Samsung Electronics Co. today debuted three Galaxy Z handsets that can fold in half and two additions to its Galaxy Watch smartwatch series.

The device lineup is headlined by the Galaxy Z Fold 7, a $1,999 foldable equipped with Qualcomm Inc.’s top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. The other new gadgets feature Samsung processors. Most of those processors were made with the company’s latest three-nanometer manufacturing node, which uses gate-all-around transistors.

New flagship foldable 

The Fold 7 is a tablet that can fold like a book to turn into a smartphone. In tablet mode, the device activates its eight-inch main display, which is slightly larger than the previous-generation Fold 6’s panel. In smartphone mode, users have access to a 6.5-inch screen on the device’s external cover. That display is not only larger than its predecessor but also offers a significantly higher resolution.

Samsung removed the main display’s support for its S Pen stylus to make it thinner. As a result, the Fold 7 is 8.9 millimeters thick when folded, a 30% improvement over its predecessor. It’s also less susceptible to water damage.

The Fold 7’s casing hosts not only two displays but also five cameras. There’s a selfie camera next to each screen, as well as an ultrawide lens and a telephoto sensor for zooming in. The primary camera on the device’s exterior features a resolution of 200 megapixels, four times what the Fold 6 offered. 

The Fold 7 is powered by a Qualcomm chip called the Snapdragon 8 Elite that debuted last year. It includes a central processing unit with two prime cores, which are optimized for performance, and six smaller cores that trade off some speed for lower power usage. There’s also a graphics processing unit and an artificial intelligence accelerator.

Flip phone design

The two other foldable devices that Samsung debuted today, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 and the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE, feature a design inspired by flip phones. Both devices are smartphones that can fold vertically into a rectangular form factor.

The Flip 7, the more capable of the two devices, features a 6.9-inch primary display and a 4.1-inch external display. The latter screen, which activates when the handset is folded, is significantly larger than the one in Samsung’s previous-generation device. It can be used to access Google’s Gemini AI assistant and perform a limited number of other tasks.

The Flip 7 is powered by a Samsung-made Exynos 2500 processor. Like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite, it’s a system-on-chip that combines a CPU with a GPU and an AI accelerator. There’s also an onboard modem that supports satellite internet.

Samsung’s other new vertically-folding smartphone is the Flip 7 FE. It will sell starting from $899, or $300 less than the standard Flip 7. The device features a smaller external display and a less advanced processor.

New smartwatches

Samsung is rolling out the new foldables alongside two additions to its smartwatch portfolio. The Galaxy Watch 8 and the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic both feature a 1.34-inch circular display set in a rectangular bezel. They also use the same Exynos W1000 chip, which is made using the same three-nanometer node as the Exynos 2500 chip in the Flip 7.

The primary difference between the devices is their storage capacity. The Watch 8 can hold up to 32 gigabytes of data while the Watch 8 Classic accommodates twice as much. Additionally, the latter device’s battery capacity and display resolution are slightly better. 

Photo: Samsung