The 5 most exciting phones yet to come in 2026

Right at the end of 2025, I dismissed the preceding 12 months as “a boring year in tech” and “a boring year for phones”.

All I wanted for 2026 was a phone that excites me. We’re now halfway through the year. So, how are we doing?

Not great, to be brutally honest. The AI-induced memory pricing crisis has made life difficult for manufacturers and expensive for consumers, resulting in a worrying conservative streak in the latest smartphone releases.

There is plenty of reason for hope, though. The second half of 2026 looks set to produce some of the most interesting phone releases in years.

Here are the five phones I’m most excited to get my hands on over the next few months.

iPhone Ultra

I’m not particularly a foldables guy, and I’m especially not a book-style foldables guy. But I do appreciate the efforts that are being made to push the format forward, and the Motorola Razr Fold is my surprise hit of the year so far.

when Apple makes a move in the smartphone business, it tends to influence the direction of the entire industry

As such, the phone I’m most interested to see in the second half of 2026 is the iPhone Ultra. Whether you like the company’s work or not, when Apple makes a move in the smartphone business, it tends to influence the direction of the entire industry.

Whether you intend to buy Apple’s first-ever foldable phone or not, its success (or otherwise) will determine the shape and capabilities of whatever foldable phone you do choose to buy over the coming years.

I can also see a lot of sense in Apple’s heavily rumoured approach here. In adopting a stubbier 4:3 aspect ratio (allegedly), the company is producing an ultra-portable iPad as much as an iPhone foldable. There’s a lot of sense in that, as any iPad owner will attest to.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8/Wide

From a certain angle, Samsung’s by-now confirmed (albeit in a roundabout way) intention to pre-empt the iPhone Ultra with its own wider foldable could be viewed as cynical.

the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is tipped to weigh in at just 201g. That’s well into ‘normal’ or non-foldable territory

However, I’m excited to see the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 (as it’s confusingly set to be called), and not for its expected boxier 4:3 aspect ratio.

Samsung made great strides forward with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, creating a full-sized foldable that was way thinner and lighter than before.

Now, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is tipped to weigh in at just 201g. That’s well into ‘normal’ or non-foldable territory.

When I said that I’m not a foldables guy in the previous entry, a large part of that comes down to how clumsy and unwieldy these things are to use day to day. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 could go some way towards addressing that.

Nothing Phone (4b)

As I said in the intro, mobile phones are boring, and cheap budget and mid-range phones even more so. One affordable phone ran counter to that narrative in 2025: the CMF Phone 2 Pro.

Parent company Nothing has announced that it isn’t creating a follow-up in 2026, but it is doing something just as interesting. Possibly more so.

As the name suggests, the Nothing Phone (4b) will align way more closely to the wider range, adopting the company’s signature semi-transparent design and novel Glyph LED notification system.

If the London-based company can get its pricing right (a tricky task in this climate) and continue the good work done with the CMF Phone 2 Pro, this could be one of the most exciting phones of the year – at any price.

Google Pixel 11 Pro

This hasn’t been a particularly great year for Google’s Pixel smartphone brand. The Google Pixel 10a was a cynically repurposed Pixel 9a, while the big Android 17 update seems to have introduced a whole bunch of glitches to the series.

Hold a gun to my head and insist that I choose one Android phone…I’d probably go for the Google Pixel 10 Pro

If anything, that makes me all the more interested to see what the company has in store for its next flagship phone.

Hold a gun to my head and insist that I choose one Android phone to use for the rest of the year, and I’d probably go for the Google Pixel 10 Pro. I’m a sucker for compact phones, while Google’s clean UI, Qi2 charging, and the Pixel camera experience are all major wins.

Now fold in reports of all-new camera hardware (finally) and a brand new LED lighting system on the back (sure, why not), and the Google Pixel 11 Pro automatically becomes one of my most anticipated phone launches of the second half of 2026.

OnePlus 16

This one’s a different kind of excitement. The ‘rubbernecking on the motorway’ kind that leaves you feeling a little guilty afterwards.

We don’t really know what’s going on with the OnePlus brand, but we can say with some confidence that it’s not good. Reports are rife that parent company Oppo is exploring ways to diminish and ultimately wrap up what is becoming a decreasingly relevant sub-brand.

And yet, that sub-brand still seems to be announcing new products, and a OnePlus 16 flagship phone is reportedly still on the cards for late 2026.

I wasn’t as big a fan of the OnePlus 15 as many were, thanks to its somewhat generic design and degraded camera offering. But it was (and remains) a total stamina champ, and was actually cheaper than its predecessor – a fact that seems increasingly outlandish as 2026 grinds on.

We don’t really know what’s going on with the OnePlus brand, but we can say with some confidence that it’s not good

I’m fascinated to see what the follow-up has to offer – and if we’ll even see one in this country.

As you can see, despite an underwhelming 2026 for phones so far, there’s plenty to look forward to over the next few months. Many of the phone highlights of the year are likely between now and the end of the year, and I for one cannot wait to see what’s in store.