Well, here's a first. Samsung has just announced that it will host the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event in Seoul, South Korea for the first time. The event will take place in late July, at which we should see the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 debut.
Of course, Samsung's new foldable phones will come to the U.S., but in a press release the company said that it chose its home country for a number of reasons.
“The foldable category embodies Samsung’s philosophy of delivering breakthrough innovation that pushes boundaries to reshape the future of mobile experiences,” said TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience (MX) Business at Samsung Electronics in a press release. “Hosting Unpacked in Seoul holds great significance both as it is a city that has become an emerging epicenter of innovation and culture as well as the foldable category.”
As Samsung also notes in its release, Counterpoint research says that the Korean market has a fairly high 13.6% foldable phone adoption rate, which is the highest share of foldable phones in annual smartphone shipments globally.
Previous rumors had pointed to Samsung launching the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Flip 5 earlier than usual, July 26, both to help realize the expected revenue in an earlier quarter and to perhaps fight off foldable phone rivals like the upcoming Google Pixel Fold and Motorola Razr+. Samsung actually has competition this year for the best foldable phones crown.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is expected to feature a new waterdrop hinge design that could minimize the crease along with a faster Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor. We could also see the thinnest Fold design yet from Samsung. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 may feature the same camera specs as before but hopefully Samsung will up the ante when it comes to computational photography and camera features.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 will likely feature a much larger cover display to help you do more without flipping open the phone as well as the same speedy Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip as the Galaxy S23 series. Plus, the Z Flip 5 could also offer a new hinge design that prevents the display from creasing. Analyst Ross Young says the Z Flip 5 could be built using lighter materials, too.
We'll be covering the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event live next month so stay tuned to our Galaxy Unpacked hub for all the latest news, as well as our Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 hubs for all the latest news and leaks.
