I write about smartphones, Android, and consumer technology for a living, but I can admit that I am addicted to the devices I use every day. I figured I need to have a firebreak and, hand on heart, it’s making me happier and healthier. If you use your phone too much, learn from my missteps.

Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Fold 8 series is here and, obviously, the company wants you to switch to its new foldable. And yet, Samsung is putting money in all the wrong places to accomplish that goal.

The “Google Pixel Flip” isn’t happening. That much is clear, but Samsung’s new changes to the Galaxy Z Flip 8 more or less feel like what Google would have done.

Motorola is pretty bad at software updates, with new Android versions delayed by months and devices often getting the bare minimum of support. And it’s not getting much better, as a new release shows just how confusing it is to understand what Motorola is and is not promising.

There’s a bit of an obsession out there with resurrecting the BlackBerry-style physical QWERTY keyboard but, after trying a couple of the latest attempts, I still struggle to see the appeal in 2026, and I’m really not sure who’s buying these.

Gemini for Android Auto has been divisive, to say the least, but for all of its pros and cons, there’s still one big problem that frustrates me on a frequent basis.

I’m a Nest Cam user every single day, and I mostly enjoy the product. But “Familar Faces” has been a sticking point for me as, frankly, it just doesn’t work very well. Finally, though, Google says it has a plan to fix “Familiar Faces” on Nest Cam, and I really hope it works.

Amazon’s Prime Day is hyped up as this huge event where you can save money but, often, you’re either buying things you don’t need or disappointed by the deals. But, if nothing else, the one thing you should buy on Prime Day is a dash cam for your car.

Google One has long been offered as a way to expand the storage across products like Drive, Gmail, and Photos, but Google has been pivoting it towards a focus on AI. And while that’s compelling for some, the real value in Google’s AI storage subscriptions is now coming from everything else – and it’s simply one of the best deals in tech today.

I’ve had a Pixel Watch of some sort on my wrist nearly every day for the past few years, largely because I’ve come to really value the tracking I get out of what is now Google Health. But, now, there’s another option in the Fitbit Air, a screen-less tracker that, for me, has come to serve as a brilliant little companion to my Pixel Watch.

Yes, Sony actually seems to think that image you’re seeing above looks better after running through an “AI Camera Assistant.” In promoting its new Xperia 1 VIII, Sony is rightfully seeing backlash around the output of these new AI changes – and I can’t help but think about how this is just the worst possible form of the problem facing so many modern smartphone cameras.

“Familiar Faces” in Google Home have been a bit of a mess for years now, but Google is trying to address this pain point of Nest Cam with two key changes – and I’ll take just about anything at this point.

The consequences of RAMageddon have moved beyond the impossibility of building a gaming PC. Price hikes are hitting practically every gadget you could reasonably expect to find in your local Best Buy. Laptops, tablets, gaming consoles — if it’s got memory and a storage drive, it’s probably going up in price, and unfortunately, that’s true for smartphones too.

In a recent interview, Samsung execs discussed how the company’s design language has evolved into what we now know as the Galaxy S26. While it might be true that Samsung has carved out its own identity in the mobile space through generations of refinement, that same design is also at the heart of some of the most annoying-yet-fixable problems facing Galaxy hardware.

Samsung just announced its new mid-range Galaxy A37 and Galaxy A57 phones and they’re coming to the US, but with a starting price of $449, the Pixel 10a, or even the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro, might be more worthwhile.

With this month’s rollout of Android 16 QPR3 and its associated Pixel Drop, anyone rocking one of Google’s growing collection of Pixels is finally getting access to something we’ve waited on for a long time: custom app icons. Unfortunately, using this feature is locked behind a basic set of generative AI tools, and compared to what you’ll find on other launchers — from both first and third-party developers — it’s just not good enough.

Nothing revealed its new Phone (4a) series yesterday and, in a “blink and you’ll miss it” reveal, the company is bringing the Phone (4a) Pro to the US for the first time – here’s why I’m pretty excited about that.

The Galaxy S26 series doesn’t have Qi2 magnets and the official excuse for why ignores the big picture.

Samsung’s standout color for the Galaxy S26 series is its “Cobalt Violet,” and while I’m always down for purple smartphones, this one is underwhelming simply because it can’t decide what it wants to be.

Whether it’s because of increased chip costs, inflation, or a combination of both, Samsung is putting users in a tough spot. The Galaxy S26 series is filled with technically excellent devices, but the only one worth buying might be the one that costs $1,299.

The overall design of the Galaxy S26 Ultra is mostly familiar, but some subtle tweaks such as rounding the corners really make for a nice hardware upgrade.

YouTube has spent the bulk of its existence fighting against unsanctioned download sites and ad-blockers, but the past few years have seen Google really ramp up its war. Ad-blocking users have been treated to missing comments and video descriptions, error messages, missing view counts, increased buffering, loading failures, and much, much more. I get it — no one likes ads, and YouTube’s ads in particular have gone from 5-second pre-rolls and mid-video breaks to something far more in line with traditional streaming services. Modern YouTube ads often feel like they’re overwhelming the video that surrounds them.

Take a peek in Android’s settings menu, and no matter what smartphone you have, you’ll probably find Google’s Digital Wellbeing suite hanging around. At first glance, Digital Wellbeing is perfectly modern, sporting an updated Material 3-friendly design and a whole slate of features like app timers, Bedtime mode, and more. It even has its own space within the settings menu on Pixel, rather than being buried within sub-menus like other useful tools.

Foldables opened the door to a whole new world of smartphones just a few years ago, but somehow the entire Android market has settled into just two form factors – clamshell flip phones and book-style devices that just open up to double the width of a normal smartphone screen. As the inevitable “iPhone Fold” approaches, though, it seems Apple is looking to revive a form factor that Android brands, including Google Pixel, once tried, but failed to keep around, and there’s a clear reason why that happened.