Samsung’s latest Galaxy Unpacked event just happened, and the company announced some cool and amazing hardware innovations. Okay, I’ll give you a minute to finish laughing. The fact of the matter is that this latest Unpacked event was pretty boring. Not just boring, the Galaxy Unpacked event was downright disappointing. What makes it worse is the fact that no one was really surprised by this.
Samsung, of course, brought out the trumpets and dancing elephants to hype up this event. It started the countdown days before the event, put up billboards, and posted online about it. It seemed that Samsung had a lot of faith in what it eventually announced. But, we all knew that it was going to be a snooze-fest. At this point, it’s tough to get excited about any tech event, let alone Galaxy Unpacked, and there are a few reasons.
Innovation… correction… Iteration
Well, Samsung, you did it. You managed to piss off your previously loyal audience en route to achieving the Apple Pipe Dream. This dream is being able to bring small iterative updates to your products year after year because you have a large enough audience of fanboys willing to buy them every time.
Samsung used to be the rebel, the polar opposite to Apple that most Android enthusiasts looked up to. It brought new phone designs, innovated on them, and perfected them. It was the only company big enough to bring its own take to the smartphone experience that really mattered. But that was then…
During the latest Unpacked event, Samsung showed off basically the same phones as last year. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is a slender and boxy candy bar with the same camera layout as the Z Fold 5. The Galaxy Z Flip 6 is a carbon copy of the Z Flip 5.
Samsung used to spend a ton of time talking about all of the new hardware innovations and refinements it made over the course of a year. This year, everything was summed up in a few sentences. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is thinner and lighter, the company added a shear thickening fluid to the display that makes it sturdier, there are more recycled materials in the phone, it can reach up to 2,600 nits, the bezels are smaller, and that’s pretty much it.
Was there even a Galaxy Z Flip 6 section?
It was even worse for the Galaxy Z Flip 6! The segment was actually more about Galaxy AI than the actual phone. We heard that it got a 50MP camera, but the majority of that section was about AI enhancements. The presenter briefly spoke about the hinge but didn’t say what about it makes it better. Also, she said that it has the most powerful processor in a Z Flip. We sure as hell hope so, seeing as the only other Z Flip phone out there is last year’s Z Flip 5!
The rest of the Z Flip 6 segment was about Galaxy AI, Interpreter showing on both screens (which can easily be brought to last year’s device), and the different screens you can display on the outer display. With the Galaxy Z Fold 6, the company at least tried to B-S us into thinking that something’s changed. With the Z Flip 6 announcement, it’s blatantly clear that Samsung repacked the old phone.
We weren’t expecting Samsung to start from scratch, but some sort of visual flair or hardware change would have been appreciated. Other companies are running circles around Samsung in the innovation department, and they barely have a fraction of the market share that Samsung does. Sure, Samsung pushed the foldable phone forward in the early days, but we’re no longer in the early days of the foldable. Other companies reinventing the foldable smartphone identity now. They’re making their phones thinner, lighter, more appealing, and easier to use. Oppo brought a better outer display aspect ratio, HONOR made its phone much thinner, and the list goes on.
It’s sad because Samsung is the biggest Android company in the world, and it’s still recycling its designs AND charging us $100 more for them. No one’s going to care if the phone’s made from some percentage more recycled materials or if the screens are some percent tougher. It’s to the point where people have to ask, “Wait, is that the Z Fold 3, Fold 4, Fold 5, or Fold 6?”
All about AI
Ugh! It’s Google I/O all over again! When TM Roh came onto the stage, it took him 21 seconds to mention AI, and that was including the applause after his opening sentence. From that point, it became evident that we weren’t watching Galaxy Unpacked; we were watching Galaxy AI Unpacked.
Look, we get it, AI is cool and it’s here to stay, but come on, Samsung! As stated before, the majority of the Galaxy Z Flip 6’s section was about Galaxy AI. It was like Samsung didn’t have anything to say about the phone, so it just used it as a vessel to deliver more AI talk.
We always looked forward to Galaxy Unpacked to sink our teeth into some new metal, glass, and silicon, but all the company cares about now is AI. What makes that worse is the fact that we were pretty much counting on it. We knew that Samsung was going to make some iterative updates to the phones and spend the majority of the event talking about AI. Seriously, this could have just been a long press release. But the company held a whole event at a venue. People flew out for it.
Hardware? What hardware?
The actual hardware talk was sandwiched between the AI talk. Remember the Galaxy Ring? That device that Samsung teased during the previous Unpacked event? We spent months speculating and anticipating it… the Galaxy Ring’s segment was 2 minutes and 16 seconds long. This is a completely different device from the company. It’s a new form factor, and its section was wrapped up in less time than it takes to microwave a frozen burrito. AND, the presenter mentioned AI within three sentences. Lastly, The company didn’t say OneUI once during the presentation.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra and the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro got some better treatment, as we actually heard details worth mentioning. The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro come with a new codec and an interesting design. Honestly, the section about the Galaxy Watch Ultra was the only section that felt like an actual Galaxy Unpacked event. Samsung spoke about actual hardware that makes this the device to buy. It’s $650, so it had its work cut out for it.
If Samsung’s going to make such a heavy pivot toward AI and put hardware on the back-burner like this, then it’s going to need to make some sort of change to how it does its events. How many more years are people going to flock to its events if this goes on? One can only fly to a venue just to hear a slew of AI updates all wrapped up in last year’s phone so many times before it’s no longer worth it.
This Galaxy Unpacked was disappointing. So, now what, Samsung?
What’s the game plan going forward? This event was a disappointment. Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Fold 5.5 and the Z Flip 5.5; let’s be honest The most exciting part of the announcement was the Galaxy Watch Ultra, and that’s an accessory.
We’re going to have another Unpacked event in half of a year when we’re going to see the Galaxy S25 phones. So far, Samsung hasn’t given us a reason to expect anything significant during that event. We’re getting news that the Galaxy S25 Ultra will have rounded edges. That’s something, at least. Other than that, what will the company announce that can’t be summed up in a PDF document?
Samsung will need something to pump some sort of energy into its next event Sure, there will be more Galaxy AI features, but as we’ve seen, several “Galaxy AI” features are just Google features that Samsung is getting first dibs on. They’ll make it outside of Samsung’s phones and to your Motorola, Poco, OnePlus, or other phone. If Samsung continues down this path, it’s likely to start seeing a decline in customers. Galaxy AI brought a nice boost when it was first announced. But, just like the Galaxy designs we have now, it’s going to get old at some point.
