Samsung has officially confirmed that it will host its next Galaxy Unpacked event on July 22, 2026, in London at 2 p.m. BST (9 a.m. ET). Managing Editor Derrek Lee will be in the U.K for the event and is ready to report on all things Summer Unpacked!
The company has previously preferred to hold its launch events mostly in the U.S., and occasionally in Korea and even France.
Now, nearly 14 years after the Galaxy S3 event, Samsung is bringing its launch event back to London, England. We're expecting a new range of foldable phones and new Galaxy wearables at the event.
What devices are launching?
Samsung expanded its Galaxy foldable lineup last year with the introduction of the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE, alongside the standard Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7.
This year, the company is expected to switch up the lineup, including successors to last year's phones as well as a brand-new form factor with a passport-like design that's shorter and wider, which will reportedly go head-to-head against the rumoured Apple's foldable iPhone.
Along with launching a new foldable form factor, Samsung is also expected to change its naming scheme in the most confusing way possible. You'd expect the Galaxy Z Fold 7's successor to be called the Galaxy Z Fold 8, but instead, it'll reportedly be named the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.
The new passport-style foldable will instead take on the standard Galaxy Z Fold 8 name.
We're not sure why Samsung is shuffling things around like this, but we'll certainly be asking around at the event.
Alongside the foldables, Samsung is also expected to launch the Galaxy Watch 9. We are also expecting news around Samsung's AI glasses too!
Interestingly, it looks like we’re finally getting a Galaxy Watch Ultra 2.
Where to watch Samsung Galaxy Unpacked?
There are three ways to watch Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event live. You can tune in via Samsung's official websites, including Samsung.com and Samsung Newsroom.
Perhaps the easiest way to watch the event is on YouTube. Head to Samsung's official YouTube channel and tap the Notify Me button to be reminded when the event is about to start. Or you can just do it from the video link below.
As always, renders of Samsung's new foldable phones have already leaked ahead of the launch, giving us an idea of what to expect from this new form factor. The leaked images suggest it will be quite different from the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. Of course, it will be shorter and wider when opened, mimicking a true mini tablet form factor. But there are a few other interesting things to note as well. First, Samsung isn't letting go of its sharp-edged design for this foldable, and we don't yet know whether that wider cover display will dig into your palms too much. Second, you can see on the back that it features only two cameras, compared to the Z Fold 8 Ultra, which will reportedly stick with a triple-camera module.
Alongside the renders, the specs of the standard Galaxy Z Fold 8 have also leaked. The passport-style foldable will reportedly feature a 5.4- to 5.5-inch cover screen, while the inner display measures 7.6 inches. In terms of design, it'll reportedly be just 5.5mm thick when unfolded and 9.7mm when folded. As for internals, you can expect the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of starting storage. The good news is that Samsung isn't skimping on the battery front, with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 reportedly packing a 4,800mAh cell, which is bigger than last year's Galaxy Z Fold 7. In terms of colors, you can expect Cream, Graphite, and Lavender, along with a reported Pistachio option that'll be a Samsung.com exclusive.
Samsung has already begun teasing what we can expect from its new Galaxy Watches, including “AI-driven insights in real time.” It’s not surprising that Samsung wants to put more AI on its watches, but I wonder what the company has in store for the Watch 9 and Ultra 2. There’s already an AI running coach, but perhaps Galaxy AI will act more like Google Health's AI Personal Health Coach? Hopefully, this doesn’t mean we’ll need a subscription.
Samsung says the next Galaxy Watch is built with “all-new internal components,” suggesting the BioActive health sensor is being upgraded. This could point to more accurate health monitoring and fitness tracking, but it could also mean a new chipset. Samsung is expected to use Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon Wear Elite, which will deliver faster performance and charging while enhancing on-device AI capabilities. The Watch 9 and Ultra 2 will likely be among the first to feature the new chip, so we’re excited to see how they perform!
One thing we can definitely expect from Samsung’s upcoming watches is Blood Pressure Trends. After years without access to blood pressure tracking features, Samsung has finally brought the capability to the U.S., and it’s taking things a step further by launching Blood Pressure Trends to replace Vascular Load. Blood pressure trends will “check your blood pressure periodically to show you a trend over time. It will also give you tips to help support healthy habits.”
While remembering the original Pixel Fold’s design, I wanted to focus on how apps behaved on the phone's wider aspect ratio. On the outer screen, apps were shorter and wider than on a normal Android phone. This looked funny at first, but I quickly came to appreciate it because everything was easier to access with a single hand.
Things got even better when opening the phone, as apps automatically opened in landscape tablet orientation. This is a huge deal because most apps on modern book-style foldables, like the Galaxy Z Fold 7, still open like a giant phone app rather than in a tablet format, as they should.
Google did a lot of great work in Android 12L to fix this problem, but a foldable shaped like a landscape tablet just works better, since it doesn’t require specific app-level code to get things right. I hope the Z Fold 8 works this way since it’s supposed to be a wider aspect ratio.
The one thing I’m not looking forward to with the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s smaller stature is the rumored downgrade in camera hardware. Samsung is said to be outfitting the wider Z Fold 8 with just a pair of cameras on the back. More specifically, that’s a 50MP main camera and a 50MP ultrawide camera. Not exactly great-sounding specs from a 2026 flagship.
That means no telephoto camera at all, which is one of my favorite ways to get great photos out of the Galaxy S26 Ultra. To make matters worse, a 50MP sensor isn’t exactly cutting-edge and will likely just be a rehash of the sensors Samsung has been using on its Z Fold line for years. I hope I’m pleasantly surprised by the official announcement, because this could be the one black mark on the Z Fold 8’s spec sheet.
While I’d rather have the smaller phone, Samsung is apparently souping up the bigger Z Fold 8 with more features from the Galaxy S26 Ultra and calling it the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra because of it. There’s been a mix of rumors around what Samsung’s plan for the “Ultra” moniker on this phone actually means, but the company will likely bring some of the best hardware features from the S26 Ultra.
My hope is that means the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra gets the S26 Ultra’s camera hardware. More specifically, I’d love to see the 200MP main camera and 5x telephoto ALoP camera that were the highlight of the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s camera for me. The Z Fold series has never been a camera powerhouse, but maybe this year’s Ultra entry will finally change that for good.
Samsung’s new Flex Titanium technology aims to define a new generation of truly crease-free foldables, and I can’t wait to see how it holds up over a lifetime of constant folding. That crease has been a big complaint about foldable phones for years, and it’s been fun watching companies try new things to try to eliminate it. It’s wild enough that we can fold glass in the first place, but seeing it work without a worn-down crease will be the next-most impressive thing.
Alongside the new foldables, Samsung is also expected to introduce its latest Galaxy smartwatches, including the Galaxy Watch 9 series and a new Galaxy Watch Ultra. To prepare for the launch, Samsung has begun a major visual overhaul of the Wearables app. A recent leak revealed the company is reworking the app's UI, making it much cleaner and aligning it with the new One UI aesthetic. Beyond a larger smartwatch render when you open the app, Galaxy AI will reportedly be able to generate custom info tiles for your watch, with users simply describing what they want to see. Samsung is also reportedly working on a new Vitals tool that combines five distinct health metrics to calculate and improve your Energy Score.
Shifting gears back to the foldables, there's some bad news if you're in the market for a new phone this year. Rising RAM and component prices have pushed nearly every hardware maker to increase device pricing, and it looks like Samsung won't be an exception. Rumors suggest the Galaxy Z Fold 8 will start at a steep $1,900 in the U.S., while the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (the actual successor to the Galaxy Z Fold 7) will start at $2,100. That's a $100 increase over last year's Galaxy Z Fold 7, something that might leave a sour taste in the mouths of potential buyers, but something we could very realistically see happen.
One of the major upgrades I'm looking forward to this year is the increase in the Galaxy Z Fold's battery capacity. Samsung has stuck with the same 4,400mAh cell for the past five years, but according to recent leaks, this is finally the year it bumps things up to 5,000mAh on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. That still won't bring it anywhere near Chinese competitors like the Oppo Find N6 or Honor Magic V6, but it should put Z Fold 8 Ultra buyers in a far more comfortable spot. I'm starting to wonder what took Samsung this long, but if we're getting the same thin design as last year with a bigger battery, I'm not complaining.
The biggest upgrade to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 series might not be the new form factor at all. In my opinion, it could be the crease-free display that debuts with the device. Just ahead of Galaxy Unpacked, Samsung officially showcased its new Flex Titanium technology. The company says it has reworked the foldable display, adding a new titanium plate beneath the OLED panel designed to significantly improve structural durability and make the screen's center crease far less visible — something that's long been an issue for Galaxy Z Fold users. Too much of a coincidence with the foldable iPhone arriving later this year? I don't think so.
Speaking of Samsung showcasing technology that'll debut on the Galaxy Z Fold 8, a recent report revealed that the company has already started displaying the phone at Samsung stores in Korea. A Reddit user reportedly visited a Samsung store where the new foldables were already on display. The showcase didn't include official device names, but the phones on show looked nearly identical to the leaked renders, giving us a real-world look at the Galaxy Z Fold 8. This might be the first instance Samsung has publicly displayed a device ahead of its own launch event.