Foldable! Probably two! These are your headliners. Samsung has put the event invitation on hand, which features a pair of geometric objects that make the new Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip pretty clear.
The other headliner is what we won’t see at the event (deadliner? Endliner?). The company has already confirmed via corporate blog that we won’t see the next version of the Galaxy Note next week. This is a big break with the device’s long-term annual update cycle.
We still don’t know if this is the end of the line for the phablet. Samsung told TechCrunch, “We won’t be launching any new Galaxy Note devices in 2021. Instead, Samsung plans to take the Note experience even further, bringing many of its popular productivity and creativity features, including the S Pen, to our Galaxy ecosystem. We will provide more details on our future portfolio as soon as we are ready to announce this. “
Credit: Samsung
Prior to this reveal, rumors surfaced that the company may have been forced to put the device on hold as global supply chain issues continue to cripple manufacturers. However, it can also be argued that Samsung has gradually made the Note obsolete in the last several Galaxy S updates.
It seems telling that the company was referring to an upcoming “flagship” in its official unpacked copy. With the note from the picture and the Galaxy S about six months ahead of an update, this seems to refer to the Galaxy Fold getting the (admittedly celebratory) title. Whether that means two or three flagships in the company’s armada remains to be seen.
What we do know, however, is that – as with the Galaxy S before it – at least one of the upcoming leaflets will blur that note line.
“I hope you will join us as we launch our next Galaxy Z family and share some foldable surprises – including the very first S Pen designed specifically for foldable phones,” wrote the company’s President and Head of Mobile Communications. TM raw. The manager also promised “an even more refined style, armed with more durable, stronger material” for the new Galaxy Z Flip.
Previous – and subsequent – leaks have given us a good look at the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Galaxy Z Fold 3. Hell, it wouldn’t be a Samsung event if pretty much everything hadn’t leaked before the event.
A series of tweets from EVLeaks has given us almost every angle of the upcoming foldable smartphones, along with (European) prices that bring the Fold and Flip from € 1,899 and € 1,099, respectively. Both represent a significant decrease compared to the previous generation. That’s nice – if not entirely surprising. Samsung’s plan was clearly a prolonged drop in prices all along as the foldable technology scaled. We are still far from cheap here, but perhaps we are pushing ourselves into the realm of possibility for more users.
Other leaked details for the fold / flip include a 7.6 / 6.7-inch internal display, Snapdragon 888 processor (both), and 12 MP triple / dual cameras. Interestingly, the water resistance should also be on board here.
With a year of virtual events under their belt, the company seems to have a better idea of the pace. Samsung – along with many other companies in the industry – took the liberties as events went more from face-to-face to online, making announcements from event to event. Thankfully, next week’s Unpacked is a much bigger, self-contained event.
The other expected highlights are both wearables. The first is the long-awaited fruits of the Samsung-Google partnership announced at I / O. We didn’t get a lot of information at the time other than the fact that it might be a boon to users and developers alike, with the ability to co-create apps for the ailing Wear OS and Samsung’s own Tizen brand.
Credit: Samsung
“Samsung and Google have a long history of working together, and whenever we have worked together, the experience for our customers has been dramatically better for everyone,” said Google SVP Sameer Samat during a follow-up on I / O News in June. “That certainly applies to this new, unified platform, which is being introduced for the first time on Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch. We’re excited to be working with Samsung to bring longer battery life, faster performance and a wide range of apps, including many from Google, to a whole new portable experience. “
The company hosted an event (admittedly disappointing) at the MWC that focused on the upcoming watch. One thing was still missing: the clock. Based on sheer speculation, I’d suggest the wearable just didn’t come together on the schedule Samsung expected, but the company did a virtual presser at the (mostly virtual) show.
However, the company announced One UI Watch – a portable version of its streamlined operating system interface. Samsung states in a press release:
A UI Watch along with the new unified platform will create a whole new Galaxy Watch experience. As part of the new experience, once installed on your smartphone, the watch compatible apps will be quickly downloaded to your smartwatch. If you’ve customized your clock app on your phone to show the time in different cities around the world, this will automatically show on your watch too. And if you block calls and messages from your watch, they will now be blocked on your smartphone too.
Leaks have also revealed the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic models along with (again) European prices. They’re supposed to start at $ 279 and $ 379, respectively, with each offering multiple size options. The last bit has always been a sticking point for me with Samsung watches, which traditionally have been pretty massive and get a whole bunch of potential buyers out of the way in the process.
The final big piece of the puzzle is the Galaxy Buds 2. The company’s latest upgrade to the company’s entry-level budgets is to get active noise cancellation.
There will be surprises when it comes down to it 7:00 a.m. PT/10 a.m. ET on Aug. 11? Small one, probably. These leaks tend to broadly grasp things but miss some of the key nuances of the process. And while the company is more than a little familiar with pre-show leaks, it has still surprised us in the past.