Google got a lot right with the Pixel 11 Pro XL; it has better cameras, a cleaner design, brighter OLED panel, and is faster in just about every scenario. And with Google focusing on Gemini Intelligence, there's a lot of great AI-assisted software features that make the phone stand out.

That said, there are plenty of annoyances as well — if anything, the decrease in RAM and battery size along with the underwhelming GPU make the Pixel 11 Pro XL a downgrade in many ways. So if you're a Pixel user and are looking to switch, there are plenty of great choices available. I used all phones launched in the last 12 months, so all the options listed here are devices I used extensively.

Annoyingly, the two phones I consider to be the best choices — the Find X9 Pro and Vivo X300 Pro — aren't available in the U.S., but they are sold in plenty of western countries, including the U.K. The U.S. phone market is distinctly lackluster compared to most regions, and that's down to the chokehold carriers have in the country. That makes getting a hold of the best phones harder, and in some cases, it's just not worth the hassle. Having accounted for all of that, these are the six phones I suggest buying instead of the Pixel 11 Pro XL.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

I don't like using Samsung phones, but there's no doubting that they're immensely popular. The Galaxy S26 Ultra isn't too different to the Pixel 11 Pro XL in that it is also mostly unchanged to its predecessor, but you get faster internals powered by Qualcomm.

Outside of the silicon, the S26 Ultra is very similar to the Pixel 11 Pro XL; both phones have cameras that are at the same level, battery life is largely identical, and you get the same IP68 ingress protection. The biggest difference is with the software: Samsung's One UI 9 doesn't look anything like what you get on Pixels, and it has a lot of extras that are tied into Samsung's ecosystem.

Look, if you like Samsung's software and want all the unique extras that you get — and Galaxy AI — then the S26 Ultra continues to be a solid choice. It'll get the same seven years of software updates, and has a strong ecosystem of wearables and connected devices.

Redmagic 11S Pro

If you intend to play games on your phone or need a device that's just about the fastest available today, you should get the Redmagic 11S Pro. The 16GB/512GB model of the phone costs $899 in the U.S., which is $520 less than what you'd pay to get an equivalent Pixel 11 Pro XL. Now, the Redmagic 11S Pro's cameras are decidedly average, and they don't measure up to what Google is offering. But given the price difference, you may as well just get a dedicated camera if you're interested in taking a lot of photos and videos (I'm partial to the OM-D E-M10 Mark IV).

Other than that, the Redmagic 11S Pro is a beast. It doesn't have a cutout, so you get an all-screen design that I like quite a bit — it's one of the main reasons why I like using these phones. And I get that the design may be a little ostentatious (it is a gaming phone, after all), but the cameras sit flush with the body, and I like the in-hand feel. Oh, and there's legitimate liquid cooling on the device, and it holds up to marathon gaming or Netflix binge sessions without breaking a sweat.

You also get a huge 7,500mAh battery that lasts up to two days, better connectivity than the Pixel 11 Pro XL in any situation, the best Qualcomm silicon available today, a vibrant OLED, and an IPX8 ingress protection.

The software is pretty good too! Redmagic cleaned up its act two years ago, and you get a plain interface that doesn't have any overt styling, but with great optimization and a good range of customizability. The only issue is that the phone will get just two Android OS updates, which is pitiful next to Google and Samsung. But if you're okay with that limitation, the Redmagic 11S Pro is a great choice.

POCO F8 Ultra

Okay, POCO doesn't sell the F8 Ultra in the U.S., but you can easily get it via resellers on Amazon for $889. That's the 12GB/256GB edition, and it is close to what the phone costs in the U.K. (£599 ($818)). The F8 Ultra has a trio of 50MP cameras, and they're great; you get good photos in any lighting condition, and the versatility of the lenses means you get usable shots from 0.6x to 10x without any issues.

Then there's the design. POCO went with a unique denim finish, and it makes holding the F8 Ultra decidedly different (but in a good way). The texture feels great, and the phone is lighter than the Pixel 11 Pro XL in spite of having a bigger 6,500mAh battery. There's 100W fast charging as well, and as it uses a standard USB PD profile, you can use any 100W GaN charger with the phone.

Oh, and the F8 Ultra has the best onboard sound of any phone I tested in the last two years. It is tuned by Bose, and there's a dedicated woofer unit that adds a lot of character to the sound. The software is decent as well, and you don't get much in the way of AI. The UI is relatively modern, and while there is a lot of bloatware out of the box, it can be easily uninstalled. The phone will get four Android OS updates, which is decent in this category.

iPhone 17 Pro

If you're looking to switch away from Android altogether, the iPhone 17 Pro is the way to go. I use it as my secondary phone, and while battery life isn't as good as a Pixel, you get good software features, guaranteed stability, and a strong ecosystem of accessories.

Switching to an iPhone is easier than ever, but it isn't just about buying another device — you'll also need to think about your digital purchases. If you're like me and bought hundreds of apps and pay for subscriptions via the Play Store, you will need to set up all of that again on the App Store, and that's daunting. That's one of the reasons why moving to a different mobile OS is difficult; you're basically starting from scratch if you haven't used iOS in the past.

The upside is that the iPhone 17 Pro isn't usually plagued by software issues, and as a daily driver, it's one of the most stable phones around.

OPPO Find X9 Pro

The Find X9 Pro is my second-favorite phone of 2026 — only bettered by its even costlier sibling, the Find X9 Ultra — and it is a fantastic phone. The cameras are on another level entirely, the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 platform is noticeably faster than the Tensor G6, and you get a massive battery.

Now, a big limitation with Chinese phones in the past was the software, but that isn't an issue in 2026. ColorOS 16 has a modern design, plenty of great features, and it's just as good to use as the Pixel Launcher. In fact, it is the Android skin I used the most in 2026, and features like AI Bill Manager are genuinely useful.

The Find X9 Pro costs £1,099 ($1,500) in the U.K., and that's the 16GB/512GB model — the equivalent Pixel 11 Pro XL is £1,419 ($1,936!). Additionally, you get the Watch X3 bundled with every phone, which is pretty great in its own right.

Vivo X300 Pro

The X300 Pro is the only phone that has the same caliber of cameras as the Find X9 Pro. Vivo did a great job with the phone in general, and I really like the design — even though the camera housing is gigantic. The phone costs €1,089 ($1,274) for the 16GB/512GB edition, so you're not paying as much as the Pixel 11 Pro XL (€1,329 ($1,553)).

What I like the most about the X300 Pro is that Vivo brought its excellent OriginOS software to global regions. The UI is clean and highly customizable, and it makes using the X300 Pro a delight. It doesn't quite get as many updates as the Pixel 11 Pro XL, but Vivo guarantees five Android OS updates.

Which should you buy?

If you just need one recommendation and don't mind going the reseller route, I'd suggest getting the POCO F8 Ultra — it is a pretty good all-rounder. The Find X9 Pro and Vivo X300 Pro are costlier and harder to get in the U.S., and while they have better cameras, you're ultimately paying too much.

The Redmagic 11S Pro is also a solid choice if you need something with plenty of raw power. And if you want the closest feel to a Pixel and are interested in buying a broader ecosystem of devices, then the Galaxy S26 Ultra or the iPhone 17 Pro are your go-to choices in the U.S.

Robbing a bank isn't something anyone should ever aspire to, but it's clear the fantasy of being a would-be bank robber is quite lucrative, given the nature of the Payday game series. The series is 15 years old this year and spans 3 entries, and I got a chance to play the new fourth entry with the game's developers for an hour on my Meta Quest 3 headset.

I've been a fan of the series since the beginning, particularly when hosting LAN parties at my house during the original's 2011 release, then again for several years after the 2013 sequel (plus a revival when Payday 2 added VR support years later). To say the new Payday: Aces High felt like a revival of the LAN party days (in all the best ways) is an understatement, and it brought back not only those joyful glory days of in-person multiplayer gaming, but a sense of comradery that few games manage to deliver.

The Payday concept is pretty straightforward: choose a mission, plan the heist, execute the plan, and get out with every team member intact. Of course, what seems like a fairly simple task is never simple, especially once the cops get called in and the stress piles on. Veteran VR developer Fast Travel Games is at the helm of this one, and I couldn't think of a better company to put in charge of Payday's first VR-only entry.

Planning a heist for dummies

Payday: Aces High branches from the main timeline and includes four new characters instead of the long list of folks from the mainline Payday series. In this game, you'll choose one of the Aces — the Ace of Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, or Spades — in a quest for revenge on billionaire Warren Jupiter, who landed the crew in jail a few years back.

At launch, Payday: Aces High features six missions with varying difficulties and a range of objectives to complete. Many objectives are randomized to ensure unique playthroughs. For example, you might find the keycode to the security room on a sticky note in a desk during one run on a mission, while another run on the same mission sees that key code written on a whiteboard in the breakroom.

Likewise, missions can be completed in numerous different ways. The ultimate goal is perform missions as stealthily as possible, as that always guarantees the greatest rewards at the end, but you can go in guns blazing, if you prefer. Just remember that the easiest exist are only available when no one is aware of your heinous acts.

A huge set of unlockable skills will also help change things up as you progress in the game. Starting out, it's going to just be you, a pistol, your AMCAR-4 Carbine Rifle, and three friends along for the ride. Communication is key in a game like this, and there's no downplaying the importance of studying the map of each area on the planning table ahead of a mission.

Because VR is so inherently good at communication and body language as a medium, planning and executing a heist feels like you're actually there doing the dirty deed. During one of the three missions I played during the hands-on event, one player used his grappling hook to get on the roof and sneak into the security room using the code another player found in the employee breakroom. It felt like an Oceans 11 heist played out in real time.

I also loved the new VR-centric mechanics and interactions. Drilling into the vault requires a "skill check" sort of minigame to hone the drill to the materials on the door, while opening safes requires you to deftly turn the dial left and right to the correct positions using a combination you find somewhere in the office.

The amount of replayability in this game is far beyond what I had expected, especially with the massive skill tree and equipment list available. I also loved that skills weren't just for you as an individual; there's an entire skill tree is devoted to team buffs, and plenty of skills that work just as well for you as an individual as they do for your team as a whole.

While I played this on my Meta Quest 3, the game is also available on Steam VR and will have official Steam Frame support with full crossplay between platforms. If you're lucky, you can join the beta test, which starts today, August 20. Otherwise, look forward to the game launching sometime in the next few months. I know I sure am!

For years, Google Pixel phones were considered to have the best smartphone cameras. That was especially true if you were taking pictures of objects in motion, like pets or kids, but things seemed to peak with the Pixel 8 Pro series. I called that camera the best in the business, but competitors have since eclipsed it.

Now that the Pixel 11 Pro is out and includes a new ISP, upgraded hardware, and a ton of new software features and enhancements, Google is coming back to claim its crown, and it's mostly successful in this task.

It begins with a little magic

Of all the new features, Magic Capture is by far my favorite. Two and a half years ago, Honor debuted a similar feature that would automatically take photos based on facial expressions and motion, and Google is redefining that feature with something a little more predictable (and user-friendly).

Magic Capture can be accessed via the third button on the bottom bar in the camera viewfinder, making it a separate main mode from photography or video recording. That's because it combines both of these modes into one, giving you a full video of your photo session, plus highlight photos chosen specifically by Gemini.

Since this is run by AI, it's not going to take photos at the same time you might want, but it's probably going to catch something unexpected you might have missed if you were taking photos manually.

During the capture session, you can change zoom levels and even take manual photos at points where you want to ensure a photo gets saved. Magic Capture can be used in portrait or landscape orientations. It's easily my favorite camera feature in years, and truly a great reason to buy a Pixel 11 Pro.

Loving that fine detail

One of my favorite things about Pixel photos is the fine detail present in places most smartphone cameras miss. Too many companies try to make pictures look "perfect" by scrubbing away all the noise, but this results in photos that look artificial or "watercolor-like." The Pixel 11 Pro rarely makes this mistake.

In the two examples above, you'll see what I'm talking about. At 1x, the iPhone 17 Pro Max and Google Pixel 11 Pro photos look nearly identical, but zoom in a bit, and you'll see some stark differences. The iPhone's noise-canceling algorithm scrubs all the texture off those bricks, making them look fake and sterile. In the Pixel 11 Pro's photos, the bricks show their natural texture, and the photos look excellent.

This also gives the Pixel 11 Pro's photos a more film-like quality than the overly digital look most smartphones aim for, making them feel more authentic.

Picture-perfect portrait

For the past several years, Google Pixel phones have had arguably the worst portrait quality among major brands. Edge blurring was a mess, and Google's software, puzzlingly, had difficulty understanding where the subject ended and the background began. This year, that's completely changed, and I'm happy to report that Google's portraits are finally competitive again.

It seems the true problem here was a combination of camera hardware and the ISP (Image Signal Processor). As you can see above, the Pixel 10 Pro's shot is a mess, with weird edge blurring and messy cutouts around my hat. The Pixel 11 Pro's shot has none of that, and it looks fantastic.

The selfie camera also looks much better this year compared to the Pixel 10 Pro's, which regularly suffered from a weird digital/pixelated look. You probably don't zoom into selfies all that much, but if you ever find youself doing it, they'll look much nicer on a Pixel 11 Pro.

Telephoto me a story

Last year, I was extremely disappointed by the Pixel 10 Pro's telephoto camera. It often snapped blurry photos — something Pixel phones historically haven't had a problem with — and the overall zoom detail failed to match that of phones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra. This year, things are more competitive, but the Pixel 11 Pro still falls short of most Chinese brand smartphones (Honor, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi).

Across the hundreds of photos I've taken so far for this review, I've noticed a few trends between these phones. The Honor Magic 8 Pro often captures the most detail and offers the widest usable zoom range, but it tends to slightly overexpose shots and is a bit too vibrant. The iPhone 17 Pro Max tends to be the weakest telephoto camera, and Apple's processing is a little less aggressive with sharpening.

The Google Pixel 11 Pro sits in the middle ground between these two, often delivering more detail than the iPhone but less than the Honor. It also seems to have better overall exposure values in these shots, giving it a more natural look. The iPhone tops out at 40x zoom, though, so let's take a look at what happens beyond that.

At 30x and beyond, the Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro, and Honor Magic 8 Pro all allow you to use generative AI to enhance shots. For the most part, I find that this helps provide believable detail to images, so long as you don't zoom in too far.

The Honor Magic 8 Pro's larger telephoto sensor already pulls in more detail than the Pixel 11 Pro's, giving it an advantage right off the bat. The difference in detail and overall quality between these phones is obvious in the photos above, and it's here where Google loses to Chinese OEMs who use better hardware.

But at 120x zoom, things are more competitive. Since this zoom level is a bit silly anyway, I'm not taking much stock in the performance, but it's fun to look at the differences in each company's AI algorithms. Clearly, Honor understands what a roof texture is supposed to look like, but Google apparently knows how to get other building details just right.

A good year for Pixel cameras

Magic Capture is by far my favorite new camera feature of the last several years, making photo sessions fun and effortless for everyone. It's a perfect evolution of the shot-framing feature from last year and a great example of how AI can help people in everyday situations.

Overall, the Pixel 11 Pro's camera is quite excellent, and while the telephoto performance is still a bit disappointing at times, it's better than most of the competition here in the U.S., which is likely what Google is aiming for, anyway.

The Pixel Watch 6 is likely a year away, but it's never too early to speculate about what Google could be cooking up for its next smartwatch. Of course, we'll take a look at what we might expect based on the current Pixel Watch 5, Google's latest smartwatch.

The Pixel Watch 5 may not bring many hardware upgrades; it comes with compelling software that should appeal to health-conscious and fitness enthusiasts. Even so, the Pixel Watch 5 may not be the upgrade consumers were looking for, which is where the Pixel Watch 6 could come into play.

Here's what we know so far and what we hope to see in the Pixel Watch 6.

Price and availability

The Pixel Watch has always been an expensive smartwatch, but Google raised the price for the first time in the smartwatch's history with the Pixel Watch 5. The watch starts at $399, which is $50 more than its predecessors. This may be due in part to rising memory costs resulting from the RAM crisis, which is expected to last through 2027 and likely into 2028.

That means we can expect the Pixel Watch 6 to start at $399, at least for the smaller Bluetooth/Wi-Fi model, while larger sizes and LTE models will cost even more.

Performance gains where they count

The Pixel Watch 5 features more or less the same chip as its predecessor, although the "Accelerated" chip promises a 20% boost in performance, which isn't nothing. This should help the Pixel Watch 5 run AI features faster, though we admit we were hoping for something a bit more "Elite" for a $400 smartwatch.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear Elite already powers the Galaxy Watch 9 and supports powerful on-device AI, better power efficiency, faster charging, and enhanced connectivity options like 5G RedCap.

This is the type of chip we expect to see in Google's Pixel Watch 6. Even if it's already a year old by the time the Pixel Watch 6 arrives, it should still be more than enough and adequate for the types of AI experiences Google is trying to provide on its smartwatch.

I would like to see larger batteries in the Pixel Watch 6, although I can easily get two days of use per charge with the Pixel Watch 4, and the Pixel Watch 5 has a very slightly larger battery capacity, so I expect the experience to be roughly the same. If Google can figure out how to squeeze larger batteries into the watch, as OnePlus has, perhaps we could be looking at a 3- or 4-day battery life?

Wear OS and Android XR

The Pixel Watch 6 should arrive with Wear OS 8 in tow, although we don't yet know what to expect from Google's next major smartwatch update. Wear OS 7 is already pretty fully featured with new widgets (to replace Tiles), Gemini Intelligence, and improved health and fitness capabilities.

What we don't expect is a major visual overhaul, as Material 3 Expressive is still pretty new on watches. However, Google could update some UI elements, perhaps making widgets more customizable, as Samsung's One UI Watch allows users to stack multiple widgets in a single view.

That said, we expect a greater emphasis on AI, perhaps with more on-device AI, especially if the watch is powered by the Snapdragon Wear Elite.

Google is expected to roll out Android XR glasses with Samsung later in 2026, and with them will come Wear OS-specific features that allow the watch to connect to and even control the glasses. With Android XR becoming more widely available for consumers, I expect future versions of Wear OS to build on these experiences, although it's unclear how until we get the first batch of glasses out in the wild.

Pixel Watch Pro?

We've seen the same batch of Pixel Watches for years now, but we hope to see something akin to a Pixel Watch Pro in future models. Like the Pixel Pro series, this would offer higher specs and additional features not found on the base Pixel Watch 6, such as more storage and RAM.

This could also include a new design, perhaps something a bit more rugged than the current models. Google has proven it can make a beautiful watch, but the glass dome doesn't exactly inspire confidence in people who like to go hiking, rock climbing, or even diving.

Google should emulate what Samsung and Apple have done with smartwatches like the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, giving consumers a more rugged build, larger batteries, and features tailored to outdoor experiences.

Perhaps the best part of owning a Pixel is that the phone is better a year in than on the day it launched. Google has very successfully made a name for itself in the industry with Pixel Drops, a set of quarterly updates delivered to Pixel phones alongside monthly security updates and annual operating system updates.

After a year with the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, I can confidently say this phone is better now than it was last August, but that comes with some caveats along the way. Considering the rising prices of electronics these days, it very likely makes more sense to buy a Pixel 10 this year than a Pixel 11.

While the Pixel 11 is launching with several new features that might make Pixel 10 owners jealous, there is very little doubt in my mind that the vast majority, if not all, of these new features will come to the Pixel 10 Pro XL.

But this past year hasn't been without its problems for the Pixel 10 series, and a series of very serious, problematic software updates follows a trend Google simply shouldn't be proud of. One of the reasons I didn't recommend the Pixel 10 series last year was its bad software update track record, and Google did nothing to help that image this year. Let's explore the best and worst of the Pixel 10 after one year, shall we?

Start with the bad

I'm going to get the bad out of the way because it's really bad. Ever since the Pixel 6, Pixel phones have been a bit... buggy. Most of the time, a reboot fixes the issues, or, in a worst-case scenario, you have to wait a month or two for Google to patch them. But March 2025 marked the start of a trend in the wrong direction. I even wrote a guide on how to roll back your firmware at the time.

Somehow, the Pixel 10 series may have had the most update issues I can recall with a Pixel phone to date. For the first several months, Google continuously worked on weird graphical issues for the Pixel 10. Touch responsiveness and battery drain issues followed in January, and the patch even completely broke Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

And then the really big problems began. Google's March 2026 update seemed to finally put an end to the GPU issues users had dealt with since launch, but it also bricked many Pixel 10 units. So many users reported the problem that the initial bug report hit the maximum number of comments, while the follow-up report is now 230 comments deep as of August 10.

This very scenario is something I was concerned about going into the Pixel 10's release, and Google has done little to assuage my fears about recommending its devices. The problem mainly seems to come down to Google's update cadence. With very rare exceptions, Pixels get an OS update every month. In my opinion, this is too much and doesn't allow enough time for proper QA testing.

I wrote as much about Meta Quest headsets in April 2025, as the same kinds of issues kept popping up with every monthly software update. Quarterly or even bimonthly software updates make much more sense and would certainly give Google more time to test devices properly before rolling them out to the public.

At this point, there is zero likelihood that I would recommend Pixels to anyone, given Google's abysmal track record of software update stability. It's time for Google to take this seriously and fix a brand-killing problem.

Mellow it out a bit

Google has shied away from promoting its phones as top performers, and I said as much in my Pixel 10 Pro review. Some games are fine on this phone, while others aren't. That hasn't changed at all in a year.

But we did see some software changes toned down a bit compared to Google's initial marketing. Pixel Daily Hub was removed just a few weeks after launch, and while Google said the feature would come back better than ever, that never happened. Instead, it looks like we got Gemini Daily Brief, a feature I enjoy using every morning, but not one that's Pixel-exclusive, and it's also not quite the same as what Daily Hub was.

Google also removed Pixel Studio, the AI-generated image creation suite that shipped with every Pixel 10. Ironically, Google did this right before Apple announced an identical AI-powered image generation app for iOS 27.

Now for some better news

If you made it this far (and I'm impressed you did, to be honest), then you're about to get a lot happier about the Pixel 10's future. Let's start with Magic Cue, a feature hyped during the Pixel 10's launch that turned out to be far less exciting than most hoped for. Google put major work into the feature, and it's being relaunched as Gemini Proactive Intelligence with the Pixel 11 series and Android 17.

Google also debuted Material 3 Expressive in the Pixel 10 Pro's first big update, further improving the look and feel of Pixels, with additional apps and settings windows getting the update a few months later. Google then debuted AI-powered notification summaries in October 2025, and Pixel Theme Packs a month later.

Subsequent updates gave us custom AI-generated icons, followed by a working desktop mode and a brand new notification organizer. Then, in 2026, we got Gemini automation (albeit not a Pixel-exclusive feature), lock screen widgets, and the rather awesome Comfort View Filters to reduce visual stimulation.

Yeah, it's been a monumental year of jam-packed updates, often delivered via Pixel Drops each quarter. Assuming you weren't one of the people who experienced major problems with your Pixel 10 after an update, you were probably extremely happy with Google's support for its phones.

Which brings me back to what I said in the intro: the Pixel 10 Pro is a better phone today than it was on launch day, and that's not just because Google introduced a boatload of new features. It's also because the company wasn't shy about pulling back features that weren't worthwhile and then reintroducing them when they were improved.

Here's hoping that the problematic updates we've seen over the past year for this phone are gone and, in their place, updates we can actually look forward to installing. Otherwise, I'm not entirely convinced people will want to keep returning to the Pixel brand.

Google's Tensor designs have been underwhelming to say the least. Unlike Qualcomm and MediaTek, Google prioritizes the TPU, so you don't quite get the same level of performance as other high-end mobile platforms. This has been a constant source of annoyance over the last four years, and while Pixels aren't necessarily slow by any measure, they don't handle extended gaming or any sustained intensive workload — like shooting a 30-minute 4K video — all that well.

Thankfully, there's a lot to like in the Tensor G6 that's powering the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, 11 Pro XL, and the 11 Pro Fold; it addresses a lot of the lingering issues with Google's hardware efforts. I'll share detailed benchmarks of the Tensor G6 in a little while, but ahead of that, I want to talk about what's new with the underlying hardware this year, and why the G6 is a better choice than previous generations.

The Tensor G6 does a much better job in everyday tasks

There are two things with the Tensor G6 that make it stand out: a switch to Arm's latest mobile cores, and a new MediaTek modem. I'll start with the latter; if you've used a Pixel in the past, you would've noticed intermittent connectivity issues.

Google went with a Samsung modem in previous years, and the kindest thing I can say about it is that it didn't consume too much power. It wasn't anywhere close to what Qualcomm and MediaTek were offering when it came to connectivity, so I'm glad to see Google making the move to a MediaTek modem this year — this in itself should resolve a lot of the hardware bugbears that plagued Pixels. Google doesn't mention the MediaTek modem, only stating that Pixel 11 devices include "the most power-efficient modem ever on a Google Pixel, delivering a reliable connection and strong signal reception."

The other part is the new cores; Google went with Arm's latest C1-Ultra and C1-Pro this generation. But unlike the traditional eight-core design, Google is using seven cores in total, and that's something we usually only see with foldables. It could be that the additional space is utilized by the TPU.

Still, Google says the Tensor G6 is 25% faster at browsing and delivers up to 20% better power efficiency against last year's G5. That's encouraging, and it should mean the Pixel 11 models have increased fluidity in daily use. I'll share findings after testing the phones, but it's good to see the G6 isn't hobbled in this area.

Other positives include a dedicated Titan M3 security module, and a new vapor chamber that should ensure the phones don't overheat. The only annoyance is that this cooling tech is limited to Pro models, so the standard Pixel 11 misses out in this regard.

While earlier leaks pointed to Google using a new 2nm node — which would drive efficiency gains — that isn't the case. The Tensor G6 is still using the same 3nm node as the rest of the industry, so there isn't anything different in how it is fabricated.

But it still isn't ideal for gaming

Now, where things get interesting is with the GPU. Google is using a PowerVR CXTP this year, and it isn't likely to deliver much in the way of gains over the Tensor G5. This is annoying, as it means another year where Pixels don't quite measure up when it comes to high-end gaming.

There are plenty of high-quality ports available on Android, and Play Pass has a decent selection of titles you can install and play. The biggest issue with Pixels is sustained gaming; with aggressive throttling and thermal limits, you'll notice jitter a lot sooner than other phones, and this was the case on the Pixel 10 Pro XL even with a new thermal management system. I will be testing the G6 to see if there's a difference on the Pixel 11 Pro XL, but based on the hardware at least, it's unlikely that things have changed this year.

Google built one of the best AI-focused mobile platforms

Where the Tensor G6 has its best gains is the TPU. Google notes that it has a 50% more powerful TPU, and it's able to drive everything from Gemini Intelligence, the new Instant Night Sight camera mode and 120x zoom on the Pro models, and Live Translate.

Google is all-in on AI, and its phones reflect that. The new Gemini Nano model combined with the extensive suite of software features make the Pixel 11 models stand out when it comes to on-device AI, and it's clear that this is where the brand sees real differentiation.

I really wanted Google to use a 2nm node and deliver better sustained gaming, but it looks like we'll need to wait another generation before we get the same. As it stands, the Tensor G6 does enough against its predecessors, and while it may not be quite as powerful as Qualcomm and MediaTek rivals, it is a better sight than the G5 and G4.

Google made a few changes to the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, and the result is a foldable that's lighter, faster, and has a better main camera than last year's Pixel 10 Pro Fold. However, with other brands rolling out foldables with sleeker designs, bigger batteries, and high-res camera systems — the Find N6 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra are thinner, last longer, and take better photos — Google needs to do better with its 2027 launches.

This year's release is tame by industry standards, and while details are light on the Pixel 12 Pro Fold, there are a few things we can easily guess, and I'd like to see a few features on next year's foldable. I'll update this post regularly as and when new leaks emerge, but for now, this is what I'd like to see with the Pixel 12 Pro Fold.

Google Pixel 12 Pro Fold: Pricing and availability

Google increased pricing across the board this year, and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold debuted at $1,899. It's a given that the Pixel 12 Pro Fold will launch at the same price — should things with the memory shortages continue as it is.

There are indications that suggest an even greater shortage next year thanks to memory makers selling out their inventory already, and if that's the case, 2027 could prove to be a difficult upgrade cycle, with brands having to raise prices. Regardless, I'm tracking memory trends, and will be monitoring how this evolves over the next 12 months.

As for when Google may launch the Pixel 12 Pro Fold, it should be around the same time next year. It's clear that an August launch window is a good time to release phones, and I have no reason to believe Google is switching things up in this regard next year.

Google Pixel 12 Pro Fold: What I want to see

I like the design of the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, and I want Google to continue using the same aesthetic — Pixels have a distinct visual styling, and it doesn't make sense to deviate from that. Also, I like the rounded design better than other foldables, and it makes using the Pixel 11 Pro Fold a little easier.

That said, Google needs to deliver a thinner and lighter design next year. While the Pixel 11 Pro Fold is lighter, it is still 239g, and that's at least 20g heavier than most other foldables. I get that Google is touting IP68 dust and water resistance as a unique differentiator — most other foldables only do IP48 — but that advantage is nullified if the phone is too heavy to use comfortably. With the Pixel 12 Pro Fold, I want Google to make a foldable that's under 220g.

Then there's the battery situation. The main reason Google was able to bring down the weight this year is because of the smaller 4,800mAh battery. This means the Pixel 11 Pro Fold has the unwelcome distinction of being the only foldable with a battery under 5,000mAh. While Google touts efficiency gains with the Tensor G6 as a way to deliver the same battery life as the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, that just isn't enough in 2026, and the Pixel 12 Pro Fold needs to do better.

Lastly, there's the cameras. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold gets a new main camera, but the auxiliary lenses are unchanged, and Google has to deliver better cameras next year. Other brands have made better strides in this area, and Google needs to measure up. What's annoying is that the Pixel 11 Pro Fold misses out on some of the new camera features that the Pixel 12 Pro has — including 120x zoom — and Google needs to address these shortcomings next year.

Samsung did a thing this year, making its foldables exciting again with the launch of the smaller, wider Galaxy Z Fold 8. It's basically the little brother of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, a larger foldable that follows the taller and more square design of its predecessors.

Apparently, the smaller Galaxy Z Fold 8 is very popular, as Samsung has highlighted a dramatic increase in preorders and has reportedly ramped up production. But should you buy the Galaxy Z Fold 8? Here are my thoughts after spending a few weeks with the phone and extensively testing its camera.

Why you should buy the Galaxy Z Fold 8

It really is the perfect size

I have an affinity for flip phones and have used one as my go-to. I like that they're small and pocketable, though they tend to be quite thick when folded. On the flip side, I tend not to care for larger book-style foldables, as they are quite tall and only open to a larger, square-ish display.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 feels like a Goldilocks foldable, adopting the smaller size of a flip phone while offering the utility of a book-style foldable when open. It's actually the size of my passport when closed, and it's incredibly lightweight and easy to slip in my pocket. I honestly didn't think I would like the Fold 8 until I held it in my hand and something just clicked.

Open it, and it feels more like a tablet than traditional foldables, which I think adds to its appeal.

Additionally, both displays are gorgeous, vibrant, and easy to see outdoors. It also helps that the inner display is basically creaseless. Sure, you can see the crease from certain angles and depending on how the light hits it, but if you run your finger across it, it's pretty much not there.

If Apple really is working towards releasing a foldable, this should be the blueprint.

Multitasking and media

One of the most awkward things about multitasking on larger book-style foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is that they don't always handle multitasking as well as they should. Samsung's One UI can open three apps at the same time in a split-screen view, but due to the square-ish aspect ratio, only one app is open in full view on one side of the display, while the other two are split in half on the other side.

However, what I love about the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is that you can run three full apps side by side or in a row, which makes it feel more like a tablet than its larger sibling.

What also helps is how the Galaxy Z Fold 8 handles media and content. Ebooks look great on the inner display, whether you read them in landscape or portrait orientation. Videos also look much better on the inner display than they do on the larger Ultra. They aren't any bigger when open full screen, but the black bars on the top and bottom are smaller.

It also handles vertical videos from TikTok and Instagram better, since you can rotate the phone in a portrait orientation. And you can always watch horizontal videos or videos on the external display, which also look great in either orientation and better fill the 16:10 aspect ratio.

Performance and cool AI features

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, which is currently the most powerful mobile processor on the market. It's paired with 12 or 16GB of RAM, depending on your storage configuration, so there's little issue with performance. It is a flagship, after all, and it handles graphics-intensive games like Honkai: Star Rail quite well.

You'll also get plenty of cool AI features like My FanCam, which lets you reframe a video by focusing on a subject, making it the perfect way to share memories with friends or on social media. You also get plenty of Gemini Intelligence features, such as the ability to let the AI order food or book rideshares and hotels for you, and many of the Galaxy AI features can be processed on-device to keep your data as private as possible.

And the AI gets even more proactive by suggesting actions for you based on the context of your conversations, such as surfacing relevant photos for you to share, scheduling information, or your location.

The only downside I've noticed is that it can get a bit warm if you're gaming for an extended period, but this is lessened if you're using a Galaxy Z Fold 8 case.

Price (it's cheaper than the Ultra)

Foldables aren't cheap, but the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a couple of hundred dollars cheaper than the Galaxy Z Fold Ultra. If you're trying to choose between the two, price is definitely something to consider, especially since you get roughly the same performance, storage and RAM options, seven-year software promise, and mostly the same feature set. And for the extra couple hundred that you save, you can get yourself some extras, like Qi2 charging accessories.

Why you shouldn't buy the Galaxy Z Fold 8

Price (it's still expensive)

That said, $1,900 isn't cheap, and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is still a very expensive phone. Yes, I do love this phone, but I'm not sure if I would spend that kind of money on any smartphone (that's more than what I pay for rent in Seattle, WA).

If you're willing, you can always trade in an older phone or try to take advantage of Galaxy Z Fold 8 deals. Buying from carriers also makes it easy to spread the cost over time, but the fact of the matter is that you're paying nearly $2,000 for a smartphone.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is still better

For just $200 more, you can get a technically better phone. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra offers larger displays, a bigger battery, and a better camera system that incorporates a 200MP wide and 10MP telephoto sensor.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra also supports the Flex Panel, a handy One UI feature that turns the bottom half of the display into a keyboard or shows various controls when the phone is folded at an angle, depending on the context of what's on the upper half of the display.

So, it's up to you to decide if the $200 upgrade is worth it.

Cameras are meh

I really wanted to like the cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold 8, but they're just okay. You get two 50MP sensors that produce decent images, but they tend to lack vibrancy and detail compared to other similar camera systems. I tested the Galaxy Z Fold 8 camera against the Razr Ultra 2026 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and the latter two phones produced more pleasing images of the same scenes.

It also doesn't do particularly well in low light, can be a little noisy, and zoom images lack detail compared to other cameras. Given the lack of a telephoto camera, that's understandable, but that adds to why you might wanna splurge for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

No S Pen support

If you're hoping for a return of the S Pen to foldable phones, you'll be disappointed with the Galaxy Z Fold 8. Unfortunately, the S Pen remains elusive on Samsung's foldables once again. It's a strange omission, especially given that Motorola now supports an active stylus on the Razr Fold and Samsung continues to include an S Pen with the Galaxy S Ultra models.

It kinda feels like a waste of all that screen real estate, even though it would make for a great canvas and note-taking device, especially with the minimal crease.

The Google Pixel 11 marks another year in which Google is reusing the design started with the Pixel 9 series, but if history is any indication, we could see a big shake-up with the Pixel 12.

Google's Pixel phones have been gaining traction in the market over the past few years, owing to Google's "iPhone-like" approach to the series hardware design and software leanings. Even Google's marketing looks a lot more like Apple's these days, but we're hoping Google continues to maintain its historic spirit of innovation in the next round of devices.

And that's where Pixel 12 comes in. Pixel phones have looked the same for the past three years, but they've always packed an experimental surprise that keeps everyone guessing. From squeezable sides to radar-powered gesture sensors, and even the new HiLight LED on the back of the Pixel 11, it's a wonder what Google will think up next. Let's explore all the leaks and rumors for Google's next device and see what they have cooking, shall we?

Price and availability

We fully expect the Google Pixel 12 family to debut next August, following a similar release cadence to the past few Pixels. Per one leak, Google will likely continue releasing four models for the Pixel 12 family: the base Pixel 12, the Pixel 12 Pro, the larger Pixel 12 Pro XL, and the foldable Pixel 12 Pro Fold.

Unless something drastically changes over the course of the next year, there's also a high likelihood that each model will see another price increase. RAM and storage are at a premium right now, and prices are expected to continue to rise throughout 2027 (and maybe beyond) as AI data centers hog the world's supply of RAM and storage modules. The trickle-down effect is more expensive consumer electronics, which everyone is familiar with at this point.

Spec bumps galore

Every year, people expect the usual spec bumps to occur. A faster processor, better battery life, faster charging speed, etc. So far, Google has always met that expectation, albeit Tensor processors have always been slower than competing chips from Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Samsung Exynos.

While we don't know too much about the Tensor G7 processor that will likely power the Google Pixel 12 series, a few leaks give us some clues as to what's possible on the next chip. First up is a potential RAM upgrade (via Reptalica), with Google reportedly testing out LPDDR5x and LPDDR6 versions of Tensor G7. Looking at the numbers over the years offers a sneak peek at what this could bring:

• Pixel 1 (LPDDR4): ~4.2Gbps
• Pixel 2-5 (LPDDR4X): ~4.2Gbps (same speed, lower power requirements)
• Pixel 6-7 (LPDDR5): ~6.4Gbps
• Pixel 8-11 (LPDDR5x): ~10.6Gbps
• Pixel 12 (LPDDR6 rumored): estimated ~14.4Gbps

Given the state of RAMageddon and the chipset crisis right now, it's entirely plausible that Google will remain with LPDDR5x for one more year just to save on costs. Still, we can hope for a sizable Tensor speed boost in 2027 if the cards line up right.

Next, we're looking at a potential battery capacity upgrade for the Pixel 12, if one comment from a Google rep holds any water. When asked about silicon-carbon batteries during the Pixel 11 event, a Google representative said the Pixel team was looking into implementing them.

Now, that comment doesn't say the company will definitely implement silicon-carbon into future Pixel batteries, and it doesn't specifically say Pixel 12, either. However, given that Samsung just began using 5% silicon-carbon content in the batteries on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra, the likelihood that Google follows suit next year is pretty darn high.

What I'd like to see

Google once again is using an outdated PowerVR GPU in the Pixel 11, a mistake the company made with the Pixel 10 and appears not to have learned from. On the Pixel 12, we're hoping Google uses a modern GPU that supports the latest Vulkan standards and delivers the gaming performance people expect from $1,200+ phones.

I'd also like to see Google switch up the design to make it more ergonomic. For years and years, Pixel phones were known for their comfortable, rounded edges and contoured lines that fit nicely in a human hand. With the Pixel 9, Google went a very flat route all around, once again going with a very iPhone-like look.

Google has historically stuck with a specific design language for 2-3 years at a time, so if history repeats itself again, we should be in for a big redesign with the Pixel 12.

Additionally, I'd like to see Google take flicker accessibility more seriously. Pixel phones have had the worst PWM dimming rate for years, and while the Pixel 11 sports the same "sensitive eyes" feature that launched on some Pixel 10 models, that setting still doesn't go far enough in solving the problem for flicker-sensitive people like myself.

Google generally does a great job with bespoke accessibility features, like the amazing sign-language-to-text tool that launched with the Pixel 11, and I know they can get this one right if they want to.

Lastly, I'd love to see HiLight be a little more...interesting. I got super excited about the Pixel Glow leaks and what we thought was a tease at Google I/O in May, and it turned out to be a tiny LED on the camera island instead of a glowing statement. HiLight is also very basic so far, at least as of the Pixel 11's launch, so any improvement here is sorely needed to make this a useful (or even just interesting) feature.

It'll be some time before we see an official Pixel 12 announcement, but I'm fully expecting plenty of leaks to happen over the next several months. That's always been the case with Pixels, and there's no reason to think that'll dry up this time.

I LOVE my DJI Pocket 3, and since I bought it over two years ago, it has completely replaced two expensive full-frame cameras. Why? Convenience.

When you’re trying to create content – especially for social media – convenience matters. The DJI Pocket 3 is much, much smaller than a full-frame camera, but it’s still another device that you have to carry. Yet its value and popularity show that the category has the potential to delight customers, whether or not they’ve used a gimbal.

Building on this, the Honor Robot Phone takes smartphone cameras a huge step forward. Imagine the DJI Pocket 3 paired with a great smartphone camera like the Honor Magic 8 Pro, and you have one of the most unique smartphone cameras ever made. I went hands-on, and here’s why it’s so interesting.

The Honor Robot Phone is built for solo creators

Most people who create content do NOT have a large team following and filming them.

Gimbals like the Pocket 3 have long featured a mode with facial recognition and object tracking, and the Honor Robot Phone is no different. Like my Pocket 3, it can lock itself onto a face – whether near or far – and pan and tilt as needed to ensure the subject remains front and center,

That’s a considerable achievement given that the gimbal component size is around 65% smaller than a regular gimbal, but the Honor Robot Phone also features a much larger viewfinder in the form of the big screen, and everything else that makes it a flagship smartphone.

This is further complemented by the case in the box, which comes with a magnetic kickstand attached that ensures you can stand the phone up and have the camera follow you wherever you are, no additional tripod needed.

ARRI helps your creative juices flow

However, the Robot Phone also goes further in a way that surprised me: the partnership with ARRI, a designer of film and broadcast cameras for over 100 years.

The partnership doesn’t just improve the color science of all photos; it goes considerably further with a host of filters and effects designed to help you create the perfect look directly from the camera.

This is my first experience with ARRI, but I was quite impressed by the variety of options and the range of effects you can add while filming. You can also film entirely in LOG, and there's a range of preview filters in different styles, so you can see how your LOG footage will likely look after editing. The only downside is that you can't easily edit the filters after capture.

The upside? You get a gimbal built into a smartphone with a huge screen, which acts as a huge viewfinder.

The Robot Phone is also a flagship smartphone

Here's what's easy to forget, at least when using the gimbal: the Honor Robot Phone is a flagship smartphone. That means you get everything that makes the best Android phones; Honor is primarily known for making smartphones, and the Robot Phone delivers the same experience as other flagship Honor phones.

The Pocket 3 doesn't offer the fastest menu navigation or the fastest feature changes, and even newer gimbals like the Pocket 4 and Insta 360 Luna aren't much faster. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 means the Robot Phone is quick to switch features and navigate menus, making it far more enjoyable to use as well.

Then there's MagicOS, Honor’s software akin to Android 16. The Robot Phone is exclusive to China, so the software includes the Yoyo assistant and lacks Google services, but otherwise it's quite enjoyable to use.

The two other standout features

There are two features that make the Robot Phone stand out for me: the screen and the camera system.

First, the 6.31-inch screen. It's smaller than most flagships, yet larger than every gimbal, but still ergonomically friendly given its size. It also has a 120Hz refresh rate, 4320Hz PWM dimming rate, and 6,800-nit peak brightness; in my brief time with it, the screen remained legible even under the harsh British afternoon sun.

The standout is the triple-camera setup. The 200MP main sensor has a smaller 1/1.28” sensor compared to the much larger 1-inch sensor found on the gimbal, and while this does show in footage, it's easily offset by the 200MP periscope telephoto — which offers 2.7x optical zoom and OIS — and the 50MP ultrawide. One of my biggest complaints about most gimbals is the lack of a true zoom, but the Robot Phone solves this.

The Robot Phone isn't perfect, but I really want one

After spending a couple of hours with it, I had one key takeaway: the Honor Robot Phone isn't a perfect gimbal, nor is it a perfect smartphone, but I really want one.

As someone who likes filming with a gimbal for on-camera footage, as well as b-roll of products with far less success, the Robot Phone gives me the gimbal experience in a phone that's 9.6mm thick, which is far more pocket-friendly than the Pocket 3, which measures 33mm thick.

As the adage goes, the best camera is the one in your pocket, and the Robot Phone is arguably the best for creators because it offers something that no other phone does. Now, let's see if the Robot Phone eventually launches outside China.

Google launched its brand-new Pixel 11 series and Pixel Watch 5 yesterday at 10 am, and then, eight hours later, re-announced the entire series in an awkward, 1.5-hour-long online presentation hosted by comedic sensation Trevor Noah.

The show was broadcast on YouTube, and at one point only 57,000 people were watching, but I think it did go up to 80,000. Comments were also turned off, and I’m not surprised why.

There were only two really amazing parts of the show: the first was when Joël Yawili, a Senior Product Manager for the Gemini app, appeared on the show, and the second was when the company announced a new accessibility feature called Sign-to-Text, which I’ll get to later.

I want to first focus on the show. There were some compelling moments when I thought it could have worked, but overall, I think what Google was trying to do wasn’t executed the way the company wanted.

Trevor Noah vs. Google

The whole point of a lifestyle show catered to consumers was to communicate how amazing Pixels are. And they are! In my hands-on with the Pixel 11 series, I wrote that the company has actually upped the game for AI on smartphones.

And asking Trevor Noah to host could have been a smart move.

But the whole show was a cringe fest. And I think it’s because you’re watching someone like Noah, who is super casual, a comedian who knows how to host a show, next to someone from Google who was clearly PR trained and was given a very specific script to follow.

Noah seemed bored, and at times seemed very uninterested in wanting to be there. He even tried to make a very obvious dick joke that clearly wasn’t well received by the Google product expert who was talking with him. The audience did laugh, though (and so did I).

What was Google trying to do with this event?

I think this show was a very obvious move by Google. It was a way to connect with consumers and help them understand their phones and what the new devices can do.

Traditionally, launch shows are hosted mostly to present to developers, tech enthusiasts, bloggers, influencers, and the media. And the message is then disseminated to the rest of the world through articles, photos, interviews, etc.

We’ve seen these shows evolve to something more spectacular, with special guests, celebrities, and even athletes to show off how they use these phones — all an effort to better connect with consumers. Because at the end of the day, that’s the biggest challenge for any tech company: How do you connect people with your product so they will buy it?

Last year was the first time that Google went completely out of the box, and to be fair, the company put on a pretty cool show. Jimmy Fallon hosted, and everything was pretty exciting… and it made sense because it was 10 years of the Pixel. So doing something spectacular was logical.

And I would have been completely fine if Google wanted to do the same thing again this year. What really threw me for a loop was the decision to host the show… eight hours after the phones were announced and made public.

At that point you’ve completely lost the audience. Consumers already know about the phones; they are reading our articles, they’re looking at what influencers are posting, and they have no real reason to go to a show, even one hosted by Trevor Noah.

While it makes sense to stream the event on YouTube, since Google controls the platform, a better move would have been to partner with a streaming service such as Netflix or Paramount Plus. An example of a showcase like this is Grand Theft Auto 6: An Extended Look, premiering on Netflix later this month, showing that this is clearly an avenue other companies are exploring to showcase new and upcoming launches.

It could even have been something short-lived, like WWE’s annual WrestleMania, which is now streamed on Netflix. And it could have been titled “Trevor Noah presents … the Google Pixel 11.”

The best parts of the show

For me, when Joël Yawili, a Senior Product Manager at Google, came on the show, there was a visible positive shift in the conversation. At first, Noah once again came across as uninterested and even said, “another demo,” almost as if he were really bored.

But when Yawili began to speak, he didn’t start with a script. He decided to shift the focus to a genuine connection he seemed to have with Noah: They grew up in the same town, it turns out. It also helped that Yawili seemed to genuinely care about the product he’s worked on. The entire interaction and demo truly made me smile.

I also loved how, in Yawili’s demonstration, he brought in a text conversation he was having with his mother, and the way he did it was so casual that it made me want to keep watching.

The second time the show hit for me was when Google showed off its new Sign-to-Text feature. Watching how it was demonstrated was fascinating, and the two individuals on stage really seemed interested in what they were doing and how this should have a huge impact on many people in the hard-of-hearing and -speaking community.

I’ll end this by saying I don’t think Google did a bad job; I just think it wasn’t thoroughly thought out. I think the show could have been executed a bit differently, and I think it shouldn’t have been done eight hours after the products were announced.

Google was doing the right thing by wanting to connect with consumers, and I think it can — just with a few tweaks. Are there patches for a live event?

Charging speed of the Pixel 11 Pro Fold has improved, but at a big cost

Google is boasting about how the Pixel 11 Pro Fold is the thinnest and lightest foldable it has produced, yet, but these gains have come at the cost of battery capacity. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold has a 4,750mAh battery, which is 265mAh less than the 10 Pro Fold. While the weight has dropped drastically to 239 grams (from 258 grams), it's still not as light as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra at 215 grams.

Battery life claims for the Pixel 11 Pro Fold seem to be the same as the 10 Pro Fold, where Google is promising "24+ hours" on one charge. Fast wired charging is the same as well as the previous model. The only real improvement that I can see if the addition of Qi2 (25W) wireless charging.

Google seems to be banking on the efficiency of the Tensor G6 SoC to make up for the loss in battery capacity, and I really hope it works out for its own sake. Google is on the back foot here when it comes to battery technology as Samsung and Motorola have both embraced silicon carbon battery tech for its respective 2026 foldables. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra packs a 5,000mAh battery capacity, while the Razr Fold has a 6,000mAh battery.

I think Google took a big gamble here, putting a smaller battery in the Pixel 11 Pro Fold. Given its long-standing struggle trying to get Tensor to play nice with apps and its history with temperamental updates, this could go either way. I'm not sure if the Pixel 11 Pro Fold will make it to the list of the best Google Pixel phones, but maybe it will do better next year.

Everything to know about the Google Pixel 11's battery and charging specs

Google unveiled the Pixel 11 series during its star-studded Made by Google event on August 12. Google is giving all three models a boost in battery life and wireless charging speeds, but it has also made some questionable changes to battery capacity in a few of them.

Let's start with the Pixel 11. Compared to the Pixel 10's 4,970mAh battery, the 11's battery gets a minor bump to 4,985mAh. Google now promises more than 30 hours of battery life for the 11, which is slightly higher than the 24 hour claim for the Pixel 10.

Fast charging time appears to be the same though as the Pixel 11 is rated to charge up to 55% in half an hour. Wireless charging speed for the Pixel 11 gets a big boost as it's now up to 25% faster, thanks to Qi2 (25W) support. The Pixel 10 only supported up to 15W Qi2 charging.

The Pixel 11 Pro gets a 4,850mAh battery, which is actually smaller than the Pixel 10 Pro's 4,870mAh battery, though not by much. Wired charging claims for the 11 Pro are similar to the Pixel 11, but wireless charging is now up to 29% faster when compared to the 10 Pro.

Lastly, the Pixel 11 Pro XL gets the biggest reduction in battery capacity, to 5,115mAh, compared to the 5,200mAh in the 10 Pro XL. That's a big 85mAh difference. Just like the 10 Pro XL, the 11 Pro XL can once again charge the quickest in a 30-minute dash, all the way up to 75%. Wireless charging speed has also improved up to 17% compared to the 10 Pro XL, but the latter already supported Qi2 (25W).

The slightly smaller battery capacities in the Pixel 11 Pro and 11 Pro XL doesn't seem to have affected Google's battery life claims, and I'm hoping the same is true during real-world usage as well. The improved efficiency claims of the Tensor G6 and faster wireless charging should help the Pixel 11 series become the best Google Pixel phones we've seen, yet.

Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold Qi2 wireless charging: Everything you need to know

After a barrage of leaks and rumors over the past few months, the Google Pixel 11 series is finally official. Just like last year, we have four top-tier smartphones, with the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold spearheading the line-up.

Even though it looks mostly identical to its predecessor, Google's newest foldable packs in a handful of noteworthy upgrades in comparison to the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Helmed by the new Google Tensor G6 SoC, the device is claimed to be capable of delivering faster AI-powered experiences and improved general performance, all while being up to 20 percent more power-efficient than the previous-gen silicon. You also get a slightly larger cover display that can now dial down its refresh rate to a mere 1Hz, just like the inner foldable screen. But of course, all this good stuff needs power to be actually useful, so the question is, what (if any) improvements have been made in the battery and charging department?

Well, for starters, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold packs a 4,750mAh battery, which is actually a downgrade compared to the 5,015mAh powerpack of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Even so, it's worth noting that we were impressed with the last-generation foldable's endurance, so we're quite hopeful things will be the same (if not better) this time around, considering the energy-efficient chipset. Wired charging speed has also remained unchanged at a maximum of 30W, and you'll still need to buy a USB-C wall charger powerful enough to deliver that much juice.

However, you'll be happy to know that the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold fully supports Qi2 magnetic wireless charging and is (unsurprisingly) compatible with Google's Pixelsnap ecosystem of accessories, and third-party offerings. More importantly, the foldable can be juiced up wirelessly at up to 25W due to compliance with the Qi2.2 standard; this is a nice upgrade over the 15W wireless charging speed of the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold.

All things considered, the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold seems (at least, on paper) to be a worthwhile contender to the recently introduced Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 duo, as well as other top-of-the-line foldable phones available in the market. That said, we'll reserve our verdict until we've put this thing through its paces.

Everything you need to know about Galaxy Z Fold 8 durability

First things first, no smartphone is completely waterproof. Many flagships are water resistant, but this does not mean they are fully protected against liquid ingress. Instead, the water-resistance level of a phone is measured using the International Protection (IP) standard. When you look at an IP rating like IP68 or IP69, the first digit signifies the device's dust protection while the second digit denotes the device's liquid protection.

IP68 and IP69 are currently the highest levels of the International Protection (IP) standard. The "6" in IP68 and IP69 means a device is completely dustproof. The number "8" as the second digit means a device can withstand submersion in up to 1.5 meters of freshwater depth for up to 30 minutes. The number "9" as the second digit in IP69 means a device could survive high-pressure and high-temperature water jets in addition to the submersion depth and duration specified by the "8" in IP68.

With that background in place, we can evaluate the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's IP48 certification. This rating means neither the Galaxy Z Fold 8 nor the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra are completely dustproof. Instead, both devices are merely protected against the ingress of dust particles larger than 1mm in size. But what about their water resistance?

The "8" in IP48 indeed means the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra both meet the highest International Protection (IP) level for submersion. Both phones can withstand submersion in up to 1.5 meters of freshwater for up to 30 minutes. Note that your mileage may vary with salt water submersion (like in the ocean) or chlorinated water submersion (like in a pool). Additionally, these phones do not support IPX9, meaning they are not protected against high-temperature or high-pressure water jets.

Keep in mind that water resistance is not a permanent condition. Samsung only guarantees IP48 certification when your device leaves the factory and arrives at your door. As the company explains in a support document, you can expect the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's water resistance to diminish over time.

To sum up, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra are highly water-resistant. However, this doesn't mean you should rush to use your foldables in the water. The phones' IP48 ratings only guarantee water resistance in specific conditions, and only at the time you buy them. Every drop wears down the rubber seals inside your phone that keep liquid out, and the seals degrade over time even if kept in perfect condition.

Google Pixel 11 Qi2 wireless charging support: Here's what you need to know

If you've been thinking about getting a flagship Android phone soon, you just got a few more fantastic options to select from, as the latest Google Pixel 11 series has arrived. The line-up includes three feature-loaded slab-style smartphones, as well as a premium foldable. As you'd expect, all the devices bring a bunch of upgrades over their respective predecessors, both in terms of hardware and software.

When it comes to external design, the Pixel 11, the Pixel 11 Pro, and the Pixel 11 Pro XL are dead ringers for the trio they succeed, right down to dimensions. Arguably the biggest "Hilight" (pun intended) here is the multi-colored ambient LED array on the camera bar. Exclusive to the "Pro" models, the LEDs glow softly to provide you visual cues for interacting with the phone when it's lying face down. All three devices are powered by Google's freshest Tensor G6 SoC, which is claimed to be up to 20 percent more energy-efficient over the previous-gen chipset. Even then, everything from the triple-lens camera setups to the bevy of AI-powered goodies needs juice to work, so let's talk about battery and charging.

While the Pixel 11 does have a bigger battery compared to the Pixel 10, the Pixel 11 Pro and the Pixel 11 Pro XL oddly have smaller powerpacks compared to the Pixel 10 Pro and the Pixel 10 Pro XL, respectively. Also, wired charging speeds continue to remain the same (up to 30W on the Pixel 11 and the Pixel 11 Pro, and up to 45W on the Pixel 11 Pro XL) on the trio, provided you have/buy a USB-C wall charger up to the task.

However, it's wireless charging where some improvements have been made. All three smartphones comply with the faster Qi2.2 standard and support up to 25W wireless charging speeds, which should result in quicker top-ups. Also, integrated magnets allow full compatibility with Google's Pixelsnap and a range of other Qi2 accessories.

These might seem like modest enhancements, but we have no doubt the Pixel 11 family still has more than enough to take on some of the best Android phones in the business. Once we review them thoroughly, we'll have a better idea about the overall performance of the three smartphones in everyday usage scenarios.

If you asked me a few years ago about my thoughts on foldable devices, I would have given you the stank face and said they suck. I would then proceed to convince you that foldable devices feel cheap and aren’t worth the money.

I have since completely changed my mind on them. In the past two years alone, I have seen some of the most premium-looking and feeling foldables on the market. And, while I think Google has always nailed it when it comes to their foldables, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold really isn’t a nominal difference from what it was last year.

I had some early hands-on time with the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, and while there are a few upgrades, overall, I thought the phone itself was pretty much identical to its predecessor.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: this is the year Google needs to focus on perfecting Gemini, and it did. I am glad that Google decided to really ensure that what you’re getting in the Pro models of the phones is what you’re really paying for.

Go thin or go home

This year’s trend across all companies making foldable devices is: how can we make our foldables even thinner? I much prefer a curvaceous body, but on a phone, I don’t want to compromise on thickness. The thinner the better, so long as the phone itself feels premium and comfortable.

The 11 Pro Fold is about 1mm thinner than its predecessor, which says one thing to me: companies are going to keep trying to push the boundaries to see how thin they can make a foldable without compromising on features.

You might not think this is going far enough, especially following the recent launch of the even thinner Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. However, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold still has some things going for it that the Ultra doesn’t have, such as built-in Qi2 magnetic charging, which definitely adds to its thickness.

But in addition to making the phone thinner, Google also launched the Pixel 11 Pro Fold in a new colorway. The beautiful Olive variant similar to the Pro and Pro XL models. And my god, the color is stunning. Holding it feels so sexy; it is truly a beautiful phone.

Crease? What crease?

Part of why I really didn’t like foldable devices in the past is because the inside screen has to be some sort of plastic; it can’t be glass; that is the only way it’s going to be a device that can fold. But I found that this felt so tacky and low-grade, and when you’re spending an arm and a leg for a device, why would you want a big screen that looked…cheap?

I can say without a doubt that the Pixel 11 Pro Fold’s crease is near non-existent. And even the actual feel of the screen feels so lush, premium, and gorgeous. After closing and opening the phone a few times, you can barely tell that there’s a crease, and I think that the phone itself feels so exquisite.

When folded laptop style on your desk, I can see how convenient it would be to watch YouTube videos and whatnot.

That said, using the Pixel 11 Pro Fold while folded flat still feels a bit awkward to me. I get the appeal of doing it; you have a much larger screen, and I think if you folded it flat and held it in your hands, you’d be fine. But when placed on a table, that protruding camera bump makes your camera feel like a wobbly table that annoyingly moves around when you’re sitting at it.

Features galore

Like the Pixel 11 Pro phones, the Fold will also get all of the same premium features that are super fun to use.

HiLight is going to be a fun feature to use when you want to ask Gemini something or when you get notifications. The feature itself is a small LED glowing light that emits from the LED module on the camera bar.

Google also highlights a new sign language-to-text feature for Google Translate, and while I didn’t get to try this during my hands-on, it’s a very compelling feature that should make Pixels much more accessible.

I can’t stop thinking about the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

It’s been a busy several weeks of new launches, and coming from just having played around with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra…I can’t help but say that I think that phone has my heart.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is much thinner than the Pixel 11 Pro Fold; it’s sleeker, and I actually think it looks and feels like a much more premium device than the Pro Fold. This isn’t me hating on the 11 Pro Fold at all… but when I was at my content capture, I couldn’t stop thinking about the Z Fold 8 Ultra.

I kinda felt like I was cheating on it with the 11 Pro Fold. I kept thinking about the beautiful deep purple color variant, and how gorgeous she was as a device.

Thinking so much about the Z Fold 8 Ultra and the smaller Fold 8 made me wonder if Google needs to think about how it plans on evolving the form factor of its foldable. And maybe that’s something the company wants to think about for 2027. Because I will say, as gorgeous as the 11 Pro Fold is, it’s still boring. And if I am thinking about a different device the whole time, then something is wrong.

I get excited every year when we know there’s going to be new Google Pixel phones. I'm even more excited about these phones because I consider them the base hardware for other Android OEMs to follow. I got to try Google’s new Pixel 11 series, and nearly everything about this year’s phones is perfect, except that nothing really has changed with the hardware. So you may be thinking…are these phones even worth it?

In my opinion, this year is the year Google really should be focusing on perfecting Gemini, and these phones are proof in the pudding. Google spent less time on hardware modifications and more time refining, tweaking, and perfecting Gemini.

I think that’s what the future of smartphones is going to be. You’re either going to gravitate towards a dumb phone that has no access to anything AI-related, or you’re going to want a phone that makes your life easier.

Here are my initial thoughts after spending some hands-on time with the Pixel 11 series.

• We already found the best Google Pixel 11 preorder deals so you don't have to

The Pro and Pro XL are Pro-ing and Pro XL-ing

Anytime anyone asks me about which Pixel device they should get, I always recommend going Pro over the base model. Why? Because why not? Because the Pro phones are spectacular: convenient, beautiful, and packed with tools that I promise will make you question why you haven’t gone Pro before. And you can get it in the same size as the base, so you might as well go Pro.

The Pro and Pro XL models are basically the exact same models as last year, but really what you’re paying for is the hardware improvements and software upgrades.

If you’re going to get one of these devices, go for the Canyon or Olive variant. Google knocked it out of the ballpark with the new color options. I’ve generally liked the regular black, but these colors are gorgeous, and I love them so much!

At my content capture in Toronto, Canada, I spent time watching how some of these new features came to life.

I think HiLight is a pretty cool feature, but was it absolutely necessary? Probably not. That being said, watching my Google rep show me how it works was pretty cool. The feature itself is a small glowing LED light that is emitted on the camera bar. It turns on when you trigger Gemini, and you can use it for notifications as well.

As the Pro XL was face down on the table, my Google rep spoke out, “Hey Google, can you tell me the weather in Toronto?” Flashing between white and blue as Gemini was thinking, it responded without my Google rep ever having to lift his phone.

With Pixel devices, my attention is usually on the camera, and this year the features are exceptional.

I know my colleague Nick Sutrich will particularly enjoy playing around with Magic Capture. This new feature captures a moving subject and breaks it down into a sequence of sharp, crystal-clear still photos.

I also found the new Translate Video in real time super fascinating. My Google rep showed me a video in Spanish, and as the woman started speaking, the voice I heard was that of a person who dubbed the video into English.

Finally, my absolute favorite feature just got a huge upgrade. Circle to Search in camera mode. You can now take a picture within the Camera and directly use Circle to Search, a very convenient feature.

I’ll also add that the new devices have even more zoom capabilities: the base has 30x zoom, while the Pro models have 120x zoom.

The Pixel 11 Pro starts at $1,099, which is $100 more than last year’s Pixel 10 Pro, but you also get more base storage at 256GB, so the pricing still matches last year’s. Meanwhile, the Pixel 11 Pro XL now starts at $1,299 for the same base 256GB storage, so it gets a bit of a price bump, which should be no surprise given the current industry trends.

The Pixel 11 is cute, vibrant, fun, and that’s really what it’s about

I can’t really say much about the base Pixel 11 model because it really didn’t feel like it changed much from previous years. What did catch my eye was the colors.

Google really outdid itself with the fun and vibrant colors. I’m not a huge fan of pink, but the bright magenta pink stood out, and to me, if you were to give your teenage kid or even a young adult one of these phones, then I approve!

While other companies have launched phones this year with mild and muted colors, which I love and appreciate, I think Google had a little fun this year, and I’m glad they did.

Why I never care for the base model is because if I’m going to spend the money on a phone, I want it to have Pro features, and the base model rarely gets them. That said, like the Pro models, the base model is powered by the Tensor G6 with 12GB of RAM, so you’ll still get many of the same features, with some exceptions. That includes the new Gemini Intelligence, which lets the AI handle tasks for you or make suggestions based on your interactions in Messages, At a Glance, and other areas.

However, you’re missing out on other features, like the 120x zoom and HiLight, to name a couple. So, if you're getting this phone for your kid and want them to have a good experience without spending too much or exposing them to too much AI, this is the phone they should be getting.

I think it’s time Google branched out to give people what they need — a Pixel Watch Pro. And I’m saying this because, after playing with the Pixel Watch 5, I’m not sure why the company keeps putting out a new version of the watch every year when not much has really changed.

I want to be very clear: I love the Pixel Watch. I mean, I broke the news that the very first Pixel Watch was found in a restaurant. So you can imagine my excitement when I see new Pixel Watches every year. But now it’s starting to get boring.

Not much has changed, nothing exciting is happening, and the number of Wear OS updates and upgrades doesn’t justify the price increase of the Watch.

Still the same watch

While the form factor of the watch remains the same, Google did come up with some new watch band colors, including olive-toned, magenta-toned, and frost-toned, to match the new Pixel 11 base colors.

Google also didn’t update its chip to the Snapdragon Wear Elite, as Samsung did with its Galaxy Watches. Instead, the new Pixel Watch 5 is still using the Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 “Accelerated,” which seems to be a boosted version of the same chip from the Pixel Watch 4.

The look and feel of the new watch is literally the same as the past two generations, and in my opinion nothing really has changed. That’s not fully a bad thing; the Pixel Watch is one of the more gorgeous smartwatches on the market. However, it’s starting to get bland, and something new needs to happen here.

New features might make the watch worth it

If you were to get the Watch 5, the only reason you should get it is because of the new Gemini and Wear OS features. And many of these features are probably going to take a while to trickle down to the other watches.

The new Insulin Resistance Trends and Blood Pressure Trends features are incredibly compelling. Both have never been on any Pixel Watch before, and both are active features to help monitor your health trends. When I was at my content capture, both features were not available to try out, as they were not ready yet. But I am certain that when the Watch is ready to be shipped, it will be available.

I will also note that my Google rep told me it takes about a month of daily tracking to get trend results, so even if that feature was there at content capture, it would be hard to test without at least 30 days of testing.

Android Central’s Derrek Lee is also very excited about the newly upgraded workout experience, which now includes weight and rep tracking as well as rest timers and a workout builder, making the Watch 5 a more well-rounded fitness companion.

Generative Watch Faces: Your next bff

Honestly, the thing I was most excited about was the new Generative Watch Faces feature. This feature is going to be so fun to play around with, and it uses Google’s Nano Banana to generate.

I tested the feature by asking the watch face to generate pink unicorns, and it actually did. It was super cute and fun, and I think this will be a game-changer for people who like custom watch faces and want to have fun with what their watch looks like.

It’s time for a Pixel Watch Pro

As much as I love the Pixel Watch, it’s time for Google to upgrade what it's doing. I like the new workout features and some of the other features I mentioned above, but I think it’s time Google launched a Pro version of its watches.

It could be something similar to the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 or the Apple Watch Ultra 3, a watch that is much more rugged and geared to serious workout enthusiasts or athletes. In my opinion, the watch could have a deeper focus on fitness and offer something even more compelling for those who would pay the money for it.

As an example, I currently own a Garmin Forerunner 970, and I sought out this watch because I am training for a half marathon. I knew that my training would involve deep stats and workout details that a regular watch might not suffice for. And I think it’s for this very reason Google needs to think about expanding its watch family.

I don’t hate the Pixel, and I think maybe after reading this you might think that, and that is far from how I feel. I love the Pixel; I think it is a robust watch with really great features, but Gen 5 feels boring and flat. I want something more, and I know Google is capable of it.

So, you need a pair of ANC earbuds. Recommendations usually start with the pairs that match your smartphone: AirPods, Pixel Buds, Galaxy Buds, OnePlus Buds, or Moto Buds. If you opt for a pair of ANC earbuds from a trusted audio brand instead, you're likely choosing between Sony and Bose. I've used both the Sony WF-1000XM6 earbuds and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (Gen 2) for months, and they're the best of the best when it comes to active noise-cancellation power.

But there can only be one best. So, I decided to take the flagship Sony and Bose earbuds to three noisy places to see how each one cancels out unwanted sound. This isn't a lab test or a benchmark — it's a real-world showdown that reflects how the Sony WF-1000XM6 earbuds and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (Gen 2) perform in everyday scenarios. While it was close, there was one pair of ANC earbuds I consistently preferred for its ANC power.

How the specs compare

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds (Gen 2) use eight onboard microphones — four per earbud — to cancel out sound. Bose is using new AI-powered algorithms for active noise cancellation, but we don't know the specifics. The Sony WF-1000XM6 also has eight microphones split evenly between the two earbuds. Sony uses a custom QN3e processor for noise cancelation, and it's said to be 3x faster than its predecessor.

For this test, I took the Bose and Sony earbuds to loud places and tested their ANC performance. I placed the earbuds in my ears and listened for active noise cancellation without any music playing. Then, I raised the volume to a modest 50% and started playing music to see how environmental noise is perceived at a comfortable listening level.

This test is purely gauging the earbuds' ANC chops. It ignores sound quality, battery life, call quality, and other features, but every detail is covered in our full reviews of the Sony WF-1000XM6 and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds (Gen 2).

I wore Sony and Bose earbuds in a noisy coffee shop

The first place I took the Sony and Bose earbuds to was my local coffee shop. I'm regularly working from a cafe, and it's a great environment. Good vibes, superb lattes, and free Wi-Fi. The one problem every digital nomad has run into is the noise. Loud espresso machines, constant chatter, and noisy foot traffic can quickly lead to distractions. The obvious solution to this issue is a pair of ANC earbuds, and that's why I brought the WF-1000XM6 and the QuietComfort Ultra earbuds (Gen 2) along with me.

Active noise cancellation works best with consistent noise, which is why environments like a coffee shop can trip up ANC earbuds. Sudden bursts of loud conversation or intermittent machinery can pierce the ANC barrier. When I wore the QuietComfort Ultra earbuds (Gen 2) without music playing, most background noise and the radio music turned to silence. However, I could still hear laughter, the espresso machine screeching, and chairs sliding around.

I then switched to the WF-1000XM6, but Sony's earbuds struggled to cancel out the mid-frequency environmental noise. Without music playing through my earbuds, I could still hear the music from the overhead radio speakers and make out nearby conversations. Interestingly, the high-pitched sounds that broke through Bose's ANC bubble were suppressed by the Sony earbuds.

Starting to play music through each pair of earbuds at 50% volume made their flaws virtually indistinguishable. With music playing, the Sony WF-1000XM6 blocked out nearly all audible background noise. The same was mostly true of the QuietComfort Ultra earbuds (Gen 2), except for lighter tracks with strong vocals and minimal production.

In this test, I preferred the ANC power of the Bose earbuds. I really didn't like that the Sony earbuds did little to block out the chatter and background music in the coffee shop, which can be distracting.

I wore Sony and Bose earbuds under a rumbling AC unit

Your air conditioning unit might be producing the loudest sound in your home. I live in the Arizona desert, so my AC is running almost nonstop this time of year. Using a sound measurement tool, I recorded my AC's noise level to be 60 decibels. That's quite loud, so I sat right underneath my air conditioner and put the Bose and Sony earbuds in my ears. These low-frequency hums and rumbles coming from your AC unit pose a challenge for even the best ANC earbuds.

Both earbuds nearly canceled out the AC unit's loud noise, but the QuietComfort Ultra earbuds (Gen 2) did a better job. While the Sony WF-1000XM6 made the noise less irritating, it was still there. The Bose earbuds, by comparison, made the AC unit sound silent — even without music playing. After choosing a song and setting the volume at 50%, neither pair of earbuds had a problem blocking out the annoying rumble of my air conditioner.

In this test, the win goes to the Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds (Gen 2). Based on the results of the first two tests, it seems like the Sony WF-1000XM6 isn't quite as good at negating low- and mid-frequency sounds.

I wore Sony and Bose earbuds throughout a crowded shopping mall

For the final test, I took the Bose and Sony earbuds to the loudest place I could think of: a crowded shopping mall on a Friday night. I walked through a supermarket, a food court, and the concourse to get a feel for how each pair of earbuds responded to the noisy environments. Unlike the first two tests, which relied heavily on low- and mid-frequency background noise, the most challenging sounds to cancel out here were in the high-frequency range.

Sony's WF-1000XM6 earbuds actually did a better job blocking out the conversations and chatter around me in the wall, and I have a hunch as to why. There was so much talking going on that all the voices blended together into a kind of white noise the Sony buds easily canceled out. This could be why the WF-1000XM6 stopped voices in their tracks here, but didn't perform as well in the less-crowded coffee shop.

In the food court, the Sony earbuds' ability to block out higher-end sounds shined. The sizzle of frying pans and the clanking of utensils were mitigated by the WF-1000XM6, whereas they were much easier to hear through the Bose earbuds. Even at 50% volume, I could still hear some of those high-pitched noises while wearing the QuietComfort Ultra earbuds (Gen 2).

The two pairs of earbuds didn't stand a chance at canceling out the infrequent PA announcements in the food court, but this isn't surprising. Overall, the Sony earbuds won in the mall. The chatter all blending together, paired with the high-pitched nuisance sounds, gave the WF-1000XM6 the perfect environment to put its ANC strengths on display.

Verdict

Looking back on my week of ANC testing both the Bose and Sony earbuds, the winner on paper seems clear. More often than not, the Bose earbuds canceled out noise better than the Sony earbuds. Still, I'm not ready to write off the Sony WF-1000XM6 earbuds. I actually enjoyed wearing them for active noise cancellation more than the QuietComfort Ultra earbuds (Gen 2), because the Sony earbuds are decidedly more comfortable.

They're smaller, and don't make as tight of a seal in your ear as the Bose earbuds. Perceived ANC power has as much to do with passive sound isolation as it does active algorithmic cancellation. The very reason the QuietComfort Ultra earbuds (Gen 2) performed well might also be the reason I wanted to pull them out of my ears during longer listening sessions. While I found the Bose earbuds canceled out more noise on most tests, I'd reach for the Sony earbuds for their comfort anyway.

Qualcomm is making major strides in mobile processing by introducing custom Oryon cores in a smartphone processor. Now, the generational improvements have made their way across Qualcomm's chip portfolio — even to processors that don't bear the "Elite" branding.

This makes it tricky to compare the performance capabilities across smartphone models and chip generations. For instance, Motorola's new Razr Ultra 2026 is powered by the last-generation Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. By comparison, the Razr Fold runs on a newer Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 mobile platform, just the non-Elite version.

I wanted to see whether an older Elite chip or a newer "base" chip offered better performance, so I put the Razr Ultra 2026 and the Razr Fold through a six-text benchmark gauntlet. The results weren't what I expected.

How I tested the Razr flagships

I put the Motorola Razr Ultra 2026 and the Motorola Razr Fold through a series of six tests, each designed to gauge a specific aspect of device performance. To test CPU performance, which affects how snappy your device feels when opening apps and during basic use, I used both Geekbench 6 and Geekbench 7. For on-device AI testing, I ran Geekbench AI and its TensorFlow Lite framework. To see how the phones handled gaming and graphics-based tests, I ran 3DMark's Wild Life Extreme benchmark and stress test.

I ran each benchmark test three times, starting the next run immediately after the first one finished. This provides a clean average of the results that is more representative of real-world performance than a single run. Running the benchmark trials in quick succession hints at how the Razr Ultra 2026 and the Motorola Razr Fold handle sustained loads, and whether the phones experience major thermal throttling.

After completing three runs of each benchmark test, I allowed the phones to cool down before beginning the next test. This ensures the strain of former tests isn't impacting the performance of a current test.

CPU and AI benchmark performance

The Snapdragon 8 Elite chip inside the Razr Ultra 2026 features two prime CPU cores that can be clocked up to 4.32GHz, plus six more performance CPU cores that can reach 3.53GHz. Meanwhile, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip inside the Razr Fold is built on newer Oryon Gen 3 prime CPU cores, but they are only clocked at up to 3.8GHz. The processor's six performance CPU cores can hit up to 3.32GHz.

So, the older Elite chip offers higher clock speeds, and the base Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip has newer prime cores. Since the two chips have the same number of prime and performance CPU cores, the Razr Ultra 2026 and the Razr Fold's benchmark results should be in the same ballpark. Let's see how they turned out.

In Geekbench 6, the older Snapdragon 8 Elite chip consistently beat the newer base Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor by a few hundred points in single-core CPU performance. The Razr Fold averaged a 2,593 single-core score, whereas the Razr Ultra 2026 averaged a 2,791 single-core score. This kind of performance is what makes your phone feel fast when opening apps, loading webpages, or navigating the UI. Despite the Razr Ultra 2026's older chip and constrained form factor, the Elite processor still wins here.

As for multi-core performance, the Razr Fold manages to pull more out of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5's eight CPU cores. The newer, base chip's best benchmark run resulted in a multi-core score of 8,809, and an average of 8,559. The Razr Ultra 2026 was notably behind, putting up an 8,268 multi-core score. Essentially, this means the Razr Fold's non-Elite chip will be better for multitasking and parallel workloads than the Razr Ultra 2026's older Elite chip — at least as configured here.

In terms of performance trends, each phone unsurprisingly posted its best result on the first try. However, the three CPU tests didn't cause either phone to noticeably throttle. The results for the second and third trials weren't too far off what we saw in the first run.

Geekbench 6 is widely used for smartphone comparisons and chip benchmarking, but Geekbench 7 is here. This updated test offers "both new and improved workloads to measure the performance of your CPUs and GPUs." In other words, it's better built to test how phones and chips will handle the demanding AI and media workflows used in 2026.

The results painted a different picture. While the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip in the Razr Fold was better at multi-core performance in the Geekbench 6 test, the opposite was true using the Geekbench 7 benchmark. The older Snapdragon 8 Elite processor in the Razr Ultra 2026 posted multi-core scores as much as over 1,000 points higher than the newer Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip in the Razr Fold.

Single-core performance was about the same across the two phones and chips. The shift in multi-core performance does beg the question: Is the older Elite chip actually better-positioned for modern multitasking?

If you care about on-device AI performance, it seems having a newer chip is more important than having an "Elite" one. The base Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 averaged a Geekbench AI quantized score of 3,932, whereas the Snapdragon 8 Elite was further behind with an average score of 3,245.

GPU benchmark performance

Perhaps the most surprising part of this test was seeing the difference in GPU performance between the two Motorola flagships. I used 3D Mark's Wild Life Extreme, a 4K UHD gaming benchmark, to push each phone and processor to its limits in a one-minute test. The results were clear: the older Elite chip in the Razr Ultra 2026 is better for gaming and graphics-heavy tasks.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite processor in the Razr Ultra 2026 averaged 32.36 frames per second across the three minute-long trials. Meanwhile, the Razr Fold could only muster a 25.04 average FPS. The final scores showed the same result: the Razr Ultra 2026 averaged a 5,404 overall score, while the Razr Fold averaged a 4,181 overall score. I should note that I ran every test on the Razr Fold's cover display, so the foldable wasn't being penalized for having a larger internal screen.

Keen-eyed readers will notice that the Razr Ultra 2026's graphics performance really started to tail off in the third trial. Frame rates dipped under 30FPS, and the overall score was nearly 1,000 points lower than the first trial. This is a sign of thermal throttling, and it's a foreshadowing of what happened in our final test.

Before that, though, we have the Geekbench 7 GPU benchmark results. Oddly, each phone performed at its worst in the first trial run. Performance stabilized in the second and third runs, which is the opposite of what we're used to seeing. The Razr Fold had the highest-scoring trial, but the Razr Ultra 2026 finished with a higher average score.

Stress test results

My final test was 3DMark's Wild Life Extreme stress test. It's one of my favorite tests to run on phones, because it's excellent at showing how they will perform under sustained heavy loads.

Specifically, the Wild Life Extreme stress test forces phones to render high-resolution 4K UHD game visuals for 20 minutes. Rather than providing a single score at the end, the stress test shows how performance and temperature changed over time throughout the 20-minute test.

I planned to make a big chart showing how the Razr Fold and Razr Ultra 2026 performed under heavy loads, but I couldn't. That's because the Razr Ultra 2026 couldn't finish the stress test without overheating, and it didn't even come close.

Just a few minutes into each stress test attempt, the Razr Ultra 2026 overheated and force-stopped the Wild Life Extreme stress test. This is certainly a bad result, and it's a sign that the Elite chip might be a tad bit too powerful for the small form factor of a clamshell foldable.

The Razr Fold and its Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip did complete the stress test with 56.5% stability. This isn't the best I've seen, but it isn't the worst either. The phone's highest stress test loop score was 4,946, and the lowest was 2,801, so there's a lot of fluctuation. It does thermal throttle, but hey, it finished.

The stress test results (or lack thereof) show why we can't just stop at classic benchmarks when evaluating phones and chips. The Snapdragon 8 Elite chip in the Razr Ultra 2026 is better in benchmarks, but the stress test failure proves you'll never be able to maximize it in sustained loads.

Verdict

Overall, it's clear that whether a phone has an Elite chip or not shouldn't factor highly into your purchasing decision. It's true that the older Snapdragon 8 Elite chip did outperform the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chips on a few occasions. However, the newer design of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 helped it come out ahead in on-device AI performance. If anything, the takeaway here is that a base Snapdragon chip is better than an Elite chip that runs too hot for your phone to handle.

"Hold on, hold on. What's going on here?" my coach asked as he noticed me wearing four watches before I went out running. I often wear two watches to the gym because I'm constantly comparing them, but I've never worn four before, and that was clearly enough to raise eyebrows.

After explaining the article you're currently reading, in which I wear four smartwatches through a series of tests, he laughed and told me I must have a fun job. Indeed, I do! But the results of the test should be a real help to anyone looking to buy a smartwatch this year (and help save some money in the process).

So stick with me as I run through my past week, in which I wore four smartwatches to sleep, every time I ran during my half-marathon Spartan training, and during a full 5K Spartan race over the weekend.

Starting off with a good night's sleep

I would never recommend sleeping with four smartwatches on, but I will say that it wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as I had been dreading. Most smartwatches collect the same sleep data, but every so often you'll find a watch that does something different. The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, for example, included a skin temperature measurement, measured against a baseline it had determined in the past 2 weeks since I started wearing it.

Of all the watches I wore, the Honor Watch 6 showed the least data. Most of it is holed up in a sleep analysis section that gives you percentages and glanceable "normal," "high," and "low" ranges so you don't have to dive deep. That's good because I couldn't figure out how to dive deep into this data.

The OnePlus Watch 3 43mm offered a better look at the data, but it didn't include as many data points (like SpO2 or breathing quality). The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 did a great overall job, but it seems like it's a bit more sensitive to my restless sleep than the other watches.

Overall, I felt like the Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro's data was the most accurate. I know I woke up more than 2 times (which the Honor and OnePlus watches say), but there's no chance I was up 18 times as Samsung suggests. The T-Rex 3 Pro has a temperature sensor onboard, but apparently, it doesn't include this data for sleep. Weird choice, but that terrible 54 sleep score lines up with how I felt when I woke up, not the 72 Samsung gave me.

Time for a run (or four)

I began training for a Spartan Beast a few weeks ago using Amazfit's incredible running coach feature because I already felt confident in the watch's ability to accurately measure everything. Since I had already been comparing the Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro to every other watch I've worn over the past few years, it made sense to keep it on for this comparison.

My intuition wasn't wrong. Looking at the map data above, where I ran 2.5 miles over two loops around this Walmart and the surrounding business park, things look pretty even until you zoom in. I broke off sections of the track so you can see the GPS tracking discrepancies between the watches.

Overall, the OnePlus Watch 3 43mm was the least accurate (genuinely a surprise to me), while the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 and Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro tied for first. The Honor Watch 6 also did an excellent job, but there were two points on the map with notable tree cover that showed me running in the road instead of on the sidewalk, while the other two kept me on the side of the road.

As I dove deeper into the rest of the data, I found a consistent pattern among all four watches. In each data point, there was a clear outlier. The Honor Watch 6, for example, got the altitude all wrong, while the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 completely fumbled the cadence measurement.

The OnePlus Watch 3 43mm had some very strange spikes and dips in speed, almost assuredly owing to the GPS tracking issues I mentioned earlier, while all four watches tied for heart rate accuracy. Notably, the Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro didn't show up as an outlier on any of the data points, owing to its excellent overall accuracy.

One Spartan Race to finish it off

As I approached the Spartan Race, it was clear that Amazfit and Samsung were leading the pack here. Since I had to wear an RFID bracelet and a separate time bracelet for the race, I only had room for two smartwatches, so this was going to be between the winners.

I don't see any obvious discrepancies in the GPS data between the two watches. Clearly, each is slightly different from the other, but it's impossible to tell which one is right since this is a trail course. I'll give this section a tie.

You'll need to click the expand button on the image above and zoom in to see all the details, but once you do, you'll understand why Amazfit did a better job of tracking this race. In the heart rate data, you'll see three points where the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 did something weird. Just after 9:20 and around 10:05, it registered a far lower heart rate than I actually had.

Then, around 10:46-10:50, it seems to have failed to get a heart rate at all. Strangely enough, that same lapse in data also appears in the speed and cadence graphs. While both watches were dead-on with speed data and mostly similar with altitude, the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 wildly messed up my running cadence, which happened during other runs I've gone on with this watch, too.

This particular Spartan Race was both very busy and extremely muddy, causing quite a bit of backup at each obstacle. On the cadence graph, you can see where the Amazefit T-Rex 3 Pro properly measured me not moving while waiting in line, yet the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 seems to think these moments didn't happen. Trust me, I was frustrated enough to remember them, and that's enough to give the T-Rex 3 Pro the win.

Truly amaze

The Amazefit T-Rex 3 Pro has been my go-to smartwatch for the past two years, and it's no wonder, with the results I've seen over the past week. While several watches have caught my attention since then, this one is consistently the most reliable and one of the most feature-rich.

Aside from being a great watch, the Zepp app that powers the experience is second to none. The UI is excellent; it's got a ton of amazing features (like this AI-powered food logging feature), and the subscription is only necessary if you want additional AI-powered insights, which I haven't typically used in the past. All in all, it's easily my favorite workout companion and an experience I think fitness fans will love.

Samsung makes some of the best camera phones in the ever-shrinking North American market. With the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra hitting the market, I decided to take their cameras for a spin, taking 1,000 photos between both phones to get a good idea of how they perform.

Beyond just testing the cameras of Samsung's newest foldables, I also took the time to compare the camera performance to two of my favorite foldables: the Motorola Razr Ultra 2026 and Razr Fold. Motorola has come a long way, and the Fold has proven that the company knows how to make a good camera.

How I tested them

I've been testing the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra since their launch on July 22. I captured photos in various scenarios and environments, using both devices alongside the Razr Ultra 2026 and Razr Fold.

I didn't fiddle with any settings or tap a subject in the viewfinder to adjust the exposure; all of these were just point-and-shoot.

Juggling four phones isn't easy, and it isn't the most scientific method, but I tried to keep things as fair as possible. I made sure to capture photos with the same or similar composition across devices. Still, there may be some slight differences between photos.

Also, for the sake of my sanity (and your time), I'm not uploading all 1,000 photos I captured with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 series. However, I have selected a number of images that I think best represent the capabilities of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 series in different situations.

Note: Click the expand button in the corner for a better view of the images.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

Between the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra, the hardware differences are quite massive. The former sticks to two 50MP cameras, while the latter has a massive 200MP primary sensor and a third telephoto camera. The result is noticeably more detail in the Fold 8 Ultra's images, while the Fold 8 tends to lean a bit softer.

That goes for color as well; images from the Fold 8 Ultra tend to be punchier, while the Fold 8 tends to appear a bit muted. I find I prefer the Ultra's images, although it can go a bit overboard with saturation, especially when it comes to the color red.

This is the complete opposite for the ultrawide sensor, which is punchier on the Fold 8, and I tend to prefer these images over the Fold 8 Ultra's ultrawide.

Both phones do relatively okay when it comes to selfies and portrait images, although I still feel like they lack proper tuning for skin tones like mine.

The Ultra clearly has the upper hand with zoom. The Fold 8 can take 2x shots at optical quality, but anything beyond that and you'll see the quality drop. In most cases, images for the Ultra appear much cleaner, while the Fold 8 can sometimes struggle to produce the necessary detail.

Sometimes the Fold 8 gets it right, and while the AI is clearly putting in some work to make up for the lack of a telephoto camera, things like text can appear sharper on the Fold 8 compared to the more natural processing from the Ultra's optical sensor. Still, the Fold 8 isn't as consistent with zoom shots, and your best bet is to stick with 2x.

Both phones do a decent job with challenging lighting, but I wouldn't say either excels. Photos are often a tad noisy, though this is more of an issue with the base Fold 8 than the Fold 8 Ultra, which often delivers cleaner, more detailed shots.

Overall, both phones have their strengths, and Samsung seems to have improved how its phones capture movement. I really like the ultrawide shots on the Fold 8, but the Fold 8 Ultra unsurprisingly comes out on top, with the 200MP primary camera bringing more vibrancy and detail to images, while the telephoto camera keeps zoom shots relatively clean.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Motorola Razr Ultra 2026

Both the Galaxy Fold 8 and Razr Ultra 2026 have dual 50MP cameras for wide and ultrawide shots. However, both phones handle color and lighting a bit differently. Regarding color reproduction, the Razr Ultra 2026 does a better job of staying true to the scene, while elements (like the sky) can be a bit more dramatic due to the added contrast and detail. The Fold 8 again feels a bit more muted in many scenes, but still does a decent job.

The Razr Ultra 2026 also handles trickier lighting situations a bit better, brightening subjects without adding a ton of noise in the process. However, the caveat is that while it does better with things like neon signs, my unit doesn't seem to like bright street lamps very much, as they can flare up and ruin a scene.

I also tend to prefer selfies on the Galaxy Z Fold 8's external front-facing camera, as the Razr Ultra tends to do some weird overprocessing. However, I find the Razr is better at portrait mode photos.

When it comes to zoom, neither phone excels here, and they tend to trade blows in detail, lighting, and color. Sometimes, I prefer the Galaxy Z Fold 8, and other times the Razr comes out on top. Either way, I don't think there's a winner here, as neither is particularly good beyond 2x zoom.

Overall, I think the Razr Ultra 2026 has the upper hand when it comes to just the point-and-shoot camera experience. That's not to say the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is bad, but there's a general lack of pop in its images. I think the camera could use some additional tuning, perhaps with future updates (which Samsung is good about).

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Motorola Razr Fold

The Fold 8 Ultra's 200MP camera should theoretically come out on top compared to the Razr Fold's 50MP sensor, right? Well, surprisingly, Motorola holds its own. Both phones bring plenty of detail to their images, and while photos from the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra can appear more vibrant, such as when taking photos of the sky or of water, the Razr Fold handles low-light situations better.

As you can see from the photo of the door or the floating planets, the Razr Fold's camera brings more light into a scene while keeping noise levels low. The alleyway also shows how the Razr Fold handles tricky lighting better, as you can see much more clearly into the distance than in the Fold 8 Ultra's photo. And I don't even know what happened with the Carnegie Library; the Fold 8's color is way off.

That said, the Fold 8 handles moving objects better than Motorola's, as the Razr Fold's post-processing can often result in a missed moment or a blurry subject. The Fold 8 Ultra also handles selfies better with its external front camera.

But what I was really curious about was how both phones handle zoom. This was a big highlight of my Motorola Razr Fold camera review, so I wanted to see if the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra was up to the challenge. Shockingly, that doesn't seem to be the case.

At 3x zoom, both phones are neck-and-neck, and unless you need to go any further than this, you should be fine with images from either phone. If you go beyond this point, however, Motorola's AI kicks in and handles a lot of the work, and it does a bang-up job doing it in most cases. Lines are cleaner, text is more legible, and you can see clearer figures of people from off at a distance of even 30x zoom.

That 30x zoom happens to be the limit of the Fold 8 Ultra's zoom capabilities, but perhaps Samsung should have limited it even further, because images at this level are not very usable. You can probably get away with decent 10x zoom photos, but more often than not, the Razr Fold will produce the better photo, regardless of the lighting (although there are some exceptions).

Verdict

Samsung doesn't make bad cameras, but it doesn't make the best cameras either. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra hold their own, and I don't think anyone would be particularly disappointed with either phone's camera.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is clearly not as good as its Ultra sibling, and it even falls behind Motorola's Razr Ultra 2026 in some areas. However, unless you're trying to zoom in really close or take photos in the dark, I think it's more than adequate.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is the better of Samsung's latest foldables, and produces great images with vibrant colors and plenty of detail. However, its zoom capabilities leave a lot to be desired, especially compared to the Razr Fold, and I'm hoping Samsung can address this in future updates.

As I leaned over the railing, heart pounding and hands shaking, I questioned how I ended up here. A flagship $699 phone in hand, ready to be hurled to its death. Let me explain.

I'm big on phone cases and test them for a living. One of the most common business tactics employed by case makers is to advertise their drop protection. Buzzwords like "impact absorption," "heavy-duty," and even "military grade" are thrown around all the time.

Do they actually mean anything? And what even is military grade? I decided to use my Pixel 8 as the sacrificial lamb and put four incredibly well-known and reputable brands to the test.

I wanted to bump these cases around and fling them from the heights the brands claim they can survive, going as far as driving over the toughest case that I found.

The four cases I chose for this drop test are the Poetic Revolution, Dbrand Grip Case, Quad Lock MAG Case, and BURGA Tough Case. These cases range from mid-range to expensive pricing.

Poetic guarantees 20ft military-grade drop protection and full-body rugged defenses.

BURGA promises reliable, everyday protection against drops, bumps, and daily wear, which I'd say should be your average accidental phone drops from your hands.

Quad Lock promises the same everyday protection from its MAG Case.

Lastly, Dbrand assures us that the Grip Case has military-grade impact resistance, but provides no exact figures in terms of drop or impact resistance.

A tumble and roll in the sack to check scratch resistance

To start off, I grabbed a few heavy objects, random things like my power bank and keys, and chucked them in a bag along with the Pixel 8. I shook the bag like it owed me money and repeated the process with each case.

I won't lie, I was a little nervous about the pointy keys and power bank as they are pretty solid metal objects and I usually keep them in separate compartments of my bag to be safe. I was happy to learn that the scratch-proof claims are accurate, but obviously only the back of the phone is protected. Poetic was the only exception to this rule, as it comes with a built-in screen guard. I had a screen protector on, so there were no scratches on the screen with any of the other cases either.

In fact, the only trouble I had during this part of the test was taking off the darn tough cases. Poetic gave me the most trouble, and I ended up cracking a nail taking it off.

The real test — dropped face first onto tiled floors

Finally, the fun part arrived. I decided to drop the tough cases offering everyday protection from 5ft onto hard tiled floors. This is actually more than the typical "military standard" of drop protection.

Expert case maker SUPCASE detailed this standard, where "the phone case undergoes 26 drops from a height of 4 feet onto a plywood surface laid over a concrete base with a steel backing" to qualify.

Each one of the four cases survived unscathed, so for the next test, I moved on to the toughest contender: Poetic.

Unlike BURGA, Dbrand, and Quad Lock, Poetic takes things a lot further and promises heavy-duty 20ft drop resistance, which is about two floors of an average building.

With a mighty heave-ho, I hurled the Pixel 8 in the Poetic Revolution case from the second floor of my parents' house.

The built-in screen guard stayed glued to the top of the phone even after such a terrible drop, but the case itself came off from the impact. However, the Pixel 8 still worked perfectly afterward, with not even a scratch or crack to be found.

The only damage was a barely discernible dent in the camera bar in the front, but it did not interfere in the functional operation. The aesthetics of the phone were largely intact too.

Unbelievably, the phone was still working. The camera lenses didn't shatter. I could still take pictures and make calls.

I decided to test just how impregnable the Poetic Revolution phone case really is and maybe took things too far with the final challenge.

I drove over the Poetic Revolution heavy-duty phone case with a car

And for my last trick, I decided to literally run the Poetic Revolution case over with a car.

My heart was in my mouth as I watched my dad drive over the phone in his MPV that seats seven. I was hesitant before chucking the phone off the second floor, but this was even more frightening.

Once the deed was done, I picked up the phone and...

Hallelujah! The phone was still working! The touchscreen responded as it should, I took a few pictures, sent a voice note on WhatsApp, and watched some YouTube videos.

Sure, the phone was a little dusty, but I washed off the dirt. Everything was as it should be — until I took the case off and checked the backside of the Pixel.

It hurt to see the bottom part of the glass back with spiderweb-like cracks spreading up. Clearly, the Poetic Revolution case has its limits. One must not drive over it with a car, but that's on me. Poetic never said you could.

I am still impressed that this was after multiple back-to-back drop tests, that too in the searing hot 45°C (or 113°F) Arabian summer. I can still use the Pixel 8 to do everything it needs to do. I even washed it with water, though I do not recommend you to do that with a cracked glass back.

It charges fine, the screen works, the cameras are functional, the mic records properly, and the speakers sound as they should. The Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules are operating normally too.

All my ruthless drop testing proved that a good case can save your phone from disaster. The bottom line is, always get a good quality phone case. Those drop protection numbers clearly are not marketing slop. Just make sure it's a reliable brand like Poetic, not some off brand knockoff, so you can trust that the brand actually drop tested their case.

As I write this, I have 78 devices connected to my home network, including phones, tablets, Windows machines, Android TVs, way too many Govee lights, and other smart home tech. The most important device, however, is my network-attached storage (NAS) system; it houses all my data, acts as my media and music server, and essentially runs my smart home.

So when it comes to selecting a new NAS, I'm exacting in my needs. I'm still using the 100TB home server I set up two years ago with the DiskStation DS1823xs+, but I wanted a new NAS solely as a media server, and there was an obvious choice: UGREEN's DXP4800 Pro.

I tested the DXP4800 Pro when it came out, and it became clear to me that it is a powerful Plex NAS. After the review, I slotted in two 24TB Seagate Exos X24 along with two 22TB IronWolf Pro NAS HDDs, and began transferring media and installing all the utilities and services I rely on every day.

How I tested the DXP4800 Pro

After three and a half months of extensive testing — totaling well over 2,500 hours of use — streaming 4K Plex content on well over a dozen devices, and writing 54TB of data to the drives, I can state with confidence that the DXP4800 Pro is the best all-round media server you can buy in 2026. I'll go into plenty of detail about how I tested the NAS over the last three months, but before I get started, here's a high-level overview of the hardware.

The DXP4800 Pro is a 4-bay NAS with the best internals in its class. It's powered by an Intel Core i3-1315U and has hardware transcoding (ideal for Plex and Jellyfin), 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and a 2.5 Gigabit connection, 8GB of memory, a 128GB built-in SSD, and two NVMe M.2 SSD slots. The Intel Core i3-1315U platform is a solid choice for NAS servers, and it's no surprise that most manufacturers are using it in their enthusiast models. The DXP4800 Pro is available for $719 on Amazon, and you can also buy it on UGREEN's site.

Putting the DXP4800 Pro through its paces

I started testing the DXP4800 Pro by installing UGOS Pro, UGREEN's web-based software. It has come a long way in the last 12 months and is now at a point where you don’t feel like you’re missing out on any of the basics. After installation, I created a storage pool with the four drives; I recommend using a mirrored configuration if you’re looking to set up a NAS, as that way you’ll maintain data integrity should a drive fail. As I had this data in at least two other locations (I’m obsessive about storage), I just went with JBOD.

Then came setting up all the services I use, and this constituted the bulk of the testing. I installed Plex and Jellyfin to manage media, an instance of Roon to manage my music library, Immich to handle photos, and Tailscale to access the NAS remotely. While Jellyfin and Home Assistant are listed in UGREEN’s app store, they’re installed as containers anyway, so I just relied on Docker to install everything. It’s easier to manage, and I get better insights into how much system resources each service is using.

I prefer installing utilities like Plex and Jellyfin via Docker. I find these instances more stable, and I get the flexibility to make any configuration changes I need. On that note, the 8GB of pre-installed memory makes a big difference. Even with eight services running 24/7 within containers, I had 3.2GB of usable RAM left, with enough headroom to run a VM by allocating 2GB of memory.

That said, I subsequently installed a 16GB DRAM module, boosting the memory to 24GB and giving me much better headroom to work with VMs and other containers. Even if you don't want to go this route, know that the built-in 8GB of memory is more than adequate for most homelab hobby projects.

I took ten days to move the data to the DXP4800 Pro, transferring over 54TB in that time. I was conservative in this regard, as I didn’t want to transfer the entire dataset in one go, and I used rsync to move each category — photos, music, documents, and media — individually. A big chunk of that was my music production library that includes VST instruments and their associated media.

I connected the DS1823xs+ to the DXP4800 Pro using a 10GbE switch to take full advantage of the 10GbE connectivity available on both servers, and I was able to saturate the NAS HDDs' bandwidth quite easily. I got close to the 280MB/s maximum bandwidth of the Exos X24 and IronWolf Pro drives, and I saw aggregate transfers hit as high as 580MB/s — both NAS systems could easily handle six times that bandwidth, so this wasn't a problem at all. This was while moving bigger files; images and documents generally transferred at a much more modest average of around 120MB/s.

Thermal management can become an issue with sustained file transfers, and thankfully, it didn’t prove to be a problem on the DXP4800 Pro. The 140mm fan was effective at moving heat away from the internals, and the drives didn’t exceed 48 degrees Celsius.

What I like about Seagate's NAS HDDs is that they’re designed to run 24/7, and they come with unique features like vibration resistance, which is necessary in a NAS system.

But more than anything else, it’s long-term reliability that matters. While the drives I used in the DXP4800 Pro have now clocked just under 3,000 hours (I still count that as almost new), I've had several IronWolf Pro HDDs in the last decade that have clocked over 50,000 hours of usage, and I haven’t run into any issues with any of these drives yet (thankfully).

After the data transfer came the real test: media streaming. I used Plex predominantly, and the DXP4800 Pro delivered three high-bitrate 4K transcodes simultaneously, which is no small feat. Hardware-assisted transcoding via the built-in Intel Quick Sync platform is limited to Plex Pass users, and if you have older client devices like an early-gen iPad, this feature will come in handy.

However, most newer devices have the requisite media containers and codecs to play media files, so you don't actually need to transcode content most of the time — outside of testing how the NAS holds up in this area, I only had to rely on direct play. That said, if your video is encoded using H.265 and you have a TV or streamer that can't handle the codec, it will need to be transcoded to H.264 to play on the client device, and all of this is done automatically.

The verdict is clear

After playing dozens of hours of footage via Plex and Jellyfin over the last three months, it became clear that the DXP4800 Pro is the best 4-bay Plex NAS.

I did notice higher-than-usual power draw in general, with the NAS idling at 24—28W, going up to 60W when the drives are in use, and exceeding 85W under load. There is plenty of headroom, though, given that you get a 150W power brick, so this is not a problem as such. Averaged over three months, the power usage was well within the limits of a powerful 4-bay server, so I didn't worry about it too much.

Overall, the DXP4800 Pro is without a doubt one of the best 4-bay NAS servers around. The combination of powerful hardware and UGREEN's sensible software choices gives it a leg up over its rivals, and after extensive testing, it has consistently proven to be reliable, which is what I look for the most in a media server.

I went snorkeling a few weeks ago, and it was an eye-opener to just how sedentary my lifestyle has gotten. I have been meaning to get back into shape after completely letting myself go in recent years, and what better way to do that than to start maintaining a food diary on my phone?

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of fitness and wellness apps on the Play Store, but I wanted to kick things off with something easy to use consistently. BitePal and SnapCalorie are two AI calorie-tracking apps that stood out because they both advertise the same thing: take a picture of your food, and the app will log all your calories and macros. Sounds easy enough!

As someone who has never followed a diet plan before, I needed an app that could do the thinking and planning for me, in addition to the tracking. I am the antonym of a gym rat; a home cat, if you will. I decided to spend three days logging everything I consumed as well as my activity data on both apps to help me decide which one would be better in the long run.

Both apps offer the same features at their cores. You can choose the kind of lifestyle you lead, set a goal weight, choose your pace, and the app will use its nutritional database to spit out a diet plan for you to follow, giving you your target macros to hit daily.

You can connect your Google Health data to both apps, so it logs not only your food and water intake but also factors in your activities and workouts. You can also record your workouts and activity info manually if you want.

I like BitePal because it gamifies the entire food-tracking experience and takes the diet plan a step further, including step-by-step recipes that fit your daily goals. The app has a cute virtual pet raccoon that you can name yourself, and based on how well or poorly you're meeting your fitness plan goals, the pet's health fluctuates daily. The entire UI is colorful and fun, but the free plan limits the number of food picture scans, meal tracking, nutritional advice, and pet-related features.

SnapCalorie is a more traditional fitness app with a straightforward UI, which can be boring, but it offers free users unlimited access to food logging tools and features, including barcode scanning and recipe creation and logging. Its AI food photo capture requires you to describe the food in a few words, which helps the AI analyze it more accurately and yield better results. It takes some time to process, but I found it much more accurate than BitePal.

From homemade meals like goat meat biryani to foreign drinks such as Kinza Cola, SnapCalorie was shockingly able to recognize food items a lot better than BitePal. I had to just settle for the closest item BitePal could find, such as substituting the lesser known soda with Sprite. Clearly, the AI picture analyzing tool on SnapCalorie does more extensive research.

I know I can manually add the calories and nutritional values of the items unrecognized by BitePal, but that just defeats the purpose of using an AI food logging app. The entire reason why I want to rely on an app is so I don't have to measure everything I put in my body and go looking for its nutritional info.

When I forgot to record an iced coffee I drank, I used a screenshot of the app I ordered it from and used that on both apps. SnapCalorie found the exact coffee from the specific cafe I ordered it from, pulled the calorie and nutritional info from the internet, and logged it in my food diary. It was amazingly easy!

BitePal couldn't even clock that the iced coffee had milk in it, let alone find the exact drink. Instead, I resorted to manually typing out that additional info once the app created the wrong record based on the screenshot of the coffee. Even though you can edit the name of the food once the AI creates a record based on the image, BitePal lacks the smarts to identify the item properly.

The verdict is in...

After three days of extensive food logging on both apps, I have decided to stick with SnapCalorie for long-term use. The fact that it can recognize foods from different cultures and parts of the world is a vital feature. It also offers all of the most important features of the app with the free basic version.

I can see BitePal being a kid-friendly fitness app, though parents will have to be prepared to pay for it. It's an exciting and interactive way to teach children about the importance of eating clean, consuming the right amount of fiber, calories, and fats in a day, and staying hydrated. Parents can even connect their child's Google Health data from the Fitbit Ace LTE or whatever fitness watch their kids use. The pet raccoon is adorable, and the entire layout and UI are so well done. I just wish the AI food recognition was better, because that's the main purpose of the app.

Interestingly enough, when I was first setting up BitePal and SnapCalorie, both gave me different timelines for me to achieve my goal weight even though I chose the exact same pace, with SnapCalorie giving an earlier date to achieve my target. Based on how much more extensive SnapCalorie's food library and analysis seem to be, I'll be trusting it to help me achieve my goal.

The Google Pixel 11 series is almost here, and while this year's lineup isn't expected to bring any groundbreaking upgrades over the Pixel 10 series, there are still a few notable improvements on the way, including a new MediaTek modem and Google's first 2nm Tensor G6 chipset.

But new smartphone launches aren't just about what's coming next. They're also a good opportunity to look back at the phones we already own and ask an important question: Is it actually worth upgrading?

For many people, that decision comes down to one thing more than anything else: battery life. A phone can still be fast, take great photos, and receive software updates, but once the battery starts struggling to last through the day, it's much easier to justify buying something new.

Google's Pixel phones haven't exactly built a reputation for class-leading battery life, but the company has steadily increased battery capacities over the past few generations while introducing new battery health features designed to preserve long-term battery performance.

So ahead of the Pixel 11 launch, I wanted to see how well recent Pixel batteries have actually held up.

How I set up my battery test

To find out, I picked up three different Pixel phones: the Pixel 9, the Pixel 9 Pro, and the Pixel 10 Pro.

The Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro both feature a 4,700mAh battery alongside Google's Tensor G4 processor, while the Pixel 10 Pro packs a slightly larger 4,870mAh cell and the newer Tensor G5, built on a more efficient 3nm process. On paper, the Pixel 10 Pro should have the advantage. It has the newest battery, the largest capacity, and the newest chipset.

The Pixel 9 series is now roughly two years old, while the Pixel 10 Pro has been my primary Android phone for around a year. That makes this a good comparison to see how Pixel batteries hold up over time.

To keep things as fair as possible, I updated all three phones to the latest Android 17 version available, connected them to the same Wi-Fi network, charged each device to 100%, set the displays to roughly the same brightness, and looped the same YouTube video on all until they eventually ran out of battery.

Of course, a continuous video playback test isn't a perfect representation of how people use their phones every day. But it does give every device an identical workload, making it one of the fairest ways to compare battery performance across multiple phones.

How do older Pixel batteries hold up?

I kicked off the test at around 5:45 p.m. with all three phones sitting at 100%.

For the first couple of hours, there was virtually nothing separating them. Each phone dropped by around 8%, leaving all three sitting at roughly 92%.

The first meaningful difference didn't appear until around the four-hour mark. By then, both the Pixel 9 and Pixel 10 Pro had dropped to 83%, while the Pixel 9 Pro held a slight lead at 85%.

That trend continued for most of the test. Six hours in, the Pixel 9 sat at 74%, the Pixel 10 Pro at 73%, and the Pixel 9 Pro at 75%. In other words, there was only a two-percentage-point gap between all three phones despite the difference in age.

As the test stretched into the following morning, the gap widened slightly. At around 11 a.m., the Pixel 9 had dropped to 12%, while the Pixel 10 Pro sat at 13%. The Pixel 9 Pro continued to hold onto a small lead at 16%.

The Pixel 9 was the first phone to die at 1:08 p.m. At that point, the Pixel 9 Pro still had around 3% remaining, while the Pixel 10 Pro had just 1% left.

The Pixel 10 Pro eventually shut down at 1:17 p.m., followed by the Pixel 9 Pro at around 1:41 p.m., lasting almost 20 hours from the start of the test.

So what do these results actually tell us?

On paper, the Pixel 10 Pro should have comfortably led the pack. It has the newest battery, the largest capacity, and the Tensor G5 chip, which is built on a more efficient manufacturing process. Yet throughout the test, it remained remarkably close to the two-year-old Pixel 9 series and ultimately finished behind the Pixel 9 Pro.

To me, that's actually a positive sign for older Pixel owners. Despite nearly two years of use, the Pixel 9 Pro kept pace with Google's newer flagship throughout almost the entire test and even managed to outlast it in the end.

One battery test obviously doesn't tell the whole story. Real-world battery life depends on everything from network conditions and screen brightness to the apps you use every day.

Still, I think the results are encouraging. While Pixel phones may not lead the Android market in outright battery life, Google's recent efforts to improve long-term battery health appear to be paying off.

Based on this test, older Pixel batteries seem to be holding up surprisingly well. So if battery life is the only reason you're considering an upgrade, there may not be enough here to justify switching to the Pixel 11 when it arrives next week.

This past weekend, I ran the muddiest Spartan Race I've ever been on. We're talking knee-deep mud in several places on the course, and no shortage of slippery conditions no matter where you go, which made me wonder: what if I dropped my foldable phone into this kind of nastiness?

Since the Honor Magic V6 sports the highest durability among any phone today (not just foldables), I figured it would be a perfect candidate for such a test. The IP68 and IP69K ratings mean it can withstand all sorts of nonsense, from being submerged for long periods of time to taking a nasty mud bath and being tossed into a hot dishwasher afterward.

The test sounded good on paper, and I was certainly a bit hesitant to put such a wonderful phone through such torture, but the two of us came out all the better for it. Here's how the journey went.

That time I dropped my phone in mud

For this test, I went out in my backyard and filled an aluminum cooking pan with dirt, then got it nice and wet with rain barrel water to make a lovely, thick mud. After some hesitation, I dropped the Honor Magic V6 into the mix and got to scrubbing in the worst way possible: with mud. I made sure to get all the ports full of mud, and I even opened the phone to get the inside and the hinge covered, as well.

Afterward, I took it over to the grass to wipe it off a bit and see how well it worked when it was this dirty. After a series of spine-tingling crunches from the hinge as it opened and closed, I took it back over to my rain barrel for a wash-off. I'd rather not have this gunk in my dishwasher, after all, so I might as well clear a bit off before I go inside.

Despite all the abuse, the phone worked perfectly. I even took a few pictures with it before going in. The hinge was still a bit crunchy-sounding by this point, but I figured that would work itself out in the dishwasher. This IP69 rating protects it against water jets and hot water, and it's fully dustproof, so things should be fine, right?

I purposefully left plenty of room for the phone on the top, so I left it unfolded, loaded the dishwashing soap into the machine, and hit start. I never use heated dry or the extra hot setting for my dishes, so I also kept those off for this test. The dishwasher gets plenty hot without those settings, so we're still getting a great test here.

After the cycle was about half over, I wanted to make sure the phone was still alive, so I popped it open and gave it a quick test. Everything looked great! Since there was room for another phone in there, I stuck my Honor Magic 8 Pro (no, this article is not sponsored by Honor) in the rack and hit record.

That phone features the IP69K rating, after all. Here's the brief footage it captured before the water clicked the stop button. Make sure to turn your sound DOWN:

Another hour later, and the dishwasher was finally done. A quick pop of the hatch, a waft of steam later, and a brand new phone emerged from the rack. Unsurprisingly, the phone had an alert message about potential overheating, which makes a lot of sense since dishwashers run at 120-140F (48-60C) while running, depending on the cycle.

Despite the warning, the phone never turned off and doesn't seem worse for wear because of it. The glass surfaces all had a bit of soap spots left on them, but a brief wipe from the kitchen towel took care of that.

Unfortunately, rubbing mud on the inner display caused the screen protector to gain a few minor scratches. Thankfully, they only appear when held at a certain angle, so I don't think they'll annoy me too much while using the phone.

The hinge also makes almost no noise when I open and close it now, a bit of an improvement from when it was slathered in mud. I'm going to assume this will continue to work its way out as I use it. Just to make sure everything functioned correctly, I also took a few pictures of my cat using each of the three cameras on the back.

I don't see any debris or water damage on any of the lenses, and the pictures look as flawless as always from this phone. I'd say the Honor Magic V6 passed this rather extreme test with flying colors! I guess Honor wasn't joking when they talked about this one's durability.

Whether you're just starting high school or finishing up your college Master's Program, a good note-taking tablet can make all the difference in class success. The latest note-taking tablets from companies like TCL and Boox sport technology that looks and feels a lot like paper, but each gives you all the best features of a modern smart device.

If you've never used a digital note-taking device, know that these are tablet-sized (not e-reader size), so you probably won't want to hold them up for long periods. They are also both powered by Android and include the Google Play Store, so you can download all your favorite apps.

The TCL Note A1 NXTPAPER and the Boox Go 10.3 Gen II both ship with styluses that magnetically attach to the side of the tablet, so you can take notes anytime you need to. Whether that's bedside journaling or attempting to jot down everything important during a lecture, both tablets will give you quick access to recording and handwritten notes, and I've spent the last week putting these two through rigorous tests to find out which should be in your backpack this year.

Not all ePaper is created equally

E Ink is the most common type of ePaper display you'll find today, but TCL's NXTPAPER displays give it a run for its money in several ways. The TCL Note A1 features a special type of NXTPAPER display that works just as well for black-and-white notes as it does for YouTube videos.

The matte display is wonderful for cutting glare from those annoying overhead classroom lights, and the fluid 120Hz refresh rate feels fast and smooth. This makes using apps feel like any normal Android tablet, and it may prove nicer for note-taking for people who want something smoother than E Ink.

While these tablets are primarily designed for handwriting, you can also use any virtual keyboard you choose. I always love using Gboard, but typing on it always feels slow on E Ink. NXTPAPER is fast and fluid and feels like typing on a normal tablet.

But that's about where the positives end and where the Boox Go 10.3 Gen II's E Ink display takes over. One of the inherent advantages of E Ink is that it doesn't need a backlight to illuminate the screen. It's got one just in case you need it, but I rarely find that I need to use it.

If I'm taking notes outside, the Boox Go is the clear winner. That black-and-white E Ink display perfectly absorbs and reflects sunlight, so you can see the display even better in direct sunlight than elsewhere. The built-in front light also gets extremely dim when you need it, which I found important for lecture rooms that can sometimes be too dim.

The TCL Note A1's display is really only easy to see in moderate indoor lighting. It doesn't get bright enough to see outdoors, and it doesn't get dim enough to comfortably use in a low-lit room. There's also no dark mode, curiously enough, which probably would have helped a lot in those dim rooms.

Both displays' lights are fully flicker-free, but TCL's NXTPAPER display uses something called temporal dithering to enhance the colors. This effect can give some people splitting headaches, and since there's no way to disable it, I can't recommend the tablet for anyone sensitive to dithering.

That makes the Boox Go 10.3 Gen II the best display of the two, despite the advantages that color and a faster refresh rate on the NXTPAPER might otherwise seem.

Note-taking gets leveled up

Displays affect more than just readability, too. Boox's E Ink technology looks a lot more like traditional paper and pen, but typing on the display isn't as nice since the refresh rate is lower. Likewise, typing on the TCL Note A1 feels smoother, but I wouldn't say there's any meaningful latency difference when writing.

In fact, I far prefer writing on the Boox Go 10.3 Gen II because the stylus feels like writing with a marker, and the display's textured surface also feels uniquely wonderful to swipe on. TCL's Note A1 stylus offers an incredibly unique built-in haptic engine (yes, into the stylus!), but writing on the screen still feels too much like writing on glass for my liking.

Taking notes is faster on the Boox Go, and I find the default note styles and options are better than TCL's. Both companies offer some great template options to get you started, as well.

Boox also offers a superb handwriting-to-text engine that even understands my terrible chicken-scratch writing. TCL offers some truly fantastic AI writing tools built in, but curiously doesn't offer a direct handwriting-to-text option — the only way to achieve this is to have TCL's AI rewrite your notes, which isn't always preferable.

But TCL offers a suite of AI tools that Boox simply does not. If you're a student who enjoys utilizing AI to help give you better writing, summarize your notes, make things searchable, or even add live transcription of lectures to your notes, TCL is the easy winner in this category. The Boox Go can record audio directly to a note, but there's no transcription option at all, something I thought was very odd in this day and age.

Lastly, the Boox Go 10.3 Gen II passes all Google Play Integrity tests, which means any apps that require an extra layer of security (think banking apps) run just fine on it. TCL's Note A1 doesn't pass any of them, which I thought was curious. I haven't run into issues with normal apps on TCL's tablet, but there are undoubtedly some more secure ones that simply won't work on it.

Boox to replace your notebooks

While the TCL Note A1 offers far better built-in AI tools and a faster refresh rate, I like everything else about the Boox Go 10.3 Gen II better. This even includes the hardware design, as the TCL Note A1 feels like a heavy iPad while the Boox Go is sleeker, lighter, and more ergonomic, with curved sides that rest comfortably in my hands, a lighter overall weight, and a luxurious vegan leather back.

Boox and TCL are running a back-to-school sale this month to sweeten this deal further. The Boox Go bundle I'm using is currently $40 off, while the TCL Note A1 is $50 off. This still makes the Boox Go 10.3 Gen II $100 cheaper than the TCL Note A1, and that's easily enough of a reason for me to recommend it.

The wait is almost over. Google has confirmed that its next Pixel hardware launch event will take place on August 12th in New York at 6:00 PM ET. We're expecting big reveals around the Pixel 11 series, of course, along with some new wearables and possibly a few surprises from the brand.

If you're wondering how to watch the event live and what to expect, here's everything you need to know.

How to watch the Made by Google event on August 12

Google has confirmed that its Made by Google event is taking place in New York on August 12 at 6:00 PM ET. As always, the company has invited select media, journalists, and a handful of influencers to join the event in person, where it'll be unveiling its new phones and wearables.

For the rest of us at home, Google will once again be streaming the launch event on its Made by Google YouTube channel, so you'll be able to tune in live and watch everything unfold in real time.

The company hasn't set up a YouTube event listing for the Pixel 11 series just yet, though we'd expect that to go live closer to the date. Once it does, we'll be embedding the live stream directly above, so you'll be able to access it right here.

What to expect from Google's next Pixel hardware launch event

Made by Google is where the company unveils its next-generation hardware. This year, we're expecting the Pixel 11 series to take center stage, alongside the Pixel Watch 5 lineup, new wearables, and a handful of software announcements.

Based on the multitude of leaks we've seen over the past few weeks, here's a complete roundup of everything we're expecting Google to announce at its August 12 event.

Pixel 11 series

It's no surprise that the Pixel 11 series will be the star of this year's Made by Google event. While leaks were relatively quiet at first, the floodgates have opened over the past few weeks, giving us a pretty clear picture of what to expect from Google's next flagship phones.

In terms of design, the Pixel 11 lineup is expected to look very similar to the Pixel 10 series, with the same rounded corners, flat sides, and signature camera bar. The only new hardware change, design-wise, is expected to be the new Pixel Glow LED, which the company has even been teasing on the Google Store.

Google is also expected to stick with the same four-model lineup: the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

The new phones are rumored to arrive in a range of fresh colors, but the bigger changes are expected under the hood. Google may finally switch to a new 2nm Tensor G6 chip built by TSMC, which should address many of the performance and efficiency complaints surrounding previous Tensor processors.

There's also expected to be a modem upgrade, with Google reportedly moving to a MediaTek modem for the first time.

Unfortunately, like many smartphones launching in 2026, the Pixel 11 series is also expected to get a price hike. Current leaks suggest every model could cost around $100 more than its predecessor.

The silver lining is that Google is also rumored to double the base storage to 256GB. Thankfully, we won't have to wait much longer to find out how accurate the leaks have been.

Pixel Watch 5

The Pixel Watch 5 first leaked in perhaps the most unexpected way possible, after a diver reportedly found one on the ocean floor near St. Martin. Since then, a number of other leaks have filled in the rest of the picture.

In terms of design, the Pixel Watch 5 is expected to retain the same curved, circular display we've seen on previous Pixel Watch models. Google is also reportedly sticking with the same 41mm and 45mm size options.

Under the hood, however, the report suggests there won't be a new chipset this year, meaning we won't see the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear Elite chip that debuted on Samsung's latest Galaxy Watches. That said, Google is reportedly increasing the RAM, which should help with the new on-device AI features.

As for pricing, leaks suggest Google is planning a small price increase compared to last year's models. If that proves true, it would mark the first time Google has raised Pixel Watch prices since the lineup debuted.

More wearables? New software features?

Made by Google is never just about the hardware that's already leaked. In fact, Google almost always has a few surprises up its sleeve, and this year is unlikely to be any different. We're expecting the company to show off a few more devices alongside the Pixel lineup.

Could we finally see the launch of Google's Android XR smart glasses developed in collaboration with Xreal? It's certainly possible, but we'll have to wait until the keynote to find out.

Google is also expected to debut its partner hardware for Googlebooks this fall, but perhaps we can expect a look at first-party Googlebook hardware this year at the Made by Google event.

And, of course, Pixel launch events are never just about new hardware. Google also spends a significant amount of time showcasing the software experiences that power its latest devices. That means we can expect to hear much more about Android 17, including new features like Rambler, new emojis, and Gemini Intelligence coming to the Pixel 11 series.

As in previous years, Android Central will be on the ground at Google's Made by Google event, bringing you full coverage and live updates from the keynote. We'll also be running a live blog throughout the event, so you can follow along in real time as Google unveils its next generation of Pixel devices.

There are many reasons why you would want to use your smartphone as a mouse to control your computer. Maybe you're watching something, and it's just easier, or maybe you can't get a physical mouse at the moment. Regardless, I can teach you how I turned my Android phone into a remote mouse that connects to my Windows laptop seamlessly. You'll see just how simple the steps are and will find no trouble doing it yourself!

All of this is possible thanks to Unified Remote, an Android and iOS app that works with Windows, Linux, and macOS. The app's basic, most essential functions are free to use, but if you want more customization and features, you can always purchase the premium version. This tutorial uses the free basic version on a Pixel 10 Pro running Android 17 and an HP laptop running Windows 11.

How to use your phone as a mouse for your laptop or computer

There are two parts to this tutorial. The first half is done on your computer, and the next half is completed on your phone. Although slightly different depending on the OS, the steps are more or less the same across platforms in essence.

Let's begin with the initial setup on your PC.

1. Go to the Unified Remote download page on desktop and download the Unified Remote Server setup file.

2. Run the Unified Remote Server setup file and to install it.

3. After installation is complete, launch Unified Remote on your computer.

4. You should see your server status and information once the Unified Remote Server has been launched on your computer. If the server is up and running, this is what it should look like:

The next steps are to be carried out on your phone.

5. Download and install the Unified Remote app on your phone. Be sure to grant the necessary permissions to the app.

6. Launch the app and select "I'VE INSTALLED THE SERVER".

7. Your phone should connect to your computer's server automatically, so you can immediately start using the app's interface to control your computer.

Unified Remote is a fantastic free-to-use app that works perfectly well without paying for the premium version

It's really that easy and doesn't require any money. The touchpad in the app works like a laptop's touchpad. You can scroll, right-click, single-click, double-click, move the pointer on the computer screen, and even pull up a keyboard and type! A bonus feature is that swipe texting works in the app, so you don't need to tap individual keys.

If you want to have access to remote controls beyond the basic touchpad, keyboard, and media controls, or if you want to get rid of ads, you'll have to subscribe to the premium version of the app. The ads aren't even that invasive, so you shouldn't stress about that aspect too much.

A more in-depth explanation about the incompatibility of older cases with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

When you hold the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and the last-gen Galaxy Z Fold 7 in your hand, or look at pictures of them next to each other, it is very reasonable to think they could share cases. After all, their dimensions are nearly identical, even on paper.

Here's a comparison of the measurements of the two large-form foldable devices.

Looking at the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, the numbers hint at potential backward compatibility of cases. After all, the measurements match almost perfectly.

When folded, both the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the Z Fold 8 Ultra measure 158.4 x 72.8 x 8.9 mm, and when unfolded, they're almost identical too, 158.4 x 143.2 x 4.2mm and 158.4 x 143.2 x 4.1 mm. Even their displays have the same sizes, 8 inches internally and 6.5 inches externally.

So what gives? Why can't you use the phone cases for the Galaxy Z Fold 7 on the Z Fold 8 Ultra? Well, if you can't tell from the pictures, the raised unit housing the camera lenses does not match, differing in sizing and placement.

The second difference hindering backward compatibility of cases between the two Z Fold models is the hinge. Because of these two small but important discrepancies between the two Z Fold devices, you cannot use cases for either foldable on the other.

It's hard to say whether these were functional design changes, or alterations that were made to warrant purchasing new phone cases so Samsung could make more money. Regardless, if you've taken advantage of the excellent Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra preorder deals and are waiting for your new foldable, be sure to check out the best Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra cases to go with it too.

There's a decent amount of choice if you're looking to buy a foldable right now. But if you're into Google's ecosystem and are mulling a switch, you should wait until the Pixel 11 Pro Fold becomes available. Google will unveil the foldable alongside the Pixel 11 models on August 12, and the foldable should go on sale shortly thereafter.

Between the Motorola Razr Fold, Samsung's all-new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and the wide Z Fold 8, and the upcoming Pixel 11 Pro Fold, you're pretty much covered if you want a solid book-style foldable. It's a little annoying that the Find N6 and the Vivo X Fold 5 — two of my favorite foldables — aren't available in the U.S., but it's clear by now that these brands don't want to branch out into North America.

There's also the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, and I like Google's foldable quite a lot even though it doesn't take the best photos, isn't the lightest, or the fastest. It has delightful software, and I like the build quality and durability. That said, I wouldn't recommend buying one at this moment in time — Google is set to roll out decent upgrades this year to the Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

Recent leaks point to a thinner design, which is honestly something Google should have done last year itself. The rest of the industry made huge strides in this area, and even Samsung started using silicon-carbon battery tech to slot in a 5,000mAh battery in a body that's roughly the same size and weight as last year's Z Fold 7 (which had a 4,400mAh unit).

Google absolutely needs to have a noticeably-thinner and lighter foldable, and it needs better cameras. Thankfully, the leaks point to Google delivering a new main camera, so the Pixel 11 Pro Fold should take better photos out of the box. I also want to see a bigger battery, but information has been light on that — what we do know is that Google is using a brand-new Tensor G6 platform that's built on a 2nm node, so it should have better energy-efficiency, allowing the foldable to last longer.

Where Google absolutely nailed the brief with the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is with the inner and outer OLED panels. They're calibrated well, have vibrant colors, and get brighter than other foldables, and I want this to continue with this year's device. Where Google needs to do better is the crease; OPPO showcased how to make a foldable with no visible crease in the Find N6, and Samsung came mighty close to it with the Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Google now has to show how its efforts in this category have panned out over the last 12 months.

If you don't want to wait and want a foldable right now, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra would be the obvious choice. It has the best design, an extensive feature-set, and great cameras. But if you prefer Google's software and are ready to finally switch to a foldable, I'd suggest waiting until the Pixel 11 Pro Fold goes on sale — we don't have to wait too long.

My main phone is the Find X9 Ultra, and my wife is using the Vivo X300 Ultra, so when we go on vacation, we just use our phones to take photos and videos. It's just convenient, and this year's flagships do a magnificent job in this regard.

But I generally prefer using a dedicated device to take photos. In the past, that used to be Sony's RX100 cameras, but I wanted something even smaller, and one that took better videos. That's where the DJI Osmo Pocket 4P comes into the picture; I have several friends in the industry who swear by their Osmo Pocket, and I wanted to see how good it is for myself.

So ahead of its global launch, I got the Osmo Pocket 4P along with a whole lot of accessories, and I used it extensively while attending a destination wedding in Bali, Indonesia. It didn't take long to understand the usefulness of the Pocket 4P; the gimbal system makes shooting videos significantly easier, and there's an immediate difference in stabilization versus what you'd get while shooting handheld with your phone.

The Osmo Pocket 4P has an added advantage: a secondary camera with 3x zoom. The dual-lens pocket gimbal camera has a new f/2.0 1-inch 20mm CMOS main sensor with LOFIC — similar to the Xiaomi 17 Ultra — and 17 stops of dynamic range, alongside an f/1.8 60mm lens with 3x optical zoom. The secondary lens gives the Pocket 4P much greater versatility, and it is a decent enough differentiator even against the standard Pocket 4.

There are three features that stood out the most in my month of testing the Osmo Pocket 4P: image and video quality, how stable it is in challenging situations (like walking around on a beach while shooting video), and just how easy it is to use. You don't need to wade through a dozen settings to get started: just hit the power button, choose the orientation, and shoot.

Video is obviously the main focus, and the Osmo Pocket 4P takes stunning 4K content, going up to 4K240. It shoots 10-bit D-Log 2 color profile, and the quality of the HDR footage in general is much better than I imagined. It did pretty well in low-light situations as well, but the thing that stood out the most is the 3-aixs stabilization — there's no hint that you're using a handheld shooter in the resultant videos. More than anything else, this is where the Osmo Pocket 4P has a clear advantage over phones, and it's no wonder that both OPPO and Vivo are set to be making products to rival DJI.

It does a decent job taking photos as well, with the 37MP images coming out with plenty of detail and accurate color rendition. Another thing I like is the tracking mode; this makes it easy to shoot moving subjects. There's a dedicated low-light shooting mode as well, and with 103GB of built-in storage, you can easily record a few hours of footage without any accessories. There's a MicroSD slot as well (thankfully), and I used Lexar's excellent 2TB MicroSD card with the Pocket 4P.

The 5D joystick makes it effortless to pan around while shooting videos, and there's a dedicated button to switch between the 1x and 3x lenses. The 2-inch OLED panel does a great job as a viewfinder, and the Pocket 4P is astonishingly light considering what it has to offer. It's just 230g, and the small size means you can use it just about anywhere.

Battery life is decent enough, and a 20-minute charge gives you three hours of runtime. Oh, and a new update adds automatic footage transfer to your iPhone, provided you're using the iPhone 16 and above. I would've liked a similar feature with Android devices as well, but that isn't available just yet.

The standard edition of the Pocket 4P costs £529/€599, and then there's a vlog combo that retails at £605/€689. There's no U.S. pricing, because this device isn't available in the region.

The vlog combo is the one I'm using, and if you're eyeing this camera, it is the bundle I'd suggest buying. It comes with the Pocket 4P, a mini tripod, fill light, DJI Mic Mini 2 transmitter and windscreens, a remote viewfinder and shutter button, two carrying bags, and all the associated charging cables. Honestly, it's a lot of stuff, and even after a month, I didn't use all the accessories yet.

Overall, I liked the Osmo Pocket 4P a lot more than I imagined. It's easy to take anywhere, takes great photos and videos, and has a ton of extensibility. If you need a portable camera with a built-in gimbal to use outdoors and the versatility of a 3x lens, the Osmo Pocket 4P gets my recommendation.

Sony has been doing all the wrong things of late, but I'm not here to rant about them canceling physical game discs today. I'm here to help you fix a very annoying, yet somehow super prevalent, problem. If you use the PlayStation app on your smartphone, you might have come across this issue.

I signed out of my secondary PlayStation account on my phone a few weeks ago and tried to log in to my primary PS profile, which has 2FA enabled for security. Unfortunately, I wasn't receiving any two-factor authentication text messages from Sony. It was the start of the weekend, which meant I'd have to wait two days before Sony's customer support came online.

So here's what I did to fix it and finally log back into my account.

How to regain access to your PlayStation app when two factor authentication fails

Usually, the correct thing to do is to use your backup codes when 2FA fails. And trust me, Sony's PlayStation app regularly fails to send a 2FA SMS. Just go to Reddit, and you'll find countless accounts of this happening (here, here, and here). PlayStation account users have even been prevented from logging in to their PS4s and PS5s because of this problem.

Anyway, I kept my backup codes in such a safe place that even I couldn't find them. So here's what I did.

1. Open the PlayStation app and tap Sign In.

2. Enter your email address and tap Next.

3. Instead of entering your password, select the Trouble Signing In? option.

4. You'll have to reset your password now by selecting the Recover Your Account > option.

5. You will be redirected to the account recovery portal. Enter your email address there and tap Send Link.

6. Once the password recovery email arrives, choose to set up a passkey instead of a password. This automatically disables two-factor authentication.

7. Once your passkey is set up, sign in to the PlayStation app using your passkey instead.

The PlayStation app can be your savior when you're locked out of your PSN account

Previously, PlayStation Network (PSN) users could use 2FA on their PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 4 if they weren't sent a verification code via SMS. But that option is no longer available. So if you can't get your two-factor authentication code via text, you need to rely on your backup codes.

Thankfully, even if you've misplaced your backup codes, this hack lets you reset everything without relying on 2FA. Once a passkey is set up, it is tied to your password manager. So just make sure you don't get locked out of that!