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# This Week in Tech: iPhone Duo, Gears of War: E-Day, AI Price Wars and More (Oct 5–10)
- URL: https://blog.brightpixel.work/this-week-in-tech-october-5-10-2026/
- Published: 2026-10-09T22:33:09.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-09T22:33:09.000Z
- Description: The week's biggest stories in phones, games and AI — in one quick read. Plus what's coming next week.
- Author: BrightPixel
- Tags: Weekly Roundup, Phones, Games, AI

Busy week? Here's everything important that happened in games, phones and AI — in about three minutes. Click any story for the full details.

📰

****This week in one line:** Apple's first foldable is days from pre-orders, Gears of War: E-Day is out to strong reviews, and AI companies are cutting prices and releasing giant new models.

## 📱 Phones

- **iPhone Duo pre-orders are next.** Apple's first foldable — 7.6-inch inside, 5.4-inch outside, from $1,999 — opens for pre-orders on October 16 and goes on sale October 23\. [Full guide →](https://blog.brightpixel.work/iphone-duo-apple-foldable-price-release-date/)
- **OnePlus 16 launches Sunday in China** with the 2nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 and a reported 200MP camera. [What we know →](https://blog.brightpixel.work/oneplus-16-launch-specs/)
- **Battery sizes keep growing.** vivo's new S2 FE has a 10,000mAh battery, and the X Fold6 packs the equivalent of 6,900mAh into a foldable. [Every October launch →](https://blog.brightpixel.work/phone-launches-october-2026/)

## 🎮 Games

- **Gears of War: E-Day is here** — and critics like it, with a Metacritic score around 87–88\. Praise for the combat, mixed feelings on the story. [Review roundup →](https://blog.brightpixel.work/gears-of-war-e-day-reviews-roundup/)
- **Battlefield 6 joins Game Pass on October 13**, the same week Season 5 takes the fighting to Las Vegas. [What you get →](https://blog.brightpixel.work/battlefield-6-game-pass-season-5/)
- **Modern Warfare 4 is two weeks away.** It launches October 23, with campaign early access from October 16 and a rebuilt DMZ mode. [Everything we know →](https://blog.brightpixel.work/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-4-release-dmz/)

## 🤖 AI

- **Anthropic cuts prices with Claude Haiku 5.5** — up to 90% cheaper than the previous version for most prompts. [Read more →](https://blog.brightpixel.work/claude-haiku-5-5-price-cut/)
- **Mistral Large 4 arrives in preview.** Europe's roughly 1-trillion-parameter model promises open weights by the end of October. [Read more →](https://blog.brightpixel.work/mistral-large-4-open-weight-model/)
- **The Pentagon says it has stopped using Anthropic's AI**, the BBC reports — though sources say Claude was still in use until recently. [Read more →](https://blog.brightpixel.work/pentagon-stops-using-anthropic-ai/)
- **DeepSeek nears a \~$12 billion funding round** backed by Tencent and CATL, ahead of a planned 2027 listing. [Read more →](https://blog.brightpixel.work/deepseek-funding-tencent-catl/)

## 📅 Coming next week

| Date        | What's happening                                                    |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Sun, Oct 12 | OnePlus 16 launch event (China)                                     |
| Mon, Oct 13 | Battlefield 6 and Valor Mortis join Game Pass                       |
| Wed, Oct 15 | RedMagic 12 Pro+ expected in China (reported)                       |
| Fri, Oct 16 | iPhone Duo pre-orders open · Modern Warfare 4 campaign early access |

## Worth reading this week

- [The best Xbox Game Pass games to play right now](https://blog.brightpixel.work/best-xbox-game-pass-games/)
- [How to choose a budget phone in 2026](https://blog.brightpixel.work/how-to-choose-a-budget-phone/)
- [The best free AI tools in 2026](https://blog.brightpixel.work/best-free-ai-tools/)

**What was the biggest tech story of the week for you?**

*Sources are listed in each linked article. Images: Apple, Xbox, Electronic Arts, Mistral AI.*