Samsung unveiled its sixth generation of foldable smartphones, the Galaxy Z Fold6 and Galaxy Z Flip6, at a small satellite event held in Steyn City last night. The launch also included the company’s new watch range, buds and a smart ring, which sadly won’t be making its way to our shores this year.
While the NAG office is split between those who love foldable devices and those who don’t, this form factor is clearly a hit among consumers. Samsung confirmed that its foldable range has shown impressive growth, and according to Justin Hume, vice president of Samsung Mobile in South Africa, sales of Samsung’s foldable range have doubled. He adds that the user base is still much smaller than that of its popular Galaxy S-series.
The Galaxy Z Fold6 and Galaxy Z Flip6 sport a range of new features, including better performance, improved cameras, and a dual rail hinge structure that is supported by a strengthened folding edge. This allows the phone to distribute shocks better when dropped, and having gone hands-on with these devices, the hinge feels sturdier than previous generations by a long shot.
Samsung also made some notable improvements to the display.
One of the biggest contention issues with foldable devices is screen crease. The Galaxy Z Fold6 and Galaxy Z Flip6 introduce a new foldable display that features fewer layers than the previous generation but is, according to Samsung, much more durable and far thinner. I won’t bore you with the details, but Samsung developed a new fluid that sits between the layers of the display. This enabled them to remove a few layers, thereby thinning the overall screen thickness. This also results in a screen that should be less prone to screen crease.
Both devices now also feature the high-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile for Galaxy SoC (System on Chip). What makes Samsung’s “for Galaxy” variant unique is that it features a higher clocked core and GPU speed. This comes in handy for gaming and, of course, all the AI capabilities that Samsung has built into the Galaxy Z Fold6 and Galaxy Z Flip6.
To ensure adequate heat dissipation, Samsung increased the size of the vapour chamber on the Galaxy Z Fold6 and now also introduced a vapour chamber on the Galaxy Z Flip, which is impressive considering the size of the device overall.
As was expected, Samsung also introduced a slew of new AI capabilities, most notably with the Galaxy Z Fold6, which includes a pen. All of the AI functions are based on Google Gemini and include a circle to search, as we’ve seen on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, a number of translation features, note and voice functions, and AI image generation from sketches.
The Galaxy Z Fold6 is also the first foldable we’ve seen aimed at gamers. While we waited for our review unit to go in-depth, we did manage to run Asphalt 9: Legends at the launch event, and the game ran super smoothly. We are also interested in seeing how various games will handle the 2160 x 1856 pixel resolution, but at least we’ve got a 120Hz refresh rate to play with.
Samsung also updated its Galaxy Buds range with the Buds 3 and Buds 3 Pro. While its hard to get excited about new earphones, Samsung did introduce a few features that had our interests piqued.
Probably the most exciting of these features is Interpreter, which, when paired with the Galaxy Z Fold6 or Flip6, will translate a lecture in real-time. This is a listening mode, so you’ll still have to use your phone to translate languages in conversation, but it seems this feature is aimed at educational uses first. Another feature is the improved Adaptive EQ and Adaptive ANC functionality; this means that the Buds 3 will be constantly monitoring the sounds around you to adapt the sound and noise cancelling for optimal audio output.
As a new smartwatch user, I was also very interested to hear what Samsung had in store for its new Galaxy Watch7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra devices.
Even though Watch7 looks great with features to match, the Galaxy Watch Ultra took all of the attention. This new flagship smartwatch is aimed at people with an active lifestyle and it has the look to match. With a 47mm watch face, the Galaxy Watch Ultra can survive a range of altitudes, from 500 meters below sea level to 9,000 meters above. The Galaxy Watch Ultra also boasts the longest battery life in the range, with around 48 hours in the Exercise Power Saving mode. It’s also the first watch to run the new Wear OS 5 operating system, which is based on Android.
The local pricing for the new range has also been announced:
- Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra: R19 999
- Samsung Galaxy Watch7 (40mm): R6 999
- Samsung Galaxy Watch7 (44mm): R7 499
- Samsung Galaxy Buds3: R3 999
- Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro: R4 999
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6(256GB): R43 499
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6(512GB): R45 999
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6: R25 999
Pre-orders for the new devices have gone live on the Samsung store with trade-in offers of up to R15,000 on your current device.