3 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Phones

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Nothing looks good in pink.

The upcoming Phone 4A will be available in a gorgeous blush colorway, a pretty late (but welcome) addition to the pink phone trend. Nothing designer Lucy Birley says the transparent chassis is actually tinted red:

“Because of how the light interacts with the resin underneath you get this incredible sense of depth which makes our products look really lively.”

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Tecno is doing a modular phone (again).

Every year someone invents the modular phone; this time it’s Tecno’s turn. The company will bring a modular magnetic concept device to next week’s MWC 2026, with options like a power bank, telephoto lens, or action camera to add on. We’ll only really believe it if Tecno actually lets me test the thing at the show.

Render of Tecno’s MWC 2026 modular phone concept laid out on a brown background
Render of Tecno’s MWC 2026 modular phone concept laid out on a white background
Render of a group of people holding parts of Tecno’s MWC 2026 modular phone concept, but the image has clearly been edited
1/3Image: Tecno
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Honor is pivoting to robots.

The Chinese smartphone company says it will reveal a humanoid robot at MWC this week, which I’m told will focus on domestic tasks. It’s a big change for the company, even with the Robot Phone also on the way, but makes more sense when you know it has an IPO in its future.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
An early S26 Ultra.

YouTuber Sahil Karoul claims to have bought a Galaxy S26 Ultra early at a market in Dubai, and is slowly revealing all: camera samples, benchmarks, and confirmation that the S Pen doesn’t include Bluetooth. Most interesting is this look at the new Privacy display in action ahead of the official reveal this Wednesday.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Nothing confirms the Phone 4A arrives on March 5th.

CEO Carl Pei had previously teased the date in a playful response to Apple’s recently announced event on the 4th, but now it’s official. With no Phone 4 this year, the 4A, and likely 4A Pro, should be Nothing’s biggest releases in 2026.

Nothing Phone 4A teaser image
Image: Nothing
This is the Trump PhoneThis is the Trump Phone
Dominic Preston
The telephoto is the only phone camera that really matters

Phone manufacturers are throwing everything they have at long-distance lenses in order to stand out.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Air in name only.

Redmagic’s new 11 Air just launched in China. Sounds thin and light, right? Well, sort of — at 8mm thick and 207g it’s smaller than Redmagic’s liquid-cooled 11 Pro, but a far cry from the 5.6mm, 165g iPhone Air. Still, not bad for a phone with a 7,000mAh battery and built-in fan.

Render of Redmagic 11 Air in black or white versions, with CGI rings around them.
The 11 Air is svelte for a gaming phone, but still pretty big — and it’s no smaller than the previous 10 Air.
Image: Redmagic
The best tech announced at CES 2026 so far

Smart lights that know where they’re placed in a room, wild designs for next-gen routers, and a glowing inedible donut.

Andrew Liszewski
The Verge Awards at CES 2026

Rollable laptops, twice-folding phones, and a ‘longevity station.’ This is the CES tech we come back for.

Verge Staff
Honor steps up to the big leagues with the Magic 8 Pro

7

Verge Score

The company’s best phone camera yet can compete with anything around.

Dominic Preston
Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Realme moves under Oppo.

Realme is once again an Oppo subbrand in a bid to save money. Both were once brands under the Chinese consumer hardware behemoth BBK Electronics, which was also responsible for brands like Vivo, OnePlus, and a few more. But BBK consciously uncoupled a few years ago to avoid regulator scrutiny, creating a myriad of legal entities that occasionally shared supply chains, R&D efforts, and even marketing teams.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
The FIFA flip.

Soccer’s governing body isn’t at its most popular right now, from price gouging complaints to allegedly breaking its own rules giving a “peace prize” to Donald Trump. But hey, it’s a World Cup year, so you can’t blame it for trying its luck with this branded version of last year’s regular Motorola Razr.

Image of two FIFA-branded Razr phones resting on each other
FIFA World Cup 2026 Motorola Razr with its box
A female fan holds a FIFA-branded Razr phone as she gestures to the camera, and two male phones behind her hold flags
1/3
That geometric design is intended to capture “the energy, inclusivity, and momentum” of the World Cup.
Image: Motorola
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Honor’s Robot Phone doesn’t dance.

The Verge’s Dominic Preston got a look at a static prototype of the phone this week, but unlike Boston Dynamics’ Spot robots, the phone’s fancy camera didn’t move. In case you missed the announcement for the Robot Phone and its gimbal camera (which is apparently intelligent), check out this video for a recap of what we know so far.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
The Robot Phone is real(ish).

I only got to see (and not touch) a prototype, and the fold-out gimbal camera wasn’t operational. So it’s strictly TBC what the Robot Phone will actually do, but Honor did tell me this is no concept: after the full launch at MWC next month it will go on sale — but only in China.

Photo of a prototype Honor Robot Phone at CES 2026, with the camera folded out
Photo of a prototype Honor Robot Phone at CES 2026, with the camera folded in.
Photo of a prototype Honor Robot Phone at CES 2026, with the camera folded out
Photo of a prototype Honor Robot Phone at CES 2026, seen from the side
Photo of a prototype Honor Robot Phone at CES 2026, at an angle with the camera folded in
Photo of a prototype Honor Robot Phone at CES 2026, with the camera folded out from the back
1/6
The Robot Phone has a stabilized camera that folds out of the body.
Photo: Dominic Preston / The Verge
Who owns Trump Mobile?Who owns Trump Mobile?
Dominic Preston
AI image generators are getting better by getting worse

There’s been a surprising development.

Allison Johnson
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
iFixit’s teardown of the RedMagic 11 Pro reveals the inner workings of its liquid-cooling tubes.

This China-only Android phone is the first to include the feature, along with just about every other type of cooling tech, including fans, a heatsink, and a vapor chamber, all topped by the blue liquid cooling system.

According to iFixit, however, all that cooling didn’t make up for the RedMagic 11 Pro’s limited repair options.