Samsung Bows 5 Devices in 1st Virtual Unpacked Event; Redesigns Hinge for New Fold

5G and foldable will be “major pillars” of Samsung Mobile’s future, said Global Executive Vice President Federico Casalegno, in the company’s first virtual Galaxy Unpacked product launch Wednesday. The scripted event had components of a live Unpacked event. It included an introduction by Samsung Mobile Communications Business President TM Roh, brand videos, cameos from executives at partner brands Microsoft and Xbox, and Samsung product presenters showing off features of the five products launching at the event.

A live audience of journalists, Samsung employees and guests -- which gathered last year at Barclays Center in Brooklyn -- was replaced by an artificial intelligence creation: a curved video wall of some 200 Samsung community members, presented in Hollywood Squares-style, tuning in from their home bases and cheering features of the new devices.

Korean K-Pop band BTS performed an unboxing of the event’s star product, the Galaxy Z Fold2. The Fold2 unveiling was partial. Samsung will reveal more details, including price, Sept. 1, when it will also begin taking preorders.

A “completely re-engineered” hinge provides more durability in the next Samsung foldable phone “to improve resilience so you can use it with greater confidence,” said Victor Delgado, global mobile B2B-strategic alliances. Samsung’s first foray into foldable designs last year was spoiled by a delay when a faulty hinge design in review units damaged the phone when force was applied to the hinge's top and bottom portions.

The new hinge has a firmer “snap ” and can stay open at multiple angles due to friction created by two ridge-shaped pieces that slide up and down in a cam mechanism, said the company. Samsung doubled cam and elastic components to more than 60 to support larger screen sizes. A “sweeper” mechanism with bristles is located under the hinge to keep away debris, it said.

Samsung acknowledged the “flood of questions unleashed” with the foldable design, and answered some. The phone's Ultra Thin Glass, thinner than a human hair, has strength and flexibility made possible by optimizing formation of the display layers, said the company. Engineers rearranged the interaction between soft and rigid layers for strength and adjusted the properties and thickness of the adhesive for flexibility in high and low temperatures, it said.

The 5G Fold2 has a wider full cover display -- 6.2 inches -- in response to customer comments, and it opens to create a larger 7.6-inch display. Engineers minimized the gap between screens to 6 millimeters so it “fits comfortably in your pocket,” Delgado said. It has 120 Hz refresh rate technology, also found in the Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra devices that launched Wednesday.

The new 5G 6.7-inch Galaxy Note 20 ($999) and 6.9-inch Note20 Ultra ($1,299) are the first Galaxy devices with Ultra Wide Band technology. Users can point their UWB-equipped devices to others and a share feature will list the people they're facing at the top of a sharing panel. Samsung is working with automakers on future technology that will allow UWB-equipped devices to function as a digital key. The Note 20 series can be preordered beginning Thursday; availability is Aug. 21.

Samsung reduced the latency in the latest S Pen included with Note devices to 9 milliseconds to recreate a more realistic writing experience, it said. The new pen uses AI-based point prediction based on analysis of “tens of millions” of writing and drawing samples to predict the next expected point of the pen. The doubling of the display’s refresh rate to 120 Hz shows data from the pen twice as frequently as the previous Note 10, it said. The Tab S7 and S7+ are the first 5G Galaxy tablets, due in fall starting at $649 and $849, said the company.

Galaxy Watch3, in Bluetooth starting at $399, and LTE at $449, come with health apps that detect blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen saturation levels, said the company. Samsung received FDA clearance for the heart-monitoring electrocardiogram app as a medical device, it said. Watch3 is available Thursday.

Galaxy Buds Live earbuds, available Thursday at $169, have AKG sound and a larger 12mm speaker vs. Buds+, said the company. The active-noise-canceling earbuds come with three mics and a voice pickup unit, Samsung said.

Samsung expanded its relationship with Microsoft, allowing users to access mobile apps from a Windows PC. It also extended the partnership to Xbox, allowing Samsung mobile device users to play Xbox Game Pass Ultimate titles. Consumers who preorder the latest Notes can use their $150 Samsung Credit toward an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Bundle, including a game controller and three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate service.