Smartphone launches surge in 'Techtember' as IFA kicks off and new iPhones loom

We’re not even half a day into September, and two new smartphones have already launched: the Poco F9 Pro and F9 Ultra. We’re expecting more this week, as the IFA trade show kicks off in Berlin, before we get new iPhones a week after that. And that’s only the beginning of what promises to be an exceptionally busy month for smartphone launches.

For the decade I’ve worked in the industry, tech journalists have always spoken in hushed tones about the dreaded “Techtember,” when just about every tech company on the planet seems to be in unspoken agreement that it’s time to launch new products in time for the holiday buying season. (It’s followed, in particularly packed years, by Techtober too). In the last few years the pressure has lessened a little, the release calendar stretching out into neighboring months. But in 2026 Techtember is back with a vengeance, especially when it comes to phones.

It always starts with IFA. Europe’s biggest tech trade show attracts over 200,000 visitors and global manufacturers from across tech. IFA doesn’t have as many phone launches as it did a decade ago, when the likes of Sony, Samsung, and LG would routinely launch flagships at the show, but there’s still plenty on the way this week.

Tecno has teased a bezelless concept phone, which it says it’ll be bringing to the show. TCL usually brings an array of E Ink-esque Nxtpaper phones to show, so I’d hope to see some at its press conference. There’s even an outside chance of a whole new foldable: Xiaomi is attending IFA for the first time ever, just a week after it teased the upcoming Xiaomi 18 Fold and promised the phone a launch in early September. Its September 3rd press conference would certainly make sense for that.

Then there’s Apple. The company won’t be at IFA, but it has already announced a September 9th event, where we expect it to launch new iPhones. Rumor has it that it’s splitting its launch up in an act of solidarity with overworked phone reviewers (I wish), delaying the regular iPhone 18 to next spring and sticking to the Pros this month. Still, the long-awaited arrival of the first foldable iPhone should be enough to keep us busy.

But that’s far from all that’s coming. Android Headlines reckons at least 20 phones will launch this month, and that might be a conservative estimate.

Huawei will launch its latest trifold, the Mate XT 2, in China on September 7th, and perhaps the Mate 90 lineup too. Xiaomi will follow up the 18 Fold with the 18 Pro lineup later in the month. Vivo has confirmed its flagship X500 series will also arrive in September, and Honor has done the same for its Magic 9 flagships. Oppo’s Find X10 line has been heavily tipped to arrive in September too, though thankfully some suggest it might slip to the following month. Even OnePlus is expected to get in on the action: its OnePlus 16 rumored to release in September too — though not in the US or Europe.

Why the sudden glut? I blame Qualcomm. It used to launch its flagship Snapdragon chips in December, but that launch date has steadily moved forward, in part to give manufacturers time to ship new products ahead of lucrative holiday sales seasons, both in China and abroad. So this year it’s holding its annual Snapdragon Summit from September 22nd to 24th, when it’s likely to reveal the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6. Promptly after that, we can expect a rush of Android manufacturers announcing phones powered by the new silicon.

With RAMageddon in full swing, the jury’s still out on how appealing these launches will be. Outside of Samsung’s fun Galaxy Z Fold 8, a lot of this year’s biggest phones have been rehashes of 2025 models with a price hike and a chipset bump — and occasionally not even that. At least we’ll have more foldables to be excited about, and hopefully a couple of manufacturers have another surprise or two in store.

A month chock-full of phones, that I can do. But if we’re about to get a Techtember full of iterative updates that cost more, without delivering anything special? Wake me up when it’s Techtober.