SammyGuru with Jeff Springer
SammyGuru with Jeff Springer
Samsung's Betting on AI For Galaxy S26 Ultra - Will It Backfire?
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
We break down Samsung’s low‑key pre‑launch strategy, why AI is the headline, and where the S26 lineup actually moves the needle. Buds 4 Pro looks like the sleeper star, while the Trifold proves foldables can feel solid without feeling first‑gen.
• tire mishap detour and quick banter
• unpacked travel plans and livestream giveaways
• trade‑ins and storage upgrades uncertain across regions
• AI‑heavy ads vs human storytelling
• S26 hardware: brighter M14 display, 60 W charging, small camera tweaks
• no built‑in magnets trade‑offs with S Pen
• hands‑on dummy S26 Ultra design notes
• Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro pricing, case redesign, likely audio gains
• Trifold review: durability, battery, DeX, camera compromises
• Q&A on 1 TB pricing and possible XR teaser
• what we’d change at Samsung: sensors, updates, midrange cleanup, tablet apps
• final logistics for stream, mystery box, and shipping waves
Join our Unpacked stream for giveaways and the mystery box: “Hit the notify me button and fill out the verification form to claim your box.”
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
Welcome back, everybody. This is episode number fifty-six of the Sammy Guru Podcast. My name is Jeff Springer. With me as always, my co-host Tori. Tori, say hi. Yeah, how's it going? And uh I kind of lied to you guys because I told you guys over on X and the other socials on Wednesday, I think, we were gonna do this podcast. And it just didn't work out. Tori had a little flat tire situation on his way to the office. It was the worst. And uh so we didn't quite get to do it Wednesday, but I did save that thread. So all the questions that people asked, uh, we'll still get to them. Tori, you want to tell them what happened on your way here?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. So uh I was leaving from work. Uh I'm I'm about 30 minutes from the Sammy Guru office, and I probably was 15 minutes into so yeah, halfway through the drive in, I feel like my car is like going towards the left a little bit. I was like, uh, and then I look down at the dash and it's flashing the the tire thing and it's saying uh my tire pressure was 29. Like Destiny's child to the left, to the left, everything you own in a box to the left. And I was like, oh, okay. Uh and then I I immediately ask uh, you know, um Google, hey, uh, where's the nearest discount? I know I'm not far from one, it's about seven minutes. I pull over just to see, like, okay, like how fast am I losing air? Is I I get as soon as I opened the car door, I heard the air just hissing out, and I was like, oh. Tori's like, uh-oh.
SPEAKER_04And so Tori texts me and he's like, I don't think I'm gonna be doing the podcast today. So Tori had to get a whole you got a whole new set of tires.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, yeah, yeah. I I eventually pulled over um again because I was like, well, let me see how far I can go. And then I was like, uh, nope. Put the spare on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I put the spare on. At least it's not the middle of the summer.
SPEAKER_04Because putting the spare on is brutal in Terrazone. 100%. I've done it before. It's not fun.
SPEAKER_01It's not fun.
SPEAKER_04Like 120 degrees and the asphalt's like 190 degrees because it's been heating up all day. Oh, yeah. And you're down there like sitting on the ground and your legs have third-degree burns.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Like, oh man. But yeah, yeah, because like you have to basically lay on the ground to get it. You got third-degree burns all over your body.
SPEAKER_04You get your knees down, your knees have scars that you can't get rid of for months. But luckily it's February, so Tori doesn't have any third-degree burns.
SPEAKER_01No, no, I do not. Uh, yeah, but yeah, no, I took it to the boys down at discount. Um, shout out to them. I like discount tires. Yeah, yeah, I do too.
SPEAKER_04Uh that's where we usually get our tires, even like for our you know, like our Rivian, which you know, Rivian, you know, they could do the tires, but they they warn they're hard to get an appointment in two. Like, they want to charge you more money than discount.
SPEAKER_01I know, yeah. And yeah, so they're they're able to get me comparable tires. I mean, like, they're basically like just like the sand or phantoms.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, all of our cars are Audi, we've always taken there too. Uh, I mean, for other stuff, we take it like to the dealer, but for tires, yeah, discount, it can be a better price.
SPEAKER_01I I have been wanting. Um last time I took it to you. I mean, I'm telling you, the dealerships are just so expensive with their services.
SPEAKER_04Just FYI, this podcast is not sponsored by Discount Tire. We just like this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, yeah, no, yeah. Quick quick disclaimer.
SPEAKER_04But if you guys do want to sponsor the podcast, you can email me jeff at sameigrew.com. Boom. We will take your money if you want to sponsor us for a mid-roll segment, but it's not sponsored by you guys yet.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but if you want, it'll just bring you.
SPEAKER_04We'll gladly take some of that money and you know, put some of that towards Tori's tires since you had to buy a whole set of tires from you guys.
SPEAKER_01So I ended up too. Um, last time we took it to the my car to the dealership. They were like, hey, you also need to get, you know, they always hit you with yeah. They're like, you gotta get some new window wipers and all this and stuff. You need new spark plugs.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the whole night yards. And your tires, they're only at 10 inches of tread, so you probably should get some. Yeah, no, I mean, because you've already lost two inches of tire tread from when they were new. Yeah. Do you really want to take them all the way down to five inches? That'd be dangerous. Yeah, no, it would be 10 inches. You should go ahead and do it now. Yeah, I just got these tires two months ago.
SPEAKER_01And then it's oh well, no, it's okay because uh we can put you on a payment plan for and they're like, while we're in there, why don't we just put on some new brake pads?
SPEAKER_04Because your brake pads are kind of worn too. So get those tires done today, the brake pads, yeah, it'll be all set. Awesome. Until the next time you come back for your 10,000 mile checkup, you'll need all that stuff again.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, no. Oh, they they they didn't end up talking me into the alignment. They were like, it's$89.99. I was like, oh, okay, I'll get that because at the dealership, they're willing to charge$160. Well, alignment actually is a good idea.
SPEAKER_04It's gonna save you gas.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, I know, 100%.
SPEAKER_04And also, yeah, rotation and alignment are both good because rotation can save you having to replace your tires too often. Yeah. Anyway, this is not a tire podcast, although sometimes it sometimes it turns into various types of podcasts. But anyway, that's why we're here. It's a Friday night, it's Friday evening, almost night. And uh, so that's why we're here a little late. But we will get to those questions. I will pull up that thread over on X because I know Larry and actually a couple other people had questions. But we are five days away from Unpacked. I'll be jumping on a plane on Monday morning here in Phoenix and jetting off to probably cooler. I haven't actually looked at the weather. I'm assuming it's pretty cold in San Francisco. Probably pretty cold, I'm guessing. Uh you know, anything is cold if it's less than oh my god, it's very cold there. How am I gonna? I guess it's pretty similar temperature, but it's it then Phoenix is like 60 right now. So it's 60 and 48. Uh okay, I thought it was gonna be in the 30s.
SPEAKER_01I guess I can 62 right now in Phoenix.
SPEAKER_04I can survive, you know, with the San Francisco weather. Today it was 51 with a low of 41. That's actually not too bad. So I'll be getting on plane, uh heading out there. Samsung will be hosting us for some various secretive events on Tuesday, which you can probably imagine what they'll be doing. They'll let us get some early peaks at things that will be announced at Unpacked itself. They'll let the media get a little early look, you know, touch some things, play with some things, take some pictures so that we have all the things that we need in order to in order to put out our content on Wednesday when everything, all the embargoes lift. So I'll be doing that. And then Wednesday we'll be at Unpacked. Tori and Colin will be hosting the live stream. The link is already up for that. So if you guys are interested, you can go to the show notes. I'll leave it there. If you're listening to this, it's also we already wrote an article on Samiguru. We have it on all our socials, it's penned on all the stuff, so you can find that. Uh, our guy Josh made a really nice thumbnail for that that has the S26 Ultra in violet on there. See if I can find it on my YouTube in a second and show Tori. But yeah, definitely sign up for that. They'll be co-hosting it. We're gonna have a bunch of giveaways and stuff for the live stream. So if you're interested in get in on a bunch of cool giveaways, there's the Galaxy Impact Live live stream. The very nice, it is already available uh like for notification. So you hit the button that says notify me. We'll be doing lots of giveaways in the chat. And if you're doing the mystery box, of course, they'll have all the instructions, all the links, everything that you need in order to make sure you get your box, get the form filled out, which is very simple. Just some shipping info. Tell us what phone you ordered, because otherwise, how are we gonna ship you the right case? If we don't some people are like, why do you need to know? Well, how am I what I'm gonna say ship you a S26 Ultra case and you bought an S26 plus?
SPEAKER_01Because it really will be rare mystery.
Where’s The Hype And Why It’s Down
Trade‑Ins, Storage Upgrades, And Costs
SPEAKER_04Then you'll be really mad because you bought an S26 Plus and I shipped you the wrong case, and then we'll the case won't fit. So uh the temper glass won't fit either. So that's the main reason for the form is one, we need your shipping address because otherwise, how we can ship it, and two, we need to make sure you get the right device specific items because there's a lot of stuff that's specific to the devices. Um, so that's going on. This will be a lot of fun, and uh we've got a lot of information that we'll go through about unpacked today. Um I want to talk briefly about a question that actually a lot of people kind of seem to have been noticing. I think I talked about this on the podcast a couple weeks ago, but the last time we did the podcast was actually before the reservations opened. So a lot of people have been noticing that this year there's a lot less hype uh about Unpacked leading up to Unpacked. And so some people have noticed this, and I had a comment on it. There is, there's a good reason for that. Samsung has decided this year not to aggressively pursue their usual marketing channels, which means they've decided not to commission as many pieces of flat fee content for creators. They've decided not to pay channels like Android Authority, Sami Guru, Sam Mobile, 9 to 5 Google uh to drive reservations. Like normally, if we drive a reservation, we get an affiliate commission for that. They decided not to really do that this year. So there's been minimal hype. That doesn't mean the phones are good, it's just that well, I mean, if you're a business, which we are, are you really gonna drive traffic to a page that makes you nothing when we could really drive traffic to our mystery box page, which drives our revenue? It's it's a business decision. Yeah um so we really haven't hyped up reserves a lot, and ha neither have a lot of other creators. So if you've been noticing, hey, why is anybody posting about unpacked? It's because normally everyone posts every day and every hour, every minute of the two weeks before the event talking about reserves because they're getting paid something, affiliate commission, if they do drive a reserve. And that's because Samsung is trying to cut costs on this launch. That's that's just a fact. Um they're trying to cut costs in a lot of ways, and we've talked about a couple of those ways. One of them was less marketing, which is this is uh obviously a result of. The other way is and this one talk about this because actually it seems we've gotten information to the contrary. So some good news for everybody we talked about a few weeks ago trade-in deals might go away, and I kind of was of the the thought that we weren't see trade-in deals. At least in three markets, Samsung has confirmed in their own official website or socials that trade-ins are going to basically stay close to the same, and the free storage upgrade in those regions is also staying. Now, this has not been confirmed for the US, but it has been confirmed for India and two key European markets. And so that suggests to me there's a good chance that maybe we still have the free storage upgrade for the US as well. And the other thing that makes me believe that is that I think Samsung is kind of feeling out like they're still feeling out everyone's reception to if we pull this bonus, how pissed off will people be? Because when I asked the Samsung people, because normally we get like the pre-order information early. Like normally I would already have it by now. I can't share it with you usually, and I don't, but because I'm under embargo. But normally I would have it. I don't have any of the details about I don't know. So I really, really don't. Sometimes I say that and I'm lying, but I don't I don't know anything about the specific trade-in values, the storage upgrade, anything. So I think Samsung is still maybe really deciding what it is they want to offer in the US market. But I think the trade-in uh and the storage upgrade in particular are very important. I think if the storage upgrade is gone, that really dissuades some average people from buying because it's like, well, you know, I only can get that offer if I get it during the pre-order period. It creates urgency for people to pre-order because they only offer the storage upgrade for the two weeks of pre-order. And then that's not there anymore. That's not on the table.
SPEAKER_01I think from like a regular consumer lens, I would say um the trade-in value would be the most important. Uh, just for regular consumers, because you know, you know, if you're trying to get people to upgrade pretty continuously, um they want you know as much money as they can get off, you know, to get a comparable phone or you know, a comparable newer phone. Um, and so like, you know, if if the training values take a hit, I I think it'll be it'll be hard for people to kind of turn a corner, you know, quickly to upgrade that phone.
SPEAKER_04And also, by the way, obviously, I mean I'm glad hey, I'm glad I wasn't right. I said I thought that the storage array was gone. I hope I'm wrong. Again, for multiple reasons. One, I'm gonna have to buy a bunch of these myself, so I want the free storage upgrade, but also it makes us more money because more people will do mystery boxes if the offers Samsung gives are more appealing. Obviously, our offer I think is pretty damn good, but if Samsung also has a good offer for the pre-order, that obviously encourages more people to take part in the mystery box. Less people will buy if Samsung's offer is not as good. But I was right about one thing. We didn't the last time we had a podcast was before reserves opened. The reserve credit was$30, which is what I said. So they lowered the reserve credit over the last three years, it went from 100 to 50 to 30. So the old reserve credit, I don't know. That could be on the way out. Maybe Samsung's like, maybe we don't need to do reserves anymore. There's gonna be no more credit. Maybe that's what they're trying to tell us next year down to$10.
SPEAKER_01You know, because you you you're getting out so small, but I I I still think the bang for your buck. I mean,$30 is still something.
SPEAKER_04They that's basically what they sell some of their first party cases for, so you're at least getting like a free case. Oh, true, true, true. You're getting like a free case from them. Yeah, and then if you pour it with us, you get another free case from us. Boom.
SPEAKER_01The one they're getting a whole bunch of other goodies, yeah.
SPEAKER_04And not only that, they're not gonna give you a 65-watt can charger.
SPEAKER_01No, yeah, no. They're not, they're no one's gonna give it. And also some blow pops.
SPEAKER_04And blow pops, and some Sammy Guru stickers, cleaning kit, yeah, desktop phone stand, USB CR buds. You know, the list goes on and on. Keep going on and on about it. But um, but yeah, so definitely there's been some decrease. I I don't think the trade-in values are gonna be exactly what they were last year. You think I'll be like, But I think they're still like trying to feel it out.
SPEAKER_01So I mean, I think they're gonna take a hit if they don't if those trade-in values are.
SPEAKER_04I mean, I emailed them today and I was like, where's the stuff? Like, normally we have it, like normally I would have all this stuff like two days ago. I was like, where's all that information? We need it so we can write articles. Because like, I don't want my guys to have to be stressing out because that means they're gonna have to do tons of work on Monday and Tuesday now, because they we didn't have that stuff today. Normally we would have already been writing stuff Thursday, Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. So now these guys gotta do twice as much work on Monday and Tuesday because they had none of that information, which obviously sucks for our writers. I'm sorry, Sumit, Abnav, Dene, Josh, everybody else. But you know, it's not me. I tried to get the info. I emailed them multiple times trying to find out. Um, and now the other thing that people have noticed, which I've noticed as well, and uh I kind of don't like, to be honest with you. Some other blogs wrote about this as well. Samsung has decided basically not only to not pay influencers or blogs for reserves or anything like that, they've also decided to turn all of their ads for the Galaxy S26 into basically AI generated ads. What? Which I don't like. So if you look at some of these, like look at all these ads. If you haven't seen them yet, Tori. All these ads are like with AI generated like cats and like look at this, like this one right here. See this cat right here on the billboard in Times Square? You guys have probably seen it, I'm sure. If you follow this, you know, follow us, you you've seen them for sure. Like this, even some of this is AI generated, these people, like almost all their ads are AI generated, and I get it. Like that, and also Samsung has decided that for this, they put out a press release saying that this is no longer a smartphone, it's now an AI phone.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. This is AI. We have now entered the era of AI phones.
Samsung’s AI Ads And Messaging Shift
SPEAKER_04They hinted at this starting with the S24 Ultra, but now they're like full-on Bs to the wall, you know. I don't say the words bees to the wall, you know, bees to the wall. B's to the wall about the AI phone. They're gonna lock in. I mean, I don't, I I just don't like this. I mean, I actually mentioned this to you, Tori, you know, around Christmas time, remember we saw a movie, and I was like, why did Coca-Cola replace the real polar bears with AI polar bears? Because it looks like garbage. And they put those polar bears out of work, which I feel bad for them in the show. I know their families.
SPEAKER_01They had to file for unemployment.
SPEAKER_04That guy, that polar bear, he's been working for Coca-Cola for years. He has been. And now he can't feed his family anymore. Yeah, he can't. Because AI put him out of work. And I don't think that's right. They took his job. It's wrong. But I mean, these ads just look, I don't know. They don't, I feel like they don't have any human authenticity or element. They don't really connect with people. I don't know. What do you think, Tori? Like these just AI generated figures, like these cats and stuff.
SPEAKER_01Like, like what is uh you know, like I don't like it, but I just feel like that's where we're heading. I I just feel like we're gonna keep seeing it. Like companies are gonna want to try it and push it. Um, you know, I I just hope that they just remember that like what really connects uh a viewer, you know, someone who's just an average, like, you know, because like when we go to the movies and they're showing a Samsung um commercial, um like we want the human aspect to it. So yeah, I I know they're gonna keep trying it, they're gonna keep pushing it, but I hope through this they're gonna understand that man, okay. I think we need to scale the AI back and you know, focus on it.
SPEAKER_04I love the fact that I searched for this image and like a lot of these are actually us. I love when I search for something and it's Sammy Guru's stuff. Like Sammy Guru. Heck yeah. Ton of these images are like whenever I do a Google search and I get a bunch of stuff. Look at this, like the third result is Sammy Guru. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01I love that. Well, hey, Google understands that they gotta go with the guru.
SPEAKER_04Game game recognized game. That's what I mean. Game recognized game. So, but yeah, I mean these AI ads, a lot of people criticize it. A couple of the blogs wrote about it, we wrote about it. Um, and they've also like almost all the features, too. Like they they showed this feature. I'll see if I can show you this picture. You guys probably seen it too, where they're talking about features of the camera, but it's not really camera features, it's really an AI feature, like this one. See right here, smartphone versus AI phone. Yeah, it's saying that this phone can basically restore the bite that you took out of the cupcake after you took the photo. Yeah, which okay. I mean, but you know, that's basically similar to what Samsung has already been able to do. Uh, I guess object restore instead of object erase, it just does it a little bit better, a little faster. Uh, but I mean, and also they tease like the low light performance, but everything about it is basically software algorithms AI. It's like AI, everything's AI. It's not like, oh, we upgraded the camera sensor to get better camera performance. It's we started using AI algorithms in our post-processing, and that's how we're making the camera better. And I don't know that that's gonna resonate with people.
SPEAKER_01I I don't think so too. I mean, because you gotta still remember, and I know they're calling it an AI phone, but like many people, I mean, like at Max, they're probably using AI in terms of like Chat GBT, but you know, like when you're looking at at the wide variety audience, um, I don't think many people are going to be inclined to be using the AI features unless it's just like right there in their face. So I feel like most people are still going to treat this as a uh smartphone.
S26 Lineup: Hardware Vs AI Upgrades
SPEAKER_04I agree, yeah. I mean, so this was an article we wrote where it says that the S26 Ultra may fix one of the biggest Samsung camera problems with AI processing. And it says, uh Sumit wrote this one one of the biggest problems with previous Galaxy flagships was the thoughtful fault lines or uneven tonal transitions when you take pictures of blue skies. And apparently Samsung has decided to fix this, but instead of trying to get a better sensor to capture these, you know, more accurately, they've decided to use an enhanced AI algorithm uh that will allow you to do this. And the new 24 megapixel shooting mode delivers notably higher resolution while maintaining clarity. Um so I mean it seems like what's gonna happen when Unpack starts is every single thing that they talk about is basically just gonna be, you know, it's just gonna be like here, here's all the featured things we upgraded, and all those things are gonna end up being AI enhancements, the camera, and then AI enhancements to this, A enhancements to that. The only thing that's really not fully AI, even though it obviously does use AI and how it kind of detects where to display it, is the privacy display.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_04The privacy display is like the one thing, and they've advertised the heck out of this too. There's been a lot of advertisements where like they show a lady on the subway, which I also think might be an AI generated thing, because it looks like it to me. Yeah, um, and someone's peeking over her shoulder and they can't see, you know, it's like no peeking, is what the ad says, um, because of privacy display, obviously, and that's what they're hinting at. So privacy display, I feel like, is the biggest if it were me, that's what I would focus on. Is I'd be like, it's all about the privacy display. Yeah, this is the big feature. Uh, and then I would talk about the camera, but I I really would try to l stay away from talking. I mean, I wouldn't talk about how those are all AI enhancements. I'm sure they will because that's what seems to be what they're leading into, you know. Samsung's like, we gotta give them the AI. We're gonna beat them over the head with it until they submit to the AI feature. And I'm like, guys, people just are not they're not feeling that, especially with the phone, you know. Obviously, AI is great in a lot of things, but it's just like as as the approach to sell phones, I'm not sure it's the number one approach to phones. Yeah, no, I agree. Um Um what else about the Galaxy S26 series? We basically know S26, S26 Plus, S26 Ultra. Um there's gonna be minimal upgrades to the S26 and S26 Plus. And then the Ultra has basically upgraded camera for the not the main camera, but obviously has upgraded for the wide angle. Um and then also selfie cameras got an upgrade, very small upgrade, very small, a bunch of AI post processing. You've got upgraded Snapdragon processor on the Ultra, 60 watt charging, which is a real upgrade. People like that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no.
SPEAKER_04Um huge downside that's pretty much been confirmed now is no cheatwo magnets inside the device. That has pretty much been confirmed. A lot of people upset about that, but that's pretty much pretty confirmed.
SPEAKER_01Like it's it's hard to go to like a friend's house and stuff, and they have the setup, and you go to put your phone to like go charge and you're like, oh, it fell off. Yeah, I know. Same thing for the watches, you know. Um, like I I I would like that. I I think that that'd be a nice added feature uh without needing to have a mag safe case.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I mean the thing is, I think Samsung looked at their balancing, obviously. I think I think in the end it's gonna come down to, and I guess this is probably how they're going to explain it next year. If you get magnets in, the S Pin has to go away. That's what they're gonna tell you next year. Yeah, I think they put it off just one more year. Okay, but there's actually two things that I think have to go away. You're gonna lose two things when you put magnets in there the reverse wireless charging, which Apple doesn't have either, and you're gonna lose the S Pin. Neither thing does Apple have because they have MagSafe. So that's the trade-off. A lot of Samsung fans seem to be saying, from what I've read on social media, that they are okay with that because MagSafe is more useful than either the S Pen or reverse wireless charging combined. But I don't know. The loyalists are gonna be in up at arms about the S Pen regardless.
SPEAKER_01I will be. I am one of those loyalists.
SPEAKER_04So Samsung knows that Samsung knows that people are gonna be mad no matter what. I guess they maybe just put off one more year. But next year when TM Rowe gets up there for the S27 Ultras and be like, guys, we did it. We put the magnets in there, but we had to axe the S Pen.
SPEAKER_01At what cost? Yeah. So that kind of stinks, but no, it it it was stinks. Yeah, that's a shame. I mean, is it's a win in one way, but lost in another.
Hands On Dummy S26 Ultra Design
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean, and also keep in mind it's not just the uh privacy display upgrades in the display. We've also got the M14 panels now, they're gonna be brighter, better color accuracy. The display is getting a pretty big upgrade overall. It's like probably the biggest hardware upgrade. The cameras are getting the smallest hardware upgrade. The thing that needed the biggest hardware upgrade is getting the smallest. You've got an improved processor, faster charging. The display is like better across the board, that's the main thing. Um, and then obviously disappointing that there's no built-in magnets, but again, you do have your S Pen. Uh no indication that they're gonna bring back Bluetooth, so I wouldn't think that's gonna happen. I think what's gonna happen though is that Samsung is going to take the S Pen out. I already said this before, maybe next year, and then in two years, when they figure out how to do the digitizer free S Pen that doesn't require digitizer, they're gonna figure out a way to bring that back with the magnets, and then they'll have the best of both worlds. But I think that might not be until 2029, which would mean the S29 Ultra. So we might have two years of no S Pen, and then maybe it makes it return for the 29, or maybe they wait until the 30th anniversary edition and bring it back.
SPEAKER_01So do you do you really do feel like that they were to take it away that that there's enough draft in them to bring it back?
SPEAKER_04I do. Well, because you know, there's so little innovation you can do now with slab phones that taking something away and bringing it back is you a big feature for that year.
SPEAKER_01That's true. You know, that's very true.
SPEAKER_04Sad but true if you take something away that people like.
SPEAKER_01It's kind of like the whole Taco Bell model of the nacho fries, they like take it back.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, or the taquitos, which I love, you know, they take them away all the time. They're only available for like two days. They're like, it's available for a limited time. I see it on TV and I get up to drive the Taco Bell, and once I get there, they're like, Oh, that's Kitos, they're gone.
SPEAKER_01You're like, What?
SPEAKER_04I just saw it on TikTok. They're like, Yeah, we started running those ads two days ago. They already sold out.
SPEAKER_01I know I was telling my buddies about that when I was coming back from Las Vegas because he really likes the quesarito, and I they finally took it off the menu. He was like, Why? I would have given you money for weeks and weeks and weeks, and I was like, Yeah, it's the same with my friend Jeff who loves the tacos all the time if they had taquitos, but they won't do it.
SPEAKER_04They just won't do it, and also the rolled tacos, too. Oh, those rolled chicken tacos. Yeah, why can't we just have the taquitos and the rolled chicken tacos in the menu? I'll eat a taco by like every other day. Yeah, but they won't do it. I don't understand. Those are both so limited. How hard is it to make taquitos and rolled chicken tacos? Is there a shortage of those things? They're both made with tortillas, just like all the other stuff there. I don't get it. Hey, hold on a second. Tori, tell the people a funny story. I'm gonna go get this dummy unit I have of the S26 Soldier so I can show it to you.
SPEAKER_01Okay. All right. See, funny story here.
SPEAKER_00Um, why did the chicken cross the road? Because he had to lay an egg. Oh, all right.
SPEAKER_04Good thing I was not gone too long. So I got a dummy unit of the Galaxy S26 Ultra, um, which I received from a case company who I won't disclose, uh, you know, in case they don't want to be disclosed, so I could test the mystery box inventory. And by the way, all the mystery box cases they do fit perfectly on the S26 Ultra. But here's the S26 Ultra, you want to look at it? Yeah, I do. This is not a real one, but it's the size. It's basically that you can see the thinness and everything.
SPEAKER_01Huh. Let me compare that to my S25.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's what I was doing too.
SPEAKER_01It is thinner for sure. Yeah, no, it definitely does feel thinner.
SPEAKER_04It's not a lot thinner, but you know, it is thinner. It's not like S25 edge thin. Yeah. But it is thinner. Um it's like a half a millimeter. Can I see it real quick? Let's see. I think it's probably Yeah, I mean, that's what I think they said on the specs sheet. It's like half a millimeter. It ain't a lot thinner. I mean, it's not like gonna, it's not gonna blow your mind or anything. Yeah, it's definitely not like an edge. And then the camera module, obviously, it is also not quite as um squared off as we already know. But if you do take a look at it, Tori, it is actually, you know, it is actually pretty pretty close still to the S2500.
SPEAKER_01It it is. I honestly like uh when I looked at it from like the top view, I was like, okay, like it practically looks it's not that rounded off. I mean, it is rounder, you can tell. Yeah, if you put them side by side, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It's definitely rounder. The edges does it.
SPEAKER_04But it's still got some squared off niche to it. It's not like an iPhone which is completely round in your hand. It does feel good. I mean, obviously, this one's also a lot lighter because it doesn't have any of the actual turns. Yeah, I know. It's just the body. So it's not gonna be this light, but you could get an idea. The thinness proportions, the point of this is to test cases. So obviously, the thinness, the cameras, you can see I do like the camera module a lot more on the S26 ultra.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I do too. It kind of gives it some characteristics.
Buds 4 And Buds 4 Pro Deep Dive
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the camera module, the little island looks a lot better than those cheap camera rings on the S25 Ultra. I did not like those from the time they launched, and then of course, the big thing, which we had already heard, they made the S pin kind of curved. So you see how the S Pin itself curves there. Yep. So this one does not curve this one does not go along the curve, so it kind of sticks out. It's actually nice because it makes the S Pin flush with the body. On your S25 Ultra, the S Pin is not flush with the body. No, so you can't. And the one thing that's nice about that is that with the S25 Ultra, you can sometimes, you know, on mistake, you can do the S Pin, yeah. But with this one, it's gonna be a lot harder, I think, to eject the S Pin. So, I mean, yeah, so the design, it looks really nice, and I'm glad I was able to get this dummy unit because um, well, I wanted to make sure our cases fit because that would have been a disaster if it would have been a mystery box case inventory. I have like 3,000 of them if none of them fit, and we need to ship them in like two weeks, that would be a huge problem. So luckily I was able to test that and it seems pretty good. Anyway, I mean, just summarizing my hype, we get some other stories today, too. We're gonna talk about the Buds 4 a little bit more, too. I mean, this is the show before Unpack, so yeah, you gotta deal with it. You know, in a few weeks, we'll be we'll be not talking about Unpack for a while. We'll be back talking about one UI a little bit, and we'll talk a little bit about that today, too. But you know, we've got to talk a little bit about Unpacked because it is the show before Unpacked. It is. Um, my hype level, you know, if I had to get it like a one through a ten, I'm gonna say my hype level is like a seven for this phone. Uh six, seven? Yeah, six, six, seven. You know, if if they had actually given the main camera sensor an upgrade, I would say it'd be more of like an eight or a nine. But the fact that it's all just AI processing software, camera improvement hype, I'm not super happy. Samson's only been doing that for years. Yeah, right. You know, I mean, this is the same sensor that was on the S23 Ultra. This is now one, two, three, four generations.
SPEAKER_01Like, what are they doing?
SPEAKER_04With the same 200 megapixel ISO cell sensor. I mean, come on, man. Like four years, you gotta upgrade the main sensor. I agree. And that point doesn't even change. The main camera is like the most important thing for a lot of people because they use that tool. You know, most people are using their phone as their main camera. Yep. Most people don't have another camera. I mean, I do, because obviously I do I video and stuff for a living, but most people are do not have another camera, they can just bust out if they want to take family pictures. That is their camera. And so I feel like Samsung has a duty and Apple have a duty to keep the camera, you know, going in the right direction. I agree. But I'd say about a seven. What about you, Tori? What about your height for this list?
SPEAKER_01I honestly would say uh probably about a seven. Like I think I'm probably mostly interested in the buds, but in terms of the actual uh S26 Ultra, um, I mean for them layering on AI, AI, AI. I'd say it's probably about seven.
SPEAKER_04There you go. Seven. Yeah. That's what we're thinking. Uh, you know, obviously I I love tech, so even if I didn't do this, I would probably still upgrade because I just like to see what's new. But I will say I think Samsung has a massive opportunity with the S27 Ultra to hit a home run. If they upgrade the main sensor, give us a solid state battery that potentially has a bigger capacity. Keep the S Pen, which I think there's almost zero percent chance of happening. If they could find a way to keep the S Pen and give us G2 charge uh G2 magnets built in, that would be they'd get a hero's welcome for that.
SPEAKER_00Oh, 100%.
SPEAKER_04But I am very excited about privacy display. I think that's really a feature a lot of people will find compelling. And obviously, some people will use it for nefarious purposes. Oh, yeah. That's not what I plan to use it for, but it is nice if you're doing banking or you're doing some business that's not something you really want other people to see, especially if you're like out at a coffee shop or if you use public transit. It's a very useful feature that I could see millions of people would actually make legitimate use of that. Uh, let's talk about Buds4 and Buds4 Pro, because I know you're more excited about those, and I'm also excited about the Buds4 and the Buds4 Pro. And uh we got detailed renders. We pretty much know everything about these now. Um they're basically they they basically are what we thought. We we have the actual prices. The prices look like they're gonna stay the same, no price increase. Okay. 179 for Buds 4, 100 249 for Buds4 Pro.
SPEAKER_01We'll take it. We'll take it. We'll take it.
Trifold Review: Durability And Use
SPEAKER_04It looks like we're gonna have three colors the black, slate, the white, silver, and the rose gold. Uh I want the white. There's some speculation that the rose gold might only be for the pro, but that's not confirmed yet. Um we have a couple of you know different looks depending on if you're talking about Buds 4, Buds 4 Pro, in terms of what the you know stems look like. The case is completely redesigned. So instead of being like a AirPod style case, it's like flat clamshell case. Um, and one thing that's interesting is in that these final renders that we saw this week, if you remember like a few like a month or two ago when we first started seeing the renders pop up, I mentioned that it looked like there was a speaker inside the case. Yeah, yeah. Where you could maybe like the nothing buds, you'd be able to have a speakerphone. That's not happening because the the marketing renders do not show that. So I don't know if Samsung changed their mind. If those were like super early renders that one of the blogs got, that always can happen when you're dealing with leaks, as we well know and everyone kind of well knows in the industry. It's it's always possible, like if you're dealing with leaks, that you might have um some kind of situation where where you have an incorrect leak. And that looks like what happened here. So those some Buds4. Um, Samsung also confirmed the Buds4, and these are the this is an Amazon listing that confirmed the uh Buds4 and the Buds4 Pro case. I mean, the case looks really nice, it's true. Yeah, no, it looks really nice. I actually like that. Yeah, I mean, Samsung really went all in on this design. All in. I mean, it kind of is like a hybrid of like multiple different designs. It's kind of like the Buds case from a couple generations ago, and then they took the the translucent approach from nothing because their case is translucent. I'm not saying they copied it because it doesn't look exactly the same. Um I'm glad they ditched the all AirPods look with the case looking like AirPods and everything looking like AirPods because the Buds 3 Pro case looked exactly like 100%. It really I mean these these still have its stem design, but they look more uniquely Samsung. Yeah, I agree. They have this metal accent on it that's brush metal that looks really cool. Um, the tips have been redesigned. It looks like potentially, you know, you might have some additional larger, it might you might have some larger woofers in there from what it looks like, kind of from the design. So we probably have better audio. I mean, we can assume that you probably have better audio because why would you make a new version if the audio was the same or worse? I mean, they are they are headphones, they are headphones after all. Um and so yeah, I mean these these look like one of the most exciting products for sure. It'll be interesting to see if there's any new software features. There was a leak that suggested that we might have a new software feature where you can use head gestures to control your buds. Oh, definitely. So, like if you get an incoming call, you can just nod up and down to take the call or shake your head to decline it. You know, just use natural gestures and maybe also use it to control other things, like your AI assistant, maybe some other apps. I think that would be a pretty cool feature. Now, the one thing we do lose for those of you who have been following or haven't maybe haven't been following along with the Buds leaks, is the blade lights that we had on the Buds 3 Pro. No more blade lights. It looks like the blade lights are gone. But you know, as interesting as those were as like a niche kind of feature.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I don't think it really didn't add to the I mean, like, yeah, I'm not sure that anyone's gonna be like, oh yeah, these don't have the blade lights, I can't buy them now.
SPEAKER_04Like, oh boy, I can't buy those Buds 4 Pros because they don't have the blade lights. I mean, they were kind of looking cool, but they're not like something.
SPEAKER_01And now that that metal brush part, you know, that that looks actually really it looks a little more refined.
SPEAKER_04Yes, no, I I agree. I think it looks a little more professional. So like you could wear these, you know, in your professional environment. Obviously, probably not listening to music while you're working if you're doing something like Tori as a teacher, but you know, if you have an office job, you might be able to listen to music. Like if you're a software developer or something, you might be able to do that. So uh I'm probably more hyped for the Buds 4 Pro as well than I am for the S26 Ultra. I mean, of course, my mind could be changed when I'm sitting at Unpacked. The sad thing is when I'm sitting at the Unpacked event, I do not get to pay attention to the event at all, mostly because for the first 30 minutes, I'm sitting there getting all the mystery box stuff out. I mean, it's like our biggest revenue driver for our business for the whole year. So as much as I want to watch Unpacked, I really don't have time to like take pictures of TM Rowe and listen to everything he's saying. Luckily, for me, 90% of the stuff leaks beforehand, so I already know it all. But I don't get to actually enjoy like being at the event. By the time I look up and like, you know, I finally get a break from answering people's emails. People are they're like, you guys can meet us outside. We'll be having refreshments and getting ready to hand out your review units. And I was like, Oh man, I missed the event again. That's what happened in New York. I looked up and and they were like, Well, thank you for coming to Galaxy Unpacked. And I was like, Yep.
SPEAKER_01Well, hopefully this summer. Maybe Tori goes.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, if Tori goes, I might be able to watch some of it because he could help you know trickle out some of the mystery box stuff. Yep. But it is super important to get you guys your links and make sure everyone's not having any problems because obviously, one, you know, we want you guys to get your phones, and also it's very important for you to continue surviving because that's we don't we don't run as you know, we have ads now, we don't run crazy ads like you know, unnamed blogs who make you watch an ad before reading an article. We don't do that kind of thing. If I did that, then I maybe don't need the mystery box review. But I don't want to make people watch an ad before they can even read the article. That kind of doesn't seem right to me. No. Um okay, so that's unpacked. We'll be there. Uh, I'll be there. I'm gonna call in to the stream. Tori will be here. Colin will be live. Tori will be here in Arizona, Colin will be in Virginia, they'll be hosting a live stream. Like I said, if you want to get in on that, go to the show notes. Uh, it's already there. Hit the notify me button when we go live. But they will be live uh around um 10 a.m. Arizona time. That's about an hour before impact start. That's 9 a.m. Pacific, noon eastern. Um, and then I'll try to join somewhere towards the beginning of that because I'll be in line. I plan to be in line uh around 8 30 a.m. uh time in California. So that is what time is that here? It's 9 30. Yeah. It's 9 30 Arizona, yes. So I'll call in somewhere around you know the beginning of their show, get ready to chop it up a little bit while I'm standing outside. As soon as they let us in, they scan my media badge, then I can't stream anymore. Yeah. Um, and then Tori and Colin will take you guys home from there. But hopefully uh I'll be able to at least put the link in the chat and have all the verification stuff sorted so everyone knows the page is up, everyone make sure they access the verification form and all that good stuff before I go inside. Obviously, I'll still be answering everyone's emails and I'll be multitasking. And what will I be using to multitask? Well, before we go to a quick break and come back, I talk about this. The Galaxy Trifold went back up for a restock in the US this morning and it sold out again in six minutes. But did you get one? I did not get a US one. I tried, I was trying to make sure we had our post up about it. We did sell quite a few from our affiliate link this morning. Uh, which was nice because they they are quite expensive. So some people got one. Um, it went up at 8 a.m. Arizona time, 10 a.m. Eastern, and they sold out instantaneously. I'm kind of surprised, man. I also posted my full review of the Trifold yesterday. So if you guys want to read my full review at Sammy Guru, I'll put that in the show notes. Um, just to kind of summarize my thoughts. My thoughts were basically the phone does not feel to me fragile. It doesn't feel like a first gen product because the original Galaxy Fold definitely felt like a first gen product. Oh, yeah. I mean, it was basically falling apart in the hands of all the reviewers and bloggers and people they sent it to when it first came out. It definitely felt like a first gen product when they released the first Galaxy Fold. The trifold does not feel like that at all. Like, I don't feel like when I unfold this, it's gonna break or the screen's gonna fail.
SPEAKER_01No, no, it feels actually really solid and actually kind of nice when you're like folding.
Audience Q&A: Pricing And Surprises
SPEAKER_04No, like I said, it is very thin when it's unfolded. And I mentioned this in the review. Obviously, because it has a big surface area, if you have it on a table and you accidentally curb plunk it, you might snap it because it's like three millimeters thin when it's unfolded. So yeah, if you're not careful because it does have a really wide surface area, you could mess it up by just by unfolding it and stuff, like you're not gonna mess it up. And I even yeah, I didn't mean to drop test it, but I did. I dropped it at home on the tile. You can see right here the corner. See the little little it's got a little battle scar there. Uh, it did not break though. I dropped it right here, boom, from about three feet. Just a little ding on the hinge corner, but display didn't crack, no scratches on display. The inner screen still works fine. Um, the cameras, you know, Samsung really got to do something with their camera. We've already talked about this many times. Their camera is not on par with other OEMs, especially the Chinese ones. And the trifold is is no exception. It's basically similar to the Z Fold 7, but it doesn't have as good of telephoto or selfie camera. It's not really for a camera enthusiast. You're buying this for the unique form factor. But all the other stuff on it, I love it. I mean, just you've got decks on the device for the first time ever. So you can use Samsung Decks. You don't need an external monitor. If you just bring a keyboard, you can basically use this like a little laptop, just have a little stand, you know. You could buy one of these and then buy an S26 Ultra, get a free mystery box. You'll get a phone stand, you can put your trifold on it and use it as a little, you know, just to have two phones, why not? Have a trifold and an S26 Ultra. It could be like Kevin Gates. Two phones. You got one for the plug and one for the dough.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Yeah. The one for the dough. Yeah. 100%.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. That's what I'm saying. Uh and then what else did I say about the trifold interview? I mean, I wrote it, it was really long. I did a lot of camera samples. Battery life is eh, it's fine. It's a big display. If you use the inner display a lot, the battery life won't be as good. But I got around the same as my S25 Ultra, which I think is impressive. It doesn't heat up. I kind of thought it would heat up when it's unfolded. Like if you're gaming or multitasking, it doesn't. So even though it is so thin when it's unfolded, the thermals seem to be fine. The inner display is has a lower pixel density than the Z Fold 7. So if you really are like pixel peeping, you may notice that it's not quite as sharp, but it never bothered me too much. They also use a slightly different screen protector layer on the inside than on the Z Fold 7, which isn't quite as clear, but you won't really notice it unless you're like me. I mean, I was reviewing it, so I was nitpicking it, but you won't notice it otherwise. But the main thing here is the multitasking, gaming, media, all that stuff is great. I mean, I was honest in the review. I used it about 70% of the time folded, just because again, the same thing is with the fold seven, and it's even to a different level here. When you're in a crowd or like you're out and about, unfolding this and using it like this is a little awkward. I'm assuming that would be super awkward because like if you're walking, like I'm walking down the streets in Phoenix or something, or I'm at an event or something, like you're gonna this screen is immersive. You're gonna bang into someone because you're not paying attention. Uh, and also it it is a little more difficult. Like, if I want to send an email, it's a lot easier to send it with it folded than it is open a lot of the time. But when I was at home on the couch at night, I had it unfolded all the time, and it's great because I can have that's how I kind of envision it.
SPEAKER_01Like, hey, it's like that tablet, you know. You know, if I don't want to buy a phone and a tablet, well, no, I really do just have a phone in the tablet.
SPEAKER_04If I don't want to buy a phone and a tablet, I can spend twice as much money for than I would for both to get a phone that's supposed to be a phone. You know, if you don't want to have two devices that only cost$1,500, how about one device that costs$3,000? That's what Samsung is trying to say. They're like, you know, that's what you want to do. Take those two devices, put them into one, but give us an extra$1,500, and then you're set. The other downside to this, too, is if you're someone who do does feel like you're kind of careless or clumsy and you need a case, well, there's really not very many cases for this. Samsung gives you an official case in the box. What an idea. They should do that for all the phones.
SPEAKER_01They really should.
SPEAKER_04Um, but they're like, hey, the phone costs$3,000, maybe put a little case in there. Why not? You know, throw these people a bone, spending$3,000.
SPEAKER_01I mean, you're yeah, you're already$3,000 for God's sakes.
SPEAKER_04Let's give them a little bone here. Um, and we don't even offer care plus. So let's at least give them a case in there. Um, that's still insane to me that you can't get care plus.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_04That's one of the reasons why I can't believe so many people bought this. Like, how these people must like they people are really crazy. I mean, I'm crazy. I paid$3,200 to import this to another country. And if this one breaks, I can do nothing about it because it there's no warranty. Yeah. Not any kind of warranty, not even the regular manufacturer warranty because I took it out of the country of origin. But, you know, I did this knowing what I was getting into. These people are buying a phone that presumably they're using as their main phone, and they're like, ah, no care plus, no cases, we'll just do it. Let's see what happens. Mix it up to do that.
SPEAKER_01Mix it up.
SPEAKER_04But I mean, overall, would I say you should buy this phone? I mean, obviously, as a general obvious average person, no. But if you're an enthusiast and you really like it, I would say there's no real reason not to buy this phone. Where, like, with the original Galaxy Fold, I was like, no one should buy this phone. Oh, yeah. Because probably if you put it, if you put it in your pocket and you get a single speck of Lent in your pocket, which everybody has Lent in their pocket, the screen will probably collapse in like two days and you'll be out$3,000 back then. With this phone, it's not to that level. Like, this phone does not have a durability issue where I'm like, if you have$3,000 disposable income and you know what you're getting into, it is a useful phone. Like, if you do need to do a lot of multitasking and you play a lot of games, you will enjoy the phone. It's not like it's gonna break tomorrow. I don't have any doubts that it's pretty durable. So, but it's not for the average person yet. In three or four iterations, though, yeah, it's definitely not not at that price point. This is gonna be a badass phone in three or four generations, though. I think so too. I think any people are gonna like that. Because eventually I think the price point in the trifold will come down to where the fold seven is now, two thousand. I think the fold seven will mosey on down to like fourteen ninety-nine or the fold the regular fold. And so when this slots in at 2,000 and it's also several millimeters thinner, because they will make it thinner, and has a better camera, and hopefully higher resolution inner panel and a better selfie camera, this phone could really be a massive hit. Then it might actually be, you know, a mass consumer device. But right now, it's an enthusiast device, but is it good? It's way better than the original Galaxy Fold. It's not gonna break tomorrow if you buy it. So that's something. No, because I couldn't have told you that about the original.
SPEAKER_01No, yeah, no, I I I do I do feel it, I do truly feel like three to four years from now, when the price goes down like a little bit, like and they have more time to work on it, like I feel like you're gonna get a lot more people who would like to just kind of convert over to foldables.
If We Ran Samsung: Fixes And Focus
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. I think we'll see. I mean, I still think we're about that inflection point we talked about before where foldables overtake slabs. I still think we're minimum five years away. Yeah. Probably more like 10, because you really need to have like all these different form factors of foldables so that everyone can figure out where they slot in. When you start having that choice of like flip, trifold, uh, regular book style foldable, and then maybe they bring the rollables out, like there's all these different form factors. Then people will have a lot of choice and they'll be like, Well, I can't get that with a slab phone. Well, yeah, look at all these different choices I could get that are tailored to me. And then maybe the foldables end up taking over the slab phones. But people are so used to slab phones, it's gonna take some time to displace them. Because remember, the Galaxy S25 Ultra still outsold the Galaxy C Fold 7. It did like 20 to 1. Yeah, they sold 20 S25 Ultras for every Fold 7 they sold, and even more so for S25 Ultra versus the Flip 7. So you're not talking like it's a small margin right now. Yeah, it's like, you know, it's like 95% of the volume versus 5 to 10%. Samsung is just banking on that innovation. And Samsung's like, hey, what's the best way to make sure people don't go get affoldable? We just won't innovate at all with the slab phones. And then people be like, oh, we have to go over here if we want the innovation. So they're like, let's do nothing. Let's put out AI generated cats and not promote our S launch at all. No marketing, no camera upgrades. Maybe we'll get the picture and they'll come over to the Z Fold 8 in July. But I think a lot of people still like the slab phones. Yeah. So I think it's still gonna be a big launch.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Oh no, I think slap phones are still gonna be here for quite some time. And again, the uh appealing part too, even with the trifold, is that you can still turn it into a slap phone, you know?
SPEAKER_04You can, yeah. I mean, it's just a little more narrow, but you can just fold it right up, boom, put it in your pocket, and you're ready to rock. And you're ready to rock. All right, so uh we'll probably come back for maybe like 20 or 25 more minutes. There's a few more miscellaneous things that we're gonna talk about. We'll take a quick break though first, because as usual, you know, we gotta pay the bills. It's not discount tire, but we do need to throw it to the sponsor of today's podcast. This episode of the Sammy Guru Podcast is brought to you by our partners at US Mobile. U.S. Mobile has wireless service on all three of the major carriers in the United States. You can get service on their Darkstar, their warp, and light speed networks, and you can even switch between those on your plan at any time that you like. They have various different promos running right now, including their yearly promotions. They have a 30-day free trial if you bring your number to US Mobile, as well as three months of service for$45, which is$15 a month, on their unlimited starter plan. And you can do that with porting your number in or getting a new number with US Mobile as well. They have some really amazing deals, and the fact that you can actually switch between the three major US carriers is quite a great deal for a prepaid carrier and something that I really like about US Mobile. If you guys are looking for a great new wireless service, check out our friends at US Mobile. We appreciate them for sponsoring this episode of the Sammy Guru Podcast. We're back, and I just saw this story that we didn't talk about when we were talking about the Buds 4. Uh, we wrote a story. Apple is apparently considering putting AI cameras in the next version of the AirPods Pro. So I was asking Tori, would you like to see AI cameras on the Buds 5 Pro? Do we need AI cameras in our buds? Do people need it? No. No, we don't. Very simple answer. I mean, what would you use AI cameras for in your buds? I don't really even understand. I mean, I guess it can see the world around you, um, but it's kind of strange. Like, I mean, I guess this they're saying that it would basically have lower resolution sensors, so it wouldn't really be for taking pictures. It's to help AI understand the world that's around you and offer information. But since it's not seeing what's in front of you, it's seeing what's on side of you. What if I want to ask it about something that's in front of me? It's not gonna know. Do I have to turn my head to the side? Be like, hey, Siri, take a look at it over here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And then like, what if you don't turn your head like enough? And I guess it seems like it could be very, very complicated. Yeah, I think so too. So I'm gonna have to say no for me, Doc.
SPEAKER_04I'm gonna have to say, yeah, I don't know that I really need AI cameras in my earbuds. Um, the more likely thing that I really want, the thing I'm still waiting on, which actually leads into one of our questions. So I guess we can just answer these two questions. Yep. And then I'll come back to the other stuff I was gonna talk about if we have time, because I want to make sure we get the questions. Larry White. Never heard of this guy. Larry White must be a new listener. Must be a new listen. He said, What do you think the price will be on the one terabyte S26 Ultra? We know the double storage for getting the 512 at the 51256 price, but will it be full price on the one terabyte? Well, Larry, first of all, we don't know that. I don't know anything because they haven't given me any information. And Samsung has not commented that there's actually a storage upgrade in the US. We know that's true for India and a couple other places, so I don't want to think that I know. But Larry knows, I guess Larry has inside info. I wouldn't be surprised. Larry is becoming a savage lately in the Samsung game, he's everywhere. He sends us tips all the time. Shout out to you, Larry. Um in the past, Samsung has given you uh an upgrade from 512 to 1TB at launch. Possible. If they do the 256 to 512 free upgrade, I think they will do 512 to 1TB. Now, the question is, will it be the full free upgrade that you get from the 256 to 512? I don't know. In the past, they've done some different things. But once they did it where it was the full upgrade, because usually from 512 to 1 terabyte is more than 256 to 512. Yeah, I think it's usually like 120 to go from 256 to 512. And from two from 512 to 1TB, sometimes it's been 240. And so one time I think they offered it in the beginning, and then they're like, oh, that's a little too generous. And they took it away after like the first day or two of pre-orders, which by the way is a good argument. And I will say this sometimes Samsung does give you better trade-in values and some better deals on like the very first day of pre-orders, and then they'll be like, guys, this is way too generous. We can't be given X amount of trade-in credit for this device, and they'll lower it. So that is a good reason to purchase right as soon as Unpack goes live because a lot of times the best trade-in values and the best offers are going to be right at launch. Yeah. And they might scale them back. Even during the pre-order period, they sometimes scale them back. Um, I I would think they'll at least give you either half or the full free upgrade. Because of all the memory price increases and all that stuff, it seems like half might make more sense if they're going with the cost-cutting strategy. Um but as for the price, I don't know, Larry. It's gonna be expensive, buddy. Yeah. Um they don't increase the price in the US at all, I think before it was$16.49 if they don't increase the base$256 price. I would think$17.49 or$17.99 for the one terabyte this year. It's gonna be a pretty penny. Yeah. A very pretty penny. So if you trade in your S25 Ultra, you're probably gonna get$750 or$800. So you're probably looking at about$1,000 for a one terabyte. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's pretty good.
SPEAKER_04Set you back a cool thousand. So not too bad, Larry. You know, I'm sure Larry's been dreaming of one terabyte for a while, which by the way, a lot of people have been wanting one terabyte, 16 gigabytes uh variation in the US, and it looks like we finally will get that. So there will be a one terabyte, 16 gig variation. So for all of you ballers, shot callers with your 20-inch blades on the Impala, you guys can grab the 16 gigabyte, one terabyte model with Larry for probably$1,800. Um, I might too. Who knows? I want to be a baller shot caller, like Squilo, you know? Yeah. Um do you think there's anything not covered in the leaks the past few months that Samsung may surprise us with? We kind of talked about this in the last podcast where we talked about what could and what could not come. Yeah, I think the only thing that could come is the thing that we ran down on the last one when we talked about what had a probability of showing up, and that's the Galaxy XR glasses. Yeah. Um, I do not think there's much chance that they'll actually launch and be available for sale. That seems very unlikely still. But remember last year what happened at the very end of Unpacked in January when the lights went out, yeah, the lights came back on, and they had the silhouette of the S25 Edge on the screen, and then they had the S25 Edge like teaser, like a few seconds. Yep. And then the lights went back off. Uh, I do think that could happen. I think TM Rowe closed the show. He says, Thank you for coming to Galaxy Unpack, the lights go off, everyone's getting ready to get up, and it goes and they show the outline of the Galaxy XR glasses, and then they might have a pair-on display in a glass case like they did for the edge, where media can't touch it, but we can take pictures. I would put I'd put a 50-50 shot at that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Because, you know, it's always nice to have something to look forward to, the next product. Uh, I do think there's a chance still that they mean this is not exciting because we've already know about it. They've already launched in Korea, they already launched in Europe. Um, I think there's a chance they mention the Galaxy Book 6 and Book Six, Book Six Pro, Book Six Ultra. Okay. I'm excited for those.
SPEAKER_01No, that'd be good.
Rollouts, Colors, And Youth Strategy
SPEAKER_04I mean, those are huge winning laptops. They're really nice. I'm very excited for the Galaxy Book 6 Pro and Ultra. I'm not sure which one I'm gonna get yet. Um, I asked Samsung to send me a review unit. I know they're not gonna send me both, so whatever, maybe they'll send me one and whatever they don't send. Which one would you hope for? Oh, the ultra, because it's more expensive. Then I can buy the pro myself. I'd rather spend less money myself, if all things considered. But uh yeah, I mean, I hope they give me a review unit of every phone, too. But I think I'm probably only gonna get the ultra. Yeah. But it'd be nice if they give me a review unit of every phone. I would love it, you know. It'd be much appreciated. So if you guys want to hook me up, you know, make a note, S26, S26 Plus, S26 Ultra, Buds 4 Pro, put them all in the bag, bag it right, send it right over to me on the tag it on Wednesday and uh I'll be on my way to do some content. Uh other question comes from uh Amir, workaholic David, who's a a very big uh content creator. He he does ex posting. This guy does pretty well, gets a lot of views over on the X. Uh, if you were the head of Samsung's mobile division team, I thought it said for just a day, it doesn't say that. It says if you're the head of Samsung's mobile division team, so if I was TM Row, what's the first thing I'm doing if I'm TM Row? Well, as I told Tori before, the first thing I'm doing is going into his creating bank account and wiring myself several million US dollars worth of money because I mean it's my bank account now. I am TM Row. That way, if eventually I'm not TM Row, you still got some. If it's like a freaky Friday situation, then I switch back to Jeff. Well, now I wake up and I got 10 million extra dollars in my bank account. That would be no problem. I would be okay with that. Uh, but after I do that, uh, there's some things I'm gonna fix. And then I'll let Tori go through. The first thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna get some people to work on upgrading the main camera sensor in all of my phones. That was the one I'm gonna say, hey. I'm gonna say, hey guys, we can't have a four-year-old camera sensor in our flagship foldable and our flagship slab phone. Someone go find our best sensor. Yep. I'm like, you guys know that we own an entire division that makes camera sensors for God's sakes. Yeah. Someone go down there and talk to those guys for God's sakes and buy some of them. Yes. I know that they're not gonna sell them to us for cheap, but buy them. We need them. Yes, we need them. Put them in there. Uh I would definitely bring back, and I know this is a controversial one, I'd bring back the Galaxy Note lineup.
SPEAKER_01I would Yeah, I I thoroughly enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_04I still think there is a reason for it to exist because there's a lot of people who still want the S Pen, and we already talked about earlier, like we're gonna have to axe the S Pen to get the MagSafe, but maybe some people don't want that. Well, if you bring the note back, then you don't have to have the MagSafe because the S Pen, what the note was all about less mainstream features, like more niche, more innovation, less mainstream. So you put like a 7,000 milliamp hour battery, you make it a little thicker, kind of do what Apple is doing with the iPhone 17 Pro Max, where they're like, we don't care what this phone looks like. It's for the pros. We're gonna make it thick, we're gonna make it ugly, but it's gonna have the best camera. It's gonna have everything. It's gonna have the best camera, the biggest battery, it's gonna shoot the best video, the you know, the note, whatever ultra, whatever it's gonna be, the note 30 Ultra, it's gonna have the S Pen. We're gonna bring the Bluetooth back for the S Pen. It's gonna have on-device decks like the Trifold has. We're gonna make the screen slightly bigger, just get crazy, make the bezel smaller, make it a seven-inch screen. Samsung is always pushing the boundaries. Make it the first smartphone, mainstream phone that has a seven-inch screen. They keep flirting at 6.9. Let's just push it over the edge. Everyone likes it. A nice big fat seven-incher.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Oh pause.
SPEAKER_03Pause.
SPEAKER_04Anyway, anyway. I'm talking about phones here. Phones. Anyway, pause. Anyway, anyway, what I'm saying is everybody would love that.
SPEAKER_01People would love that. A lot of people would I I say, look, I think we honestly got to a point where we can just throw I no one even really talks about house then, at least regular consumers. How thin or slamming. And you know, we talked about this before on the show. But yeah, if you're buying an ultra or a pro, like we want it to feel like it's an ultra, you know. So like give us all the bells and whistles, doesn't need to be uh as thin as you can make it, like, you know, just give us the stuff we know it's gonna take us.
SPEAKER_04So then, though, they could keep focusing on the aesthetic in the S line. Yeah. So make that the aesthetic phone, where it's like, okay, if you love aesthetics and you like it to look slim, and it's rounded, it's Galaxy S, the S pen is gone because we put MagSafe in there. And they're like, hey, you know what? The Galaxy S is like all the trendy Apple features that also look beautiful. If that's what you want, great. But if you're a pro and you're you use your phone hardcore, your power user, come back to the note line, buy the Note 30 Ultra. It's got everything, every single thing we can throw at it. And it might be really expensive, but that's one thing I would do is bring back the note line. And uh, I would get rid of a lot of their mid-range offerings. Uh, honestly, I would consolidate them. I know people are gonna say, well, Jeff, you sell more mid-range and low-range phones than anything else because you sell them in a bunch of other regions. Yeah, but there's just too many of them. The F, the M, and even in the upper mid-range, where you're talking about the A series and then the S25 FE, like all those could be consolidated. We don't we've talked about this before. I don't need an S26 FE. Just sell the Galaxy A57, and any people who want the S27 FE could buy that, or vice versa. Get rid of the A57 and you just sell it as an S26 FE. We don't need all those phones.
SPEAKER_01No, uh, I would invest a lot of money. Yeah, phones. I would offerings for sure.
SPEAKER_04There's just too many SKUs. And even though a lot of them service different regions, we could definitely trend on some of the low mid-range and still get enough to service those markets because they're not that much differentiation between some of the F and the M range. There's the various small delineations. Uh, I would definitely invest a lot of RD into bringing the Galaxy Tab lineup to its full potential. Okay. Because I feel like it's been neglected.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And I feel like under the proper stewardship, i.e., my stewardship, we could bring the galaxy tab. I might even make a slogan, make galaxy tabs great again.
SPEAKER_01When you uh when you take over TMRO's body. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And I'd have a hat on that says make galaxy tabs great again. Um, it would be blue, Samsung Blue. And, you know, we would do things that are not stupid, like releasing the Tab S11 Ultra without a professional keyboard, and it's still six months later and you still don't have one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that just makes no sense. Like we would not just make sense.
SPEAKER_04We would not sell 50.$1,500 tablets that don't even have a pro keyboard with a trackpad built in.
SPEAKER_01That makes sense.
SPEAKER_04We would lower the price of the tab Ultra lineup for sure. We would probably slim it down a little bit and we'd probably offer another Ultra. I'd probably have two ultras, okay, uh versions, because the 14.6 inch is just too damn big. We'd probably do something like Apple, where we have like a 12-inch and then like a 13.5 inch or something, 13.6, whatever. Uh, and we would try to work with a lot of third-party developers and invest in bringing optimized apps to Galaxy tablets for Android. Even if those developers want me to pay them some money to subsidize, I would do that. Because I think Samsung could compete with Apple and the iPad. I still think there's hope. But you can't do it without optimized apps. You can't have Instagram looking like trash on the Galaxy tab and it looks perfect on the iPad. Because that's what the can that's the stuff that people care about.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_04People be like, why does Instagram look like ass on my Galaxy tab? It looks perfect on your iPad. I'm gonna buy the iPad.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And that has nothing to do with Samsung. It has to do with Instagram not optimizing their app for Android, but Samsung is gonna have to be the bigger man and incentivize those. And if I was running Samsung MX, I would be the bigger man. I would say, guys, we'll pay you some money. Let's figure out how to make it so that these images don't look like they were shot on a camera from 1995 when we scale them on this$1,500 high resolution tablet because it's not a good look. No, we can't have images that look like they were shot with a potato when people just paid$1,500 for this tablet. Yeah. And they're already pissed because they can't buy a pro-level keyboard for a$1,500 tablet. You know, so we at least got to give them something. We've got to give them app optimization. Um, I don't know. Those are some of the really big things I would do. Uh, I would probably set a more transparent schedule with one UI rollouts because I feel like people want that transparency. We've talked about this many times. Um, my hair is safe, by the way. 1UI 8.5 is not releasing for the S25 before Unpacked. I said I would shave my head if that happened, and that is not happening. So thankfully, my hair is is good. It's all good. Um, yeah, there's no chance of that. In fact, it was announced this week that Samsung might they release the fifth beta this week and they might release a sixth beta after Unpacked. Oh my goodness. If you have an S25 series, don't expect to get the update anytime soon. You know, just kind of don't be don't be hoping too much because it's not gonna happen. No, probably probably maybe, you know, pencil it in around like April. Yeah. You know, they might even do another April Fool's Day. They'll be like, it's like, no, it's coming later, maybe around Memorial Day. Um just maybe. But anyway, they gotta give people a chance to look at those new features on the S26 and say, hey, do I want to buy that new phone? Because I could get 8.5 right now. Some people will look at it and say 100%. So I'd have a more predictable schedule. I would try to bring One UI updates more in line with obviously I I realize and I've said before on the show, you can't have OneUI updates that update all the phones in the same day like Apple does. Because Samsung doesn't make Android, Google makes Android, and Samsung also doesn't make their own processors, all of them anyway. Qualcomm makes a lot of the processors that run on their uh phones, so you can't just do what Apple does. But I would try to make it like we talked about before when you and I talked about this before. I think someone asked this question how could you make it so that people would be happy? I would try to make it so that all the flagships in the last two years get the update on the same day. So you know I think that'd be important. Like if I launched the Galaxy S26 with 1U8.5 next Wednesday, everybody who has the S25 and S24, they're gonna be able to download 188.5 that day.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And Samsung might think that that would hurt their sales in launch. It wouldn't do it, it would actually make people happier because then they're probably going to upgrade with Samsung every time that they upgrade, because they could be like, well, Samsung cares about me because even though I'm not necessarily how they're treating their customers, even though I'm not necessarily buying a new phone this year, they're still giving me that top software because I bought the top phone last year. You know, and you do that.
SPEAKER_01Most people care about.
SPEAKER_04And those people remember that. They'll be like, okay, well, next year that's 27. I like this one. I'm gonna buy it. Yeah, why would I do that? Because Samsung treated me right. They gave me the update, even though I didn't buy the S26. My S25 got it the same day. That's good service. I think you could do that. Excellent good service because most of the flagships do run the same processor. Yeah. So why can't you offer 1U8.5 for all of them? Feasible. I think it's very feasible. And I think if I was TM Row, that's what I would do. What about you, Tori? What would you do?
SPEAKER_01Hmm. Uh definitely want to bring Okay. Actually, I'll be like, can we bring some fun colors? I I really haven't, you know, and I've talked a lot about this on the show before, um, but like like the org glow, like stuff like that. Like, I know I think we we kind of got to people want the colors back. Yeah, people want the colors back. I feel like we just kind of got to this, and I know we talked about about this before that we're kind of like on this Apple, you know, like how can we be like Apple kind of train? But like I miss like the fun colors, the the innovation and stuff, and like Samsung is still doing innovation, but like we gotta bring colors back. We thought the colors were kind of coming back this year, but it seems like not.
SPEAKER_04We originally heard some rumors that there were gonna be interesting colors and it all faded away.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'll say like right around like before the end of the of the note line, like like like uh that that little chunk of time, like you know, the note eight and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_04I mean, don't get me wrong, the purple this year looks nice. Yes, there's nothing wrong with it, it looks good, but all the other colors are very shades of gray. I mean, the pink, the pink and the purple are nice, they're different, yeah. But the other ones you got like blue, gray, white, gray, and black gray, and and that's it. And then you have pink and purple. Yeah, that's it. So how about something that's a little more adventurous? Yeah, and they do it for the lower end phones, but they don't ever do it for the flagship.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was like, some of those colors that we were looking at for the A-line?
SPEAKER_04I'm like, wow, they're like they used to do that for the flagships, they just don't anymore. Yeah, I think you're right. People would love to see that because that brings some of the fun back to Samsung. No, yeah, you can't spell Samsung without fun. Yeah, no, it's I think that's not true, but close. There's a sun in there, you know. Yes, there is a sun in there. Someone once asked me, they said if Samsung, why doesn't Samsung? That's true. Yeah, that's a good question.
SPEAKER_01Uh what else would I do? Oh, um, obviously I'll upgrade the cameras. Um, and then what I would actually do too, which I think would be the I feel like they need to also like target um like that high school slash college, you know, like age where trying to pull those people away from the I the Apple. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that the Apple is tight there, uh, which I know a lot of it also too is like the ecosystem, you know. Uh, I feel like at certain points there Samsung is like a little behind, but then sometimes they catch up in ecosystems. But like I think it's because of iMessage and FaceTime. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04That just becomes you mean maybe they need to start handing out the galaxy phones to the kids in elementary school. Oh, there you go. They're like, you're in third grade here, go ahead and use this. Yeah, we'll teach you how to use Google Meet so you can Google meet all your friends video call. Boom. And then teach you how to use RCS and Google Messages so you don't have to worry about iMessage. Yeah. We'll teach you how to actually use your phone and customize it so you don't have to be locked into Apple's ecosystem. So that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna start handing out Galaxy phones to the third graders.
SPEAKER_01There you go.
SPEAKER_04One for you, one for you, one for you.
SPEAKER_01Everybody gets Oprah at the elementary school. Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_04They're like, excuse me, sir, you guys gotta leave. And I'm like, but I'm trying to educate the kids. And Samsung.
SPEAKER_01Uh Android and Samsung. I mean you show me your badge. See, I'm the Sami guru.
SPEAKER_04I'm the Sami guru here.
SPEAKER_01I'm allowed to be here. And then they're like, sir, uh, we need you to vacate the premises.
SPEAKER_04I'm like, guys, don't worry. I was not in the Epstein files. You can read them. My name does not appear anywhere in the Epstein files. No, I'm allowed to be within 100 miles of an elementary school. I mean a hundred feet of an elementary school.
SPEAKER_01I'm allowed to be here. Um that's true. But yeah, no, uh, those would be some of the things I do. Um, you know, I in um commercials and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_04I would stop doing the AI ads, that's for sure. Yeah, no, AI ads. I mean, they just started that, but yeah. Their ads were so good for the Z Fold 7. The ones with people actually doing stuff that were real people.
SPEAKER_01I really like the bookshelf one that they showed a lot um last year.
SPEAKER_04Uh I I hope they have some real people ads that they show and unpacked. Again, I won't be able to pay attention, so I'll have to watch the show again when I get back. It's funny because I go I'm there in person, but I don't know anything that happened. So after I get my review unit and I go back to the hotel, I open the replay on YouTube of Unpack and watch it so I can see if there's anything I missed that also wasn't in the press release. And I was there. I was like, you wouldn't you should remember Jeff, but I I never do because I'm busy focused on mystery boxes and answering all those emails. I mean, last year during the first 35 minutes of the unpack show, I answered 179 emails from people about mystery box stuff in like 35 minutes. Oh, yeah. So, you know, I'm I'm really trying to get in there and make sure people are are all set so you know that we can keep doing this whole Sammy Guru thing. True. True.
Final Prep, Mystery Box, Shipping
SPEAKER_01Being the guru. You know, I don't know. Those would be some of the things I would do. I I don't know. I I I really feel like Samsung can really pull this through and like just kind of like return to glory. And I feel like kind of like what Jeff said, um, they I need to have a really good look on foldables. I think they have a huge lean on foldables against the phone. You know, a lot of S S line phones, but I'm like, I mean, like if they can really just market and get the price right on foldables, uh, I really do feel like they'll be unstoppable. Um, and then maybe l way later on we can like do AI stuff. But like for right now, like I mean, I get the pricing, camera, colors, uh, for foldables, I think we're I think it'll be solid.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I mean, they have a huge lead in foldables, so they really just need to keep applying the pressure because I really believe that Apple's very first foldable for Ray, whether it's this year or next year, I don't think it's gonna be as good as people think. There's a lot of elements to foldables. Yeah. Um, I'm sure Apple will have a lot of things in place that make it interesting, but I mean Samsung has like a 10-year lead when it comes to foldables. Yeah. Durability, you know, the software in terms of multitasking. Apple's never been big on multitasking. I mean, they just basically gave the iPad multitasking features last year. And the iPad's been around for forever. Yeah. For like 20 years. So well, that's almost time then for me to get backed up. I need to get backed up so I can get going on Monday. Be there live. Tori will be with you guys Wednesday morning. Make sure you guys join the stream. It's in the show notes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we'll be there to help support.
SPEAKER_04All the writers will be writing all the things. So at 10 a.m. Pacific, uh, one o'clock eastern, right when Unpaco's live.
SPEAKER_01Basically, all of Sam Sun, Sammy Guru will be in full force. Everybody will be up.
SPEAKER_04The guys from the guys from India will be staying up till one in the morning, their time to help us get everything done. All hands on deck from deck for be covering the whole thing. Remember, you can get the mystery box. Don't forget if you're ordering an S26, you'll be able to get a free case, 65 watt charger, temper glass frame protector, desktop phone stand, cleaning kit, USB C earbuds, other randomly inserted goodies like the golden and silver ticket. Uh just use our link, fill out the verification form. It's very simple. And we ship you a box. So boxes start shipping March 10th for the first wave, March 17th for the last wave, for the second wave, and then anybody after the 2000th boxed will ship by the end of March. So we expect to do at least maybe around 3,000 this year. So probably will be three waves. So get your order in early, then you know that you're going to be in the first wave. So if you want your box to go out by March 10th, just order early and set the verification form early and you'll be good to go. And until then, everybody have a very pleasant unpacked and uh keep expanding your galaxy.