The Samsung Galaxy Unpacked product showcase took quite a bit of unloading. There’s a new slate of Galaxy foldables, a Galaxy Watch Ultra, and improved Galaxy Buds. But of all that’s been announced Wednesday, the most striking and memorable announcement for any The Lord of the Rings fan is the long-awaited $399 Galaxy Ring that comes in gold (And in the darkness, bind them). Everything’s coming out on July 24, with preorders starting today.
Samsung’s latest offering seems perfectly poised to take on Apple during Galaxy Unpacked, especially with the new $179 Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Buds 3 Pro that sport a stick design similar to your AirPods Pro. While we’re finally looking at the new and improved Galaxy Watch 7 with its remodeled health sensor array, the more intriguing item is the Galaxy Watch Ultra. It’s a rugged watch with a programmable action button akin to the Apple Watch Ultra 2.
It wouldn’t be Galaxy Unpacked without foldables, and so, as expected, we’ve received our first look at the $1,899 Galaxy Z Fold 6 and $1,099 Z Flip 6. The two devices may look very familiar to those who’ve spent time with the Flip 5 and Fold 5, but there are a few key differences, including a more squared shell on the Z Fold 6. However, that all comes at a cost, as now both devices cost $100 more than previous phones from last year.
There’s more pressure on foldables now that players like Motorola, OnePlus, and even Google have entered the U.S. market with cheaper products than Samsung’s latest. We’ll have to see if any touted Galaxy AI can keep the foldable market in the Korean tech giant’s large orbit.
Galaxy Unpacked: The Galaxy Z Fold 6 Is Samsung’s Lightest Foldable Yet
The big flagship foldable, routinely cited as one of the best phablet foldables, has returned with better processing power and a changed 7.6-inch AMOLED interior screen. The new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 comes at an increased cost, starting at $1,900 for 256 GB of storage—$100 more than the Z Fold 5.
Instead of trying something closer to the standard phone size when shut, the Fold 6 still has a compact form, though now its once-rounded corners have been squared off. Samsung claims this is their lightest foldable yet. While the thinner foldable displays are known for being more sensitive than your typical phone screen, Samsung said its new interior screen has been beefed up in durability. A new STF coating should also make the creaseless more noticeable than its past foldable. The bezels are also slimmed down to try and maximize screen real estate.
The new Galaxy Zs house a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip that boasts better CPU and GPU capabilities and a vastly improved neural processor to handle some of the on-device AI capabilities. The interior screen’s claimed peak brightness is 2,600 nits. It also has some gaming features, like support for ray tracing.
The Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 should have seven years of promised security updates.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 Has an Improved Exterior Camera
The $1,099 Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 is also coming in at a higher cost, though with a design that is much, much closer to the Z Flip 5. It still maintains the 3.4-inch AMOLED FlexWindow of the previous generation, though you can access some AI features like Suggested replies from the exterior screen. The FlexWindow now works with the Galaxy AI live translate features, so your conversation partner should see your translated text while you see their translation on the interior display.
It now has a 50 MP Wide main sensor and a 12 MP Ultra-wide lens on the outside, and the Galaxy Z Flip 6 promises camera capabilities equivalent to the Galaxy S24. The main sensor has a 2x optical zoom and up to 10x zoom. Nightography uses AI to enhance dark photos—the FlexCam function, when using the Flip half open, now auto zooms to center the subject in the frame. There’s also an automatic slo-mo function.
A new vapor chamber keeps things cool in addition to the 4,000 mAh battery that promises a full-day battery life. With the Photo Ambient feature, you can add “live effects” to some images you use as your wallpaper. This includes darkening or lightening your image depending on the time of day or generating fake rain or snow during adverse weather.
Galaxy Ring is Meant to be an Unobtrusive Fitness Tracker
Perhaps the biggest announcement at Galaxy Unpacked was that the $399 Galaxy Ring is finally here. Just as expected, it’s meant to be a health and wellness tracker without all the screens. It weighs 2.3 to 3 grams and comes in nine different sizes and three colors. As mentioned, the gold color is best for those who always want the proverbial Eye of Sauron to judge their health metrics.
Three sensors send your sleep, eating, and fitness metrics to the Samsung Health app, including heart rate and sleep patterns.
It’s meant to be worn 24/7; the claim is that it can last up to seven days on one charge. It’s made of titanium, so the promise is it should be durable and relatively light on your fingers, plus it’s rated 10ATM water resistance for depths up to 100 meters.
The Galaxy Buds 3 Take on a Real AirPods Look in New Iteration
The $180 Galaxy Buds 3 are sporting a new look with a stick design reminiscent of AirPods. The Buds 3 and Buds 3 Pro have adaptive EQ and ANC, but compared to the Pro, the less expensive buds only include a 1-way speaker. The case is rectangular to house the stick-like buds better.
Galaxy Unpacked: Galaxy Buds 3 Pro Are Looking Very Punk Industrial in Silver Gray
It’s not just a new shape making the $249 Galaxy Buds 3 Pro stand out. Samsung said it created its latest high-end buds to fit any oddly shaped ear. It should also adjust the ANC and sound experience depending on whether the buds fit snugly or loose.
The Korean tech giant said these were “the best” buds they’ve ever produced regarding sheer audio quality. They contain a 2-way speaker with a dual amp that supports Hi-Fi audio. The new Buds should have twice the playback bandwidth of the Buds 2 Pro, but as always, we’ll need to test them ourselves to give any credence to the claims.
The obvious comparison to the new Galaxy Buds Pro is the Apple AirPods Pro, but look beyond the stick design, and there are a few interesting design choices. For one, the main color choice is a Robocop-like steel gray marked with a blue or red stripe to designate whether the stick is made for the left or right ears. The more expensive Galaxy Buds have the in-ear silicone to hold it in place, compared to the standard sticks of the cheaper counterpart. It also comes with a clear plastic lid in case you ever get nervous your expensive buds aren’t where they’re supposed to be.
Samsung’s New Galaxy Watch 7 Has an Improved Health Sensor
Just like the Watch 6, the Galaxy Watch 7 is meant to be a health-tracking powerhouse. It uses a 3nm processor, promising it’s three times faster than previous watches. You can get it in 40mm and 44mm watch sizes, and both will sport different color options.
Both watches include a dual-frequency GPS for accurate location tracking in cities or forests. Still, the main thrust of the Watch 7 series is the improved BioActive Sensor, which is meant to offer better health readings, monitor heart rate, and generate a “Body Composition” health report. The latest watches and the newly redesigned health sensor are among the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved watches to detect sleep apnea.
All the new watches are running on WearOS 5.
Galaxy Unpacked: A New Galaxy Watch Ultra is As Enticing as it Is Expensive
The $649 Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra takes much of what’s good about the Watch 7 but expands it with better durability and water resistance that can take up to 100 meters underwater. It features a multi-sports tile for those training for triathlons, and an Action Button-like “Quick Button” can be programmed to initiate or control workouts immediately.
The watch face is circular like the other Galaxy watches but also includes a square Titanium cushion frame for durability.
The Watch Ultra uses a “personalized FTP” that takes four minutes of cycling time compared to some of its earlier watches. It requires a connection to your phone, but it should work with the new Samsung Health for your tracking.
The more expensive watch is also supposed to offer 100 hours of battery life in power saving mode and 48 hours in “exercise power saving” mode.
Galaxy Unpacked: Galaxy AI and Google AI Both Stream onto Samsung’s Foldables
Circle to Search is coming to Samsung’s foldables, including recent additions like translating and math/physics homework help. The company promised it would also soon be able to solve symbolic math problems in the near future.
Samsung’s own Galaxy AI is a separate slate of AI capabilities. The first is Note Assist, which brings a few AI capabilities to the Samsung Notes app. It enables translation and transcription services that also let you summarize the recording. The Composer feature is an AI chatbot that generates text based on prompts. Finally, Smart Select gives S Pen users quick access to the AI translation features.
Sketch to Image and Photo Assist
The latest foldable phones have even more AI abilities in store. The Sketch to Image ability lets users draw on top of their photos, and with a button, the phone should try its best to generate a more realistic object in the image using AI. It’s a feature akin to Microsoft’s Copilot+ Cocreate feature in Paint.
There’s also Photo Assist to enhance some aspects of photos, like brightness. Another AI feature that is probably less helpful is the Portrait Studio, which takes a picture and creates an AI-generated mockup of the subject in the image. Samsung used the feature on actor Sydney Sweeney, with some rather odd, plastic-looking results.
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