Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026: The 6 biggest announcements

Samsung’s annual summer event kicked off on Wednesday morning, with the company unveiling a new lineup of watches and foldable devices. After weeks of rumors and leaks, Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Fold 8 with an all-new design that is shorter and wider than last year’s Fold, a new Ultra Fold model, an updated Flip model, and updated versions of the Galaxy smart watches.

If you can’t catch the event in person, you can catch up on all of this year’s major Galaxy Unpacked announcements below.

The highlight of the Galaxy Unpacked was the Galaxy Z Fold 8, which got a major redesign from last year’s Z Fold 7. The new design is shorter and wider, with a 7.6-inch internal screen and a 5.5-inch external screen. It’s slightly thicker at 4.5mm when open and 9.7mm folded, compared to 4.2mm and 8.9mm respectively on the Z Fold 7.

The new Fold also features an updated hinge design with Samsung’s new design Titanium flex display technology. It doesn’t completely eliminate the crease on the inner display, but it does make it noticeably less noticeable than the crease found on previous Samsung foldable devices. The new Z Fold 8 Ultra and Z Flip 8 also get the Flex Titanium display upgrade.

The Z Fold 8 runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy with up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. The camera setup is a step down from the Z Fold 7 – the Z Fold 8 has two main cameras instead of three, a 50-megapixel wide and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide. The cover screen camera and internal camera are both 10MP like the Z Fold 7.

The Z Fold 8 starts at $1,899 and comes in four colors: lavender, graphite, cream, and pistachio (online orders only).

While the standard Z Fold 8 got a renewed design, the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra inherited the design from last year’s Z Fold 7. Samsung’s new top-tier foldable phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy with up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.

The Ultra features a larger 5,000 mAh battery, compared to the Z Fold 7’s 4,400 mAh battery. The phone also supports 45W wired charging and 20W wireless charging, which is an improvement over the 25W wired charging/15W wireless charging on the Z Fold 7. The camera setup is similar to the Z Fold 7 with a 200MP wide/50MP ultra-wide/10MP main camera and 10MP selfie cameras in the inner and lid displays.

The Z Fold 8 Ultra starts at $2,099 and comes in four colors: Graphite, Cream, Violet Shadow, and Green Shadow (online orders only).

Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Flip 8 with some improvements in specifications, but without major changes in design. It now runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, which is an upgrade from the Exynos 2500 chip that powered the previous Z Flip 7. It also includes 12GB of RAM with options for 256GB or 512GB storage (but no 1TB option yet).

Like last year’s model, it has a 6.9-inch inner display and a 4.1-inch cover display, with a 4,300 mAh battery. Although it generally looks the same, the Cover Screen is now more versatile thanks to some new gestures and app drawer access. It’s also a little thinner at 13.1mm folded and 6.1mm open. Unfortunately, it’s also $100 more expensive than the Flip 7, starting at $1,199. The phone comes in four colors: pink, graphite, cream, and mint (for online orders only).

The Galaxy Watch gets an update in Galaxy Unpacked with a new processor, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite. It again comes in two sizes, 44mm and 40mm. The larger 44mm model has a 1.47-inch display and a 445 mAh battery, while the 40mm version includes a slightly smaller 1.34-inch display and a 390 mAh battery. Samsung says both sizes can last up to 30 hours per charge with the always-on display turned on. Both also include 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.

In addition to the spec improvements, the highlight of this year’s Galaxy Watch update are four new preventative health metrics: Vitals, Heart Health Score, Daily Cardio Load, and Fitness Index. All four watches will also be available on the new Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, and could help Samsung’s smartwatches compete with Apple’s wearables.

Unfortunately, the Galaxy Watch 9 got a $30 price hike over last year, so it now starts at $379. The 44mm version comes in graphite and silver while the 40mm version is available in graphite and cream.

Samsung has announced the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, not to be confused with the second-generation version of the original Galaxy Watch Ultra from last year. The new Ultra includes a much larger 800 mAh battery, compared to the 590 mAh in last year’s Ultra, which somehow fits into a case that is 12 percent thinner than the previous model. Samsung says it can last up to 60 hours per charge with the always-on display turned on. The updated Ultra also gets the same new preventative health metrics as the base Galaxy Watch.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear Elite processor with 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Like the previous version, it is available in only one size, 47mm, with a 1.52-inch display. The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 also got a price hike of $50, to $699, with two color options, Titanium Silver and Titanium Grey.

Google also showed up at this year’s Galaxy Unpacked with two new frames for the upcoming smart glasses it’s making in collaboration with Samsung. Unveiled new designs from Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, Next Two previous designs Both brands were announced in May at Google I/O. The first pairs of Google Smart Glasses are expected to be launched later this year.