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Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2023 is upon us. Like an oasis in the summer tech drought, it offers to quench our thirst for some exciting releases.
And, as you can see by the recent reaction to the Nothing Phone 2, we are all rather parched. To be honest, Samsung could tell us they’re shifting the position of their rearview phone cameras by 0.5 millimeters and we’d lap it up.
But thankfully, Galaxy Unpacked 2023 is looking much more interesting. In fact, it will potentially be a huge day for the VR/mixed reality space. Samsung is the only major tech player not to announce a plan for VR. Surely they can’t let Vision Pro take all the attention?
But it won’t just be VR. There are Folds, Flips, watches and perhaps even some stuff about AI.
So let’s take a look at what Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2023 may hold as I rate the chances of various announcements.
Samsung VR: Is the Android headset here?
Look. Samsung will have lots of things to announce at Galaxy Unpacked 2023. And I’m sure they’ll all be interesting. Although, I never really find slight tweaks to smartwatches that exciting. Sue me.
But there’s one thing that I’m properly intrigued by; Samsung VR.
We’ve had Apple’s Vision Pro, and the Meta Quest has quietly developed into an impressive, affordable VR option. But Apple’s biggest competitor must have something up their sleeve here.
Samsung has been tight-lipped about VR for a while now. But they’ve said in the past they are willing to take their time, prefering to flesh out an alternate reality “ecosystem” as a priority.
Now, that sounds a lot like a metaverse to me. And Samsung has partnered with Google on this, who also announced at I/O 2023 that they were working on a vague platform for AR/VR operating system.
It looks like Samsung is gearing up for software first, hardware later. But you can’t have any fun with VR software without some very good, very well-developed hardware. To their credit, this is something Meta has done well. Although their metaverse ambitions have yet to be realised (understatement of the century), they have at least created a solid VR headset range in the Quest series.
Therefore, I refuse to believe Samsung and Google have gone all in on software without some form of pipeline on a physical headset. I suspect the Samsung/Google mixed reality headset is much further along in development than they are letting on. Besides, customers don’t really care about software announcements, we like the big shiny toys.
For that reason, I can’t see Unpacked passing by without some display of at least a conceptual rendering of a headset. The Samsung/Google gambit will sit somewhere between Quest Pro and Vision Pro in terms of specs. What will set them apart is the software.
If Samsung and Google can team up and create the smoothest, easily-developed-with and user-friendly software, then they will have an advantage over Apple. And that’s what they need to make their VR entry explosive.
Chance of announcement: 6/10. They’d be stupid not to.
Samsung Flex Hybrid
After some stutters and splutters, Samsung’s foldables have become a success. The Samsung Galaxy zFold 4 and Samsung Galaxy zFlip have had reviewers and customers singing their praises in unison.
Not just a gimmick, foldables are actually useful. The Nothing Phone may claim to have revolutionised smartphones (I still think it’s just flashy lights, mostly), but Samsung’s folding technology actually has. And their next trick could be even more incredible.
VR, AI, Smartwatches. Samsung doesn’t have an edge in any of these spaces. But they do elsewhere thanks to the Flex Hybrid. Back in January, Samsung revealed their new concept; a phone screen that can fold, but also slide.
By slide, Samsung means collapse into itself, like a draw in your kitchen. You pull out a section of the screen, use it, then slide it back into the main body of the phone.
This sounds gimmicky. But so did folding. And I actually think sliding is more useful. A phone folded in half is still chunky. A phone that unfurls from within itself would provide the same size but with minimum thickness.
The tech behind it all is Samsung’s signature OLED panels; the flexible screens that have offered some rare disruption to Apple’s stranglehold on developmental innovation.
The Flex Hybrid offers what some would call the holy grail of phone technology. By enabling both folding and sliding, the OLED panels allow more screen to be packed into a smaller space. Samsung is aiming for a device that would have a larger screen than an iPad but bundled into a space not that much larger than a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. It would be the ultimate personal computer, a jack of all trades and master of everything.
If they want to continue the foldable momentum, they’ll make Flex Hybrid the centerpiece of Galaxy Unpacked 2023.
Chance of announcement: 8/10. Foldables are their brand identity now. It’s time to double down.
Samsung AI?
It wouldn’t be a tech conference in 2023 without the A-word being mentioned.
Samsung already uses AI extensively across its tech like any other company. Whether that’s editing photos or optimising battery usage. But grand, AI-specific projects have so far not registered.
Google has released Bard and Apple is also rumoured to be developing its own generative AI model called Ajax, so you’d think Samsung would follow suit. But the reality is less obvious.
Samsung produces a more diverse range of products than Apple. For example, they have a whole range of smart home appliances, like the Jet Bot. Most of these are AI-enhanced, meaning they can be connected in one larger AI ecosystem, where they can communicate with each other and be controlled with ease by the user.
So continuing AI development in this space seems obvious, but simultaneously a limited market. These gadgets go for 1000s of pounds.
Where Samsung may really cash in is manufacturing. They are already the largest producer of component parts. So it makes sense for them to take on the influx in demand for increasingly intricate microprocessors and memory cards that AI development has brought.
It’s boring, but big money for the company. It also means AI will feature little at Unpacked.
Chance of announcement: 3/10. There are more exciting things to be getting on with.
Final thoughts
Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2023 will be hard-pressed to top Apple’s WWDC23. Vision Pro was just that cool. But they have a few aces up their sleeve.
If they play to their strengths, then we’ll be seeing a lot of talk about their new Hybrid systems. Their slidable phone concepts look mega, so if they can show us a more developed prototype, that would really get the world talking. I don’t think we will see exactly that, but more concrete news on when we may see a Hybrid release for sure.
I’m undecided on the VR headset. I think we’ll see software announced and more outlining of where the partnership with Google is actually heading. But it might be too early for hardware to be shown off yet.
I hope I’m wrong because Samsung needs it. Vision Pro threatens to blow everyone out of the water once more, just as the iPhone first did. No announcement at all would be weird and frankly poor business strategy.
2023 is the year VR got serious. Samsung can’t afford to miss the boat.
