Samsung has confirmed its next Galaxy Unpacked event for July 22, 2026, in London, according to Engadget. This is the company's annual showcase for its newest phones and devices.

The company is already taking reservations for the unannounced devices. Anyone who pre-orders through Samsung's website before launch gets a $30 credit. This is a standard move Samsung uses to build interest and gauge demand before revealing full details like price and specifications.

The event will stream live on Samsung.com and YouTube, so anyone can watch from home rather than needing to attend in person. This matches how Samsung has handled past Unpacked events.

Samsung hasn't said exactly which phones will appear on July 22, but the timing and focus on foldables—Samsung's bendable phones—suggest these will be new versions of the Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip. Samsung has made the Z Fold and Z Flip the centerpiece of its summer announcements for several years. Earlier coverage shows Samsung was already marketing a Z Fold7 as thinner and lighter than before, which points to where the next version is headed.

The choice of London matters. Samsung rotates its Unpacked locations across major cities like San Francisco, New York, Seoul, Paris, and Barcelona. London puts the announcement in Europe, where foldable phones have gained more traction than they have in the United States, even though they remain a small fraction of overall phone sales. The UK has also been important for testing Samsung's trade-in programs and financing offers that typically come with these events.

The real question for this cycle isn't the hardware itself. It's what software Samsung puts on these phones. Samsung's recent events have focused heavily on Galaxy AI—artificial intelligence features built into the phone and developed with Google. Foldable phones, with their larger folding screen and extra space for multitasking, work well as a showcase for these kinds of features. Whether Samsung will add major new AI capabilities on July 22, or simply include existing tools in the updated hardware, isn't clear from the announcement alone.

The broader story is that foldable phones have moved from a experimental oddity to a real category over about seven years, even if they remain expensive and niche. Samsung keeps making them thinner and lighter. This tells us the main challenges—making the hinge reliable, hiding the crease where the screen folds, fitting a powerful battery in a folding body—are still the biggest obstacles. Engineering keeps improving, but the phones are still premium devices that cost hundreds more than standard phones.

In my view, the more interesting question for Samsung long-term is whether foldables will ever become affordable enough and durable enough for regular people to buy, rather than staying a luxury tier that gets a modest upgrade each year. Right now, they're priced as a premium experience. For the category to truly grow, that needs to change.

Samsung hasn't announced pricing, the full device list, or which countries will get these phones. More details should come out over the next few weeks as reservations continue and July 22 approaches.