Between the OnePlus death-hoax and a triple-booting smartphone that thinks it’s a PC, the Android world just got weird again.
I don't know about you, but I had a ton of fun being an Android user this week. It felt like the "old days" of the blogosphere: pure drama. You know how much I love mess.
It started with the wave of incredulity over an AI-generated editorial alleging that OnePlus was, for sure, a goner. We actually broke this down on the show—specifically, why the rumor felt believable enough to catch fire before OnePlus stepped in with a definitive statement. The original report was eventually retracted and rewritten in human form. We've officially come full circle.
Then, things got weird! I don't know what else to call it other than a wacky new smartphone, something you would have seen peddled on Kickstarter circa 2014. The NexPhone is a mid-range device designed to double as a full-blown computer on the go. It runs Linux out of the box but claims to dual-boot with Windows 11. There's also a UI setting that lets you switch to a dedicated Windows Phone mode. From what I've seen in second-hand reports, it totally harkens back to a time when politics seemed understandable, and our biggest concern was whether 4G LTE would roll out to the suburbs.
Obviously, we're curious about the device here at Android Faithful. NexComputer, the company behind the NexPhone, has a history of working on contained-computer concept devices. The company also sells the NexDock, a laptop shell that lets you connect a smartphone as the "brains" and enables desktop mode—Samsung DeX, basically. I want one so bad. It would be so cool to have a manufacturer that made accessories to unlock the full potential behind the literal computers we carry in our pockets.
The NexPhone feels like a love letter to experimentation, something we used to do more of in the Android world, back when things didn't seem so bleak. The device might sound chaotic, too ambitious, and particularly nerdy, but isn't that why we're here, on the Android side of things? It's good to see companies like NexComputer pushing the boundaries as the rest of us hunker down in place.
Now, if someone could properly spoof the Live Tiles launcher on Android, we wouldn't have to go to such lengths to pretend we're back on Windows Phone.
OnePlus is not dead! But it looks like ASUS phones are! Join me, Ron, and Jason, on this week's chaotic breakdown of what's dead and what's alive.
