The Vergecast

While most phone makers work hard to ensure their products don’t start fires, Oukitel made a phone that starts fires on purpose. This week on The Vergecast, Dominic Preston joins Editor-in-Chief Nilay Patel to wrap up all the weird and wonderful phones he and the team saw at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Then, Sean Hollister takes us through Google and Epic’s enemies-to-lovers saga: A secret $800 million deal, a non-disparagement agreement, and something about the metaverse for some reason. Plus: Nilay just had the best home movie experience of his life thanks to the Kaleidescape 8TB solid-state server, Dom’s charging his smart phone on a mini racecar, and Sean delivers some disappointing news about the Lego smart brick we were all rooting for. And Brendan Carr is still being a dummy.

Further reading:

⁠Nothing is finally covering up with the slim, metal Phone 4A Pro⁠

⁠Nothing couldn’t wait to show off the Phone 4A⁠


⁠Nothing’s Headphone A are something worth considering⁠⁠

Honor’s Robot Phone is a bad robot, an interesting camera, and maybe your friend⁠

⁠Honor claims its Robot Phone will launch later this year⁠


⁠Honor’s Magic V6 is the first foldable with an IP69 rating⁠

⁠Xiaomi’s Leica Leitzphone mostly earns the name⁠

⁠Xiaomi, unlike Google and Samsung, thinks camera hardware comes first⁠

⁠Xiaomi 17 is a small(ish) phone with a big(ish) battery⁠

⁠Here’s the upgrade to my favorite phone camera of last year⁠

⁠Tecno is doing a modular phone (again)⁠


⁠Lenovo made a Framework-like laptop with modular ports — and a second screen⁠ ⁠

Google isn’t waiting for a settlement — the 30 percent Android app store fee is dead⁠

⁠Here’s how Google describes its fee-reducing Apps Experience and Games Level Up programs⁠

⁠Epic and Google have signed a special deal for a new class of ‘metaverse’ apps⁠

⁠Tim Sweeney signed away his right to criticize Google until 2032⁠

⁠Fortnite is returning to Google Play globally⁠

⁠FCC Chair Brendan Carr is pushing for US-based call centers⁠

I’m not ashamed to admit the Kobo Remote is the best gadget I’ve bought this year⁠

Did Live Nation punish a venue by taking Billie Eilish away?⁠

I charge my phone on a racing car. Do you? ⁠

⁠Investigating the 61-pound machine that eats plastic and spits out bricks

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Apple released a bunch of new iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Studio Displays this week. The Verge’s Nilay Patel and David Pierce tried them all this morning, and are back to share their thoughts live.

Further reading:

All the news about Apple’s MacBook Neo, iPhone 17E, and more

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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Most mainstream phone options are kind of the same, year in and year out — but that doesn’t mean there’s no innovation to be found. The Verge’s Allison Johnson is at Mobile World Congress, and joins the show to report on all the modular phones, robot phones, small phones, big phones, and (alas) 6G phones set to hit the market this year. After that, The Verge’s Jess Weatherbed explains the phenomenon of the gadget strap, and makes the case that they’re an increasingly useful accessory as our phones become even more important to our daily lives. (Yes, even if you have pockets.) Finally, The Verge’s Jay Peters helps David answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email [email protected]!) about whether the metaverse, however you want to define it, is ever going to be realized.

Further reading:

Oh great, here comes 6G 

Honor claims its Robot Phone will launch later this year 

Lenovo made a Franken-laptop with modular ports and a second screen 

Vivo’s next phone will launch with a professional camera rig 

Tecno’s latest concept phone is lit by neon 

Honor’s Magic V6 is the first foldable with an IP69 rating 

The Motorola Razr Fold is shaping up to be pure flagship

Xiaomi’s super-slim power bank costs extra in orange. 

Honor’s thinnest tablet doesn’t come cheap. 

Peak Design has wearable gadget straps for people who hate bags 

Apple’s misunderstood crossbody iPhone strap might be the best I’ve seen 

Meta confirms Reality Labs layoffs and shifts to invest more in wearables

Meta’s VR metaverse is ditching VR

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11.
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Samsung just launched its newest phones, the Galaxy S26 lineup, and wow is it full of Vergecast stories. There’s the very cool new Privacy Display, which seems genuinely useful; there’s the AI-powered camera, which seems like a disaster waiting to happen; and there’s the new agentic AI in Android, which Google and Samsung might be positioned to actually pull off. After talking through all the new stuff, Nilay and David discuss the recent executive shakeup at Xbox, and try to figure out why Microsoft just can’t win in games. Finally, in the lightning round, it’s time for Brendan Carr is a dummy, some truly remarkable charts, and much more.

Further reading:


⁠Samsung Unpacked 2026: live updates from the Galaxy S26 ⁠⁠announcement event ⁠

⁠Samsung Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus hands-on: More of the same ⁠

⁠Samsung AI photos⁠


⁠Google Gemini can book an Uber or order food for you with new agentic AI features ⁠⁠Google and Samsung just launched the AI features Apple couldn’t with Siri⁠

⁠I’m super impressed with the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s new Privacy Display ⁠

⁠Samsung announces Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro at Unpacked 2026⁠

⁠Xbox shakeup: Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond are leaving Microsoft ⁠

⁠Xbox chief Phil Spencer is leaving Microsoft ⁠

⁠Read Xbox chief Phil Spencer’s memo about leaving Microsoft ⁠

⁠Sarah Bond is leaving Xbox ⁠

⁠Read Xbox president Sarah Bond’s memo about leaving Microsoft. ⁠

⁠Inside Microsoft’s big Xbox leadership shake-up ⁠

⁠Read Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharma’s first memo on the future of Xbox ⁠

⁠New Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharma says “hear you” to complaints about a lack of Xbox exclusives.⁠

⁠New Xbox CEO: ‘The plan’s the plan until it’s not the plan.’ ⁠

⁠Microsoft says today’s Xbox shake-up doesn’t mean game studio layoffs ⁠

⁠Billions of dollars later and still nobody knows what an Xbox is ⁠

⁠Chairman Carr Announces Pledge America Campaign⁠

⁠Does Anthropic think Claude is alive? Define ‘alive’⁠

⁠Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas AI Scenarios chart⁠

⁠Youtube Chair Drama⁠

⁠OpenAI’s Stargate struggles. ⁠

⁠OpenAI’s first ChatGPT gadget could be a smart speaker with a camera ⁠

⁠Subscribe to The Verge⁠ for unlimited access to ⁠theverge.com⁠, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ⁠ad-free podcast feed⁠.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to ⁠[email protected]⁠ or call us at 866-VERGE11.
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Few AI products have found the kind of product-market fit we’ve seen from Claude Code. On the eve of the product’s first anniversary, Anthropic’s Boris Cherny explains why Claude Code is so powerful, all the work left to do, and why he no longer writes any code himself. After that, The Verge’s Hayden Field joins the show to talk about how we should think about giving our data (and our computers) to AI, even when it seems useful. Finally, The Verge’s Allison Johnson helps David answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (866-VERGE11) about whether you should go buy a phone, like, right now.

Further reading:

Claude Code is suddenly everywhere inside Microsoft

Claude has been having a moment — can it keep it up?

The AI security nightmare is here and it looks suspiciously like lobster 

OpenClaw’s AI ‘skill’ extensions are a security nightmare 

Humans are infiltrating the social network for AI bots 

Anthropic connects Claude to Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and OneDrive 

MCP extension unites Claude with apps like Slack, Canva, and Figma 

The RAM shortage is coming for everything you care about 

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11.
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