Samsung's newest foldable phones are available now

Today, Samsung held its August Galaxy Unpacked virtual event, where the tech giant revealed some of its newest gear, including its newest foldable phones. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 offer numerous improvements over their previous versions — both phones sport a new and improved hinge, display and camera — continuing Samsung’s (mostly solo) advance into foldable mobile devices. The brand also announced the new Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. All of the new devices are available for pre-order today and will ship on Aug. 26.

Compared to the Z Fold 3, the new Z Fold 4 has thinner bezels (the space between your screen and the outer edge of the phone), so it has a larger display without increasing the physical size of the phone. At just 263 grams, compared to 271 grams, the new model is lighter too. Samsung notes they removed a metal layer from the screen and added fiber reinforcement to another layer to keep the new model lighter without sacrificing the screen’s durability. Its Nightography feature, which debuted earlier this year, now helps increase the brightness of night view pictures by 23%.

The relatively large screen (by smartphone standards) also has a new taskbar that helps you navigate to your apps and allows you to use apps like Word and Outlook side by side. You can also use an S Pen to draw, write and sign documents with ease. The phone has more a 17% more powerful CPU (central processing unit, the phone’s main processor), 74% more powerful NPU (neural processing unit, which helps with tasks like analyzing imagery and your surroundings with the camera) and 56% more powerful GPU (the graphics processing unit, also known as the graphics card), which suggests overall better performance from this phone compared to previous generations.

The newest phone in Samsung’s Z Flip line has a slimmer hinge than the previous model, the Z Flip 3, which means more space for a larger battery that can reach a 50% charge in 30 minutes, according to Samsung. The cover screen helps you take check your notifications and take selfies with the back camera, manage your smart home devices and even pay for items without unfolding your phone. You can also take photos and film stories and reels hands-free with the FlexCam feature, which allows you to fold the phone to act as its own stand/tripod. The Z Flip 4 still offers an armor aluminum frame and has IPX8 water resistance. It comes in four colors: bora purple, blue, graphite and pink-gold. You can also purchase the Bespoke edition, which allows you to customize the colors for the body and frame.

The new Galaxy Watch 5 has a sapphire crystal screen that’s 1.6 times stronger than the previous generation’s screens and a brand new infrared temperature sensor. You can use the watch’s Health app to track biometric health and fitness data, which the brand says is kept private by Samsung Knox, the brand’s mobile security platform. Wear OS — Google’s smartwatch operating system, used by Galaxy Watches — is adding new apps like Soundcloud and Deezer to the interface. The watch comes in two sizes — 40 millimeters and 44 millimeters — as well as four colors: blue, silver, gray and gold. You can also choose from a variety of band styles and colors and customize your watch face.

Samsung also introduced the 45-millimeter Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, which is geared toward outdoorsy shoppers. Its GPS offers turn-by-turn directions for hiking or biking routes (which you can download) using voice and vibrations, so you don’t have to distract yourself from what you’re doing — the Track Back function can help you retrace your steps to help you back to your starting point. It’s available in black and gray titanium.

The newest Galaxy Buds can provide 24-bit audio — that’s 256 times more precise than Bluetooth’s 16-bit audio — when you pair them with a Samsung phone. You can also pair the buds with your Samsung TV. Should you receive a call while watching Netflix, the buds can connect to your phone momentarily, then go back to your TV programming after the call finishes, according to Samsung. The buds are also 15% smaller than the last version and have a battery life of 5 hours with active noise cancellation on, or 8 hours of battery without. The charging case holds 20 hours with active noise cancellation and 30 without. They’re rated IPX7 for water resistance.

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