Google isn’t the only phone maker challenging Apple during the latter’s big WWDC 2025 week. Samsung is also in the mix. Unlike Google, which made a few big Android announcements the day after Apple’s opening keynote, Samsung started its marketing push before WWDC and continued releasing teasers after the keynote.
While Google announced the Android 16 rollout for Pixel phones and new Android and Pixel-specific features coming to existing phones, Samsung’s campaign is all about new hardware. The Korean giant will soon unveil the Galaxy Z Fold 7 — the thinnest, lightest foldable Galaxy phone yet.
Samsung posted several blogs teasing the upcoming flagship foldable in the past week, including one that doesn’t focus on the design. The latest press release talks about the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s camera, teasing a smarter experience powered by AI.
On June 4th, Samsung teased “the next chapter of Ultra,” showing how thin the Galaxy Z Fold 7 will be without revealing the phone’s full design.
Rumors say the Galaxy Z Fold 7 will recycle last year’s Galaxy Z Fold SE design. That’s the limited edition, ultra-thin foldable that Samsung launched in Korea and China in late 2024. I said at the time that Samsung would be forced to use the same design in the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 7. Otherwise, it would prove that Samsung can’t manufacture high-end, ultra-thin foldables at scale.
Samsung is now ready to tease that ultra-thin foldable phone experience, while also reminding us that Galaxy flagships are AI powerhouses:
With industry-leading hardware, cutting-edge performance and seamless AI integration optimized for the foldable format, it’s what users have come to expect from Galaxy Ultra.
And when it unfolds, it transforms– into a more immersive entertainment hub, a spacious workspace, or a multitasking powerhouse, now enhanced by powerful Galaxy AI features designed specifically for the foldable form.
On June 9th, or WWDC 2025 keynote day, Samsung followed up with a new blog post: “Thin, Light and Built to Last: The New Era of the Galaxy Z Series.”
Samsung recapped the Galaxy Z Fold’s history briefly, before saying: “This year, that journey reaches a new milestone. The newest Galaxy Z series is the thinnest, lightest and most advanced foldable yet – meticulously crafted and built to last.”
Galaxy AI camera
This brings us to the June 11th press release, where Samsung gave us the most meaningful Galaxy Z Fold 7 teaser yet: “Your Smartphone Camera Now Gets What You’re Looking At — and Responds.”
“As AI evolves from text-based prompts to multimodal understanding, Galaxy devices are becoming smarter — able to get what you’re looking at and respond to situations, “Samsung says. “The camera is at the heart of this transformation. More than just a tool for capturing images, coupled with enhanced AI-powered features, the Galaxy camera is now part of the intuitive interface that turns what users see into understanding and action.”
AI systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, and others brought us multimodality last year. The chatbots are able to read files and understand images you place in your text prompts. Features like Circle to Search, Google Lens, and Visual Intelligence let AI see the world around you and what’s on your display. Devices like the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses give AI access to a real-time feed of your surroundings.
With that in mind, Samsung’s Galaxy AI camera teaser is exciting. Samsung might want to combine various AI features and integrate them into the phone’s camera rather than develop separate apps to handle AI requests that involve the camera.
I could see a Galaxy Z Fold 7 experience where you turn on the camera and point it at something. The AI will realize that you don’t want to take a photo or video. Instead, you want information about something you saw on the street. Maybe you want to translate a sign or learn more about a famous landmark or a restaurant in a city you’re visiting.
The AI might then offer you handy menus to save information to your calendar, translate text, or search the web for the product you just saw in a store.
While I’m speculating here, it seems inevitable that this will be the future camera experience for other devices, too. A smarter camera app could automatically determine whether you intend to capture content or if you’re seeking assistance.
The Galaxy Z Fold 7’s design might be perfect for such camera AI experiences. Unfold the phone, and the camera app can occupy half of the available real estate, while the Galaxy AI chatbot takes over the other half.
Unsurprisingly, Samsung teases that the phone’s form factor will come in handy when dealing with a smarter camera. Also, Samsung says the camera experience will be private:
When paired with the flexible, expansive screen of a foldable, this experience becomes even more powerful, dynamic and immersive. Because innovation means nothing without trust, privacy is built into every layer helping to ensure that data is protected at all times.
It’s unclear when the Galaxy Z Fold 7 will launch, but it’s safe to expect an Unpacked event next month.
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