Last night (July 22, 10 p.m. Korea time), Samsung opened ‘Galaxy Unpacked 2026’ in London and unveiled three eighth-generation foldables. The three questions left open in the day-before preview — name, crease and price — all got answers. In short: the ‘passport-style’ wide model landed with the name Galaxy Z Fold8, and its price, contrary to chipflation worries, stayed in the 2-million-won range. 📱

TL;DR

  • Three foldables confirmed: Z Fold8 (passport-style 4:3, 201 g), Z Fold8 Ultra (about 8-inch, 4.1 mm thick, 200 MP), Z Flip8.
  • Prices (12 GB RAM / 256 GB): Fold8 Ultra KRW 2,577,300, Fold8 KRW 2,278,100, Flip8 KRW 1,683,000 — held near the previous generation.
  • Samsung’s first smart glasses, ‘Intelligent Eyewear’, unveiled (co-designed with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, shipping this year); Google’s ‘Gemini Intelligence’ onboard.
  • Korea pre-orders July 28 – Aug 3, on sale Aug 7, rolling out to the U.S., U.K., India, Brazil and other markets.

📐 So what was the ‘passport-style’ fold actually called?

The big open question — the new wide model’s official name — is ‘Galaxy Z Fold8’. The preview-stage confusion between ‘WideFold’ and ‘Z Fold8’ was settled on the day.

The new Fold8 opens to a screen ratio close to 4:3. Unlike the tall, narrow Fold of old, it is wider across, closer to an open passport. The inner display is 7.6 inches, the cover 5.5 inches, and the weight is 201 g. For a device that folds a large screen, staying that light is Fold8’s real play.

The upside of this shape is content viewing. Watching wide content such as video or web documents, you leave less of the panel unused. Samsung positioned the Fold8 as the ‘phone for enjoying content’ and the Ultra, described next, as the device ‘for productivity and creation’.

🖥️ The flagship is the ‘Fold8 Ultra’ — 8-inch, 4.1 mm

The tall, traditional book-type carries the name ‘Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra’, and it leads the lineup on specs. At 4.1 mm folded it is the thinnest Fold yet, and on top of a 200 MP main camera it adds the Fold series’ first 50 MP ultra-wide. A 5,000 mAh battery brings 45 W fast charging and dual-path charging, both a Galaxy Z first. The full per-model figures are laid out in the comparison table below.

So if the Fold8 is the ‘wide, light content device’, the Ultra is the ‘big, powerful work device’. Samsung has placed two foldables of different character side by side in a single generation.

🔄 What about the Galaxy Z Flip8?

The clamshell Z Flip8 leans into battery life and cover-screen usefulness. It fits a 4,300 mAh battery into a compact body, claiming up to 31 hours of video playback.

Next-generation CPU, GPU and NPU lift its on-device AI processing, and the cover display puts widgets, the Quick Panel, Samsung Health Insights and the home app tray within immediate reach. It is a layout aimed at the Flip habit of using the phone while it is still shut.

📊 The Three Models at a Glance

Model Form factor Key specs Price (12 GB / 256 GB)
Galaxy Z Fold8 Passport-style wide (4:3) 7.6-inch inner · 5.5-inch cover · 201 g KRW 2,278,100
Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra Large-screen book-type ~8-inch (203.1 mm) · 4.1 mm (thinnest ever) · 215 g · 200 MP + 50 MP ultra-wide · 5,000 mAh · 45 W KRW 2,577,300
Galaxy Z Flip8 Compact clamshell 4,300 mAh (up to 31 hrs) · next-gen CPU·GPU·NPU KRW 1,683,000

Specs are as announced by Samsung; undisclosed items are omitted.

💰 Price was the real surprise — and it held

The biggest surprise of this Unpacked is the price. Many had expected sharp increases from rising memory costs — so-called chipflation — but the actual figures stayed near the previous generation.

As the table above shows, the three models land between KRW 1.68M and 2.58M for 12 GB / 256 GB. Holding the 2-million-won range even while adding a new form factor is a favorable signal for adoption. Korea pre-orders run July 28 to August 3, with the on-sale date on August 7. From that same day the phones roll out in stages to major markets including the U.S., U.K., India and Brazil.

🔬 The crease-fighting ‘Flex Titanium’ is really in there

The ‘Flex Titanium’ display technology previewed a week before Unpacked is actually applied in these new products. The heart of it is a material swap — a titanium alloy in place of plastic (polymer).

Samsung says the technology reduces both the display crease and the device’s thickness while improving durability and power efficiency. The Ultra’s 4.1 mm figure looks like a dividend of that work. That said, how much less the crease is felt in daily use remains the manufacturer’s own account, so early hands-on reviews are the accurate reference.

👓 A first for Samsung: ‘Intelligent Eyewear’

Alongside the foldables, Samsung unveiled its first eyewear device, ‘Intelligent Eyewear’. It amounts to Samsung formally throwing down the gauntlet in a smart-glasses market where Meta had been out front.

  • Features: Worn, it handles tasks such as checking messages, translation, navigation and note-taking hands-free, using voice, gesture and visual input.
  • Battery: It runs up to 9 hours on a charge, with the charging case adding up to 7 more top-ups.
  • Design: Developed with eyewear brands Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, it launched with two designs meant to be worn naturally day to day.

A release is slated for later this year. It reads as a signal that Samsung will not rest its form-factor expansion on foldables alone.

🤖 The real battleground is ‘AI’, not hardware

The other axis of this Galaxy Z series is ‘Gemini Intelligence’, built with Google. Samsung stressed it as a smartphone first.

The core is ‘agentic’ AI. Understanding the screen and context the user is looking at, it runs some 40 apps — delivery, reservations, shopping — on their behalf. ‘Now Nudge’, which predicts a situation and suggests a schedule; ‘Now Brief’, which summarizes and briefs the information you need; and ‘Gemini Notebook’, which gathers notes, images and recordings in one place, all come together here.

On security, hardware-based ‘Samsung Knox’ and an on-device-AI-only ‘Personal Data Engine’ keep personal-data processing inside the device. The new One UI 9 also supports an ‘AI assistant activity dashboard’ and real-time privacy alerts.

Overall 📝

This Unpacked gave fairly clear answers to the three questions posed a day earlier. The name settled as ‘Galaxy Z Fold8’, the crease-cutting Flex Titanium is genuinely applied, and prices held in the 2-million-won range.

The significance splits three ways. First, Samsung got a new ‘passport-style’ form factor to market first. With Apple’s first foldable expected, it struck the opening blow on shape. Second, defending price during chipflation is favorable for sales volume. Third, the true center of gravity in this lineup sits with the Gemini-based AI rather than the hardware.

The points left to watch are just as clear. Whether the passport fold’s thickness and weight support the concept in daily use, whether Flex Titanium’s crease improvement is felt, and whether the agentic AI is as useful as advertised — all of that awaits early reviews. The baseline for judgment will be the real-world impressions that follow the August 7 launch. 🕙

※ This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

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