Samsung just rewrote its own foldable playbook, and it did it in front of a live crowd instead of quietly through a spec sheet update. At Galaxy Unpacked, held in London on July 22, 2026, the company confirmed something that had only existed in leaks for months: there are now two completely different Galaxy Z Fold phones sitting side by side on the shelf, not one. That alone tells you how uneasy Samsung is about Apple’s incoming iPhone Fold.

The standard Galaxy Z Fold 8 ditches the tall, narrow shape that’s defined the series since 2019. It now opens wider and shorter, landing closer to an iPad Mini in its proportions than a phone. I’ve been following this line for a while, and honestly, seeing Samsung admit the old aspect ratio wasn’t working is a bigger deal than any single spec bump. Meanwhile, the device actually carrying the “Fold 7” torch forward, with its thin body and familiar tall shape, is now called the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which is a confusing bit of naming if you ask me.

What’s new on the Z Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra

The Fold 8 Ultra is where the real hardware flex lives. Its battery jumps to 5,000mAh, up 14% from the Fold 7’s 4,400mAh, and it now supports 45W wired charging alongside 20W wireless, both solid upgrades over last year’s 25W ceiling. Samsung’s new Flex Titanium hinge tech noticeably reduces the visible crease, and the inner display now peaks at 3,000 nits with an anti-reflective coating layered on top.

Camera-wise, you’re getting a 200MP main sensor with 2x optical quality zoom and a fresh 50MP ultra-wide, plus a 10MP telephoto and dual 10MP selfie cameras across the lineup. The whole thing measures a genuinely impressive 4.1mm unfolded and 8.9mm folded at 215 grams, making it Samsung’s thinnest foldable ever.

The standard Fold 8, the “wide” one, is the passport-shaped device with the wider but shorter cover screen. Both new Folds run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 Elite and share the same 5,000mAh silicon-carbon battery, a first for any Samsung foldable. Pricing starts at $1,900 for the Fold 8 and climbs to $2,100 for the Fold 8 Ultra, both up from where the Fold 7 launched. What I find interesting here is that Samsung didn’t just raise prices across the board out of nowhere. Rising component costs have been squeezing the whole phone industry this year, and foldables were never going to be exempt from that.

Galaxy Z Flip 8 keeps it simple, mostly

The Z Flip 8 is the one device in this lineup that plays it safe, and honestly, that’s probably the right call. It looks a lot like the Flip 7 at a glance, but Samsung trimmed the thickness, weight, and bezels and added a new hinge design that makes opening and closing smoother. Inside, you get a 6.9-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel with 120Hz adaptive refresh, while the 4.1-inch cover screen runs at 60 to 120fps. The rear camera setup pairs a 50MP main lens with a 12MP ultrawide, supporting 10x digital zoom and 4K 60fps video.

Battery capacity holds steady at 4,300mAh, the same as the Flip 7, which feels like a missed opportunity given how much bigger the Fold 8’s cell grew. Pricing starts at $1,199.99 for the 256GB model, and Samsung is sweetening early orders with a $150 credit without trade-in or up to $600 with one. According to reports from leaker Ice Universe, this could be Samsung’s last small folding phone, which would be a genuinely significant shift if it holds up. If the current trajectory holds, it looks like the compact clamshell form factor might be nearing its end at Samsung, at least in its current shape.

Galaxy Watch 9 and Watch Ultra 2 arrive with a shared new chip

Both new watches run on the Snapdragon Wear Elite chipset, and Samsung is calling it a massive jump in speed and efficiency over the previous generation. The Galaxy Watch 9 comes in 40mm and 44mm sizes, keeping the familiar cushion silhouette, with a 390mAh battery in the smaller case and a 445mAh in the larger one, plus a 3,000-nit display. Pricing starts at $379.99 for the 40mm model and $409 for the 44mm.

The Watch Ultra 2 is the bigger story here. It’s 12% slimmer than the original Ultra thanks to a redesigned internal architecture, with a case depth of just 10.7mm and a weight of 61.5 grams without the strap. Its 1.52-inch Super AMOLED display now hits a genuinely eye-catching 5,000 nits peak brightness, and battery capacity jumped to 800 mAh, a 35% increase that directly answers the one complaint everyone had about the first Ultra. 

There’s a new trail running mode with elevation and ascent tracking, a hydration alert built around estimated fluid loss, and a dedicated diving app built with Mares that tracks depth, time, and water temperature in real time. It’s rated IP69K, 10 ATM, and MIL-STD-810H. Pricing lands at $699.99, up from $649 previously. Having used something similar before, this felt like a big step forward specifically for anyone who found the original Ultra’s battery life embarrassing next to Garmin’s competing watches.

Smart glasses teaser closes out the show

As one final reveal, Samsung showed off its first pair of smart glasses, developed alongside Gentle Monster and Warby Parker. They’ll run Google Gemini onboard, letting you summarize your surroundings, share moments, and get contextual help hands-free. This is clearly Samsung’s answer to Meta’s growing smart glasses push, and it’s the part of the event most people are sleeping on right now since it wasn’t a shipping product yet.

All five new devices, the Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Flip 8, Watch 9, and Watch Ultra 2, are available for preorder now, with general availability landing on August 7, 2026. What most articles missed is that this Unpacked wasn’t really about one flashy phone. It was Samsung quietly admitting its old foldable formula had hit a ceiling and splitting the Fold line in two to buy itself room to experiment before Apple’s iPhone Fold shows up later this year. Whether buyers actually want two different Fold shapes to choose from is the real question the Galaxy Unpacked crowd will be answering with their wallets over the coming weeks.