The Samsung Galaxy Note 21 isn’t launching on August 11 like some people expect, but Samsung executives are officially teasing the foldable phones that will take its place: the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3.
“I’m excited to say our third generation of foldable devices will open up amazing new multitasking capabilities and enhanced durability for even more people around the world,” said TM Roh, Samsung’s President and Head of Mobile Communications in a blog post today.
Teasing the first-ever S Pen stylus designed for foldable phones, Roh just confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy Note 21 won’t be showing up at this year’s launch event, putting the nail in the coffin with this sentence: “Instead of unveiling a new Galaxy Note this time around, we will further broaden beloved Note features to more Samsung Galaxy devices.”
This is the biggest official confirmation that Samsung will unveil the Fold 3 and Flip 3 on August 11 at its Samsung Unpacked and that the S Pen on the Fold 3 will carry on the legacy of the Note series.
Samsung Unpacked will be held virtually at 10am EDT / 7am PDT / 3pm BST (or 12pm August 12 in AEST). TechRadar will, of course, point you to the Samsung Unpacked live stream early next month.
Samsung’s vision for a foldable phone future
Roh never openly names the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 or the Z Flip 3 in the 800-word preview of Samsung’s third-generation foldable devices, but we’ve seen enough leaks to know what’s coming. This just backs up all of the rumors.
He does offer some insight into where Samsung is spending its time and resources trying to make foldable phones become more mainstream. Specifically, he highlights working with Microsoft and Samsung on the app ecosystem and operating system for foldable phones to take advantage of the multiple and changing screen sizes.
“We have lined up even more partner apps that make the most of the versatile fold-out format,” said Roh. “From hands-free optimized video calling with Google Duo and watching videos in Flex mode on YouTube to multitasking in Microsoft Teams, our foldable ecosystem will offer a wealth of seamless and optimized experiences.”
So it’s not just hardware, but foldable-focused software where Samsung will try to pioneer foldable phones. Samsung is working on a similar collaboration with Google when it comes to smartwatches, and its One UI Watch interface is expected to launch in the Galaxy Watch 4 alongside the Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 on August 11.