Hey,
It’s Pete Matheson with a new issue of Experiments in Progress.
Samsung just emptied the entire cupboard for 2026. Three foldables. Two watches. One of these is the most interesting phone Samsung's made in years.
Everything Samsung just announced (and what's actually worth it)
So here's my honest breakdown of the lot:
📱 Galaxy Z Fold 8: The first Fold I'd recommend
Closed, it's squat and wide (think BlackBerry Passport); open, it's a proper widescreen tablet. It's built around how people actually consume content, and I love it.
If you want a foldable that nails the everyday content experience — this is the one.
A few things stood out after using it:
Battery life is excellent — Samsung has finally moved to silicon-carbon cells in its Folds this year. First Galaxy phones ever to get it.
The software is still second to none.
The Now Bar keeps getting smarter.
Gemini's built right in, and the Samsung × Google × Android features are getting genuinely handy rather than gimmicky.
The one real letdown? The cameras. They're fine (50MP main, 50MP ultrawide) but "fine" stings a bit on a phone that costs this much.
Source: YouTube
📖 Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra: better cameras, bigger battery... confusing branding
This is the traditional, tall Fold — the direct successor to last year's Z Fold: bigger 5,000mAh battery, titanium hinge, easier magnet-assisted open, slimmest Fold ever, no visible crease, and a 200MP main camera that outclasses the standard Fold 8.
Source: PCMag
📲 Galaxy Z Flip 8
To be fair, it's the thinnest and lightest Flip yet (13% thinner than the Flip 7).
But scratch the surface and it's… the same phone. Same 4,300mAh battery. Same cameras. A slightly tidied-up FlexWindow and a few AI automations, and that's about it.
The thing is — Samsung made the Folds impressively thin this year.
It's a shame that energy didn't carry over to the Flip in any meaningful way beyond the shell.
Source: The Verge
⌚ Where Samsung made the biggest leap: Watch 9 and Watch Ultra 2
The watches had the most important upgrade of the whole event.
They finally ditched Exynos. Both the Galaxy Watch 9 and Watch Ultra 2 now run on Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear Elite chip.
After using them: these watches are now genuinely responsive, fluid, and fast.
The rest of it:
Much bigger batteries on both (the Ultra 2 jumps to 800mAh).
The Watch Ultra 2 has a 5,000-nit display — the brightest on any smartwatch, anywhere. The regular Watch 9 sits at 3,000 nits.
Proper diving credentials on the Ultra 2: IP69K rating, up to 100m, plus a Mares partnership app coming later this year for descent speed and decompression guidance.
A stack of new health features across both — a Vitals early-warning system, a Heart Health Score, Daily Cardio Load, and a Fitness Index that ranks you against other Samsung Health users your age.
If you're upgrading one thing this year, the watches are the easiest "yes" of the bunch.
Source: Samsung Newsroom
🎯 Which Samsung should you actually buy?
If you want… | Get this |
|---|---|
The most interesting phone Samsung's made in years | Z Fold 8 |
A tall, traditional Fold with the best battery + camera | Z Fold 8 Ultra |
The smallest phone that disappears in your pocket | Z Flip 8 |
The easiest upgrade of the whole event | Watch 9 |
Rugged tracking + a genuinely absurd 5,000-nit screen | Watch Ultra 2 |
To hold your money | Wait for the S27 Ultra early next year |
Which Samsung are you most tempted by?
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I've put together my complete setup guide — the first things to change, the best settings to flip on, and the fold-specific tricks most people never find.
A load of the genuinely useful stuff is hidden or switched off by default, so this is how you get the most out of it from day one.
The features that are hidden or disabled out of the box (and worth turning on)
Fingerprints, gestures and app drawer setup done properly
The battery protection settings most people skip
The developer setting that instantly makes the phone feel faster
Which Galaxy AI features are actually worth enabling
Security, theft protection and Secure Folder, sorted
The fold-specific tips and tricks nobody tells you about
and more…
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