7 new devices—all refreshes—at Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked 2023

Samsung held its Galaxy Unpacked 2023 in home country Seoul, Korea for a change. The event was in-person and streamed online as well. Keeping it moving along rather than tediously detailed, Samsung introduced seven devices — all refreshes and upgrades of popular products. Primarily, the stars of the show were the two foldable phones, Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5 coming in with what are sure to be welcome improvements.

Two foldables return

The fifth generation of the Flip and Fold phones brings refinements to the all-important hinge, now called 'Flex Hinge'. This iteration of the hinge is said to be stronger and leaves no gap between the two closed halves of the devices, making them sleeker and easier to handle. This also allows for the top half to flex and stop at any angle in a firm manner. This is what in turn allows for creative photographs to be shot with the cameras.

The foldables, and in fact the Tab S9 tablets launched at the tail end of the event, now all work on the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2 chip, the newest at the moment.

The standout feature of the foldables comes from the Z Flip 5 which has a cover screen (now called the Flex Window) that takes up practically all the space available. It makes the device both more attractive and more usable. Swipes in all directions lead to more information and widgets from this smaller screen than on previous versions.

"Every day, more people choose our foldables because they offer an experience people want that they can’t get on any other device," said TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics. "Galaxy Z Flip5 and Galaxy Z Fold5 are the latest devices that prove our commitment to meeting the needs of our customers through innovative technology."

Focus on sleep

Samsung also launched the Watch6 and Watch6 Classic, the latter styled after timepieces, bringing back the much-loved rotating bezel that has made previous versions uniquely easy to use. The focus on the two watches this time is sleep, measured in detail from the user's wrist. With the belief that sleep is critical to overall health, Samsung has decided to focus on improvement to sleep through measurement and coaching suggestions. There are changes to the hardware as well, such as a bigger screen and thinner bezels.

Three 9 series tablets

Variants of the Tab S9 include models Tab S9, S9+ and S9 Ultra with the Dynamic AMOLED 2X displays that make them great to use. All three move up to the 8+ Gen 2 processor. The series’ S Pen is also IP68 rated. The displays are HDR10+ enabled and have an adaptive refresh rate from 60Hz to 120Hz. 

India prices and availability are not yet announced.