Samsung Sets July 22nd for Its Next Foldable Phone Reveal

Samsung has set the date for its next Galaxy Unpacked event: July 22nd, with the tagline "A new shape unfolds." The invitation itself is the real story here. It shows a tall ticket with the stub torn off, leaving something noticeably shorter and wider than before, a visual cue that lines up with months of rumors about Samsung finally branching its foldable lineup into a third form factor.

That third format would be a book-style foldable that opens into a shorter, wider screen, rather than the tall, narrow shape Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold has used since it launched. It would put Samsung in the same territory as Huawei's Pura X Max and the foldable iPhone Apple is reportedly developing. In other words, the industry's biggest players all seem to be converging on the idea that "foldable" doesn't have to mean one specific shape.

Samsung isn't expected to stop there. Alongside the new wide foldable, the company is likely to refresh its existing Flip and Fold phones. The Fold update in particular may get rebranded as the Z Fold 8 Ultra, a name change apparently meant to keep it distinct from the new wider device sitting next to it in the lineup. New Galaxy Watches are also expected, with both the standard Galaxy Watch and the higher-end Ultra model reportedly due for updates.

Where and when

Galaxy Unpacked will take place in London, kicking off at 9am ET on July 22nd. Samsung typically uses these events to launch its full slate of foldables and wearables at once, so expect a packed presentation rather than a single-device reveal.

Why the shape matters

Samsung has owned the mainstream foldable market for years, but its book-style Fold has always followed the same basic geometry: a tall, narrow cover screen on the outside, opening up to a roughly square-ish display on the inside. A wider foldable changes that math. A shorter, wider unfolded screen behaves more like a small tablet or a widescreen display, which could make it better suited to things like video, multitasking, or side-by-side apps, rather than just a bigger version of a phone screen.

The fact that Huawei has already shipped something similar in the Pura X Max, and that Apple is reportedly working on its own foldable iPhone, suggests the entire high-end phone market is testing out alternatives to the tall-and-narrow foldable format that's dominated so far. If Samsung follows through on July 22nd, it would mark the first time the company has offered three distinct foldable shapes at once: the compact Flip, the tall Fold, and this new wide format.

The rebrand of the Fold to something like the Z Fold 8 Ultra fits into that picture, too. If Samsung is about to sell two different big-screen foldables side by side, it needs a way to make sure customers don't confuse one for the other.

None of this has been confirmed by Samsung beyond the invite itself, so the specifics of the wide foldable, along with pricing and full specs for any of the announced devices, will have to wait until the London event. But with the date now locked in, the wait is a short one.