What Launched in Phones and Tablets This Month: August 2026

2026-08-12

August is traditionally a quiet month before September's usual iPhone announcement, but 2026 has been busy. Here's what actually shipped, in plain terms.

Google Pixel 11 series

Google's "Made by Google" event brought the Pixel 11 line, built around the new Tensor G6 chip. The headline change is on-device AI throughput — Google says local AI tasks run several times faster and more efficiently than on the previous generation's Tensor chip — alongside an updated camera system and a new "Pixel Glow" LED accent on the back panel. Pre-orders opened the same day as the announcement.

Samsung's foldables get wider

Samsung's eighth-generation foldable lineup — Z Fold8, Z Fold8 Ultra, and Z Flip8 — moved to a notably different shape for the Fold: shorter and wider than earlier generations, with a 7.6-inch inner display and a 5.5-inch cover screen that's now much more usable as a normal phone screen when folded, rather than the narrow "candy bar" cover screens of earlier Fold models.

A bigger Android tablet

Samsung's Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra rounds out the tablet side: a 14.6-inch display, Samsung's largest-ever tablet battery at 11,600 mAh, and a MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ chip shared with the standard Tab S11. It's aimed squarely at people who want a laptop-replacement-sized screen in tablet form.

What's still ahead

September is the usual window for Apple's next iPhone generation and any updates to the Apple Watch and AirPods lines; we'll cover those here once they're official, sourced the same way as everything else on this site — from manufacturer announcements and named, checkable reporting, never speculation presented as fact.