At an event in Paris, Samsung announced several new products to round out their ecosystem: new foldable phones, an ultra version of their smartwatch, a smart ring and even new earbuds.
Plus, fun and useful AI tools on top of it all.
The company brought me to Paris to see it all. I wrote about my first impressions in this week’s Rich On Tech Newsletter.
But what struck me the most is that now Samsung has one of the most robust gadget and health ecosystems.
“[They’re] getting closer to doing that thing that’s going to excite people about owning a whole bunch of Samsung devices,” said Lance Ulanoff of the gadget website TechRadar.
Samsung’s lineup now expands past the standard smartphone.
“As an Android user, I like the flexibility that Android brings, and Samsung, as the market leader, does bring a lot of features in a more polished fashion,” explained Enobong Etteh, a popular content creator who started the website Booredatwork.com.
The company made modest upgrades to its Z Flip 6, which opens like a Motorola Razr from back in the day, and the Z Fold 6, which opens like a book.
They also raised prices by $100. The Flip starts at $1100, the Fold $1900.
“If they want to expand the market, they got to make these things cheaper,” said Ulanoff.
Plus, consumers still aren’t convinced they need a foldable phone
“For people who aren’t already Fold or Flip users, there’s got to be something big that people are like, oh yeah,” said Parker Burton, a content creator who focuses on Android.
The $650 dollar Galaxy Watch Ultra is a welcome new option. It has a more rugged look and feel, plus longer battery life.
“They added the Watch Ultra, which, yes, looks just like Apple’s Watch Ultra, but wish they would have did a little bit different design,” said Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research.
It’s the addition of Samsung’s new $400 smart ring that has many people excited.
“I think the ring is really the hot thing to me because it follows the trend of lower impact or you don’t have to have a screen,” said Ulanoff.
A minimal design means it’s easy to wear to sleep for 24/7 insights into your health.
“It feels light to wear, it’s really comfortable, it’s made of a super durable titanium build and during my hands-on of it, it felt very sturdy like it’s not going to break, said Rebecca Isaacs of Forbes Vetted.
Samsung is promising up to 7 days of battery life and no subscription fees.
“Frankly, it puts them ahead of everybody else because they’re the only big company that’s got that complete suite of devices,” concluded O’Donnell.
Right now the main competition on the smart ring is from Oura, but there are rumors that Apple is working on a similar device.
Samsung is also hoping to differentiate it’s devices by adding a lot of AI to them. These gadgets have on board translation features and fun AI photo editing features.