These Were My Favorite Things Samsung Unpacked During Its 2026 Galaxy Event
The more the company teases its upcoming products – the Galaxy Z Fold 8 was the star of a commercial for Spider-Man: Brand New Day a full week before today’s Samsung Unpacked, for heaven’s sake – it can feel underwhelming when it’s actually revealed.
But knowing that Samsung is going to announce a bunch of new foldable phones and updated watches isn’t the same as getting exciting details about them. Now that the products are official, here are my highlights.
Another feature (measurement) on foldables: IZ Fold 8 ‘Wide’
Zoom in a bit and most phones look like rectangular slabs. Almost every cell phone is modeled after phones that required placing a speaker in your ear and a microphone in your mouth. Companies stick to the same basic design because that’s what people are familiar with.
The IZ Fold 8, with its squat folded size and 4:3 aspect ratio when open, invites you to think about using a phone from another angle. The long screen common to most slab designs is locked into endless scrolling, compressed video life that crushes on both sides.
OK, that was pretty amazing. The small phone fits comfortably in your hand.
But there is room for more phone variety. As CNET Senior Technology Reporter Abrar Al-Heeti wrote in his article, “the Z Fold 8 feels equally optimized for watching videos horizontally or multitasking in landscape mode, and browsing apps vertically in portrait mode.”
To be honest, taking a very wide shape invites risk… think back to the Planet Computers Gemini PDA built wide enough to accommodate a portable keyboard, or the luxurious LG Wing. But bending the design into a foldable phone hopefully offers the best of both.
The format is not entirely new: The iPad also has an aspect ratio of 4:3 (when used horizontally), as does Samsung’s Galaxy Z TriFold when fully opened. But those are very different devices.
If the design is accepted, Apple may see it as confirmation of its rumored foldable iPhone Ultra, which may have similar dimensions.
New, updated folders: Z Fold 8 Ultra and Z Flip 8
Does it count if my “favorites” include almost every new product announced? Yes, because as always with phones, details matter. And there are some details of two other folders that stand out.
For example, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is very similar to last year’s Z Fold 7, with an improved Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Galaxy chip, a 5,000-mAh battery and a 50-megapixel ultrawide camera.
But look at that opening between the panels. No, actually, look closely, because – at least from the presentation and early looks by my fellow CNET writers – Samsung has reduced the crease to almost invisible (probably thanks in part to the phones’ new titanium flex hinge). The IZ Fold 8 Ultra can be a foldable device that doesn’t create a star in your mind every time you open it, thinking, “No way. that it’s remarkable, really.”
Another big way Samsung has improved the Z Fold 8 Ultra is to reduce the crease, as seen in this comparison to last year’s Z Fold 7.
Samsung
When we’re talking about a device you’ll be turning on multiple times a day, that kind of upgrade makes a big difference.
Similarly, the Z Flip 8 follows on from the Z Flip 7 but is “significantly lighter and thinner than before,” writes CNET Senior Editor Mike Sorrentino. It also makes better use of the cover screen, allowing you to switch apps quickly, for example, so you don’t need to open the phone to do anything meaningful.
Intended watch: Galaxy Watch Ultra 2
I’m not a runner, but living in the Pacific Northwest, I know that perfect running is rare. Walking on hills can make a big difference in how much effort is expended during a run.
The running feature of the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 looks like a great way to bring more real world to all the exercise data captured by the smartwatch. In her testing of the watch before the announcement, CNET Senior Writer Vanessa Hand Orellana noted that entering location data into the watch — by importing a GPX geotrack file — was a difficult process, but that data should be available later through Google Maps.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 also has a hydration reminder feature, which seems to be perfectly paired with exercise. But he noted that reminders appear based on algorithmic predictions, not on any sensors that monitor sweat or salt.
I’m shocked – I’m shocked! – learning that AI is happening here
We can’t have product demos without AI features these days. Samsung showed off agent features like Now Nudge and the new Gemini Notebook system, which are quickly becoming table stakes for AI software. The phones will include six months of Google AI Pro subscription.
But there are also creative ideas at play. My FanCam allows you to select a person in the video and keep the focus on them, no matter where they move in the frame. The example shown was a stage full of dancers focused on a single woman, the video cut to a long phone-friendly scale. If grandparents find it difficult to tell which child on stage is theirs, this feature can quickly prove its worth.
Good use of AI that doesn’t involve generating images that were never in the original content. As our colleagues have pointed out, however, cropping that tightly will reduce the overall quality of the video, so My FanCam may be a social media feature.
The running trainer on the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 has gotten a lot better, according to Orellana, hopefully making it more than just a friendly booster that flashes your size to your earbuds from time to time.
Silicon-carbon batteries will demand better battery life
What do people really want from their phones? Long battery life. That’s even more important with foldable phones with three power-sucking screens. So it was good to see Samsung incorporating silicon-carbon battery technology into its new phones.
There was a “whoa” from the crowd at the event when the silicon-carbon battery of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra was highlighted. For example, Samsung promises that the Z Fold 8 Ultra can get 27 hours of video playback, and the Z Fold 8 can get 28 hours.
Galaxy watches don’t use silicon-carbon batteries, but the Galaxy Ultra 2’s battery is 35% larger to provide up to 60 hours of use on a single charge.
And something expensive, not so popular
New products force us to look for new features, but we can’t ignore the biggest change that can decide if you decide to buy one of Samsung’s new devices: the price increase. The base Galaxy Z Flip 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra each cost $100 more than their predecessors, no doubt due in part to increased global component costs due to “RAMMageddon.” The Z Fold 8 actually costs $100 less than the Z Fold 7, but that’s still $1,900 for a phone.
Everything is expensive, and Samsung and other companies make products that use some of the most precious materials in the world. But that means little if the number of people who know and are willing to buy it is so small that they cannot sell enough items. It’s very surprising when a company like Apple raises prices on all its products to appear to protect its already high profit margins.
Still, this is the world of technology we live in, and I can’t put it down to the fact that for many people, a wide folding phone like the Z Fold 8 is exactly what they want (and probably save).
See the full history
