samsung

LG TVs’ unremovable Copilot shortcut is the least of smart TVs’ AI problems

AI, chatbots, copilot, generative ai, lg, microsoft, samsung, Tech, TVs / Mike M. / December 19, 2025

But Copilot will still be integrated into Tizen OS, and Samsung appears eager to push chatbots into TVs, including by launching Perplexity’s first TV app. Amazon, which released Fire TVs with Alexa+ this year, is also exploring putting chatbots into TVs.

After the backlash LG faced this week, companies may reconsider installing AI apps on people’s smart TVs. A better use of large language models in TVs may be as behind-the-scenes tools to improve TV watching. People generally don’t buy smart TVs to make it easier to access chatbots.

But this development is still troubling for anyone who doesn’t want an AI chatbot in their TV at all.

Some people don’t want chatbots in their TVs

Subtle integrations of generative AI that make it easier for people to do things like figure out the name of “that movie” may have practical use, but there are reasons to be wary of chatbot-wielding TVs.

Chatbots add another layer of complexity to understanding how a TV tracks user activity. With a chatbot involved, smart TV owners will be subject to complicated smart TV privacy policies and terms of service, as well as the similarly verbose rules of third-party AI companies. This will make it harder for people to understand what data they’re sharing with companies, and there’s already serious concern about the boundaries smart TVs are pushing to track users, including without consent.

Chatbots can also contribute to smart TV bloatware. Unwanted fluff, like games, shopping shortcuts, and flashy ads, already disrupts people who just want to watch TV.

LG’s Copilot web app is worthy of some grousing, but not necessarily because of the icon that users will eventually be able to delete. The more pressing issue is the TV industry’s shift toward monetizing software with user tracking and ads.

If you haven’t already, now is a good time to check out our guide to breaking free from smart TV ads and tracking.

LG TVs’ unremovable Copilot shortcut is the least of smart TVs’ AI problems Read More »

For the lazy techie: These are Ars staff’s last-minute holiday gift picks

Blu-ray, buying guide, gifts, kagi, Meta, Mouse, philips hue, ray-ban, samsung, shopping, Storage, USB-C / Beth Washington / December 18, 2025

Two wireless mice, two external hard drives, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images

The holidays have snuck up on us. How is it already that time?

If you’re on top of things and have already bought all your Christmas gifts, I commend you. Not all of us are so conscientious. In fact, one of us is so behind on holiday prep that he is not only running late on buying gifts; he’s also behind on publishing the Ars staff gift guide he said he’d write. (Whoever could we be talking about?)

So for my fellow last-minute scramblers, I polled Ars writers and editors for gift ideas they know will be solid because they’ve actually used them. As such, you’ll find gift options below that Ars staffers have used enough to feel good about recommending. Further, I made sure all of these are available for delivery before Christmas as of today, at least where I live.

For each gadget (or whatever else it might be), we have a brief description of how or why we’ve been using this particular thing and why we would recommend it. Note that the prices we’ve listed here represent where they were at the time this article was written, but online retailers often vary prices based on different factors, so you might see something different when you click through.

Ars Commentariat: If you feel inclined, feel free to share some other ideas. I genuinely might take advantage if you share something good.

Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs. (We won’t affiliatize any shared links in the comments, of course.)

Under $50

Tiny USB-A to USB-C adapter pack – $8

Somehow, amazingly, we are still living in a split USB-C/USB-A world all these years later. No one’s thrilled about it, but there’s no end in sight. Some folks in the Apple ecosystem turn to Apple’s first-party adapters, but there are two problems with them in my view: first, they’re weirdly expensive, as you’d expect. And second, they’re larger than they need to be.

I have about a dozen of these little adapters sitting around my house. The only downside is that because they’re shorter, they’re thicker, so you can’t always put two right next to each other in the MacBook Pro’s USB-C ports. But in the aforementioned mixed-use quagmire we all now occupy, odds are good you can just put it next to something that actually uses a USB-C connection. If you’re like me, you’re at about 2/3 USB-C and 1/3 USB-A at this point.

There are a bunch of brands for these, but they’re all pretty interchangeable, and I’ve not had any problems with these in particular.

– Samuel Axon

The Thing on 4K UltraHD Blu-ray – $12

People often debate whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie. (I definitely think it is.) But there’s another movie I often watch during the holidays: John Carpenter’s The Thing. I’ll freely admit it’s not holiday-themed in any way, but it’s at least filled with snow and winter gloom!

I don’t buy every movie on physical media—I’ve accepted that a lot of my library is going to be on Apple’s TV app or coming and going on streaming services—but I try to collect the lifelong favorites to make sure I’ll still have them decades down the road. (As long as they keep making Blu-ray players, anyway, which unfortunately is starting to look as uncertain as whether a favorite film stays on Netflix.)

A screengrab from The Thing — MacReady is admittedly not known for his holiday cheer. Credit: Universal

For me, The Thing definitely qualifies as a favorite that’s worth holding onto for years to come.

– Samuel Axon

Acer USB C Hub, 7 in 1 Multi-Port Adapter – $18

Modern laptops with only two USB-C ports basically require a hub. This Acer turns one port into HDMI (4K@30Hz), two USB-A ports for legacy gear, SD/microSD slots, and 100 W passthrough charging. At $18, I keep one in my bag and one on my desk. It’s not fancy, but it earns its keep the first time you need to dump a memory card or plug into a TV set.

– Benj Edwards

Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans by Melanie Mitchell – $20

Originally published in 2019, it’s an amazing testament to how strong this book is that even after all that’s happened, the 2025 reissue doesn’t change much. Melanie Mitchell, a professor of computer science at Portland State University and an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute, nails this historical summary of how we got to this point through multiple AI springs and AI winters.

She carefully explains the concepts and research underpinnings of contemporary developments in machine learning, large language models, image generation, and so on, while amplifying key voices from several of the people who contributed to progress in this field—both doomsayers and boosters alike—with a technically rigorous and ethically informed point of view.

If you or someone you know is just getting started learning about AI as we know it today, there are a lot of books they could read, and some of them are surely more contemporary. But I can hardly think of any that make a better foundation.

– Samuel Axon

Pinecil soldering iron – $40

Every self-respecting geek should own a soldering iron. Even if you aren’t making your own PCBs or recapping old electronics, it’s the kind of thing that just comes in handy. Especially around the holidays, when people are getting out their old battery-powered decorations that come with a lot of memories, wear, and flaky power terminals. Be the hero that brings a treasured light-up keepsake back to life!

When you don’t need a full-on soldering station, though, it’s nice to have something compact and easy to slip in a drawer. Enter the Pinecil, conveniently powered over USB-C, with a slick little screen allowing for easy temperature control (in F or C) and firmware that auto-sleeps if you forget to unplug it.

– Aurich Lawson

Anker 67 watt USB charger and Anker USB-C silicon power cable – $25 and $16

If you already have a suitable USB-C power supply (you really want at least 60 watts) and a USB-C cable, you’re set. If not, this power supply from Anker—a reliable brand, in my experience—is compact and folds up for easy storage. Not all USB-C cables are up to the task of transmitting the magic wall juice, so if you’re not sure you have an appropriate one, pick up the above cable, which is sheathed in silicon to keep it nice and floppy so you’re not wrestling with a stiff cord while using your iron.

– Aurich Lawson

Knog Bike Bells – $22 – $33

While a lot of my road bike’s miles are spent on actual roads, it’s hard to do any long rides in my area without spending a little time on a cycle trail—one shared by pedestrians, runners, scooter riders, casual cyclists, and random others. Even if the rules of most of those trails didn’t specify using a bell, it’s a smart idea to have one—especially one that’s loud enough to cut through whatever’s coming out of the headphones that most people wear.

But real estate on my handlebars is limited. They already host a cycling computer and a light, and two cables and two hydraulic tubes snake their way through the area, emerging from under the handlebar tape before diving into the frame. Finding a bell that both works and keeps out of the way turned into a bit of a challenge. And then a solution presented itself: A company called Knog sent me an email about their bell offerings.

A bike bell against a white background — One of Knog’s bike bells. Credit: Knog

All of Knog’s options are mechanically simple—just a half circle of metal that follows the circumference of the handlebar and a spring-loaded hammer to strike it—and loud enough to catch even headphone wearers’ attention. They’re also low-profile, barely sticking out from the handlebars themselves, and they’re narrow enough that it was easy to find space for one without bumping it into any of the cabling. It’s all unobtrusive enough that I forget mine’s there until I need it. Yes, you can find lots of cheaper alternative designs (the Knogs run between $20 and $45), but for me, it’s worth paying an extra $10–$15 for something that suits my needs this well.

– John Timmer

Razer Orochi V2 wireless mouse – $34

This is the mouse I’m using right now as I type this. I wanted a mouse that could cross basically every domain: It needed to be good enough for gaming, but conveniently wireless, while also working well across macOS, Windows, and Linux—and it needed to be portable and not too embarrassing in a professional context because I fly to far-flung cities for work at least a dozen times a year. Razer’s Orochi met all of those goals, and I appreciate that it looks neat and professional, despite the fact that it’s very much a gamer mouse.

The only area where it fumbles is that Razer’s app seems to crash and cause problems for me on both macOS and Windows, but it works just fine without the app, so I uninstalled it, and everything’s been golden since. (To be clear, you don’t need to install it to use the mouse.)

It wins points for versatility; I don’t think it really compromises anything across all the situations I mentioned.

As of this writing, it’s on sale for $34, but the typical price is $70—still not bad for what you’re getting.

– Samuel Axon

Pricier picks

OWC Express 1M2 – $90

I set up a home studio this year to record my righteous jams, and as part of that process, I needed an external SSD both to back up project files and to hold many hundreds of gigs of virtual instruments. I wanted something 1) blazingly fast, 2) good-looking, 3) bus-powered, 4) free of all (and all too common) sleep/wake glitches, 5) unlikely to burst into flames (these things can get hot), and yet also 6) completely fanless because my righteous jams would be far less righteous with a fan droning in the background.

A durable hard drive enclosure — The OWC Express 1M2 is used for backups for Nate’s “righteous jams.” Credit: OWC

Those criteria led me to OWC’s Express 1M2, an SSD enclosure that transfers data at 40Gb/s over USB 4, matches the look of my Mac mini perfectly (and works with PCs), and is bus-powered. It has never given me a sleep/wake problem; it gets warm but never palm-searingly hot, and it dissipates heat through a chonky, milled-aluminum case that requires no fan.

I love this thing. It was ludicrously easy to install my own NVMe M.2 drive in it (though you can also pay a small premium for pre-installed storage). I’ve never had a moment of trouble—nor have I ever heard it. Yes, the enclosure costs more than some other options, but it’s a well-made piece of kit that can transfer data nearly as fast as my Mac’s internal SSD and should last for years. If someone in your life needs an SSD enclosure, they could do far, far worse than the Express 1M2.

– Nate Anderson

Kagi subscription – $108/year

It’s been about a year since I switched full-time to Kagi for my search engine needs, leaving Google behind in a cloud of dust and not looking back, and it was the correct choice, at least for me. Kagi’s upsides are many—including and especially search that works how it’s supposed to work instead of by fabricating garbage or tricking you into buying things—but the big downside is that while Kagi has a free tier, real daily usage requires money.

But if you’re a happy Kagi user like me and you want to tempt others into using the service, Kagi has gift subscriptions! If you’ve been trying to tempt a friend or relative into abandoning Google’s sinking AI ship but they’re balking at the price, throw some money at that problem and knock that barrier down! A “pro” Kagi subscription with unlimited search costs about a hundred dollars a year, and while that obviously isn’t nothing, it’s also not an unfair price—especially for something I use every day. Kagi: It’s what’s for Christmas!

– Lee Hutchinson

Philips Hue Bridge Pro – $99

Unlike Kagi, I’ve been using Philips Hue lights for a long, long time—13 years and counting, and most of those old first-gen bulbs are still operational. But the bridge, the Hue component that actually connects to your LAN, has long had an annoying problem: It can hook up to a max of about 50 Hue bulbs, and that’s it. (The reason has to do with cost-saving choices Philips made on the bridge design.)

Thirteen years has been enough for me to accumulate at least 50 Hue devices, so this limit has been problematic for me—but it’s a problem no more! After a decade and change, Philips has finally released an updated “Pro” bridge that handles far more Hue devices—and it comes in stylish black! The new bridge brings some new capabilities, too, but the big news is that new device limit—something long-time customers like me have spent years pining for. Now I can festoon my house with even more automatic lights!

– Lee Hutchinson

The Logitech MX Master 4 – $120

The Logitech MX Master 3S and the newer MX Master 4 remain two of the best productivity mice on the market. Both use an 8,000-DPI Darkfield sensor, the excellent MagSpeed electromagnetic scroll wheel, and Logitech’s deep customization stack. The 3S has been our long-standing recommendation, but the MX Master 4 brings a few quality-of-life improvements that may justify the upgrade. Most notably, it replaces the 3S’s soft-touch palm coating, which wears quickly and tends to attract grime, with more durable textured materials. The redesigned switches also make the 4 one of the quietest mice you can buy, with muted clicks and a near-silent scroll wheel.

A hand moves a mouse against a white background — Logitech MX Master 4, the mouse used by Ars Editor-in-Chief Ken Fisher. Credit: Logitech

The more ambitious addition is the new haptic system, meant to provide tactile feedback for shortcut triggers and app-specific “Actions Ring” menus. In practice, though, software support remains thin. Productivity apps haven’t yet embraced haptic signaling, and months after launch, the plugin ecosystem is still limited. The MX Master 4 is a well-executed refinement, but its headline feature is waiting for the software world to catch up.

– Ken Fisher

Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer glasses – $247

The Ray-Ban Meta glasses may look bulkier than a standard pair of Wayfarers, but the added hardware delivers a genuinely interesting glimpse at where mobile computing is headed. After spending time with them, it’s clear that eyewear will likely follow the same trajectory as smartwatches: once niche, now a viable surface for ambient computing. The multimodal AI features are impressive, and the built-in camera produces better-than-expected 1080p/30fps video, though low-light performance remains limited by the small sensor.

These are still early-stage devices with the usual growing pains, but they’re a compelling gift for early adopters who want a front-row seat to the future of wearable interfaces.

– Ken Fisher

Samsung T9 external SSD (2 TB) – $235

As I once again attempted to make the Sophie’s Choice of which Steam game to uninstall because I ran out of disk space, I realized that part of my problem is that I have two computers (a macOS laptop and a Windows desktop) and I’ve doubled up on storing certain things—like the absolutely enormous eXoDOS collection, for example—on both machines so I could access them regardless of where I was at.

The best thing I could do to help my constant space woes was to consolidate anything that I needed on both machines into an external drive I could share between them. I went with Samsung’s T9 external SSD, and so far, I’m happy with it. As planned, I now have a lot more breathing room on both computers.

– Samuel Axon

Samuel Axon is the editorial lead for tech and gaming coverage at Ars Technica. He covers AI, software development, gaming, entertainment, and mixed reality. He has been writing about gaming and technology for nearly two decades at Engadget, PC World, Mashable, Vice, Polygon, Wired, and others. He previously ran a marketing and PR agency in the gaming industry, led editorial for the TV network CBS, and worked on social media marketing strategy for Samsung Mobile at the creative agency SPCSHP. He also is an independent software and game developer for iOS, Windows, and other platforms, and he is a graduate of DePaul University, where he studied interactive media and software development.

For the lazy techie: These are Ars staff’s last-minute holiday gift picks Read More »

Texas sues biggest TV makers, alleging smart TVs spy on users without consent

Hisense, lg, Policy, samsung, smart tvs, Sony, tcl, texas / Kelly Newman / December 16, 2025

Automated Content Recognition brings “mass surveillance” to homes, lawsuits say.

Credit: Getty Images | Maskot

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued five large TV manufacturers yesterday, alleging that their smart TVs spy on viewers without consent. Paxton sued Samsung, the longtime TV market share leader, along with LG, Sony, Hisense, and TCL.

“These companies have been unlawfully collecting personal data through Automated Content Recognition (‘ACR’) technology,” Paxton’s office alleged in a press release that contains links to all five lawsuits. “ACR in its simplest terms is an uninvited, invisible digital invader. This software can capture screenshots of a user’s television display every 500 milliseconds, monitor viewing activity in real time, and transmit that information back to the company without the user’s knowledge or consent. The companies then sell that consumer information to target ads across platforms for a profit. This technology puts users’ privacy and sensitive information, such as passwords, bank information, and other personal information at risk.”

The lawsuits allege violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, seeking damages of up to $10,000 for each violation and up to $250,000 for each violation affecting people 65 years or older. Texas also wants restraining orders prohibiting the collection, sharing, and selling of ACR data while the lawsuits are pending.

Texas argues that providing personalized content and targeted advertising are not legitimate purposes for collecting ACR data about consumers. The companies’ “insatiable appetite for consumer data far exceeds what is reasonably necessary,” and the “invasive data harvesting is only needed to increase advertisement revenue, which does not satisfy a consumer-necessity standard,” the lawsuits say.

Paxton is far from the first person to raise privacy concerns about smart TVs. The Center for Digital Democracy advocacy group said in a report last year that in “the world of connected TV, viewer surveillance is now built directly into the television set, making manufacturers central players in data collection, monitoring, and digital marketing.” We recently published a guide on how to break free from smart TV ads and tracking.

“Companies using ACR claim that it is all opt-in data, with permission required to use it,” the Center for Digital Democracy report said. “But the ACR system is bundled into new TVs as part of the initial set-up, and its extensive role in monitoring and sharing viewer actions is not fully explained. As a consequence, most consumers would be unaware of the threats and risks involved in signing up for the service.”

“Mass surveillance system” in US living rooms

Pointing out that Hisense and TCL are based in China, Paxton’s press release said the firms’ “Chinese ties pose serious concerns about consumer data harvesting and are exacerbated by China’s National Security Law, which gives its government the capability to get its hands on US consumer data.”

“Companies, especially those connected to the Chinese Communist Party, have no business illegally recording Americans’ devices inside their own homes,” Paxton said. “This conduct is invasive, deceptive, and unlawful. The fundamental right to privacy will be protected in Texas because owning a television does not mean surrendering your personal information to Big Tech or foreign adversaries.”

The Paxton lawsuits, filed in district courts in several Texas counties, are identical in many respects. The complaints allege that TVs made by the five companies “aren’t just entertainment devices—they’re a mass surveillance system sitting in millions of American living rooms. What consumers were told would enhance their viewing experience actually tracks, analyzes, and sells intimate details about everything they watch.”

Using ACR, each company “secretly monitors what consumers watch across streaming apps, cable, and even connected devices like gaming consoles or Blu-ray players,” and harvests the data to build profiles of consumer behavior and sell the data for profit, the complaints say.

We contacted the five companies sued by Texas today. Sony, LG, and Hisense responded and said they would not comment on a pending legal matter.

Difficult opt-out processes detailed

The complaints allege that the companies fail to obtain meaningful consent from users. The following excerpt is from the Samsung lawsuit but is repeated almost verbatim in the others:

Consumers never agreed to Samsung Watchware. When families buy a television, they don’t expect it to spy on them. They don’t expect their viewing habits packaged and auctioned to advertisers. Yet Samsung deceptively guides consumers to activate ACR and buries any explanation of what that means in dense legal jargon that few will read or understand. The so-called “consent” Samsung obtains is meaningless. Disclosures are hidden, vague, and misleading. The company collects far more data than necessary to make the TV work. Consumers are stripped of real choice and kept in the dark about what’s happening in their own homes on Samsung Smart TVs.

Samsung and other companies force consumers to go through multistep menus to exercise their privacy choices, Texas said. “Consumers must circumnavigate a long, non-intuitive path to exercise their right to opt-out,” the Samsung lawsuit said. This involves selecting menu choices for Settings, Additional Settings, General Privacy, Terms & Privacy, Viewing Information Services, and, finally, “Disable,” the lawsuit said. There are “additional toggles for Interest-Based Ads, Ad Personalization, and Privacy Choices,” the lawsuit said.

The “privacy choices are not meaningful because opt-out rights are scattered across four or more separate menus which requires approximately 15+ clicks,” the lawsuit continued. “To fully opt-out of ACR and related ad tracking on Samsung Smart TVs, consumers must disable at least two settings: (1) Viewing Information Services, and (2) Interest-Based Ads. Each of which appear in different parts of the setting UI. Conversely, Samsung provides consumers with a one-click enrollment option to opt-in during the initial start-up process.”

When consumers first start up a Samsung smart TV, they “must click through a multipage onboarding flow before landing on a consent screen, titled Smart Hub Terms & Conditions,” the lawsuit said. “Upon finally reaching the consent screen, consumers are presented with four notices: Terms & Conditions: Dispute Resolution Agreement, Smart Hub U.S. Policy Notice, Viewing Information Services, and Interest-Based Advertisements Service U.S. Privacy Notice, with only one button prominently displayed: I Agree to all.”

Deceptive trade practices alleged

It would be unreasonable to expect consumers to understand that Samsung TVs come equipped with surveillance capabilities, the lawsuit said. “Most consumers do not know, nor have any reason to suspect, that Samsung Smart TVs are capturing in real-time the audio and visuals displayed on the screen and using the information to profile them for advertisers,” it said.

Paxton alleges that TV companies violated the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act with misrepresentations regarding the collection of personal information and failure to disclose the use of ACR technology. The lawsuit against Hisense additionally alleges a failure to disclose that it may provide the Chinese government with consumers’ personal data.

Hisense “fails to disclose to Texas Consumers that under Chinese law, Hisense is required to transfer its collections of Texas consumers’ personal data to the People’s Republic of China when requested by the PRC,” the lawsuit said.

The TCL lawsuit doesn’t include that specific charge. But both the Hisense and TCL complaints say the Chinese Communist Party may use ACR data from the companies’ smart TVs “to influence or compromise public figures in Texas, including judges, elected officials, and law enforcement, and for corporate espionage by surveilling those employed in critical infrastructure, as part of the CCP’s long-term plan to destabilize and undermine American democracy.”

The TVs “are effectively Chinese-sponsored surveillance devices, recording the viewing habits of Texans at every turn without their knowledge or consent,” the lawsuits said.

Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry.

Texas sues biggest TV makers, alleging smart TVs spy on users without consent Read More »

After nearly 30 years, Crucial will stop selling RAM to consumers

AI, AI infrastructure, AMD, Crucial, datacenters, DDR5, DRAM, framework, HBM, Lenovo, machine learning, memory, memory shortage, Micron, NVIDIA, pc building, samsung, semiconductors, SK Hynix, SSD, Tech / Shannon Garcia / December 3, 2025

DRAM contract prices have increased 171 percent year over year, according to industry data. Gerry Chen, general manager of memory manufacturer TeamGroup, warned that the situation will worsen in the first half of 2026 once distributors exhaust their remaining inventory. He expects supply constraints to persist through late 2027 or beyond.

The fault lies squarely at the feet of AI mania in the tech industry. The construction of new AI infrastructure has created unprecedented demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the specialized DRAM used in AI accelerators from Nvidia and AMD. Memory manufacturers have been reallocating production capacity away from consumer products toward these more profitable enterprise components, and Micron has presold its entire HBM output through 2026.

A photo of the “Stargate I” site in Abilene, Texas. AI data center sites like this are eating up the RAM supply. Credit: OpenAI

At the moment, the structural imbalance between AI demand and consumer supply shows no signs of easing. OpenAI’s Stargate project has reportedly signed agreements for up to 900,000 wafers of DRAM per month, which could account for nearly 40 percent of global production.

The shortage has already forced companies to adapt. As Ars’ Andrew Cunningham reported, laptop maker Framework stopped selling standalone RAM kits in late November to prevent scalping and said it will likely be forced to raise prices soon.

For Micron, the calculus is clear: Enterprise customers pay more and buy in bulk. But for the DIY PC community, the decision will leave PC builders with one fewer option when reaching for the RAM sticks. In his statement, Sadana reflected on the brand’s 29-year run.

“Thanks to a passionate community of consumers, the Crucial brand has become synonymous with technical leadership, quality and reliability of leading-edge memory and storage products,” Sadana said. “We would like to thank our millions of customers, hundreds of partners and all of the Micron team members who have supported the Crucial journey for the last 29 years.”

After nearly 30 years, Crucial will stop selling RAM to consumers Read More »

Samsung reveals Galaxy Z TriFold with 10-inch foldable screen, astronomical price

Foldables, samsung, smartphones, Tech / Kelly Newman / December 2, 2025

Samsung has a new foldable smartphone, and it’s not just another Z Flip or Z Fold. The Galaxy Z TriFold has three articulating sections that house a massive 10-inch tablet-style screen, along with a traditional smartphone screen on the outside. The lavish new smartphone is launching this month in South Korea with a hefty price tag, and it will eventually make its way to the US in early 2026.

Samsung says it refined its Armor FlexHinge design for the TriFold. The device’s two hinges are slightly different sizes because the phone’s three panels have distinct shapes. The center panel is the thickest at 4.2 mm, and the other two are fractions of a millimeter thinner. The phone has apparently been designed to account for the varying sizes and weights, allowing the frame to fold up tight in a pocketable form factor.

Huawei’s impressive Mate XT tri-fold phones have been making the rounds online, but they’re not available in Western markets. Samsung’s new foldable looks similar at a glance, but the way the three panels fit together is different. The Mate XT folds in a Z-shaped configuration, using part of the main screen as the cover display. On Samsung’s phone, the left and right segments fold inward behind the separate cover screen. Samsung claims it has tested the design extensively to verify that the hinges will hold up to daily use for years.

Precision Engineering in Every Fold | Galaxy Z TriFold

While this does push the definition of “pocketable” for some people, the Galaxy Z TriFold is a tablet that technically fits in your pocket. When folded, it measures 12.9 mm thick, which is much more unwieldy than the Galaxy Z Fold 7‘s 8.9 mm profile. However, the TriFold is only a little thicker than Samsung’s older tablet-style foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold 6. The 1080p cover screen measures 6.5 inches, which is also quite similar to the Z Fold 7. It is very, very heavy for a phone, though, tipping the scales at 309 g.

Samsung reveals Galaxy Z TriFold with 10-inch foldable screen, astronomical price Read More »

Commercial spyware “Landfall” ran rampant on Samsung phones for almost a year

android, malware, samsung, Security, smartphones, spyware, Tech / Mike M. / November 8, 2025

Before the April 2025 patch, Samsung phones had a vulnerability in their image processing library. This is a zero-click attack because the user doesn’t need to launch anything. When the system processes the malicious image for display, it extracts shared object library files from the ZIP to run the Landfall spyware. The payload also modifies the device’s SELinux policy to give Landfall expanded permissions and access to data.

Landfall flowchart — How Landfall exploits Samsung phones. Credit: Unit 42

The infected files appear to have been delivered to targets via messaging apps like WhatsApp. Unit 42 notes that Landfall’s code references several specific Samsung phones, including the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S23, Galaxy S24, Galaxy Z Flip 4, and Galaxy Z Fold 4. Once active, Landfall reaches out to a remote server with basic device information. The operators can then extract a wealth of data, like user and hardware IDs, installed apps, contacts, any files stored on the device, and browsing history. It can also activate the camera and microphone to spy on the user.

Removing the spyware is no easy feat, either. Because of its ability to manipulate SELinux policies, it can burrow deeply into the system software. It also includes several tools that help evade detection. Based on the VirusTotal submissions, Unit 42 believes Landfall was active in 2024 and early 2025 in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Morocco. The vulnerability may have been present in Samsung’s software from Android 13 through Android 15, the company suggests.

Unit 42 says that several naming schemes and server responses share similarities with industrial spyware developed by big cyber-intelligence firms like NSO Group and Variston. However, they cannot directly tie Landfall to any particular group. While this attack was highly targeted, the details are now in the open, and other threat actors could now employ similar methods to access unpatched devices. Anyone with a supported Samsung phone should make certain they are on the April 2025 patch or later.

Commercial spyware “Landfall” ran rampant on Samsung phones for almost a year Read More »

Oklahoma’s big “TV nudes” scandal was… a Jackie Chan movie on a Samsung streaming service

culture, Oklahoma, Ryan waters, samsung, smart tvs / Shannon Garcia / September 20, 2025

News 4 watched the movie and confirmed it contains several scenes that match the description given by board members, including one where a group of fully nude women [!] work inside a factory [!!] packaging cocaine [!!!], some wearing only lab coats [!!!!].

Another scene shows a fully nude woman giving a man a massage, eventually moving under the table while the dialogue strongly suggests sexual activity.

But why was The Protector showing on a TV in a state office building at all? Investigators came to find out that the Samsung smart TV in question—recently installed in the office—had been set up in such a way that it defaulted to showing Samsung TV Plus Channel 1204, the “Movie Hub Action.” (You can see Samsung’s full list of TV Plus streaming channels here.) And at the time of the state board meeting, Movie Hub Action was streaming The Protector. How and why the TV was turned on or switched to this streaming channel isn’t clear, but the whole thing appears to be an absolutely bizarre accident.

As part of this important investigation, the sheriff’s office then took clips from The Protector to the board members who complained. According to the Oklahoma Voice, “The board members, Becky Carson and Ryan Deatherage, confirmed to the Sheriff’s Office that the movie was consistent with what they saw on the TV.”

Photo of the TV. — Behold! The actual TV from the incident. Credit: Alias

Hooking smart TVs up to the Internet looks increasingly like a bad idea, though not usually for the reason found in this case. TV manufacturers have taken what should have been a useful feature and turned it into a way to spy on what you’re watching and to push ads to your TV.

Now you can add “showing naked, cocaine-packaging factory workers to Oklahoma Board of Education members” to the list of grievances.

Oklahoma’s big “TV nudes” scandal was… a Jackie Chan movie on a Samsung streaming service Read More »

Samsung’s “Micro RGB” TV proves the value of RGB backlights for premium displays

Micro LED, oled, samsung, Tech, TVs / 9u50fv / August 22, 2025

The $30,000 TV brings a new, colorful conversation to home theaters.

Samsung’s 115-inch “Micro RGB” TV. Credit: Scharon Harding

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, New Jersey—Micro LED is still years away, but the next best thing is taking shape right now. A $30,000 price tag and 114.5-inch diagonal size makes the Samsung “Micro RGB” TV that I demoed this week unattainable for most. But the unique RGB backlight and Micro LED-sized diodes it employs represent a groundbreaking middle ground between high-end Mini LED and true Micro LED, expanding the possibilities for future premium displays beyond the acronyms we know today.

Micro RGB isn’t the same as Micro LED

To be clear, Samsung’s Micro RGB TV is not a Micro LED display. During Samsung’s presentation, a representative described the TV as sitting “squarely in between” Mini LED and Micro LED.

Unlike true Micro LED TVs, Samsung’s Micro RGB TV uses a backlight. The backlight is unique in that it can produce red, green, and/or blue light via tiny RGB LEDs. Most LCD-LED backlights create just blue or white backlighting, which is applied to color filters to create the different hues displayed on the screen.

And differing from a true Micro LED display, the pixels in the Samsung TV I demoed aren’t self-emissive and can’t be shut off individually for virtually limitless contrast. Like some of the best Mini LED TVs, this TV delivers enhanced contrast through the use of thousands of local dimming zones. Without getting specific, Samsung said the Micro RGB TV has roughly four times the number of dimming zones as its 115-inch QN90F TV, a $27,000 Mini LED TV that uses quantum dots. Samsung hasn’t confirmed how many dimming zones the 115-inch QN90F has, but the 75-inch version has 900 dimming zones, according to RTINGs.

The Micro RGB TV loses to Micro LED and OLED when it comes to light bleed and contrast. The new TV’s biggest draw is its large color gamut. The backlight’s “architecture enables precision control over each red, green, and blue LED,” according to Samsung’s announcement of the TV earlier this month. Samsung claims that the backlight tech enables the TV to cover 100 percent of the BT.2020 color space (also known as Rec.2020), which is a wider color space than DCI-P3. As is typical for Samsung, the company hasn’t disclosed any Delta E measurements but claims high color accuracy.

I’m still concerned about the Micro RGB name, which carries the risk of being confused with true Micro LED. In the past, Samsung has contributed to display-market confusion with terms like QLED (an acronym that looks awfully similar to OLED). The new display technology is impressive enough; its marketing doesn’t need to evoke associations with a markedly different display type.

Hands-on with Samsung’s Micro RGB TV

Seeing the Micro RGB TV in person confirmed the great potential RGB backlight tech represents. The image quality didn’t quite match what you’d see with a similar OLED or Micro LED display, but what I saw in my short time with the TV surpassed what I’d expect from the best LCD-LED TVs.

I demoed the TV in a mildly lit room, where the screen’s lively colors quickly leaped out at me. I mostly watched pre-selected, polychromatic videos on the TV, making it hard to discern color accuracy. But during the brief demo, I saw colors that are rare to see on even the most expensive TVs.

For example, part of the demo reel (shown below) featured a building in a shade of teal that I can’t recall ever seeing on a TV. It was a greener-leaning teal that had just the right amount of blue to distinguish it from true green. Many displays would fail to capture that subtle distinction.

The demo video also showed a particular shade of pinkish-red. Again, this was the first time I had seen this video, making me wonder if a purer red would be more accurate. But I also saw strong, bright, bloody reds during my demo, suggesting that this unfamiliar pinkish-red was the result of the Micro RGB TV’s broad color gamut.

Samsung's Micro RGB TV — Unsurprisingly, the TV packs in AI, including a feature that’s supposed to automatically recognize scenes with dull lighting and make them look more lively. Credit: Scharon Harding

Another top standout from my demo was the smooth gradient effects that the TV showed. I could detect no banding in a sunset-like background, for instance, as deep oranges effortlessly transitioned to paler shades before seamlessly evolving into white. Nuanced shades also appeared to enable unique textures on the TV. When the TV was set to display a painting, the screen seemed to mimic the rough texture of canvas or the subtle strokes of paintbrushes. Of course, the TV’s massive size helped emphasize these details, too.

Because it lacks self-emissive pixels, the Micro RGB should have poorer contrast than a good Micro LED (or OLED) TV. The differing prices between Samsung’s 115-inch Micro RGB TV and 114-inch Micro LED TV ($30,000 versus $150,000) hint at the expected performance discrepancy between the display technologies. You won’t get pure blacks with an RGB LED TV, but Samsung’s TV makes a strong effort; some may not notice the difference.

Unlike OLED TVs, the Samsung TV also has potential for the halo effect (also known as blooming). In instances when the TV was showing bright, near-white colors near dark colors, it was hard to notice any halos or gradation. But I didn’t see enough of the right type of content on Samsung’s TV to determine how much of a potential blooming problem it has. Light bleed did seem to be kept to a minimum, though.

The TV also appeared to handle the details of darker images well. A representative from Sony, which is working on a somewhat different RGB LED backlight technology, told Wired that the use of RGB LED backlights could enable displays to show an “expression of colors with moderate brightness and saturation” better than today’s OLED screens can, meaning that RGB LED TVs could be more color-accurate, including in dark scenes. Generally speaking, anything that helps LCD-LED remain competitive against OLED is good news for further development of LED-based displays, like Micro LED.

Samsung specs the Micro RGB TV with a 120 Hz standard rate. The company didn’t disclose how bright the TV can get. Bright highlights enable improved contrast and a better experience for people whose TVs reside in rooms that get bright (yes, these people exist). Display experts also associate properly managed brightness levels with improved color accuracy. And advanced mastering monitors can enable content with brightness levels of up to 4,000 nits, making ultra-bright TVs worth long-term consideration for display enthusiasts.

More RGB LED to come

Samsung is ahead of the curve with RGB backlights and is expected to be one of the first companies to sell a TV like this one. A Samsung spokesperson outside of the event told Ars Technica, “Samsung created an entirely new technology to control and drive each LED, which has different characteristics, to provide more accurate and uniform picture quality. We also worked to precisely mount these ultra-small LEDs in the tens of microns on a board.”

As mentioned above, other companies are working on similar designs. Sony showed off a prototype in February that Wired tested; it should be released in 2026. And Hisense in January teased the 116-inch “TriChrome LED TV” with an RGB LED backlight. It’s releasing in South Korea for KRW 44.9 million (approximately $32,325), SamMobile reported.

Notably, Hisense and Sony both refer to their TVs as Mini LED displays, but the LEDs used in the Hisense and Sony designs are larger than the LEDs in Samsung’s RGB-backlit TV.

Good news for display enthusiasts

Samsung’s TV isn’t the Micro LED TV that display enthusiasts have long hoped for, but it does mark an interesting development. During the event, a third Samsung representative told me it’s “likely” that there’s overlap between the manufacturing equipment used for Micro LED and RGB-backlit displays. But again, the company wouldn’t get into specifics.

Still, the development is good news for the LED-LCD industry and people who are interested in premium sets that don’t use OLED displays, which are expensive and susceptible to burn-in and brightness limitations (these issues are improving, though). It’s likely that RGB-backlit TVs will eventually become a better value than pricier types of premium displays, as most people won’t notice the downsides.

The Samsung rep I spoke with outside of the event told me the company believes there’s room in the market for RGB Micro TVs, QLEDs, OLEDs, Mini LEDs, and Micro LEDs.

According to the press release of the Micro RGB TV, Samsung has “future plans for a global rollout featuring a variety of sizes.” For now, though, the company has successfully employed a new type of display technology, creating the possibility of more options for display enthusiasts.

Scharon is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica writing news, reviews, and analysis on consumer gadgets and services. She’s been reporting on technology for over 10 years, with bylines at Tom’s Hardware, Channelnomics, and CRN UK.

Samsung’s “Micro RGB” TV proves the value of RGB backlights for premium displays Read More »

Trump confirms US is seeking 10% stake in Intel. Bernie Sanders approves.

bernie sanders, Chips Act, Donald Trump, intel, Joe Biden, Micron, Policy, samsung, TSMC / Mike M. / August 21, 2025

Trump plan salvages CHIPS Act he vowed to kill

While chipmakers wait for more clarity, Lutnick has suggested that Trump—who campaigned on killing the CHIPS Act—has found a way to salvage the legislation that Joe Biden viewed as his lasting legacy. It seems possible that the plan arose after Trump realized how hard it would be to ax the legislation completely, with grants already finalized (but most not disbursed).

“The Biden administration literally was giving Intel money for free and giving TSMC money for free, and all these companies just giving the money for free, and Donald Trump turned it into saying, ‘Hey, we want equity for the money. If we’re going to give you the money, we want a piece of the action for the American taxpayer,'” Lutnick said.

“It’s not governance, we’re just converting what was a grant under Biden into equity for the Trump administration, for the American people,” Lutnick told CNBC.

Further, US firms could potentially benefit from any potential arrangements. For Intel, the “highly unusual” deal that Trump is mulling now could help the struggling chipmaker compete with its biggest rivals, including Nvidia, Samsung, and TSMC, BBC noted.

Vincent Fernando, founder of the investment consultancy Zero One, told the BBC that taking a stake in Intel “makes sense, given the company’s key role in producing semiconductors in the US,” which is a major Trump priority.

But as Intel likely explores the potential downsides of accepting such a deal, other companies applying for federal grants may already be alarmed by Trump’s move. Fernando suggested that Trump’s deals to take ownership stake in US firms—which economics professor Kevin J. Fox said only previously occurred during the global financial crisis—could add “uncertainty for any company who is already part of a federal grant program or considering one.”

Fox also agreed that the Intel deal could deter other companies from accepting federal grants, while possibly making it harder for Intel to run its business “effectively.”

Trump confirms US is seeking 10% stake in Intel. Bernie Sanders approves. Read More »

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 review: Quantum leap

Features, Foldables, Reviews, samsung, smartphones, Tech / Mike M. / July 31, 2025

A pretty phone for a pretty penny

Samsung’s new flagship foldable is a huge improvement over last year’s model.

Samsung’s new foldable is thinner and lighter than ever before. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

The first foldable phones hit the market six years ago, and they were rife with compromises and shortcomings. Many of those problems have persisted, but little by little, foldables have gotten better. With the release of the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Samsung has made the biggest leap yet. This device solves some of the most glaring problems with Samsung’s foldables, featuring a new, slimmer design and a big camera upgrade.

Samsung’s seventh-generation foldable has finally crossed that hazy boundary between novelty and practicality, putting a tablet-sized screen in your pocket without as many compromises. There are still some drawbacks, of course, but for the first time, this feels like a foldable phone you’d want to carry around.

Whether or not you can justify the $1,999 price tag is another matter entirely.

Most improved foldable

Earlier foldable phones were pocket-busting bricks, but companies like Google, Huawei, and OnePlus have made headway streamlining the form factor—the Pixel 9 Pro Fold briefly held the title of thinnest foldable when it launched last year. Samsung, however, stuck with the same basic silhouette for versions one through six, shaving off a millimeter here and there with each new generation. Now, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 has successfully leapfrogged the competition with an almost unbelievably thin profile.

Specs at a glance: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 – $1,999
SoC	Snapdragon 8 Elite
Memory	12GB, 16GB
Storage	256GB, 512GB, 1TB
Display	Cover: 6.5-inch 1080×2520 120 Hz OLED Internal: 8-inch 1968×2184 120 Hz flexible OLED
Cameras	200MP primary, f/1.7, OIS; 10 MP telephoto, f/2.4, OIS; 12 MP ultrawide, f/2.2; 10 MP selfie cameras (internal and external), f/2.2
Software	Android 16, 7 years of OS updates
Battery	4,400 mAh, 25 W wired charging, 15 W wireless charging
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 5.4, sub-6 GHz and mmWave 5G, USB-C 3.2
Measurements	Folded: 158.4×72.8×8.9 mm Unfolded: 158.4×143.2×4.2 mm 215 g

Clocking in at just 215 g and 8.9 mm thick when folded, the Z Fold 7 looks and feels like a regular smartphone when closed. It’s lighter than Samsung’s flagship flat phone, the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and is only a fraction of a millimeter thicker. The profile is now limited by the height of the standard USB-C port. You can use the Z Fold 7 in its closed state without feeling hindered by an overly narrow display or hand-stretching thickness.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 back — The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 looks like any other smartphone at a glance. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

It seems unreal at times, like this piece of hardware should be a tech demo or a dummy phone concept rather than Samsung’s newest mass-produced device. The only eyebrow-raising element of the folded profile is the camera module, which sticks out like a sore thumb.

To enable the thinner design, Samsung engineered a new hinge with a waterdrop fold. The gentler bend in the screen reduces the appearance of the middle crease and allows the two halves to close tightly with no gap. The opening and closing action retains the same precise feel as previous Samsung foldables. The frame is made from Samsung’s custom Armor Aluminum alloy, which promises greater durability than most other phones. It’s not titanium like the S25 Ultra or iPhone Pro models, but that saves a bit of weight.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 side — The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is almost impossibly thin, as long as you ignore the protruding camera module. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

There is one caveat to the design—the Z Fold 7 doesn’t open totally flat. It’s not as noticeable as Google’s first-gen Pixel Fold, but the phone stops a few degrees shy of perfection. It’s about on par with the OnePlus Open in that respect. You might notice this when first handling the Z Fold 7, but it’s easy to ignore, and it doesn’t affect the appearance of the internal flexible OLED.

The 6.5-inch cover display is no longer something you’d only use in a pinch when it’s impractical to open the phone. It has a standard 21:9 aspect ratio and tiny symmetrical bezels. Even reaching across from the hinge side is no problem (Google’s foldable still has extra chunk around the hinge). The OLED panel has the customary 120 Hz refresh rate and high brightness we’ve come to expect from Samsung. It doesn’t have the anti-reflective coating of the S25 Ultra, but it’s bright enough that you can use it outdoors without issue.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 open angle — The Z Fold 7 doesn’t quite open a full 180 degrees. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

Naturally, the main event is inside: an 8-inch 120 Hz OLED panel at 1968×2184, which is slightly wider than last year’s phone. It’s essentially twice the size of the cover display, just like in Google’s last foldable. As mentioned above, the crease is almost imperceptible now. The screen feels solid under your fingers, but it still has a plastic cover that is vulnerable to damage—it’s even softer than fingernails. It’s very bright, but the plastic layer is more reflective than glass, which can make using it in harsh sunlight a bit of a pain.

Unfortunately, Samsung’s pursuit of thinness led it to drop support for the S Pen stylus. That was always a tough sell, as there was no place to store a stylus in the phone, and even Samsung’s bulky Z Fold cases struggled to accommodate the S Pen in a convenient way. Still, it’s sad to lose this unique feature.

The Z Fold 7 (right) cover display is finally free of compromise. Z Fold 6 on the left. Ryan Whitwam

Unlike some of the competition, Samsung has not added a dedicated AI button to this phone—although there’s plenty of AI here. You get the typical volume rocker on the right, with a power button below it. The power button also has a built-in fingerprint scanner, which is fast and accurate enough that we can’t complain. The buttons feel sturdy and give good feedback when pressed.

Android 16 under a pile of One UI and AI

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 and its smaller flippy sibling are the first phones to launch with Google’s latest version of Android, a milestone enabled by the realignment of the Android release schedule that began this year. The device also gets Samsung’s customary seven years of update support, a tie with Google for the best in the industry. However, updates arrive slower than they do on Google phones. If you’re already familiar with One UI, you’ll feel right at home on the Z Fold 7. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but there are a few enhancements.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 home screen — It’s like having a tablet in your pocket. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

Android 16 doesn’t include a ton of new features out of the box, and some of the upcoming changes won’t affect One UI. For example, Google’s vibrant Material 3 Expressive theme won’t displace the standard One UI design language when it rolls out later this summer, and Samsung already has its own app windowing implementation separate from Google’s planned release. The Z Fold 7 has a full version of Android’s new progress notifications at launch, something Google doesn’t even fully support in the initial release. Few apps have support, so the only way you’ll see those more prominent notifications is when playing media. These notifications also tie in to the Now Bar, which is at the core of Samsung’s Galaxy AI.

The Now Bar debuted on the S25 series earlier this year and uses on-device AI to process your data and present contextual information that is supposed to help you throughout the day. Samsung has expanded the apps and services that support the Now Bar and its constantly updating Now Brief, but we haven’t noticed much difference.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 Now Brief — Samsung’s AI-powered Now Brief still isn’t very useful, but it talks to you now. Umm, thanks? Credit: Ryan Whitwam

Nine times out of 10, the Now Bar doesn’t provide any useful notifications, and the Brief is quite repetitive. It often includes just weather, calendar appointments, and a couple of clickbait-y news stories and YouTube videos—this is the case even with all the possible data sources enabled. On a few occasions, the Now Bar correctly cited an appointment and suggested a route, but its timing was off by about 30 minutes. Google Now did this better a decade ago. Samsung has also added an AI-fueled audio version of the Now Brief, but we found this pretty tedious and unnecessary when there’s so little information in the report to begin with.

So the Now Bar is still a Now Bummer, but Galaxy AI also includes a cornucopia of other common AI features. It can rewrite text for you, summarize notes or webpages, do live translation, make generative edits to photos, remove background noise from videos, and more. These features work as well as they do on any other modern smartphone. Whether you get any benefit from them depends on how you use the phone.

However, we appreciate that Samsung included a toggle under the Galaxy AI settings to process data only on your device, eliminating the privacy concerns of using AI in the cloud. This reduces the number of operational AI features, but that may be a desirable feature all on its own.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 multitasking — You can’t beat Samsung’s multitasking system. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

Samsung tends to overload its phones with apps and features. Those are here, too, making the Z Fold 7 a bit frustrating at times. Some of the latest One UI interface tweaks, like separating the quick settings and notifications, fall flat. Luckily, One UI is also quite customizable. For example, you can have your cover screen and foldable home screens mirrored like Pixels, or you can have a distinct layout for each mode. With some tweaking and removing pre-loaded apps, you can get the experience you want.

Samsung’s multitasking system also offers a lot of freedom. It’s quick to open apps in split-screen mode, move them around, and change the layout. You can run up to three apps side by side, and you can easily save and access those app groups later. Samsung also offers a robust floating window option, which goes beyond what Google has planned for Android generally—it has chosen to limit floating windows to tablets and projected desktop mode. Samsung’s powerful windowing system really helps unlock the productivity potential of a foldable.

The fastest foldable

Samsung makes its own mobile processors, but when speed matters, the company doesn’t mess around with Exynos. The Z Fold 7 has the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chip as the Galaxy S25 series, paired with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage in the model most people will buy. In our testing, this is among the most powerful smartphones on the market today, but it doesn’t quite reach the lofty heights of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, presumably due to its thermal design.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 in hand — The Z Fold 7 is much easier to hold than past foldables. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

In Geekbench, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 lands between the Motorola Razr Ultra and the Galaxy S25 Ultra, both of which have Snapdragon 8 Elite chips. It far outpaces Google’s latest Pixel phones as well. The single-core CPU speed doesn’t quite match what you get from Apple’s latest custom iPhone processor, but the multicore numbers are consistently higher.

If mobile gaming is your bag, the Z Fold 7 will be a delight. Like other devices running on this platform, it puts up big scores. However, Samsung’s new foldable runs slightly behind some other 8 Elite phones. These are just benchmark numbers, though. In practice, the Z Fold 7 will handle any mobile game you throw at it.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 geekbench — The Fold 7 doesn’t quite catch the Z 25 Ultra. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

Samsung’s thermal throttling is often a concern, with some of its past phones with high-end Snapdragon chips shedding more than half their initial speed upon heating up. The Z Fold 7 doesn’t throttle quite that aggressively, but it’s not great, either. In our testing, an extended gaming session can see the phone slow down by about 40 percent. That said, even after heating up, the Z Fold 7 remains about 10 percent faster in games than the unthrottled Pixel 9 Pro. Qualcomm’s GPUs are just that speedy.

The CPU performance is affected by a much smaller margin under thermal stress, dropping only about 10–15 percent. That’s important because you’re more likely to utilize the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s power with Samsung’s robust multitasking system. Even when running three apps in frames with additional floating apps, we’ve noticed nary a stutter. And while 12GB of RAM is a bit shy of the 16GB you get in some gaming-oriented phones, it’s been enough to keep a day’s worth of apps in memory.

You also get about a day’s worth of usage from a charge. While foldables could generally use longer battery life, it’s impressive that Samsung made this year’s Z Fold so much thinner while maintaining the same 4,400 mAh battery capacity as last year’s phone. However, it’s possible to drain the device by early evening—it depends on how much you use the larger inner screen versus the cover display. A bit of battery anxiety is normal, but most days, we haven’t needed to plug it in before bedtime. A slightly bigger battery would be nice, but not at the expense of the thin profile.

The lack of faster charging is a bit more annoying. If you do need to recharge the Galaxy Z Fold 7 early, it will fill at a pokey maximum of 25 W. That’s not much faster than wireless charging, which can hit 15 W with a compatible charger. Samsung’s phones don’t typically have super-fast charging, with the S25 Ultra topping out at 45 W. However, Samsung hasn’t increased charging speeds for its foldables since the Z Fold 2. It’s long past time for an upgrade here.

Long-awaited camera upgrade

Camera hardware has been one of the lingering issues with foldables, which don’t have as much internal space to fit larger image sensors compared to flat phones. In the past, this has meant taking a big step down in image quality if you want your phone to fold in half. While Samsung has not fully replicated the capabilities of its flagship flat phones, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 takes a big step in the right direction with its protruding camera module.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 camera macro — The Z Fold 7’s camera has gotten a big upgrade. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

The camera setup is led by a 200 MP primary sensor with optical stabilization identical to the main shooter on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It’s joined by a 12 MP ultrawide and 10 MP 3x telephoto, both a step down from the S25 Ultra. There is no equivalent to the 5x periscope telephoto lens on Samsung’s flat flagship. While it might be nice to have better secondary sensors, the 200 MP will get the most use, and it does offer better results than last year’s Z Fold.

Many of the photos we’ve taken on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 are virtually indistinguishable from those taken with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which is mostly a good thing. The 200 MP primary sensor has a full-resolution mode, but you shouldn’t use it. With the default pixel binning, the Z Fold 7 produces brighter and more evenly exposed 12 MP images.

Samsung cameras emphasize vibrant colors and a wide dynamic range, so they lean toward longer exposures. Shooting with a Pixel and Galaxy phone side by side, Google’s cameras consistently use higher shutter speeds, making capturing motion easier. The Z Fold 7 is no slouch here, though. It will handle moving subjects in bright light better than any phone that isn’t a Pixel. Night mode produces bright images, but it takes longer to expose compared to Google’s offerings. Again, that means anything moving will end up looking blurry.

Between 1x and 3x, the phone uses digital zoom on the main sensor. When you go beyond that, it moves to the 3x telephoto (provided there is enough light). At the base 3x zoom, these photos are nice enough, with the usual amped-up colors and solid detail we’d expect from Samsung. However, the 10 MP resolution isn’t great if you push past 3x. Samsung’s image processing can’t sharpen photos to the same borderline magical degree as Google’s, and the Z Fold 7 can sometimes over-sharpen images in a way we don’t love. This is an area where the cheaper S25 Ultra still beats the new foldable, with higher-resolution backup cameras and multiple optical zoom levels.

At 12 MP, the ultrawide sensor is good enough for landscapes and group shots. It lacks optical stabilization (typical for ultrawide lenses), but it keeps autofocus. That allows you to take macro shots, and this mode activates automatically as you approach a subject. The images look surprisingly good with Samsung’s occasionally heavy-handed image processing, but don’t try to crop them down further.

The Z Fold 7 includes two in-display selfie cameras at 10 MP—one at the top of the cover display and the other for the inner foldable screen. Samsung has dispensed with its quirky under-display camera, which had a smattering of low-fi pixels covering it when not in use. The inner selfie is now just a regular hole punch, which is fine. You should really only use the front-facing cameras for video calls. If you want to take a selfie, foldables offer the option to use the more capable rear-facing cameras with the cover screen as a viewfinder.

A matter of coin

For the first time, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 feels like a viable alternative to a flat phone, at least in terms of hardware. The new design is as thin and light as many flat phones, and the cover display is large enough to do anything you’d do on non-foldable devices. Plus, you have a tablet-sized display on the inside with serious multitasking chops. We lament the loss of S Pen support, but it was probably necessary to address the chunkiness of past foldables.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 typing — The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is the next best thing to having a physical keyboard. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

The camera upgrade was also a necessary advancement. You can’t ask people to pay a premium price for a foldable smartphone and offer a midrange camera setup. The 200 MP primary shooter is a solid upgrade over the cameras Samsung used in previous foldables, but the ultrawide and telephoto could still use some attention.

The price is one thing that hasn’t gotten better—in fact, it’s moving in the wrong direction. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is even more expensive than last year’s model at a cool $2,000. As slick and capable as this phone is, the exorbitant price ensures tablet-style foldables remain a niche category. If that’s what it costs to make a foldable you’ll want to carry, flat phones won’t be usurped any time soon.

If you don’t mind spending two grand on a phone or can get a good deal with a trade-in or a carrier upgrade, you won’t regret the purchase. This is the most power that can fit in your pocket. It’s available directly from Samsung (in an exclusive Mint color), Amazon, Best Buy, and your preferred carrier.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 hinge macro — The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 has a new, super-thin hinge design. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

The good

Incredibly slim profile and low weight
Upgraded 200 MP camera
Excellent OLED screens
Powerful multitasking capabilities
Toggle for local-only AI
Launches on Android 16 with seven years of update support

The bad

Ridiculously high price
Battery life and charging speed continue to be mediocre
One UI 8 has some redundant apps and clunky interface decisions
Now Brief still doesn’t do very much

Ryan Whitwam is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering the ways Google, AI, and mobile technology continue to change the world. Over his 20-year career, he’s written for Android Police, ExtremeTech, Wirecutter, NY Times, and more. He has reviewed more phones than most people will ever own. You can follow him on Bluesky, where you will see photos of his dozens of mechanical keyboards.

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Smart TV OS owners face “constant conflict” between privacy, advertiser demands

ads, privacy, samsung, Software, streaming, Tech, TVs / DJ Henderson / June 19, 2025

DENVER—Most smart TV operating system (OS) owners are in the ad sales business now. Software providers for budget and premium TVs are honing their ad skills, which requires advancing their ability to collect user data. This is creating an “inherent conflict” within the industry, Takashi Nakano, VP of content and programming at Samsung TV Plus, said at the StreamTV Show in Denver last week.

During a panel at StreamTV Insider’s conference entitled “CTV OS Leader Roundtable: From Drivers to Engagement and Content Strategy,” Nakano acknowledged the opposing needs of advertisers and smart TV users, who are calling for a reasonable amount of data privacy.

“Do you want your data sold out there and everyone to know exactly what you’ve been watching … the answer is generally no,” the Samsung executive said. “Yet, advertisers want all of this data. They wanna know exactly what you ate for breakfast.”

Nakano also suggested that the owners of OSes targeting smart TVs and other streaming hardware, like streaming sticks, are inundated with user data that may not actually be that useful or imperative to collect:

I think that there’s inherent conflict in the ad ecosystem supplying so much data. … We’re fortunate to have all that data, but we’re also like, ‘Do we really want to give it all, and hand it all out?’ There’s a constant conflict around that, right? So how do we create an ecosystem where we can serve ads that are pretty good? Maybe it’s not perfect …

Today, connected TV (CTV) OSes are largely built around not just gathering user data, but also creating ways to collect new types of information about viewers in order to deliver more relevant, impactful ads. LG, for example, recently announced that its smart TV OS, webOS, will use a new AI model that informs ad placement based on viewers’ emotions and personal beliefs.

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Samsung teams up with Glance to use your face in AI-generated lock screen ads

advertising, AI, Artificial Intelligence, samsung, shopping, Tech / 9u50fv / June 4, 2025

On an average day, you might unlock or look at your phone dozens of times, which makes the lock screen a hot property for advertising. Ad tech company Glance has been taking advantage of that for years with its ad-laden lock screen experiences, but it’s going further in the age of AI. Samsung and Glance have teamed up to deliver a new “AI shopping” experience that uses a selfie to create custom fashion ads. This feature is rolling out to numerous Samsung phones in the next month.

Glance has been around for a while—its non-AI lock screen experience has been bundled on various phones from Samsung, Motorola, and others. Before the AI era, Glance lured people in with promises of pretty pictures and news alerts, which came with a side of ads and tracking. The new Glance AI feature has all that, but it adds an unsettling face-stealing layer to the experience.

The AI-infused Glance will arrive on Samsung phones as both a standalone app and a fully integrated lock screen. Thankfully, this is a fully opt-in experience. If you never open or set up Glance, you can keep using the normal lock screen on your phone.

Should you choose to wade into the murky waters of AI shopping, Glance will have you take a selfie and provide some basic body type details. From there, it uses Google Gemini and Imagen to create fashion ads tailored to you—because they are you. Your lock screen will be populated with images of you “in outfits and destinations [you] would never imagine.” Naturally, you will be able to buy the looks chosen for you with a tap, which fills Glance’s coffers.

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