Have you seen the meme about people who dangle too many things on their fingers for no reason whatsoever? I’m not proud to admit it, but I’m one of those. No matter how big of a bag I’m carrying, I always find my hands full, making it difficult to interact with my phone or smartwatch on the go. And I’m not alone there. Which is why voice controlled assistants and hands-free gestures are so appealing.

With the Apple Watch Series 9, the company is introducing two new methods of interaction: Double Tap and Raise to Speak (to Siri). It’s also rolling out on-device Siri processing, which will let you ask the assistant for your health data and to log your daily stats. These are enabled by the new S9 system-in-package (SiP) that powers the device, meaning they likely won’t be available to older models via watchOS 10.

The Series 9 also has a new second-generation ultra wideband (UWB) chip like the one in the iPhone 15 series, which allows for an updated interface when pinging your paired phone. On the outside, the new Apple Watch looks just like its predecessor, but the new gesture alone may be intriguing enough to coax some of you into upgrading this year.

Double Tap

Full disclosure: Due to a series of FedEx mishaps, I wasn’t able to receive a separate sample of the Apple Watch with Double Tap enabled until just yesterday. That means I’ve only spent about a day testing out the new gesture in the real world. To be clear, the feature will not be available on the watches that ship come September 22, and will be activated over the air later in October. Apple sent reviewers supplemental units with Double Tap enabled for our coverage and testing purposes, in addition to the actual devices that will be going to consumers. Not to worry, though, the rest of this review is based on a Series 9 I’ve had since the Apple event last week. It’s only the Double Tap sample that I received late. Still, I already have a better sense for when and how it might be useful.

When both hands, or at least my watch hand, are occupied, Double Tap will obviously not be helpful. You’ll need to at least have your thumb and index finger available to pinch. But when I’m cleaning my apartment, holding a side plank, raising a single dumbbell or reading a book, the gesture does make my life easier. In fact, I love it just for the pleasure of continuing to scroll Reddit on my phone in my right hand without having to put the device down to swipe something away on my left wrist.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

The Series 9 is fairly good at recognizing when I’ve pinched twice quickly, but it took me a few attempts to figure out the right cadence. You can’t tap too quickly or too subtly, or it won’t register. I hate when companies tell us we’re doing something wrong, but in this case where we’re learning a new gesture altogether, I’m inclined to put in the work.

Apple uses a combination of data from the accelerometer, gyroscope and optical heart rate monitor to detect movement and blood flow changes. This lets the watch understand the difference between, say, when you’re touching your middle finger versus your pointer. I was able to trigger Double Tap by pretending to snap my thumb and forefinger, and also when striking the side of my digit rather than the pad.

This is also a good time to clarify that Double Tap is quite different from Assistive Touch, which was brought to watchOS in 2021. The latter is an accessibility-minded feature that was already available for years in iOS, and allows those with different mobility needs to interact with the respective operating systems. You’ll have to first go into the settings to enable it on the watch, and then you can use gestures like pinching and clenching to navigate. Clenching twice will activate Assistive Touch,which brings up an outline around items on the screen. Then, pinching will move through individual elements and clenching will act like tapping on them.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Assistive Touch is more complete and nuanced than Double Tap, as it has to help users access all of watchOS. Meanwhile, the new feature is more of a convenience and there’s only one action available. It also does very specific things. You’ll first have to make sure the Series 9 is awake. From the home screen, double tapping pulls up the Smart Stack, and subsequent pinches scrolls through the widgets on that page. You can change the default setting so that follow-up double taps on the Smart Stack enters the top card instead.

Everywhere else in watchOS, the Double Tap will trigger the primary button. Start or pause a timer, snooze your alarm, play your music or reply to messages, for example. Apple’s programmed some of these applications thoughtfully, too. If you’ve used Double Tap to reply to a message, it will bring up the voice typing option so you can dictate your response. That’s a nice touch, considering you’re likely unable to use your other hand to tap out a message if you’re already pinching to react to a notification.

But Double Tap isn’t available in every part of watchOS. When I was looking at the Phone app or my Move rings, for example, the gesture didn’t do anything. A small indicator appeared to show that it did register; It just didn’t map the action to anything on the page. I like the little indicator bubble, by the way, as it goes a long way in helping me learn the gesture.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

All that said, it feels like Double Tap might not be as groundbreaking as it may have seemed from the keynote. But it still is a useful tool that will likely reduce my need to lift my wrist and swipe the screen.

A better Siri

Another way Apple is reducing my reliance on the Series 9’s display is through voice control. Specifically, Siri requests on the new watches (including the Ultra 2) will be processed on-device. There are quite a few benefits to this — speed of response being the least significant. I compared the Series 9 and Series 8 side by side and this year’s watch was only marginally faster at responding to my “Hey Siri” requests.

Other advantages of on-device processing are more impactful. The ability to still ask Siri for help when offline or disconnected from my iPhone, for example, was a surprisingly simple upgrade. I left my paired iPhone 15 Pro at home when I went to the gym, and was relieved when I could still tell the assistant to record an outdoor walk when I made my way home (since my hands were full, as usual).

Since your requests no longer leave your watch, Apple is also able to let you ask Siri for your health data. You can ask the assistant how long you slept, how many steps you’ve taken that day, or to log a period and more. Some of this is available now, while others will be available in a software update later this year.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Right now, the responses aren’t great. I asked Siri to tell me how many steps I’d taken or calories I’d burned, and instead of giving me a direct answer, it’d take me to the Move or Exercise ring pages. I asked for my heart rate, and was brought to the Heart Rate app for a reading, which is reasonable. But hopefully, with the software update, I’d get a straightforward answer of how many steps or calories.

Since I can’t test it just yet, I can’t fully evaluate how impactful Siri Health Requests will be, but it’s something I suspect will put Apple ahead of its smartwatch competitors. Being able to edit your stats with just your voice could make it much easier for people to input data, which will ultimately improve the insights you’d get from your watch. No other wearable OS offers this yet, either.

Finally, with the Series 9, Apple is also adding “Raise to Speak.” In theory, this means you should be able to just bring the watch to your mouth and ask Siri for things. But in my experience, this barely worked half the time. I wish it were more consistent, because, and pardon my hyperbole here, when it did behave as expected, it felt almost magical. I’d lift my wrist and speak into the watch case, and the Siri icon would appear, along with the words I’d just uttered. No more long pressing the Digital Crown or saying “Hey Siri.”

The good news is, even when Raise To Speak doesn’t register, I can still go back to saying “Hey Siri.” It just got really annoying trying to test this feature, because I quickly grew tired from all the repetitive wrist lifting. Look, it’s been arm week at the gym, okay?

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

UWB precision finding, in use and battery life

One last hardware-related feature on the Series 9 is its second-generation UWB chip, which enables a new interface for locating your paired iPhone. Currently, all you can do is use your Apple Watch to ping your handset and make it ring. With the Series 9 paired to another device with the new UWB chip, not only can you also see exactly how many feet you are from your misplaced device, you can also see what direction it’s in.

I nearly panicked after clearing security at the San Francisco airport, when I thought I had lost the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Thankfully, I had a moment of clarity and used the Series 9 to buzz the phone. I was immensely relieved to hear the ringtone, but also amused when the watch told me I was only a foot and a half away from the handset.

To see the new interface that tells you which direction your missing item is in, you’ll have to be more than five feet away from it. I came home from the gym and used the Series 9 to see where the iPhone was, and the onscreen arcs and distance indicators easily guided me to my couch where I had left it. As I got within five feet, the phone buzzed and rang, which helped in locating it.

I didn’t have a HomePod to test this with, but the Series 9 will also know when you’re within four meters of one, and automatically pull up the Now Playing screen so you can quickly control playback.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

If your Series 8 (or older) is a little too dim in sunlight or too bright in your blacked-out bedroom, you might appreciate that the new model’s screen can now get up to 2,000 nits and as low as 1 nit. That’s double the brightness of the Series 8, which I never had trouble reading, so it makes sense that I found the latest model easy to see on a bright day as well.

It’s worth noting, though, that, in a dark room, the low-nit display might be hard for some to read. I was wearing both the Series 8 and 9, and the newer watch was noticeably dimmer, to the point where smaller text with low contrast was almost illegible. If this affects you, the good news is you can still adjust the general device brightness to avoid having the screen going as dim.

There’s not much else drastically different about the Series 9 that you won’t get by updating to watchOS 10. That is, unless you like the new pink color option so much that you’re willing to buy a whole new device just for it (which I would understand, since I love the pink of my review unit). Springing for the latest hardware will get you the S9 SiP, which is supposed to process machine learning tasks up to twice as fast as the last generation while delivering 25 percent more power efficiency.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Honestly, I barely noticed a difference in performance, and battery life felt a little shorter, with the Series 9 needing a charge every evening rather than every night. I’d chalk that up to the fact that the review unit I received is the smaller 41mm size, while the Series 8 I’ve been using is the larger 44mm version, and understandably has a longer-lasting battery. Apple says you’ll still get 18 hours of runtime with the Series 9, and though that’s in line with previous generations, I wish it lasted longer. Samsung and Fitbit’s smartwatches generally clock about two or more days, and it’d be nice to see Apple give us more.

There are a lot of changes coming via watchOS 10, too, but since those will be available to people with older Apple Watches, I won’t cover them here. I also won’t delve into things we’ve already tested, like fitness and sleep tracking or fall detection and emergency SOS. They won’t affect your decision on whether to get the new watch.

One more new thing you can use regardless of the generation of watch you own: FineWoven bands. This is Apple’s replacement for leather, which it declared it will stop selling in an effort to reduce its carbon footprint. FineWoven is a suede-like material made from recycled material, and is meant to feel premium. I don’t mind it, and though I prefer the texture of leather, I’m more than happy to give up a nice tactile sensation in the interest of saving our environment.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Wrap-up

The fact that the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 are the company’s first carbon neutral products is a significant achievement that’s worth calling out. We have to give Apple credit for making an effort to minimize its adverse impact on the earth, despite all the marketing bluster (and the fact that it ironically outlined its 2030 vision at a launch event for new devices it wants people to buy).

If you’re environmentally conscious, the company’s efforts to be net carbon neutral may affect whether you buy the Apple Watch Series 9 over something from a competitor like Fitbit, for example. But if that’s not a priority for you, then you’re more likely to base your decision over features like Double Tap and Siri, as well as performance and battery life.

The Series 9 is a capable, well-rounded smartwatch that remains the best in the category. Double Tap and on-device Siri alone may be reasons enough to trade in your older Apple Watch (yes, even the Series 8), especially if you hate having to swipe or tap a tiny screen on your wrist.

What intrigues me more is the vision of the future that’s starting to take shape. With gestures like Double Tap and a stronger focus on voice commands, as well as the introduction of the Vision Pro headset earlier this year, it’s clear Apple has a direction in mind for the next few years. I’m curious to see where wearables fit in, and I have a strong suspicion the Series 9 is simply laying the groundwork for a more immersive, hands-free ecosystem to come.

“Let’s charge the iPhone 15 Pro Max before going to bed,” I thought wearily after a long day at Apple Park. Even though the device, which I had just unboxed a few hours earlier, was still showing at least 80 percent left of juice, I wanted to make sure it didn’t run out the next day. Time with a new review unit is precious, and I couldn’t risk wasting any of it on a dead phone.

I dragged myself over to the work desk in my hotel room, unplugged my iPhone 14 Pro and stuck the Lightning charger into the iPhone 15 Pro Max. It didn’t work. In my sleep-deprived fog, I tried a few more times to jam the cable into the port. It wasn’t until about five attempts later that it hit me: This is USB-C.

A spark of joy broke through the haze clouding my brain, until I realized I had to unplug my laptop or set up a whole new USB-C charger. I looked at the clock, glanced at the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s battery indicator, shrugged and went to sleep. It’ll probably have enough power till I can plug it in in the morning.

As it turns out, although my dream of a one-charger-fits-all world had finally come true (at least for the devices I use), the utopia I had envisioned wasn’t quite perfect in reality. I wanted to just be able to carry a single charger for the half dozen (or so) gadgets I carry around when I travel, but that’s probably never going to happen. If I’m going to have to bring multiple wires anyway, does it matter if one of them is Lightning?

In the end, it does, but the convenience of being able to use any of the cables I have to charge any of the devices I own doesn’t make as huge of a difference as I had expected. Not yet, anyway. Perhaps it will be a bigger improvement when people using older, Lightning-charging iPhones finally move on to USB-C and the whole world adopts this standard. For now, though, the change is small.

What might matter more on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max are the new action button, camera improvements, refined design and updated processor. Apple also managed to keep the same price for the Pro ($999) and Pro Max ($1,199) while doubling the storage capacity on the base model of the latter. If you’ve been holding onto an iPhone that’s at least two years old (or even just a year old), this could well be the year to upgrade.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Design

For the first time, I’ve found myself seriously considering switching to a Pro Max. In the past, despite some performance benefits and superior features, Apple’s largest handset has always felt too hefty. But thanks to its new titanium build, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is fractions of an inch smaller and almost 20 grams (or about half an ounce) lighter than its predecessor. I said this in my hands-on and I’ll say it again: The iPhone 14 Pro Max felt like it would fracture my skull if it fell on my face, while the new model may only leave a bruise (or maybe a dent).

That’s probably in part thanks to the fact that the new iPhone’s edges are slightly curved, which not only makes them feel less sharp, but gives the handset the illusion of being thinner, even though it’s actually a hundredth of an inch thicker than last year.

Speaking of teeny measurements, the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max’s bezels are also ever so slightly smaller than before. That’s largely why Apple was able to retain the same screen sizes while bringing the length and width of each device down.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Together with the smaller bezels, the overall design changes make the iPhone 15 Pro Max slightly easier to use with one hand. I also appreciate the brushed metal finish on my Natural Titanium review unit, though I wish Apple would give the Pro line some brighter colors already. This year, you can choose from the silver-ish shade I have, or white, black and blue. Yawn. I know a lot of people slap a case on their new phones the second they get them, but some of us like to live a little dangerously and want a pretty color like those on the regular iPhone 15s.

Though the iPhone 15 Pro Max is smaller and lighter than the last generation, it’s certainly still one of the heaviest in its category. The Pixel 7 Pro is a bit lighter at 212 grams (7.5 ounces) while the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is the heaviest at 234 grams (8.25 ounces). Meanwhile, the smaller Pro model is actually lighter than the S23 Plus (195 grams) and the Pixel 7 (197 grams, 6.9 ounces).

I haven’t used the phones long enough, nor have I been brave enough to risk exposing these review units to my hazardous purse without a case, so I can’t tell you how durable or scratch-resistant the titanium build is yet. Thankfully, I have also not dropped either device so far, but, as in previous years, they’re both rated IP68 for dust and water resistance, which should provide the clumsiest of us some peace of mind.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

There are, of course, two crucial external hardware changes this year: USB-C and the Action button. If you’re not looking for them, these differences aren’t obvious. The hole at the bottom is still a hole, while the button now juts out slightly more than before. And because the iPhone 15 Pros are slightly smaller than their predecessors, your old case will not fit.

Action button

I was surprised to learn that I’m actually in the minority of people who used the mute slider on older iPhones. It turns out that apparently most people set their devices to mute and leave it at that. I tend to leave my phone on my couch while doing chores, so every now and then I’d set it to ring so I wouldn’t miss calls from delivery people.

In any case, Apple switching the mute slider out for the Action button doesn’t bother me. I still get access to a physical key to quickly mute my phone, but for people who don’t use that function, there are plenty more options. You can set it to open the camera, turn on the flashlight, begin a voice recording, change Focus modes or start a shortcut. In each of those, you can fine-tune the settings to have the system, say, launch the camera in selfie or portrait mode.

Once you’ve used the Action button to trigger your shortcut, you can keep pressing the button to control the primary action in each scenario. In the camera, that’s the shutter. For voice recordings, that becomes the start or stop key.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

In the days that I’ve been testing the iPhone 15 Pro Max, I’ve set it to launch the camera, since I’ve been focusing on testing the new hardware. It’s frankly been a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it’s so much faster to use the Action button to open the camera than having to long press or swipe on the on-screen shortcut. On the other hand, it wasn’t always easier to reach for the Action button, and though it’s easy enough to identify it by size, I found myself accidentally pressing the volume keys a few times.

I get the sense that this is a gesture I’ll get used to over time, especially since it did eventually come in handy when I was frantically photographing some wild deer and rabbits in Caumsett State Historic Park.

It’s also worth noting that, despite my concerns that the Action button might be too easy to accidentally trigger, I have yet to unintentionally launch the camera. I’ve tossed the iPhone 15 Pro Max in a satchel full of other phones, a backpack stuffed with jackets and snacks, as well as a tightly packed overnight duffel bag. Surprisingly, none of these tight squeezes caused the shortcut to trigger.

Cameras — To zoom or not to zoom

This year, the Pro Max has a new telephoto lens that offers 5x optical zoom, thanks to a tetraprism design that reflects light four times within the iPhone’s body and creates enough space for a 120mm focal length. Meanwhile, the smaller Pro still retains a 3x optical zoom at 77mm.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

In reality, the iPhone 15 Pro Max delivered closeups that are slightly cleaner than what its predecessor was capable of. I used them both to take photos of an ad for the iPhone 15 Pro Max on the side of a building, and only after I zoomed all the way into the pictures on my laptop did I notice a slight difference. The newer phone rendered a window frame better, with a bit less noise than the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

When I set both cameras to shoot at the older phone’s maximum range of 15x, the newer phone had a noticeable advantage. Wording on the back of a faraway bus was so much clearer on the 15 Pro Max that I could actually guess what an ad said, while the 14 Pro Max’s image was basically a blur.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max’s closest rival on the zoom photography front is Google’s Pixel 7 Pro, which also offers 5x optical zoom. Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra has 3x and 10x options, with a total of 100x zoom when combined with digital processing. It’s no surprise, then, that in general, the Galaxy handset tended to deliver the clearest images at 3x, 5x and beyond. Words were visible on distant objects, and blades of grass were clearer.

Compared to the Pixel 7 Pro, the iPhone 15 Pro Max offered similar clarity and detail, as well as brighter images. But Google usually offers better contrast and shadows.

In a very challenging situation when I was trying to shoot a gray heron that was bathing by Oyster Bay in Long Island, the iPhone was better at retaining the ripples on the water’s surface, while the Pixel mostly overexposed the sea. At 10x zoom, the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s pictures of the bird looked like I had captured images of the Predator, complete with extreme halo effect around the subject.

The iPhone and Pixel both allow you to make use of these telephoto options while recording video, which came in handy when I tried to film a finicky baby deer from a distance. The Galaxy, on the other hand, is stuck at one zoom level. Ultimately, if you frequently use your phone to capture distant subjects, the iPhone 15 Pro Max will serve you well and has mostly caught up to the competition.

What might matter more in your daily photography scenarios is the updated portrait mode pipeline, which Apple says now “benefit from the Photonic Engine.” I was really excited to see an improvement here, since I rely heavily on Portrait mode for most of my photos of food, animals and people. For the latter two (specifically cats, dogs and people), Apple will automatically capture depth information so you can edit background blur later, and you won’t have to go into Portrait mode just to get bokeh. But sadly, the iPhone still lags behind the likes of its Pixel and Galaxy competitors.

In my close-up portraits of sprinkles on a scoop of ice cream, the Pixel 7 Pro and Galaxy S23 Ultra managed to keep the individual grains as well as a spoon in focus while retaining the frosty texture of the mounds underneath. Meanwhile, the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s picture was a mess, with large parts of the spoon and ice cream blurred out and random other bits in focus. This could have been a fluke, but I never got the same with the other phones.

Apple’s portrait effect fared better when I changed over to 1x zoom, although as with older iPhones I have to move back a significant distance before the bokeh effects will kick in. But when it did work, the iPhone’s portrait mode produced a shallower, more pronounced depth of field than Google and Samsung’s phones. The Pixel delivered a more natural and subtle result, though.

The good news is that with Apple’s new Focus and Depth Control tool, you can go into most pictures and edit the amount of background blur. Or you can change up the focal point altogether. This works with the front camera and live photos well, and generally delivers pleasant results. The iPhone is surprisingly accurate at recognizing the outlines of subjects, although not all my pictures with people in them were identified as portraits. I also couldn’t use this tool to fix the wonky ice cream photos, since multiple parts of the sprinkles remained blurry no matter where I tried to set a new focus.

Although Apple has worked on improving its Night mode, Google still has the upper hand in low light. My shots of trees and houses along a lake in the dark came out best on the Pixel, which retained the gradient in the sky and a bench in the foreground, without blowing out the lights from homes across the water. The iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S23 Ultra fared respectably, though Samsung’s phone was the most susceptible to overexposure from the lights.

It’s worth pointing out that the iPhone’s photos now use a default resolution of 24 megapixels, combining the light you get from 12MP shots and the detail from the 48MP sensor. File sizes are about half a megabyte larger than before, which will probably eat up your storage more quickly.

One thing this processing allows Apple to do is offer three focal length options: 24 mm, 28mm and 35mm. Practically, this just means you can tap the “1” icon at the bottom of the viewfinder to jump between 1x, 1.2x and 1.5x options. Apple didn’t just crop in from a 48MP image to create these views — it created individual processing pipelines to enable these at the default 24MP resolution. But for most mobile photographers, that won’t mean much. All it translates to are some nifty zoom options, which were fun to use but I didn’t find myself reaching for them much.

For the most part, the iPhone 15 Pro Max delivered solid landscapes and portraits in daylight, and has shown slight improvement at night. Its video quality remains arguably the best in the industry, with cinematic mode videos still as aesthetically pleasing as before.

Performance, in use and battery life

It’s hard to evaluate the performance of any new phone in just a week. Out of the box, handsets rarely have any lag, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max is as speedy as you’d expect. Its A17 Pro chip kept things running smoothly as I tested multiple camera and video modes in rapid succession, while downloading games, pulling up pictures and hotspotting to another iPhone nearby. I did notice some hiccups when launching the camera with the Action button, but I suspect that has more to do with glitchy software than actual performance.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

One of the biggest updates with the A17 Pro processor is the six-core graphics processor that enables hardware-accelerated ray-tracing for realistic lighting effects in games. This allows Apple to coax serious developers and studios like Capcom and Ubisoft to bring console-level versions of their titles to the iPhone. I was able to check out a preview of Resident Evil Village on the iPhone 15 Pro and it ran smoothly as expected. Creepy babies aside, some of the graphics and lighting effects were nice and I saw no dropped frames, although the edges of a character’s hair looked a little jagged. Don’t expect high-end console level quality here, but you’ll get pretty good animations in general.

I loved looking at my new contact poster on the Pro Max’s 6.7-inch display, and thanks to ProMotion’s 120Hz refresh rate, scrolling through the long lists of my Instagram Story viewers was satisfyingly smooth. When I was getting ready in a hotel room, the background music I played sounded surprisingly clear and loud through its speakers.

I’ve already described the impact USB-C actually makes in the real world, so I won’t go on about it again. What I didn’t mention was that with the move to the new port, Apple was also able to add support for USB Power Delivery (USB PD), which allows the iPhone to charge up other devices. You can use a USB-C to Lightning cable to power up an AirPods case for example, or even another iPhone.

That’s a pretty handy feature, especially considering how much battery life the iPhone 15 Pro Max has. It usually lasted about two days on a charge, which is slightly longer than other handsets of this size. Of course, over time, I expect battery life to deteriorate and average out at about one and a half days, based on previous experience.

When it’s time to recharge your iPhone, you can expect similar charging speeds to older models in that you should get up to 50 percent in about 30 minutes. Fast charge is supported with compatible power units, capped at 27 watts, which is basically the same as before.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Wrap-up

This year’s new iPhones actually feel like significant upgrades compared to the last two models. With the introduction of the Action button, USB-C and some camera improvements, the changes coming to Apple’s Pro handsets feel meatier than before. Plus, the new titanium build makes the devices seem refreshed, while under-the-hood advances like the A17 Pro processor and a second-generation ultra wideband chip should make for smooth day-to-day use. Though the individual features seem small on their own, altogether this year’s set of updates add up to more than the sum of their parts.

Of course, there’s also the non-pro models of the iPhone 15 to consider, and thanks to their new 48MP sensors and pretty colors, they’re a compelling, lower-cost alternative. They also charge via USB-C and come with the same new portrait image effects, which might be good enough for most people. Our review of that device is coming soon, so stay tuned if you can’t decide between the standard iPhone 15 or the Pro.

Meanwhile, if you’ve always been a Pro user and already live in a USB-C world, the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will almost certainly satisfy.

Not much was leaked about the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 ahead of the company's launch event today, and it might be because most of the changes weren't easily photographed. One of the biggest updates to the company's flagship smartwatches is the S9 SiP, which promises better animations, on-device Siri processing, as well as a whole new gesture called Double Tap. The latter allows you to make a pinch gesture twice in mid-air and use it to do things like answer calls, pause music, dismiss alarms and more. There's also a new material called FineWoven that's meant to replace leather, and features in some new straps and accessories. While most of the other changes this year, like brighter displays and greater use of recycled material, are less exciting, I found myself very intrigued by Double Tap. 

This isn't Apple's first attempt at gestures that minimize having to tap a smartwatch screen, by the way. It introduced Assistive Touch in 2021 to allow people who may not have full use of their fingers or have other mobility issues to clench their fists (and perform other actions) to navigate watchOS. 

Based on my experience with both so far, Double Tap feels like a more refined version. I put on a demo unit of the Watch Ultra 2, and pinched quickly in mid-air. By default, doing so from the home screen brings up the Smart Stack, and continuing to double tap will scroll through individual cards. For the most part, the Watch Ultra 2 recognized all my pinches, and wasn't tricked by me clenching other fingers together. It also wasn't fazed when I touched my thumb to my knuckles, only reacting when I quickly brought thumb to index finger pad. 

This story is developing, please refresh for updates.

Follow all of the news live from Apple's 'Wonderlust' event right here.

Apple's iPhone 15 event today saw the company spend a lot of time (and money) talking about its "Apple 2030" vision for carbon neutrality and environmental responsibility. The irony is, Apple wants you to buy more iPhones, and to do so, it's introducing new models with slightly different features so you'll spend your money. With the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro this year, Apple is also beginning to comply with EU regulations that mandate every new device made by the end of next year support USB-C charging. While that's good news for most people, it does mean that those who might not have already a compatible wire will have to, once again, get a new charger.

In addition to the new port (farewell, Lightning!), the iPhone 15 Pro Max gets a zooming lens thanks to a tetra prism system, as well as a so-called Action button that replaces the slider switch on the side. On the base iPhone 15 and 15 Plus, we're also bidding goodbye to the notch and saying hello to the Dynamic Island. It looks like with the iPhone 15 series, we're leaving a lot of things in the past, hopefully for better things.

The most intriguing of these changes is the Action button, which can be programmed to do one of many things. By default, it will still switch between Silent and Ring modes. But by going into the settings, you can customize it to start a voice recording, open the camera, switch focus modes and more. Within each shortcut, you can get more precise about what the action button does. Say you choose the Camera shortcut. You can tap a dropdown list to choose whether it launches in regular photo mode or in selfie, video or portrait. 

One thing worth noting about the Action button is that, aside from the default mode, you'll have to long-press it to actually start your shortcut. If you just press it, you'll see an onscreen indicator next to the button that tells you to hold it down, while the dynamic island changes to indicate what will launch. I thought it would be annoying to have to long-press the button to actually trigger what I want, but in spending a bit more time with it I felt it might be too easy to set the action off. While I don't think a long-press will necessarily prevent accidental pushes, it's at least less likely to happen than a simple tap.

This story is developing, please refresh for updates.

Follow all of the news live from Apple's 'Wonderlust' event right here.

Once again, we're at Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park, waiting for the company to unveil new hardware. But unlike WWDC earlier this year, there is much less hype over what we expect to see. Instead of a mixed reality headset that was a first for the company, this time we're most likely getting new iPhones and Apple Watches — things that Tim Cook and friends have spent so many years refining it's hard to imagine them looking drastically different. 

Still, iPhones are the most popular phones around, and we might still be treated to surprise announcements. Stick around as we bring you all the news straight from Apple Park. The keynote begins at 1pm ET (or 10am PT), and we'll begin liveblogging about an hour before that, so come through with your favorite snacks and beverages!

This week, Cherlynn and Sam are joined by noted foldables lover Michael Fisher (aka Mr Mobile) to talk all about their respective reviews of Samsung’s latest products. Why are our hosts more excited for the Galaxy Z Flip 5 than the Z Fold 5? Is Samsung coasting? Then, we discuss the latest happenings in X vs Threads, as well as a bunch of lighthearted news in tech this week.

Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!

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Topics

• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Fold 5 reviews with Mr Mobile – 1:22

• Will Elon actually pay for lawsuits related to posts on X? – 41:32

• Threads is getting a website and search – 49:16

• Slack UI changes are coming to your workspace soon – 54:31

• MrBeast is getting countersued for $100m – 1:03:21

• Working on – 1:13:55

• Pop culture picks – 1:19:52

Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Sam Rutherford
Guest: Michael Fisher (aka TheMrMobile)
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien

Three point five inches. That’s about the size of the original iPhone’s display. That’s downright tiny compared to today’s smartphones, and it’s hard to imagine typing or using most modern apps on such a cramped screen. But as a secondary panel on a phone that folds in half, even 3.4 inches feels positively roomy. At least, it’s much more useful than the 1.9-inch sliver that we got on last year’s Galaxy Z Flip 4.

With its latest flip-style foldable, Samsung brings a 3.4-inch external display that it’s confusingly renamed the Flex Window (it doesn’t flex, so yes, I’m mad at the name). And that’s about it. The Galaxy Z Flip 5 also has a new hinge that allows for gapless closure when folded, as well as some software tweaks. Aside from those updates, this phone is very similar to its predecessor, with basically the same cameras, water-resistance rating and battery size. It also costs the same as last year’s model and comes with twice the base storage, which is a nice touch. But with greater competition in the US this year, Samsung can no longer coast on being the only player in the space.

Design

One of a few signs that Samsung is coasting? The Flip 5’s design. Setting aside its larger external display, this thing looks pretty much identical to its predecessor, which itself was basically a clone of the version before it. The Flip 5’s frame is the same 6.5 x 2.8-inch rectangle as last year’s model, and it cuts the same 0.27-inch profile, too. It also maintains the same weight, measuring 6.6 ounces (or 187 grams).

Some things have changed this year, though. The external cameras are no longer stacked vertically on top of each other; they’re laid out side by side, presumably to accommodate the new larger screen. The available colors are also different, which I appreciate, since the purple hue on last year’s model was getting a bit stale. This time, you can choose from pink and a minty green, in addition to the standard cream and black. Sadly, our review unit is the basic black version, but the green variant I saw at Samsung’s launch event is worth lusting after.

A notable upgrade on the Z Flip 5 is what Samsung calls its Flex Hinge, which allows the device to fold completely flat and leave no gap between the two halves of its internal screen. This should not only appeal to people who were put off by the asymmetry of the previous design, but it leaves less of a chance that a key in your purse might get lodged in that little opening and scratch the fragile panel.

That’s not to say that the Flip 5 is dust resistant. Its IPX8 rating means it can withstand brief submersion in water, but it wasn’t tested for protection from foreign solid particles. That’s a lot of jargon to say the Flip 5 will be fine if you drop it in the tub, but it’s more susceptible to, say, sand, than most modern smartphones. However, the phone’s exterior is likely tougher than its inside, thanks to the Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 glass covering its rear and Flex Window.

External display

Regardless of my feelings toward Samsung’s absurd name, the Flex Window is a major improvement over last year’s Cover display. It’s a 3.4-inch Super AMOLED panel with a 60Hz refresh rate and 720 x 748 resolution, and the photos I chose as my wallpapers looked crisp and vibrant. But the biggest upgrade is its size.

The benefits are obvious: A larger canvas means you can see more at once and buttons can be bigger and easier to hit. With the extra space, the Weather widget can display the forecast for multiple days, while the Calendar offers a monthly view.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Unlike Motorola’s Razr+, though, the Flip 5 doesn’t behave like full Android on its cover screen. It runs One UI in a way that’s more like the company’s Tizen OS for its older smartwatches. You’ll swipe left through widgets like Timer, Stopwatch, Samsung Health, Dialer and more, drag down from the home page for quick settings and swipe right to see your notifications. But because the Flip 5 supports up to 13 widgets, rotating through the carousel to find what you need can quickly get tedious. Thankfully, Samsung added a new pinch gesture that lets you zoom out to see all your widgets at once and jump to what you want.

Though you can’t natively run every app in the world on the Flex Window, the company did optimize a handful to work on the smaller panel. You have to go into Settings to enable them, but once you do you can launch Google Maps, YouTube, Netflix, Messages and WhatsApp on the external display. I guess these are the ones Samsung thinks people most want to use when the Flip is closed.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can install Good Lock from the Galaxy App Store, which lets you run pretty much any app on the outside. It took me a while to figure out that to get this to work, you’ll have to go into Good Lock and download the MultiStar launcher, then add the launcher as a widget on the Flex Window. Once I did, though, I quickly selected apps like Instagram, Chrome, Reddit and Gallery to run on the outside. Each of them ran as expected — that is, as a mini version of itself on an awkwardly shaped screen.

This is a good time to point out that the Flip 5’s Flex Window isn’t a typical rectangle. It’s shaped more like a document folder, mostly square with a small tab on the bottom left. Functionally, that extra space doesn’t get in the way of apps or widgets. Swiping up on it brings you back to the home page, and if you have a timer or song running, a little countdown shows up there.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

You don’t have to install Good Lock to find the new Flex Window useful, but it does make for a better experience. For example, when replying to a notification from an app like Telegram, you won’t actually be able to see the message your friend sent. This might be because Telegram notifications are typically hidden anyway, to prevent onlookers from seeing your chats. So if you want to respond to Telegram contacts, you’ll likely still have to open the Flip to see what they said.

That is, unless you use Good Lock to let the app run outside, in which case tapping the notification on the Flex Window will just take you to the conversation in the app. It’s surprisingly smooth and weirdly satisfying to see a non-native experience work so well.

Replying to messages is another improvement over the Flip 4, by the way. Samsung now has room to offer a QWERTY keyboard, and typing on it is an absolute delight. I have relatively small hands, and reaching across this panel to reach letters like Q and A was no trouble, especially with swipe typing. The Flip 5’s software is more refined than the Moto’s, too, since the latter’s keyboard takes over the entire screen and requires an extra tap to actually send your reply. Samsung’s interface also lets you see some of your conversation above the input field, whereas you won’t see any of it on the Razr+.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

The larger Flex Window also makes for a far superior viewfinder for the external cameras. With the increased space, I can now see the entire frame when lining up a selfie or setting up a video. Swiping sideways on this viewfinder screen switches between Portrait, Photo or Video modes, while pinching changes the level of zoom and the ultrawide camera kicks in at 0.5x.

Cameras

While the experience of using the external 12-megapixel cameras has drastically improved thanks to the Flex Window, image quality itself has not. Samsung uses basically the same sensors on the Flip 5 as those on the Flip 4, and though there’s no generational upgrade, they still take pretty good pictures.

In fact, out of all two flip-style foldables available in the US, the Flip 5 easily gains the upper hand. Its only competition is the Moto Razr+, which has similar sensors on paper but delivers washed out photos in comparison.

My photos of the Metropolitan Museum of Art showed vibrant blue skies and red banners when I used the Z Flip 4 and Flip 5, but the scene seemed pale when I shot it with the Razr+. Though I prefer the rosier hues in selfies I snapped with the Razr+, the ones that Samsung produced had more accurate colors.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

At night, cityscapes were pretty grainy across all three phones I tested, but the Flip 4 and Flip 5 were slightly better at exposing buildings amidst all the lights in New York. Though both Samsung phones were neck-and-neck in terms of low-light photo quality, I was pleasantly surprised that the Flip 5 took about half the time of its predecessor when capturing a shot in Night mode. As a result, I didn’t have to hold still for as long, and my selfies from the newer handset were clearer.

I also enjoyed using the Flip 5 and Razr+ as TikTok machines, setting them up with their cover screens facing out to shoot some (hopefully) humorous clips. Video quality was, again, very close across the three devices. In short, don’t write off the Flip 5’s cameras, but you won’t be writing home about the photos you took, either.

As a “regular” phone

You won’t be spending all your time with the Flip 5 using only its external screen. For the most part, you’ll most likely interact with the flexible 6.7-inch Full HD AMOLED panel inside, which is what I did. I’ll admit, I mostly used this phone to scroll Reddit or Instagram and play mind-numbing puzzle games like Goods Sort and Solitaire.

Everything felt as it did on last year’s Flip — even the crease looks the same. My friends’ vacation photos and game graphics were colorful and crisp. At certain angles, content looked slightly discolored under the wrinkle, but it didn’t bother me. I also enjoyed stroking the crease as much as I did before. There’s something deliciously satisfying about repeatedly running my thumb over it.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

I also tried a few times to carefully push my thumb into the screen as I started to bend the phone to close it, and I never felt like the panel was going to break. But of course, I’ve only had the Flip 5 for slightly over a week, so long-term use may reveal durability issues. It’s worth noting, though, that compared to Motorola, Samsung has a more established repair and parts replacement system in place. Should you actually damage your foldable, or if you know you’re accident prone, the better company to choose is Samsung.

There are some software updates to Flex Mode that I didn’t spend a lot of time with, mostly because I don’t find them all that useful in daily use. As a refresher, Flex Mode is an interface that kicks in when you bend the phone slightly and have it open at between 20 and 160 degrees (approximately). Compatible apps will split their layout in half, typically showing content up top and controls below. Like on older Flips, apps that work well with this are YouTube, which continues to display the video on the higher half while letting you scroll through comments at the bottom.

This year, though, you can choose to (after first toggling through several hidden settings) display a button at the bottom left of every app. It’ll bring up the Flex dashboard, which offers shortcuts for taking a screenshot, pulling down the notifications shade and more. Some of these, like the two I named, are helpful. But some, like the touchpad that you can enable, are just silly. With the touchpad, you can drag your finger around the bottom half of the screen to maneuver a cursor up top. In some situations, like for people with mobility issues, I can see this being useful. For most other scenarios, however, it’s usually easier to just reach a little and tap the top half of the screen.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Performance and battery life

We’re reaching a point where smaller foldable phones are pretty much as fast as their non-flexible counterparts, which brings them ever so slightly closer to being feasible as mainstream devices. Thanks to its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy processor, the Flip 5 is on par with flagships like the Galaxy S23+. It also packs the same 8GB of RAM, and this year’s Flip even offers twice the base storage of its predecessor, starting with 256GB.

No matter what I threw at it, the Flip 5 never hiccuped. Granted, I never played a game more demanding than Criminal Minds or CSI: Hidden Crimes on it, but I was also pleased when I realized the phone never really ran alarmingly warm.

The Flip 5’s Geekbench 6 scores of 2,015 (single-core) and 4,972 (multi-core) were about the same as the Z Fold 5, and significantly better than the Pixel Fold, which uses Google’s own Tensor G2 chip.

This is clearly flagship-level performance, so you’re not sacrificing much if you pick a Flip over a traditional handset. But one area where foldables tend to fall short is battery life. The Flip 5 delivered very similar runtime to its predecessor, which isn’t a shocker considering its battery is the same 3,700mAh. Sure, it has a larger external screen to power, but precisely due to the Flex Window being more useful, I didn’t have to open up the Flip 5 as much as the older model. So it makes sense that both Flips had about the same endurance.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Wrap-up

Here we are, staring at the fifth generation of Samsung’s Galaxy Z series of foldables and still asking the same question: Are phones with flexible displays ready for the mainstream? With its larger and more useful external screen, the Flip 5 is the best candidate in the category’s history to appeal outside the tech-savvy crowd. It offers excellent performance, capable cameras and — lest we forget — it folds in half! Plus, it combines relatively advanced bendable-screen tech with an exterior panel in a size that’s sure to win nostalgia points, meaning it’ll appeal to experimentalists and sentimentalists alike.

If your existing Flip is falling apart, the Flip 5 is worth the upgrade for the Flex Window alone. But if you’re contemplating adopting a foldable for the first time, just know that you’ll probably sacrifice some camera quality, have to take extra care when manhandling the device and resign yourself to always be charging. In exchange, you’ll get a very capable phone, some cool points and an easy conversation starter.

While our reviewers spend time testing the numerous Samsung devices that were just announced, this episode Cherlynn and Sam dive into the relatively slow week in tech. Of course, we can’t escape the onslaught of news coming from X-Twitter-Musk land, just like how residents from a building across from the company’s San Francisco headquarters were unable to escape from blinding lights this weekend. We also go over some updates from Meta and Google and discover why Cherlynn loves clowns.

Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!

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Topics

• This week in X/Twitter news: A disturbing strobe-light of a logo and hiding your checkmark – 1:21

• Tesla under investigation for steering and battery range issues – 11:31

• Half of Meta Threads users are now inactive – 24:16

• Meta may be working on an Abraham Lincoln AI chatbot – 29:39

• Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman suggests the iPhone 15 could come with USB-C charging – 37:58

• Working on – 54:13

• Pop culture picks – 56:47

Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Sam Rutherford
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien

After I reviewed the Motorola Razr+ earlier this year, I grew besotted with its external screen. Not only was its 3.6-inch outer panel larger than the 1.9-inch version on Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 4, it was also more useful. Since then, I’d been hoping that Samsung would adopt a bigger outer display on its next-gen Flip foldable, and today, my wish has been granted. The Galaxy Z Flip 5, which the company launched today, sports a 3.4-inch window on the outside that’s 3.78 times larger than before.

It also has a new “Flex Hinge” that allows the device to fold shut without leaving a gap between the two halves of the internal screen. Throw in the typical processor upgrades, double the base storage and some software enhancements, and the Z Flip 5 appears to be a small, but meaningful step up for the same $999 starting price as last year.

A larger external screen with lots of potential

The highlight of the Z Flip 5 is clearly its larger external display, which Samsung has infuriatingly decided to rename the Flex Window. I don’t know why, since this panel doesn’t fold and the old name of “Cover” screen still makes sense. Confusing name aside, it’s easy to see why the bigger panel is more useful. Widgets like Calendar or Weather can show data for multiple events and days. Buttons are larger, so you can more easily skip songs in the media player, start or stop timers and more.

With more room, Samsung was able to squeeze two additional shortcut buttons in the Quick Settings drawer that appears when you swipe down from the home screen. Dragging up opens Samsung Wallet, so you can quickly pay for your morning coffee.

To be clear, the Flip 5’s 3.4-inch panel doesn’t stretch across the entire back half of the phone. It’s shaped like a file folder, sort of like a rectangle that’s been awkwardly cut to avoid the pair of cameras at the bottom right. This makes for a very strange aspect ratio that many apps might struggle with, but for the most part, the software sees the screen as a rectangle. The little tab at the bottom left is largely ignored and is devoted to a Samsung Pay shortcut or a space for any ongoing activities to show their progress. If you have a timer running or a song playing, for example, a small progress bar appears there.

Because Samsung now supports more widgets on the cover, getting through all of them can become a slog. I saw about a dozen of them on the demo unit, and having to swipe 10 times to get to the one I want would suck. Thankfully, the company introduced a new gesture that lets you pinch out to access Multi Widgets view, and from there you can quickly jump to the tile you want. Don’t confuse this with the All Apps page on Android — it may look similar, but it only shows you the widgets that Samsung has made available on One UI 5 for the Flip 5.

Photo by Sam Rutherford

Another thing that may have you thinking the Flex Window can give you the full Android experience is that it supports a handful of apps like Message, YouTube, Google Maps, WhatsApp and Netflix. In countries like Korea, you’ll also find popular options like Kakao Talk. These aren’t widgets — they run like the full-fledged versions of themselves on the outside screen. I watched some YouTube videos, drafted messages and looked up restaurants in the area on the smaller panel and found them to be pretty much identical to the larger versions.

Though the practicality of using full Android on the external display is debatable, I still find it questionable that Samsung limits what apps can run natively on the Flex Window. That’s not to say you can’t find a workaround. The company itself offers an app called Good Lock that will let you run any Android app on the tiny panel. Still, it’s different from the Moto Razr+, which basically runs Google’s whole operating system up front.

Samsung’s approach is meant to ensure that only users who are invested enough to install a separate app to mimic the full Android experience on the Flex Window can. This way, if things break or look weird, you only have yourself to blame.

Another area where Moto and Samsung differ on the cover screen is the QWERTY keyboard. Both companies let you respond to messages and notifications with a full-sized keyboard, and Moto takes up the entire canvas to give you bigger buttons. Meanwhile, Samsung only uses about the bottom two thirds of the space, while retaining the message or input field at the top so you can see what you’re entering or responding to.

I like having larger keys, but Moto’s layout adds a step where, after typing your reply, you have to back out of the keyboard to the app and hit the submit button. On the Flip 5, the Send button is right above the keyboard and you can tap it when you’re done. I’ll have to spend more time with a review unit to better evaluate the two approaches and see which I prefer.

Cameras and Flex Mode

One of the best things about having a larger cover screen is how much more useful it is as a viewfinder. Most foldable phones let you use the secondary display to preview shots you take with the rear cameras, which are almost always superior to the interior sensors. On the Z Flip 4’s tiny sliver of a panel, it was hard to see what I was recording. This year, you’ll actually be able to view your entire shot before taking it. Like before, you can also swipe to change modes and lenses, as well as pinch to zoom in on your subjects.

The camera hardware hasn’t really changed. Samsung applied a different coating to the primary lens and tweaked some of the software to enable greater digital zoom. But on paper the Flip 5 has the same pair of 12-megapixel main and ultra-wide cameras as its predecessor. Inside, the 10-megapixel selfie camera has a slightly larger aperture of f/2.2 (compared to last year’s f/2.4), which should make for brighter, clearer shots. Without a side by side comparison, though, it’s tough to tell how noticeable of a difference it will make.

It’s not like you’ll want to use the internal camera much, since you can easily frame up shots with the outside sensors now. But it could come in handy for video calls or livestreams, in which case you might find it handy to prop the phone up by folding it at a 90-degree angle and sitting it up on a table.

When you fold the Flip 5 but don’t completely shut it, Flex Mode kicks in (on compatible apps). We’ve seen this on older models — apps like YouTube, Camera and Gallery will adapt their layouts by presenting content on the top half and controls on the bottom. This year, though, Samsung added more shortcuts to the Flex panel that appears on the lower half (if you enable the feature). When the Flip 5 is flexed, a small icon shows up on the bottom left that will bring up the navigational panel and move the rest of the app to the top portion of the screen.

Photo by Sam Rutherford

Here, you can have settings that make one-handed use slightly easier. You can press a button to bring down the notifications shade instead of having to reach your thumb all the way to the top. You can also take a screenshot using a shortcut or bring up a touchpad for exploring the top half of the screen with a cursor. I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with the updated Flex Mode at the hands-on session, but I know I was less than impressed when I reviewed the Flip 4 last year, after initially being excited about the feature. This time around, I won’t be so easily fooled (I hope).

New hinge, old crease

One of the more significant changes to the Z Flip line is Samsung’s new “Flex Hinge.” I’m still a little miffed about the obsession with calling everything “Flex” this and “Flex” that and honestly “Flex Hinge” sounds like a dating app exclusively for people showing off their biceps. But it’s just a marketing name for Samsung’s redesigned hinge with a dual-rail structure that is supposed to help diffuse impact.

Putting aside my distaste for the name (once more), I have to admit the new mechanism seems solid. The phone closes, without a noticeable gap like the Flip 4. It still felt as sturdy as older models, holding itself up at various angles from about 20 degrees to 160 degrees or so. Those of you who found the gap irritating should be relieved.

Photo by Sam Rutherford

People who hated the crease in the middle of the internal screen, though, will be disappointed. When I held up the Flip 5 next to a Flip 4 that I brought, the degree to which their flexible displays wrinkled was pretty much identical. But in my years of testing foldable phones, creases have never been anything more troublesome than an aesthetic quirk. It won’t get in the way of actually using the device.

Processor, storage and other specs

In fact, you’ll probably enjoy the Flip 5’s internal screen, which is a 6.7-inch Full HD AMOLED panel that refreshes at 120Hz. The 22:9 aspect ratio is slightly taller than your average smartphone, but most apps run fine. Powering everything this year is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chipset that’s also in the Galaxy S23 series. Samsung doubled the storage for the Flip 5, so the base model gets 256GB (instead of last year’s 128GB) while costing the same. That’s a nice touch, and might even make me forgive the company’s overuse of the word Flex.

Also in Samsung’s favor is this year’s selection of colors. You can choose from the standard black (graphite), cream, lavender or this generation’s signature color — mint. It’s a similar shade of green to the one Apple used for the iPhone 12, which is still one of my favorite colors ever used on a handset. Plus, I was beginning to find the Flip 4’s Bora Purple a little dated.

Photo by Sam Rutherford

Pretty much everything else about the Flip 5 is the same as its predecessor. The battery size is the same at 3,700mAh, and it recharges at the same rate as well. That’s a little disappointing, considering the Flip 4 already struggled to last an entire day. But, perhaps the new larger cover screen is useful enough that you can conserve battery life by using the internal display less.

The Flip 5 also retains the same IPX8 water-resistance rating as the Flip 4, though it uses the newer Gorilla Glass Victus 2 covering on the outside. The handsets didn’t feel very different to me, so any changes here are pretty subtle.

Frankly, the biggest difference to the Flip 5 is its Flex Window, followed by its Flex Hinge. Some tweaks to Flex Mode round up the set of upgrades Samsung is bringing to its smaller foldable this year. Though I’m a fan of roomier screens on the outside of flip-style foldables, I can’t help but wonder: is Samsung limiting the Flip 5’s potential with its reluctance to run full Android on the small display?

That’s a question I can only answer after spending more time with a review unit and evaluating things like camera quality, battery life and real-world performance. For now, Samsung has brought us hardware that holds a lot of promise.

While Samsung’s latest Galaxy Watches might not be the highlight of its second Unpacked event this year, they’re arguably the most anticipated Android smartwatch launch every year. One of the most conspicuous absences from the last model was the fan-favorite spinning bezel that’s long been a hallmark of Samsung’s wearable. With the announcement of the Galaxy Watch 6 series today though, the bezel is back. Specifically, Samsung has unveiled two new models — the Galaxy Watch 6 and the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, and the latter sports a smaller rotating bezel than the last generation that did. That, along with some physical refinements, are the most obvious changes on the hardware front, while health-tracking continues to be a focal point for the Galaxy Watch series.

Physical and hardware changes

Samsung reps had a Galaxy Watch 5 at the event and when I held it next to a Watch 6, I could see how much cleaner the design was. While the company did shave some fractions of an inch off the case, that’s not as noticeable as the fact that the screen now lies flush with the lugs.

Adding to the sleeker appearance is the Watch 6’s display, which is now 20 percent larger than the previous model, thanks to a bezel that’s 30 percent slimmer. On the Classic, Samsung managed to make the physical spinner 15 percent smaller, too, so it also has a 20 percent bigger display.

Despite its smaller size, the mechanical bezel on the Watch 6 Classic seems just as easy to use as before. I could still feel individual grooves under the frame as I jumped through apps and widgets by rotating the wheel, using each notch as a tactile cue to figure out what page I was on. And credit to Samsung for bringing back this glorified fidget spinner without making the Classic too bulky, although it comes in larger sizes (43 and 47mm) than the standard model (40 and 44mm).

In addition to getting bigger, the Watch 6s’ panels are sharper and brighter than before too, going up 2,000 nits this year. You can also adjust the brightness of the Always On Display, which is nice on a sunny day or when you’re running low on juice.

As with each smartwatch launch, the company has also added faces and straps for the Watch 6 series that older generations can use too. But what’s intriguing this year is a new “one-click” mechanism for some bands that should make swapping them easier. It took a few tries to figure out, but once I did I found it simpler than the Pixel Watch’s version. All you need to do is push down on a button then lift the strap up out of the lug. Putting it back in is a matter of holding down the button and aligning the screws to the lug, then letting go.

Other physical changes to the Watch include an updated processor and larger battery. Samsung says you can get eight hours of juice on eight minutes of “fast charge,” so if you’re running low and still want to track your sleep, you should be able to plug in and quickly get enough power to last all night.

Photo by Sam Rutherford

Sleep tracking and insights

Speaking of, some of the biggest updates to the Galaxy Watch series are coming to its sleep-tracking and coaching features. For those who wear the watch to bed, more insights are coming. Samsung says the Watch 6 will give users “in-depth analysis of Sleep Score Factors” like total sleep time, cycles, awake time and new parameters the company is calling “physical and mental recovery.”

Samsung also worked with the National Sleep Foundation to co-develop “more individualized Sleep Messages” that give users feedback each morning about their night. The Watch 6 can also recognize patterns around your sleep and wake times to see how consistent you are, and assign a “Sleep Animal Symbol” to represent your style. This is very similar to what Fitbit and Google offer with the Pixel Watch, but Samsung is not locking this behind a paywall.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to test any of these new sleep-related features (I’ve been asked to stop napping on the job), and some of them take at least seven days of wear to kick in, so we’ll have to wait till we get in a sample for testing before I can evaluate these.

Photo by Sam Rutherford

Fitness, heart rate and other updates

Other updates I wasn’t able to truly gauge include the new Samsung Wallet app (instead of just the Pay widget), personalized Heart Rate Zone calibration for running workouts and irregular heart rhythm notifications. But I can tell you what they’re supposed to do.

The Samsung Pay feature on the watch has been replaced by the Wallet, which means you can use digital IDs (where compatible), boarding passes, event tickets and loyalty cards on the watch. There’s also a new Track Run workout type that logs the number of laps you complete, while the personalized Heart Rate Zone tool requires you to go through a ten-minute calibration session before it gives you five “optimal running intensity levels” so you can exercise to activate processes like fat-burning.

When the Galaxy Watch 6 detects heart rhythms that might suggest atrial fibrillation, it will prompt you to run an electrocardiogram test. It’ll monitor your pulse in the background for such patterns, including when you’re asleep. Overnight, the Watch 6 series’ onboard skin temperature sensor will also kick in to gather data that can help determine what stage of your menstrual or ovulation cycle you might be entering.

Photo by Sam Rutherford

Samsung also introduced a Skin Temperature API under its “Privileged Health” software development kit (SDK) that will allow third parties to create different applications for the Watch’s LED infrared sensor or the temperature data that it gathers. One example is a new Thermo Check app that lets you measure water temperature before you have to dip into a pool. (Of course, if you’ve stuck your whole hand in the water, you probably already know if it’s too cold.)

A number of third-party apps have also been brought over to or optimized for the Watch 6, as well as other watches running Wear OS 4. These include WhatsApp, Google Calendar, Gmail, Audible, along with updated versions of Peloton and MyFitnessPal. Samsung also tweaked its Camera Controller app to let you remotely snap pictures, switch modes and zoom from the latest foldable phones (in addition to boring ol’ regular handsets). Find My Phone on the Galaxy Watch will now show where your misplaced device is on a map, as well.

For obvious reasons, I wasn’t able to test most of these updates — given I couldn’t simply go running for ten minutes at a hands-on, and it probably would have been a bad idea to load my credit card on the demo units. But I don’t feel as if I missed out on much. The most significant changes appear to be cosmetic and many of the software updates might eventually trickle down to older models. I’m intrigued by the sleep insights Samsung looks set to deliver, but that will take at least seven days for me to start seeing results. Stay tuned for our full review to see how the Galaxy Watch 6 performed on that front, but also for the details on battery life and real-world experience. Until then, if you’re ready to get a new Android smartwatch, you can already pre-order the Galaxy Watch 6 from $300 and the Watch 6 Classic, which starts at $400. They’ll be available starting August 11th.

Samsung is also making some tweaks to last year's Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, adding access to hiking routes via the GPX (GPS Exchange Format) File Database as well as more options for Route Workout types. You can still buy that device for $450.