Welcome to a new newsletter, with a bit of a new direction. While our mid-week edition tackles news specifics, this end-of-the-week missive combines the biggest news with more context, more things to read and watch, recommendations, easter eggs, inside baseball and stuff that interests our readers, alongside the breaking news, reviews and features you expect from Engadget.
We’d love your feedback on what you’d like to see covered in these meatier editions — hit me up at tma(at)engadget.com.
Luckily for me, we kick things off with Samsung’s big Unpacked event, launching three new phones and teasing two — yes, two! — more coming soon.
Everything Samsung announced, including prices and launch dates (February 8 — I’ll save you a click), we collated here, but it was largely a fallow year for Galaxy S hardware, barring a substantially more powerful chip.
While the Galaxy S25 Ultra et al. might not thrill, Samsung managed to breadcrumb several devices with no launch date. First, at its San Jose event, the company revealed its mixed reality headset in person, finally — even if it was just a functionless headset for photos and gawping at.
Then there was the Galaxy S25 Edge — a device I didn’t think existed. (And something that wasn’t shown at my satellite event in London — we got a not-great projection mapping brand activation across London’s Thames river. Boo.)
Like Samsung did a year ago with its Galaxy Ring teaser, we got a fleeting glimpse of the rumored slim Galaxy phone, actually called the Galaxy S25 Edge. It’s slim, has two cameras and… that’s about all we know. Bloomberg reports it will cost less than the S25 Ultra when it arrives later this year.
And then there’s the mysterious teaser for some possible bifold device — see the screengrab above. This would be a foldable concertina, like devices we’ve seen from Huawei. Samsung teased the display tech back at CES 2022 and subsequent trade events. Is it now ready?
Will the company’s foldables become the new home for Samsung hardware innovation? Is the Galaxy Fold series now truly the new Galaxy Note?
— Mat Smith
The biggest stories you might have missed
Today, in 1984
The first Mac(intosh).
Apple demonstrated its first Macintosh computer in front of 3,000 people. Graphical computing on the Macintosh wasn’t as commercially successful as Microsoft’s DOS and Windows, but this was the first successful mass-market desktop personal computer with a graphical user interface, built-in screen and mouse. Yes, a mouse! The epic Ridley Scott-directed ad, 1984, also teased it.
Time to watch that ad again.
The new leader got straight to work.
It was a busy first week for President Trump.
AMA or AEA.
What can we answer for you that a hallucinating AI can’t? When is the best time to buy a new iPhone? Do I need a high-res screen on my gaming laptop? My smart home is trying to kill me. While Google/ ChatGPT/ social media can often help, we’re bringing back Ask Engadget. Whatever it is, I made my boss create an entirely new email address: askmat(at)engadget.com. So help me help you. (Keep me gainfully employed in an era of bots and AI.)
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