Samsung Galaxy Unpacked: Everything you need to know about Samsung’s foldable launch event

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Z Fold 3 will be revealed at the launch event tomorrow

(Samsung)

Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event is only one day away, with the South Korean smartphone giant launching two new foldable devices.

It is also expected that a new Samsung Watch, a ‘fan edition’ of its Galaxy S21 smartphone, and a new pair of headphones will be announced.

Galaxy Unpacked will start on 11 August at 3pm UK time, available to watch on Samsung’s website and YouTube.

The headline of the event, as Samsung has attested to numerous times ahead of the launch, are its foldable devices which will be taking the place of the Galaxy Note range this year.

The Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Galaxy Flip 3, which fold like a book and a clamshell mobile respectively, are expected to have more durable chassis with larger screens, and an operating system that is better optimised for supporting folding and side-by-side apps.

The Galaxy Z Fold 3 will also be the first to work with the S Pen stylus for writing and drawing, with leaked renders of the case for the foldable including a slot on the back to keep the stylus in.

Leaker Evan Blass also revealed two new Galaxy watches and a new set of Galaxy Buds headphones. Samsung’s new wearable is of particular interest due to its closer collaboration with Google and a new operating system for the watch that combines Tizen and Wear OS.

This should result in improvements to the battery life, faster loading applications, and smoother animations. It also signifies the end of Samsung’s Tizen-only smartwatches, according to Wired.

Samsung also announced yesterday a new Exynos W920 chip, a processor designed for smartwatches and other wearables that the company claims is the world’s first wearable-specific chip to be built on a 5nm process. This should apparently improve performance and efficiency.

Samsung is facing increasingly tougher competition in the foldable space from other manufacturers like Huawei, and its Mate X2, the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold and Microsoft’s Surface Duo. Samsung also recently lost its crown as the biggest-selling Android manufacturer, with Chinese brand Xiaomi shipping more devices in June than either it or Samsung.