Are you keen to spend less time staring at a screen, but don't want to sacrifice the practical benefits of owning a smartphone? The “balance” of the Balance Phone is that it’s about halfway between the dumbphones of yesteryear and the attention-grabbing overload of today’s best phones.

Crucially, it is still a smartphone (a basic Samsung one, to be specific), so it solves all the usual dumbphone issues of lacking WhatsApp, maps, and music, but runs a limited operating system called Balance OS that’s designed to help curtail your scrolling habits.

I just spent a week using the Balance Phone as my main device to get a feel for how effective its digital detox features are. Would it help me reclaim my time, be more present, or be more productive? Or would this glimpse into a post-social-media-ban future for kids leave me bored and left out? The answer is complicated.

What is the Balance Phone, and what does it block?

The Balance Phone is essentially a Samsung Galaxy A37 running Balance's locked-down Balance OS. Balance also offers the lower-spec Balance Phone Kids (a Galaxy A17) and higher-spec Balance Phone Pro (a Galaxy S25), and all three phones cost a touch more than their non-restricted Samsung counterparts. The model I tested for this article was a previous version of the Balance Phone based on the Galaxy A16.

Much like the UK's impending under-16 social media ban, the Balance Phone blocks social media platforms (including X, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook) while exempting messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal.

It puts pretty aggressive limits on your browsing behavior, too, by not only blocking access to adult content, but also stopping adult image searches altogether and even blocking various news websites and blogs (you can’t even use browsers that aren’t Chrome — imagine!).

Does it help with your screen time?

Yes, I’d actually say that the Balance Phone is one of the most effective solutions for getting you off your phone that I’ve experienced so far.

You can’t remove or alter the OS even if you wanted to, so I reckon it’d be a great phone for getting kids off social media, too. It would make an ideal first phone for younger users, and is super simple and intuitive to use.

In many ways, it’s a phone that’s made not to be used. In the past, I’ve felt Nothing’s handsets were designed to be used less, with their minimalist designs and purpose-driven OS, but the Balance Phone takes the latter to another level.

If you pick the Balance home screen during setup, it’s just a customizable black screen with the names of eight apps (of your choosing) on display. You can get to an app library view with a couple of swipes, but it’s limited by default.

I compared the amount of time I spent on the phone to the previous week on my iPhone 17 Pro — and the difference was huge. My screen time dropped from around 5 to 6 hours a day to under an hour (about 30 to 45 minutes of use). While I’ve been mainly working at home and not using the Balance Phone for navigation, I’ve mainly found myself on emails or reading on the device, as I can still load up apps like Instapaper and Kindle. I’ve not been able to retreat to my usual distractions of TikTok, Instagram or Reddit.

Did it make me more present or productive, though? I think that’s much more debatable. The Balance Phone can force you to change your habits, but that doesn’t mean you automatically change or become more efficient; I found myself still picking up the phone to try to scroll or just do something, even if there was nothing to do on it. And, yes, I found I got a bit more bored during one week of using it. If you’ve been using smartphones for a long time, you’ll find the habits are pretty ingrained.

What I missed in my week with the Balance Phone

While I used the Balance Phone, I felt I kept up with reading articles I’d saved in Instapaper or cracking on with the book I’m reading in the Kindle app. But the lack of Reddit and relatively poor browsing experience meant I didn’t read quite as much news, and I did notice all the extra friction for social media apps in both positive and negative ways.

A self-imposed social media ban is great at stopping you from scrolling away your days, but I also found I missed out on some of the more fun aspects of social media. I was out of the loop on some entertaining memes, and my wife ended up gathering a long list of TikToks and Instagram Reels that she wanted to send me during the week. I got these in one big batch at the end of the experiment!

Of course, it’s all just random House of the Dragon commentary and silly cat videos, so arguably nothing serious or important, but it feels like I missed out by not being able to share these things in the moment.

It makes me wonder: we can all agree social media is addictive, but a blanket ban ignores that it’s something enjoyable in moderation, too. I expect that if I actually used the Balance Phone full-time, I’d still want to use a normal tablet or laptop where I can reply to messages on Instagram and watch YouTube videos, to be honest.

Who is this phone actually for?

If you want your phone to be restricted to the apps you need to communicate, listen, read, plan and navigate, the Balance Phone does the job well. You can load up your calendar, books, messaging apps, music, email and maps, but no video apps, social media or anything with infinite scroll.

And, because the Balance Phone is ultimately a phone that’s not meant to be used, it really is best for digital minimalists. If you’re already trying to give up social media and are comfortable with the extra restrictions, you’ll get on with the enforced digital detox. I think it also could function well as a work phone. You can put Slack, Gmail, Outlook, and the like on it, and then just stick to using it in the office.

Overall, I found it highly effective at limiting my screen time. And that’s why I’d also recommend it for kids. As a first phone, the Balance Phone is ideal and mirrors the coming social media ban and adult content restrictions for children. So, it works for kids and serious detoxers (for more child-friendly phone recommendations, check out our guide to the best phones for kids).

However, the lack of adjustability to its limits makes the Balance Phone harder to recommend for everyone else. It would be interesting if it had a little more nuance for app time limits or focus modes at particular times of day, for instance.

And a quick word on the phone's hardware: while the fingerprint scanner, underlying OneUI base software and simple Balance OS are all solid, the weak performance of the lower-end models makes the Balance Phone a little harder to recommend. The Samsung Galaxy A16 phone I tried was seriously slow and laggy, even when simply opening and switching between apps, and while the newer Galaxy A37 version will almost certainly offer better performance, I'd keep your expectations low.

Still, even for kids, I’d recommend the Galaxy A37 option over the cheaper Galaxy A17, as it’s just that bit more likely to keep you going for longer. Adults should consider the Balance Phone Pro, too, even if just because the cameras on the Galaxy S25 are leagues ahead of those on the other two models (it also has a slightly smaller 6.2-inch screen size).

Would you consider using a distraction-free phone like the Balance Phone? Let us know in the poll or comments below.

I don’t often consider ditching Android, but GrapheneOS, a privacy-focused alternative, poses an interesting question: what security features am I missing out on by using Google’s mobile operating system (OS)?

GrapheneOS is an open-source mobile OS, designed for Google Pixel phones (and soon Motorola devices), that promises better security capabilities like improved sandboxing, exploitation protections, and more complete vulnerability patching.

But what compromises does GrapheneOS ask you to make for all this added security — and more importantly, are they worth the trade-off? I spent a month testing GrapheneOS on a Pixel 8 Pro to find out.

The first glance

Switching to an alternative, specialized OS is never going to be as simple as setting up a regular Android phone. That said, after only 10 minutes setting up GrapheneOS via the GrapheneOS website, I quickly found myself looking at something that, at a glance, resembled the Android I normally use.

The GrapheneOS home screen is near app-less, but it’s by no means unfamiliar. The software keeps the functionalities of the Android app drawer and quick control panel, and the menus are near-identical. App icons also retain a similar design to Android proper.

Yes, it’s a strange feeling to load up an Android phone that doesn’t have a single drop of ‘Google’ about it. There’s no Play Store, Gmail, or Docs to speak of in GrapheneOS by default. But, if anything, this is an instant reminder that this software aims to take control of your data from Google and give it back to you.

What’s more, since the choices are now yours when it comes to your data, you can always choose to reinstate the tools you need.

Getting to grips

And so, my first port of call when using GrapheneOS for the first time was to reinstall the Google Play Store from within the software’s own App Store. That might seem like a bonkers move, but here’s why doing so is crucial.

GrapheneOS’s App Store is limited. Aside from a few essentials, there’s little there. The key inclusions? Accrescent, a private app store primarily filled with open-source solutions to everyday phone uses, and the Google Play Store and Play Services.

But GrapheneOS sandboxes the Google Play Store and Play Services much like it would any other app. This means that, unlike on regular Android where, as several legal cases have proven, Google can pinch data as it likes, GrapheneOS restricts its background capabilities and general permissions.

This gives you control of all the usability features you’d see on the front end, such as notifications and location or network access, and there’s no need to worry about unwanted Google access behind closed doors.

What this also means is that, if you’re truly privacy-conscious, you can still install VPNs, antivirus software, password managers, and more that’d otherwise be out of reach if you relied on only what’s available directly.

Preventing overreach

One of the core principles of GrapheneOS is stopping unnecessary data sharing and reducing the risk of attacks that come from unnecessary data collection and coding. As a result, no app downloaded in GrapheneOS is quite what you’d get on regular Android, but thankfully, you’ll probably never notice — for two key reasons.

Key permissions, such as network or microphone access, are the user’s to permit before using an app, meaning you can ensure the apps you use have only the permissions they need. Meanwhile, background problems such as covert data sharing and storage risks are handled automatically by GrapheneOS.

In short, you can install all the apps you need, use them as normal, and know they’re not collecting or spreading your data in ways you’re unaware of. What’s more, aside from a few instances I’ll cover later, GrapheneOS is near flawless at policing this data.

If you’re after other, more technical protections, you can dive into settings. Aside from the regular Android options, you also get a new area called ‘Exploit Protection’. Here, you can set up your phone to protect against threats such as juice jacking (stealing data or installing malware via USB ports), or unwanted Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections

With all of these options available, what quickly became apparent is how integral such settings are to keeping security measures from impacting everyday use. GrapheneOS’ features were explicitly in my control to ensure apps functioned properly without overreaching, and background processes either needn’t be tampered with or could be set once and left. All without remotely impacting overall device efficiency.

I used GrapheneOS with a Pixel 8 Pro for a month, and I never once noticed my battery life drain more than usual, nor encountered any unexpected performance dips. This is despite me using the phone for gaming — enabling only the Google services required to do so — streaming, and everything else I’d normally expect to do on my device.

The inevitable compromise

Compared to other privacy-focused mobile solutions, GrapheneOS is without a doubt one of the least detrimental to your mobile experience. But it’s not perfect.

First off, if you want to use it, you need a Pixel phone. Ironically, despite the OS aiming to give you some distance from Google’s overreaching services, its devices are the only ones with the required security capabilities to install GrapheneOS properly. So if, like me, you’re used to literally any other Android device, you’re out of luck (though Motorola phones are supposedly joining the ranks soon).

Second, GrapheneOS is not flawless at everything. In the time I spent using the software, banking apps and Android Auto (once downloaded) proved to be near-impossible to get to work regularly. There’s a bunch of support available on the GrapheneOS website if you’re willing to tinker to fix issues, but again, it’s not quite the seamless compatibility you’d get with regular Android.

Would I make the switch to GrapheneOS?

From a month of using it, it’s easy to see why GrapheneOS is gaining traction. It’s super secure, even going as far as to patch VPN bypasses before regular Android gets the chance, and, unlike the best privacy-focused phones, using it with a premium Pixel phone means there’s far less of a drop in performance.

That said, its current restriction to Pixel phones is far from ideal for techies, and there’s still just enough incompatibility with certain types of apps to be a frustration day to day. Google Pay doesn’t work, leaving you needing to use alternatives such as Curve or a paired smartwatch; many banking apps limit functionality, and you’ll likely be left wondering if any app-related problems you encounter are down to the OS.

It’s also unfortunate that, as yet, there’s little reason not to make the Play Store your first install. Open-source app-lovers will find some comfort in the options available in the Accrescent store, but even so, there’s very little to choose between. Before you know it, your ‘Google-free’ phone is more of an Android device on a tighter leash.

So while GrapheneOS is brilliant in some aspects compared to most privacy solutions, it definitely leaves me wanting more. For now, it’s a ‘no’ from me.

Given time and wider compatibility, it’d be easy to recommend GrapheneOS given its added security capabilities in a world of growing threats. But with the availability of tools such as VPNs and antiviruses on regular Android, non-security-focused individuals are unlikely to see enough difference to warrant the current frustrations GrapheneOS can bring.

While Apple TV first showed that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max could handle the demands of a live professional sports broadcast during Friday Night Baseball, the company has since expanded their role into Major League Soccer, using the smartphones to capture angles traditional broadcast cameras simply can't.

Nearly a year after Apple first put iPhone 17 Pro Max units into a live sports broadcast workflow, the cameras are back for 2026 MLS All-Star Week in Charlotte, North Carolina. During the July 28 Skills Challenge and the July 29 MLS All-Star Game, iPhone 17 Pro Max can be mounted behind goals, attached to Magic Arms — articulated mounts commonly used in film and broadcast production — and carried on Ronin gimbals by roaming camera operators. If a penalty kick happens, one could even end up just feet behind the player taking the shot, delivering an even more immersive perspective.

I've been on the ground in Charlotte this week and caught up once again with Royce Dickerson, Executive Producer, Live Sports on Apple TV, to see how the company's approach has evolved over the past year. For Dickerson, the mission is no longer proving the iPhone belongs in a live broadcast — it's figuring out what broadcasters can do with it that they couldn't before.

"We’re always looking for ways to innovate and bring fans closer to the action," Dickerson told me. "How do we continue to be creative with the spaces that we have? Where can we stick iPhones that we haven't thought about before?... We're always striving for... what is that perfect shot? I don't think we've found it yet."

That shift in mindset is perhaps the biggest takeaway one year later. Apple is no longer asking whether the iPhone can work as a broadcast camera — it's asking how many more it can deploy and where they can go next.

'Just like another camera'

A year in, nobody on Dickerson's crew treats the iPhone as a novelty act anymore. He pointed back to that first Friday Night Baseball broadcast, when veteran director John Moore ended up cutting to the iPhone shot more often than he expected once he saw the picture quality for himself. Camera operators reached the same place, Dickerson told me that once they're familiar with the iPhone, "it's just like another camera to them."

That comfort is why Apple is running the setup weekly across both MLS and Friday Night Baseball now, rather than treating it as a special event. "I don't think we'd be doing it week-over-week in MLS right now and in Friday Night Baseball if everybody wasn't 100% comfortable with the camera," he said.

The hardware has diversified slightly, too — alongside the now-recognizable Cosmic Orange units, Apple has mixed in some silver iPhone 17 Pro Max cameras as well.

From four iPhones to 15 — and eventually 30?

Ask Dickerson what he took away from that first Fenway broadcast and applied directly to MLS, and his answer is immediate: they needed more iPhones.

That first game ran four units total — one on the Pesky Foul Pole, one tucked into the Green Monster, one on a Ronin gimbal, and one in the dugout. Seeing how unobtrusively that small footprint could be worked into a stadium convinced him the ceiling was much higher than four.

"We need more of them," he told me. "The small-scale size of that just showed me we can put iPhones anywhere. We need to be able to say, like, let's put 20 — what can we do that's crazy in a stadium that just provides full 360 coverage inside of a venue?"

That thinking has already become reality. For a dedicated MLS match shot almost entirely on iPhone, Apple deployed 15 iPhone 17 Pro Max cameras throughout the stadium — and Dickerson doesn't see that as a ceiling.

"I see a world where we have 20 iPhones. I see a world where we have like 30," he said. "With the confidence that everybody has in them now, the envelope's going to start getting pushed a little bit further out."

The workflow has caught up with that ambition. What used to take a full day of rigging and connectivity checks is now, in Dickerson's words, roughly a tenth of the time it took a year ago — purely a result of doing it week after week and building familiarity with the process.

Crews are still using Beastgrip rigs for mounting, but the iPad-based control setup I saw a year ago is gone: camera input and shading are now integrated directly into the truck's standard broadcast system, no separate tablet required.

Geometry is a key difference between capturing MLB and MLS

The biggest difference between MLB and MLS comes down to something surprisingly simple: geometry.

A pitch is the same size in Charlotte as it is in LA, Miami, or New York, and in many soccer stadiums, the stands run right up to the touchline — meaning a Ronin-mounted iPhone can get shockingly close to the run of play.

Baseball doesn't offer that flexibility. The foul lines are a hard boundary, and once you cross onto the field of play, that's it — no matter which park you're in, and no matter how the dimensions shift from stadium to stadium. Soccer's more consistent footprint, paired with sideline access, is letting Apple push cameras nearer to the action than it could at a ballpark.

That proximity has led to placements you wouldn't get near a diamond: a Ronin at the touchline for tight shots, an iPhone on the team benches (Dickerson mentioned catching LA Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney's face as he made notes on an iPad during a match), cameras tucked into the goal net, in the tunnel, and mounted on field-level advertising boards. None of it blocks a fan's sightline, and all of it is small enough that it goes unnoticed until a broadcast cuts to it.

Dickerson also pointed to a subtler benefit: players, coaches, and managers react differently to an iPhone than they do to a traditional broadcast camera.

"Usually there's a big broadcast camera being shoved in their face, and they immediately kind of retreat within themselves," he said. "But all of a sudden there's just an iPhone 17 Pro Max on a gimbal... and it kind of eases them."

That reaction is helping Apple capture more intimate, unguarded moments without disrupting play or fans' sightlines.

What to watch for in Charlotte

Tuesday's Skills Challenge leaned heavily on mobility with Ronins at the stadium, two of them on RF for full remote control, plus two more mounted on Magic Arms positioned for organic, up-close angles of balls in flight and players running by.

Wednesday's All-Star Game mixes in two Ronins pushed toward the sidelines, alongside iPhones positioned around the halftime stage for Ciara's performance (produced by a separate crew that Apple's broadcast will ingest as a feed).

Dickerson's dream shot for the All-Star Game: a Ronin-mounted iPhone getting a tight angle from behind a player on a penalty kick — a shot that's essentially impossible with a traditional camera rig.

I'll be keeping an eye out for that moment during the match, because if Apple can pull it off, it may be one of the clearest examples yet of why these tiny cameras are changing what's possible in a live broadcast.

Still searching for the perfect shot

Twenty years into a broadcast career, Dickerson isn't interested in declaring victory. He pointed to a shot from the first official MLB game shot on iPhone when Ceddanne Rafaela had a walk-off captured from a phone on the Pesky Pole, as one of the closest things to a perfect shot his team has captured — but he's clear it's not the finish line.

The goal, as he put it, is finding angles nobody's thought to try yet, in stadiums that all start to look the same until you walk them looking for a spot nobody's used before.

With Apple already talking about a "year-and-a-half" of testing and implementation behind it heading into the next MLS season and Friday Night Baseball campaign, Dickerson is promising more of what got Apple here in the first place: more iPhones, more unconventional angles, and continued insistence that the phone in your pocket can shoot alongside — and sometimes replace — a six-figure broadcast camera.

Apple TV in the United States is the broadcast home to MLS, and you get to watch for free as it’s included with one of the best streaming services. The MLS All-Star Game will kick off at 8 PM ET tonight, July 29, 2026, with a pre-show starting before it, and it’ll be easy to know when they call for a shot from the iPhone thanks to a ‘Shot on iPhone’ bug visible on the screen.

Apple's long-rumored product leasing program, which it calls unironically "Apple Upgrade," is finally here, and it looks like a low-cost way to slide into the Apple ecosystem whether on the shiny surface of a gleaming iPhone 17 Pro, a Snoopy-faced Apple Watch, a clamshell Apple Silicon Mac, or an ultra-slim iPad Pro.

With no upfront fee and monthly charges as low as $11.99 a month (it's only available in the US for now), your new Apple Watch might cost you far less than your daily Starbucks mocha latte.

Honestly, this sounds like a great program, especially when you can snap up a powerful MacBook Pro for as little as $38.99 a month. Naturally, most people might be looking at the Upgrade program, a leasing program actually run by Klarna, for their next iPhone and probably the popular iPhone 17 Pro Max, which starts at $34.99 a month. Still, when I asked on a pair of social media platforms (X and Threads) if people would be leasing their next iPhone, the sentiment was decidedly negative.

On Threads and with 199 votes in, 80% said no. On X, with 105 votes, 78% said nah. I was surprised, but some of the responses to my anecdotal polls offered a little insight.

One thing a few talked about was ownership. Apple Upgrade works like most other lease programs, which means ownership is not really a thing. Here are the highlights:

• You have to qualify for the program (might be a credit check)
• You pay a fixed fee for 12, 24, or 36 months
• You're not paying off the cost of the phone
• At the end of the lease term, you own nothing
• You can return the phone
• You can turn it in for an upgrade and continue paying
• A better device (upgrading from an iPhone 17 to an iPhone 17 Pro Max) will increase your monthly fee
• You can buy the leased device at the end of the lease term (it's the full price minus whatever you've paid thus far via the lease program)

Virtually every part of this resembles a typical lease program you might have with an automobile.

"I have an Apple Card for a reason… I like being able to pay it off whenever and ACTUALLY own the thing," wrote brianniesniak on Threads.

The ownership argument is the sole reason I've never leased a car. I always buy them with a substantial down payment and then pay the rest off. Of course, I tend to hold onto my cars for a decade or more. In the world of technology, like smartphones, laptops, watches, and tablets, technical advances are so rapid that it rarely makes sense to hold onto them for that long.

On the other hand, there are people who own their tech for extraordinarily long times and only upgrade when companies like Apple, Microsoft, or a necessary third-party application force them to through lack of support. These days, many companies, including Samsung and Google, tout years of OS and security updates, but in a world of leases, none of that really matters. Every two years, you could have a new device; it will always have the latest software and security protections.

Access for all

"If you can’t buy it, you can’t afford it," argues Mrmarchall on Threads. I mean, isn't that the whole point of credit and lease programs? They throw open the doors of access to these products to those who don't have the funds to cover full purchase. Yes, there is the risk of someone who unexpectedly is unable to afford the lease, and then, if they try to leave the program, they're still on the hook for the remainder of the program (they leave at 3 months and still have to pay 21 months).

Even though most in my poll respondents were anti-lease, some saw the obvious benefits. "People who picked no, you seriously have $1000 laying around?" wrote Ajvizz on Threads.

"Yeah, probably. I can't personally think of any negatives in my situation," surmised Dilpickle1 on Threads.

Others on X pointed to the excellent option of refurbished iPhones, which offer access to pre-owned iPhones (sometimes higher-end models) at far more reasonable prices. And you get the added benefit of true ownership, if that's your thing.

The endless age of subscriptions

Apple Upgrade's inherent lack of ownership and never-ending payments because you're in an endless upgrade cycle does raise some concerns and correlates to an unfortunate and rapidly growing trend.

"It is absolutely crazy that we have entered the era of leased consumer electronics. "Everything is a subscription!" should not be the new normal," wrote Tech Journalist Matthew Keys on X.

I had to agree. Last year I wrote about tech services subscription culture and how companies are now often placing key features behind subscription paywalls. At least in this instance, you're getting the whole device and all its capabilities. The lease only equates to a subscription in that there's an assumption you will jump from one leased device to another, hence the name "Apple Upgrade".

If I were asked, I think I'd look more positively on Apple Upgrade.

Smartphones, laptops, smart watches, desktop computers, and tablets are, in some ways, a fact of life. No one leaves home without a phone in their pocket. Frustration over aging iPhones that can't support the latest OS or whose battery life ends faster than a summer vacation is all too real. The knowledge that with a relatively affordable monthly payment, you're guaranteed a better phone in 24 months might be a relief.

It's an irrefutable fact that as soon as you unbox your shiny new iPhone, it's worth less than it was seconds before. Those who buy cars know that depreciation, which begins the moment you drive it off the lot, is real. It's no different with consumer electronics. Maybe ownership isn't all it's cracked up to be. So what if joining Apple Upgrade means, for the next 24 months, Apple kind of owns you?

Confusion is the typical first reaction. They hold the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 in their hands, marveling at the passport-sized cover screen, and ask without irony or sarcasm, "Is this new?"

I'm finding that people think the Z Fold 8's design is both familiar and completely alien. They roll it over in their hands and, initially, appear unaware that it also unfolds to reveal a far larger, and yet also oddly shaped, inner display.

It's, for all intents and purposes, the Nokia Feature phone of modern foldables. It's a completely new device featuring modern hardware, components, tech innovation, and AI that also somehow harkens back to an era of weird Nokia phones that proudly peacocked their oddball aesthetics.

Back in the early oughts when most thought the state of cellphones had been well-worked out and we'd settled on small-ish screens and an endless array of keyboard styles, Nokia was king of the hill. There was no one-size-fits-all in the world of cell phones. Your phone's physical design was an expression of your personal style. The tiny Nokia 31000 had virtually nothing in common with a T-Mobile Sidekick or a BlackBerry 7230. Nokia's designs, though, were fun (if not always practical — looking at you, Nokia N-Gage) and they made us think differently about mobile phones and what we should expect when using them.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, which Samsung unveiled last week in London at Samsung Upacked (and that I'm carrying today), is perhaps serving a similar function now, trumpeting the very existence of foldable phones and why they might matter to you.

Why the Nokia Effect matters

In my discussions with Samsung about why they made the Galaxy Z Fold 8, it became quite clear that this was a phone and form factor designed to attract customers disinterested or dissatisfied with the current relatively vanilla set of folding phone options, not only available from Samsung, but also from its rivals at Motorola, Oppo, and Huawei.

After all, you had either the candybar style that opens into a mini tablet or the communicator flip-style. Camera arrays might all look different, but the basic size and shapes are all the same. And none of them were moving the market — foldables held just 1.6% of the global smartphone market in 2025. None of them appear to be making people stop and think. There was, until now, no Nokia Effect.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, though, is fun to show off. I've seen people stop, smile, scratch their heads, and be generally interested in a way they weren't with recent Folds and Flips or even the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra I'm also carrying around. One coworker called it "dreamy". How often have you heard someone describe a smartphone like that?

They notice, for instance, that in its folded size, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a much better fit for smaller hands, and how it actually fits all the way in a pocket (not for nothing, the 201g size doesn't hurt for portability, either). Even opened and in portrait mode, the 7.6-inch display is more palmable than the Z Fold 8 Ultra's 8-inch display.

Weird and wonderful

Its inherent cuteness is an unintentional nod to the phones of a bygone era. When folded, the cover display and even the back with its smaller camera array say, "Look at me, I'm adorable."

Samsung will be leaning into this, and where the Z Fold 8 Ultra is a mobile multi-tasking and content capture and creation workhorse, the Z Fold 8 is a friend who tells you stories in a compact form. It's a lean-back reading experience, and a less letterboxed full-screen video viewing companion.

And yet, it's also a better confidant, letting you share your thoughts and texts in a virtual keyboard that's wider and more comfortable to use than one on even the Galaxy S26 Ultra or iPhone 17 Pro Max.

What Samsung has almost miraculously done with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is create a foldable that will finally get people talking. Further, it's done so months before Apple enters the foldable ring. Imagine that, a knockout punch delivered by Samsung before the fight begins.

It won't be that easy, of course; I fully expect Apple to deliver something truly extra on the foldable front. It should share this unusual form factor, especially since Samsung is probably supplying the display. Samsung has told us that it's unconcerned about Apple's entry and actually welcomes it. Maybe that's just pole-position talk.

Will the freshness of this form factor evaporate when the iPhone Ultra arrives? Maybe, or maybe it'll be too late for Apple because surely Samsung has already cracked the code. All it had to do was take a look back and remind itself why people loved weird cellphone designs and how that might, if not shape, at least inform its expansion of the Z Fold line.

The iPhone 7 isn’t remembered as being a particularly important iPhone release, but it did represent several ‘firsts’ for Apple. It was the first iPhone to lose the traditional headphone jack, the first to boast IP67 water resistance, and the first to swap the mechanical Home button for a pressure-sensitive equivalent.

The iPhone 7 was also the first standard-sized iPhone to feature Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), which uses physical gyroscopes to counteract shake-induced blur, and has been a feature of every iPhone released since (that’s 35 models and counting).

Why am I writing about the iPhone 7? Because it arrived almost a decade ago — on September 16, 2016, to be precise — and because I came across TechRadar’s iPhone 7 review sample during a recent clearout of our office cupboard.

I’m currently using the iPhone Air — released on September 19, 2025 — as my daily phone, which is a similarly thin and lightweight iPhone with only one rear camera, and so I thought it would be fun (and nostalgic!) to compare the camera capabilities of these two devices to see how far Apple’s camera hardware has come in 10 years. The answer, as you can imagine, is 'very far'.

Specs

Before I jump into the side-by-side comparisons, here’s a table detailing the key camera specs of the iPhone 7 and iPhone Air:

It's worth noting that the iPhone Air defaults to shooting in 24MP, rather than 48MP, via a 'Fusion' process that merges 12 high-dynamic-range pixels and 12 low-dynamic-range pixels into a single 24MP shot. You can choose to shoot in 48MP on new iPhones like the iPhone Air, but I stuck to the default option for this comparison.

Photo gallery

Right, onto the side-by-side photos. I took both phones on a walk around the neighborhood, comparing their wide-shooting capabilities, ability to capture color, digital zoom capabilities (neither device has a dedicated telephoto zoom), and low-light shooting capabilities.

First shot: a tree on the sidewalk. This isn't a particularly demanding scenario, but at first glance, both phones appear to have captured a similarly detailed image. Apple's approach to color science doesn't appear to have changed all that much in 10 years, either (at least in this example — more on color science later).

If you zoom in, though, the iPhone Air's shot is clearly superior. Check out the detail on the property nameplate to the left of the tree, for instance, or the paving stones in the foreground. The iPhone 7 smears over details it can't capture, while the iPhone Air's sensor picks up lots more information. These are subtle differences, but the iPhone Air's shot is the better of the two.

This is another example of subtle differences. The two images look similar at first glance, but the iPhone Air captures more brick, metal, and pavement detail than the iPhone 7. The dog is just as cute in both images, mind you.

Pub time! Again, the iPhone 7 does a decent job here, but the detail and color of the main building are more real-looking in the iPhone Air's image. If you zoom in on the main Holly Bush logo or the Hollybush House sign, you'll notice the difference in clarity. The shadows in the latter photo are also more pronounced, which speaks to the iPhone Air's superior dynamic range.

How about a butterfly? The iPhone Air's image is clearly the richer of the two. The leaves, branches, and pattern on the butterfly itself are more detailed in the shot captured with Apple's newer phone, while the iPhone 7's image is softer, almost as if there's a streak of sunblock on the lens. This is the first shot where I think, "Yeah, that photo was shot on an old iPhone."

This is a tricky one. The petal detail on the main flower is slightly better on the iPhone Air shot, and the color of the rear wall is more accurate, too. But the iPhone 7 keeps more foreground detail intact (see the green leaves on the left and the red label at the bottom). We'll call it a draw.

And here we come to the best example of Apple's modern approach to color science in action. On newer iPhones, Apple prioritizes style over realism, occasionally warming things up with more saturation, so shots have an almost yellowish quality. As you can see above, the ice cream is literally a different color in both pictures.

The iPhone 7's approach to this image is too cold — I chose the salted caramel flavor, and the older iPhone saps all the fun and warmth out of that decision. It makes the ice cream look unappetizing and the weather miserable. The iPhone Air's photo looks immeasurably warmer, and while my surroundings weren't quite that yellow, I'd rather exist in this sun-kissed world than in the iPhone 7's gloomy alternative.

Another big win for the iPhone Air here. Neither phone has a dedicated zoom camera, so I had to employ digital zoom in both cases (around 4x), and the iPhone Air captures far, far more detail than the iPhone 7.

So far (the zoom example above notwithstanding), the iPhone 7 has delivered less detailed but still largely usable images versus the iPhone Air. That stops when you switch to low-light scenarios.

In this example, the iPhone 7 just can't handle the bright light of my IKEA donut lamp — you can't even tell that it's a donut at all. The iPhone Air, meanwhile, captures the charming shape of the lamp itself as well as details in the shadows it creates. Look at the pattern on the cupboard door — it's simply not visible in the photo captured by the iPhone 7.

Again, the difference is night and day here (almost literally). The candle in the iPhone 7 photo is extremely blown out — no pun intended — while the iPhone Air more accurately recreates what I was seeing with my eyes (read: light).

If this were a competition to see which phone could best recreate the neo-noir visual style, the iPhone 7 would win (the first photo is very Lynchian). Alas, it's not, and so here we have a great example of just how far the iPhone's night photography skills have come. The iPhone Air photo is more detailed, has better dynamic range, and has more accurate colors — try and read the number plates in the iPhone 7 photo, and tell me I'm wrong.

Oh look, it's me! I'm actually quite impressed with the detail served up by the iPhone 7 here — the hairs on my head and face are equally visible in both examples — but the iPhone Air more accurately captures the whites of my eyes and the details of my complexion (read: the blemishes. Sigh.)

In fact, now I'm looking at the iPhone 7 photo again — specifically, my black eyes — I look a bit like a Great White Shark who's enjoying his last hours as a human. Maybe that's what Apple was going for in 2016?

Verdict

Surprise! The iPhone Air captured a better photo than the iPhone 7 in almost every example. That was to be expected, and, if you're spending close to four figures on one of the best iPhones in 2026, hoped for.

Apple's latest single-camera iPhone delivers superior details, colors, dynamic range, and digital zoom clarity than its predecessor 10 generations removed, and if that wasn't the case, you'd be worried for the company's future.

But in writing this comparison, I was pleasantly surprised by how well the iPhone 7 held up against the iPhone Air. At first glance, it delivered comparable photos on several occasions, only revealing itself to be a 10-year-old device when I zoomed in and dug into the details (or lack thereof). The low-light examples were a different story, but again, that's to be expected.

So, yes, iPhone photography has come a long way since 2016, but if you find yourself forced to use a banged-up old iPhone 7 for a few days (for whatever reason), it won't be totally incapable of capturing usable photos.

Honor Magic V6 review: Two-minute review

Chinese phone giant Honor has been on a bit of a roll recently. In 2026, it’s already given us the exceptional Honor MagicPad 4 and the compelling Honor Magic 8 Pro flagship, not to mention the impressive (albeit slightly pricey) Honor 600 Pro. Its latest foldable, the Honor Magic V6, keeps up this formidable streak and is easily worthy of being considered one of the best foldable phones today.

The big draw here is the Magic V6's market-leading durability. I’ve taken plenty of foldables for a spin, from the clamshell Motorola Razr Plus to the tablet-style Oppo Find N5, but I’ve always maintained that I would never actually buy one. Why? Because these devices are often simply too fragile. I’m pretty clumsy with my phones and regularly use (and I must admit, sometimes drop) them in the shower or bath, and there’s no way that I’m going to splash out on a premium foldable only to see it turned into a damp paperweight.

The Honor Magic V6 is the first foldable I’ve tested that truly bucks that trend.

In its review documentation, Honor recommended not to baby the phone — I was encouraged to take it out and about without a case, use it in the rain, and so on. I’ve been doing exactly that and, after multiple months of use, it still looks brand new. With its IP68 and IP69 ratings, it offers the highest level of water protection that I can find on the market right now, comparable to most regular high-end flagships.

Its fold is smooth, quiet, and, after being unfolded multiple times a day for weeks, is still as good as new. Honor says that the inner screen is layered with tough UTG flexible glass and has an SGS Imperceptible Crease Certification, and it really shows. The fold is near-invisible head-on, and only really shows if you hold the phone at very specific angles. This is the first foldable I’ve used where you can truly forget that it’s even there.

All of this is underpinned by a premium design that’s impressively slim. The folded phone is about as thick as an iPhone 17 Pro Max, so it feels great in the hands. Unfolded, it becomes just 4.00mm — the same incredible slimness that we loved with the previous Honor Magic V5. On that note, it’s a shame that Honor hasn’t really changed the design that much for this new iteration, though.

The look is practically identical and, on a more serious note, the V5 often ran hot, and that’s still an issue this time around. It’s especially apparent when you’re putting the top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 SoC through its paces, so be prepared for some thermal throttling if you’re spending hours in the most demanding games.

Despite these minor shortcomings, the Magic V6 is a winner and another impressive showing for Honor. I’m eager to see what the company has planned next.

Honor Magic V6 review: Price and availability

• Priced at £1,999.99 / AU$2,999 (around $2,700)
• Already discounted by £500 thanks to a voucher
• Available in the UK and Australia, but not the US

The Honor Magic V6 is priced at £1,999.99 (AU$2,999), which is a pretty hefty sum, but roughly in line with competing devices like the $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999 Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

Honor gains a major edge when you consider that the V6 offers 512GB of storage as standard (the Z Fold 8 Ultra starts at just 256GB) and factor in the brand’s frequent promotions and freebies.

At the time of writing, for example, the phone is already £500 off on the official Honor website thanks to a voucher, and comes bundled with your choice of an Honor Pad 10 tablet, projector, or AI voice recorder in addition to some earbuds — you can’t really argue with the value there.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Honor Magic V6 review: Specs

Here's a look at the Honor Magic V6's spec sheet:

Honor Magic V6 review: Design

• Very similar to the V5
• Smoother, more premium hinge
• Still a large camera bump

The design of the Honor Magic V6 is practically identical to that of the V5. It is incredibly thin when unfolded, coming in at just 4.1mm, with a durable aluminium chassis. The back material depends on your choice of colorway, with the Red version using vegan leather and the Gold, Black, and White featuring a smooth fibre composite.

Whether you’re using it folded or unfolded, this is a very good-looking phone that feels great in the hands. I took it with me to Los Angeles on two business trips during my testing, and multiple people complimented the device completely unprompted and were eager to learn more about it — something that I can’t say has happened with any other mobile I’ve used.

Like most Chinese flagships, the rear of the phone features a large octagonal camera bump which isn't going to be to everyone’s taste. I do quite like how it looks, though, and appreciate the subtle tactile texture on the ring around it. The bump is also a bit smaller than that of the Honor Magic 8 Pro, which means that it’s less likely to rest under your fingers and get covered in smudges.

Although the aesthetic hasn’t changed, there have been some big improvements compared to the Honor Magic V5 when it comes to the hinge. It’s much quieter and smoother this time around, helping the phone feel more premium and sturdy. When opened, the phone’s inner display looks totally flat, and the crease is totally invisible in most situations. It only shows up at specific angles and when the screen is displaying lighter colors like grey or white.

Honor keeps things refreshingly simple when it comes to buttons with the Magic V6. There’s a small volume rocker and a power button on the right-hand side, and that’s your lot. They’re well placed for one-handed operation and feel pleasantly clicky. My only real gripe is the fingerprint reader built into the power button, which sometimes feels unresponsive and requires a few attempts to successfully unlock.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Honor Magic V6 review: Display

• Both screens are bright and attractive
• Crease is barely visible
• Comes with pre-applied screen protectors

Both of the displays found on the Honor Magic V6 are excellent. The 6.52-inch OLED outer screen has a 2420 x 1080 resolution, with a fantastic 2,000 nits peak brightness (or up to an absurd 6,000 nits with HDR) that ensures that it stays visible in even the harshest lighting conditions. It uses Honor’s Anti-scratch NanoCrystal Shield coating, which is decently scratch-resistant and has managed to keep the screen pristine throughout my testing.

It certainly helps that the outer screen also comes fitted with a screen protector out of the box, though I opted to remove it early on as it picked up a lot of marks very quickly. (The inner display also comes with a screen protector, though be warned that this is an integral part of the display that should not be removed by the user. It thankfully seems much more durable than the outer one). Despite the rectangular candy-bar shape of the folded phone, the outer screen uses rounded corners, presumably to give it symmetry with the inner one.

That inner display is a 7.5-inch foldable OLED panel, surrounded by impressively thin plastic bezels. It’s almost as bright as the external one, with a 1,300-nit peak brightness (or up to 5,000 nits with HDR). It’s decently high resolution at 2352 x 2172 and doesn’t look noticeably less sharp than the external one in use, so you can transition between them seamlessly. Honor also deserves some credit for just how closely calibrated both of the displays are: they’re practically identical in terms of color and together just feel like a natural extension of the same panel.

Both the inner and outer screens feature an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, too (avoiding a jarring transition between different refresh rates when switching between the two), which is fantastic for smoothly scrolling apps and social media websites.

Lastly, you absolutely don’t need to worry about an ugly crease spoiling your view with the Honor Magic V6. There is still a fold that you can feel if you really examine it with your fingers, but it’s practically invisible in regular use unless you hold your phone at specific side-on angles or look very closely on a totally blank screen.

I’ve been folding and unfolding the phone constantly throughout my testing, and it hasn’t become more visible either, which is a great sign for long-term durability.

• Display score: 4 / 5

Honor Magic V6 review: Cameras

• Good camera setup
• Not quite as strong as the Magic 8 Pro
• Plenty of software features

The cameras of the Honor Magic V6 aren’t quite as strong as those of the Honor Magic 8 Pro, but they’re still very capable compared to the rest of the wider foldable category. The rear camera offers a three-lens setup, with a 50MP ultra-wide, 50MP wide, and 64MP telephoto lens.

Photos are bright and poppy by default, which is great for capturing the mood of summer days, and they offer a good level of detail — even when dealing with busy scenes and foliage. The main sensor offers 3x optical zoom, which works fantastically, alongside a much less consistent 100x digital zoom. This setup performs well in low-light conditions and those with challenging lighting setups, like concerts with bright strobe effects.

There are plenty of software features to try out on the Magic V6, including AI-powered color filters and different photo watermarks. The ability to display the photo that you’re taking on the front screen is also brilliant for group settings.

Both the front and inner display have the same 20MP wide sensor, which does a good job with selfies, even if the results are a little overprocessed. The Honor Magic V6 also has strong video shooting capabilities and can capture 4K video at 60fps.

As good as it all is, though, I do think the results are overall less impressive than the images I’ve taken with the Honor Magic 8 Pro and its 200MP main lens.

• Cameras score: 4 / 5

Honor Magic V6 review: Camera samples

Honor Magic V6 review: Performance

• Flagship chip
• Can run hot
• Good RAM and storage

The Honor Magic V6 is powered by the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the same chip found in the Honor Magic 8 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, Xiaomi 17 Ultra, and other high–end smartphones. With this SoC, it should come as no surprise that the performance of the Honor Magic V6 is incredibly strong across the board.

In daily use, you’re not going to notice any hitches or slowdown when navigating system menus, browsers like Google Chrome or Firefox, and social media apps. It’s paired with 16GB of RAM, which is more than enough for serious multitasking. I normally rely on my phone for productivity tasks like note-taking, transcribing, and document editing while I’m out on business trips, and my flow was never broken by sudden reloads when flicking between multiple apps — even ones that I hadn’t opened for some time.

Gaming performance is also excellent. It almost goes without saying that casual titles like Plants vs Zombies 3 or Warhammer Combat Cards - 40K (two games I must admit I’ve been spending an embarrassing amount of time playing recently) are totally flawless. More demanding titles, like my go-to Zenless Zone Zero, will run beautifully at the maximum settings preset as well.

The Honor Magic V6 does have a problem with temperatures, though. Extended gaming sessions will cause the phone to heat up quite a bit, leading to eventual slowdown. I also found that it struggled massively during the recent UK heatwave, feeling red hot in my pocket and struggling to run even Google Maps smoothly in direct sunlight. Given the phone’s thinness, I think it’s reasonable that it runs hot at times — but if you want a dedicated gaming device, you would be better off looking outside the foldable market.

Only one configuration of the Honor Magic V6 is available, offering 512GB of storage out of the box. It’s a bit of a shame that there’s no 1TB model for proper power users, but this 512GB capacity will be more than sufficient for the vast majority of buyers. I still have almost 300GB of free space after multiple months of use.

The stereo speakers of the Honor Magic V6 are decent, but hardly going to blow your socks off. There’s more bass than you might expect given the phone’s slight profile, and they can get fairly loud. Just make sure that you run to the ‘Sound quality and effects’ menu in the settings app and disable the various effects that are, for some reason, enabled by default. They just make everything sound washed out.

• Performance score: 4 / 5

Honor Magic V6 review: Software

• Transitions between screens seamlessly
• MagicOS 10 is still a winner
• Sleek, iOS-inspired design language

I’m a big fan of MagicOS 10, Honor’s Android 16-based operating system. The design is certainly Apple-inspired, but as an ex-iPhone user, I find it both visually appealing and easy to use. It has a liquid-glass-like aesthetic, with sleek, semi-transparent menus and rounded buttons.

You get all the visual flair of using an iPhone, but with all the additional customization options that you would expect from the Android ecosystem. New icon packs, themes, and a range of pre-set options can be selected from the in-built themes app. You can even disable the transparency effects throughout the OS if you want something that looks a bit more like traditional Android.

Smart features, like an AI tool to recommend images that would be well-suited for your lock screen and AI-powered widgets that use context to suggest the app that you’re most likely to want to use, make daily operation smooth.

Other AI software elements include the ability to generate or rephrase text and a surprisingly good translation feature. They’re not all winners though. The AI Settings Agent (which allows you to type or speak sentences like ‘Turn off Bluetooth’ in order to change key settings) is laughably useless, while the so-called AI Memories App is literally just a screenshot tool with the word AI slapped on it.

But compared to other foldables that I have used, the Honor Magic V6 is by far the smoothest when transitioning between the two displays on the software front. You will get the odd moment where things freeze up, or apps fail to resize properly, but the vast majority of the time it works exactly as you would expect. I soon found that being able to seamlessly access the larger screen made it much easier to compose apps in Gmail, or edit documents in Google Drive.

• Software score: 4 / 5

Honor Magic V6 review: Battery

• 6,660mAh lithium polymer cell
• Best in class battery life
• Easily lasts for more than a day

The battery life of the Honor Magic V6 is superb. The 6,660mAh lithium polymer cell offers more than enough juice for a full day of use, even if you play graphically demanding games or stream video content. I use my phone constantly throughout the day and regularly go to bed with about 25% of juice left. With light use, you could easily stretch multiple days out of a single charge, particularly if you enable one of the power-saving modes.

6,660mAh is the largest battery capacity you will find across the entire foldable category, and it shows in real-world use. The Honor Magic V6 can comfortably outlast both the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 (we’re yet to test it against the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra), as well as traditional flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Honor devices are already known for their serious battery chops, but cramming this much battery life into a device so thin and light is extremely impressive.

• Battery score: 5 / 5

Should you buy the Honor Magic V6?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Honor Magic V6 review: Also consider

Not so keen on the Honor Magic V6? Here are two alternatives to weigh up, one folding and one not.

How I tested the Honor Magic V6

• Tested for multiple months
• Used as a daily driver
• Compared to flagship devices

I tested the Honor Magic V6 over a period of multiple months, using it as my daily driver. I relied on it for a wide range of tasks, from listening to music and browsing social media on my commute to watching my favorite series on a plane and trying out the latest game releases.

Throughout my time with the phone, I frequently compared its performance to other flagship devices, including those from Honor and its major competitors.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed July 2026

• AppleCare One is launching in the UK from August
• It'll be available for older devices as well as new purchases
• It's £16.99 per month for three devices, £4.99 p/month for each additional device

AppleCare, Apple's extended warranty for its devices, is expanding. A new AppleCare One bundle comes to the UK on August 4 2026 and could make it cheaper for you to cover multiple Apple products. It also lets you cover older devices rather than just new purchases.

At the moment, you've got 60 days from purchase to take out AppleCare+ coverage. That gives you free 24/7 tech support, subsidised battery replacements if your device's battery drops below 80% capacity, and unlimited accidental damage repairs including liquid damage.

AppleCare One expands the eligibility to cover devices up to four years old (one year for AirPods) provided they're in good condition. In some cases that may require a trip to the Apple Store to check the condition of an older device before you can add it to the plan.

One of the important changes is that Apple has expanded Theft and Loss coverage, which protects you for up to two incidences of theft or loss per year, to cover the Apple Watch and iPad as well as the iPhone. You can get that cover as part of AppleCare One, or take out a standalone plan for a single device.

The other key difference is that AppleCare One is a rolling subscription rather than a fixed term extended warranty — for example, if you upgrade your iPhone and trade in your old one, the AppleCare One plan will now cover your new iPhone.

As ever with bundles, how much you save depends on the particular products you have. But you can potentially save up to £11.48 per month compared to the cost of individual AppleCare+ subscriptions.

How much can you save with AppleCare One?

AppleCare One is £16.99 per month to cover three devices. You can add additional cover for £4.99 per month per additional device.

Let's say you have an iPhone Air, Apple Watch Ultra 3 and a 13-inch M5 iPad Pro. Individually, AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss will cost you £11.99, £4.99 and £8.49 per month. That's a total of £25.47, so the AppleCare One bundle is going to save you £8.48 per month.

For more modest devices the savings are smaller, but the additional device eligibility may still make AppleCare One an attractive option.

For example I have an iPhone 16 Pro and an Apple Watch Series 10, both of which are currently covered by AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss, but I didn't take out cover for my iPad Pro and the 60-day window has long closed. I'm currently paying £15.98 per month to cover my phone and watch; it'd cost just £1.01 per month more to cover an eligible iPad or iPad Pro — although sadly my iPad is an M1 so it's too old to be included.

It's worth noting that the AppleCare One bundle is for devices on the same Apple account. That means you can't cover family devices linked to other Apple accounts, even if they're in your Family Sharing group. And for some older devices you may need to confirm that they're in "good condition" by taking them to the Apple Store.

As a long time AppleCare customer I think AppleCare One looks good, and it'll save you money if you have three or more devices to cover. My only worry is that it's a subscription, and if there's one thing we know about tech giants' subscription services is that their prices always go up.

AppleCare One launches in the UK on August 4 2026.

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Samsung’s latest foldables have arrived with much fanfare. There’s the uniquely proportioned Galaxy Z Fold 8, which looks to be the precursor to the foldable iPhone Ultra later this year; the more conventional-looking Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra; and Samsung’s thinnest and lightest flip phone ever in the Galaxy Z Flip 8.

The first two of those three phones boast Samsung's new Flex Titanium display technology, which gives them thinner, flatter, and more robust displays than any Galaxy foldables before them. And having spent time with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra already, I’ve been impressed with the progress Samsung has made in reducing the appearance of the crease, specifically.

From front-on, you can hardly make out the crease at all, and at an angle, it’s less obvious than on the Galaxy Z Fold 7. Running my finger across the middle of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's display, there’s only a very subtle undulation running down the center. It’s so subtle that I’d wager you’ll stop registering that it's even there after spending a few weeks with the new phone.

And yet, for how impressed I am with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra’s display, I know there’s already something better available.

Enter the contender

The Oppo Find N6 launched in March 2026, four months earlier than Samsung’s Z8 series, and the big selling point was the claim that Oppo had managed to remove the crease in the foldable screen entirely.

Now, while that isn’t strictly true — at some acute angles, you can still see the crease — what is pretty amazing is the fact you can run your finger across the entire 8.12-inch display and not feel any interruption on the part of the screen that bends when folded.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have used most foldables, including reviewing the original Galaxy Fold, and the screen crease has always been there.

Most of the time, when you’re looking straight-on at the screen, it does disappear as your eyes focus on the content, but have the light hit at a certain angle, or run your finger across, and you’re immediately reminded of the minor imperfection.

I was stunned when I first got my hands on the Oppo Find N6. Swiping my finger back and forth across the middle of the display and feeling nothing, I thought, 'This is the next frontier of foldables.'

To make sure I wasn’t just looking at the Oppo through rose-tinted specs, I took it to the Samsung preview event so I could experience it side-by-side with the Z Fold 8 Ultra. And sure enough, the Oppo continued to impress with a screen that is smoother and flatter than Samsung’s, but not by much.

Which one is right for you?

Make no mistake, these are two very accomplished, flagship foldables. Both have similarly sized exterior and interior screens, and both are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is thinner, lighter, and actually readily available in multiple markets. It also has a brighter display (a peak brightness of 3,000 nits vs 2,500 nits on the Oppo) and the firm’s Galaxy AI, Now Brief, and Now Nudge features on top of Google’s Gemini assistant.

The Oppo Find N6 has the smoothest, flattest foldable display, an edge in the camera hardware, a bigger battery and faster charging — yet its availability is limited to just a few Asian markets at the time of writing.

So, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra wins by default, which doesn’t feel particularly satisfying as a conclusion, but this shouldn’t diminish the progress that’s been made.

The main issue with foldable displays has been conquered. The next major hurdle we need manufacturers to clear is price.

The Z Fold 8 Ultra is available for pre-order for a lofty $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999, which makes it Samsung’s most expensive foldable ever (if we ignore the limited-run TriFold). The Z Fold 8 (from $1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699) and Z Flip 8 (from $1,199.99 / £1,149 / AU$1,949) are cheaper, but they’re still not cheap.

So, if a manufacturer can find a way to deliver the same premium features for under $1,200/ £1,200 / AU$1,500, it could open the foldable floodgates.

Samsung Galaxy Unpacked took place earlier in the week, and amongst the key launches we the got a look at a brand new compact foldable: the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8. This clamshell phone is Samsung's slimmest and lightest Flip yet, measuring just 6.1mm thick when folded, and weighing in at 180g.

Preorders are open now, and if you've decided this is the phone for you, now's a great time to get a case sorted. Below, I've rounded up a selection of my favorites in the US and in the UK. I've focused on reputable brands like Otterbox, Spigen and Casetify, alongside Samsung's official offerings, but I've also mixed in a handful of Amazon options for those seeking something cheaper. As a relatively niche launch, there isn't the usual glut of cases to choose from, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a decent range available.

When making your selection, keep in mind what you need from a case. Do you want the toughest case, with reinforced corners, to keep your foldable safe from bumps and scratches? Are you seeking a fun design that lets you express some personality? Or do you need something minimalist that lets the phone itself take center stage? I've also included a number of MagSafe options.

Scroll down to browse my favorite Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 cases and covers, to keep your new clamshell safe and looking great.

US cases for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8

UK cases for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8

Samsung has unveiled three new foldable phones — the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8. And while the last of that trio falls into its own category, the former two phones have a lot in common.

Aside from having similar names, they’re both book-style foldables, and they also share plenty of specs. But between very different form factors and differences in their respective camera setups, there's lots to differentiate them, too.

So, below, we’ve compared the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, so you can easily understand how they stack up. We haven't reviewed either model just yet, but we have been hands-on with both, and so have been able to draw some early conclusions as to who they're best suited to.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: specs comparison

Before we look closer at the key features of these two phones, we've detailed their core specs below, so you can see their major similarities and differences at a glance.

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

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 were both announced on July 22, with pre-orders opening the same day.

General availability for both phones starts on August 7, though if you pre-order, you might get them earlier — at the time of writing, we’re seeing an August 3 delivery date in the UK, for example.

As for pricing, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 starts at $1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is more expensive, with a starting price of $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999. In both cases, that’s with 256GB of storage, though you can pick either model up in 512GB and 1TB configurations.

So, in other words, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra starts at $200 / £200 / AU$300 more than the standard Galaxy Z Fold 8.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: design

In some ways, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 have similar designs — after all, they’re both foldable phones that fold and unfold horizontally like a book. However, their shapes and dimensions differ a lot.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra looks a lot like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, with a tall, narrow design, leading to dimensions of 158.4 x 143.2 x 4.1mm when unfolded, 158.4 x 72.8 x 8.9mm when folded, and a weight of 215g.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, on the other hand, is shorter and wider, looking more like a passport than a book, with dimensions of 161.4 x 123.9 x 4.5mm when unfolded, 81.9 x 123.9 x 9.7mm when folded, and a weight of 201g.

Both phones, though, have an IP48 rating, meaning they’re water-resistant to depths of 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes, and also resistant to dust and other objects greater than 1mm in size.

They also both have aluminum frames, and share Samsung's Flex Titanium technology, meaning their hinges are similarly invisible (you will notice their respective hinges at certain angles, but Samsung has come a long way in this department since the days of the original Galaxy Fold).

As for colors, while the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is sold in Graphite, Cream, Green Shadow, and Violet Shadow, the Z Fold 8 can be bought in Graphite, Cream, Lavender, and Pistachio shades.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: display

Now we get to the biggest difference between these two phones: their displays. Or rather, the shape and purpose of those displays.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra has an 8.0-inch 2256 x 2504 foldable AMOLED screen and a 6.5-inch 1080 x 2520 AMOLED cover screen, both with a 120Hz refresh rate and around 422 pixels per inch.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 has a 7.6-inch 1828 x 2448 foldable AMOLED screen with around 403 pixels per inch and a 5.5-inch 1248 x 1972 AMOLED cover screen with roughly 428 pixels per inch.

So, both screens on the standard Z Fold 8 are noticeably smaller, but the aspect ratios arguably make a bigger difference, with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra having an almost square 1.11:1 foldable screen and a narrow 21:9 cover screen.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, on the other hand, has a 4:3 foldable screen, which is ideal for widescreen content, and a 10:16 cover screen, which is a bit more square than a typical phone and can be easily covered with one hand from top to bottom.

The taller, narrower Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra does have size benefits of its own, mind. It's harder to stretch your thumb to the top of this phone's display, but it's more easily covered with one hand from left to right. And when open, the Ultra is better suited to productivity apps that display square-shaped content like spreadsheets.

For video streaming, you'll want to go for the Galaxy Z Fold 8, since most video content is displayed in 16:9 (you'll see smaller black bars on a 4:3 screen), and it's arguably the better-shaped phone for gaming, too.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: cameras

There are big differences between the cameras on these two phones, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra coming out on top. This device has a 200MP f/1.7 wide camera, a 50MP f/1.9 ultra-wide with a 120-degree field of view, and a 10MP f/2.4 telephoto with 3x optical zoom. It also has a 10MP selfie camera on each screen.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 has one fewer camera and fewer megapixels in its wide one. Specifically, you’re getting a 50MP f/1.8 wide camera, a 50MP f/1.9 ultra-wide with a 120-degree field of view, and two 10MP selfie cameras. So, it lacks the telephoto snapper found on the Ultra.

Both phones, though, are capable of recording video in up to 8K quality at 30fps, or in 4K at up to 120fps.

We haven't had a chance to test both phones' cameras just yet, but we'll update this article with images when we have. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra will, for obvious reasons, be the superior zoom shooter, but there isn't likely to be too much to choose between the phones' 200MP and 50MP wide cameras, since both will default to smaller photo sizes anyway, as is standard practice for modern smartphones.

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

There’s nothing to choose here, with both the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and the Z Fold 8 having a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset and 12GB of RAM — unless you get a 1TB model, in which case you’ll get 16GB of RAM.

This combination of specs will ensure top-end performance regardless of what you're doing on your phone, and in our short time with both devices, they're equally capable gaming phones and productivity powerhouses (notwithstanding their respective display sizes, which makes each better suited to different tasks).

Both the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 8 also run Android 17 overlaid with One UI 9, and come with the promise of seven major Android upgrades.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: battery

Samsung has finally started putting silicon-carbon batteries in its phones, allowing for higher-capacity batteries in the same footprint. As a result, it's managed to pack a 5,000mAh battery into the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (up from 4,400mAh in the Z Fold 7).

Unsurprisingly, the smaller Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 features a lower-capacity battery (4,800mAh), which should allow the Ultra to last slightly longer — but not by much.

Samsung claims you'll get 27 hours of video playback from the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, while the standard Galaxy Z Fold 8 is rated for 26 hours. In our early anecdotal testing, we've managed to use both phones for multiple days without needing to charge them, so those playback estimates are likely accurate.

Both phones also support up to 45W wired charging and 20W wireless, so you won't be losing out on charging speed by picking one phone over the other.

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

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra has bigger, more productivity-friendly screens than the Galaxy Z Fold 8, along with an extra camera, more megapixels in its wide camera, and a slightly higher-capacity battery. However, it also costs $200 / £200 / AU$300 more, and offers identical power.

Its larger screens also won’t be desirable for everyone — indeed, the Galaxy Z Fold 8's screens are much more video-friendly, and may soon become the norm for foldables — so the only indisputable advantages of the pricier model are its cameras and larger battery (though on the latter, we're talking fine margins).

Whether those extra features are significant enough to justify the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's higher price will, of course, be subjective, but you might want to wait for our full reviews to see how these two phones compare in practice.

Isn’t it funny that we take the flexible screen so for granted that we complain over a crease and lack of flatness? The screen folds to become half its size and unfolds to about the size of a mini-tablet, and we’re still not satisfied. I guess that’s what makes us — or maybe Samsung — human. You see, it wasn’t satisfied, either, at least with the already quite thin and pretty remarkable Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

That 4.2mm thick device that features two displays and yet is somehow lighter than the Galaxy S26 Ultra was close to flat and did have a less noticeable crease at the bend, but apparently Samsung thought it could do better, which is how we got the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, unveiled at Galaxy Unpacked on July 22.

That’s right, it’s now an Ultra device, though that has more to do with the other new entry in the folding lineup: the 4:3 ratio Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8. This new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is not, after all, a full-scale redesign and is, instead, a refinement that brings better cameras (an upgraded 200MP camera with an f-stop adjustment, a new 50MP ultra-wide that matches the Galaxy S26 Ultra), a new 5,000mAh silicon-carbon battery, an anti-reflective coating on the display, and, somehow, a thinner body.

The slimming

At 4.1mm, you might be hard-pressed to notice the difference between Samsung's two most recent foldable flagships, though I can tell you that the chassis is now so thin, it barely squeezes in a USB-C port.

What is noticeable, though, is that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra unfolds its 8.1-inch OLED display effectively flat, and the crease is all but gone. (The phone actually almost snaps to flat and is somewhat less adjustable between flat and folded modes.)

That’s due to the lightweight but also very strong titanium architecture behind that OLED panel. There has been a rigid titanium backplate behind the OLED panel since the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but the lattice work along the crease — in the center of the panel — has been totally redesigned from a seemingly infinite series of parallel holes to holes that start narrow on top but open up on the opposite side (it’s sort of an “A” shape). Stacked on top of that panel now is another far more flexible titanium alloy sheet (a mix of titanium and other metals like aluminum and chrome). It’s about as flexible as a sheet of paper (I touched it, I know) but with infinitely more strength.

The combination of these two panels, which are sandwiched and glued together along with the OLED panel, an ultra-thin glass pane, and a plastic screen protector, all work in concert to allow the panel to be both 30% easier to open (a new chamfered display frame edge also assists here) and more inclined to pop out flat. And that makes the crease almost invisible.

I know all this because I met with Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display engineers in South Korea who worked together to bring the Z Fold 8 Ultra to life.

Even though I sort of understood how these elements worked together to make a flatter whole, I couldn’t entirely figure out how the rigid back plane was flexible enough to make the folding and unfolding possible, but Byung Duk Yang, EVP at Core Component Technology Team, Samsung Electronics, put a finer point on it for me.

Sitting next to a specially designed flexible display blow-out diorama featuring all those aforementioned panels hanging inside like so many curtains, Yang explained, “You’re right. Titanium is basically not flexible. We use a titanium plate already, but there are micro-holes to get the stretchability — so that is basic titanium. But this time we used the new titanium alloy — we needed some stretchability. That’s why it is not 100% titanium; it’s titanium alloy.”

The switch to the titanium alloy, which replaced a thicker polymer layer, is key because, with titanium’s ability to better withstand long-term deformation, it’s less likely that the now mostly hidden crease will grow more prominent over time.

As I noted, people tend to, with these foldables, fixate on the crease, but Yang explained that in designing these panels, Samsung Display has many considerations. “The crease itself is not our only top priority. We have to consider durability and surface quality.”

Stress tests

I also traveled to Samsung’s Gumi Factory City in South Korea, where I witnessed the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and its new sibling, the Galaxy Z Fold 8, undergo rigorous stress tests that included extreme heating and cooling, folding and unfolding tens of thousands of times, and ball-drop tests in which metal balls are repeatedly dropped on the screens from various heights.

From what I could tell, the Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra are quite resilient and, in the Z Fold 8 Ultras I saw, less reflective.

The new antireflective coating appears to do its part in helping the flexible display hide the crease. After all, less light is bouncing back to your eyes. And when I visited the Gumi testing lab, I saw how they used a special box with a dome of brilliant white light and a spectrometer to test display reflectivity. The light robotically moved around the Z Fold 8 Ultra panel to assess general reflectivity but also how the light might bounce off the crease. Results are gathered by a computer in a lab that runs 24 hours a day. We were, by the way, the first reporters ever to see it in person.

I’ve been pondering, though, what comes next for the Galaxy Z Fold lineup. Unless Samsung removes the USB-C port, it really can’t get any thinner. But the display could get at least one cool improvement; Samsung confirmed to me that they are thinking about how the Privacy Display on the Galaxy S26 Ultra might come to a future folding device. As you may recall, that privacy technology works at a pixel level to hide your screen from prying eyes, so it would require a very specific update to the flexible OLED panel.

In the meantime, though, consumers will have to consider this new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, perhaps the thinnest, flattest, and fullest expression of Samsung’s foldable ambitions.

Do you own a lot of Samsung devices? If so, why not test yourself to see how well you know the brand's products and services by taking the quiz below.

Back in November, Google surprised-dropped an update for its Android-based Quick Share tool that allowed Pixel 10 users to share files to iPhones via AirDrop. Four months ago to the day, Samsung followed suit by rolling out the same functionality to the best Samsung phones, and at the time of writing, over 30 different Android phones can now seamlessly send and receive files to and from Apple’s iPhones.

Yesterday saw the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 8, and Galaxy Z Flip 8, and because they all run One UI 9 (which is based on Android 17) straight out of the box, all three new phones have access to AirDrop via Quick Share.

So, as any humble tech journalist would do when opening up their Galaxy Z Fold 8 unit for the first time, I immediately sent a picture of myself to my iPhone Air and back again. For testing purposes, you understand. Here’s how quick the process was:

As above, this functionality is not unique to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 nor particularly new to Android phones more generally any more — but I realised while watching Galaxy Unpacked that we hadn’t yet published an article showcasing AirDrop via Quick Share in all its seamless file-sharing glory. So there you go, readers — I know you’ve all been on tenterhooks for eight months straight. This is a big deal.

Incidentally, if you own an Android phone that currently supports AirDrop via Quick Share, you’ll have to select ‘Everyone (10 minutes)’ in the Quick Share settings menu to ensure your device is viewable to the iPhone you want to send or receive your file to. On iPhone, you’ll have to select ‘Everyone for 10 minutes’ from the Bluetooth menu in Control Center. Happy file-sharing!

Having just watched the Samsung Unpacked event, I think the Korean company has just fixed every major problem that existed with foldable phones. They’re now thinner, wider and more normal-looking, and yet even at the point where most of the kinks have been ironed out… I still find them a bit uncool.

There’s still something about unfolding a phone in 2026 that feels unnecessary and a bit like a throwback from the 90s. It takes something that has been refined into a seamless sheet of glass and puts a hinge back into the middle of it.

Sure, retro is cool, but foldable phones still feel stuck between two worlds to me.

Cheaper in Korea

Foldable phones are also still pretty expensive — I wasn’t the only one in the office raising an eyebrow at the Z Fold 8 Ultra’s eye-watering $2000+ price when it was announced— although at this point I’m tempted to blame AI for making everything more expensive, even if it's up to 48% cheaper in Korea.

The new foldable phones look amazing, but it’s taken Samsung a while to get here — it launched its first foldable phone, the Galaxy Fold , back in 2019 — at the time we called it, “The most forward-thinking phone you shouldn't buy”.

But the real cultural test of the foldable phone may not arrive until Apple does what Apple does best — walks into an established category, removes a few visible seams, adds a name that sounds like it came from a yoga retreat, and behaves as if everyone else had merely been beta-testing the future.

Under Steve Jobs, being best, not first, was Apple’s greatest trick. The iPod was not the first MP3 player. The iPhone was not the first smartphone. The iPad was not the first tablet. Apple’s genius was letting other companies prove there was a category, then making the version people could imagine actually buying.

It remains to be seen if the incoming CEO John Ternus has the ability to work the controls of Steve Jobs’ reality distortion machine in exactly the same way and convince people that Apple’s version of a folding phone will make them cool.

Enter the iPhone Ultra

That rumoured Apple foldable phone is the iPhone Ultra, which could arrive in September this year. I’d also be surprised if it wasn’t well over the $2,000 mark, too. Some reports suggest $2,500.

I haven’t gotten hands-on with the new Z Fold 8 Ultra yet, but I’ve used foldable phones before and they always felt incredibly geeky to me. They’re impressive but slightly awkward to use, especially in public, and mostly bought by people who like explaining their phone to strangers.

I understand that the foldable form factor makes it better for watching videos using that massive inner screen, or by using the design to prop the phone up on a desk so you can watch on its outer display without having to hold it or carefully balance it against something.

I get that a large screen is better for gaming, too, but I can’t remember the last time I played a game on my iPhone.

My problem is that I don’t want to attract attention to myself. Phones are expensive and waving a larger screen around in public seems like it could make you more of a target for thieves, or the simple curiosity of strangers. I’d rather be left alone to enjoy my journey in peace with a phone that doesn’t advertise my presence.

The real problem isn't the hinge

All of which makes me think that in September, Apple’s biggest challenge might not be around making the perfect, seamless hinge, camera or screen aspect ratio.

It might be simply to convince people that foldable phones can be cool, even at their ridiculous prices, and that’s going to be a tougher task than any of the technical hurdles it will need to overcome.

Saying that, if anybody can make us think that folding phones are for everyone, it’s Apple. Samsung has done the brave work of making foldables exist. Apple’s job is to make them feel less like a magic wallet and more like an iPhone that has learned a party trick.

If success is measured by commitment, then Samsung’s foldable business is now more successful than ever.

With the addition of the quirkily sized Galaxy Z Fold 8, introduced here at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked on July 22, there are now three Samsung Galaxy Z smartphone options to choose from. Sure, foldables account for perhaps a single percentage point of the overall smartphone market, but Samsung is now more committed to the category than ever. So, success, right?

To understand that commitment, I, along with Tom’s Guide Global Editor in Chief Mark Spoonauer, sat down in Samsung’s South Korea headquarters a few weeks before the Galaxy Unpacked with Jay Kim, Samsung’s EVP and Head of CX Office, to talk about the newest foldables, how Samsung measures success, and the pesky new folding phone competitor that might be waiting in the wings.

Getting to the Fold 8

Kim acknowledged the journey over now eight generations of foldable devices and told us that when the exquisite Galaxy Z Fold 7 arrived (it remains my favorite foldable but might be supplanted by the Z Fold 8 Ultra), something shifted.

Consumers stopped nitpicking core stumbling blocks of foldable phones like thickness or thinness. Instead, they were celebrating the core benefit, saying, in Kim's words, “I have a phone that actually can be a tablet, and then that full capability of a phone is not compromising anything. So, we felt,” continued Kim, “like, 'okay, now… consumers are really understanding why we're pushing the boundary for such a long time.'”

So instead of bystanders watching a man balance a chair on his chin for no reason, they were on the journey with Samsung and getting excited about a device that could slip into a pocket as effortlessly as your classic flagship phone but also double as a productivity powerhouse.

Sitting before us as we talked were all three of the latest Samsung Galaxy Z devices, but only one is a head-scratcher: the 4:3-ratio Galaxy Z Fold 8. Sure, its size makes it the lightest Fold ever, but the question remains: why? From the outside, it’s hard to understand how Samsung came to this design conclusion, let alone how consumers would react.

Samsung, though, tracks the demands and behaviours of its consumers, and Kim told us that the company saw signals that there was a market for this device, and it came to what sounds like a very scientific conclusion.

“When we looked at our consumer… insight on how people react to the products, almost over 50% are focused on media; they consume media, whether on the outside cover screen or the inside, the main screen; they engage in content, and we thought, ‘Why not?’”

That’s right, why not? It’s not necessarily a market research-tested conclusion, though Kim admitted that Samsung threw out a lot of designs before arriving on this content-friendly and still pocketable display size.

“We put together the form factor where the media makes most sense, the content native [form factor], but in terms of, like, how do you engage with the device? So basically, we looked at when you engage with content, what is the best form factor [that doesn't] compromise anything on the full bar type,” recalled Kim. And by “bar type,” Kim is referring to slab phones like its Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

How does Samsung know it’s on to a winning design with the Galaxy Z Fold 8? Well, it did test it, at least internally, and the feedback appears to have been positive.

“I'm really happy how our hardware and the design team came out with the product, because it's beautiful, and when we test[ed] it with the market for the preview, everybody's asking about when it's coming,” said Kim.

Samsung may not have been excessively focused on the thinness of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 line, but it was, in one instance, acting on feedback about how hard it can be to open the Z Fold 7. "Folding and unfolding was some of the most important feedback we got [with last year's phones]." The result in the Z Fold 8 Ultra is a chamfered frame that's easier to pry open with a fingertip. "[They] spent days and nights changing the angles," recalled Kim.

There will be thoughts

It’s also fair to say, though, that everyone will have an opinion about the Z Fold 8, which is arguably a confusing name because the follow-up to the Z Fold 7 is not the 8, but the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. The Z Fold 8 is, essentially, a totally new animal. And that size — the wide and squat cover screen, and the internal display that essentially unfolds to a screen quite similar in size and shape to your average Kindle ereader — is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.

Yes, content like ebooks, comics, and video look great with smaller black bezels around them, but does the Galaxy Z Fold 8's new aspect ratio help with things other than content consumption? Kim sees benefits there, too.

“How do people use a cover screen? Most of the time [what] they do is communication. So, you text a lot, and… [the cover display on the Galaxy Z Fold 8] is actually a pretty good size for texting.”

Kim told us he also thinks the cover screen is an optimal size for flicking through all that scrollable video content, too.

Since he has responsibility for not just these new foldables but for standard Galaxy phones (and XR glasses) too, I wondered how Kim (and therefore Samsung) explains to consumers that there might be value in a foldable device over a standard S26. After all, these flexi phones are priced at a considerable premium over standard smartphones.

Kim knows that most consumers are satisfied with standard phones: “At the same time, bar type is very confined to the screen size, so everything must be squeezed into the size, but I think there's a consumer who would love to leverage different sizes of the display. You know, you have a size, but you can actually expand it to the bigger screen, or you can actually engage with content better, or you could be more productive. You can actually play a game on a bigger screen.”

No compromises

So, yes, there’s a market for those who feel constrained by the single screen size idea, but — and this is an early lesson Samsung learned —it’s not enough to just give a second screen size option on a single device. Samsung has arguably been doing that since the first Fold, but it was a terrible device.

“I think the only condition is you can't compromise anything that you have on the bar type. So, on top of not compromising from bar type, if you can actually provide additional screen experience, I think there's a need for the consumers,” added Kim.

It’s probably the reason why the Galaxy Z Fold 7 has been so well-reviewed. It is a no-compromise dual-screen device.

While the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 is by no means a compromise, it is a complication. We wondered how consumers might decide or be guided when they walk into, say, a Verizon store and consider the Z Fold 8, Z Flip 8, and Z Fold 8 Ultra.

“We’re happy for the consumer to make a choice,” said Kim, adding that the choice may boil down to where you spend most of your time on the phone.

People who like split screens and productivity — maybe they even set two phones side-by-side for double the productivity — they’ll gravitate toward the Galaxy Z 8 Ultra.

“If you use a lot of media, you read books, or you play games, you know, if that's like your focus area, then you take the Fold 8. And then if you are more, you know, very expressive, and you feel like you want to have a small phone in the pocket, and you want it to be glanceable, and then you want to have more of a native type of AI, a native type of experience, then you go with the Flip.”

There’s bound to be some market confusion as consumers adjust to the “Fold 8” being not the standard fold but the unusually shaped one, but Kim told us that Samsung spent a lot of time working on the names, and one thing was clear: “We weren’t trying to create a new category,” he said. This was still a Fold just in a different form factor and aspect ratio. "We went back to basics, saying it’s a Fold 8," said Kim.

And while Samsung wondered how the market would react, Kim says the company is pleased with the level of attention. “Whether it's a form factor, whether it's a name, or anything, it's a good sign [and] we were very happy that consumers and the market are very interested to get their hands on it.”

Kim, by the way, wouldn't talk pricing for any of the new folds, but he did reveal that, like the rest of the industry, Samsung is grappling with RAM crisis challenges. "The costs of components going up is not just our problem; it's an industry-wide problem... We take it pretty seriously, looking at [the] balance and [seeing] how to adjust based on the market situation. We’re not free from that and [are] addressing it very actively," he told us.

What's coming next and the Apple threat

While the Z Fold 8 is the exciting new look, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is now, at 4.1mm, essentially the same thickness as a USB-C port. It’s unlikely that the foldable could get any thinner without Samsung removing that port. I asked Kim if the company is considering doing so for future generations.

“Definitely, we look at all the options, but I think the most important thing is: do you need to make it thinner? That question is the most important. We made it thinner and lighter because that was the biggest sort of feedback we got for many, many years [...] So, I think now consumers are asking for different things.”

We also talked, naturally, about Apple. Most rumors point to a foldable iPhone Ultra possibly arriving in September, and it might even match the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s unusual aspect ratio.

Kim, though, doesn’t appear nervous about the industry’s most-watched company entering a market Samsung created.

“If our big sort of market player is coming into the market and bringing the fold type, then it proves that what I have been thinking and what I've been envisioning, and how much of the effort that we put in is actually the right direction. If not, they wouldn't really come into the market,” said Kim diplomatically.

Apple's anticipated entry will surely change the folding market, but only as a follow-up to the transformation Samsung has already wrought. “I think it’s important that we pushed the industry. [But] it's a collaborative effort. I don’t think we could’ve done it just ourselves.”

If you believe Kim, Apple’s folding entry, if it arrives, could be seen as a major validation of Samsung's years-long efforts. And, unless we are very mistaken, Apple will have one folding phone, while Samsung now has three. With that number of flexible devices and screen size and shape choices available on store shelves, that may be all the validation this still relatively young market needs.

We could even be approaching a foldables breakout moment. “I think we’re on the verge where [foldables] could actually become mainstream going forward. It has the potential,” Kim told us, “Because we had these two form factors for a very long time. Introducing another one is a bold move, actually, because that shows that we’re confident in the category and we’re confident in how the market is reacting to it. So I’m more excited about what’s to come than what we have achieved.”

Imagine an automated torture chamber where one calamity after another is inflicted upon you. Worse yet, it’s all robots doing the pushing, pulling, pressing, switching, and lighting. A robot even delivers you to this house of horrors.

Of course, you’re a Samsung Galaxy phone, and you were actually built to take this kind of punishment, or at least expected to survive it. Housed in a basketball court-sized room, this is one of Samsung’s endlessly running test suites for its growing line of Samsung Galaxy S series and Galaxy Z folding phones.

A few weeks ago, Samsung flew me out to South Korea to visit its Gumi factory where, among other things, they build and stress test their newest phones, including the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Z 8 Flip, all of which were introduced this week at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked in the UK.

As a lab engineer guided us through the space, a robot waited impatiently behind him while trying to deliver more phones to its Guantanamo of tech indignities. The engineer seemed unconcerned as the robot edged closer to us, but it always remained a safe distance away, finally delivering a phone to the first chamber when we’d cleared a path.

Of course, before Samsung checks the viability of these handsets, it builds them.

Make 'em and (try to) break 'em

When I visited the factory — one of nine dotted around the globe and where millions of units are assembled — for the first time a few years ago, I noticed a mix of robots (not humanoid, just automated platforms and a wide variety of robot arms) and humans. This time, however, there were just a handful of humans, who were often checking the robots’ work for imperfections.

As we walked the pristine aisles while wearing thin, blue protective covers on our shoes, I caught the eye of one factory worker and gave her a thumbs up. To my surprise, she smiled and nodded back at me before quickly returning to product inspections.

Across a series of metal and plexiglass boxes, I saw all manner of robots and mobile device manufacturing activity. There was never a pause or moment of indecision. In one enclosure, I watched as camera boards were robotically placed in a Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra board and then expertly screwed into place.

Virtually every robot in every enclosure has a specific job, like the one that does nothing but remove thin-blue packing material from a phone circuit board. Its tiny fingers delicately grab a pair of thin blue tabs and strip away the filament. We found ourselves cheering on the little bot.

In another spot, a colleague noticed that a copper line wasn’t properly affixed to a phone’s main circuit board. I could see it bouncing freely and wondered if the error would be caught or end up in someone’s wonky Galaxy device. I needn’t have worried. Samsung’s automated systems are fully capable of both the build and error-catching. As we watched, the offending board shifted off course and was held at bay while other properly built boards moved along.

I saw many different enclosures with so many automated manufacturing capabilities that it was mind-boggling.

Box 'em up but test them first

In another space, I saw sensors identifying phone IMEI numbers, while another robot printed out corresponding labels, and then a third affixed them to boxes that matched the packages to each phone.

Most of the robots I saw were small, but at the end of the line was an almost car-sized palletizer that takes the 10-per-box cardboard crates and stacks them on a pallet, placing the boxes first around the perimeter and then filling in the middle. The motorcycle-sized arm was remarkably fast and accurate.

Some of the phones never make it to the pallet. Instead, a select few are destined for a special test room where a large horseshoe of enclosures determines if the models in the current batch are fit for purpose.

There are two types of test systems in Gumi: the boxes that run the same test over and over again in a single device, and the U-shaped automated test bay where one phone is run in serial through the entire array of tests. These tests will often replicate what is done repeatedly in other enclosures.

The number of test systems and kinds of tests Samsung runs on its products is impressively comprehensive, though some of the boxes look downright bizarre.

Weird tests, reliable products

Folding and unfolding the devices thousands of times is to be expected, as is pressure testing, but I also saw extreme heat and cold tests. There were also enclosures that do nothing but check AI vision systems, millimeter wave, waterproofing, and a facial recognition chamber with life-like mannequin heads that I can still see when I close my eyes.

There’s even a room where partners like Google can remotely access and run tests on Samsung phones.

More astonishing is that this is a living, ever-changing facility. Just imagine what happens every time, like now, Samsung unveils new phones and watches; they must retool. Walking the floor, I noticed how the brand-new Galaxy Z Fold 8 was already undergoing rigorous tests. The lab engineer told us, “For every new form factor, we develop new technology for it,” and they develop new automation to test it.

Look, I’m not saying other companies don’t put their mobile hardware through similar wringers, but I’m not sure any other tech giant has been so transparent about their process. It’s wild, bracing, and I must admit, gives me more than a bit of confidence about each new Galaxy device Samsung delivers.

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When the trio of Samsung Galaxy Z 8 foldables — the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Z Flip 8 — arrive in consumers' hands in the coming weeks, they will be among the first mainstream handsets, aside from the Motorola Razr Fold, to feature silicon-carbon batteries. That's a big deal for the industry, but perhaps an even bigger deal with Samsung, which, a decade ago, had one of the biggest negative smartphone battery stories in a generation.

That was way back in 2016 when the Note 7, an otherwise excellent phablet (yes, that was a thing), occasionally blew up because of battery manufacturing imperfections. Ever since then, Samsung has not only had a perfect record; it's often been at pains to explain the lengths it goes to ensure smartphone battery stability and safety.

Now, as it introduces a relatively new and somewhat untested battery technology — silicon-carbon — Samsung is again making the effort to dive deep into the construction and chemistry of these new-fangled power sources to show just how much care and effort it's putting into the new tech, and into its new foldable phones.

What is silicon-carbon?

Silicon-carbon is not a wholesale refashioning of lithium-ion battery technology. Instead, it replaces a key component of the battery makeup, swapping the negative electrode (graphite) for silicon-carbon. This material allows for higher density (more power in less space) and far faster charging speeds. It's part of the reason why Samsung can, despite not making the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra any thicker than the Z Fold 7 (it's actually 0.1mm thinner when unfolded), make the battery larger — it's now 5,000mAh.

With Samsung now having a solid decade of battery safety under its belt, perhaps no one is questioning the quality, let alone the safety, of this new battery technology. But Samsung clearly wants to shout about it, and has been sharing extensive details.

In a recent briefing ahead of the July 22 Galaxy Unpacked event in London, Samsung executives walked us through a near-atomic-level chemistry class to explain how it's custom-building the silicon-carbon batteries to ensure they work as expected.

"With Samsung's highest standards, we carefully verified the silicon-carbon battery so that our users can trust it and use it with competence," said Samsung EVP Moon Sung-hoon.

As for what that means, Samsung told us it fully redesigned the cathode, separator, and anode, which means that, at an atomic level, Samsung is managing the chemical reaction inside the battery that delivers the power to your next Galaxy Z Fold device.

Samsung wouldn't share the exact amount of silicon-carbon that's in the batteries, but it did confirm that its new Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Fold 8, and Z Flip 8 phones in every region would feature the new battery technology.

On coatings and voltage management

Even though we didn't learn the percentage of each battery element in the Galaxy Z8 phones, Samsung dove deep into the component construction, explaining that, in an effort to manage the reactivity of the silicon-carbon cells, it "innovated every single part of the battery system. This is why we call it the system level of innovation at battery."

A Samsung executive showed off a colorful illustration to detail all the work (sadly, I cannot share it with you here). But here's what I learned.

To the anode layer, Samsung's engineers added a micro-carbon coating, which offers protection to the layer without, thanks to carbon's natural pores, constricting it during charging and discharging,

On the cathode layer, they "injected additional atoms" to manage the naturally higher voltage and stability of the cells. To maintain that higher voltage, they added a solid electrolyte interface (SEI) that adds a "small coating to the anode cells". This also manages the cell reactivity.

Finally, for the chemical reaction that occurs in the battery, Samsung added a "hyperporosity separator," which has larger holes without reducing the stress or durability of the cell's separators, and therefore helps maintain stability.

While most of us non-chemical engineers might feel like we've just about wrapped our minds around this information, this is an unprecedented level of battery construction detail, which I don't think Samsung would have shared if not for its history with batteries.

For consumers, though, this may not matter as much as the fact that these are larger-capacity batteries in smaller frames that charge far faster than their predecessors — and that will feel like a win for most Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Fold 8, and Z Flip 8 owners.

For our early impressions of all three new phones, check out our hands-on Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra preview, hands-on Galaxy Z Fold 8 preview, and hands-on Galaxy Z Flip 8 preview.

• Samsung has raised prices for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8
• This is likely in large part due to rising memory costs
• However, prices in South Korea are substantially lower

As expected, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 cost more than their predecessors, with the Z Fold 8 Ultra’s starting price being $100 / £100 / AU$100 higher than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7’s, and the Z Flip 8’s being $100 / £100 / AU$150 more than the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7’s.

Given the rising prices of memory, that’s not entirely surprising, but what you might be surprised by is just how much of a better deal South Korea is getting, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra starting at just ₩2.58 million there. As the Korea Times points out, that’s 20.4% lower than the US price and a whopping 44% lower than the European price.

The difference in pricing for the standard Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is even greater. We don’t have a previous model of this to compare to (since the Z Fold 8 Ultra is the successor to the Z Fold 7), but this phone starts at $1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699, with that US price being 23.2% higher than Korea’s, while in Europe, buyers are paying 48% more.

The table below details the full price rises this generation, but in South Korea, people are paying less for the Z Fold 8 series than other places were charged for even the Z Fold 7 series.

Home-field advantage

So, what’s going on here? Well, the Korea Times reports that, during a press conference on the sidelines of the Galaxy Unpacked launch event, Samsung Electronics co-CEO Roh Tae-moon said, “The support, feedback and encouragement from Korean consumers have been the foundation for strengthening the Galaxy brand's global competitiveness. In recognition of the importance of the Korean market, we will continue striving to offer Galaxy devices at the most competitive prices in Korea and maintain that policy going forward.”

So, in other words, Samsung is rewarding its home market for supporting the company. But that explanation is unlikely to satisfy Samsung fans from other countries, given that this shows Samsung could clearly charge less and still turn a profit — after all, it’s not going to be losing money on South Korean sales.

Now, there will be other factors in the differing prices, such as different taxes, but while from one perspective this could look like a nice gesture from Samsung, from another it looks like most of the world is facing unfair prices.

In any case, one other interesting detail from this press conference was Roh’s claim that the three models offered this year are “the complete form" of Samsung’s foldable line, with two models no longer offering enough variety now that foldable phones are becoming more mainstream.

I’m not sure what that says about the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold, if that’s not part of the “complete form”, but it does suggest there will be more Galaxy Z Flip models in the future, which goes against a rumor hinting that the Galaxy Z Flip 7 would be the last one. So, that’s some good news at least.

The pint-sized Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 just made its debut at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, but as someone who has been in a year-long love affair with the Galaxy Z Fold 7, there’s a different phone turning my head: the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

This new entry in the Z Fold lineup is, in effect, the true sequel to last year’s Z Fold 7, because the new Z Fold 8 adopts a passport-like design that’s squatter than we’ve seen before. Meanwhile, the Z Fold 8 Ultra has identically sized 8-inch inner and 6.5-inch cover displays to the Z Fold 7.

However — and as you’d hope for from a new entry in the series — the Fold 8 Ultra isn’t the same in every way. Here are five key differences you'll want to know about if you're thinking of upgrading, or buying your first foldable (you can also read my first impressions of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra elsewhere on TechRadar).

1. Get ready for a (small) price hike

The elephant in the room I need to address before we get into the exciting stuff is the price: the Z Fold 8 Ultra does cost more than the Z Fold 7.

Admittedly, this was entirely expected — thanks to the RAM crisis, we’ve been hit by price hike after price hike, even for older gadgets which would normally see price drops over time. But the news here isn't as bad as many expected.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 launched at $1,999 / £1,799 / AU$2,899, and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 will set you back $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999.

Any price increase is unwelcome, but considering that I and many others were bracing for something much worse, I’m not too frustrated by this, especially factoring in the upgrades on offer here.

2. A bigger battery

Ahead of its reveal I shared the changes I most wanted to see from the Z Fold 8, and the most important entry on that list was a bigger battery.

Despite, on paper, boasting a longer battery life than the Z Fold 6, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 never kept going as long as my previous foldable, and many other Z Fold 7 owners have shared their battery-life frustrations with me over the past year.

That’s why I’m excited to see the Z Fold 8 Ultra boast a 5,000mAh battery capacity thanks to its silicon carbide cell.

Admittedly, this isn’t the wild 7,000mAh capacity some recent handsets from brands such as Oppo have delivered, but compared to the Fold 7’s 4,400mAh battery I’m hoping to see a major improvement in stamina with the Z Fold 8 Ultra.

3. Closer to Ultra cameras

Last year, Samsung made some serious improvements to the main camera on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 by giving it a 200MP lens that more closely matches the capabilities of the Ultra models in its flagship S series. Admittedly, the Z Fold 7 still fell a little behind the S25 Ultra in this area (and behind the newer S26 Ultra), but certainly not as far behind as the Z Fold 6 was behind the S24 Ultra.

This year it's the turn of the ultra-wide camera on the Z Fold 7's successor to get an upgrade, with the 12MP snapper getting upgraded to 50MP on the Z Fold 8 Ultra — and the 200MP main camera is also getting the S26 Ultra’s HDR capabilities for more vibrant-looking shots.

The 12MP 3x telephoto camera is still the same, which is a shame — I’ve been loving the 50MP 5x telephoto on my Galaxy S26 Ultra — but this latest upgrade brings us one big step closer to the Galaxy Z Fold series boasting the same camera hardware as the Galaxy S Ultra lineup, and I can’t complain about that.

Besides the hardware, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is also getting the S26 Ultra’s impressive Horizontal Lock stabilization tech, which keeps your shots looking steady even with some absurd levels of camera tilt.

4. Display enhancements

While not the flashiest or most obvious change, especially because it’s the same size and shape as before, the Z Fold 8 Ultra’s display has received two notable improvements.

First, peak brightness is increased from 2,600 nits on the Z Fold 7 to 3,000 nits, which should make your screen easier to see in bright sunlight and enable better HDR performance.

Second, Samsung has added a matte coating to the inner display to reduce glare. Coupled with a new hinge design which lets the screen open more fully flat than before, this does seem to have resulted in a less noticeable crease than we’ve seen on previous Z Fold phones.

In fairness, I would say the crease on the Z Fold 7 is close to nonexistent, but, especially when light reflects off the inner display in a particular way, it can become annoyingly apparent. Thanks to this flatter design and reduced glare, my initial assessment is that the screen looks much less noticeably 'unfolded' when you open up the Z Fold 8 Ultra — though it’s worth noting this is comparing a new Z Fold 8 Ultra with a Z Fold 7 that's seen close to a year of constant use.

5. A Gen 5 chipset

Rounding things off, all three of Samsung's new foldables — the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Flip 8 — get a chipset upgrade over last year's models, in the shape of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, the same processor you’ll find in the Samsung Galaxy S26 lineup.

Compared with the chipset in the Z Fold 7, Samsung says you can expect a 19% faster CPU, 24% better GPU performance, and an NPU that’s 39% more powerful than before — leading to better onboard AI processing.

I personally haven't found that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 left me wanting for more power. It’s quick and responsive in use, gaming on the foldable has been a delight, and its AI abilities are fine for my needs. That said, I won’t say no to better performance, even if it is the upgrade I’m least excited about compared to the bigger upgrades coming to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

If you thought the whole point of a foldable smartphone with multiple screens was that “one size does not fit all,” then you were only half right. It seems that we’re rapidly entering the era of multiple foldable phone size choices with — no surprise — Samsung in the lead.

That’s just one reason why now, in addition to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, we have the unusually proportioned Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, a flexible smartphone that, when folded closed, is quite close to the dimensions of a passport. All three of the new devices were officially unveiled at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked on July 22, and you can read our first impressions in our Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra preview and Galaxy Z Fold 8 preview.

After Samsung flew me out to visit its factories, meet its executives, and see these new foldables in person, I must’ve asked a dozen times: Why did you make this? Who is it for? I expect you'll be wondering the same thing.

There’s no arguing that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 (taking over the base name for the thinner and larger Z Fold 8 Ultra) is a compelling device. But the 10:61 aspect ratio of the 5.5-inch external display (it’s both wider and shorter than any typical flagship) and the opened 7.6-inch internal display, with its 4:3 aspect ratio, is almost unlike any handset we’ve seen in modern smartphone history.

The unusual size gives the Galaxy Z Fold 8 standout specs. At 201g, it’s the new folding phone weight leader. Unfolded, the screen resembles in size and dimensions your average Kindle e-reader (as a content-first handset, this makes some sense).

Different, yet the same

As part of the folding phone family, the Z Fold 8 does share some specs with its larger sibling. Both have the new titanium-backed folding screens that are stronger than the older polymer-backed ones, but also more resilient thanks to the properties of the new, ultra-thin titanium-alloy sheet. I took a closer look at this new screen technology in my deep dive with Samsung Display. As with the Ultra unfolded, the screen on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is virtually flat and has an almost unnoticeable bezel.

Both the Fold 8 Ultra and Fold 8 screens support a peak brightness of 3,000 nits and feature a new anti-reflective coating. Like the Ultra, the Fold 8 has a large (in this case, 4,800mAh) silicon-carbon battery with exceptional claimed battery life and fast wired (45W with a 69% charge in 30 mins) and wireless (20W Qi2) charging capabilities.

But this is not an Ultra device. There are just two external cameras: a 50MP wide and 50MP ultra. So maybe this is a device focused less on content creation than it is on content consumption. Even so, it's backed by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset as the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (and Z Flip 8), as well as the same 12GB of memory, which means it’ll be no slouch on the performance side.

Still, knowing the specs doesn’t answer why the Z Fold 8 exists and how Samsung expects to sell it to consumers.

Why and how we got here

As executives walked me through the new foldable devices, they called the Z Fold 8’s screen size “The new standard for viewing content.” Samsung believes that the 4:3 aspect ratio on the 7.6-inch foldable display is what consumers have been craving (even if they didn’t know it themselves). The result of this unusual screen size is that, in landscape mode, videos viewed on the screen feature shallower black bezels on the top and bottom for a more immersive experience. I did see this in numerous demos, though I kept thinking, “The black bars are smaller, but still there.”

When reading comics in portrait mode, though, the contrasty images filled the screen. It was a nice effect.

It’s also worth noting that the wider cover display, which accommodates a wider keyboard, makes for a slightly more pleasant texting experience.

When I spoke to Samsung Display executives about the new size, they told me that it wasn’t that they could not build this unusual size sooner. Instead, it was more about what they’ve learned about how people used their other foldables. The Flip seems to be more about self-expression, while the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and its predecessors, especially those that support multitasking, are about productivity and utility (though, since the Fold 7 lost support for the S Pen, they're no longer about drawing).

The new Galaxy Z Fold 8 sits in the middle. Sure, it’ll run the same One UI 9 platform, the usual smorgasbord of Galaxy and Gemini AI, and support multi-window navigation (including a new AI-based context-aware ability to sense when you need multi-windows and offer it up with a click). But the design speaks to those who primarily read, browse the web, watch videos, or scroll through endless TikToks and Reels.

Settling on a design

Getting to this rather unusual design wasn’t easy. When I asked Samsung EVP & Head of CX Office, Jay Kim, just how many designs were cast aside before arriving on the passport look, he told me, “Oh, so many, so many. I mean, because you need to have a size for the color screen, you need to have a size for the inside, and you know, you have to look at the display yield and everything around the technology around it, and you know it's a balance between thickness and weight, performance and everything about the product.”

In that design was a clear recognition of a perhaps underserved target market: “We realize that there's enough of a segment where consumers are very heavy on media, and basically you consume social media, you consume videos, you play games, and you read books in a most similar form factor. So, basically, we came up with a phone that's actually a very content native device.”

One thing is certain: the size and shape of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is sure to provoke a reaction. The first time I held it, I was sort of amused. The folded size feels almost playful, but it’s also a very useful cover display. Opened, I noted the familiarity, especially in portrait mode, which is when I first realized it reminded me of my Kindle.

Still, the risk is inescapable. When I asked Samsung’s Jay Kim how they tested this new form factor, he told me they basically dogfooded multiple designs within the company.

“We did a lot of internal testing on different factors and different sorts of usage, and how do you use it?” recalled Kim.

As he spoke, I thought about how Samsung employees might hold back a bit on honest reactions, but then there are always the bold ones, and you assume a few unvarnished opinions on the new Fold look in there, too.

Kim sounded mostly confident. “We hope the market reacts the way we planned originally, and I think it's all based on the planning, and we're waiting for the [reaction], but I think when we did our internal sort of testing, I think that was very aligned with our sort of original plan, so we hope... I think we're pretty confident.”

It’s a big day for Samsung — and for fans of the company’s devices — with the brand unveiling three new foldable phones, two new smartwatches, and its first pair of smart glasses.

And it’s not just those glasses that are a truly ‘new’ thing from Samsung, as one of the phones is a new form factor too.

Below, you’ll find a rundown of the five biggest announcements at the second Samsung Galaxy Unpacked of 2026 — these are the key reveals you need to know about.

1. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8

If you’re assuming that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a direct successor to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, well, think again, because this is that new form factor I mentioned above.

Rather than a book-style foldable like the Z Fold 7, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a shorter, wider device with more passport-like dimensions. When unfolded and turned to portrait orientation it’s the ideal size and shape for reading, while in landscape it’s better suited to movies and games.

It has a 7.6-inch 120Hz foldable screen, a 5.5-inch 120Hz cover display, a 50MP wide camera, a 50MP ultra-wide, and a pair of 10MP selfie cameras — one on each screen.

It also has a top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset, 12GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of storage, while the battery is 4,800mAh. It starts at $1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699, making it a bit cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, detailed below.

2. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

Confusingly, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is effectively the successor to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, so you probably have some idea of what to expect here.

This phone has an 8-inch 120Hz foldable display, a 6.5-inch cover screen, a 200MP wide camera, a 50MP ultra-wide, a 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and two 10MP selfie cameras. It also has a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset, 12GB of RAM, up to 1TB of storage, and a 5,000mAh battery — which is a big increase over the 4,400mAh cell of the Z Fold 7.

So this is a bigger, more book-like foldable than the Z Fold 8, and it has more cameras, but the same amount of power. It’s also extremely slim at just 4.1mm thick when unfolded, and it starts at $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999.

3. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8

Samsung has also unveiled a new device for fans of compact foldables, in the form of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8.

This clamshell phone has a 6.9-inch 120Hz foldable screen, a 4.1-inch 120Hz cover screen, a 50MP wide camera, a 12MP ultra-wide, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset (or an Exynos 2600 outside the US), 12GB of RAM, up to 512GB of storage, and a 4,300mAh battery.

So it’s the smallest and most basic of these phones, but at 6.1mm thick when unfolded and 180g, it’s Samsung’s slimmest and lightest Flip model yet. The Galaxy Z Flip 8 starts at $1,199.99 / £1,149 / AU$1,949.

4. Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2

As well as phones, Samsung has also announced the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, and it’s the latter of these that’s the most exciting.

This watch has a mammoth 800mAh battery, which is up from just 590mAh in the original Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra. It’s also slimmer and lighter than its predecessor, with the brightest screen of any smartwatch, and a ton of new features, including the ability to track Daily Cardio Load and Vascular Load.

This is Samsung’s ultimate smartwatch, and it’s priced accordingly, at $699.99 / £649 / AU$1,299. If you’re happy with a slightly less feature-and-tech-packed smartwatch, then the Galaxy Watch 9 can be had from $379.99 / £349 / AU$649.

5. Samsung Intelligent Eyewear

Samsung also gave us a closer look at what it’s calling ‘Intelligent Eyewear’ — said eyewear being the company’s first smart glasses.

Unlike the devices above, you can’t pre-order these yet, with Samsung promising they’ll land “this fall” — so presumably sometime between September and November.

No pricing was revealed either, but we did learn that these glasses will have a built-in camera and speakers, but no screen.

Initially, Samsung is partnering with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker to offer a selection of frames, and you’ll be able to access both Gemini and Bixby through the glasses.

After a grand reveal in the latest Galaxy Unpacked event, preorders for the brand-new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Flip 8 are now live. Retailers and mobile networks have several launch deals available for those interested in picking up a device on August 7, so I've had a look through and picked out the best options.

One of the standout deals in the US is at the official Samsung store, where you can get savings of up to $1,200 with a trade-in, as well as an extra $30 off if you registered your interest ahead of Unpacked. As for the networks, you can get even larger discounts of up to $1,900 at T-Mobile when you add an eligible line, or get a Galaxy Z Fold 8 for as little as $30 a month at Verizon when you pair it with the Simplicity plan.

In the UK, the Samsung store is also a strong option, as you can get an extra £100 off with a trade-in, and use the £30 voucher from registering your interest to save on accessories. Meanwhile, networks such as Sky Mobile are offering their own large trade-in rebates of up to £934, plus a free Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 with the latest handsets.

I'll update this list with all the best Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra preorders as I spot them over the coming days, so hopefully there will be a combination of phone and plan that suits you.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 and Z Fold 8 deals in the US

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 and Z Fold 8 deals in the UK

• The Light Flip is a flip phone designed to prevent you doomscrolling
• It doesn't have social media apps or a touchscreen
• But it does include 5G, an OLED screen, and other modern tech

If you’ve been looking for ways to spend less time on your phone then you might already be familiar with Light — a brand that makes distraction-free phones, designed to be used when needed but without the risk of you wasting hours doomscrolling.

Previously, these have been touchscreen slab phones like the Light Phone III, but now there’s the Light Flip, which takes the same principle and applies it to a flip phone.

It runs LightOS, which is a take on Android, but one without most of the apps. Instead, you just get basics like GPS, an alarm, a podcast player, and a calendar, among a handful of other tools.

The idea — according to the company’s home page — is that this phone should be used “as little as possible.”

As well as lacking apps, the Light Flip also lacks a touchscreen, instead leaving you reliant on a T9 keypad which — along with its tiny 2.8-inch display — is something else that should limit how much you want to use it.

Old-school style meets modern specs

But the specs are rather better than those of the old-school phones it’s inspired by, and include 5G, an OLED display, 128GB of storage, 6GB of RAM, and a 12MP camera. So it should perform rather more smoothly than phones of yesteryear.

The Light Flip isn’t cheap though, coming in at $299 (roughly £225 / AU$430), which seems quite a lot for such a basic phone, even if it is a lot cheaper than your average smartphone. And even if you are in the market for this kind of device, it has some competition from the recently announced Commodore Callback 8020, which is a similar prospect but with wider Android app support (though it still blocks social media apps).

That phone is actually more expensive at $500 (around £375 / AU$715). Both phones are available to pre-order now, though while the Commodore is set to ship later this year, you won’t receive the Light Flip before April 2027.

When it comes to battery life, foldables have it harder than regular phones. These devices need to power not one, but two screens (one of which is twice as large as the other), and so it's important to pick a model with decent endurance if you don't want to lug around a portable battery at all times.

Yet in the throes of a seemingly unquenchable thirst for thinness, Samsung has somewhat neglected the battery tech in its foldable phones. That is, until now, because the brand has finally introduced silicon-carbon batteries in its latest devices, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 8. The former, specifically, packs a 5,000mAh cell that, based on Samsung's own testing, offers 27 hours of video playback.

Now, as uninteresting as this may sound, it's actually pretty big news, especially given that the phone is thinner than ever and the same weight as last year's Galaxy Z Fold 7. We were invited to an exclusive, early-access hands-on session alongside SuperSaf to try out the new phones, and we discussed this change (and others) in our latest podcast episode, which you can watch just below.

It's not just us professional tech nerds moved to excitement by the news; in a poll we shared in the weeks running up to the latest Samsung Galaxy Unpacked show, our readers overwhelmingly agreed that a larger battery life would be their biggest wish for the latest and greatest Samsung foldable, and those prayers have been answered. Feels good, right?

The sad news is, the second-most desired change remains unmet — that being the re-introduction of the S Pen and the digitizing layer under the display that makes the technology compatible. In fact, as reported by 9to5 Google, Samsung recently quietly removed product listings for all previous-generation S Pens, which perhaps doesn't bode well for the longevity of the styluses overall.

It's a real shame, and one I highlighted in the podcast as being particularly at odds with the phone's productivity-first marketing messaging; if the idea is that the best way to use this phone is like a tablet, which, for me, includes doodling, taking notes and not having to constantly wipe off grubby fingerprints, then hand me the S Pen and be done with it, even at the cost of a few more millimeters thickness.

That being said, at least in the case of the S26 Ultra phones, a Samsung exec shared with TechRadar just last year that the S Pen is a crucial part of the phone's DNA, so I hope that gives at least a little more runway for these handy accessories.

You can watch the full episode of the TechRadar podcast above or head directly to YouTube to hear all of our expert opinions on the latest slate of Samsung foldables and smartwatches.

I’ve been using, and loving, my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 for the past year — for me it's simply the best phone money can buy.

The foldable form factor is perfect for watching videos — either on the massive inner screen, or using the design to prop the phone up and watch on its outer display — and also for gaming, productivity, or capturing selfies with the 200MP main sensor rather than the lower-res selfie cam.

Its thin design is comfortable to hold and easily slips into any pocket, and the design has been durable enough to survive without me using a case; I did have a case for a few months but I hated it, so I’ve reverted back to my screen-protector only strategy.

As great as the Z Fold 7 is, though, it isn't flawless. The cameras could be better (a fact highlighted by the excellent cameras Samsung put in the Galaxy S26 Ultra that I also carry with me), the battery life isn’t as good as I need at times, and the crease can be quite noticeable in certain lighting thanks to annoying reflections on the inner display.

Thankfully, Samsung looks to have addressed a lot of my issues with the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — the true successor to last year's Fold 7 (the new non-Ultra Z Fold 8 adopts a squatter design this year), and the frontrunner to be my favorite phone of 2026, after spending just an hour or so with the new device.

Ultra by name, Ultra by nature

At first glance, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra looks almost identical to the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

Unlike the Z Fold 8, the Z Fold 8 Ultra offers the exact same screen dimensions as the Z Fold 7, with an 8-inch inner display and 6.5-inch cover display.

It’s supremely thin and light, so that even when folded it doesn’t feel like a brick, and it offers a similar camera array to the Z Fold 7 (more on that in a moment).

The only design change you’ll notice is the redesigned hinge. It makes it easier to open the Z Fold 8 Ultra, and allows the phone to sit more flat when open — which in combination with the inner screen’s new matte coating makes the crease less noticeable.

Instead of reinventing the wheel in areas where the Z Fold 7 already shines, such as its superb form factor, Samsung has introduced upgrades with the Z Fold 8 Ultra that make this phone even more capable.

My favorite improvement is new silicon carbide battery tech that allows for a much larger 5,000mAh battery than the Z Fold 7’s 4,400mAh cell, despite the Z Fold 8 Ultra being (very slightly) slimmer.

The battery life of the Z Fold 7 isn’t ideal. I frequently find that my typical usage — which admittedly involves streaming a lot of video, gaming, and multitasking to watch and work at the same time while on the go — leaves my battery running low by late afternoon.

The larger capacity of the Z Fold 8 Ultra probably won’t save me from needing to carry a charger with me ‘just in case’, but I’m hoping it’ll mean that I rarely, if ever, run out of juice completely — which can happen with my Z Fold 7, even when I adapt my usage to be more conservative.

The Z Fold 8 Ultra's cameras are a solid upgrade too. Alongside the Z Fold 7 I also use the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, because its cameras are so impressive — in particular, I’m in love with its 5x 50MP telephoto lens.

The Z Fold 8 Ultra doesn't, unfortunately, improve on the Z Fold 7’s 12MP 3x telephoto camera, but the existing 200MP main sensor has been enhanced with new HDR abilities to match Samsung’s S26 lineup, and the 12MP ultra-wide has been upgraded to 50MP, making the new phone's array feel more 'Ultra'.

It also gets the impressive Horizontal Lock video stabilization tech which I've loved on the S26 Ultra.

Having tried out the new cameras, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is certainly a major upgrade, and I’m keen to test them out further. Sure, the Z Fold 8 Ultra won’t win any prizes for best camera phone of 2026, but the versatility offered by the new camera array should help to make this foldable feel like a supremely capable all-round device, and not a phone with so many compromises that you can’t appreciate its incredible design wins.

A sort of silver lining

There's also a new chipset — the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy the S26 series is outfitted with — that powers a suite of new AI tools, and a brighter 3,000-nit display, which should help to make colors more vivid on the Z Fold 8.

As you might expect from a phone that's packed with upgrades and sporting a new Ultra moniker, and which is launching in the middle of the ongoing RAM crisis, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra will cost more than the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

The silver lining is that the price hike isn't as big as I and many others feared — the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra starts at $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999, where the Z Fold 7's launch price started at $1,999 / £1,799 / AU$2,899.

No price increase is ever ideal, but considering how much worse I was expecting it to be, I’ll happily take the $100 / £100 / AU$100 increase on the chin.

I can't wait to spend more time with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. I love my Z Fold 7, but after spending just a short time with its successor, I already know that it’s time for an upgrade.

Every year I espouse my admiration for flip phones, and in particular Samsung's foldable devices, but I've yet to make the leap away from the brick form factor.

While there's nothing more satisfying than snapping shut your phone to end a call, and I'm a real sucker for the more whimsical design and customizable software features on cover screens, the simple fact is that flip phones just aren't as powerful as the flagship devices I'm used to.

This year, though, Samsung has come tantalizingly close to converting me with the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8, despite not making very many changes in the hardware department over last year's model.

The Galaxy Z Flip 8 launches at $1,199.99 / £1,149 / AU$1,949, which is a $100 / £100 / AU$150 increase over the Z Flip 7, a price hike that owes much to the ongoing RAM crisis. It's the thinnest and lightest Galaxy Z Flip yet, its improved hinge makes it noticeably easier to open and close, and some neat upgrades to the cover screen iterate on the Z Flip 7's similarly light-touch improvements.

But what I'm most excited about is two new video features that will help me capture the moment.

Earlier this year, Samsung introduced an impressive new feature with the new Galaxy S26 series: Horizontal Lock, which impressed us in our testing. It works by utilizing the phone's built-in gyroscope and accelerometer to measure your movement and rotation while filming, and the camera sensor then crops and shifts the frame to compensate.

The result is that even if you rotate your phone by 360 degrees, the footage will remain level. It's no miracle worker, and you'll lose some image quality if you push it too far, but if you use it as intended to stabilize footage while you or your subject are moving, it can save you an editing headache, and let you focus on the moment while you're recording a live event.

Another neat feature that makes the Z Flip 8 feel even more primed for capturing the moment is Fan Cam mode. If you're a K-Pop lover, you'll know exactly what this one's for: using subject tracking, the software crops in and reproduces videos at your chosen aspect ratio with just your selected subject in the frame.

I go to a fair few live performances, and this one is a game changer for making sure I can enjoy the moment through my own eyes without making sure my camera is constantly perfectly framed through energetic dance numbers and crowds. It's also great for sporting events, whether that's at an international scale or when you're capturing the moment your little one scores their first goal in a soccer game.

The elephant in the flip

However, there's one thing holding the Z Flip 8 back from true video greatness: the cameras themselves. Offering the same 50MP wide lens, 12MP ultra-wide lens, and 10MP selfie camera as both the Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Z Flip 6, the Z Flip 8 does little to impress. In stark contrast, I've been spoiled by the iPhone 17 Pro's fantastic camera array of late; a recent holiday was made all the more special for the fact I could capture incredible shots without a hulking great big camera in hand.

Lower-spec cameras aren't a shortcoming that's exclusive to Samsung's Z Flip phones; squeezing in powerful rear cameras alongside the windowed display while also keeping the device slim and affordable continues to pose a challenge for designers of flip phones. Even so, compared to the Motorola Razr Ultra 2026 (aka the Razr 70 Ultra in some regions) with its triple 50MP front and rear cameras and a mere £50 price premium in the UK (the pricing gap is wider at $300 in the US), Samsung is lagging a little here.

Everything about the flip-phone form factor lends itself to content capture. The folded camcorder and tabletop mode are intuitive and versatile, and these new features are a huge boon — they're just not enough to tear me away from a flagship phone's stellar array.

Slow-going, but still showy

It's another safe year for the Galaxy Z Flip line, and that might be a sensible move for now. Shaving 0.4mm from the previous phone's thickness and thinning the cover-screen bezels to just 1.2mm seems about as far as Samsung can push the form factor for now, and the new hinge and advanced armor aluminum frame feel, at least based on my brief one-hour testing period, robust. Plus, I just adore the pink and cream colorways, even if they are an unsure bet for its target audience of younger women.

The Flex Window also finally feels complete, with new software features that make it genuinely useful, rather than a customization-first screen; Samsung Galaxy AI is running on all cylinders here, displaying AI automations as well as new Now Brief and Now Nudge features.

For example, hay fever sufferers can have personalized Now Brief cards with a quick glance of the day's pollen forecast, and Now Nudge can show contextual suggestions, like the details of your dinner reservation when the restaurant is calling you.

As mentioned, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 costs $100 / £100 / AU$150 more than its predecessor at launch. It's a shame, then, that in return for that price hike we're only getting another iterative upgrade, but until some grand breakthrough allows flip phones to pack in better cameras without compromising on form and functionality, we're unlikely to see any radical upgrades — look instead to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra for such bold strokes. I'll be testing the Galaxy Z Flip 8 thoroughly in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for my full verdict!

I’ve tested plenty of the best foldable phones in my time at TechRadar, but I’ve never opted to use one of these devices as my main handset long-term.

I use my phone for consuming content — scrolling, reading, watching — more than I do for productivity tasks, and so the appeal of having a heavier phone with a giant, square-sized foldable screen isn’t, for me, all that strong. Why would I watch a YouTube video with big black letterboxing above and below it, when I could simply use my regular phone in landscape for a better video-watching experience?

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a different proposition entirely. It’s still a book-style foldable — it’s got one smaller screen on the outside, and one larger screen on the inside that you open with both hands — but it’s shorter, wider, and dare I say cuter than the Galaxy Z Fold 7 before it. It’s the Galaxy Z Fold 7.5 in all but name (or maybe the Galaxy Z Fold Fat?).

This passport-shaped foldable has a 5.5-inch cover display and a 7.6-inch main display, with aspect ratios that make it, when closed, easier to use one-handed and better suited to video-watching when open. Specifically, when closed, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 has a 10:16 ratio — meaning your thumbs can easily reach the top of the screen — and when open, it’s a 4:3 ratio that’s optimized for widescreen content.

For comparison, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 — and indeed the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which retains the former’s tall and narrow form factor — has a 21:9 cover display and an almost square 1.11:1 inner display, which is great for spreadsheets and multitasking, but less brilliant for watching World Cup highlights on the train home.

Here’s how the video-watching experience on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — which you can read about in our hands-on Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra preview — compares, in both orientations:

Yes, I know — the black bars are still very much visible when the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is unfolded. But still, they're significantly smaller than those on the Ultra, and as for the outer display, the difference is night and day.

This is the key selling point of Samsung’s new shorter, wider foldable. Its displays have the same 120Hz refresh rate and 3,000-nit peak brightness as the pricier Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, but they don’t waste as much screen real estate as those on that square-sized premium model. If, like me, you use your phone primarily for watching videos and scrolling through social media, this is a big deal.

“We realize that there's enough of a segment where consumers are very heavy on media, and basically you consume social media, you consume videos, you play games, and you read books in a mostly similar form factor,” Samsung told us for our deep-dive into why it built the Galaxy Fold 8.

The company also describes the phone’s unfolded screen size as “the new standard for viewing content,” which makes sense when you consider that Apple is also rumored to be releasing a similarly sized foldable iPhone later this year.

Small but mighty

An important note: in the case of the Galaxy Z Fold 8, smaller does not mean less powerful. It’s got the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset under the hood — i.e., the same chipset as the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and the entire Galaxy S26 line — plus 12GB of RAM in every storage configuration except 1TB, in which you’ll get 16GB of RAM.

Naturally, I didn’t have enough time to really test the mettle of this chipset, but let’s be honest: we already know it’s a beast. It powers plenty of the best Android phones, and I don’t expect the Galaxy Z Fold 8 to feel any different to those Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5-equipped devices from a performance perspective.

The first real differences between the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and its larger sibling come in the camera department. This wider foldable packs a respectable 50MP wide lens and a 50MP ultra-wide lens, but the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra gets a superior 200MP wide lens and a 10MP telephoto lens for zoom shots.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra also has a slightly larger battery (5,000mAh) than the Galaxy Z Fold 8 (4,800mAh), but both phones finally — finally! — use silicon-carbon battery technology, so you should still get plenty of life from the latter’s smaller cell.

Silicon-carbon batteries can store up to 50% more energy in the same physical space as conventional smartphone batteries, so I’m expecting the Galaxy Z Fold 8 to deliver longer battery life than the 4,400mAh-equipped Galaxy Z Fold 7, which lasted for around 12 hours (standard use) in our testing.

For reference, Chinese foldable manufacturers like Oppo, Honor, and Vivo have been using silicon-carbon batteries for some years now, so Samsung’s adoption of this technology is a significant (if long overdue) step forward in markets like the US, where it hasn't been readily available.

As for charging, you’ll get 45W wired charging and 20W wireless charging, regardless of which model you choose, so the choice here is really between content and cameras. Would you prefer the wider Galaxy Z Fold 8 for scrolling and watching videos, or the taller Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra for productivity and taking photos?

Personally, I think the former’s shorter, wider form factor will be better suited to my needs, though I'm intrigued to see how much weaker the Galaxy Z Fold 8's main camera is compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's. At $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999, the latter phone is more expensive than the Galaxy Z Fold 8 — which starts at $1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699 — so it's safe to expect a noticeable gulf in photo quality.

I look forward to testing both devices properly after Unpacked.

Samsung's second big phone launch of the year is now over — and as expected, at the July edition of Unpacked 2026 saw the launches of several new Fold and Flip phones, plus the full reveal of Samsung's new Intelligent Eyewear smart glasses.

Leading Samsung's new foldables range are the new Z Fold 8 Ultra, passport-style Z Fold 8, and the updated Z Flip 8. The highlight, at least among the crowd, was the Z Fold 8, which likely gives us a hint of what to expect from the rumored iPhone Ultra.

But the most intriguing new devices were the range Intelligent Eyewear smart glasses, which Samsung's made in collaboration with Google. These will come in a range of designs when they launch "this Fall", from classic square and round-style frames to cat-eye-style silhouettes, and we've already had an early look at them.

You can read everything that happened at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked's July 2026 edition below. Which device are you most excited about? Make sure you also vote in our poll below...

Read all of our Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026 coverage

• I’ve spent an hour with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — and I need to upgrade my Z Fold 7 ASAP
• I went hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, and this passport-shaped oddity has revived my interest in foldable phones
• 'Finally, we've got silicon-carbon' — why SuperSaf is just as excited as we are for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's new battery
• 'If, because of that, we stop innovation, we don’t go anywhere': we got a first look at Samsung Intelligent Eyewear, the smart glasses entering a fraught market worried about privacy
• I've tested the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8, and its new camera features make it an excellent vlogging camera alternative — so long as you don't mind the middling image quality
• Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 review: slimmer, lighter, better
• I've found all the best Galaxy Z Flip 8 and Z Fold 8 preorder deals — where to get the biggest trade-in rebates and discounts

Welcome to Galaxy Unpacked 2026 (the sequel)

Hello, and welcome to our liveblog for Samsung's second big phone launch of the year, Galaxy Unpacked 2026.

We'll be reporting live from the London event, which kicks off at 9am ET / 6am PT / 2pm BST / 11pm AEST. But first, it's time to take you through all of the last-minute rumors on what we're expecting to see — and we certainly haven't been short of leaks...

The Z Fold 8 is winning the hype battle

The Galazy Z Fold 8 is emerging as the potential star of today's Unpacked event — and the foldable has just appeared in a new teaser poster (above).

It's the Z Fold 8's wider, passport-style design, which will likely separate it from the taller Fold 8 Ultra, that makes it the one I'm most interested in from today's launches. Partly because it also probably gives us an early peak of the iPhone Ultra's likely form factor.

We're expecting to see a 5.5-inch cover display and 7.6-inch inner display, both with a 120Hz refresh rate. The teaser poster matches some of the leaked dummy units that we saw earlier this year (below).

What are you most excited to see?

We've done a full rundown of everything we're expecting to see at Unpacked 2026, so that's worth a read as we get closer to kick-off (in just over two hours).

But the short version is that we're expecting three foldables (a Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra and Z Flip 8), plus two Galaxy Watches (the Watch Ultra 2 and Watch 9), and (potentially) also Samsung's first smart glasses.

Which one are you most excited about? Let us know in the poll below...

We've landed at Unpacked

We're very keen here at TechRadar, so we've already arrived at the Galaxy Unpacked event in London, and it's very... quiet.

That's understandable, as we're still two hours away from kick-off and many international attendees will be coming from hotels much closer to the start time.

A London-based Unpacked is a rarity — last year, Samsung did a mix of US-based and virtual events, while this year's earlier Unpacked in February was in San Francisco.

You have to go back to 2012 for the last time London hosted Samsung's main event, which saw the arrival of the Galaxy S III...

Will Samsung finally solve foldable creases?

There's a good chance that we'll see another big step towards crease-free foldables today. We recently visited Samsung Display's secret labs where it talked to us, among many other things, about its new "Flex Titanium Technology".

This includes a special structure at the fold to give added flexibility and help reduce crease visibility. We've recently more leaks on that theme — and while the image above doesn't look like a particularly fair comparison in terms of lighting, I'm hoping this new feature lives up to the hyper when we see it in person later.

If you host an event in London...

The umbrellas are already out at the Galaxy Unpacked 2026 queue. We've had what feels like months without rain in London, but right on queue the dark clouds are forming.

It's now just over 90 minutes till kick-off time, so hopefully we'll be ushered inside soon...

Brace yourself for price hikes

Some slightly less positive news from today's Galaxy Unpacked 2026 event is likely to be price hikes for the Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8.

A recent report from Korea (via Phone Arena) suggested that both foldables could be about $130 pricier than their predecessors. In the grand scheme of RAMageddon, that wouldn't be too bad — and the Fold and Flip series have never been the most affordable phones anyway.

Samsung has also already increased the prices of the Z Fold and Flip 7 series over the past year, so hopefully that will soften today's potential price rises...

A self-healing crease?

Samsung's upcoming foldables might not just have smaller creases than their predecessors, they could also have self-healing ones if the latest leak (above) is to be believed.

It's unclear how this would work, but perhaps it would ensure the crease doesn't become more visible over time. It also reminds us of the self-healing finish on the LG G Flex series, which could automatically fill in minor scratches.

It will be interesting to see how Samsung's take on this works, but if this leak is accurate then it could be Samsung's secret weapon against the upcoming foldable iPhone Ultra.

All the specs have already leaked

Samsung might not have too many surprises today if you've been following the leaks and rumors, as WinFuture.de recently leaked complete specs lists for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Z Flip 8.

Highlights if this leak is accurate include a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset for the two Z Folds and — at least in Europe — an Exynos 2600 for the Galaxy Z Flip 8.

We'll also apparently get a higher-capacity and faster charging 5,000mAh / 45W battery in the Z Fold 8 Ultra, but the real highlight could be the base Z Fold 8, since this is widely expected to have a new shorter, wider form factor, which according to this leak will allow for a 7.6-inch foldable screen and a 5.5-inch cover display.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 might live up to its name

We're also expecting various wearables today, and WinFuture has spilled the beans on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 in a detailed leak.

The latter could have a slightly larger and much brighter display than its predecessor, coming in at 1.52 inches and 5,000 nits, and joined by a colossal — by smartwatch standards — 800mAh battery, along with a build that's designed with divers in mind.

This is sure to be expensive, but the standard Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 should be a cheaper option for anyone who doesn't need all the bells and whistles offered by the Ultra. Sadly though we're not expecting a new Classic model this year.

Samsung's first smart glasses sound like Ray-Ban Meta rivals

Samsung could be about to make smart glasses more mainstream, as its first pair is rumored to be included in today's announcements, and the Samsung Galaxy Glasses as we're calling them for now have been extensively leaked.

A detailed new leak on WinFuture tallies with what we've heard before, including that these apparently won't have a screen, and will instead rely on cameras and access to Gemini, which should be able to see what you can.

They sound a lot like the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, and like those they apparently use a Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chipset, which is now three years old. Still, with supposedly 9 hours of battery life, Gemini access, and a big brand name behind them, they could be a hit.

These last-minute leaks are looking quite official

We're now less than 30 minutes away from Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026, and the leaks are looking ever more convincing, with what appears to be official marketing imagery having now leaked too, as you can see above.

This shows off all three expected foldables — the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8.

The purple Z Fold 8 Ultra looks quite appealing, but hopefully the pink background is a sign that we'll get some brighter colors too.

A subtle hint?

We're taking our seats at London's Galaxy Unpacked 2026 event and noticed a nice little touch from Samsung.

When you remove the perforated portion of our lanyards, it's remarkably close to the expected shape of the Z Fold 8 that we've seen in leaks.

Still, if you want an even clearer idea of what's coming, check out the leaked marketing materials that have just landed for the Fold 8 series. Or you could just wait 15 minutes to see the real thing...

What about the Galaxy Ring 2?

What's TechRadar's Senior Fitness & Wearables Editor Matt Evans most excited about at today's Unpacked?

"I'm most looking forward to the wearables — the Watch 8 was outstanding last year, and I’m hoping for more of the same on that front. But the hotly-rumored Watch Ultra 2 is going to be the real star. Plus, who knows? We may event get a hint about a Ring 2…", he says.

Samsung has already confirmed it's working on the Galaxy Ring 2 — and while it isn't expected to get a full launch today, we could well get a teaser at the end of the event (just as Samsung did for the original Ring).

Five minutes to go...

It's now just five minutes till kick off, and TechRadar's Lance Ulanoff has shared some final thoughts on this year's second Unpacked.

"We pretty much all know the shape of things to come, but I'm super curious to see the reaction from the crowd here and online. Is different better or just different? Can more fold shapes expand the market? Or can only Apple do that?" he says.

We won't have to wait long to find out...

Get your popcorn ready

We're just a minute away from the start of Unpacked, and the expected arrival of its new foldables and smartwatches.

A final thought from TechRadar's Editor at Large, Lance Ulanoff, who's at the event right now. "What may be missing from this event is any kind of surprise. Samsung is very leaky, and most of the excitement tends to be muted by the time they tell us what we already knew or read about somewhere," he says.

"For Samsung, the goal is to generate Apple-level energy for its latest foldables and any other products they pull out of their back pocket. It's especially important to build that kind of momentum before Apple begins its product rollout juggernaut in September," he adds.

And we're off

TechRadar's Phones editor Axel Metz has some final pre-Unpacked thoughts as we go through Samsung's pre-amble.

"I’m curious to see whether Samsung positions the shorter, wider Galaxy Z Fold 8 as its hero product this year — i.e. the foldable it hopes and expects people to buy — or simply as a more affordable alternative to the premium Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra," he says.

"In making the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Samsung is acknowledging that the taller, narrower form factor of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra isn’t very ‘Gen Z’, and with Apple rumored to be releasing a similarly sized iPhone Ultra later this year, I — and probably Samsung — expect this new aspect ratio to become the foldable mainstream. Where does that leave the Ultra in years to come?" he says.

The Samsung Glasses are coming

That's a surprise, Samsung has just teased that the Galaxy Glasses are coming at today's event. But first, it's going hard on security and privacy...

AI and privacy are the hot topics

Samsung's TM Roh is on the stage right now talking about the "the importance of AI infrastructure", as he says Galaxy AI will be coming to 800 million devices by the end of the year. Now we're moving onto its foldables, starting with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra...

First up, the Z Fold 8 Ultra...

Samsung's starting its Z Fold 8 Ultra promo with Flex Titanium, the new hinge design it announced last week that promises to make the crease less visible.

Also, there's battery news — it has largest-ever battery in a Galaxy Z Fold phone (at 5000mAh), and for the first time uses silicon carbon tech that we've seen in its many Chinese rivals — hooray...

Camera boosts for the Z Fold 8 Ultra

Samsung is now talking cameras on the Z Fold 8 Ultra, leaning heavily on its Nightography skills and talking up its much-improved 50MP ultrawide camera.

It also has a 200MP main camera with an f/1.7 lens and a 10MP telephoto that gives you up to 3x optical zoom, which are similar to its Fold 7 predecessor.

Now onto the Z Fold 8

This is the one most of us have been waiting for — Samsung's revealed its new passport-style Fold 8, and it got more of a reaction from the crowd than the Ultra.

Samsung's explaining the benefits of that more square display, claiming it bring "a whole new dimension to mobile gaming", while in portrait the 3:4 ratio makes it a good fit for reading.

I definitely like the form factor (in theory), and it's likely a hint of what Apple's going to bring with the iPhone Ultra. It's also apparently the "world's lightest fold" ever...

Telephoto out, 'FanCam' in

Sadly, there's no telephoto camera on the Z Fold 8, which is a shame — but Samsung's seemingly quite proud of its new 'FanCam' feature.

This new AI feature helps you quickly edit videos into your choice of aspect ratio, while keeping the star of your video in the center of the frame. Pretty neat, if perhaps not as useful as a telephoto — though that's probably revealing of Samsung's target market for the Z Fold 8.

Samsung's 'thinnest Flip yet'

This should be the final foldable from today's Unpacked — Samsung's Lee Dunham has just announced the Z Flip 8, and it sounds like a decent upgrade.

There's seemingly a much better Flex Display experience, with boosts to Now Brief (including the option of adding your own custom cards). And it's a bit slimmer and lighter at only 6.1mm thick when folded, and weighing in at 180g. You also get the same ProVisual engine as you get on Samsung's other Galaxy phones.

The downside is that pricing for the Z Flip 8 starts at $1,199 (with pre-orders starting today), which means it's a bit pricer than last year.

Spider-Man drops in

A Spider-Man interlude has just broken up the foldables news, as we get a teaser from his newest movie plus a chat from Ned, who's shown off a 'Spidey Tracker' alongside camera footage from the Z Fold 8 Ultra.

It's back to reality now though, as Samsung moves onto Samsung Care+ and the Galaxy Card, its new Apple Card rival that was announced this week.

Enter the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9

It's time to move onto smartwatches. Samsung's just revealed the Galaxy Watch 9, and it's promising some handy new software features.

These include sleep apnea detection, which is also coming to the Galaxy Ring — and apparently makes it the only FDA-cleared, over-the-counter ring device with that feature.

The Galaxy Watch 9 will also have "proactive" features that constantly monitor things like heart rate and heart rate variability, and crunch all these together into a new heart health score.

Samsung says it's partnering with iFit for its subscription fitness content, too. But the more exciting smartwatch is coming next...

The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 looks hardcore

The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is here — it looks pretty similar to its predecessor from a couple of years ago, but there are quite a few upgrades under the hood.

Its engine is the new Snapdragon Elite processor, which apparently offers 32% better performance than before. The Watch Ultra 2 is also the toughest Samsung watch so far, with IP69K and 10 ATM waterproof ratings.

There are some pretty hardcore diving features too, including Samsung's own diving algorithm and nitrogen absorption monitoring. Basically, Samsung is gunning for Garmin here.

The Watch Ultra 2 starts at $699 with the Galaxy Watch 9 starting at $379, with the Watch Ultra 2 launching from August 7.

Google talks Gemini

Google's Rick Osterloh has stepped in to tell us about the Gemini features that'll be available on Samsung's new foldables — and its new smart glasses too.

Gemini Notebook (the new name for NotebookLM) will apparently come preinstalled on the new foldables and buyers will get six months of Google AI Pro too (after which, you'll have to pay, of course).

Gemini Intelligence will also be coming to new smartglasses from Samsung, Gentle Monster and Warby Parker — and we're about to hear more about those...

It's time for smart glasses

As expected, Samsung's 'one more thing' at Unpacked is its Intelligent Eyewear — and it does looks pretty impressive.

Samsung has partnered with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker in its attempt to take on the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which is something we already knew. But we've just learned a bit more about their design and specs, including a new hinge design that has a power slider next to it.

Samsung is claiming nine hours of battery life from a single charge with 'mixed use' — which is seemingly around 90 minutes of notifications, 30 minutes of calls, 35 AI conversations, 12 message read alouds, 60 minutes of music playback, nine photo captures, and three one-minute videos.

It also says you'll be able to charge them more than seven times overs using their case. They'll apparently be lighter than most AI glasses (although their exact weight is still TBC) and will be powered by a Snapdragon AR1 chipset.

The Intelligent Eyewear (surely there's a snappier name) will launch in the Fall, so sometime between September and November. But a big question remains unanswered, how much will they cost?

That's a wrap

So that's it for Samsung's second Galaxy Unpacked event of the year. We've already been hands-on with all of the devices, including the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Flip 8, Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 and the Samsung Intelligent Eyewear.

There weren't many surprises given the leaks were so generous, but we did all the official pricing — and the hikes aren't quite as bad as many feared. Samsung's Intelligent Eyewear (surely they're going to get a snappier nickname) also looks very interesting, if it can navigate the Great Smartglasses Backlash.

It’s not long now until Samsung’s second major phone launch of the year, with the next Samsung Galaxy Unpacked showcase set to take place later on today — and you can join us live from the event in our liveblog.

This follows February’s Unpacked event, where we saw the Samsung Galaxy S26 series, but this time, we’re not just expecting phones, because along with a selection of new foldables — including a whole new form factor — we’ll probably see new smartwatches too, and even perhaps the Samsung Galaxy Glasses.

So, whether you’re in the market for a handset or a wearable, there could be something for you here, and below, you’ll find full details of how to tune in, along with exactly what we’re expecting to see.

How to watch Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026

The next Samsung Galaxy Unpacked is being held in London, but as with most major tech launches, it will also be streamed online, so you can watch it from anywhere.

It kicks off at 9am ET / 6am PT / 2pm BST / 11pm AEST on July 22, so at least it’s not the middle of the night for any of those places, though viewers on the west coast of the US will have to get up early, and if you’re in certain parts of Australia, you might have to stay up late.

To tune in, you can simply head to Samsung’s website, where the video will be streamed live. It will also be viewable live on Samsung’s YouTube page. But there’s no need to head to either, because the video embedded on this page (above) will play the stream once it’s live as well.

Wherever you choose to watch it, you don’t need to tune in live if the times are inconvenient, as you’ll be able to watch the video after the fact too. However, you might prefer to just head back to TechRadar, where we’ll be covering all the announcements with in-depth analysis.

What to expect at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026

We’ve written a full rundown of what to expect at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026, but in brief, there’s probably going to be a mix of phones and wearables.

On the phones side, it’s likely to all be foldables, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra all rumored to be making an appearance.

Of those three, the Z Flip 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra are thought to be fairly conventional successors to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, respectively. Look out for new chipsets, smaller creases, and potentially some new cameras, but nothing too game-changing is expected there.

The more interesting phone is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, which, despite its name, is reportedly going to have a new form factor, making it wider and shorter than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 or the Z Fold 8 Ultra. This will also probably be a more affordable phone as a result.

For wearables, we’ll probably see the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, with the latter of those products sounding the most interesting, as it might have a high-capacity 800mAh battery and — for the first time on a Galaxy Watch — support 5G.

Finally, Samsung might also take the opportunity to launch its first smart glasses, which could be called the Samsung Galaxy Glasses. These are reportedly screenless glasses that run Android XR, let you talk to Gemini, and look set to rival the likes of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

• Software support for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro ends soon
• The Android QPR1 will be the final update for these phones
• They were first launched by Google back in October 2021

If you're rocking a Google Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro, launched in October 2021, then your five years of software updates are coming to an end: Google has confirmed that these devices aren't going to get access to the latest Android QPR2 Beta 1.

"Pixel 6 and 6 Pro users will not be getting this OTA since the device will reach End of Life and Android 17 QPR1 beta series will be the last for these devices," says Google in the release notes of the latest beta, via Android Police.

That means no more beta updates for the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, with the final stable software release officially Android 17 QPR1, set to be part of the September Pixel Drop. That should land just before the five-year anniversary of these phones in October 2026.

As with every end-of-life situation like this, your handset isn't suddenly going to stop working. However, it will no longer get new features or security updates — the more time passes, the more vulnerable it will be to bugs and malware attacks.

Apps may start slowing down and misbehaving, and the recommended course of action is to upgrade as soon as possible. Google is all set to unveil the new Pixel 11 series on Wednesday, August 12, so maybe you could treat yourself to one of those handsets.

There's life in the old phone yet

You've got options for what to do with your old phone. Your network operator may recycle it for you and even give you some cash back (check the website for details), but if not, you can find numerous third-party services that will — just run a web search for them.

You can also repurpose your old Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro and turn it into something else. These ideas will all work without needing regular Android software updates:

• Dedicated e-reader — get the Kindle app (or something similar) up on your old phone and you can keep it exclusively for getting through your e-books.
• Car dashcam — get your old phone mounted on your car dashboard and plugged in, install an app such as Droid Dashcam, and you've got yourself a dashcam.
• Alternative webcam — sticking with cameras, your old phone probably offers a higher resolution and better angles than your current webcam. Here's how to set it up.
• Portable power bank — both the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro can work as chargers for other phones when connected via USB-C (they can also charge smaller devices wirelessly).
• Wi-Fi extender — if part of your home can't get Wi-Fi, use your old Pixel as a Wi-Fi extender for your router via the hotspot option (under Network and internet in Settings).
• PC console — with an app like Touch Portal installed, you can get a Stream Deck-like experience for gaming and streaming with your old Android phone.

There's no excuse for leaving it gathering dust in a drawer, or just throwing it in the trash (and adding to our growing e-waste problem). And you've still got a couple of months to decide what you'd like to do.

• People keep arriving at a Reddit user’s house seeking their lost iPhones
• It may be down to a quirk with how Apple’s Find My system works
• It sounds similar to another case from ten years ago

If someone turned up at your door claiming their lost device was at your address — and you knew it definitely wasn’t — you might be a little confused, but not too bothered. But if it happened repeatedly over a period of years, you’d start to get concerned. That’s exactly what’s been happening to one long-suffering Reddit user, and the cause is still a mystery.

As recounted by the victim on their recent Reddit thread, “About 3-4 years ago, we had two men turn up to our door because one of them had an iPhone stolen the night before, and the Find My app brought them to our house.” The device wasn’t there, however, and the men left.

“Ever since, we’ve had at least four or five more instances or random guys, iPad, or friend’s phone in hand, saying ‘My phone is here,’” they continued. “It’s frustrating to have to explain to them that this has happened and we don’t have them.”

But aside from the mere confusion of the incidents, the original poster was also concerned about their safety. “We’re both women, and I don’t want one guy to be absolutely fuming about his phone missing and hurt us,” they worried.

Some people thought this might be more than a simple case of mistaken identity or Find My having a glitchy moment. “I’ve seen videos from Ring doorbells being posted saying that this is a common scam nowadays,” said one, with another adding that “I would call the police. It may be someone trying to gain access to your property, whatever you do don’t let them in.”

Can anything be done?

Situations like this can be concerning, especially if they keep happening with different people turning up on your doorstep. But this is not the first time Apple’s Find My feature has befuddled people in this way, with a similar case reported back in 2013, for example.

And back in 2016, the Reply All podcast investigated after a strikingly similar occurrence in Atlanta, GA. In the end, the podcast concluded that it was all to do with the “digital desert” present in the area, with the Atlanta victims being one of the few homes with a router in the area.

As the podcast explained, if a lost phone is trying to broadcast its location, it might do so by connecting to GPS. If that’s not feasible, it’ll next try to find the nearest IP addresses and Wi-Fi networks, triangulating itself based on the relative strengths of those networks.

If the center of that IP address area happens to be a person’s house, that’s where people seeking their lost device will end up. Moreover, considering how few routers were in the area, any lost phone that was relatively nearby and couldn’t connect to GPS might have found the victims’ router as a fallback, leading people straight to the home in question.

What's the answer?

Apple’s Find My feature uses Bluetooth to connect to a network of other devices, using them to pinpoint a lost phone’s location.

It’s therefore conceivable that the solution for the Reddit conundrum is slightly different to that suggested by Reply All. One alternative suggested on Reddit was that stolen devices are being handled nearby and send out a ‘ping’ before they’re disassembled or deactivated. That ping is an approximate location, but it happens to line up with the victims’ house, sending people to their door.

Another possibility relates to Wi-Fi networks, as in the 2016 case. This time, it was pointed out that Find My can log local Wi-Fi networks — if the victims’ home network strength is strong enough, lost devices nearby could show it as the phone’s last known location. The answer this time could be to add _nomap to the home network SSID name, as one user suggested.

But without a solid idea of what’s happening, solutions might not always be possible. As one commenter said, “depending on where you live it could be that your home happens to be the location that a lot of IP addresses default to on the map. Sadly there is very little you can do about it.”

• YouTube picture-in-picture on mobile is broken for some
• The feature was made available to all users earlier this year
• Google says it's looking into the issue and working on a fix

YouTube picture-in-picture (PiP) mode on Android and iOS is one of the most useful features the app offers — available to all users now, Premium or otherwise — but a widespread bug seems to have broken the functionality on phones.

As reported by 9to5Google, there are multiple reports of PiP mode failing to activate when the YouTube app is exited. The audio keeps playing in the background, but there's no sign of the small video overlay.

We've had mixed experiences with this on the TechRadar team: for some it's working fine, for others it's broken. However, it's definitely a genuine problem for some users at least, because Google has acknowledged there is a bug.

"Our teams are actively investigating the issue, and we'll update this thread as soon as we have more information," explains a Google representative, saying that while most bug reports are coming from iPhone owners, the issue is also appearing on Android.

What happens next?

Picture In Picture mode from r/youtube

We've scoured the YouTube Help forums and Reddit, and so far there doesn't seem to be any proper workaround for the problem. If it's something you're experiencing, you're just going to have to wait it out until Google issues a fix.

According to the Reddit threads that have popped up discussing the bug, it's affecting both free users and those paying for Premium, so you're not going to be able to bring back PiP by giving the paid subscription a go.

One poster reports that the feature has been "acting up for several weeks" and that PiP sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. If that's the case it might be worth rebooting your phone and trying again — though there's no guarantees.

The best place to look for updates on PiP functionality is the official thread for the issue on the YouTube Help forum. Hopefully, with Google's engineers on the case, it's a bug that gets sorted out sooner rather than later.

Iniu SnapGo Air 10000mAh Power Bank review

The Iniu SnapGo Air 10000mAh Power Bank is a svelte, pocketable MagSafe power bank. Not only does it include two USB-C ports that can muster up to 45W charging solo or 15W together, it can also charge 25W wirelessly and comes with a discrete cable that doubles up as its handle.

When it comes to looks, the majority of power banks usually take the form of functional cuboids. However, the SnapGo Air 10000mAh Power Bank actually feels like it has some personality. To start, it's available in a range of colorways: Soft Lilac and Sunset Orange are seriously eye-catching, while I love the fact that the Metallic Mocha hue I tested here matches my Desert Titanium iPhone 16 Pro.

There are more practical design flourishes, too. The SnapGo Air 10000mAh Power Bank is super slim compared to many of the best power banks. It measures just 0.5 inches / 13.8mm thick, which is almost half the thickness of my chunky 0.91 inch / 23mm Ugreen 10000mAh Magnetic Wireless Power Bank, and even slimmer than the 0.58 inch / 14.7mm Anker MagGo Power Bank (10K, Slim). The SnapGo Air is a little wider as a result, measuring 2.76 x 4.13 inches / 70 x 105mm, but by having the MagSafe connection extend out a tiny bit from the power bank’s bezel, it keeps its height to a minimum.

As I mentioned, another neat touch is the doubling of the Iniu’s braided USB-C cable as the power bank’s loop. While this isn’t a unique feature by any means — for example, the recent UGreen 10,000mAh Magnetic Wireless Power Bank Qi2 25W utilizes a similar system — it's far more convenient than having to bring a separate cable with you, and makes it easier should you want to opt for that 45W fast-charging over the slower 25W MagSafe charging.

Like a lot of the newer power banks, the SnapGo Air also features an LCD screen, which displays the battery’s remaining charge. This is far more useful than those models that only have a series of LEDs to indicate battery status, where you're left guessing whether the power bank has 51% or 74% charge left. The display here is subtle, tucked away down by the device’s two USB-C ports, and I really appreciate the more granular insight it provides on the juice left in my device.

So how does it perform? Perhaps, unsurprisingly, pretty well! That 45W max charging isn’t unheard of, but it still beats a number of devices, with many higher output models likely to cost you a lot more — although the Anker 20,000mAh 87W Power Bank is currently available for a steal at just $69.99 / £49.99 / AU$119.99. MagSafe charging is capped at 25W by Apple, so naturally you won’t get a huge variation in charging speed there; but the reality is you're trading speed for convenience with wireless charging.

In terms of the numbers, I first put the SnapGo Air to the test by fully charging the 5,200mAh battery of the OnePlus Nord CE5 from 0% to 100% using its 45W charging. That took 1 hour and 24 minutes, which is pretty much bang on what I’d expect given the phone’s capacious battery. Unfortunately, only 29% of the Iniu’s 10,000mAh capacity remained after charging, which is a significant drop.

Meanwhile, when I used its MagSafe charging to juice up an 3,095mAh iPhone 13 Pro, it took 2 hours and 25 minutes — that’s considerably slower, but not surprising given the max wattage available to the iPhone 13 Pro during MagSafe charging is just 15W.

When it comes to powering the SnapGo Air back up, its 27W charging saw this take just 1 hour and 46 minutes. Given its 10,000mAh total capacity, that isn't bad — there are phones with batteries half that size that take nearly as long to charge up.

All told, the Iniu SnapGo Air 10000mAh Power Bank is a pretty strong power bank. It charges your devices fast, whether you’re using its built-in cable or 25W MagSafe charging; its LCD screen is super useful; and the unit itself is nicely compact. Moreover, it’s a seriously stylish power bank in a market crammed with charcoal-hued cuboids, yet comes in at a very reasonable price. Ultimately, it’s a very hard product to find fault with.

Iniu SnapGo Air 10000mAh Power Bank review: price & availability

• Launched on May 15, 2026
• List price of $54.99 / £49.99 / AU$69.99
• Range of attractive colorways

Having launched on May 15, 2026, the Iniu SnapGo Air 10000mAh Power Bank is widely available. It comes in a great range of colors — alongside Lunar Silver and Space Gray are a medley of iPhone-mimicking hues such as Midnight Navy, Metallic Mocha and Sunset Orange.

You can pick it up for a list price of $54.99 / £49.99 / AU$69.99, which is pretty keenly priced given its spec. For example, the Anker MagGo Power Bank (10K, Slim) can only muster 30W over a wired connection, compared to the Iniu’s 45W, yet costs $79.86 / £69 / AU$97.99, showing what a good deal the Iniu SnapGo Air actually is.

Iniu SnapGo Air 10000mAh Power Bank review: specs

Should I buy the Iniu SnapGo Air 10000mAh Power Bank?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Iniu SnapGo Air 10000mAh Power Bank review: also consider

Two-minute review

The TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro is an affordable smartphone at $379.99 / £269 for the 256GB device. The US market also gets a cheaper 128GB model.

Its design is sleek and attractive, giving the air of a phone that costs a far more. The biggest selling point is the NXTPAPER 70 Pro's large 6.9in screen with epaper-like NXTPAPER 4.0 display technology.

The tech gives the screen a matte finish that minimises reflections and glare, and makes the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro extremely comfortable to read and work on. It features a variety of options for reducing eye-strain, and you can turn on various display modes with just a quick flick of a switch. These include Color Paper mode, which is perfect for reading digital comics, and Ink Paper mode, a black-and-white paper-like setting that’s great for ebooks and text-heavy websites.

As an avid reader of both books and comics, I was a huge fan of the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro's screen — but there are a few compromises which meant it wasn't a device I'd be happy to switch to full-time. Performance is fine, but multitasking with lots of different apps open at once isn’t as smooth as it is on devices with more RAM (the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro comes with 8GB, although that can be expanded later). In addition, taking photos at the main camera's maximum 50MP resolution introduces a slight pause as the phone processes your images.

Speaking of the camera, it does a decent job of taking high-resolution shots by default, but the digital zoom quickly displays its limits when you try zooming in too much. For day-to-day shots, though, it's fine; but anyone wanting to be more ambitious with their photography should look elsewhere.

TCL has made quite a big deal of the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro's AI features, and while it’s good to see the tech included in a budget device, I didn’t have much cause to use features such as live transcription, or AI-assisted note-taking. However, I can imagine they'll be useful for some, especially for accessibility — and on a positive note, they're not obnoxiously pushed onto you like they can be by other brands.

Overall, the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro is a stylish and dependable budget smartphone that offers plenty for the price, but its performance compromises can niggle. Nevertheless, its NXTPAPER 4.0 screen really is a standout feature, so for voracious readers, it could be their dream phone.

Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to seeing NXTPAPER 4.0 come to more powerful phones from TCL.

TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro review: Price & release date

• Starts at $379.99 / £269 for 256GB model
• US also gets cheaper 128GB model
• Available in Europe, North America, butnot officially in Australia

It might be because I’ve become used to the ever-increasing price of flagship phones from the likes of Apple and Samsung, but when I was told the price of the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro, I was genuinely impressed. For a smartphone with the word "Pro" in its name, a price of less than $400 is pleasing.

In the US and UK, the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro model with 256GB storage costs $379.99 / £269, which is a fair bit less than our current best cheap phone pick – the Samsung Galaxy A56 at $499 / £499. It actually undercuts pretty much all of the phones in that list, including the Poco X8 Pro Max, which starts at $469 / £469.

While a rock-bottom price isn’t the only measure of a good budget, in these financially uncertain times it’s certainly a major selling poin. If the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro can also match this with stellar performance, we could see a new budget champion.

In the UK, you can pick up the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro with a protective slipcase and stylus from Amazon for £369.98.

And for US customers, there's an even cheaper 128GB option that sells for $329.99. People in other markets might be disappointed to learn this isn't an option in their territory, but personally, I wouldn’t recommend opting for less than 256GB storage these days, especially if you take a lot of photos. Having said that, the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro supports microSD cards, so you can expand the storage up to 2TB.

Currently, if you’re in the US and buy the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro from TCL’s official store, you also get a free pair of TCL CrystalClip earbuds worth $95.99, making this already great-value handset even better value for money.

• Value score: 4.5/5

TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro review: Specs

TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro review: Design

• Stylish and minimalist
• Extra switch for changing display mode
• Screen is a highlight

Design-wise, the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro certainly doesn’t feel budget. Available in two colors, Stellar Blue (the model I was sent) and Nebula Gold, the large 6.9-inch screen, thin bezels and modern design give the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro the appearance of a much more expensive phone at first glance.

The thin bezels keep the focus where it belongs: on the display. That's no bad thing, thanks to TCL's innovative NXTPAPER 4.0 technology, which gives the screen a matte, e-reader-like finish (more on that shortly). They also help prevent the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro from feeling even larger than it is — but make no mistake, this is a big phone, and it will stick out of plenty of pockets.

On the bottom of the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro is a USB-C port for charging, as well as a slot for your SIM card and SD card for expanding storage. On the right-hand side of the phone are the standard volume rocker, a power button with built-in fingerprint reader, and a unique NXTPAPER key. The latter is actually a physical switch, similar to the one found on older iPhones, to put the device into "Do not disturb" mode. Here, though, the NXTPAPER key switches been display modes: Color Paper mode, Ink Paper mode and Max Ink mode.

You can choose the mode each time, or set a default mode to turn on instantly when you flick the switch. A ripple transition effect plays as the screen switches to the mode you’ve chosen – I quite like it, but if you switch mode regularly, I can see how the animation might get a bit annoying.

I’ll go into each mode in a moment, but the default setting’s matte effect and vibrant colors makes the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro stand out from rivals, especially those that sell for a similar price — and the default wallpaper, which is a painting of flowers, looks fantastic.

Overall, the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro's design — aside from its standout display — isn't revolutionary, but it doesn’t need to be. It's a well-built, attractive phone that looks and feels more premium than its affordable price suggests.

• Design score: 4.5/5

TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro review: Performance and Display

• Display is great for reading on
• Can also play videos and games
• Overall performance is solid, if unremarkable

The TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro’s design does a decent job of making you forget that this is a budget phone, then — but the specs don’t do such a good job. Don’t get me wrong: it works fine, but when you're coming from a flagship handset — even one that’s now a few years old — it's a bit of a wake-up call to keep your expectations in check.

Android 16 runs smoothly, and even when using the various screen modes, the phone is responsive, with no annoying full-screen refreshes of the type that happen with some ebook readers. The display's matte finish keeps images looking crisp, even at extreme viewing angles, with vibrant colors and no distracting reflections.

Turning the screen to Color Paper mode mutes the colors and drops the background wallpaper. It makes the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro more comfortable to use in low-light conditions, and preserves battery life, too.

It works particularly well when reading comics (I tried it with Marvel Unlimited), as well as browsing the internet at night. The muted colors, paper-like display and lack of blue light mean a quick doomscroll before bed won't disrupt your sleep too much (although it doesn’t do anything for my general anxiety about the state of the world).

Impressively, the screen remains responsive, although rapidly scrolling through long passages of text causes the text to shift in colour slightly as it moves. You can watch videos, too, but you’ll want to switch back to normal mode for the best picture quality.

There’s also Ink Paper mode, which reduces colors to just black and white, removes the background wallpaper, and simplifies icons. This more basic mode is great for reading ebooks and websites; the interface is clean, easy to read, and free from distractions. It helps prolong battery life as well, yet still feels responsive.

Finally, there’s Max Ink mode, which limits the apps that can be run, futher extending battery life (with just 21% of battery life, the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro claimed to have around 46 hours left).

The screen really is a treat, and if you don’t mind the impact on image quality, switching between modes is a great way to boost the battery life if you’re away from a power supply. I found reading websites particularly comfortable in Ink Paper mode — although for image- and video-heavy websites, you’ll probably want to switch to a color mode.

Color Paper mode is also excellent for reading digital comics. As an X-Men fan, I found the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro’s large paper-like display ideal for reading on Marvel Unlimited and Kindle. The matte finish dramatically reduces glare, and. unlike some early color e-readers I’ve tested, both apps remain as fast and responsive as they do on other smartphones.

So, Color Paper mode is great for those who wish to get through their large digital comic libraries while on long trips. Personally, I prefer reading the comics in the default display mode, as colors are more vibrant.

The TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro overall performance is solid, and about what you’d expect for the price. I didn’t have any issues using any of my regular daily driver apps, and the games I tested ran perfectly fine as well — although, if you’re looking for a smartphone on which to mainly play games, you might want to look for a device with a standard display and more graphical power.

Powering the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro is a MediaTek Dimensity 7300, an octa-core processor with four performance and four efficiency cores. It can't match Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon chips, but at this price it's hard to fault, delivering smooth everyday performance. The 8GB of RAM comfortably handles multitasking, although it doesn't feel quite as snappy as more expensive handsets with more memory. TCL does let you allocate up to 16GB of virtual RAM from the phone's storage, increasing the total to a very healthy 24GB, and proving a little more headroom for the future.

The phone features two SIM card slots, and supports eSIM, and network speeds up to 5G. However, the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro only supports Wi-Fi 5, which is now quite outdated. It meant I couldn't take full advantage of my home router’s Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, and this led to a noticeable reduction in speed when using Wi-Fi.

To be fair to the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro, this was the only time its budget roots really showed.

The screen is definitely a standout feature for anyone who spends a lot of time reading on their phone. However, if you spend more time watching movies or playing games, a device with a more traditional display will be a better choice.

• Performance score: 3.5/5

TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro review: Camera

• 50MP main camera
• 32MP selfie camera
• Good detail at high resolutions

The TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro features a 50MP rear camera with OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) and a 32MP front-facing camera. It also uses TCL’s own MuseFilm imaging technology, which the manufacturer says combines hardware and software enhancements to deliver more visually impressive photos.

I didn’t really notice much difference when comparing photos taken on similar phones. Having said that, images taken with the 50MP camera are bright, vibrant and full of detail.

While zooming in reveals some loss of sharpness, photos look impressive at full resolution, with even busy scenes retaining plenty of detail. If you’ve previously dismissed budget smartphones because of their lack of photo-taking prowess, then the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro proves that affordable handsets can deliver.

However, note that taking photos at the full 50MP resolution (which at the default 4:3 aspect ratio leads to image resolutions of 8192 × 6144) does put pressure on the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro’s hardware: there's a slight pause between pressing the shutter button and image capture (a message pops up asking you to hold the phone still while the image is being processed). It’s another reminder about the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro’s budget price, and while it didn’t appear to make any of the photos I took with moving subjects blurry, if you want to take a series of fast images, you’ll need to lower the resolution — or buy a more powerful phone.

Reducing the resolution speeds up the whole process, and when images are viewed on the phone’s screen they still look sharp. Viewing them on a larger screen, or printing them out, makes the reduced resolution more noticeable, though.

When shooting below the full 50MP resolution, the TCL offers up to 2x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom. However, pushing the digital zoom too far reveals the limitations of the hardware, with considerable loss in detail and the addition of image artefacts.

You can also switch to the ultra-wide lens, which produces some nice results, although it does occasionally introduce distortion around the edges. There’s also a macro setting for taking close-up shots, and while the results are fine, they lack detail.

For best results, then, you’ll want to stick to the standard settings without zooming in.

The front-facing camera captures good-quality selfies with plenty of detail, and there are plenty of settings to experiment with, including the often questionable "beauty" modes found on many smartphones.

Overall, photography isn't the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro's main strength, so it isn't for you if camera performance is a priority. However, for day-to-day snaps, it does the job.

• Camera score: 3/5

TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro review: Battery life

• 5200mAh capacity
• 33W fast charging
• Over 10 hours of continuous video playback

The TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro doesn’t have the largest battery, nor does it charge as quickly as other budget rivals, with its fast charging capped at 33W (the Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Pro 5G can charge at 45W). Still, it powered up to 56% (from empty) after just 30 minutes.

During tests, the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro lasted well over a day of standard use with a single charge, and in our benchmark tests, it hit 10 hours and 55 minutes of continuous video playback. Turning on the Max Ink mode boosted battery life in the same tests by around 50 minutes.

Considering the limitations of Max Ink mode, I was expecting a bigger difference in battery life, but that could be a testament to how efficient the default screen mode is at prolonging battery life.

As with other phones around this price point, there’s no wireless charging support, which was a blow coming from a handset that has the ability to charge over wireless. If you’re not bothered about the tech, this won’t be an issue, but for people like myself who have wireless charging accessories (including in my car), it does limit the appeal of the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro.

• Battery life: 3.5/5

Should I buy the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Also consider

How I tested the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro

• Used it on and off for around a month
• Used the various display modes to read ebooks and digital comics

Due to a busy few months, I’ve been using the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro on and off as my main phone during the time I’ve had it. This is longer than our usual testing process, and meant I got a good idea of overall performance of the handset.

I used the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro not just to make calls and browse the internet, but also loaded several ebooks to read using the handset’s variety of screen modes. I also read digital comics via the Android versions of the Marvel Unlimited and Kindle apps. I also took photos and watched videos.

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: July 2026

Foldable phones are no longer a novelty, but what is novel this year is that Apple is almost certainly joining Samsung and Google in releasing a phone in a foldable form factor — and the launch is significant enough that it's led to a change in strategy from Samsung, now in its eighth year of launching Galaxy Z Fold models.

If you've been keeping up with the rumors, you'll know that Samsung is widely expected to reveal both a standard Galaxy Z Fold 8 and a 'wide' version of the phone when the next Unpacked rolls around on Wednesday, July 22.

That's very likely because the iPhone Ultra (or iPhone Fold if you prefer) is being tipped to adopt the wide form factor itself. By wide, we mean the phone is shorter and wider than previous book-style foldables, whether it's open or closed.

So why the shift in design this year? Is it likely to drive more foldable phone sales? And should you be looking at picking up either a Galaxy Z Fold 8, an iPhone Ultra, or a Google Pixel Fold 11 over the coming months? As a tech journalist whose used foldable phones for years now, I can lay out what's going on for you.

The rumors so far

Rumors around a foldable iPhone are nothing new, but for months now it's been clear that this is the year that the speculation finally turns into an actual device: there have been so many rumors, from so many well-placed sources, that it would now be a huge surprise if the iPhone Ultra didn't show up around September time.

As the rumors have started gaining momentum, we've seen a running theme: the iPhone Ultra's screens are going to be shorter and wider than is typical for a device like this. A 5.5-inch cover screen and a 7.8-inch main display are what we're expecting, which would make it smaller overall than the foldables Samsung and Google have been producing.

Through leaks such as this 3D CAD mockup, we've got a pretty good idea of what the Apple phone will look like, and it might be the most interesting design choice on this device (though I'm also looking forward to seeing just how 'invisible' Apple has been able to make that crease, which will go a long way to determining how appealing the phone is).

Over to the Samsung camp then, and around the same time that it emerged that Apple was taking the shorter and wider form factor approach with its foldable, we got news that Samsung was bringing out its own version — presumably to appeal to those who would otherwise go with Apple for their next folding phone.

Originally known as the Galaxy Z Fold Wide, it now appears that this handset will get the standard Galaxy Z Fold 8 moniker, while the 'normal' foldable will become the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (try and keep up at the back). You'll get a direct choice between Samsung and Apple when it comes to this more 'squat' approach to foldable design.

Google, meanwhile, doesn't appear to be changing its approach for the Pixel 11 Pro Fold (due on Wednesday, August 12): that means this phone will be more of a regular handset size when it's closed, and have a squarer screen when opened, and that brings us to the reason why these wide foldables are appearing.

The foldable phone experience

For as long as foldables have been around, manufacturers have had to balance two experiences: what the phone is like to use when it's closed, and what it's like to use when it's opened. A foldable handset needs to score highly on both counts to get consumers to consider spending money on, but to date there's been almost too much of a compromise.

As a tech journalist, I've had the privilege of using multiple foldable phones, including many months with a Pixel 9 Pro Fold that Google loaned to me. Here's the thing though: most of the time I used that phone, I kept it closed. I didn't really have any need to switch to the bigger display, even though it's an impressive feat of engineering to have the two screens in one device.

Now part of the appeal of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold — as mentioned prominently in our review — is that it looks like a 'normal' phone when it's closed. But if that's one of the main selling points, it begs the question of why you wouldn't just buy a normal PIxel, which is going to be significantly cheaper and much thinner.

The trade-off from sticking to a standard display aspect ratio when a foldable is closed is that the larger display is more or less square. That means big black letterboxing when you're watching videos and playing a lot of games, and when I've used foldables in the past, I've usually ended up watching movies and shows with the phones closed and in landscape orientation.

That brings us back to what Apple and Samsung are doing this year. A square display is still useful for some tasks — like web browsing, and getting two apps up side-by-side — but these new foldables will have a more tablet-like 4:3 aspect ratio when opened up. That will make them much better for watching video content and for gaming (and much more iPad-like, in Apple's case).

The whole point of a book-style foldable, after all, is that larger display — and in 2026 that's the screen that Samsung and Apple are going to be focusing on, even if it does mean the handsets will look rather odd when they're closed. The passport-style foldable is the future, and I think it'll be a successful switch.

After months of speculation, it's official: parent company Oppo is pulling OnePlus devices out of US and European markets. While existing customers are still going to get after-sales support and software updates from OnePlus, we're not going to see any more new phones, tablets, or smartwatches in these regions in the future.

Oppo is branding this as a "strategic" move, but the decision is based on simple economics. OnePlus has always struggled to maintain the all-important carrier relationships in the US, and is being squeezed by Samsung, Apple, Google, and Chinese manufacturers in terms of sales.

We're not here to dissect what went wrong in this particular article though — we're here to celebrate some of the fantastic smartphones that OnePlus has made down the years, since the company was founded back in 2013. There have been dozens of OnePlus handsets launched since then, but these are our five favorites (in order of release).

1. OnePlus One (2014)

We had to start with the OnePlus One really, as it set the tone for OnePlus, and epitomized everything the fledgling company was about. Boldly marketed as a "flagship killer" and with the tagline "never settle" — as in, never settle for a poor compromise between price and performance — it really did shake up the market in a significant way.

Our review praises the value-for-money proposition — it was less than half the price of the flagship Samsung Galaxy, at the time — as well as the top-notch specs (a Snapdragon 801 and 3GB of RAM) and the customization features available in CyanogenMod, which is the operating system that the first OnePlus phone came running.

It almost defied belief that a phone this well made, with such good internal specs, could cost this little — and from nowhere, OnePlus was suddenly on the scene in a big way. As a historical note, it's also funny looking back to see the 5.5-inch screen described as being relatively big, in 2014 terms.

2. OnePlus 7 Pro (2019)

There were some excellent handsets between the debut phone from OnePlus and the OnePlus 7 Pro in 2019 — it was hardly a fallow time for the company — but this was the first handset to really wow us since the OnePlus One. That was partly down to its great party trick: a pop-up selfie camera.

Thanks to that pop-up camera, there was no need for a notch or cut-out on the front screen, and it looked gorgeous from the front (and the back, as it happens). It was a phone that genuinely turned heads when you took it out of your pocket, and our review waxed lyrical about the performance levels and charging speeds, too.

By this stage, OnePlus wasn't quite giving us the same jaw-dropping value for money with its flagship phones as it did with the OnePlus One, but this phone still held its own in terms of pricing with the best flagships on the market in 2019. The screen had been upped to 6.67 inches in size, and — notably — boasted a 90 Hz refresh rate too.

3. OnePlus Open (2023)

You could make a strong argument that despite the best efforts of Samsung and Google, OnePlus was the first phone maker to get a foldable phone right in every department: the OnePlus Open was awarded 4.5 stars out of 5 in its TechRadar review, with the biggest pros listed as the displays, the cameras, and the thin and light build.

As we put it at the time: "The OnePlus Open is the only big foldable phone that doesn’t feel like a compromise. It looks and feels like a normal phone, and the camera is the best you'll find on any foldable." Of course, it was still expensive (what book-style foldable isn't), but this was finally a folding phone that could justify the cost.

OnePlus was able to improve on what had gone before in this form factor in multiple areas, including the foldable's hinge and crease, and it still managed to score highly in all the categories that matter on any type of smartphone. Meanwhile, the OxygenOS software responded nimbly and seamlessly to the folding design too.

4. OnePlus 13 (2024)

Admittedly our list is a little biased towards later models: that's no criticism of the many fantastic earlier handsets, but OnePlus really has been hitting it out of the park in the last couple of years. As our reviewer for the OnePlus 13 put it: "I'm dumbfounded, I can't find anything wrong with this phone."

It had a huge 6,000 mAh battery, it ran super-smooth thanks to its Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, and it had an IP69 rating — a first for a OnePlus phone. The handset also boasted a gorgeous 6.82-inch display, and powerful triple-lens rear cameras. This handset was a real return to top-tier OnePlus.

You can probably guess what the main downside was for customers in the US — it wasn't possible to buy the OnePlus 13 in local carrier stores, which didn't help with brand awareness and recognition. Looking back, this may be one of the phones that made up Oppo's mind about exiting international markets: it was a device that deserved to sell in much higher numbers than it actually did.

5. OnePlus 15 (2025)

We'll close out this list with last year's OnePlus 15, which earned a rare 5-stars-out-of-5 ranking in its TechRadar review. There was so much to love about this phone: the battery life, the performance, the design, the software, the durability... it basically checked all of the boxes you would want, and there was really nothing bad to say about it.

The phone also shows that OnePlus was making great handsets right up until the end (in the US and Europe). It was other issues that were the problem — again, the OnePlus 15 couldn't be found inside carrier stores in the United States, which meant it wasn't as visible to consumers, and you had to pay more up front to get it.

While this wasn't quite the last OnePlus phone to launch internationally, it still stands as a testament to the quality of the handsets the company has put out down the years. It more than holds its own against anything Apple, Google, and Samsung have ever made, and it's a shame that most of the world won't see these handsets any more.

Festivals pose a bit of a conundrum when it comes to charging. It's really useful to have a phone — for checking programs, finding friends, and snapping photos — but the days are long, and there's minimal access to power points. A power pack is your best friend, and below I've rounded up the best models for festival-goers.

I've included a mix of options. There are compact, lightweight power banks that won't weigh your bag down and can charge your phone while you're using it. These can generally only manage two charges at the absolute maximum, so they're best suited to one- or two-day festivals, or festivals where you'll have overnight access to power. There are also larger power packs that offer multiple recharges, but which are generally too bulky and heavy to carry around all day.

Our seasoned reviewers have tested all of these power banks personally, and given them their stamp of approval. You can hit the 'More details' button to find out more about each one, and for a link to the full review, and there's also a handy specs table at the bottom of the page so you can see how the different options match up. Can't find what you're looking for? Our general best power bank guide has a wider range of options.

Power up

Specs compared

Note: the cards above will only show if the product is available in your region — that means there may be products featured in this table that you can't see above.

• Belkin has launched a new power bank that also includes a light
• This can function as a night light, a fill light, or even an SOS signal
• The power bank has a 10,000mAh capacity, but currently it's only available in China

It can be hard to stand out when launching a new power bank, but Belkin has certainly tried with the Belkin BoostCharge Pro Power Bank 10K, which is capable of much more than just charging your phone.

Beyond packing 10,000mAh of power, it also includes a pop-out LED light, complete with a motion sensor and controls to adjust its brightness.

One obvious use for this is as a bedside night light, which might be handy when staying in a hotel. But it also has a flashing mode, which helps it attract attention; in this mode, it could function as an SOS signal — which could be reassuring if you’re out in the wilderness. And it could also be used as a fill light for photos and video calls, when the ambient light isn’t ideal.

Compact and capable

Beyond that, this Belkin power bank has a built-in braided USB-C cable and a USB-C port, so you can charge two devices at once. It outputs 45W of power; if you’re charging two devices, the primary device gets 30W, and the other gets 15W.

It also has a small circular display showing the remaining battery percentage. This screen also contains controls for the LED light — a light which is unlikely to draw much power, so you hopefully won’t be sacrificing much charging potential by using it.

It comes in at 118 x 60 x 32mm and 257g, so the light doesn’t appear to add much weight or bulk, but sadly it’s only available in China for now, with JD.com listing it for 329 yuan (roughly $50 / £35 / AU$70). Since Belkin has a global presence, though, this may well launch elsewhere too.

• OnePlus has confirmed that it's quitting the US and Europe
• No new OnePlus products will be launched in either region
• Existing customers will continue to get promised support and software updates

The news everyone has been fearing but also expecting has been confirmed by OnePlus — the phone giant is officially quitting the US and Europe, which means no new products will be launched in either region.

The writing has been on the wall for the Android pioneer in both regions for months. OnePlus canceled two of its most-anticipated phones in January and in recent weeks its website has pushed buyers towards its parent company, Oppo.

Oppo's Head of Global PR, Shuang Chen, confirmed in a briefing that all rights for existing customers "including after-sales support and software updates" will "remain fully guaranteed".

But what else does this bombshell news mean on a sad day for Android? We asked OnePlus and its parent company Oppo — here's everything you need to know.

1. Why is this happening?

The official line on OnePlus leaving the US and Europe is that it's a "strategic" shift.

But behind the corporate lingo, the the reality is that OnePlus has been caught in a pincer movement between a diminishing enthusiast phone market, huge competition from rival Chinese brands, the increasingly dominant established duo of Samsung and Apple, and (in the US) difficulties in maintaining all-important carrier relationships. Oh, and the small matter of a global RAM and components crisis.

"It wasn't a decision made in a rush," explained Oppo's Shuang Chen in a briefing. "This was neither a case of Oppo instructing OnePlus nor a unilateral decision by OnePlus. Being a responsible brand means knowing when to go all in and when to make a choice."

Sadly for OnePlus fans, that choice has felt inevitable for some time.

2. What does this mean for OnePlus owners?

Oppo Europe's Senior PR Manager James Paterson confirmed in a briefing that "all service commitments for existing OnePlus devices in Europe and North America remain unchanged". That applies to warranties, after-sales support and promised software updates, but the company also didn't provide any specifics on how this will happen.

But this news also means that OnePlus owners will now get ColorOS, rather than OnePlus' OxygenOS. "We're confident as Color OS rolls out to OnePlus devices in North America and Europe in the coming months, users will love it just as they've loved Oxygen OS," James Paterson added.

That remains to be seen. But we're certainly fans of ColorOS, calling it the "most performant and smoothest-running Android wrapper" we've ever used in our Oppo Find X9 Pro review, even if it is very much inspired by iOS. It'll apparently still be possible to go back to OxygenOS on your OnePlus device, but that could rule you out of future updates. ColorOS is, naturally, very much the priority for Oppo.

3. Will Oppo take the place of OnePlus?

Yes, that's the plan in Europe, at least. When asked about any potential launches in the US, Elvis Zhou (CEO of Oppo Europe) confirmed: "Currently we do not have any product plans for North America, but Oppo continues to explore market opportunities at different regions across the globe."

It's a different story in Europe, though. "I'm pleased to say that Europe is a really strategically important market for Oppo, so it's been amazing to see how Find X9 Ultra launched, and also the recently launched Reno 16 series," Oppo's James Paterson added.

Fortunately, it should be much easier to buy Oppo phones in the UK and Europe in the near future too, which hasn't always been the case. "Moving forward, Oppo will increase our input in the European markets. For instance, we are now enhancing our teams and also adjusting our business strategies, and we're going to focus more on our flagship series with the importance on our support imaging capabilities," said Oppo's Elvis Zhou.

4. Is this the end for OnePlus phones?

Not exactly — the OnePlus 16 and 16 Pro or Ultra are still heavily rumored and are expected to launch later this year. But they now definitely won't land in the US or Europe.

It might still be possible to import those phones from China, but that process can be a complex one with potential issues around software compatibility, frequency bands and unexpected import taxes.

If you still want to buy a OnePlus phone in the US or Europe, Oppo confirmed that it will still be selling existing phones while stocks last. "We still see demands from the market, so we'll continue to sell where we still have inventory in those markets," said Oppo's Elvis Zhou.

5. Where should OnePlus fans go next?

Today's OnePlus news is a sad day for Android as a whole. That's particularly the case in the US, with Oppo confirming that it won't be launching any of its phones there to take the place of OnePlus.

"Yes, it is regretful that we won't launch new products in North America, but we will ensure that all user rights and interests, including the product updates and after-sales services and relevant services, will be fully guaranteed. I'm sure there are other excellent products out there in the market for the consumers to choose from," said Oppo's Elvis Zhou.

So what are those products? The obvious spiritual equivalent brand to OnePlus right now is Nothing, founded by former OnePlus CEO Carl Pei, though models like the Nothing Phone (4a) sit more towards the budget end.

If you're in Europe, there's also the Oppo Find X9 Ultra, which sadly isn't isn’t available in the US, but is probably the world's best camera phone. It's a similar story with the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, another camera-focused phone that's available in Europe but not the US, and the Honor.

Android fans who are looking to upgrade soon will no doubt be waiting to see what Google delivers with its Pixel 11 series, which launches on August 12. And could the demise of OnePlus even push some people towards the iPhone? It's certainly possible, but we'd like to hear from you in the poll below — if you had to choose one brand to switch to from OnePlus, which would it be?

It seems Google is taking a page out of Samsung's book by launching sign-ups for a new generation of smartphones today. The Google Pixel 11 has already been confirmed via a new landing page on the official retailer's store page, with preorders for the new device (or devices) landing on Wednesday, August 12.

Interestingly, Google is offering an 'exclusive offer' for new subscribers who sign up for email alerts ahead of preorders. This is a first for Google's product launches, but it's something we've seen quite a lot with Samsung's big phone launches.

The usual drill is to sign up for email alerts ahead of the keynote event — in this case, Google's 'Made by Google' event in August — and you'll get a small bonus when you preorder. There are no details on what this bonus is yet, but I've attached some speculation just down below.

In terms of the devices, again, we don't know much here. Google has confirmed that it's the Google Pixel 11, but hasn't specifically said how many devices there will be. I would personally be shocked if there wasn't a Pro or Pro XL device, though. There might even be a new Google Pixel 11 Fold, so we could in fact be in store for four new Google phones.

What could the 'exclusive offer' be?

The only tidbit of information I've been able to glean from the Google Pixel 11 announcement page is that you can 'sign up and save'. That's pretty vague, but I can realistically see this going two ways, based on similar promotions from Samsung recently.

First, this exclusive offer could be a small bonus on top of the various trade-in rebates we'll undoubtedly see featured when the devices are available to preorder. It could be something like getting a $100 / £100 extra discount when you trade in an older device.

Secondly, and more likely, is some kind of Google Store credit as a bonus. When Samsung has offered this previously, we've seen the official store bundle in a bit of credit to spend on things like phone chargers, cases, and even other devices.

If a new Google Watch appears during the event, then it could be the case that you could use the credit to get a nice little discount. If memory serves, the credit is usually $30 to $50 / £30 to £50, so it's not a huge deal, but it is a nice little bonus.

What do we know about the Google Pixel 11?

Right now, the biggest rumor surrounds a new ‘Pixel Glow’ feature, which is supposedly a new kind of ambient lighting alert system. If you take a look at Google's landing page for the Pixel 11, you can see a teaser image of the device featuring a multicolored lens on the camera hump. Some have suggested that this could be a confirmation of Pixel Glow, and that seems likely to me too.

The teaser also has a rather striking shiny gold color, which is something we haven't seen before on Google devices. Dare I say this color reminds me of the iPhone 16 Pro, which had a very, very similar gold option.

Speaking of colors, an Amazon leak a few days ago seemed to suggest multiple new colors on four devices. It appears like these leaks could be legit, but it's worth treating them with a pinch of salt because the listings appeared to suggest that the devices will be launching with Android 16 when they'll almost certainly be Android 17.

• The FCC might ban anonymous phones
• This would mean the end of burner phones
• While this could help prevent certain crimes, it may also harm a lot of innocent people who require anonymity or lack the required ID or housing

It’s increasingly hard to be anonymous in the modern world — and in the US it might be about to get even harder, as burner phones could soon be effectively banned.

As reported by Fortune, a new FCC (Federal Communications Commission) proposal would require carriers and VoIP providers to collect various details from a customer, including their name, address, government-issued ID number, and an alternate phone number, before activating or renewing service.

Aside from the odd requirement to have a phone number before you can get a phone number — something which might prove challenging for anyone getting their first phone — this would effectively mean the end of anonymous prepaid phones, commonly known as burner phones.

That’s probably a bad thing, as while these might be associated with crime — with the FCC stating that this change could help them investigate “fraud, espionage, or influence operations that undermine national security” — there are also plenty of legal reasons people might want a burner.

Bad for privacy and dangerous for victims

As pointed out in a joint filing made by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union: “This proposal would also prevent people from getting an anonymous phone line for safety reasons, such as a person in a domestic violence situation who does not have control over her personal phone line and needs to call a shelter, or a teenager being coerced by human traffickers who just wants to call for help.”

They further described this proposal as “a data collection regime that harms everyday, law abiding Americans”, while Sydney Saubestre, a senior policy analyst on the Privacy and Data Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, called it “misguided and counterproductive,” adding that “Americans should not have to sacrifice their privacy because the Commission hasn’t exhausted more targeted alternatives to stop robocalls.”

And it’s not just victims of domestic violence and human trafficking that may suffer due to this. It’s estimated that roughly 15 million adult US citizens don't have a driver’s license and that 2.6 million have no government-issued photo ID, while unhoused people will struggle with the requirement to provide an address.

On top of which, anyone who values privacy may also take issue with this, especially as customer accounts from phone companies have previously been hacked, revealing the data tied to them.

Many commenters on Reddit also worry about the US turning ever more into a surveillance state with rules like this, with popular comments including “tightening the grip of the police state. Bringing the Orwellian world into reality," "they care less about criminals and more about surveilling everyone,” and “gotta track em all!”

So it’s safe to say that this proposal isn’t popular, and could end up doing more harm than good. Hopefully, that might mean the FCC seeing sense and deciding against it.

• Google has shared a teaser video showing a phone in the Pixel 11 series
• You can see it in a gold shade, with a colored light that must be the rumored 'Pixel Glow' feature
• The company has also confirmed that pre-orders open on August 12

We’re now less than a month away from the August 12 announcement of the Pixel 11 series, and Google is in full teaser mode. The tech giant has just posted a short clip showing off a phone in the Pixel 11 series in a gold shade.

You can mostly just see the gold-colored sides of the phone, but the camera block is also visible, and this houses a circular multicolored light. This then, must be the rumored ‘Pixel Glow’ feature, which will presumably be able to light up in different colors — or different patterns of colors — to alert you to different kinds of notifications.

Perhaps, for example, a WhatsApp message would appear in blue shifting to pink, while a calendar event might be a single block of yellow.

A Nothing idea

How customizable this will be, and whether it’s capable of anything else, remains to be seen. But at least now we have a sense for how it looks, with this being a bit reminiscent of Nothing’s Glyph lighting systems, just rather smaller and more subtle.

That makes sense coming from Google, as its phone design is never as flashy as Nothing’s — a brand which almost makes gaming phones look visually tame.

But if you’ve missed the notification light that phones used to have, then this could appeal as a modern upgrade of that. And while it’s probably not going to be super innovative — given that it looks reminiscent of what Nothing handsets have and is an evolution of an old feature — it’s still not the sort of thing you see in most mainstream phones, so it’s nice to see Google try something a bit different here.

Beyond all this, the teaser page also mentions that Pixel 11 series pre-orders will open on August 12 — so presumably right after the announcement. And if you sign up for emails from that page you’ll receive an unspecified discount on the new phones, which is always appreciated, especially with everything getting more expensive lately.

• The Pinwheel Home is aimed at kids aged 5-10 years
• It only makes phone calls to approved contacts
• There's an optional subscription for calling real numbers

The question of how much time young people should spend on their smartphones and social media has dominated the headlines in recent months, and a new retro-styled phone from Pinwheel is the latest device looking to give parents easier choices.

When we say retro-styled, we don't mean a classic Nokia or a BlackBerry — we mean a landline. The Pinwheel Home (via TechCrunch) just does calls, and that's it, so there's no chance of your kid getting sucked into Snapchat, Roblox, or YouTube.

It works over Wi-Fi, there are full parental controls built in — so all contacts are pre-approved, and the device can only be used at certain times — and there are absolutely no screens to act as a distraction.

"Pinwheel Home gives kids the freedom to call their friends, make plans, and stay connected, all without borrowing your phone or picking up a screen," explains the official blurb. "You'll be amazed at what they figure out together."

Just the basics

The Pinwheel Home is pitched at kids aged 5-10, so while they may be disappointed they can't start Instagramming, it might be enough to delay the need for a smartphone until they're a little bit older.

Being able to chat to friends, grandparents, and other trusted contacts in a safe space is likely to appeal to many kids and their parents, and it might even encourage real-world meet-ups and activities to get youngsters outdoors.

Pre-orders are open in the US right now, with shipping expected later this year: the Pinwheel Home starts at $68 in a choice of two designs and four colors, with subscriptions beginning at $6.99 a month (international pricing is yet to be announced). You can use the devices without a subscription, but only to call other Pinwheel Homes, not mobiles or landlines.

Pinwheel has been around since 2019 and has previously sold Android phones with child-safe software running on them. With increasing restrictions on what kids can do online anyway, the Pinwheel Home could be the ideal first phone for younger children.

For the longest time, I thought that, despite their annoyances, iPhones had something big over the best Android phones: PC connectivity. I'd always seen iPhone and Mac-owning friends quickly send files between the two, and assumed it was an Apple-exclusive feature.

As it turns out, this isn't true. Android users can use a Windows app that brings loads of really useful features — and it's really underutilized, which is why a tech journalist like me hadn't heard of it.

This software is called Phone Link, and we've got a guide on how to connect your Android phone to a Windows PC using Phone Link elsewhere on TechRadar. I downloaded it about a year ago, largely out of duty to test every tool, appliance, and gadget I could get my hands on. I was expecting it to last a weekend.

A year on, though, and Phone Link has become such a useful part of my workflow that I'd forgotten it's something not everyone's heard about. It's such a natural part of the way I use my phone and computer that I'd totally forgotten it was something I initially downloaded to test!

Well, no longer: TechRadar has let me wax lyrical about Phone Link, and I'm going to give the tool its time in the sun.

Sending photos from phone to PC

For the most part, whenever I want to connect my phone to my PC, it's to move pictures between the two devices.

As a smartphone journalist, you can understand that I'm sending snaps from my phone to my computer a lot. Sometimes it's camera samples from a mobile I'm testing that I want to upload for a review. Occasionally, I want to back up pictures I really like before I wipe a phone and send it back to the company.

The most frequent use case, though, is to transfer to my PC pictures I've taken on one phone, of another. I use smartphones to do review photography, and it's a great way to test out a phone I'm reviewing.

Before Phone Link, I'd have to use a USB cable to connect my phone to my computer — approving the connection on my Android's end, because they're always annoyingly suspicious — and drag and drop all the relevant pictures into a folder on my computer. It's not an especially onerous process — it's a lot quicker than when I used to use Google Drive to transfer pictures, for instance — but it takes a little while of fiddling with my phone and digging out a cable to work.

Not so with Phone Link. Its Photos tab shows a big old list of all the pictures you've taken recently, giving you options to save them to your PC, open them in an editing app, and share them with others.

These pictures appear as soon as you take them, as long as your phone is on the same Wi-Fi as your computer. I've become used to taking photos in one room of my home, and entering my office, to see them linked up on Phone Link, ready for an edit. When I've got PC notifications turned on, I can even hear the 'bong' of my computer telling me they've arrived.

Phone Link also lets you browse the contents of your mobile in the Files tab, where it appears in the Devices and drives list alongside any cloud or local drives you have. I don't use my phone to handle non-photo files, but it's a nice touch that'd be really useful if I were in another line of work.

Apps on my PC

Ostensibly, one of the main uses for Phone Link is that it lets you open your smartphone apps on your computer. Its Apps page shows you a massive list of every one you have installed on your mobile, and clicking on it opens it in a window.

This doesn't override anything you have going on on your phone; if you're using it as a second screen to watch a YouTube video or act as a music player (one of many ways you can repurpose an old Android phone), the app will open in your PC window alone.

When I first started Phone Link, I tried using it for everything, but often bounced straight off. In many circumstances, using a smartphone is simply more intuitive than using a mouse and keyboard, given that phone apps are designed for thumbs. But over time, I've found a few uses of Phone Link's app windows that are genuinely handy.

As mentioned, one of those uses is as a music player. I can let Spotify hang around as a spare window, ready to skip tracks or change playlists when I want. It's also useful as a way to check apps that don't have PC equivalents, like Too Good To Go or Mubi Go, or ones that do have web functions but are easier on the phone, like my national health service's app.

There's one way that Phone Link saved me hours, though. When I used to work for a company that didn't let you use your work Gmail account on personal computers, Phone Link was my workaround to still see emails on my PC. This saved me ages each day; time that'd otherwise be taken up checking and replying to emails on my phone, or trying to get my decrepit work laptop to turn on.

Naturally, you can manage your calls and texts via Phone Link too. Personally, I don't think I've sent an SMS or made a non-WhatsApp voice call since the 2010s, but I'm sure there are some people who'd find this handy.

I also appreciate a notification list down the left side of Phone Link. This transforms it from being software solely for controlling your mobile to a veritable hub of information from your handset. I'll often keep it up on my second monitor; it makes good use of its space.

Controlling my phone from my computer

As mentioned, you can use your computer to control your mobile's apps via Phone Link, but you can also use it to change the actual settings of the device itself, which proves itself useful in an entirely different way.

Phone Link lets you monitor your phone status; I can see how it's connected to other devices, what battery it's on, and whether it's currently paired with Phone Link or not. I can even see a little representation of what my wallpaper currently is. All useful to a small degree, but the charge is the only one of those that's seriously useful.

What's more important are the status controls. You can toggle between vibrate, sound, and silent, turn Do Not Disturb on and off, and turn on the media player.

From a cursory mention of the tools, these might not sound that important, but I've found them really useful in a pinch. I'm constantly forgetting to mute my phone before I go on a video meeting, and a quick click of the Do Not Disturb button means I'm not going to have unexpected calls.

As a lazy person, I also love the fact that you can use Phone Link to play a sound from your phone; I'm always doing this instead of spending five seconds actually looking.

My one gripe with Phone Link is that I still need my phone with me to use it. When you start using it each session, you're required to unlock your device and approve the connection. Generally, you're done with your phone after that, but sometimes I'm unexpectedly forced to re-unlock my device, which I've invariably placed somewhere stupid and forgotten about. It's a small annoyance, but if that's the price to pay for an otherwise-smooth workflow, so be it.

The metal ball dropped 40 centimeters onto a hair-thin flexible Samsung display with a resounding, cringeworthy clunk, but it did not break, and yet that wasn’t the most remarkable thing.

It was that I was the one dropping the ball, using one of Samsung Display’s own pieces of testing equipment, and I was doing so inside Samsung Display headquarters, a place where no media has gone before.

I’d come to South Korea for a wide-ranging Samsung Electronics product briefing and tours of its massive Gumi Digital City Factory and this first-ever look inside Samsung Display. With Samsung Unpacked now just days away (July 22) and new foldables anticipated, the visit would prove more than illuminating.

While obviously connected and working closely to deliver products like the Galaxy S26 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 (and whatever comes next), they’re also separate, working in a partnership that also allows Samsung Display to supply displays to, for instance, Apple (more on those Apple folding phone rumors later).

Samsung Display is a display specialist operating in a vast and in some ways nondescript (and in other ways beautiful) factory that is just a stone’s throw away from its nearest competitor, LG Display, which works in South Korea with its partner LG Electronics in a similar fashion.

Most of Samsung Display's buildings are unattractive, brutalist monoliths, but the interiors feature some eye-popping examples of their work. Ironically, we were initially greeted by a conference-hall-sized display featuring our names, which Samsung Display did not build.

But on an adjacent wall was an animated edifice of phones, tablets, TVs, and other screens that all tell the story of Samsung Display technology, one that has taken it from tiny feature-phone displays and tube TVs to the vast OLED panels and flexible displays featured in the latest foldables.

The ball-drop demo was part of a whistle-stop tour of Samsung Display's latest innovations and stress tests. I only dropped the 21.7-gram ball on the panel after watching a Samsung Display tech do it multiple times from a height of 30 centimeters on a 220lb machine that Samsung Display had moved into this small room just for this one demonstration.

However, Samsung seemed in the mood to open up, and we were soon visiting multiple rooms where Samsung Display puts panels through the wringer.

Following our guides, we hopped on a special elevator and soon were standing outside a 24-hour lab that’s running tests even when Samsung employees are asleep. “Only authorized technicians get in,” our guide warned us before unlocking the door with her ID and ushering us inside.

Many of these tests Samsung Display runs are designed to test “how long can I use it?” So, there are the folding and unfolding tests to the tune of thousands of times a day, and stress tests that heat the panels up to 60 degrees Celsius or cool them to minus 20 degrees Celsius. Many of the large gray or beige metal boxes where the tests are performed are sealed, so technicians must track the tests via video feeds from internal cameras.

But as I learned while touring other Samsung facilities, the company likes to automate these processes, so it’s often an unemotional computer that will recognize and report a failure.

Our next stop was another few levels down (B5, to be precise) where we saw image quality and reflection testing. The latter was interesting because, as is often the case, Samsung Display built a special rig, this one a barium sulfate-coated contraption to shine ultra-bright light on the panel and then use a spectrometer to read the light refracted back. For foldable displays, they even check how light bounces off the crease, which will, of course, affect visibility of the crease.

Samsung Display is also where they’re unsurprisingly pushing the boundaries of display technology. Company execs showed us a series of displays that, I think, speak to the future of many of our display-worthy electronics.

The first display, a visual trick of sorts, may have been my favorite. It looked like a small, bezel-less OLED screen showing off the inside of an ornate cathedral.

However, when I got close and shifted my view to the left or right, I realized it was two displays sandwiched on top of each other; a small portion of the image was on the smaller display, and behind it was the complete image. Head-on, they seamlessly blend together.

This optical illusion only works because Samsung Display has figured out how to reduce its tolerances so much that the small gap necessary for electrodes and encapsulation is almost zero, meaning that the top display has no visible black border around it.

The other 7.2-inch displays were of the flexible variety. We saw screens flex, we saw them roll away, but the most interesting was the hybrid: a foldable and rollable screen, something that’s never been tried before.

As for when these displays might come to consumer devices, that’s hard to say, but it does seem inevitable. After all, I first saw Samsung flexible displays more than a decade ago, and now they’re part of a growing legion of consumer-grade foldable phones.

Display executive perspective

Later, we moved to another part of the vast facility for a sit-down with Samsung Display executives

Byung Duk Yang, EVP at Core Component Technology Team, Samsung Electronics and Kyung-jin Yoo EVP & Head of Mobile Display Product Development Team, Samsung Display.

Unquestionably, the bleeding edge of the work they do continues to be the foldable phone partnership with Samsung Electronics, where these innovations presented a series of unusual challenges, many of which the firm has overcome over seven generations of foldable devices (and whatever we expect to come next week at Samsung Unpacked).

“The two companies are always thinking about how we can continue to improve the usability of the foldable,” said Byung Duk Yang.

Yang talked about how these flexible devices and their folding screens introduced diverse user paradigms. Some of the work they do is figuring out how to handle challenges like drops, pressure, and collisions with heavy objects.

But it sounds like it’s been rewarding work and the company is undoubtedly committed to the foldable space. “The future of the foldable device is very promising,” said Byung Duk Yang.

But when we asked about how soon some of those fold and slide screens might be in our hands, Samsung Display execs cautioned us, “We have to consider the real-world usage pattern. The display might be ready, but we should consider many aspects of the usage.

When we have confidence that we can deliver meaningful innovation to the user, then every other aspect of technology are ready, then we are going to list the product,” said Byung Duk Yang, who added that as an engineer, he knows they’re not ready.

When I asked, though, if there were any intrinsic barriers in folding displays to the introduction of the privacy display — a breakout feature for the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra — the answer surprised me.

“We are exploring and we are thinking, when and how to implement the privacy display into foldable display. Because we know many people love the feature. We are thinking, considering,” smiled Yang.

Speaking of innovation, the Samsung Display execs revealed that, with the upcoming new line of foldables, it's introducing a new material, or rather, doubling the use of a material generally associated with strength and not flexibility: Titanium.

Samsung Displays described it as "Flex Titanium Technology," and what it means is that upcoming foldable Galaxy phones, which the company will reveal next week, will feature not one but two titanium layers.

One is an update to the relatively rigid one that's existed in previous Galaxy Fold models, with a new, special structure at the fold or crease to give flexibility and reduce crease visibility.

The second, new, almost paper-like titanium alloy film replaces the polymer layer below the OLED in previous foldable devices and sits on top of the more rigid titanium plate. It's both thinner than that old polymer layer and, Samsung claims, more resilient.

"Polymer layers are good for flexibility but [we] want to minimize permanent deformation; titanium alloy has a much better quality to reduce permanent deformation,” they explained.

To help us visualize the new flexible display construction, Samsung Display brought out a bread-box-sized diorama, with each display layer hanging inside like a curtain. The new titanium polymer layer felt smooth, thin, light, and quite strong.

Naturally, we had to ask about Apple’s rumored foldable phone, which may be called the iPhone Ultra, and how Samsung Display might supply the screen.

They wouldn’t comment on the rumors but did share, “I think it’s more than welcome because when the other competitors and other companies join the market, this market will be standard and the owners will increase….We really welcome the big competitor joining this market…

We mean it, we love other companies to join this market.”

Heading off on a vacation? It's easy to forget about boring things like charging solutions, but when you're away from home, keeping your devices juiced up is both more important than usual, and more difficult than usual. I speak from experience — I've found myself in one too many foreign city after a long day of exploring, trying to memorize Google Maps directions to a hotel while my phone battery dwindles alarmingly into the red.

This year, though, I've decided to get myself prepared, and avoid all that stress by arming myself with the right travel gadgets. Luckily, at TechRadar our reviews team members have tested dozens of charging gadgets of all kinds, and below I've rounded up our top recommendations for travel.

I've included a mix of options here. There are plug-in charging stations that will let me juice up multiple gadgets at once if I end up in a hotel room with limited power outlets (or it's a foreign socket and I've only brought one plug adaptor). There are also plug-in or MagSafe power packs that I can keep in my bag for charging when out and about. I've also thrown in a couple more specialized options: a foldable pad that can juice up three different Apple devices at once, and a 6-port beast that can handle charging power-hungry laptops and tablets — ideal while working while on the go.

I've included a handy specs comparison table at the bottom of the page, and if you want to dig into more options, we have separate, dedicated guides to the best wireless chargers and the best power banks. Bon voyage!

Top travel chargers

Specs compared

• Early listings for the Pixel 11 series were spotted on Amazon
• These include renders of the phones in various shades
• Some of the listed specs would be a downgrade

We’ve just seen perhaps the biggest Google Pixel 11 series leak yet, as listings for the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold have all appeared on Amazon.

These were spotted by 9to5Google and — while they’ve now been removed — the site claims that they appear to be part of the ‘Google Store’ seller, which suggests they might be official listings, albeit a bit early.

In any case, you can see some images taken from the listings below, with the Pixel 11 itself being shown in Midnight (black), Fuchsia (pink), and Moss (green) shades. The Pro and Pro XL meanwhile appear in Dune (a pale pink), Sterling (a grayish lavender), Pine (green), and Light Fog (a pale blue), and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold is listed just in Midnight and Pine.

There’s a mix of bright and understated shades here, and reactions to the images — particularly the brighter ones — seems quite positive so far. Over on Reddit, comments include “those non-pro colors are incredible if true. That’s green and pink are just perfect,” “in pink omg,” and “Dune is pretty nice.”

That said, some reactions to the Pro shades are a bit less positive, including “Why can't the pro like get some fun colors too?,” and “imagine seeing the popularity of the bold orange iPhone Pro color and STILL choosing to offer the same boring muted colors for the Pro.”

And when it comes to the other details in these listings, reactions are more universally negative. According to the listings, the standard Pixel 11 will have a 6.3-inch 1080 x 2424 screen, a 4,985mAh battery, 256GB of storage, and 12GB of RAM for $899 (probably £899 / AU$1,149 based on Google Pixel 10 pricing in these regions).

That’s the same price as the 256GB Pixel 10 launched at, though that’s also available in a cheaper 128GB version, and it’s unclear whether there will be a 128GB model this time. The listed specs are also identical, except the battery which is 15mAh higher capacity this time.

Less RAM and smaller batteries

As for the Pixel 11 Pro, that’s listed with 12GB of RAM, down from 16GB in the Pixel 10 Pro, and 9to5Google also mentions a 5,115mAh battery in the Pixel 11 Pro XL (down from 5,200mAh in the Pixel 10 Pro XL), and a 4,750mAh one in the Pixel 11 Pro Fold (down from 5,015mAh in the Pixel 10 Pro Fold).

So these incomplete specs lists point to a mix of similar specs and downgrades, with Reddit responses including “people already thought the 10 Pro was a small upgrade,” and “iPhone 17 is such a better value.”

Still, while these early listings seem like they might be the real deal, there are some red flags, with 9to5Google highlighting that Android 16 is mentioned on them, when these phones are certain to run Android 17.

So there’s a chance these aren’t in fact official listings, and even if they are, that error means other details could be wrong too. We should find out for sure on August 12, as that’s when Google is unveiling these phones.

There has been a developer beta of iOS 27 for a while, but now it’s available in public beta, which both makes it slightly easier to get hold of and suggests it might be more stable than it was initially.

That said, this still isn’t finished software, so while stability may have improved, you’re still likely to encounter bugs and potentially unfinished features.

So this isn’t for everyone, and as a general rule we’d recommend running it only on a secondary handset. If in doubt, simply wait for the finished iOS 27 release, which we’re expecting in September.

But if you do have a spare phone lying around or want to take the jump with your main device, then the beta could be worth checking out, as it comes with loads of new and improved features — some of which we’ve looked at further down.

How to install the iOS 27 public beta on your iPhone

Before you start downloading and installing the iOS 27 public beta, make sure your iPhone is backed up, just to be on the safe side. We won’t detail that here because we’ve got a full guide covering how to back up your iPhone.

Once your data is safely backed up, the next step — if you haven’t run a beta before — is to sign up for Apple’s beta program. You can do this by heading to the Apple beta page and tapping ‘Sign up’, after which you’ll have to log into your Apple account to enroll. If you’re not sure whether you’ve already signed up for this or not, then instead press the ‘Sign in’ button on that page — if it doesn’t let you sign in, then sign up instead.

Once you’re registered, you can simply head to Settings > General > Software Update > Beta Updates on your phone, and tap ‘iOS 27 Public Beta’. There may be other betas listed too, but this is the one you want.

Then tap the back arrow at the top of the screen, and the page you were on before will now show the beta you selected, complete with notes on it and a download size. From there, just tap ‘Update Now’ to grab it, or ‘Update Overnight’ if you’d rather wait until you’re sleeping to put your phone temporarily out of action.

Then you just need to wait for it to install. Once it has, there’s plenty to check out, but below we’ve highlighted some of what you might want to try first.

3 things to try first

iOS 27 has an enormous number of features — so many in fact that we found 21 that Apple didn’t even have time to mention during its announcement. But below, you’ll find some of the biggest and best to start off with.

1. Siri’s AI overhaul

By far the biggest thing in iOS 27 is the long-awaited AI overhaul for Siri. There are many elements to this, but the main one is that Siri now works much like ChatGPT or other AI chatbots — you can have natural, back-and-forth conversations with it, and its responses aren’t just preset or based on basic web searches.

Siri can both search the web and interact with apps to get answers or carry out the tasks you need, and it now comes with a dedicated Siri app where you can find and pin previous conversations.

2. Improved photo editing

Photo editing has also gotten a lot better with iOS 27, allowing you to do things like reframe or extend photos after they’ve been taken, and remove larger objects than previously.

It makes the photo editing tools far more powerful and brings them more in line with those available on Pixel and Samsung phones.

3. New ‘Describe a Shortcut’ tool

Shortcuts has long been one of the most powerful apps that comes with your iPhone, but it can also feel a bit impenetrable. Now, though, it’s far simpler.

Rather than creating a shortcut or automation through various menus and complicated ‘if this then that’ rules, you can now simply use natural language to describe what you want.

So, for example, you could say “When I’m leaving work, message Pedro I’m on my way with my ETA,” and the app will automatically create an automation that does exactly this.

Having spent decades covering Apple, I understand and respect its efforts to maintain a shroud of secrecy over its product development. Reading this line in the blockbuster Apple vs OpenAI lawsuit, I can hear the voices of countless Apple execs and PR people who, rightly or not, feel deeply wronged by what it considered a trusted partner: "OpenAI’s nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets."

Late last week, Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and, more specifically, a pair of key employees who, over the last two years, left Apple to join OpenAI's hardware business. The massive filing, which calls for a jury trial, accuses the pair of corporate espionage, essentially stealing a raft of trade secrets to help bolster OpenAI's still unrealized efforts to build AI hardware (it's currently working with Jony Ive to build what may eventually become a wearable device).

I've spent some time poring over the documents and, to be honest, the accusations are stunning and, if true, seem unaccountably brazen for people who spent years with the Cupertino tech giant.

From the inside out

Tang Yew Tan, who currently serves as OpenAI's Chief Hardware Officer, was at Apple for a quarter of a century and, according to his own LinkedIn profile, "Oversaw the design and development of iPhone and Apple Watch Product Design, Interconnects Design, Acoustics and Materials technology centers."

Chang Liu (whose LinkedIn handle is "changliu-apple") spent almost a decade as an iPhone Electrical Engineer.

Apple's NDA's that they hand to journalists like me are almost legendary (the first time I signed one, I swear my hands were shaking). I can only imagine the intensity of the Intellectual property agreements (IPAs) Apple says it asks employees to sign from time to time. The language is probably appropriately terrifying; it's hard to conceive of how Liu and Tan could ignore them, and yet, according to the lawsuit, that's exactly what the pair did both during their waning days at Apple and in the time after when they joined OpenAI.

OpenAI's only public response so far has been from its Director of Strategic Communications Drew Pusateri, who said on X, "We have no interest in other companies' trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere."

The company's co-founder and CEO Sam Altman also only obliquely referenced it on X when someone accused him of being afraid of Apple. He wrote, "I am not afraid of Apple, but I have tremendous respect for them. s-tier company." ("S-Tier" basically means "elite").

I won't ask you to read the full document and instead have cherry-picked the most eye-watering accusations:

A potentially sneaky exit

When Liu left Apple, he allegedly took his work laptop with him. If you've ever worked in a corporate environment, you know this is a no-no. Most companies will pursue you to the ends of the earth to retrieve that hardware and whatever corporate access and secrets it contains.

It gets worse

Lui apparently didn't shelve the old (we assume) MacBook. Instead, he, according to Apple, exploited a network vulnerability and used the system to access Apple network folders. If true, that's an incredibly bold move. Surely Liu would've known how Apple's internal forensics could discover what was accessed by whom and when.

Boasting

While allegedly downloading Apple's proprietary files (details on unreleased products, presentations, tech data, specs, and more), Liu may have messaged someone through the Apple-issued laptop, celebrating how he was pulling the wool over Apple's eyes with "LOL" and "so funny". Again, was Liu the most careless corporate spy ever? Who would boast when they know Apple would eventually stumble on these details?

Coaching recruits

Apple claims Liu was actually recruiting Apple employees and coaching them on how to gather data before leaving the company. He may have told them how to email themselves files before exiting Apple.

Now, I understand how some of your, say, personal data, can end up intertwined with corporate data and you may want to hold onto some of that. On the other hand, if you didn't keep a firm line between work and personal files, that's on you.

A real betrayal

Tang Yew Tan spent 25 years with Apple, and what he's being accused of has surely enraged and disappointed Apple. "Mr. Tan has been methodically using Apple’s confidential information to benefit OpenAI," claims Apple.

Like Lui and other Apple recruits, Tan may have emailed himself proprietary Apple info.

Using Apple codenames

Apple claims Tan is asking Apple recruits about upcoming projects using code names only Apple employees would know.

We have their OK

This one is kind of mind-blowing. Apple alleges that OpenAI has used Apple info to get a partner to apply a "specific trade-secret metal finishing technique," because they convinced the partner Apple was OK with them doing so.

Carry out

This last one might be the boldest move of all. Apple alleges that OpenAI instructed potential Apple recruits to bring everything from CAD files to actual prototypes or parts to OpenAI interviews.

That's a particularly stunning accusation, and again, just seems so reckless. What kind of corporate spies operate with this level of impunity?

Naturally, OpenAI will, at some point, respond properly to this lawsuit, perhaps with one of their own. Apple could also eventually settle this suit out of court. They've done so before with similar cases, though I don't think they were quite at this level.

Can they come back from this?

Whatever happens with this case, it's hard to imagine the Apple / OpenAI relationship, which is already somewhat fraught, survives.

For now, you can explicitly choose to use ChatGPT to handle requests in the new Siri in iOS 27 dev beta, and it's a key part of Image Playground and Visual Intelligence. Apple could pull those options and lean harder into its Google Gemini foundation Model partnership while this case works its way through the courts.

I don't think that will materially impact your iPhone experience, but the loss of direct access to those hundreds of millions of iPhone customers could hurt OpenAI, a company that, as Apple acknowledges, is trying to build its own hardware business.

Plus, if OpenAI loses, it could see a lot of the in-house hardware innovation potentially tied to Apple's work blocked from ever reaching consumer hands.

And, obviously, it'll be hard for the partnership to come back from this passage in the suit:

"Apple lacks visibility into what’s been happening behind closed doors at OpenAI, where such misconduct is normalized and exemplified by leadership. This much is clear, however: at every level, from members of its Technical Staff to its Chief Hardware Officer, and in coordination with business partners, OpenAI has been stealing Apple’s trade secrets and confidential information."

• Hisense has announced a phone with a detachable rear screen
• The front display is e-ink, and the rear one is LCD
• Currently the phone has only been announced for China, so it might not be widely available

We don’t see much experimentation in smartphone design anymore, so I always applaud when companies try something new. That’s exactly what Hisense has done with its new A10 handset, as this has two screens — and one of them is detachable.

Specifically (via GoodEreader), this has a 6.13-inch monochrome e-paper display on the front (it isn't clear if this is officially an E Ink one), and a detachable color LCD screen on the back.

It runs Android 16, but most of the specs haven’t been revealed yet, other than it using an octa-core 4nm chipset, which according to leaker Experience More is a Snapdragon one. In any case, it being 4nm means this won’t be a high-end phone, but then high-end specs would arguably be wasted on an e-paper screen.

According to Experience More, the detachable LCD display will be sold separately. This makes sense, since not everyone will necessarily want two screens.

But it’s an interesting idea, potentially giving you the benefits of both e-paper and a conventional phone display — and since the second screen is detachable, you don’t have to add the bulk or fragility of the second screen when you don’t want to.

The wrong way round

I can’t help but think that it would have made more sense to make the e-paper screen the detachable rear one. After all, for most people an e-paper display is more of a secondary device — one you might use to read a book or to conserve battery, but not for the majority of smartphone tasks.

There is a market for e-paper phones — those who desire simplicity or less eye strain are drawn to them for one, and they can help encourage people to use their phones less too, because there is more friction there than with an LCD or OLED display.

But they remain niche devices, and while the Hisense A10 in some ways gives you the best of both worlds, it could end up being even more niche, since it combines the niche of an e-paper screen with the niche of a dual-screen device.

So personally, I’d love to see this the other way around — giving buyers a conventional smartphone with the option of an e-paper attachment. But until a company gives us that, there’s always the Xteink X4 — a tiny ereader that can magnetically attach to the back of phones.

The trouble with this is that it doesn’t run Android or integrate with your phone’s apps, making it a bit more limited than a true dual-screen device would be. But it’s better than nothing.

As for the Hisense A10, that’s currently only announced for China, so you might have to import it.