Galaxy S26, and much smaller than the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra or Plus.

The other new detail is that the new phone will apparently launch alongside the Samsung Galaxy S27, Galaxy S27 Plus, and Galaxy S27 Ultra, rather than instead of one of them.

Small but mighty

So, what will the Galaxy S27 Pro offer that’s different from the base Galaxy S27? Well, as the name suggests, this will apparently have far higher-end specs, putting it more in line with the Ultra model, albeit without S Pen support.

In other words, this would be a compact option for people who still want high-end specs and features. How successful that will be remains to be seen, but it would mean Samsung finally offers a device that’s more of a direct rival to the iPhone 17 Pro, so it makes a certain amount of sense.

And early reactions are largely positive, with people on Reddit saying things like “this will be amazing,” “that’s so good I’m buying that one next time,” and “so excited about this possibility.” So, it sounds like Samsung might be on to something.

Of course, the Galaxy S27 Pro is just a rumor for now, but if it does exist, it will probably launch in early 2027, alongside the rest of the Samsung Galaxy S27 series.

• RAM could soon get more expensive
• This is due to the disruption of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz
• Specifically it pertains to problems with the supply of hydrofluoric acid, used for etching and cleaning in RAM production

There could be another complication for the RAM supply chain coming soon, bringing the prospect of even pricier memory sticks.

We've heard before that disruptions to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz are a problem for the supply of certain vital chemicals used in memory production. And now, The Elec reports (via Tom's Hardware) that this ongoing situation is going to usher in further price hikes which are described as an 'Iran-linked supply shock'.

The Elec notes that hydrofluoric acid, which is used for etching and cleaning in RAM production, is increasing in price due to the core ingredient, anhydrous hydrogen fluoride, becoming more expensive – it's leapt by 40% since 2026 began.

The upshot is that while the increases have been absorbed and not passed on thus far, this won't continue to be the case. Come late June or July, South Korean memory chip makers Samsung and SK Hynix will be paying more for this acid – and the price hike will be a 'significant' one.

As The Elec explains, the supply problems here can be traced back to a shortfall in sulfur, with the global supply of that element dropping by almost a third due to the issues with the Strait of Hormuz. The core ingredient for hydrofluoric acid requires sulfuric acid for its production, hence the knock-on effect from the major supply wobble with sulfur.

Analysis: under pressure (yet again)

With the suppliers of hydrofluoric acid charging memory chip makers more due to their rising costs, the RAM manufacturers will naturally be passing those costs on, and the bill will, in the end, land in the hands of buyers out there.

In short, with manufacturing set to become more expensive in about a month's time, we'll see more RAM price increases. (Of course, there'll be a delay in terms of the memory chips being made, and then actually deployed in sticks, and shipped to retailers, OEMs and the like).

Unfortunately, this is another lesson in how the disruption of global trade and shipping can, and inevitably does, have far-reaching effects. Of course, the last thing the RAM industry and consumers need is yet another pricing pressure on the cost of memory, which has got stupidly expensive as it is.

This kind of news makes you wonder whether the RAM crisis will ever end, and current predictions are that it's likely to make its presence felt until 2028 (at the very least). That said, we heard a more optimistic take from an ex-Samsung boss just yesterday, but this runs against the grain.

• The ex-chief of Samsung's semiconductor business has made a more optimistic prediction about the RAM crisis
• The memory situation will improve thanks to a surge in RAM production from Chinese companies, and some deflation in the AI bubble
• Due to those factors combined, we're told, "There is a possibility that the market will change starting from the second half of next year or the first half of 2028."

Could the RAM crisis be over sooner than you thought — and maybe even in not much more than a year? An ex-Samsung exec has stated that this could be a possibility.

Wccftech flagged a report from Seoul Economic Daily (via PC Gamer), which quoted Kye-hyun Kyung, who was head of Samsung's semiconductor business until a couple of years ago.

In a keynote at the National Academy of Engineering of Korea in Seoul, Kyung observed that "Chinese companies are aggressively expanding their production capacity" for making RAM.

He then added: "There is a possibility that the market will change starting from the second half of next year or the first half of 2028, when memory supply surges." (Bear in mind that this is translated from Korean).

The ex-Samsung boss further noted that there was also a chance that the "return on investment for Big Tech" could decrease relative to the capital ploughed into AI, and that this could lead to a weakening of the AI boom. This, combined with the mentioned surge in RAM production in China, could mean a swifter than expected correction in the balance of supply and demand.

Or at least swifter than the predictions up until now, in which no one has stuck their neck out to forecast that the RAM crisis could be over before 2028.

Analysis: some welcome optimism — but it goes against the grain

Granted, Kyung has only indicated that we may see the beginning of the end (as it were) of sky-high RAM pricing when the second half of 2027 comes around, but that's still a more optimistic line of thinking than we've seen before. And I'll take that sentiment, certainly.

I'm not convinced that the currently booming AI industry is going to start to turn into a nosedive anytime soon, mind, but the observation about the amount of money being slung at AI heavily outweighing any profits that are made is a fair point.

Other feedback we've had this month on the RAM crisis has been distinctly gloomier. Indeed, we've witnessed warnings of one kind or another from all three big memory chip makers — including Samsung — which are predicting the crisis will last until at least 2028, and in one case, possibly until 2030. And they should be in a pretty good position to know.

So for now, talk of a recovery sparking off in just over a year feels like gazing through rather rosy-tinted spectacles, but I'm happy to entertain the thought — and to hope that other more positive forecasts may be imminent.

• Samsung's first XR glasses are here... kinda
• Gentle Monster and Warby Parker are behind the designs
• The glasses are launching later this year

Samsung has lifted the lid on its premium Android XR glasses at Google I/O 2026, and some familiar fashion brands have lent a hand — with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster offering their eyewear design expertise.

But these glasses aren’t just eye candy; first and foremost they’re a smart companion to your phone. They’ll offer various assistive features, including navigation, summarized notification readouts, real-time audio translation, and the ability to translate text on signs amongst other AI tools. You can also use them to capture first-person photos and videos.

You can use all these features even when your phone is in your pocket. The glasses boast cameras, speakers, and microphones, with the AI tasks being handled via a connection with your phone.

If you think these sound a lot like the Meta Ray-Ban glasses then you’re not wrong — the Warby Parker design even looks a bit like my smart Wayfarers — but there are a couple of key factors that will help these specs stand out from the competition (not just Meta, but other brands like Rokid and Even Realities).

First, their on-board smarts are backed by Google Gemini. Google has done a lot to boost its AI’s capabilities over the past few years, and while Meta hasn’t fallen asleep at wheel by any stretch Google’s bot is generally seen as the more proficient helper.

A big edge Gemini has is that it can natively integrate with the Android ecosystem of apps, such as your calendar and email, where Meta has to build connections with individual apps, and doesn’t offer the same seamless support.

Second, they’re being billed as “a companion device to a mobile phone” by Samsung and Google. While Meta’s tech is currently also a smartphone companion to some extent, it’s clear that the company's goal is a dedicated Meta device that replaces your phone, while Samsung and Google want their glasses to be more like smartwatches, augmenting the smartphone experience.

Right now this distinction isn’t all that clear, but we might see it materialize in meaningful ways when these new specs launch — such as through them relying on on-phone AI rather than cloud computing to offer a privacy advantage over their main rivals.

That said, Meta has the most important advantage right now: you can actually buy its glasses. Google, Samsung, Gentle Monster and Warby Parker remained tight-lipped when it came to pricing and release dates. We only know that the glasses will land in “the fall” in the US (so September through November), with additional entails to be revealed “in the coming months.”

A fashion focus

While this tease, rather than a full-on launch, puts a slight dampener on my excitement, one other exciting aspect comes via Gentle Monster and Warby Parker — with these companies suggesting that they understand technology isn’t the only important factor — these specs need to look good too.

Discussing the Samsung XR announcement, Founder and CEO of Gentle Monster, Hankook Kim, said “Intelligent eyewear should feel as emotionally expressive as it is technologically advanced.” He added “Our vision was to merge fashion and technology in a way that feels bold, beautiful and human, bringing Gentle Monster’s disruptive design identity into a new era of intelligent eyewear with Samsung and Google.”

Dave Gilboa, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Warby Parker said, “Eyewear is deeply personal, which is why every detail matters when integrating advanced technology into frames people wear every day.”

This rings true with the brands' respective designs. While a little more ‘basic’, I could see myself wearing the Warby Parker shapes every day, and despite me not personally loving the Gentle Monster glasses, I love what the bold designs signal — that these glasses are designed to appeal to a wide range of audiences.

We’re still missing some key details about Samsung's glasses, but today’s showcase has given me a lot to get excited about — for Android XR, and for glasses as a whole.

• One UI 8.5 has started rolling out to four more Samsung phones
• These include the Galaxy Z Fold 5, Galaxy Z Flip 5, Galaxy A56, and Galaxy A36
• The update brings AirDrop support to Quick Share, among other things

Samsung’s One UI 8.5 rollout is continuing, as following on from its launch on the Samsung Galaxy S25 series and some other models on May 6, it’s now coming to four more Samsung phones.

These — as spotted by SamMobile across a series of articles — include the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, the Samsung Galaxy A56, and the Samsung Galaxy A36. This software has already come to more recent Samsung foldables, but this is the first time we’re seeing it on any Galaxy A models.

However, initially, it’s just South Korea that’s getting the One UI 8.5 update on these phones, but it’s likely, based on past form, that other countries will also get it in the next few days, so keep an eye out if you have one of these handsets.

You’ll probably get a notification when the update is available, but you can manually check in Settings > Software update > Download and install.

AirDrop and more

One UI 8.5 comes with numerous new features and improvements — though not all of them will necessarily be available on all phones.

The headline feature is arguably AirDrop support over Quick Share, but there are also other improvements to Quick Share, and to Photo Assist, as well as a more effective power saving mode, security improvements, and tweaks to the Weather app, the My Files app, and more.

So, it’s an update that’s worth downloading as soon as it’s available, and if you have one of the four phones above, it should be available very soon.

Ask anyone who's used it, including us: the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is one of the best phones money can buy right now.

In our review, we heaped praise on its excellent cameras, powerful performance, neat Privacy Display, and handy stylus. It continues Samsung's run of ultra-powerful flagships, bringing a few useful improvements over its predecessor.

But it's not the perfect phone, and one aspect reliably puts potential buyers off: the high price. You'll have to pay at least $1,299 / £1,279 / AU$2,199 to enjoy the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which is a lot for a handheld gadget.

And sure, the newest phone has the newest features, but older models still have lots of the same hardware (sometimes better hardware), and some even have an arguably more premium design, which Samsung retired a few generations ago.

Older Galaxy Ultras are still on sale, too. Some third-party retailers continue to stock certain models, but they're mostly available second-hand or, more reliably, through refurbished schemes, which ensure the phone is working and has replacement parts (here's how to stay safe when buying a refurbished phone).

So, if the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra doesn't fit into your budget, here are a few older models to consider, along with good reasons to pick them up.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

If you want an absolute bargain alternative to the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, but don't mind a bit of risk too, then the Galaxy S22 Ultra might be worth a look.

Even in 2026, this phone still has solid specs. It's got four rear cameras, a premium build, a stylus, and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset that remains competitive in the mid-range to this day; you're unlikely to find equivalent hardware in a recently released $300 / £300 / AU$500 phone.

So, what's that risk I mentioned? Well, the S22 Ultra saw Android updates up to One UI 8, so it's no longer getting new software upgrades, and security upgrades are up in the air, too. If you like getting new features or keeping your phone protected from threats, then you're out of luck with this model.

Frankly, as a tech expert, I wouldn't advise picking up the Galaxy S22 Ultra to use as a daily driver phone. But if you want a backup phone for photography or gaming, it could be a bargain buy. This is the least recommendable option on my list, but I thought I'd include it for those reasons alone.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

Is the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra the goldilocks option? It's old enough to be a cheap pick, but new enough to remain in line for one more major software update, which will bring a handful of extra features. It'll also continue to receive security patches until 2028.

The S23 Ultra is also the last of the great Galaxy Ultras to pack certain premium features. You won't get a 10x optical zoom periscope lens if you go more modern, nor a handset with a dramatic curving waterfall display. The S23 Ultra was the first Galaxy Ultra to pack a 200MP main camera; it also still has Bluetooth in its stylus, and its shell is made of titanium.

A fair amount of the S23 Ultra's specs are still used in the S26 Ultra, too, like the 5,000mAh battery and Dynamic AMOLED 2X display technology (although the screen on the older model is 0.1 inches smaller).

Naturally, the phone's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset isn't going to be quite as powerful as that of modern Galaxies, and some of the newer software features are missing. But the Galaxy S23 Ultra is an absolute bargain, especially if you buy it renewed.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Galaxy phones made a noticeable step towards modernity with the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, which is an older mobile with a fair amount in common with the S26 Ultra.

That means you're getting the blocky, angular design of the newer phones, though the S24 Ultra is made of titanium, unlike the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

We noted in our review that, although its on-paper specs match those of the S23 Ultra in a lot of ways, the S24 Ultra performs better in certain departments. We found its battery life to be superior, for example, and its all-round camera performance is better too (even if software updates have brought optimization tweaks to the older models).

The S24 Ultra's current price puts it on par with certain mid-range phones, and so it's a much cheaper option than the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Crucially, there's another big reason why you might want to pick this phone as your S26 Ultra alternative: instead of the four years of Android updates pledged to its predecessors, the S24 Ultra gets seven years. That means it'll keep getting new software until 2031. In other words, you've got loads of gas left in the tank.

If you want a device that'll keep receiving updates for years, then this is the oldest model to consider.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Perhaps the safest choice for a Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra-like phone would be the previous-generation model.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has a lot in common with its recent sibling (too much, according to some testers). The main design change is that the S25 Ultra is slightly thicker and heavier, but it looks largely identical, save for a floating camera island on the newer phone.

Its specs are very similar, too; you'll get the same camera array, display, battery, and charging capabilities as the S26 Ultra. One year of downgrading won't get you a lesser device; the newer model simply has a more powerful chipset, and some extra software tricks like Privacy Display and Horizon Lock.

Like the S24 Ultra, the S25 Ultra is also confirmed to receive seven years of software updates, so it'll be covered until 2032.

So if they're so similar, why get the older version? You already know the answer: the Galaxy S25 Ultra is now significantly cheaper than the S26 Ultra, and it's on sale more frequently, too. In fact, it's pretty easy to find new S25 Ultras going for cheaper than Samsung's own Re-Newed models, which shows how far the prices have fallen.

What about an even older Galaxy Ultra?

There are two previous models of Ultra not mentioned yet: the Galaxy S21 Ultra, and Galaxy S20 Ultra. Before that, the suffix wasn't used, with the Galaxy S10 only getting a 'Plus' model, which was mostly the same as the base version.

These mobiles have a lot of specs in common with newer models, but they're probably a little too old to be worth considering.

For one, they're no longer supported by software updates, and if they get damaged, replacement parts will be harder to find. They're old enough, too, that you won't get the full performance enjoyed when they came out five-plus years ago.

But more simply, they're much harder to buy. I can barely find new versions on sale, and even refurbished ones are few and far between.

Nope: if you want a cheaper Galaxy S Ultra, pick one of the above models, or perhaps check out our list of the best Android phones to see non-Samsung alternatives.

The 2026 World Cup is only a few weeks away, so if you're thinking of upgrading your home setup, now is the time. With new 2026 TVs appearing in stores now, 2025's models are at some of their cheapest prices, meaning you can grab a real bargain.

But, while you may be looking at a new TV or a new soundbar, I've come up with a few TV/soundbar combos in case you're looking to overhaul your whole home setup.

To be clear, any of these TVs will go great with any of these soundbars if you're looking to mix and match, but I've picked pairs to hit particular budgets that are ideal matches.

I've chosen some of the best TVs from the likes of Samsung, Hisense and TCL and the best soundbars from Sonos, Samsung and more.

Setup 1: Budget bang-for-buck

TV: TCL QM6K/C6K

The TCL QM6K, known as the TCL C6K in the UK, is a budget gem. It uses a mini-LED panel that delivers punchy colors, strong contrast with deep black levels and solid brightness all for an affordable price.

With a measured HDR fullscreen brightness of 594 nits in Standard mode for the QM6K and 706 nits in the same mode on the C6K, these TVs are more than bright enough to handle daytime viewing without distracting reflections. With games played at various times throughout the day in the World Cup, this is crucial.

The QM6K/C6K also make for great gaming TVs when you're not watching the World Cup. They support 4K 144Hz, FreeSync Premium, Dolby Vision gaming and ALLM: an excellent suite of features for a TV this price.

The QM6K/C6K's best feature is its price. A 65-inch model will cost $699 / £649 respectively, which is a bargain for what you're getting. This is easily the best option for the budget conscious.

Soundbar: Sony HT-S150F

The Sony HT-SF150, know as the Sony HT-S100F in the US and Australia, is our current pick for the best super-cheap soundbar on our best soundbars list. Why? Because it delivers impressive depth, clear speech and decent power and bass for a very low price: $99 / £99 / AU$199.

It also has a decent feature set including Bluetooth support for music streaming, an elegant design and easy setup and use: all big positives for a budget soundbar.

While it isn't the most sonically diverse soundbar, it's superb value and will really help add another level to your World Cup experience by boosting commentary and crowd noise more than your TV's speakers would.

Setup 2: The step-up option

TV: Hisense U8Q

The Hisense U8QG is an excellent-value mini-LED TV. It produces rich colors and powerful contras,t and has a strong feature set including both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support, plus 4K 165Hz and VRR for gaming.

The U8Q also produces super-high brightness for a TV at this price point. A measured 3,337 nits and 2,888 nits peak HDR brightness in Filmmaker Mode and Standard respectively really help highlights pop on screen as well as producing strong perceived contrast.

With 744 nits HDR fullscreen brightness and even 600 nits of SDR fullscreen brightness, the U8Q is more than capable of handling bright rooms — perfect for daytime World Cup games.

At $999 / £1,299 / AU$1,599 for a 65-inch model, the U8Q is fantastic value for the performance it delivers and the features it comes with. If you're looking for a substantial upgrade at a fair price, this is top-notch value.

Soundbar: Sonos Beam (Gen 2)

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) may be a few years old now, but it's still one of the best all-in-one, mid-range soundbars you can get. It delivers spacious, punchy sound quality with plenty of detail. This compact soundbar is mightier than it looks.

Not only does it tick the boxes for movies, but it's fantastic for music too. It delivers the same detail it does for movies, offering a layered sound with strong, well-controlled bass, clear highs and natural sounding mid-tones.

The Beam also supports hi-res audio and Dolby Atmos, as well as Wi-Fi streaming support for better sound quality. At its usual $499 / £449 / AU$799 price tag it's a great value soundbar that will give any World Cup game an extra dimension — and occasionally it gets nice deals, too. It's great in its own right, but can be expanded with a subwoofer and rear speakers too for a fuller experience.

Setup 3: The premium option

TV: Samsung QN90F

The Samsung QN90F really is the perfect for TV for sport. Not only does it deliver high brightness thanks to its mini-LED panel, but it comes equipped with a Glare Free matte screen that makes it the ideal TV for those in a bright room because it totally squashes reflections even in darker scenes. Daytime sports viewing will be no issue for the QN90F.

Aside from the brightness, the QN90F has excellent motion handling. With the right settings (judder and blur adjustments set to 3), it delivers a smooth picture that will help deliver the games from the World Cup accurately and more clearly than basically anything else on the market.

The QN90F also delivers excellent contrast and color for movies and is a gaming powerhouse with 4K 144Hz, VRR and ALLM all supported across four HDMI 2.1 ports.

Since its release in 2025, its prices have dropped significantly. A 65-inch set costs $1,599 / £1,399 / AU$2,899 so while it's at the pricier end of the mini-LED market, it is excellent value, made even better by the big drop in price from its original $2,499 / £2,499 / AU$3,499 price tag.

Soundbar: Samsung HW-Q800F

The Samsung HW-Q800F sits at the top of our best soundbars list. It delivers a powerful, immersive sound with solid Dolby Atmos reproduction. Its subwoofer, which is a new compact, dual-driver unit, produces some serious bass that's precise and well controlled.

Speaking of precise, this is one of the Q800F's greatest strengths. Not only is its sound immersive, it's accurate too. Its mapping of different effects is pinpoint and is has excellent directionality. It will do a great job with the fast-paced action of a World Cup game and the feeling of crowd's ambiance exploding out of the soundbar and into the space all around the TV.

The Q800F also supports Wi-Fi music streaming and supports 4K 120Hz gaming in its HDMI in ports. And, it does all this for a fairly reasonable price too, costing $799 / £599 / AU$799. While that is getting to the pricier side of the soundbar market, it's worth every penny.

Setup 4: The elite OLED & surround experience

TV: Samsung S95F

The Samsung S95F was one of 2025's best OLED TVs. It delivers excellent picture quality, with vibrant, bold colors and strong contrast, as well as crisp textures and refined detail. It's also fully stocked for gaming with four HDMI 2.1 ports that support 4K 165Hz, full VRR including G-Sync, ALLM and HDR10+ gaming.

What sets the S95F apart from other OLEDs is its anti-reflection screen. A matte coating means mirror-like reflections are reduced to haze, making it a fantastic OLED for bright room viewing. With this TV, you'll get to watch daytime sports with OLED's color, detail and perfect viewing angles without worrying about reflections. While mini-LED is our typical recommendation for sports, this OLED changes the game.

However, as a flagship OLED, the S95F is in the premium price bracket. A 65-inch model costs $2,499 / £2,299 / AU$3,799 which is pricey, but if you're after an elite World Cup experience, then this OLED TV should definitely be on your list.

Soundbar: Samsung HW-Q990F

The Samsung HW-Q990F is a multi-box soundbar system that delivers serious power across 11.1.4 channels. It's sound is expansive and precise, creating a real Dolby Atmos experience at home thanks to its two rear speakers and subwoofer.

The subwoofer is a new, compact size but thankfully, none of the hefty, detailed bass has disappeared. The dual-driver sub delivers raw power which works wonders for movies. The rear speakers are excellent at delivering surround effects and the soundbar itself delivers clear speech, punchy audio and excellent separation.

If you're looking for a soundbar to capture the stadium atmosphere of the World Cup, this is it. This level of performance comes at a price though. At $1,599 / £999 / AU$1,399, this is a premium soundbar.

But for the performance and features it brings, including hi-res audio and Wi-Fi streaming support as well as 4K 120Hz passthrough for gaming, the Q990F is worth the investment if you have the budget.

• The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide might just have a 50MP main camera
• That would almost certainly make it weaker for photography than the standard Z Fold 8, which is likely to have a 200MP camera
• However, it could at least have a decent battery capacity

If you were hoping the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide would be able to come close to the standard Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 for photography, we’ve got some bad news, because the latest leak suggests it will be significantly worse.

We were already expecting this phone to just have two rear cameras, rather than the three that we’re likely to get on the Z Fold 8, and now we’ve learned that the main (wide) camera might be worse here too.

According to GalaxyClub (via GSMArena), the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide will have just a 50MP main camera, whereas the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 — and likely the Z Fold 8 — has a 200MP one.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide will at least reportedly have a 50MP ultra-wide camera, which would likely be a match for the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s, and an upgrade on the 12MP one used by the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. But if this claim is accurate, then its zoom skills probably won’t be up to much, since it won’t have either a dedicated telephoto camera or a big enough main sensor for a decent sensor crop zoom.

All in all, this phone sounds closer to the Galaxy Z Flip 8 in terms of camera hardware, which is rumored to also have a 50MP main sensor, albeit joined by a weaker 12MP ultra-wide.

A disappointing revelation

Prospective buyers understandably aren’t happy about this rumor, with one of the comments under the aforementioned GSMArena article reading “removed from my wishlist”, and another describing the upcoming phone as “another extremely overpriced Samsung device with outdated midrange cameras.”

Still, there is some good news, as today’s report also echoes previous claims that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide will have a 4,800mAh battery, and the regular Galaxy Z Fold 8 will have a 5,000mAh one, both of which would be up on the 4,400mAh battery inside the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

We’ll probably find out how accurate any of this is in July, as that’s when these phones are likely to launch.

• Samsung is rolling out the first One UI 9 beta
• This is the company's version of Android 17
• It's initially coming to the Galaxy S26 series, and includes improvements to Samsung Notes, Contacts, the Quick Panel, security, and accessibility

Samsung has only just started widely rolling out One UI 8.5, but already there’s now a beta version of One UI 9, which you’ll be able to grab if you have a Samsung Galaxy S26, Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus, or Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

This beta is built on Google’s upcoming Android 17 operating system update, and the first beta includes upgrades for five apps and features, including Samsung Notes, which is getting a wider variety of pen line styles, plus decorative tapes.

The Contacts app is also getting an upgrade, with this now offering direct access to Creative Studio, so you can create personalized profile cards without switching apps.

The Quick Panel is now more customizable, too, as you can now independently adjust the brightness, sound, and media player panels, complete with more size options to choose from.

Security and accessibility improvements

There are also security improvements with One UI 9, as if a high-risk app is detected, you’ll be warned about it and it will be blocked from being installed or opened.

Finally, One UI 9 also includes some accessibility improvements, such as an adjustable Mouse Key speed that enables smoother cursor control, a new Text Spotlight feature, which can display selected text larger or more clearly in a floating window, and a combined TalkBack package, which packages up various accessibility features that were previously offered separately by Samsung and Google.

If you’d like to give the beta a spin, you can join the beta program via the Samsung Members app. The beta may not be available to you quite yet, though, with Samsung simply saying that its rollout starts this week for countries including the US, UK, Germany, India, South Korea, and Poland. So, keep an eye out for it if you have a Galaxy S26 series phone.

And for a look at the latest Android 17 features, check out our roundup of the best Android 17 features announced at Google's Android Show event.

• Samsung is reportedly scaling back micro-LED TV production
• High production costs are an ongoing problem
• Facing a double blow of stagnant demand and rising costs

This time last year, we were told that micro-LED would make OLED and LCD redundant as it became affordable in smaller panels — but it seems that Samsung didn't get the memo. A new report says that it's scaling back its micro-LED business.

The report, by ETNews via DigiTimes, says that Samsung is reducing its micro-LED TV manufacturing after previously making the TVs on an order-to-order basis. That production has apparently stopped, with Samsung also outsourcing processes such as panel manufacturing and bonding, which is had previous done internally.

It's all about the numbers, it seems, and Samsung is having difficulty selling TVs that cost so much. According to ETNews' sources, Samsung is only selling "around 100 units" per year.

Is Samsung getting out of the micro-LED TV business?

Not yet: the report says that Samsung is still handling final product assembly. But industry watchers believe that it's the first step towards what could be a withdrawal from this part of the TV market unless things turn around.

Within the last year, Samsung introduced its Micro RGB LED TVs, which are a kind-of halfway house between micro-LED and mini-LED. These don't have the same self-emissive pixels as a true micro-LED TV, but use the same kind of RGB LED arrange to replace a single-color mini-LED backlight behind an LCD panel.

The idea is to deliver visual improvements without the very high cost of true micro-LED and, according to DigiTimes, was seen as being a way to boost awareness and adoption of micro-LED technology.

Demand for new TVs has been relatively low in the last few years, and production costs are rising, which makes TV a tough business to be in right now — and Samsung is also dealing with very intense competition from rivals such as TCL and Hisense, as well as the upcoming Bravia TV partnership between TCL and Sony.

So what does this mean for micro-LED TV? It does help that TCL and Hisense are both also getting aggressive in this area. Samsung and Hisense have both shown off some very impressive TVs as recently as CES 2026, when Samsung showed off a clever 140-inch TV where the bezel was also a screen, while Hisense showed off micro-LED tech with extra colors built into each pixel (which will be released later in 2026).

But the technology is still some way from being mass market; earlier this year we reported that TV firms are telling us it's five years away from being mainstream, and even that is among the more optimistic options.

If you're hankering after a new TV, the tech in the current best TVs isn't going to be usurped any time soon, except by more refined version of the same tech. Micro-LED TVs might yet have their time, but if Samsung isn't holding its breath internally, then you probably shouldn't either.

Thinking of buying a new TV?

Try our TV size and model finder! You tell it how far you sit from your TV, we'll tell you what size to buy based on viewing angle advice from image quality experts, and we'll recommend our three top TVs at that size for different prices.

• Singer Dua Lipa is suing Samsung for $15 million
• The lawsuit alleges the company used her image on TV boxes sold across the US without her permission
• She claims she initially asked Samsung to remove her image last year, but was met with a 'dismissive and callous' response

Update: We've received the following statement from Samsung on the lawsuit:

“Ms. Lipa’s image was used in 2025 to reflect the content of our third-party partners that are available on Samsung TVs and was originally provided by a content partner for our free streaming service Samsung TV Plus. The image was used only after receiving explicit assurance from the content partner that permission had been secured, including for the retail boxes. Given this assurance, we deny any allegations of intentional misuse. Samsung has great respect for Ms. Lipa and the intellectual property of all artists. We have actively sought and remain open to a constructive resolution with Ms. Lipa’s team.”

Original story follows.

Pop star Dua Lipa is suing Samsung for $15 million (about £11m or AU$20m), alleging that the company used an image of her on its TV packaging without her permission.

In a lawsuit filed on Friday, May 8 in California, the singer alleges that the South Korean tech giant "prominently used" her image "for a mass marketing campaign for a consumer product without her knowledge, without consideration, and as to which she had no say, control, or input whatsoever”.

The lawsuit states that the photo was taken at the Austin City Limits music festival in 2024, and that Dua Lipa owns the copyright to it. The singer is demanding $15 million in damages for “copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and misappropriation of Plaintiff’s likeness and image.”

According to her legal team, Samsung breached California’s right of publicity law, which protects the public identities of celebrities from being used for unauthorized commercial purposes.

They say the singer became aware of Samsung’s use of the image in June 2025, when a slew of social media posts referencing a ‘Dua Lipa TV box’ started circulating. The lawsuit highlights two specific Instagram comments, one in which the poster said they would “get that TV just because Dua is on it,” while another read “If you need anything selling just put a picture of Dua Lipa on it”.

Initially, Lipa and her team asked Samsung to remove the image from its packaging via a cease and desist order last year, but the lawsuit claims they were met with a “dismissive and callous” response from the company, and that it failed to comply with Lipa’s "repeated demands".

“Samsung’s copying and distribution of the DL Image constitutes willful copyright and trademark infringement, and a violation of Ms. Lipa’s right of publicity, designed to improperly capitalize on Ms. Lipa’s hard-earned success to promote and sell Samsung’s products,” the suit states.

Neither Lipa’s legal team nor Samsung have commented on the status of the lawsuit, but we’ll update this story if and when we hear more information.

The 2026 World Cup starts on June 11, and while a lot of people will be thinking about a new TV, there's still one crucial component that can make or break the whole experience: audio.

A new soundbar can really add another dimension to the World Cup viewing experience, delivering clearer commentary and a more immersive atmosphere by capturing the roar of the crowds. Let's face it, even the best TVs have average built-in audio, and it'd be a shame to miss out on the full World Cup feeling.

Below, I've picked four of the best soundbars you can buy right now that will be more than up to the task of delivering the atmosphere of the World Cup, whatever your budget.

Best overall: Samsung HW-Q800F

Currently sitting at the top of our best soundbars list is the five-star-rated Samsung HW-Q800F. One of the brand's mid-range 2025 soundbars, the Q800F really does cover all the bases.

The Q800F is a soundbar-and-sub combo that delivers everything you could need. We found in our testing that the bass delivered by the new, compact subwoofer was still suitably powerful and sizeable, accurately delivering the ignition of the Darkstar jet in Top Gun: Maverick.

It also demonstrated excellent precision with surprisingly effective Dolby Atmos height effects in movies such as The Mask, accurately capturing the chaotic nature of the titular character as he tears around Edge City. Expect it to accurately deliver the ball's movements around the field during the World Cup.

Dialogue was crystal clear throughout our testing as well, which is a good sign that a commentary track during the World Cup should be delivered with real clarity.

The Q800F is brilliant value too. You can expect to pay around $799 / £599 / AU$849, which is a great price for this soundbar. Expect prices to drop in the lead-up to the World Cup, too.

Best premium: Samsung HW-Q990F

For those looking for a complete soundbar system, it doesn't get much better than the Samsung HW-Q990F, the brand's 2025 flagship model. This 11.1.4 channel soundbar is a beast, composed of four separate units and really delivers the full surround sound experience.

I personally tested the Q990F and was blown away by its performance. The new compact subwoofer delivers room-filling bass that is mighty, but also well controlled. The rumble of the Batmobile's engine in The Batman was room-shaking but dynamic and precise, with the subwoofer accurately delivering the chunky gear changes.

The Q990F boasts a wide soundstage that's not only great for big musical numbers from movies like Wicked, but also action-packed scenes such as the Death Star attack in Star Wars: A New Hope. The sound is expansive with pinpoint placement, such as the TIE Fighter's screeching flight path in Star Wars. The stadium atmosphere in the World Cup will sound sensational through this system.

Speech was perfectly clear throughout my testing, whether it was hushed conversation in The Batman or the loud, soaring vocals of 'Defying Gravity' from Wicked. Expect the same with commentary in the World Cup.

The Q990F is at the more premium end of the market, costing $1,599 / £999 / AU$1,599, but this mammoth soundbar system will cover you for sports, movies, and gaming, and do a superb job with all of them.

Best budget US: Sonos Beam

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) may be compact, but don't let that fool you. It delivers a beefy sound that you wouldn't expect from a soundbar this size and is easily one of the best models for music on the market.

The Beam (Gen 2) has been around for a while now, but it still consistently delivers a satisfying sound that works for a diverse range of genres. I tested it alongside the Sony HT-S2000 and Denon Home 550, two compact rivals, and I was always pleased with the Beam's performance.

The bass it delivers for a small unit is tightly controlled and punchy, as it accurately delivered the roar of jet engines in Top Gun: Maverick. Its soundstage was also spacious, giving effects room to breathe with a great balance overall. As The Mask tornadoes around his bedroom in The Mask, the Beam did an excellent job mapping the direction of the whirlwind, connecting the sound accurately to the picture.

Dialogue is nice and clear despite its smaller stature, so commentary should be nice and clear for the World Cup. It also has a diverse sound profile that makes it great for music.

Sonos' soundbars often get some nice discounts throughout the year, but even at the full $499 / £449 / AU$799 price, it's a superb soundbar that's real value for money.

Best budget UK: Hisense AX5125H

The Hisense AX5125H is one of the most impressive budget soundbars I've ever used. Not only are you getting a great 5.1.2 channel Dolby Atmos system, but you're getting it for a ridiculously low price.

Using the Death Star attack from Star Wars: A New Hope, I was seriously impressed with the AX5125H's clarity and control. It accurately delivered the whirring engines of the X-Wings and did a solid job with height channels, recreating the screech of the TIE Fighters as they flew overhead.

The AX5125H also has a wide soundstage, which helped pick up subtleties in The Batman's opening crime scene, with camera clicks, mumbled conversations, and the sparse, scratchy strings of the score all presented clearly. This should do a great job picking out the dynamics during the World Cup, from a travelling ball to the crowd noise.

Speech was also clear throughout testing, coming through loud and clear during both quieter conversations and action-packed scenes. This will have no problem delivering clear commentary in a packed stadium atmosphere.

The AX5125H's real highlight is its low price. A 5.1.2 channel system for £249 is ridiculous. This would have been my pick for the US budget option, but sadly, it's out of stock. For UK readers, this one is a no-brainer if you're on a budget.

• New research suggests smartwatches could predict fainting episodes
• This would give you time to minimize the danger of a fall
• The research was commissioned by Samsung

Most of the time, fainting episodes come out of the blue, leaving a split second for someone to support you before you start hurtling towards the ground. But what if your smartwatch could alert you to the likelihood that a faint is imminent before it actually happens? It sounds like something out of science fiction, but it could one day come to fruition.

That’s the idea behind a clinical research paper commissioned by Samsung, which concludes that it might be possible for a wearable device to warn you that you’re at risk of fainting minutes before it happens. That would potentially give you time to get to a more comfortable place — such as on a sofa — so that the sudden loss of consciousness doesn’t send you crashing onto the hard floor.

In the study, researchers from Chung-Ang University Gwangmyeong Hospital in South Korea said that Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6 might be able to predict vasovagal syncope (a condition that can lead to fainting) as much as five minutes before it occurs.

Why the Galaxy Watch 6? Well, it has a photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor that tracks your heart rate. The researchers used this to monitor test subjects’ heart rate variability, then fed the resulting data into an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm. This, in turn, looked for patterns that emerged just before people fainted.

From this, the researchers were able to predict fainting episodes with an accuracy of 84.6%. Samsung stated that the AI model had a clinical sensitivity of 90%, meaning it was able to identify true positives and negatives with a high degree of accuracy.

Not here yet

Vasovagal syncope is a common condition. Indeed, “Up to 40% of people experience vasovagal syncope over their lifetime, with one-third experiencing recurrent episodes,” said Professor Junhwan Cho of the Department of Cardiology at Chung-Ang University Gwangmyeong Hospital. If a smartwatch is able to help you minimize the danger of a fall resulting from this condition, that could be a massive benefit to a lot of people.

Indeed, as Professor Cho noted, “An early warning could give patients advance time to get into a safe position or call for help, which would dramatically reduce the incidence of secondary injuries.”

While the results from this study are promising, it’s worth noting that this faint prediction feature is not yet available in any of the best Samsung smartwatches. Instead, it was more of a proof of concept for the idea that a wearable can predict a fainting episode ahead of time.

But with the PPG sensor already on board many of Samsung’s smartwatches, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine a feature like this appearing in a future version of the company’s devices. Many of the best smartwatches on the market — including the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and the Garmin Fenix 8 — also feature PPG sensors, meaning this feature could theoretically emerge in a smattering of other devices in the future.

That said, further clinical testing and regulatory approval will be needed before any of that becomes a reality. When — or if — it does, though, it could save you from a nasty fall with plenty of time to spare.

• Samsung started rolling out the finished version of One UI 8.5 on May 6
• The company is starting with South Korea, but other countries should get it soon
• Initially, One UI 8.5 is coming to high-end models from the last couple of years

It's been a long wait, but Samsung is finally taking One UI 8.5 out of beta and rolling it out to some phones and tablets. It’s actually been available on the Samsung Galaxy S26 series since launch, but all previous handsets were still waiting for it — until now.

As per an announcement on Samsung’s newsroom, the official rollout started on May 6 in South Korea, but “additional regions [are] to follow”, so you probably won’t have the update yet, but you likely will do soon if you have a compatible phone.

Initially, One UI 8.5 is coming to the Samsung Galaxy S25 series, Galaxy S25 FE, Galaxy S24 series, Galaxy S24 FE, Galaxy Z Fold 7, Galaxy Z Flip 7, Galaxy Z Fold 6, Galaxy Z Flip 6, Galaxy Tab S11 series, and Galaxy Tab S10 series. So, in other words, most of the company’s high-end phones and tablets from the last couple of years.

But that’s just the start — we already know that One UI 8.5 will be coming to other devices too, since the beta is available on the Samsung Galaxy S23 series, Galaxy Z Fold 5, Galaxy Z Flip 5, Galaxy S23 FE, and Galaxy A36. You’ll just probably have to wait a bit longer to get the finished version on those phones.

AirDrop support and other improvements

One UI 8.5 should be worth the wait, though, as it'll bring numerous features and improvements, including AirDrop support over Quick Share, additional upgrades to Quick Share (including the ability to identify people in photos and suggest sending them to the subjects), and improvements to Photo Assist.

One UI 8.5 also brings the ability to use Audio Broadcast to send your voice to a connected speaker while you’re talking into your phone, the ability to see files on other Galaxy devices within the My Files app, and improvements to power saving mode to increase your phone’s battery life.

Those are the headline features, but there are smaller changes too, including tweaks to the Weather app and security enhancements, so there’s a lot here, though not every feature will necessarily be available on every phone.

Still, if you have any of the devices that are first in line for One UI 8.5, then it’s worth keeping an eye out for. You’ll probably get an alert when it’s available, but to manually check, head to Settings > Software update.

• Images of the Samsung Galaxy Wide Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 8 have been dug up in One UI 9 code
• The Z Fold 8 looks essentially identical to its predecessor, while the Wide Fold looks very different
• While the Wide Fold looks visually the most interesting, it could also be quite niche

Samsung is probably going to launch two book-style foldable phones this year, with the expected Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 likely to be joined by the Samsung Galaxy Wide Fold, and we’ve just had a somewhat official look at both of them.

You see, Samsung has included images of both devices in its One UI 9 software, and while these images aren’t currently intended to be user-facing, Android Authority has managed to dig them up.

As you can see in the images below, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 (codenamed Q8) looks very similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, with a triple-lens camera on the back and a slightly narrow cover screen. Visually, there’s really nothing of note here, so this could be a boring upgrade.

But the Samsung Galaxy Wide Fold (codenamed H8) is far more interesting, with just a dual-lens camera but a much wider cover screen, looking like it could almost match a small tablet even when folded shut.

This design broadly lines up with previous leaks, so it’s not overly surprising in that sense, but it is the closest thing yet to an official look at the Galaxy Wide Fold, and it’s drastically different from any foldable phone that Samsung has launched so far.

Yes, there’s the Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold, which has a wide foldable screen, but that has three sections, and the cover screen is still quite narrow and phone-like, so it’s a fundamentally different proposition to the device shown here.

A questionable design

Whether the Samsung Galaxy Wide Fold will be a hit with a design like this, though, very much remains to be seen. After all, foldables are still a bit niche, and this design would mean it can’t quite match a phone’s form factor even when folded. Personally, I’m not sold on it, but I do approve of brands experimenting with new designs.

And with the foldable iPhone Ultra reportedly launching this year too, we could be on the cusp of foldable phones becoming more mainstream, at which point there might be more appetite for a phone like this.

As far as the Samsung Galaxy Wide Fold goes, we should learn exactly what it has to offer in July, as that’s when it’s likely to land, alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 8, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8, and perhaps the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 FE.

• Floating data centers aim to bypass grid bottlenecks using offshore deployment
• Samsung model connects directly to coastal power for faster AI scaling
• Offshore barges could reduce data center deployment timelines significantly

Samsung Heavy Industries has unveiled a large floating data center ship model that could support AI tools globally.

Samsung and OpenAI signed a letter of intent in October 2025 for a comprehensive partnership, including the development of a floating data center.

The design of this data center is specifically meant to host future versions of systems like OpenAI's ChatGPT on a waterborne platform.

Offshore deployment strategy for AI infrastructure

This vessel would sit offshore and connect directly to power and cooling near coastal energy assets.

Samsung says the concept compresses the usual years-long build-out for land-based data centers into a much shorter timeline.

The entire project is also paired with a Dallas-based infrastructure developer, Mousterian Corp., focused on high-density AI compute.

The floating model aims to shorten the time needed to secure power and cooling for AI workloads.

Instead of waiting for new grid connections, the system docks near existing thermal or nuclear plants.

This approach treats the shoreline as a deployment zone for digital infrastructure, and the barges carry fully liquid-cooled data halls that can scale according to demand.

Developers argue that “speed to power is the new moat” for AI tools and cloud operators.

Anyone who can turn on compute and power quickly gains a real edge over slower rivals.

That is why the partnership claims this strategy can shift capacity delivery from years to quarters for some sites.

The Dallas-based partner says the floating data center initiative intends to deliver more than 1.5GW of capacity within about three years.

“Speed to power is the new moat. We've thoughtfully partnered with some of the leading global conglomerates, allowing us to deliver over 1,500MW of capacity over the next 3 years,” said Min Suh, CEO of Mousterian Corp.

However, this figure means there will be multiple barge-based projects, each tied to local power and grid constraints.

Each vessel would host thousands of servers designed for AI training and inference loads.

The 1.5GW target also depends on approvals, construction speed, and the availability of water adjacent to baseload plants.

Some analysts doubt whether that pace can be sustained in practice, and maritime data centers still face technical, regulatory, and economic hurdles at scale.

Risks and operational uncertainties at sea

Although floating data centers tackle some of the issues associated with land-based data centers, they also introduce new challenges.

Experts worry that these facilities create new risks around cybersecurity, physical access, and long-term reliability.

Saltwater environments, storm exposure, and emergency response times complicate operations considerably.

Maintenance and fiber optic links also become more complex offshore than on land.

Also, the claims of delivering 1.5GW in 36 months rest on unproven timelines across shipbuilding, permitting, and tenant onboarding.

Market demand for AI tools and data centers is real, but execution remains uncertain.

The model may add a niche option rather than overhaul how most AI compute is housed, and the true test will be how many barges actually come online as planned.

Via Dallas Innovates

• Samsung Display has new screens to show off
• One comes with integrated biometric sensing
• There's also a new stretchable display for cars

Before screen panels appear in the best Samsung phones — often debuting in top-tier flagships like the Galaxy S26 Ultra — they get showcased by the Samsung Display arm of the company, and it's just unveiled its latest screens.

Samsung Display revealed these cutting-edge panels at the SID Display Week 2026 event in Los Angeles, and it's the Sensor OLED Display that's perhaps the most interesting of the bunch: it combines a 500 pixels-per-inch resolution with the ability to read biometric information such as heart rate and blood pressure.

It does this by measuring blood flow, through light emitted from the display. The screen also features the privacy protection tech that appeared in the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which stops other people from seeing what's on your phone unless they're looking directly at it.

Among the other panels shown off by Samsung was a Flex Chroma Pixel OLED screen that hits high marks for both brightness and color space: 3,000 nits and the BT.2020-96 standard respectively. BT.2020-96 is the widest color gamut standard used internationally, and while most phones get to around 70% coverage, the new panel reaches 96%.

Displays that stretch

Samsung Display also demoed a "next-generation stretchable display", rather aptly called the Stretchable Display 2.0. Samsung wants to get this screen installed into car dashboards, so the screen in your vehicle could expand or shrink depending on driving conditions, and what you and your passengers are currently doing.

The new display hits a resolution of 200 pixels-per-inch, up from the 120ppi of the previous version, and matching the current resolution offered by most car infotainment systems. This was achieved by developing a new "pixel structure" that can retain pixel density even as the screen extends and shrinks.

Finally, there were new EL-QD displays too — an upgraded quantum dot technology that Samsung is working on, which doesn't rely on standard OLED techniques. According to the company, these screens offer high color accuracy and improved brightness while offering better power efficiency, and could be used in "AI-based high-computing environments".

There's no indication of when these screens will hit consumer products — some more research and development will likely be needed first — but they give us a good idea of the phone and car displays that will be arriving in the next few years.

I recently got to try out the Samsung S90H, which is the brand’s mid-range OLED for 2026. It has been the subject of rumors that have caused concern for some Samsung fans; that the brand has opted to fit all its S90H models with Tandem WOLED (standard OLED) panels.

Over the past couple of years, there has been some uncertainty about the panels in the S90 OLEDs, because Samsung had used a mix of WOLED and QD-OLED, and wouldn't say which sizes used which panel, whether panels might actually be mixed in certain sizes, and this whole thing also seemed to vary by country.

We actually tested the 65-inch Samsung S90F, the S90H’s predecessor, last year because were were able to confirm that this size only used QD-OLED panels in the US and UK — and we awarded it five stars. But because we couldn't confirm any expectations of what performance would be like in other sizes, it missed our list the best OLED TVs, despite it being a fantastic set.

So where does this leave S90H? I asked Samsung about what panel the 65-inch and 83-inch models I saw had. As usual, Samsung wouldn’t confirm what panels are being used in the S90H line-up, but talk online is that Samsung is using WOLED instead of QD-OLED for all sizes.

We can't say for certain, but I do know that the 83-inch model I saw was a standard WOLED (thanks to Vincent Teoh of HDTVTest for helping out here), and I believe the 65-inch version was as well.

All that aside, I was still keen to try out the S90H and to see whether it could be a worthy rival to the excellent LG C6, my review of which is imminent.

Glare-free greatness

I tested out the S90H in a very bright room. Right next to the 65-inch S90H I tested was a large glass door and while it was a lovely day outside, it meant light was flooding in. For most OLEDs, this would be a major issue. OLEDs typically use a glossy screen which can really suffer from mirror-like reflections in brighter rooms. However, that wasn’t a big issue for the S90H.

The S90H is fitted with Samsung’s OLED Glare Free screen, a matte screen designed to reduce reflections to a haze. It was first introduced in 2024’s flagship Samsung S95D OLED and then carried over to the 2025 flagship OLED Samsung S95F, as well as other Neo QLED models such as the Samsung QN90F. This is the first time Glare Free has been introduced in the mid-range OLED lineup.

I wondered how the S90H, which would likely have lower brightness than flagship OLEDs (though we’ll confirm this when we get it into our own testing labs) would handle the big large light source. The answer: very well. Even watching dark scenes in the TV’s dimmest Filmmaker Mode, I could see the whole picture throughout. A nighttime scene from The Revenant was still legible despite the bright sunlight to the left. Black tones also appeared pretty strong and rich, crucially not taking on a lifted gray tone.

A mild spoiler for my LG C6 review: it has a reflective, glossy screen that can hamper darker scenes in brighter conditions. Had it been in this room, I doubt I would’ve been able to watch without closing all curtains. For the S90H, that was unnecessary: a very useful feature for those with bright rooms.

Goodbye Filmmaker, Hello Movie

My preferred picture mode for testing TVs, and my own viewing at home, is Filmmaker Mode. While its brightness may be a bit limited compared to other modes, I find it the most accurate in terms of contrast and color reproduction. Naturally, I chose this for the S90H.

In its default, Filmmaker Mode on the S90H was very dim. Watching scenes from The Revenant, as Glass walks the snowy landscapes, the vibrant whites of the snow I expected were lacking. A quick trip to the settings and I found switching Tone Mapping from Static to Active added a nice hit of brightness which also created stronger perceived contrast. Again though, I felt like there could be more.

I decided to switch to Movie mode and found myself enjoying it more. The same scenes from The Revenant still looked great with bright whites and highlights (such as torches) and deep black tones, but the accuracy wasn’t sacrificed for the sake of the brightness. Switching to Blade Runner: 2049, as K stands in the neon-clad market, the colors of the numerous adverts really popped on screen but again looked accurate.

Movie mode also had its Tone Mapping set to Active and if switched to Static, it looked like a marginally brighter Filmmaker Mode so it was best left to Active. I switched between the two modes and found myself favoring Movie mode more, drawn in by the boost in brightness. Filmmaker Mode had some deeper blacks when set to Active but they occasionally showed black crush, whereas this didn’t seem to happen in Movie.

Strong first impressions

While I got some good time to test the S90H, I didn’t get to test it using all my usual reference discs so I’m looking forward to getting it into our testing labs. This is where we’ll really see how it can compare to the LG C6.

Specs-wise, the S90H delivers most of the best parts of the C6. It has a lot of the features of the best gaming TVs including four HDMI 2.1 ports that support 4K 165Hz, FreeSync and G-Sync, HGiG and ALLM: the same as the LG C6 (though the latter supports Dolby Vision). The Tizen smart platform looks to have been streamlined and it’s got a sleek physical design.

It really does look like it’s going to come down to picture quality between the S90H and C6 in the battle for best mid-range OLED. Based on my first impressions with the S90H, the C6 has a fight on its hands.

Try our TV size and model finder! You tell it how far you sit from your TV, we'll tell you what size to buy based on viewing angle advice from image quality experts, and we'll recommend our three top TVs at that size for different prices.

• Apple's CEO has warned of "significantly higher memory costs"
• From June, we're told the cost of RAM will "drive an increasing impact" on Apple's Macs
• Samsung has also warned on the memory crisis, and that "significant shortages" will continue through 2027 at the very least

Apple is warning on the impact of increasingly expensive RAM with its products, and a major memory chip maker has also contributed to the gloomy news when it comes to RAM supply and pricing.

MacRumors reports that Apple just had its quarterly earnings call and CEO Tim Cook observed that memory costs rose during the March quarter (Q2 of its fiscal year). Moreover, Cook said that in the next (June) quarter, Apple is anticipating "significantly higher memory costs" and that from June 2026, the cost of RAM will "drive an increasing impact" on Apple's products.

Sounds ominous, doesn't it? Part of the problem is that Apple's substantial stock of RAM that it had built up — paid for in the past when prices were still at more normal levels — is starting to run dry, so naturally, something will have to give regarding pricing.

Quite what, we don't know, and all the CEO would be drawn to say is that Apple is exploring a "range of options" for dealing with potential prices hikes due to having to pay more (much more, no doubt) for RAM.

9 to 5 Mac further chipped in to observe that Cook also commented on the stock issues with two of Apple's Macs that have been seen of late. The CEO said: "On the Mac mini and the Mac Studio, both of these are amazing platforms for AI and agentic tools, and the customer recognition of that is happening faster than what we had predicted, and so we saw higher than expected demand."

This is down to the popularity of running local AIs on a device which has lots of memory such as the beefier configurations of those Macs (driven by the success of AI agent OpenClaw).

Cook also noted that demand for the new MacBook Neo has been "off the charts", and that for all these Macs, it may take Apple a few months to address the shortfall in supply.

Elsewhere away from Apple, Tom's Hardware noticed that Samsung, one of the big memory chip makers, just released its own earnings report, with executive VP Kim Jaejune warning that "significant shortages" across its memory products are expected to persist through at least 2027 (meaning until 2028). We're told demand fulfillment rates are now at record lows, meaning Samsung is struggling to fulfill the level of demand like never before.

Analysis: treacherous waters ahead

Samsung isn't alone in ringing the memory alarm bells, because one of the other three big chip makers in this arena, SK Hynix, warned in March that the RAM crisis is going to be a long haul – possibly making its effects being felt as far into the future as 2030. Whichever way you look at it, there are cautions that the RAM crisis will continue until 2028 or maybe longer. Only the third major player in terms of memory manufacturers, Micron, hasn't issued a warning yet.

Apple's plight obviously reinforces this messaging, and it'll be interesting to see what kind of 'options' Tim Cook is mulling over in terms of combating the lack of RAM supply and avoiding having to jack up prices on its Macs. Clearly Apple does have a lot of weight to throw around in terms of getting the best prices out of the supply chain, but at this point I'd imagine there's little room to maneuver with contract negotiations even for the tech giants of the world.

Then again, having set out the stall of the MacBook Neo as a truly affordable laptop, Apple can't exactly backtrack and hike prices on that particular offering, so it seems like these could be tricky waters to navigate for Captain Cook — or more to the point, Captain Ternus, as it'll soon be. It's an interesting time to be taking control of Apple, that's for sure.

Some denizens of Reddit are certainly bracing for the worst, namely Mac price hikes. As the most upvoted comment on this thread in the Apple subreddit stated: "Oh come now, we all know how Apple plans to 'deal with the problem'. No one needs the CEO to spell out the price increases that Apple will be doing in the not too distant future."

• The Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra could have one less camera than its predecessor
• Reportedly, the 3x telephoto is being ditched
• That would leave it with just a 5x optical zoom for telephoto shots, assuming no other changes are made

Samsung’s Galaxy Ultra phones have long been top options for telephoto photography, helped in part by their having two telephoto cameras, where most high-end phones have just one. But it sounds like the Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra might be getting a bit more conventional, as it’s reportedly losing one of its telephoto lenses.

This is according to @UniverseIce — a leaker with a solid track record — who claims that the 3x telephoto will be absent on the S27 Ultra. While their wording is a bit ambiguous, it sounds like Samsung will be ditching this camera altogether, rather than switching it for a different focal length.

In which case, if the other telephoto stays the same as on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, you’ll be limited to just 5x optical zoom. However, it’s possible that Samsung will change this camera or even allow for multiple zoom levels through a single lens, removing the need for an extra camera.

A camera that won't be massively missed

Whatever the case, though, Samsung fans don’t seem too bothered by this news, with replies to the post including “good riddance I say. Hope it's not just the Ultra that bids farewell to that awful lens”, and “finally. The 3x was always the 'meh' middle child anyway.”

Certainly, it’s not currently the most useful of the Ultra's cameras, since you can already get a 2x ‘optical quality’ shot from the 200MP main sensor. That 3x zoom camera is also currently lumbered with a 10MP sensor, while the other rear cameras are all 50MP or more.

While we’d take the claim of its removal with a pinch of salt, it does line up with recent reports that the Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra will have a redesigned camera block (possibly in the style of the iPhone 17 Pro's camera block) to facilitate MagSafe-like charging, so this may well be the case.

If it is accurate, though, we certainly hope Samsung is planning some camera improvements elsewhere, because while the 3x telephoto is arguably the least useful of the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s snappers, removing it with no other changes would be a definite downgrade.

We probably won’t find out for sure what Samsung’s planning until early 2027, as that’s when the Samsung Galaxy S27 series will likely launch.

• Google Messages users are noticing vanishing chats on Samsung Galaxy phones
• It appears to be a re-indexing issue following the shutdown of Samsung Messages in favor of Google Messages
• The issue is still ongoing, but a Google expert has offered tips to fix it

Google Messages users have spotted a bug that’s randomly deleting old and new chats, and their complaints about the issue are spreading like wildfire online.

Users in the r/GoogleMessages forum are sharing their experiences with disappearing chats, but it’s difficult to pinpoint if there's a pattern between the vanishing messages. One user noticed ‘huge chunks of messages’ going missing from chats, while others have reported seeing entire conversations disappear.

Despite users trying to take matters into their own hands, the issue persists — one user also recalls a moment where a message ‘disappeared before [their] eyes’. Samsung Galaxy phones seem to be bearing the brunt the most — the Samsung A52 and Samsung Galaxy S21 have been mentioned on Reddit — but some Google Pixel users are also experiencing similar problems.

But where’s it coming from? There’s only one thing users have linked it to, and that’s the shutting down of Samsung Messages which is now entering its phase-out stage, forcing users over to Google's chat service.

Since the issues started to spread, users have been seeking ways to prevent this from happening, including checking their trash bin, clearing cache, and reviewing chat history back up, but messages are still going missing without reason. It’s led frustrated users to swarm Google’s support page to seek further advice, and the company has cleared the air slightly.

In a reply to a user query, a Google product expert shared that the Samsung Messages and Google Messages transition is in fact causing this: “While it is frustrating, the ‘vanishing’ of messages during this transition is often a sync and re-indexing delay rather than a permanent deletion, especially if they are missing from both apps”. They also detail that RCS incompatibility and synchronization bugs during the Samsung Messages-to-Google Messages crossover are also contributing to the ongoing issue.

That said, the Google expert followed by offering some workarounds. Firstly, they recommend waiting 48+ Hours if you only switched from Samsung Messages or have just noticed the issue. They also suggest leaving your phone on a charger with Wi-Fi connected so that the indexing process can finish.

Alternatively, you can use what the expert refers to as the ‘Sync Force’ trick, where you’ll need to set Samsung Messages back as your default SMS app, restart your device to open Samsung Messages, and then wait 2-3 minutes for it to load the local database. Once this is done, you can switch back to Google Messages and set it as the default again.

"How I will be able to rely on this app moving forward?"

Looking at the collective responses, it’s clear that the transition to Google Messages from Samsung Messages hasn’t been the smoothest process, and the bug has come at a very inconvenient time for those who are just getting used to navigating the Google Messages reins.

Though this is a minor re-indexing delay, those who have gotten comfy with using Samsung’s service are still very unhappy with the forced migration. A friend of our Staff Writer, Isaiah Williams, has been a long-time user of Samsung Messages, and the switch has hit them hard, who shared the following words with us:

"I was already bothered by the forced switch from Samsung to Google Messages and the loss of organizational features I loved as a small business owner, such as text categories, but I never expected to watch my messages fully disappear. They were there one minute, gone the next, and even after my attempts at troubleshooting, restarting, checking the archive and trash folders, spending ages navigating the cluttered app design and needless AI features, I have yet to fully resolve the issue. I am simply left questioning how I will be able to rely on this app moving forward when basic functionality seems so lacking."

• Samsung has joint-developed a nano-material to create a 3D/2D switching light-field display
• Glasses-free 3D with wide viewing angles and very high resolution
• Likely to appear in phones, tablets and commercial displays first

Are 3D TVs coming back? Not anytime soon, but a new kind of 3D display tech is still quite exciting, and Samsung has teamed up with Korean private research university POSTECH to make a breakthrough. It's developed a way of switching between very high-resolution 2D and realistic, glasses-free 3D.

We've seen glasses-free 3D from both TCL and Visual Semiconductor recently, and they both use plenoptic displays, aka light-field displays. Samsung's version of a light-field screen uses what are described as a "metasurface lenticular lens" layer of "nanoscale structures" to "transition seamlessly between flat (2D) and stereoscopic (3D) images".

This is an important development because as trade site The Elec explains, conventional light-field displays tend to use bulky lenses, deliver narrow viewing angles, have relatively low resolution and can require real-time eye tracking to deliver 3D. Samsung's design addresses these issues.

What's so special about Samsung's 3D screen tech?

Like other light field displays, Samsung's system transmits light from multiple directions simultaneously to mimic the way light reaches the eye from real objects, which makes it possible to trick the brain to deliver glasses-free 3D. It means there's no limited 'sweet spot' you need to be in to see the 3D effect. But without decent viewing angles for general usage, most displays will still be of limited use. Enter Samsung and its metasurfaces.

Samsung's apparently metasurfaces deliver complex optical functions without the bulk of existing lenses, and Samsung's lens can change its focal properties to deliver either 2D or 3D through a simple change of voltage. According to The Elec, the lens currently delivers viewing angles of up to 100 degrees while only being 1.2mm thick.

That's the good news. The bad news is that you shouldn't expect to have this tech in your home any time soon. Samsung's lens was 25 centimetres square, which is only around a quarter of the size of a smartphone display, let along a TV.

The first commercial applications of the technology are likely to be either small, but that could be fun. Imagine if your iPhone could reproduce your photos in 3D, thanks to the depth maps it already captures in photos? Or the what if the Nintendo Switch 3 actually turns out to be the Switch 3DS, with a return to glasses-free 3D gaming?

It's very possible that actually the first applications will be for big spenders, such as retail and other business displays.

Will the tech make it into TVs? I'm not sure, and I'm speaking as someone who both owned and loved a 3D TV. It seems that every generation has to go through the '3D is the future! / actually no it isn't!' cycle: the 3D cinema boom of the 1950s, the second 3D cinema boom of the early 80s, the Avatar-led 3D cinema and 3D TV boom of the 2010s…

So if that schedule repeats, we're due the next 3D boom in the 2040s. Which gives Samsung plenty of time to perfect its tech.

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• Samsung is reportedly considering redesigning the camera layout on future Galaxy phones
• This might in part be to allow space for magnets, so you can use magnetic chargers and accessories without a case
• We probably won't see this design change before the Galaxy S27 at the earliest

Whether the Samsung Galaxy S series has an iconic design or a boring one is somewhat subjective, but what’s undeniable is that not much has visually changed with these phones for years now — especially when it comes to their vertical camera arrangement.

But it seems Samsung might soon shake things up, as according to Ice Universe — a reputable leaker — posting on Weibo (via Phone Arena), the company is considering changing the position of the rear cameras.

The same claim has also been made by another leaker on South Korean site Naver, who added in a comment that part of the reason for this change is to leave space for built-in Qi2 magnets, so that future Samsung phones could have case-free, MagSafe-style magnetic wireless charging.

It could take inspiration from a rival

If that’s the case, then it’s likely that the redesigned cameras won’t extend as far down the back of the phone as they do currently, so they might instead have a Pixel-style pill module; a width-spanning, iPhone-like camera island; or a squarish block like the OnePlus 15.

It’s also possible we could get a circular camera block, like you’ll find on the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, though if magnets are going to be included, it would possibly have to be smaller than Xiaomi’s version.

Of course, we doubt Samsung would directly copy any of these phone designs, since it would want its devices to have their own identity. But those are probably the four most common general smartphone camera designs, so something broadly in line with one of them seems likely.

It’s unclear when this design change might emerge, if it does at all, but we’d assume a flagship phone would get redesigned first, so the earliest we’d expect to see it is with the Samsung Galaxy S27 series, which isn’t likely to launch until early 2027. So, whatever Samsung is planning, there’s probably a while to wait for it.

• Leaked renders show what the Samsung Galaxy Glasses might look like
• They don't have a screen and they look a lot like Ray-Ban Meta glasses
• However, they reportedly run Android XR with access to Gemini

Meta is probably the biggest name in smart glasses right now, but it might not be for much longer, because Samsung has a pair of its own smart specs on the way. And based on a new leak, they look very similar to the Meta Ray-Bans — but with at least one clear advantage.

Android Headlines has shared renders of what it claims are the Samsung Galaxy Glasses, and for the most part, they look like an ordinary pair of specs — the only real sign that they’re not is the camera lenses at the edges of the frame.

But this is a design that’s also very similar to a lot of Meta’s smart glasses, which likewise have a camera at each side and, in some cases, similarly shaped lenses.

Their capabilities also sound similar, with Android Headlines explaining that this first pair of Samsung smart glasses likewise lacks a screen, but that, as they run Android XR, you’ll be able to talk to Gemini to do things like translate signs and take pictures, while Google Maps will be able to give you directions through them.

It’s a similar idea to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, but with those specs, you’re stuck with Meta’s AI, which isn’t as capable or popular as Google’s, so Samsung could have a big advantage there.

Of course, Meta has Ray-Ban and Oakley branding for its glasses, which is probably more appealing than the Samsung branding here, but we already know that future Samsung frames will be made in collaboration with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, so Meta’s branding advantage might not last for long either.

And if you’re disappointed that there’s no screen on these glasses, you shouldn’t have too much longer to wait for a model with a display, with those coming in 2027, according to Android Headlines.

But this first screenless pair will probably land before the end of 2026, and they're rumored to cost between $379 and $499 (roughly between £280 / AU$525 and £370 / AU$695), which puts them roughly in line with Meta’s pricing.

So, will you buy a pair of Samsung Galaxy Glasses based on what we know so far? Take part in our poll below to let us know.

If you do want to buy these Samsung glasses, you might be able to do so in July, as that's when the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Flip 8, and Galaxy Watch 9 will likely launch. Though Android Headlines speculates that the Galaxy Glasses could get teased then and go on sale later.

Personally, I think they look promising, but I'll probably hold out for the model with a screen next year, even though those are sure to cost even more — with leaks currently putting the display-toting model at between $600 and $900 (around £440 / AU$835 to £665 / AU$1,250).