Ben Schoon

Samsung’s Galaxy S26 series was expected to deliver on a few key upgrades that were long overdue, but that all went out the window last year when Samsung apparently decided to go all-in on avoiding a price hike. Despite killing those upgrades, though, leaks suggest that the price is going up anyway.

The 2025 smartphone market ended on a high note, acting as the calm before the storm with brands including Google Pixel, Nothing, and Honor being among the fastest-growing smartphone brands of the year.

IKEA’s smart home tech gets a lot of the basics – including price – right, but Matter connectivity issues are a downer on the whole experience, including some problems with the newfound button compatibility in Google Home that isn’t working right for some.

After launching on the Pixel 10 series last year, Google has teased that AirDrop support via Quick Share will be coming to more Android phones, with announcements coming “very soon.”

Lenovo’s compact lineup of gaming tablets struck a chord on their wide release in early 2025, but the sequel was never made available outside of China. Now, another new Lenovo gaming tablet with an 8.8-inch screen is in the works with the latest Snapdragon chip and a huge battery upgrade.

As we predicted, Samsung’s new Galaxy S26 series will reportedly not have built-in Qi2 magnets, instead relying on a case to add the functionality that is required for several of Samsung’s new accessories.

Ahead of its launch, the Google Pixel 10a has just leaked in a collection of official-looking images that show off the phone in a blue, “Indigo”-like colorway. Except, we weren’t actually expecting this color option.

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds lineup has changed a lot over the years, with the last generation having ditched a long-time charging case design in favor of copying AirPods, but it seems Galaxy Buds 4 are taking a step back.

New findings in court documents shed a bit more light around Google’s plans for Android’s desktop UI, as well as its future plans for ChromeOS, and it might all take a bit longer than you were expecting.

Google Home is finally addressing one of its biggest shortcomings in automations, with support now rolling out for smart buttons that can control other devices in your home.

Leaks continue to tell us the GalaxyS26 series won’t be a particularly big upgrade, and it seems more likely than ever that one of the biggest expected changes, the addition of native Qi2 magnets, won’t be happening – “my day is ruined and my disappointment is immeasurable.”

The Google Pixel brand has been growing steadily in recent years and, as the smartphone market as a whole faces a rocky year in 2026, Pixel is expected to see the “strongest growth” compared to other big names.

The smartphone market is focused more and more on premium devices, and in 2025, the Galaxy S25 Ultra unsurprisngly led the charge.

Google Pixel’s new “theme packs” launched just a couple of months ago, but as the first release vanishes, Google says more “are coming.”

Google has quietly released a new “Desktop Camera” app that might just be for Android PCs, but it’s a little too early to tell.

Smartphones have gotten really boring over the past few years, with most year-over-year “upgrades” just acting as a rehash of the prior year’s device with a new chipset and maybe some new colors. And yet, we just keep getting these boring upgrades. It’s been true for years now that phones simply do not need a yearly refresh anymore, but 2026 would be the year to make the switch – not that anyone is actually going to.