Founded in 1938, Samsung is the largest chaebol in South Korea. The myriad of companies under its brand are some of the biggest in their respective industries, but Samsung Electronics is the most notable. It makes some of the most popular phones in use today, and its flagship portfolio includes the Galaxy S-series and foldable Z-series devices. It also makes televisions, tablets, computers, headphones, and many of the displays, chips, and batteries found in devices from Apple, Sony, and others.
Let’s put this sloppy, bad-faith argument to rest.
The Premiere 9 and Premiere 7 share the same 4K resolution and HDR 10+ certification as their predecessor, but they come with Samsung’s gaming hub and an ambient mode that projects photos, videos, and widgets on your wall when you’re not watching anything.
While the triple-laser 130-inch Premiere 9 costs $6,000, the 120-inch Premiere 7 is priced at $3,000.
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“Simple, you throw the entire device away.”
So says iFixit of smart rings, including the new Samsung Galaxy Ring, in its teardown blog for the wearable. The site concludes that there’s “no question” that Galaxy Rings are unrepairable, destined to become part of our continued e-waste problem.
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Samsung’s first Copilot Plus PC is everything a thin and light laptop should be — but its performance is limited.
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It’s not the most fun, but reliability goes a long way.
Korean business publication Aju News claims that Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Jae Yong is furious with the company’s mobile division over the Galaxy Buds 3 and the Galaxy Watch Ultra. Supposedly, the internal mood is bad and TM Roh, who heads the mobile division, may be in hot water. Granted, Aju News is vague with sourcing — which is common in East Asian journalism — but it wouldn’t be surprising if true.
We already knew that AI chip demand was driving crazy profits for Samsung. That’s good, because its earnings report shows that smartphone revenue and profitability both declined since last quarter, even as new AI features — it claims — helped buoy demand for its latest flagship devices:
The Galaxy S24 series achieved double-digit year-on-year growth in both shipments and revenue over its predecessor for both the second quarter and the first half of the year.
In the second half of 2024, Samsung says overall demand for its smartphones is expected to increase year-on-year, alongside “ecosystem products such as tablets, smartwatches, and smart rings.”
This teardown of the new Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 has a similar feel to Allison’s Z Fold 6 review — things inside are mostly the same as the previous generation. There are bigger batteries and other tweaks, but the similar layouts show how Samsung is iterating on the existing design, so hopefully, you think it’s already good enough.
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Samsung’s flagship foldable is as good as ever, but it feels anything but fresh.
The Galaxy Z Fold 6, Galaxy Z Flip 6, Galaxy Watch Ultra, Galaxy Watch 7, Galaxy Ring, and Galaxy Buds 3 revealed at Samsung’s Unpacked event went on sale globally today, though some regions / carriers may vary.
The exception is the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, which are delayed (until August 28th in the US) due to quality issues with the removable ear tips.
Samsung gave 17,000 of its Galaxy Z Flip 6 phones to athletes and others around the Olympic and Paralympic games, and here’s one more unboxing.
The phone itself isn’t more impressive than anyone else’s, but British rower Imogen Grant chose a tough upgrade path — the phone she’s replacing was another freebie from Samsung that she picked up at the Tokyo Olympics.
Olympians unboxing folding phones is my new favorite video genre. Watch members of New Zealand’s swimming team unbox their new Galaxy Z Flip 6 phones — in gold, naturally — which were supplied by Olympic sponsor Samsung. Not only is it delightful when they discover the screen is on “both sides,” the guys and I agree that it’s time for a foldable iPhone, too.
According to a new Bloomberg report, the FBI’s initial attempts to break into the phone belonging to Thomas Matthew Crooks were unsuccessful.
But that changed once Cellebrite provided the agency with an unreleased, still-in-development update to its software. From there, it took just 40 minutes to access Crooks’ phone, which is described as “a newer Samsung model.”
The Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra, Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6, and Galaxy Buds 3 and 3 Pro each made appearances at Galaxy Unpacked and are available starting on July 24th.
We’ve prepared a 12-minute supercut of the event for you, in case you missed the livestream.
Google’s Rick Osterloh mentioned the elusive XR collaboration briefly in his onstage appearance at Unpacked, without providing any new details. That’s the at least the third time we’ve heard about it without actually hearing anything at all about it. But I guess now we know it’s still a thing in the Osterloh Android era?
Setting aside their Apple-ness and the Cybertruck-like angles, what do we think? Here’s a gallery of new Galaxy Buds images from Galaxy Unpacked.
For more on what they’re like, check out Chris Welch’s hands-on.
Osterloh heads up hardware over at Google and is taking time to really cement the Google / Samsung partnership. The thing that stuck out most to me was when he said: wherever you are on your Galaxy phone, just hit up Gemini. And does he have that Galaxy Ultra on his wrist? Looks like it.
“Lets unpack the future together.”
The Z Flip 6 starts at $1,099, while the Z Fold 6 is $1,899. All the products, including the Galaxy Watches, Ring, and Buds will be available starting on July 24th.
Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and Galaxy Buds 3 ditch the more discreet look of the company’s past earbuds for a familiar stemmed design. The company says a ton of research and analysis on ear shapes and comfort led to the big design shift.
