Samsung held its Galaxy Unpacked event today and announced three new foldables at once, plus two new watches, all wrapped in a heavier dose of Gemini AI than last year. That is a lot to cover, so here is the part that actually matters if you are not glued to spec sheets, plus the part that made me raise an eyebrow as someone who builds privacy-first apps for a living.
The real headline is not the Ultra, it is the new "wide" Fold
Samsung launched a Z Fold8 Ultra, the familiar tall, book-style foldable the line has used for years. But it also launched a second, separate phone called simply the Galaxy Z Fold8, and this one is new. It is wider and more squared off when open, closer to the shape of a small tablet than the narrow, tall foldables Samsung has shipped since 2019.
Why does that matter? Apple is widely expected to release its first folding iPhone, the iPhone Fold, in September 2026, and just about every credible leak points to that exact shape, a wider, more rectangular, book-style fold, not Samsung's older narrow design. Samsung did not wait around for Apple to define the category. It built and shipped that shape first, months before Apple's phone even reaches shelves. Reviewers with early access are already saying the Z Fold8 gives you a very good sense of what the iPhone Fold will feel like to hold, months before Apple gets to say a word about it.
That is a smart move on Samsung's part regardless of how you feel about either company. When Apple finally unveils its foldable this fall, Samsung gets to say some version of "we already did that." It will not stop people from buying the iPhone Fold, but it takes the "revolutionary new shape" talking point away from Apple before Apple ever gets to use it.
The new wide Z Fold8, the shape Apple's rumored iPhone Fold is expected to copy.
Z Fold8 Ultra: the one that plays it safe
The Ultra keeps Samsung's proven proportions instead of chasing the new wide shape. It is thinner than any Fold before it, Samsung says around 4.1mm unfolded, and lighter too. The bigger deal is the display and battery. Samsung is using a new Flex Titanium hinge alongside a silicon-carbon anode battery, both aimed at the two things people actually complain about with foldables: the crease down the middle of the screen, and battery life that never quite matches a normal phone.
The Ultra reveal on stage, and Samsung's new silicon-carbon battery tech.
Camera-wise the Ultra gets a triple-lens setup with a 200MP main sensor, a real jump from the single ultrawide on last year's model. Battery capacity lands around 5,000mAh, and Samsung is quoting more than 26 hours of video playback on the standard Fold8. Preorders opened today, shipping starts August 7, and pricing is up about $100 across the board versus last year, with the Ultra landing around $2,100 and the standard Fold8 around $1,900.
Z Flip8 gets more useful without you opening it
The Flip8 is thinner and lighter than the Flip7, with a tougher titanium hinge, but the more interesting change is what the cover screen can now do on its own. Samsung is calling it Now Brief, a rotating dashboard on the outside screen that shows weather, your calendar, and notifications without unfolding the phone at all. There is also a Camcorder Grip mode and dual recording, so you can film yourself and whatever is in front of you at the same time. It starts around $1,199.
The Flip8's cover screen now runs a full Now Brief dashboard on its own.
Two new watches, and one is a genuinely big jump
Galaxy Watch9 is thinner and lighter than Watch7, 8.6mm versus 9.7mm and a 14 gram band versus 22 grams, plus a new 3-in-1 BioActive sensor and a Fitness Index feature that turns your stats into an actual workout recommendation instead of just a number on a screen.
Watch9 across its color lineup, and a peek inside at the 390 mAh battery.
Galaxy Watch Ultra2 is the one worth pausing on. Battery jumps from 590mAh to 800mAh, a 36 percent increase, and it now supports fast charging for the first time, up to 40 percent in 30 minutes, something the original Ultra could not do at all. Display brightness climbs to a claimed 5,000 nits and it is rated IP69K for serious water and dust resistance.
Watch Ultra2's headline numbers: 800 mAh and IP69K durability.
The AI layer, and where I get skeptical
Every device on stage today got the same pitch: Gemini everywhere. Now Brief on the Flip8 and the watches, Gemini Notebook on the Fold8 Ultra for organizing meeting notes, and something Samsung is calling agentic AI that can supposedly book you a hotel room while you keep doing something else on the phone.
Gemini sits right on the home screen now, not tucked behind a button.
Here is my honest take as someone who builds on-device apps for a living. A phone that can act on your behalf, checking your calendar, reading your messages, and executing tasks like booking travel, only works if it has standing access to a lot of your personal data, and in Samsung's case that means routing a good chunk of it through Google's Gemini backend, not just your device. That might genuinely be useful for a lot of people. It is also the opposite of privacy-first. I build DayCast and the rest of my lineup so your data stays on your phone by default, no third-party model has standing access to your calendar or messages. Samsung and Apple are both racing toward the other direction, more AI, more cloud, more access, because that is where the flashy keynote demo lives. Worth knowing what you are actually trading for the convenience before you turn every one of those features on.
One caveat on the numbers above: a few outlets are reporting slightly different processor details for the Ultra depending on region, Snapdragon in some markets, Exynos in others, so treat the exact chip and battery figures as close, not universally confirmed, until Samsung's own spec sheet is finalized everywhere.
Bottom line
If you have been foldable-curious, today probably moved the needle. A wider, more phone-shaped Fold that previews what Apple is about to ship in September, a thinner Ultra with a real battery upgrade, and a Watch Ultra2 that finally gets fast charging. Preorders are open now, phones ship August 7. Just go in knowing exactly what you are opting into on the AI side before you hand over that much access.
General information about newly announced hardware, not a full hands-on review. For the studio's privacy-first, on-device apps, the full lineup is at jcmobileappstudio.com/apps.
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