Samsung will take the stage in London on Wednesday to unveil a two-tier foldable lineup and its first smart glasses built with Google. The event carries the theme “A New Shape Unfolds,” and industry watchers expect a premium Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra to sit above a wider, cheaper Galaxy Z Fold 8, according to Yonhap.
Both halves of Wednesday’s reveal come with a catch. Leaked pricing shows Samsung’s most expensive Fold yet, arriving just as a global memory chip shortage squeezes every phone maker’s margins. And the audio glasses Samsung built with Google are stepping into a market Meta already controls by a wide margin.
Two Prices Now Wear the Fold Name
Samsung has typically used Unpacked to launch one standard Fold and one standard Flip. This year marks the first time the company is expected to add a distinct Ultra tier to the Fold line, splitting what used to be a single device into two.
Leaked specifications, corroborated across several retailer and regulatory filings, describe genuinely different phones. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 adopts a new, wider shape with a 7.6 inch main screen at a 4:3 ratio unfolded, aimed at buyers who found earlier Fold phones too tall and narrow. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra keeps the familiar tall, narrow book style at roughly a 3:2 ratio with an 8 inch main screen, and effectively becomes the direct successor to last year’s Fold 7.
Pricing leaks put the wide Fold 8 at $1,899 in the US and the Ultra at $2,099, both for 256 gigabytes of storage, about $100 more than the Fold 7’s $1,999.99 launch price. European retailer listings sourced from WinFuture show a flat €200 gap between the two models at every storage tier, starting at €1,999 (about $2,170) for the base Fold 8 versus €2,199 for the base Ultra. A new Galaxy Z Flip 8 is also expected, starting around €1,299. Samsung has not confirmed any of these figures and is reportedly still finishing a final review of its pricing plan.
| Model | Leaked US Price (256GB) | Main Display | Battery | Rear Cameras |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Galaxy Z Fold 7 (2025) | $1,999.99 (launch price) | Tall, narrow book style | 4,400mAh | 200MP main |
| Galaxy Z Fold 8 | $1,899 (leaked) | 7.6 inch, 4:3 ratio | 4,800mAh | 50MP main, 50MP ultrawide |
| Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra | $2,099 (leaked) | 8 inch, roughly 3:2 ratio | 5,000mAh | 200MP main, 50MP ultrawide, 10MP telephoto |
The bet lines up with where the rest of the phone industry is already looking for growth. Foldables remain a small slice of total phone sales, but they are now, per IDC, the only segment defending premium pricing while unit sales keep climbing.
A Global Memory Squeeze Sets the Sticker Price
The price increase is not simply Samsung padding margins. A memory chip shortage has been building for more than a year, and it now shows up on every phone’s parts bill.
Memory and storage make up more than 60 percent of the component cost on budget phones and over 30 percent on flagship models, according to Counterpoint Research and Omdia data. In several emerging markets, component prices have climbed by as much as 40 to 50 percent since the fourth quarter of last year, IDC’s mobile phone tracker found, pushing manufacturers toward broad price hikes.
Samsung still topped the global smartphone market in the second quarter of 2026, with 24 percent share to Apple’s 20 percent, even as overall shipments fell 11 percent year over year to a 13-year low, Counterpoint and Omdia reported. Samsung reclaimed the top spot this year largely on the strength of the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
The squeeze already threatens a perk Samsung buyers have come to expect. Since 2023, preordering a 256 gigabyte Galaxy flagship has usually unlocked a free upgrade to 512 gigabytes. Samsung has not confirmed whether that promotion returns for the Fold 8 line, and rising memory costs make it the first thing likely to disappear.
Can Google and Samsung’s Glasses Catch Meta?
Probably not soon, at least not on the current numbers. Meta controlled 69.2 percent of the global smart glasses market in the first quarter of 2026, IDC found, built on its EssilorLuxottica partnership and the Ray-Ban Meta lineup. Samsung and Google are entering with audio-only glasses made alongside fashion brands Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, betting on Gemini AI and cross-platform reach to close that gap.
Google and Samsung showed the glasses off together at Google I/O in May, confirming a fall 2026 launch and, notably, compatibility with both Android phones and iPhones, a decision that breaks from Meta’s tighter ecosystem lock-in. The glasses run on Gemini for turn-by-turn navigation, real-time speech and text translation, hands-free calls and messaging, and photo edits through Google’s Nano Banana tool, all triggered by voice or a touchpad on the arm.
The collaboration is helping users stay connected and fashionable in a more natural, hands-free way.
Shahram Izadi, Google’s vice president and general manager of Android XR, said that when the companies outlined the glasses’ fall 2026 debut.
- 69.2% share: Meta’s slice of the global smart glasses market in the first quarter of 2026, per IDC.
- 167% growth: the year-over-year jump in smart glasses shipments over that same quarter.
- 7 million pairs: Ray-Ban Meta glasses EssilorLuxottica sold in 2025 alone, roughly tripling every prior year combined.
- 13.6 million units: IDC’s shipment forecast for the whole smart glasses category this year, climbing toward 27.3 million by 2030.
Meta’s lead is not uncontested even before Samsung and Google formally arrive. IDC points to mounting pressure from Google’s Android XR platform and Snap’s five generations of Spectacles hardware as the two challengers best positioned to chip away at that share once display-equipped models reach shelves.
Samsung’s Display Business Wins Either Way
There is one corner of this story where Samsung cannot really lose. Its display manufacturing arm supplies foldable panels well beyond its own phones, and Apple is expected to become a customer for the first time this year.
Counterpoint Research forecasts foldable panel shipments climbing 46 percent in 2026, driven largely by Apple’s own procurement for its first foldable iPhone, and names Samsung Display the biggest winner from that surge. Whether a shopper walks out with a Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra or, eventually, a foldable iPhone, Samsung’s component business collects a share of that sale either way.
That dynamic sets this launch apart from a typical handset fight. Samsung Electronics competes with Apple for the same buyer’s wallet on one side of its business, while its display unit quietly profits from Apple’s success on the other.
Apple’s Foldable Deadline Is Closing In
Samsung is not the only foldable brand moving this year, and it is not yet the global leader in the category. Huawei still commands the largest share of foldable shipments worldwide, though its 40 percent share in the first quarter of 2026 was down sharply from 54 percent a year earlier, according to research firm SAG. Samsung posted the biggest gain of any major vendor, nearly doubling its share to 25 percent from 14 percent, with growth concentrated in South Korea, Japan, North America and Europe.
Apple is the disruption everyone in this market is bracing for. IDC expects Apple’s first foldable iPhone, due later this year, to capture 22 percent of foldable unit sales and 34 percent of category revenue in its debut year, at an average price near $2,400.
“The launch of Apple’s first foldable iPhone will mark a turning point for the foldable segment,” said Francisco Jeronimo, vice president of client devices at IDC. That same tracker has foldables growing at a 17 percent annual rate through 2029, compared with less than 1 percent for conventional smartphones.
What Samsung Has Confirmed, and What It Hasn’t
Some details are locked in already. Others depend entirely on what Samsung says from the stage on Wednesday.
- Confirmed: The event is set for July 22 in London under the theme “A New Shape Unfolds,” with a wide Galaxy Z Fold 8 launching alongside a taller Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, the first time Samsung has run two Fold-class phones at once.
- Confirmed: Samsung, Google, Gentle Monster and Warby Parker jointly showed off Android XR audio glasses at Google I/O in May, targeting a fall 2026 release in select markets.
- Unconfirmed: Final retail pricing, which Samsung is reportedly still reviewing.
- Unconfirmed: Whether the cheaper Fold 8 keeps its plain name or becomes the “Fold 8 Wide,” a label some leaks already use.
- Unconfirmed: Smart glasses pricing and an exact release date beyond “fall.”
Samsung’s reservation page is already offering trade-in credits worth up to $1,200 and a sweepstakes for ten $500 gift cards to anyone who reserves a spot ahead of Wednesday, a sign the company expects sticker shock and is pricing the incentives to match.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will Samsung’s new smart glasses have a display screen?
No. The first generation Samsung is building with Google is audio-only, using speakers, microphones and a touchpad on the arm rather than an in-lens screen. A display-equipped version, closer to Meta’s $800 Ray-Ban Display glasses, is expected to follow later.
Why do some leaks call it the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide?
Notebookcheck’s leaks use “Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide” for the cheaper, shorter and wider model, while Android Authority, SamMobile and other outlets refer to it as the plain Galaxy Z Fold 8. Samsung has not settled the branding, and it will not be official until Wednesday.
What will Samsung’s Android XR glasses cost?
Samsung and Google have not announced a price. Analyst estimates cited by TechTimes put the first Gentle Monster and Warby Parker models between $600 and $900, with exact figures expected closer to the fall launch.
When will the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra go on sale?
Samsung typically opens preorders right after Unpacked and ships new phones about two weeks later. One retailer-sourced report pointed to August 5, 2026 as the on-sale date, though Samsung has not confirmed it.
How many Galaxy Z Fold 8 units is Samsung expecting to sell?
Industry rumors put Samsung’s internal target at around 3.5 million Galaxy Z Fold 8 units, a sign the company is counting on the wider, cheaper model to pull in buyers who skipped past Fold phones for being too tall and narrow.
