The Samsung Galaxy Unpacked product showcase took quite a while to unload. About Galaxy Foldables, Galaxy Watch Ultraand Improved Galaxy BudsBut of all the announcements made on Wednesday, the most striking and memorable was Lord of the Ring Fans can now purchase the long-awaited $399 Galaxy Ring They’ll come in gold (and bind them in the dark), and all will be available on July 24th, with pre-orders starting today.
Samsung’s latest products seem poised to take on Apple at Galaxy Unpacked, especially with the new $179 Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Buds 3 Pro featuring a stick design similar to your Galaxy Buds. Airpods ProThe new and improved Galaxy Watch 7 is finally here. Modified Health Sensor The most interesting of these is the Galaxy Watch Ultra, which Apple Watch Ultra 2.
It wouldn’t be a Galaxy Unpacked without a foldable smartphone, and as expected, we got our first look at the $1,899 Galaxy Z Fold 6 and the $1,099 Z Flip 6. These two devices may look very familiar to anyone who’s been using the Galaxy Z Fold 6 for years. Flip 5 and Fold 5But there are some key differences, including a more squared-off shell on the Z Fold 6. That comes at a cost, though, with both devices costing $100 more than last year’s previous phones.
The pressure is mounting for foldable consoles. Motorola, OnePlus,Furthermore Google Others have entered the U.S. market with products that are cheaper than Samsung’s latest offerings, and it will be interesting to see if the much-touted Galaxy AI can keep the foldable smartphone market in the South Korean tech giant’s big orbit.
Galaxy Unpacked: Galaxy Z Fold 6 is Samsung’s lightest foldable device ever
The big flagship foldable, consistently cited as one of the best phablet foldables, is back with better processing power and an improved 7.6-inch AMOLED internal screen. The new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 has increased in price, starting at $1,900 for 256GB of storage, with prices starting at $1,000. Better than the Z Fold 5.
Rather than shrinking closer to the size of a standard phone when closed, the Fold 6 maintains its compact shape, but with angular corners where previously it was rounded. Samsung claims it’s its lightest foldable yet. Thin foldable displays are known to be more sensitive than typical phone screens, but Samsung says the new internal screen is more durable. A new STF coating makes creases less noticeable than on previous foldables. The bezels have also been slimmed down in an attempt to maximize screen real estate.
The new Galaxy Z is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, which boasts improved CPU and GPU capabilities, as well as a significantly improved neural processor that handles some of the AI features on the device. The internal screen is said to have a peak brightness of 2,600 nits, and it also has some gaming features, including support for ray tracing.
The Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 should be promised seven years of security updates.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 has improved external cameras
The $1,099 Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 also has a design very similar to the Z Flip 5, but is more expensive. It retains the previous generation’s 3.4-inch AMOLED FlexWindow, but you can access some AI features like reply suggestions from the external screen. The FlexWindow now works with the Galaxy AI Live Translation feature, so your conversation partner can see your translated text and you can see their translation on the internal display.
The Galaxy Z Flip 6 has camera features on par with the Galaxy S24, with a 50MP wide-angle main sensor and a 12MP ultra-wide-angle lens on the outside. The main sensor has 2x optical zoom and up to 10x zoom. Nightography uses AI to enhance dark photos. The FlexCam feature automatically zooms to keep your subject in the center of the frame when you’re using the Flip half-open. There’s also an auto slow-motion feature.
A new vapor chamber keeps it cool, and a 4,000mAh battery ensures all-day battery life. The Photo Ambient feature lets you add “live effects” to the image you use as wallpaper, including making the image darker or brighter depending on the time of day, and generating fake rain or snow during inclement weather.
The Galaxy Ring is designed to be a discreet fitness tracker
Perhaps the biggest announcement at Galaxy Unpacked was the fact that the $399 Galaxy Ring is finally here, a screen-less health and wellness tracker that, as expected, weighs between 2.3 and 3 grams and comes in nine sizes. It comes in a variety of sizes and three colors: As mentioned above, the gold color is perfect for those who want to constantly use the Eye of Sauron to determine their health.
The three sensors send sleep, diet, and fitness metrics, including heart rate and sleep patterns, to the Samsung Health app.
It is designed to be worn 24/7 and is said to last up to 7 days on a single charge. It is made of titanium, so it is durable and relatively easy on the fingers, and it is water resistant to 10 ATM and can withstand depths of up to 100 meters.
New version of Galaxy Buds 3 looks just like real AirPods
The $180 Galaxy Buds 3 boast a new look with a stick-shaped design reminiscent of the AirPods. Both the Buds 3 and Buds 3 Pro have adaptive EQ and ANC, but compared to the Pro, the cheaper earbuds only have a one-way speaker. The case is rectangular to better accommodate the stick-shaped earbuds.
Galaxy Unpacked: Galaxy Buds 3 Pro comes in silver grey with a very punky industrial look
It’s not just the new shape that makes the $249 Galaxy Buds 3 Pro stand out: Samsung says its latest premium earbuds are made to fit even the oddest shaped ears, and they should adjust the ANC and sound experience depending on whether the earbuds fit snugly or loosely.
The South Korean tech giant said that in terms of pure audio quality, these are the “best” earbuds it has ever produced. They feature two-way speakers with dual amplifiers that support Hi-Fi audio. The new Buds are supposed to have twice the playback bandwidth of the Buds 2 Pro, but as always, we’ll have to test them ourselves to determine the veracity of the claims.
The obvious comparison for the new Galaxy Buds Pro is the Apple AirPods Pro, but beyond the stick design there are some other interesting design choices. First, the main color choice is RobocopThe body is a sort of steel grey, with a blue or red stripe to indicate whether the stick is for the left or right ear. The more expensive Galaxy Buds have in-ear silicone to hold them in place, while the cheaper Galaxy Buds have the standard stick. They also come with a clear plastic lid in case you get worried your more expensive Buds aren’t in place.
Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch 7 has improved health sensors
Like the Watch 6, the Galaxy Watch 7 aims to be a powerful tool for managing your health. It is powered by a 3nm processor, making it three times faster than the previous watch. It comes in 40mm and 44mm watch sizes, each with different color options.
Both watches feature dual-frequency GPS for precise location tracking in cities and forests. Still, the main feature of the Watch 7 series is the improved BioActive sensor that allows for better health measurements, heart rate monitoring, and generates a “body composition” health report. The latest watches and newly redesigned health sensor are among the first watches to receive U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to detect sleep apnea.
All new watches will run WearOS 5.
Galaxy Unpacked: The new Galaxy Watch Ultra is as attractive as it is expensive
of $649 Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra It retains many of the great things about the Watch 7, but is now more durable and water-resistant to a depth of 100 meters. It has a multisport tile for those training for triathlons, and can be programmed with action-like “quick buttons” to instantly start or control a workout.
The watch face is circular like other Galaxy watches, but it also features a squared-off titanium cushion frame for added durability.
The Watch Ultra uses a “personalized FTP” that requires four minutes of cycling time compared to previous watches, and it requires a smartphone connection but should work with the new Samsung Health for tracking.
The more expensive watch is also said to offer 100 hours of battery life in power saving mode and 48 hours in “kinetic power saving” mode.
Galaxy Unpacked: Galaxy AI and Google AI both stream to Samsung’s foldable device
Circle to Search will be coming to Samsung’s foldable device, along with other recent additions like translation and math/physics homework assistance, and the company promises that symbolic math problem-solving will also be available in the near future.
Samsung’s own Galaxy AI is another set of AI features. The first is Note Assist, which brings several AI capabilities to the Samsung Notes app. It enables translation and transcription services and can also summarize recordings. The Composer feature is an AI chatbot that generates text based on prompts. Finally, Smart Select gives S Pen users quick access to AI translation features.
Sketch to image to photo assistance
The latest foldable smartphone also comes with more AI features: A sketch-to-image feature lets users draw on top of a photo, and with the press of a button, the phone will use AI to try to generate more realistic objects in the image, a feature similar to Microsoft Paint’s Copilot+ Cocreate feature.
There’s also Photo Assist, which enhances some elements of a photo, such as brightness. Another, perhaps less useful, AI feature is Portrait Studio, which takes a photo and creates an AI-generated mockup of the subject in the image. Samsung used the feature on actor Sydney Sweeney, with some pretty strange, plastic-looking results.
