These are the favorite things Samsung revealed during its Galaxy 2026 event

When a company teases its upcoming products in a big way – the Galaxy Z Fold 8 has been a star Trailer for Spider-Man: A Brand New Day With a full week to go until today’s Samsung Unpacked reveal, come on, it might be a disappointment when it’s actually revealed.

But knowing that Samsung will announce three new foldable phones and a pair of updated watches does not mean discovering interesting details about them. Now that the products are officially official, here’s what stands out to me.

Another aspect (ratio) on foldable devices: Z Fold 8 ‘Wide’

Squint a little and most phones look like interchangeable rectangular panels. Almost every mobile phone is designed similar to phones in which you need to place the speaker on your ear and the microphone on your mouth. Companies have stuck to the same basic design because that’s what people know.

With its folded size and 4:3 unfolded aspect ratio, the Z Fold 8 invites you to consider using the phone from another angle. The traditional long screen of most panel designs has trapped us with endless compressed video crushing us from both sides.

Well, that was pretty dramatic. The narrow phone fits well in your hand.

But there is room for more versatility in the phone. As CNET technology correspondent Abrar Al-Hiti wrote Practical article“The Z Fold 8 feels equally optimized for horizontal video watching or multitasking in landscape mode, and browsing portrait-oriented apps in portrait mode.”

To be fair, taking a broad approach is often risky… think again about that Computer planet gemini pda Built to scale to accommodate a physical, or quirky, keyboard LG Pavilion. But hopefully bending the design into a foldable phone will get the best of both ways.

The format isn’t entirely new: the iPad also has the same 4:3 aspect ratio (when used horizontally), as does Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold When fully opened. But these are very different devices.

If the design is adopted, Apple may see it as validation of its rumors Ultra foldable iPhoneWhich may have similar dimensions.

New and revised foldable devices: Z Fold 8 Ultra and Z Flip 8

Does it really matter that my “favorites” include almost every new product announced? Yes, because as always with phones, details matter. There are some notable details about the other two foldable devices.

For example, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra It’s very similar to last year’s Z Fold 7, only with an upgraded Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Galaxy-class chipset, a 5,000 mAh battery and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera.

But look at that crease between the boards. No, really, look closely, because — at least from the presentation and early looks by fellow CNET writers — Samsung has reduced the crease to the point where it’s almost invisible (thanks in part to the phones’ new flexible titanium hinge). The Z Fold 8 Ultra could be the foldable device that doesn’t show an asterisk in your mind every time you open it and think, “It’s not like that.” Which Really noticeable.”

When we’re talking about a device you’ll open dozens of times a day, this kind of optimization makes a huge difference.

In the same context, Z Flip 8 It follows the Z Flip 7 but is “noticeably lighter and thinner than previous iterations,” CNET senior editor Mike Sorrentino wrote. It also makes better use of the cover screen, letting you switch between apps quickly, for example, so you don’t need to unlock the phone to do anything useful.

Dedicated watch: Galaxy Watch Ultra 2

I’m not a runner, but I live in the Pacific Northwest, and I know that running at a perfect level is rare. Navigating hills can make a big difference in the amount of effort you put in while running.

the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2The track running feature seems like a good way to bring a little more of the real world to all the workout data the smartwatch captures. In her testing of the watch before the announcement, CNET senior writer Vanessa Hand Orellana noted that getting terrain information into the watch — by importing a GPX geotrack file — was a difficult process, but that data should later be available via Google Maps.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 also has a water drink reminder feature, which seems to pair perfectly with exercise. But she noted that the reminders appear based on algorithmic prediction, not any sensors monitoring sweat or salinity.

I was shocked – shocked! – To know that artificial intelligence is happening here

We can’t have product demos without AI features these days. Samsung showed off proxy features like Now Nudge and the new Gemini Notebook app, which quickly became stakes at the AI ​​software table. The phones will include six months of a Google AI Pro subscription.

But there are also some creative ideas in the works. My FanCam lets you spot someone in a video and keep them in focus, no matter where they move in the frame. The example shown was a stage full of dancers focused on one woman, with the video cropped to a proportion suitable for a long phone. If grandparents are having difficulty identifying which child is theirs on stage, this feature can quickly prove its value.

It’s an elegant use of AI that doesn’t involve creating images that weren’t in the content to begin with. However, as my colleagues have pointed out, cropping this much would degrade the overall quality of the footage, so My FanCam may just become a good enough feature for social media.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2’s running trainer has been much improved, according to Orellana, and will hopefully make it more than just a friendly booster that chimes in with your greatness in your earbuds at regular intervals.

Silicon and carbon batteries come to improve battery life

What do people really want in their phones? Longer battery life. This is even more important with foldable phones with three energy-sucking screens. So it was great to see the Samsung integration Silicon-carbon battery technology On her new phones.

There was an audible “whoa” from the crowd at the event when the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra’s silicon-carbon battery was highlighted. For example, Samsung promised that the Z Fold 8 Ultra could get 27 hours of video playback, and the Z Fold 8 could get 28 hours.

Galaxy Watches don’t use silicon or carbon batteries, but the Galaxy Ultra 2’s battery is 35% larger to give you up to 60 hours of use on a single charge.

Plus something expensive and unfavorable

New products force us to look at new features, but we can’t ignore the biggest change that may determine whether you decide to buy one of Samsung’s new devices: higher prices. The base Galaxy Z Flip 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra both cost $100 more than their predecessors, no doubt in part due to rising component costs around the world thanks to “RamageddonThe Z Fold 8 actually costs $100 less than the Z Fold 7, but that’s still $1,900 for a mobile phone.

Everything is expensive, and Samsung and other companies build products that use some of the most expensive materials in the world. But that doesn’t mean much if the number of people able and willing to buy them shrinks to the point where they can’t sell enough devices. It gets even more exasperating when a streaming company wants… Apple raises its prices across most of its products to protect its already high profit margins.

However, this is the world of technology we live in, and I can’t rule out that for many people, a spacious foldable phone like the Z Fold 8 is exactly what they’re looking for (and perhaps saving).