Samsung’s Z Fold8 Ultra, passport-style Z Fold8 and Z Flip8 priced for Australia from $1,949, watches from $649, but the S-Pen stays S-Gone

Samsung tipped 5 new devices out of the bag at its London Unpacked overnight: 3 foldables, 2 watches, a pile of agentic AI, and a pair of AI glasses arriving later. Australian pre-orders opened today, 23 July, with everything hitting retail shelves on 14 August.

That’s a week after the US gets its stock on 7 August, so Australians are waiting 7 extra days and, in most cases, paying more than last year for the privilege. The Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra runs $2,999 to $3,899, the new passport-shaped Galaxy Z Fold8 spans $2,699 to $3,599, and the Galaxy Z Flip8 starts at $1,949.

On the wrist, the Galaxy Watch9 starts at $649 and the Galaxy Watch Ultra2 lands at $1,299, which quietly slides in $100 under Apple’s Watch Ultra 3 at $1,399. Full Australian pricing, pre-order offers and carrier deals are further down.

The other headline for long-time Fold owners: the S-Pen has again been left out – but in one sense, understandably so. More on that point below – but first, here’s Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked July 2026 event in London – the article continues thereafter, please read on!

PLEASE FAST FOWARD TO 59 MINUTES and 50 SECONDS as the show starts then!

3 foldables, 3 jobs

Samsung Electronics CEO, President and Head of the Device eXperience (DX) Division, TM Roh, opened the show by repeating his line that “AI is becoming infrastructure, the invisible backbone of our daily lives”, and committing Samsung to putting Galaxy AI on more than 800 million devices this year.

Asked, in effect, what hardware that intelligence should live on, Roh answered his own question from the stage: “We believe the answer is foldables.”

So Samsung now sells 3 of them, each aimed at a different buyer.

The Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra is the productivity flagship: an 8-inch, 2,504 x 2,256 main screen, a 6.5-inch cover screen, 215g, and a frame milled down to 4.1mm open and 8.9mm closed. Inside sits the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, a 200MP main camera with 50MP ultra-wide and 10MP 3x telephoto, 8K video through the new APV codec, Cine LUT colour controls, and a 5,000mAh battery, the largest ever squeezed into a Z Fold.

That battery is the quiet engineering story. Samsung has finally adopted a silicon carbon anode, the energy-dense chemistry Honor and the other Chinese brands have been shipping for a couple of years, and paired it with dual-path charging that pushes a flat phone back to 67% in about 30 minutes on a 45W charger.

The Galaxy Z Fold8 is the properly new thing here: a wider, passport-shaped fold aimed squarely at watching, reading and gaming. Closed, you get a 10:16 cover screen sized for doomscrolling; open, a 7.6-inch 4:3 canvas for video and games; rotate it and the 3:4 portrait orientation reads like a paperback. It looks genius and it’s Samsung striking first against Apple’s own passport-style Ultra/Fold due in September this year.

At 201g it’s the lightest big-screen Fold Samsung has made, it runs the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and it carries dual 50MP cameras (wide and ultra-wide) plus a 4,800mAh battery rated for more than 26 hours of video. Samsung Electronics Australia says local research shows entertainment use on phones has climbed over the past 2 years, which is the market this shape is chasing.

The Galaxy Z Flip8 is the fashion pick, now 6.1mm open and 180g, with a 4.1-inch FlexWindow cover screen that One UI 9 treats as a proper interface: full-screen apps, the same swipe gestures as the home screen, customisable Now Brief cards and a side-key shortcut into Gemini. The 50MP FlexCam borrows the Pro Visual Engine from the Galaxy S26 series, and a new Super Steady mode calculates direction and gravity in real time to keep handheld video level.

One spec-sheet wrinkle for the keen-eyed: the Australian Flip8 runs Samsung’s own Exynos 2600, while both Folds get Qualcomm silicon. Flip buyers also make do with 25W charging against 45W on the Folds.

All 3 phones ship with Android 17 and One UI 9 out of the box, a first for Samsung’s foldables, and all 3 carry IP48 ratings.

A quick note on what IP48 means compared to the usual IP68 rating we see. The IP48 rating is an international standard that measures a device’s resistance to solids and liquids, notably used on recent foldable smartphones to indicate improved hinge durability.

The first digit, 4, signifies that the device is protected against solid objects larger than 1 millimeter—such as wires, screws, or large debris—though it is not fully sealed against microscopic dust or fine sand the way the 6 in IP68 is – and that’s because a folding device, by definition has a hinge and can’t be easily fully sealed off.

The second digit, 8, represents premium water resistance, meaning the device can survive continuous immersion in fresh water deeper than 1 meter for at least 30 minutes. Essentially, an IP48 device can easily survive a drop in the pool and effectively keeps out larger foreign objects, but you still need to keep it away from fine dirt and sandy beaches.

Flex Titanium goes from teaser to product

A week before Unpacked, Samsung pre-announced Flex Titanium, the reworked display stack iTWire examined at the time, and the shipping version matches the pitch: a titanium alloy film about a third the thickness of a human hair replacing the old polymer layers, above a titanium plate punched with micro-patterned holes so it flexes at the fold and stays rigid everywhere else.

On stage, Samsung claimed the film is 20 times stiffer than what it replaces, and that the whole sandwich spreads pressure more evenly, shrinks the visible crease and lets the redesigned Armor Flex hinge open with less effort. The Fold8 Ultra also gets a 3,000-nit peak display with a low-reflection finish, another first on a foldable.

The claims about crease depth and long-term durability remain exactly that, claims, until review units arrive. Still, putting aerospace-grade metal inside the panel itself is a credible answer to the 2 things foldable buyers keep worrying about: the crease, and the fear it’ll crack. Samsung has had 8 generations now to get this right, and there’s no reason to believe the company hasn’t made its best effort yet in this regard.

The S-Pen stays gone, and that will sting some buyers – but others won’t care

Neither the Galaxy Z Fold8 nor the Fold8 Ultra supports the S-Pen. Not in the box, not as an accessory, not at all.

Samsung dropped stylus support with last year’s Galaxy Z Fold7, stripping out the digitiser layer to hit that phone’s 8.9mm folded thickness and using the reclaimed space for thicker ultra-thin glass. Plenty of Fold faithful assumed the pen would return once the engineering settled. It hasn’t, and anyone holding onto a Fold3 through Fold6 specifically for wrist-on-glass note-taking now has no upgrade path inside Samsung’s foldable range.

The counterpoint, and it’s a fair one: Samsung has said S-Pen usage on previous Folds was low, and that squares with what most Fold owners will tell you. The stylus was a checkbox feature many buyers of the Ultra phones and the foldables never pulled out of the drawer, or in the Fold’s case never bought at all, since it was always sold separately with no silo to store it in.

So the disappointment is real but concentrated. If you’re in that vocal minority, the Galaxy S26 Ultra keeps its slot-loaded S-Pen, and rivals including Oppo and Motorola have been showing foldable stylus support precisely because Samsung vacated the space. Choice exists, if you need the stylus, buy an S26 (or forthcoming S27 Ultra), buy a tablet, or buy a competitor that still offers one.

Agentic AI, with Google and Qualcomm doing cameos

The software story is Gemini Intelligence threaded through One UI 9. Now Brief and Now Nudge surface information before you ask, the on-device Personal Data Engine remembers details like addresses and hands them back at the right moment, and Gemini Notebook, pre-installed on all the new foldables, turns dragged-in photos, files and recordings into audio overviews, infographics, reports and meeting recaps.

Google Senior Vice President of Platforms and Devices, Rick Osterloh, joined Samsung on stage to demonstrate task automation across more than 40 apps in categories like retail, dining, travel and event tickets, with Gemini reading screen context and stepping through apps on your behalf. “When you choose Android and Samsung Galaxy, you know you’re seeing the future first,” Osterloh said.

It was an impressive display, and on-device AI that works to deliver real benefits is only getting better and better.

We don’t yet have ChatGPT 5.6 Sol or Claude Fable 5 Max able to work offline as well as it does in devices connected to NVIDIA and AMD-equipped data centres, but that day is coming – albeit most likely sometime in the 2030s, and in the brains of every robot that will be our personal Star Wars-like sidekicks in the decade(s) to come.

Every Z Fold8 series and Z Flip8 phone includes 6 months of Google AI Pro with 5TB of cloud storage, a subscription worth $32.99 a month in Australia, redeemable until 1 August 2027. It rolls onto a paid plan afterwards unless you cancel, so set a reminder.

Apple – take that with your 5GB of free iCloud, but of course, it’s not free forever, and the ballooning data storage needs of everyone on the planet is only growing even faster as a result.

Qualcomm President and CEO, Cristiano Amon, used his cameo to note the two companies have been at this for nearly 30 years, and framed where it’s heading: “As AI evolves from answering questions to understanding intents and taking action, our personal devices will become endpoints for agents.”

Samsung Electronics MX Business Chief Operating Officer, Won-joon Choi, handled the trust question directly, saying only agents pre-verified by Android can run automation on Galaxy devices, each needing per-app permission. “Control is not a burden, it is your right,” Choi said, which is the right sentiment even if the permission prompts will test it.

Choi also confirmed Quick Share now works across Android and iOS, with QR-based sharing that needs no app, and Smart Switch migrations from iPhone via a QR code, passwords and eSIM included.

2 watches: everyday health and a diving computer

Samsung Electronics CEO, President and Head of the Device eXperience (DX) Division, TM Roh, set up the health pitch in the launch announcement: “We believe AI’s most meaningful impact is helping us live healthier lives. Healthcare should be preventive so that people can manage their health in an effortless, continuous and deeply personalised way.”

The Galaxy Watch9 (40mm and 44mm, aluminium, 3,000-nit display) is the everyday health play. Its Vitals feature tracks 5 biometrics overnight to build a personal baseline and flags deviations in the morning, while the new Heart Health Score turns activity and vascular load data into a daily view of how your habits affect your heart, including, for the first time, how your behaviour shifts your risk of developing heart disease.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra2 (47mm, titanium, 61.5g) is the one iTWire readers with a wetsuit will care about. It’s the first Galaxy Watch to meet the EN 13319 diving standard, and through a partnership with 75-year-old dive specialist Mares it becomes a fully featured decompression dive computer, with no-decompression-limit guidance, real-time nitrogen absorption monitoring and adjustable gradient factors.

Samsung says those premium Mares dive features, arriving later this year by subscription, will stay exclusive to the Watch Ultra2 among Wear OS watches for 2 years. The Ultra2 also carries a world-first 5,000-nit display, IP69K and 10ATM ratings, and an 800mAh battery (35% bigger than before) rated at up to 60 hours, in a case that’s 12% thinner than the previous Ultra.

Both watches debut Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite platform (the SDW6100, a 3nm 5-core chip), the first time Qualcomm silicon has powered a Galaxy Watch, alongside Wear OS 7 and One UI 9 Watch. Both include a 60-day Strava trial and a 2-month iFIT trial in Australia, and Strava route syncing to Samsung Health arrives in the northern autumn, our spring.

One flag for Australian buyers: the on-stage talk of new FDA-cleared sleep apnoea capabilities, and of the Galaxy Ring becoming the first FDA-cleared over-the-counter ring for sleep apnoea risk detection, is US regulatory news. Samsung Australia’s local materials don’t mention those features at all, so treat local timing as unconfirmed until the TGA paperwork surfaces.

What it all costs in Australia

Here’s the full local pricing. All figures are RRP in Australian dollars, on sale 14 August with pre-orders running 23 July to 13 August. Obviously, carriers and retail partners will have all kinds of offers, including payment plans to make purchases of up to $3,899 for the top-line Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra much easier to absorb over up to 36 months payment plans – more on those pre-order offers below.

Model	Configuration	RRP
Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra	16GB + 1TB	$3,899
Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra	12GB + 512GB	$3,299
Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra	12GB + 256GB	$2,999
Galaxy Z Fold8	16GB + 1TB	$3,599
Galaxy Z Fold8	12GB + 512GB	$2,999
Galaxy Z Fold8	12GB + 256GB	$2,699
Galaxy Z Flip8	12GB + 512GB	$2,249
Galaxy Z Flip8	12GB + 256GB	$1,949

Model	Configuration	RRP
Galaxy Watch Ultra2	47mm	$1,299
Galaxy Watch9	40mm Bluetooth	$649
Galaxy Watch9	44mm Bluetooth	$699
Galaxy Watch9	40mm LTE	$749
Galaxy Watch9	44mm LTE	$799

Colour-wise, all 3 phones come in Graphite and Cream, with Violet Shadow exclusive to the Fold8 Ultra, Lavender to the Fold8 and Pink to the Flip8. Samsung.com.au keeps Green Shadow (Fold8 Ultra), Pistachio (Fold8) and Mint (Flip8) as online exclusives. The Watch Ultra2 comes in Titanium Grey or Titanium Silver; the Watch9 in Graphite plus Cream (40mm) or Silver (44mm).

Prices have crept up. Finder calculates the Fold8 Ultra at $100 to $350 more than the equivalent Fold7 tiers, and the Flip8 at $150 to $250 more than the Flip7, with component and memory costs wearing the blame. Such is life in our AI-enhanced reality, prices have gone up due to supply not being able to keep up with the incredible demand.

The pre-order offers, channel by channel

Samsung.com.au is offering $150 bonus trade-in credit or a $150 Eco Voucher on the Fold8 Ultra and Fold8 ($100 on the Flip8), plus the code TIME2SAVE for $100 off the Watch9 or $250 off the Watch Ultra2. The New Galaxy Club adds a guaranteed trade-in worth 50% of your device’s RRP when you upgrade 9 to 13 months after enrolling, and foldables or watches bought on Samsung.com.au with a monthly Samsung Care+ plan get the first 3 months of cover free.

Telstra is knocking $800 off the Fold8 Ultra, $700 off the Fold8 and $500 off the Flip8 on payment plans, each stackable with up to $300 bonus trade-in credit, plus $500 off the Watch Ultra2 and $200 off the Watch9.

Optus keeps it simple: $750 off any of the 3 foldables on a payment plan.

TPG (Vodafone) offers up to $700 off the Folds and up to $500 off the Flip8 on plans, each with up to $300 bonus trade-in credit, and matches Telstra’s $500 and $200 watch discounts.

Participating retailers in the open channel (Harvey Norman already has its pre-order pages up) are dangling a $300 gift card with any foldable pre-order, $250 with the Watch Ultra2 and $100 with the Watch9. As always, terms and conditions apply on every one of these.

Samsung Australia is running the launch under the #FoldOrFlip hashtag via @samsungau, which tells you exactly how the marketing conversation is meant to go.

What Samsung Australia’s executives say

Samsung Electronics Australia Vice President of Mobile eXperience, Eric Chou, framed the local pitch: “Australians are increasingly looking for technology that fits seamlessly into their lifestyles, helping them stay productive, connected and healthy. Our latest Galaxy devices have been designed with that in mind, combining meaningful AI experiences with premium hardware innovation to empower Australians to do more, create more and live life their way.”

Chou also leaned on the history: “Eight generations ago, we introduced a new category that challenged conventional smartphone design. Today, we’re continuing to push the boundaries and prove that there is no compromise when it comes to the foldable smartphone experience.”

Samsung Electronics Australia Head of Product, Mobile eXperience, Nathan Rigger, made the case for the new shape: “The Galaxy Z Fold8 represents a new chapter for foldables, and it is the first of its kind in Australia. With 84% of Australians claiming size and portability as an important smartphone purchase driver, we are excited to introduce a new foldable standard, a device that reimagines the smartphone design and redefines content consumption.”

Rigger added: “Now in its eighth generation, Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra is a productivity powerhouse, bringing ultra-level flagship experiences across performance, battery, camera and display. Complementing this is the Galaxy Z Flip8, Samsung’s thinnest and lightest Flip yet for those looking for convenience and flexibility without compromise.”

Those percentages come from a Pureprofile survey of 1,017 Australians that Samsung commissioned this month, which also found 70% of Australians exercise regularly, the hook for the watches.

On those, Samsung Electronics Australia Head of Wearables, Mobile eXperience, Kylie Mason, said: “Today we’re launching two distinct wearable options, designed to help Australians meet their health and fitness goals, no matter what they are. Whether you’re looking to beat a personal best, or just stay active, the Galaxy Watch9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra2 enable advanced, proactive health tracking to give Australians the tools they need for their journey.”

Mason on the flagship: “With participation in activities such as running, cycling, hiking and watersports continuing to grow among younger Australians, we are thrilled to launch the most powerful and advanced Galaxy Watch ever, Galaxy Watch Ultra2. With specialised sports tracking, our brightest display, largest battery and a durable design built for extreme conditions, it delivers the performance and reliability Australians need to push their limits with confidence.”

The competition Samsung is folding against

The timing of all this is about one company that wasn’t on stage. Apple’s first foldable iPhone is widely tipped for September, roughly 6 weeks after Samsung’s phones reach Australian shelves, with IDC forecasting the overall foldable market to grow 30% this year largely on Apple’s entry. Samsung wants its durability and AI arguments settled before anyone is holding an iPhone that folds.

Locally, the book-style field is already crowded around the Fold8’s entry price. Honor’s 8.8mm Magic V5 launched in Australia in December at $2,599, a launch iTWire covered, sitting $100 under the standard Fold8, and Google’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold matches it at $2,699 and has been on sale since October, iTWire covered it, too.

Both sit well below the Fold8 Ultra. Huawei leads global foldable share on the latest quarterly numbers but remains a non-event at Australian retail, and Motorola keeps the sub-$1,500 flip segment honest, while its Signature foldable has the stylus Samsung lacks – we covered its foldables here.

On the wrist, the Watch Ultra2’s $1,299 price and claimed 60-hour battery line up directly against the Apple Watch Ultra 3 at $1,399, with the Mares decompression features as Samsung’s answer to Apple’s Oceanic+ app and to Garmin’s far dearer Descent range.

The rest of the show

A few announcements from London worth filing away. Samsung Wallet is gaining the Galaxy Card, a cash-rewards credit card built with Barclays and Visa that’s US-only for now, and Samsung committed to bringing native stablecoin support to Samsung Wallet, which would make it one of the first major phone brands to do so. No Australian timing was given for either, and given how our regulators feel about both credit card perks and crypto, don’t hold your breath.

Samsung also previewed audio-first AI glasses built on Android XR with eyewear brands Gentle Monster and Warby Parker: no display, up to 9 hours of battery, a case holding 7 recharges, and a Galaxy Watch doubling as the controller. They arrive in the northern autumn, with Australian availability unstated.

And in the obligatory celebrity slot, Jacob Batalon, who plays Ned Leeds in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, demonstrated his character’s “Spidey Tracker” running split-screen on a Fold8 Ultra. Silly, sure, but a tidy demo of the multitasking pitch, and something I saw in the new Spiderman trailer, where I thought it was a Fold7 – smart of Samsung to ensure it was a Fold8, something we can all Marvel at, so to speak.

The bottom line

This is Samsung’s strongest foldable hand yet: a real choice of 3 shapes, batteries that finally catch up to the Chinese competition, a clever and ultra robust display stack, and watch pricing that undercuts Apple’s equivalent. The higher prices take some shine off, but that was hardly unexpected, and the S-Pen decision closes the door on a small but loyal group of note-takers, for whom alternatives exist.

The sensible play for most buyers: pre-order window maths matter more than usual this year. Between the gift cards, the carrier discounts and the 50% guaranteed trade-in, the gap between RRP and what you’d actually pay is $300 to $800, and those offers evaporate on 13 August, the day before anyone can walk into a store and buy one – so if you truly are keen, do not delay placing your order.

People and links

Samsung Electronics Australia Vice President of Mobile eXperience, Eric Chou, is on LinkedIn.
Samsung Electronics Australia Head of Product, Mobile eXperience, Nathan Rigger, is on LinkedIn.
Samsung Electronics Australia Head of Wearables, Mobile eXperience, Kylie Mason, is on LinkedIn.
Google Senior Vice President of Platforms and Devices, Rick Osterloh, is on LinkedIn.
Qualcomm President and CEO, Cristiano Amon, is on LinkedIn.
Samsung Electronics CEO, President and Head of the Device eXperience (DX) Division, TM Roh, and Samsung Electronics MX Business Chief Operating Officer, Won-joon Choi, maintain no public personal LinkedIn profiles that could be confirmed at time of writing; Samsung Electronics is on LinkedIn and Samsung Australia is here.