Earlier today, Google announced the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G, both of which Verizon (Engadget’s parent company) will carry. But if you want to purchase the latter through the carrier, you’ll have to pay $600 or $25 per month on a two-year Verizon Device payment plan to get the device. That’s $100 more than the $499 Google plans to sell the Pixel 4a 5G through its website when the phone goes on sale next month.

You can chalk up the price hike on the fact Verzion’s version of the phone, the Pixel 4a 5G UW, has additional radios and antennas to take advantage of the carrier’s mmWave 5G buildouts. If you live in a city with mmWave coverage, you’ll get access to blazing-fast download speeds, but finding those areas can feel like a scavenger hunt. Here’s the other thing. For a $100 more, you can buy the Pixel 5 through Verizon and get a phone with a bigger battery, IP68 water resistance, Qi wireless charging, a 90Hz display and more RAM. Oh, and it too can connect to Verizon’s mmWave network.

Google’s Pixel 5 event is finally here. The “Launch Night In” starts at 2PM ET/11AM PT, and you can watch it with us below. Alongside the company’s stream, we’ll offer our commentary on all the news in real time. We know that Google will announce a new Pixel phone, Chromecast and smart speaker, and several leaks have already provided additional details on those products. It’ll be interesting to see what’s left to announce.

When Google launched the Pixel 4a in August, it promised that 5G-ready versions of the Pixel 4a and Pixel 5 would arrive this fall. We know the 5G devices will start at $499. Thanks to leaks, we also know that they’ll come with OLED displays and be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765G processor. They’ll support 18W fast charging, too.

Verizon (Engadget’s parent company) was the biggest winner in the FCC’s recently concluded auction for licenses in the 3.5 GHz band. In its announcement, the commission has revealed that Verizon placed $1.89 billion in winning bids, followed by Dish Network (under the name Wetterhorn Wireless) with total winning bids worth $912 million. The FCC started auctioning off 70 megahertz of Priority Access Licenses in a band that’s seen as key to widespread 5G and Internet of Things deployment back in July.

When the agency announced (PDF) the auction’s conclusion last month, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said it was a key part of the commission’s 5G FAST Plan and its “ongoing push to make more mid-band spectrum available for 5G.” In all, the auction reached $4.6 billion in winning bids, not just from Verizon and Dish, but also from a number of cable operators. As the Wall Street Journal notes, their participation suggests that they’re planning to offer more mobile services or that they’re working to break free from running their services on Verizon’s network.

After a busy week of news, Acer isn’t quite done. The company has announced its Spin 7 convertible laptop, which is one of the first to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2. It supports both types of 5G, mmWave and sub-6, though it’s not the first notebook to do so.

On top of that, the Spin 7 has a 360-degree hinge, so you can use it in tablet mode if you prefer. Its touchscreen has a layer of Gorilla Glass for protection, and Acer claims the battery can run for up to 24 hours on a single charge. Acer hasn’t revealed pricing or availability just yet, but if you’re looking for a convertible laptop that can harness 5G, this could be just the ticket.

Samsung plans to release the A42 5G later this year. We don’t know how much it will cost or whether it will make its way to the US. But based on its model number, it will likely set you back less than either the A51 5G and A71 5G. Those two phones made their way stateside earlier this year, costing $500 and $600, respectively.

Samsung

Samsung also announced the Galaxy Tab A7. Thankfully, the company was more forthcoming about its new tablet. It features a 10.4-inch display with an 80 percent screen-to-body ratio and four Dolby Atmos-capable speakers. The images of the tablet Samsung sent over show it will also include a headphone jack and what looks like a SIM slot. As with the A42 5G, Samsung didn’t say how much the tablet will cost, but the company did tell us it will make its way to the US. In any case, the Tab A7 should be an affordable alternative to the company’s new Tab S7 and S7+ tablets.

It’s the first Samsung notebook with a 13MP world-facing camera — if you thought people taking photos with tablets was annoying, just wait till they’re doing so with laptops. There’s a 720p front-facing camera too for all the Zoom calls you’ll be on until the end of time, along with a built-in S Pen you can use on the 13.3-inch Full HD touchscreen. At 1.26 kg, the Galaxy Book Flex 5G isn’t exactly hefty either.

The laptop should have a “more efficient battery life” this time around, according to Samsung. It’s unclear quite what that means in practice, though. Like the first model, the Galaxy Book Flex 5G has a 69.7Wh battery. Back in May, it said the original Galaxy Book Flex would deliver up to 20 hours of runtime. When Engadget ran some battery tests for our generally positive review, that figure was closer to 13 and a half hours.

That said, Evo-certified laptops are required to have fast charging support that gives batteries at least four hours of power after just 30 minutes of charging. Hopefully, that’s prompted Samsung to make some improvements on the battery front here. However, you might be in for a wait to find out whether that’s the case. There’s no word on US availability or pricing as yet.

You no longer need to subscribe to AT&T’s main offerings to get a taste of its 5G service. The carrier’s Cricket Wireless prepaid brand has launched 5G service (via The Verge), providing the faster downloads and reduced lag with lower service costs. You’ll need to spend at least $60 per month for an Unlimited Plan to use a 5G phone, but that’s not surprising given how easily you can chew through data using 5G.

The update also brings 5G to Cricket’s internet-only Simply Data plans, including a new $90 per month plan that offers 100GB at 5G speeds. Service starts at $35 per month for 20GB of full-performance data.

In a conversation with Engadget, Franklin was eager to address some of these questions. And even when he declined to provide specifics, he laid out an ambitious — and in some ways surprising — vision for the BlackBerry of the near future.

The original plan, according to Franklin, was to build the “the most secure phone out there.” That’s the sort of angle that opens doors, but doesn’t usually translate to mass-market success. Over time, however, the team’s priorities came to include productivity, as evidenced by the number of times the word plastered on the OnwardMobility website. For now, the specifics are still shrouded in secrecy; Franklin wouldn’t elaborate on the new BlackBerry’s  features apart from noting that the phone will pack “tons of unique experiences” and “security propositions.” Still, that newfound focus on getting things done helped widen the project’s scope considerably. 

While OnwardMobility is eager to push new hardware at business and government customers, Franklin has committed to building this new phone with normal consumers in mind. “The only way to be successful with government and enterprise is if consumers want to use it too,” he said. “If your company makes you use this phone and you don’t like it, that’s not where we want to be.” 

OnwardMobility

But here’s the thing: OnwardMobility’s definition of a phone consumers want to use seems totally different from TCL’s, or any of BlackBerry’s earlier licensing partners. Franklin describes the device the company plans to ship in the first half of 2021 as a consumer-first “global flagship” (his words, not mine) with a “world-class camera” and support for both sub-6 and mmWave 5G networks. And then there’s the keyboard. OnwardMobility confirmed in its press release that the new BlackBerry would indeed have a physical keyboard, but Franklin — a fan of the classic Bold 9900 — wouldn’t elaborate much on the phone’s design. 

Of course, that might be because the design isn’t set in stone. According to Franklin, the team is collaborating closely with its partner FIH Mobile and has strong opinions about the device it wants to make, but still craves feedback. “We want to hear from the users,” he said. 

With all that said, there is at least one aspect of BlackBerry production that Franklin seems especially adamant about. Security remains the biggest priority for OnwardMobility, and a big part of fully securing a smartphone in 2020 is securing its supply chain. That’s an exceptionally tough feat when you consider the lion’s share of the world’s hardware production happens within Chinese borders. FIH Mobile, Onward’s manufacturing partner, knows that all too well. While its parent company Foxconn is headquartered in Taiwan, most of its smartphone production happens across multiple factories in Shenzhen. 

Not so for the BlackBerry: Franklin insists that the company’s forthcoming phone will be manufactured completely outside of mainland China. If that pans out, the likeliest candidates would be FIH’s facilities in Vietnam or India; the company has been boosting production capacity there as trade friction between the US and China continues to build. Producing a phone outside of China is one thing, but Franklin seems to be chasing an even more ambitious goal. “We want to be the most American-made phone out there,” he said. “The specifics of that and how we’re enabling that are to come.”

ZTE has announced that it will release the first “mass-produced” smartphone with an under-display selfie camera, with the launch set for September 1st. The Axon 20 5G is expected to have a 6.92-inch OLED display, but there’ll be no notches, punch holes or other blemishes where a front camera would normally go.

So far, the most all-screen phones have used cameras that pop out of the top or side. ZTE notes that “all the major industry players” have been working on under-display cameras, but it’s apparently the first to bring one to market. We just hope that under-display tech has improved since we last saw it on an Oppo prototype, because that model showed a fair amount of hazing. The challenge is shooting through the display, which obviously isn’t completely transparent.

Motorola will announce its next major device, which the company says will “flip the smartphone experience once again,” next month. Earlier today, the company sent out media invites asking journalists to set time aside on September 9th.

The teaser doesn’t provide too many hints about what we can expect, but between the included GIF and Motorola’s choice of words, it’s likely we’ll see the company announce a new version of its Razr foldable display phone.