The 6G, modular, robot phones of the future

What It Covers

The Vergecast covers Mobile World Congress 2026 trends through a one-to-five readiness scale applied to emerging phone technologies — 6G, modular phones, privacy displays, foldable phones, and thin devices — plus a deep dive into phone straps as a rising accessory category, and a metaverse reality check with a 14-year-old listener's question.

Key Questions Answered

• •6G Readiness Scale: Rate 6G a solid five on likelihood — it will happen — but with a minimum five-year timeline before consumer availability. The primary use case being marketed is AI compute distribution across devices, towers, and data centers. This mirrors the early 5G "build it and use cases will come" playbook, making the argument compelling in structure but weak in concrete near-term application for everyday users.
• •Foldable Phone Progress: The ingredients for a fully recommendable foldable phone now exist but remain scattered across different devices. Google and Honor offer IP68/69 dust and water resistance; Motorola's Razr Fold adds silicon-carbon battery technology at 6,000+ mAh capacity. No single US-available device combines all these features yet, placing foldables at a four out of five — nearly there, but always carrying a price premium over standard slab phones.
• •Silicon-Carbon Battery Technology: Silicon-carbon batteries deliver significantly higher capacity at thinner profiles compared to traditional lithium-ion cells, enabling 6,000–7,000 mAh in slim devices. US manufacturers have avoided adoption due to concerns about long-term charge cycle degradation. However, OnePlus already sells silicon-carbon phones in the US, and Motorola's Razr Fold adoption could normalize the technology domestically if real-world longevity proves acceptable to mainstream consumers.
• •Phone Strap Utility Case: Phone straps solve a genuine daily friction problem — constant pocket-digging in walkable, tap-to-pay urban environments. Crossbody straps rate as the most versatile entry point: adjustable length, concealable under a coat, usable as a neck lanyard for swimming. The accessory spectrum runs from a few dollars on Amazon to Bandolier's $100+ options, mirroring the phone case ecosystem's price range and customization breadth.
• •Phone Strap Cultural Origins: Strap culture originated in Japan, where kimono-based clothing lacked pockets, creating a pre-existing tradition of attaching objects to the body. As phones shrank from brick size, Japanese manufacturers included straps by default. Mobile payment adoption in China, Korea, and Singapore — earlier and more comprehensive than in Japan — further accelerated strap utility in Asia, explaining why the trend remains years ahead of US adoption in those markets.
• •Metaverse Hardware Ceiling: VR headsets face a hard ceiling as a mass-market metaverse platform: battery life caps at two to three hours, display quality remains a barrier, and competing platforms — Fortnite, Roblox, Meta Horizon Worlds — have no incentive to interoperate. Meta's pivot of Horizon Worlds from VR-first to mobile-first confirms this ceiling. The realistic near-term metaverse is mobile gaming platforms, not immersive headset environments, regardless of five-year hardware improvements.