Back in November, Google surprised-dropped an update for its Android-based Quick Share tool that allowed Pixel 10 users to share files to iPhones via AirDrop. Four months ago to the day, Samsung followed suit by rolling out the same functionality to the best Samsung phones, and at the time of writing, over 30 different Android phones can now seamlessly send and receive files to and from Apple’s iPhones.

Yesterday saw the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 8, and Galaxy Z Flip 8, and because they all run One UI 9 (which is based on Android 17) straight out of the box, all three new phones have access to AirDrop via Quick Share.

So, as any humble tech journalist would do when opening up their Galaxy Z Fold 8 unit for the first time, I immediately sent a picture of myself to my iPhone Air and back again. For testing purposes, you understand. Here’s how quick the process was:

As above, this functionality is not unique to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 nor particularly new to Android phones more generally any more — but I realised while watching Galaxy Unpacked that we hadn’t yet published an article showcasing AirDrop via Quick Share in all its seamless file-sharing glory. So there you go, readers — I know you’ve all been on tenterhooks for eight months straight. This is a big deal.

Incidentally, if you own an Android phone that currently supports AirDrop via Quick Share, you’ll have to select ‘Everyone (10 minutes)’ in the Quick Share settings menu to ensure your device is viewable to the iPhone you want to send or receive your file to. On iPhone, you’ll have to select ‘Everyone for 10 minutes’ from the Bluetooth menu in Control Center. Happy file-sharing!

Having just watched the Samsung Unpacked event, I think the Korean company has just fixed every major problem that existed with foldable phones. They’re now thinner, wider and more normal-looking, and yet even at the point where most of the kinks have been ironed out… I still find them a bit uncool.

There’s still something about unfolding a phone in 2026 that feels unnecessary and a bit like a throwback from the 90s. It takes something that has been refined into a seamless sheet of glass and puts a hinge back into the middle of it.

Sure, retro is cool, but foldable phones still feel stuck between two worlds to me.

Cheaper in Korea

Foldable phones are also still pretty expensive — I wasn’t the only one in the office raising an eyebrow at the Z Fold 8 Ultra’s eye-watering $2000+ price when it was announced— although at this point I’m tempted to blame AI for making everything more expensive, even if it's up to 48% cheaper in Korea.

The new foldable phones look amazing, but it’s taken Samsung a while to get here — it launched its first foldable phone, the Galaxy Fold , back in 2019 — at the time we called it, “The most forward-thinking phone you shouldn't buy”.

But the real cultural test of the foldable phone may not arrive until Apple does what Apple does best — walks into an established category, removes a few visible seams, adds a name that sounds like it came from a yoga retreat, and behaves as if everyone else had merely been beta-testing the future.

Under Steve Jobs, being best, not first, was Apple’s greatest trick. The iPod was not the first MP3 player. The iPhone was not the first smartphone. The iPad was not the first tablet. Apple’s genius was letting other companies prove there was a category, then making the version people could imagine actually buying.

It remains to be seen if the incoming CEO John Ternus has the ability to work the controls of Steve Jobs’ reality distortion machine in exactly the same way and convince people that Apple’s version of a folding phone will make them cool.

Enter the iPhone Ultra

That rumoured Apple foldable phone is the iPhone Ultra, which could arrive in September this year. I’d also be surprised if it wasn’t well over the $2,000 mark, too. Some reports suggest $2,500.

I haven’t gotten hands-on with the new Z Fold 8 Ultra yet, but I’ve used foldable phones before and they always felt incredibly geeky to me. They’re impressive but slightly awkward to use, especially in public, and mostly bought by people who like explaining their phone to strangers.

I understand that the foldable form factor makes it better for watching videos using that massive inner screen, or by using the design to prop the phone up on a desk so you can watch on its outer display without having to hold it or carefully balance it against something.

I get that a large screen is better for gaming, too, but I can’t remember the last time I played a game on my iPhone.

My problem is that I don’t want to attract attention to myself. Phones are expensive and waving a larger screen around in public seems like it could make you more of a target for thieves, or the simple curiosity of strangers. I’d rather be left alone to enjoy my journey in peace with a phone that doesn’t advertise my presence.

The real problem isn't the hinge

All of which makes me think that in September, Apple’s biggest challenge might not be around making the perfect, seamless hinge, camera or screen aspect ratio.

It might be simply to convince people that foldable phones can be cool, even at their ridiculous prices, and that’s going to be a tougher task than any of the technical hurdles it will need to overcome.

Saying that, if anybody can make us think that folding phones are for everyone, it’s Apple. Samsung has done the brave work of making foldables exist. Apple’s job is to make them feel less like a magic wallet and more like an iPhone that has learned a party trick.

If success is measured by commitment, then Samsung’s foldable business is now more successful than ever.

With the addition of the quirkily sized Galaxy Z Fold 8, introduced here at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked on July 22, there are now three Samsung Galaxy Z smartphone options to choose from. Sure, foldables account for perhaps a single percentage point of the overall smartphone market, but Samsung is now more committed to the category than ever. So, success, right?

To understand that commitment, I, along with Tom’s Guide Global Editor in Chief Mark Spoonauer, sat down in Samsung’s South Korea headquarters a few weeks before the Galaxy Unpacked with Jay Kim, Samsung’s EVP and Head of CX Office, to talk about the newest foldables, how Samsung measures success, and the pesky new folding phone competitor that might be waiting in the wings.

Getting to the Fold 8

Kim acknowledged the journey over now eight generations of foldable devices and told us that when the exquisite Galaxy Z Fold 7 arrived (it remains my favorite foldable but might be supplanted by the Z Fold 8 Ultra), something shifted.

Consumers stopped nitpicking core stumbling blocks of foldable phones like thickness or thinness. Instead, they were celebrating the core benefit, saying, in Kim's words, “I have a phone that actually can be a tablet, and then that full capability of a phone is not compromising anything. So, we felt,” continued Kim, “like, 'okay, now… consumers are really understanding why we're pushing the boundary for such a long time.'”

So instead of bystanders watching a man balance a chair on his chin for no reason, they were on the journey with Samsung and getting excited about a device that could slip into a pocket as effortlessly as your classic flagship phone but also double as a productivity powerhouse.

Sitting before us as we talked were all three of the latest Samsung Galaxy Z devices, but only one is a head-scratcher: the 4:3-ratio Galaxy Z Fold 8. Sure, its size makes it the lightest Fold ever, but the question remains: why? From the outside, it’s hard to understand how Samsung came to this design conclusion, let alone how consumers would react.

Samsung, though, tracks the demands and behaviours of its consumers, and Kim told us that the company saw signals that there was a market for this device, and it came to what sounds like a very scientific conclusion.

“When we looked at our consumer… insight on how people react to the products, almost over 50% are focused on media; they consume media, whether on the outside cover screen or the inside, the main screen; they engage in content, and we thought, ‘Why not?’”

That’s right, why not? It’s not necessarily a market research-tested conclusion, though Kim admitted that Samsung threw out a lot of designs before arriving on this content-friendly and still pocketable display size.

“We put together the form factor where the media makes most sense, the content native [form factor], but in terms of, like, how do you engage with the device? So basically, we looked at when you engage with content, what is the best form factor [that doesn't] compromise anything on the full bar type,” recalled Kim. And by “bar type,” Kim is referring to slab phones like its Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

How does Samsung know it’s on to a winning design with the Galaxy Z Fold 8? Well, it did test it, at least internally, and the feedback appears to have been positive.

“I'm really happy how our hardware and the design team came out with the product, because it's beautiful, and when we test[ed] it with the market for the preview, everybody's asking about when it's coming,” said Kim.

Samsung may not have been excessively focused on the thinness of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 line, but it was, in one instance, acting on feedback about how hard it can be to open the Z Fold 7. "Folding and unfolding was some of the most important feedback we got [with last year's phones]." The result in the Z Fold 8 Ultra is a chamfered frame that's easier to pry open with a fingertip. "[They] spent days and nights changing the angles," recalled Kim.

There will be thoughts

It’s also fair to say, though, that everyone will have an opinion about the Z Fold 8, which is arguably a confusing name because the follow-up to the Z Fold 7 is not the 8, but the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. The Z Fold 8 is, essentially, a totally new animal. And that size — the wide and squat cover screen, and the internal display that essentially unfolds to a screen quite similar in size and shape to your average Kindle ereader — is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.

Yes, content like ebooks, comics, and video look great with smaller black bezels around them, but does the Galaxy Z Fold 8's new aspect ratio help with things other than content consumption? Kim sees benefits there, too.

“How do people use a cover screen? Most of the time [what] they do is communication. So, you text a lot, and… [the cover display on the Galaxy Z Fold 8] is actually a pretty good size for texting.”

Kim told us he also thinks the cover screen is an optimal size for flicking through all that scrollable video content, too.

Since he has responsibility for not just these new foldables but for standard Galaxy phones (and XR glasses) too, I wondered how Kim (and therefore Samsung) explains to consumers that there might be value in a foldable device over a standard S26. After all, these flexi phones are priced at a considerable premium over standard smartphones.

Kim knows that most consumers are satisfied with standard phones: “At the same time, bar type is very confined to the screen size, so everything must be squeezed into the size, but I think there's a consumer who would love to leverage different sizes of the display. You know, you have a size, but you can actually expand it to the bigger screen, or you can actually engage with content better, or you could be more productive. You can actually play a game on a bigger screen.”

No compromises

So, yes, there’s a market for those who feel constrained by the single screen size idea, but — and this is an early lesson Samsung learned —it’s not enough to just give a second screen size option on a single device. Samsung has arguably been doing that since the first Fold, but it was a terrible device.

“I think the only condition is you can't compromise anything that you have on the bar type. So, on top of not compromising from bar type, if you can actually provide additional screen experience, I think there's a need for the consumers,” added Kim.

It’s probably the reason why the Galaxy Z Fold 7 has been so well-reviewed. It is a no-compromise dual-screen device.

While the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 is by no means a compromise, it is a complication. We wondered how consumers might decide or be guided when they walk into, say, a Verizon store and consider the Z Fold 8, Z Flip 8, and Z Fold 8 Ultra.

“We’re happy for the consumer to make a choice,” said Kim, adding that the choice may boil down to where you spend most of your time on the phone.

People who like split screens and productivity — maybe they even set two phones side-by-side for double the productivity — they’ll gravitate toward the Galaxy Z 8 Ultra.

“If you use a lot of media, you read books, or you play games, you know, if that's like your focus area, then you take the Fold 8. And then if you are more, you know, very expressive, and you feel like you want to have a small phone in the pocket, and you want it to be glanceable, and then you want to have more of a native type of AI, a native type of experience, then you go with the Flip.”

There’s bound to be some market confusion as consumers adjust to the “Fold 8” being not the standard fold but the unusually shaped one, but Kim told us that Samsung spent a lot of time working on the names, and one thing was clear: “We weren’t trying to create a new category,” he said. This was still a Fold just in a different form factor and aspect ratio. "We went back to basics, saying it’s a Fold 8," said Kim.

And while Samsung wondered how the market would react, Kim says the company is pleased with the level of attention. “Whether it's a form factor, whether it's a name, or anything, it's a good sign [and] we were very happy that consumers and the market are very interested to get their hands on it.”

Kim, by the way, wouldn't talk pricing for any of the new folds, but he did reveal that, like the rest of the industry, Samsung is grappling with RAM crisis challenges. "The costs of components going up is not just our problem; it's an industry-wide problem... We take it pretty seriously, looking at [the] balance and [seeing] how to adjust based on the market situation. We’re not free from that and [are] addressing it very actively," he told us.

What's coming next and the Apple threat

While the Z Fold 8 is the exciting new look, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is now, at 4.1mm, essentially the same thickness as a USB-C port. It’s unlikely that the foldable could get any thinner without Samsung removing that port. I asked Kim if the company is considering doing so for future generations.

“Definitely, we look at all the options, but I think the most important thing is: do you need to make it thinner? That question is the most important. We made it thinner and lighter because that was the biggest sort of feedback we got for many, many years [...] So, I think now consumers are asking for different things.”

We also talked, naturally, about Apple. Most rumors point to a foldable iPhone Ultra possibly arriving in September, and it might even match the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s unusual aspect ratio.

Kim, though, doesn’t appear nervous about the industry’s most-watched company entering a market Samsung created.

“If our big sort of market player is coming into the market and bringing the fold type, then it proves that what I have been thinking and what I've been envisioning, and how much of the effort that we put in is actually the right direction. If not, they wouldn't really come into the market,” said Kim diplomatically.

Apple's anticipated entry will surely change the folding market, but only as a follow-up to the transformation Samsung has already wrought. “I think it’s important that we pushed the industry. [But] it's a collaborative effort. I don’t think we could’ve done it just ourselves.”

If you believe Kim, Apple’s folding entry, if it arrives, could be seen as a major validation of Samsung's years-long efforts. And, unless we are very mistaken, Apple will have one folding phone, while Samsung now has three. With that number of flexible devices and screen size and shape choices available on store shelves, that may be all the validation this still relatively young market needs.

We could even be approaching a foldables breakout moment. “I think we’re on the verge where [foldables] could actually become mainstream going forward. It has the potential,” Kim told us, “Because we had these two form factors for a very long time. Introducing another one is a bold move, actually, because that shows that we’re confident in the category and we’re confident in how the market is reacting to it. So I’m more excited about what’s to come than what we have achieved.”

Imagine an automated torture chamber where one calamity after another is inflicted upon you. Worse yet, it’s all robots doing the pushing, pulling, pressing, switching, and lighting. A robot even delivers you to this house of horrors.

Of course, you’re a Samsung Galaxy phone, and you were actually built to take this kind of punishment, or at least expected to survive it. Housed in a basketball court-sized room, this is one of Samsung’s endlessly running test suites for its growing line of Samsung Galaxy S series and Galaxy Z folding phones.

A few weeks ago, Samsung flew me out to South Korea to visit its Gumi factory where, among other things, they build and stress test their newest phones, including the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Z 8 Flip, all of which were introduced this week at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked in the UK.

As a lab engineer guided us through the space, a robot waited impatiently behind him while trying to deliver more phones to its Guantanamo of tech indignities. The engineer seemed unconcerned as the robot edged closer to us, but it always remained a safe distance away, finally delivering a phone to the first chamber when we’d cleared a path.

Of course, before Samsung checks the viability of these handsets, it builds them.

Make 'em and (try to) break 'em

When I visited the factory — one of nine dotted around the globe and where millions of units are assembled — for the first time a few years ago, I noticed a mix of robots (not humanoid, just automated platforms and a wide variety of robot arms) and humans. This time, however, there were just a handful of humans, who were often checking the robots’ work for imperfections.

As we walked the pristine aisles while wearing thin, blue protective covers on our shoes, I caught the eye of one factory worker and gave her a thumbs up. To my surprise, she smiled and nodded back at me before quickly returning to product inspections.

Across a series of metal and plexiglass boxes, I saw all manner of robots and mobile device manufacturing activity. There was never a pause or moment of indecision. In one enclosure, I watched as camera boards were robotically placed in a Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra board and then expertly screwed into place.

Virtually every robot in every enclosure has a specific job, like the one that does nothing but remove thin-blue packing material from a phone circuit board. Its tiny fingers delicately grab a pair of thin blue tabs and strip away the filament. We found ourselves cheering on the little bot.

In another spot, a colleague noticed that a copper line wasn’t properly affixed to a phone’s main circuit board. I could see it bouncing freely and wondered if the error would be caught or end up in someone’s wonky Galaxy device. I needn’t have worried. Samsung’s automated systems are fully capable of both the build and error-catching. As we watched, the offending board shifted off course and was held at bay while other properly built boards moved along.

I saw many different enclosures with so many automated manufacturing capabilities that it was mind-boggling.

Box 'em up but test them first

In another space, I saw sensors identifying phone IMEI numbers, while another robot printed out corresponding labels, and then a third affixed them to boxes that matched the packages to each phone.

Most of the robots I saw were small, but at the end of the line was an almost car-sized palletizer that takes the 10-per-box cardboard crates and stacks them on a pallet, placing the boxes first around the perimeter and then filling in the middle. The motorcycle-sized arm was remarkably fast and accurate.

Some of the phones never make it to the pallet. Instead, a select few are destined for a special test room where a large horseshoe of enclosures determines if the models in the current batch are fit for purpose.

There are two types of test systems in Gumi: the boxes that run the same test over and over again in a single device, and the U-shaped automated test bay where one phone is run in serial through the entire array of tests. These tests will often replicate what is done repeatedly in other enclosures.

The number of test systems and kinds of tests Samsung runs on its products is impressively comprehensive, though some of the boxes look downright bizarre.

Weird tests, reliable products

Folding and unfolding the devices thousands of times is to be expected, as is pressure testing, but I also saw extreme heat and cold tests. There were also enclosures that do nothing but check AI vision systems, millimeter wave, waterproofing, and a facial recognition chamber with life-like mannequin heads that I can still see when I close my eyes.

There’s even a room where partners like Google can remotely access and run tests on Samsung phones.

More astonishing is that this is a living, ever-changing facility. Just imagine what happens every time, like now, Samsung unveils new phones and watches; they must retool. Walking the floor, I noticed how the brand-new Galaxy Z Fold 8 was already undergoing rigorous tests. The lab engineer told us, “For every new form factor, we develop new technology for it,” and they develop new automation to test it.

Look, I’m not saying other companies don’t put their mobile hardware through similar wringers, but I’m not sure any other tech giant has been so transparent about their process. It’s wild, bracing, and I must admit, gives me more than a bit of confidence about each new Galaxy device Samsung delivers.

Do you own a lot of Samsung devices? If so, why not test yourself to see how well you know the brand's products and services by taking the quiz below?

When the trio of Samsung Galaxy Z 8 foldables — the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Z Flip 8 — arrive in consumers' hands in the coming weeks, they will be among the first mainstream handsets, aside from the Motorola Razr Fold, to feature silicon-carbon batteries. That's a big deal for the industry, but perhaps an even bigger deal with Samsung, which, a decade ago, had one of the biggest negative smartphone battery stories in a generation.

That was way back in 2016 when the Note 7, an otherwise excellent phablet (yes, that was a thing), occasionally blew up because of battery manufacturing imperfections. Ever since then, Samsung has not only had a perfect record; it's often been at pains to explain the lengths it goes to ensure smartphone battery stability and safety.

Now, as it introduces a relatively new and somewhat untested battery technology — silicon-carbon — Samsung is again making the effort to dive deep into the construction and chemistry of these new-fangled power sources to show just how much care and effort it's putting into the new tech, and into its new foldable phones.

What is silicon-carbon?

Silicon-carbon is not a wholesale refashioning of lithium-ion battery technology. Instead, it replaces a key component of the battery makeup, swapping the negative electrode (graphite) for silicon-carbon. This material allows for higher density (more power in less space) and far faster charging speeds. It's part of the reason why Samsung can, despite not making the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra any thicker than the Z Fold 7 (it's actually 0.1mm thinner when unfolded), make the battery larger — it's now 5,000mAh.

With Samsung now having a solid decade of battery safety under its belt, perhaps no one is questioning the quality, let alone the safety, of this new battery technology. But Samsung clearly wants to shout about it, and has been sharing extensive details.

In a recent briefing ahead of the July 22 Galaxy Unpacked event in London, Samsung executives walked us through a near-atomic-level chemistry class to explain how it's custom-building the silicon-carbon batteries to ensure they work as expected.

"With Samsung's highest standards, we carefully verified the silicon-carbon battery so that our users can trust it and use it with competence," said Samsung EVP Moon Sung-hoon.

As for what that means, Samsung told us it fully redesigned the cathode, separator, and anode, which means that, at an atomic level, Samsung is managing the chemical reaction inside the battery that delivers the power to your next Galaxy Z Fold device.

Samsung wouldn't share the exact amount of silicon-carbon that's in the batteries, but it did confirm that its new Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Fold 8, and Z Flip 8 phones in every region would feature the new battery technology.

On coatings and voltage management

Even though we didn't learn the percentage of each battery element in the Galaxy Z8 phones, Samsung dove deep into the component construction, explaining that, in an effort to manage the reactivity of the silicon-carbon cells, it "innovated every single part of the battery system. This is why we call it the system level of innovation at battery."

A Samsung executive showed off a colorful illustration to detail all the work (sadly, I cannot share it with you here). But here's what I learned.

To the anode layer, Samsung's engineers added a micro-carbon coating, which offers protection to the layer without, thanks to carbon's natural pores, constricting it during charging and discharging,

On the cathode layer, they "injected additional atoms" to manage the naturally higher voltage and stability of the cells. To maintain that higher voltage, they added a solid electrolyte interface (SEI) that adds a "small coating to the anode cells". This also manages the cell reactivity.

Finally, for the chemical reaction that occurs in the battery, Samsung added a "hyperporosity separator," which has larger holes without reducing the stress or durability of the cell's separators, and therefore helps maintain stability.

While most of us non-chemical engineers might feel like we've just about wrapped our minds around this information, this is an unprecedented level of battery construction detail, which I don't think Samsung would have shared if not for its history with batteries.

For consumers, though, this may not matter as much as the fact that these are larger-capacity batteries in smaller frames that charge far faster than their predecessors — and that will feel like a win for most Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Fold 8, and Z Flip 8 owners.

For our early impressions of all three new phones, check out our hands-on Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra preview, hands-on Galaxy Z Fold 8 preview, and hands-on Galaxy Z Flip 8 preview.

• Samsung has raised prices for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8
• This is likely in large part due to rising memory costs
• However, prices in South Korea are substantially lower

As expected, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 cost more than their predecessors, with the Z Fold 8 Ultra’s starting price being $100 / £100 / AU$100 higher than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7’s, and the Z Flip 8’s being $100 / £100 / AU$150 more than the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7’s.

Given the rising prices of memory, that’s not entirely surprising, but what you might be surprised by is just how much of a better deal South Korea is getting, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra starting at just ₩2.58 million there. As the Korea Times points out, that’s 20.4% lower than the US price and a whopping 44% lower than the European price.

The difference in pricing for the standard Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is even greater. We don’t have a previous model of this to compare to (since the Z Fold 8 Ultra is the successor to the Z Fold 7), but this phone starts at $1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699, with that US price being 23.2% higher than Korea’s, while in Europe, buyers are paying 48% more.

The table below details the full price rises this generation, but in South Korea, people are paying less for the Z Fold 8 series than other places were charged for even the Z Fold 7 series.

Home-field advantage

So, what’s going on here? Well, the Korea Times reports that, during a press conference on the sidelines of the Galaxy Unpacked launch event, Samsung Electronics co-CEO Roh Tae-moon said, “The support, feedback and encouragement from Korean consumers have been the foundation for strengthening the Galaxy brand's global competitiveness. In recognition of the importance of the Korean market, we will continue striving to offer Galaxy devices at the most competitive prices in Korea and maintain that policy going forward.”

So, in other words, Samsung is rewarding its home market for supporting the company. But that explanation is unlikely to satisfy Samsung fans from other countries, given that this shows Samsung could clearly charge less and still turn a profit — after all, it’s not going to be losing money on South Korean sales.

Now, there will be other factors in the differing prices, such as different taxes, but while from one perspective this could look like a nice gesture from Samsung, from another it looks like most of the world is facing unfair prices.

In any case, one other interesting detail from this press conference was Roh’s claim that the three models offered this year are “the complete form" of Samsung’s foldable line, with two models no longer offering enough variety now that foldable phones are becoming more mainstream.

I’m not sure what that says about the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold, if that’s not part of the “complete form”, but it does suggest there will be more Galaxy Z Flip models in the future, which goes against a rumor hinting that the Galaxy Z Flip 7 would be the last one. So, that’s some good news at least.

The pint-sized Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 just made its debut at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, but as someone who has been in a year-long love affair with the Galaxy Z Fold 7, there’s a different phone turning my head: the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

This new entry in the Z Fold lineup is, in effect, the true sequel to last year’s Z Fold 7, because the new Z Fold 8 adopts a passport-like design that’s squatter than we’ve seen before. Meanwhile, the Z Fold 8 Ultra has identically sized 8-inch inner and 6.5-inch cover displays to the Z Fold 7.

However — and as you’d hope for from a new entry in the series — the Fold 8 Ultra isn’t the same in every way. Here are five key differences you'll want to know about if you're thinking of upgrading, or buying your first foldable (you can also read my first impressions of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra elsewhere on TechRadar).

1. Get ready for a (small) price hike

The elephant in the room I need to address before we get into the exciting stuff is the price: the Z Fold 8 Ultra does cost more than the Z Fold 7.

Admittedly, this was entirely expected — thanks to the RAM crisis, we’ve been hit by price hike after price hike, even for older gadgets which would normally see price drops over time. But the news here isn't as bad as many expected.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 launched at $1,999 / £1,799 / AU$2,899, and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 will set you back $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999.

Any price increase is unwelcome, but considering that I and many others were bracing for something much worse, I’m not too frustrated by this, especially factoring in the upgrades on offer here.

2. A bigger battery

Ahead of its reveal I shared the changes I most wanted to see from the Z Fold 8, and the most important entry on that list was a bigger battery.

Despite, on paper, boasting a longer battery life than the Z Fold 6, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 never kept going as long as my previous foldable, and many other Z Fold 7 owners have shared their battery-life frustrations with me over the past year.

That’s why I’m excited to see the Z Fold 8 Ultra boast a 5,000mAh battery capacity thanks to its silicon carbide cell.

Admittedly, this isn’t the wild 7,000mAh capacity some recent handsets from brands such as Oppo have delivered, but compared to the Fold 7’s 4,400mAh battery I’m hoping to see a major improvement in stamina with the Z Fold 8 Ultra.

3. Closer to Ultra cameras

Last year, Samsung made some serious improvements to the main camera on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 by giving it a 200MP lens that more closely matches the capabilities of the Ultra models in its flagship S series. Admittedly, the Z Fold 7 still fell a little behind the S25 Ultra in this area (and behind the newer S26 Ultra), but certainly not as far behind as the Z Fold 6 was behind the S24 Ultra.

This year it's the turn of the ultra-wide camera on the Z Fold 7's successor to get an upgrade, with the 12MP snapper getting upgraded to 50MP on the Z Fold 8 Ultra — and the 200MP main camera is also getting the S26 Ultra’s HDR capabilities for more vibrant-looking shots.

The 12MP 3x telephoto camera is still the same, which is a shame — I’ve been loving the 50MP 5x telephoto on my Galaxy S26 Ultra — but this latest upgrade brings us one big step closer to the Galaxy Z Fold series boasting the same camera hardware as the Galaxy S Ultra lineup, and I can’t complain about that.

Besides the hardware, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is also getting the S26 Ultra’s impressive Horizontal Lock stabilization tech, which keeps your shots looking steady even with some absurd levels of camera tilt.

4. Display enhancements

While not the flashiest or most obvious change, especially because it’s the same size and shape as before, the Z Fold 8 Ultra’s display has received two notable improvements.

First, peak brightness is increased from 2,600 nits on the Z Fold 7 to 3,000 nits, which should make your screen easier to see in bright sunlight and enable better HDR performance.

Second, Samsung has added a matte coating to the inner display to reduce glare. Coupled with a new hinge design which lets the screen open more fully flat than before, this does seem to have resulted in a less noticeable crease than we’ve seen on previous Z Fold phones.

In fairness, I would say the crease on the Z Fold 7 is close to nonexistent, but, especially when light reflects off the inner display in a particular way, it can become annoyingly apparent. Thanks to this flatter design and reduced glare, my initial assessment is that the screen looks much less noticeably 'unfolded' when you open up the Z Fold 8 Ultra — though it’s worth noting this is comparing a new Z Fold 8 Ultra with a Z Fold 7 that's seen close to a year of constant use.

5. A Gen 5 chipset

Rounding things off, all three of Samsung's new foldables — the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Flip 8 — get a chipset upgrade over last year's models, in the shape of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, the same processor you’ll find in the Samsung Galaxy S26 lineup.

Compared with the chipset in the Z Fold 7, Samsung says you can expect a 19% faster CPU, 24% better GPU performance, and an NPU that’s 39% more powerful than before — leading to better onboard AI processing.

I personally haven't found that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 left me wanting for more power. It’s quick and responsive in use, gaming on the foldable has been a delight, and its AI abilities are fine for my needs. That said, I won’t say no to better performance, even if it is the upgrade I’m least excited about compared to the bigger upgrades coming to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

If you thought the whole point of a foldable smartphone with multiple screens was that “one size does not fit all,” then you were only half right. It seems that we’re rapidly entering the era of multiple foldable phone size choices with — no surprise — Samsung in the lead.

That’s just one reason why now, in addition to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, we have the unusually proportioned Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, a flexible smartphone that, when folded closed, is quite close to the dimensions of a passport. All three of the new devices were officially unveiled at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked on July 22, and you can read our first impressions in our Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra preview and Galaxy Z Fold 8 preview.

After Samsung flew me out to visit its factories, meet its executives, and see these new foldables in person, I must’ve asked a dozen times: Why did you make this? Who is it for? I expect you'll be wondering the same thing.

There’s no arguing that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 (taking over the base name for the thinner and larger Z Fold 8 Ultra) is a compelling device. But the 10:61 aspect ratio of the 5.5-inch external display (it’s both wider and shorter than any typical flagship) and the opened 7.6-inch internal display, with its 4:3 aspect ratio, is almost unlike any handset we’ve seen in modern smartphone history.

The unusual size gives the Galaxy Z Fold 8 standout specs. At 201g, it’s the new folding phone weight leader. Unfolded, the screen resembles in size and dimensions your average Kindle e-reader (as a content-first handset, this makes some sense).

Different, yet the same

As part of the folding phone family, the Z Fold 8 does share some specs with its larger sibling. Both have the new titanium-backed folding screens that are stronger than the older polymer-backed ones, but also more resilient thanks to the properties of the new, ultra-thin titanium-alloy sheet. I took a closer look at this new screen technology in my deep dive with Samsung Display. As with the Ultra unfolded, the screen on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is virtually flat and has an almost unnoticeable bezel.

Both the Fold 8 Ultra and Fold 8 screens support a peak brightness of 3,000 nits and feature a new anti-reflective coating. Like the Ultra, the Fold 8 has a large (in this case, 4,800mAh) silicon-carbon battery with exceptional claimed battery life and fast wired (45W with a 69% charge in 30 mins) and wireless (20W Qi2) charging capabilities.

But this is not an Ultra device. There are just two external cameras: a 50MP wide and 50MP ultra. So maybe this is a device focused less on content creation than it is on content consumption. Even so, it's backed by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset as the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (and Z Flip 8), as well as the same 12GB of memory, which means it’ll be no slouch on the performance side.

Still, knowing the specs doesn’t answer why the Z Fold 8 exists and how Samsung expects to sell it to consumers.

Why and how we got here

As executives walked me through the new foldable devices, they called the Z Fold 8’s screen size “The new standard for viewing content.” Samsung believes that the 4:3 aspect ratio on the 7.6-inch foldable display is what consumers have been craving (even if they didn’t know it themselves). The result of this unusual screen size is that, in landscape mode, videos viewed on the screen feature shallower black bezels on the top and bottom for a more immersive experience. I did see this in numerous demos, though I kept thinking, “The black bars are smaller, but still there.”

When reading comics in portrait mode, though, the contrasty images filled the screen. It was a nice effect.

It’s also worth noting that the wider cover display, which accommodates a wider keyboard, makes for a slightly more pleasant texting experience.

When I spoke to Samsung Display executives about the new size, they told me that it wasn’t that they could not build this unusual size sooner. Instead, it was more about what they’ve learned about how people used their other foldables. The Flip seems to be more about self-expression, while the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and its predecessors, especially those that support multitasking, are about productivity and utility (though, since the Fold 7 lost support for the S Pen, they're no longer about drawing).

The new Galaxy Z Fold 8 sits in the middle. Sure, it’ll run the same One UI 9 platform, the usual smorgasbord of Galaxy and Gemini AI, and support multi-window navigation (including a new AI-based context-aware ability to sense when you need multi-windows and offer it up with a click). But the design speaks to those who primarily read, browse the web, watch videos, or scroll through endless TikToks and Reels.

Settling on a design

Getting to this rather unusual design wasn’t easy. When I asked Samsung EVP & Head of CX Office, Jay Kim, just how many designs were cast aside before arriving on the passport look, he told me, “Oh, so many, so many. I mean, because you need to have a size for the color screen, you need to have a size for the inside, and you know, you have to look at the display yield and everything around the technology around it, and you know it's a balance between thickness and weight, performance and everything about the product.”

In that design was a clear recognition of a perhaps underserved target market: “We realize that there's enough of a segment where consumers are very heavy on media, and basically you consume social media, you consume videos, you play games, and you read books in a most similar form factor. So, basically, we came up with a phone that's actually a very content native device.”

One thing is certain: the size and shape of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is sure to provoke a reaction. The first time I held it, I was sort of amused. The folded size feels almost playful, but it’s also a very useful cover display. Opened, I noted the familiarity, especially in portrait mode, which is when I first realized it reminded me of my Kindle.

Still, the risk is inescapable. When I asked Samsung’s Jay Kim how they tested this new form factor, he told me they basically dogfooded multiple designs within the company.

“We did a lot of internal testing on different factors and different sorts of usage, and how do you use it?” recalled Kim.

As he spoke, I thought about how Samsung employees might hold back a bit on honest reactions, but then there are always the bold ones, and you assume a few unvarnished opinions on the new Fold look in there, too.

Kim sounded mostly confident. “We hope the market reacts the way we planned originally, and I think it's all based on the planning, and we're waiting for the [reaction], but I think when we did our internal sort of testing, I think that was very aligned with our sort of original plan, so we hope... I think we're pretty confident.”

It’s a big day for Samsung — and for fans of the company’s devices — with the brand unveiling three new foldable phones, two new smartwatches, and its first pair of smart glasses.

And it’s not just those glasses that are a truly ‘new’ thing from Samsung, as one of the phones is a new form factor too.

Below, you’ll find a rundown of the five biggest announcements at the second Samsung Galaxy Unpacked of 2026 — these are the key reveals you need to know about.

1. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8

If you’re assuming that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a direct successor to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, well, think again, because this is that new form factor I mentioned above.

Rather than a book-style foldable like the Z Fold 7, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a shorter, wider device with more passport-like dimensions. When unfolded and turned to portrait orientation it’s the ideal size and shape for reading, while in landscape it’s better suited to movies and games.

It has a 7.6-inch 120Hz foldable screen, a 5.5-inch 120Hz cover display, a 50MP wide camera, a 50MP ultra-wide, and a pair of 10MP selfie cameras — one on each screen.

It also has a top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset, 12GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of storage, while the battery is 4,800mAh. It starts at $1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699, making it a bit cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, detailed below.

2. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

Confusingly, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is effectively the successor to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, so you probably have some idea of what to expect here.

This phone has an 8-inch 120Hz foldable display, a 6.5-inch cover screen, a 200MP wide camera, a 50MP ultra-wide, a 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and two 10MP selfie cameras. It also has a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset, 12GB of RAM, up to 1TB of storage, and a 5,000mAh battery — which is a big increase over the 4,400mAh cell of the Z Fold 7.

So this is a bigger, more book-like foldable than the Z Fold 8, and it has more cameras, but the same amount of power. It’s also extremely slim at just 4.1mm thick when unfolded, and it starts at $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999.

3. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8

Samsung has also unveiled a new device for fans of compact foldables, in the form of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8.

This clamshell phone has a 6.9-inch 120Hz foldable screen, a 4.1-inch 120Hz cover screen, a 50MP wide camera, a 12MP ultra-wide, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset (or an Exynos 2600 outside the US), 12GB of RAM, up to 512GB of storage, and a 4,300mAh battery.

So it’s the smallest and most basic of these phones, but at 6.1mm thick when unfolded and 180g, it’s Samsung’s slimmest and lightest Flip model yet. The Galaxy Z Flip 8 starts at $1,199.99 / £1,149 / AU$1,949.

4. Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2

As well as phones, Samsung has also announced the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, and it’s the latter of these that’s the most exciting.

This watch has a mammoth 800mAh battery, which is up from just 590mAh in the original Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra. It’s also slimmer and lighter than its predecessor, with the brightest screen of any smartwatch, and a ton of new features, including the ability to track Daily Cardio Load and Vascular Load.

This is Samsung’s ultimate smartwatch, and it’s priced accordingly, at $699.99 / £649 / AU$1,299. If you’re happy with a slightly less feature-and-tech-packed smartwatch, then the Galaxy Watch 9 can be had from $379.99 / £349 / AU$649.

5. Samsung Intelligent Eyewear

Samsung also gave us a closer look at what it’s calling ‘Intelligent Eyewear’ — said eyewear being the company’s first smart glasses.

Unlike the devices above, you can’t pre-order these yet, with Samsung promising they’ll land “this fall” — so presumably sometime between September and November.

No pricing was revealed either, but we did learn that these glasses will have a built-in camera and speakers, but no screen.

Initially, Samsung is partnering with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker to offer a selection of frames, and you’ll be able to access both Gemini and Bixby through the glasses.

After a grand reveal in the latest Galaxy Unpacked event, preorders for the brand-new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Flip 8 are now live. Retailers and mobile networks have several launch deals available for those interested in picking up a device on August 7, so I've had a look through and picked out the best options.

One of the standout deals in the US is at the official Samsung store, where you can get savings of up to $1,200 with a trade-in, as well as an extra $30 off if you registered your interest ahead of Unpacked. As for the networks, you can get even larger discounts of up to $1,900 at T-Mobile when you add an eligible line, or get a Galaxy Z Fold 8 for as little as $30 a month at Verizon when you pair it with the Simplicity plan.

In the UK, the Samsung store is also a strong option, as you can get an extra £100 off with a trade-in, and use the £30 voucher from registering your interest to save on accessories. Meanwhile, networks such as Sky Mobile are offering their own large trade-in rebates of up to £934, plus a free Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 with the latest handsets.

I'll update this list with all the best Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra preorders as I spot them over the coming days, so hopefully there will be a combination of phone and plan that suits you.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 and Z Fold 8 deals in the US

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 and Z Fold 8 deals in the UK

When it comes to battery life, foldables have it harder than regular phones. These devices need to power not one, but two screens (one of which is twice as large as the other), and so it's important to pick a model with decent endurance if you don't want to lug around a portable battery at all times.

Yet in the throes of a seemingly unquenchable thirst for thinness, Samsung has somewhat neglected the battery tech in its foldable phones. That is, until now, because the brand has finally introduced silicon-carbon batteries in its latest devices, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 8. The former, specifically, packs a 5,000mAh cell that, based on Samsung's own testing, offers 27 hours of video playback.

Now, as uninteresting as this may sound, it's actually pretty big news, especially given that the phone is thinner than ever and the same weight as last year's Galaxy Z Fold 7. We were invited to an exclusive, early-access hands-on session alongside SuperSaf to try out the new phones, and we discussed this change (and others) in our latest podcast episode, which you can watch just below.

It's not just us professional tech nerds moved to excitement by the news; in a poll we shared in the weeks running up to the latest Samsung Galaxy Unpacked show, our readers overwhelmingly agreed that a larger battery life would be their biggest wish for the latest and greatest Samsung foldable, and those prayers have been answered. Feels good, right?

The sad news is, the second-most desired change remains unmet — that being the re-introduction of the S Pen and the digitizing layer under the display that makes the technology compatible. In fact, as reported by 9to5 Google, Samsung recently quietly removed product listings for all previous-generation S Pens, which perhaps doesn't bode well for the longevity of the styluses overall.

It's a real shame, and one I highlighted in the podcast as being particularly at odds with the phone's productivity-first marketing messaging; if the idea is that the best way to use this phone is like a tablet, which, for me, includes doodling, taking notes and not having to constantly wipe off grubby fingerprints, then hand me the S Pen and be done with it, even at the cost of a few more millimeters thickness.

That being said, at least in the case of the S26 Ultra phones, a Samsung exec shared with TechRadar just last year that the S Pen is a crucial part of the phone's DNA, so I hope that gives at least a little more runway for these handy accessories.

You can watch the full episode of the TechRadar podcast above or head directly to YouTube to hear all of our expert opinions on the latest slate of Samsung foldables and smartwatches.

I’ve been using, and loving, my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 for the past year — for me it's simply the best phone money can buy.

The foldable form factor is perfect for watching videos — either on the massive inner screen, or using the design to prop the phone up and watch on its outer display — and also for gaming, productivity, or capturing selfies with the 200MP main sensor rather than the lower-res selfie cam.

Its thin design is comfortable to hold and easily slips into any pocket, and the design has been durable enough to survive without me using a case; I did have a case for a few months but I hated it, so I’ve reverted back to my screen-protector only strategy.

As great as the Z Fold 7 is, though, it isn't flawless. The cameras could be better (a fact highlighted by the excellent cameras Samsung put in the Galaxy S26 Ultra that I also carry with me), the battery life isn’t as good as I need at times, and the crease can be quite noticeable in certain lighting thanks to annoying reflections on the inner display.

Thankfully, Samsung looks to have addressed a lot of my issues with the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — the true successor to last year's Fold 7 (the new non-Ultra Z Fold 8 adopts a squatter design this year), and the frontrunner to be my favorite phone of 2026, after spending just an hour or so with the new device.

Ultra by name, Ultra by nature

At first glance, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra looks almost identical to the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

Unlike the Z Fold 8, the Z Fold 8 Ultra offers the exact same screen dimensions as the Z Fold 7, with an 8-inch inner display and 6.5-inch cover display.

It’s supremely thin and light, so that even when folded it doesn’t feel like a brick, and it offers a similar camera array to the Z Fold 7 (more on that in a moment).

The only design change you’ll notice is the redesigned hinge. It makes it easier to open the Z Fold 8 Ultra, and allows the phone to sit more flat when open — which in combination with the inner screen’s new matte coating makes the crease less noticeable.

Instead of reinventing the wheel in areas where the Z Fold 7 already shines, such as its superb form factor, Samsung has introduced upgrades with the Z Fold 8 Ultra that make this phone even more capable.

My favorite improvement is new silicon carbide battery tech that allows for a much larger 5,000mAh battery than the Z Fold 7’s 4,400mAh cell, despite the Z Fold 8 Ultra being (very slightly) slimmer.

The battery life of the Z Fold 7 isn’t ideal. I frequently find that my typical usage — which admittedly involves streaming a lot of video, gaming, and multitasking to watch and work at the same time while on the go — leaves my battery running low by late afternoon.

The larger capacity of the Z Fold 8 Ultra probably won’t save me from needing to carry a charger with me ‘just in case’, but I’m hoping it’ll mean that I rarely, if ever, run out of juice completely — which can happen with my Z Fold 7, even when I adapt my usage to be more conservative.

The Z Fold 8 Ultra's cameras are a solid upgrade too. Alongside the Z Fold 7 I also use the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, because its cameras are so impressive — in particular, I’m in love with its 5x 50MP telephoto lens.

The Z Fold 8 Ultra doesn't, unfortunately, improve on the Z Fold 7’s 12MP 3x telephoto camera, but the existing 200MP main sensor has been enhanced with new HDR abilities to match Samsung’s S26 lineup, and the 12MP ultra-wide has been upgraded to 50MP, making the new phone's array feel more 'Ultra'.

It also gets the impressive Horizontal Lock video stabilization tech which I've loved on the S26 Ultra.

Having tried out the new cameras, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is certainly a major upgrade, and I’m keen to test them out further. Sure, the Z Fold 8 Ultra won’t win any prizes for best camera phone of 2026, but the versatility offered by the new camera array should help to make this foldable feel like a supremely capable all-round device, and not a phone with so many compromises that you can’t appreciate its incredible design wins.

A sort of silver lining

There's also a new chipset — the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy the S26 series is outfitted with — that powers a suite of new AI tools, and a brighter 3,000-nit display, which should help to make colors more vivid on the Z Fold 8.

As you might expect from a phone that's packed with upgrades and sporting a new Ultra moniker, and which is launching in the middle of the ongoing RAM crisis, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra will cost more than the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

The silver lining is that the price hike isn't as big as I and many others feared — the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra starts at $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999, where the Z Fold 7's launch price started at $1,999 / £1,799 / AU$2,899.

No price increase is ever ideal, but considering how much worse I was expecting it to be, I’ll happily take the $100 / £100 / AU$100 increase on the chin.

I can't wait to spend more time with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. I love my Z Fold 7, but after spending just a short time with its successor, I already know that it’s time for an upgrade.

Every year I espouse my admiration for flip phones, and in particular Samsung's foldable devices, but I've yet to make the leap away from the brick form factor.

While there's nothing more satisfying than snapping shut your phone to end a call, and I'm a real sucker for the more whimsical design and customizable software features on cover screens, the simple fact is that flip phones just aren't as powerful as the flagship devices I'm used to.

This year, though, Samsung has come tantalizingly close to converting me with the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8, despite not making very many changes in the hardware department over last year's model.

The Galaxy Z Flip 8 launches at $1,199.99 / £1,149 / AU$1,949, which is a $100 / £100 / AU$150 increase over the Z Flip 7, a price hike that owes much to the ongoing RAM crisis. It's the thinnest and lightest Galaxy Z Flip yet, its improved hinge makes it noticeably easier to open and close, and some neat upgrades to the cover screen iterate on the Z Flip 7's similarly light-touch improvements.

But what I'm most excited about is two new video features that will help me capture the moment.

Earlier this year, Samsung introduced an impressive new feature with the new Galaxy S26 series: Horizontal Lock, which impressed us in our testing. It works by utilizing the phone's built-in gyroscope and accelerometer to measure your movement and rotation while filming, and the camera sensor then crops and shifts the frame to compensate.

The result is that even if you rotate your phone by 360 degrees, the footage will remain level. It's no miracle worker, and you'll lose some image quality if you push it too far, but if you use it as intended to stabilize footage while you or your subject are moving, it can save you an editing headache, and let you focus on the moment while you're recording a live event.

Another neat feature that makes the Z Flip 8 feel even more primed for capturing the moment is Fan Cam mode. If you're a K-Pop lover, you'll know exactly what this one's for: using subject tracking, the software crops in and reproduces videos at your chosen aspect ratio with just your selected subject in the frame.

I go to a fair few live performances, and this one is a game changer for making sure I can enjoy the moment through my own eyes without making sure my camera is constantly perfectly framed through energetic dance numbers and crowds. It's also great for sporting events, whether that's at an international scale or when you're capturing the moment your little one scores their first goal in a soccer game.

The elephant in the flip

However, there's one thing holding the Z Flip 8 back from true video greatness: the cameras themselves. Offering the same 50MP wide lens, 12MP ultra-wide lens, and 10MP selfie camera as both the Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Z Flip 6, the Z Flip 8 does little to impress. In stark contrast, I've been spoiled by the iPhone 17 Pro's fantastic camera array of late; a recent holiday was made all the more special for the fact I could capture incredible shots without a hulking great big camera in hand.

Lower-spec cameras aren't a shortcoming that's exclusive to Samsung's Z Flip phones; squeezing in powerful rear cameras alongside the windowed display while also keeping the device slim and affordable continues to pose a challenge for designers of flip phones. Even so, compared to the Motorola Razr Ultra 2026 (aka the Razr 70 Ultra in some regions) with its triple 50MP front and rear cameras and a mere £50 price premium in the UK (the pricing gap is wider at $300 in the US), Samsung is lagging a little here.

Everything about the flip-phone form factor lends itself to content capture. The folded camcorder and tabletop mode are intuitive and versatile, and these new features are a huge boon — they're just not enough to tear me away from a flagship phone's stellar array.

Slow-going, but still showy

It's another safe year for the Galaxy Z Flip line, and that might be a sensible move for now. Shaving 0.4mm from the previous phone's thickness and thinning the cover-screen bezels to just 1.2mm seems about as far as Samsung can push the form factor for now, and the new hinge and advanced armor aluminum frame feel, at least based on my brief one-hour testing period, robust. Plus, I just adore the pink and cream colorways, even if they are an unsure bet for its target audience of younger women.

The Flex Window also finally feels complete, with new software features that make it genuinely useful, rather than a customization-first screen; Samsung Galaxy AI is running on all cylinders here, displaying AI automations as well as new Now Brief and Now Nudge features.

For example, hay fever sufferers can have personalized Now Brief cards with a quick glance of the day's pollen forecast, and Now Nudge can show contextual suggestions, like the details of your dinner reservation when the restaurant is calling you.

As mentioned, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 costs $100 / £100 / AU$150 more than its predecessor at launch. It's a shame, then, that in return for that price hike we're only getting another iterative upgrade, but until some grand breakthrough allows flip phones to pack in better cameras without compromising on form and functionality, we're unlikely to see any radical upgrades — look instead to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra for such bold strokes. I'll be testing the Galaxy Z Flip 8 thoroughly in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for my full verdict!

I’ve tested plenty of the best foldable phones in my time at TechRadar, but I’ve never opted to use one of these devices as my main handset long-term.

I use my phone for consuming content — scrolling, reading, watching — more than I do for productivity tasks, and so the appeal of having a heavier phone with a giant, square-sized foldable screen isn’t, for me, all that strong. Why would I watch a YouTube video with big black letterboxing above and below it, when I could simply use my regular phone in landscape for a better video-watching experience?

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a different proposition entirely. It’s still a book-style foldable — it’s got one smaller screen on the outside, and one larger screen on the inside that you open with both hands — but it’s shorter, wider, and dare I say cuter than the Galaxy Z Fold 7 before it. It’s the Galaxy Z Fold 7.5 in all but name (or maybe the Galaxy Z Fold Fat?).

This passport-shaped foldable has a 5.5-inch cover display and a 7.6-inch main display, with aspect ratios that make it, when closed, easier to use one-handed and better suited to video-watching when open. Specifically, when closed, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 has a 10:16 ratio — meaning your thumbs can easily reach the top of the screen — and when open, it’s a 4:3 ratio that’s optimized for widescreen content.

For comparison, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 — and indeed the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which retains the former’s tall and narrow form factor — has a 21:9 cover display and an almost square 1.11:1 inner display, which is great for spreadsheets and multitasking, but less brilliant for watching World Cup highlights on the train home.

Here’s how the video-watching experience on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — which you can read about in our hands-on Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra preview — compares, in both orientations:

Yes, I know — the black bars are still very much visible when the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is unfolded. But still, they're significantly smaller than those on the Ultra, and as for the outer display, the difference is night and day.

This is the key selling point of Samsung’s new shorter, wider foldable. Its displays have the same 120Hz refresh rate and 3,000-nit peak brightness as the pricier Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, but they don’t waste as much screen real estate as those on that square-sized premium model. If, like me, you use your phone primarily for watching videos and scrolling through social media, this is a big deal.

“We realize that there's enough of a segment where consumers are very heavy on media, and basically you consume social media, you consume videos, you play games, and you read books in a mostly similar form factor,” Samsung told us for our deep-dive into why it built the Galaxy Fold 8.

The company also describes the phone’s unfolded screen size as “the new standard for viewing content,” which makes sense when you consider that Apple is also rumored to be releasing a similarly sized foldable iPhone later this year.

Small but mighty

An important note: in the case of the Galaxy Z Fold 8, smaller does not mean less powerful. It’s got the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset under the hood — i.e., the same chipset as the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and the entire Galaxy S26 line — plus 12GB of RAM in every storage configuration except 1TB, in which you’ll get 16GB of RAM.

Naturally, I didn’t have enough time to really test the mettle of this chipset, but let’s be honest: we already know it’s a beast. It powers plenty of the best Android phones, and I don’t expect the Galaxy Z Fold 8 to feel any different to those Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5-equipped devices from a performance perspective.

The first real differences between the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and its larger sibling come in the camera department. This wider foldable packs a respectable 50MP wide lens and a 50MP ultra-wide lens, but the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra gets a superior 200MP wide lens and a 10MP telephoto lens for zoom shots.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra also has a slightly larger battery (5,000mAh) than the Galaxy Z Fold 8 (4,800mAh), but both phones finally — finally! — use silicon-carbon battery technology, so you should still get plenty of life from the latter’s smaller cell.

Silicon-carbon batteries can store up to 50% more energy in the same physical space as conventional smartphone batteries, so I’m expecting the Galaxy Z Fold 8 to deliver longer battery life than the 4,400mAh-equipped Galaxy Z Fold 7, which lasted for around 12 hours (standard use) in our testing.

For reference, Chinese foldable manufacturers like Oppo, Honor, and Vivo have been using silicon-carbon batteries for some years now, so Samsung’s adoption of this technology is a significant (if long overdue) step forward in markets like the US, where it hasn't been readily available.

As for charging, you’ll get 45W wired charging and 20W wireless charging, regardless of which model you choose, so the choice here is really between content and cameras. Would you prefer the wider Galaxy Z Fold 8 for scrolling and watching videos, or the taller Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra for productivity and taking photos?

Personally, I think the former’s shorter, wider form factor will be better suited to my needs, though I'm intrigued to see how much weaker the Galaxy Z Fold 8's main camera is compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's. At $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999, the latter phone is more expensive than the Galaxy Z Fold 8 — which starts at $1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699 — so it's safe to expect a noticeable gulf in photo quality.

I look forward to testing both devices properly after Unpacked.

Samsung's second big phone launch of the year is now over — and as expected, at the July edition of Unpacked 2026 saw the launches of several new Fold and Flip phones, plus the full reveal of Samsung's new Intelligent Eyewear smart glasses.

Leading Samsung's new foldables range are the new Z Fold 8 Ultra, passport-style Z Fold 8, and the updated Z Flip 8. The highlight, at least among the crowd, was the Z Fold 8, which likely gives us a hint of what to expect from the rumored iPhone Ultra.

But the most intriguing new devices were the range Intelligent Eyewear smart glasses, which Samsung's made in collaboration with Google. These will come in a range of designs when they launch "this Fall", from classic square and round-style frames to cat-eye-style silhouettes, and we've already had an early look at them.

You can read everything that happened at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked's July 2026 edition below. Which device are you most excited about? Make sure you also vote in our poll below...

Read all of our Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026 coverage

• I’ve spent an hour with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — and I need to upgrade my Z Fold 7 ASAP
• I went hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, and this passport-shaped oddity has revived my interest in foldable phones
• 'Finally, we've got silicon-carbon' — why SuperSaf is just as excited as we are for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's new battery
• 'If, because of that, we stop innovation, we don’t go anywhere': we got a first look at Samsung Intelligent Eyewear, the smart glasses entering a fraught market worried about privacy
• I've tested the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8, and its new camera features make it an excellent vlogging camera alternative — so long as you don't mind the middling image quality
• Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 review: slimmer, lighter, better
• I've found all the best Galaxy Z Flip 8 and Z Fold 8 preorder deals — where to get the biggest trade-in rebates and discounts

Welcome to Galaxy Unpacked 2026 (the sequel)

Hello, and welcome to our liveblog for Samsung's second big phone launch of the year, Galaxy Unpacked 2026.

We'll be reporting live from the London event, which kicks off at 9am ET / 6am PT / 2pm BST / 11pm AEST. But first, it's time to take you through all of the last-minute rumors on what we're expecting to see — and we certainly haven't been short of leaks...

The Z Fold 8 is winning the hype battle

The Galazy Z Fold 8 is emerging as the potential star of today's Unpacked event — and the foldable has just appeared in a new teaser poster (above).

It's the Z Fold 8's wider, passport-style design, which will likely separate it from the taller Fold 8 Ultra, that makes it the one I'm most interested in from today's launches. Partly because it also probably gives us an early peak of the iPhone Ultra's likely form factor.

We're expecting to see a 5.5-inch cover display and 7.6-inch inner display, both with a 120Hz refresh rate. The teaser poster matches some of the leaked dummy units that we saw earlier this year (below).

What are you most excited to see?

We've done a full rundown of everything we're expecting to see at Unpacked 2026, so that's worth a read as we get closer to kick-off (in just over two hours).

But the short version is that we're expecting three foldables (a Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra and Z Flip 8), plus two Galaxy Watches (the Watch Ultra 2 and Watch 9), and (potentially) also Samsung's first smart glasses.

Which one are you most excited about? Let us know in the poll below...

We've landed at Unpacked

We're very keen here at TechRadar, so we've already arrived at the Galaxy Unpacked event in London, and it's very... quiet.

That's understandable, as we're still two hours away from kick-off and many international attendees will be coming from hotels much closer to the start time.

A London-based Unpacked is a rarity — last year, Samsung did a mix of US-based and virtual events, while this year's earlier Unpacked in February was in San Francisco.

You have to go back to 2012 for the last time London hosted Samsung's main event, which saw the arrival of the Galaxy S III...

Will Samsung finally solve foldable creases?

There's a good chance that we'll see another big step towards crease-free foldables today. We recently visited Samsung Display's secret labs where it talked to us, among many other things, about its new "Flex Titanium Technology".

This includes a special structure at the fold to give added flexibility and help reduce crease visibility. We've recently more leaks on that theme — and while the image above doesn't look like a particularly fair comparison in terms of lighting, I'm hoping this new feature lives up to the hyper when we see it in person later.

If you host an event in London...

The umbrellas are already out at the Galaxy Unpacked 2026 queue. We've had what feels like months without rain in London, but right on queue the dark clouds are forming.

It's now just over 90 minutes till kick-off time, so hopefully we'll be ushered inside soon...

Brace yourself for price hikes

Some slightly less positive news from today's Galaxy Unpacked 2026 event is likely to be price hikes for the Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8.

A recent report from Korea (via Phone Arena) suggested that both foldables could be about $130 pricier than their predecessors. In the grand scheme of RAMageddon, that wouldn't be too bad — and the Fold and Flip series have never been the most affordable phones anyway.

Samsung has also already increased the prices of the Z Fold and Flip 7 series over the past year, so hopefully that will soften today's potential price rises...

A self-healing crease?

Samsung's upcoming foldables might not just have smaller creases than their predecessors, they could also have self-healing ones if the latest leak (above) is to be believed.

It's unclear how this would work, but perhaps it would ensure the crease doesn't become more visible over time. It also reminds us of the self-healing finish on the LG G Flex series, which could automatically fill in minor scratches.

It will be interesting to see how Samsung's take on this works, but if this leak is accurate then it could be Samsung's secret weapon against the upcoming foldable iPhone Ultra.

All the specs have already leaked

Samsung might not have too many surprises today if you've been following the leaks and rumors, as WinFuture.de recently leaked complete specs lists for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Z Flip 8.

Highlights if this leak is accurate include a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset for the two Z Folds and — at least in Europe — an Exynos 2600 for the Galaxy Z Flip 8.

We'll also apparently get a higher-capacity and faster charging 5,000mAh / 45W battery in the Z Fold 8 Ultra, but the real highlight could be the base Z Fold 8, since this is widely expected to have a new shorter, wider form factor, which according to this leak will allow for a 7.6-inch foldable screen and a 5.5-inch cover display.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 might live up to its name

We're also expecting various wearables today, and WinFuture has spilled the beans on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 in a detailed leak.

The latter could have a slightly larger and much brighter display than its predecessor, coming in at 1.52 inches and 5,000 nits, and joined by a colossal — by smartwatch standards — 800mAh battery, along with a build that's designed with divers in mind.

This is sure to be expensive, but the standard Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 should be a cheaper option for anyone who doesn't need all the bells and whistles offered by the Ultra. Sadly though we're not expecting a new Classic model this year.

Samsung's first smart glasses sound like Ray-Ban Meta rivals

Samsung could be about to make smart glasses more mainstream, as its first pair is rumored to be included in today's announcements, and the Samsung Galaxy Glasses as we're calling them for now have been extensively leaked.

A detailed new leak on WinFuture tallies with what we've heard before, including that these apparently won't have a screen, and will instead rely on cameras and access to Gemini, which should be able to see what you can.

They sound a lot like the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, and like those they apparently use a Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chipset, which is now three years old. Still, with supposedly 9 hours of battery life, Gemini access, and a big brand name behind them, they could be a hit.

These last-minute leaks are looking quite official

We're now less than 30 minutes away from Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026, and the leaks are looking ever more convincing, with what appears to be official marketing imagery having now leaked too, as you can see above.

This shows off all three expected foldables — the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8.

The purple Z Fold 8 Ultra looks quite appealing, but hopefully the pink background is a sign that we'll get some brighter colors too.

A subtle hint?

We're taking our seats at London's Galaxy Unpacked 2026 event and noticed a nice little touch from Samsung.

When you remove the perforated portion of our lanyards, it's remarkably close to the expected shape of the Z Fold 8 that we've seen in leaks.

Still, if you want an even clearer idea of what's coming, check out the leaked marketing materials that have just landed for the Fold 8 series. Or you could just wait 15 minutes to see the real thing...

What about the Galaxy Ring 2?

What's TechRadar's Senior Fitness & Wearables Editor Matt Evans most excited about at today's Unpacked?

"I'm most looking forward to the wearables — the Watch 8 was outstanding last year, and I’m hoping for more of the same on that front. But the hotly-rumored Watch Ultra 2 is going to be the real star. Plus, who knows? We may event get a hint about a Ring 2…", he says.

Samsung has already confirmed it's working on the Galaxy Ring 2 — and while it isn't expected to get a full launch today, we could well get a teaser at the end of the event (just as Samsung did for the original Ring).

Five minutes to go...

It's now just five minutes till kick off, and TechRadar's Lance Ulanoff has shared some final thoughts on this year's second Unpacked.

"We pretty much all know the shape of things to come, but I'm super curious to see the reaction from the crowd here and online. Is different better or just different? Can more fold shapes expand the market? Or can only Apple do that?" he says.

We won't have to wait long to find out...

Get your popcorn ready

We're just a minute away from the start of Unpacked, and the expected arrival of its new foldables and smartwatches.

A final thought from TechRadar's Editor at Large, Lance Ulanoff, who's at the event right now. "What may be missing from this event is any kind of surprise. Samsung is very leaky, and most of the excitement tends to be muted by the time they tell us what we already knew or read about somewhere," he says.

"For Samsung, the goal is to generate Apple-level energy for its latest foldables and any other products they pull out of their back pocket. It's especially important to build that kind of momentum before Apple begins its product rollout juggernaut in September," he adds.

And we're off

TechRadar's Phones editor Axel Metz has some final pre-Unpacked thoughts as we go through Samsung's pre-amble.

"I’m curious to see whether Samsung positions the shorter, wider Galaxy Z Fold 8 as its hero product this year — i.e. the foldable it hopes and expects people to buy — or simply as a more affordable alternative to the premium Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra," he says.

"In making the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Samsung is acknowledging that the taller, narrower form factor of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra isn’t very ‘Gen Z’, and with Apple rumored to be releasing a similarly sized iPhone Ultra later this year, I — and probably Samsung — expect this new aspect ratio to become the foldable mainstream. Where does that leave the Ultra in years to come?" he says.

The Samsung Glasses are coming

That's a surprise, Samsung has just teased that the Galaxy Glasses are coming at today's event. But first, it's going hard on security and privacy...

AI and privacy are the hot topics

Samsung's TM Roh is on the stage right now talking about the "the importance of AI infrastructure", as he says Galaxy AI will be coming to 800 million devices by the end of the year. Now we're moving onto its foldables, starting with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra...

First up, the Z Fold 8 Ultra...

Samsung's starting its Z Fold 8 Ultra promo with Flex Titanium, the new hinge design it announced last week that promises to make the crease less visible.

Also, there's battery news — it has largest-ever battery in a Galaxy Z Fold phone (at 5000mAh), and for the first time uses silicon carbon tech that we've seen in its many Chinese rivals — hooray...

Camera boosts for the Z Fold 8 Ultra

Samsung is now talking cameras on the Z Fold 8 Ultra, leaning heavily on its Nightography skills and talking up its much-improved 50MP ultrawide camera.

It also has a 200MP main camera with an f/1.7 lens and a 10MP telephoto that gives you up to 3x optical zoom, which are similar to its Fold 7 predecessor.

Now onto the Z Fold 8

This is the one most of us have been waiting for — Samsung's revealed its new passport-style Fold 8, and it got more of a reaction from the crowd than the Ultra.

Samsung's explaining the benefits of that more square display, claiming it bring "a whole new dimension to mobile gaming", while in portrait the 3:4 ratio makes it a good fit for reading.

I definitely like the form factor (in theory), and it's likely a hint of what Apple's going to bring with the iPhone Ultra. It's also apparently the "world's lightest fold" ever...

Telephoto out, 'FanCam' in

Sadly, there's no telephoto camera on the Z Fold 8, which is a shame — but Samsung's seemingly quite proud of its new 'FanCam' feature.

This new AI feature helps you quickly edit videos into your choice of aspect ratio, while keeping the star of your video in the center of the frame. Pretty neat, if perhaps not as useful as a telephoto — though that's probably revealing of Samsung's target market for the Z Fold 8.

Samsung's 'thinnest Flip yet'

This should be the final foldable from today's Unpacked — Samsung's Lee Dunham has just announced the Z Flip 8, and it sounds like a decent upgrade.

There's seemingly a much better Flex Display experience, with boosts to Now Brief (including the option of adding your own custom cards). And it's a bit slimmer and lighter at only 6.1mm thick when folded, and weighing in at 180g. You also get the same ProVisual engine as you get on Samsung's other Galaxy phones.

The downside is that pricing for the Z Flip 8 starts at $1,199 (with pre-orders starting today), which means it's a bit pricer than last year.

Spider-Man drops in

A Spider-Man interlude has just broken up the foldables news, as we get a teaser from his newest movie plus a chat from Ned, who's shown off a 'Spidey Tracker' alongside camera footage from the Z Fold 8 Ultra.

It's back to reality now though, as Samsung moves onto Samsung Care+ and the Galaxy Card, its new Apple Card rival that was announced this week.

Enter the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9

It's time to move onto smartwatches. Samsung's just revealed the Galaxy Watch 9, and it's promising some handy new software features.

These include sleep apnea detection, which is also coming to the Galaxy Ring — and apparently makes it the only FDA-cleared, over-the-counter ring device with that feature.

The Galaxy Watch 9 will also have "proactive" features that constantly monitor things like heart rate and heart rate variability, and crunch all these together into a new heart health score.

Samsung says it's partnering with iFit for its subscription fitness content, too. But the more exciting smartwatch is coming next...

The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 looks hardcore

The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is here — it looks pretty similar to its predecessor from a couple of years ago, but there are quite a few upgrades under the hood.

Its engine is the new Snapdragon Elite processor, which apparently offers 32% better performance than before. The Watch Ultra 2 is also the toughest Samsung watch so far, with IP69K and 10 ATM waterproof ratings.

There are some pretty hardcore diving features too, including Samsung's own diving algorithm and nitrogen absorption monitoring. Basically, Samsung is gunning for Garmin here.

The Watch Ultra 2 starts at $699 with the Galaxy Watch 9 starting at $379, with the Watch Ultra 2 launching from August 7.

Google talks Gemini

Google's Rick Osterloh has stepped in to tell us about the Gemini features that'll be available on Samsung's new foldables — and its new smart glasses too.

Gemini Notebook (the new name for NotebookLM) will apparently come preinstalled on the new foldables and buyers will get six months of Google AI Pro too (after which, you'll have to pay, of course).

Gemini Intelligence will also be coming to new smartglasses from Samsung, Gentle Monster and Warby Parker — and we're about to hear more about those...

It's time for smart glasses

As expected, Samsung's 'one more thing' at Unpacked is its Intelligent Eyewear — and it does looks pretty impressive.

Samsung has partnered with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker in its attempt to take on the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which is something we already knew. But we've just learned a bit more about their design and specs, including a new hinge design that has a power slider next to it.

Samsung is claiming nine hours of battery life from a single charge with 'mixed use' — which is seemingly around 90 minutes of notifications, 30 minutes of calls, 35 AI conversations, 12 message read alouds, 60 minutes of music playback, nine photo captures, and three one-minute videos.

It also says you'll be able to charge them more than seven times overs using their case. They'll apparently be lighter than most AI glasses (although their exact weight is still TBC) and will be powered by a Snapdragon AR1 chipset.

The Intelligent Eyewear (surely there's a snappier name) will launch in the Fall, so sometime between September and November. But a big question remains unanswered, how much will they cost?

That's a wrap

So that's it for Samsung's second Galaxy Unpacked event of the year. We've already been hands-on with all of the devices, including the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Flip 8, Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 and the Samsung Intelligent Eyewear.

There weren't many surprises given the leaks were so generous, but we did all the official pricing — and the hikes aren't quite as bad as many feared. Samsung's Intelligent Eyewear (surely they're going to get a snappier nickname) also looks very interesting, if it can navigate the Great Smartglasses Backlash.

It’s not long now until Samsung’s second major phone launch of the year, with the next Samsung Galaxy Unpacked showcase set to take place later on today — and you can join us live from the event in our liveblog.

This follows February’s Unpacked event, where we saw the Samsung Galaxy S26 series, but this time, we’re not just expecting phones, because along with a selection of new foldables — including a whole new form factor — we’ll probably see new smartwatches too, and even perhaps the Samsung Galaxy Glasses.

So, whether you’re in the market for a handset or a wearable, there could be something for you here, and below, you’ll find full details of how to tune in, along with exactly what we’re expecting to see.

How to watch Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026

The next Samsung Galaxy Unpacked is being held in London, but as with most major tech launches, it will also be streamed online, so you can watch it from anywhere.

It kicks off at 9am ET / 6am PT / 2pm BST / 11pm AEST on July 22, so at least it’s not the middle of the night for any of those places, though viewers on the west coast of the US will have to get up early, and if you’re in certain parts of Australia, you might have to stay up late.

To tune in, you can simply head to Samsung’s website, where the video will be streamed live. It will also be viewable live on Samsung’s YouTube page. But there’s no need to head to either, because the video embedded on this page (above) will play the stream once it’s live as well.

Wherever you choose to watch it, you don’t need to tune in live if the times are inconvenient, as you’ll be able to watch the video after the fact too. However, you might prefer to just head back to TechRadar, where we’ll be covering all the announcements with in-depth analysis.

What to expect at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026

We’ve written a full rundown of what to expect at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026, but in brief, there’s probably going to be a mix of phones and wearables.

On the phones side, it’s likely to all be foldables, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra all rumored to be making an appearance.

Of those three, the Z Flip 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra are thought to be fairly conventional successors to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, respectively. Look out for new chipsets, smaller creases, and potentially some new cameras, but nothing too game-changing is expected there.

The more interesting phone is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, which, despite its name, is reportedly going to have a new form factor, making it wider and shorter than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 or the Z Fold 8 Ultra. This will also probably be a more affordable phone as a result.

For wearables, we’ll probably see the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, with the latter of those products sounding the most interesting, as it might have a high-capacity 800mAh battery and — for the first time on a Galaxy Watch — support 5G.

Finally, Samsung might also take the opportunity to launch its first smart glasses, which could be called the Samsung Galaxy Glasses. These are reportedly screenless glasses that run Android XR, let you talk to Gemini, and look set to rival the likes of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

The metal ball dropped 40 centimeters onto a hair-thin flexible Samsung display with a resounding, cringeworthy clunk, but it did not break, and yet that wasn’t the most remarkable thing.

It was that I was the one dropping the ball, using one of Samsung Display’s own pieces of testing equipment, and I was doing so inside Samsung Display headquarters, a place where no media has gone before.

I’d come to South Korea for a wide-ranging Samsung Electronics product briefing and tours of its massive Gumi Digital City Factory and this first-ever look inside Samsung Display. With Samsung Unpacked now just days away (July 22) and new foldables anticipated, the visit would prove more than illuminating.

While obviously connected and working closely to deliver products like the Galaxy S26 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 (and whatever comes next), they’re also separate, working in a partnership that also allows Samsung Display to supply displays to, for instance, Apple (more on those Apple folding phone rumors later).

Samsung Display is a display specialist operating in a vast and in some ways nondescript (and in other ways beautiful) factory that is just a stone’s throw away from its nearest competitor, LG Display, which works in South Korea with its partner LG Electronics in a similar fashion.

Most of Samsung Display's buildings are unattractive, brutalist monoliths, but the interiors feature some eye-popping examples of their work. Ironically, we were initially greeted by a conference-hall-sized display featuring our names, which Samsung Display did not build.

But on an adjacent wall was an animated edifice of phones, tablets, TVs, and other screens that all tell the story of Samsung Display technology, one that has taken it from tiny feature-phone displays and tube TVs to the vast OLED panels and flexible displays featured in the latest foldables.

The ball-drop demo was part of a whistle-stop tour of Samsung Display's latest innovations and stress tests. I only dropped the 21.7-gram ball on the panel after watching a Samsung Display tech do it multiple times from a height of 30 centimeters on a 220lb machine that Samsung Display had moved into this small room just for this one demonstration.

However, Samsung seemed in the mood to open up, and we were soon visiting multiple rooms where Samsung Display puts panels through the wringer.

Following our guides, we hopped on a special elevator and soon were standing outside a 24-hour lab that’s running tests even when Samsung employees are asleep. “Only authorized technicians get in,” our guide warned us before unlocking the door with her ID and ushering us inside.

Many of these tests Samsung Display runs are designed to test “how long can I use it?” So, there are the folding and unfolding tests to the tune of thousands of times a day, and stress tests that heat the panels up to 60 degrees Celsius or cool them to minus 20 degrees Celsius. Many of the large gray or beige metal boxes where the tests are performed are sealed, so technicians must track the tests via video feeds from internal cameras.

But as I learned while touring other Samsung facilities, the company likes to automate these processes, so it’s often an unemotional computer that will recognize and report a failure.

Our next stop was another few levels down (B5, to be precise) where we saw image quality and reflection testing. The latter was interesting because, as is often the case, Samsung Display built a special rig, this one a barium sulfate-coated contraption to shine ultra-bright light on the panel and then use a spectrometer to read the light refracted back. For foldable displays, they even check how light bounces off the crease, which will, of course, affect visibility of the crease.

Samsung Display is also where they’re unsurprisingly pushing the boundaries of display technology. Company execs showed us a series of displays that, I think, speak to the future of many of our display-worthy electronics.

The first display, a visual trick of sorts, may have been my favorite. It looked like a small, bezel-less OLED screen showing off the inside of an ornate cathedral.

However, when I got close and shifted my view to the left or right, I realized it was two displays sandwiched on top of each other; a small portion of the image was on the smaller display, and behind it was the complete image. Head-on, they seamlessly blend together.

This optical illusion only works because Samsung Display has figured out how to reduce its tolerances so much that the small gap necessary for electrodes and encapsulation is almost zero, meaning that the top display has no visible black border around it.

The other 7.2-inch displays were of the flexible variety. We saw screens flex, we saw them roll away, but the most interesting was the hybrid: a foldable and rollable screen, something that’s never been tried before.

As for when these displays might come to consumer devices, that’s hard to say, but it does seem inevitable. After all, I first saw Samsung flexible displays more than a decade ago, and now they’re part of a growing legion of consumer-grade foldable phones.

Display executive perspective

Later, we moved to another part of the vast facility for a sit-down with Samsung Display executives

Byung Duk Yang, EVP at Core Component Technology Team, Samsung Electronics and Kyung-jin Yoo EVP & Head of Mobile Display Product Development Team, Samsung Display.

Unquestionably, the bleeding edge of the work they do continues to be the foldable phone partnership with Samsung Electronics, where these innovations presented a series of unusual challenges, many of which the firm has overcome over seven generations of foldable devices (and whatever we expect to come next week at Samsung Unpacked).

“The two companies are always thinking about how we can continue to improve the usability of the foldable,” said Byung Duk Yang.

Yang talked about how these flexible devices and their folding screens introduced diverse user paradigms. Some of the work they do is figuring out how to handle challenges like drops, pressure, and collisions with heavy objects.

But it sounds like it’s been rewarding work and the company is undoubtedly committed to the foldable space. “The future of the foldable device is very promising,” said Byung Duk Yang.

But when we asked about how soon some of those fold and slide screens might be in our hands, Samsung Display execs cautioned us, “We have to consider the real-world usage pattern. The display might be ready, but we should consider many aspects of the usage.

When we have confidence that we can deliver meaningful innovation to the user, then every other aspect of technology are ready, then we are going to list the product,” said Byung Duk Yang, who added that as an engineer, he knows they’re not ready.

When I asked, though, if there were any intrinsic barriers in folding displays to the introduction of the privacy display — a breakout feature for the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra — the answer surprised me.

“We are exploring and we are thinking, when and how to implement the privacy display into foldable display. Because we know many people love the feature. We are thinking, considering,” smiled Yang.

Speaking of innovation, the Samsung Display execs revealed that, with the upcoming new line of foldables, it's introducing a new material, or rather, doubling the use of a material generally associated with strength and not flexibility: Titanium.

Samsung Displays described it as "Flex Titanium Technology," and what it means is that upcoming foldable Galaxy phones, which the company will reveal next week, will feature not one but two titanium layers.

One is an update to the relatively rigid one that's existed in previous Galaxy Fold models, with a new, special structure at the fold or crease to give flexibility and reduce crease visibility.

The second, new, almost paper-like titanium alloy film replaces the polymer layer below the OLED in previous foldable devices and sits on top of the more rigid titanium plate. It's both thinner than that old polymer layer and, Samsung claims, more resilient.

"Polymer layers are good for flexibility but [we] want to minimize permanent deformation; titanium alloy has a much better quality to reduce permanent deformation,” they explained.

To help us visualize the new flexible display construction, Samsung Display brought out a bread-box-sized diorama, with each display layer hanging inside like a curtain. The new titanium polymer layer felt smooth, thin, light, and quite strong.

Naturally, we had to ask about Apple’s rumored foldable phone, which may be called the iPhone Ultra, and how Samsung Display might supply the screen.

They wouldn’t comment on the rumors but did share, “I think it’s more than welcome because when the other competitors and other companies join the market, this market will be standard and the owners will increase….We really welcome the big competitor joining this market…

We mean it, we love other companies to join this market.”

Big news for foldable phone fans this week. Reservations for the next generation of Galaxy Z Fold and Flip series phones have just arrived at the official Samsung Store ahead of the next Galaxy Unpacked keynote event.

The event will take place on July 22, 2026, at 9 a.m. ET / 6 a.m. PT / 2 p.m. BST, which means preorders are likely just a few weeks away. If you're interested in picking up a new device, then you'll find everything we know so far right here, including speculation on pricing and potential preorder deals.

While we're expecting the next generation of the Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip, Samsung has already suggested there's something more in store. In its first teaser for the event last week, the company said that "after seven generations of pushing the boundaries of foldables, Samsung is taking a different approach to how it builds anticipation this year."

That message, coupled with months of rumours about a wider foldable design, has sparked speculation that Samsung could finally be ready to introduce an entirely new type of foldable smartphone. With that said, details are still pretty scant as of writing, so take any speculation here as an educated prediction, rather than the gospel.

You can already reserve a device now

How much will the devices cost?

Right now, we don't even know what these devices will be called, let alone official pricing, so any speculation here is an educated guess. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 debuted at $1,999 / $1,299 respectively, so that's a rough ballpark of what to expect. Over in the UK, the last-gen devices debuted at £1,799 / £1,049.

I have a suspicion that Samsung might increase the price for this year's devices, however. RAM shortages and inflation are potential contributing factors here, and I think the brand could potentially increase the price anyway if the upgrades are big enough. If there's a new form factor, for example, I could see Samsung leaning heavily into that as a justification for a price increase.

How much can we expect to save?

• Trade-in rebates of up to $1,100 to $1,200
• Additional store credit at Samsung
• Major carriers matching discounts

Samsung itself has confirmed that there will be discounts of up to $1,230 with a trade-in rebate once preorders open. That will most likely cover both unlocked and carrier devices, so that gives you an idea of how premium these devices are likely to be.

Up until now, we've usually seen discounts of up to $1,100 on the latest Galaxy S26 and iPhone 17 series, so it looks like Samsung is being particularly aggressive with its discounts at launch.

Breaking that deal down, it could potentially resemble something like a trade-in rebate of up to $1,100, $100 of bonus credit to spend at Samsung (usually on accessories), and the $30 bonus for reserving a device. That's roughly in line with what the brand has offered over previous launches.

In terms of major carriers, you can definitely expect Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T to match those trade-in rebates on their sites. We could potentially see these major carriers waive the trade-in criteria altogether, but they usually only do this when you pair up the device with one of their super high-end plans. We're talking about plans that cost over $60 to $80 a month over a three-year duration, so they're usually pretty damn pricey in their own regard.

What about over in the UK?

You can already reserve a device if you're in the UK too, but annoyingly, Samsung hasn't confirmed any of the opening deals with its reservation page in this region. All we know is that you'll be able to get an extra £100 with your trade-in rebate, plus £30 in store credit if you reserve a device right now.

We've seen trade-in rebates of up to £700 with the Galaxy Z Fold 7 in recent months, so I suspect a rebate of anywhere between £650 and £850 is likely to be the maximum saving on the next-gen device when it arrives. Major networks like EE, Three, and O2 might have higher discounts than this, but those won't be for unlocked devices — you'll probably need a pretty substantial contract to get big savings.

• Samsung is reportedly giving up on small-screen foldables
• That means the upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 8 could be the last in the series
• It's a credible claim, but if enough people vote with their wallet perhaps the Flip line can still be saved

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 is a superb phone, achieving 4.5 stars in our review. But despite its excellence, Samsung might be giving up on this clamshell series after the Galaxy Z Flip 8 launches.

This is according to reputable leaker @UniverseIce, who stated on X that “the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 is likely to be Samsung's last small folding product.”

They didn’t say why that might be, but we can take a guess. For one thing, while the Flip line used to be Samsung’s most popular foldable phone series, there’s evidence that this trend could be starting to change. For example, FN News reported that in South Korea at least, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 received more pre-orders than the Z Flip 7.

So there could be a growing appetite for large-screen book-style foldables, which makes sense given that larger conventional phones tend to outsell compact models. And with the book-style iPhone Ultra reportedly launching this year, the appetite for that style of foldable is only likely to grow.

Plus, arguably one of the main selling points of the Z Flip line was that it provided a relatively affordable way to get a foldable phone, but with rising memory costs that might cease to be the case.

And on top of all that, Samsung is reportedly launching a shorter, wider book-style foldable this year alongside its conventional successor to the Galaxy Z Fold 7, with this new form factor being bigger than a Flip but still smaller than the company’s current large-screen foldables. So Samsung might see this as something that fans of smaller phones could buy instead of a new Flip.

A phone that would be missed

While this claim from @UniverseIce is believable, I certainly hope they’re wrong. Despite all the reservations above, the Flip is still an appealing line of fofldables.

They’re extremely compact when folded shut, which is sure to appeal to some people, and even with rising memory prices they’re likely to remain cheaper than book-style foldables. So it would be a shame for choice and variety if they disappeared.

Still, it’s likely that Samsung will be looking at sales of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 and the new wider Galaxy Z Fold before making any final decisions, so if the former does particularly well or the latter struggles, there’s still hope for a Galaxy Z Flip 9.

In other words, if it’s something you’d like to see then you should vote with your wallet this year and give Samsung’s upcoming clamshell device some love.

The next major smartphone launch is just weeks away: Samsung has set the date for its next Unpacked event as July 22.

The invite doesn’t say exactly what to expect at the London-based showcase, but it does tease that we’ll see a foldable phone with a new form factor, thanks to the tagline “a new shape unfolds”, and that lines up neatly with leaks and rumors.

In this article, we've detailed exactly what that “new shape” might be below, along with details of the other phones, watches, and even glasses that we might see at Galaxy Unpacked 2026.

1. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 is likely to be the most affordable of Samsung’s upcoming phones — and the only one with a clamshell design.

Leaks suggest that this device could use a new Exynos 2600 chipset — though the US might instead get a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Either way, that would be an upgrade on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7, which uses the Exynos 2500 chipset in every region.

The Galaxy Z Flip 8 could also have a smaller crease and a slimmer build, but might otherwise be similar to the Galaxy Z Flip 7, coming equipped with a familiar 6.9-inch foldable display, a 4.1-inch cover screen, a 4,300mAh battery, a 50MP main camera, a 12MP ultra-wide, and a 10MP selfie snapper.

2. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 could be that foldable with a “new shape” that Samsung hinted at, with reports suggesting that the company is planning a new book-style foldable that’s shorter and wider than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

This device is rumored to have a 7.6-inch 120Hz foldable screen, a 5.5-inch cover display, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, 12GB of RAM, two 50MP cameras on the back, and a 4,800mAh battery.

This could be one of the more interesting devices at the next Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, since it’s a form factor that Samsung hasn’t tried before. But aside from the size and shape of the screen, it will probably be quite a conventional foldable.

3. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

Along with the wider model detailed above, Samsung will almost certainly launch a standard successor to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 at Unpacked, and this device is rumored to be called the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — though it’s unclear whether it will do anything to earn that name.

Leaks suggest the phone might have an 8-inch foldable screen, a 6.5-inch cover screen, a 50MP wide camera, a 50MP ultra-wide, and a 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom.

As with the phone above, it’s likely to have a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset and 12GB of RAM, but its battery could be of a higher capacity, with leaks pointing to a 5,000mAh cell.

So in all, the Ultra could have bigger screens, a higher capacity battery, and an extra camera over the wider model — along with an almost certainly higher price.

4. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and Ultra 2

We’re also expecting new smartwatches from Samsung, specifically the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and probably also the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2. There’s an outside chance we’ll get a new Samsung Galaxy Watch Classic, but this is looking less likely.

The Galaxy Watch 9 will probably have a circular display again, with leaks pointing to an Exynos W1000 chipset, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and two screen sizes: a 1.34-inch (438 x 438) one and a 1.47-inch (480 x 480) one.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 might instead have a Snapdragon Wear Elite chipset, and could be the first Samsung watch to support 5G.

It could also have a massive — by smartwatch standards — 800mAh battery, 64GB of storage, and a high 5,000-nit peak brightness for its screen. The display, however, might otherwise be similar to the original Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra’s, and it will reportedly come in the same 47mm size.

5. The Samsung Galaxy Glasses

Finally, we might also see the Samsung Galaxy Glasses at Unpacked. These would be Samsung’s first smart glasses, and they reportedly run Android XR with access to Gemini.

They might also have a 12MP camera, a 155mAh battery, directional speakers, and weigh just 50g. But they’re not expected to have a screen, so they could be direct rivals to products like the Ray-Ban Meta.

• The next Galaxy Unpacked is set for July 22, 2026
• Samsung teases "A New Shape Is Unfolding"
• A new foldable form factor could debut alongside the existing Fold and Flip phones

A week after wiping its social media accounts and replacing them with cryptic teasers — and following months of rumors — Samsung has officially set the date for its second Galaxy Unpacked event of 2026.

Everything will be revealed, unpacked, or perhaps more fittingly, unfolded, on July 22, 2026, at 9 a.m. ET / 6 a.m. PT / 2 p.m. BST (11 p.m. AEDT). Samsung will livestream the Galaxy Unpacked keynote from an in-person event in London, UK, and yes, TechRadar will be on the ground at the unveil.

The invitation itself is already dropping hints, as Samsung tries to build anticipation. Alongside the tagline, "A New Shape Unfolds," the animated invite shows what appears to be a ticket printing before its top edge is torn away, revealing a noticeably wider, shorter silhouette than Samsung's current Galaxy Z Fold devices.

Samsung hasn't confirmed exactly what it will be announcing come July 22, but between the tagline and the animation, it's hard not to see them as clues pointing toward an all-new foldable design. It's also already accepting pre-reservations for whatever it will formally unveil at the July 22 event.

Specifically, you can sign up with your email on Samsung's main site at no cost to score a $30 Samsung Credit that can be applied to your pre-order and unlock up to $1,230 off with an eligible device trade-in.

So, if you're considering one of the next Galaxy devices, it's worth getting in line now ... and there's no cost involved.

Samsung's summer Galaxy Unpacked events have traditionally been the stage for its newest foldable smartphones and fresh wearables such as Galaxy Watches and Galaxy Buds. This year, though, the spotlight looks set to extend beyond the usual annual refreshes.

While we're expecting successors to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7, Samsung has already hinted that something different is on the way. When it began teasing the event last week, the tech giant said that "after seven generations of pushing the boundaries of foldables, Samsung is taking a different approach to how it builds anticipation this year."

That statement, combined with months of leaks pointing to a wider foldable form factor, has fueled speculation that Samsung is finally ready to unveil an entirely new kind of foldable phone.

Unlike the Galaxy Z Fold lineup's familiar book-style design, this rumored device is expected to feature a much wider form factor. Based on the leaks we've seen so far, it resembles the now-discontinued Microsoft Surface Duo, Apple's long-rumored foldable that's widely expected to arrive later this year, or even a classic Moleskine notebook when folded shut. If the rumors prove accurate, Samsung could once again be first to market with a new foldable form factor.

Galaxy AI is also expected to be front and center throughout the keynote, with Samsung likely showcasing new AI-powered features across its latest folding phones and potentially teasing its forthcoming Android XR Glasses.

TechRadar will be on the ground in London for Galaxy Unpacked, bringing you live coverage of every announcement as it happens, along with hands-on impressions of Samsung's newest devices. We'll also be running a live blog throughout the keynote, so be sure to follow along as Samsung unveils what's next come July 22.

In the meantime, let us know what you're most excited to see Samsung reveal at Galaxy Unpacked in the comments below.

• Samsung Messages has been killed off to make room for Google Messages
• Right now it's just affecting US users, but a wider shutdown is likely to happen
• We recommend making Google Messages your default SMS service

After months of waiting, the dreaded day for Android users arrived: Samsung Messages has finally been shut down for good as of July 6.

The Korean tech company announced its decision to axe its messaging service for Galaxy Phones and tablets in April, with Google Messages taking over as the new default communication platform for devices released in 2022 and onwards.

Samsung stopped installing its flagship messaging platform on devices in 2024, so if you’re using the Galaxy S26 Ultra, for example, Google Messages will already be installed.

So what happens now?

At the moment, Samsung Messages’ demise is only impacting users in the US, according to recent reports. According to SamMobile, it may still work outside the US on devices the app was pre-installed on, but it’s likely that a wider shutdown will follow suit in other countries later — it’s been removed from the Galaxy Store and Google Play Store, and UK users on Reddit are reporting its replacement with Google Messages.

That said, if your device is running Android 11 or lower, the shutdown won’t affect you, according to Forbes. However, the outlet notes that those on a more recent version should switch to Google Messages.

Samsung Messages’ shutdown has been a long process, and though users have been anticipating the move for some time, it doesn’t mean that they’re ready to bid farewell to the app just yet.

Comment from r/S24Ultra

Across the board of reactions on Reddit, the general consensus is that Samsung Messages will be missed. “If I wanted to use Google’s POS services I would’ve bought a pixel,” one user explains, but from Samsung’s perspective, it’s all about giving users a messaging experience enriched with handy features.

The company says that the switch to Google Messages will help bring features to Samsung Galaxy devices to align with modern messaging tools used in third-party apps such as WhatsApp. This includes end-to-end encryption, AI tools, and RCS messages, which Google Messages now allows to be sent between iOS and Android devices.

Still haven’t made the switch to Google Messages? We’d recommend doing this sooner rather than later, and it’s quite a straightforward process.

Once you’ve uninstalled Samsung Messages and downloaded the Google Messages app, launch it and a pop-up reading ‘Set default SMS app’ will appear on your device. Tap this, select Google Messages from the options, then tap ‘Set as default’. You can add Google Messages to your Home screen by tapping and holding the app and selecting ‘Add to Home’.

We’re now halfway through the calendar year (yes, really), so what better time to round up our favorite phones of 2026 so far?

I say ‘our favorite phones’, but I really mean ‘my favorite phones’ — I’ve collated five models that may not have perfect TechRadar review scores, but either surprised me in testing or offer something unique in today’s busy smartphone landscape.

The reviews for each model (which I’ve included in each entry) may have been written by someone else, but I’ve personally used all the phones listed below for specific feature deep-dives, video shoots, or general device comparisons. Don’t agree with my list? Let me know your favorite phone(s) of 2026 so far in the comments below.

5. Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

• Release date: March 11
• Review rating: 4.5 / 5

Any phone-related ‘best of’ list has to include Samsung’s latest Ultra-branded Galaxy device. This year’s edition is the feature-packed Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, and while it’s not the most surprising phone I’ve tested this year (hence its place at number 5), it is the most powerful and versatile of the bunch. It’s an everything phone — an all-you-can-eat buffet of top-end hardware and software.

Chief among the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s new software features are Privacy Display and Super Steady Horizontal Lock. The former stops prying eyes from viewing content on your screen, while the latter stabilizes videos even when you turn the phone a full 360 degrees. I’m a die-hard Apple fan, but the iPhone 17 Pro doesn’t have either of these features, nor classic Samsung tools like DeX and the S Pen, so the Galaxy S26 Ultra feels like a cut above the current best iPhone when it comes to productivity.

Add in some customarily premium hardware specs, and you’ve got a formidable pocket companion — albeit one that will cost you an arm and a leg to own.

Read our in-depth Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review

4. Google Pixel 10a

• Release date: March 5
• Review rating: 4 / 5

Like the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the Google Pixel 10a is the definition of ‘iterative upgrade’, but it’s still my go-to recommendation for buyers looking for an affordable Android phone with great cameras. Google’s excellent Android software is just as good on this cheaper device as it is on the premium Google Pixel 10 Pro, and I’d go as far as to say that the 10a is actually the better-looking of the two phones (look at that flush camera!).

Sure, Google’s Tensor G4 chipset is underpowered compared to the midrange competition, and you don’t get any PixelSnap compatibility here, but at $499 / £499 / AU$849, it’s hard to argue against the Pixel 10a’s value for money. Its 6.3-inch Actua display is gorgeous, its two cameras are as good as anything you’ll find for the same price, and its AI-powered software features — from Camera Coach to Call Screen — are genuinely useful. Bravo, Google.

Read our in-depth Google Pixel 10a review

3. Motorola Edge 70 Fusion

• Release date: March 2
• Review rating: 4.5 / 5

I know what you’re thinking: the Motorola Edge 70 Fusion? Surely this little-known device — which isn’t even available in the US — is not my third-favorite phone of 2026 so far? Well, it is, if only because it surprised me (and our reviewer) so much in testing.

The Edge 70 Fusion costs just £379.99 / AU$499, but it looks like a flagship phone. It’s slim and lightweight for its large size, and boasts a nice textured finish on its rear panel. Its 6.78-inch display can reach 144Hz, and the 7,000mAh battery routinely got me through two days on a single charge. And don’t forget the IP68 and IP69 resistance ratings.

There are, of course, compromises. Motorola’s software continues to be… just OK, while the Edge 70 Fusion specifically is only due to receive three years of major software updates. But for such a low price, these shouldn’t be deal-breakers. The Edge 70 Fusion is my surprise package of 2026 so far, and it deserves more attention than it’s been given.

Read our in-depth Motorola Edge 70 Fusion review

2. Nothing Phone (4a) Pro

• Release date: March 19
• Review rating: 4.5 / 5

I recently played around with the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro for an upcoming ‘best midrange phones’ video, and it floors the competition in terms of value for money.

As much as I love the Google Pixel 10a (as you’ll have read above), for the same price, Nothing’s latest a-series phone adds a 50MP telephoto camera, faster charging, and a more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset into the mix. And best of all, the (4a) Pro is a thoroughly unique-looking device.

Nothing swapped the transparent rear panel of its other phones for an industrial, aluminum backplate on the (4a) Pro, making the huge camera module the star of the show. This module also features the gimmicky-but-fun Glyph Matrix introduced on the Nothing Phone 3, which, for me, has drawn as much attention in public places as the iPhone Air this year.

If the Google Pixel 10a is my safe value-for-money Android pick of 2026, the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro is my exciting value-for-money Android pick.

Read our in-depth Nothing Phone (4a) Pro review

1. Oppo Find X9 Ultra

• Release date: May 8
• Review rating: 4.5 / 5

And now we come to the Oppo Find X9 Ultra — my favorite phone of 2026 so far. This is the first Ultra-branded Oppo phone to ship outside of China (though it’s unfortunately still not available in the US), and it blows the competition out of the water in terms of camera performance.

Specifically, the Find X9 Ultra boasts a 200MP (f/1.5) main lens, a 50MP ultra-wide (f/2) lens, a 200MP 3x telephoto (f/2.2) lens, and a 50MP 10x telephoto (f/3.5) lens, which is the sort of combination we rarely see on even the best camera phones.

We recently compared the Oppo Find X9 Ultra against the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, and the Chinese flagship won out in almost every category. My colleague, Tim, even compared the Oppo Find X9 Ultra to a Lumix TZ300 and Nikon Z8, and the phone absolutely held its own, particularly at 10x zoom.

Away from camera performance, the Find X9 Ultra boasts a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, 12GB of RAM, a 6.8-inch OLED display, and an enormous 7,050mAh battery, so it doesn’t leave you wanting for power or endurance.

It’s heavy, it’s thick, and it’s eye-wateringly expensive, but the Oppo Find X9 Ultra is still the most exciting phone of 2026 so far.

Read our in-depth Oppo Find X9 Ultra review

We’re approaching the first anniversary of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, which means it won’t be long before we see the phone (or phones, as the case may be) that will replace it in Samsung’s lineup.

As someone who has relied on the Fold 7 as my daily driver since it landed, I couldn’t be more excited to see what the next generation holds, and I have a few wishes I hope Samsung will make come true — with leaks teasing some of them just might…

Before we get into that, vote in our poll to tell me which upgrade you most want to see in the Z Fold 8 when it’s finally announced.

1. An Ultra camera boost

The Z Fold 7 has been my go-to every day since I first received it, but for the past six months I’ve also consistently carried a second phone in my pocket — becoming the kind of kind of tech journo I hoped I never would, one obsessed with tech perfection no matter how inefficient and niche my collection of gadgets is (just you wait, I’ll be wearing two smartwatches next).

The reason I mention this is that the second phone is the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, and its primary purpose is as a camera, because it frankly puts my Z Fold 7's shots to shame.

If you want a clearer sign that 200MP sensors aren’t made equally, see this pair’s photos side by side. Couple that with the Ultra’s superior zoom cameras — further amplified by its boasting dual 5x and 3x telephotos compared to the Fold 7’s lonely 3x — and for photo enthusiasts, it’s clear the S26 Ultra has an edge.

My hope is that if the Z Fold 8 is getting an Ultra moniker, as some leaks suggest, it’ll boast identical cameras, or risk feeling like a subpar alternative, despite having a price point that demands excellence in every category.

2. Affordability dreams

Speaking of price, the reality I’m preparing for is that the Z Fold 8 will cost more than the Fold 7, thanks to RAM and storage cost increases. There’s a chance Samsung could avoid this by having its memory-producing arm give its mobile division a discount, although there are conflicting reports about a cost-saving collaboration based on leaks and Samsung’s own comments.

Regardless, I think the Z Fold 8 design could hint at a slight discount. I’m not talking about the wider display — though it does seem to have a smaller area, which should reduce costs somewhat — I’m referring to the lack of a third camera.

With it being rumored to boast 12GB of RAM and a top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset — essential components for Samsung’s top-tier AI — it’s yet to be seen if the display and camera downgrades will bring the cost down in real terms or merely counteract the cost increases we would have faced thanks to the RAM crisis. I have my fingers crossed we might see the cheapest Samsung Fold yet with the 8 (defeating the reigning champ: the $1,799 / £1,599 / AU$2,499 Galaxy Z Fold 3).

3. Begging for battery

The Z Fold 7 boasts a 4,400mAh battery just like the Z Fold 6 before it, but thanks to software and chipset optimizations, Samsung promised the battery life of the 7 would be a little longer. My anecdotal evidence, however, as someone who used the Z Fold 6 as my main handset before the 7 launched, is that the battery seems to disappear faster on the newer model.

Now, this isn’t based on any tests, but speaking to a few other regular Z Fold 7 users who had upgraded from the 6, my perception of worse battery life was echoed. Thankfully, leaks tease a bigger battery for the 8, taking us up to a whole 4,800mAh. The Ultra will apparently stretch to 5,000mAh.

Considering some reasonably priced Chinese brands are delivering phones powered by silicon-carbon batteries with capacities over 7,000mAh, the leaked specs leave me underwhelmed. However, considering my usage currently forces me to charge my phone in the middle of the day — or risk it running dry before I get home — I’ll be happy with any upgrade in the battery department.

4. Privacy display please!

The star of the show on the S26 Ultra is the privacy display, but after spending more time with it, the tech does need a little tweaking. An easy software update would be to add app controls that let me choose which software uses maximum privacy mode. I don’t want to use it all the time, but I would love for it to come on automatically for password entry and mobile banking. However, it is still impressive.

Seeing it on the Z Fold 8 would be fantastic, especially on the Z Fold 8 Ultra, as, like the cameras, it would bring the Fold Ultra on par with the unbending Ultra, though I’m willing to accept the tech only showing up on the outer screen.

Unfortunately for me, leaks don’t tease this addition making its way to Samsung’s latest foldables, but maybe I’ll get lucky!

5. Keep the S pen away

I’ve come around a little on the S Pen after experiencing it in the S26 Ultra, though I’m still not keen to see it return to the foldable line.

Why?

There’s no space to add it without making the phone thicker again. Frankly, the supreme thinness of the Z Fold 7 is what makes it infinitely more manageable than Samsung’s previous foldable phones.

With the Wide design being more tablet-like, I 100% see the appeal of a stylus to make the design perfect for casual digital artists, but I don’t think the S Pen’s positives outweigh the negatives. I hope it stays gone when the Z Fold 8 debuts.

• A near-complete specs list for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 has leaked
• We've also seen leaked renders of the Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Z Flip 8
• Plus, a leaker claims none of these phones will have a Privacy Display

We’re probably less than a month away from the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and its siblings, with July 22 being repeatedly tipped as the announcement date, and Samsung even recently teasing its upcoming foldables.

Sadly, those teasers didn’t actually reveal much, but a trio of leaks has told us almost everything we need to know about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 — assuming the details here are correct.

First up, reputable leaker Ahmed Qwaider has shared a near-complete specs list, claiming that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 will have a 7.6-inch 120Hz foldable screen and a 5.5-inch cover display, both with QHD+ resolutions.

It will also apparently have a 50MP wide camera, a 50MP ultra-wide, and two 10MP selfie cameras (one on each screen). For power, it’s said to use a top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset and 12GB of RAM, paired with a choice of 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage.

Qwaider also claims that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 will have a 4,800mAh battery, will weigh 201g, and come in at 123.9 x 81.9 x 9.7mm when folded and 123.9 x 161.4 x 4.5mm when unfolded.

Some of these specs might sound like a step down from the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 — for example, there’s one less camera listed here — but that’s because the phone dubbed the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is expected to be a new, wider, shorter model, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra likely to be the true successor to the Z Fold 7.

All three phones pictured

In any case, Android Headlines has also recently shared some renders of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8.

The phones are shown in cases, so we don’t get an unobstructed look at them, but they’re largely as you’d expect, with the Z Fold 8 Ultra and Z Flip 8 looking a lot like their predecessors, while the Galaxy Z Fold 8 looks like a squatter version of the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

And finally, leaker @UniverseIce has claimed that none of these upcoming phones will have the Privacy Display found on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

This feature — which means people can’t see sensitive content on your screen when viewing it from the side — is arguably one of the highlights of Samsung’s latest flagship, and one of the most innovative features the company has come up with in a while, so it will be a real shame if none of its upcoming foldables have this too.

Still, at least we shouldn’t have long to wait before we find out exactly what these phones are capable of.

• Samsung launches cryptic social media campaign
• It appears to be about the next generation of foldables
• More specificially, Samsung is trying to tell us about shapes

Samsung is slicing up pizza, smearing paint, and playing with puzzles all in an effort to hint about what's to come in its next big Unpacked product event this month, which we all expect to be about foldables.

After clearing out its social media accounts, Samsung returned with a handful of social, almost ASMR videos that focus on sound and visuals but offer little in the way of concrete information.

The social media campaign starts with a photo booth printout that features four images of a woman and her dog. The print includes a substantial top border with the word "Snapply." Someone cuts that off before we see the words, "Cut to what matters."

Next, there's a pepperoni pizza where someone uses a rolling pie cutter to slide out a small, rectangular shape. They remove the slice, slide away the remaining pie, and the words "A whole new slice" appear. Next, there's a tiny dog puzzle. Someone removes the top row of pieces, and the words "Feels just right" appear. The last one, though, might be most telling.

It starts with some paint drops on a white palette. A squeegee slides over them to mix the colors and reveal the number 8 with the words:

"Bold stroke

New shape"

One thing we can glean here is that all of these social media bits are talking about design, shape, or aspect ratio. After all, the word "shape" and words that apply to shape appear throughout.

The "8" makes sense. We're still sporting our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 devices, and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8 are, presumably, the next phones in line. There are rumors of a new wide device, too, which fits the "new shape" idea Samsung is teasing here. Beyond that, though, we don't know much.

This is different

Samsung told us via email that the company is "hitting reset."

"After seven generations of pushing the boundaries of foldables, Samsung is taking a different approach to how it builds anticipation this year," the company wrote.

This new social media campaign is purposely devoid of product details and encourages guesswork. The recurrent shapes and patterns are intentional.

Clearly, all these videos are not just about the shape. They might be trying to tell us about some of the new features coming with the next generation of Galaxy Z foldables. For instance, there is another hint, perhaps unintentional: both the puzzle and the paint video are, according to the fine print, AI videos with edits. Were they created on the new devices? Only time will tell.

Take our advice and keep watching all of Samsung's social media channels for additional hints and details.

• Samsung Messages is shutting down for US users in July
• Google Messages is the suggested alternative, but there are other options
• You should switch to a new app before the shutdown date to ensure you keep your chat history

If you’re a Samsung Messages user then you’re probably already aware that the app is soon shutting down in the US — and if you’re not, you need to be, because there are steps you’ll need to take to preserve your messages and continue being able to chat.

While the exact shutdown date hasn’t been confirmed by Samsung, the company has said that it will be switched off at some point in July, and it’s looking like it will probably happen on July 6, as some users reported getting notifications with that date.

So, you don’t have long to get your messaging house in order. With that in mind, we’ve detailed the five things you should do before Samsung Messages shuts down.

1. Check if you’re affected

Oddly, it seems that right now at least, Samsung isn’t shutting down its messaging app everywhere. In fact, initially, it’s only shutting down in the US.

Even then, it will seemingly continue working on devices running Android 11 or older, so if you’re outside the US or running a very old version of Android, you don’t necessarily need to do anything (though you might still want to, as detailed below).

But Android 11 is likely to have numerous security vulnerabilities these days, so if you are still running that version of Google's software, it’s worth updating your device or getting a new one anyway if possible.

2. Consider switching even if you’re not affected

While Samsung has said that it currently has no plans to shut down Samsung Messages outside the US, it’s hard to imagine this isn’t something the company is at least considering.

We’d think it’s likely that the US shutdown is just the first step, with other regions potentially following sometime later, and even if it isn’t shut down elsewhere, this move rather suggests that Samsung Messages isn’t a priority for the company, so you might find it doesn’t get updated as much as alternative apps.

All of which is to say it could be worth switching messaging apps anyway, even if you don’t actually have to yet.

3. Choose and download a new messaging app

Assuming you either have to switch or have decided that now’s the time, you’re going to need to choose an alternative.

Handily, there’s no need to give this much thought, as Samsung is directing users to Google Messages, so if you’re happy with that, you can download it from Google Play and skip to the next step.

But you might want to consider other options too, such as Fossify Messages, Textra SMS, Beeper, or Pulse SMS.

However, be aware that only Google Messages and Beeper support RCS (Rich Communication Services) — the others are limited to SMS, which has fewer features and is less secure.

4. Set it as your default messaging app

Next, set whichever app you’ve chosen as your default messaging app. In most cases, you should see a prompt asking you to do this when you launch the new app for the first time, but if not, just head to Settings > Apps > Choose default apps > SMS app, and then tap the one you want to use.

5. Wait for your chats to move across

In most cases, once you download a new messaging app and set it as your default, your previous conversations from Samsung Messages will move across to it automatically, though this can take up to 24 hours, so don’t panic if they don’t immediately appear.

But if you choose to switch to Beeper, then the process is a bit more involved, as you’ll first need to download Google Messages anyway and move your conversation history over to that. Then you can connect Beeper to your Google account to give it access.

• Images of cases for the rumored wider Galaxy foldable have leaked
• They look like official cases, but they call the phone the 'Galaxy New Fold'
• Fans have cast doubt over whether these are the real deal

One of the big questions surrounding Samsung’s rumored wider foldable is what it will actually be called.

Early leaks referred to it as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide, but then more recently, we heard that it might simply launch as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, with the direct successor to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 now being called the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. Now, though, another possibility has emerged.

Some leaked images have been shared on X by Mohammed Khatri and @thinborne showing packaging for seemingly official cases for the phone, which here is listed as the ‘Samsung Galaxy New Fold’.

But there are reasons to doubt this name, as while the photos are probably real, there’s a high chance the products they show are knock-offs from China.

As one Reddit commenter purported: “These are fake cases made by Chinese companies sold through eBay, temu, shein, ali express, etc... they copy Samsung boxes well, but they don't know the new name of the fold wide, so you can see that on the box where it's just called new fold. Samsung would never do that.”

Another Reddit poster agreed, writing, “I've seen cases like that appear all over Aliexpress and almost all of them are knockoffs with the Samsung logo on them.”

And on top of all that, these are supposedly ‘Kindsuit’ cases, which are a style of case that Samsung offers for last year’s flagship phones, but not for the Samsung Galaxy S26 series. So there’s some doubt over whether the company’s upcoming foldables would get this style of case.

We'll find out soon

On the other hand, questionable name aside, these do look like they could be official Samsung cases, so we can’t completely rule out the possibility that this will be the wider foldable’s official name.

But it would seem an odd choice, as subsequent wide models will no longer be ‘new’ in the same sense, so it would quickly become a clunky naming scheme.

We’ll probably find out very soon anyway, as Samsung is rumored to be launching its next batch of foldables on July 22.

• Samsung has announced the Galaxy A27
• This budget phone has a faster chipset than the A26 along with a refined design and an improved selfie camera
• However, it has worse water resistance and fewer megapixels in its ultra-wide snapper

Samsung has just launched a new budget phone, with the Galaxy A27 arriving to take the place of last year’s Samsung Galaxy A26. But while there are some worthwhile upgrades here, there are also at least two downgrades.

Most notably, while the Galaxy A26 has an IP67 rating, the Galaxy A27 is instead stuck with a lesser IP64 rating, meaning it’s less water resistant.

At least one of the cameras also looks to be a downgrade, as while both phones have a 50MP wide camera and a 2MP macro one, the Galaxy A27 pairs those with a 5MP ultra-wide, whereas the Galaxy A26 has an 8MP ultra-wide snapper.

Looking purely at megapixels, the front-facing camera may seem a slight downgrade too, as it's 12MP on the Galaxy A27 and 13MP on the Galaxy A26. But overall, this is probably actually an upgrade, as Samsung claims the new camera can capture “a wider range of brightness and richer colors” for more natural-looking selfies.

A faster chipset and smaller bezels

As for things that are clear upgrades, there’s a more powerful Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chipset, a punch-hole camera in place of a notch, and smaller bezels. The Samsung Galaxy A27 also has improved AI capabilities, such as multi-object recognition in Circle to Search, and more precise results from Object Eraser.

Beyond that, most of the specs are the same as last year, including a 6.7-inch 120Hz screen, up to 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage, and a 5,000mAh battery with 25W charging.

The Samsung Galaxy A27 also runs Android 16 and comes with the promise of six generations of Android updates and six years of security updates.

It’s launching in the UK and Australia on July 3 and the US on July 14, starting at £319, AU$499 and $349.99 respectively.

It will be sold in black, blue, light green, and light pink, but not all regions will necessarily get all of those colors — we know, for example, that in the US and Australia, it’s only going to be sold in black.

A smartphone can be a major investment — especially if you’re shopping for one of the best phones around — so it’s important to be sure that the device you’re buying isn’t just good for now, but good for many years to come.

Software support is a key factor in determining how long a phone will last, and in recent years, manufacturers have been committing to much longer product support windows than they used to. But not all phones get the same amount of support, and indeed some older phones will be approaching their final update in 2026.

So, below, we’ve detailed how long phones from Apple, Samsung, Google, and Motorola will continue to receive updates.

To keep things simple, we've focused on major brands with US availability, but if you have a recent high-end phone from the likes of Honor, Oppo, or Xiaomi, it will likely be in line for between five and six years of updates from its launch date. Older and lower-end models tend to be in the two-to-three-year range.

Apple iPhones

Apple never used to commit to a specific support window for its phones, but that changed in 2024, when new UK regulations required brands to outline a minimum support window. As a result, Apple now promises a minimum of five years — but this only applies to security updates, not the kinds of iOS updates that add new software features. And five years is a minimum, with Apple often going beyond that number anyway.

All of which is to say we can’t be certain when iPhones will get their final update, but typically, they’re supported for between five and seven years.

So, the list below is our best guess for how many years of updates each currently supported iPhone model has left.

• iPhone 17 series — 4-6 years (last update in 2030, 2031, or 2032)
• iPhone Air — 4-6 years (last update in 2030, 2031, or 2032)
• iPhone 16 series — 3-5 years (last update in 2029, 2030 or 2031)
• iPhone 15 series — 2-4 years (last update in 2028, 2029, or 2030)
• iPhone 14 series — 1-3 years (last update in 2027, 2028, or 2029)
• iPhone SE (2022) — 1-3 years (last update in 2027, 2028, or 2029)
• iPhone 13 series — 0-2 years (last update in 2026, 2027, or 2028)
• iPhone 12 series — 0-2 years (last update in 2026, 2027, or 2028)
• iPhone 11 series — final update will probably be this year with iOS 27
• iPhone SE (2020) — final update will probably be this year with iOS 27

Samsung Galaxy phones

Samsung offers as much as seven years of support for some of its recent phones, but older and lower-end handsets get fewer updates, so how long your phone will be updated for can be quite variable depending on the model.

• Samsung Galaxy S26 series — 7 years (last update in 2033)
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 — 6 years (last update in 2032)
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 — 6 years (last update in 2032)
• Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold — 6 years (last update in 2032)
• Samsung Galaxy S25 series — 6 years (last update in 2032)
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 — 5 years (last update in 2031)
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 — 5 years (last update in 2031)
• Samsung Galaxy S24 series — 5 years (last update in 2031)
• Samsung Galaxy A57 — 6 years (last update in 2032)
• Samsung Galaxy A56 — 5 years (last update in 2031)
• Samsung Galaxy A36 — 5 years (last update in 2031)
• Samsung Galaxy A26 — 5 years (last update in 2031)
• Samsung Galaxy A17 — 5 years (last update in 2031)
• Samsung Galaxy A17 — 4 years (last update in 2030)
• Samsung Galaxy A55 — 1 year (last update in 2027, security patches until 2029)
• Samsung Galaxy A35 — 1 year (last update in 2027, security patches until 2029)
• Samsung Galaxy M35 — 1 year (last update in 2027, security patches until 2029)
• Samsung Galaxy A25 — 1 year (last update in 2027, security patches until 2028)
• Samsung Galaxy A54 — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028
• Samsung Galaxy A34 — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028
• Samsung Galaxy S23 series — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028
• Samsung Galaxy M54 — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028

Google Pixel phones

Google has committed to supporting all handsets from the Pixel 8 onwards for seven years, while phones from the Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 lines get five years of support.

Note that, as a-series models launch later than their mainline siblings, they technically get supported for longer. But depending on when major new Android versions launch, they may not get additional significant updates.

• Google Pixel 10a — 7 years (last update in early 2033)
• Google Pixel 10 series (excluding 10a) — 6 years (last update in late 2032)
• Google Pixel 9a — 6 years (last update in early 2032)
• Google Pixel 9 series (excluding 9a) — 5 years (last update in late 2031)
• Google Pixel 8a — 5 years (last update in early 2031)
• Google Pixel 8 series (excluding 8a) — 4 years (last update in late 2030)
• Google Pixel Fold — 2 years (last update in mid-2028)
• Google Pixel 7a — 2 years (last update in mid-2028)
• Google Pixel 7 series (excluding 7a) — 1 year (last update in late 2027)
• Google Pixel 6a — 1 year (last update in mid-2027)
• Google Pixel 6 series (excluding 6a) — final update this year (2026)

Motorola phones

Motorola’s update commitments feel quite messy and inconsistent, with some phones getting more or fewer updates than you might expect, but you’ll find an overview of the currently supported handsets below.

• Motorola Signature — 7 years (last update in early 2033)
• Motorola Edge 70 series — 3 years (last update in 2029, security patches until 2031)
• Motorola Edge 60 Neo — 3 years (last update in 2029, security patches until 2031)
• Motorola Edge 50 Neo — 3 years (last update in 2029)
• Motorola Razr 70 / Razr 2026 series — 2 years (last update in 2028, security patches until 2030)
• Motorola Edge 60 series (excluding Neo) — 2 years (last update in 2028, security patches until 2029)
• Moto G75 — 2 years (last update in 2028, security patches until 2030)
• Motorola Razr 60 / Razr 2025 series — 1 year (last update in 2027, security patches until 2029)
• Motorola Edge 50 Pro — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028
• Motorola Edge 50 Fusion — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028
• Motorola Edge 50 Ultra — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028
• Motorola Razr 50 / Razr 2024 series — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028
• Moto G86 — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2029
• Moto G56 — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2029

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is a balanced flagship phone, but can it compete with Ultra-branded camera phones from China? To find out, I pitted the best Samsung phone against the Oppo Find X9 Ultra, which is widely considered the best camera phone available right now. But while the Oppo flagship was the favorite going into my photo walk, the Samsung surprised me in a few ways.

With the S26 Ultra, the Korean giant doubled down on software and bundled it with larger apertures on two sensors, whereas Oppo went all-in on hardware upgrades and paired them with meaningful software advancements. It also added 10x optical zoom, making the Find X9 Ultra the only Ultra phone with this feature in 2026. Oppo says its 10x telephoto camera is 3x more light-sensitive than the Galaxy S23 Ultra's 10x camera.

The resulting camera system beats the Galaxy S26 Ultra in most scenarios, but Samsung's flagship phone surprised me on multiple occasions. It's certainly a better camera phone than the Galaxy S25 Ultra, despite having seemingly similar hardware.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. Oppo Find X9 Ultra: Specs

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra covers 13-111mm focal lengths. It has a 50MP 13mm f/1.9 ultra-wide camera with a 1/2.5-inch sensor, a 200MP 23mm f/1.4 main camera with a 1/1.3-inch sensor, a 10MP 67mm f/2.4 3x telephoto camera with a 1/3.94-inch sensor, and a 50MP 111mm f/2.9 5x periscope telephoto camera with a 1/2.52-inch sensor. It looks formidable until you see what Oppo has on offer this year.

The Find X9 Ultra covers focal lengths from 14mm to 230mm. It has a 50MP 14mm f/2 ultra-wide camera with a 1/1.95-inch sensor, a 200MP 23mm f/1.5 main camera with a 1/1.2-inch sensor, a 200MP 70mm f/2.2 3x telephoto camera with a 1/1.28-inch sensor, and a 50MP 230mm f/3.5 10x telephoto camera with a 1/2.75-inch sensor.

I took more than 500 photos on each phone and narrowed down this comparison to 25 images. Here's how the two Ultra phone cameras compare:

Main camera

Both Samsung and Oppo shoot pixel-binned images from their 200MP sensor by default. I recommend using a higher resolution mode (like 24MP or 50MP on the Galaxy S26 Ultra and 50MP on the Oppo), but I kept the default settings for this comparison.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra boosts color saturation to add a pop, whereas Oppo's shots look more natural. While I like Samsung's contrast, there's some artificial color sharpening going on, making it look less natural.

On the other hand, the Find X9 Ultra gives you a more pleasing bokeh, thanks to a bigger sensor. Both phones captured good amount of details, as you can see the texture on the leaves.

However, I prefer Oppo's color science and Master Mode, which give me natural tones with minimal phone-like color processing.

In evening shots, the Galaxy S26 Ultra gave my photos a teal hue, whereas the Find X9 Ultra had a pink hue. My skin tone was better captured by the Oppo phone, and it had more details. In comparison, the Samsung shot looks slightly noisy and less appealing overall.

Samsung has been working on improving its night mode photos for a few years now, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra beats its rivals in this scenario on most occasions. I want my low-light photos to look like low-light shots instead of artificially brightened photos. That's why I like Samsung's saturated colors on the entrance board versus Oppo's brightened picture quality at night.

However, if you switch to the Master Mode, things change drastically. The Find X9 Ultra handles night light well and doesn't overexpose the shots to brighten every detail. In my testing, Master Mode consistently delivered better results than Oppo's default processing, and I relied on it for night shots.

Telephoto cameras

This is one of the scenarios where Samsung surprised me. I like its cooler tone versus Oppo's warmer look, which gave my skin a yellow tint. It doesn't look bad, but I'm simply not that pale. Again, this could be fixed by using the Master Mode, but I expected better color science from the default processing. However, Oppo's shot captured rich details as compared to a slightly smoother-looking skin on the Samsung flagship.

In challenging lighting situations like the above, when the setting sun was directly hitting my face, Samsung processed the photo better than Oppo.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra managed to get the golden hour look, while the Find X9 Ultra's shot looks washed out. Both photos were captured with tap and shoot, so the focus was set, and the cameras didn't struggle to find the subject automatically. Again, I wish Samsung captured more details with a more natural-looking bokeh. It looks soft and slightly artificial in comparison to the Oppo's.

Oppo's bigger lens and smarter processing comes in handy when you need rich details in shots like above. Samsung struggled to focus on the thick webbing, while the Find X9 Ultra focused and captured even the single strands. And this extends to the 10x telephoto camera.

Oppo demolishes the Galaxy S26 Ultra in macro shots. This was a tricky subject because the small flower kept moving in the slightest breeze. I struggled to get it in focus with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which it simply couldn't do. That's why I don't have a comparison photo for this shot. The Oppo Find X9 Ultra, by contrast, focused on the same subject with a single tap and even captured those white threads in the picture.

One of the reasons I love having big telephoto cameras, like the one on the Find X9 Ultra, is that they allow me to get so close to small subjects and capture things I'd never be able to focus on with my eyes. Oppo's macro mode is right up there with Vivo's, and Samsung doesn't have a match for it.

Ultra-wide camera

When it comes to my ultra-wide testing, the Oppo Find X9 Ultra was able to get more contrast and highlight the blues of the sky without blowing out the green leaves as the Galaxy S26 Ultra did.

Overall, I prefer Oppo's shot here because it has more details on the tree trunks and didn't overexpose the leaves. However, Samsung's processing focused on better exposing the leaves and didn't have the same halo effect as its rival.

Verdict

The Oppo Find X9 Ultra consistently captured richer details compared to the Galaxy S26 Ultra. However, the Samsung flagship stood its own and even beat the Oppo phone on a couple of occasions. While I prefer having bigger sensors, the Galaxy phone surprised me in the best ways.

That said, Oppo easily wins in most scenarios. It is, hands-down, the current king of smartphone telephoto cameras. TechRadar's Cameras Editor Timothy Coleman also compared the Find X9 Ultra to two dedicated cameras and concluded, "It feels like this flagship Chinese phone renders most travel zoom compacts redundant," which can't be said about the Galaxy S26 Ultra. The Master Mode is an added benefit if you like shooting film-like colors. I simply can't stop shooting with this phone.

If your phone of choice is a Samsung Galaxy handset, then you'll know that the Android-based One UI software that comes with it is packed with handy settings and features. There's more to explore than there is on many other Android phones, including the Google Pixel series.

In fact there are so many options that Samsung has hidden some of them away. One UI includes a Connectivity labs menu, which includes a variety of useful features, but you have to jump through a number of hoops before you can find it.

Once you do have it enabled, you can check the strength of the Wi-Fi all around your home, troubleshoot problems you might be having with the network, change the way your phone switches between mobile data and Wi-Fi, and more besides.

Here's how to find Connectivity labs, and how to use it.

Enabling Connectivity labs and Wi-Fi scans

To get this menu visible, you need to head to Settings on your Galaxy phone and tap Connections then Wi-Fi. Tap the three dots in the top right corner, and select Intelligent Wi-Fi. You then need to tap the Intelligent Wi-Fi label at the bottom of the next screen seven times (you'll see a countdown appear after a few taps).

Hey presto — you now have a new Connectivity labs menu to make use of. Open this up and you'll see a host of different statistics about your network, and numerous features and options to explore. Right at the top, for example, you can see how long the device has been connected to Wi-Fi today, and what the daily average is.

Go further down the screen and there's a breakdown of the Wi-Fi bands that your Galaxy phone has been connected to, and the standard of Wi-Fi it's been using (so you can check that your new Wi-Fi 7 router is working as advertised). You're also able to see how many Wi-Fi networks are saved to the phone.

One of the most useful features in Connectivity labs for me is the Home Wi-Fi inspection. If you select this then choose Start, your phone will take you on a tour of your home, showing you in real time the Wi-Fi signal strength from your router and giving you warnings about areas with weaker connectivity.

Fortunately, the Wi-Fi in my home is relatively strong, but there are a couple of spots where the signal is weak, and the inspection tool flags them up. It can also be useful to make changes to the Wi-Fi setup (such as moving the router somewhere else) and seeing how that effects the signal coverage.

Other features you'll find in Connectivity labs

There's lots more you can do with Connectivity labs, as you'll see if you keep scrolling down the page. Turn on Auto reconnect to carrier Wi-Fi, for example, and your phone will automatically connect to public Wi-Fi hotspots operated by your carrier. There's also a Wi-Fi 7 toggle switch, to make sure you're always using the latest Wi-Fi standard, on networks where it's available.

If you enable the Switching to mobile data faster toggle switch, your phone then automatically hops to a cellular connection when it detects that the Wi-Fi it's using is spotty and weak. It means you might end up using more data, but you'll have fewer problems with interruptions when the Wi-Fi you're connected to isn't the best.

The Intelligent Wi-Fi Handover and Switching to mobile data with AI features work in a similar way. The former will hand over some tasks to cellular data on a weak Wi-Fi signal without disabling the Wi-Fi completely, while the latter uses your typical usage patterns (in terms of downloads, browsing, and so on) to decide when to switch off Wi-Fi.

You can use the Connect to 2.4GHz for IOT setup to force your phone to use the 2.4GHz band on your router — this is the one a lot of smart home devices attach themselves to, so you might have to do this to configure them — while L4S is a special low-latency connection protocol that can speed up your connection, if your router supports it.

There's also the option to Show network quality info in the list of networks when you're connecting to Wi-Fi, so you can see what the best pick is when you've got multiple options to choose from. These are all genuinely useful features to have access to, and it's not really clear why Samsung thinks they should stay hidden by default.

When I was doing all the testing for our Samsung Galaxy A57 review, I enjoyed how streamlined its software was compared to that of the best Samsung phones. But since publishing that review, I've been jumping back and forth between the A57 and another Samsung flagship, and I've got a more nuanced view.

Before the A57 (and, for a little while, after it), I was using the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, which is pretty much the best Android phone money can buy. It has similar hardware specs to the Galaxy S25 Ultra, with its biggest advancements instead coming in the form of new software tools and features.

Now, I know the Galaxy A57 and S26 Ultra aren't exactly comparable. The former is a mid-range phone starting at $549 / £529 / AU$749, while the latter is a premium phablet which costs a minimum of $1,299 / £1,279 / AU$2,199. That's over twice as much.

But from the right angle, they're the same phone. Both are the top models in their respective Galaxy categories, and they're undoubtedly the two best Samsung phones released in 2026 so far. If you've got the budget, you buy the S26 Ultra, while the A57 is designed to be a great corner-cutting alternative.

And for the most part, Samsung made the right corner-cutting calls. Zoom cameras? Gotta go. Blazing chipset? Not here. Stylus? Styl-off. But when I tested the A57, there were definitely a few absent software features that I missed from the S26 Ultra.

So come on, Samsung — please add these 5 software features to cheaper phones like the Galaxy A57 in future software updates.

Audio Eraser

Audio Eraser is a really nifty AI feature. It basically works as an on-device noise cancellation tool for videos you're watching.

The use case Samsung demonstrated during the feature's announcement — which I've since tried myself on several occasions — was for live sports events or recaps. Usually, the crowd is so loud that you can barely hear what's going on. Audio Eraser can identify the crowd noise and strip it from the audio, letting you hear the commentary and even sports noises.

It's also useful for eliminating environmental sounds, like the rush of the sea or roaring wind, helping you hear spoken words better.

Given that Samsung designs its hardware around its AI features these days, I wouldn't be surprised if iAudio Eraser is dependent on the power of the S26 Ultra's chipset. Still, surely a scaled-down version can make its way to the A57. Right, Samsung?

Search with Finder

I found Search with Finder so useful on the Galaxy S26 Ultra that I'm surprised it isn't available in all smartphones.

On Android phones, Finder is the search bar in the app drawer. When you can't find an app because you have no organizational system to speak of (no shame, I'm the same), you search for it in Finder.

But Search with Finder, as Samsung calls it, supercharges this little tool on the Galaxy S26 Ultra. It will search your entire phone for your target; boarding passes, tagged photos, and email attachments are all within its purview.

This feature was designed for messy organizers like me. I have no central system for organizing files, apps, or documents, and I'm often engaged in wild goose chases trying to find things on my phone. Not with Finder on the Galaxy S26 Ultra: if I'd lost something on my phone, it could find 'er (sorry).

Let me tell you, going from the S26 Ultra to the Search with Finder-less Galaxy A57 was quite a shock; in fact, its absence is what prompted me to write this article.

Search with Finder is basically just an in-depth search function, and I was really surprised when the A57 couldn't find documents I'd received in emails or videos I had saved to its internal storage. It feels like a natural function to bring to all of Samsung's phones, not just the A57.

Bixby to control your phone

This one's less of a "feature I love" kind of deal, but something that really makes sense when you think about it.

Bixby is given more responsibilities on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. Oh, you haven't met Bixby yet? It's Samsung's on-board assistant, which most people either forget about or don't realize they're using.

In the S26 Ultra, Bixby can now directly change settings on your phone. If you tell it you're having a problem seeing the screen, or your eyes are aching, it can automatically turn up the brightness or apply the eye comfort shield mode...

... in theory. I found it quite unreliable at implementing any such changes. Much of the time, it just prompted me to do it myself, telling me to go into settings, even though the whole point of this new feature is that Bixby should do it for me.

Anyway, onto the Galaxy A57. This sort of phone is bought by those whose budgets don't stretch to the top Samsung model, but also by general users who just need a mobile from a brand they trust and aren't interested in top-tier features.

This kind of buyer is, if I'm not being too rude, a little technophobic. They don't know the correct word for certain features available on their phone — or perhaps even that those features exist in the first place.

A smart assistant that can directly tweak settings on your behalf makes sense, therefore, in a phone like the Galaxy A57. I can see seniors, for instance, getting loads of mileage from this kind of Bixby tool.

And, yes, I know I've said that it doesn't work all that well on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, but I am quite surprised that the A57 doesn't offer more in the way of smart assistant tweakery like this.

Now Brief

What you're looking at above is Now Brief, a feature of Samsung's recent S- and Z-series phones. I like to call it 'Random Affirmations mode' because... well, you can see from the picture. The phone, an inanimate object, is wishing me well?

The point of Now Brief is that it gives you a brief overview of things you need to know. Commonly, it'd show me the weather, and usually a random news article yanked from a publication I'd never touch, as well as some other odd things if relevant: calendar events, reminders I'd made, fitness information I'd tracked, and so on.

I'm not going to pretend that Now Brief is a great feature just yet. It feels like it's missing one or two (or ten) extra data points before it's able to fulfill its purpose of providing a daily (or multi-daily) briefing of things I need to know. In the two months I used the S26 Ultra, Now Brief — more often than not — didn't seem to really understand what I wanted to know, and didn't pull information from many of my apps and tools.

But I see this being the kind of feature that Samsung refines over the next few years and One UI updates, and possibly (hopefully), in a while, it'll be a pivotal part of the smartphone experience.

Now and then, Now Brief became just that for me: I'd look at it and know everything I needed to know. I could put my phone back down, ready for the day (or at least the next hour). These instances were rare, mind, but they did occur.

Now Brief is a big miss on the Galaxy A57. People buying this kind of phone probably aren't power users like those who buy the S26 Ultra. They just want to be able to pick up their handset, see a quick summary of their notifications, events, and interests, and put it back down.

That's why I think Now Brief — even in its current, basic form — would fit really well on Samsung's cheaper phones.

2026 could be a big year for foldable phones, as Apple is rumored to finally be launching a foldable of its own, reportedly called the iPhone Ultra.

This could push foldable phones into the mainstream, and Samsung — as well as welcoming the competition from its biggest rival — looks set to cash in, as it’s reportedly launching a foldable phone in a new wider form factor, so that it can better compete with Apple’s device, which itself is expected to be quite wide.

This new phone was once referred to as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide but is now rumored to be launching simply as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, with the more familiar, narrower model said to be landing as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

Obviously, we don’t know for sure how the iPhone Ultra and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 will compare just yet — nor even whether they'll officially launch — but thanks to leaks, rumors, and previous foldables, we’re starting to get a good idea of what to expect.

iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumors: price and availability

We haven’t yet heard much about what the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 might cost, but there’s a good chance it will either be in line with or slightly cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, since it will reportedly have one fewer camera and sit beneath the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. That would mean a starting price of $1,999.99 / £1,799 / AU$2,899 or less.

As for the iPhone Ultra, leaks suggest that it might start at over $2,000 (around £1,485 / AU$2,785), which could mean it’s at least slightly more expensive than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8.

As for availability, it’s likely that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 will launch in July, alongside Samsung’s other 2026 foldables. If it really launches with that name, it will probably be available globally, though there's a chance Samsung could limit the Galaxy Z Fold 8 to a few regions to test the waters, just as it did with the Galaxy Z Tri-Fold.

The iPhone Ultra will probably launch in September alongside the iPhone 18 Pro series, though there has been some talk of a possible delay until 2027. Whenever it does land, it’s likely to be sold globally.

iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumors: design and display

The iPhone Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 might have quite similar designs, with both being rumored to have wider, shorter screens than typical book-style foldables like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

This form factor could give you a more widescreen experience when they’re unfolded, but would leave you with a slightly squat device when folded shut.

Going by dummy units, the iPhone Ultra might be 117.71 x 84.27mm when folded, and come in at 11.02mm at its thinnest point and 16.57mm at the camera bump. It could be just 5.24mm when unfolded, though some other leaks put it at a slightly slimmer 4.5mm when unfolded and between 9 and 9.5mm when folded. We’ve also heard repeatedly that there will be no visible crease on the iPhone Ultra.

Various leaks also suggest that it will have a roughly 5.5-inch cover screen and an approximately 7.8-inch foldable display.

As for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, that phone might have a roughly 7.6-inch main screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio, and weigh around 200g according to TechManiacs. That same screen size, along with a 5.4-inch cover display, has been put forward by Android Headlines, which adds that the phone will be 123.9 x 161.4 x 4.9mm when unfolded and 123.9 x 82.2 x 9.8mm when folded.

So, Samsung’s phone might be marginally smaller — at least in terms of screen sizes — and thinner than Apple’s, though there’s a high chance it will also have a more visible crease.

iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumors: cameras

It’s expected that the iPhone Ultra will have two cameras on the back: specifically, a wide and an ultra-wide, both of which will be 48MP, according to leaker Digital Chat Station. The iPhone Ultra is also expected to have cameras in both its screens, and while no specs have been leaked yet, they might be 18MP like the selfie cameras on the iPhone 17 line.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 likewise looks set to have a dual-lens camera, and as with the iPhone, you’ll probably get wide and ultra-wide lenses. Leaks also point to similar numbers of megapixels, with both sensors apparently being 50MP. The phone is also almost certainly going to have a camera in each screen, with these rumored to be 10MP.

So, on paper, there might not be much to choose between these phones when it comes to the cameras, but it will be interesting to see how they compare in practice.

iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumors: performance and software

The iPhone Ultra will almost certainly have the same chipset as the iPhone 18 Pro Max if it launches this year, which likely means a top-end A20 Pro chipset. Leaker Fixed Focus Digital suggests the phone could also have a vapor chamber, which would further boost performance.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, meanwhile, is likely to have a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, which is also very powerful — this is what you’ll find in the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, for example.

So, both of these should be very powerful phones, though the iPhone Ultra, with its slightly newer chipset and rumored vapor chamber, could have the edge in terms of performance.

As for software, the iPhone Ultra will likely run on iOS — specifically the yet-to-launch iOS 27, if it lands in September — though there's a small chance that Apple could debut some foldable-specific software for its first foldable device.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, on the other hand, will run Android — most likely Android 17, overlaid with Samsung’s One UI. These are both highly capable operating systems, so it really comes down to personal preference as to which is best.

iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumors: battery

The iPhone Ultra could have a surprisingly high-capacity battery for a foldable phone, with one leak putting it at 5,800mAh. A slightly earlier leak from Lanzuk puts it at between 5,400mAh and 5,800mAh, but even at that lower end, it would still have a lot of foldables beat.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is rumored to have a 4,800mAh battery — so not as good as the iPhone, though still better than the 4,400mAh-equipped Galaxy Z Fold 7.

iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumors: early verdict

Based on what we’ve heard so far, the iPhone Ultra could have a more powerful chipset and a bigger battery than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, as well as a less visible crease.

But it could also be thicker and have a higher price, and there may not be much to choose between the two phones' cameras and screens.

So, it’s sounding like the iPhone Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 might be quite evenly matched overall. We'll likely find out for sure before the end of the year, as we're expecting Samsung to debut the Galaxy Z Fold 8 in July, and Apple to debut the iPhone Ultra in September.

Which foldable phone are you most excited for? Let us know in the poll or comments section below.

2026 will be the year foldable phones sink or swim. Samsung has been chipping away at the category for several years now — its latest book-style foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold 7, is the best foldable phone money can buy — but these niche, expensive devices still represent less than 3% of the global smartphone market.

Could that be about to change? Apple is strongly rumored to be launching its first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Ultra, in September, and I’ve been itching to ask Samsung for its thoughts on whether Apple’s entry into the foldable market will boost or threaten its own success.

Given that the iPhone Ultra doesn’t exist yet, and that Samsung rarely acknowledges its competitors by name, I’ve been waiting to broach the subject with the Korean tech giant — but in my preparation for this year’s Galaxy Unpacked event, I stumbled across a revealing 2025 interview in which Samsung addresses the potential implications of a foldable iPhone head-on.

Here’s how the President and COO of the company’s Mobile eXperience (MX) division, Won-joon Choi, responded to questions posed by Bloomberg’s Shery Ahn about growing competition in the foldable market:

Shery Ahn: How does Samsung think about competition? Because you have so many Chinese makers coming out with foldables with good cameras.

Won-joon Choi: You know, rather than focusing on the competition, I think we have been focusing on our consumers. What is the experience that we can bring to consumers, and how complete are those experiences? I think healthy competition with other companies will bring more innovations, and then bring more benefits to consumers. So we are welcoming others to join this category, which we created back in 2019.

SA: Even if Apple comes out with a foldable next year, which is what people are saying, how do you keep that edge?

WC: We've been doing this for many years, and we have accumulated a lot of technologies and know-how. Having another global company join this category, I think it's good for the industry, and also, it's going to be great for consumers.

Now, for obvious reasons, Samsung isn’t going to publicly admit that it’s fearful of Apple’s entry into a market that it’s dominated for years, but I do think Choi was being more honest than diplomatic in his response.

The emergence of improbably thin and lightweight foldables like the Honor Magic V3 and Oppo Find N5 forced Samsung to step up its game with the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and I expect that the market-leading IP68 durability rating of the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold won’t be market-leading any longer once the Galaxy Z Fold 8 arrives later this year.

Choi’s assertion that “competition with other companies will bring more benefits to consumers” has already proven itself to be true, then; and if Apple delivers something unique with the iPhone Ultra — whether that’s a hardware- or software-related innovation — you can bet that the likes of Samsung, Honor, and Oppo will endeavor to replicate that innovation in their own future products.

As for whether “having another global company join this category” is “good for the industry,” Choi will likely be proven right about that, too.

Counterpoint Research predicts that global foldable smartphone shipments will grow 20% in 2026 following Apple’s entry into the category, and I suspect that this rise will be driven by existing iPhone users upgrading to a foldable iPhone, rather than existing Galaxy Z Fold users switching to a foldable iPhone. The market will expand, but I don't think Apple will eat Samsung's lunch (existing foldable-averse Android users aren't going to be convinced by an iOS-powered foldable, that's for sure).

Of course, Samsung won’t want consumers to forget that it stuck by and popularized foldable phones when other companies wouldn’t — just as it pioneered the large-screen phones we’ve all become accustomed to using today.

But Choi’s addendum — “we are welcoming others to join this category, which we created back in 2019” — suggests Samsung won't simply share the foldable stage with Apple without reminding buyers of its heritage in this long-existing market.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra are the two most obvious choices if you want a no-compromise flagship phone in 2026.

Both are big, powerful, expensive, and built around the same basic promise: you get huge displays, elite cameras, long battery life, high-end performance, and a growing number of AI tools if you're willing to pay the high asking price.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max and Galaxy S26 Ultra are also very different phones. Apple’s flagship is the cleaner, more tightly integrated option, offering iOS and MagSafe. Samsung’s Ultra is the more maximalist device, with the S Pen, a sharper display, a more flexible camera setup, and a software experience packed with Galaxy AI and Google-powered features.

For many people, this choice will come down to ecosystem.

If you already use Apple products like the Apple Watch, MacBook, and iPad, the iPhone 17 Pro Max has an obvious pull. If you prefer Android, multitasking, stylus support, and more control over how your phone works, the Galaxy S26 Ultra makes a very strong case.

But there are still big differences in price, design, display, cameras, performance, software, and battery life between these two phones — so let’s break them down.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: specs comparison

Before we dig into the details, here’s an overview of both phones’ key specs:

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: price and availability

The iPhone 17 Pro Max went on sale in September 2025, with prices starting at $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,149 for the 256GB model. The 17 Pro Max is also available with 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB of storage, with the top configuration rising to $1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,799.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra arrived later, in March 2026, and starts at $1,299 / £1,249 / AU$2,149, making it slightly more expensive than Apple’s flagship in the US, slightly more affordable in the UK, and level in Australia at launch.

It's worth noting that the Galaxy S26 Ultra's storage runs from 256GB to 1TB; there is no 2TB option, unlike with the iPhone.

Both phones are widely available through their makers, carriers, and major retailers, so this is less about finding stock and more about finding the right deal that suits you.

Winner: Tie — unless you specifically need 2TB of storage, in which case the iPhone 17 Pro Max takes it.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: design

There is no getting away from the fact that these are both very large phones, but Samsung does more to make its Ultra feel slightly more manageable.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra is slightly taller and wider than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but it is much thinner at 7.9mm and noticeably lighter at 214g.

The softened corners also help it feel less slab-like than older Ultra models, while the built-in S Pen remains Samsung’s clearest hardware advantage.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has the more dramatic redesign versus its predecessor. Apple moved to an aluminum unibody (which facilitates the inclusion of a new vapor cooling chamber), added a full-width camera plateau, and kept both the Action button and Camera Control.

As such, the 17 Pro Max feels like a clearer break from the previous few Pro Max models, and the new thermal design gives the changes a practical purpose beyond looks.

Still, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is the easier phone to live with day-to-day, giving you the same 6.9-inch screen size in a slimmer, lighter body, while also finding room for a stylus.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: display

Both phones give you an almost tablet-sized 6.9-inch OLED display with an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, so either one is built for streaming, gaming, editing photos, reading, and general big-screen phone use.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has the brighter panel on paper, with a peak outdoor brightness of 3,000 nits, which gives it an edge if you often use your phone outside.

Samsung fights back with resolution and features. The Galaxy S26 Ultra’s screen is sharper than the iPhone’s display, and its 1-120Hz refresh range gives it the same smooth scrolling and power-saving flexibility you would expect from a top-end flagship.

Samsung's new Privacy Display feature also gives it a practical advantage in public spaces, especially if you often work from cafes or public transport.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: cameras

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has a simpler camera pitch: it's got three 48MP rear cameras, covering main, ultra-wide, and telephoto shots, plus a new 18MP Center Stage front camera.

Apple is offering a more balanced system than previous Pro Max models — especially now the telephoto camera can handle 4x optical zoom and 8x optical-quality shots — and the selfie camera is also a real upgrade; it uses subject tracking to automatically keep you in the frame, and lets you switch between portrait and landscape modes.

Samsung gives you more hardware to play with. The S26 Ultra has a 200MP main camera, 50MP ultra-wide, 10MP 3x telephoto, and 50MP telephoto for longer-range shots, plus a 12MP selfie camera with a wider field of view.

Its camera setup is less of a clean overhaul than Apple’s, but the extra lens and longer zoom range make it more flexible, especially if you often shoot subjects at a distance.

For video, the Galaxy S26 Ultra supports 8K shooting at 30fps, whereas the iPhone is capped at 4K at 120 fps. That said, with its Apple ProRes and ProRes RAW support, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is our favored option for consistent, high-quality video results.

This comparison is a close call because the iPhone 17 Pro Max has the stronger selfie upgrade, a very consistent rear camera setup, and impressive video capabilities. The Galaxy S26 Ultra still has the edge for pure versatility, with more lenses, more zoom reach, and the bigger main sensor.

Winner: Tie

iPhone 17 Pro Max camera samples

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra camera samples

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: performance and software

The iPhone 17 Pro Max runs on Apple’s A19 Pro chip, with improved cooling to help it hold high performance for longer.

The 17 Pro Max feels built for heavy use, from gaming and video editing to AI features, and iOS 26 also benefits from Apple’s usual joined-up approach, with the chip, hardware, software, and wider ecosystem all working together.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra counters with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, plus either 12GB or 16GB of RAM. It is a true ultra-premium Android flagship, with more flexibility for multitasking, split-screen apps, S Pen notes, customisation, and productivity.

Samsung is better for flexibility, stylus support, and Android customisation, but the iPhone’s combination of Apple silicon, iOS, cooling, and ecosystem integration gives it more cohesive performance in our testing.

Winner: iPhone 17 Pro Max

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: battery

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has a 5,088mAh battery, based on reported capacity figures (Apple does not share these details officially), and Apple rates it for up to 37 hours of video playback.

In our day-to-day use, it's comfortably an all-day phone, with enough headroom for heavy camera use, navigation, streaming, and gaming. It also supports fast USB-C charging and 25W MagSafe/Qi2 wireless charging.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra has a 5,000mAh battery, so there is very little difference between these two devices in terms of raw capacity, and indeed it carried well past 24 hours of operation in our testing.

Samsung has the advantage for wired charging, with 60W speeds that should get you topped up faster than the iPhone. The S26 also supports 25W wireless charging, putting it on par with Apple there, though there's no MagSafe-style wireless charging to speak of.

So, this comparison is close... again. The iPhone has excellent endurance and the convenience of MagSafe, but Samsung’s faster wired charging is more useful when you need a quick refill before heading out.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: verdict

The iPhone 17 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra are — unsurprisingly — close enough that the “best” choice depends less on raw power and more on how you actually use your phone.

Choose the iPhone 17 Pro Max if you want the smoother all-round experience. Its biggest strengths are consistency, ecosystem integration, long-term performance, and a camera system that feels easy to trust. It's also the better fit if you already use Apple's other products.

Choose the Galaxy S26 Ultra if you want the phone that simply does more. The S Pen, sharper display, lighter design, longer camera reach, faster charging, and broader AI toolkit make it the more versatile device, especially for power users.

Overall, the Galaxy S26 Ultra wins more individual categories, but the iPhone 17 Pro Max may still be the better buy for many people. Samsung has the stronger spec-sheet argument; Apple has the more cohesive flagship experience.

Winner: Tie (sorry!)

• A photo has been taken of what appears to be the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8
• This is the rumored new wider foldable Samsung might be working on
• We've also seen a comparison image showing it alongside the more conventional Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

The long-rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide — which, confusingly, will reportedly launch simply as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 — might be Samsung’s worst-kept secret, and now we’ve seemingly seen the phone in the flesh for the first time.

A photo shared on DCInside’s forum (via @UniverseIce) shows what appears to be the phone being used in a restaurant, presumably by a Samsung employee.

It’s housed in an anti-leak case, designed to hide the details, but you can see that it has a wider screen than a typical phone, and that there’s a dual-lens camera on the back.

Short and squat

If you’re wondering just how much wider than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7’s successor — now reportedly called the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — this device will be, @UniverseIce has also shared comparison images, as you can see below.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra appears tall and narrow, and has a triple-lens camera, much like its predecessor, while the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 (Wide) has a shorter, wider appearance.

That should make the latter phone good for viewing wide-screen content like movies when unfolded, but it leaves it with a rather unusual form factor when folded and used like a conventional smartphone.

So, it will be interesting to see whether it’s successful, but given that the taller model apparently has the ‘Ultra’ suffix, it’s likely that this new wide version will be cheaper, and it’s also expected to be closer to Apple’s foldable iPhone Ultra’s form factor. Odd or not, then, it’s a form factor that Apple might be about to make popular.

In any case, we probably won’t be waiting too much longer for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, as both of these phones — along with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 — will likely launch in July.

• We've got a newly leaked look at the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide
• It could be the thinnest Samsung foldable to date
• A 'wide' foldable iPhone from Apple is also expected this year

This could be the year when the foldable phone market really gets interesting, and a new leak has given us what could be our best hint yet at the design of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide — and it looks to be an impressively thin phone.

Well-known tipster Sonny Dickson described the thinness as "insane" when showing off a short clip of a Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide dummy unit. These physical mock-ups are made from information sourced from the supply chain, and give accessory makers a chance to get their wares ready ahead of time.

The leaker compares the thinness of the foldable to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge — when unfolded, at least — but the replies to the original post are less positive, with adjectives like "weird" and "chunky" used to describe the handset.

Based on information recently sourced by SamMobile, this 'wide' foldable will actually be called the Galaxy Z Fold 8, while the true successor to last year's Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is going to be named the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

Here comes Apple

If you're wondering where this 'wide' nomenclature has come from, it describes the shorter, wider aspect ratio for the phone display — both when opened and closed. It's a move away from the tall and narrow screens of current book-style foldables.

While the currently popular form factor — used on the Galaxy Z Fold 7, for example — means foldables are more like standard phones when closed, when they're opened out they're rather square-ish. With wider displays, foldables will be more like conventional tablets when opened (and better for use cases like watching movies).

This change hasn't come out of nowhere: the long-rumored iPhone Fold is expected to use a wide form factor, with something like a 4:3 aspect ratio when open. Samsung clearly wants to get ahead of Apple on this, as Huawei has already done.

All the indications are that the foldable iPhone is launching in September, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro, perhaps with new hinge technology that makes the crease almost invisible. For foldable phone fans, there's a lot to look forward to.

• Leaked case renders show the possible design of the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE
• The only real change appears to be a new camera block
• Samsung users aren't happy with how familiar it looks

There’s likely to be one more member of the Samsung Galaxy S26 series, with the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE expected to launch later this year — but if leaks are to be believed, it might not prove very popular.

X user and tech journalist @Mohammed_K_2010 has shared what appear to be marketing images for cases designed for the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE, revealing the look of the phone in the process, and visually it doesn’t appear much different to the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE.

The only real change seems to be that the three rear lenses are now housed in a raised camera block, rather than jutting out individually, but otherwise this looks much the same as its predecessor.

While we’d take this leak with a pinch of salt, it’s a design that makes sense, as the standard Samsung Galaxy S26 had the same minor visual change. But it’s also a design that seems to be disappointing Samsung fans.

Over on Reddit, comments include a sarcastic “wow, what an unexpected design”, along with “not really an upgrade”, “the design has become as cheap-looking as the Galaxy A series”, and “this has to be a joke.”

Few upgrades under the hood either

If you factor in previously rumored Galaxy S26 FE specs, things don’t get much better. The incoming phone will reportedly have a 6.7-inch FHD+ AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, an Exynos 2500 chipset, a 5,000mAh battery with 45W charging, an IP68 rating, a 50MP wide camera, a 12MP ultra-wide, an 8MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and a 12MP front-facing camera.

Of those, the only real upgrades are a new chipset and a battery with a 100mAh capacity boost, so this could be just a very slight improvement over its predecessor.

It might at least come in some different colors, with leaks pointing to purple, black, gray, and white shades, but that’s hardly likely to tempt many buyers.

We’ll probably find out how accurate this all is — and whether many people actually want to buy the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE — in September or October, as that’s around when it’s likely to launch.

• Samsung might launch a Galaxy S27 Pro next year
• This would apparently be a compact alternative to the Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra
• It could have a 6.47-inch screen and launch alongside the base, Plus, and Ultra models

Samsung could be going from three Galaxy S models to four next year, and we’re not talking about a return of the Edge line. Instead, the company might launch a new ‘Pro’ phone.

This is according to a report in ETNews (via 9to5Google), and while this isn’t quite the first time we’ve heard of a Pro-branded Galaxy phone (rumors of a Galaxy S26 Pro swirled last year), there are some new details here. For one thing, it will reportedly have a screen that’s just 6.47 inches in size, making it only marginally larger than the 6.3-inch Samsung Galaxy S26, and much smaller than the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra or Plus.

The other new detail is that the new phone will apparently launch alongside the Samsung Galaxy S27, Galaxy S27 Plus, and Galaxy S27 Ultra, rather than instead of one of them.

Small but mighty

So, what will the Galaxy S27 Pro offer that’s different from the base Galaxy S27? Well, as the name suggests, this will apparently have far higher-end specs, putting it more in line with the Ultra model, albeit without S Pen support.

In other words, this would be a compact option for people who still want high-end specs and features. How successful that will be remains to be seen, but it would mean Samsung finally offers a device that’s more of a direct rival to the iPhone 17 Pro, so it makes a certain amount of sense.

And early reactions are largely positive, with people on Reddit saying things like “this will be amazing,” “that’s so good I’m buying that one next time,” and “so excited about this possibility.” So, it sounds like Samsung might be on to something.

Of course, the Galaxy S27 Pro is just a rumor for now, but if it does exist, it will probably launch in early 2027, alongside the rest of the Samsung Galaxy S27 series.

• One UI 8.5 has started rolling out to four more Samsung phones
• These include the Galaxy Z Fold 5, Galaxy Z Flip 5, Galaxy A56, and Galaxy A36
• The update brings AirDrop support to Quick Share, among other things

Samsung’s One UI 8.5 rollout is continuing, as following on from its launch on the Samsung Galaxy S25 series and some other models on May 6, it’s now coming to four more Samsung phones.

These — as spotted by SamMobile across a series of articles — include the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, the Samsung Galaxy A56, and the Samsung Galaxy A36. This software has already come to more recent Samsung foldables, but this is the first time we’re seeing it on any Galaxy A models.

However, initially, it’s just South Korea that’s getting the One UI 8.5 update on these phones, but it’s likely, based on past form, that other countries will also get it in the next few days, so keep an eye out if you have one of these handsets.

You’ll probably get a notification when the update is available, but you can manually check in Settings > Software update > Download and install.

AirDrop and more

One UI 8.5 comes with numerous new features and improvements — though not all of them will necessarily be available on all phones.

The headline feature is arguably AirDrop support over Quick Share, but there are also other improvements to Quick Share, and to Photo Assist, as well as a more effective power saving mode, security improvements, and tweaks to the Weather app, the My Files app, and more.

So, it’s an update that’s worth downloading as soon as it’s available, and if you have one of the four phones above, it should be available very soon.

Ask anyone who's used it, including us: the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is one of the best phones money can buy right now.

In our review, we heaped praise on its excellent cameras, powerful performance, neat Privacy Display, and handy stylus. It continues Samsung's run of ultra-powerful flagships, bringing a few useful improvements over its predecessor.

But it's not the perfect phone, and one aspect reliably puts potential buyers off: the high price. You'll have to pay at least $1,299 / £1,279 / AU$2,199 to enjoy the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which is a lot for a handheld gadget.

And sure, the newest phone has the newest features, but older models still have lots of the same hardware (sometimes better hardware), and some even have an arguably more premium design, which Samsung retired a few generations ago.

Older Galaxy Ultras are still on sale, too. Some third-party retailers continue to stock certain models, but they're mostly available second-hand or, more reliably, through refurbished schemes, which ensure the phone is working and has replacement parts (here's how to stay safe when buying a refurbished phone).

So, if the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra doesn't fit into your budget, here are a few older models to consider, along with good reasons to pick them up.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

If you want an absolute bargain alternative to the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, but don't mind a bit of risk too, then the Galaxy S22 Ultra might be worth a look.

Even in 2026, this phone still has solid specs. It's got four rear cameras, a premium build, a stylus, and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset that remains competitive in the mid-range to this day; you're unlikely to find equivalent hardware in a recently released $300 / £300 / AU$500 phone.

So, what's that risk I mentioned? Well, the S22 Ultra saw Android updates up to One UI 8, so it's no longer getting new software upgrades, and security upgrades are up in the air, too. If you like getting new features or keeping your phone protected from threats, then you're out of luck with this model.

Frankly, as a tech expert, I wouldn't advise picking up the Galaxy S22 Ultra to use as a daily driver phone. But if you want a backup phone for photography or gaming, it could be a bargain buy. This is the least recommendable option on my list, but I thought I'd include it for those reasons alone.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

Is the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra the goldilocks option? It's old enough to be a cheap pick, but new enough to remain in line for one more major software update, which will bring a handful of extra features. It'll also continue to receive security patches until 2028.

The S23 Ultra is also the last of the great Galaxy Ultras to pack certain premium features. You won't get a 10x optical zoom periscope lens if you go more modern, nor a handset with a dramatic curving waterfall display. The S23 Ultra was the first Galaxy Ultra to pack a 200MP main camera; it also still has Bluetooth in its stylus, and its shell is made of titanium.

A fair amount of the S23 Ultra's specs are still used in the S26 Ultra, too, like the 5,000mAh battery and Dynamic AMOLED 2X display technology (although the screen on the older model is 0.1 inches smaller).

Naturally, the phone's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset isn't going to be quite as powerful as that of modern Galaxies, and some of the newer software features are missing. But the Galaxy S23 Ultra is an absolute bargain, especially if you buy it renewed.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Galaxy phones made a noticeable step towards modernity with the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, which is an older mobile with a fair amount in common with the S26 Ultra.

That means you're getting the blocky, angular design of the newer phones, though the S24 Ultra is made of titanium, unlike the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

We noted in our review that, although its on-paper specs match those of the S23 Ultra in a lot of ways, the S24 Ultra performs better in certain departments. We found its battery life to be superior, for example, and its all-round camera performance is better too (even if software updates have brought optimization tweaks to the older models).

The S24 Ultra's current price puts it on par with certain mid-range phones, and so it's a much cheaper option than the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Crucially, there's another big reason why you might want to pick this phone as your S26 Ultra alternative: instead of the four years of Android updates pledged to its predecessors, the S24 Ultra gets seven years. That means it'll keep getting new software until 2031. In other words, you've got loads of gas left in the tank.

If you want a device that'll keep receiving updates for years, then this is the oldest model to consider.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Perhaps the safest choice for a Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra-like phone would be the previous-generation model.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has a lot in common with its recent sibling (too much, according to some testers). The main design change is that the S25 Ultra is slightly thicker and heavier, but it looks largely identical, save for a floating camera island on the newer phone.

Its specs are very similar, too; you'll get the same camera array, display, battery, and charging capabilities as the S26 Ultra. One year of downgrading won't get you a lesser device; the newer model simply has a more powerful chipset, and some extra software tricks like Privacy Display and Horizon Lock.

Like the S24 Ultra, the S25 Ultra is also confirmed to receive seven years of software updates, so it'll be covered until 2032.

So if they're so similar, why get the older version? You already know the answer: the Galaxy S25 Ultra is now significantly cheaper than the S26 Ultra, and it's on sale more frequently, too. In fact, it's pretty easy to find new S25 Ultras going for cheaper than Samsung's own Re-Newed models, which shows how far the prices have fallen.

What about an even older Galaxy Ultra?

There are two previous models of Ultra not mentioned yet: the Galaxy S21 Ultra, and Galaxy S20 Ultra. Before that, the suffix wasn't used, with the Galaxy S10 only getting a 'Plus' model, which was mostly the same as the base version.

These mobiles have a lot of specs in common with newer models, but they're probably a little too old to be worth considering.

For one, they're no longer supported by software updates, and if they get damaged, replacement parts will be harder to find. They're old enough, too, that you won't get the full performance enjoyed when they came out five-plus years ago.

But more simply, they're much harder to buy. I can barely find new versions on sale, and even refurbished ones are few and far between.

Nope: if you want a cheaper Galaxy S Ultra, pick one of the above models, or perhaps check out our list of the best Android phones to see non-Samsung alternatives.

• The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide might just have a 50MP main camera
• That would almost certainly make it weaker for photography than the standard Z Fold 8, which is likely to have a 200MP camera
• However, it could at least have a decent battery capacity

If you were hoping the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide would be able to come close to the standard Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 for photography, we’ve got some bad news, because the latest leak suggests it will be significantly worse.

We were already expecting this phone to just have two rear cameras, rather than the three that we’re likely to get on the Z Fold 8, and now we’ve learned that the main (wide) camera might be worse here too.

According to GalaxyClub (via GSMArena), the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide will have just a 50MP main camera, whereas the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 — and likely the Z Fold 8 — has a 200MP one.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide will at least reportedly have a 50MP ultra-wide camera, which would likely be a match for the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s, and an upgrade on the 12MP one used by the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. But if this claim is accurate, then its zoom skills probably won’t be up to much, since it won’t have either a dedicated telephoto camera or a big enough main sensor for a decent sensor crop zoom.

All in all, this phone sounds closer to the Galaxy Z Flip 8 in terms of camera hardware, which is rumored to also have a 50MP main sensor, albeit joined by a weaker 12MP ultra-wide.

A disappointing revelation

Prospective buyers understandably aren’t happy about this rumor, with one of the comments under the aforementioned GSMArena article reading “removed from my wishlist”, and another describing the upcoming phone as “another extremely overpriced Samsung device with outdated midrange cameras.”

Still, there is some good news, as today’s report also echoes previous claims that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide will have a 4,800mAh battery, and the regular Galaxy Z Fold 8 will have a 5,000mAh one, both of which would be up on the 4,400mAh battery inside the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

We’ll probably find out how accurate any of this is in July, as that’s when these phones are likely to launch.

• Samsung is rolling out the first One UI 9 beta
• This is the company's version of Android 17
• It's initially coming to the Galaxy S26 series, and includes improvements to Samsung Notes, Contacts, the Quick Panel, security, and accessibility

Samsung has only just started widely rolling out One UI 8.5, but already there’s now a beta version of One UI 9, which you’ll be able to grab if you have a Samsung Galaxy S26, Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus, or Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

This beta is built on Google’s upcoming Android 17 operating system update, and the first beta includes upgrades for five apps and features, including Samsung Notes, which is getting a wider variety of pen line styles, plus decorative tapes.

The Contacts app is also getting an upgrade, with this now offering direct access to Creative Studio, so you can create personalized profile cards without switching apps.

The Quick Panel is now more customizable, too, as you can now independently adjust the brightness, sound, and media player panels, complete with more size options to choose from.

Security and accessibility improvements

There are also security improvements with One UI 9, as if a high-risk app is detected, you’ll be warned about it and it will be blocked from being installed or opened.

Finally, One UI 9 also includes some accessibility improvements, such as an adjustable Mouse Key speed that enables smoother cursor control, a new Text Spotlight feature, which can display selected text larger or more clearly in a floating window, and a combined TalkBack package, which packages up various accessibility features that were previously offered separately by Samsung and Google.

If you’d like to give the beta a spin, you can join the beta program via the Samsung Members app. The beta may not be available to you quite yet, though, with Samsung simply saying that its rollout starts this week for countries including the US, UK, Germany, India, South Korea, and Poland. So, keep an eye out for it if you have a Galaxy S26 series phone.

And for a look at the latest Android 17 features, check out our roundup of the best Android 17 features announced at Google's Android Show event.

The 2026 edition of The Android Show was a dizzying display of AI-related buzzwords (I’m still not 100% sure of the difference between Gemini Intelligence and Personal Intelligence), but of all the Android 17 features announced during the pre-Google I/O broadcast, I’m particularly excited by Create My Widget.

Custom widgets have been a feature of Android since 2009 (in the resizable, interactive sense), but in Android 17, Google is “taking the first step in generative UI” by adding Gemini's AI powers into the widget-making process.

Create My Widget will let you build custom widgets by simply describing the type of widget you want using natural language. Yes, really. Google gave prompt examples such as “countdown to my first marathon” and “suggest three high-protein meal prep recipes every week," to which Create My Widget served up some genuinely useful-looking results.

It’s true that apps like KWGT and Widgetopia already give Android users plenty of widget customization options, but these widgets still rely on predefined data formulas like the weather, battery percentage, and stock market performance (unless you’re comfortable developing your own code-based widgets).

Create My Widget, on the other hand, pulls data from your calendar, inbox, and messaging apps (privately, of course) to deliver widgets that are genuinely personalized to you. And as an iPhone user, I don’t see how iOS can compete with this level of first-party personalization.

At WWDC 2025, Apple brushed away criticism towards its lack of AI progress by dazzling iPhone fans with a visual overhaul of iOS — but it can only use that trick once. At WWDC 2026 in June, the company must finally deliver on the promise of Siri 2.0 and bring meaningful agentic AI features to the table, lest iOS 27 look thoroughly medieval in comparison to Android 17.

And Create My Widget is far from the only useful AI tool coming to Android 17.

We’ve rounded up the best Android 17 features announced at The Android Show in a separate article, but Google’s new Gemini Intelligence umbrella includes multi-step task automation — which, if it works as promised, could be like having a PA in your pocket — Gemini integration in Chrome, improved Autofill capabilities, and a new Rambler tool for more accurate speech-to-text conversion.

It’s noteworthy, too, that all of these tools have been announced before Google I/O proper, which is scheduled to kick off on May 19. By the time WWDC 2026 rolls around on June 8, Apple’s competition may look even more formidable than it does now (although it's worth remembering that Google is now Apple's AI partner— though we don't yet know the details of that relationship).

Google says Gemini Intelligence features, including Create My Widget, will “roll out in waves starting with the latest Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones this summer,” and “will become available across your Android watch, car, glasses, and laptops later this year.”

For the latest on what else was revealed at Google’s Android Show event, check out our deep dives into the new Googlebook laptops and the redesigned Android Auto.

Google’s pre-I/O Android Show for 2026 has now concluded, and it was packed full of announcements surrounding new features and upgrades to existing Android tools.

Many of these upgrades are related to AI, as you might expect, but we also saw Google announce new emojis, improvements to Android security, and a whole lot more.

So, below, we’ve rounded up seven of the biggest and best Android 17 upgrades that were announced at The Android Show.

1. Gemini Intelligence

Gemini Intelligence is perhaps the biggest single announcement we saw at The Android Show — it's essentially an upgrade to Gemini that makes it a lot more capable and more of an agentic AI.

With this upgrade, Gemini can seamlessly move between apps to carry out tasks for you, with minimal oversight on your part. One example given was long-pressing the power button when a grocery list is visible on your phone, and then asking Gemini to build a shopping cart with all those items for delivery.

Another was taking a photo of a travel brochure and asking it to find a similar trip for six people on Expedia. You can then track Gemini’s progress with the task via notifications.

Plus, Gemini Intelligence also allows you to build custom widgets with a new ‘Create My Widget’ feature. You could, for example, ask it to suggest a new vegetarian meal recipe every day, and it will then create a resizable home screen widget for that specific request.

These tools will be rolling out from “this summer”, starting with the latest Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones. For the full list of features, check out our dedicated Gemini Intelligence features roundup.

2. Rambler

Using speech-to-text can massively speed up your communication in messaging apps, but it’s not perfect in its current state. In recent years, it has generally gotten better at understanding what you’re saying, but presenting an exact one-to-one version of your speech in text means you’ll probably see various “uhms” and “ahs” or repeated statements, as tends to happen in speech where you’re thinking about what you’re saying as you say it.

But Google’s new Rambler feature (which technically falls under the aforementioned Google Intelligence umbrella) will simply identify and extract the important parts of what you’ve said, and translate them into a clear and concise message.

For the multilingual among you, Rambler can also handle seamless switches between languages in a single message, and it doesn’t store or save the message data, so you shouldn’t need to worry about privacy.

3. Gemini in Chrome

Gemini’s Chrome implementation is also getting smarter and more agentic, as starting in late June, it will have an auto browse feature that can do things like book appointments or reserve parking spots for you via Chrome. This isn’t a totally new feature, but it is new to Android.

Gemini in Chrome is also getting better at providing contextual assistance, as it will be able to provide responses that are tailored to your hobbies, interests, and life (assuming you opt into Personal Intelligence).

And it can work beyond Chrome by, for example, adding things to your calendar, searching your Gmail, or adding to-do lists to Keep.

Plus, there will soon be Nano Banana integration, allowing you to create new images and customize ones you’ve found online directly in Chrome.

4. 3D emojis

Emojis are also getting an upgrade, as Google has announced a new range of 3D emojis, dubbed Noto 3D.

Google claims these icons will add more physicality to your online communication, so your feelings still have weight even when expressed through messages.

Those are some lofty claims, but if nothing else, it’s always nice to have some new emojis to choose from, and these new ones will be landing later this year, starting with Pixel phones.

5. Pause Point

Pause Point is a new tool designed to help you spend less time on your phone — or at least, less time scrolling apps that are more addictive than additive.

It does this by letting you choose which apps you want it to be enabled for, and then presenting you with a 10-second ‘pause’ before you can access one of those apps. During this time, it will give you the option to do a breathing exercise, set a timer to limit how long you spend in the app, look at some of your favorite photos, or switch to an alternative suggested app — one that you perhaps consider more worthy of your time.

Plus, Pause Point requires you to restart your phone to turn it off, so you’re less likely to disable it in a moment of weakness.

6. New creator tools

Google is also introducing new ways to create and share with Android 17. These include ‘Screen Reactions’, which make it a breeze to record both yourself and your screen at the same time.

There are also improvements to how your photos and videos look on Instagram when using an Android phone, with Google working with Meta to enable ultra HDR capture and playback, built-in video stabilization, and improved low light performance.

Plus, Google and Meta are rolling out some Android-exclusive tools for Instagram’s Edits app. These include ‘smart enhance’, which uses on-device AI to upscale your photos and videos with a single tap, and sound separation, meaning that the Edits app can automatically identify and separate audio tracks, so you can more easily boost the sounds you want and reduce or remove those that you don’t.

7. Major security upgrades

Finally, as far as the big updates go, there is a wealth of security upgrades coming to Android. These include a new spoofing protection feature, which will automatically end calls that are coming from a spoofed number.

Google is doing this by partnering with select banks and financial institutions, and then asking that institution’s app (if it’s installed on your phone) whether a call that appears to be coming from them really is. If the app says it’s not, then the call is automatically terminated.

This isn’t an Android 17 feature, per se — in fact, it will be rolling out to phones on Android 11 onwards in the coming weeks, but initially it only works with Revolut, Itaú, and Nubank, though Google has promised more banks will be added later this year.

Google is also upgrading Live Threat Detection — an existing feature that alerts you to suspicious apps on your device — by expanding the types of behavior that it considers suspicious and alerts you to. It’s also gaining “dynamic signal monitoring”, which will help it more immediately spot suspicious app behaviors, so your device will never be at risk for long.

Plus, Android 17 will allow you to lock a lost phone with biometric authentication — meaning even if someone has both stolen it and somehow knows your password or PIN, they still won’t be able to unlock it.

• Samsung started rolling out the finished version of One UI 8.5 on May 6
• The company is starting with South Korea, but other countries should get it soon
• Initially, One UI 8.5 is coming to high-end models from the last couple of years

It's been a long wait, but Samsung is finally taking One UI 8.5 out of beta and rolling it out to some phones and tablets. It’s actually been available on the Samsung Galaxy S26 series since launch, but all previous handsets were still waiting for it — until now.

As per an announcement on Samsung’s newsroom, the official rollout started on May 6 in South Korea, but “additional regions [are] to follow”, so you probably won’t have the update yet, but you likely will do soon if you have a compatible phone.

Initially, One UI 8.5 is coming to the Samsung Galaxy S25 series, Galaxy S25 FE, Galaxy S24 series, Galaxy S24 FE, Galaxy Z Fold 7, Galaxy Z Flip 7, Galaxy Z Fold 6, Galaxy Z Flip 6, Galaxy Tab S11 series, and Galaxy Tab S10 series. So, in other words, most of the company’s high-end phones and tablets from the last couple of years.

But that’s just the start — we already know that One UI 8.5 will be coming to other devices too, since the beta is available on the Samsung Galaxy S23 series, Galaxy Z Fold 5, Galaxy Z Flip 5, Galaxy S23 FE, and Galaxy A36. You’ll just probably have to wait a bit longer to get the finished version on those phones.

AirDrop support and other improvements

One UI 8.5 should be worth the wait, though, as it'll bring numerous features and improvements, including AirDrop support over Quick Share, additional upgrades to Quick Share (including the ability to identify people in photos and suggest sending them to the subjects), and improvements to Photo Assist.

One UI 8.5 also brings the ability to use Audio Broadcast to send your voice to a connected speaker while you’re talking into your phone, the ability to see files on other Galaxy devices within the My Files app, and improvements to power saving mode to increase your phone’s battery life.

Those are the headline features, but there are smaller changes too, including tweaks to the Weather app and security enhancements, so there’s a lot here, though not every feature will necessarily be available on every phone.

Still, if you have any of the devices that are first in line for One UI 8.5, then it’s worth keeping an eye out for. You’ll probably get an alert when it’s available, but to manually check, head to Settings > Software update.

• Images of the Samsung Galaxy Wide Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 8 have been dug up in One UI 9 code
• The Z Fold 8 looks essentially identical to its predecessor, while the Wide Fold looks very different
• While the Wide Fold looks visually the most interesting, it could also be quite niche

Samsung is probably going to launch two book-style foldable phones this year, with the expected Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 likely to be joined by the Samsung Galaxy Wide Fold, and we’ve just had a somewhat official look at both of them.

You see, Samsung has included images of both devices in its One UI 9 software, and while these images aren’t currently intended to be user-facing, Android Authority has managed to dig them up.

As you can see in the images below, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 (codenamed Q8) looks very similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, with a triple-lens camera on the back and a slightly narrow cover screen. Visually, there’s really nothing of note here, so this could be a boring upgrade.

But the Samsung Galaxy Wide Fold (codenamed H8) is far more interesting, with just a dual-lens camera but a much wider cover screen, looking like it could almost match a small tablet even when folded shut.

This design broadly lines up with previous leaks, so it’s not overly surprising in that sense, but it is the closest thing yet to an official look at the Galaxy Wide Fold, and it’s drastically different from any foldable phone that Samsung has launched so far.

Yes, there’s the Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold, which has a wide foldable screen, but that has three sections, and the cover screen is still quite narrow and phone-like, so it’s a fundamentally different proposition to the device shown here.

A questionable design

Whether the Samsung Galaxy Wide Fold will be a hit with a design like this, though, very much remains to be seen. After all, foldables are still a bit niche, and this design would mean it can’t quite match a phone’s form factor even when folded. Personally, I’m not sold on it, but I do approve of brands experimenting with new designs.

And with the foldable iPhone Ultra reportedly launching this year too, we could be on the cusp of foldable phones becoming more mainstream, at which point there might be more appetite for a phone like this.

As far as the Samsung Galaxy Wide Fold goes, we should learn exactly what it has to offer in July, as that’s when it’s likely to land, alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 8, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8, and perhaps the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 FE.

• Samsung Display has new screens to show off
• One comes with integrated biometric sensing
• There's also a new stretchable display for cars

Before screen panels appear in the best Samsung phones — often debuting in top-tier flagships like the Galaxy S26 Ultra — they get showcased by the Samsung Display arm of the company, and it's just unveiled its latest screens.

Samsung Display revealed these cutting-edge panels at the SID Display Week 2026 event in Los Angeles, and it's the Sensor OLED Display that's perhaps the most interesting of the bunch: it combines a 500 pixels-per-inch resolution with the ability to read biometric information such as heart rate and blood pressure.

It does this by measuring blood flow, through light emitted from the display. The screen also features the privacy protection tech that appeared in the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which stops other people from seeing what's on your phone unless they're looking directly at it.

Among the other panels shown off by Samsung was a Flex Chroma Pixel OLED screen that hits high marks for both brightness and color space: 3,000 nits and the BT.2020-96 standard respectively. BT.2020-96 is the widest color gamut standard used internationally, and while most phones get to around 70% coverage, the new panel reaches 96%.

Displays that stretch

Samsung Display also demoed a "next-generation stretchable display", rather aptly called the Stretchable Display 2.0. Samsung wants to get this screen installed into car dashboards, so the screen in your vehicle could expand or shrink depending on driving conditions, and what you and your passengers are currently doing.

The new display hits a resolution of 200 pixels-per-inch, up from the 120ppi of the previous version, and matching the current resolution offered by most car infotainment systems. This was achieved by developing a new "pixel structure" that can retain pixel density even as the screen extends and shrinks.

Finally, there were new EL-QD displays too — an upgraded quantum dot technology that Samsung is working on, which doesn't rely on standard OLED techniques. According to the company, these screens offer high color accuracy and improved brightness while offering better power efficiency, and could be used in "AI-based high-computing environments".

There's no indication of when these screens will hit consumer products — some more research and development will likely be needed first — but they give us a good idea of the phone and car displays that will be arriving in the next few years.

• The Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra could have one less camera than its predecessor
• Reportedly, the 3x telephoto is being ditched
• That would leave it with just a 5x optical zoom for telephoto shots, assuming no other changes are made

Samsung’s Galaxy Ultra phones have long been top options for telephoto photography, helped in part by their having two telephoto cameras, where most high-end phones have just one. But it sounds like the Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra might be getting a bit more conventional, as it’s reportedly losing one of its telephoto lenses.

This is according to @UniverseIce — a leaker with a solid track record — who claims that the 3x telephoto will be absent on the S27 Ultra. While their wording is a bit ambiguous, it sounds like Samsung will be ditching this camera altogether, rather than switching it for a different focal length.

In which case, if the other telephoto stays the same as on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, you’ll be limited to just 5x optical zoom. However, it’s possible that Samsung will change this camera or even allow for multiple zoom levels through a single lens, removing the need for an extra camera.

A camera that won't be massively missed

Whatever the case, though, Samsung fans don’t seem too bothered by this news, with replies to the post including “good riddance I say. Hope it's not just the Ultra that bids farewell to that awful lens”, and “finally. The 3x was always the 'meh' middle child anyway.”

Certainly, it’s not currently the most useful of the Ultra's cameras, since you can already get a 2x ‘optical quality’ shot from the 200MP main sensor. That 3x zoom camera is also currently lumbered with a 10MP sensor, while the other rear cameras are all 50MP or more.

While we’d take the claim of its removal with a pinch of salt, it does line up with recent reports that the Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra will have a redesigned camera block (possibly in the style of the iPhone 17 Pro's camera block) to facilitate MagSafe-like charging, so this may well be the case.

If it is accurate, though, we certainly hope Samsung is planning some camera improvements elsewhere, because while the 3x telephoto is arguably the least useful of the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s snappers, removing it with no other changes would be a definite downgrade.

We probably won’t find out for sure what Samsung’s planning until early 2027, as that’s when the Samsung Galaxy S27 series will likely launch.