Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 Launched at $1,799, Z Flip 3 at $999, Galaxy Watch 4 at $249, Buds 2 at $149

[8:35PM]: Samsung has spent the past five minutes talking about sustainability, and each sentence in the past five minutes sounded like it could be the concluding sentence. And finally, right on the 5-minute mark, it has ended the event. We’ve asked a Samsung India official for deets on the new devices and them coming to India, but there’s no response on that so far. In any case, it’s a wrap from us here. For more details, head to our tech home page for further details. Good night, and see you soon!

[8:30PM]: Yay, so that’s it. Everything you want to know in order to get more exorbitant ways to spend is there below. A slight recap: the Galaxy Z Fold 3 is $1,799, Z Flip 3 is $999, Galaxy Watch 4 is $249 and Galaxy Buds 2 is $149. All will sell from August 27, and India pricing and availability are yet to come.

[8:25PM]: Now, the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2. Samsung says it’s smaller and lighter than ever before. It has a two-way dynamic driver, which means that it has a dedicated bass response section. It also has ANC, and will run for five hours through the earbuds with ANC on — all in line with leaks. It has four colour variants, too. There’s gesture control and a three-mic array with beamforming to improve call clarity. It also has an Auto Switch mode, which works exactly the way Apple AirPods do. This means that if you suddenly go from watching a movie on a Samsung tablet to taking a call on a Samsung phone to going on a run with a Samsung smartwatch in the space of five seconds (which you’ll probably only do if you’re nuts), the Buds 2 will keep up. Also, it’ll cost $149 (approx. Rs 11,000) and will be available in “select markets" from August 27. No India details out yet.

[8:20PM]: The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 costs $1,799 (approx. Rs 1.34 lakh), and the Z Flip 3 costs $999 (approx. Rs 74,000). Preorders start today, and sales begin August 27. India pricing and availability under wraps for the time being. It also has the Thom Browne designer edition version, which are so expensive that Samsung didn’t even bother saying how much they’ll cost. LOL.

[8:15PM]: One UI 3 is reportedly optimised specifically for the Z series. It promises smooth switching between folded display layouts. It also claims better multitasking, and there’s a Microsoft collaboration here that will let you switch tasks via Microsoft cloud to be easier. And finally, the Z Flip 3 has more than just a rudimentary UI. So, you can do more than just look at it. Also, the image below shows my appalling screenshot skills:

[8:10PM]: The Galaxy Z Flip 3 is here, with a bigger outer display that has very iPhone 11/12-esque dual camera. It has a half-display Flex Mode that enables auto camera framing to fit in up to four people in the frame at up to three metres. Samsung’s pretty confident about its cameras, that’s your key takeaway here.

[8:05PM]: Nothing new since the past five minutes, apart from the fact that Samsung worked hard to create the new phone. Cool, then. On an optimistic note, Samsung seems to have been prompter than before with its event. I hope I haven’t spoken too early.

[8PM]: Major stuff: Samsung is finally partnering with Spotify, Netflix, YouTube and a number of other mainstream apps to fit them for the fluid adjusting foldable screen experience. That’s something that you’d need if you’re serious about foldable phones. And now, Samsung’s made another movie explaining neat, graphical schematics to show how water can damage the Fold’s hinge, and then, show what they’ve done to make sure it no longer does. Moral: The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is water resistant (and therefore more durable). Also, it supports the Samsung S-Pen. Moral: It supports the S-Pen.

[7:55PM]: And here’s the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3. It features a 7.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display. And, whoa, an under-display front camera. So you essentially have the full display to enjoy when you need to. There’s a neat new pixel array tech that will show the camera when it’s in use, and hide it when not. This is an undeniably cool piece of tech from Samsung.

[7:50PM]: Samsung is now talking about how good Samsung is. And I’m pretty sure that a schematic shown in between was of the Galaxy Z Fold 3. I’m also wondering if I’ll feel bad about my bank balance once the Z Fold 3’s price drops. I probably know the answer already, but hey, no harm in wishful thinking. Meanwhile, here below are all the features of the Galaxy Watch 4.

[7:45PM]: The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 will feature One UI Watch — Samsung’s custom wearable interface based on Wear OS. So that explains why it looks so similar to the software interface on the Galaxy Watch 3. However, there’s reason to believe that the interface will work smoother and faster, and offer better graphics as well. And that’s that — it has two materials, as expected, and a Super AMOLED display, also as expected. The standard Watch 4 will cost $249 (about Rs 18,000) and the Watch 4 Classic will cost $349 (about Rs 26,000). Sales begin August 27, India prices should come by soon enough.

[7:40PM]: Samsung is spending a painstaking amount of time to explain what BIA is (it is the gold standard of body composition measurements), and taking even more effort to explain exactly what it has done to integrate electrode sensors into the tiny Watch body. This basically means that they’ve spent a whole bunch of R&D dollars on this, and now hopes that the feature would increase its sales. I believe the new Wear OS (if seen to be good enough) will likely increase sales more than BIA. Speculations aside for a bit, though — the Watch 4 gets blood pressure and ECG tracking. The sad bit — it’s not coming to India.

[7:35PM]: Samsung says that we spend a third of our lives asleep — feel free to feel as accused as you want to be. But jokes aside, here’s the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4. It has an exhaustively detailed new Health app that can hear your snores and do per-second blood oxygen level tracking to identify breathing issues. This will seemingly help you sleep better. On overall terms, it runs on the new Exynos chipset, and the new Wear OS by Samsung. It has over 40 default watch faces that look similar to the Android 12’s aesthetic language. How far would native apps improve on the watch? That remains to be seen. But hey, the Watch 4 does look cleaner and more streamlined than the Watch 3, for sure.

[7:30PM]: We’re official underway in a fairly anticipated launch event that should see plenty of interesting hardware among us. And… is this the Galaxy Watch 4 already?

The Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event is set to begin in some time. By now, we have a fairly strong idea in terms of how the event is slated to go, and the list of devices expected to be launched at the event include the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, the Galaxy Z Flip 3, the Galaxy Watch 4 and the Galaxy Buds 2 true wireless stereo earbuds. The event marks the second major Samsung event for the year, after the first Galaxy Unpacked of the year introducing the Galaxy S21 series flagship smartphones. The biggest attraction of this launch is slated to be the two new foldable smartphones.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 are both expected to get straighter edges as part of a general design overhaul, while keeping the form factor constant for both the Fold and the Flip. Fundamental new features include stylus support for the Z Fold 3, and a better outer display and better cameras on the Z Flip 3. The Fold is tipped to get three 12MP rear cameras, and 120Hz refresh rates on both the interior and exterior displays. The interior folding display may also get an under-display camera, while the Z Flip 3 is expected to feature a drill hole slot for the front camera.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 is expected to get three watch sizes and two materials — aluminium and stainless steel. The big deal, though, is going to be the new Wear OS 3 software experience, and a lot of interest is going to be around that only. The Buds 2, meanwhile, are expected to be similar but offer better noise cancellation and possibly better battery life as well. All of this is expected to be part of the Galaxy Unpacked 2021 lineup, and final details including their India prices, launch dates and more should come our way, shortly.

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