Reload
Possible price of the Galaxy Ring
Samsung has given us a good look at the Galaxy Ring, but has been tight-lipped about what it will charge for the smart ring. That’s likely to arrive today, as we imagine Unpacked will include a big reveal on the price and availability of the Galaxy Ring.
In the meantime, all we can do is speculate about the possible prices of the Galaxy Ring. Most smart rings cost around $300, though that’s just the price for the ring itself. Some devices also come with monthly subscription fees if you want to get more out of your wearables.
For what it’s worth, the leaked Galaxy Ring pricing suggests you’ll pay between $300 and $350 for the Galaxy Ring. This is a bit more expensive than the Oura Ring, but you’ll also pay for a subscription with that product. It’s unclear whether Samsung will also pay a recurring fee at this point.
Possible color options
Color options are always a major focus leading up to major phone releases, and that’s especially the case with the Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip, as having an eye-catching design is part of the phone’s appeal. Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 color rumors have been pretty consistent since the beginning.
Based on both rumors, as well as a series of leaked renders that look pretty official to our eyes, it looks like the Galaxy Z Fold 6 will come in pink, dark blue, and silver. Look for brighter options with the Galaxy Z Flip 6, which is expected to come in silver, green, light blue and yellow. If none of these options grab you, Samsung occasionally offers exclusive colors on its website, so stay tuned.
eat my dust
One of the most-cited concerns about foldable phones is their durability — people are reluctant to pay anywhere from $999 to $1,799 for one of Samsung’s foldable devices if there’s a chance the device might… stop folding. And one of the things that can bring equipment to its knees faster than you might think is dust.
This is a concern with Samsung’s current foldable devices, which have a water resistance rating but not dust resistance. This makes potential Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip buyers wary of dust getting into their potential phones and wreaking havoc on the moving parts that cause the phone to open and close.
Given this background, you can understand why my colleague Richard Pirday is excited about a tipped feature for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6. The new phones are expected to have an IP48 rating. This means the phones will be able to withstand dust as well as survive a submersion in water. If true, it’s an improvement that could make people feel a lot more comfortable about buying a foldable phone.
Meet the Galaxy Watch’s bioactive sensor
The Galaxy Watch 7 is also likely to be on the agenda at Galaxy Unpacked, although Samsung has already given us a look at one of the new features coming to the watch. Samsung introduced the BioActive health sensor that will be part of its upcoming watches.
Fitness editor James Frew has the details on the BioActive health sensor, but TLDR; version is that it’s built into Samsung’s smartwatches, and this improved version boasts optimized sensor placement that should lead to more accurate readings for things like heart rate monitoring. There’s more space on this chip too, along with improvements to the LEDs used to measure your heart rate.
An Olympic setting
The timing and setting of this ‘U Packed’ is a bit more interesting than your typical Samsung event. While Samsung tends to hold its product launches in New York or San Francisco, this year’s Unpacked is taking place in Paris. And this is happening just a few weeks before the start of the Paris Olympics.
In fact, Samsung moved up Unpacked from its usual late July/early August window so that the product launch could take place in Paris ahead of the Summer Olympics. In part, that’s because Samsung is one of the event’s sponsors. But I think the types of products that Samsung will introduce today are also behind the company’s choice in settings. As I wrote this weekend, health and fitness tracking will take center stage at Unpacked, to the point where foldable phones will likely be overshadowed.
By the way, my colleague Kate Kozuch is in Paris to attend Unpacked, so look for reports from her later in the day.
Oura gets ready for the Galaxy Ring
If today is the day that brings the launch of the Galaxy Ring – and all signs point to yes – Samsung’s main smart ring rival isn’t taking the news lying down. Just before Galaxy Unpacked, Oura announced plans to bring AI features to its Oura Ring.
The newly unveiled Oura Advisor is a set of AI-based tools that will analyze data to come up with actionable tips for improving your sleep and well-being. Or as Oura puts it, the Advisor feature available to Oura Ring Gen 3 owners will use “” AI to power [you] to reach [your] health goals with personalized insights, recommendations and encouragement.”
Your move, Samsung.
If Samsung doesn’t have a surprise up its sleeve, we have the product I won’t that we will see today in Galaxy Unpacked is the Galaxy Z Fold 6 FE. This is the cheaper version of the Galaxy Z Fold that would ditch some features – for example, forget S Pen support – in exchange for a lower price.
For a while, there was a steady stream of rumors about a possible low-cost foldable device from Samsung that would be shown at the summer Unpacked event. But in May, reports surfaced that Samsung was showing off work on this particular device. The problem is said to be that Samsung was concerned about the lack of differentiation from the full-featured Galaxy Z Fold 6.
The FE version of the Fold may not be completely dead. It is rumored that it could appear early next year alongside the Galaxy S25. But that’s an Unpacked event for another time.
Galaxy AI, take two
Samsung’s current foldable devices — the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 — already boast some Galaxy AI features, as Samsung brought the capabilities it introduced with the launch of the Galaxy S24 to recent flagships, including the latest Fold and Flip. This means that capabilities like Circle to Search and Chat Assist are already part of Samsung’s foldable experience.
Samsung looks to expand Galaxy AI features on Unpacked today. We know this because Samsung told us as much in a blog post last month by Won-Joon Choi, who happens to lead the company’s mobile R&D office in its Mobile Experience business. “Our foldable devices are the most versatile and flexible form factor in the Samsung Galaxy, and when combined with Galaxy AI, these two complementary technologies together will unlock all new possibilities,” Choi wrote at the time.
What form the Galaxy AI features designed for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 might take is unclear, but at least one rumor suggests a Fold-specific capability that will use generative image editing. According to rumors, you’ll be able to take any drawing you do on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and have AI tools embellish them to look more stylish.
This is likely just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Galaxy AI features coming to Samsung phones, as I think AI should be a feature that sets Samsung’s foldable devices apart from the crowd.
Close up of the Galaxy Ring
It’s too early to pick an Unpacked MVP, considering we’re still hours away from the event. But it’s pretty clear that there’s a lot of hype surrounding the Galaxy Ring, the smart ring that will mark Samsung’s first foray into this new health tracker market.
Samsung briefly showed off the ring at its January Unpacked event and then gave us a look at different colors during February’s Mobile World Congress. What Samsung hasn’t told us yet is a price or what the Ring will be able to do.
The leaks have filled in some details on the last question at least. According to the leaks, the ring is supposed to measure both heart rate and stress levels, and is widely expected to monitor sleep patterns as well, with snoring detection features to potentially diagnose sleep apnea. Other possible features include the ability to measure skin temperature and predict menstrual cycles.
Some reports even claim that the Galaxy Ring could include an EKG sensor as well as an additional sensor to measure blood flow. However, those rumored abilities seem more distant to us.