Going into this series, I hoped I’d get back to the T-Mobile G1/HTC Dream and be able to romantically wax about where Android came from. How the G1, though dated, still held up the promises made by Google's first Android effort back in 2008. Analytically, it's all true, but time has not been kind to the phone, and using it has made for a pretty rough week, even by my recent standards.

HMD Global is starting to gain momentum in India following the launch of the Nokia 6.1 Plus. The phone introduced a notched design and improvements on the hardware front, but more than that it signaled HMD's intent to become more aggressive in the Indian market. Retailing for just ₹15,999 ($220, the Nokia 6.1 Plus goes up against of the likes of the Redmi Note 5 Pro and the ZenFone Max Pro M1 in the country.

While there isn’t much we don’t know about the Google Pixel 3 and Google Pixel 3 XL, those two devices aren’t the only things Google will launch at its hardware event on October 9. Today, we get our first real look at one of those items, the so-called “Pixelstand.”

More than 70 new emoji will be coming soon to iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac, including new characters with red hair, gray hair and curly hair, a new emoji for bald people, more emotive smiley faces and additional emoji representing animals, sports and food. The new emoji are available in today’s developer and public beta previews of iOS 12.1, and will be available in upcoming software updates for iOS, macOS and watchOS.

Apple’s brand-new iPhone XS Max features the company’s largest smartphone display ever — a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED variant — but otherwise comes with camera specs that on the surface look pretty much identical to last year’s iPhone X. A closer look reveals important changes, however.

LG Mobile CEO Hwang Jeong-hwan has confirmed the company is working on a foldable phone. Speaking at the press conference for the release of the LG V40 ThinQ (via Yonhap), Hwang explained that LG is working with its partners to prepare the phone. However, it seems unlikely that LG will release the phone any time soon. In the same statement, the CEO said the company isn’t focused on being the first company to release a foldable device. Instead...

Just say, "Hey Siri, I'm getting pulled over." One of the latest apps to hit the iOS 12 mobile highway is Shortcuts. With it, users can plot out a series of actions and trigger them by signaling the voice-assistant. One savvy user created an add-on called Police that can give drivers added security during traffic stops.

Would you pay $2,000 to get a Google Pixel 3 XL three days before its launch? With some smartphones, it seems inevitable that the closer the launch date, the more leaky they get. Google's upcoming Pixel 3 series -- due to launch in New York next Tuesday -- is no exception, and I'm speaking as someone who had just gotten up close and personal with a Pixel 3 XL earlier today. This is courtesy of a Hong Kong mobile shop WahPhone Digital, which is actually offering this fully-boxed device for a mere HK$15,880 or around US$2,030. Ouch.

Every day, many developers post new apps or games on our Apps and Games forum. We scour the XDA forums for interesting new Android apps that we think you might like, and some of our favorites have even received special attention from us. There are so many apps released each day that finding a truly unique and fascinating app can be like picking a needle out of a haystack, but that’s exactly what we’ve done today.

Google’s Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL arrived yesterday without too much fanfare. After all, the devices leaked pretty much in entirety over the course of the last two months, leaving little to the imagination when Google hardware chief Rick Osterloh came on stage. But one aspect of the Pixel 3 XL, in particular, that became more pronounced and perplexing now that we’ve seen it in full — and heard Google’s reasoning about its existence — is the rather obtrusive display notch.

The Xiaomi Pocophone F1 surprised us all by offering some notable flagship specs — including a Snapdragon 845 and a 4,000mAh battery — for the very reasonable starting price of about $300. However, what’s even more surprising is how popular the launcher is on the device. It’s popular enough that a beta listing on the Google Play Store earned half-a-million downloads and some pretty decent reviews with them.

Palm is best known as a pioneer in the worlds of personal digital assistants and smartphones. Even though the company has been dead for years, the brand still boasts a cult following among techies who stared at screens before staring at screens was a thing. So it's surprising that Palm's resurrection comes in the form of a device designed to take you away from one of those screens -- to stare at an even tinier one.

The Google Pixel 3 XL is all dressed up in the latest flagship phone uniform: glass on the back and a notch on the front. But we’re headed past the shiny new facade, for a closer look at the insides. And there’s only one way to get there—with a teardown!

Samsung was not kidding when its CEO announced very significant design changes to the next generation of its flagship phones. A new rumor points out at a quite significant display size increase for the Galaxy S10 and the Galaxy Note 10. The rumor claims that the Galaxy S10’s display will top at 6.44 inches. Most likely this screen resize will be for Plus variant, as the current S9 Plus sports a 6.2-inch AMOLED panel. The regular Galaxy S9 has a 5.8-inch display. We don’t know if that will also apply to the rumored flat panel variant, but that would be great, thank you very much.

Essential Products, the company behind the Essential Phone, has laid off around a third of its employees. The hardware and sales departments were reportedly hit hardest by the cuts. "This has been a difficult decision to make. We are very sorry for the impact on our colleagues who are leaving the company and are doing everything we can to help them with their future careers," an Essential spokeswoman told Bloomberg. "We are confident that our sharpened product focus will help us deliver a truly game-changing consumer product."

Earlier today we reported that Google's latest Pixels had some low audio quality when recording videos, but that isn't the only issue to have appeared since the pair of phones launched. There are also widespread reports that the Pixel 3 XL's two stereo front-facing speakers have drastically different volumes. According to a statement made by Google on Reddit, this profound difference in sound balance is intentional.

Video teardown of the Google Pixel 3, performed in October, 2018.

After months of waiting, the Asus ROG Phone finally received its stateside launch last night in New York City. The latest entry into the burgeoning gaming phone market is available for pre-order now from several U.S. retailers, including Amazon. There are two storage variants of the Asus ROG Phone, both of which have the same specs otherwise. The entry model features 128GB of storage and is priced at $899, while the higher-end 512GB variant will sell for $1,099.

UL Benchmarks revealed this info on October 18, saying that the two Oppo phones were designed to know when 3DMark was running and then crank themselves into high-gear to get the best possible results. When a private version of 3DMark was used on the phones, results came in at 41% lower. The Oppo Find X was previously listed as the #4 fastest phone in one of UL Benchmarks' tests, but following this new evidence, both it and the F7 have been delisted from the site.

Samsung was one of the first phone makers to embrace big screens, making display real estate a focal point in its Galaxy Note lineup. It's a move that smartphone shoppers have also embraced, and one that competitors have tried to ape with phablets of their own.