With stable Android 17 finally rolling out to Pixel devices, there are a ton of new features for us to try out. During The Android Show, Google highlighted new social-media-focused features, and now we're finally getting a look at some of them, which aim to enhance your experience creating content for apps like Instagram.

One such feature is screen reactions, a new built-in capability that removes some of the effort that would normally require a third-party app or fancy app techniques. And I admit, for a relatively simple feature, it's quite ingenious, and I'm surprised Google had the wherewithal to launch it with Android 17.

Screen Reactions is a surprisingly effective feature

If you're on Instagram or TikTok, then you've probably seen them. Many of my favorite content creators react to news, images, or other videos by inserting a small floating video of themselves. Reaction videos like this are quite effective, as they let viewers see both the original content and the reaction, and sometimes the reaction is better or funnier than the original.

I'm a casual social media user, but I have dabbled in making Reels every now and then. However, given my limited knowledge of creating social media content, this type of reaction video has always eluded me. And I know there are built-in functions to help create these types of videos, like a virtual green screen, but I've not wanted to take the time to figure it out, though I'm sure it's a fairly easy process.

Now, I don't have to figure it out. Because Screen Reactions is built into the screen record function on my Pixel 10, creating this type of reaction video just takes a few taps, without futzing with different app methods to achieve the same effect. And you can edit the clips on-device or put finishing touches in Instagram or TikTok. It's not perfect, but it feels like it just lowered the barrier to entry for anyone wanting to create content on social media.

How to use Screen Reactions on your Pixel 10

1. Swipe down from the top of your screen to open the Quick Settings menu.

2. Tap the Screen Record button. You may need to edit your Quick Settings menu and add the button if it's not already there.

3. Toggle on Show selfie camera. This will automatically turn on the Record microphone option.

4. Tap the color palette icon to enable a color background. Tap any color to show the background or tap it again to turn it off.

5. Tap Start to begin recording.

6. When you're done, tap the live notification and tap Stop to end recording.

7. You can go straight to recording another clip, delete the clip you just recorded, or edit the clip to your liking using Google Photos editing features.

Once you're done with each clip, you can edit them together in the Google Photos app or use a third-party app such as Instagram and TikTok to add finishing touches.

Things to keep in mind

Screen Reactions is a cool feature, but it's not perfect, and there are some limitations worth noting. The first thing you should know is that it only works when screen recording is set to record the entire screen; it won't work if you just want to record a specific app. That means anything that appears on the screen will be captured in the recording, including when you adjust the volume, open the notification shade, tap the live notification to stop the recording, etc.

It makes sense why it would be the entire screen, as your reaction could very well involve using your phone and diffing into its settings or switching to multiple apps, but it's just something to keep in mind.

My first instinct was to try recording a Screen Reaction on a full-screen Reel to get cleaner video with fewer Instagram UI elements. For some reason, Reels won't appear if you try this method; you'll just see a black screen and your selfie video. TikTok's Clear Display does work, however, so that may be an alternative, or you could just download the Reel or TikTok if that option's available.

Another downside of Screen Reaction recording the entire screen is that you'll also see your screen recording status icon in the notification shade. I don't know about you, but this looks kind of tacky, and I wish there were a way to leave this out of the recording. It's probably the one way Instagram or TikTok's green screen effects are better than the built-in function.

Perhaps an updated version of Screen Record could include an option to hide these extra on-screen elements from the recording, ensuring the video looks as clean as if you recorded it with Instagram or TikTok's tools.

It would also be nice if stopping the recording wasn't a two-step process of taping the live notification at the top of the screen and then the stop button. Google should place a stop or pause button somewhere more accessible so I'm not reaching in front of the selfie camera to stop recording.

Still, despite some quirky and questionable UI choices, I think this is a great feature that takes away much of the complications of making a reaction video for social media. If you have a Pixel smartphone, you should give it a try. I can't wait to see how other OEMs implement this feature when Android 17 rolls out to other Android phones.

Motorola's Razr series continues to be my favorite, and this year, Motorola stepped up its camera game, offering better and brighter sensors with better dynamic range and incredible zoom. But better sensors are just part of the equation: you also need to make sure your cameras are set up and primed to help you take better photos.

These are some of the camera features I changed on my 2026 Motorola Razr models to give me the best experience. Note that many of these features are available for the Razr Fold and/or the Razr Ultra 2026, but may also be available on the Razr Plus 2026 and Razr 2026.

Color

Similar to the phone's display color profile, Motorola lets you change how the Razr processes color in its images. You can find this by tapping the sparkle icon at the top of the camera viewfinder. Here, you'll find three options: Natural, Vivid, and Signature Style, though I'll mostly focus on the first two.

The Natural style offers a "true-to-life" color style, while the Vivid option boosts saturation to make colors really pop. You can't edit either of these options, but I find that the Natural color style offers fantastic color reproduction in the Razr Ultra 2026 and Razr Fold.

Like with the display color profile, I don't care for the Vivid color option, as it seems to oversaturate images, although this will obviously depend on your preference.

You can also select the Signature Style; however, this is a bit more involved and requires training the camera by editing images in the Google Photos app.

Composition

Most smartphone cameras don't enable composition features by default, but as someone who constantly tests various phones, I like to turn them on to help me compose similar shots across models. On the 2026 Razr series, you'll have to navigate to Camera Settings > Capture assistant to enable the Assistive grid and Leveler.

The Assistive grid will provide a visual rule-of-thirds grid, which is great for composing shots, while the leveler will help you keep your images level with the horizon.

Cover screen and preview

One of the benefits of having a foldable phone is the cover screen. On the Razr series, the external displays offer considerable utility, with features you can easily enable or disable. On the top left corner of the camera viewfinder, you'll find a rectangular icon. Tapping it will cycle through two features (on the Razr Fold, the screen must be open), one of which enables an external viewfinder. This lets people see themselves while you're taking photos, making it easy for them to compose themselves the way they want.

The other cover screen feature includes animated cartoons, which you can use to capture the attention of younger children. If you go into Camera Settings > Camera Cartoon, you can choose which cartoons you want on the external display or simply shuffle through them.

I also like to toggle the No Crop option for External Display Preview in the Camera Settings, which means on the Razr 2026 flip phones, you'll be able to view the entire viewfinder, not just a square cropped version.

On both the Razr flip phones and the Razr Fold, I toggle on the Instant Review option, which should flash a quick preview of the captured images on the cover screen if you don't want to turn on the live preview.

As for the Razr Fold, you can take this even further by enabling a secondary preview on the internal display. This only works when the phone is open: tap the icon furthest to the top left of the Camera viewfinder to enable the preview. Whenever you take a photo, it displays the image on one side while keeping the viewfinder open on the other, so you can continue taking photos or view scenes side by side.

Selfies and portrait

On the Razr Fold, you can take better selfies with the rear camera sensors by tapping the little person icon in the top-left corner of the camera viewfinder (when the phone is closed). This will prompt you to open your phone while keeping the camera viewfinder on the external display.

However, you can also choose whether your selfies appear as they do in the viewfinder or as you do in real life. This essentially flips the perspective of the selfie, and it is completely up to your own preference (I like to mirror the image, myself). To change this, navigate to the Camera Settings and toggle Selfie Mirror on or off, depending on your preference.

Portrait Mode is a way for smartphones to mimic DSLR cameras by applying a bokeh effect around the subject. On Razr phones, you can adjust this effect by navigating to Portrait in the Camera app carousel and tapping the ⨍ symbol. You can use the slider to change the intensity of the bokeh effect from 1 to 6, depending on your preference.

Additionally, you can use the Portrait beautifier to change your appearance by tapping the face icon. This includes options like smoothing, toning, slimming your face, and even making your eyes look larger, although I prefer to leave this feature off and let my natural beauty speak for itself 💅🏾.

Camcorder Mode

Camcorder Mode is a feature unique to flip phones, and Motorola gives you a certain level of control over it. Head to Camera Settings and tap Camcorder Mode to open the menu. You can make things easy by toggling on Auto Recording, which automatically begins recording when you fold the phone 90 degrees, or by enabling a short 3-second timer.

Additionally, the Razr 2026 series features a new Rotate to Zoom feature that will zoom in or out when you tilt the phone either way. And thanks to Horizon Lock, the video remains still even when you tilt to zoom, which is pretty neat.

Gestures

One of the best things about owning a Motorola phone is the gestures. You can enable the Quick Capture feature in Settings or the Camera Settings, which lets you open the camera by simply twisting the phone twice. You can also control which camera it opens: the rear camera or selfie camera. On Razr flip phones, you can also choose whether to open the default camera or Mirror mode.

The Razr series also has Air Gestures for the camera, which lets you take a photo just by showing your palm to the camera. It will begin a short countdown to give you time to position yourself for the image.

You can take this further with palm-based video control. Show your palm to begin recording a video, then make a fist at the camera to stop recording. You'll see a large fist icon with a circular countdown when the phone recognizes a fist. I find it quite aggressive and will see a fist when I'm not making one, so I leave this feature off.

Video

When it comes to video recording, I find it best to leave the resolution at 4K and 30fps for most scenarios. Fortunately, you can easily change the resolution and frame rate from the viewfinder. You can also go up to 8K at 30 fps, but that's overkill for most situations.

I will say that while the Razr Ultra and Razr Plus 2026 support Dolby Vision, I would keep it off. I don't like the way it processes colors, as they often appear too saturated and the lighting feels a bit overexposed. But if you have the Razr Fold, you'll find an extra button in the video viewfinder in the shape of a video recorder. Tap this to enable the Video Enhancement Engine, which greatly enhances color and tone while minimizing noise.

Additional video settings can be found in the Camera app settings, where I recommend toggling on Auto Frame Rate for better low-light video, AI Audio for Audio Zoom capabilities (focuses the mic on the zoomed-in area), and Efficient Videos for smaller video sizes.

Situational features

Razr phones have a few more situational camera features that I would recommend keeping in your back pocket, as they could come in handy when you find yourself in a situation that calls for them. Here are some features that you'll want to remember to use:

• Action Shot: If you're trying to take a photo of a fast-moving subject, tap the icon of the running person in the viewfinder. This increases the shutter speed and uses AI magic to keep the subject in focus, making it a more reliable option than the main camera mode. Only the Razr Fold lets you zoom while using Action Shot.
• Group Shot: Similar to Best Take on a Pixel, this will ensure that everyone in the shot has their eyes open so they all look their best.
• Photo Booth: This fun feature automatically takes 4 photos and arranges them into a collage. You can then edit said collage by adding additional photos and changing the layout.
• Active Photos: This saves a short clip of the scene when taking a photo. When you view it in Google Photos, you can play the video (which also includes audio) and even save it as a video, GIF, or a separate still photo (without the Motion attached). Unfortunately, this feature doesn't remain on, so you'll have to turn it on each time you open the camera.
• Horizon Lock: This is a pretty cool video feature that keeps the video locked to the horizon no matter how much you move or tilt. This is especially good for fast-moving or sports videos, giving you a super steady clip.

Some of these features are hidden in the More section of the camera carousel. However, you can tap the pencil icon and move them into the main carousel if you want quick access to them.

The Circular Ring 2 is one of the latest smart rings available, having launched in the latter half of 2025. It's a bit of a departure from Circular's previous models, offering a streamlined design and experience, although at the cost of some of its predecessor's more unique features.

I've been testing the Circular Ring 2 for a month, and it delivers a lot of what anyone would want in a smart ring. However, in the shadow of Oura, especially after launching the new Oura Ring 5, it feels like the Circular Ring 2 doesn't really have much room to shine, even with some rather rare smart ring features.

Questionable design choices

The Circular Ring 2 features a pretty standard smart ring design, which is mostly symmetrical, aside from two protrusions on the inner side of the ring where the sensors are. The ring is relatively thick at 2.55mm, but that isn't the problem; those two protrusions dig into my finger, and it can make wearing the ring somewhat uncomfortable.

Frankly, I'm not sure what compelled Circular to design its sensors this way, but it doesn't promote prolonged wear on something meant to be worn comfortably, especially at bedtime.

Unfortunately, things aren't much better on the exterior side of the ring. Circular Ring 2 is available in four colorways, and my silver option started off nice, but it quickly took a turn for the worse. The finish on the ring gets scratched and scuffed so easily; it looks like I've been wearing my unit for at least a year when it's only been a month. Granted, I do work out with it, so some of that is definitely my fault, but I often put a rubber cover on it. Even so, just doing regular things such as holding objects can add to wear and tear, which isn't a good look.

The top of the ring is clearly marked with the Circular logo, making it easy to know how to properly wear it. It's a nice touch, but I find myself cleaning it often as dirt can easily get trapped here.

Circular's coolest features aren't here

Unfortunately, the logo at the top of the ring doesn't serve as a "button" as it does on the Circular Ring Slim, which launched in 2023. It's a shame, but there's an even more disappointing reason as to why: there's no vibration motor in this ring.

Previous Circular Ring models would vibrate to alert you to notifications or alarms, and, in the case of the Circular Ring Slim, you could tap the top of the ring to stop the vibration.

This would have been a very cool feature to include on the Circular Ring 2, especially if the company could figure out how to implement it with the more streamlined design. Not many health-tracking smart rings feature vibration motors, and it would help the Circular Ring 2 stand out against heavyweights like Samsung and Oura.

When I asked why these features were removed, it seemed they were complicated to implement on such a small device, and the company wanted to focus this model on other areas, such as ECG. That said, it's up to you to decide if these features are worth it.

But here's the thing... some of the new features announced for the Circular Ring 2 aren't even available. The company teased blood pressure and blood glucose trend estimates, features not found in many smart rings. However, despite a planned "early 2026" launch, these features remain unavailable, while other companies like Oura hone in on blood pressure estimates.

The basics

Design may be a bit off, and some features may be missing, but the Circular Ring 2 has pretty much all the features you could need. As a health and fitness tracker, it does a decent job, especially with regard to sleep tracking. It manages to match my other wearables pretty well, including heart rate and changes in body temperature.

I also like that the Circular Ring 2 evaluates how well you wake up, something a lot of people don't pay much attention to. How you feel when you wake up can be based on how long you slept, but also on the sleep stage you're in when you wake up.

To help, the Circular app features a built-in alarm with a smart alarm that wakes you at an ideal time, usually during your lightest sleep stage. Some features, like vibration and smart snooze, aren't available even though they're clearly present in the app. It feels somewhat like an unfair tease.

On the plus side, ECG measurements and Afib detection are also available, and you can set rhythm monitoring to run daily, weekly, or monthly. It also comes with medication reminders, and you can set up multiple alarms if you need to take multiple medications at different times.

You can track activities with the Circular Ring 2, but this isn't its specialty. There are a number of activities you can track in the app, and it does a decent job, with real-time heart rate monitoring that you can view directly on the app. It also uses the phone's GPS for certain activities like walking and running, and you can even view the map of your pathway while exercising.

That said, I find that for workout tracking, the Circular Ring isn't too reliable and even omits some useful information. I've tracked several workouts with the ring, comparing them with other wearables, including the Oura Ring 4, Garmin Venu 4, and Fitbit Air. The Circular Ring 2 often overestimates or underestimates heart rate during these activities, though at times it can be in the ballpark.

Unfortunately, I couldn't perform a step test because while the Circular Ring 2 features an overall daily step count, it doesn't appear to count steps during individual workouts. The ring also doesn't feature any automatic activity tracking, so you'll have to manually track each workout, which is kind of a bummer.

An imperfect app

The Circular Ring offers a very robust app experience, which I find a bit overwhelming. There's a lot of information crammed into the main home page, though fortunately it's mostly visual.

At the top is a row of "circles," which can be customized to display your most important metrics. You can find your sleep and energy scores here, or tap each metric to dive into them.

That said, you might be waiting a bit to get the most up-to-date information; the app is incredibly slow to sync data with the ring. You can view this process in real time in the app, but it only highlights how slow it is, which is kind of a bummer, since the app is your main point of interaction with the ring and its data.

Fortunately, there are five widgets you can add to your phone: the battery, energy score, sleep score, steps tracker, and an overall wellness summary that includes all of the above and a calendar. In fact, it has more widgets than I find available on many apps I have downloaded, and they're well designed.

The app also features Kira+, an AI health coach that provides a summary of your metrics and recommendations for your day. Its implementation is pretty clunky, and I often have to manually generate daily recommendations, which isn't as useful as automatically surfacing each morning.

As for the summaries themselves, Kira+ doesn't do the best job of displaying them. It's all squeezed together in a rather dense set of bullet points, where it mostly throws a bunch of numbers at me that don't mean much, while not doing much to really explain them. Fortunately, the recommendations are a bit easier to take in, but it would be much better if summaries and recommendations were accessible throughout the app and not within a separate tab on the home page.

Still, it's a decent offering as AI health coaches go, but not close to what you'd find with the likes of Oura's Advisor or Google's Personal Health Coach, since you can't really interact with Kira+.

Battery life and modes

One thing that the Circular Ring features that I don't find on other rings is its power modes. By default, the Circular Ring 2 is in Performance mode, meaning you'll get the most accurate data from the ring. Unfortunately, this hurts battery life, so you should only expect about 4 days of use, which is pretty accurate in my testing.

On the other hand, there's Power mode, which gives you up to eight days of battery life but at the expense of data accuracy. Still, it's pretty impressive and is on the higher end of battery life offered by smartwatches. You can also easily switch between the two modes in the app, and I recommend using Power mode most of the time and switching to Performance during workouts and sleep, which provides a good middle ground for battery life.

The inclusion of a charging case, rather than a cradle, is a nice addition, so you can carry it with you in case you need a top-up. It's a decently sized case, no bigger than most wireless earbud cases, but simply setting the ring on the charger won't do anything; you have to press the button on the back to begin charging. It's somewhat unintuitive, and I have found I've forgotten to press the button a few times, leaving me with a dead ring when I thought it was charging.

Verdict

The smart ring market isn't quite as robust as I thought it would be, with Oura still dominating and stomping all over the competition. However, smaller companies like Circular are still kicking and proving they can offer compelling alternatives for anyone who doesn't want to add another subscription on top of the ring's price.

Unfortunately, the Circular Ring 2 gave up some of its most distinctive features to become a run-of-the-mill smart ring that does just the bare minimum. And even when more compelling features like blood pressure and blood glucose estimations arrive, they'll be paywalled, meaning you'll need to be willing to fork over more money, ruining one of Circular's biggest advantages over Oura.

For $349, the Circular Ring 2 might be priced out of its league. It's not a bad smart ring, but I think Circular might need to rethink some of its design, app, and feature set to truly compete with the big boys. It may cost $50 less than the Oura Ring 5 if you don't account for the Oura membership, but I can't help but think the splurge on Oura might be worth it, especially if you'll end up paying more for extra Circular features anyway.

The Motorola Razr Fold arrives in stores soon, and I've already spent a couple of weeks with the phone, which just so happens to be Motorola's first book-style foldable phone. My review is already up if you want the full rundown of my thoughts using the Razr Fold, and we've also published a separate camera review, which I worked on with my colleague Nick Sutrich.

That said, if you're on the fence about whether to buy the Razr Fold, I'm breaking down some reasons to consider it and others to skip it or wait. Think of it as a mini review that just focused on the major highlights and concerns before you buy.

Motorola Razr Fold: Why you should buy it

These are the top reasons I've found the Razr Fold worth a look, from its cameras to its performance and long-lasting battery life.

Amazing camera

Off the bat, the Razr Fold has an impressive set of cameras. Motorola isn't exactly known for its camera prowess, but the company cooked with the Fold's triple 50MP rear sensors. Thanks to Sony Lytia sensors and some help from Pantone, photos are bright and vibrant, with punchy colors that I find quite pleasing to the eye. Of course, not everyone will be a fan of this style of imagine, but Android Central's Nick Sutrich and I are quite pleased with the cameras.

Motorola has also included some staple imaging features alongside some new ones. Of course, you can twist the phone twice to open the camera, and for those fast-moving subjects, Action Shot will keep them in focus. Frame Match is new, helping to ensure your friend frames you in a photo just as you intend, so you can capture the scene just right. And because it's a foldable, the Razr Fold's external screen can be used as a viewfinder for selfies or a preview screen for subjects.

Flagship-level performance

The Motorola Razr Fold is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5. It may not be the top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, but the chip, paired with 16GB of RAM, performs just fine without the extra power. You'll have no trouble juggling multiple apps, and the phone is surprisingly capable at gaming.

I've played some fairly graphically intensive games such as Honkai: Star Rail and Where Winds Meet on the highest settings, and the phone doesn't falter one bit or get noticeably warm.

The benchmarks leave a lot to be desired compared to flagships powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, such as the Galaxy S26 Ultra. That said, they don't always tell the whole story, and to be completely honest, I'm more than pleased with the Razr Fold's performance.

Silicon-carbon battery

Silicon-carbon batteries are the hot new tech in smartphones, allowing for denser, larger batteries and providing a boost in battery life for flagship smartphones. Google and Samsung have yet to adopt the tech in their latest flagships, but Motorola is bringing it to the U.S. with the Fold, squeezing a 6,000mAh battery into a very thin profile.

The result is rather impressive battery life, and I can easily get more than a day of use with the Razr Fold.

Plus, when you do run out of battery, the fast 80W charging can top you up in a pinch, assuming you have a compatible charger and USB-C cable. And if you like wireless charging, the Razr Fold supports a speedy 50W with a compatible Qi charger.

Versatility

The Razr Fold features a 6.6-inch external display, and it's rather impressive with its 165Hz refresh rate and 6,000-nit peak brightness. However, the internal folding display gives you a lot more screen to work with at 8.1 inches, and Motorola does a pretty good job of utilizing the real estate and the phone's folding nature.

Multitasking is pretty easy; you can open a triple-app split-screen view by dragging apps up from the taskbar. You can also add a fourth app by opening it in floating freeform mode; just drag it to the middle of the screen. And thanks to the Snapdragon chip, the phone handles all of this very well.

The Razr Fold also has two modes that you can activate when folding the phone at different angles. Desk Mode turns the Razr Fold into a smart desk display, which can show a clock, calendar, upcoming tasks, and notifications.

And when you open the Razr in a laptop-like angle, you can activate Laptop Mode, which turns the bottom half of the device into a trackpad that controls the top half with a cursor. It features a set of shortcuts for certain functions, and when you enter a text field, the bottom half opens a full keyboard.

7 years of software support

Motorola isn't always the best at software support, but the company is clearly learning. The Razr Fold will receive seven years of OS upgrades and bi-monthly security updates. That means the phone will eventually get Android 23 or 24 and should receive updates, possibly for longer than you'd intend to keep it. For such an expensive phone, long-term support like this just adds value.

Moto Pen Ultra

We were pretty bummed about Samsung removing support for the S Pen on the Galaxy Z Fold 7. Motorola must have heard the cries, because it created its own version of the S Pen specifically for the Razr Fold.

The Moto Pen Ultra is an active stylus pen, so it supports pressure sensitivity and tilt detection on the Razr Fold's screens. Unlike the S Pen for the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the Moto Pen Ultra supports Bluetooth, so you can capture images with the stylus as a remote shutter or use the side button to activate features like Circle to Search.

You can also take advantage of features like annotating your screen, dragging and dropping items between apps, and Motorola's Sketch to Image, which uses AI to clean up and generate whatever you draw. It's a neat addition if you want to spend the extra $99, and it comes in a nicely upholstered charging case.

Why you should skip the Razr Fold

There's a lot to like about the Razr Fold, but there are also some things to consider that may make you hesitate to click "Add to cart." Here are the top reasons I've noticed.

Expensive

Smartphones aren't getting any cheaper; in fact, they seem to be getting more expensive lately, thanks to the RAM crisis. The Razr Fold, like other book-style foldable phones, costs a pretty penny at $1,900. That's $100 less than the Galaxy Z Fold 7 at launch, but $100 more than the Pixel 10 Pro Fold when it was launched last year.

This is the most I've seen Motorola charge for a smartphone, and while carriers can help spread the cost over multi-year payment plans, Motorola says the Razr Fold will be available at T-Mobile, Xfinity Mobile, and Verizon "in the coming months."

On the plus side, Motorola is known for offering pretty attractive deals on its smartphones, so if you're willing to wait, you might snag a sweet discount. Right now, the Razr Fold has some decent preorder deals for the unlocked model.

Few accessories

The Razr Fold is a good-looking phone, thanks to Motorola's use of alternative materials on the ar instead of glass. However, a phone this expensive should be protected with a case, and unfortunately, there aren't many Razr Fold cases to choose from. Motorola has one first-party case for the Fold, in two colors, but it won't be available until June 12.

You can look elsewhere for cases, but you won't find many from the big-name brands aside from Thinborne, which appears to have gone through with producing an ultra-thin case. You can probably find a decent case from an unknown brand online, but you might be best off waiting for the Thinborne case.

This is different from Samsung's approach; the company will launch a new flagship with a bevy of first-party case options and plenty of third-party cases to choose from. We wish Motorola were more active about protective accessories, but the company seems to have an aversion to them.

Motorola is a bit of a second-class citizen

Despite being a moderately sized player in the mobile space (and at one point owned by Google), Motorola still feels like a second-class citizen when it comes to Android. Whenever Google announces new features, Pixel phones often get them first, but many times Samsung devices get them even before Pixels and other Android phones.

Quick Share's AirDrop support came first to Pixels, then expanded to Samsung phones before finally reaching others. Gemini screen automation actually arrived first on the Galaxy S26 before expanding to the Pixel 10.

Motorola rarely gets the same treatment, aside from perhaps the new Wardrobe feature coming to Google Photos. Otherwise, you'll have to be comfortable waiting to get the latest Android features, or not getting them at all (AirDrop support seems up in the air).

That's not to say the Razr Fold isn't impressive and capable on its own, but there will likely be some FOMO as Samsung and Google get first dibs on new features.

There's no doubt that Samsung's latest smartphones perform incredibly well. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is an incredible chip, and I rarely run into issues with my Galaxy S26 Plus. However, not all Samsung phones are created equal, and I always take steps to keep my phone in tip-top shape.

One way I do this is by restarting my Galaxy S26 Plus every so often. To many of us millennials, turning off our phones for any amount of time may sound like a big ask, but it's good for our phones and can give us some peace of mind, especially if we're dealing with issues or our phones are feeling slow.

That said, remembering to turn off your phone can also be a problem. Fortunately, Samsung makes it easy for you with this buried setting.

Samsung's Device Care

Samsung Device Care may not seem like a big deal, but it's been one of my favorite Galaxy features for as long as I can remember. It's a suite of settings in every Galaxy phone that lets you optimize your phone to keep everything running smoothly. You can clear your memory used by apps running in the background, free up storage space from unused apps or duplicate files, manage your battery settings, run diagnostics, and more.

In fact, I find myself cleaning out my phone's memory so often that I've started using the Device Care widget to easily optimize my Galaxy S26 with a tap.

However, there's one feature in Device Care that isn't as obvious or as readily accessible: Auto Optimization. You may have to scroll down a bit to see it, but this feature further ensures your phone runs smoothly in the background, so you spend less time worrying about its performance.

One way it does this is with Auto restart, which lets you schedule days and times when your phone will automatically reboot itself, which Samsung notes can "keep your phone running in the best condition."

Why you should restart your phone

Being able to automatically restart your phone may not seem like a big deal, but this can help your phone's performance. In fact, experts say that rebooting your phone at least once a week can help in several ways, from closing background apps that are eating away at your phone's resources to addressing the occasional glitch (but not all).

The NSA has also noted that rebooting can help reduce the risk of malware, although this may be less of a concern these days with the various protections companies have put in place to safeguard our phones. Still, you can never be too safe.

Some may say that it's good to reboot your smartphone once a day, and there's definitely no harm in that. Once a week is also acceptable, so long as you're doing it fairly often and somewhat consistently. Doing so will clear bad data and free up memory from misbehaving apps, which can result in better battery life for you, since apps aren't sucking it up by doing things in the background you're unaware of or don't need.

How to schedule automatic reboots on your Galaxy S26

1. Open the Settings app, either from the pull-down Quick Settings menu or the app drawer.

2. Open Device care.

3. Tap Auto Optimization.

4. Tap Auto restart at the bottom.

5. Toggle on Restart when needed if you want your phone to automatically restart when it detects performance issues.

6. Toggle on Restart on schedule and set the day(s) and time when you want the phone to automatically reboot.

Keep your Galaxy S26 in top shape for as long as you can

Samsung's flagship smartphones, such as the Galaxy S26, receive software support for up to seven years, which includes OS upgrades and security patches. It's a nice gesture, assuming consumers will continue to hold onto their phones for as long as they're supported, and some of them actually might. That's why built-in tools such as this are a great way to help ensure phones are properly cared for and that battery health can be prolonged.

If you have a Samsung smartphone, I recommend checking out all the Device Care features to keep your device optimized and in tip-top shape.

The Razr 2026 series is finally here, and while the phones look nearly identical to their predecessors, there are still some notable upgrades that you may care about. So, while we wait for preorders to begin on May 14, we're going through a few things you may want to consider if you're thinking of purchasing a Razr 2026 flip phone (we'll cover the Razr Fold in a separate article).

Keep in mind that this is based on the phones' specs and my brief hands-on time with the devices. For a full analysis and final recommendations, you'll have to wait for our reviews.

Motorola Razr 2026 series: Why you should one

Here are the top reasons why you might want to consider purchasing the Razr 2026 flip phones.

New colors and materials

One of the things Motorola is known for is steering away from glass back panels and using alternative materials on its phones. We often praise the company for its bold colors and use of materials like vegan leather and wood, and the Razr 2026 series continues this with new color options and some interesting material choices.

The Razr Ultra 2026 only comes in two colors this year, Orient Blue and Cocoa, which build on what were apparently the more popular material options on the Razr Ultra 2025, Alcantara and wood. The soft Alcantara feels lovely in hand, and the color shifts somewhere between blue and purple depending on the lighting, while Cocoa offers a darker wood tone compared to the Mountain Trail option on the 2025.

The base Razr gets four color options, so buyers have quite a choice ahead of them. All of them look and feel great, but I gravitate towards Bright White and Violet Ice, as the former sparkles brilliantly thanks to the acetate design (although the phone feels quite heavy), while the latter features a soothing wavy texture that makes me want to rub my hand across it all day long.

What's even better is that Motorola is likely to launch even more colors down the line, perhaps even with another Paris Hilton collaboration!

Camera improvements across the board

There weren't a ton of changes with the new Razr 2026 series, but one thing Motorola did change on every device was the cameras.

The Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 camera was already pretty great, but Motorola is promising even better photos, thanks to a new LOFIC (Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor) camera sensor. Motorola isn't the first company to use this type of camera (see the Xiaomi 17 Ultra), but it promises better dynamic range, faster image capture, and greater efficiency.

The sensors are also Pantone-validated for better color and skin-tone accuracy.

The Razr and Razr Plus have also been upgraded, and now they both have dual 50MP rear cameras that are Pantone Validated. This should mean better ultrawide photos on the Razr 2026, but the Razr Plus has also swapped last year's telephoto camera for an ultrawide. Fortunately, you can still get optical-quality images at 2x zoom if you need it, but this should offer more versatility.

Motorola has also added more camera features, including Tilt to Zoom in Camcorder mode and Frame Match, which lets you capture a scene and create an overlay so someone else can take a photo of you with your desired framing.

Motorola also announced two Google Photos features with the Razr 2026 series, one of which creates a digital wardrobe for you to mix and match garments and create a digital preview of an outfit. The other integrates Google Photos Memories into Motorola's Daily Drop, so you can see your photos alongside other personalized content.

New battery tech

Silicon-carbon batteries are the hot new tech, allowing companies to squeeze larger-capacity batteries into smaller bodies, and they're taking the smartphone industry by storm. Unfortunately, U.S. companies like Samsung and Google are slow to adopt it, but Motorola is bringing it to the new Razr flip phones.

As a result, Motorola was able to increase the battery capacity of each model. The base Razr goes from 4,500mAh to 4,800mAh, the Razr Plus goes from 4,000mAh to 4,500mAh, and the Razr Ultra increases from 4,700mAh to a solid 5,000mAh! All without increasing the size of the devices!

This means you can spend more time capturing and less time worrying about battery life.

More software updates... kinda

Motorola isn't the best when it comes to timely or even long software update support, but that's slowly changing. The Razr series has long offered a software update promise of three years of OS upgrades and four years of security updates. Now, the Razr 2026 series is raising the bar, even if just by a little by offering five years of security updates.

It may not seem like a lot, but even when major OS updates stop, Motorola will still be able to provide security patches, and the company sometimes rolls new features into these updates, which is almost as fun as receiving a whole new Android version. So, rest assured you'll know your phone is safe for longer.

The cover screen is even better

The cover screen is by far one of the best reasons to buy a Razr. It's just a fun and versatile feature that really makes the phone stand out. However, thanks to two new updates, the cover screen is about to become much more useful and fun!

Video wallpapers are the first new addition to the cover screen. This is something users have been wanting for some time, and it's finally here, allowing more creativity and liveliness for users who really want to show off the cover screen. However, keep in mind that using video wallpapers will likely run down the battery faster.

The other update users can look forward to is Live Updates. This is an Android 16 feature that lets OEMs add a small pill for apps to show updates as they happen, such as sports scores or Uber Eats deliveries. Google and Samsung have already embraced this feature, but Motorola has been slow on the uptake.

It's nice to see it coming to the cover screen, though, because it makes it even more glanceable, so users don't have to worry about opening their phone for the latest updates.

More durable than ever

Foldable phones continue to get more durable each year, and the Razr 2026 series is no exception. This year, Motorola is giving us more peace of mind by adding MIL-STD-810 certification to ensure durability throughout the device's life cycle. However, the real story is the Razr Ultra cover screen, which is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3. This makes it one of the first smartphones (along with the Razr Fold) to use Corning's latest ultra-strong glass for added drop protection!

Motorola Razr 2026 series: Why you shouldn't one

Of course, there are a few reasons why you might hesitate before pre-ordering a new Razr 2026 flip phone. Here are a few things to consider before adding it to your cart:

Not enough chipset upgrades

One of the most interesting choices Motorola made with the Razr 2026 series was not to really upgrade the chipsets. Instead of utilizing the newer Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the Razr Ultra 2026 still uses last year's Snapdragon 8 Elite, which also powered the Razr Ultra 2025.

The company told me that the chip is still perfectly suitable for what it's needed for on the Razr, and consumers should still expect great performance, which I don't doubt. However, I do wonder if the chip will be able to handle some of the more agentic AI features, such as Gemini screen automation and Motorola's own Large Action Model, which was shown off in 2024.

Then there's the Razr Plus 2026, which still uses the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, the same underpowered sub-flagship chip that was used in last year's model and debuted on the Razr Plus 2024. Not sure what the thinking was there, but it would've been nice if it were upgraded to the proper Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, at least.

The Razr 2026 was the only device that got a chip upgrade, although a pretty minor one. It went from the MediaTek Dimensity 7400X to now using the Dimensity 7450X. It doesn't offer a ton of performance gains, but AI processing should be up to 7% faster, and connectivity has also improved.

All in all, these devices may feel very samey when compared to their predecessors, which in some cases is a bad thing, but when you take their price into consideration (and I'll get to that later), that's when things start to fall apart a little.

No Qi2 charging

This one's not a huge bummer, but it's still unfortunate that Motorola is seemingly holding off on Qi2 charging support while Google has fully embraced it and Samsung has even partially implemented it. That's right, Qi2 Ready isn't even supported on the Razr, so you'll just have to stick with Qi wireless chargers for full speeds, and you'll definitely need a magnetic case to take advantage of any MagSafe accessories.

I asked Motorola why Qi2 wasn't included and was provided this response:

"As with all our devices, we try to create a balance of features to ensure it meets the needs of our consumers. The motorola razr fold, razr ultra, razr+, and razr all deliver over 30 hours of battery life as well as super-fast charging that provides power for the day in just 8-15 minutes and wireless charging for added convenience."

That said, it's not all bad. The Razr Ultra 2026 supports 30W wireless charging, which is faster than Qi2 typically supports, while the Razr 2026 and Razr Plus 2026 support 15W wireless charging.

Still pretty bulky

Flip phones are great for their pocketability, but there's a nasty side to it: folding them in half doubles their size, often making them twice as thick as a regular smartphone. It's not like larger book-style foldables, which can spread their internals out over a larger area and therefore can achieve seemingly impossibly thin bodies. Flip phones are just regular phones that fold in half, so they're gonna be much thicker when closed.

Samsung did great with the Galaxy Z Flip 7, shaving off a full 1.2mm when compared to the Galaxy Z Flip 6. However, at 15.7mm folded, the Razr Ultra 2026 measures a full 2mm thicker than the Galaxy Z Flip 7, and the difference is definitely noticeable. That said, the Razr Ultra 2026 has a battery capacity that's 700mAh larger than the Galaxy Z Flip, so you may find that an acceptable compromise.

Pricey

Finally, the price. There's no secret that the RAM crisis has been causing smartphone OEMs to raise prices across their lineups, and the Razr 2026 series might give you a bit of sticker shock. The Razr Ultra 2026 costs a whopping $200 more than its predecessor at launch, bringing it to $1,499! The Razr and Razr Plus also went up by $100, although fortunately, the base model is still cheaper than many flagships.

Still, $1,499 is not a small amount of money. As much as I loved the Razr Ultra 2025, it was hard to recommend at $1,299, and this is really pushing it. And for just $400 more, you could just spring for the larger Razr Fold.

On the plus side, Motorola phones are known for going on sale quickly and often, so if you want a Razr 2026, you might be better off waiting a little bit, perhaps for Prime Day this year. Otherwise, you could always get a Razr 2025 model or wait for the Galaxy Z Flip 8.

It's been roughly a year since Motorola launched the Razr 2025 series and its flagship Razr Ultra 2025. It's easily Motorola's best and most popular flagship phone thus far, sporting a refined design and specs that would make even the Galaxy S25 Ultra jealous. However, with a new Razr Ultra model likely on the horizon, I'm looking back at my experience with the Razr Ultra 2025 and my biggest takeaways since the phone launched last April.

Even though I've reviewed plenty of phones since the Razr Ultra 2025 launched, I've used it as my main device, always switching back between reviews or at least carrying it around as a secondary device. That's because, despite having used many impressive phones lately, I've become a flip phone kinda guy, and that's all thanks to Motorola.

That said, it hasn't been all peachy, and while Motorola has truly brought an "Ultra" experience to the flip phone, there are still some aspects of the Razr Ultra 2025 that I wish were different.

The Razr experience

Despite loving previous Razr models, the Ultra 2025 is the first Razr flagship I've used that I didn't feel I needed to carry a secondary phone with me to get by. A big reason for that is the camera system; Motorola really improved it on the Ultra 2025, especially compared to the underwhelming Razr Plus 2023. And unlike the Razr Plus 2024, which shipped with a secondary telephoto camera, the Razr Ultra swapped it for an ultrawide camera, which is much more useful, in my opinion, especially when the 2x optical quality zoom is sufficient.

While it may not compete with flagships from Chinese OEMs like Vivo and Oppo, it gets the job done, and I have no complaints.

But beyond the cameras, the overall Razr experience has been very good, and this truly feels like Motorola was aiming to provide an "Ultra" experience. The Snapdragon 8 Elite chip paired with 16GB of RAM makes the phone feel incredibly snappy, and it handles heavy gaming surprisingly well.

The 1224p Super HD OLED display looks and feels great, even after a year of use. The Razr Plus 2023 hinge started failing after a year, and I noticed small cracks in the built-in Razr Plus 2024 screen protector. The Razr Ultra 2025 display still looks like the day I got it, while the vegan leather and wood materials on the back of the phone (depending on the model you buy) give it a fresh look, though I've noticed some peeling of the "leather."

Android 16... finally!

Part of the Razr experience is the software, a category in which Motorola doesn't quite excel. Don't get me wrong, Hello UX is... fine, and there's plenty to like, such as the separate quick settings menu and notification shade (which is optional), Motorola's use of Google apps and services like Google Photos, and the useful gestures like chopping or twisting twice to enable the flashlight or turn on the camera, respectively.

That said, the overall software experience is rather dull. The basics are here, but Motorola doesn't go out of its way to stand out with things like flashy animations, and after using recent Samsung phones like the Galaxy S26 Plus, it always reminds me of how much I prefer Samsung's One UI for its consistency, support, and feeling of excitement whenever I use it.

I really hoped Android 16 would change things, especially after Google introduced Material 3 Expressive on Pixel phones. However, despite the update arriving on the Razr Ultra 2025 more quickly than on previous models (thanks, Motorola), it came and went with seemingly few changes.

The software admittedly feels smoother and more responsive, and Motorola added features like Modes and Notification Cooldown. Otherwise, the update doesn't feel much different from Android 15, and the security patch is still stuck on December 2025 for some reason, which highlights Motorola's fairly inconsistent bi-monthly update schedule.

Motorola also doesn't get the latest Android features as quickly as Samsung. For example, the latest Quick Share update, which adds support for AirDrop, rolled out first on the latest Pixel phones and Galaxy S26 series, while other Android devices have to wait. It's frankly annoying that Motorola continues to play second fiddle to Samsung, despite its recent gains in the market.

Moto AI: Solid but underwhelming

Motorola's software is a bit of a mixed bag, but the AI situation isn't much better. Moto AI is the company's attempt at having its own AI suite, à la Samsung, and while there are some good ideas, the execution feels somewhat lacking.

The chatbot itself is decent and lets you connect to Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity, but even with access to multiple AI models, the overall experience still pales in comparison to Gemini. Not to mention, Motorola's Large Action Model, which lets the AI complete tasks like ordering an Uber on your behalf, is yet to be seen, while Google is already enabling this feature in Gemini.

Most Moto AI features either feel like glorified versions of existing apps (Pay Attention is just an AI recorder) or just aren't that useful in their current form. Remember This keeps memories of photos, notes, or screenshots and analyzes them so you can recall them later. However, you have to trigger the feature for it to be useful; it's not integrated into the camera or screenshot function, which feels like a waste.

Catch Me Up is, fortunately, more useful, as you can have an AI summary of your notifications with the press of a button.

One area it seems Motorola hasn't quite figured out is integration. While Samsung can naturally integrate features into its UI, such as the Gallery app, Motorola is left stuffing most of them into the Moto AI app, including Image Studio.

Motorola needs to figure out how to better integrate its AI across the UI, because as it stands now, you're better off sticking with Gemini and Google's other AI features, like Circle to Search. It should also follow Samsung's example by sidelining Bixby and letting the Moto AI chatbot take a back seat in favor of Gemini. Now, if only Motorola would let us remap its AI Key to work with Gemini...

The accessory problem

The Razr Ultra 2025 is a seriously great phone, but one major problem I keep running into with Motorola's smartphones is the lack of accessory options. It's incredibly difficult to find a good Razr Ultra 2025 case (or screen protector, for that matter) from any of the top case makers. Go to Spigen, Thinborn, Otterbox, Casetify, etc., and hardly any of them have a dedicated section for Motorola, and the few that do offer only a handful of options for older phones.

Anything I've found online has been from companies I've never heard of, and I often have to scroll through a ton of reviews to find others who bought cases for this model. That's not to say that these are all bad, and I've found one or two that I kind of like, but the options are few and far between. Sure, you can get an official case from Motorola's webstore, but even those are lacking, and Motorola could really take a page from Samsung here.

The lack of a Thinborn case is especially unfortunate, because I love their ultra-thin Aramid Fiber cases, and they would be perfect for a phone like the Razr Ultra, which becomes twice as thick when it's folded. Most other cases are rather thick, which makes the phone feel a bit unwieldy, and having a thin case would make me feel better about putting one on in the first place.

That cover screen, though!

I'm not exaggerating when I say that I use the Razr Ultra 2025's cover screen about 80% of the time. It's just that good. Apps are available out of the box, they transition seamlessly between the main display and the cover screen, and they scale pretty well, for the most part. Unlike the Galaxy Z Flip devices, the cover screen supports multitasking, and notifications are handled much better.

There are also plenty of ways to take better advantage of the cameras with the cover screen.

The only reasons I don't use the cover screen are to play games, adjust settings, or use Google Photos (which is somewhat limited on here). I'll also use the main display for more important emails or for apps that require the larger display (watching videos on the cover screen is doable, but the main display is better suited for this).

Admittedly, the Android 16 update seemed to introduce some wonkiness to the cover screen, with odd UI glitches, particularly with text fields. Still, the experience is largely the same and remains my favorite way to use the Razr.

I've also begun using the Clicks Keyboard, which doubles as a rather nice case (finally) and a full Blackberry-style keyboard. That way, you don't have to worry about the on-screen keyboard taking up precious cover screen real estate, while also protecting your phone. Typing on a physical smartphone keyboard may take some getting used to, but if you have a Razr, this is probably the best way to use the phone!

I've been testing the Galaxy S26 Plus for just over a week now, and the new Samsung flagship is packed with upgraded AI features as part of One UI 8.5. And while there's no doubt a lot to like about the software, one notable downgrade has unfortunately persisted on Samsung's latest devices, and it has to do with Gemini.

One of my favorite shortcuts to trigger Gemini is the Swipe for Assistant, a gesture available on many Android phones, including Pixels, OnePlus, and Motorola devices. When enabled, you simply swipe diagonally from the bottom corner of the screen, and Gemini will pop up. It's incredibly useful, but for some reason, Samsung removed this gesture on its phones at some point over the past few years.

I'm not sure why Samsung got rid of it, and I've even reached out to Samsung for clarity on the matter, but I never heard back. That's fine, though, because I've since found a nice workaround that kind of brings this feature back using Samsung's own tools.

Good Lock and One Hand Operation +

If you own a Samsung phone, you may or may not be familiar with Good Lock, which is an app that lets you add various plugins to customize your phone. Each plugin focuses on a different area of the UI, from the home screen to the Settings app and even notifications management. It's an incredibly useful Samsung app that elevates the software experience, and I highly recommend downloading it, especially if you like to tinker.

One of the plugins available in Good Lock is One Hand Operation +. The purpose of this particular module is to make it easier to use phones and tablets with one hand, which is becoming increasingly important as the average phone display size continues to grow.

The module allows you to customize handles on either side of the display that can trigger various features. This is what makes it a nearly-perfect replacement for the missing Gemini gesture, and if you're like me and have been trying to figure out how to get that trigger back, I'll walk you through this handy alternative.

How to set up One Hand Operation + to enable Swipe for Assistant

Before you can do anything, you'll want to download the Good Lock app, which you can find in the Galaxy store on your Samsung phone. Once you do that, open Good Lock and install the One Hand Operation + module and any other plugins you may want. Tap on One Hand Operation + to open the module.

1. You may need to toggle the module on before you can do anything.

2. Tap Left handle.

3. Tap the Diagonal up option. In the menu, select Assistance app. I leave the Straight right and Diagonal down options set to None. Do the same with the Right handle.

4. In the main menu, open Advanced settings.

5. Toggle on System back gesture. This allows you to retain back navigation when swiping outside the set handle area.

Optional: Review other options and toggle on as you see fit. Tap Animation to change the style, size, and color, or toggle it off if you'd prefer not to have a swipe animation. The Hide handle section will disable the gesture on select screens, whereas App exceptions will do the same when select apps are open.

6. On the main menu, scroll down to adjust the size of the handles. I set each to the lowest level, but adjust them as you see fit. You'll see the handles on either side of the screen shrink in size and move as you adjust them.

7. Tap Handle color to adjust how it appears on your screen. Set the opacity to 0% if you don't want the handle to be visible.

8. This is optional, but in Gesture settings, you can toggle on Quick action so that Gemini starts to appear before you release your finger from the display. You can also adjust the gesture angles, swipe distance, and vibration settings to your liking.

With that, you should now be able to invoke Gemini by swiping from the area close to the bottom corner of your display, as long as you remember where you set your handles. It's not perfect, since the handles don't go all the way down to the corners of the display, but they get pretty close. Once you get used to the placement, the gesture works quite well, and I've been quite happy with it.

I like this better than Samsung's default trigger

One of the biggest reasons I'm such a fan of the Swipe for Assistant gesture is the change Google began forcing on consumers after the release of Android 12. On the Galaxy S26 series and other Samsung models, a long press of the power button is set as the default trigger for Gemini, and the button has been relegated simply as the "side button." However, I'm not a fan of this method of invoking Gemini.

My biggest problem with this is that it has changed the way to power off a smartphone. I refuse to change this established behavior that companies have instilled in us for so many years, all because Samsung (and Google, by extension) is too lazy to implement a separate AI button on its phones.

This is also why the first thing I do when I get a new phone is to ensure that the side button is set to open the power off menu. On the Galaxy S26 series, you can do this by navigating to Settings > Advanced features > Side button > Long press, then setting it to Power off menu. This way, I only have to press and hold the power button to turn off the phone, and Gemini can get its own trigger, even if it is a workaround.

In my opinion, the power button should remain the power button (I'll die on this hill), and I shouldn't have to awkwardly press two buttons to turn off my phone, especially when the method is so similar to taking a screenshot. This is why I like having the Swipe for Assistant option as an alternative, because I can still activate it from nearly any screen. But Samsung's removal of the feature feels like the OEM is trying too hard to make the side button trigger happen, and it's just not going to happen, at least for me.

The Galaxy S26 series is landing in consumers' hands, and while we continue to test the devices here at Android Central, we find ourselves impressed with many of its features. Some of them are more well-known, such as the Privacy Display on the Ultra, and more features are gradually arriving, such as screen automation with Gemini. However, one feature I feel went under the radar was the upgraded Audio Eraser, which was already impressive to begin with.

During the Galaxy S26 launch, Samsung announced that Audio Eraser would now support third-party apps, meaning you can use it to adjust the audio while watching a show or scrolling through reels on Instagram. I've been testing the feature on the Galaxy S26 Plus, and I have to say, it's becoming my favorite new feature on Samsung's latest flagships!

Audio Eraser and the One UI 8.5 update

Samsung's Audio Eraser may sound familiar to anyone with a newer Pixel smartphone, and it should. The feature launched with the Galaxy S25 series, and like on the Pixel, some Samsung phones can analyze videos and separate the audio into different categories, such as voices, music, noise, and crowd. Once a video is analyzed, you can adjust each audio category for the desired effect, whether that's to drown out the sounds of a crowd to better hear the main speaker or to boost the background music in a scene so voices aren't heard as well.

The results are pretty amazing, and phones like the Galaxy S26 can even utilize this on videos not taken on the phone itself, such as those you save to the device.

However, with One UI 8.5 on the Galaxy S26 series, Samsung takes this a step further with third-party app support. When using apps like YouTube, Netflix, Instagram, and more, you can adjust the audio so that the speaker is heard more clearly, effectively drowning out any background noise or music to better hear what's going on.

The tools aren't as granular as those found in the Gallery app, but the basic feature works surprisingly well across third-party apps.

How to use Audio Eraser in the Gallery app

1. Select a video in your Gallery app.

2. Tap the Galaxy AI sparkle icon. Wait for the app to analyze the video.

3. Adjust the audio categories to your liking, or tap the Auto button to let the app make adjustments itself. You can also tap Hear original at the top to compare the original audio with the adjusted audio.

4. Tap Save edits once you're satisfied.

Note that while you're on the edit screen, each audio category will be highlighted in yellow on the video scrubber wherever that audio type appears in the video, making it easy to visualize where changes are being made.

How to use Audio Eraser in third-party apps

1. Open an app such as YouTube, Netflix, Instagram, Prime Video, etc., and begin playing a video.

2. Swipe down to open the quick settings menu. Tap Audio eraser at the top.

3. Toggle Audio eraser on and adjust the strength of Audio eraser to reduce background noise in the video.

4. If you're listening to music and want to boost the main vocals while lowering the volume of the music, adjust the strength to the highest level, then toggle Voice focus on. This feature will be greyed out and unavailable until the strength is turned all the way up.

5. When finished, tap Done.

One of Samsung's most practical AI features

A lot of Samsung's Galaxy AI features are fun to use, like generating stickers or editing images, but Audio Eraser has just become one of those features that I don't think I can live without. I often find that, for one reason or another, I struggle to hear things properly when watching TV shows. For that reason, I often turn on captions so I can fully understand the dialogue, like when watching "The Expanse," which features a lot of action and moments where characters are speaking over crowds.

In the case of the example above, I find it quite difficult to hear Colm McGuinness's voice clearly in his fantastic rendition of Ed Sheeran's "Nancy Mulligan." When turning on Audio Eraser, his words become much clearer and easier to understand (my final hurdle then being his strong Irish accent).

That said, Audio Eraser isn't perfect in this regard, especially when Voice Focus is enabled. Yes, it gives voices a nice boost and makes them much easier to hear, but sometimes the voices can get muddied as the AI tries to keep up, and now and again it can have the opposite effect, making voices harder to understand. Thus, this particular feature may be best used sparingly.

Still, I can see how this feature may also be a great accessibility tool, helpful for people who are hard of hearing. Some of the changes can seem subtle, but sometimes they can go a long way toward making the difference between hearing something clearly and not. And even though Voice Focus has its faults, it makes a pretty dramatic difference when watching videos or listening to music, and I hope Samsung expands this to music apps like YouTube Music.

For now, Audio Eraser has become a truly invaluable upgrade for Samsung's Galaxy AI suite.

The Galaxy S26 series is official and currently up for preorder, but in the lead up to the official release, there's one major question you have to ask yourself: should you buy a Galaxy S26? Well, the answer depends on what you're looking for and the phone you're upgrading from, so it's not a simple "Yes" or "No."

I've already had some hands-on time with each of the phones, this is my firsthand insight and thoughts on the S26 series and why you should or shouldn't buy them.

Why you should buy a Galaxy S26

These are the top five reasons I've found the Galaxy S26 series worth buying:

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

The Snapdragon 8 Elite was already a powerful chipset, made even more powerful with the Galaxy variant. However, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which launched in September of last year, promises a 20% performance increase over its predecessor, including enhanced graphics and better CPU and GPU efficiency.

You can check out our Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 comparison, which shows just how big of a jump it represents, especially in single-core performance.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy takes that a step further, as both Qualcomm and Samsung collaborated on the chip "to optimize Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy for the latest Galaxy AI experiences." So not only will you get incredible performance in every day tasks and gaming, but the chip should should enable impressive on-device AI performance.

Privacy Display

The Privacy Display is one of the most impressive new hardware features introduced with the Galaxy S26 series. The way it works is that it can hide the contents of your display when viewed from the sides, meaning you won't have to worry about onlookers seeing your spicy photos or messages. Think of it as a built-in privacy screen protector for your Samsung phone.

However, this is actually much more granular than that, because unlike a privacy screen protector, which is always in effect, the Privacy Display is customizable. You can adjust it so that it only works when you open certain apps or when you receive notifications, that way the rest of the display is visible aside from the notification itself.

This is because the Privacy Display works at the pixel level, allowing for more control over how it works. The downside is that this feature is exclusive to the Galaxy S26 Ultra, meaning you have to spring for the top-of-the-line model.

AI for days

Thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, the Galaxy S26 series is much more capable, particularly when it comes to AI. For example, Gemini is able to perform tasks on your behalf, such as online shopping or ordering an Uber, without you needing to do much of anything. And right before the end of the process, it will ask you to confirm any purchases so you can ensure everything was done correctly.

Now Nudge is another example of how AI is becoming more proactive. Similar to Magic Cue on the Pixel 10 series, Now Nudge can surface information based on the context of what you're doing. If someone sends you a message asking for the address to an event you're going to or photos you took during a trip to Australia, Now Nudge will pop up with said address based on your calendar events or a button that will take you straight to a set of images taken in Australia. This way, you don't have to go digging around for information or photos; the AI does it for you.

The Galaxy S26 series also comes with tons of new AI editing features, like which make it easy to use generative AI to change aspects of a photo, add elements of one photo to another, and so on. Think of it as Samsung's version of Ask Photos in the Google Photos app, making it more natural to edit an image, especially if you don't know quite how to fix or enhance it yourself.

More storage

The base S series phone has been stuck with 128GB of storage for years now. However, we're coming to a point when that's no longer enough for a flagship phone. Fortunately, Samsung heard our plea and increased the base storage on the Galaxy S26.

Now, you have 256GB of storage to start, and that's before any promotions. In fact, if you're trying to preorder the Galaxy S26 series, you can probably snag the base model at 512GB for the same price you'd pay for the 256GB model.

Battery and charging upgrades

Samsung has been noticeably cautious about its batteries and charging speeds, meaning we haven't seen the needle move much in recent years. However, that finally changes this year, as Samsung has increased both the battery size and charging speeds in the Galaxy S26 series, but not all models received the same upgrades.

For example, the Galaxy S26 got bumped to 4,300mAh, up from 4,000mAh on the Galaxy S25, but without any changes to charging speed. The Galaxy S26 Plus received an increase in wireless charging speed from 15W to 20W, but the battery capacity and wired charging remain the same.

Finally, the Galaxy S26 Ultra received the most changes, with an increase in wired charging speeds from 45W to 60W, which Samsung says should charge the phone's 5,000mAh battery to 75% in just 30 minutes. Additionally, the S26 Ultra now supports Qi2 wireless chaging speeds up to 25W, which is a fairly significant jump from 15W.

That said, you'll still need a case to take advantage of Qi2 magnetic charging.

Who should buy a Galaxy S26?

If you're someone who doesn't upgrade often and has an older model like the older than at least two or three years the Galaxy S26 is probably a good buy. The Privacy Display is already an enticing feature for those of you who like to keep more private lives.

The chipset upgrade is also a good reason, and if you want the latest AI features and software capabilities, then these are the phones for you. Additionally, the extended software update promise means that once you have these phones, you'll be pretty much set for up to seven years, assuming the chipset and battery can hold up that long.

Why you shouldn't buy a Galaxy S26

Of course, there are a few reasons why you might want to think twice about buying the Galaxy S26 series, depending on your needs:

Price increases

The Galaxy S26 series comes with plenty of upgrades, but that means they'll also come with some price increases. Samsung has managed to keep the prices relatively the same since the Galaxy S21 series, with only the S24 Ultra getting a price bump. How, it's the base and Plus that are getting price increases.

Both models now cost $100 more than their predecessors. That means that base starts at $899 while the Plus starts at $1,099. Is it worth it to you? Does this push you away from the Galaxy S26 series, or perhaps closer to the Galaxy S26 Ultra, since the gap between it and the Plus has been reduced?

Cameras are largely unchanged

Unfortuantely, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is the only model that received any notable changes to the cameras. The 200MP primary camera and the 50MP telephoto camera both have wider apertures, meaning they should be better at handling low-light situations. However, the remaining camera specs are largely unchanged.

That goes for the base and Plus models, too, which did not receive the same apertures changes as the Ultra (or any sensor changes, for that matter), so you don't get the benefit of better low-light video or photography. Almost makes the price increase feel not worth it.

On the plus side, Samsung says images should improve now that it has switched from a hardware based hardware-based-ISP to an AI-based one. Furthermore, it has also applied its AI ISP to the selfie camera as well, meaning selfie quality should improve. Let's just hope it's enough.

Not the battery upgrades we were hoping for

While we're happy to see any improvements to battery capacity and/or charging speeds on Samsung phones, it still feels like Samsung is falling behind. The Galaxy S26 Ultra retains its 5,000mAh battery, which flagships from Chinese OEMs are pushing well over 6,000mAh and going as far as 9,000mAh or more.

Samsung's reluctance to use silicon-carbon batteries is becoming more apparent as consumers push for longer battery life on their smartphones. The same goes for charging speeds, with Samsung still behind even Motorola, which offers 68W charging on the Razr Ultra 2025 and 90W charging on the Motorola Signature.

Who shouldn't buy a Galaxy S26

If you have a recent Samsung flagship, such as a Galaxy S25 and S24, or even a Pixel 10, I see little reason for you to jump to the S26 series, unless you really want that Privacy Screen. Also, if you don't care to have all of the latest AI features, the Galaxy S26 series probably isn't worth the splurge, especially given the recent price increases of the base and Plus model.

If you're looking for a phone with great cameras, long battery life, and fast charging, there are plenty of options out there from other companies outside Samsung, Apple, and Google.

Not everyone may be on board with foldable phones, but there's no denying that the form factor is here to stay. The foldable market has grown significantly over the years, with players emerging left and right and plenty of models to choose from. Google is already on its third foldable iteration with the rather impressive but iterative Pixel 10 Pro Fold, but it is still ignoring a rather important form factor: the flip phone.

Since using flip phones like the Motorola Razr and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip over the past few years, I've often said that Google needs to throw its own flip phone into the mix. Google apparently disagrees, and the company seems to have no interest in producing a flip phone, but I believe Pixel Flip could be a great complement to Google's smartphone lineup and leverage the growing popularity of the Pixel family in a few ways that would secure its success.

More options for everyone

One of the main reasons I want a Pixel Flip is that, despite the growing foldable smartphone market, options for flip phones are pretty slim. In North America, Motorola and Samsung are the only options, while Chinese OEMs offer more models overseas but are still overshadowed by book-style foldables. For example, the OPPO Find N3 Flip from 2023 was an impressive flip phone, but the company hasn't launched a follow-up since, even though it has produced two flagship book-style foldables in the past couple of years.

It's becoming clear that companies are much more focused on larger book-style foldables, and it's not hard to see why. Companies can make much more from these phones, due to their higher average selling price. This is likely why we see Google focusing on the larger form factor; it can get more money back from each unit sold.

Still, in North America, where there are only a few relevant names in the smartphone market, having more choice among the available players is a good thing. Not everyone is willing to spend $1,800 on a smartphone, and a Pixel Flip would allow Google to still sell a smartphone at a more accessible flagship price while providing a third major flip phone option from a popular brand, alongside the Razr and Galaxy Z Flip.

Google can leverage the growing popularity of the Razr and Pixel lineups

Quite a bit has changed in the few years since I last made the case for a Pixel Flip. Both Motorola and Google have become bigger players in the smartphone market, thanks to the Razr and Pixel.

According to Counterpoint Research, Motorola "emerged as one of the standout performers globally" in the foldable market during Q3 2025, after "expanding its foldable base through competitive pricing, strong channel partnerships and favorable product usability reviews." The company has seen impressive growth thanks to its successful marketing of the Razr series, which offers a range of price points and attractive discounts.

IDC estimates that the foldable market will grow by nearly 30% in 2026, while non-foldables will actually see a decline. With the launch of the Motorola Razr Fold later this year, Motorola is poised to reap the benefits of this surge by offering two different foldable form factors, something Google can and should consider.

It also shows why Google (and consumers) shouldn't sleep on flip phones. Since Q1 2024, Motorola has maintained double-digit market share in the U.S., remaining the third-largest smartphone brand by shipments, behind Apple and Samsung.

And while Motorola should be enough of a motivator, Google need only look at its own Pixel lineup to convince itself why a Pixel Flip could still work. These AI phones are becoming increasingly popular among consumers, with Pixel shipments breaking into the top five in Q2 2025, and the Pixel 10 launch resulting in a massive surge in sales.

It's clear that the Pixel is a hit, and while Google currently offers four Pixel 10 models, a Pixel Flip could easily slot among its higher-end models. Assuming Google keeps its smartphone prices the same and prices a Pixel Flip similar to the Galaxy Z Flip 7, the lineup could look something like this:

• Google Pixel 11: $799
• Google Pixel 11 Pro: $999
• Google Pixel Flip: $1,099
• Google Pixel 11 Pro XL: $1,199
• Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold: $1,799

This would position the Pixel Flip as a premium offering, allowing Google to compete with other high-end flip phones while attracting more users who may want the novelty of a foldable phone without the higher price point of the 10 Pro Fold or its successor.

What I want to see in a Pixel Flip

If Google decided to give us a Pixel Flip, it wouldn't be too difficult to imagine what this might be like. The design could resemble the current Pixel lineup with a mostly flat matte frame and glossy glass back, similar to the base Pixel 10, plus a wide range of color options. The cover screen would expand across the top panel, as on the Razr Ultra 2025 and Galaxy Z Flip 7, with cameras protruding from the bottom corner of the external screen.

The Pixel can take after the Razr to let users use nearly any app on the cover screen out of the box, something most flip phones still don't allow. We've seen Google optimize the Android OS and apps for book-style foldables, and this could prompt Google to work with developers to better optimize apps for flip phone cover screens, such as continuity, resizing certain UI elements, dedicated widgets/panels, and more.

Of course, the Pixel Flip would leverage Google's excellent software/AI and camera capabilities. Motorola has Look & Talk on the Razr, which lets you glance at the phone while folded in tent or stand mode to activate Moto AI. Google could use something similar with Gemini Live, leveraging what it's learned from Raise to Talk with the Pixel Watch 4 to let users jump straight into a conversation with its AI chatbot.

Google would also make the strongest case for keeping a dual-camera setup on a flip phone. Pixel phones have proven to handle digital zooming better than most other phones, and while many would like to see telephoto lenses on flip phones, a Pixel Flip wouldn't need it.

Basically, Google could offer the best of both worlds between the Motorola Razr and the Galaxy Z Flip, with a mature UI, strong software support, a functional cover-screen experience, versatile cameras, and more. Now that Google seems to have found its stride with the Fold series, it should shift some of that focus to creating the best flip phone it can.

While modern flip phones like the Motorola Razr and Galaxy Z Flip have been my daily drivers for the past few years, I've dabbled here and there in larger book-style foldables. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold was a good starting point to get the form factor on my radar, while the OPPO Find N5 thoroughly impressed me with its great design and build quality. However, none of them were enough to convince me that book-style foldables were the way to go.

Then everything changed when the Galaxy Z TriFold and Motorola Razr Fold attacked. These two phones were recently announced, and one is already available in a few markets. To my surprise, both phones have me giving book-style foldables another look, and I'm very tempted to give up my allegiance to flip phones. However, the Razr Fold and Galaxy Z TriFold are tempting me for very different reasons.

The Razr Fold is a chance for Motorola to play one of its biggest strengths

For years, Motorola was largely seen as the go-to budget brand, and it still is to some extent to this day. The company's Moto G lineup continues to be successful in markets around the world, offering plenty of value in phones that don't cost an arm and a leg.

The same can be said for its higher-end models. Motorola has been good about providing a balance between specs and price, often undercutting the competition. The Motorola Edge Plus 2023 was a great example of this, offering flagship specs that rivaled (and in some ways bested) the Galaxy S23 Plus but for hundreds less.

I expect Motorola to apply the same ethos to the Razr Fold. Foldable phones are already quite pricey, with Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7 actually costing more than its predecessor, hitting a whopping $2,000. As nice as the phone is, nothing about that sounds tempting to me. But maybe for a few hundred dollars less, I could be swayed.

A recent rumor claims Motorola will price the Razr Fold at just $1,500 when it arrives later this year. While Motorola has yet to officially provide any pricing details, that would already undercut most new book-style foldables, which often start at $1,800 in the U.S. Even with the potential concern over losing a major U.S. carrier, that's still an attractive price.

While the excellent Razr Ultra 2025 is arguably a bit pricier than it should be, it came after years of offering compelling flip phones at the same and cheaper prices than its closest competition. And part of the appeal of flip phones is that they're cheaper than book-style foldables. The company still offers one of the most affordable flip phones around with the Razr 2025, which is arguably a better deal than the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE.

With the Razr Fold, it can do the same, undercut its rivals, and offer something a little easier on the wallet.

Plus, Motorola still has arguably the best overall flip phone experience, utilizing the cover screen in a way that others can't or won't emulate. Who's to say it can't do something equally unique with a fold? After all, Motorola is launching an S Pen-like stylus with the Razr Fold at a time when Samsung ditched S Pen support for its foldable.

The Galaxy Z TriFold does what we thought other foldables did

Book-style foldables have always been seen by some as a mix of a regular smartphone and a tablet. They offer a unique ability to be used as a traditional phone with the added advantage of opening up to a "tablet-like" experience with a much larger display. However, they usually measure a meager 8 inches and have a more square aspect ratio, which doesn't exactly scream "tablet."

That's not to say the larger displays on these foldables aren't useful, but the experience still feels confined compared to a traditional Android tablet.

As a remedy to this shortcoming, the Galaxy Z TriFold takes that concept and runs with it, opening up to a full 10-inch display. This size is on the lower end of most tablets, which are often 10 or 11 inches, while still providing a more tablet-like aspect ratio that we don't see on bi-fold foldables. The result is a more versatile experience that should proove more useful.

Samsung also took it further by letting the TriFold run a standalone DeX mode, meaning you won't need an external display to make it work, just like on its tablets. Unlike the standard One UI experience, this offers a more desktop-like feel, letting users freely adjust windows and run apps side-by-side without the limitations of the typical mobile experience.

It also means running up to 20 apps across several desktop workspaces, making the Galaxy Z TriFold the ultimate multitasking machine. Essentially, you can think of it as a medium between a smartphone and tablet experience, blending the two in a way that seems fitting for such a device.

Of course, the downside here is that the Galaxy Z TriFold doesn't come cheap. U.S. pricing still hasn't been confirmed, but if Korean pricing is anything to go by, it'll cost significantly more than the Galaxy Z Fold 7. That's already more than I'm willing to pay for a phone, which is honestly a bummer because TriFold feels like the final form of foldables, which gets me truly excited for the form factor.

It's a good time for foldables

Ultimately, Motorola and Samsung chose good times to introduce their latest foldable offerings. IDC points out that despite the higher price, book-style foldables have proven themselves by finally pushing sales past those of flip phones. This gives Motorola an easy way to improve its growing market share while providing Samsung yet another avenue to show consumers that it can innovate and keep things fresh and exciting.

I still love flip phones for their portability and nostalgia, but I'm excited for what's to come with larger foldables.

That said, which foldable form factor do you prefer? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Motorola: C+

Motorola has proven that there are benefits to being an underdog, as it means there’s plenty of room to grow. The company has done just that while demonstrating it can keep up with the industry's top dogs. Despite some misses, Motorola had a solid 2025 with some impressive highlights that leave me wanting more.

A winning strategy

Last year, I wondered whether Motorola could keep up in the premium market. In 2025, it feels like Motorola found a winning strategy and ran with it.

The company not only launched the rather enticing Razr 2025 series, but also emulated a tried-and-true strategy from companies like Apple, Samsung, and Google by offering three different models. This included the affordable Razr 2025 and the premium Razr Ultra 2025, which ended up being my favorite [flip] phone of 2025.

Motorola also seems to have found its stride in design. It heightened its focus on CMF (Colors, Materials, and Finish) across its lineup through its partnership with Pantone, offering vegan leather, Alcantara, and even wood on its phones, harkening back to the days of Moto Maker.

We even got a thin phone to compete with the Galaxy S25 Edge and iPhone Air, proving that Motorola isn’t going to sit by and let Samsung and Apple have all the fun.

If anything, this has all improved Motorola’s reputation, transforming it from just a budget Android phone maker to one that can hang with the best of them.

Two steps forward, one step back

Despite its impressive flagship and even midrange hardware like the Moto G Stylus 2025, there was a notable hole in its lineup: a flagship option for consumers who don’t want a foldable phone. Last year, I had hoped that Motorola would finally challenge the likes of Samsung's Ultra phone in 2025 with a follow-up to the excellent Edge Plus 2023, but alas, we never got it.

We also got a new smartwatch, but still no Wear OS or a true Moto 360 revival. That felt odd at a time when Android OEMs like OnePlus are proving they can make compelling devices to strengthen their device ecosystems, something Motorola truly needs. Motorola introduced new tablets and its first laptop, but unfortunately, neither came to the U.S.

On the software front, Motorola didn't move the needle very much. Hello UX is largely unoffensive, and there are some clever uses of AI like Look & Talk and the ability to choose from a wide selection of AI models like Perplexity. However, the overall software/AI package still feels less mature and cohesive than Samsung’s One UI, and I often end up ignoring Moto AI in favor of Gemini and Circle to Search.

Motorola also continues to trail its rivals in software updates, offering one of the shortest update promises for flagship phones and less consistently than others. This ultimately reduces the overall value of its phones, since they'll lose support sooner than those of Samsung, OnePlus, or Pixel.

Ultimately, Motorola still lacks compelling software differentiators. While its camera software and algorithms have improved, there's little reason to buy a Razr over a Pixel or Samsung phone if you want great photos.

Motorola is getting comfortable

… but hopefully not too comfortable. The company has made a triumphant comeback with the impressive Razr series, and its budget phones are decent enough for the price.

That said, it feels like Motorola is still trying to find its footing in building a hardware and software ecosystem. At a time when companies like Samsung and Google have made AI so accessible and easy to use, Motorola's lack of software focus feels like a glaring misstep.

Ultimately, Motorola hasn't really given us anything to keep us interested, whether that’s a cohesive family of devices or the software that holds it together. And aside from some genuinely useful Smart Connect features, there isn’t anything to tether us to its products.

OnePlus: B+

It's been an interesting year for OnePlus. The company has seemingly been hanging on in the U.S., and despite its waning popularity and market share, it has given us some of the most impressive devices we’ve seen in several segments. OnePlus has more than proven it can give companies like Samsung a run for their money, yet it has yet to overcome its biggest hurdle in one of the world's largest smartphone markets: availability.

Two in one

OnePlus started the year off strong with one of our favorite phones of 2025. The OnePlus 13 had a lot going for it, from impressive cameras to a huge battery and IP69 water and dust resistance. That, alongside the OnePlus 13R, showcased OnePlus's commitment to the higher-end segment, which should help increase its Total Addressable Market beyond the $300-$600 segment.

OnePlus furthered this with the launch of its second flagship in one year, the OnePlus 15, which boasts the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and offsets the power-hungry chip with a massive 7,300mAh battery. This comes at a time when Samsung is either struggling or unwilling to go beyond 5,000mAh in its traditional candybar phones (even the Galaxy Z Fold 7 has only a 4,400mAh battery).

An ecosystem of devices

OnePlus has also shown it can build an impressive family of devices, something I would’ve loved to see from Motorola. The OnePlus Watch 3, for example, is one of the most impressive and well-designed smartwatches I’ve ever seen, and features perhaps the longest battery life of any Wear OS watch.

At a time when Google and Samsung seemingly dominate Wear OS, it’s impressive that OnePlus can give its watches a leg up over rivals in ways they haven’t been able to replicate.

That also goes for its tablets. The OnePlus Pad 3 swiftly became one of our favorite tablets, thanks to its beautiful display, slim design, and Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, which seemingly outperforms Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra. It’s clear OnePlus was not going to let Samsung rule the Android tablet market unchecked.

This is all tied together by OnePlus' impressive software, from OxygenOS 15 to the new OxygenOS 16, both of which improved performance and introduced a host of AI features that feel well implemented.

Missed opportunities

Unfortunately, OnePlus continues to hinder itself in one of its biggest markets. The company has all but abandoned the mid-range market by increasing the price of the OnePlus 15R and ditching the Nord series in the U.S. The biggest problem with this strategy is that it limits the reach of its phones, especially given the already few avenues to buy them.

Last year, I noted how OnePlus was hurting itself by not making its devices available through carrier channels in the U.S. While this isn't as big a problem in other regions, carriers largely control the U.S. smartphone market, and not playing by their rules means fewer eyes on your phones. As it stands, the company's market share is negligible, and I feel like the OnePlus 13 and 15 could have been bigger hits.

Finally, the lack of a foldable didn't go unnoticed. The OPPO Find N5 was an impressively thin phone that gave us hope for an equally impressive OnePlus Open successor. Unfortunately, OnePlus stayed out of the foldable race altogether.

On the one hand, it makes sense given OnePlus's lack of carrier presence to help offset the exorbitant foldable prices. However, the OnePlus Open was so well received that it felt odd not to see OnePlus tap its OPPO partnership to bring a new device to the U.S. to give Google and Samsung a proper challenge.

OnePlus has proven that it has the tools to create an amazing range of devices. I just wish it had showcased that more in 2025.

Fitbit is undergoing a major overhaul, and I’ve spent a month with the preview of the newly redesigned app and personal health coach.

The app is very AI-centric, which is to be expected in 2025 when every company under the sun is looking for ways to leverage AI in their services. And while that may not appeal to consumers who are a bit wary of AI, the new app redesign brings the Fitbit app into the modern Android era while making it feel more like a comprehensive fitness guide than the standard version.

At the moment, there still isn’t feature parity with the standard Fitbit app. But what’s new is rather interesting and makes me excited for the full version of the new app, which is expected to roll out sometime in 2.

For now, this is what it’s been like to use Fitbit’s new personal health coach preview.

Meet me in the middle

After switching to the new preview for the first time, setting up the new health coach preview was a bit more involved than I expected. After a quick introduction and tapping through some notices regarding data use, I was invited to have a chat with the AI health coach. Where the previous app simply had you input your goals, such as daily steps and sleep, the health coach turns the process into a conversation.

During this process, I talked to it about what I hoped to achieve and what I think works or doesn’t work for me. The coach was about as responsive as I expected from a Gemini-powered AI, and it seemed to be making a genuine effort to get to know me and understand my goals. I told it that I was looking to gain muscle and lose body fat while also hoping to build enough endurance to run my first 5K.

I was then directed to have a separate chat to set up a workout plan, though this is optional. The AI drew on what it knew about me from our previous conversation and came up with a plan to help me achieve it, while keeping certain details in mind, such as my asthma (it suggested lighter runs as a result).

I didn’t like the first suggestion it gave me, since I wanted to incorporate some of what I already do, such as a daily morning run and instructor-led yoga, Pilates, and HIIT on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays, respectively. The AI pushed back by essentially telling me I was overdoing it (which, admittedly, I was).

It made a fairly convincing argument that I may be hindering my growth by working too hard and instead tried to compromise with me, allowing me to continue in my instructor-led classes while asking which days I preferred to run.

After a few minutes, a workout plan was generated, which felt roughly in line with what I wanted, with a nice mix of my instructor-led classes, running, and lifting.

Your coach at your fingertips

The redesigned Fitbit app follows Google's Material 3 Expressive design, with vibrant icons and large cards throughout the Today, Fitness, and Sleep sections for accessible, easy-to-understand data.

The top of the Today tab features customizable focus metrics for a glanceable view of your progress and new Weekly cardio load. Scrolling through the Today section reveals cards that provide a quick look at important metrics, such as sleep, readiness, previous activities, and more, each with AI-generated insights.

The new Sleep and Fitness tabs make the data very easy to understand, allowing you to view trends and dive into each metric, such as the improved sleep tracking and targets. The Health tab is where all that data comes together to help you get a more comprehensive view of long-term trends.

AI insights are found in nearly every part of the app, which may seem overwhelming to some, but I actually find it quite helpful that it's provided to me instead of having to ask for it. And if you have questions about your metrics, tap "Say more about my x" at the bottom of each card to start a conversation with the coach.

It's an approach that reminds me a lot of Oura's AI advisor, which is available throughout the app and ready to talk to you about your stats. Google is clearly flexing its AI chops by leveraging it to help you better understand your body. That said, I do feel like bombarding users with text-filled cards could be off-putting, and it may be beneficial to present them as expandable cards, giving users the option to view the insights if they want.

There's also a floating Ask Coach button that's always accessible within the app, so you can also initiate conversations that way. I do appreciate how the AI feels genuinely helpful and accommodating. For example, I was going out of town for a vacation and knew I wouldn't be able to follow that week's plan, so I told the Coach about it, and it essentially cancelled that week's plan and had me start back up once I got back from vacation.

And if I miss a day, the coach will suggest consolidating workouts to help keep me on track "without overdoing it," showing just how flexible it can be.

But beyond that, you can just talk to the coach if you have general questions about your fitness, like ways to improve your sleep or even building a nutrition plan for yourself. Basically, you can treat it more or less like an actual coach, asking it many of the same questions you would if you had an in-person coach. The coach will also "check in" with somewhat frequent notifications throughout the day.

As someone who can't afford a personal coach, I find a lot of value in this.

Lastly, I should note that your Fitbit data stays within Fitbit, so you can't go into the Gemini app and ask it about your recent workouts. I can see the merit in keeping the data separate, though I would like the option to talk to Gemini about my Fitbit data if I want.

Work in progress

So far, there's a lot to like about the new Fitbit personal health coach preview, from the new design to the insights and conversational AI. But as this is a preview, I've found a handful of things that could (and should) improve when the full experience rolls out to everyone.

There are plenty of features you can get in the standard app experience, which Fitbit has already highlighted. I'm not too bothered by this, as you can easily switch to the standard experience at any time to get those features, then switch back to the preview.

I think what bothers me most right now is how the fitness plan feels more like a suggestion than an actual plan. When I select a session, there's no option to start a workout from the app. Instead, I have to go into my watch and start my own workout manually. From there, I have to manually mark in the app that I've finished each set/session, enter my reps, and input my total weight.

This differs from Garmin, where I can set up a plan, access it on the watch, and follow each exercise from my wrist, which can also save my reps and weight without me needing to touch my phone.

There's just too much manual input, including having to link my tracked workout to the scheduled one. Fortunately, I can still send some recommended runs to my Pixel Watch 3, which is much more helpful for monitoring my run and staying within the suggested time/heart rate zone.

There are auto-tracked workouts available, and the Fitbit app will confirm the activity on the watch or phone app, which is useful.

That said, the way fitness tracking works in the Fitbit app highlights a broader disconnect with the Pixel Watch that I hope Fitbit can address with an update to the Wear OS app. For instance, when I get my Morning Brief, it would make sense to show my suggested workout for that day, but it just shows me how many days I've worked out.

Part of this likely has to do with how Pixel Watches track workouts, which are not as granular as those on a Garmin watch, for example. On Garmin, reps are automatically counted, sets automatically start and stop, and the watch can fairly accurately determine which exercises you're doing just by how you're moving. For now, the Pixel Watch cannot do any of this.

An exciting evolution

Despite its shortcomings, I think Google is on the right track with this new Fitbit experience. It looks fantastic, feels more organized, and does a great job of showcasing just how far its AI has come as a tool we can take advantage of. Even with its missing features, the preview feels quite solid, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it evolves, hopefully into the fitness app of my dreams.

A year after the Oura Ring 4 launched, the company introduced a new ceramic version of the wearable. As someone who has been using the original titanium version of the ring since it launched in October 2024, I was excited to get my hands on this new, stylish take on the device, which Oura says “is designed to stand up to daily life while blending style and function.”

But it wasn't just the Oura Ring that got a glow-up; the Oura app was recently updated with a new design that gives my Android phone a touch of iOS. Both of these updates highlight how Oura is not just a health and wellness product, but also a lifestyle one, making wearable tech that blends in while also standing out.

The new ceramic ring doesn't come cheap, though, and you'll pay a hefty premium over the cheapest Oura Ring 4 model to get the new material.

After a month of using the Oura Ring 4 Ceramic, is it worth the extra cost, or should you just spring for a cheaper finish?

Pretty in premium

Oura isn't the first to bring a ceramic finish to its products, and I hope it isn't the last. The Oura Ring 4 Ceramic takes what I think was already a winning design and steps it up a couple of notches with a material that both looks and feels quite premium when compared to the titanium Oura Ring 4.

The new ceramic finish feels incredibly soft to the touch, a stark contrast to the more rigid and titanium finishes. The difference is quite noticeable, particularly with how easily my finger glides across the ring.

My unit is the Cloud color, which is an off-white hue, although there are three other options to choose from, including Tide (light green) and Petal (light pink). Most are pastels except for the Midnight blue option, which has a deeper hue and is probably my favorite of the lot. According to Oura, the colors were chosen "to complement a wide range of skin tones and personal styles."

Oura also notes that the ring should retain its hue over time, thanks to a process that creates the colors "with minerals inherent to the ceramic material itself," as opposed to using a surface color that can eventually fade.

In my use, I've noticed some areas where the color has seemingly been scratched off. You'll want to avoid handling certain objects that could scratch against the ring, like a metal dumbbell. Otherwise, I normally wear a rubber "case" around the Oura Ring, and it appears to work well enough to keep it from scratching. Unfortunately, Oura still doesn't offer first-party ring protectors, but I've found some on Amazon that work well.

That said, Oura does provide a Ceramic Polishing Pad, which should be able to handle scuffs and scratches to make your Oura Ring like new again, although I didn't receive one with my unit.

If you're comparing the Oura Ring 4 Ceramic with the titanium model, you'll notice that the new finish makes the ring noticeably thicker and a bit heavier. The size of the ring never bothered me, although some of my friends have pointed out how they find the Oura Ring unpleasantly thick, so the new finish may not appeal to everyone despite its rather premium look.

Otherwise, the Oura Ring 4 Ceramic and titanium Oura Ring 4 are pretty much the same. There's nothing internally different about the newer model, so you can expect the same sensor layout, tracking capabilities, and battery life.

A touch of Liquid Glass on Android

More recently, Oura introduced a new look for its app, which appears to take some design inspiration from Apple's Liquid Glass. It's a much more visually-driven design, with dynamic backgrounds, transparent UI effects, new card designs, and a floating navigation menu at the bottom.

The Today view will go from day to night depending on the time of day, with background images of sunny hillsides or a starry night sky. The vitals shortcuts at the top of the view have a design that almost resembles matte glass, and as you scroll up, the UI elements will blur into the top of the display before disappearing.

Oura says the new card design "uses colors to signal your body’s different states according to your biometrics," while the My Health view provides a more visual glance at your long-term metrics.

The new design also puts greater emphasis on the Advisor to help you better understand your metrics and provide more insight into how your behaviors affect your long-term health and wellness.

That said, the Android version of the app is still missing a ring locator function, which is probably my number one request.

Should you buy the Oura Ring 4 Ceramic?

The Oura Ring 4 Ceramic is proof that smart wearables don't have to sacrifice style to remain functional. Many smartwatches and smart rings can still end up looking very much like tech, while Oura is trying to balance that out with a refined sense of style.

Unfortunately, that doesn't come cheap, with the Oura Ring 4 Ceramic priced at $499. That's $150 more than the cheapest Oura Ring 4 color options, although it matches the price of the more expensive Gold and Rose Gold options. So, if you were already looking at the latter colors, you might want to give the Ceramic models a look. Otherwise, I would have a hard time recommending anyone spend this much on a smart ring, especially when you account for the subscription.

It's also worth noting that the titanium Oura Ring 4 is currently on sale for Black Friday, with as much as $150 off, depending on the color.

On the plus side, the Oura Ring 4 Ceramic is still FSA/HSA eligible, so you can use that purchase one. For many people, that money is just sitting there largely unused, so you might as well spend it on something.

FAQ

After a couple of years of waiting, Garmin has finally launched the Venu 4, it's latest fitness watch that aims to appeal to the masses. The Venu 3 was the first Garmin watch I had ever used, and while it remained my primary fitness watch for some time, there were definitely things that I would've changed about it.

I've spent about a month with the Venu 4, and fortunately, it looks like Garmin addressed many of my concerns with its latest model, taking cues from its predecessor as well as more recent Garmin watches in the Vivoactive and Forerunner series. A new design, an updated UI, and some welcome hardware upgrades ensure that this should be a solid all-arounder that the Venu series is meant to be.

But is the Venu 4 worth the $100 premium over the Venu 3?

Garmin Venu 4: Price, availability, and what's in the box

The Garmin Venu 4 was launched on September 17, 2025, and went on sale starting September 22. The watch is available in two sizes: 41mm and 45mm, and each size comes in several different case and band color combinations:

Pricing starts at $549 for both sizes and most color/band combinations. However, if you prefer a leather band, the price increases to $599.

The Venu 4 retail box comes with the watch, a Garmin USB-C data/charging cable, and various documentation.

Garmin Venu 4: Specs

Garmin Venu 4: Design and display

• The Venu 4 features an updated design, but it's thicker and heavier than the Venu 3.
• The weight makes it difficult to wear to bed for tracking sleep.
• The 1.4-inch AMOLED display is bright and responsive.

The Venu 4's design is a slight departure from its predecessor. While it's still a round watch face, the chamfered edges on the bottom are largely gone, replaced by cleaner, flatter sides. This is likely due to the inclusion of the flashlight tucked into the top of the watch. There are also fewer, smaller buttons on one side of the watch, which makes it look less like a sports watch and gives it more mainstream appeal.

Owners of the Venu 3 will notice that the Venu 4 is noticeably thicker and heavier. I find that the weight is fairly manageable, but after a while, the heavy stainless steel case begins to feel somewhat uncomfortable, to the point where I have to take the watch off.

The side and weight are mostly a problem when wearing the watch in bed. I already don't care to wear smartwatches when I sleep, but the Venu 4 is particularly uncomfortable at night, and I find the weight quite noticeable.

The 45mm model I'm using has a rather sizeable 1.4-inch display with a 454 x 454 resolution. Text and menus are crisp, and the display gets plenty bright; I've never had a problem with visibility. The bezels around the display are fairly large, but not offensively so.

Of course, having only two buttons means you'll be using the touchscreen more often than you would with a Forerunner, but fortunately, the software experience is very smooth and responsive.

Garmin Venu 4: Software

• The Venu 4 adopts Garmin's latest software implementation, which makes navigation smoother and easier.
• Morning and Evening Report provides briefs into your day's activities, including suggested workouts.
• The built-in flashlight can come in handy and can be adjusted with different brightness levels, including a low red light.

While I enjoyed using the Venu 3 for tracking my workouts, I absolutely hated the software. The UI felt clunky and confusing, and navigation just didn't feel all that logical to me. Fortunately, the Venu 4 follows Garmin's recent launches with its new software implementation, which is a big improvement.

Like a smartphone, swiping down opens the notification panel, where you can respond to messages on your phone. The keyboard isn't the best, but it gets the job done if you don't have your phone nearby. You can also access your phone's assistant (i.e., Gemini) to accomplish the same thing with your voice, which is nice.

Swiping to the left allows you to quickly access your workouts, settings, and other features through a customizable menu. Of course, you can also assign press-and-hold functions to the Action and Back buttons on the side of the watch.

Swiping up reveals your Glances, which is Garmin's version of a widget. For anyone adamant about keeping up with fitness and health metrics, these will definitely come in handy.

Another feature borrowed from newer watches is the Morning and Evening Reports. The former provides a glimpse into how your day might unfold, complete with your sleep data, weather forecast, and even a daily suggested workout (which can also include scheduled workouts from training plans).

Meanwhile, the Evening Report summarizes your day with brief glances at your activities and metrics, such as your Body Battery, as well as any workout suggestions you may have for the next day.

In addition to your phone's AI assistant, the Venu 4 features its own voice assistant, allowing you to quickly access on-device functions such as workouts, timers, weather, and more. It's okay, but I find that it only understands me half the time and will sometimes pull up the wrong feature.

The Venu 4 can also read the watch face aloud, which is a useful accessibility feature that can come in handy when you can't immediately look at your watch for whatever reason (like when you're swimming, for example).

And while you can make calls or send texts using the built-in mic and speaker, the volume doesn't get very loud. While you can listen to music on the Venu 4, it's recommended to use Bluetooth earbuds if possible. The Venu 4 supports a few music apps like Spotify, but YouTube Music support appears to be missing for some reason.

Overall, Garmin's software feels much more user-friendly, which is great for a watch like the Venu 4, as it's designed to appeal to a broader audience, not just fitness enthusiasts.

One of the newest hardware additions is the built-in flashlight, which puts the Venu 4 in line with other high-end watches, such as the Venu X1. You can set an easy shortcut to enable it, and it's surprisingly bright, although you can adjust the brightness by several levels or switch to a red light. You can also turn on a strobe function, which could come in handy when on evening runs.

Garmin Venu 4: Health and fitness

• The Venu 4 uses the same Elevate sensor as the Venu 3 and other recent Garmin watches.
• New features include more comprehensive sleep coaching, lifestyle logging, and Health Status.
• Fitness tracking has proven reliable, albeit with a hiccup or two with the heart rate sensor.

The Venu 4 features all the health tracking features you'd expect from a smartwatch, especially at this price point. It features the same Elevate v5 sensor used in the Venu 3 and newer watches like the Forerunner 570, although unlike the latter, the Venu 4 supports ECG, which could be a deciding factor for some.

There are a handful of new health-focused features, including a more comprehensive sleep coach that provides a wealth of insights, such as your sleep alignment and sleep needs, as well as the factors that may be affecting your sleep. It will use this data to then provide a recommendation for how much sleep you should get each night to fully recover.

There's a new lifestyle logging feature that lets you manually enter various activities throughout the day, such as consuming caffeine, eating meals, or using your phone before bed. The idea is that Garmin will use this data to factor in how these activities may affect you throughout the day.

It sounds useful in theory, but I can never remember to log the data into the watch. The most you can do is set the Glance widget in the hopes that it will serve as a sufficient reminder to log activities, but I would prefer it if Garmin somehow sent me reminders throughout the day.

To put all of this together, Garmin has a new Health Status feature. It displays important metrics, such as heart rate, HRV, skin temperature, and Pulse Ox, all on one screen, and informs you if you're within your optimal range for each.

As for fitness, I've used the Venu 4 to track my workouts over several weeks, and you can refer to my Venu 4 fitness review for more details on how the watch performs. Long story short, it works as well as one would expect, albeit with a few odd heart rate readings here and there. Otherwise, it's a reliable fitness tracker with numerous sports modes to choose from.

Users will also be pleased with the dual-band GPS as well as the pre- and post-workout features like training status and training readiness, which gives you a look at how hard you've been working and how hard you should work.

Garmin Venu 4: Battery life

• The Garmin Venu 4 gets up to 12 days of battery life or five days with AOD on.
• The Venu 4 features Garmin's proprietary charger and takes up to two hours to charge.

Garmin claims the Venu 4 can last up to 12 days in regular smartwatch mode. This feels roughly in line with my experience, although I averaged about eight days in between charges. This includes one or two tracked workouts per week and sleep tracking each night. I also use the tilt-to-take function for the display as opposed to AOD.

Garmin uses the same charger as before, although it can take up to two hours to fully charge the watch. Fortunately, battery life is good enough that you don't have to worry about this too much.

Garmin Venu 4: Competition

On the fitness watch side of things, the new COROS Apex 4 is probably one of the Venu 4's closest competitors. The watch undercuts the Venu 4 by roughly $100 but is packed with impressive features like a 1.3-inch AMOLED touch display with sapphire glass, 41 hours of dual-band GPS, and a 24-day battery life overall. That said, you won't get the same perks as those found on Garmin, such as a flashlight, daily workout suggestions, better music apps, contactless payments, and arguably a better display.

On the smartwatch side, consider the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2025. This is roughly the same as the original Galaxy Watch Ultra, just with additional storage. However, it features a more rugged design, offers excellent battery life, and comes with Wear OS for access to a wide range of apps and seamless connectivity to your smartphone. However, battery life still falls short compared to the Venu 4, and Garmin's focus on fitness first over smarts may be what you're looking for, especially if you can get it for $100 less than the Galaxy Watch.

Finally, the Forerunner 570 may be another Garmin watch you're considering. These two watches are very similar in terms of feature set and price. The Forerunner is more focused on runners, complete with more buttons for easy navigation. Meanwhile, the Venu 4 is a more all-rounder for any fitness

Garmin Venu 4: Should you buy it?

You should buy this if...

• You're a fitness enthusiast, such as a runner, weightlifter, or even someone wanting to start their fitness journey.
• You want a stylish fitness watch with long battery life and a bright display.
• You want a Garmin watch but don't want to spend Forerunner 970 amounts of money.

You shouldn't buy this if...

• You like to use your smartwatch to track your sleep.
• You want a smartwatch that syncs well with your smartphone.
• You're beginning your fitness journey and want an affordable fitness watch to start.

While the Venu 4 doesn't appear significantly different from its predecessor at first glance, that doesn't make it any less of a solid fitness smartwatch. The Elevate sensor remains (mostly) reliable, and the new software makes the experience a lot better and accessible for people like me who aren't exactly Garmin aficionados.

Yes, battery life takes a hit, but the tradeoff is new hardware features like a built-in flashlight, something runners may appreciate. It's also a rather heavy watch, but if you can get past that, sleep tracking features are great, and many of the new features make the Venu 4 feel like a much more comprehensive health and fitness companion than its predecessor.

A Forerunner may be better suited for runners, but the Venu 4 feels like the everyman's watch. It's perfect for people like me who are focused on weightlifting and/or are casual to intermediate gym-goers willing to spend a little more to track their progress. That is, if you can manage the price.

FAQ

A runner I am not. I spend a lot of time at the gym, working out and lifting weights several times a week, but cardio and running are the bane of my existence. I never quite understood how and why anyone would enjoy running. Why subject yourself to that?

However, for the past couple of months, I’ve been using the Pixel Watch 3 and the Fitbit app to do just that. Despite my better judgment, I decided it’s time to change my routine, spending nearly every morning running to see how I can improve the duration and distance of my runs.

To do this, I’ve been utilizing the AI-powered daily run recommendations in the Fitbit app. I’ve been curious to see whether these recommendations are really helpful or if it’s just another glorified AI feature with no real rhyme or reason to its suggestions. Turns out, this could actually be a fantastic tool for beginners like me, making the couch-to-5K journey a little less daunting.

Getting started

It’s important to note that daily AI run recommendations are only available to Fitbit Premium subscribers. If you buy a new Pixel Watch, it’s likely that you received a free trial, so you might want to check on that if you’re not already a subscriber.

After that, AI-run recommendations should start appearing in the Coach tab. However, you can always change your preferences by tapping the See all button next to Today’s run, then tapping the three-dot menu in the top corner. Here, you can disable daily run workouts, adjust your running level or focus, and change your distance days to focus on longer runs.

Slow and steady

I was initially nervous about starting a running “plan.” My previous experience with a Garmin plan was a bit too intense for me, and I couldn’t keep up, so I went into this cautiously. It’s important to note that this isn’t a running “plan,” per se, so I couldn’t see ahead to what my runs would look like. The Fitbit app would take my previous workout data as well as my target load to surface a new recommendation for me each day.

While a viewable workout plan of some sort would be nice, what I like about this feature is that the workouts feel like they’re perfectly tailored to me and my capabilities. Going into this, I could only comfortably run about a mile before I would tire and have to stop. Therefore, based on what Fitbit knows about me and my goals, it was able to get me started with some very easy runs.

These runs would vary each day, typically between an easy run and a tempo run, with the former keeping me at a relatively moderate heart rate and the latter pushing me into a more vigorous heart rate zone. The duration of the runs also varies, from shorter 18-minute runs to longer 40-minute runs.

That said, even the shorter runs challenged me, as I would previously average about 10 minutes before I called it quits. However, this was a very manageable challenge, as I had a target heart rate range that I would have to maintain. This helped me manage by breathing more effectively, while also reminding me that I do not have to run as fast as I can all the time; I can take my time at a steady pace to keep me going for a longer period of time.

Additionally, Fitbit would also mix things up so the intervals were always different from day to day. Sometimes it would have me do a single run for a certain period of time, or it would break up my run, starting me off slower and steadily pushing me to run faster, or having me maintain a faster pace but for short periods with even shorter rest periods between them. This helped me get used to pacing myself while helping me build my endurance and mileage.

The best part is that you don’t have to follow each run exactly as it appears. There’s a Customize run button at the bottom of each recommendation, where you can remove warm-ups and cool-downs, delete or move intervals around, add intervals, and even edit the intensity of each interval. That said, I rarely found a need for this and just followed each recommendation as it was given to me.

As I noted before, when I first started this just a couple of months ago, I could barely run for more than one mile without tiring myself out. Now, I’m consistently and comfortably running two to three miles per day, and my pace has also improved to just under 12 minutes per mile.

Do I love running now? Definitely not. But I don't dislike it as much as I used to.

Where Google can improve

While each recommended run explains why it will benefit you before you start it, I do wish there was some sort of built-in AI summary for post-run evaluations. You can view and compare charts as well as form analysis to gauge how efficient your running is, but having something to summarize the data in an easy-to-consume way would help me figure out where and how to improve.

You can always share the post-run data with Gemini, but the experience isn’t very seamless, and Gemini’s responses are a bit general.

I also wish run suggestions would appear on the Pixel Watch. Right now, I can tap the Start run button in the Fitbit smartphone app, and it will send it to the Pixel Watch 3, where I can just tap the Start button. However, this is the extent of its presence on the watch, as AI run recommendations are not even viewable on the Fitbit Wear OS app.

This would be a perfect opportunity to enhance the Morning Brief feature, which feels pretty useless in its current form. Garmin watches like the Venu 4 include daily workout suggestions in the Morning Report, whether or not you have a plan in place, so it feels like a missed opportunity on the Pixel Watch.

I'm excited about what's to come

Of course, running is just part of my daily routine now, as I also spend a lot of time weightlifting. However, Fitbit’s Coach tab simply surfaces various workouts I can do. While they are based on my daily readiness and workout preferences, it's simply a collection of video workouts I can follow, and there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to their recommendations.

This is why I’m excited for the upcoming Personal Health Coach, which will use AI to provide more dynamic fitness recommendations. And not only will you be able to converse with the AI for suggestions, but it appears that it will take all your data into consideration to provide truly personalized fitness guidance.

The Pixel Watch may not be the fitness watch I want now, but the Health Coach could build upon Google's excellent AI to help it become the fitness watch to beat.

FAQ

AI continues to become a mainstay in my everyday life as companies add more features to our phones. Each company has its own implementation of AI, from Samsung to Motorola or OnePlus, but even so, there are some experiences, such as Gemini and Circle to Search, that are more or less the same on many Android phones.

Thanks to Google, these two functions, which are arguably my favorite AI features on any Android phone, are easily accessible from the bottom of my phone display and from nearly any screen. Sure, Motorola gets an AI key and Samsung opts for the power button, but these options are inferior in different ways.

And while I wish Google would adopt a separate AI button for Pixel phones, the near-universal experience of these two features has made them invaluable aspects of my smartphone experience.

A swipe or long-press is all you need

It wasn't until recently that I realized just how important the bottom of my phone screen had become. That's because Gemini and Circle to Search can be easily accessed via gestures located in the most accessible place on my phone.

A long press of the navigation bar brings up Circle to Search, which has evolved into a versatile feature on Android. It captures whatever is on your screen at that moment and lets you initiate a search, allowing you to quickly and easily find answers about whatever you're looking at. You can also search for a song that you hear, select and copy text on the fly, or even quickly translate text.

I actually find myself using the latter option frequently, and it is probably my most commonly used function. Circle to Search is essentially a more accessible version of Google Lens and is easily a favorite among the Android Central staff.

Then there's Gemini and what I feel is its lesser-known shortcut. Essentially, you can swipe from the bottom corner of the screen to trigger the AI assistant, which feels incredibly intuitive and, to me, much more natural than the default long-press of the power button.

Here's how you can enable this on your phone, at least for some of the major brands in North America:

• Pixel: Settings > System > Navigation mode > Gesture navigation settings > Swipe to invoke assistant.
• Motorola: Settings > Gestures > System navigation > Gesture navigation settings > Swipe for Assistant.
• OnePlus: Settings > System & update > System navigation > Gestures > Digital Assistant from Google.

You'll notice that one particular brand is missing. I noticed that too.

What gives, Samsung?

For some reason, Samsung removed the option to swipe for Assistant with One UI 7. In fact, it was its removal that made me realize just how much I relied on it, especially since one of the first things I do when setting up a new Samsung phone is switch the power button back to power controls.

Using the power button to trigger the assistant never made much sense to me. It changes the method of turning the phone off, requiring you to simultaneously press and hold both the power button and the volume up button. This doesn't feel intuitive at all, and I question why OEMs have started making this the default.

Without the swipe gesture, I could always use the back tap option, but I prefer to reserve that for quick screenshots. You can obviously trigger the AI assistant by voice, which isn't always appropriate, or simply tap the app or widget icon, which isn't as convenient since I would have to exit the current screen.

The other option is to use the One Hand Operation Plus in Good Lock. With this module, you can create a new handle with the option to open an "Assistance app" by swiping diagonally. It's not quite the same, since the swipe has to originate from the side of the screen and not the bottom corner (you can only adjust the gesture position so low on your display). This could clash with the back gesture, but it's currently the closest workaround.

Otherwise, you can always insert Gemini into the Edge Panel, which is accessible from nearly any screen, although it's not as seamless, since it requires a swipe and tap.

While I really enjoyed One UI 7 and find One UI 8 to be excellent, I'm not sure why Samsung removed the swipe gesture from its phones. I have reached out to Samsung for an explanation, but I have yet to receive a response. I'll update this article when I hear back.

Ease of use with ease of access

While it seems like AI is finally beginning to settle somewhat as a part of everyday life, there's no question that consumers are still overwhelmed. Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told me in a recent interview that "consumers are still pretty wary of AI," explaining that the people who find value in it are believers.

"I also think that AI is a black box for a lot of people, and they really don't understand how it works at all."

I believe that one way to help normalize AI is to make certain features more easily accessible. Gemini and Circle to Search have quickly become staples of the Android experience, as Google continues to improve them with features like Gemini Live and streamlined translation. Linking them with gestures that consumers can easily remember is a major step toward making them more comfortable with AI, although I believe they shouldn't clash with functions many are already accustomed to (i.e., the power button).

Fortunately, Android is all about choice. Given the bevy of options available, which gestures do you like to use to evoke your favorite AI assistant?

Qualcomm just launched its new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, promising to elevate AI capabilities on smartphones. With a focus on ambient AI and personalization, Qualcomm aims to enable more proactive AI that operates in the background and only surfaces when needed.

This is not unlike what we've started to see from Google, with features that redefine what AI can do for us, and we'll probably see more of that as new Snapdragon flagship phones reach consumers.

With chipmakers and OEMs shifting their focus to agentic and ambient AI, it appears that companies are finally coming around to understanding how AI can truly benefit consumers.

Finding its purpose

During Qualcomm's keynote, Rick Osterloh, Google's SVP of Platforms and Devices, recounted that Google declared itself an AI-first company in 2015, well before the term was widely understood.

Years later, generative AI and chatbots emerged, sparking considerable skepticism about the role of AI and its potential impact on jobs and daily life. To some extent, that concern remains for many people.

According to Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, consumers haven't yet fully warmed up to AI.

"I think consumers are still pretty weary of AI, but the people who find value in it are believers," Sag tells me. "I also think that AI is a black box for a lot of people, and they really don't understand how it works at all."

However, things are starting to shift as companies continue to explore AI, but in a way that's beginning to feel more cohesive and focused. Thanks to devices like the Pixel 10, we've started to see how companies are transforming AI into something more useful for the average consumer, and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 feels like a natural expansion of this, as highlighted by Osterloh.

"Well, now I think we're seeing what [being an AI-first company] means," he told Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon during the keynote. "The whole goal is to help the user get what they want to get done, done more easily and more quickly. I think this is what this promises, and it’s so exciting right now because I think we’re starting to see the early stages of what can happen with it."

AI when you need it

Last year, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai noted how AI innovation in 2025 would slow down compared to the previous couple of years, saying that progress "is going to get harder," and that "the low-hanging fruit is gone." However, if you read between the lines, he also seems to suggest that AI will finally begin to settle and establish itself.

That's what it feels like with new ambient and agentic AI features coming to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Features like Sensing Hub and Personal Scribe can learn more about a user to provide personalized recommendations or surface contextual prompts based on their actions.

We've seen this already with Magic Cue on the Pixel 10 series. The phone will surface phone numbers, addresses, flight details, or event information based on what you're doing in that moment. The experience feels somewhat limited right now, but when it works, it feels almost like magic.

There's plenty of potential with this feature, which is still relatively new, but during his keynote, Amon pledged to "bring AI everywhere" and seemed excited about the future and where Snapdragon can take these new experiences.

"The UI now understands your intention, and you're going to have options. You're going to continue to use the apps you want to use, but the apps are going to evolve. They will anticipate your needs. They're going to be able to do things for you, and that's what an agentic experience is going to be."

The ecosystem

Companies are realizing that all their devices can play a role in enabling more proactive AI, and we're starting to see how different form factors can contribute to how AI understands your world and interactions.

This means that your Android phone, smart glasses, and even a smartwatch could all feed data to the AI agent about what's happening around you, allowing it to make suggestions based on your schedule and its knowledge of you.

"At the center of the whole experience is the AI agent, and that changes how we think about all the devices that we have," Amon noted. "They're no longer just doing the job of extending the functionality of the phone, but they are actually now engaging directly with the agent."

He also highlights how horizontal platforms are better than vertical because "you're going to choose what glasses you want, what jewelry you want, what watch you want..." Although, while I love the idea of consumers having a choice, I remain skeptical about how disparate AI ecosystems can affect this vision.

Sag thinks it's still a very unclear landscape, between bigger players wanting to develop their own ecosystems and smaller, more flexible companies. "I think we will likely have a bit of both since the highly integrated platforms will likely have a smoother user experience and higher accuracy based on housing more of the users' data."

AI's final form?

Ultimately, I'm excited about where companies like Google and Qualcomm are heading with AI. If you look at Pixel 10 ads, they focus less on the phone and more on what the AI can do for you, with features like Gemini Live. I believe this is a smart approach during a time when consumers are still a bit overwhelmed by everything.

And with agentic AI working in the background for you, I think we're finally reaching AI's ultimate form. Sag agrees to an extent, noting that ambient AI has a bigger impact on people's daily lives than on-demand AI.

"I think it's one of the final forms, especially for consumers. It needs to be a value adder that isn't intrusive and complements the way people do things today until it becomes the default way of doing things."

Qualcomm provided travel and lodging to the Snapdragon Summit. However, it did not receive a preview of this article or provide editorial input prior to its publication.

Meta recently unveiled its second-gen AI smart glasses, bringing some pretty notable upgrades while maintaining the same stylish design. And while I haven't jumped on the smart glasses train just yet, the new offerings from Meta have me really excited about this growing category.

Meanwhile, Samsung is rumored to have its own AI glasses in the works, which could launch as soon as October alongside the more powerful Project Moohan XR headset. These have a lot of potential, especially as the first real competitors to the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2). However, with the latest generation being Meta's third attempt at smart glasses, Samsung and Google will have to play catch-up on both hardware and software to make up for lost time.

All the right upgrades

It's only been the last few years that smart glasses started taking off, and that's largely thanks to Meta. In 2021, it seemed a little strange that Meta was diving into this unproven market, but the popularity of the last-gen Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses proved that this is a winning category for the company.

Admittedly, Meta's last-gen model was the first time I was even remotely interested in smart glasses. I was impressed with how they're able to identify what was in front of me while looking like something anyone could wear, unlike the early attempts of Google Glass.

Unfortunately, there were some downsides to the glasses, with the main thing being battery life. This was admittedly the biggest reason why I hadn't pulled the trigger on buying them, but Gen 2 fortunately appears to have addressed this.

The Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) is estimated to last up to eight hours on a single charge with mixed use. This feels perfectly sufficient for something like these, which I likely won't be using constantly aside from the occasional question, listening to music, and taking a photo or video here and there.

Meta also upped the video capture capabilities to a 3K resolution. As someone who loves to capture videos to post on my Instagram stories or Reels, this is a great upgrade. I'll likely stick to 1080p, because frankly, I don't think anything beyond that is necessary for social media, but having the option is nice.

Samsung's smart glasses could be just as compelling

We've heard and seen a lot regarding Samsung's Project Moohan and Google's Android XR ambitions, but we haven't heard as much about Samsung's rumored Ray-Ban Meta competitors. It has been reported that the glasses, dubbed Project Haean, could launch with the aptly named "Samsung Galaxy Glasses" moniker and would be audio-only, featuring a camera and quick access to AI assistants.

This already sounds quite compelling to me, as Samsung has put much of its focus lately on Gemini, which is becoming a staple in my life. Gemini's more natural conversational skills, as well as features like Gemini Live, which can easily identify what it sees and even remember things for you, would fit extremely well on a pair of smart glasses.

This could also give the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) a run for its money, as Samsung and Google have the ecosystem to back up Gemini's capabilities. On the one hand, Meta's services have become fairly ubiquitous, with apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp installed on hundreds of millions of smartphones, not to mention Meta AI injected into these apps (whether we like it or not). This, along with the growing popularity of Meta's glasses, gives it a good amount of mindshare among consumers.

On the other hand, Google and Samsung have been pushing Gemini's capabilities on their phones and other devices. Look at any Pixel 10 commercial and you'll see how the focus is less on the phone and more on what Gemini can do for you in your everyday life. This type of marketing is admittedly quite effective, and I imagine this would translate extremely well with Android XR glasses.

There's also the fact that these glasses would likely have a deeper connection with Android phones than Meta's do, which is another differentiating factor that could play in Samsung's favor. Imagine getting real-time Maps directions, creating new events in Calendar, or translating a conversation with Google Translate, all without taking out your phone.

Hands-free access to your favorite Google apps could be a huge draw over Meta.

Another Galaxy Ring situation?

If Samsung wants its "Galaxy Glasses" to succeed, it's going to have to do more than rely on its name to generate sales. We're seeing Samsung dive into new product categories lately with devices like the Galaxy Ring, and while it was a valiant effort to supplant a growing market, it's still an expensive product that feels a bit like an also-ran to the Oura Ring.

Samsung will have to create a rather compelling case for why people should buy smart glasses and why they should choose it over Meta. For that to happen, Samsung will have to get three things right:

• Design: They can't look like smart glasses if they expect people to wear them. They should also have multiple styles/colors.
• Battery life: Samsung hasn't always excelled in this spec, and it will have to really squeeze as much battery as it can to make them useful.
• Price: If they're too expensive, Samsung might as well throw in the towel to Meta.

Availability is also a concern. Rumors point to a reveal of the Galaxy Glasses in October, while some indications point to a 2026 launch, which could mean even more time for Meta's glasses to hold the spotlight.

On the plus side, Google's work on Gemini has put it in a good place for integrating into smart glasses, meaning the glasses should be plenty capable. If Samsung can nail everything else above, it could properly challenge Meta's growing lineup of AI glasses and push the market further into the mainstream.

Over the years, Google Pixel phones have evolved from simple camera powerhouses to phones seemingly hundreds of awesome features. While setting up your new Android phone will transfer your apps, messages, and other account data, the process doesn't walk you through everything your phone can do.

Fortunately, we're here to help you get the most out of your Pixel 10 or Pixel 10 Pro. With this guide, we're going to talk about some of the first things you should set up or do with your new Pixel 10 or Pixel 10 Pro. Keep in mind that some features may be exclusive to the Pro model, which we'll note where appropriate.

Spruce up your wallpaper with Live Effect

Thanks to Android 16 and Tensor, you can add some extra flair to your wallpapers with Live Effects. Navigate to Settings (or long-press the home screen) > Wallpaper & style > More wallpapers, then tap Live effects.

Here you can select a photo from your gallery to set as a wallpaper. After you choose an image, you're taken to an Effects page, where you can select how the wallpaper will be styled.

You have three main effects to choose from: Shape, Weather, and Cinematic.

With Shape, five shapes surround the main subject of the photo, and five adjustable colors fill the rest of the display. The shape will expand to reveal the full image when transitioning from the lock screen to the home screen. Weather creates an artificial weather effect in your image, including fog, rain, snow, sun, or an option that mimics local weather conditions. Lastly, Cinematic will apply a parallax effect to the subject of your photo, making it really stand out on your display.

Set up your screen saver

Screensavers often feel redundant on Android, especially when you have an Always-on Display (AOD). However, you can find a selection of nice screen saver configurations on the Pixel 10, which can make your display act as a slideshow for your photos or show useful information while your phone is charging.

Navigate to Settings > Display & touch > Screen saver. First, toggle the feature on, then tap When to show to decide if you want the screen saver to appear solely when charging or when the phone is charging while upright (such as on the new Pixelsnap Charger with Stand). You can also restrict this feature to wireless charging.

Next, select your screen saver. You can choose from the Everyday Clock, Google Photos, Home Controls, Pilot Bold Clock, and Pixel Weather. Finally, you can toggle on Low light mode to enable a low-light clock when you're in a dark environment.

Enable Voice Translate for calls

I have a lot of international friends, most of whom speak English. However, some of them don't, and there's a bit of a language barrier when I try to speak in their language or they in mine. Fortunately, Google's Voice Translation feature is quite good and can even project your own voice in a call being translated in real time to another language!

It's a pretty impressive feature, but you have to first enable it. To do so, open the Phone app and navigate to the burger or three-dot menu at the top. Tap Settings > Voice translate, then toggle the feature on, after which, you'll have to wait your language to finish downloading (make sure the the Language you speak is set to your native tongue).

The supported languages include: English (US and UK), French, German, Hindi (in preview), Indonesian, Italian, Japanese (in preview), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (Spain), and Swedish.

Voice Translate works on-device, but you should note that it may not always get translations correct. You'll also get a handy transcript during the call in case you need to see what the other person is saying.

Create your first entry in Pixel Journal

An AI-powered journal may sound a bit odd, but it's actually one of those nice-to-have features that you may come to appreciate. Not only can it help you get started on entries by pulling up recent photos, locations, and fitness data, but when you're done with an entry, it will provide an AI-generated "Reflection" to help you think a little more deeply about the experience you just described.

Open the Pixel Journal app, and you'll be asked to set your journaling goals. Then, you can connect Google Photos and Health Connect to allow additional customization. Finally, once you set a lock for your Journal, you can start writing your first entry, which you'll find in the Entries tab.

Pixel Journal lets you change fonts, add images and edit the layout, and more. Once you're done, you'll likely receive an AI Reflection, or if not, you may have to enable AI features, which you can do in the settings. You can also navigate to the Insights tab, where you'll find a week or month view of your journal entries.

We suggest you tap your Google account thumbnail at the top then navigate to Journal settings. Here, you'll be able to Back up your journal and enable AI features (which may take some time to install/load).

Set up Magic Cue for contextual suggestions

Magic Cue is a highlight Pixel 10 feature that uses AI to provide contextual suggestions within your apps. This uses on-device processing to pull up information and actions like contacts, locations, events, and more, based on what you're doing, who you're calling, or the conversations you're having.

Navigate to Settings > Magic Cue and enable the various toggles after reading through the descriptions of each toggle. Scroll down and tap the option to Use data from specific apps. Here you can select which app data you want Magic Cue to work with. For now, it supports Pixel Screenshots, Gmail, Google Messages, Keep, Contacts, and Calendar.

Finally, after toggling the various Magic Cue options, scroll to the bottom and ensure that Magic Cue is up to date.

You can try it by texting a friend and asking about the data of an event or planning something like a meetup. Magic Cue may pop up with a Create event pill that will send you straight to the Calendar app with the details of the event you were discussing. Other examples include pulling up flight details when calling a related airline (you can also manually pull up Magic Cue while on call).

Magic Cue won't be too consistent when you first use the Pixel 10, but it may become more useful over time with more data.

Try Camera Coach for photography tips

Camera Coach is one of the highlight Pixel 10 features. It acts as a photography expert by walking you through how to take a good photo based on your scene. It's off by default, but accessing it is pretty easy.

Open the camera app and tap the sparkly camera icon at the top right of the viewfinder. Camera Coach will turn on and automatically examine your scene to suggest shots for you. You can either rescan or select any of the suggestions, which will relate to whatever the camera sees.

Once you select a scene, the app will take a few seconds to prepare steps, and then walk you through how to take the optimal photo. Follow each step, and at the end, it will prompt you to capture the photo, or you can start back from the beginning.

Zoom in all the way

If you picked up a Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, or are planning to get a Pixel 10 Pro Fold in the future, Google's new Pro Res Zoom is a new camera feature you've got to check out. In a nutshell, it uses a specially-trained AI located in the Pixel 10's Tensor processor to enhance extremely zoomed-in photos. This effect can only be applied while taking a picture, not after the fact, so it's important to enable it if you want to use it.

The first time you open the camera app, your Pixel will ask you if you want to enable Pro Res Zoom, as well as a bevy of other new features. But if you turned it off or aren't sure, enabling it is easy.

Open the camera app, tap the settings gear icon on the bottom-left of the viewfinder, then tap the "..." button on the top right. When the camera settings menu opens, tap Model download, then select Pro Res Zoom from the list to download the AI model to your phone.

Now that it's enabled, using Pro Res Zoom is as easy as it gets. When taking a picture of something, Pro Res Zoom will be automatically used whenever you zoom in beyond 30x. The further you zoom, the more reliant on Pro Res Zoom your phone might be. Pro Res Zoom works best on buildings, landscapes, natural objects like birds or plants, and even some man-made objects like cars.

Just be aware that the AI is a little overconfident when it comes to text, which you can read more about in our Pixel 10 camera review. If you don't like the result you get from Pro Res Zoom, you can always select the original version by navigating to the photo in the Google Photos app, opening the photo, then tapping on the thumbnails at the bottom to swap between the original and enhanced versions.

Go ahead, have fun with this feature! It's hit-or-miss, but when it does nail the detail enhancement, it's a mind-blowing concept.

Edit with Ask Photos

Another unique way to utilize your Pixel 10's AI processing capabilities is to ask the Photos app to edit a photo for you. Contrary to what some people might think, the Gemini-powered AI experience here isn't editing a photo for you in the way a human might edit a photo in Photoshop.

Instead, Gemini is used as a way to "search" for Google Photos features via more natural language, then automatically apply those features to a photo. In the above example, I asked the Google Photos app to remove the glare from the image. The result was incredible, and it was easier than ever since I didn't have to scroll through a bunch of settings just to find the one I wanted.

To get started, open the Google Photos app, then find a photo you want to edit. After opening the photo, tap the Edit button at the bottom of the screen. Once the edit menu appears, tap the Help me edit bar. Either type your request when the keyboard appears, or tap the microphone button to speak your request. Alternatively, you can select one of the suggested actions that appear on the screen after flicking the Help me edit bar.

Display adjustments

Google Pixel phones are renowned for their color accuracy and brightness, but did you know that you can adjust a lot of these options? The Pixel 10 series offers numerous display options, allowing you to customize settings such as reducing blue light output, adjusting the color according to ambient lighting, dimming the display, and even adjusting the PWM frequency for sensitive users.

To find most display options, open your system settings by tapping Settings in the app drawer, or pulling down on the status bar twice and tapping the settings gear icon. After that, tap Display & touch. Give these settings a try:

• Adaptive tone: Automatically adjusts the display's white balance to feel more natural based on ambient light.
• Night Light: Can be used to reduce the blue light output of the display all the time, or put on a schedule to be enabled at night.
• Colors: If you prefer less saturated colors and more natural contrast, select the Natural option.
• Color contrast: Material 3 is a beautiful UI theme, but sometimes those lighter buttons are hard to see. Try using Medium or High contrast colors to help adjust these.

If you're like me and find that Pixel phones gives you headaches when looking at the screen too long, Google introduced a new accessibility option on the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL. This doubles the PWM dimming rate, which may be helpful for some users.

If you find headaches to be a problem, particularly when you're looking at the phone at night, open your system settings, then scroll all the way down to Accessibility. Select the "Adjust brightness for sensitive eyes" setting to enable the new feature.

Additionally, I recommend using a screen dimming app like this one. It's a free app that manages your phone's display brightness differently from the system brightness. This helps reduce the harshness of the display, particularly when viewing it in low light, and is a great alternative for sensitive eyes.

Pixel tips

In the app drawer on your Pixel 10, you can find an app called My Pixel. Google recently went back to the drawing board for this app, giving it a new name and making it even more helpful than before.

The My Pixel app will show you everything there is to do on a Pixel and what makes it unique from other phones. It's a one stop shop for Pixel owners looking to make the most of their phones, and I recommend you start in the Tips tab at the bottom of the app.

Beyond that, the My Pixel app is where you can go to get direct support from Google if any problems arise for your Pixel. That Support tab at the bottom shows your warranty expiration date, allows you to enroll in Pixel Care Plus, and more.

It's hard to believe there have been 10 generations of Pixel phones, but here we are. The Google Pixel 10 series has finally launched, and they're the most AI-forward phones we've seen.

The trip of phones (not counting the Pixel 10 Pro Fold) can be seen as refined versions of the Pixel 9 series, but in the best way possible. Sure, some specs have gone unchanged, and one or two have even been downgraded, but there is a swathe of improvements that make the Pixel 10 series an enticing offering.

So, should you buy a Google Pixel 10? Right now, there are plenty of Pixel 10 preorder offers that won't last very long, especially once the phones hit store shelves on August 28. Here are some reasons why you should and shouldn't buy the Pixel 10, and who should or shouldn't consider one.

Why you should buy a Pixel 10

There was a lot to like about the Pixel 9 series, but the Pixel 10 takes things up a notch. Design-wise, it's nearly identical, albeit with some slight differences in size and thickness. Yes, in a time when companies are trying to push the boundaries of thinness, the Pixel 10 and 10 Pro are slightly thicker, but for good reason.

Each model comes with larger batteries, but Google is also the first Android OEM to launch a flagship smartphone with built-in Qi2 magnets. Previously, the only Android phone with this feature was the HMD Skyline from 2024, so we're pleased that it's finally coming around to more mainstream phones with Pixelsnap.

Qi2 may not seem like a huge deal, but it is. It adds a ton of convenience to wireless charging, ensuring that the alignment is always correct. Plus, other MagSafe accessories like PopSockets, phone stands, and wallets make the phones more versatile without the need for a case, like on the Galaxy S25 series.

Then there's the new Tensor G5, which is made by TSMC. It's a switch from the previous Samsung-made chips, and it's said to bring some impressive performance and efficiency gains. Beyond that, the Tensor G5 enables tons of new AI capabilities for the Pixel 10 series, turning these phones into truly AI-first smartphones.

For instance, Magic Cue is a feature that presents helpful and contextual information when you most need it, saving you from having to dig for it. Voice Translation for calls is also a handy feature that helps break down language barriers by translating your voice in real-time into one of several languages. The best part is that these features are processed on-device.

The new Tensor chip also brings welcome camera improvements and capabilities. I wasn't too impressed with the base Pixel 9 images, so I'm excited to test this out for myself on the base Pixel 10, but features like Auto Best Take and Camera Coach help make it easier than ever to capture better images, even if you're not exactly the best photographer.

And did I mention the base Pixel 10 now has a triple camera system with a 5x telephoto lens? For the same price as last year's model, the Pixel 10 is now nearly on par with its Pro siblings.

Why you shouldn't buy a Pixel 10

The Pixel 10 series sounds impressive on paper, but no phone is perfect. We've only had a short hands-on, but with the Pixel 10 series, we already have some reservations based on our limited experience.

Firstly, Tensor G5 may be an upgrade from its predecessor, but it likely still pales in comparison to the Snapdragon 8 Elite found in competing phones. That's not even counting the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 (or whatever it's called), so if you're looking for an absolute powerhouse, the Pixel 10 likely isn't the phone you want for 2026.

We're happy that Google has finally improved the display for any PWM-sensitive users. However, in our limited testing of this new accessibility feature, the Pixel 10 Pro only doubles its PWM rate to 480Hz, which is well below the recommended rate.

Additionally, the base Pixel 10 doesn't have this feature, so you'd have to spend more money to protect your eyes.

There's also the matter of eSIM. The Pixel 10 (minus the Fold) follows Apple's example by removing the physical SIM card slot, meaning swapping phones will be more secure, but it won't be as easy. We've struggled with eSIM in the past, and even though the technology isn't new, it feels like the systems in place just aren't fully equipped to make the process seamless, especially because it shifts the control to the carriers and OEMs.

Fortunately, it's only U.S. models that are eSIM-only, but if you don't wanna deal with the potential headache it could bring, then the Pixel 10 might not be for you.

Who should and shouldn't buy the Pixel 10

Given the similarities between the Pixel 10 and its predecessor, I wouldn't really recommend these phones for anyone with a Pixel 9. If you really care about Qi2 or some of the new AI features enabled by Tensor G5, then perhaps there's reason to upgrade or to buy a Pixel 10 over a Pixel 9.

However, if you own an older Pixel phone, the Pixel 10 is a more worthwhile upgrade. Otherwise, you can forgo some of the newer AI features and buy an older model to save some money. After all, the Pixel 8 still has another five years of software updates to go.

Things get a little more muddy when you're comparing the Pixel 10 series to other phones like the Galaxy S25 series, which are known to prioritize power and performance. If that's what you're looking for, then a Snapdragon-powered phone may be more your speed.

The Pixel 10 series is positioned as AI-first phones that want to make everything easy and accessible. If that appeals to you, then the Pixel 10 is for you. The next step is to decide which Pixel 10 model you should buy.

The Pixel 10 is right around the corner, and while it's expected to bring some notable upgrades over its predecessor, it's time to look back at the Pixel 9. How has Google's compact flagship held up over the past year, and is it still worth buying in 2025 with the Pixel 10 on the horizon?

In 2024, I would have easily recommended the Pixel 9 to anyone who asked, not because it was my favorite phone (disclaimer: I am generally not a huge Pixel fan), but because it's a generally good phone. It has cameras that most people would love, pretty decent battery life, tons of fun AI features to keep things exciting, and a software promise that would make most other flagship phones jealous.

So what's the problem? From the get-go, the Pixel 9 has had quite a bit going against it, from the $100 price increase to its "late" software and the lack of hardware you'd find on comparable phones. On its own, the Pixel 9 is a fine phone, but assuming the Pixel 10 will cost the same, it will have to do more than "fine" if it wants to justify the price.

Slow software start, but Google made up for it

When the Pixel 9 launched, Google surprisingly launched it with Android 14 instead of Android 15. Admittedly, the Pixel 9 series launched quite a bit early compared to the Pixel 8, so we can give Google some slack there, but it was still odd to get a new Pixel with old Android software out of the box.

Fortunately, it didn't take Google long to remedy this and then some. Android 15 rolled out in early September with new features like a Private Space, adaptive vibration, changes to screen recording, improved multitasking on large screens, and more. It wasn't a huge overhaul, but it was a significant update, nonetheless.

Less than a year later, the Pixel 9 also received Android 16, making that the second major software update for the Pixel in just 9 months. This was due to Google's updated software schedule, which pushed the Android 16 launch up, followed by another significant update toward the end of the year.

When I asked about the schedule change, Seang Chau, VP and GM of Android Platform, told me in an interview that it was to help its OEM partners get the latest version on their devices sooner rather than later.

"Because if you look at some of the biggest releases during the year, if we're releasing a new Android version in August or September, it's really hard to release a phone that same year with the latest release, and then you have to wait however many months before you get the latest Android release."

While he didn't explicitly say it, it seemed clear to me that the accelerated Pixel 9 schedule was part of the inspiration for this move, as Google had the hardware ready but was waiting on the software to catch up.

Of course, we've received a plethora of new features in between that time with Android and Pixel drops, such as Connected Cameras and AI-powered scam detection. However, even with Android 16, Google didn't seem all that prepared. Hence, we still have to wait for the next Pixel drop before we get the big Material 3 Expressive overhaul, which will give the OS a vibrant new look, improved haptics, and more.

You can already try this on your Pixel if you're running the Android 16 QPR beta, which also brings other features like a more customizable quick settings panel.

$100 more, for what?

One of the most surprising things Google did with the launch of the Pixel 9 is to raise the price by $100. I can sort of understand where some of this would come from, given that better hardware like the more capable Tensor G4 and 12GB of RAM may warrant a price increase, but the Pixel 9 is hardly the spec powerhouse like some other similarly-priced Snapdragon-powered phones.

I will say that I haven't been disappointed with the Pixel 9's overall performance. After all, the Tensor G4 isn't meant to compete in terms of raw power, but in day-to-day use, it still performs fine with my daily needs: taking photos, playing some games, scrolling through Instagram, and perhaps the occasional AI-generated image or summary.

The most obvious omission is in the camera department, where the Pixel 9 still features just two sensors. Fortunately, Google is pretty good at AI upscaling, but zoom is limited to 8x because it's likely the sensor can't produce good results any further than that.

Meanwhile, the $800 Galaxy S25 features three cameras with a 3x telephoto lens that can zoom up to 30x. Not that images are particularly useful at that range, but you can still get decent quality at 10x thanks to the telephoto sensor.

Google also limits the Pixel 9 camera capabilities for seemingly no reason, which could leave users reaching for the Pixel 9 Pro instead. Pro Controls, 8K video recording, and full-res photos are just some of the features missing from the Pixel 9. Night Sight Video and Video Boost are also not present, despite the Pixel 9 seeming quite capable of performing these features.

After all, the Pixel 9 features the same Tensor G4 chip as its "Pro" siblings, even if RAM is limited to "just" 12GB. Even if they perform better on phones with more RAM, it seems odd that Google is skimping out on imaging features when Pixels are known for their camera capabilities.

Fortunately, Battery life has been a bright spot for me, and I never seem to have an issue with the Pixel 9 lasting through the day, which is more than I can say for many flagships. However, charging speeds are still egregiously slow, as it takes the Pixel 9 literally forever to get a full charge if you don't have a Google-branded charger (or one with the right tech).

Unfortunately, even Google's "50% in 30 minutes" estimate doesn't really inspire confidence, and the real-life results are much worse. And unless you have the right type of charger, you're probably better off buying a Google 45W charger if you don't wanna sit around waiting.

After all, what's the point of having a great all-day battery if I'm spending all day charging it?

The Pixel 9a problem

Then there's the Pixel 9a. This phone costs $300 less than the Pixel 9, but its specs and capabilities aren't too different, save for less durable glass, less RAM, and some missing camera/media features like 10-bit HDR video or Action Pan.

In fact, the Pixel 9a has an even larger battery with a longer battery life estimate than the Pixel 9. Google had to make some design changes to fit a larger battery, but it's still impressive.

When the Pixel 9a launched, Android Central editor-in-chief Shruti Shekar questioned why it exists, as it seemed to confuse the Pixel 9 lineup a bit. She suggested Google split the difference between the two phones into one that costs somewhere in between, a sentiment I agree with.

The Pixel 10 could finally be worth it

The Pixel 9 isn't a bad phone, and I think that most people should be happy with it. However, I think they'd also be happier spending $200 more for the Pixel 9 Pro or just waiting for the Pixel 10.

According to rumors, the Pixel 10 could bring many of the changes we've been hoping to see. Leaks have revealed a triple-camera setup that may finally bring a telephoto lens to Google's entry-level Pixel flagship. Meanwhile, the Tensor G5 chip is likely going to bring some nice performance improvements, and Qi2 magnetic charging may finally be on the table.

Assuming Google doesn't increase the price, you may want to wait for the Pixel 10 to launch. If anything, the still-good Pixel 9 will likely go down in price, making it more worth it in my eyes.

Google is expected to launch the Pixel 10 Pro Fold in a few weeks at its upcoming Made By Google event, and there seems to be a lot more riding on the success of this model. Following Samsung’s impressive Galaxy Z Fold 7, it feels like many people want the Pixel 10 Pro Fold to match its wow factor of “look how thin I am!” However, I really don’t think Google needs to worry about (or should even be thinking about) Samsung when it comes to its own foldables.

These days, my focus has been primarily on smaller flip phone foldables, such as the Motorola Razr and Galaxy Z Flip. However, my time with the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold showed me a whole new world and gave me an appreciation for larger-screened foldable phones. It’s slim, stylish, performs well, and is overall a fun device to use for anyone who prefers these types of foldables.

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is not likely to be much different from its predecessor as far as design goes, and following my experience with the 9 Pro Fold, this is perfectly fine, even if the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is arguably the more exciting phone. Here's why I don't think Google has to worry about Samsung.

This battle for thinnest foldable is silly

Let me just start by saying that this battle for who has the thinnest foldable phone is kind of ridiculous. Samsung and Honor have been battling it out to the point where it basically comes down to measuring technique. Meanwhile, both the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Honor Magic V5 are as thin or thinner than some high-end flagship smartphones.

The difference in thickness between these two phones seems minuscule, especially with their large camera housings, and it makes Honor look a little ridiculous that it’s fighting so hard to retain its crown.

Then there’s the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold. It may not hold the crown for thinnest foldable in 2025, but it’s still pretty thin. In fact, Google touted it as the “thinnest foldable available,” with the caveat that it was only referring to phones in America. That’s nothing to sneeze at and still an impressive feat for a second-generation foldable.

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is rumored to have a nearly identical design, save for some changes in thickness and weight, and even some new color options. According to leaks, the foldable will measure roughly 5.2mm thick when unfolded, compared to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s 5.1mm. That’s a difference of .1mm when unfolded (roughly .3mm when folded), which, for a phone as large as this, seems hardly worth crying over.

If the Pixel 10 Pro Fold dimensions are to be believed, the phone would be roughly 2mm thicker than the Z Fold 7, but still about 2mm thinner than the outgoing Galaxy Z Fold 6. That still feels like a win to me, especially when you consider that Samsung’s phone still has a smaller battery than the Pixel 9 Pro Fold or its closest rival, the Honor Magic V5 with its massive 5,820mAh battery.

Not to mention everything else that Google may be packing into this phone.

The upgrades that matter

We’re just weeks away from the Pixel 10 Pro Fold launch, so there are plenty of leaks and rumors to go by, many of which seem pretty credible. Thus, we have a pretty good idea of what we can expect from Google’s next foldable, which may appear visually similar to its predecessor. It may not be a significant upgrade, but the biggest changes are expected to happen internally, and more than justify any potential increase in thickness when compared to the 9 Pro Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 7.

The first of those changes is a rumored increase in battery capacity. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold already has a larger battery than the Galaxy Z Fold 7 at 4,650mAh (versus 4,400mAh), but it’s rumored that the Pixel 10 Pro Fold will squeeze in a 5,015mAh battery. That’s a difference of nearly 600mAh compared to Samsung’s foldable, and I’m frankly okay with a slightly thicker phone if it means I can get more battery life.

I wasn’t a fan of Samsung giving the Galaxy S25 Edge a smaller battery than the base Galaxy S25 to achieve its level of thinness. To me, shaving off a few millimeters doesn’t mean anything if you have to sacrifice a larger battery, particularly in a day and age when smartphones are doing so much more and demand more power. Sure, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold probably won’t win any thinness competitions, but the trade-off may be well worth it.

We’ve also seen leaks indicating that the Pixel 10 series may be the first Android flagship phones to support built-in Qi2 magnetic charging. We’ve seen an image of what appears to be a base Pixel 10 with a “Pixelsnap” accessory, indicating that a separate case may not be necessary. While we haven’t seen this on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, we can probably assume that this will also be included on the foldable, as it would be a pretty odd omission.

Adding Qi2 magnets to a phone likely requires quite a bit of internal reworking, so a bit of added thickness is likely one trade-off to adding a more convenient charging method. Another benefit to this is that it may increase wireless charging speeds from 8W on the 9 Pro Fold to a more respectable 15W.

Lastly, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is rumored to be the first foldable with an IP68 water and dust resistance rating. This could be the result of an improved hinge, making it more durable than the competition. I don’t know about you, but a more durable foldable sounds pretty good to me.

Thinner vs. cheaper

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is no doubt an impressive phone, but all those upgrades come at a price. The Fold received its first price increase in years, bringing the price back up to $2,000. Granted, $1,799 was already a pretty penny to pay for a phone, and $2,000 is more than I pay for rent in Seattle, WA. Sure, you can chalk it up to “it’s just a $200 difference,” but think of what you could get for that $200, such as a Galaxy Z Fold 7 case, screen protector, and/or some other accessory.

Meanwhile, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is rumored to launch at the same $1,799 price tag as its predecessor. With that, you’ll likely get a more capable processor, faster and more convenient charging, a larger battery, and more. All of that in a phone that will probably be relatively thin and potentially more durable.

If Google keeps the $1,799 price, then it’s already won in my eyes. The price of foldables is a major barrier for many consumers, and increasing the price doesn’t seem like the best way to attract more customers towards buying their first foldables. Sure, preorders of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 are up, which is an impressive feat, but I imagine many of those are not first-time foldable owners, and you’d be hard-pressed to convince me to pay that much for a phone.

Yes $1,799 is still a lot of money, but it’s much more palatable when you’re still getting a good phone that does pretty much everything you need it to do. And when the options for foldable phones in the United States are still quite limited, consumers will have to decide between the cheaper phone and the thinner one. I know which one I want.

I’m excited for the Pixel 10 Pro Fold

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 may be expensive, but it finally makes Samsung’s foldables exciting again. As for Google, I believe that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold was its Galaxy Z Fold 7 moment, as it was a major departure from the original Pixel Fold and showed that Google is serious about the foldable space. It’s quite all right if the company takes a year to refine what’s already a great phone.

This may be Samsung’s year to take the foldable spotlight, but that doesn’t mean the Pixel 10 Pro Fold won’t be an exciting phone in its own right.

I've been using the Pixel Watch 3 as my primary smartwatch over the past year. Compared to previous Wear OS watches I've used in the past, this is easily the best, thanks to its sleek design, smooth performance, and surprisingly decent battery life. Yet, while the Fitbit integration is a nice perk of owning a Pixel Watch, there's one niche feature that keeps it from being my go-to gym smartwatch, and it's the reason why I constantly switch to a Garmin watch when I work out.

The Pixel Watch does a great job tracking my workouts, especially my runs (when I actually do them), but it's not so great at keeping track when I lift weights. In fact, it's pretty rudimentary when compared to some other smartwatches, and frankly, I'm surprised that Google hasn't improved on this front with its flagship smartwatch. Heart rate, active calories, and cardio load are all there, but the one thing I really need is automatic rep counting.

This is something Garmin does very well; even Samsung manages this to some extent. With the focus on more running features in recent years, I would love to see the Pixel Watch 4 add rep counting to its repertoire.

How Garmin counts reps and sets

I really like that Garmin can automatically count reps and start or stop sets. This means I don't have to manually do it every time; the watch does it for me. When I'm at the gym, I'm often lost in my music. While I'm not as serious as some of the other guys who jot down their every set in notebooks, I still like to stay on track with my workouts. That said, I often forget what rep or set I'm on, so it's nice to glance at my Garmin watch to check.

I don't know the ins and outs of how this works, but Garmin states that it can track "weight training exercises that consist of distinct and consistent motions, such as bench press," as well as "exercises designed to target single muscle groups/body parts." After performing the same movement a few times, it'll register that I am performing a set and will start counting my reps, retroactively adding my first reps to my current ones.

Once I stop performing those movements, the watch will automatically log that set and enter a resting period, complete with its own timer, so that I'm not over- or under-resting between sets. That rest period will stop once it notices that I've started performing repetitive movements again. Then it will start counting reps on a new set.

Things are much simpler on the Pixel Watch 3, which just tracks my workout without reps, sets, or rest periods. However, it can automatically detect certain activities, such as running and walking. I feel that Fitbit could utilize the same movement data for weightlifting reps, as Garmin does. Even if it isn't perfect, I think something would be better than nothing.

I'm not the only one who feels that Google could and should do better. Android Central senior editor Nicholas Sutrich also points out that his Amazfit watch makes his Pixel Watch feel like a toy, with a major feature highlight being the ability to log and analyze reps as you work out. And like Garmin, Amazfit uses this data in a pretty useful way that Google could learn from.

It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing

While the method isn't 100% accurate, Garmin watches like the Venu 3 and Forerunner 570 do a great job at it, and are either spot on with the counts or off by just one or (at most) two reps. However, if you do notice that something's off, Garmin lets you quickly edit the reps and even input the weight while it counts down to begin the rest period.

You can also edit the last set if you forget to, or go into the Garmin app to make any changes later.

It's also important to note that this feature typically only works on workouts where the watch can accurately track your movements. Garmin actually has a list of workouts that are more difficult to track with its watches, so it's important to keep this in mind if you plan to rely on this feature:

• Stationary wrist exercises: dips, pullups, pushups, planks
• Leg isolated exercises: extensions, seated presses, calf raises, hamstring curls
• Complex/hybrid motions: box jumps, “CrossFit” type exercises, burpees
• Short-range exercises: shoulder shrugs
• Battle ropes and jump rope

In these cases, the watch often won't register that you're even doing anything and will continue to show you in a rest period. As a result, leg day is probably the only time when this feature is not reliable, aside from squats. However, they're generally reliable for weightlifting and can serve as a good alternative to pen and paper.

It's not just counting reps. It's so much more

While counting reps, Gamin actually takes this data even further. It uses that movement data to determine what exercises I'm doing. Then, after my workout, it shows me a diagram of the muscle groups that I worked out based on my movements.

Again, it's not 100% accurate, but it's pretty spot on most of the time, and it's a handy way to visualize my workouts and see which muscles got more focused than others, as well as what I may need to work on the next day or the following week.

Right now, I enjoy using Fitbit on the Pixel Watch, particularly for the AI-powered running coach, but the post-workout data is often pretty barebones. Adding more metrics like movement data and targeted muscle graphs would go a long way towards enhancing Fitbit for more people who could benefit from that data.

Learn from Garmin, compete with Samsung

When Google announced the Pixel Watch 3, it was clear that there is more focus on running features and anything else, as if Google is trying to compete with Garmin to try and steal customers away from its popular Forerunner or Venu series. That may or may not be true, but I think Google should expand the scope of the Pixel Watch beyond just running.

I'm not saying Google shouldn't add more running features. By all means, I'm sure my colleague Michael Hicks would love to see more Garmin-like features on the Pixel Watch that cater to runners. That said, the Pixel Watch still can't compete with Garmin in terms of battery life or the sheer number of activity/sports modes.

However, Samsung is a good place to look, and I think Google should shift its focus to competing with the Galaxy Watch wherever it can.

When I first bought my Galaxy Watch 5 a few years ago, I was very surprised to see that it automatically counted my reps. This was before I had ever used a Garmin watch, so I was quite impressed to see this feature on a Wear OS watch. That said, it still left a lot to be desired.

At the gym, it would often count almost any movement as a rep, overestimating the count by quite a bit. It also wouldn't automatically start and stop sets, so I would have to do it manually; otherwise, every movement would count as a rep in a single set. Still, I appreciated that it at least tried to count my reps for me, even if the results were pretty inaccurate.

The feature was also limited to certain workouts, forcing you to change to specific exercises, whereas Garmin will log whatever you do based solely on your movements. There's no need to specify beforehand what workout you're about to do.

I haven't had the opportunity to test any newer Galaxy smartwatches, including the new Galaxy Watch 8, but this is at least an area where Google can try to one-up Samsung's fitness efforts by learning from Garmin.

Improved strength training in the works?

The Pixel Watch may not have the battery life to compete with Garmin, but Google has access to a wealth of data and numerous ways to utilize it in ways that will benefit its consumers. I have complete faith that Google could bring features like automatic rep counting to the Pixel Watch, especially if it means giving users a more comprehensive look at their workouts.

And with the Pixel Watch 4 right around the corner, I really hope Google throws us a bone and adds more features geared toward weightlifters and bodybuilders. Because, as it stands, I'm either going to continue to rely on Garmin for the gym, or I'll update my aging Galaxy Watch 5 to the Galaxy Watch 8 and make that my go-to smartwatch for everything.

Fortunately, a recent leak suggests that Google may be looking to improve the strength training experience on the Pixel Watch 4. This may include features like a Workout Builder where users can curate their workouts, warm-ups, and cool-downs. It may also include real-time guidance, form insights, and advanced insights, which sounds a lot like what Garmin provides post-workout.

Whether or not automatic rep counting is included remains to be seen, but this sounds incredibly positive if it does launch with the Pixel Watch 4.

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 launch is right around the corner, and we're expecting some pretty notable changes and upgrades to Samsung's next flip phone. With rumored features like a larger cover screen, a thinner chassis, a larger battery, and a more powerful chipset, the Z Flip 7 could be a significant upgrade over the Galaxy Z Flip 6.

Still, with the new model on the horizon, I thought I'd take a look at the Galaxy Z Flip 6 to see how it has held up over the past year. While I've been predominantly fixated on last year's Razr Plus 2024 and this year's Razr Ultra, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 remains one of my favorite flip phones from Samsung, thanks to its solid hardware and reliable software experience.

Here are my biggest takeaways using the Galaxy Z Flip 6 over the past year and how I hope the Galaxy Z Flip 7 will improve on an already impressive phone.

One UI 7 transforms this phone

When the Galaxy Z Flip 6 launched, it was running One UI 6 based on Android 14, which was a pretty solid upgrade that brought changes to the Quick Settings panel, added new camera editing features, and introduced Galaxy AI.

And while the One UI 7 upgrade was woefully delayed, the update doubled down on changes with a revamped quick settings/notification panel, live notifications, a new Now Bar, and a redesigned multitasking view. But perhaps most importantly, the update brought with it the long-awaited vertically scrolling app drawer, something Samsung users could previously only get with the Good Lock app.

One UI 7 has been a refreshing update, making animations more fluid than ever and making the Z Flip 6 feel almost like a completely new phone in less than a year since its launch.

The phone also has tons of AI features that work quite well on the slightly older chip. Photo editing is a breeze, you can easily translate entire conversations, and the phone handles AI-generated content well, from text summaries to images. Drawing Assist remains one of my favorite features, as you can transform photos into nearly anything (within reason) by sketching or typing what you want.

I don't like that One UI 7 seemingly removed the corner swipe trigger for AI assistants, but Gemini has proven itself to be a very capable replacement for Google Assistant and an alternative to Bixby.

One UI 7 is only the first major update for the Galaxy Z Flip 6. One UI 8 is on the way and already in beta for the Galaxy S25 series. With Android 16, Samsung is bringing upgrades to features like AI Select, Reminders and Routines, Auracast, and more.

There have already been three betas for One UI 8, although so far the program has yet to make it to the Galaxy Z Flip 6. That said, with stable Android 16 already available for the Pixel and the imminent launch of the Galaxy Z Flip 7, we expect Samsung to expand the update in some form relatively soon.

The camera makes the best of its limitations

Flip phone cameras aren't known to be particularly great and are normally limited to just two sensors. Samsung continues to make the best of the situation, particularly on the Galaxy Z Flip 6's upgraded 50MP primary camera. As I noted in my review, I remain pleased with the images from the Galaxy Z Flip 6.

More recently, I compared Galaxy Z Flip 6 images to the new Motorola Razr Ultra 2025, and Samsung's flip phone managed to keep up in most situations. The color temperature is slightly cooler, but images can look very similar between the two in good lighting conditions. I find the Razr Ultra images to be a massive achievement for Motorola, but the fact that the Galaxy Z Flip 6 can keep up is also impressive.

The differences mostly lie in zoom quality and low-light. Digital zoom quality actually somewhat compensates for the lack of a telephoto camera. While both phones offer lossless zoom at 2x, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 takes the lead at higher zoom ranges, maintaining a good level of detail even at 10x, whereas the Razr Ultra struggles.

Then there are low-light and nighttime images. Samsung does its best to brighten up photos, which can sometimes result in decent images. However, it can also overdo it, and images will come out fairly noisy, and as a result, images can look worse than those taken on the Razr Ultra 2025.

But beyond picture quality, I've enjoyed actually using the cameras. The flip phone form factor enhances your camera experience with its versatility, allowing you to capture selfies from the cover screen or enter Camcorder Mode for quick, easy, and stable video recording.

Unfortunately, Samsung continues to hide a ton of useful camera settings in its Camera Assistant app, which doesn't come preinstalled. It would be great if we could see these features integrated out of the box for current and future phones, especially a 2x button and Auto HDR, allowing Galaxy Z Flip 7 owners to get the most out of their cameras.

Cover screen wins and losses

The cover screen experience on Samsung's Z Flip series has come a long way, particularly since the introduction of the Z Flip 5. The 3.4-inch external display carried over to the Z Flip 6, giving users more robust cover screen panels, messaging, full camera previews, and more. Yet, despite having all this room for activities, Samsung still hides and hinders its best cover screen features.

Earlier this year, I tested the Z Flip 6 and Razr Plus 2024 to see how I would fare using only the cover screen for 24 hours. Unsurprisingly, the Razr Plus offered a much better experience, thanks to the larger 4-inch screen, the ability to use apps out of the box, cover screen multitasking, a more connected experience overall when it comes to app transitions across displays, and the way notifications are handled.

The Galaxy Z Flip 6 is unfortunately hindered by its smaller and awkwardly shaped display and the fact that the use of apps on the cover screen is still not "officially" supported. If you want to use apps on the Galaxy Z Flip 6 cover screen, you must go through Good Lock to enable an app panel, and even then, the experience feels half-baked.

The cover screen is limited to the Samsung Keyboard, and it occupies nearly the entire screen when in use. Multitasking is non-existent, so you have to fully exit an app before opening another. Furthermore, Samsung's decision to avoid placing the cameras on the cover panel results in an awkward screen shape, and the experience of using apps feels a bit claustrophobic.

In my experience, the lack of apps on the cover screen hasn't been a dealbreaker for people who I've met who use the Z Flip 5 or 6. In fact, after I show them that they can add apps, it feels more like a nice bonus for them, which somewhat works in Samsung's favor.

That said, it's not all bad, and there have been signs that Samsung is learning. As mentioned earlier, the cover screen enables some unique camera tricks that you won't find on a traditional candybar phone. Samsung also added a new button with One UI 7 that somewhat streamlines the option to add cover screen apps, which is a step in the right direction.

The Galaxy Z Flip 6 is still great, but what comes next?

A year later, I still prefer Motorola's Razr series to Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 6. That said, it remains a great choice for flip phone lovers, such as myself. It's a sturdy, well-built phone with impressive specs and plenty of helpful and fun AI features. I also love One UI 7, and I'm not afraid to admit that I'd rather have it on the Razr than Motorola's Hello UX. Plus, with 7 years of updates, the phone should provide plenty of value for years to come as new features and capabilities are added over time.

And with Amazon Prime Day right around the corner, it's never been a better time to snag one at a discount, as there are already some pretty impressive Samsung deals out there, especially if you want a 512GB Z Flip 6.

However, it's clear that this was a year of refinement, with the Z Flip 6 offering fairly minor upgrades or changes when compared to its predecessor. That's why comparing the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Razr Plus 2024 wasn't as cut-and-dry as you'd expect. One was a notable step forward that really focused on design and the cover screen experience, while the other was more of a spec bump that focused more on performance. That's why it feels like there's so much riding on the upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 7, as it may finally introduce the features we've been hoping for.

Additionally, Samsung is expected to introduce the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE, which is rumored to be a more affordable flip phone option (at least compared to the Z Flip 7). If rumors are correct, this phone could offer a nearly identical design to the Galaxy Z Flip 6, albeit with an Exynos chipset, which could complicate the Galaxy Z Flip 6's place in the lineup.

However, if getting the latest and greatest Samsung phone isn't for you, I'm confident that the Galaxy Z Flip 6 will be more than sufficient for most users, even in 2025.

For more news and information on Samsung’s upcoming foldables, check out our Ultimate Guide.

Amazon Prime Day is right around the corner, and it's always tempting to spend money on alluring deals, simply because they exist. Whether it’s Prime Day or Black Friday, I find myself buying things I normally wouldn’t and that are normally out of my price range, because who knows when the next time that TV or laptop will be this cheap?

It’s just as easy to spend a lot of money on a smartphone. My favorite phone this year is the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025, a phone that costs $1,299, or just as much as the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Of course, they go on sale every now and then, but will be discounted by a couple of hundred dollars or even more if you trade in a phone.

But to be honest, you don’t need to spend a ton of money on a phone to have a great device. Affordable phones keep getting better every year, with companies like Motorola and Google offering more for less. At Moto G or Pixel A-series prices, you don’t even have to wait for a sale; these phones offer plenty of value year-round at full MSRP. A Prime Day discount would just be the cherry on top.

Packed with specs

I recently reviewed the Moto G Stylus 2025, and I was thoroughly impressed with just how good a phone it is. At $399, it offers specs that rival those of many flagship Android phones, such as the Galaxy S25, and features a stylish vegan leather design that stands out from the crowd. It comes with a 120Hz Super HD OLED display, an all-day 5,000mAh battery, and 68W charging that tops up the phone faster than an episode of “Andor.”

The 50MP camera is also better than you’d expect from a $400 phone. Photo quality hasn’t exactly been Motorola’s strong suit, so it’s good to see the company improving on this front, even on its lower-end phones.

Overall, the Moto G Stylus 2025 is a much better phone than you’d expect, and even includes some AI features like Circle to Search and Sketch to Image, both of which work great with the improved stylus pen you get built into the phone.

But it’s not just the Stylus; the more affordable Moto G 2025 is also surprisingly good for the price. As Android Central’s Nick Sutrich points out in his Moto G 2025 review, this $300 phone features a bright, eye-friendly display, a large battery, and an improved camera compared to its predecessor.

If you’re a Motorola fan, either of these 2025 phones would be a great option. But sometimes, having the most impressive specs isn't everything, and Motorola isn’t the only company with phones that are easy on your wallet.

All the AI for less

While the Moto G Stylus may have some impressive specs, it doesn’t have much in the way of AI. That may be fine for many, but if you want the latest features from Google at half the cost of most flagships, the Pixel 9a is probably the phone for you.

I reviewed the base Pixel 9 last year and really enjoyed it; it really felt close to being a Pro-level phone. However, the $500 Pixel 9a might make you think twice about spending that extra $300. That’s because aside from a few spec changes and a newer design, these two phones are incredibly similar.

You get many of the same AI features, the Pixel 9a gets first dibs on new software updates like Android 16 and beyond, and you get a fairly impressive dual camera system with the performance expected from a Google phone.

Android Central’s Michael Hick’s calls the Pixel 9a the “Energizer phone,” because battery life goes on and on, which is a bit part of the new design. And that’s a great thing because charging speeds aren’t necessarily the best, but that’s less of a concern when the phone lasts all day and then some.

You also won’t find many smartphones this affordable with software support like the Pixel 9a, with a promise of updates for seven years.

The specs may not be the strongest, but you still get a flagship-level Tensor G4 chipset. This brings tons of AI features straight from Google, from Gemini to Pixel Studio, and all the AI camera or photo editing features. Pixels are fun phones, and you don’t have to spend a lot to get access to the best of Google.

Spend wisely this Prime Day

It’s always tempting to buy the latest and greatest smartphone, but as I’ve learned over the past couple of years, a smartphone half as expensive can be just as good, depending on your needs. Beyond Motorola and Google, companies like OnePlus and Samsung offer devices that undercut many of their flagship counterparts while still offering flagship-like specs and experiences.

I’m not saying don’t buy that Razr Ultra, Galaxy S25 Ultra, or whatever other Ultra you’ve had on your radar for some time, especially if you end up finding a good Prime Day deal on it. However, remember that there will always be some good options available that won't hurt your wallet as much, deal or no deal.

There's a lot to like about modern flip phones, but one of the biggest draws, at least for me, is the more versatile ways that you can utilize your cameras. With more traditional candybar-style smartphones, taking photos and selfies is a pretty standard experience. But thanks to the flip phone form factor and their ever-growing cover screens, that experience gets a unique upgrade.

Having reviewed a variety of Android flip phones for the past couple of years, I've noticed that people are always very elated to see how I use the cameras and cover screen. It's one of the best ways to showcase what flip phones can do, so here are the ways I like to take advantage of the flip phone form factor to capture better photos and videos.

Taking the best selfies

With traditional smartphones, taking selfies typically involves the front-facing camera. While this is generally fine, front-facing cameras usually have inferior quality when compared to the primary rear cameras. Smaller sensors and lower resolutions sometimes can result in noisier images that just don't look as good.

Flip phones still have front-facing cameras on the display, but to be honest, I rarely ever use them, and if I do, it's to hop on a video call. But if I ever want to take a selfie, I close the phone and turn on the camera. This way, not only can I view myself using the cover screen, but it lets me take selfies with the superior quality of the primary camera.

What's great is that you don't need an expensive flip phone to make it happen; even the cheaper ones with smaller cover screens normally provide a selfie preview. Of course, it's just better with a larger cover screen so you can get the full effect.

The Razr also has a fun Photobooth feature that automatically takes four photos after a short countdown. Once it's done, it'll stitch them into a fun 4x4 collage.

Capturing your best angles

One of the worst things is to have your picture taken by someone else, only for it to come out badly or show you at an awkward angle. You're pretty much at the mercy of whoever is capturing the photo, and you just have to hope that at least one of the voters that they're taking comes out good enough to post on Instagram.

With most flip phones, this becomes a thing of the past. With their expansive cover screens, phones like the Motorola Razr and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip allow you to turn on a preview of the viewfinder. That way, when you're taking a photo of someone, they can see themselves and angle themselves appropriately, ensuring that you're capturing their best side.

I use this anytime I take photos of friends, and they always comment on how cool and useful it is that they can see themselves.

This one's for the TikTokers

If you're a TikToker or content creator, this one's for you. Instead of buying a tripod or another accessory to prop your phone up while recording a video, you can just take a flip phone, set it down somewhere, and fold it at an angle. With the cover screen viewfinder, you'll be able to see yourself while you record your videos. And again, since you're not using the front camera, the quality should be much better than with a traditional smartphone.

This is one of my favorite ways to take hands-free "selfies" that don't look like selfies and appear to have been taken by someone else. This works great when paired with Air Gestures, which activate a short countdown when you hold your hand up at the camera. And for video, the Razr Ultra also lets you control videos in a similar fashion, letting you start, pause, or end video recording by showing your palm or fist.

However, it can also be a great way to capture footage of not just yourself, but also of other things. Android Central's Nicholas Sutrich recently took a Motorola Razr Plus 2025 with him while he was paddleboarding on a lake. He set the phone down in front of him on the board and just started recording. It's nice because he was able to capture video of his time on the lake with the Razr while his hands were focused on navigating the paddleboard (with the Razr secured to the board, of course).

And if you have a Galaxy Z Flip 6, you can take advantage of a cool auto zoom feature. While using the cover screen viewfinder, the camera will automatically zoom in or out depending on how close you are to the camera, something you would normally need to do manually.

Bring out the filmmaker in you

Recent Razr and Galaxy Z Flip models introduced a pretty cool feature that makes it easier to record videos, particularly if you're holding the phone. Camcorder Mode essentially turns your phone virtually into a camcorder when you fold the device at a 90-degree angle while the camera is turned on.

With Camcorder Mode, the UI transforms so the viewfinder is on the forward-most portion of the device while the half of the phone that you're holding is simplified with little to no buttons and a large touch pad. While you're recording, you can drag your thumb across this touchpad to zoom in and out with ease. You can also flip the video vertically or horizontally, depending on the type of video you're taking.

The benefit of Camcorder Mode is that you have a much firmer grip on the phone, which allows for smoother movements when compared to how you would normally hold the phone. And of course, you can still utilize the cover screen so that anyone being recorded can see themselves in the viewfinder.

Making funny faces so you don't have to

Taking photos of small children can be a challenge. It's not always easy to get them to look directly into the camera, especially babies. Fortunately, this is something Motorola has thought of with what it likes to call the camera cartoon.

This feature uses the cover screen to display a colorful series of animated faces that it cycles through in order to grab a child’s attention. That way, you can grab the perfect shot without constantly having to flail around behind the camera, and the faces should hopefully get a smile or laugh out of the kid.

Fewer cameras, more versatility

One of the main complaints about flip phones is that they often come equipped with only two cameras. Compare that to similarly priced Android flagships that normally have at least three cameras, and it may seem like flip phones aren't worth it for the "gimmick" of a folding display and cover screen. That couldn't be farther from the truth.

In fact, thanks to their foldable form factor and cover screen, flip phones manage to make their dual camera systems more versatile than traditional smartphones, and in ways that their non-folding counterparts can't really replicate. It's part of what makes them so unique, and a key reason why you should consider buying a flip phone.

There are many things I like about the new Razr Ultra 2025, and one of the latest additions I was most excited about was the AI Key. In my mind, this would open up a world of possibilities, in addition to being an easy way to access the host of AI features Motorola has packed into its Moto AI suite. However, the implementation leaves a lot to be desired, and frankly, the AI Key is often an afterthought when it easily could have been Motorola’s Action Button.

Its faults become even more apparent when we live in a world where AI is becoming more prevalent. Motorola’s implementation of it doesn’t really hold a candle to Google or Samsung, but it’s a decent first step. With that said, I think the AI Key is a great idea when done right, and both Google and Samsung would be insane not to consider implementing something like it in future phones.

Moto AI limitations

Motorola is trying to put its own spin on AI, a strategy that includes its own Moto AI chatbot. You can think of it as a conversational, but somewhat less functional, Gemini or even Bixby. It can answer questions and respond in a fairly natural way, but it can’t really do much on the phone, which sort of defeats the purpose of having an AI assistant/chatbot. Moto AI is a decent offering, but it still pales in comparison to Google’s AI or Samsung’s Galaxy AI.

On the Razr Ultra 2025, you can customize the AI Key to trigger the Moto AI overlay with a long press. Unfortunately, that’s the only option for the long press, which feels like a glaring oversight. You can’t set it to another digital assistant, despite Motorola literally filling the Razr Ultra 2025 with various options. It’s just Moto AI or nothing.

Okay, fine, so I’ll use Moto AI. No big deal. The problem then is that when I press the AI Key to trigger Moto AI, I have to then press the mic button to talk to Moto AI, which is usually the case. This differs from how Gemini functions when set to trigger using the power button or corner swipe of the display; it automatically starts listening to you. The fact that I have to press another button to talk to Moto AI adds another seemingly unnecessary step, which feels cumbersome.

This probably has something to do with Moto AI automatically analyzing what’s on your screen when you trigger it, which allows it to provide suggestions on what you should do. However, I don’t see why it can’t do that, and let me talk to it at the same time.

When I activate Gemini with a YouTube video open, for example, it will know that I’m watching a video and populate options such as “Ask about video” or “Talk Live about video,” but I still have the option to begin speaking to it when triggered automatically. This alone makes Gemini much more accessible than, and why the “AI Key” should be expanded to just more than Motorola’s AI features.

On that note, the only other option when customizing the AI Key is a Double tap, which only lets you activate Catch Me Up and Remember This. Nothing else. Which means between a double press and or long press, you have a total of three functions available from the AI Key. It feels like a complete waste of hardware.

Samsung was on the right track

For a while, Samsung phones used to include an additional Bixby Key, which at the time, felt like the company was trying to force Bixby on us. I remember not being a fan of the move, since I felt Bixby was always playing second fiddle to Google Assistant. However, as AI becomes more prevalent and capable, I wish Samsung hadn’t removed this button from its Galaxy phones and hope the company considers bringing it back.

The Bixby button may have been introduced as an easy way to access Bixby, but the company has given users at least some level of built-in customization. You could set one gesture, either a single tap or double tap, to open an app of your choice or trigger a Routine, while the other option would be used for Bixby.

What’s more is that users found ways to sideline Bixby completely by using third-party apps like Tasker, which made it possible to trigger Google Assistant instead. This is something I’ve looked into for the Razr Ultra 2025, but so far, I’ve not had much luck.

Still, Samsung had the right idea by giving users options with the button while retaining its primary functionality. But Samsung isn’t the only company that has played around with an AI button, and more OEMs are starting to add it to their latest phones.

The Nothing Phone 3a and 3a Pro launched with a new Essential Key that works in tandem with the company’s new Essential Space. One press captures content, a double press begins recording, and a long press opens Essential Space, allowing you to view all your saved content.

It’s not extremely customizable, but it already makes more sense than Motorola’s implementation, as it provides easy access to content in the hub in addition to having a function that can be activated with a single button press, something Motorola doesn’t offer. Not only that, but users are already finding ways to re-map the button, although hopefully Nothing will allow this sooner or later.

TECNO is another company that has added a One-Tap button to devices like the Camon 40 Premier 5G, which triggers its Ella AI assistant. Coincidentally, the button doesn’t actually do anything when you tap it once, but a long press will activate Ella, or you can customize the double-press to activate just about any app you want.

So far, it doesn’t seem like anyone has really perfected this extra button, but if anyone were to, it would likely be Samsung, given its experience with an AI button. However, another phone would be perfect for an AI button: the Pixel.

Perfect for Pixel

Google needs an AI button on the Pixel. Although I would like to see Samsung implement the AI button again (and it definitely should), this would also be a very helpful addition for Pixel smartphones. Admittedly, the first and biggest reason I would love to see this doesn’t really have to do with AI.

For some time now, Android phones, including the Pixel 6 and newer models, have been defaulting to using the power button to trigger AI assistants. By default, turning off the phone now involves holding down the power button and the volume up button. This is different from how I’ve been conditioned to use the power button for many years, which previously only involved the singular button.

Fortunately, it’s easy to change to the “normal” way of using the power button on your Pixel or otherwise, but it’s always annoyed me that companies have moved to hijack the power button for purposes other than powering down. After all, there are other gestures I can use to open Gemini, such as swiping from the bottom corner of the display or double-tapping the back of the phone.

That’s also where having a separate AI button would come in; it would be a perfect way to trigger Gemini on a Pixel. Google could let users customize single and double taps, and lock the long press to Gemini or Gemini Live. Google could also follow Nothing’s lead and let users access the Pixel Screenshots app for an easy way to save and access on-device content.

With a major AI focus on Pixel phones, they’re the perfect devices to take advantage of an extra button, so long as Google gets it right. The Razr Ultra 2025 had a great opportunity with the AI Key, but so far has squandered it with its limited options and somewhat underwhelming Moto AI offering. Google (and by extension, Samsung) should learn from what Motorola and others have done with their buttons, improve upon it, and free the power button from the constraints of AI.

As someone who does mainly weightlifting and not much running, Garmin smartwatches always seemed out of reach to me. They always felt like enthusiast watches for runners or outdoorsy types, neither of which I am. Additionally, the buttons and confusing UI made them difficult to pick up. However, the Garmin Vivoactive 6 seems to be a remedy to this, offering a fairly affordable alternative with a simple design and a more user-friendly UI.

The Vivoactive 6 feels like the perfect entryway into the world of Garmin watches, especially if you’re not really a runner. You may not get all the latest and greatest features or specs, as anyone looking for those will have to spend significantly more on a watch. However, the Vivoactive 6 is great for getting the basics, tracking workouts, and keeping you active.

Garmin Vivoactive 6: Price, availability, and specs

The Garmin Vivoactive 6 was announced in April 2025 and went on sale the same month. The watch retails for $299 and is available in several colorways: Slate, Lunar Gold, Metallic Jasper Green, and Metallic Pink Dawn.

The Vivoactive 6 only comes in a 42.2mm case size and supports 20mm quick-release bands.

Garmin Vivoactive 6: What I like

The Vivoactive 6 is a surprisingly well-built smartwatch. It's on the smaller side, which may not suit you if you have larger wrists, but the plus side is that it's neither thick nor heavy. In fact, the watch is very light and comfortable to wear. This is great not only in everyday use, but also when wearing it to bed, as I hardly notice it's on, unlike other smartwatches.

It's fairly tough, too, although probably not as sturdy as pricier models. You still get solid water protection with 5 ATM, meaning the watch can be submerged up to 50 meters deep, which should appeal to casual swimmers. Gorilla Glass 3 protection should also help keep the display intact, while the aluminum bezel and fiber-reinforced polymer case give the watch a soft feel.

The OLED display is very vibrant and fairly easy to maneuver, despite the rather large bezels. It's incredibly responsive and bright enough to use outdoors. At just 1.2 inches, I wish the display were larger, but it still serves its purpose.

One thing I noticed immediately after setting up the Vivoactive 6 is that the UI is a significant improvement over the Venu 3, which is the only other Garmin watch I've used. It's not perfect, but menus feel more logical, and other UI changes make more sense, such as accessing notifications by swiping down from the home screen and then Glance shortcuts by swiping up. Quick settings are accessible by swiping down, or you can press and hold the main power button. Settings can also be accessed by holding the back button.

I think part of what makes this easier to navigate, aside from the revamped software, is that you only have two hardware buttons. As I found having a third button on the Venu 3 to be confusing, I appreciate the simplicity.

Overall, the UI feels significantly more inviting for casual fitness enthusiasts and anyone looking to purchase their first Garmin watch.

Battery life is quite solid on the Vivoactive 6. Garmin claims you can get up to 11 days of battery life per charge, which I don't doubt. I consistently get a full week of battery life, with one or two workouts tracked per day and the display set to gesture activation. You'd get less battery with the always-on display activated, but I find the gesture option to be perfectly adequate.

Garmin Vivoactive 6: Fitness

The Vivoactive 6 doesn't come with Garmin's latest Elevate sensor technology, meaning you won't get the improved accuracy found on models like the Forerunner 970 or even the Venu 3. That said, the watch still offers plenty of fitness features and with enough accuracy that the older sensor should not put off casual users.

I conducted two separate step tests, walking 5,000 steps and comparing the end results between the Vivoactive 6, Pixel Watch 3, Venu 3, and Oura Ring 4. For the purposes of the test, I wore the Pixel and Venu on separate days, and I wore each device on the same arm so that they could detect the same movement while I walked. I also used a manual counter, tapping it for each step I took until I reached 5,000.

The Vivoactive 6's step count was surprisingly low during the first test, and I couldn't determine the cause of this discrepancy. However, it performed much better during the second test, coming in significantly closer than the Venu 3 or Oura Ring 4.

I also wore the Vivoactive 6 and Venu 3 during a few workouts, mainly to compare heart rate data. The data is from two HIIT (high-intensity interval training) workouts and 500 steps on the stair stepper:

I noticed during my workouts that the readings from the Vivoactive 6 would often stay pretty close to those of the Venu, but sometimes I could see it still trying to catch up when my heart rate rose rapidly.

As you can see from the charts, the Vivoactive would have a few random dips before taking a few seconds to match the Venu, or it would take longer to register the increase in heart rate.

The Morning Report feature is similar to Morning Brief on the Pixel Watch, providing a breakdown of the morning, including weather, sleep score, and body battery. It also comes with suggested workouts, although you won't get much more than suggested walks. It's ideal for casual fitness enthusiasts and serves as a good way to encourage users to get up and move throughout the day.

I wish the suggested workouts were a bit more varied, especially for someone like me who actively engages in HIIT, weightlifting, and power yoga six days a week. That said, it's clear that this watch is more focused on encouraging users to be active than on pushing them, which, again, would be more characteristic of a Forerunner.

The watch features built-in GPS and supports various navigational systems, which are pretty accurate and handy for tracking your route on runs or hikes. Keep in mind that you don't get an altimeter, which is a downside if you enjoy the outdoors and hiking. You also can't download maps to the watch, which may be a downside for some.

You do, however, have access to workout videos directly on the watch, which is helpful when following the pre-made workouts created in Garmin Connect. You can also curate your own workout within the app, although this feels like a very time-consuming and tedious task, and I would quit halfway through.

If you're a weightlifter like me, you'll likely be pleased with the workout tracking. It can automatically detect reps and rest between sets. It's not perfect, but it's quite handy and more accurate than Galaxy smartwatches in my experience, and significantly more accurate than you'll get with a Pixel Watch.

Otherwise, the watch comes with a variety of workout modes, which should please most users.

Sleep tracking has been fairly accurate, even when compared to my Oura Ring 4. The only times I've noticed any misses are when I would wake up for a bit and fall back asleep for a few hours, which my ring would account for but the watch would seemingly ignore.

There's no body temperature sensor, which is likely a cost-cutting measure, although I can't say I miss it. There's also no ECG, but you'll get just about every other health tracking feature that one should expect on a smartwatch.

Garmin Vivoactive 6: What I don't like

The UI on the Vivoactive 3 is much improved, but it still comes with some quirks that I feel are typical for Garmin. Notifications can often take up the entire screen, which can be quite annoying when you're actually trying to do something on the watch. Furthermore, the vibration intensity can't be altered, so you'll get a pretty jarring buzz unless you turn the vibration off.

Speaking of vibrations, the watch features a Smart Alarm that utilizes sleep tracking to wake you up at the optimal time, so you feel less groggy. It sounds great in theory, but I've found this feature pretty useless or annoying. Oftentimes, I wake up ahead of my set alarm, so the Vivoactive ends up just being late to the party when the smart alarm finally goes off. It also only has a 30-minute window, which doesn't seem like enough time to take advantage of a feature like this, especially if your sleep schedule is as erratic as mine.

The Vivoactive also has Move Break alerts to remind you to get up and move, which makes sense. However, I'll be actively standing and moving around or cooking, and the watch will still buzz me with a move alert, which I find annoying.

Finally, despite the improved UI, Garmin still seems to hide features and settings under a mountain of menus, making it difficult to locate certain things. That's whether you're on the watch or in the app. Using the Garmin Connect app can be overwhelming, and I often had to refer to Android Central senior editor and wearables expert Michael Hicks to figure out how to do things on the watch or in the app.

The smartwatch UI is a significant step in the right direction, but I feel that the app could use some improvement.

Bonus: I briefly used the Connect Plus subscription while testing the Vivoactive 6, but honestly did not find it useful enough to warrant sticking with it. A live view of my workout heart rate was neat, as were some of the AI-based insights, but I don't think it's worth paying for.

Garmin Vivoactive 6: Competition

In this price range, another watch you may want to consider is the Pixel Watch 3. It features a more streamlined UI, numerous apps, and a fantastic design, along with LTE support for those who require it. That said, fitness tracking may not be quite on par, battery life isn't as great, and the base model will cost more.

The Galaxy Watch 7 is another smartwatch worth considering at this price. It also runs Wear OS, so you'll get many of the same perks as the Pixel Watch with some Samsung flair. That said, it also comes with the same downsides, despite its pretty robust Samsung Health app.

Garmin Vivoactive 6: Should you buy it?

You should buy this if...

• You're new to Garmin.
• You're a casual fitness-goer.
• You want a smartwatch with long battery life.

You shouldn't buy this if...

• You're a serious runner or biker.
• You want a smartwatch experience that's easy to use.
• You want a watch that pushes you to do more.

The Vivoactive 6 has been a surprisingly refreshing experience for me after coming from the Venu 3. Sure, it's not exactly a premium watch, and you miss out on some features and specs, but it gets you much of what you'd expect from a Garmin device without the price tag associated with watches like the Fenix 8.

Since I'm not a runner or biker, this feels like a perfect watch for someone like me, who just wants to track my workouts. The Vivoactive 6 won't push you to do anything you don't want to do, but it will make sure you're at least staying active, which is good enough for many of us.

This is an ideal smartwatch for anyone interested in Garmin but concerned about what it entails, and it's platform-agnostic, so both Android and iOS users are welcome.

Another Google I/O came and went, and this year’s event felt a bit different than past years.

To no one’s surprise, AI was the big focus of Google I/O this year, and while the company showed off some interesting things, it was perhaps the new Google AI Ultra plan that really got a reaction out of me when it was announced. The plan, which now joins Google’s newly renamed AI Pro subscription, costs a whopping $249 per month. That’s no typo, and it feels like a perfect representation of just who Google I/O is really for, which clearly isn’t me.

What do you get with Google AI Ultra? Pretty much everything. It comes with just about everything Google announced at I/O, from the new Gemini 2.5 model to Flow with Veo 3 and early access to features like Project Mariner. Oh, and Google threw in 30TB of Google One storage and YouTube Premium. It’s Google’s "Everything AI But The Kitchen Sink" plan.

Subscriptions like that are for the people who can benefit from tools like Veo 3 and Project Mariner and can afford to pay about as much as my phone bill (with four lines, mind you). When we asked Google about the plan and why it costs so much compared to the $20 per month AI Pro plan, it was explained that “the way to think of the Google AI Ultra plan is it's almost like your VIP access to all of Google's AI.”

Frankly, I can’t imagine this will be a popular option among regular consumers such as myself and even some of you reading this. I don’t even want to pay $20 for AI Pro. It just feels very out of reach, which was a feeling I got throughout much of the keynote presentation.

In fact, many of my colleagues have lamented in recent years about how boring and developer-focused I/O has become. However, as Android Central senior editor Jerry Hildenbrand points out, that’s exactly what I/O is for.

“Apple and Microsoft would not be where they are today without third parties building reasons to use them. Think about it — do you want to use a smartphone platform that has zero apps?”

“Developer conferences exist to try to make sure that doesn't happen. Hour after hour of complicated and confusing presentations might seem pointless to you, but the person building the next great idea is paying close attention.”

At least someone's paying attention, because frankly, that keynote was dull as hell. I mean, it wasn’t all bad, and there were some things that stood out to me. The Project Astra video demo probably got quite a bit of applause and showed off a product that seemed genuinely useful, especially on top of Gemini Live. The live demo of the prototype Android XR glasses was also pretty cool, even if things didn’t go 100% as planned.

Even so, with the bevy of AI products announced at I/O, the keynote felt a bit hard to follow if you’re not of a developer mindset or a total tech nerd who loves following this stuff, and almost like a retread of things we heard about last year.

And even with some features rolling out like AI Mode on Search, a lot of what Google talked about felt somewhat intangible and out of reach for the average consumer. AI that can build an app? Cool. Video calls in 3D that require expensive equipment? Neat, I guess.

If you look at the list of 100 things Google announced at I/O, the company shoved all the consumer-facing stuff that you or I might care about into the first 20 things, while 4/5 of it is just developer blah, previews, and tokens.

Sure, we got to demo Samsung’s Project Moohan and those XR glasses, but we still don’t know when they’ll be available, and Jerry is convinced that no one will care when they are.

In fact, everything that we did care about, i.e., Android, Wear OS, and the software that we engage with every day, was all shoved aside into a separate pre-recorded video a week prior to I/O. It genuinely felt like an afterthought for Google, which is why it was probably a good thing that there was a separate dedicated “event.”

I/O was focused on the things that will make Google money: AI and Search. Everything else is pretty much secondary, and that’s okay. It just gives me more to look forward to later this year when Google releases Android 16 and launches the Pixel 10 series, which is what consumers like me will really care about.

But what I won’t be doing is shelling out $250 a month for a subscription… from anyone.

The new Motorola Razr 2025 series has landed, and whether you just picked one up or plan to soon, we've got some tips on how you can get the most out of your Razr phone straight out of the box. Since setting up a new phone can be overwhelming, these tips aim to help streamline the process by focusing on what you should change, enable, or disable first.

This is all in addition to the first things you should do when setting up a new Android phone (another article we recommend you check out). So let's get to it, shall we?

Turn off RAM Boost

This goes first because this will require for you to restart your phone. While we generally don't care for virtual RAM features like RAM Boost, Motorola enables it by default on its phones. However, we find that you rarely ever need it (the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 has 16GB of RAM, after all) and in some cases it can make performance worse.

We suggest turning this feature off as soon as you go through the initial setup. Navigate to Settings > System > Performance, where you'll find the RAM Boost option. Turn this off, and the phone will prompt you to restart the device for the change to take effect.

After you've done so, we recommend going back and enabling Smart app launch.

Change and adjust display colors

Motorola's displays have improved over the years, and the Razr 2025 series features some good-looking ones, especially with the Pantone Validated display on the Razr Ultra 2025. One way to get the most out of your display is to ensure the colors are just as vibrant as you want them to be, and Motorola makes it easy to set this up.

Navigate to Settings > Display > Colors, and you'll find a few options to choose from. These will change how the display presents colors. Natural is a more realistic representation, and while it appears more muted than the other two options, the colors here are optimized depending on the contents of your screen.

The Radiant option is an in-between option for users who want a little pop but not too much. Colors are a bit more vibrant and saturated, but the difference isn't too dramatic compared to Natural.

Lastly, there's Vivid, which punches things up to the max and is for users who really like for their colors to pop.

However, in addition to these general settings, users can also adjust the color temperature using the color wheel at the bottom. There are Cool and Warm options at the bottom to make it easy, or you can go the Custom route and select from the wheel.

Change Control Center style

Since Android 14, Motorola has given users the option between two styles for the Control Center, the pulldown menu where quick settings toggles are found. By default, it goes with the Pixel-style Control Center, with large buttons and the notification center below it. However, you can change this to a more modern style if you want, something more Android phones are adopting.

Navigate to Settings > Home & lock screen > Control center. From here, tap Modern Style, which will switch to a two-panel control center, with Quick Settings on one side and notifications on the other. Each panel will take up the entire screen instead of sharing a screen, which means you'll be able to see more notifications or Quick Settings toggles by default.

If you tap the Settings cog, you can also set which side you want notifications and Quick Settings.

Disable the Games folder

Motorola has done a great job minimizing bloatware on its phones, and normally this isn't something you have to deal with to an extreme on flagships. On the Razr series, the most glaring example of this is the Games folder in the app drawer, which is generated by default.

This wouldn't really be an issue, but the folder not only houses your games, but is basically a repository for ads in the form of game recommendations, courtesy of Motorola's Games app. Frankly, it's not for me, so the first thing I did was disable it, which is fairly easy.

In the app drawer, hit the three dots in the top right corner and navigate to Settings > Apps, where you'll find the option to toggle the Games folder off. Once you do, it disappears from your app drawer.

Set up the cover screen

One of the best things about having a flip phone is the cover screen. It was great on the Razr Plus 2023, got better on the 2024 Razr series, and continues to improve with the Razr 2025 (thanks to Android 15).

Setting up the cover screen on the Razr 2025 series is simple (it's about the same as it was on the Razr Plus 2024), although it'll take some work. With the phone open, navigate to Settings> External display, where you'll find all the most important settings for the cover screen. Go through each of these options to change your home and lock screens, adjust display and font size, change call behavior, and more.

We especially like the Music player, which sets a cool animated display when music is playing.

One thing you won't be able to do from this menu is set your cover screen panels. For this, you need to close the phone. Tap and hold the cover screen home page (or pinch the display from any panel) and you'll find an overview of all your active panels. You can drag them around or tap Edit to add or delete panels.

Once you're done managing panels, navigate to your Apps panel and tap the pencil icon in the corner. Here, you'll be able to add apps and app shortcuts to the panel, and you can tap and hold to rearrange them once they're added. Go to the Widgets panel to do the same thing.

As a note, you can add up to three panels each for Apps and Widgets.

We recommend going back into the main External display menu to set your app behaviors, which will enable apps to transition between displays by default, manually, or never.

Set up Moto AI

After a brief beta phase, Moto AI is a big focus for the Razr 2025 series. It can seem overwhelming to some, especially since you already have Gemini and Perplexity preloaded onto the phone. However, you only have to interact with Moto AI as much as you want, and you can just let it fade into the background.

We have a whole Moto AI explainer that we suggest you take a look at, which will go through the settings, capabilities, and more, so that you can get the most (or least) out of it.

Trigger Moto AI with the AI Key and Look & Talk

Moto AI is here in full force, and while Motorola gives you quite a few ways to trigger it, there are two you'll want to enable off the bat (and you can forget about the rest, honestly). If you have the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025, then you'll have access to both of these options.

The AI Key lets you activate Moto AI or specific Moto AI features depending on how you press it. Navigate to Settings > Gestures > AI Key to set the behaviors. For now, your options are limited to Press & Hold (to activate Moto AI) and Double Press (to activate Catch me up or Pay Attention).

Setting up Look & Talk is a little more involved. Navigate to Settings > Moto AI > Launch gestures > Look & Talk. To turn this feature on, you'll be prompted to enable Face Unlock on your phone. Tap Set up and follow the prompts to scan your face. Once that's done, Look & Talk should be enabled.

Now, once you set your Razr Ultra in Tent or Stand mode, it will begin searching for your face. Once you directly face it, Moto AI will trigger and you can start speaking to your phone.

Furthermore, you can go back into the Launch gestures menu to experiment with other gestures, but we suggest sticking to these two for Moto AI.

Set up other gestures

One of the best things about owning a Motorola phone is all the cool and unique gestures you get. This includes chopping the phone twice to enable the flashlight and twisting the phone twice to turn on the camera (you'd be surprised how convenient these are).

Even better is that all of these features are found in one spot, so you can experiment with what works for you. Navigate to Settings > Gestures to check out all of the gesture options at your disposal. Here are some of my suggestions:

• [If you're using Gesture navigation] In System navigation, make sure Circle to Search is enabled. Then tap the settings cog in Gesture navigation to ensure Swipe for Assistant is toggled on for easy access to Gemini without using the wake word.
• Enable the Sidebar for quick access to apps from nearly any screen.
• For the Power Key, set the Press & hold option to Power Menu, as it will default to your digital assistant.
• Enable Slide on power key for Quick Settings and notifications.
• Enable Quick Launch and set it to open an app or function of your choice. For ease of use, I use this to take screenshots, as it's easier than the two-button or three-finger method. Set whatever tap strength you think is appropriate.
• Ensure Quick Capture and Fast Flash are turned on.

Set up and adjust Camcorder mode

Motorola's Razr 2025 series takes advantage of the flip phone form factor with Camcorder mode, which lets you record videos by folding the phone at a 90-degree angle and holding it like you would a camcorder. You can even use the bottom half to zoom in and out easily using your thumb, making for a more stable video recording experience.

In the camera app, tap the icon at the top left, then hit Settings. Scroll down and tap Camcorder mode. Enable it and toggle on Auto recording if you want the phone to begin recording as soon as you flip the phone horizontally and fold it while the camera is on. You can also choose when to Start recording, either immediately or after a 3-second countdown.

Buy a good case and screen protector

Protection is essential, and smartphones have become vital parts of our lives. With phones like the Razr Ultra 2025 costing more than $1000, you'll definitely want to invest in some protection to keep it from breaking.

Thankfully, the nature of flip phones and the alternative materials Motorola utilizes means you don't have to worry about the pack panel or primary display breaking.

That said, the cover screen is very exposed, and you'll want to protect the phone as best you can from falls and other such incidents. Fortunately, we've compiled some useful collections of cases and screen protectors for each Razr 2025 model, which are definitely worth looking at.

• Motorola Razr 2025 cases
• Motorola Razr 2025 screen protectors
• Motorola Razr Plus 2025 cases
• Motorola Razr Plus 2025 screen protectors
• Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 cases
• Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 screen protectors

And in case (pun intended) you want something a bit more functional, we recommend looking into the Clicks Keyboard case for the Razr 2025 series.

Motorola's Stylus lineup has represented the higher end of the company's midrange phones for years. After LG's departure, it was one of the only other smartphones to carry a built-in stylus, aside from Samsung's premium S phones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra. So naturally, with the Moto G Stylus 2025, there's a bit of pressure to really entice customers away from a flagship phone that costs more than three times as much.

Fortunately, I think Motorola has nailed it. The Stylus 2025 improves on last year's model in ways I didn't think the company was ready for, with specs that easily rival some of the best Android phones. And while the $400 price tag means you won't get all the capabilities of a premium Android smartphone, the Moto G Stylus 2025 has just about everything you'd need without all the superfluous bells and whistles that end up costing you $1000 or more.

Moto G Stylus 2025: Price, availability, and specs

The Moto G Stylus 2025 was announced on April 8 and went on sale in the United States on April 17. The phone retails for $399 when purchased unlocked from Motorola and retailers like Amazon and Best Buy.

Color options include Gibraltar Sea and Surf the Web, although availability may depend on the carrier. Depending on where you buy it, you get 128GB or 256GB of storage, but it'll come with 8GB of RAM either way.

Moto G Stylus 2025: What I like

I've previously noted how there are a lot of things to like about the Moto G Stylus 2025, and after spending more time with the phone, all of that still rings true. The phone has a wonderfully simple yet effective design that mirrors some of last year's flagships like the Edge 50 Ultra. The camera housing has evolved to a more stove-like design, while the vegan leather encases the entire back nicely. It's a soft and very comfortable phone to hold.

It's a pretty large phone, with a display at 6.7 inches, but the bezels are smaller than you'd expect for a phone at this price point. The phone is also a hair thinner than the Moto G Stylus 5G 2024, but the battery capacity is still the same, which is nice.

Motorola did something I didn't expect with the Stylus display, pushing it beyond what many midrange (and most flagships) offer by giving it a Super HD resolution. It's not a resolution I've seen much on a smartphone, but it makes the OLED display appear incredibly crisp.

It's surprising, given how Motorola is pushing a higher resolution than the base Galaxy S25, while increasing brightness to 3,000 nits. The result is a sharp, bright display that's almost as good as the new Razr Ultra 2025, and frankly, I would love to see more flagship phones with this resolution.

The phone is powered by a Snapdragon 6 Gen 3, coupled with 8GB of RAM. I would've loved to see a more powerful chip, maybe something in the 7 series, but after using the phone over the past few weeks, I can happily report that the phone performs quite well. The software is snappy, apps open quickly, and games play quite well.

You may experience some dropped frames if you're playing something graphically heavy like Honkai: Star Rail on the highest settings, but the phone is more than capable of smooth gameplay on high settings.

The Moto G Stylus 2025 runs Android 15 out of the box. It's not much different from Android 14, and Motorola's Hello UX is a mostly inoffensive take on Android. There's not much built-in customization, at least on the levels you'll find on OnePlus phones, for example, but I don't see this as a downside, especially if you want to keep things simple. After all, it's a $400 phone, so anyone buying this most likely isn't a power user.

I appreciate the noticeable lack of bloatware. Aside from a random gaming folder that you can easily disable and the Glance screen that's turned off by default, Motorola has done a great job minimizing unnecessary software on its midrange and budget phones.

I also appreciate that Motorola is improving its software update promise, even by a little. The phone is set to receive two OS upgrades and three years of bi-weekly software updates. Last year's Moto G Stylus 5G 2024 has been receiving updates pretty consistently, and the Moto G Stylus 2023 received Android 14 before the Razr Plus 2023 did, so I'm hoping Motorola can keep this up.

There is some AI here, but don't expect a Pixel 9a here. Motorola's Moto AI features are mostly reserved for higher-end phones, but there are still some goodies here worth pointing out. Circle to Search is one of my favorite features, and it's great to see it on this phone.

In addition to the usual Google Photos AI editing capabilities, Motorola also included a new Sketch to Image feature that generates images in different styles based on what you draw. It's a neat feature and works fairly similarly to Samsung's feature of the same name, although not as fully featured. Still, it's a fun feature to show off and potentially a great way to keep a toddler occupied if necessary.

Another way Motorola applies AI is to the camera experience. The company upgraded the Moto G Stylus 2025 to a 50MP Sony LYTIA 700C sensor, and while last year's phone took pretty respectable photos, I've not been disappointed with the photo quality from this camera either. For the most part, images are crisp and vibrant, particularly in good lighting.

You can get some pretty good natural-looking bokeh from images, and the macro shots from the ultrawide camera are also surprisingly good for those of you who like to take close-up shots of nature.

Compared to last year's model, the Stylus 2025 doesn't attempt to brighten shadows nearly as much. On the other hand, images from the Stylus 2024 can sometimes appear a bit artificial and have flatter colors.

Where the AI comes in is with Action Shot, which can capture very high-speed images of moving subjects to reduce blur and ensure the subject is in focus. You can see from the images below how the Stylus 2025 does a much better job of capturing running water or a train in motion, although it may come at the expense of some dynamic range.

Basically, this is a nice feature to have if you own pets or have kids.

Battery life is pretty great, which is par for the course for Motorola's G series. I could easily get a day of use from the Stylus 2025, and you'll likely get the same or more, depending on your use.

Motorola also managed to get 68W charging on a $400 phone, which feels too good to be true for North America, but it really is incredible. From 1%, the phone will reach 50% in 20 minutes and 100% in 39 minutes. Someone tell Samsung.

Moto G Stylus 2025: What I don't like

Like last year's model, the Moto G Stylus 2025 utilizes an in-display fingerprint sensor. Frankly, it's not bad, but it's not my favorite either. It takes a second to register, and it's placed uncomfortably low on the display. This is the same issue I had with the Stylus 5G 2024, so it's annoying to see here, too.

Furthermore, the sensor flashes a very bright white when you use it, which is particularly jarring, especially when using the phone in dark spaces.

The camera also has a few quirks, which I hope Motorola can tweak or fix with future updates. The phone does well in good lighting conditions, and post-processing can sometimes nicely enhance images beyond what is captured, but it doesn't seem to do too well in trickier lighting situations. As a result, some images can appear too dark or heavy in contrast. Again, it's about preference, but I would like to see at least some improvements with how it handles darker scenes.

It seems funny that this is even an issue, given Motorola's curious and seemingly pointless inclusion of a 3-in-1 light sensor (that third "camera" on the back).

Furthermore, while video can be pretty decent and stable up to 1080p at 60fps, things will start to crap out once you hit 4K30. The camera would often crap out and completely crash when trying to record a 4K video, which is kind of a bummer.

On the software front, it would have been nice to see Motorola give the phone more Moto AI features, even if they're cloud-based, although at $400, this isn't really something we should expect from a device at this price point.

Similarly, with Motorola's software promise, which admittedly could be better. We've seen the company offer a mid-range G-series phone five OS upgrades and six years of software updates, and it would be nice to see that level of support on what could be considered the company's "hero" Moto G phone in North America.

Finally, while its nice to still have a stylus phone other than Samsung's premium Galaxy S25 Ultra, it feels a bit laggy, even after Motorola alleged to improve responsiveness by 4X.

I do like that Motorola finally gave it some purpose by adding the Sketch to Image feature, but I can't help but wonder if Motorola would be better off including an active stylus like an S Pen for potentially better usability or just doing away with it altogether and giving us a bigger battery or something.

Moto G Stylus 2025: Competition

At this price point, the closest competitor for the Moto G Stylus 2025 would be the Samsung Galaxy A36. Because it's Samsung, you're getting a much better software promise and some fun built-in AI features like Object Eraser. However, charging speed is still slower, the screen isn't as sharp, there's less base RAM, and you don't get expandable storage.

You could also spring for the Pixel 9a if you don't mind spending a little more. This way, you could get a better software promise, more color options, and tons of AI features. However, it costs $100 more, and you'll miss out on the faster charging speeds.

You could also go for the Nothing Phone 3a or Phone 3a Pro, both of which are similarly priced and have impressive specs. However, they may also be hard to get a hold of as they're only available through Nothing's beta program, and carrier support isn't as robust or reliable.

Moto G Stylus 2025: Should you buy it?

You should buy this if...

• You're in the market for a good, affordable phone.
• You want a phone with a built-in stylus pen.
• You want good battery life and fast charging.

You shouldn't buy this if...

• You want all the latest AI features from Google.
• You plan to keep the phone for more than three years.

It's tough to find reasons not to recommend the Moto G Stylus 2025. Despite some of its drawbacks, this is one of the best Android phones under $400, and one you definitely shouldn't sleep on, even with more expensive phones like the Pixel 9a looming over it.

The specs and performance make this a great phone for the price, and the camera is surprisingly good, even if it needs a bit of tweaking. And while the phone isn't perfect, none of the negatives feel like dealbreakers to me, even after a few weeks. Ultimately, the Moto G Stylus 2025 solidifies Motorola as the king of affordable phones in North America.

This year, it will be five years since LG launched what’s considered its last flagship smartphone. The LG Wing was a very unique device featuring a swivel design that you won’t really find anywhere else, and probably for good reason. The novel design was one that turned heads, but surprisingly (or maybe not), the LG Wing ultimately failed to garner enough attention to keep LG in the game. The following year, LG announced it was leaving the smartphone business.

I’ve been holding onto the LG Wing for the past five years, and it was recently announced (via Android Authority) that LG will soon shut down its update service, meaning that anyone still using an LG phone will soon no longer be able to update it.

Fortunately, I’ve managed to keep my Wing updated (as much as possible) over the years. It's mostly been collecting dust in a drawer all the time, so as a self-proclaimed former LG fanboy, I recently decided to revisit this unique device and take it for a spin now that it's been some time since LG bowed out.

The Wing had some interesting ideas

The LG Wing came at a time when foldable phones were still getting off the ground. They weren't as popular as they are today, and companies were still working out the hardware and software intricacies that came with building foldables. That's where the Wing came in, offering an alternative for anyone who worried about the longevity of a folding display.

At the time, I thought LG was smart to forgo the potential costs associated with developing a foldable phone. Instead, the company leaned on the latest (and eventually final) evolution of the Second Screen concept it had been pushing on consumers for years.

The idea was fairly simple in concept: you can use the phone as you regularly would on its primary display, but then you could reveal a secondary screen whenever you needed it. It stayed out of sight until it was needed, which I really appreciated.

LG also had some ideas of how this second screen could be used. Apps could utilize both displays in unique ways, which actually made a fair amount of sense. For instance, when the main display was swiveled up, I could watch a YouTube video in full view on the horizontal screen while the various video controls remained on the second screen underneath. This made it easy to adjust volume, brightness, skip forward, and more.

The other use for the second screen was multitasking. My favorite use case was always using Google Maps on the primary display to navigate, while the second screen would be used to control music.

Of course, there's much more you can do with it, so long as you're okay with some apps being squished down to the almost-square aspect ratio. But to me, this made me think of multitasking in ways I never considered before. Since I'm not a fan of using split screen on standard candybar phones, this gave me another option that I much preferred.

LG also had a fun mouse function that let you use the second screen to control the main display.

Then there's the camera. LG did something pretty unique by adding a secondary ultrawide "Gimbal Motion Camera" that's rotated 90-degrees and would work when the phone is in Swivel Mode. Basically, this allowed the users to move the viewfinder around without needing to physically move the sensor and helped stabilize videos in a similar way to an actual gimbal camera system.

It's a unique way to take advantage of the phone's unique form factor, as you can simply hold the phone by the second screen for more stable handling of the phone when recording. It also potentially saves you from having to purchase a separate smartphone gimbal.

I will say that I was thoroughly surprised at the photo quality from the main wide and ultrawide sensors. I was always a fan of LG's video capabilities, but photo quality always left a lot to be desired on previous LG phones I've used, so it was good to see LG improve on this front with the Wing.

In the LG Wing review, it was noted how the primary camera "goes toe-to-toe with some of the best Android cameras out there, with impressive dynamic range and color clarity, plus minimal noise even in darker conditions." I wouldn't say that LG could compete with the best Android cameras of 2025, but it certainly wasn't bad for 2020.

Unfortunately, camera improvements and a novel smartphone form factor were not enough to save the Wing or LG.

Too many compromises

Ultimately, the LG Wing was a flop. I can't say whether it was a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that saw consumers making fewer non-essential spending choices or just the overall reception of the LG Wing and its admittedly cool but strange design. Either way, the phone did not resonate with consumers.

For one, the phone was expensive at launch for what you got. It cost $999 but featured a squarely mid-range Snapdragon chipset usually reserved for cheaper smartphones. By comparison, the more conventional LG V60 cost less, featured a more powerful flagship Snapdragon chipset, and had a larger battery, making it feel like a better deal.

But more than that, it felt like LG was trying to do the absolute most with the absolute least, and the payoff just wasn't there.

LG wasn't known for having the best software, and while I never particularly minded it, many considered the UI to be behind Samsung's One UI and others. That said, it feels like LG is stretching itself thin trying to get the Wing to work properly.

Switching from regular to Swivel mode and back feels janky, adding apps to the Second Screen is more cumbersome than it needs to be, and Gboard can't be used properly in Swivel mode; only LG keyboard will work on the Second Screen, which kinda misses the point if I have to use Gboard on the primary display while in swivel mode.

Samsung has a similar limitation on the Galaxy Z Flip 6 cover screen, where I can only use Samsung Keyboard, and it's a key annoyance for me.

That highlights a key problem with Swivel Mode on the LG Wing: as cool as it was, it also felt woefully underutilized. LG just didn't garner the kind of app support that was needed to fully take advantage of it. At launch, it leaned heavily on YouTube, the Whale browser, and an optimized version of Asphalt 9 to show off how apps could utilize the second screen, but the selection remained lacking throughout its lifecycle.

This left multitasking as the main function for the second screen, which wasn't enough of a draw for this phone.

LG was also known for not having the best update cadence or policy, which also didn't help the Wing's case. Funnily enough, I feel like it improved after LG announced its departure from the smartphone market, as the Wing has since received three OS upgrades up to Android 13.

Then there's the gimbal camera, which was cool in theory, but was always the phone's weakest point for me. I wanted to really like it, but the video quality was never particularly good, to the point where I would just stick to the main wide and ultrawide sensors. It didn't help that video was capped at FHD in Gimbal Mode, and the result was a surprisingly noisy and just not good.

The Wing had an opportunity to take my video, my favorite thing about LG phones, and really do something cool, but in the end, it just fell flat.

Holding the phone years later, I also can't help but notice how the Wing also just feels surprisingly un-LG in a weird way. The unique form factor was a very LG thing to do, but the compromises felt a bit uncharacteristic, such as the lack of stereo speakers and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Even the design choices, with a curved display, fingerprint magnet on the back panel, and noisy pop-up selfie camera, make the phone feel like it was built by a different company.

The phone is also heavy (at 260g, it's heavier than even the Galaxy Z Fold 6), only features an IP54 water and dust resistance rating, and the fingerprint sensor is very slow.

LG was great at standing out with its experimental phones, and the Wing was clearly never meant to be a huge hit, but LG made some odd choices that I feel ensured it wouldn't do well.

That said, I can't help but feel like some of what we got with the LG Wing helped prepare me for foldables, particularly flip phones.

Prepping me for foldables

Foldables weren't my thing back in 2020, but with the resurgence of the Motorola Razr, I've gone all-in on flip phones. It's a familiar design that spans generations, and now with modern smartphone technology, it can live on in a much-smarter and user-friendly way. Where LG tried to differentiate itself with the Wing, modern flip phones relied heavily on the past to gain popularity.

Still, I think the Wing was onto something with its smaller second screen. This wasn't meant to be a primary way of interacting with the phone, but an optional way for users to get a little extra out of their devices.

Modern flagship flip phones take a similar approach, yet they make the smaller cover screen a first option as a way to quickly get through notifications, messages, and more. Then, if and when necessary, you can open the device to reveal a regular-sized smartphone.

With this in mind, I can't help but think LG would have done better to opt for a flip phone form factor than to try and reinvent the wheel with a Swivel phone. It may have taken a generation or two to really take off, but given the growing popularity of the Razr and Galaxy Z Flip lineups, maybe we would still have LG around to keep us on our toes with other unique devices like the unreleased Rollable phone.

Motorola just unveiled its new Razr 2025 series, and the company is taking a page out of Samsung's book in North America by launching a trio of devices. After the previous two generations only came with two phones, I think Motorola was smart to tweak its lineup for a more aggressive strategy, and Samsung may want to take note.

The Razr 2025 series comprises the base Razr 2025, the Razr Plus 2025, and the Razr Ultra 2025. The latter is the newest addition to the lineup, offering premium specs with a premium price tag. The entire lineup spans a wide range of prices, starting at $699 and ranging up to $ 1,299. By contrast, Samsung's Galaxy S25 series, which comprises a base S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra, ranges from $799 to $1,299 as the starting prices for each model.

When I asked Motorola why it decided on three Razr devices for 2025, it said that it's “expanding the family to provide consumers with more options at various price points.”

This makes sense as Motorola is known for offering devices with plenty of value at a lower price point (Razr 2025) while the company is also trying to better establish itself in the premium Android market (Razr Ultra 2025). This gives Motorola a broad reach with consumers, something Samsung has capitalized on with its flagship series.

Three's company

By now, we're accustomed to Samsung offering three flagship models (excluding the upcoming Edge), a trend it has maintained for several generations. Apparently, it works out well for the company; otherwise, it would have ditched the strategy long ago. In fact, including the Galaxy S25 Edge, Samsung appears poised to double down on this strategy, highlighting how more choice is indeed better.

Yet, despite the similar naming strategy, Motorola isn't copying Samsung completely. The Razr 2025 phones offer different specs, from the chipset to the camera setup, which is how Motorola has been able to bring the price lower than the Galaxy S25. After all, we are dealing with foldable phones here, which often cost more than traditional candybar phones.

Motorola updated the Razr 2025 chip with the AI-ready Dimensity 7400X, which isn't an expensive flagship chip, but a more cost-effective midrange chip that should be more than capable for a $700 phone.

Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, agrees, noting that Motorola now has the sales volume to support a three-product lineup.

“They are also moving up market with a true flagship model that beats the competition in every spec while still offering more affordable alternatives, creating the halo effect,” Sag tells me in an email.

That “true flagship model” costs a whopping $1,299, which is a $300 premium over last year's Razr Plus 2024 and $200 more than the already-expensive Galaxy Z Flip 6. It also costs the same as the Galaxy S25 Ultra, despite offering significantly better specs, including more RAM, increased base storage, and faster charging, among other advantages.

That's a pretty penny that could give some consumers pause. However, this may not be as much of a deterrent as I initially thought it would be.

“I don’t think it will be much of a problem since the company is offering a sliding scale of capabilities and for those who care for the specs, the Ultra is the perfect model,” Sag explains. “The Ultra is very competitive as a flagship, and I think [it] will get the brand a lot of attention.”

Like Samsung, Motorola clearly wants you to buy its premium offering, while still making it easy for you to get a similar experience with two cheaper models based on what you can afford and what you want out of your phone. Even if that means making meager changes with the Razr and Razr Plus.

Middle child syndrome

The Razr 2025 introduced a few notable changes, including a larger battery and an updated chipset. However, the Razr Plus 2025 is largely the same as last year's Plus model in terms of specs. Just by looking at it, you'd think they were the same phone (because they almost are).

This was the biggest question mark for me with Razr’s new strategy. We've definitely complained about companies making very few changes with their new phones, and this kinda takes the cake. That's not to say it isn't a good phone; I still love my Razr Plus 2024.

Motorola made sure to point out to me how this 2025 model is still an upgrade from its predecessor.

“The key improvements include the suite of new Moto AI experiences, the redesigned titanium-reinforced hinge, the first flip phones with Pantone validated color and skin tones, and robust IP48 dust and underwater protection."

That's not nothing, and the Pantone-enhanced display and cameras actually sound pretty good to me. However, like Samsung's Galaxy S Plus devices, I worry that the new Razr Plus will fall into that same awkward middle child situation.

Sag says that while this is true to a lesser extent, “the Razr Plus is far more differentiated from the Ultra than the Samsung models are.” Basically, for anyone who still want a flagship-esque experience without paying more than $1,000, this is the phone for you.

On the other hand, Sag notes that Galaxy Plus phones, such as the Galaxy S24 Plus, are probably a better deal, as they typically utilize the same chipset as their Ultra counterparts, rather than a less powerful version, which allows for price reductions in other areas.

Now it’s Samsung’s turn

Sag believes that Motorola’s new Razr 2025 series still offers great value in regions like China, and “especially in the US market where foldable competition is weak.”

This gives me hope that Motorola may execute this three-product strategy successfully, leveraging its strengths as a company that still knows how to undercut the competition while also proving it can truly compete with the big boys.

This is something I think Samsung needs to emulate with its foldable phones. Every year, the company launches one large-screened foldable and a smaller flip phone, and both have done well for the company. However, with last year’s Galaxy Z Flip 6 price hike and the expected price increase for the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Samsung will need to continue to offer options that are within reach for consumers.

We’ve written about how Samsung needs to launch a Galaxy Z Flip FE, and we may finally get one this year, with Samsung rumored to use a less powerful chipset (among other changes) to achieve a cheaper price tag.

That’s definitely a start, and we would love to see something similar with the Fold series, with an option that costs a few hundred dollars less to help drive adoption. And just like last year’s Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition, the company could offer some type of ultra-premium model for both Flip and Fold devices for the people who are willing to spend more on the latest and greatest.

With foldables becoming more mainstream, offering consumers more choices feels like the best option for companies, especially in the U.S., where there are already so few when compared to other regions. So, where Motorola is doing the smart thing by emulating Samsung, Samsung and others need to follow suit and give us more, and not limit us to just one foldable model a year.

Last year's Moto G Stylus 5G 2024 was a surprisingly impressive midrange phone, one that I had a hard time putting down despite costing less than half that of the flagship phones I tested in 2024. This year, the Moto G Stylus 2025 manages to step things up a notch in ways that I did not expect, and it may put other flagships on the spot, yet again.

While it's not exactly the AI powerhouse that the Pixel 9a might be, Motorola has upgraded the Stylus 5G in other ways, mostly with better hardware specs and some improvements on the software front. The result is a phone that, at least on paper, feels like it should cost a lot more than it does at just $399.

I've had the Moto G Stylus 2025 for a few days now, and while I'm excited to really put it through its paces, here are some of my favorite things that I've noticed, based on my early impressions of the phone.

Lets talk about that design

Motorola seems to have settled on a design for 2024 and 2025, so the Stylus 2025 doesn't look too different from its predecessor aside from the larger camera housing. That's not a bad thing, and I quite like the design of the Stylus 2025, especially when you take its new colors into account.

Motorola began its partnership with Pantone a few years ago, a collaboration that has seen both companies applying some rather unique color options to Motorola's phones, such as the Razr. The Moto G Stylus 2025 comes decked out in two Pantone colors, and while they both look great, Surf the Web really stands out with its vibrant blue-ish/ indigo hue.

The color looks great on the phone's frame and soft vegan leather back, giving it an almost neon vibe that I don't often see on smartphones.

Lately, Motorola seems largely against launching phones with the typical white or black color ways, forcing users to pick devices with a bit of flair added to them, even if they're just mid-range or budget phones. The Moto G Stylus 2025 follows this trend, looking arguably more attractive than Samsung's Galaxy S25 series at half the price of the cheapest model (although the Navy Galaxy S25 is a great one).

The front looks great as well

Then there's the display. Motorola has done a great job shrinking the bezels down on its Stylus phones, to the point where the Moto G Stylus 2025 could almost be mistaken for a flagship phone.

That said, there's more to the display than meets the eye, at least at first glance. Motorola is using an OLED panel with a "Super HD" resolution, which I admittedly hadn't previously heard of on a phone. With a 2712 x 1220 resolution, it appears to sit somewhere between a Full HD+ panel found on most mid-range and higher-end phones these days and a Quad HD+ display found on premium phones.

The result is a display that's pushing more pixels than even the $800 Galaxy S25 while retaining a smooth 120Hz refresh rate.

Not only that, but the display can reach an impressive 3,000 nits of peak brightness, which is higher than all Galaxy S25 models, including the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It also includes flicker prevention, which is great for people with PWM sensitivity.

This is arguably the best display on a Moto G phone, and I hope Motorola continues to incorporate more impressive displays into its devices, especially its flagship models like the upcoming Razr 2025.

Keeping the lights on

With display specs like that, it's natural to wonder about how battery life would be affected. After all, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 isn't the most powerful or efficient chip, and while the battery has a respectable capacity of 5,000mAh, I would have wished to see something larger.

Still, Motorola seems to have mitigated any concerns, rating the phone for over a day of use on a single charge. So far, the phone manages to exceed my expectations, easily lasting a full day in regular use. I hope to see how that changes as I use it more and the phone conditions itself to my habits, but so far I'm quite pleased with battery life.

But that's just part of the story.

Motorola outfitted this $400 phone with 68W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. These are specs I usually only see on higher-end OnePlus phones, so to see them on a phone this affordable is a very welcome surprise. I haven't quite timed how fast the phone fully charges yet, but it will reach 50% quicker than most other phones I've used, and I would feel more than comfortable walking out of the house at that charge.

It's nice that we're starting to see larger batteries, but being able to charge them quickly is also just as helpful. I really hope this becomes a norm for U.S. phones, especially at this price.

Everything else (so far)

As noted, the Moto G Stylus 2025 isn't an AI powerhouse, so don't expect anything like a Pixel's Gemini Nano tricks here. That said, Circle to Search is honestly a feature I don't think I can live without on a smartphone, so I'm glad to see its inclusion here.

There's also a new Sketch to Image feature, which reminds me a bit of Samsung's feature of the same name. I haven't played with it much, but early impressions are pretty good so far (anything that can produce a pretty spot-on R2-D2 out of a nearly indecipherable drawing is okay in my books).

I'm very curious to see how the cameras fare in my testing. The newer Sony Lytia 700C sensor sounds very promising, and last year's Moto G Stylus 5G 2024 didn't disappoint in the imaging department. That said, I'm not sure why Motorola decided to include a color sensor, other than for uniformity on the camera housing, and I wish it had been left out.

And of course, there's a built-in Stylus. Like last year's model, the stylus has a much more robust design and doesn't look or feel as cheap as previous models. I don't expect S Pen levels of precision on this passive stylus, although the company says it has 6.4X more responsiveness than its predecessor. I do find it interesting that Motorola's passive stylus keeps getting better as Samsung continues to remove features and functions from its S Pen... but I digress. 🍵

Already giving flagships a run for their money

I've only had the Moto G Stylus 2025 for a few days and will be testing it more ahead of my full review, but I'm already surprised at just how good this phone feels to use. In the wake of fairly mediocre phones that are somehow priced even higher, the $400 Moto G Stylus 2025 feels like a big step in the right direction for not only Motorola but for cheap Android phones.

Along with the Pixel 9a and even the OnePlus 13R, the Stylus 2025 shows that you won't have to pay a ton of money for a flagship experience, whether that's with a ton of cool AI features or with impressive hardware.

I only hope that other companies are watching, especially in the U.S., where the midrange smartphone market seems to have stagnated. At this point, it feels as though the Android underdogs like OnePlus and Motorola are pushing the needle in any meaningful way.

For me, the cover screen experience is one of the most important aspects of the modern flip phone. At first glance, it can seem gimmicky, but the external display is actually pretty useful and helps keep the phone pocketable. In fact, I find myself utilizing the cover screen more than not when I use a flip phone. That said, no cover screen experience is perfect, although one company does come close.

Motorola has pretty much set the standard on what a cover screen should be with its Razr smartphones, while Samsung has gone a different route with the external display on the Galaxy Z Flip line. Still, both offer fairly similar experiences on both devices, and both have their strengths and weaknesses.

With that in mind, I decided to put them to the test to see which was the easiest to use without opening the phone. I would spend a whole day using only the cover screen on the Motorola Razr Plus 2024 and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6.

Samsung has a lot of work to do

Off the bat, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 was a bit frustrating. Even before I got started, I had to go through quite a bit of set up to make sure I could get what I needed out of the cover screen, and Samsung doesn't make it easy.

Getting set up to use apps on the Galaxy Z Flip 6 cover screen is a bit of a chore in itself. While the One UI 7 update makes things a little more accessible, Samsung still limits cover screen interactions (especially notifications) to the apps you have set to use on the cover screen.

Furthermore, you can add more apps from the cover screen; you have to open the phone to edit cover screen widgets and add more apps that you may need. This is why the setup took some time, as I had to ensure I had all the apps I knew I would use within a 24-hour time span.

After everything was said and done, using the cover screen throughout the day was a bit of a mixed bag on the Galaxy Z Flip 6. Using the panels was a fine way to check the weather, control music, and perform other quick, glanceable tasks. The apps I set to work on the external display also worked mostly as expected on the smaller screen, although it did pose some challenges.

The somewhat small display made apps appear vertically scrunched, and some UI elements would awkwardly overlap. This would limit my view and even hide functions on apps like YouTube Music and Google Calendar, although they weren't unusable. However, the limitations of the Galaxy Z Flip 6 cover screen would hinder me in other ways.

The quick settings menu on the cover screen is a fixed set of eight toggles that you can't change. Many of these are options that are actually useful, but the fact that I can't add others is really annoying, especially since I can edit quick settings on a Galaxy Watch.

I also can't just tap and hold the Bluetooth toggle to add a new device. I would have to open the Settings app (which you also can't access from the quick settings menu) and do it from there, which is pretty inconvenient.

Multitasking is also just not really a thing on the cover screen. If I open one app, I can't open a Current Apps view to switch to another app. I would have to exit the app, swipe back to the Launcher panel, and then open the next app I was looking for. This becomes incredibly inconvenient when I need to copy something from one app and paste it into another.

Oh, and did I mention that even if you have Gboard as your default keyboard, you're stuck with Samsung Keyboard on the cover screen? Yeah, that's a no from me, dawg.

Ultimately, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 failed the experiment. The experience was just too cumbersome with the limitations when multitasking, interacting with notifications, or trying to perform certain tasks that would require me to open the phone.

Better luck with the Razr

Things were a bit different with the Razr Plus 2024, and while I was able to get through an entire day without opening the phone, the experience highlighted some of the shortcomings of the Razr cover screen.

Unlike the Galaxy Z Flip, I didn't have to go through any lengthy setup to get the cover screen ready. There were no apps to download to get my apps to work on the Razr cover screen. I just enabled the app widget, tapped the pencil icon on the cover screen, and chose what apps I wanted or didn't want. I could always add or remove apps whenever I wanted without opening the phone.

Just like with the Galaxy Z Flip, Motorola also has a host of panels for quick access to weather, contacts, games, and even widgets. The home screen also lets me set four app shortcuts for your most used apps, which is pretty handy and saves me from having to swipe over to the app screen.

As far as how apps work, it's pretty similar to the Galaxy Z Flip 6, although the larger cover screen means apps have more room to stretch. This keeps the app's own UI elements from blocking other parts of the app, although it also highlights another problem with Motorola's implementation: the cameras.

Because the dual camera system is set within the bottom right corner of the display, the sensors often block certain aspects of the UI. This is mostly a problem with text fields where buttons like Send are usually set to the bottom right side.

Fortunately, you can press and hold the bottom navigation bar to shift the bottom of the app UI up. It scrunches the app a bit, but you'll have full view of the parts covered by the camera, then you can press and hold it again to bring back the full screen view. It's not a huge issue, but it can feel cumbersome to do this constantly. Still, it shows Motorola thought hard about how to get the most out of the external display.

Social media apps like Instagram are also awkward to view on the Razr. Watching Reels or Stories will often just show a zoomed-in section of the video instead of a full view. The only time you can see the full view of Story is if you're watching your own, which is an odd behavior.

Aside from that, most apps behave and function as expected, which is refreshing. I can even multitask with a Current Apps view, which is extremely useful, and using the Galaxy Z Flip 6 cover screen, which doesn't have one, made me realize how much I rely on it. That also goes for the quick settings menu, which is much more robust on the Razr Plus and lets me have as many as 15 toggles that I unfortunately can't edit.

The downside is that Motorola doesn't allow me to open the Settings app from the cover screen, which is a weird omission. The Bluetooth toggle is also somewhat limited, letting me connect to previous devices but not pair with new ones. Fortunately, I didn't find myself needing to set up new wireless earbuds.

Finally, the Razr Plus cover screen plays nicely with Google Services. Google Wallet on the Galaxy Z Flip 6 is usable from the cover screen, but tapping a payment terminal won't pull up any sort of UI for visual confirmation, something the Razr will do.

I also cannot utilize 2FA on the Galaxy cover screen when signing into a Google account. It will just pull up a notification that I can't interact with, whereas the confirmation screen will appear on the Razr so I can tap Yes. I do this quite often, so it's an annoying limitation on the Z Flip.

There is no perfect cover screen... yet

There are few reasons why you'll want to use just the cover screen on these phones, unless you find the main display broken or unusable for some reason. However, the experience really highlights how they're different and where their strengths and weaknesses lie.

It's clear the Razr Plus 2024 has a better cover screen, but Motorola should continue to optimize it with future updates. A Settings app would be nice, for example, and it would be cool to view vertical videos on social media apps in their entirety instead of just a partial view.

Samsung needs to revamp its cover screen experience, starting with eliminating the MultiStar requirement to use third-party apps. That would be a major step to improving the phone and would definitely help me consider making the Galaxy Z Flip my primary phone over the Razr.

Still, both the Razr Plus 2024 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 are great phones, and even well into 2025, they remain two of the best flip phones on the market. That is until the Razr Plus 2025 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 arrive, both of which could bring welcome improvements to the cover screen.

The TECNO Camon 40 Premier is one of the latest phones from a company you may not have heard of. It's the result of the company's relentless pursuit to bring high-end experiences to lower price points and markets, and it seems to hit the mark.

The phone uses a newer MediaTek chip primed for AI performance, which is smart because the Camon 40 Premier comes with a host of AI features to take advantage of. Beyond the software, the phone has a very capable camera system that incorporates the company's latest imaging advancements, and the battery life and charging specs far surpass those of many flagship phones in North America.

The TECNO Camon 40 Premier 5G feels like a full package despite some shortcomings and questionable (yet understandable) decisions.

TECNO Camon 40 Premier: Price, availability, and specs

The TECNO Camon 40 Premier was announced alongside the rest of the Camon 40 series during MWC 2025 on March 4, 2025.

The phone features a single configuration with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It also comes in black and green colorways.

As for pricing and availability, TECNO hasn't revealed too much at the moment, but the phone is not sold in North America. However, it will be available in other regions, including Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Europe.

The Camon 30 Premier started at a price of around ₹29,499, which is just under $350, so it stands to reason the Camon 40 Premier could cost somewhere in the same ballpark and maybe a bit more.

TECNO Camon 40 Premier: What I like

For a phone that costs less than $600, the TECNO Camon 40 Premier has a lot going for it. It sits in a weird but compelling space of phones that come with flagship features and performance but sub-flagship prices. This is a space occupied by phones like the Pixel 9 and OnePlus 13R, and the Camon 40 Premier emulates this fairly well.

The hardware is a big part of what makes this a great phone. The display is a 6.67-inch AMOLED that looks great, although it doesn't blow me away. It's plenty bright, the color profile is nicely tuned so that it's not oversaturated, and the 144Hz refresh rate makes scrolling and animations smooth as butter.

Part of this has to do with the MediaTek Dimensity 8530 chip powering the phone. While it's an upper-midrange chipset, I have no complaints about performance. Nearly everything you do on this phone is executed quickly and effortlessly, which should come as no surprise for a chip that falls just under the flagship 9000-series chips.

This extends to gaming as well. One of my favorite games to play Honkai: Star Rail, which can be pretty taxing on a phone when played at the higher settings. Usually a phone will default to the settings it thinks it can handle, and the Camon 40 Premier was already set to "High" when I started up the game.

I decided that wasn't enough, so I turned things up to the highest graphics settings and at 60fps instead of the default 30fps. Surprisingly (or not), the phone is able to keep up just fine, and I did not notice much in the way of stuttering or massive frame rate drops.

The software experience overall is pretty solid, even if HiOS isn't my favorite Android skin. It runs Android 15 out of the box, and you'll get some of the more common Android flourishes that we see in phones these days, such as the separated notification shade and quick panel.

The smart panel is great for multitasking, while the Dynamic Port gives you a Dynamic Island-like (albeit fairly limited) experience.

However, I can't really talk about a new phone in 2025 without mentioning AI, especially as it's a big focus for this phone. TECNO recently announced its grand plans for TECNO AI, its suite of features that it's bringing to its smartphone portfolio to help bridge the gap between the $1000 phones of the world and the more affordable and accessible phones. What's great is that TECNO makes its AI very present for people who want to use it.

When you first turn on the Camon 40 Premier, you're taken through the setup process via TECNO's AI assistant, Ella. It's an early introduction to the phone's relationship with AI and gets you prepared for what's to come.

Once set up, swiping to the left of the home screen will unveil an AI hub of sorts called Zero Screen, where you can access a suite of TECNO AI features. Up top is Ella Briefing. Not to be confused with Samsung's Now Brief (although at least part of the idea is similar), it's a helpful "brief" up top to summarize and remind you of calendar events, notifications, and more.

There's also quite an abundance of AI tools you have access to, and while you'll easily find a lot of them throughout the UI, like AI Studio in the Gallery app, the Zero Screen puts them all pretty much at your fingertips and makes it easy for you to find use cases for them.

This includes creating AI-generated art using texts or drawings, translating from images or while in a conversation, summarizing documents or creating them from photos, and more.

For the most part, these features are pretty well-baked, and TECNO's AI feels like a pretty mature offering. Accessing the settings for TECNO AI feels very comparable to Galaxy AI on a Samsung phone, and many features are quite similar.

Going back to the idea of easy access, TECNO has implemented an Action Button of sorts called the One-Tap Button. Interestingly, tapping it once doesn't actually do anything, but you can customize the double-tap to open any app or perform certain functions like muting the ringer.

A long press of the button will evoke the Ella assistant, which is a nice alternative to using the power button, something that other Android OEMs (looking at you, Samsung) have defaulted to. I love the added functionality of the button, and I hope to see something more like this on other Android phones.

AI also makes its way into the camera, and the 50MP triple camera system is surprisingly good. TECNO has tuned the camera so that it can take better images in low-light conditions and also better reproduce more skin tones. In my experience, I've been able to take plenty of respectable photos. It's not the best, but it's quite good for this price range, and I doubt anyone would be disappointed in the camera.

I love that the Camon 40 Premier has a telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, something I feel is still pretty uncommon at this price point. It does well during the day, with photos taken at 6x coming out pretty crisp, although the sensor struggles a bit at night.

You can also take images at a moment's notice with FlashSnap, which can capture photos with a very high shutter speed while keeping the image crisp with reduced noise. So not only can it keep you from missing a moment, but it can also capture moments automatically based on the scene, which is pretty useful.

Finally, you'll be happy to know that battery life is superb. The 5,100mAh battery keeps the phone going all day, and I've been able to average about 7 hours or more of screen-on time. The 70W charging can also top up the phone in no time at all, with the phone going from 1-100% in just over 30 minutes. Take that, Samsung!

TECNO Camon 40 Premier: What I don't like

The TECNO Camon 40 Premier is a pretty solid phone, thanks to its IP68 and IP69 water and dust resistance ratings. Unfortunately, it doesn't feel as solid as it is. The back panel, which has a fairly uninspired design despite the brightly colored green, feels pretty cheap in hand. I often just stick to the included case, which is much grippier and still features the same color.

I also found myself a bit put off by the amount of bloatware on the phone after setting it up. You'll likely spend quite a bit of time uninstalling various apps you may or may not have heard of or just don't want on your phone.

And speaking of things you may not want on your phone, TECNO's AI is mostly pretty well-rounded, but Ella feels like a lesser version of Gemini. Don't get me wrong, I think it's commendable that Ella even exists, as one of the biggest benefits of using Ella over other assistants is that it uses more local languages for better accessibility among developing and developed regions.

That said, despite Ella being integrated with Gemini, it just feels slower and doesn't display information in the same coherent way I would get with Gemini. For example, I asked Ella and Gemini about measles symptoms and if I should be concerned about contracting it due to the recent outbreak. Ella slowly spat out the information at me while Gemini relayed the information in a very clean manner, even creating clear lists within the app.

Also, TECNO has decided to integrate DeepSeek R1 into Ella, which is a curious decision. As a Chinese-based company, it makes sense to use the newest AI model, especially after it recently went pretty viral. However, given the privacy concerns, anyone outside of China may want to refrain from using it.

Fortunately, TECNO lets you choose when to use DeepSeek R1. When opening Ella, there's a very prominent DeepSeek R1 button that you can press to toggle the model on or off. It's nice that the option is there, even if I don't plan to use it.

Even better, you still have the option to use Gemini instead of Ella if you prefer. Unfortunately, that doesn't apply to the Ella One-Tap Button shortcut, but you can still set Gemini as the double-tap option to open the app (although it doesn't automatically enable voice input).

A more minor issue I have with the TECNO Camon 40 Premier is the lack of wireless charging. It's not a particularly big deal, as wireless charging is still not commonly found on midrange phones. Plus, the 70W charging more than makes up for its absence, but it is always nice to have the option.

Lastly, the in-display fingerprint sensor works quickly, but like the Moto G Stylus 5G 2024 and Honor 200 Pro it's just way too low on the display, making it a bit awkward to use unless you're holding the phone in a specific way. Not a deal breaker, but definitely an annoyance.

TECNO Camon 40 Premier: Competition

For a phone at this price point, there are a number of similarly-priced cheap Android phones. The Pixel 9a is still very much new and only $499 despite its flagship-level Tensor G4 chipset. It is capable of many of the same AI features as the flagship Pixel 9 series, just at a fraction of the cost. That said, its hardware specs aren't nearly as robust, with slower charging, less RAM, and a lower refresh rate display. Plus, as of writing, the phone isn't on store shelves yet after it was delayed.

The Moto G Power 2025 is another contender in a similar price bracket as the Camon 40 Premier. It offers great value for the price and is a beautifully designed phone that features a vegan leather finish, great battery life, wireless charging, and an IP68/69 rating for protection. However, it has a less impressive MediaTek chip and is lacking int he AI department, making this a much less exciting phone than the Camon.

TECNO Camon 40 Premier: Should you buy it?

You should buy this if...

• You're looking for an affordable phone.
• You want a phone with fast charging.
• You want a good camera that can quickly capture moments.

You shouldn't buy this if...

• You live in North America.
• You need wireless charging.
• You don't want to deal with bloatware.

The Camon 40 Premier 5G is feels like it's TECNO's version of a Pixel. It's a fantastic midrange phone that has all the makings of a good flagship. The MediaTek chip is more than enough for what the phone is trying to accomplish, and the AI suite feels very comprehensive, even if some of its implementation could be improved.

Despite the lack of wireless charging and questionable choices with fingerprint sensor placement and selection of AI models, battery life and great camera quality make up for any shortcomings the phone may have, of which there are few. And while it's not sold in North America, the TECNO Camon 40 Premier 5G is a phone you should consider buying if it's in your market.

I’m probably the only person on the Android Central staff that has not owned an iPhone.

I’ve expressed my interest in buying an iPhone a few times, much to the surprise of my friends and family. It grew mostly out of a desire for Apple to bring back the iPod Touch, which it clearly has no interest in doing. I would frankly prefer not to commit to a whole-ass iPhone in order to get the iOS experience. However, if I must, then I would prefer not to spend iPhone 16 Pro Max amounts of money to do it, even if it’s the most intriguing device of the bunch.

So, I decided that I would wait for the iPhone 16e. At the time, I assumed it would fall under the iPhone SE moniker, and while the 2022 model was enticing as an iPod Touch replacement, I figured I could hold out for the next model.

As the years went by, rumors would emerge about what the iPhone 16e would be. That included talk of an OLED display (finally) and a more modern design. Conflicting rumors went back and forth on whether it would have a notch or Dynamic Island, but it seemed like the iPhone 16e would be the cheap iPhone of my dreams.

And for a quick second, it was. Kind of.

The iPhone 16e is asking a lot for a little

When the iPhone 16e launched, I found myself quite perplexed and at odds over the choices Apple made.

Sure, it has an OLED display for richer blacks and better contrast, but the display is stuck at 60Hz. I don’t remember the last time I used a phone with that refresh rate, and I regularly review the best cheap Android phones from companies like Motorola, phones that easily cost half the price of the iPhone 16e. Even the $399 Moto G Stylus 5G 2024 has a 120Hz OLED panel, which looks great, I might add.

Then, there’s the camera. Singular. The iPhone 16e has a single rear camera on the back, which is kind of unacceptable for a $600 phone. I’m not saying Apple should stick four cameras on the phone just for the sake of having multiple cameras, but the lack of even a secondary sensor is perplexing.

Nearly everything about the iPhone 16e was telling me not to buy it. Even Harish Jonnalagadda says in his iPhone 16e review that it's "a good phone, but a bad value right now." However, with it currently being the most affordable “new” iPhone that I can buy, I was close to pulling the trigger… that is, until the Pixel 9a launched.

The 9a pretty much affirmed my apprehensions: Apple doesn’t really know how to do value.

The Pixel 9a proves Google knows how to make a value phone

I’m not the biggest fan of Pixel phones, but I can’t deny that they’re some of the best phones you can buy. That’s why I wasn’t surprised to see that Google pretty much nailed the Pixel 9a. Based on the specs and the Pixel 9a hands-on from Android Central senior editor Michael Hicks, the phone feels like everything the iPhone 16e should’ve been.

The phone has a larger OLED display that’s more than 2x brighter and with a faster 120Hz refresh rate. It features a secondary 13MP camera for ultrawide shots, something (I learned from using the Razr Plus 2024) I realized I can’t really go without.

You also get a faster USB standard on the Pixel, and while I can’t speak to battery life just yet, the 5,100mAh battery and 30+ estimation from Google sounds pretty good compared to the 4,005mAh unit found in the iPhone 16e.

Furthermore, Apple has also been fumbling its AI rollout, delaying its long-awaited Siri upgrade. Meanwhile, Google has been going full-stream ahead with Gemini, to the point where it’s now prepping to replace the tried-and-true Google Assistant later this year. The Pixel 9a won’t have every feature from the Pixel 9, and not all AI features will be processed on-device, but Google’s software and AI are pretty solid, with plenty of fun features for Pixel 9a users to take advantage of.

I’ll also mention that you get more interesting color options with the Pixel, which is more than I can say for the rather bland black or white iPhone 16e.

This is all for a phone that costs $100 less than the iPhone 16e.

The iPhone 16e still as some good things going for it

That’s not to say the iPhone 16e doesn’t have some pretty compelling specs. The A18 chip is mighty impressive and is probably much more performant than the Tensor G4. And despite having just one camera, I've always been impressed with Apple's imaging, and it looks like it still takes great images and videos, even if you miss the option to take wider shots.

There’s no doubt Apple’s FaceID is a superior facial authentication method (although I do prefer fingerprint sensors), and the Action Button is a feature I would like to see on more phones.

Aesthetically, the iPhone 16e just looks a lot better. The new camera housing on the Pixel 9a just looks awkward.

You also get more storage options with the iPhone 16e, going all the way up to 512GB. The downside is that it will obviously cost you much more, with the 128GB iPhone priced $100 higher than the 128GB Pixel 9a.

The Pixel 9a and iPhone 16a are gateway phones

Ultimately, the Pixel 9a and iPhone 16a are both affordable ways to get hold of some of the latest hardware and software on both Android and iOS. If you’re already baked into one OS and holding onto a previous A-series Pixel or iPhone SE, then these may be worth upgrading to. They’re also good ways to bring in younger family members without breaking the bank on a new phone.

Harish says the iPhone 16e is aimed at "older iPhone users looking to switch to a (relatively) affordable model with the latest hardware," and this could also be said for the Pixel 9a.

That said, it feels like the Pixel 9a is a much better deal, with mostly better specs and a lower price tag for someone looking to save money on a new phone. Even if you’re an iPhone user, if you don’t have any allegiance to iOS, this is a phone worth keeping an eye on.

As for me, maybe I’ll just wait until Apple releases an iPhone 17e or iPhone Flip.

Before I was an Android user, I used to be really into Windows Phone. Back then, Nokia was already doing some pretty great things with smartphone cameras, from the Symbian-powered Nokia N8 (which I owned) and 808 Pureview to the Nokia Lumia 1020 running Windows Phone. Back in 2012, a 41MP camera was pretty wild, and Nokia was using the sensor in a way not commonly seen on a smartphone, making it a pretty big deal.

While I've had several Lumia phones (I still have my Lumia 950), I never owned the 1020. So when my friend recently gave me his, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to take it for a spin to see just how well the camera has held up over the years. And since it's been 12 years since it launched, I decided to compare the Lumia to my current favorite device in Android imaging, the OnePlus 12.

Comparing the Lumia 1020 and OnePlus 12

The Lumia 1020 only features one rear camera, with a total resolution of 41MP and a total usable resolution of 38MP. By comparison, the OnePlus 12 camera setup consists of three rear sensors, including a 50MP primary sensor, a 64MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, and a 48MP ultrawide camera.

While the Lumia 1020 is limited by its single camera lens, it has a unique way of capturing images for the time, letting users simultaneously capture a 5MP image and a full-resolution 38MP image. Using pixel binning, the phone is able to achieve "lossless" zoom while retaining the 5MP resolution while still taking a second full-resolution image even when zoomed in.

The idea with the Lumia 1020 is that you can zoom in while taking the photo, or you can take the full-resolution image and "reframe" it later to get essentially the same quality. However, aside from only having one sensor, therefore lacking any optical zoom and the ability to take ultrawide shots, the Lumia 1020 is limited to roughly 3x zoom, which is still "lossless," meaning you'll get a 5MP image regardless.

Meanwhile, the telephoto lens on the OnePlus 12 not only provides optical zoom at 3x but can also provide up to 6x of in-sensor zoom while maintaining image quality.

That said, I decided to keep zoom levels at 3x to see how the Lumia 1020 fared against the dedicated telephoto lens of the OnePlus 12. I also captured both the zoomed 5MP image and full-resolution 38MP image together.

The results

One thing worth noting is that at first glance, there's not much difference between the Lumia 1020's 5MP image and 38MP image when taking unzoomed images or even when cropping in later at the same relative zoom distance on the full-resolution shot. The difference in quality would only show up if you zoomed into the 5MP image and 38MP image after the fact, with the latter retaining more quality at 100% zoom.

When comparing with the OnePlus 12, what's consistent across each of the photos is that OnePlus handles various lighting conditions much better than the Lumia 1020. That goes for exposure, color saturation, and even noise, all of which hinder the Lumia's images in one way or another. This is sort of to be expected given how old this phone is, although the Lumia still manages to produce respectable photos if there's good lighting.

Just don't try to take photos at night, as the Lumia camera will suffer, even with pixel binning and the built-in optical image stabilization.

While taking photos, I struggled a lot with the response time of the Lumia 1020. Opening the camera app takes about 3-4 seconds, even when using the dedicated camera button. Not only that, but actually capturing a photo can take a couple of seconds as the camera finds its focus. Still, I will sometimes find myself surprised with just how well the shutter speed is able to capture moving objects, despite how much work the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 is doing to take and process the image.

You can see below how the phone was able to nicely capture the birds flying around, with the wings kept fairly in focus. The scene itself was a bit chaotic, but both phones weren't too phased by all the movement. Even some of today's best Android phones would struggle with all the flapping wings (looking at you, Samsung).

How far we've come

What I realized while testing the Lumia 1020 was that while it was doing some impressive things in 2012, camera technology has come a long way in smartphones. Not only are phones now equipped with multiple lenses to achieve things like wider photos or better zoom, but the best Android camera phones (and even not-so-good ones) often employ some of the same techniques that the Lumia was using even back then, only better.

Phones like the Vivo X200 Pro have taken smartphone photography to some impressive heights, giving us near-DSLR quality and allowing anyone to take impressive photos with a tap of a button. Samsung's Galaxy S25 Ultra, with its massive 200MP camera and quad-camera setup, does a great job of giving users a very versatile and accessible camera system to rival its closest competitors like the iPhone.

The Lumia 1020 was quite a marvel for its time, and I would have loved to own one back when it first launched. But having one now makes me really appreciate just how far we've come with smartphone photography.

Google didn't have any major announcements at MWC 2025, but the company is still very much present. There's a bit of Google in just about every corner at the show, but in the midst of all the excitement on the show floor, I was able to sit with Seang Chau, VP and GM of Android Platform, to discuss what to look forward to in 2025. And while AI underscored nearly everything on the docket, we also dove into Android 16's accelerated timeline and the plan to improve update support across OEMs.

Improving Android updates across the board seems to be a major focal point for the company this year, from improving the timing of device launches to making it easier for OEMs to support software longer than they traditionally have. And while this may not be as exciting as new Gemini features, getting everyone on the same page with Android updates is just as important, if not more so.

Android's new schedule

When the Android 16 Developer preview commenced, Google announced that it was making a major change to its schedule. Instead of following its usual launch timing, the stable update would launch sooner, specifically in Q2. This means we can expect the update to arrive by June at the latest, putting it months ahead of previous releases.

When I asked Chau about the accelerated timeline, he said there are multiple reasons why Android 16 is coming so much sooner.

"The first is, we're getting feedback from our OEM partners that 'Hey, the earlier you can release, the more likely we can push new [software] when we launch a new handset in that same year.'

Because if you look at some of the biggest releases during the year, if we're releasing a new Android version in August or September, it's really hard to release a phone that same year with the latest release, and then you have to wait however many months before you get the latest Android release."

This was especially true last year when the Pixel 9 launched in August last year without the latest Android release. Even though the phones arrived a bit earlier compared to the previous release, many found it strange that Google waited until after they were released to push Android 15.

Many flagship or sub-flagship launches happen in the second half of the year, which made the timing of previous Android releases tricky. Samsung is one of those companies that launch new phones in July or August, which means they usually come with last year's software before the company launches a beta and eventually the stable version later in the year, usually starting in Q4.

With Android 16 set to arrive much sooner, this should help companies avoid that awkward launch window after a new update has been released. That means the Pixel 10 should come with Android 16 out of the box. The new schedule means new phones from other OEMs can get the new software and hopefully be updated sooner.

Chau also notes that another reason the company moved up the Android 16 update is because the company "wanted to be able to move faster with respect to APIs." And while the move is partially AI-driven, he says that, ultimately, it just makes sense.

"As quickly as the market is moving, and as quickly as our developers need to be able to move in order to build new functionality, especially around AI, we need to make sure that we can add that capability and those APIs multiple times a year.

So, in order to do that, it didn't make sense to release something in August or September, and then, like, a couple months later put out another release with an API update."

Building better support

Updating a phone is one thing, but it's another thing to continue pushing updates for a phone for years after the device is launched. The Pixel made the first major push for extended update support, promising seven years of OS upgrades and security updates. Samsung then followed suit with its flagship Galaxy phones.

But that kind of support hasn't been common in the Android space, and it definitely takes a lot of resources to provide it. This is why the recent announcement from Qualcomm and Google is such a big deal, making it easier for OEMs to support their devices for up to eight years. That said, while we've seen Honor join the seven-year club, it's ultimately up to OEMs if they want to bring that level of support to devices. Chau says he hopes the move will encourage more OEMs to follow.

"One of the driving factors around this is sustainability, of course, but really, it's so that you can keep your devices longer. And if you decide to pass that device down or return it, you're able to retain more [secondary market] value." Chau says the hope is that longer support for devices will help drive more adoption of Android phones, with consumers knowing their devices will remain secure for years to come.

In fact, this is partially what drove some long-term Pixel users that I know to upgrade from their Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 devices after support ended for them. Though they were intrigued by the affordable Pixel 6a, they eventually pulled the trigger when the Pixel 7 launched with improved update support (which has since been extended by another two years), especially since they were not planning to upgrade again for a while.

Google's Pixel phones have arguably the best software update policy, and now, that level of support can be extended to other devices, although it wasn't without its challenges.

"One of the biggest barriers was SoC support," Chau notes, highlighting that the transition to Tensor SoC helped bring that level of commitment to Pixel phones.

"One of the challenges, of course, is Linux as the underlying operating system. The long-term support period for different versions of Linux kernels was actually shortened. So, we had to work with the SoC vendors and our partners to make sure that we could actually upgrade the kernel." He notes that this has been very difficult in the past, which highlights the importance of this new collaboration with Qualcomm.

For now, the eight years of support is supported on the new Snapdragon 8 Elite, which powers today's best Android phones. However, this will also extend to future 8-series chips as well as future 7-series chips, which are expected later this year.

What's more, Qualcomm notes that this support can lower costs for OEMs interested in adding extended software support for their phones. As someone who loves Motorola phones, I hope this means the company can will add better (and faster) support to its newer devices.

Making updates better so your phone doesn't get worse

With Android 16 still in beta, Chau wasn't able to talk about what we can expect from the stable update later this year, but he did note that despite some of the rhetoric around extended update support, Google is focused on making each update better than the last and making things more efficient.

"We've promised seven years of updates on Pixel, and we worked with Qualcomm to get to eight years. I see a lot of sentiment, shall we say, like 'Who cares about eight years because it's going to make it worse' and all these other things. We're really working hard to make sure that that's not the case.

Every release, we want to make sure it is better than the last one, including performance, battery life, etc."

Chau recognizes that some features will require more power, which is par for the course when it comes to updates. We recently saw this in action with the Galaxy S25 series, which has features that require the new Snapdragon 8 Elite for AI processing, which aren't available on previous models. It's also just as common with Pixels due to more powerful chips being able to handle more power-hungry tasks.

Still, Chau says Google tries to offset this by finding gains elsewhere, which can sometimes mean a bump in performance when a new update rolls around, even if a feature or two are sacrificed due to a lack of power.

Ultimately, the question becomes, "How do we make the releases better so that we're not making your phone worse?"

Fortunately, with the new Android 16 release schedule and a promise to help OEMs update their phones longer (and hopefully faster), 2025 is shaping up to be a pivotal moment for Android updates.

I’ve reviewed more than a dozen Motorola phones over the past few years, most of which have been budget phones costing $400 or less. While I used to be very vocal about how Motorola just wasn't doing a good job making its low-end phones remotely useable, the company has come a long way in recent years, proving that users can still have a good experience without spending $1,300 for a phone. And things are only going to get better for cheap Android phones.

Last year, my top Android phone was the Razr Plus 2024, which retailed for $999, and it's still my daily driver because I absolutely love the form factor. However, right before I got my hands on it, I reviewed the Moto G Stylus 5G 2024, a phone that I was pretty sure I would forget almost as soon as I stopped using it. Instead, I didn't wanna put the phone down, even when I had to switch gears to the Razr.

The Stylus just felt like a flagship in a phone that cost half as much as a Galaxy S25 would cost you today and with pretty comparable specs. It has a Full HD+ OLED display, a 5,000mAh battery with 30W wired charging and 15W wireless charging, and a pretty capable 50MP primary camera. Not to mention, Motorola's signature vegan leather finish just looks and feels great.

Sure, performance may not match up to today's Snapdragon 8 Elite and all its AI flourishes, but the mid-range Snapdragon chip in the Stylus was no slouch either. Combined with great performance and a solid overall package, I would constantly forget that this is a mid-range phone. In fact, my mum wants a new phone, and I'm tempted to just get her the Stylus 5G 2024, as I wouldn't get her a phone that I myself wouldn't use.

2025 is starting off on a good note

We're just two months into 2025, and Motorola has already launched two phones in North America. On the surface, they don't seem like much, but they've managed to exceed our expectations about the kind of experience one can expect on a phone that costs $200. Android Central Phones editor Nick Sutrich found himself surprised at how much he liked the Moto G 2025, especially when compared to his experience with its predecessor.

"Last year's Moto G 5G 2024 was a pretty terrible phone, even for the low price, but Motorola has turned things around and addressed nearly every complaint I had without raising the price for this year's model," he states in his review. Sutrich highlights a bright, eye-friendly display, great design, and solid battery life as major selling points for the phone.

I had a similar experience with the Moto G Power 2025, which launched alongside the Moto G 2025. The design is a welcome improvement over its predecessor, especially with the improved durability and IP69 rating. It also handles gaming surprisingly well and comes equipped with wireless charging, which isn't very common at this price point.

That's not to say these phones are perfect. The MediaTek chip can feel sluggish the first time you do something new on the phone, but it seems to catch up in no time. Motorola also improved its software update promise to now include two OS upgrades, although that's still a far cry from what you'll get on Samsung phones, for example.

Still, for what you're paying for, these phones could be much worse than they are. Yet it seems like Motorola and other companies are upping the standards for cheap Android phones. Even this $100 phone from NUU is able to provide users with a half-decent experience with zero bloatware, a 90Hz display, great battery life, and more.

This is great for people who don't need all the latest AI features or to spend $800+ on the best of the best. It's especially great for parents who want to buy their kids their first phone.

This was also something that OnePlus understood with its Nord N-series phones, which offered surprisingly good value. And after seeing what the company did with the OnePlus 13R, I can only imagine what a new Nord N phone would be like. If you're reading this, OnePlus, now would probably be a good time to introduce a new one.

Cheap Android phones are about to get an AI boost

This is only the beginning, and so far, I'm very excited about what's to come. After all, Motorola altered my expectations about cheap Android phones with last year's Stylus 5G 2024. Things can only go up from here as components get cheaper and better, and more capable chips trickle down to the lower end.

Qualcomm is already setting the stage for a new generation of midrange phones with more AI capabilities. The new Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 is an upgraded version of the same chip used in last year's Stylus, and it promises better performance as well as on-device AI processing, which is a first for the 6-series. This means we will start seeing more features normally reserved for flagship phones powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite on phones that cost half the price.

Qualcomm says Realme, OPPO, and Honor will be among the first to introduce phones with the new chip. There's no word on whether or not the next Moto G Stylus will sport the new Snapdragon 6 Gen 4, but I'm looking forward to whatever we get, regardless.

As someone who still loves high-end phones like the Razr and Galaxy S25 Plus, 2025 looks like a great year to start looking at cheaper phones, especially with the threat of tariffs looming over.

After a bit of confusion, we now know that the Galaxy S25 series officially supports Qi v2.1 but without built-in magnets. Now, anyone interested in buying a Qi2 charger for their Galaxy S25 will have to contend with buying a case for the phone, a concession some may not like. I used to be on their side, thinking how lame it is that Samsung is essentially forcing us to buy a case. However, I’ve started changing my tune after using the Galaxy S25 Plus with a case, even as the Motorola Razr teases a world where I don’t need one.

Learning the hard way to embrace the case

I’ve used the Galaxy S25 Plus for a couple of weeks now, and I made sure that the first case I got was a magnetic case. In fact, I got a couple of very stylish cases from ESR, both of which are clear and nicely show off the Navy color of the Galaxy S25 Plus. The cases are thin and sport magnetic rings in a similar design found on iPhone cases: a circle with a line underneath.

This style of case is familiar because it's very common on iPhones. In fact, most iPhones I see out and about are fitted with a case of this sort despite the phones sporting built-in MagSafe support. The case requirement for Qi2 charging on the Galaxy S25 series only feels like a copout and money grab from Samsung in hopes that you'll buy one of its cases, but the way I see it, that's not the full story.

In fact, you should already want to buy a case for your $800+ phone, something I learned the hard way after buying an LG G8 at launch and dropping it just days later. I did not have a case, and the front and back glass cracked in one corner of the phone. Ever since then, I've used a case on nearly every phone I've owned, with the Razr Plus being my only exception (more on that later).

With the Galaxy S25 Plus, I would like to go on using it without a case, but the phone is already fairly slippery, and I don't trust myself to keep this $1,000 phone intact. Plus, it turns out my Oura Ring is scratching the rear glass panel whenever I hold the phone, which is ruining the pretty Navy color.

No one wants a bulky phone, but no one wants a broken one, either. If you really want Qi2 charging that bad, then you'll have to cough up the extra dough for a Galaxy S25 case. I think that's a pretty small concession, considering Samsung didn't raise the price of the Galaxy S25 series, plus you're getting protection and magnetic charging.

My Razr gives me a taste of unburdened magnetic charging

As cool as it would be to have built-in magnetic charging without a case, I can understand why Samsung didn't add it to the Galaxy S25 series. The phones haven't changed all that much in terms of design, so it’s not much of a surprise that the internal hardware didn't change much either, to the chagrin of myself and my colleagues.

As explained by my colleague Jerry Hildenbrand, it's likely going to require plenty of design tweaks to get magnetic charging in a phone. Given how many phones Samsung produces a year, the company likely just did not have the resources or time to get it how it needs to be, especially on the S Pen-touting Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Last year's Ultra model apparently ran into some issues with magnets, and this year, we're seeing similar warnings about magnetic cases interfering with the S Pen. We've reached out to Samsung for an explanation on why our Ultra model has begun warning us about the use of magnetic cases interfering with This is probably why we only see true Qi2 magnetic charging on one Android phone, while Samsung and OnePlus opt for optional cases.

Then there's the Razr Plus. And before you get too excited, it doesn’t feature magnetic charging or Qi2. However, it does come with magnets in the phone, which are likely used to help keep the phone closed when folded. Because of this, I can mimic using MagSafe by attaching it to magnetic wireless chargers or other MagSafe accessories like car mounts, all without a case.

Ever since finding this out, it got me excited about what Qi2 would look like on Android, especially if and when it arrived on future flip phones.

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I've laid out the reason why I don't like using cases on flip phones like the Razr or Galaxy Z Flip 6, and it boils down to the fact that flip phones are quite thick when folded. Adding a case, while still a smart thing to do, just makes them much bulkier (with the exception of Thinborne or Fiberborne, which unfortunately don't make cases for the Razr).

The magnets aren’t very strong, so it’s not something you should rely on, as the Razr will often slide off a device. However, if the accessory has strong enough magnets, then it feels like MagSafe, and I admit that I like it a lot. Plus, on version 1.x Qi chargers, the Razr will still get 15W.

Is it enough for me to cry over the Galaxy S25 not having built-in magnets? No, especially because I don't run into the same thickness problems as I do with a flip phone. And I imagine most people outside of anyone reading this probably don't care all that much about built-in magnetic charging, either.

Just get a case

If you're going to spend the amount of money it takes to purchase a Galaxy S25, then you should also budget to purchase a case and a screen protector. It's all the rage, and everyone's doing it.

A 2017 survey from Statista revealed that 79% of respondents used a protective case on their phone. A more recent survey from Android Police echoed the results, with an even higher percentage stating they use cases, particularly third-party options, and statistics tell us that the market for phone cases is only going to get bigger.

If you don't want one, that's your prerogative, and I commend your bravery. For those who plan to buy a Galaxy S25 with a case, you might as well look into getting one with magnets. Qi2 is merely a bonus in this case (pun intended), and regardless of whether you use a case or not, you'll still be getting the same tired 15W charging speed, it's just up to you whether you want your phone to stick to things or not.

When Samsung launched the Galaxy S25 series, we pretty much knew that it would consist of three phones: the S25, the S25 Plus, and the S25 Ultra. However, Samsung surprised many when it ended its presentation with a “One more thing” moment, teasing the Galaxy S25 Edge. Yet, while the teaser was a cool way to showcase the company’s engineering, Samsung managed to both intrigue and confuse me with this reveal.

The Galaxy S25 Edge was rumored for some time as the Galaxy S25 “Slim,” with leaks pointing to a phone that was much thinner than its regular lineup of phones. Rumors seemed to go back and forth about the position of the phone and whether or not it would actually be revealed or launched alongside the regular S25 lineup. Now, we know the phone is a real, tangible device, but that’s about the extent of what we know aside from its real design.

What's confusing to me is Samsung’s decision to tease a phone that should have fully launched alongside the Galaxy S25 trio of phones.

Buy now or wait

I’ll start by saying I’m all for a thin phone. I recently wrote about how I wish flip phones like the Motorola Razr should be thinner, so I wouldn’t mind returning to the days of the iPhone 6 when companies were seemingly racing to build the thinnest phone, of course, before being derailed by Bendgate. The Galaxy S25 Edge intrigues me because it could allow me to stick a case on the device without it becoming uncomfortably thick.

I know I’m not the only one who wants a thin phone, so Samsung is clearly onto something here. The problem is that now, Samsung is making us wait.

On the one hand, I get why Samsung chose to tease the Galaxy S25 Edge now. Leaks are pretty much inevitable at this point, and companies like Google and Samsung like to try to get ahead of them if they can. Once the leaks get to a point of no return, they’ll try to get ahead of them one way or another. Google has become good at this, and now it’s Samsung’s turn to control the narrative by eschewing our expectations.

Early leaks referred to the phone as the Galaxy S25 “Slim,” which is clearly inaccurate, at least as far as the official moniker is concerned. It’s a slim phone, so the leaks were right about that, although we still don’t know how thin it is. Furthermore, some early renders of the device pointed to a triple camera setup, while the real deal only features two rear cameras. Another point for Samsung, I guess.

The main problem I have with this is that Samsung is forcing consumers to make a choice: buy what we have now or wait until this interesting new thing gets launched. As a regular consumer, I would be kind of pissed if I bought a Galaxy S25 Plus now, only for Samsung to turn around and introduce something similar but potentially much more enticing mere months later.

This is a problem some had with Samsung’s launch of the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition, a thinner version of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 that launched months later ( and in the following quarter, mind you).

Shortly after the Z Fold 6 launch, Samsung was criticized for launching very iterative phones that didn’t seem to push the needle, to the point where it issued a rare apology. Then, a couple of months later, it revealed the Z Fold Special Edition, which had many of us intrigued. Unfortunately, it was only available in South Korea, and while it missed out on S Pen support, it was still an impressive phone that felt like what the Galaxy Z Fold 6 should have been.

Getting the jump on Apple

After seeing what Samsung did with the Z Fold Special Edition launch, I can imagine the company waiting until Q2 to launch the Galaxy S25 Edge. This would give the company another flagship to put on the market in between the main S series phones and the Z lineup, which usually launch in Q3.

That would make the most sense, given how Samsung lost market share in Q2 2024, revealing a sizeable hole in the company’s product release schedule. But while Samsung could risk losing some sales of its main trio of Galaxy S25 devices, it also gains something else that could be much more valuable in the long run: hype.

Following the company’s troubles in 2024, Samsung clearly needs something to show consumers that it’s still an exciting company. A “One more thing” moment à la Apple is the type of thing that could do just that, especially if Samsung shows off the phone while virtually saying nothing about it. It leaves us with more questions than answers and gets us all speculating about why Samsung clearly thinks this is a big deal. Because it has to be more than just how thin it is… right?

Maybe not. Apple has been rumored to have an iPhone 17 Air in the works, and the phone could bring us back to the days when thin was in. If Apple can bring great performance and battery life into a super thin smartphone, then it would be a pretty attractive package. And given Apple’s propensity to garner a lot of hype for its phones after they’re launched, Samsung clearly wanted to get ahead of the game and show us that it can be just as interesting as Apple.

The thing is, no one is asking Samsung to look at what Apple is doing because, frankly, Samsung's customers aren't looking at Apple. Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers, said as much in an interview with Android Central editor-in-chief Shruti Shekar.

"For the longest time, Samsung has focused on competition with Apple when globally they’re competing with many more brands," he says. "To be successful, Samsung needs to realize that there’s more than just Apple. Samsung should leverage their scale to iterate faster and continue to invest in marketing like they used to do so during the pre-pandemic era."

Only time will tell if consumers will go with the hype. Of course, Samsung will have to prove that it can be interesting again, and I’m not sure 2025 is the year, especially seeing how its latest Galaxy S25 phones skipped over essential hardware upgrades in favor of AI.

All this... for this?

By choosing to wait and start garnering hype for the phone, Samsung also risks disappointing consumers with a fairly underwhelming phone. We don’t have official specs and information aside from what Samsung showed off at Unpacked, but leaks point to a pretty run-of-the-mill flagship that could come with some notable compromises.

The phone could run a slightly underpowered version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite with 12GB of RAM, which would help manage thermals in such a thin chassis. Rumors and recent leaks also point to a 3,900mAh battery with 25W charging. This would put its battery specs just beneath the smallest Galaxy S25, which sports a smaller display and a 4,000mAh battery.

The Galaxy S25 Edge is expected to have a display that falls somewhere around the Galaxy S25 Plus and S25 Ultra, and if true, it would be interesting to see how it handles battery life. One way could be that it lowers the resolution to just FHD+ instead of QHD+, which means it would miss out on certain display upgrades in the S25 Plus/Ultra, like ProScaler.

The only bright side of the rumors is that the phone could sport a 200MP primary camera, which so far has been exclusive to Samsung’s Ultra and Z Fold phones.

This puts the Galaxy S25 Edge in a very precarious position as far as where exactly it falls up in the S25 lineup, especially if it comes with the size of the larger phones with specs that fall more in line with the smallest, less capable model. Overall, it’s starting to sound somewhat underwhelming, which is exactly what Android Central’s Jerry Hildenbrand predicted would be the case.

Samsung is trying to prove that it can be edgy again, but the Galaxy S25 Edge could fall flat, and generating all this hype for a potentially mid phone could backfire.

For the past few years, I’ve been pretty happily subscribed to YouTube Music via YouTube Premium. Not only does it save me from ads on either platform, but Google has slowly turned YouTube Music into a pretty decent streaming service. There’s a lot to like about it.

However, I haven't used Spotify since we were in the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic, and even then, I wasn’t subscribed to it. So, I thought it might be good to revisit the app and actually take advantage of Spotify Premium to see what I’ve been missing out on.

Most of my friends and family use Spotify, and it seems much more omnipresent than the other music streaming apps when it comes to third-party integration. It’s pretty hard to escape Spotify, and using YouTube Music, I often feel a bit left out when new features are released or when anyone shares links to songs that I can’t listen to because I’m not subscribed.

After using Spotify exclusively for the past month, here are the things I like about the app, the things I still miss about YouTube Music, and whether or not I could see myself making the switch permanent.

The features that made me switch

The decision to switch didn’t come to me overnight. It’s something that I first considered doing during a New Year’s Eve trip in 2023 when I was in Hawaii with my friends. Someone is usually playing music for us to enjoy while we’re relaxing, playing games, or driving to and fro. Everyone else had Spotify, which I didn’t normally think about much prior to the trip, but there was one feature in particular that made me realize just how much I was missing out.

Spotify Jam is an incredibly useful feature that launched in the fall of 2023. It lets one person set up a “Jam,” which is essentially a queue of tunes that they can invite others to join in on. Anyone in the Jam can add songs and manage the order of songs, making it a collaborative DJing effort.

I love this feature because it lets everyone mix up the music queue and show off each others' music preferences. I have a pretty eclectic taste in music, and while my friends enjoy it when I DJ, I know my tastes don’t always agree with everyone in the room, and there are certain genres or songs that I may not be too privy to that others may love.

Because of this, I made a point to make the switch to Spotify Premium ahead of our 2024 New Year’s Eve trip so that I could a Jam myself since I was the main one DJing this time around with my new Sony ULT Field 1. Spotify Jam also made it so I didn’t have to set up a playlist beforehand, which saved me a lot of time as we would just create a queue in real time. This feature alone made it worth subscribing to Premium, and if you’re late to the party and haven’t tried this feature out yet, I recommend it the next time you and your friends get together.

Another feature I absolutely love is a bit less flashy but almost as important to me. Spotify has a Smart Shuffle feature that will insert songs it thinks you will like when you shuffle a playlist you’ve created.

I sometimes find it difficult to discover new music, as I often become comfortable with what I know and like. I have several playlists that I cycle through depending on my mood, and so I’m very familiar with just about every song. I’ll often add a song every so often, but my playlists tend to stay pretty stagnant. This is why I like the Smart Shuffle feature so much; it keeps me in familiar territory while giving me something new to listen to that matches the other tunes in my playlist; that way, it doesn’t stick out so much or ruin the vibe.

Spotify’s AI DJ was also a feature I was really intrigued by, as it’s seemingly yet another way to discover tunes based on the music you like. The AI-generated DJ interjects every few songs to set up your listening experience, changing the vibe every so often with songs you’re familiar with or may like. It’s a unique feature that I find quite music, as it almost feels like you’re listening to the radio, something I don’t do much of these days.

That said, the execution is far from perfect. The DJ will often switch to genres or artists that I have zero interest in, and I feel like it will jump in to change the vibe of the tunes a little too often. Sometimes, I just want to stay in the same vibe or feeling for a while, and the DJ will switch things up at a whim, which feels quite jarring at times.

No doubt it’s a cool feature, one I think Spotify should tweak a bit. However, it does highlight one of my biggest problems with switching to Spotify, one that makes me miss YouTube Music.

Things I miss about YouTube Music

One of the best things about YouTube Music is that the app seemed to know me before I even started using it. When I first subscribed to YouTube Premium over the pandemic, I was surprised at how well the app was able to guess my tastes by recommending songs that I ended up loving. This is because YouTube Music is tied to the main YouTube app, and so my music searches throughout the years would influence YouTube Music’s knowledge of me.

This is something I am struggling with when it comes to Spotify. The app’s music recommendations just feel subpar compared to my experience with YouTube Music, and I find myself skipping songs more often than not. That’s not to say it’s all bad, and the songs that show up in Smart Shuffle are often great. But whether it’s via a song radio or the AI DJ, Spotify doesn’t seem to really get me.

Of course, I recognize that this is more of a growing pains situation and that the app will have to take some time to get used to my tastes. My previous experiences with Spotify were pretty limited, so it doesn’t have much to go on, which is evident whenever I compare my Spotify Wrapped and YouTube Music Recap every year. I can't be too hard on the app for not fully understanding my tastes, but I find that this is something that often makes me want to go back to YouTube Music.

Another thing that I find lacking on Spotify is the selection of music, but not so much in the way you might think. I’m a big fan of remixes and often prefer them over the original mix. Spotify has a vast selection of music and remixes, but I’ve learned pretty quickly that this is still pretty limited compared to YouTube Music.

The thing about YouTube Music is that its connection to YouTube makes it a much stronger music streaming platform, in my opinion. I find some of the coolest remixes completely out of the blue, and even when a particular song or mix isn’t available as a music track, I still have instant access to the song via a YouTube video without ever having to leave the app. And as a nice bonus, I can watch full music videos if I want to, which comes in handy when I’m on the treadmill and need visual stimulation.

I’ve already become pretty disappointed at the fact that I can’t find many of my favorite mixes on Spotify, but the lack of music videos right now is also pretty disappointing. Spotify may be a music streaming service with a focus on audio, but music videos are a pretty fundamental part of the music listening experience.

Will I stay or will I go?

After using Spotify for a couple of months, it's clear to me why it's such a popular platform. The app experience feels much more mature, for lack of a better word, and Spotify has a lot going for it despite the long wait for its long-awaited Hi-Fi tier.

Meanwhile, Google is continuously tweaking the YouTube Music UI on what feels like a daily basis. It feels like Google is trying to slowly turn YouTube Music into a Spotify clone, which isn't a bad thing, but it speaks volumes to just how good of an app experience it is.

That said, while Spotify is a favorite of ours here at Android Central, with some genuinely fun and useful features, the biggest thing keeping me from staying in the actual music experience. Spotify just doesn't know me as well as YouTube Music, and I'm not sure I want to put in much more effort teaching Spotify to learn about my likes and dislikes. After all, I'm here to listen to music that I want to hear, and right now, YouTube Music knows exactly what that is.

For now, I'll continue using Spotify to see how things improve, but there's a good chance I'll go back to YouTube Music for my music needs.

Flip phones like the Motorola Razr Plus 2024 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 have more or less proven that the form factor isn't just a gimmick and that these phones are here to stay. Unlike their larger foldable counterparts that open to reveal a larger tablet-like display, these phones go for a more compact approach by shrinking down to half their size, often with a cover screen for basic controls over notifications and more.

There isn't much in the way of added functionality as you get with larger foldables, but flip phones go for the "less is more" approach, which I have become quite enamored with in recent years. In the absence of compact "mini" phones, flip phones offer a nice medium, in a sense offering the best of both worlds.

However, while the experience of using one is fun, flip phones are far from perfect, and in some ways, they are a half step down from a conventional smartphone. Companies like Samsung and Motorola have worked for years to bring flip phones up to speed with traditional smartphone models, and I think they're almost there.

So, what do I think a perfect flip phone look like, and could we achieve this?

Size matters

Flip phones are often seen as a more compact version of a conventional smartphone, which is true in some aspects. After all, you're basically folding down a phone to half its size. However, that introduces a new problem: the phone becomes twice as thick when folded.

This isn't that big of a problem with larger foldable phones (unless you're Samsung) because there's enough area to spread out the batteries and other components so that folding the phone gives you roughly the same thickness as a traditional smartphone, with the device getting thinner when unfolded.

With flip phones, the opposite occurs, and the phone gets thicker because you have to somehow squeeze two batteries, two displays, a folding hinge mechanism, and all the other components into the same size as a regular phone. The result is a phone that's often thicker than a folded Pixel 9 Pro Fold and even a Galaxy Z Fold 6 (which is saying something).

The downside of this is that in my pocket, the phone doesn't take up as much surface area, which is nice, but it does protrude a lot more, which can look a little funny. More importantly, this thickness has prevented me from consistently using cases on my Razr Plus 2024 or Galaxy Z Flip 6 because they just add even more thickness to the phones. And while I love how the Razr feels without a case, I'd feel much better having one on than not, but not if it makes the phone unnecessarily bulky.

My hope is that, somehow, some way, companies are able to minimize the thickness of the phones, perhaps by using thinner and denser batteries or tweaking the hinge designs even further. Of course, this has to be done without trade-offs like reduced battery life or compromising the integrity of the device.

I don't expect this to be figured out in 2025, but I hope to see companies working toward this goal

Changing aspects

I've never been a fan of the tall 22:9 aspect ratio that flip phones have adopted. It's one thing when Sony started going with 21:9 aspect ratios on Xperia phones to achieve a more "cinematic" look, but there doesn't seem to be an aesthetic reason behind the tall screens on flip phones.

I find tall phones to be a bit of a nuisance for the simple reason that I tend to use my phone one-handed, and I know I'm not alone in this. It's one thing to have a display closing in on seven inches, but it's another thing to make it so that I have to completely shift the way I'm holding my phone in order to reach UI elements toward the top of the display.

Of course, we could start asking OEMs and developers to start changing their UI to better accommodate this, but that's an article for another time.

One flip phone that I think nailed this is the Motorola Razr 2022, which features a more natural-feeling 20:9 aspect ratio. It's a bummer that the phone never made it to the States and that Motorola switched to the taller aspect ratio in subsequent models, but I hope companies can move away from this

The camera problem

Flip phones aren't known for having the best cameras, especially when compared to more traditional flagship smartphones, and it's really a shame. After all, I'm spending the same amount of money or more for a foldable, so I should have camera quality that matches the best Android camera phones.

That's not to say it's all bad; in fact, flip phone cameras are getting better, as we've seen with the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Motorola Razr Plus 2024. It's not just a flip phone thing; companies like Google and Samsung tend to skimp out on camera sensors when it comes to foldable phones. It could be a size constraint thing or a cost issue, but either way, something's gotta change if we're gonna continue to shell out $1,000+ for a phone just to get lower-quality cameras.

Not only that but flip phones are often constrained by the number of cameras they offer. Most tend to sport two rear cameras, and while a select few from companies like OPPO and Huawei have offered a third sensor, it's certainly not the norm. I would love to see more flip phones with a telephoto camera in addition to a wide and ultrawide.

Samsung has sort of worked out a happy medium with the Z Flip 6 by improving the digital zoom quality using AI. It's a decent effort to get past the lack of a dedicated telephoto camera, but a software solution can only go so far.

If you want a good camera system, you would actually save money by purchasing the Galaxy S24 Plus, which has a third sensor and pretty great cameras. Even the cheapest "entry-level" flagship Galaxy S24 comes with a triple-camera system — with a 3x telephoto camera — and costs hundreds less, highlighting the discrepancy between traditional smartphones and flip phones.

The other camera problem

As much as I would like to see more cameras on flip phones, that introduces a new problem that OEMs have to figure out: where are these cameras going?

Because of the ever-expanding cover screens on flip phones, OEMs have to get creative when it comes to the placement of the camera modules. The cameras have to hold space on the same square cover panel as the external display, and they can't obstruct the cover screen experience too much. OEMs have tried different methods with varying levels of success, but they all seem to have downsides.

The Razr Plus 2024 has one of the largest external screens you'll find on a flip phone, but because it takes up the entire cover panel, the company opted for cutouts for the cameras and flash. It works mostly fine, but because the cameras tend to cover certain app elements, Motorola lets you shift the app upwards in a condensed view to access that part of the app. Again, it works fine when using apps on the Razr cover screen, but it's an extra step when doing something like sending a message and trying to tap the Send button, often located on the bottom right side.

For the Galaxy Z Flip 6, Samsung went with an awkward cutout on the cover screen to avoid the cameras completely. The problem with this method is that the overall app experience on the cover screen feels uncomfortably scrunched up. Meanwhile, other companies like OPPO and TECNO moved their external displays or software experiences to one side of the cover panel to avoid the cameras, providing a fully vertical app view. While it seemingly makes more sense, just about every app element is minimized, which actually feels less convenient in actual use.

So, how can we have both a large cover screen and a multi-camera system on a flip phone without one obstructing the other? The only way I can imagine this might work is to adopt under-display cameras so they won't get in the way, providing an unrestricted cover screen experience. Unfortunately, that could result in degraded camera quality, which takes me back to my previous problem with flip phones.

Catching up where it matters

As I've stated, flip phones have come a long way from where they started, and I've been happy to see companies like Samsung and Motorola improve year after year.

In addition to improved camera quality, flip phones have become much more durable and are not able to withstand drops better. They can also be fully submerged in water, and we've even started seeing official dust resistance ratings appear on phones, which should give consumers more peace of mind.

Battery life is one area that still lags, but that's slowly improving as well. In fact, companies have managed to catch up with and even exceed some traditional flagship smartphones. Samsung and Motorola fit 4,000mAh batteries into last year's models, bringing roughly all-day battery life to their phones. TECNO and Xiaomi took it to the next level with the Phantom V Flip 2 and Mix Flip, offering massive 4,720mah and 4,780mAh batteries, respectively.

Those two phones also feature 70W and 67W charging, much faster than the speeds on Samsung's top-end Galaxy S24 Ultra.

Flip phones are also reaching lower prices, making it a great time to buy one if you've been on the fence. With phones like the Motorola Razr 2024 or the Nubia Flip 5G, you can snag a foldable for as low as $500. That's about the same as you'd pay for some of the best cheap Android phones that don't flip, except now you get a much more interesting smartphone.

These are just some of the ways we've seen flip phones evolve over the years since their resurgence. With these changes and improvements, flip phones are becoming much more mainstream than their larger-screened foldable counterparts, and I can't wait to see how the form factor improve in 2025 and beyond.

My perfect flip phone

Now that I've outlined my current issues with flip phones and the ways the form factor has improved, it's got me thinking about what my perfect flip phone would look like in an ideal world where I could have my way when designing and building my own phone without restrictions.

Of course, no phone is perfect (although some of them come close), and my thoughts are likely to change throughout the year and in years to follow. For now, this is what I would like to see in a flip phone:

The device would feature a design similar to the Motorola Razr Plus 2024, complete with curved edges and an expansive cover screen. It would have a 6.7-inch display with a 20:9 aspect ratio and measure no more than 11mm when folded (roughly half that when unfolded).

The battery would have a capacity of no less than 4,000mAh, and the phone would charge at 67W with support for Qi2 (with built-in magnets).

There would be three 50MP rear cameras hidden under the cover screen, including wide, ultrawide, and telephoto sensors, with camera quality matching something like the Pixel 9 Pro or the OnePlus 13. The front-facing camera would also be an under-display unit.

The UI? One UI 7, but with the ability to natively run apps out of the box without needing to rely on Good Lock.

Basically, I want a phone built by Motorola with Samsung's software and Google's (or OnePlus's) cameras. Much of this sounds a bit farfetched, although who knows what flip phones will look like in a few years, especially when Google and Apple decide to launch their own models. Until then, I'll be looking forward to whatever Motorola or Samsung bring us in 2025.