Phones | The Verge

Xiaomi’s new 18 Pro phones improve on Samsung’s privacy display

2026-09-23T10:24:50-04:00

Both 18 Pro phones feature rear displays, just like last year’s 17 Pro models. | Image: Xiaomi

Xiaomi's new 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max launched in China today, and feature a more flexible take on the privacy display tech introduced this year on Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra. They combine it with returning rear screens, two 200-megapixel cameras, and both of Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chips. A global launch is confirmed for later this year - especially welcome since last year's 17 Pro phones skipped international markets.

The two 18 Pro phones look similar to the 17 Pros, with similar compact displays built around the rear cameras, capable of displaying notifications, taking selfies, playing simple games, and more.

The bigger …

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Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 comes in an Extreme version too

2026-09-22T12:25:43-04:00

The 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 and 8 Elite Gen 6 share most of their specs in common. | Image: Qualcomm

Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, this year joined by the 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 too. The company describes both new phone chips as flagships, and the spec differences are relatively minor, mostly limited to improved AI processing, video capture, and gaming performance on the Extreme model.

Both Gen 6 chips are built on a 2nm process, and share much in common, including their modems, display specs, security features, GPS, and memory and storage support. Qualcomm no longer publishes detailed breakdowns of the cores across its silicon, but the CPU details given are identical, with two big cores at up to 5GHz and six performa …

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Motorola’s wild-looking Signature 27 runs Qualcomm’s new Extreme chipset

2026-09-22T12:47:13-04:00

You couldn’t accuse Motorola of designing a boring phone. | Image: Motorola

Motorola is the first company to announce a phone running Qualcomm's top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chip. The Signature 27 looks set to be Motorola's most advanced flagship in some years, though we're still waiting for the full specs, price, and release date.

Any prospective buyers will first have to get over the design, which seems guaranteed to earn mixed reception. The aluminum phone has a thin body, available in either black (sorry, "Pantone coal smoke") or green ("Pantone capulet olive"), with a woven tactical texture on one and a "feather-inspired" finish on the other. Either way, it slopes upwards into what Motorola calls a …

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Oppo’s new phone is the first with three 200-megapixel cameras

2026-09-22T09:10:36-04:00

All three rear cameras use 200-megapixel sensors. | Image: Oppo

Oppo's new Find X10 Pro Max flagship phone, launched today in China, is the first anywhere to use 200-megapixel sensors on all three of its rear cameras. A 17-stop dynamic range for the main camera, delivered thanks to what Oppo calls "DeepPix sensor technology," suggests megapixel count won't be the only thing this camera has going for it - a good thing, since raw resolution hasn't been the main driver of smartphone image quality for some time.

The triple rear camera is built into a square, raised camera island, with a separate bar to one side holding the flash and an additional sensor. An orange accent line nods to Oppo's ongoing camera p …

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Vivo’s X500 Pro Max has 17 stops of dynamic range and 4K240 slo-mo

2026-09-21T09:17:49-04:00

All three new X500 phones support at least one of Vivo’s teleconverter lenses. | Image: Vivo

Vivo's new X500 flagship phones have arrived in China, and as usual the company's focus is firmly on photography. The X500 Pro Max - a new tier in its lineup - is the first phone to use new sensors and silicon from Sony and MediaTek that enable impressive dynamic range and slow-motion video recording.

The X500 Pro Max uses Sony's new Lytia L910 image sensor, its first to use LOFIC, a sensor technology that enables expanded dynamic range. The 50-megapixel, 1/1.28-inch-type sensor delivers what Vivo calls "true 17 EV ultra-high dynamic range," more than the 16.5 stops claimed by the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. The excellent 200-megapixel, 3.7x telephoto …

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Now Light’s minimalist phone can easily call an Uber

2026-09-15T10:55:47-04:00

More than a decade after its Kickstarter proposed a "cell phone designed to be used as little as possible," Light is adding a direct connection to Uber and Lyft with a new Rideshare tool. For owners of either the Light Phone III or the upcoming Light Flip, they can use it to find pick up / drop off locations, see fares and ETA, and select different trip options or saved locations they frequently visit. They can use it to book the ride, and then see information about the driver and ETA, and call the driver if necessary.

It's an early preview of the LightOS "tool library" SDK that will allow developers to expand the phones' features while st …

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Where to preorder the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max

2026-09-14T10:16:25-04:00

Which color suits you best? | Photo: Nilay Patel / The Verge

The iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max are almost here. Announced at Apple's September 2026 "Sunrise and shine" event alongside the iPhone Duo and other new gear, the two upgraded phones feature the faster A20 Pro processor with more GPU power as well as more neural cores for AI-related tasks, plus some welcome improvements to the camera.

The phones will arrive on Friday, September 18th, and preordering one is never a bad idea if you want to ensure you get the color and storage capacity configuration you're seeking. Speaking of, preorders are officially open.

The 6.3-inch iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199 for the 256GB model, and goes all the way u …

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The iPhone Duo’s hardware doesn’t look special, but its software might be

2026-09-10T11:24:17-04:00

With the iPhone Duo, Apple has pulled off a familiar trick. It arrives into a mature Android foldable market with a handful of hardware features we've mostly already seen elsewhere, but paired with a level of software polish that makes a lot of them feel new again. It's those software flourishes that have me excited to try the iPhone Duo when it launches next month, but I'm less convinced that its hardware will be anything special.

If Apple had gotten there first, the Duo's biggest surprise would have been its squat, wide, passport-inspired shape. But its slow-moving supply chain meant that Huawei, Samsung, and Xiaomi all managed to beat Ap …

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How the iPhone Duo compares to other folding phones

2026-09-10T11:17:14-04:00

The Apple iPhone Duo features a passport-style folding hinge. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Apple's foldable phone is finally here - well, almost. The iPhone Duo, coming October 23rd, follows in the footsteps of past folding devices from Android phone makers like Samsung, OnePlus, and Google, with a $1,999 price tag that sits just above the Pixel 11 Pro Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 8.

While its hardware bears similarities to its competitors, the iPhone Duo is one of a few models that takes a passport-like approach. The aspect ratio is the same on the inside and outside screens, and it's even usable with some apps while partially folded. The interior screen has a special outer layer, which along with its hinge design, makes the interior …

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The Trump phone just got a $250 price hike

2026-09-10T05:43:56-04:00

It’s going to take a lot more gold coins to buy the Trump Phone now. | Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Bad news if you didn't lock in a Trump phone at launch: It now costs $749, a $250 increase on its price at launch. The T1 Phone itself hasn't changed.

Trump Mobile didn't announce the price increase, instead quietly changing its website overnight. This wasn't a total surprise though, especially given the phone ships with an unexpectedly generous 512GB of storage and 12GB of RAM. When I spoke to two Trump Mobile executives earlier this year, they called the $499 launch pricing "introductory," and a few months later, the website itself was changed to reflect that, calling it a "promotional price." That wording is now gone.

When I reviewed th …

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