Pixelated - Unpacking Unpacked

Episode Date: July 24, 2026

Welcome to Pixelated episode 109. This week, Damien, Abner, and Will dive into everything Samsung announced at this week's Galaxy Unpacked, the legacy of the original Pixel Fold, and whether flip phones have a future ahead of them. Enjoy the episode? You can listen to our brand new weekly members-only Pixelated Pro bonus episode by signing up for 9to5Google Pro! Sponsored by Proton Unlimited: Pixelated listeners can save 30% on an annual subscription to the company’s suite of privacy-friendly services by signing up using our link. Thanks to Proton Unlimited for sponsoring the podcast. Subscribe YouTube Podcasts Pocket Casts Spotify Amazon Music Apple Podcasts Overcast

Welcome to Pixelated episode 109. I'm your host, Will Saddlebird. This week, it's Samsung all the way down as we unpack all of the announcements out of, well, unpacked. From Damien being smitten with the Fold 8 to some big picture thoughts on the future of Flipphones, we have a lot to say about pretty much everything, except the Galaxy's EFold 8 Ultra. Now, well, you can't win them all. It all starts right after this message from our sponsor, Proton. Grab your phone and take a look at your app drawer right now.

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I don't think that's a bad thing for Android fans. I think my biggest key takeaway gang is maybe Google was right all along with those wide foldables. Maybe they were the kind of the front runner and we didn't realize. I don't know what your guys take on a wide foldable is. Do you think this is maybe the future of foldables? I don't know. Apple are kind of looking on and thinking, well, why did you steal our idea? Yeah, it's, it's, okay, let's ask this an uncharitable question, I guess. was this a case of the rumors that Apple was going to do this and then Samsung decided to last minute copy

exactly like the S-25 Edge iPhone-air situation or was this on everybody's roadmaps? I think it can kind of be a combination of two things which is that I think Samsung probably even despite the Fold 7 success probably was looking at foldables as a like this this could probably use something to freshen up a little bit and maybe you know if we're already going to start charging

people a lot of money for our non-foldable phones maybe we can move some of them into the foldable space with more options right especially again if they're as many rumors have indicated they're thinking about getting rid of the flip or you know whatever but also I think the Apple aspect of this cannot be or I think it's certainly a part of it.

Do you think my interpretation is, so I'm the only guy here who's tested these devices in person. I, okay, cards on the table. I'm absolutely smitten with the full date. My review unit is supposed to be arriving tomorrow, but when I had about three hours times with all these devices, which is a long time, by the way. Yeah.

I wanted to put one in my pocket and just leave. Like it was, for me, it's the first time in a long time. where I've been like, I want this product and I do not get like that very often anymore. Absolutely the same. My Samsung reference phone is the Fripsix and nothing has wanted me to upgrade from that. And this is, I'm so interested in this.

I think in terms of like the, to go back to what you said, Will, and what you originally asked Abner is, I do think there are, is a fair amount in column A and a fair amount in column B, i.e. Samsung do not like it when another company beats them into air quotes innovation. And understandably so, I know why they've flexed their muscle here. They've been doing foldable displays probably longer than anyone, right, to a high standard. I mean, apart from the original fold going kaput. But that's probably another discussion

for another podcast. I think this is a way of them saying, we see what you're doing, Apple. We can do it and we can do it quicker and we can do it to a ridiculously high standard. The fit and finish of every Samsung foldable of the past, particularly the past 18 months since the Ford 7 came about and they made some changes, it is genuinely unrivaled. Then again, I'm kind of getting a bit ahead of myself. I haven't tried any of the honour foldables and the oppo foldables for a while. They were good, but there was always something. I think with Samsung, it's like a complete package. I love, I just love the fact that they've said, do you know what? We'll do it.

I don't know. We don't get tech companies that do that. They would double down and be like, no, no, no, one-to-one ratios the way that we're going and we're not doing it at. We're not going to ever look back and see what, in air quotes, failed opportunities came about with the wide foldables with the find N2 and the pixel fold in particular because that now looks like a masterstroke from Google in some respects. I don't know.

Am I reading too much into it? I mean, I don't know I guess part of part of I think the appeal of this is that it is a form factor And like even Even with devices like the pixel fold This is a form factor that is

Fairly unusual And when we see it It's usually flashes in the pan Right like these these like very like wide And short devices And you know if If we want to call the pixel fold Kind of the last time we had one of these I would say

Because that was 2023 and I think, I believe that's after... It feels so long ago, doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah, it does three years ago, but it, you know, this device is kind of fixing all of... This phone fixes all of the hardware issues I had on that device, because the biggest problem with that phone is that it felt bad to use is what I... It's how I would say it.

I'm sorry to pixel fold owners out there, but it was just not a very good device. It was... It's almost 100 grams heavier than this phone. It's 200... This is what? 1, something like that. Yeah, something not on. The pixel fold, I believe, was 283.

I did not look that up recently. I think that number's just burned into my brain. And it's a huge difference. The pixel fold had that left side, like, large gap that made the whole screen feel, you know, uncensored when you were typing on it. It was just like, there were a lot of, and that's before we get to the fact that the hinge was bad,

the inner display was bad, all of those things, right? This has that new Matt Finner. which is lovely. I don't like that phone. The pixel 9 and 10 Pro Fold were massive leaps forward, regardless of the fact that I liked the shape of it. Yeah. That phone was perfectly fine if you never unfolded it, which was me.

If you never unfolded it and you put it on a desk and you typed at it with your finger so you weren't holding it. It was great. It was awesome. But no, I think this fixes a lot of those issues. I also think it does. Oh, and it's obviously slings. because it's a more modern foldable.

It's not running on TensorFlow G2, another problem with the pixel fold. It's running on a chip that won't overheat in five minutes. And then I also think there's something with this where this is kind of our first, and it's only two colors, but this is really the first, and one of them is a web

exclusive, first foldable, first Samsung foldable that doesn't feel like it's made for a boardroom, right? Like that pistachio green in particular is like a monthly color. Let me tell you about that. Yeah. Let me tell you about that. Go for it because I'm dying. It's annoying that that's an exclusive color.

So they, okay, so a little bit behind the curtain stuff, a little bit behind the thing, what tends to happen with Samsung when we get to see these devices in advances? Usually we don't get to see the online exclusive colors because they're either not available on maths or depending on where you are in the world, they might not have the production plant and they may not have seen being shipped the device ahead of time so we don't get to see them. this is the first time in a while where they've given us the online exclusives in person on the day when we get the opportunity to see them. As soon as that pistachio device came out, I hogged it. I, again, this is a reason.

I did not want to give it back. I was like, you have given me the best colour of a device in a while. I know we talked about it briefly last week about, and it doesn't necessarily work on an audio-only podcast. I'm I everyone anyone out there who's even remotely interested in these devices go look at the colors the pistachio color is fantastic I sadly I didn't get enough good pictures of it because the lighting was terrible Samsung that's a discussion for another day but it is gorgeous it is just such the right it was the right call I think they've taken some of the things that work on the flip and eradicated some of the things that don't work on the OG fold lineup and they've made it a

It feels like a playful device. It feels like it's ready for the kind of people who probably dismissed foldables. I don't know. I hadn't thought about this. This is kind of, and maybe you two are way ahead of me on this. I had not thought of this as a combination between the traditional fold form factor that we've gotten used to and that it exists on the Fold 8 Ultra and the flip. But it kind of is.

It kind of is taking the flip, like, just like idea of like this smaller outer screen that you can do things on and making it like a larger screen that is still smaller than than most modern screens while also giving it like you're avoiding the super tall 219 aspect ratio of like the flip series and the razors you know there's a lot a lot to that where you know other than the fact that the price is is so much higher than the flip like it is interesting that this happens during those rumors and you can see the idea from samsung of like well you know people aren't really buying the flip or aren't as excited about the flip as they used to be. Let's give those people something that levels up their experience

and gives them a more fully featured front screen that they're going to want to use and going to want to type on and they can use every app without it feeling crammed into a four-inch one-by-one screen and also still maintains some color and isn't quite the fold ultra experience that we're now referring to it as. I think with clamshells, and you can probably attest to this a little bit abner, and I want to hear your experiences with the flip six, was it you said you have, flip six? Yep. I feel like with the flip devices, they, and I'm not saying flash in the pan or like a bit of a kind of a time capsule-esque take on foldables. I think it did make sense to try that again.

I think there is definitely a market for it. It does, to me, feel smaller than the market where someone wants a device that is a phone, phone first and foremost, but also potentially entertainment. And I've kind of always struggled with with foldables in general, especially when they move to one-to-one. Like a box, a square interface feels like something out of the 80s. It feels like something from the Mac, the original Mac era. It's like it doesn't feel productive.

I don't. Okay. So do mainstream people find the one-by-one ratio problematic with the exception of video? Yes, video watching videos are annoying. I think video is the key selling point. I think for me, and it's the biggest reason where like, and here's the weirdest thing about it is, technically, if you turn the fold, the corner of the ultra now, which I think is insane, so the ultra, terrible name aside, you turn it, I think it's,

Yeah, you turn it clockwise or whatever it is. You turn it on its side. The video player size is the exact same as this, but the aspect ratio gives you less black bars or borders. There is no way that that doesn't reduce immersion, increases immersion on these foldable devices, because you just have these two big areas where, A, you can see your own reflection in the screen.

You see your eyeballs just staring out. It looks weird. And secondly, like, it's wasted real estate. Like, for me, this makes such a bit different. I agree. I agree, but I just don't think it's that big of an issue for mainstream audiences. It's, I guess, no, I don't think it impacts multitasking that much if you do side by side. And the very tall cover display. I think most people would be fine with it.

I don't know. I love watching movies. That's been that big of a limitation. The issue is, I don't mean to take away from your point, Abner, but like there are no mainstream fold buyers at the moment. Like this is still an enthusiast advice. It kind of is always going to be because of the price tag. We've talked before about how, you know, whether or not Apple's is going to be a success.

and I think I was probably the most bullish on it and I still was like it will not sell like other iPhones it will sell more than other foldables because Apple has that like cult status still even today. I think eight years you can call it mainstream. Eight generations I think you can call it mainstream. They would not have kept it alive this long. I don't.

I still have not seen like I frequently saw more notes than I saw than I see foldables these days. Like I don't I don't think this is I still think this is a relatively like niche lineup even though there are enough people buying them to To justify Samsung continuing this this lineup You know as opposed to maybe the flip where they don't but like okay You know not to get back to the flip immediately, but it's like part of part of my and I'm hoping to have a piece up on this and maybe maybe I can brainstorm this with you guys live on this podcast right now but like I truly think that like there's no fundamental like flaw with the concept of like making clamshell foldables. I don't think it's a bad idea inherently.

I think the issue is both of the companies that sell in North America and are the leaders in this space like globally, I would say, Samsung and Motorola have just like not done anything to push it forward. Like we like the flip. Okay. When you get the, it's 2023 is when the razor. You get the Razor Plus and the flip. Is that the five, right? Would that be the five? Right.

And both of those launch with 3.4, 3.6 inch screens, like, respectively. And Motorola's is immediately more useful, but the hardware is nicer on Samsung side, right? And you're like, okay, but we've gone from ticker displays up to these larger front screens where you can do some things. You know, let's see how this evolves. And in that time, we've seen, I mean, because remember, the Flip 5 launched with the fold five, which was its big selling point was we finally closed the gap on our foldables. Like since then, we've had the more refined fold six, the much slimmer fold seven that felt like two generations leapt forward.

And now the fold eight and the fold eight ultra. The flip has like, it's gotten a slightly larger screen that is technically a little bit more useful now, but not really. It's basically the same experience that launched in 2023, which is also true on the razor. And it's a little slimmer, which, which, you know, credit to Samsung, Motorola has not bothered to do that. But, like, it's not as slim. It's still much bulkier than any other phone you'll find, like, on the, it's, it's bulkier closed than the folds. So I just, I feel like part of the failure of flip phones is straight up just like Motorola and Samsung, like, not doing anything for three years to push this forward.

and just like relaunching the same products over and over again. I have a bit of a rebuttal to that, though. I feel like where else can you go with that phone factor? Like, it literally is. It's not my job to figure that out. True, true. But like, you know, then stop. Then they should have stopped launching it.

But like, I just, we have stuck to the same exact dimensions, essentially ignoring thickness on Samsung. Like, you don't want to. And maybe, maybe them experimenting with that is part of what led to the full date. but like I don't know but I'm just saying that like you know if Samsung wants to be disappointed with the flips success as a series

they need to look inward because like they're trying the same device over and over again and if consumers aren't buying it then like why do you keep trying it well I mean I see on Google if you see them do you think it's on Google for not putting a okay so

it's a chicken and egg problem because optimizing Android apps for that small screen would probably never have been worth it for them to encourage developers to do that. They could probably force their own

apps to do that, but still the time spent is probably not worth it given the relative success, relative sizes the market. There was a point in time where it seemed that widgets were going to be the thing that they put on the front

screen as the thing that you interact with. We have that Google Finance widget. There was work on a sports score widget that never went anywhere. It was always my pet theory that this was because, like, their own foldable, their own the pixel flip, they got canceled or whatever. So I do think that there was an attempt to have widgets, rich interactive scrolls. rigid to be the thing that you put on the front screen and that says it has the content and functionality stopgap but of course that never happened but yeah I think there's a whole ecosystem

wall again chicken and egg there was never enough uh time it was never it wasn't worth it to spend that much time optimizing for the front screen and I wonder if some of that is though to do with the fact that okay so let's logically look at the size of the display it's probably on ever going to be about three inches in size. Google... Four. Four inches. Okay, four inches. But it's one by one, so it doesn't feel like it's a four inch screen. Yeah, so here's my argument in favor of not developing for that four factor and maybe

potentially something else. I think Google's better off spending the time doing stuff with a smaller screen, which is, aka, wearables. You are better optimizing for small screens that way. And if they could potentially have an integration where you would have what, level and watch face integration on that outer screen that will probably better use at the time. Again, there are so few people running around with these devices, there probably isn't, there probably isn't much time and effort that needs to be applied to it because financially there's no incentive. What does Samsung sell? Something like seven million flips a year or something? Is it that many? Am I right in thinking that? I just fold down flip. I think it's quite, it's

in the millions anyway, but at the end of the day, I do, I still, I'm going to be bullish on the fact that I think that the form factor has hit its final form in that they can't make it any longer because you end up with something that's like a meter stick or like a yard stick. That's the mistake I think. I think it should have been a taller screen.

Even taller than... Even taller? Right now? Yeah. Like it should have been like the... Like when we think of a flip phone and an old trip phone. I think the screen should have been that size.

Oh, you mean inside? You mean a small screen inside. Do you mean the entirety of the strip is like seven inches tall and then like three inches wide? Yeah, that's what the razors are right now are seven, seven inch screens inside 21 by 9.

Yeah, that's insane. I still think that's insane. I think that doesn't work. I think most people don't like that. I think, because obviously you've got to remember that like old flip phones, you had the display and the keyboard were at a 45 degree angle. When you have these flip phones now, it is flat, completely flat.

So as a user experience, if you have something tall and thin like that. I think that looks damn ridiculous. I think it looks stupid. I think it looks like you turn it on its side and you put it on top of your car and pretend you're a taxi driver. That's literally it. That's all I can see it used for. That's a good mental picture. I really think

there's not, I don't have any major issues with the overall current design of fold-up. Like when I say that this is on like Samsung and Motorola, we're not doing more and I actually hadn't connected the dots here but like my issue has been that neither of those companies have tried to evolve their software experiences very much beyond what they were in

2023. Motorola added a few additional widgets in 2024 and like has changed nothing since. I feel like I remember them when they launched the Spotify widget for it. They were like, we're going to work with more or make more music. Like, no, it's still just Spotify. Like, it's just a complete standstill. And I wonder if the bet was for both of these companies, we will just keep making this hardware until Google finally, you know, saves us and design, like, builds support for this type of

device into Android the way that it has, like, worked to build better foldable, like, big screen foldable support into Android. And when Google was like, no, we're not going to bother with a pixel flip, like, we're not doing that. It's just, it has just sat there because, I mean, at their core, Samsung and Motorola have, like, pretty bad ideas about, about software. And they can't, so, like, there's nothing. There's nothing to be done.

Like, if Google's not going to step in and, like, fix the problem, then it doesn't matter if the hardware even is good. And, like, I do think Samsung's flip hardware has slowly improved even if they could have. Like, they could have done a lot more. And I think Motorola could have done way more to, like, make these devices feel better and slimmer. And, I mean, like, especially this year's razors were just the same as last year, more or less. But, yeah, I just, it's very frustrating. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to derail us for this long as because they're obviously not very interesting. To just close out the flip discussion, I look forward to the resurgence when Apple does this.

Yeah, 100%. When Apple comes in and they're like, we have software ideas. And then Samsung's like, software ideas, got it. And they underline it up on the map. I was fully mining for the everybody's audio listener. This isn't a video podcast. Yeah, I think, I think, I mean, I didn't spend as much time with the flip this year. it's always the one that if I'm being completely honest,

it's tough to spend time with because, as I say, it hasn't changed enough. It's a little bit thinner. They always get a little bit longer, and I don't think they make enough changes where I think if you like that form factor, if you like that form factor, though, I think you're going to go for it anyway regardless.

You've got two, three companies to purchase from around the globe. I think Oppo, make one, Motorola, Samsung, depending on your region. You might have one, you might have two. You might have all three. I think it's definitely one of those areas where the buyer pool knows that they only have three devices to choose from. As for the back to the fold A,

I don't know if you guys had any questions for me when using this device because I hope I have a lot of answers. I'm not really sure if I have every answer. I hope they'll have more answers in a few weeks. I'm somewhat surprised that the base fold eight, that the base fold eight is not considered the ultra version. Well, I feel like if Samsung called a device without a telephoto lens

the ultra phone that people would read it would freak out yeah I will say that I haven't spent as much time with the cameras but I think

I'm willing to I'm willing to compromise with it I I like the phone factor so much for entertainment purposes that the camera couldn't become secondary and I do think that for me going back to what I've

probably tried to reiterate about 10 times already in this podcast is that most people would prefer the tablet in a pocket experience than the candy bar phone in a pocket that allows you to run to app side by side. I don't think many people are playing. Yes. Do you know what I mean? I feel like this.

I mean, Balatra will work full screen. I didn't get, sadly, I couldn't download it and test it. But there's like games, games will look better. I like the fact that you turn it on its side and you have like a, it felt like a newspaper. It felt like a little leaflet newspaper when you were looking at websites. I really like that. there wasn't those of white space at the sides that you could you weren't dealing with

non-standard aspect ratios four by three might not be used as readily as it did back in the the 90s and 80s but I do think that it works a little bit better for specific content videos was good is the iPad still 4-3 yeah do you know what I don't actually know because obviously it launched 4-3 they never changed the the aspect I but like I just genuinely when they went like basically bezel this curve corners I've never re-looked at the aspect ratio to see if it's still 4-3, but like just the fact that like

that device exists and was at the it is 4-3 and is a, you know, I mean, it's the most popular tablet mine up for sure means that like just in general I think apps will work better on that because so many apps are cross-platform, right?

And so if you're already supporting 4-3 on a different platform, even though this is Android, it should work a lot better here compared to one by one where there is no, there's nothing like that on on Apple or any other competitor operating system. Like there's, I can't I can't think of another

like one, like, even like the surface laptops are like three two, right? So it's, it's not one by one is not like a thing you find outside of these foldables. It is, it is really strange. It is really strange. Sorry, 1.11 by one, right? Isn't that what it technically is? I think it's technically

1.11 by one. Yeah, it's not square, but it's okay. So I've been, okay, so I apologize for the misinformation of this one-by-one. It's, we're rounding. It's great. It's one-by-one. We're rounding. Yeah, the difference is night and day.

Even when I tried to put apps side-by-side, I think it looked better. I don't know. It just felt like a laptop screen, and I think that is where I was on. You know what? This sells it to me straight away because it felt like you can have those little square. You could potentially have two browser windows. I don't know. I can't remember if it worked.

I didn't try it. I don't know if you can drag a Chrome window. Yeah, you can do it with Chrome. So that would be so much better. Like you could have your news app on one side, your sports app on the other, hitting, I don't know, you guys, this is going to be lost on you guys. Flash score for checking the live score of what's happening on it. Like, as it's happening on screen, BBC Sport on the other,

your betting app on a floating window. I think for a lot of people, this is going to be... Uninstall the betting app. I'm telling you're listening to this right now, on install the betting app. I'm only giving you the people who would be doing it. I'm not condoning their actions. I don't think that we do not support gambling here. I'm just trying to help the listener out there to get the betting app off your phone.

But this is the thing. I think it does feel like the entertainment focus. And I'm glad that Samsung even acknowledged it. I think a lot of companies would be like, yeah, we're doing this. And it didn't feel fake. It didn't feel like they were against it. Sorry, it didn't feel like they were trying to force it a little bit. It felt definitely more, to me, more real than what they've done with the fold before.

and that's probably that speaks volumes to me. It could be one of the products of the year and I only spent an hour with it, an hour intently with it over the course of three hours. I feel that strongly about it

and I haven't felt that strongly about a product for a long, long time, which is, again, another telling thing, isn't it? It just looks good. Do you think, okay, so let's talk about Apple for a second. Let's just bring,

because if they have made this decision, Apple have made this decision independently, which of course they will have done. And they've seen Samsung doing this and other brands doing this one by 1.11 to one or one to one. How are that, I wonder how they're going to sell it. Are they going to sell it as an entertainment thing? Because obviously Samsung are beating them to the punch and they probably have, it's very elegant hardware and some really nice colors. They're very good iPad apps. I was going to say, they're going to, yeah, if it's for, if there's launches at 4.3, it's the exact thing I just said.

This is the iPhone that runs the iPad versions of every. It's the iPad mini in your pocket you've always wanted. Here you go. Like that's exactly what it's going to be. It's going to be the exact experience that you've loved on iPad for 15 years now, 16 years now, is now in your pocket. I do. I wonder how much the trifold has influenced this. The triford feels like the final form.

So this is like a step towards that. So maybe this was already in the pipeline. I don't know. No, that's actually weird to me. they went for the hardest possible form factor first before they just did this two pain one they sold 2,000 of them and said we'll see you sometime else when Bram is cheaper

that's kind of that's weird that's very weird when you yeah can I tell you guys it's the same thought I had when I held the pixel fold for the first time which is that and I'm sure I would get tired of this but just for novelty's sake

I just I want to I want This says a non-foldable. I want that 16-10 front screen as a standard phone. Will that ever happen? I just think it's cute and fun. No, definitely not. But I would love it. Why not?

Everybody's just hooked on these like ultra-tall screen. Like nobody wants to take a chance in doing something else. It's like that was the early, you know, that was 2009 to 2015. Every phone company that was an Apple wanted to take big swings and try. Samsung did this or didn't they? Samsung did this with the S8. They helped build this out with the S8. It was the first one where they were like...

Samsung is ground zero for the current phone design today, right? Like, it's Samsung and Apple. Those are the two companies that have, like... If any company would do it, it's Samsung. It has to be... If anybody would want this as a regular phone, then it have to be Samsung. I just don't see it happening. I think they see that 16-10 screen as a compromise for this design.

Probably starts out in China first, but I think some... We're closer than ever for somebody doing a single in this aspect ratio. But, okay, in terms of other questions, are you ready to move on to Gemini Intelligence? Oh, I guess we should touch on the lack of Chi 2, not magnets. I think that's probably a space consideration. I do generally think when Samsung adds Chi 2, it has to be for the Galaxy S first, I think.

I think the optics are the madden it to the foldable, even though it is the most expensive, would be terrible for them. They have to redesign the phone, is the problem. So they made this whole big deal during the S-26 launch about how their phones have a unified design with this iconic camera layout.

Now, I think it's the most generic, iconic design I've ever seen. It's nothing. The pixel is more iconic, the iPhone is more iconic, etc. But that's how they see it. And that triple lens camera layout gets in the way of some Chi 2 accessories, which is I think why they haven't done it.

I truly think they see it as a like, well, we've bought into this design. And unless we change it, we can't do Chi properly because people are going to buy a wallet for it and then be like, why does the wallet cover up? It doesn't fit because it hits the bottom lens. That's what this is. And so even on something like this where it's only got two, you know, the fold eight only has two menses, it's still, they're still in the way. Like that's the problem But then they had the jump on Google With that like kind of the S-10 visor

Like why didn't they stick with it I don't know why I don't know I don't know I think the S-10 is still their most gorgeous looking phone Yeah I just didn't see Chee 2 coming I guess but maybe That's truly I am convinced at this point

That it is because they have internally decided We like our unified design That we've brought every phone under More than we care about Chee 2 Because if you care about Chee 2 You just go buy a case Just go buy a case That's what I think

Yeah I guess Yeah, I guess. Hey, folks, if you're enjoying Pixelated, don't forget to sign up for 9 to 5 Google Pro to gain access to our weekly bonus show, Pixelated Pro. This week, we're talking all about the Avengers Doomsday trailer, the thrills of premium theater screens, our favorite examples of smartphone product placement,

and some deep dive thoughts into the steam machine from Damien. Sign up and help support the show at 9 to5 google.com slash pro. So is there any software on this that's of note, Damien? Okay, well, you mentioned Gemini Intelligence. I've tried one component of it, which is the new take on... Task automation. Yeah, task automation, app automations, whatever you call it. Terrible names.

This has now expanded into being able to do things like book flights. It was briefly in the US and career, I believe, to like... Yes, just for lightchaps, just for rideshare and food ordering applications. Yes. It's now under the banner of Gemini Intelligence in my hands-on session. we were shown one demo, which was you were able to book a hotel or a flight using the Expedia application. And obviously we were told it was technically non-functioning, but because in Samsung's Infinite Wisdom, in certain regions, they have pre-installed applications.

Expedia is pre-installed on devices. So I was able to kind of get it working to a lesser extent, being able to try and book things. And I managed to get through the process of booking a flight from the UK to Ireland. And the process is, I mean, when it works, it's really cool. I think it's a fantastic option for people who like that kind of stuff. Is it a key selling feature? I'm kind of like unsure how I feel about Gemini intelligence, only having seen one third of it.

I think it makes a lot more sense with like they create my widget and stuff, which is part of it. I don't know. Do I trust Gemini to do the legwork for me when it's something, as important as booking a flight, because I don't know if you guys have ever done it. I have booked the wrong flights before and cost myself money. I don't know if I've ever booked the wrong flight, but I am with you. My short version is I'm with you.

Stuff like that where you're talking about a lot of money and travel, I'm too scared to let, I would be too scared to let an agent do it. Yeah, I wouldn't do it either. But I do think that this is a matter of like with all other AI stuff, you eventually trust it to do it. I think we'll get there ventry but I think in the short term this is a flashy, bold feature

for Gemini Intelligence. I think the way that some... Okay, it's going to sound this is disrespectful to Samsung and to be honest, I don't care. When Samsung talks about these features, they never do them justice. So they'll introduce a new feature

that had Circle to Search and they barely scratch the surface of what you can do with Circle to Search when they're advertising it. It's like, this is a genuinely I think Circle to Search is one of the best things Google's introduced in a long, long time. I use it probably multiple times an hour, for Christ's sake. Even just tech selection, it's fantastic.

Samsung barely even scratch a surface on what you could do with it in their marketing campaign for the S-24, I think it was. Like, they've barely even touched a surface with Gemini Intelligence. Like, Google's own blog post goes into more detail than Samsung does currently with what they can do with their devices. It doesn't make any sense to me. They never even mentioned things like, and I think Google leaves a footnote for it in their online blog for Gemini Intelligence pre-I-O, you could use it to get into an online queue for gig tickets.

Like, that is good. That is objectively good. There's no mention of it. Like, why do they, where's this miscommunication thing? Do you think, I wonder if it's a bit of a Korean tech company thing versus Silicon Valley. I don't, I don't know. Sometimes when I see these things,

they never communicated. to us properly. And I don't know where the kind of the roadblocks come from. I don't know. I wonder if it's just different priorities and also while Samsung and Google are obviously partners, right, and like have spent the, you know, have spent this decade working pretty closely together as opposed to like they felt a little bit more at, at odds in the tail end of the 2010s, right? Like I felt like they were maybe bumping a little bit. And then you kind of have this come, you know, come to Jesus moment with the move back to, with, with, with, When the Galaxy Watch 4 launched with WearOS instead of ties,

and it feels like that is where that partnership kind of comes back to life and we've seen everything since. But I do wonder if there still is this vibe to your point, Damien, about like, you know, Samsung is the biggest company in their country, right? If there is a controversy in South Korean politics, you will see the word Samsung appear somewhere in the story. And that's how big they are. And I wonder if they kind of see it as a like, well, you know, we're partners with Google and we do lots of like, we are the launch partner for lots of their own things.

But also, like, we are more interested in our own, you know, AI applications. And we would rather talk about those. I don't think they're very good. But I think that's maybe it's a pride thing. It's a, it's a, yeah, yeah, that stuff's here too. But like, we care about what we built. So which reminds me. So Samsung has their own keyboard app.

Yeah. Gboard Rambler is Gboard. How's that going to work? I don't know because again, I asked about all of these features and I got met with like, you know, like a stair of like a thousand yard stare like what the hell are you talking about. They definitely seem to be a little bit of a lack of, I don't want to say knowledge, just it's not what it is. I mean, the people who have briefed on it have only been briefed on what features that are key to Samsung. but Rambler was never mentioned one bit. I was like, can I put Gboard on and try and do it?

But a lot of the devices are really locked down so you can't install anything on. So there was a lot of things I couldn't try. I wanted to try them out. So it was quite an on Rails demo, I guess. It's also funny that Samsung keyboard out with Samsung messages. That's kind of funny to me. It's also really weird, and this is another thing that you've kind of reminded me of.

Samsung keyboard is a default, but also, on-screen buttons are still the default when you set up. Yeah. Is that just a foldable thing? No, it's on every phone still. Still on every phone. If you just, if you said it. Did the S-26 launch maybe?

Did I, oh man, why do I feel, I might cut this, but I, you keep talking, Damien. I'm going to make sure that I, the scratch in my brain is not real. I think that the S-26, especially when I had demo devices, demo devices before the launch, 100% had, they didn't have gestures enabled, sorry. we had to go in and do it. I think that as far as I'm aware, the last time I asked about it, I want to say S-23 era,

what were we three, four years into gestures on Android fully? Like every device was defaulting to them. I'm pretty sure it was a customer thing, like a customer feedback is most people feel comfortable with the gestures when they first set up a device. So if you set it up from fresh, it goes to on-screen buttons, and then if you restore from another device,

it pulls over the gesture preset that you have. So there was a few devices which clearly had been set up from other devices and they had gestures on but there were genuinely some fold ultras

that had on screen buttons and it just feels so archaic. Like, come on, we moved away from that now. So I found what I was thinking of. There was a rumor from almost a year ago that one UI 8.5 which eventually launched with the S-26

would come with a choose-your-navigation style thing in the setup process. I do not remember if it's there or not. I don't know. I did set up, do I have an S-26? I actually don't even remember if I have an S-26 or not. So I haven't, I can't tell you whether it's part of the setup process off the top of my head. But like, it might be there, but it's not, it's certainly not the default still.

The buttons, I believe, are still default. Yeah, which is crazy, isn't it? It's crazy that there are the things. But yeah, sorry, back to what you were saying, I have no idea what's going to happen with Rambor and Sanctrum keyboard. do wonder if they'll have their own version of it. They need to kill Samsung keyboard. It's, it's atrocious. We, like, it's embarrassing, to be honest with you. Like, they need to just ditch it because, or, you know, if they want to keep it for South Korea users, that's fine. I don't know if it's very popular over there. But like, I, I, you know, uh, uh, I, I, look, uh,

Joe Maring and Android Authority has done this like twice now where he, he's in a group chat with me and Ben is like, I'm going to switch to Samsung keyboard and then we have to deal with him for a week just sending typos because it's so bad. I have to like try to translate his text messages. So enough.

Enough with Samsung keyboard. Gboard is like infinitely better and more feature-packed. And truly my only experience with the Samsung keyboard is when I go through the setup process I just said I can't remember and I hate it the entire.

your way. Yeah, I think, so I have no idea. I have no, sorry, I can't answer your question. I'm sure we'll find out in the next couple of weeks when these retail units start going out and stuff. I think maybe not the case on review units, but I will try my best to find out. I do wonder how it's going to work because it seems like not all the stuff is there. There was no mention of Crape-Rowich and stuff.

It's only just one feature, task automation. Again, the horrible name should be just called app automation. but anyways yeah is that all there is about the foldables because the watches are tell me about the watches okay let's talk about watches can I just say we really did not talk about the ultra

at all and I'm not saying we need to I'm just saying I think that tells you everything about the fold eight ultra like we really did focus on the I mean it definitely feels like a what's to say it's a series bump doesn't it yeah it's an evolution of last year's it looks good but like it's what you would have expected so marginally thinner

some nicer colours. Yeah, side by side, I genuinely found it hard to tell. Someone had a, someone had a colour that was really similar, and I kept picking it up, thinking it was the ultra. And they're like, oh, no, that's my own personal unit. I was like, that's crazy. But, yeah, if you want the best, if you want the best outright specifications,

you've got to go with the ultra fordables. They're an expensive man's toy. I don't think many people are going to be rushing out to buy them unless he got some serious cash to drop. If you want any, I would highly recommend the full date. And we'll have four reviews in the coming weeks. I think myself and Ben will spend a serious amount of time with them. And I'm very, very excited to get, like you guys are very excited about that outer screen.

I'm excited to get to grips with that as well because I spent a lot of time with the inner one. As for the watches. Okay, a couple of takeaways. I cannot believe how similar the Ultra now looks to the Watch 8 classic. There is so much, they have almost encroaching upon their own design. much that I found it difficult to tell them apart, apart from the titanium finish. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, let's be frank here for a moment. Samsung makes arguably the best wearOS watches. And I say arguably because I do prefer the clean,

I guess, classy aesthetic of the pixel watch now. These rugged watches on Android, I don't know who they're for. I genuinely do not know who they're for. I think... Garmin users, but is a Garmin user going to switch? I don't know. I know five or six, and they're never going to switch away from a Garmin. I think it's good to see Samsung having an option. Is it for people who might be considering a Garmin watch where they're like, oh, my Pixel Watch 1 is dying.

I'm ready for a new watch. And they're like being lured into the Garmin ecosystem. And Samsung's like, hold on. Like, we have a watch Ultra 2 that is cheaper than whatever Garmin your watch you're looking at. Maybe. Maybe. I mean. I don't know.

I'm spitballing. I mean, the other read on it is that this launched with, you know, looking like, like, it's the Apple Watch Ultra response. Like, that's the more cynical take, right? If the Pixel Watch didn't exist, I would absolutely pick the base Galaxy Watch 9. Yes. Again, the design is another repeat of last year, sorry, the year before, it's not any thinner, which I think is a bit of shame.

What they've tried to do is, and I do, I kind of think, think this is a good idea. They've tried to make the weight savings in the strap. So they've made this like, I think it's like an air pocket channel down the middle of the inside of the strap. Great idea. I think it's going to be a sweat channel because when you're running around, it's just going to keep all the water in there. Again, I haven't been, I didn't get, it wasn't in a position to be running around a briefing area to test it and no one wants to see me running around sweating all over the place. But it was definitely one of those things that I thought, okay, yeah, that's a novel way to do it

without trying to change things too drastically. They haven't made, sorry, they've made a gain on the battery life on the smaller model. Another good thing to see. Everybody wants to see better battery life on full, on wearable, sorry. I think there's less of a,

less of a reason to potentially someone upgrade to the watch nine, the watch Ultra 2, some nice design changes. I'm a bit disappointed that they've only done two colors and no doubt next year they'll do a third colour like they did with the Ultra

the year prior. I guess the biggest talking point though is just the fact that it's got a new chipset. It has the best WairOS chipset now which is kind of ties into a little bit of or puts us in a little bit of a strange position with what's going to happen with the Pixel Watch 5.

I don't know the full specifications. I think you were they've leaked in the last 24 hours. Tell me a little bit of them now because I'm unclear what it is. Yes. So yesterday the pixel watch 5 appeared on the Google Play console, which is what developers use for apps.

Anyways, the point is, code named Godrick, not that doing it matters. It has the same Snapdragon SW50100, which is the W5 Gen 1-2-1-2-Sash-1-2C. Yeah, whatever it is, yeah. Yeah. It is the same essentially, the same cold. and CPU and GPU as dates back to the Pixel Watch 2, just for a brief history of us, and that was Gen 1.

Last year with the Pixel Watch 4, we got Gen 2, and the main difference there was just that they added the satellite SOS support. Well, Google, on its own initiative, upgraded the co-process to something more powerful. So that looks like it's all staying the same. We don't know if they're upgrading the co-processor again, but I wouldn't think so because Google,

I think from an engineering perspective, they like reusing it for a year or two to just get more optimizations out of it and the same engineering work, but the big upgrade here is one more gig of RAM, so that 50% jump to three gigs. And just historically, the pixel watch, the original pixel watch,

old processor but it had a big jump in RAM I think everybody else was on 1.5 gigs at the time and from a performance perspective it did help so an extra gig of RAM we probably are going to assume it's for Gemini intelligent stuff that they

when that happens but yeah from right now it appears that the only hardware change is one more gig of RAM Ain't that weird though that we have this RAM shortage And the watch is a one that's getting a RAM bump Like of all the devices

So are they gonna put they're gonna have to Well especially up to three which is like a weird Three is really weird Is a lotment of RAM Like there's not there's not a three gigabyte stick of RAM That they're putting in this like they're gonna You know what it's it's Um

You know Okay I'm sure the Snapdragon where elite is a great chip Is a is we'll make the watch 9 feel excellent day-to-day. Are you be able to an invention impact on your wrist, won't you?

Oh, boy, imagine that, UI. I have a hard time these days caring much about the processor that is in my watch. I don't feel like

any of the bottlenecks or any of the frustrations I run into when I'm using a wearable spawn from a lack of processing power. They spawn from a lack of memory, right? Like, when I think of the things that frustrate me, it's like, oh, I'm jumping

between a couple different apps so that I can get my, like, so I can start my running routine. And when I was, when I jumped into the, you know, to start a workout and then I went back to my music app, the music app, refreshed because it wasn't cached in the memory long enough or whatever. It's stuff like that, right? And like, that is fixed through RAM, I'm sure, and I believe you say this in your report, Abner, but I'm sure part of the thought is Gemini intelligence on the, on the pixel watch. But even for me, it would just be the, the reason to have more RAM is to be like, yeah, that, you know, my podcast app and my music app and my fitness app can run in the background all at the same time so that if I decide I want to switch to a podcast

instead of songs, it's not, I'm not waiting for it to reload or something. Okay. So I have no issue with this. Do we think, though, yeah, that, okay, my thought process is this has just come to me right now. Sorry, that's why I interrupted you. I had to come out. It was like ADHD. It had to come out of my mouth.

Yeah, because I never interrupted anybody on. I think we all do it and that's the main thing. That's why everybody loves listening to it. I think that this is a better decision to keep the same chip and upgrade the RAM because if they upgraded the chip and that added an exponential cost or like a big cost increase, they can probably soak it up more with the RAM being increased by one gigabyte and because they're probably going to need one gigabyte or so wired for Gemini intelligence, aren't they? I think that is going to be more beneficial than potentially apps loading by 0.0.0.0.5 seconds. faster. Like, I think that is better because, again, what are we running on our phones now?

I think, sorry, I need to refresh myself what the name is. So it's the Quocom SW50100. So it's the Snapdragon Wear 5100 Gen 2, so. It's even more weird. W5 Gen 2. All right. Well, I've absolutely murdered that. I apologize. But at the end of the day, I don't know what you're saying. Qualcomm has always had a good naming structure. It's never been a problem. It's really, they claim to have fixed it with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and then botched it again with the elite somehow. I think, yeah, I think it's a better decision to put the costs.

If you said, okay, we have, for argument's sake, $500, it's not going to be that, we don't know what the price is, but I'm just using this as a very easy figure to understand. If they're like, oh, the chip set is 300, but we can use the previous one for 350 and we can put 50 more or 150 into RAM, that's a better way of doing it, isn't it? It's a better of allotment of your resources to make an experience that is more akin to what you'd experience on your phone

if the Gemini Intelligence is a key component. But yeah, I don't know. I do think that it's going to be a strange year if they're going to have one out. I guess we had this with the original Pixel Watch and the Galaxy Watch 4. Is that the last time where we've had chipset in differences? I think that's the last time, isn't it?

I think so. The Pixel Watch was definitely running on old hardware, the first in Pixel Watch. Yeah, and obviously Samsung used their own X-Nus chip. I think it's a very interesting one because the people who care about specifications have always bought Samsung phones anyway in North America. Like, I don't think it changes much. I think the experience on the Pixel Watch 4, I'll be honest, felt better than the new

Galaxy watches with the brief time I spent with them. It's cleaner, materials or expressive is nicer. I like the fact that the Pixel Watch for, sadly, my battery ran out during the briefing so I couldn't actually do any side-by-side comparisons I'm going off memory. That was my own fault. My charge wasn't plugged in the morning.

Basically, it's just a much more elegant watch for more places. It isn't a rugged watch. Do I think Google should make a rugged watch? Probably not. I think the market's so small. I don't think anyone's going out and going like, I'm going to get myself an Android wearable rugged watch.

I think it's just an afterthought. Look at how many people out there use a... Is that what everybody is? who buys the Galaxy Watch Ultras sounds like. Just imagine imagining your mind that I'm pushing an invisible pair of glasses up against my nose and I'm doing that. Actually, yeah, I think

there's a lot of that. I think when I look and see people running around with Apple Watch Ultras, no disrespect. There's a lot of people who are let's say not built like Ultra Marathon runners and I think that you have this best watch, what are you wearing it for? You're not taking advantage of it. I think we probably have

that on Android as well. I think the kind of people who wear a garment are the of people who wear a garment, do I mean? I think, I don't think there's, I don't think there's much crossover into this market. I don't think they care about interruptions. They want, they want to have full trail running stats.

And credit to Samsung, they've added it with this Ultra. Google just needs to just make very convincingly high-end what wearables and had done that for the last two years at the very least. And I think the chip set is at least two worries. They've proven time and time again

with pixel devices that you don't need the best of everything to make something competent and a great experience. I'm not worried about it whatsoever. And we will hopefully know in a few weeks' time what are we three weeks away from launch. Hopefully, hopefully, have a better, I know. Two weeks away from launch.

When's the keynote? Friday the 7th, maybe? Well, I put a lot of stress and fear on faces here, and I think that's a perfect time to wrap up. We will be going over now to the extra podcast. If you want to listen to us ramble about all sorts of stuff, maybe get some insight into my Steam Machine experience, which is behind me currently set up.

I have been playing on it. Then definitely go and subscribe to 95 Google Pro. We would love to have you. We'd love to have you over there on the Discord. You want to see pictures of my dog. My dog's very cute. Then that's the place to be. Thanks guys for joining us.

It's been good fun, as always. And we'll speak to you soon. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to Pixelated, a 9-to-5 Google podcast. If you enjoyed the show, we ask that you rate and review it on the podcast platform of your choice and help spread the word by sharing the show with friends or on social media.