Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2024: All the latest news and updates

Thanks so much for sticking with us today and please let us know what you thought of Samsung's announcements! I feel confident that we'll have reviews of the new Galaxy S24 series before they go on sale on January 31st, so make sure to check back here for updates on our realworld testing. In the meantime, it's been a blast liveblogging for you all, thanks again for joining us!

See y'all later and thanks again for stopping by.

Welp, I guess we're done here.

That was quite the brief teaser for the Galaxy Ring, and I don't feel like I learned much about it beyond the fact that it exists and will use Samsung Health. The show is now officially over, and you can head on over to Engadget.com to check out our hands-ons for detailed impressions on the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus and S24 Ultra if you haven't already. We haven't had a chance to see the Galaxy Ring in person yet, and don't expect we'll get to try it out for ourselves in the near future. But stay tuned as we will bring you all the news we can find about that device and others.

Samsung comes in, shows off the Galaxy Ring and then just ends the stream like that one Tuxedo Mask meme?

We're watching a video of the ring, which looks a lot more sleek than the Oura, I must say. It's spinning around in space, surrounded by particles in this video. Not much else to learn about it. The screen is back to showing the Galaxy S24 Ultra and a Galaxy Watch in use by various people. Blackard is back and thanking us for being a part of Unpacked.

Wait?!?! That's it?

"Today, we're taking the possibilities of Samsung Health to the next level," Wiggins said, bringing it to a "new form factor." Meet the Galaxy Ring, he announced. Yep, it's real.

I already know I'm going to be slightly depressed if I wake up and see a low vitality score. Now in addition to feeling bad, my gadgets are going to remind me exactly how poorly I'm doing.

Samsung Health and Galaxy AI will use the data to give you tips on whether you should meditate, rest more or workout less if you slept poorly, for example.

Later this year, "we will be introducing an all-new smart health experience," called "My Vitality Score," Wiggins said. This sounds a lot like offerings from Fitbit and Garmin, like daily readiness scores and "body batteries."

"By leveraging our BioActive sensor, the Samsung Sleep Apnea feature will monitor relative blood oxygen levels" while you sleep. Samsung Health will also get Medications Tracking to help you manage medication and supplements, while giving insights about potential interactions. Apple has basically the same thing

He's starting with sleep, and talking about how Samsung Health uses info gleaned from Galaxy devices to help provide insights about your sleep. Later this year, Samsung Health and Galaxy AI will do heart rate alerts while you sleep to give you heads ups about potential sleep apnea and other anomalies.

""We are constantly innovating the Samsung Health Platform," Wiggins says. He talks about the company's partnerships with various players in the healthcare space. "With Galaxy AI, we're preparing for the beginning of an entirely new era of digital health," he said.

Making small healthy choices can lead to "life-changing progress." The video ends on the two characters staring at an eclipse... Which is yknow, shaped like a ring. Dr Matthew Wiggins, from the company's Digital Health arm, takes the stage.

Cherlynn, I feel like this teaser is targeted directly at you. Using smart devices to figure out how long you can sing karaoke.

The runner is now talking about his sleep stages and how that information helps with his overall health. This feels like a showcase of Samsung Health... but also a teaser for something to come...

Now, we're watching a video about a product that should help us create "smarter, healthier routines" and fight against our baser instincts... This is probably the "one more thing." It opens with a person running, wearing a Samsung Galaxy Watch, while another person, described by the video as "Prehistoric instincts" is dogging them. The runner pulls up his Samsung Health dashboard to show how he's tracking his health.

Pricing for the S24 and S24+ is unchanged year over year, while the S24 Ultra has gotten a $100 increase to $1,300. Not sure how much of that added cost is due to titanium

Pre-orders for the S24 series will start today and availability beings Jan 31st. The S24 starts at $799, while the S24+ and S24 Ultra start at $999 and $1,299 respectively. The AI features launched today will also be rolling out to select Galaxy products by the first half of this year, which means you might not need to get these new phones for the software updates.

I can't believe we are an hour into this keynote and we still probably still have "One more thing" to see... Anyway, Blackard is back to recap the S24 series, which means we must be near the end!

Samsung has set a target to reach its sustainability goals by 2025, and pledged to incorporate at least one recycled material in all of its products. It's already met that goal in 2022, so it's reassessing its current goals. Feels kind of like a pat on the back for... not a major achievement? Maybe I'm too cynical.

I find that in person, the paint jobs on the regular S24/S24+ are more vibrant that the duller tones on the Ultra. Especially that purple.

The irony of talking about sustainability while launching a new phone you want people to buy is not lost on our team.

Samsung's now giving us a breakdown of all the components of the S24 series and how recycled/recyclable they are. Cobalt and rare earth elements, for example, are 100 percent recycled in the S24 series.

Different people are talking about how they've made changes to improve the carbon footprint of various Samsung products while reiterating how important they believe sustainability is. Not quite Octavia Spencer as Mother Nature in Apple's video about sustainability, but not spiritually dissimilar.

Also, the S24 Ultra has special titanium-hued finishes that are similar but not quite the same as what's available on the standard S24/S24+.

Blackard is now talking about Samsung's "vision of a sustainable future," and... Yep, we're watching another video. This time starting with a series of animations of various people talking about how important our planet and environment are.

"Our toughest and most scratch resistant and most optically advanced glass yet," Bayne called it, before returning us back to Blackard. "Galaxy S24 Ultra is iconic," Blackard starts, before talking about how the S24 and S24 Plus have a "one-mass" design and come in a range of colors "inspired by nature."

Gorilla Armor is "our toughest Gorilla Glass yet," is "four times more scratch resistant" and "reducing screen reflection by up to 75 percent," Bayne said, while mentioning how the material performed against competitors in lab testing.

The addition of a titanium frame is nice, but because the S23 Ultra had an aluminum chassis instead of stainless steel like on older iPhones, there isn't a meaningful weight savings on the S24 Ultra.

For the first time, Samsung is using titanium in its S series phones. It's the most durable build for the company, with a slightly thinner frame. Blackard intros John Bayne from Corning, who's talking about its collaboration with Samsung for a more durable material developed for the S24 Ultra called Gorilla Armor,

Pokimane talks about how, as a years-long PC gamer, she's never seen such realistic gameplay. "It's really so cool," she said... And after a quick spiel, which I can't quite tell if anything meaningful was really said because I was so distracted by how Thompson pronounced her name, Pokimane is done. As is Thompson, who thanks her and pronounces her name correctly this time. He brings back Blackard, who's talking about the S24's durability.

Wow, seems like it. Wonder if Pokimane is going to mention her line of overpriced cookies.

Gaming outdoors is "even better" thanks to the S24 series' peak brightness of 2,600 nits. The displays are also adaptable to ambient light and color. Thompson introduces Pokimane onstage to talk about gaming. Is this an unofficial YouTuber get-together?

So at this point, it's important to mention that all S24 phones sold in North America will feature the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Same goes for all S24 Ultras globally.

But depending on the model you choose and where you live, it seems there's a chance you may still end up with an Exynos-based variant.

Ray Tracing is now 30 percent faster, Thompson added, and is talking about the S24's updated heat dissipation design. It features "our largest vapor chamber" and allows heat to be spread widely across the surface, preventing sudden temperature spikes. This will help maintain performance, which is "further optimized by Galaxy AI so you can game for longer," Thompson said.

"Our state of the art NPU is the fastest in the Galaxy series," Thompson says. It's what allows AI processes like translation and editing to happen quickly, he added. "And across CPU, NPU and GPU of the Galaxy S24 Ultra," you'll experience faster and smoother gameplay, he said.

I'm glad Samsung and Google are finally getting on the same page when it comes to local file sharing. The big issue is that it's not AirDrop.

Rael now introduces David Thompson (or DT) who's a product specialist. Thompson is taking the stage to talk about the processors inside the S24 series.

Rael is talking about Quick Share, which Google recently announced as the name for its new unified "Nearby Share" feature. This isn't brand new, it was first announced at CES last week.