Samsung will host its Galaxy Unpacked event on July 22, 2026, in London, with a livestream on Samsung.com starting at 9:00 AM EDT. The company is expected to launch new versions of its Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip phones, and, more notably, introduce a brand-new foldable form factor — one that is shorter and wider than the existing Z Fold design. Samsung itself teased this as "a new shape" in its invitation materials (The Verge).

The official invitation leans into the teaser both visually and textually. The invite shows the top part of a ticket stub torn off, leaving a shorter portion behind — a graphic hint at the wider, squatter form factor. Samsung's global newsroom carries the headline "A New Shape Unfolds" alongside language asserting that its Galaxy portfolio "has defined the foldable category" (Samsung Newsroom). The Verge reports that leaks have pointed to the wider design for months, and that Apple's first foldable iPhone, expected in September, will adopt a similarly squat form factor — a detail The Verge attributes to its own prior reporting rather than unnamed sources (The Verge).

This would be Samsung's second major change to its foldable lineup in under twelve months. In December 2025, the company unveiled the Galaxy Z TriFold, its first multi-folding phone. The TriFold uses three panels to unfold into a 253.1-millimetre (roughly 10-inch) display, and launched at approximately 3.59 million won, about $2,440 (Reuters). The July 2026 Unpacked event is described as foldable-centric and expected to be Samsung's biggest in years (The Verge).

The wider foldable is not a new concept in the industry. Google's original Pixel Fold was wider than most foldables on the market. Oppo's Find N followed a similar design language. Microsoft's dual-screen Surface Duo was wider still, though it used two separate panels rather than a single folding display. Huawei launched the passport-shaped Pura X Max foldable earlier in 2026, beating Samsung to the wider form factor in the market. The broader industry trajectory suggests a convergence toward a squatter aspect ratio — the proportional relationship between a screen's width and height — that better approximates a standard smartphone cover screen when closed, rather than the narrow, tall cover display that has characterized Samsung's Z Fold line since its inception (The Verge).

Samsung's foldable refresh cycle has been accelerating. In 2025, the company released the Galaxy Z Fold 7 with an impressively thin design and the Galaxy Z Flip 7 with an edge-to-edge cover screen. Separately, in January 2025, Samsung stated it was looking to use its Exynos chip — Samsung's in-house processor line — in foldable phones to be launched later that year, a signal of the company's ongoing effort to reduce dependence on Qualcomm silicon in its premium foldable line (Reuters).

The competitive context is sharpening. Counterpoint Research forecasts 20 percent growth in the foldable smartphone market in 2026. IDC predicts that Apple will claim 34 percent of the foldable market by value in its first year of participation. IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo stated that "The launch of Apple's first foldable iPhone will mark a turning point for the foldable segment," according to an IDC report cited by The Verge. Samsung is offering a reservation incentive of a $30 Samsung credit for the next Galaxy device ahead of the Unpacked event, with total potential savings advertised at up to $1,230 (Samsung US).

The broader question for Samsung is whether a form-factor refresh, even a significant one, will be enough to hold market position when Apple enters the category. IDC's 34-percent-by-value projection for Apple's first year is a striking figure, and it is based on Apple's pricing power and brand pull rather than any demonstrated foldable engineering lead. Samsung has the advantage of five-plus years of hinge engineering, display durability iterations, and developer ecosystem maturation for large-screen Android layouts. Whether those advantages translate into sustained share against a competitor that will almost certainly ship a more polished first-generation product is the central tension heading into the September launch window.

The pace of change is worth flagging. Two major form-factor shifts in under a year — the TriFold's three-panel design and now a wider, shorter Fold — suggests Samsung is no longer content with incremental annual updates to the Z Fold and Z Flip lines. The company that defined the foldable category is now actively redefining its own products within it, and doing so on an accelerated cadence that leaves little room for the kind of multi-year refinement cycle that characterized the early Galaxy S line. For developers building large-screen Android applications, a new aspect ratio means another layout target to test against. For component suppliers, it means new hinge and display specifications on a shorter timeline.

The London event will be livestreamed globally on Samsung.com, with regional reservation pages live across Samsung's markets including the US, Australia, and Africa (Samsung, Samsung Africa).