Samsung Unpacked 2023 Live Blog: all the news on Z Fold 5 & Z Flip 5

If you're eager to know more about the devices that Samsung announced today, don't hesitate to check our Galaxy Z Fold 5 hands-on review, our Galaxy Z Flip 5 hands-on review, our Galaxy Watch 6 hands-on review and our Galaxy Tab S9 hands-on review. You can also check out our Galaxy Watch 6 Classic hands-on review.

The Galaxy Unpacked may be now over, but we are just starting! If you're interested in one or more of the announced devices, feel free to stick around with us at PhoneArena. We'll be reviewing and testing them, so you can now whether or not they're as good as they should be. And once again, thank you for joining us!

Samsung's TM Roh returns to the stage to talk about sustainable innovation, and the future of Samsung. He also thanks the audience and the participants in the presentation.

As for the availability and the pricing of the devices, we have great news for you. Pre-orders are now open for the tablets. Here are the prices for the three models from the series as well:

Thanks to the new chip, we get a notable improvements in performance:

The Tab S9 now also has a redesigned structure for dispersing heat, and a new vapor chamber to prevent over heating and sudden temperature spikes.

Tab S9 Specs at a glance:

The Tab S9 series come with Dynamic AMOLED 2x with adaptive refresh rate. Vision Booster detects your surroundings to maximize color contrast automatically for different lighting conditions.

Also, the Tab S9 series get IP68 rate. The series consists of the Tab S9, Tab S9 Plus, and the Tab S9 Ultra.

The Tab S9 series is ideal for creative people with its S Pen. You can also share photos effortlessly between Galaxy devices. You can now use apps like ArcSide to design CAD projects on the go.

You can get your new smartwatch starting August 11. Here are the prices of the two smartwatches! The Galaxy Watch 6 starts at $299, and the Watch 6 Classic from $399.

If you're into the Galaxy Watch 6, you'll have a variety of options to make the watch fit your style. Now, we're going into the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic and its much-beloved rotating bezel.

Samsung's now focusing on the sensors on the watch. You get an ECG sensor, BIA sensor. You also get irregular heart beat notifications, which should help with afib (atrial fibrilation). You also get a personalized heart rate zone that will help you maximize the effect from your workout and to stay in the healthy zone.

Samsung's now moving onto the Galaxy Watch 6 and the Watch 6 Classic. We see a video about sleep monitoring with the new smartwatches.

Samsung is now talking about the improved sleep monitoring for accurate and useful info about your sleep and your bedtime habits. The watch takes measurements during the night and it shows you a sleep score in the morning. You can check all of the info on your wrist. You can also get even more detailed analysis in the Samsung Health app.

We also get sleep coaching, which analyses your rest and gives you easy to follow guidance for you to improve your sleep quality.

The two phones will be up for pre-order today and will be available on August 11. Luckily for all buyers, the prices haven't been increased! Here are the Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 prices:

Samsung's partnered with Bloomberg Professional and Microsoft to make the business-side of the Fold even better. Now the Z Fold 5 seems to be ideal for professionals. It's also more compact and lighter than ever.

Here are the important bits for the Fold 5 and Flip 5:

With this new hinge mechanism, the gap when the phone is closed is almost going to be nothing. The new hinge is still water resistant. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is powering the device, the same high-performance chipset that's found on the Galaxy S23 series.

We also are seeing K-Pop group BTS's Suga asking questions about the foldable experience. Samsung underlines the pros about having such a foldable device: the 7.6-inch large screen, with 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, the immersive gaming, also, the enhanced productivity with business apps optimized for the large screen.

Also, we're getting a redesigned taskbar!

The Z Flip 5 now gets a new shock absorbent layer for better durability of its display. So far, this will be the toughest Z Flip.

Now, onto the Z Fold 5, which will now be getting its official introduction!

Samsung's first presenting some of the very cool upgrades when it comes to the cover screen of the phone. You get portrait zoom from the cover screen. Also, when you place the phone on a surface to take a photo, it will automatically switch to ultra-wide for the best selfie.

Also, we're getting a new way to customize the phone: you can choose a panel to customize to the max your new phone. You also get useful ways to quickly check the stuff in your Samsung wallet, and you swipe across the cover screen to enjoy the widgets. With a pinch of the screen, you get quick tasks.

Personalization gets to the next level with the customizable cover screen of the Z Flip 5. We also get a little live demo of the phone!

We're starting with the clamshell foldable, the Galaxy Z Flip 5.

The Flip 5 is leveling up the mobile experiences, says Samsung. Now, you'll have the ability to enjoy the best hands-free selfie experience. Samsung also talks about the expanded cover screen, which may be the biggest update this year, in our opinion. Now, we're watching a short video introducing the Z Flip 5.

The video highlights the bigger screen and its capabilities, showcasing how useful a bigger cover screen on the Flip actually is.

We are now ready to see the new devices. The Fold and Flip get a quick mention, and so do the watches and the tablets. Followed by a nice teaser video of the coming devices. Can't help but get excited!

He opens the event by talking about technology and the unlimited possibilities that Samsung Galaxy grants us. He talks about the OG Fold, and now foldable smartphones are gaining traction.

He also says more than half of Samsung's users are considering foldables for their next update. Roh also compares the Z Fold to a portable PC, while the Flip is great for self expression. We're eager to see the new phones already!

Samsung really does know how to build hype. The start of the event includes beautiful night shots from Korea, hyping us even more. We're also seeing the audience now.

Samsung's Unpacked in July is now officially on, the wait is over! We'll see the hottest foldables very soon, as well as the premium tablets and the new smartwatches. All of this is still to come, and it's now coming fast! We also have a team there in South Korea, watching the event live, and they'll be sharing with us photos as well. Are you hyped?

Take your seat, Samsung's Unpacked event will soon begin!

Well, we are now in the final 30 minutes. The waiting will soon be over. 

Samsung is clearly in heated and delicious preparations for its Unpacked event!

As we mentioned earlier, the gap that plagues all the Galaxy Z Fold phones most likely won't be plaguing the new Galaxy Z Fold 5. Well, rumors suggest that the new Galaxy Z Flip 5 won't have a gap, either.

According to the rumor mill, Samsung has used a new teardrop-style hinge, which allows the Galaxy Z Flip 5 to shut tightly with no gaps. The same style hinge is used on Flip 5 competitors like the Oppo Find N2 Flip and the Motorola Razr Plus.

We are only 1 hour away from Samsung's Unpacked event. That is only 60 minutes until the big unveiling of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5. 

This year's Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra will allegedly come with eSIM capability. As reliable tipster Evan Blass shared on Twitter, the tablet is expected to come with "pSIM + eSIM" functionalities, which translates as physical SIM and eSIM. If the rumor comes true, then the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra will be the first tablet to support eSIM.

AMOLED displays are just awesome and since they can turn off individual pixels, they are power efficient. And according to rumors, the all-new Galaxy Tab S9 will come equipped with exactly an AMOLED display, unlike its predecessor, which rocks an LCD screen.

We are literally 2 hours away from Today's Samsung Unpacked event. Only two hours until the official announcements of the Galaxy Z Fold 5, Galaxy Z Flip 5, Samsung's new Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, and the latest and greatest Galaxy Tab S9 lineup.

Now that we have talked about Samsung's upcoming foldables, let's talk about the tech giant's upcoming Galaxy Watch 6 lineup. This year, we won't be receiving a Pro model. Instead, we will be getting a Galaxy Watch 6 Classic. Furthermore, the Classic moniker may not be the only thing making a comeback. According to rumors, the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic will have a rotating bezel just like the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.

Another awesome piece of news — well, awesome if you are into big smartwatches — is that the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic will reportedly come in two variants, a 43mm, and a huge 47mm. If the rumors are true, the 47mm Galaxy Watch 6 Classic will be the biggest Galaxy Watch we have had so far.

You are probably familiar with that ugly gap that appears between the two halves of the Galaxy Z Fold 4's primary 7.6-inch display when closed. Well, according to rumors, that gap will be entirely gone on the Galaxy Z Fold 5. This will give Samsung's new foldable a sleeker look.

In addition to its improved design, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 will most likely come equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 silicon under the hood. Judging by how Samsung's foldables are powered by the same chipset every year, and that the rumors suggest that the Z Flip 5 will be powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, we think it's safe to conclude that the Fold 5 will come with the same chipset. We also expect the phone to be available in three storage configurations — 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.

Every year, Samsung's foldables are among the most powerful smartphones on the market, and the Galaxy Z Fold 5 most likely won't be an exception.

According to the rumor mill, Samsung's new clamshell foldable will be powered by the immensely powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which by the way is also currently the best Qualcomm chipset for mobile devices. In addition to that, we expect the Galaxy Z Fold 5 to come equipped with 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 128 and 256GB of storage to be. However, we don't expect the phone to feature a microSD card slot.

Another new improvement we expect the Galaxy Z Flip 5 to have is a bigger external display. According to rumors, the new external display will be around 3.4 inches in diagonal. If the rumors are true, the Galaxy Z Flip 5's display will be much, much larger than the screen on the Z FLip 4.

The time is ticking, and we are getting closer and closer to Samsung's Unpacked event with every second. As we already mentioned, today, Samsung will announce a plethora of devices, and you are probably curious how you can watch all of the upcoming announcements.

Well, you can find the live stream of today's Unpacked event on Samsung's official YouTube channel. And since you are already here, you can watch the event directly from PhoneArena. We have embedded the video in this live blog, so all you need to do when the time comes is to tap the Play button.

As for when to sit on your couch and tap the Play button, here are the starting times across a few of the major cities around the globe:

Seoul, South Korea – 8:00 PM
New York, USA – 7:00 AM
San Francisco, USA – 4:00 AM
London, UK – 12:00 PM
Paris, France – 1:00 PM