The company has never been shy about its Apple-inspired designs, though this one feels a little more Honor’s own with the large circular camera incorporated too. The Magic 9 phones launch in China on September 28th, and feature cameras designed with Arri, support for two different teleconverter lenses, and this soft green color, which I do rather like.
The launch of its first foldable iPhone proves Apple still calls the shots.
Released today in China after last week’s IFA appearance, it pushes the new wide fold form factor just a touch further than Samsung did. It’s both shorter and wider, with a roughly 1.4:1 aspect ratio on both screens — about the same proportions as international paper standards or a 1.43:1 IMAX screen. Finally, a phone designed for The Odyssey.
Privacy screen protectors that appear black when viewed to the side aren’t new. Neither are ones that display logos or messages. But I’m tickled by the “Intimacy Shield” from Joi AI. The pitch makes its screen-dimming effect seem like a breakthrough, though I guess it gets credit for injecting some corny graphic T-shirt energy into the screen protector space.
35 crystals have once again been “hand-positioned” in the flip phone’s body, with a larger 32-facet crystal on the hinge, all finished with a quilted, leather-inspired texture in Pantone’s “Meteorite” color. It launches September 10th for $899.99, a $100 premium over the regular Razr — but what says luxury like Swarovski-studded quilted pleather?
It’s short, it’s wide, and it’s red. It’s also powered by Xiaomi’s new in-house Xring 03 chip, so it’ll be interesting to see how performance stacks up. Oh, and it’s launching in China on September 7th, which I’m sure has nothing to do with upcoming events in California.
Acer, which has owned the historic PC brand since 2008, has resurrected it in a line of cheap, cheerful, and exceedingly colorful hardware, ranging from a 14-inch laptop to a portable food steamer. It all goes on sale in Q4 this year, though for now it’s only hitting the market in Europe.
Xiaomi, Apple, Huawei, and more are all launching flagship phones this month.
The Mate XT was the world’s first trifold smartphone when it launched last year but the sequel has debuted with a major change. Instead of the original’s Z-shaped arrangement of folding panels, the Huawei Mate XT 2’s side panels each fold inwards meaning you can only use its larger screen when the device is fully unfolded. Preorders are now open in China, but full pricing won’t be known until September 7th.
8
Verge Score
The cover screen feels more like a phone than ever, but the limitations are still what makes it.
Foldables tend to struggle with the bend test, but the smaller Galaxy Z Fold 8 survived it, and this year’s Pixel foldable didn’t go up in smoke. Will Apple’s rumored ‘iPhone Ultra’ foldable fare any better?
That’s what the fairly reliable leaker Digital Chat Station thinks Oppo has planned for its Find X10 Pro Max, tipped to launch in either September or October. It’s a different approach to the Find X9 Ultra, which leaned into a 10x periscope lens to stand out.
[Weibo]
The new midrange Android phone has almost exactly the exact same design and internals as last year’s Xperia 10 VII apart from two meager upgrades: a brighter display and louder speakers. Oh, and at €599 / £549 (around $700-750), it’ll also be € / £150 more expensive when it launches in Europe in “mid-to-late September.” Thanks, RAMageddon.
The Xring 03 is, a little confusingly, the follow-up to last year’s Xring 01, which appeared in the China-only 15S Pro phone and Pad 7 Ultra tablet. The 3nm chipset, apparently produced by TSMC, has the usual CPU and GPU bumps, plus mobile-first support for LPDDR6 RAM.
The Pura X View will launch next week in China, but Huawei has already revealed its design, including a broad 16:9.5 aspect ratio display. It looks a little like Huawei’s Pura X flip phone did when unfolded, but in a regular slab format. After last month’s Galaxy Z Fold 8, we’re truly in the wide phone era.
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8
Verge Score
A great foldable with IP68 and a reliable triple camera, trapped in a shape everyone else seems to be moving on from.
Given it’s a minor hardware refresh of last year’s Fairphone 6 it comes as no surprise that the new Fairphone 6 Plus (the company’s first smartphone it will sell directly in the US) was awarded a perfect 10/10 score in iFixit’s teardown test. Disassembly of everything from camera modules to the screen was straightforward using just basic tools.
Tips and tricks to get your pet looking their best.
Sales dropped 64% year-on-year in Q2, according to research from Counterpoint, as manufacturers raised prices or simply stopped shipping cheaper models. Samsung and Motorola have been the only brands to benefit, as smaller companies became unable to undercut them on price. That helped both grow their market share in prepaid phones.
We live blogged almost 90 minutes of a show that was, honestly, better than expected. Our video team cut it down to eight.
We’re ready for some bad jokes during Google’s celebrity-packed live show.
The Made By Google keynote, hosted by Trevor Noah, kicks off at 6PM ET. Stay tuned to this website starting at 5:30PM for our live blog. Victoria Song will be there live, with Jay Peters, Jake Kastrenakes, and myself following remotely. Let’s see what happens.
Samsung’s online-exclusive “Pistachio” version of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 looks great, and has apparently been selling well. But I’m a much bigger fan of Google’s Pixel 11 finish by the same name. It looks a lot closer to the color of a good pistachio gelato, unlike whatever minty nonsense Samsung is up to.
