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In addition to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Samsung Z Flip 5, Samsung is expected to announced the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 collection features two smartwatches. While we haven’t heard all that much about how the Galaxy Watch 6 vs. Galaxy Watch 5 ultimately compare, we have good reason to believe that the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic will steal the show with the return of the fan-favorite rotating bezel.
We know that at least one of our colleagues was disappointed by lack of bezel on last year’s generation of watches. Instead, we got the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, a bulky sports watch with a better battery life than the standard Galaxy Watch 5. What do you think, are you team bezel?
If you want a sense of the stiffer competition Samsung is facing from other phone makers on the foldable front, consider the arrival of the Google Pixel Fold. We currently rank that device as the best foldable phone you can get based on how Google’s handset edged past what Samsung currently offers in our Google Pixel vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 face-off.
Google offers a wider and easier-to-use cover-display, a thinner device and great cameras. But the Galaxy Z Fold 5 could very well close the gap with Samsung and come out on top.
You can easily make the case that the most important feature for the Galaxy Z Flip 5 that Samsung is certain to announce today will be the updated phone’s cover display. The current Z Flip features a 1.9-inch strip on the outside of the device that you can use to read notifications or text messages; it also doubles as a viewfinder when you’re snapping selfies with the rear cameras. But even with those capabilities, it’s nowhere near as handy as the 3.6-inch panel that Motorola includes on the Motorola Razr+.
Rumors have Samsung expanding the display on its phone to either 3.4 or 3.5 inches depending on who’s doing the talking. U.K. phones editor Tom Pritchard believes this is a make-or-break feature for the Galaxy Z Flip 5, hinging on its ability to run full-screen apps the way you can on Motorola’s device.
The biggest upgrade rumored for both Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 is the redesigned hinge. Dubbed the “waterdrop hinge”, this new mechanism is expected to add a number of changes to Samsung’s foldables — most important of which is a lessening of the crease.
How? By making that crease larger and shallower, it means that the fold down the middle of the display could be a lot less prominent than previous models. Maybe even completely invisible, if some rumors are to be believed.
That hinge is also expected to offer a gapless design, which may offer some much needed protection from dust, and is reportedly rated to 300,000 folds. That means it would be 50% more durable than the Galaxy Z Fold 4. And if that wasn’t enough, it could shave off some of the thickness plaguing previous Z Fold devices.
So what can we expect from the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Flip 5 at Samsung Unpacked? Samsung’s TM Roh says the company’s next foldables would be “slimmer and lighter than our previous generations.” But Roh also talked about how Samsjng’s next foldables would deliver “literally, the most flexible camera experience in Samsung Galaxy” while also touting the sustainability of the foldables.
Look for Samsung to go into greater depth on all of those points during the keynote.
Welcome to our Samsung Unpacked live blog. I’m global editor in chief for Tom’s Guide, Mark Spoonauer. And I’ll be hanging out with you for the next few hours breaking down all the last-minute rumors and leaks. Let’s get started!
