Phone Reviews | The Verge

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 feels like the future

2026-07-29T09:54:55-04:00

A short king.

Is this the future of foldable phones?

Samsung clearly thinks so. The company has given its new wide foldable the "Z Fold 8" name, positioning the phone not as a widescreen oddity, but as the new normal, the default design for foldables going forward. Rumor has it that Apple feels the same way, with a similar squat shape widely predicted for the first foldable iPhone, expected to launch in September.

Whether you want to give the credit to Apple, Samsung, or even Huawei (which got here first with the Pura X Max), I think they might be onto something. After a week, the Z Fold 8 feels comfortable, natural, and normal, despite being the short …

Read the full story at The Verge.

I spent a week using the Trump phone — it sucks

2026-07-10T10:46:59-04:00

I used the Trump phone for a week so that you don’t have to.

The Trump phone was never a serious phone. Not when it was announced last June, in dodgy renders and with an incoherent spec sheet. Nor when Trump Mobile admitted - just two weeks later - that it wouldn't be made in the US. Not even when the company revealed the final phone, first to me over a video call in February and then to the world in April through a short commercial with the slick sheen of AI.

It's now on sale for $499, past the days of its tenuous, ever-shifting release dates. A few buyers even have the phone, The Verge among them, though more still seem not to.

It's clear now that the T1 is a real phone, but that doesn't mean it's …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Sony’s Xperia 1 VIII is still a phone for the fans

2026-06-21T06:29:00-04:00

The 1 VIII doesn’t look much like any Xperia that’s come before.

The Xperia 1 VIII marks an attempt at a step change for Sony's flagship phone line. Not only has it had an aesthetic overhaul, but Sony has also revamped the camera system, dropping the continuous optical zoom telephoto that's defined the last four generations of Xperia phone.

It's not all different. Sony staples like a 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD card slot remain, and a few specific design touches, like a thick front bezel that fits stereo speakers, have stayed intact. Sony's ambitious pricing hasn't changed either: The Xperia 1 VIII isn't launching in the US, but in the UK and Europe, it starts from £1,399 / €1,499 (about $1,850), r …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Honor’s Magic V6 sets three foldable firsts

2026-06-15T06:39:53-04:00

The crease isn’t quite invisible, but otherwise this feels like the complete foldable package — on the hardware side at least.

On paper, the Honor Magic V6 sounds like a tremendous leap forward for foldable phones: It's the thinnest one yet, with the biggest battery, and the best water-resistance ever. In practice, only the bigger battery feels like a meaningful improvement. The other upgrades are only fractionally superior to what came before.

This isn't entirely Honor's fault. It's getting harder to make a foldable phone stand out; even last year's offerings felt like complete flagship phones. Huawei's Pura X Max stood out for its odd new aspect ratio, which we're expecting to see both Samsung and Apple replicate later this year. Then there are the trifolds, whic …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The new Razr Ultra isn’t your average phone — for better and worse

2026-05-27T14:24:55-04:00

A fine-looking phone.

I had one ask for friends, colleagues, the lady checking me in for a meeting at a large software company's headquarters, and everyone else who stopped to admire the phone I've been carrying around.

"Pet it."

The Razr Ultra is not your average phone. I got the orient blue color option to test, which has a soft, woven back panel made of Alcantara fabric - which you're more likely to find on the seats of a fancy car. I can't stop petting it. I'm worried about how it'll look after spending years in and out of dusty tote bags and my kid's grubby hands, but after a couple of weeks of testing it hasn't picked up any gunk or dirt that I haven't be …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The Razr Fold is stuck in the middle

2026-05-14T12:06:17-04:00

Can’t beat Moto on style.

For a phone that gets a lot right, the Motorola Razr Fold is frustratingly hard to recommend.

The Razr Fold is the company's first book-style foldable, and it enters the US market with something not currently available on the competition: truly excellent battery life that rivals the best slab-style phones. No need to worry if you spend a long session gaming or working in a Google doc on the inner screen. The Razr Fold is going to easily get you through your day and then some. Samsung's and Google's foldables are much more likely to generate battery anxiety on a day of heavy use.

Also, the Razr Fold looks nice. The rounded corners, soft-tou …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Vivo’s X300 Ultra has the best cameras in any phone

2026-05-09T06:23:53-04:00

The X300 Ultra is mostly let down by its rather dull design.

A few months ago, I wrote that the telephoto camera is the only lens that matters any more, at least when it comes to Ultra-class flagships. As phones got better, cameras became where manufacturers tried to stand out. As cameras got better, telephoto lenses became the next point of focus. The most recent Ultra phones from Xiaomi, Oppo, and Huawei have all made the telephoto, above all, their selling point. Vivo's X300 Ultra is doing something different.

Instead of pushing its telephoto hardware to further extremes, Vivo has mostly left it be. The company has focused its efforts on a significantly improved 35mm main camera, unique among the …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Oppo’s new phone has one camera too many

2026-04-21T12:48:58-04:00

The two-paneled design is my favorite of the year so far.

Oppo's Find X9 Ultra offers something that no other new phone has for three long years: a 10x telephoto lens. In an attempt to win the photography front of the war between the various Ultra flagships, Oppo has turned to a trick last employed by Samsung's Galaxy S23 Ultra. It's a better 10x lens than ever before, but is it good enough for the moments you might really need it?

The long-distance lens is the best of its kind, but compared to this phone's other lenses it struggles a little with the usual suspects: moving subjects, low light, and moving subjects in low light. Fortunately the Find X9 Ultra is an excellent phone otherwise. It pairs …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Oppo made the best foldable phone, again

2026-04-08T06:09:50-04:00

Closed, the Find N6 is about as thin as any regular phone. | Photo: Dominic Preston / The Verge

There are always a few reasons people give for not buying a foldable phone. Some - price, battery life, camera quality - are mostly a matter of manufacturers balancing spec sheets to offset the added cost of the folding hardware. Others - durability, size - were practical design problems that have mostly been solved. But the crease always felt different, fundamental: something that foldables would be stuck with no matter what.

Oppo disagrees.

It claims that the Find N6 is the first foldable with a "zero-feel" crease, one so subtle that you can hardly tell it's there. And while there's just a hint of marketing exaggeration there, Oppo isn't …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Nothing Phone 4A Pro review: That flagship feeling

2026-03-19T07:31:41-04:00

The Phone 4A Pro looks like no Nothing phone before, while simultaneously looking like only a Nothing phone could.

CEO Carl Pei says Nothing won't release a flagship phone this year. So instead we have the 4A Pro, a $499 phone that looks and feels higher-end than last year's flagship Phone 3, helped in large part by a new metal design.

Compare the Phone 4A Pro to its immediate rivals, the Pixel 10A and iPhone 17E, and it looks impressive: a larger, brighter, and faster display; more cameras; and Nothing's unique design, including the Glyph Matrix rear display. But dig deeper, and the 4A Pro's compromises are revealed.

Nothing earns points for style, but unless you're particularly enamored of the bigger screen and bolder look, Apple and Google's phones …

Read the full story at The Verge.