Mobile

The strange-looking Signature 27 — an Android flagship poised to rival the S26 Ultra, with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chip and Bang & Olufsen speakers — is nearly here. Motorola says it’ll reveal the rest of the phone next week. Will we find out Graphene’s software support plans then too?

JerryRigEverything belatedly got hold of a Trump phone for a midterm special durability test, including a blunt recounting of the president’s track record so far. It features more evidence that the T1 Phone is an HTC in disguise, including a repeat of iFixit’s clever trick of swapping motherboards to prove the phones are identical inside and out.

The deal was announced in April and is expected to close in 2027. It gives Amazon Globalstar’s constellation of 25 satellites and its spectrum — a welcome boost given its stalled launch timeline — and means Leo will now power the satellite services for Apple’s supported iPhones and Apple Watches.

According to a user on Reddit, “Had my iPhone Duo for about six hours and had probably opened it fewer than 20 times. I was showing it to a friend, and as I opened it, I felt something around the internal hinge, underneath the screen. As I continued opening it, I heard an audible crack, and the screen broke right along the hinge.”

I took a foldable phone to New York City’s first ever microdrama film festival to see if the entertainment industry’s investment in vertical video will clash with the wider aspect ratio screens of the iPhone Duo and Galaxy Z Fold 8.

Apple’s foldable is available for purchase and demos at stores worldwide today, and the company is already sharing images of the crowds and customers celebrating the launch at Apple Jing’an, Shanghai. You can check out our iPhone Duo review before you run to your closest Apple store, but be aware that there are only a “limited” number of in-store units available.

That’s according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who said Apple is working on next-gen Duo protoypes that have the Face ID sensor located beneath the display on the outer screen. Being demoted to Touch ID has been a step back for the iPhone Duo, but in our review we said it’s “mostly painless” once you get used to it.

Some Android users are reporting receiving a Google Play system update dated “1 January 2027,” which really seems to be getting ahead of itself. Sadly, all my Android phones are still stuck on September 2026, which now feels entirely old fashioned.

YouTuber Tim Pan put the new Apple foldable through a total of 11,500 folds, a thousand of which were in freezing conditions. Like Joanna Stern, he found the hinge holds up well, but like any other foldable, the crease gets a lot more visible (and a bit more even after only 500), matte display or not.

I’ve been absorbing every iPhone Duo review I can find (after ours), so I thought I’d share links to a few others that I liked:

It’s apparently available in the iOS 27 release candidate, according to Creative Strategies analyst Max Weinbach. Things could always change ahead of the public release full release, but the feature seems likely to make the final cut.

The Duo’s imminent release means the EU released its energy and durability ratings, including its rated battery capacity of 4,883mAh. Rated capacities are lower than typical marketed capacities, so this battery is bigger than in either the Galaxy Z Fold 8 or Z Fold 8 Ultra, but still smaller than in foldables from Oppo and Honor.

That’s according to analysts at Counterpoint, who also say sales in Q3 2026 were 20 percent down on the previous year, as supply shrinks and prices rise. Samsung held the top spot, helped by Galaxy Z Fold 8 sales, with Apple close behind.

The feature, called Connected Camera, lets you capture video from multiple angles by linking your Pixel phone camera to another Pixel device or GoPro. Google first launched the feature with support for social platforms like YouTube and Instagram, but now Android Authority reports that it’s expanding to communication apps including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, Google Meet, Slack, and Facebook Messenger.

Sen. Maggie Hassan wrote to Trump Mobile CEO Patrick O’Brien, accusing the company of missing mandatory filings around robocall prevention and international service provision. She also raised questions about security practices, following a third reported hack of the company, and whether the recent price hike will hit customers still waiting for their phones.

That’s almost exactly a month after the China launch. Highlights include the first ever triple 200-megapixel camera on the Find X10 Pro Max, and big 8,000mAh batteries on both, though Oppo warns “selected markets” get 7,150mAh instead. I’m working on a review of the Pro Max — what do you want to know?

According to GSMA database listings spotted by OVR Plus, the Pixel 12 Pro Fold appears to have a higher inner display resolution of 2296 x 2404, up from 2076 x 2152 from this year’s model. However, as 9to5Google points out, the aspect ratio suggests Google might not switch the next Pro Fold to a passport-style design.

After Samsung bumped up prices on its Galaxy S26 and midrange A-series phones last week, Google quietly did the same for its Pixel 10A. It was $499, but now starts from $599 — a hard sell for a phone that was already almost identical to the 9A from a year before.

The Galaxy A57 5G now starts at $599 on Samsung’s official website, up from $549, and $100 more than the previous A56 5G, Android Authority reports. Samsung bumped up the starting prices on the other A series phones by $20 to $40, after its Galaxy S26 phones also got a $100 price hike.

To distribute an Android app in Brazil, Thailand, Singapore, or Indonesia — even outside Google’s Play Store — developers must now go through Google’s verification. It’ll roll out everywhere else from next year. Unverified apps can still be sideloaded, but the new process includes a 24-hour waiting period before apps can be installed.

Its consumer business chief Richard Yu said the higher costs are hurting Huawei’s profitability “very badly,” and Huawei will “have to raise prices going forward, though it will be moderate,” Bloomberg reports.