Samsung's Biggest Launch in Years Happens Tomorrow — Here's What's Actually New

The glasses are the actual headline

Now we get to what matters. Samsung is launching its first pair of smart glasses at Unpacked, and they're not doing it alone. The glasses run Android XR — Google's extended reality operating system. The silicon is Qualcomm's AR1 chip, which is purpose-built for lightweight wearable AI rather than repurposed from a phone [4]. This matters because of what it represents strategically. Meta has owned the smart glasses category with Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which have sold surprisingly well by doing a few things competently: decent camera, open-ear audio, and a conversational AI assistant. Meta proved there's a market for glasses that don't try to project holograms into your field of vision — glasses that just make your existing glasses smarter. Samsung is coming at this from a different angle. Where Meta partnered with a single eyewear brand (Ray-Ban's parent Luxottica), Samsung is working with both Warby Parker and Gentle Monster [4]. That's a deliberate play for different demographics — Warby Parker for the American millennial market, Gentle Monster for the Asian and fashion-forward crowds. The Google partnership is the real differentiator, though. Meta's glasses run Meta AI, which is fine but limited by Meta's ecosystem. Samsung's glasses get Google's full AI stack — Gemini for conversational AI, Google Maps for navigation overlays, Google Translate for real-time translation. If you're already in Google's ecosystem (and most Android users are), these glasses plug into your digital life in a way Meta's can't. The questions that won't be answered tomorrow: battery life (the AR1 chip is efficient, but "efficient for AR" and "all-day battery" are different things), display quality (if there's a heads-up display, how usable is it outdoors?), and price. If Samsung prices these above $400, they're competing with Meta's $299 Ray-Bans with a first-generation product. That's a tough sell.

The TriFold is either brilliant or insane

The Galaxy Z TriFold is Samsung's most ambitious hardware bet in years, and it's going to be polarizing. The concept: a phone with two hinges that unfolds in stages. Folded, it's a phone. Partially unfolded, it's a small tablet. Fully unfolded, it's a 10-inch tablet [1]. Samsung is essentially trying to kill the tablet category by absorbing it into the phone. On paper, the specs are compelling. A 5,600mAh battery addresses the biggest foldable complaint (they die too fast). The fully unfolded display should be large enough for genuine productivity — document editing, sketching, video calls where you can actually see people's faces. But dual-hinge phones have a fundamental trust problem. Single-hinge foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold series have taken years to prove their durability, and some people still don't trust them. Two hinges means two potential failure points, a thicker profile when folded, and more complexity in the display substrate. Huawei's Mate XT TriFold launched in China last year and proved the form factor can work, but long-term durability data is thin. The TriFold's success depends entirely on execution. If the hinges feel solid at six months, if the crease is manageable, if the software intelligently adapts between the three form factors — it could be the first foldable that genuinely replaces a second device. If any of those things fail, it's a $2,000+ curiosity.

What Samsung is really doing

Zoom out from the individual products and a pattern emerges. Samsung is diversifying away from the smartphone-as-the-center model that has defined mobile tech for 15 years. The S26 phones are the cash cow — they fund everything else. The glasses are Samsung's entry into wearable AI, where the real growth is happening. The TriFold is an attempt to consolidate the phone-tablet ecosystem into a single device, which makes more sense as phones get more expensive and consumers resist buying multiple screens. This is also Samsung's biggest collaboration play in years. Android XR with Google. Qualcomm's latest silicon across the board. Warby Parker and Gentle Monster for frames. Samsung has historically tried to do everything in-house (Tizen, Bixby, Exynos). This launch suggests they've learned that ecosystems beat verticals in a world where AI is the differentiator, not hardware alone. Tomorrow's event starts at 1 PM ET. The phones will get the most attention. The glasses and the TriFold deserve it.

What to watch for

A few things that will separate the press release from reality: Glasses pricing. Under $350 is competitive. Over $400 is a tough first-generation ask. TriFold crease visibility. Every foldable lives or dies by this. Two creases means the bar is even higher. AI integration depth. Samsung has historically been mediocre at AI features (remember Bixby?). With Google's stack, the potential is there, but execution in the glasses — real-time translation, contextual awareness, proactive suggestions — will determine whether these are gadgets or genuinely useful tools. S Pen Bluetooth removal. The S26 Ultra's S Pen reportedly loses Bluetooth functionality [5]. For the crowd that uses remote shutter and presentation controls, that's a meaningful downgrade buried in the spec sheet. Watch whether Samsung addresses it or hopes nobody notices. Aluminum vs. titanium frame. The leaked units suggest the S26 Ultra might have switched from titanium back to aluminum [5]. If confirmed, that's a material downgrade on a $1,300+ phone that Samsung will need to justify. The event will be livestreamed on Samsung.com. For the S26, you'll know everything you need within 48 hours as reviews embargo lifts. For the glasses and TriFold, the real answers won't come for months — because the questions that matter are about durability, battery life, and daily usability, not specs on a slide.