Samsung Unveils Galaxy Z Fold 8 and AI-Powered Watches in London

London, UK – The message from Samsung’s latest Galaxy Unpacked event was simple. AI isn't just a feature anymore. It’s the thread tying the company’s entire hardware ecosystem together. On July 22, the company took the stage in London to show what that means, unveiling its next-gen foldable smartphones—the Galaxy Z Fold 8, a new wider Fold 8, and the clamshell Z Flip 8. And they brought new friends: the Galaxy Watch 9 series, which signals a powerful new focus on proactive health.

Don't mistake this for a simple spec bump. This is a calculated strategic bet, embedding what Samsung calls 'agentic AI' deeper into the gadgets we carry every day. Leading the pack is the premium Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, a slick successor to last year's Fold 7 that refines the book-style foldable with a thinner, lighter design, a much less noticeable crease, and a seriously upgraded camera system.

A Three-Pronged Foldable Strategy

Three foldable models. That's a first for Samsung. It's a move analyst Paolo Pescatore suggests mirrors Apple’s playbook of giving people more choice to keep them locked into the family. The undisputed star is the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. While it keeps a similar shape to its predecessor with an 8-inch main screen and 6.5-inch cover display, it's now the thinnest and lightest Fold ever made. Just 4.1mm thick when open. A mere 215 grams. Under the hood, it’s packing the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chip and a bigger 5,000mAh battery with faster 45W wired charging. And the camera? A monster 200MP main sensor paired with a new 50MP ultra-wide lens.

But the standard Galaxy Z Fold 8 might be the more interesting device. Why? It's a completely new, wider form factor. Closed, its 5.5-inch cover screen feels just like a normal smartphone because of its conventional aspect ratio. Open it up, and its 7.6-inch main display has a 4:3 aspect ratio that’s far better for watching videos. It shares the same powerful Snapdragon chip but steps down slightly to a 4,800mAh battery and a dual 50MP camera setup. Both new Fold 8s use Samsung's 'Flex Titanium'—a titanium-alloy mesh under the display—to slash the crease and toughen up the screen.

And the Galaxy Z Flip 8? Its upgrades are more modest, but they're smart. It’s lighter and smaller than last year’s model and gets a huge performance lift from that same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip. The real focus, though, is on making its 4.1-inch outer 'FlexWindow' more useful with new AI features like 'Now Nudge,' which cleverly offers up suggestions based on what you're doing.

The AI Doctor on Your Wrist

The biggest story out of London, however, might just be on your wrist. The new Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 are shifting their focus from simply tracking your health to proactively managing it. The showstopper feature is a built-in sleep apnea detection tool, which just got De Novo authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

A huge deal. This makes Samsung the first major manufacturer to offer anything like it, a feature that can spot signs of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) by watching blood oxygen levels while you sleep. And it's needed. The National Sleep Foundation estimates that OSA, a condition that frequently goes undiagnosed, affects roughly 25% of men and 10% of women in the U.S. This tool, available for adults over 22, could be a critical early-warning system. Of course, the new watches also have a faster chip and bigger batteries. But this is the mission in a nutshell: leveraging the sophisticated sensors packed into wearables to provide real health insights, a core part of any modern AI strategy that delivers business value.

An Ecosystem Bound by Intelligence

TM Roh, President and Head of Samsung's Mobile eXperience Division, framed the company's approach as being personal and built on trust. “The best intelligence in the world should reach people through their everyday devices,” Roh said before the event. “But what makes it personal is understanding the user and keeping that understanding safe. That is our responsibility.” This isn't just talk. That philosophy is baked into the new One UI 9 software, which introduces AI features designed to work quietly in the background, anticipating what you need without making you jump between apps.

These devices don't exist in a vacuum. They're all part of a bigger picture Samsung is carefully painting. The company even teased new smart glasses, built with Google, that will integrate the Gemini AI assistant. By weaving AI into the core of its phones, watches, and future eyewear, Samsung is betting that a seamless, smart experience across all its hardware is how it will win the next decade of personal computing. These aren't just gadgets anymore; they're becoming extensions of our daily lives, where learning the right small tech habits is crucial to getting the most out of them. The only question is whether these deeply integrated AI features are compelling enough to convince people that Samsung's vision of the future is the right one.