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 For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Astropad to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win an iPhone 17 and an anti-reflective Fresh Coat screen protector from Astropad to go along with it.
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Or another ultra-thin phone, either.
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 This week we tracked quite a few deals across numerous Apple products, including low prices on Apple Watch Series 11, AirPods Max, and iPhone 17 TechWoven cases, all of which are still available today. You'll also find great discounts on portable power stations and Samsung's new Galaxy S26 smartphones below.
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Samsung's Unpacked event midweek revealed three new phones and two sets of earbuds, but the real standout, as usual, is the Galaxy S26 Ultra. This year, the Ultra actually features a bit of genuine tech innovation — and no, we don't mean it folds.
Let's talk about its new Privacy Display. This isn't a shimmery, holographic screen protector that's hard to read and constantly peels off at the corners; this tech is engineered directly into the S26 Ultra's OLED display.
Samsung Display revealed its Flex Magic Pixel technology back in 2024. The S26 Ultra's Privacy Display is built off the back of this. It controls the direction of light emitted from the AMOLED at the pixel level, integrating wide-angle and narrow-angle pixel arrays so the display can switch between a wide-angle viewing experience and more private, straight-on views.
While HP's SureView tech is similar, the amount of customization possible is incredible — and we all have our phones out in public much more than our… HP laptops. It could be perfect for keeping prying eyes off your banking apps, messaging apps and even dating apps.
Otherwise, the rest of the S26 series offers incremental updates with better cameras and newer processors. This makes the base S26 and S26 a harder sell unless your current Galaxy phone is several years old. Also, following the 2026 trend, they are all pricier this year.
Make sure you check out our early impressions (S26 Ultra,
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 Apple's imminent series of announcements will focus on chip updates, rather than redesigned devices, according to a known leaker.
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 Global memory scarcity will cause a 13 percent drop in smartphone sales in 2026, according to IDC (via Bloomberg). DRAM is in short supply because AI companies are buying huge quantities of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for servers in data centers, and manufacturers are prioritizing HBM instead of the memory used in consumer devices.
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AI-fueled memory scarcity is hitting the phone market hard this year, particularly for inexpensive, low-end devices.
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You can feel comfortable scrolling on the subway in peace with Samsung's new flagship phone.
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Auto-brightness can be a frustrating feature when you don't want to deal with it. Here's how to ditch it for good.
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 Apple has submitted production line orders for its upcoming foldable iPhone, effectively confirming that the device will launch this year, claims a Chinese leaker.
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