The Vergecast: Ad-Free Edition This phone starts fires on purpose
Mar 6, 2026
Sean Hollister, senior reporter covering platforms and gadgets. Dominic Preston, mobile-hardware journalist who scoured Mobile World Congress. They tour MWC’s weirdest phones and accessories. Talk about a fire-starting rugged phone, Honor’s gimbal-style Robot Phone, modular and waterproof foldable designs. They also dig into Lenovo modular laptops, Nothing’s Phone 4A updates, and the Google–Epic settlement saga.
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Modular Laptop Ports Could Support eGPUs Over M.2
- The hosts flagged Lenovo's Framework-like laptop concept that swaps ports via M.2‑style modules and includes a detachable secondary screen that magnetically attaches to the lid or keyboard.
- Sean highlighted the possibility of PCIe eGPU or NVMe modules, making modularity extend beyond simple dongles.
Nothing Moves Beyond Transparency To Survive
- Dominic covered Nothing's Phone 4A and 4A Pro shift: a thinner metal 4A Pro and a glyph bar/round glyph matrix for notifications, but the matrix is lower resolution and less useful.
- He noted Nothing is evolving away from pure transparency toward diverse hardware to stay relevant in a crowded market.
Google And Epic's Deal Tries To Redefine Android Rules
- Sean explained the Epic vs Google settlement moves: Google plans lower Play Store fees and decoupled billing worldwide while asking the US judge to accept the Epic deal's terms.
- He warned the judge is skeptical because prior injunctions already restricted Google's behavior and the settlement contains redacted, possibly lucrative Epic‑specific terms.