Galaxy Z Trifold Sold Out in Seconds + S26 Ultra Unpacked Invite Leaks

Leaked Unpacked invites point to a silver violet hero color and a San Francisco stage while Samsung’s trifold lands with no trade‑ins, no Care Plus, and zero perks. We break down why that choice was made, what it means for real buyers, and how S26 deals and features might shift the upgrade math.

• why Samsung withholds trifold trade‑ins and Care Plus
• true cost of ownership and third‑party insurance reality
• fold durability lessons and screen protector best practice
• imported trifold band limits versus US model practicality
• S26 upgrades across display, charging, privacy features
• leaner reserve credits and slightly lower trade‑in values
• Buds 4 Pro features and Qi2 charger expectations
• Now Brief improvements that are actually useful
• pre‑order timing myths and how to prep to buy

Claim your free $75 Amazon gift card when you buy the Trifold through our link on SammyGuru.com

S26 Ultra Mystery Box Sign up: https://laylo.com/springer/8g0gnSvT
Video Podcast on Youtube: https://bit.ly/3yBw3Ro

Follow Jeff on X (Twitter): https://x.com/jspring86az
Follow Torrey on X:  https://x.com/T_Martin_23
Check out our website: https://sammyguru.com

Transcript

Leaked Galaxy Unpacked Invite

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back, everybody. This is episode number 54 of the Sammy Guru Podcast. My name is Jeff Springer. With me as always my co host, Tori. Tori, say hi. Hey, how's it going? And uh we are officially a little bit less than four weeks away from Galaxy Unpacked. And in fact, just before we sat down in the old podcast table here, uh hot off the presses, Mr. E. D. Leaks, Avan Blast, one of the biggest leakers in the game, who's kind of semi-retired, but still probably the greatest of all time leaker, in my opinion, across the whole tech space. I mean, the guy, you know, he just he he just puts out leaks that nobody else he puts out leaks that nobody else can really get. Um and even with Samsung cracking down, he still managed to get the Galaxy Unpacked invites uh leaked out. And so we have the Galaxy Unpacked Invite. Samsung has not sent these out yet. These are the invites they're gonna send out to media and we'll probably go on their uh pages when they announce it, which will assuming usually based on the past, they usually announce it at the same time as the reserve the reserves open, which would be we're four weeks away. It's usually two weeks away when reserves open. So we got like two more weeks. So we're getting an early look two weeks ahead of time before reserves open at this unpacked invite. So before we jump into the small talk, we can do a little small talk since I already opened this. Uh, it's not really that interesting. It's kind of like all the other unpacked uh invites that we've seen. There's a couple of things we can probably say from it. One, um, it's got four Galaxy logos, Galaxy AI logos that are going like popping out of a of a box. It's unpacking because it's unpacked. And uh it's also got the date, 25 February 2026, uh Samsung logo in the top right, and it also has what you can see there is that kind of shade of like silver violet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this strongly hints that Samsung always has what's called a hero color for the launch for the marketing materials. This probably means that the cobalt violet will be the hero color that's on most of the marketing on all their ads and stuff. They usually pick one color that they think looks the best is gonna be on, you know, not all, but like 90% of their marketing stuff that goes out, like those ads we'll see at the theater. Because you know, once we see a movie like on the weekend after it comes out, there's gonna be nothing but S26 Ultra ads. Yeah, there's Tory and always see a movie, you know, right when it comes out, and there's always tons of unpacked stuff. And so all those that go on TV and print and everything. Um, I don't know, there's something blurred out that Evan blurred out afterwards. Someone thinks that it's the location that's blurred out. I'm not really sure, but it could be the location. It's kind of weird though, because this is not that long. The location is gonna be in San Francisco. Yeah, we already know that because other leakers, numerous people have confirmed that. That's not me breaking my embargo or anything, just other people have confirmed that. Just like not me confirming it, but other people that we trust have confirmed this. It doesn't look like that says San Francisco, though, because if you look at the text here, San Francisco would have to be longer if you look at the size of the text. So I don't know if that was there was this information, not rumor, but someone had said that Samsung is now really cracking down on leaks and they're putting invisible watermarks with identifying numbers in some of their internal documents. So that could be him blurring out that in that invisible watermark. Ah, yeah. Could be Eevee Leaks getting a little smart. I don't know if that really is that easy to do to blur invisible watermark. But who, I mean, I if anybody would think to do that, it would be the guy who's been doing this longer than anyone. Hey, he is the greatest. He is. I mean, in terms of overall tech, I mean the guy's leaked everything. And back in the day, he used to leak iPhone stuff too, before Apple really got serious too. Oh wow. It seems like Samsung's finally turning on their serious mode about getting rid of leaks, which might be really bad news for sites like us because obviously those get us a lot of you know interest. But I mean, it's fine. We'll still be fine. I'm not worried about it. It seems like they are interested in cracking down though on those leaks just like Apple did. Yeah. But anyway, that was just kind of a breaking news at the beginning because I just posted that. It was breaking news. Sammy Guru. Uh, but anyway, we Tori, how was how was your week?

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Uh I mean, uh uh overall so far going pretty well. Um, yeah, no, no, really can't complain. Uh trying to also get ready for uh, you know, I play One Piece, the train company. Yeah, the competitive you're going to Vegas for a big tournament. Yeah, big tournament, big tournament.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Tori could potentially be the national champion of One Piece.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

I don't know about that one. But you know, we're gonna we're we're gonna give it the old college show. You're gonna give it a shot. Yes, yes. You never know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Tori's like a 10,000 to one fit underdog in Vegas terms. But if you go place your butt on Tori, I I feel like maybe you can bring it home. Yeah, yeah. Turn your$1 into$10,000.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

We will try. But yeah, no, I've just been practicing for that. So that's exciting. What when is that? In a few weeks? Uh yeah, no, it's um February 13th through the uh I think like the 13th, 14th. Yeah, the 15th.

USA Trifold Launch: No Trade‑Ins, No Care

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Oh, nice. So Tori will Tori will definitely be back for Unpacked. Oh, yeah, yeah. Tori and Colin will be hosting our Unpacked Super Extravaganza Extra Ultra Omega Supreme Sammy Guru live stream on the Unpacked Day. They'll be live from roughly, I don't know, the event starts at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, California. I'll be there. They'll probably be live from around 9 a.m. Pacific, which is 10 a.m. Arizona, till I don't know, like an hour after the event ends or something like that. So it's probably live for like three or four hours, just kind of chopping it up. I'll be joining the show probably for about 30, 45 minutes while I'm standing in line. I'm gonna bring an extra phone as long as my phone will allow, because I'll be streaming off 5G in a very congested area. Because think about it, you got all these media and creators, and everybody's trying to get on and upload stuff, coverage and stuff, even while they're standing in line, they're trying to do stuff just like why I will be. So I might bring a portable hotspot or try to figure out. I mean, luckily, I have one line on every single carrier. That's an advantage I have that other people don't. So I can try like every option to see what works best, and I'll probably try to bring Sims for as much as I can so we can make sure I can join, kind of give you guys some of that ambiance from outside the venue, um, which, like I said, supposedly is gonna be in San Francisco. Tori went through a lot of effort today to get me this Diet Coke. He had to go on like seven circle K's because I needed a drink. I really didn't take much of a lunch break today. I've been trying to get out. Uh, we're doing Galaxy Z Trifold tomorrow is in the US official launch. And we are gonna do, I didn't have time, I can do a mystery box because the cases are so hard to find. So I couldn't get cases for the Z Trifold, but I decided to do free$75 Amazon gift card for anybody who orders through our link tomorrow. Which is around the retail value of the usual mystery box because you know the retail value of the usual stuff. We got like a case is like 20 bucks, charger is like 25 bucks. It it's around, it's maybe slightly less, but around the same value as the S26 mystery boxes will be. I just didn't have enough time to get in all the inventory, especially the cases. Like the trifold case is very hard to get. Oh, yeah. Um, and so I couldn't get enough. It is very limited. So if you're listening to this, which I'll probably post this like right before, right after the Trifold launch goes live tomorrow, because I gotta edit it tonight. If you're listening to this and you haven't ordered, it could already be done. I mean, I mean, obviously, we're gonna send out emails. So if you're on our newsletter and stuff, you'll get it. We already posted about it on the site. There's a post at Sammy Guru. Um, but there's only 50 people. This is a limited deal because obviously um I mean, I don't have unlimited revenue. And this is a thing where I'm giving you the gift up front and I have to wait to get I get I don't we get commission for this. Obviously, that's how the model works, but I have to wait like four months before I get paid. So I don't have millions of dollars up I can front up front, but I've I got a little budget for this and I want to do something for the people who ordered the trifold. Now there was a super secret trifold early access launch this morning 24 hours early for people who are VIP Advantage members uh or platinum members. I think Samsung only does this for super early launches. I hope they don't start doing it for mainstream launches because I don't mess up my mystery box flow. Oh, for sure. It's not a big deal, though, because I'll I'll I'll figure it out. I'll figure you out, Samsung. Whatever you do, yeah, just keep in mind, I'm always one, maybe even three or four moves ahead. So hey, you are the guru. If you do start doing that, I'll just start sending out the links a little bit earlier and make sure that I coincide it with the pre- with the with the early exclusive time frame, too. So that cookie is still there. Yeah, we'll cut this part out of the podcast. You know, I don't want to give too much information to Samsung, but we'll cut this part will be cut. Yeah, I'll cut it out for sure. 100%. We can't leave this in there. But uh there was a secret early access event for people who have this VIP. Basically, platinum, you have to spend more than a thousand in a year at Samsung, which is easy to do. Yeah, if you order one phone, you already spent a thousand dollars. I guess so. So it's not that hard or VIP Advantage, you spend it's$150 a year that you pay for a membership, but you also get free Samsung Care Plus for up to four devices, which is like a$300 value. Yeah. And you get discounts on accessories. Uh, if you buy a TV, they give you free installation. There's a bunch of things for the VIP advantage. That's a good offer. Um, I've actually thought about doing it myself because I buy so much Samsung stuff, it might be worth it for me. Why not? I mean, it's$150, but if you're actually going to buy a lot of stuff and you're actually gonna use the care plus benefit, which we'll talk about later in the show, I might could have used that because my Z Fold 7 screen is basically dying, it looks like. What? Yeah, boom, boom, boom. That's called a cliffhanger. Yeah, yeah, it's not good news. And also, here's the other bad news kind of just going right into the trifold stuff because it's on my mind since it's launching tomorrow. During the exclusive access window this morning, when people clicked that link that they got, the people who got the exclusive access email, some people went through and bought it, of course, and they found out two really bad news for people who want to buy this. One, and I expected I expected one of these, I didn't expect the other. One, Samsung is not offering any trade-in options for the trifold. You're gonna pay$28.99 plus tax full price, full price, no discounts, no trade-in. If you have a Z Fold 7, you ain't trading that in, they're not letting you. No trade-ins, you gotta pay full price for it. There's no trade-ins for any device, doesn't matter what you have. So you've got to pay that. It's about$3,200 after tax. Uh, and here's the even worse news: even if you are willing to pay$3,200 after tax, Samsung is not letting you add care or care plus to the trifold. Even if you're a VIP Advantage member who usually gets free care plus, like I mentioned, that doesn't even apply to the trifold. Which seems like really like not much confidence in the product because it's like we can't give you uh, you know, this is too fragile. We can't give you care plus because if it breaks, it's like$1,500 to fix the screen, and well, you're gonna have to pay that after you already paid$3,200. I would think that's gonna make a lot of people shy away from buying this phone. Yeah. I mean, obviously for me, I already have one one. Yeah, I mean, I'm an idiot, look at me, I'm an idiot who paid$3,500 to import one from another country with zero warranty and zero way to get it fixed, even for half the cost. I would have to literally buy a whole new one. Yes, you would. So you're talking to someone who's even crazier than the people who bought it today. I mean, I'm next level off my rocker. I'm insane. If this thing is broke, I have no way to get another one. Yeah, no, no warranty, no nothing, no recourse, not even to get it fixed in this country because it's not even a country that they sold. Yeah. Yeah, I bought it from the Korean mafia, the mafiosos in Korea. And so, you know, from the back market. Um, but from an official channel, you're buying it directly from Samsung, you can't get the Care Plus. I know that's insane. They've never had a device, a mobile device, where they haven't offered Care Plus that I know of. The original fold you could even get, I don't think it was called Care Care Plus back then. It was like Samsung Insurance or whatever. But you could now, of course, keep in mind, most likely, I mean, I haven't looked into this. I was just reading this. Uh, some people will order them some mic check one too. Uh, some people ordered it on Reddit. They were talking about this in the Reddit thread, and I was just reading through it before we came on the show so we could talk about it a little bit. You know, educate myself, you know, educate yourself. Um, because you know, I like to be educated when I talk about stuff. You degree. Why not? Um so theoretically, you should be able to maybe get third-party insurance from like a Shurion or UBreak. I've they all offer like third-party mobile insurance, but I don't even know if they'll touch it. So I was thinking, yeah, I mean, that's all. So I was thinking in the morning, uh, I might have one of our writers call Shurion and some of the other third party people and see if they would let you add insurance for it. I might call them and be like, guys, I just bought the trifold. How much monthly is it gonna cost, or how much does it cost for two years? And see if they say, hey, we won't do it either. Because then if they won't, then that means you can't get insurance at all.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

Yeah, that wow. I don't well okay. Look, I I I have some thoughts on this actually. I have thoughts. So if the first thing you mentioned where um they won't let you do any trade-ins and whatnot, is that what you already had anticipated that the that was the one I had anticipated. Well, why, why, why so? Just because with some history.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

From what I already know, that's a good question. From two things I know. Obviously, I'm in touch with Samsung's marketing team in the back end and how a lot because we work with them as partners. They basically told us and our partners like how they don't care too much about marketing this at all. And the reason they told us that, what their reasoning was was they have so few of them to sell, it's so limited. And because they know there are so many Samsung enthusiasts, they know based on the numbers they have to sell, they're gonna snap sell. And the ones they had up for early access this morning, from the time they sent the emails, the the stock they had for today sold out in 35 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Oh, I believe it.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

So they're assuming tomorrow, when it goes for the general sale, they'll probably sell out in that in 30 to 45 minutes anyway.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

And most of that would just uh obviously be Samsung enthusiasts anyway.

Trifold Insurance Options And Cost Reality

SPEAKER_00 13:59

And so they figured, hey, if we make it, if we do the trade-in, that's gonna open it up maybe for some other people, so we might have more people interested. Why don't we just make ourselves the maximum profit margin? Because not doing the trade-in makes them more money. Oh, yeah. Because of course they have to refurbish those devices, they have to pay someone to process them, and then they have to sell them in their refurbished store. If you just buy it outright, they're making way more profit. Oh, yeah. So well, if we already know that there's enough enthusiasts that'll buy it based on the small number of units we have, why don't we just sell them for full price? And then, well, if you're too poor to pay full price without the trade-in, well, you you just won't get one this year. You'll have to wait for the trifold two. That's just business, man. I mean, that's just the way it is. If you can't, if you really need a thousand dollar you know, credit from your Z Fold 7 trade-in to buy one, you just won't be buying one this time. That's just the way it is. Um, and that's why. And I think they just know that this is such a limited device. Like, this is not gonna make this isn't gonna make a blip in in their mobile division's, you know, quarter revenue, because there's so few of them, even though it's an expensive device. Just think about it. And I mean, it's obvious math. If you sell, you know, last year, I think for the S25, they sold worldwide like 30 million of them in the first quarter at roughly an average of 1200 USD per device, 30 million times 1200 versus let's say conservatively, and I'm saying this is probably from what I've heard, this is a reasonable number. Between these the early access and tomorrow, they may only have 20,000 trifolds for the US that they can sell. So 20,000 times round it to 3,000. 20,000 times 3,000 is nothing compared to 40 million times 1200. Obviously, that's that's way more important to them. So that they're they're they're more focused on the S26 launch. And as we've talked about, and we can talk about later in this show a little bit too, they have no idea what's going on with that launch, so they really need to focus on it. Their marketing is super unorganized about about what's happening there. So it's a disaster over there. Um, from everything we've heard from our sources that it's just like internal disarray, um, because everything got pushed back with the S26 series. Yeah. So I think they're just focused on that because they already don't have their S together, so to speak, on the S26 Ultra launch. And since that makes them, you know, 100 X, a thousand X more profit than selling the trifold in the small number. Yeah, you know. So they just want whoever really has the money and really, really wants it to get it because they know there's such limited numbers. They didn't want to make it more accessible by offering the trade in because they know if they make the trade in, then there's more competition and then also would lower their profit margin, which they don't want to do. Yeah. Now, not offering the care plus to me though, yeah. I really want to know your thoughts. That seems really suspect, right? Because that to me, like as a buyer, I mean, again, I'm crazy because but I I also make money, I also make profit from doing crazy things. So I'm not that crazy. If I'm just an average consumer who this morning gets the early access email and I log in and I can't add CarePlus, I'm gonna be like, well, man, if I'm a Samsung fan, which I probably am because I have VIP and obviously I got the early access, I'm thinking back to the original Galaxy Fold when all these people got their phones and the screens were breaking, you know, like one out of every five screens was breaking. It's like, well, this is a first generation product and they won't let me add insurance. Do they know something's wrong that I don't know? And they're saying the screen replacement for the inner screen is fifteen hundred dollars.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Am I actually spending forty seven hundred instead of thirty two hundred because I'm gonna have to replace the bat, knowing that you're not gonna let me buy insurance, and it doesn't really it doesn't install a lot of confidence. Yeah, I mean, you know you're selling it to enthusiasts, and you know they're probably gonna buy, you know, everything that they pump out, but like I still though even an enthusiast that's kind of crazy. Yeah, no, yeah. To think you're gonna have to pay for even to replace the screen.

Fold Reliability, Screen Issues, Lessons

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Yeah, wouldn't do it to any customer. I mean, here, I mean, I have my trifold right here. Let me tell you, it I mean, because people will probably want my opinion if they were thinking about getting one, because we have a lot of enthusiasts who listen to this podcast, obviously. The 500 of you who listen weekly, which we appreciate. I mean, that's a lot for a podcast, and we really do appreciate it. Yeah, no, no, no, that's a lot different than YouTube or whatever. 500 weekly listeners is a lot. Um, doesn't it doesn't it doesn't feel fragile? I've been using it now for seven weeks, and and I I really have a lot of concerns about the fragility of it. So if you're asking my general opinion, like, do I think the screen's gonna break? I don't really think that there's a huge worry about it. I mean, it feels solid. It does feel the hinge feels solid. I mean, yeah, yeah. I mean, I've unfolded it a large number of times just to like see. Yeah. But and I guess we can just go into this now too, segueing with any foldable. I've gotten lucky because I've had seven generations of Samsung folds and five or three gener four generations of pixel folds, plus a bunch of Chinese ones. Never had an issue. And now my Z Fold 7. I opened it up the other day after not using it for a few days. It's got two stress lines with a bunch of perforated little dimples along them that are about one inch to the left and right of the center crease. And uh it doesn't look it doesn't look good for my Z Fold 7 in the long run, which is not great for me. Um now one disclaimer I will make, and this is why I probably am screwed. Luckily, I have a lot of phones, uh, and I and it's gonna it's gonna be sad if it breaks. I don't even know if I will replace it because it'll be very expensive. One, I didn't buy CareBlus, because I usually don't. I've never really had a lot of issues. I'm very careful with my phones. Yeah, maybe from now on I will. But uh I also remove the inner screen protector on the inner screen, which Samsung specifically says, do not do. And I've done that on I've done that on every single fold I've had, except for the original one where it was like literally glued on. All the ones that were just basically films, I've always taken them off, never had an issue. And so I was convinced, like, ah, well, it's never gonna be an issue. And I guess maybe because of the way they designed the hinge, because it's thinner on the Z Fold set, way thinner. Maybe that inner film that's actually just a screen protector is actually a big deal. I would say I wouldn't recommend removing it after now. Now that I've done it. So people have also told me that if you charge it with it folded, that can cause an issue like this. But I've never, I mean, I guess that could be, but I charge the trifold that way too. Maybe I'll stop now. Maybe I'll stop.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

So just charge the inner screen off of that one. No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

I would definitely not recommend that because this one has a much more chance for stress. I thought about that, but I decided against it. Good thing I did because this one will probably break too. Yes. Um, it's not, I mean, my Z Fold 7 isn't completely broken yet, it's just got all these micro perforations. Eventually, I have a feeling it's gonna die. I mean, I can obviously play it, pay to have this inner screen replaced out of warranty and without Care Plus, but it's a thousand dollars to do that. So I have to decide do I want to pay a thousand dollars to do it? I mean, obviously, I like having the fold seven. I used it for some content. It was actually my main phone for a while, but just from a revenue, you know, from money perspective, I'm gonna get the fold eight in six months. Yeah. And I have all these other phones that I'll be using in the meantime. The S26 Ultra, I'll be reviewing that. By the time I get done with that review, it'll almost be time for the Z Fold 8. And I just gotta balance, like, you know, what how much content am I gonna get out of it? How much money is valuable is it to the business? You know, it's not broken yet, but I'll I'll post some pictures on X. They're kind of hard to see the micro dimples. I'll show Tori, it's actually in there. I mean, but it it definitely m makes me say that not having Care Plus, if you're an average person, would worry me a little.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Because I also Especially if you're spending so much money, yeah, because I mean obviously the trifles.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

It's another thousand on top of what the self-fold default seven is. Yeah. And then also the screen replaces$500 more than the Z Fold 7. Instead of being a thousand, it's$1,500. Yeah. That's a lot of money. I also have a dilemma myself too, because I like the trifold. And you know, I always have these dilemmas when I import the phone. My dilemma is it's a first world problem to have. But my dilemma is do I buy the US model and sell this one on eBay, or do I just keep the Korean one? Because keep in mind, this Korean one, now that the US model has come out, the value on it is going to be way, way down. I looked I looked on eBay, I bought this for$3,200 plus plus eBay's they charge tax because I'm in the US. It's$3,400 something plus shipping. It was like$3,500 because I had to pay international shipping. It was expensive because I got overnight international shipping.$3,500. Basically, if I want to sell this on eBay based on the last sales, I can sell it for$2,000 minus eBay fees.$1,700. So I'm basically losing half of what I originally paid for it.$3,500 to$1,700, probably if I sold it. So I'm losing half my money, and then I've got to buy the US model, which would be$28.99 plus tax,$3,200. So basically I'm losing$1,500 if I trade in the Korean model for the US model. It's going to cost me an extra$1,500. That's not nothing. Even though I did make money off covering this phone originally on YouTube and Sammy Gru, and we got a good amount of value from it. I wouldn't lose money, but still, that's profit that I would lose if I invest it back in. So I have to really be thinking to myself, like, am I going to use this as my main phone? And then also, of course, you know, again, what I just said about the fold seven, I've got the S26 Ultra coming up. I'm going to use that for quite a few months. And then it'll almost be fold eight time. Yeah. And then I'll also be reviewing some other phones like from Chinese brands and other stuff. Then the Pixel will be out. It's you know, it's like, do I am I gonna use it? I really have to think. I do love it though. But the thing is, the reason I may end up actually keeping the Korean model, because when people were asking me, was it would I get the US model? Is because this I really use mainly as like a tablet. And so the the main reason to get the US model, by the way, if someone's asking, like, well, Jeff, why why would you lose$1,700 on the eBay cell and then pay an extra whatever$1,500 to get the US model? That would be stupid. They're the same phone. Well, the main reason is the cellular bands on here are not the same as the US model. In fact, there's tons of 5G bands on this phone that are not compatible with the US. So it means if I put my main sim in here, you know, if I put my main sim in here and I go out and I'm doing stuff and the cell service isn't working, and my wife calls me and she can't get in touch with me, then I'm gonna be sleeping on the couch. And I don't like sleeping on the couch. I don't like being in trouble. So that's the main appeal of spending that money is that if I want to use the trifold as my main phone, if I buy the US model, I could pop my main sim in it and I can go anywhere. I can know people will get in touch with me. And yes, there are places around Phoenix the Valley where I don't get 5G. I was sitting in, you know, the other day in Pop Belly, Tori knows one of my favorite places to go get a sandwich, and I didn't have any service on this thing. I took it with me. So I had to use my S25 Ultra. Um, and that's the main reason I'm putting my main sim in the trifold, is because I just can't get calls. And my wife, obviously, the most important person, or my kid's school or something, needs to call me. You know, and also all my business stuff, too. I can't even put my one of my business sims in there because I need to get those calls too. Yep. So that's the main reason is the cellular bands. The other reason, which I thought would be a reason to not to sell the Korean one and get the US one, is I thought I might actually be able to get Care Plus if I got the US one. But Samsung said, sorry to ruin your parade on that, Jeff. That is not going to be one of the benefits of buying the US model.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

You're buying it and hopefully you take really good care of it.

Should Jeff Buy The US Trifold

SPEAKER_00 25:53

So, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I mainly do use it as a small tablet when I'm like out and about, and also when I'm at home. The only thing is, of course, if I'm out and about and the LT bands don't work, I can't really use it as a tablet because I can't browse the web or do any of the work I need to do. So uh while I I love it, I can't decide if I'm gonna do it or not. Obviously, I need to make up a decision before the morning because they're gonna go like super fast. Everyone's gonna buy them. Snaps it's gonna be instantaneous for sure. Um so we'll see. It's 10 a.m. Eastern time, 7 a.m. or 8 a.m. Arizona. So you gotta be up pretty early. Yeah, you gotta get up, bag them and tag them, bag them and tag them. Bag them, then you tag them. And then you buy. Then you tag them. Galaxy Z Trifold. So if you guys want one, make sure you wake up tomorrow and bag them and tag them. And don't forget, if you want one, make sure you go over to the Sami Guru site, get in on clicking our link, and claim your free$75 Amazon gift card. I mean, why not? Oh, and that's the other thing, by the way. Not only is there no trade-ins, of course, and also no care plus, Samsung is giving you absolutely zero pre-order deals and benefits with the trifold. Jeez, you get just getting the phone. No reserve credit, no discounts off accessories, not even a free case. So the only place you can get a pre-order deal on the trifold is at Samsung. There's literally nowhere else because the carriers are not selling the trifold, it's only at Samsung. There's literally nowhere else you can buy it, and Samsung's giving you nothing. So if you want a little bonus with your trifold, the only place you're gonna get it, right here. Sami Guru.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

So I mean, this almost just kind of feels like they're like, look, we felt like we really need it to just up our foldable game. So we're just gonna Yeah, they see this as like a test device. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

That's the you're gonna pay$3,200 to test potentially$1,500 more for screen replacement to be a beta tester for us and tell us what needs to be fixed. And thank you for the first time. And then in the second version, we'll lower the price$500 and we'll sell it to the mass public and we'll thank you for your services. Yes, and then you can maybe trade in the first edition one. We'll probably give you$500 for that, and you can trade it in for the next one and pay$2,000 for it once we sell it for$2,500. You don't get any extra uh credit for your RD testing that you did paying$4K on the very first model in nothing. Nothing, nothing at all. You get a swift kick in the butt, though. Yep, yeah. You get a swift kick in the butt for that. Yeah, you do. Um, which you know, that's something. Yeah, it is something, it's better than nothing, they might say it's better than nothing, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

What is the we don't know?

SPEAKER_00 28:25

Um, also, there's another story. It's just a a day for it's a care plus kind of day today. Um, this is for the UK and Europe, it's not for the US yet, but there's a new version of Sarah Swin Care Plus. Um, it's bringing broader coverage to the UK and Europe. It now promises unlimited repairs and longer coverage in Europe and the UK. And some of my US uh readers were asking me when we posted the story if I thought this would come to the US, and the answer is absolutely not. The only reason that this is happening is because the European Union is very, very aggressive when it comes to targeting consumer protection. And guess what? The US government, they don't care about you at all. They said, you want some protection, buy yourself a gun. This is America. We're not protecting you. You know what I mean, Tori? Go to Walmart, purchase yourself a firearm, you can probably get it right in the candy aisle, and then you'll be good to go. You know what I mean? It's true though. You could buy one at Walmart. It's not false. I'm not telling you a lie.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

It is true, but it's true though.

Zero Perks for Trifold

Why Samsung Skips Deals On Trifold

SPEAKER_00 29:34

I mean, our government doesn't care about consumer protection, which is right past the toy aisle. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, you know. And the sporting goods. I mean, hey, you know what? It's a survival of the fittest here in the US. Yes. We don't believe in protecting other people. Uh, you know, protect yourself and you know, and treat yourself, you know what I mean? Treat yourself, treat yourself. Um, so that's the care plus a lot of great care plus stories today. You know, there's usually not very many care plus stories, but today there are. Um, so more Buds4 Pro and Buds 4 leaks. We got some new leaks. People things are just leaking left and right, you know what I mean? It's a leak festival. We got the leaks, it's a leak festival, you know what I mean? So it reminds me of that song by PD Pablo, Freak a Leak. Remember that song? Yeah, I do from the 90s. What a classic. Uh, anyway, there's some renders here uh that were fetched from the Galaxy Buds APK file version 8.5.10.900. It shows the tips about 360 audio recording for the Galaxy Buds 4. So there's gonna be 360 audio recording on board. That's a new feature. So we learned that from these renders. Um, we got some more though, and that's not all, you know. But wait, there's more. Um there's more from the same APK. It shows tips about the adaptive noise control. These are for the Buds 4 Pro. So those that will be Buds 4 Pro exclusive, probably, not regular Buds 4. Um, this one shows tips about adaptive noise control again. So this is just another one. Uh this one shows tips about gesture controls for the earbuds. So this shows you the gesture controls are going to be along the stem again. It looks like they're basically some pinch gestures, which is what we had before. That's kind of standard for you know the ones that have these stems on them. Uh this one's more of that. 360 audio recording. I'm trying to see if there's anything different. These are just showing you some more renders and colors. It looks like it's gonna be like a silver and like a space gray. Samsung's basically going full on Apple with their color schemes on this. Yeah. Uh, this is the interpreter using a button. So in the Budsport Pro, you'll be able to turn on the interpreter feature using a button. So you'll basically just, you know, as someone's talking another language to you, it'll automatically trans it'll auto-translate it into English or whatever you want in your buds. So as you're talking to someone, they can be like, hola, como estás muy bien, gracias. E2? That's my Spanish. Oh, yeah, it is. That's that's four semesters. Muy bien. Four semesters of university Spanish right there. Uh, and then the last image shows tips for preparing your earbuds with a phone or tablet, which I mean that's pretty standard. There's a little button on the case, which we kind of expect for buds. And also, if you have a galaxy phone, you don't even need to do that because as soon as you open the top the lid on the case, it automatically detects it. Oh, yeah. Um, presumably, a lot of you guys who are buying the S26 Ultra will also, or S26 device, period, will be uh probably purchasing Buds4 Pro because presumably, at least we hope, and we can talk about this a little bit now. Uh, we hope that Samsung will give us some discounts on the accessories when you buy a phone, like we have in the past. But there is a lot of um question marks right now around what kind of deals you're gonna get because Samsung has been known for the last, I don't know, it's been six, seven years where they basically offer like maximum trade-in value and you know,$50 to$100 reserve credit, you know, 25 to 30% off all the accessories, including any new headphones or watches, um, all of that stuff on top of any education or workplace discounts that you might get, and a free storage upgrade at launch from 256 to 512 or 512 to one terabyte. There's a lot of questions though about is Sam are Sam is Samsung gonna offer those same things. Is Samsung like new year, new me? Yeah, so so here's my take on on this, which is again, I don't know any of this stuff for sure. Or or maybe I do, you don't know, but this is my take with the disclaimer that I don't know any of this stuff for sure, because you know, we have to say that. Uh oh, also there's a rose gut gold color of the buds for um Nicole will be probably pretty psyched about those. They look nice. Yeah, I might go with the black, slash they like space gray on the stem, but they have black ear tips, and you got silver and the white, and then you got the rose gold. Anyway, here's my thoughts.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

Yeah, I do.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

Reserve credit. Uh, I think reserve credit will probably stick around, but it'll be much less than last year. If you look at the Galaxy Book Six series, they put up the reserve for that during CS. Last year, when they put up the book reserve, I think it was 50. And guess what it was this year? 30. And so what do I think the reserve credit will be for the S26 series?$30. That's what I think will happen.$50 to$30. Half of the lowest it's ever been. The lowest it ever was was$50. I think they'll still do reserve credit because they want to get you to sign up. Yeah, but they're gonna cheap out, it's gonna be way less than usual. Probably half. We gotta make some money. I'd say$25 is possible because the books, the Galaxy Book 6 is they cost more than the phones. So that was$30. So, like, oh, if we can give you$30 for the laptop, we can only give you 25 for the phone. Right. You know, uh trade-in values. I think trade-in values will be slightly lowered. You think so? Yeah, trade-in value, they're still gonna let you do trade-ins, they're not gonna remove trade-in completely like they did on the trifold. Yeah, that would be insane. If they remove the trade-in completely, they're not gonna sell hardly any phones, and we're gonna be screwed because we're gonna sell no mystery boxes. People are not gonna buy as many phones without the trade-in. I can't.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

We need some trade-in.

SPEAKER_00 35:18

Some people will still buy them, but I think in order to protect their profit margins, they're gonna lower the trade-in values. I would imagine for the top models, you probably get my 100 less, maybe, which people are gonna not like. I bet my prediction. S25 Ultra last year, the S24 Ultra, I think, was 800, maybe even 900 at launch day. I think it's gonna be 700, 750. Z Fold 7, I think maybe 850, 900 towards your S26 Ultra if you want to trade a Z Fold 7 in. Those are lower for sure. And I think from there they'll just obviously get lower for the older models. So whatever you trade in is gonna give you less credit this year.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

Um what else? The accessory discounts.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

Oh, yeah. I think the accessory discounts will stick around. Because obviously Samsung wants to sell volume of the buds as well because that helps their business a lot. And also they have big margins on earbuds. They might not offer discounts across everything. Maybe they won't give it on the watches because those are older stock, but they want to sell a bunch of volume of those buds and get people in that ecosystem and also their higher margins on the buds, they don't cost a lot to produce those buds. They're huge margins. They'll probably give you the discount on the buds, probably the cases too. Those are huge. Those cases cost like$5 to make and they sell them for$65. So, you know, if you give me a discount and I can get it for$40, well, you still made a$35 profit. Yeah, right. That's pretty good, you know. If you can make an 800% profit, that's a winning business model. So I think they'll probably still give you the discount on that. Restorage upgrade. A lot of questions about that one.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

Yeah, I would actually be interested on that one.

Buds 4/Pro Leaks And Features

SPEAKER_00 36:55

I do not see the free storage upgrade happening this year. And the reason is RAM memory prices, everything to do with the right. Yeah, everything's skyrocketed. Yep, skyrocket. And if you're wondering why Samsung is changing all these things about the pre-order deals, that's why. They're trying to make sure that they can absorb the cost of those rising components by not doing one thing that they don't want to do. For whatever reason, TMRO does not want to raise the actual prices of the devices. Yeah. So he said instead of raising the prices, we'll just take away some of the pre-order incentives and we'll spend less on our pre-order marketing, which means paying less money necessarily to people like me for reserves and stuff. There probably won't be as much promotion of that potentially as there was in the past. Um, so they're spending less on the marketing, probably lower trading credit, getting rid of the storage upgrade, less reserve credit, potentially still keeping the accessory type discounts if you bundle them. I would probably guess. All that together is you know, will that discourage people from buying? I mean, it's a strategy. I mean, it's one way to go. Personally, personally, if it were me doing the marketing, I mean, obviously, you know, I'm not Samsung. You know, you can see I'm a guy, I'm not a company. Yeah, no, I'm not a I'm not a one trillion dollar company. I'm just the guru. I'm just a guy. But I would have raised the prices of the devices by$100 and kept all the pre-order incentives. That's what I would have done. Because basically, if you I mean, I guess maybe they're somehow saving maybe a little more than that by doing the other things, but not a lot. Yeah, it's about$100 you're getting screwed out of with lower trade-in and the storage upgrade credit. Because the trade-in value, it's kind of like it doesn't translate to a dollar for dollar savings for Samsung on the profit because they sell those for more than they they're giving you a certain amount of value, but they sell them for more than that in the Referb store. So they're not really losing that money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they're gaining some value, but yeah, I mean, they're basically screwing you out of like$100 to$150 worth of value this year over what they would have given you last year. I would have just rather raised the price of all the devices$100 and then kept the deals the same.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

Yeah, I I would from like a common uh everyday consumer type of person, uh, I agree. I actually would have raised up, raised it by 100 just because, you know, um we're in a very cost-centric, you know, or we are a very cost-centric society where um, you know, we're we're looking at that and we want to get savings wherever we can. And so, and we also under I feel like most consumers understand that hey, every year there's a good chance that a lot of the electronics that we enjoy will probably go up a little bit. So I think a hundred dollars when you're talking about cell phones is fair.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

Keep in mind, they haven't raised the prices in a long time. Well, yeah, no, just like Apple, yeah, it's like Apple years. So it's like, I mean, just from that perspective, I feel like getting rid of the deals makes people angrier.

SPEAKER_01 39:52

Well, yeah, no, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, general consumers, yeah. They're all like if they're looking at between do I get Apple or do I get Samsung? But if I'm looking at, man, I could get all this, and I just gotta pay$100 more. I'm down because what deals does Apple give you? Nothing. Yeah, and that's what I was gonna ask actually, do you get anything with Apple?

SPEAKER_00 40:12

Apple give you, like if you want to trade into your iPhone from last year, they'll be like, Oh, yeah, cool, give you$500 for it. And that's like, bro, I I paid$1,400 for this last year. Like, that's cool. Yeah, and but Samsung, they're like, okay, you know, you paid$1,300 last year, we'll give you eight or nine hundred. People like people respect that. Yeah, because it's like basically they usually give you, they've usually given you more than the market value. So it's like, well, that's more than I can even sell it for. So they're gonna give me and they give it to you right up front. They don't make you mail it in and get a rebate, they give you the$900 off the price of the phone.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

Going in the checkout, right?

SPEAKER_00 40:43

Yeah, that's what people love about it. So if it was me, I would have kept that deal the same because if someone's like, oh, well, the price went up$100, but they're like, oh, my S25 Ultra is still worth$900, no big deal. There you go. I still get my free storage upgrade. So I'm basically getting a free$120 storage upgrade, and you're still giving me, you know,$50 reserve credit. Well, I'm gonna still buy. I don't care if the price went up$100. Yeah, so I I personally disagree with T M Rowe's strategy. I mean, obviously the guy's a lot wealthier, he's doing better than me, so who cares? He doesn't care. He doesn't care. He's he's laughing from me from uh his Korean mansion on a hilltop somewhere in in Seoul. But I don't think that would sell as much. I think I think if you had the chance, obviously we can't do it because one, I don't know, in Samsung, as I mentioned. Yeah, but if we and also just a guy, and also parallel universes aren't a thing, but if we could run the launch twice, once with their strategy and once with my strategy in a parallel universe, it's just exactly the same and all the variables controlled. I think your strategy would make more money by in the long run. That's my guess. No, no, I agree. Um, you know, and since it's my podcast, I can say that. I don't know Samsung, but I do on the podcast. Yeah, um all rights reserved. That's the nice thing. You know, same guru, copyright, all rights reserved, trademark 2026. Oh, yes. Umiguru. But anyway, I mean uh it's gonna be a very interesting launch. This is gonna be one of the most interesting launches in a long time. It's it's basically like it's it's it's such an interesting fight. Like, if if you cover this every day, because like the S26 Ultra is shaping up to be like a pretty sizable upgrade, but then Samsung is like taking away some of their usual stuff, and they're like changing some of the incentives. So it's like people are like, I really want the phone, but I don't get the incentives. I want the phone, but I don't get the incentives. Will people actually go out and buy them? Which obviously I hope they do, so they get their mystery box and we make money and everyone's happy.

SPEAKER_01 42:30

I still think they will, but I think they're gonna I think they're gonna miss out on some people.

SPEAKER_00 42:34

Yeah, some people who aren't the hard hardcore people, and luckily a lot of our fans are those people. That's good for us. That's why we we do the mystery boxes for the people who really love this industry. Um, and and you know, people some people don't understand this industry. That's true, but we do. We do understand the industry. You're at the same guru, and we we make sure you get nice bonuses in every single box. Um but yeah, I mean, I think it's gonna be very interesting to see how many people will upgrade, what will the numbers look like. I'll be very curious to see what the actual trade-in credits look like once we actually get you know the the numbers. Samsung releases you know vague numbers, but see kind of how many people purchased, you know, right at launch. I mean, we'll get a good idea. Yeah since obviously we get more clicks than almost any anyone. We'll we'll see how many people order and see what it looks like compared to last year. Um, but the privacy display is looking like really good. I mean, the display upgrades on the S256 Ultra, just to run them down. You've got a better anti-glare on the screen, better anti-glare coding. You've got a 10-bit display, which for those of you who don't know, means basically a lot more colors that display can show. A lot, you're gonna get a lot more poppy colors, you're gonna see a lot more range of color in the display. You've got the privacy display feature, which basically lets you hide anything on your phone, not just from specific left to right angles. You can have it hide the pixels of anything. So if you want it to just hide your notification bubbles so that no one can Your notification bubbles as you're typing, you can do that. You can make it so that those just are black. So if someone's looking over your shoulder and they're like, Oh, who's texting him? Doesn't they can't see it?

SPEAKER_01 44:09

Can't see.

S26 Pre‑Order Deal Predictions

SPEAKER_00 44:10

Oh no. Like you can't see me, like John Cena. My time is now. So you know, my time is up, my time is now. You can't see me. My time is now. It's the franchise boy. I'm shining now. Anyway, I won't do a whole rendition, but that's an amazing feature. Couple that with, you know, faster charging. People have wanted faster charging for a long time. They do. And given it's not 100-watt charging, but still 60 watt charging is something. But we'll take it. They'll take it. The processor is obviously going to be more improved and efficient. We get at least some camera upgrades. Now that's the one thing. Like if they had upgraded the camera to the way they should have upgraded the camera, there'd be no why didn't they just do that? If they did that, there'd be no question.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

I mean, I know uh honestly.

SPEAKER_00 44:46

Yeah, it would have cost more money, of course, because if they changed the sensor, I'm sure. But they would have sold so much volume, it wouldn't have mattered because if they had upgraded the camera, this would be like a complete, total upgrade. The only thing I can really say that's kind of meh is that they didn't upgrade the main camera sensor. Everything else about this phone, like I like. The only other thing I can say is if you don't like a squared off, if you don't like the rounded design, here's what I'll say though. We've seen in the renders um now this the this is not nearly as rounded as, and I'll show you right now, Tori. This is not nearly as rounded as we originally thought. And I actually got the cases for the mystery box, you know, and all these boxes that are surrounding us right now, and the ones we put away the other day. Um but I have some renders I can show you that uh geez, our site search is slow. We gotta fix that. Um, for sure, for sure, for sure. That's on my list. We've had a little bit of a server issue today, though, because uh for some reason last night something happened that made site search a little show. But if you look at this, this is the pure white render. This is not nearly as rounded at the corners as we thought. Oh, yeah. You see, it's still got a little of that note looking squared off design.

SPEAKER_01 45:58

It does, it does.

SPEAKER_00 45:58

So it doesn't look like you know, if you were worried, if you were someone who was worried and you were saying, Oh, I'm not gonna get the S26 Ultra because I will I like them more squared off, like Note style, it's not that round, it's not like an iPhone 17 Pro Max. Yeah, I have one of those. That's way rounder corners than this. And the cases that I got from the mystery box, we I looked at them, I was originally thought that they were wrong, and I was gonna get angry at the supplier I bought them from and be like, Why do you send me the wrong cases for? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh and they were like, No, those are right. And then I seen more renders, and I think that they actually were correct because I thought the cake the cases didn't look round enough to me in the corners that they sent me. I was like, these can't be S26 Ultra cases, but I think they are because of the renders we've seen.

SPEAKER_01 46:38

Yeah, no, it looks nice. It looks really strong.

SPEAKER_00 46:40

It looks nice. I think they struck a nice balance between the round and the square. So I think if you were someone who was on the fence because you didn't like the rounded design, uh, well, maybe that's not such a problem. Maybe you shouldn't worry so much about that. That's probably okay. Here's another one. Look, here's the um here it is in a UAG case. These renders leaked from the UAG website. Oh yeah, it doesn't look that round at all.

SPEAKER_01 47:03

No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 47:04

It really is.

SPEAKER_01 47:04

Actually, the back looks really good. It does, yeah. Actually, they look the back looks nice.

SPEAKER_00 47:09

I like the new camera island. And yeah, I I think you don't have to worry about the design too much if you were too worried about it being like an iPhone type roundedness. It doesn't seem like a big deal. Um, we also talked about this. Josh, one of our writers, wrote up this article here about Now Brief. We were talking about this on the podcast last week, and so I decided to make a little write-up. Now Brief has gotten a lot better over the last year, and I wanted to highlight a couple of things that Josh wrote about that I didn't even know can show up in Now Brief. Um pretty crazy. So, first of all, uh inside the Now Brief now, you can get more contextual information, like your goals inside health. Uh, you can uh this one I did know because I use it a lot. You can get parking spot reminders. Uh like if you parked in a specific spot, it'll show exactly where you parked.

SPEAKER_01 47:59

And I it started giving me suggestions to like when I'm pulling up, they're like, Do you want a uh a parking reminder?

SPEAKER_00 48:07

Yeah, very, very useful because I always I never know where I parked.

SPEAKER_01 48:10

I know I'm always like taking taking pictures of like the cross street, so I know like where did I park or taking a picture of something?

SPEAKER_00 48:17

No, I haven't seen this one, but this is probably because I do not add a lot of coupons and vouchers to my um Samsung wallet. But Josh said that if you add vouchers to your wallet, it'll remind you when those coupons expire. So, like he had a coupon for a free sausage roll, um, like a breakfast uh sandwich at a restaurant or a store called Greg's, and it expired in 15 days, and it popped up on the now brief that said this expires in 15 days. Don't forget to use it. So that's cool. If you do use Samsung Wallet for coupons and stuff, which I know some people do, that's a nice value add.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

No, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 48:57

And it also does pop up, obviously, if you're traveling, like I will be next month going to unpack. It gives you your boarding pass. And so it shows you, you know, when you're flying or when you're in the airport, when you're about to get on a flight, it your now your your now brief always has your boarding pass, so you can always access it.

SPEAKER_01 49:14

We like that.

SPEAKER_00 49:15

You can edit selfies uh from prompts using nano banana. So like it'll give you some suggestions like give me a vintage grunge look, make a custom minifigure, make a photo look like instant film. Uh, it'll take photos out of your camera roll and ask if you want to like edit them using AI, which I don't know if everybody's that's your jam. I mean, I like some photo edits, but I still like to play with my own manual photo edits personally, just me. I mean, sometimes you know, AI is useful for editing, but uh YouTube and Spotify suggestions, which has been there for a while. Oh, and this one is one that I did not even know was there. If you have a smart connected lamp or light source in your room, it'll actually give you the illuminance reading in lux of your smart things connected light or lamp. So it says here on his now brief, um, the illuminance in your bedroom at 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. was 48 lux, but five lux or less would have been ideal for sleep environment. So it'll give you sleep environment reminders, not only things about light, but also sound and other things that could distract from you getting your optimal sleep. So we'll give you information about that as long as you have those smart things appliances. Yeah. So Josh has a smart things connected lamp or light inside his bed.

SPEAKER_01 50:33

Actually, pretty cool and very helpful.

SPEAKER_00 50:35

So yeah, they've added quite a few nice features to Now Brief. I mean, only a year on. And so, you know, we wanted to give Samsung a good job. So we said good job, Samsung. Because you know, sometimes it's good, you know, to hear a good job, you know. No, it is. Sometimes you want to hear a good job in this industry. So you really do. We wanted to, you know, just give them a little pat on the back because sometimes it's hard being Samsung, and I get that. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes it's hard being me too. So um this rumor is a spicy nugget, but I feel like we hear this every year. Samsung, uh, some early rumor claims the S27 series could go all in on Snapdragon. Where have I heard that before? Only every other year. Yeah, right. Around this time, right when the current series is about to come out, people are like, you know what? Next year they're gonna go all Snapdragon. Yeah, yeah.

unknown 51:23

Everyone gets the Snapdragon.

Design Renders And Cases Reality

SPEAKER_00 51:25

And then like three months later, it's like, well, maybe the base model S27 won't have the Snapdragon, it might have the Exynos. And then like three months after that, it's like, well, maybe the S27 and the S27 Plus won't have the Snapdragon, it'll have the Exynos. And then like three months after that, it's like, well, we've confirmed the S27, S27 Plus both have the Exynos, and the Ultra is the only one with the Snapdragon around the globe.

SPEAKER_01 51:47

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 51:48

So just wait for those headlines to be coming soon to a Sammy Guru.

SPEAKER_01 51:51

No shockers, no shockers.

SPEAKER_00 51:53

Wait for those headlines to come to a Sami Guru uh post near you. So just check out on that. It'll be coming soon. Exactly three months. Just set a calendar reminder for yourself to check out Sami Guru and you can read about it. Uh oh, Samsung's kind suit cases for the S26 has leaked. So these are their official cases. I'm still not convinced. I mean, these images are here, but I'm still not fully well convinced because these popped up on eBay too. I ordered two of them from an eBay seller. I think it's in Hong Kong or something. I don't know. I mean, the eBay seller has 86% feedback, which you know, I don't know about that. It's a little sketchy. Yeah, right. Because you know me, I always say, never trust who has 86% feedback. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. That is what you say. That is what you say. Exactly that. I'm like a 98% feedback and above kind of guy. But also the colors don't look. I mean, maybe they are. This one looks a little too orange. Like, this is an orange.

SPEAKER_01 52:50

Yeah, no, that one actually does look.

SPEAKER_00 52:52

It's kind of weird that Samsung would have an orange case. I mean, I guess they could. Yeah, they could. They've never had, oh do they have they? I don't think they've ever had a really bright kind suit like or leather case. The blue, the black, and the bla and the gray and the brown all look like Samsung jams. The orange is a little out of place, but I mean, I guess it could happen. Um, but basically, this also shows the same thing that we saw before. This still doesn't look that round, it looks still pretty squared off. Yeah. So, you know, these cases also confirm whether they're real or not. I I don't know. I'll let you know when I get when I get them in the mail, and then they're fake, and then I have to eat the eat the cost. That's the fun part of being of being the guru. Um, these games are popping up everywhere now where it uses a physical thing to like control something. Remember how I told you about the game Foldybird where you fold your screen? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And actually, now I think about it, that's probably how my fold seven screen got messed up.

SPEAKER_01 53:48

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:49

Because I played that game. I'm gonna sue the guy who made that. Um, I'm just kidding. Um but I did play that a little while. Um, and this one now brings the classic uh snake game to your galaxy watch with the rotating bezel. You can actually rotate the bezel to move the snake around in the game.

SPEAKER_01 54:06

See, that's why I need a rotating bezel.

SPEAKER_00 54:09

Isn't that cool though? And this one, see, watch here it is. Here's the clip from Reddit. This is actually cool. I mean, this is really cool. Look at this. Look how you can turn the snake by just turning the bezel. That's awesome, man. Yeah. I might have to just you know get my Galaxy Watch 8 Classic back ready to go on my wrist every day so I can play this game. Uh, and I think this is much less risky than the Foldie Bird, where the fold screen is a little a little more delicate. I wouldn't play that game all the time. Foldie bird, but this one I think you'd be okay. Because the bezel, the rotating bezel on the Watch 8 Classic is not really fragile or anything. Should be okay. Has a few bugs, according to some of the people who've played it. Um, a couple of our writers tried it. Seems like it's pretty fun though. Um Samsung's 25 watt chi two charger surfaced ahead of the S26 launch, which means there's probably built-in G2 magnets. I would think. I hope. I'm hoping we're praying. I am hoping and I've been praying for moments like this.

SPEAKER_01 55:10

I'm about to get down on my knees to pray.

SPEAKER_00 55:14

I've been praying for moments like this.

SPEAKER_01 55:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:17

You know, and if they do drop it, and they do drop the G2 magnets inside the phone, I'm gonna say I love this for us. Oh, yeah. Because I do.

SPEAKER_01 55:25

I want G2 and the watches.

SPEAKER_00 55:26

You know, we need G2 in the watches too.

SPEAKER_01 55:28

Yeah. Because there's a lot of times where I'm trying to use a friend's charger, but I'm like, oh, I can't because uh it's not G2.

SPEAKER_00 55:37

I keep asking myself when's the Q3 coming, you know?

SPEAKER_01 55:40

True.

SPEAKER_00 55:40

That's what we want to know.

SPEAKER_01 55:42

And I think we're all uh ready to hopeful for the Qi 4.

SPEAKER_00 55:45

The Qi 4. You gotta have it.

SPEAKER_01 55:47

Yeah, gotta have it in the future near U.

SPEAKER_00 55:49

It's like cold stone. I like it, love it. Gotta have it. Gotta have it.

SPEAKER_01 55:52

Gotta have it.

Now Brief Gets Actually Useful

SPEAKER_00 55:53

Uh the S26 series will also support satellite cognitivity. I don't think that's really surprising to anybody. We all assume that. Uh Samsung apparently flirted with a camera button for the Galaxy S26 series. They flirted with it. They're like, oh hi.

SPEAKER_01 56:05

I don't think we need one. They're like, Hi, camera button, how are you today?

SPEAKER_00 56:08

No, that's how they flirted with it. What do you think about that, Dori? Should they have should they have married that idea or should they just flirted it and dumped it? What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 56:16

No, uh-uh, no. I I don't think we need a camera button.

SPEAKER_00 56:20

So to speak, uh, smash or pass on the camera button. I mean, I'm gonna pass. Yeah, it's a pass it. Can't smash it. Um, basically, just like the iPhone, you'd have a little camera control that lets you get your zoom and other controls. Samsung thought about doing that. They decided not to. Um, I'm gonna have to say pass on that. Uh, the new A37 and A57 devices uh also leaked, and we covered those. Those will be coming out potentially after the S26 launch. The purple on the A57 actually looks a lot better than the purple on the S26 Ultra.

SPEAKER_01 56:53

I wish this was the purple on the S26 Ultra because it's again the I think it's another instance of again the lower the cheaper phones always get the nicer colors, nicer colors when we're getting these basic colors on the main devices.

SPEAKER_00 57:05

They're like come on now. Are you buying a phone for uh$400? Would you like an iridescent gold or green? Yeah, right. Like are you buying a phone for$1,500? Would you like a black or a white or a silver or a different gray or a different silver? Or tan? Or how about silver purple or silver pink or gray purple or gray pink or gray blue or silver blue? No, you don't like gray, silver, white or black? Well, too bad. Yeah, maybe you should buy it. Maybe you should buy a cheaper phone then. Yep. Um, so yeah, they have those colors coming. The A37, A57, which may have a slight delay. The A57 is honestly probably gonna be a good phone. The A56, I tried it last year for like a week when I got the review. It's a pretty good phone, honestly. I mean, the A series, the A50 series is a good phone, and I would recommend it. Uh, it's actually wait a second. Whoa, there I am. You gotta you gotta try one of those if you're someone who wants to save some money. It's really on par with like the S FE series. So, like if you have an S25 FE, you probably could save some money and just get the A57 uh if you wanted to get the next FE phone because it's slightly cheaper. It's got basically the same kind of you know, general internal upgrades and stuff like that. So just some personal advice if you guys want to roll that way.

SPEAKER_02 58:25

Um that's the 10-minute display. What else we got? Trying to go through everything here. Z-flip trading deals. Yeah, trying to see if there's anything else crazy.

SPEAKER_00 58:44

Uh oh, the Galaxy Book 6 series did go on sale in Korea this week. A lot of people were asking me if I was gonna buy one and import it to review it early because it's not coming to the US until sometime in March. Oh, I think it's a good idea. It probably will be announced. It'll be announced with the S20 uh six series and unpacked. It'll probably go on sale in like early March. That's how they usually do it for whatever reason. They launch in Korea and then six weeks later, it'll come to the US. I'm not gonna import one because the importers want way too much money. Wait, the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra to import it, they want it's gonna be$4,500.

unknown 59:18

Jeez.

SPEAKER_01 59:19

Nah, I'm good.

SPEAKER_00 59:20

It's probably only gonna sell in the US for like$2,800. So I'd be paying$1,700 extra dollars to make a review five weeks early. That's not gonna get that much interest to be worth it. No, we're just not gonna make enough revenue, there's not enough value off that. So sorry, guys. As much as I would love to you know hook you up. I'm all about hooking up the people, but uh can't do it for that price. It's just too crazy, man.

SPEAKER_01 59:44

It's a no for me, dog.

Snapdragon Rumors, Again

SPEAKER_00 59:46

It's a it's gonna be it's gonna be a no for me, dog. Um see what else we got. The beta for 8.5 is ending, and this is something that a lot of people have also been talking about. Some people keep asking all this stuff about the S25 series getting the beta before the S26 launch. That is never gonna happen. If that happens, I will shave my head live on YouTube on the podcast. Really? Yeah, okay. I don't know. If the S25 series gets a wide full rollout globally, not like someone downloaded an early test build of it in one country, but everybody starts getting it on unlock models. Yeah. Before February 25th, I'll shave my head live on YouTube. It's never gonna happen though, because Samsung is not gonna launch their newest software on the old phone right before the new phone comes out. That would just be a terrible marketing decision. Oh, yeah. No one's doing that. No, no, let's be real. I keep hearing this from various leakers who probably should know they know better. It's never gonna happen. The builds on the test server, they look at the test servers and they look at the builds and like, oh, it's getting so close. Maybe the the official builds are there, they're testing them. That does not mean Samsung is gonna pull the trigger in the next 27 days. Now, could they maybe be super generous? Maybe in their maybe TM Rowe is like, in my ultimate benevolence, I will bestow upon you the gift of a lifetime. Yep, and I will give you S25 users 1UI8.5 two weeks after the unpacked event. He might do that. He might decide to give you 1U8.5 like the day the S26 series shows up in stores, but he's not gonna do it before unpacked because he still wants to talk about the cool features that are in 1UI8.5 Unpacked and try to get some people to pre-order. It would just be morally remiss, you know, in the sense that it would just not make as much money if you consider making money a moral clause, which I do, you know, and TM Rowe does for sure. I guarantee you that. Um, he's not gonna do that. It's just not. So, you know, we gotta stop, stop all that talk. And then also there's some other thing that I saw where people are saying, oh, this this this comes up like every year too, it seems like. People keep saying the S25 or the S26 series is gonna go on sale for pre-orders on the 26th, the day after Unpacked. That is also never going to happen. The whole point of holding Unpacked is to get the hype up so people buy right away. Yes. The reason this rumor always gets started, Tori, I'll explain it to you, is that people always get these leaks from these retailers in Korea that say that the sales started on the 26th. Well, guess what? When it's the 25th in the United States, guess what day it is in Korea? The 26th. That's how time zones work. And so, you know, that's how it works. Yeah, you know, it's like I I don't really know else to say. Like maybe, maybe you just gotta read up, do some reading, yeah, go to Chat GPT and get Chat GPT to explain time zones to you. You know, explain how time zones work. And you will see that is when it's the 25th of February in the US. A lot of that day is actually the 26th. And by the time Unpacked happens, it'll be the 26th in Korea.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:00

So if you're reading Korean marking materials, do a little quick math on a napkin, carry the seven. Carry the seven. Pre-orders actually will start right after Unpacked. Yeah. In fact, as soon as Unpack goes live, just like they have every other damn time. So why people keep saying that, I don't know. I don't know either. Every year, people are like, it looks not like this is the first time. It's like it looks like people they're like, it looks like Samsung's changing their strategy. No, they're gonna put the phones on sale the day after Unpack. I think it's an open book test.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:30

I mean, like, what sense would that make? Same strategy.

Official Cases, Colors, Skepticism

SPEAKER_00 1:03:33

Why would you spend all this money, invite all the media to come to San Francisco so that you have maximum media coverage and exposure, and then be like, oh yeah, by the way, you can order the phones tomorrow. Now, who does that? Apple does that. They don't actually let people order the phones until three days after the event. Why does Apple do that? Because they have a bunch of mindless idiots for I'm sorry, if you have no iPhone on YouTube, but they got a lot of people who will just buy whatever. They don't even care about you know, they don't get hyped up for the event because they're just buying it because it's got an Apple logo on it. Yeah, so they're like, oh, we just sell it 5 a.m. in the morning on Friday. They're like, who cares if these people get to work or not? Apple's like, we don't care about our customers, they'll just buy it. They're just they're drones, they'll buy it. But you're not gonna do that if you're Samsung. You got the people hyped up for a reason.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:17

And their fans care about the specs and stuff, and they're really like, you know, they're riled up, they're hot and heavy. Yeah, they are they're hot and bothered by the time they watch The Unpacked by the all the hype TM Row takes the stage. They're clicking that cart button.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:30

Yeah, they are there like and the people love it. Myself, my wife, my kids, that's part of the fun, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:36

Everyone, Apple can't give you that. No, they're you can't be adding your new iPhone to the cart while Tim Cook's on the stage. You gotta wait three days until Friday. That's part of the exclusive benefit that Samsung gives you. Yeah. The anxiety of trying to watch the event while you also order your own phone and try to make sure that Samsung doesn't screw you out of trade-in deals because usually when the site goes live, first they don't have half of the stuff working properly. Yes. And also making sure you claim your mystery box from SammyGuru.com.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:03

I know.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:03

By clicking on the link that we send out via text message and email on launch day. We'll also send you one two days before just to remind you, so you can go ahead and bookmark the link, make sure you're good to go for launch day. That's a service we provide for free. A lot of people don't realize how much value that adds, but that's something people don't understand about this industry.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:19

Oh no, they don't. They they wish they did, but they don't.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:22

There's a lot of other people out there that always ask me, Jeff, how do you do it? And then the main reason is because I do understand a lot of things about the industry that allow me to provide these services to people. I think people appreciate them.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:34

And we will be live streaming. So we'll be able to help you out too. And Tori have questions.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:39

Tori and Colin will be live streaming the whole time. And when I join, too, if if you want, all three of us will help you pick your color between silver purple, silver blue, silver pink, black, and white. So if you have a particular shade of silver, you're leading. You're leaning to you're leaning to dark yeah. If you're leaning to dark silver or light silver or completely silver silver that's supposed to be white, we can walk you through the decision.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we we we get it that there's a lot of silver to to really sometimes there's so many choices that it's just hard to make it in your mind.

Watch Bezel Snake And Qi2 Charger

SPEAKER_00 1:06:19

Yes. And you know, if you're stuck with an like indecision, we you can come through. That's another free service we offer. A lot of people will really appreciate that. And we can also walk you through how you know how the mystery boxes work too. You know, we're happy to to do that if you want to try to understand how the process works. If you're you're new, and you know, if you have a friend that's never participated, maybe you listen to the podcast for a while, but you have a friend who's buying an S26 Ultra and or an S26, S26 Plus, you you they want to understand the mystery boxes, just come on over. Yeah, Tori and Colin will be explaining the whole process. Yeah, it's very simple. Yeah, just buy with our link. It goes directly to the Samsung site, it's not anything special, just gives us a commission. We reinvest that commission into giving you guys free stuff, and all you gotta do is just submit your order receipt. We don't need any of your billing info uh on the order receipt, just need to order the devices you ordered so we know what cases to send you. Uh give us a shipping address, and uh you'll be on your merry way. Yeah. And we'll start shipping the first wave March 3rd, second wave March 10th, and then the final wave March 17th. We're gonna ship around a thousand boxes per wave. I have enough inventory to do 3,000 boxes. Hopefully we'll get there. I think we're going to. And if we get more than that, then I'll order more inventory and we'll get them all shipped by the end of November of March. That's why I left myself enough time for the last wave in case there's a crazy amount of demand. We have two weeks to kind of get all of it out. But we will get them all out by the end of March. No, we will. Either that, you know, it's like 50 cents. I'm gonna get rich or die trying.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:44

Yeah. I'm gonna get rich or die trying.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:47

That's one of my favorite uh albums. Get rich or die trying.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:51

So this is I was actually listening to the album. Were you on the way here? Yeah. Oh not on the way here, but uh, I think it was like the other night or two.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:58

It's a classic. Yeah, it was, yeah. That's actually most of the things.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:01

I was like, man, I gotta listen to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:03

Yeah, that's my theme for this launch. That's what we call the S26 Ultra launch. You know, we we gotta start making themes. We do need a theme, like mystery box theme. That's actually the next evolution I was thinking about. Yeah. It was like we have themed items, and so like the theme of one of them could be something like, you know, mafioso. I don't know. Yeah, like space. I mean, can't do like Star Wars because I'll get sued.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:24

Oh, yeah, no. But like, you know, a theme.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:27

Like people have theme parties, but we could have like theme boxes or theme launches. The theme of this one is Samiguru, get rich or die trying. Yeah. And so hopefully it works.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:37

Next year when we have more time to think of this, we yeah, we got a lot of stuff going on. By the S27 launch.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:43

I come up with a lot of great ideas. And also, since we're almost into the podcast, you know, I'm just doing more shameless promo, but it's all good, all a good phone. We're gonna be opening the Sammy Guru Forums. I've been putting a lot of work on that. The rewards dashboard is almost ready. I don't know if it's gonna be fully ready by the S26 Ultra launch. I've been working on it a whole year, but I can tell you when it does launch, it's actually gonna work. I put a lot of effort into making sure I thought of fixing everything. It actually does look really good. I mean, it finally matches the site theme. The links are there, it tracks the points. I just don't want something to break. And since this is such a big launch, we may still stick with the regular verification forums and then roll this out for the fold eight launch because it's just a smaller launch. It might be better to test it on the foldable launch. This is a massive launch, it's like two or three times bigger in terms of number of people than the foldables. But the forums will be launching in the next few weeks, and we're very excited about the forums, so you guys can check that out, and those will be coming up very soon. Uh anything else, Tori? Uh nothing but keep expanding your galaxy.