Samsung Unpacked Event 2023: Will You Join The Flip Side?

The Samsung Unpacked Event 2023 saw the announcement of a handful of new products and was held in Samsung's home city of Seoul, South Korea on the 26th July. With new products and updates including the Galaxy Z Flip 5, Galaxy Z Fold 5, Galaxy Watch 6, Galaxy Watch 6 Classic and three tablets added to the Tab 9 Series, we’ll dig into all the new updates. Keep reading if you want to find out everything from this year's event.

• The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5
  Find out what improvements and updates the latest Z Flip 5 has to offer.

• The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5
  Find out what's new with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5.

• The Galaxy Watch 6 and Watch 6 Classic
  Is the new lineup of Samsung watches better than its predecessors.

• Three New Tablets Added To The Tab 9 Series
  Find out whether you should buy one of Samsung's latest tablets.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5

In this year’s event, Samsung announced the much anticipated Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5. The fifth generation Z Flip 5 has a bigger 3.4 inch cover screen to swipe through widgets, check the weather and calendar, in hopes that it would prevent how often you open and close the phone. Another notable change is that it's now gapless, meaning it closes flat without leaving a gap between the two sides of the foldable screen. However, the crease is still present, but less noticeable when using the Z Flip 5.

In the past, consumers complained that the Z Flip 4’s hinge left too big of a gap when the phone was shut, but now it has been resolved. Samsung has said that the Flex Hinge now has fewer moving parts and equiped rubberised edges to further ensure protection from dust and other elements. The mighty Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 should give the phone a performance boost, improve overall efficientcy and image processing in low-light conditions. It seems as though the people have spoken and Samsung really have listened. We’re impressed with their foldable phone lineup, because it is improving with every new release. Even though these changes are only to the display and the chipset, they were needed and will definitely make a huge difference in how the Z Flip 5 is received by consumers.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5

As noted above, like the Z Flip 5, the Z Fold 5 has also undergone some improvements with the Flex Hinge’s new gapless design. This is a really good update because it removes the awkward space between the screen but also makes it less prone to mechanical problems as time goes on. By doing this for the Fold 5, Samsung were also able to decrease the phone's weight due to the fewer parts used for the hinge. This is a significant difference, especially when the phone has a larger foldable form; outer 6.2-inch and inner 7.6-inch displays. The screen is thinner, however it can now get up to 30% brighter than the model before which, like the Z Flip 5, will allow improved visuals when in sunnier conditions.

The camera hardware, battery capacity and price will remain the same and this is also true for the Z Flip 5. This means that there will be improvements with true colour (skin tones will pick up more accurately on camera), and also it is reported that the phones' image-processing engine will reduce noise. Samsung have included the ability to increase the amount of most-recent apps in the Taskbar and have done this by operating the latest version of One UI.

Relevant reading:

Here’s What You Should Do Before Selling Your iPhone or Android

We want the selling process of your phone to be plain sailing for you, so follow these 10 steps to protect your device, the offer price and yourself if the unfortunate happens.

6 MIN READ

The Galaxy Watch 6 and Watch 6 Classic

Samsung have released two new SmartWatches with updates that we think will actually be beneficial for users. The new watches now have the largest screens ever and are 20% bigger than their predecessors. They are also the first watches to run Googles Wear OS 4 and so this should be available to other wearables coming out in the near future. They have improved the efficiency of the chipset by using Wear OS 4 alongside, which should give 40-hours of battery life with Always-On Display switched off. However, this is actually lower than what Samsung announced last year when they released the Watch 5 Series and something that will likely be welcomed by consumers.

Samsung have also partnered with the National Sleep Foundation in order to provide much more individualised sleep messages. According to them, this means that your Galaxy Watch 6 will give you more feedback each morning and with the new Sleep Consistency feature, you will be able to see just how consistent your sleep is. If you want to track your workout routine more, then this new lineup of Galaxy Watches may be for you as it can now track body temperature, it even has a personalised heart rate tracker to utilise in your workouts. This means that you will be able to receive notifications if your heart beat is irregular and we think this could be a great watch for active users.

Three New Tablets Added To The Tab 9 Series

The Tab S9 11-inch, Tab S9+ 12.4-inch and Tab S9 Ultra 14.5-inch joined the Tab 9 Series. The biggest change with the tablet range, is that they will all have a Dynamic AMOLED 2X display and as we know, this will ensure that the colours see a huge improvement - inkier blacks and much better contrast which is a lot like Apple’s True Tone feature. This is a step up from last year's Tab S8 release which had a less impressive LCD panel.

Like the Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5, the Tab S9 lineup will also be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and with the speakers now 20% bigger, water and dust resistance, we know that these tablets will be a popular choice. A notable annoyance with the predecessors, was that when magnetically sticking the stylus, you had to ensure it was facing the right direction. Now, you can attach the S Pen stylus in any direction on the back of the tablet for wireless charging and storage.

Key Takeaways

It’s fair to say that Samsung is steadily improving their devices. What we were surprised about was the fact that their new watches do not include a bigger battery like their Watch 5 Pro, but have still included high price points for all new products. Their foldable smartphones are definitely ahead of the game and slowly winning the hearts of consumers. We also noticed that there was no mention of their VR / AR headsets that they mentioned at the beginning of the year, something Apple is working hard on. The products announced in the Samsung Unpacked Event 2023 will be released on August 11th 2023.

Relevant reading:

Switching From iPhone to Android: A Week With The Galaxy Z Flip 4

Whether you’re an iPhone or Android user, have you ever thought about switching sides and where do your priorities lie when it comes to your smartphone? This is an ongoing debate that we wanted to put to the test and what could be better than to challenge a die-hard iPhone user to switch to an Android for a week! To make the experience even more exciting, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 was a refurbished model rather than brand new.

5 MIN READ