When Honor first revealed its outlandishly named Robot Phone — really a smartphone with a flip-out DJI Osmo Pocket-esque camera arm built into the back — it was only in a slick CGI video. Now it’s shown off prototype hardware at its Honor User Carnival in China, suggesting this concept is one step closer to reality.
American Telephone & Telegraph says it has deployed the $23 billion worth of mid-band spectrum it acquired from EchoStar to nearly 23,000 cell sites in the continental US, which is now boosting 5G download speeds “by up to 80 percent.” Ya’ll seeing a difference?
Years of irate comments have hammered home that not all our readers want us to cover politics. And hey, I’m just a humble phone reviewer, so I should stick to what I know. Now, let’s see if there are any new players in the phone industry this year...
PierogiPrince:
No more Trump articles! Stick to articles about phones! Wait hang on
Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily.
Just... not the actual phones. Instead, it’s 2023’s repairable Fairbuds XL headphones that will go on sale on Amazon this month. As for the excellent Fairphone 6, CEO Raymond van Eck tells me launching that is a “complicated process,” but one he hopes will be sorted “in the near future.”
6
Verge Score
It’s a super-slim phone that doesn’t compromise on battery life.
Taking a page out of the automakers’ playbook, the 2026 editions of the Moto G Play and Moto G will arrive before the start of the new year. The $169 G Play comes with 5G for the first time but a measly 64GB of storage; the $199 Moto G has a 50-megapixel camera and 128GB of storage.
Both also offer that rarest of smartphone features: a 3.5mm headphone jack.
If you buy the OneXSugar Sugar 1, please tell me how it goes! It’s one of the most popular Today I’m Toying With videos I’ve filmed, and I’m so curious if they nailed it. (I’m also very curious about its new competition.)
If you buy something from a link, The Verge may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.
The eternal quest to find one tidy solution for a messy problem.
9
Verge Score
With a 7,500mAh battery, this phone killed my battery anxiety for good.
O2 Satellite won’t launch until the first half of 2026, and only with messaging and data for maps and location services at first, but it’s expected to expand. O2 customers can register their interest now, though pricing is still to come.
Starlink provides similar satellite service for T-Mobile in the US.
That’s when the company’s new flagship gets its global launch. We already know what to expect thanks to this week’s China launch event, including a huge 7,300mAh battery and fast 165Hz display, we just don’t know how much it’ll cost in the US and Europe.
Android Headlines and leaker OnLeaks have shared CAD renders of next year’s affordable Pixel handset based on leaked info, and you’d be hard-pressed to spot the difference between it and this year’s 9A. Hopefully Google has some upgrades planned under the surface if the design really is going to change so little.
The oh-so-hip phone manufacturer will launch what it’s calling its “first entry-level smartphone” this Wednesday, the Phone 3A Lite. The teaser confirms the return of some form of Glyph lighting, but we don’t know much more than that. Expect it to cost less than the $379 / £329 Phone 3A, though I suspect a US launch is unlikely.
Qualcomm’s new chip brings its 4nm process to the lowest end of its 6 series chips. It packs four Cortex-A78 performance cores at up to 2.4 GHz and four Cortex-A55 efficiency cores clocked at 1.8 GHz, a nice bump from the 2-and-6 arrangement of the 6s Gen 3. You won’t find too many phones out there running the 6s, but maybe a future version of the Moto G Stylus can benefit.
