The MacRumors Show: Samsung's Latest Challengers to Apple

On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we discuss all of the major new device announcements from Samsung's 2024 Galaxy Unpacked event and how they compare to Apple's offerings.


The Galaxy Z Fold6 features a 7.6-inch main screen and a 6.3-inch cover display, both enhanced with a new dual-rail hinge and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for improved durability. It features the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip and includes AI-powered tools like new camera capabilities and on-device language translation. The Galaxy Z Flip6, with its compact form factor, also sports a more durable display, a new camera system with a 50MP wide sensor, and various AI features.

The Galaxy Buds3 and Buds3 Pro earbuds adopt a stem design reminiscent of Apple's AirPods. The Galaxy Buds3 offer active noise cancellation and maintain an open-ear design, while the Galaxy Buds3 Pro include advanced features like adaptive noise control, built-in lights for visual cues, and real-time audio translation. Both models are designed to provide optimized audio quality through internal and external sound analysis. Just like Samsung, Apple is expected to bring active noise cancellation to its standard AirPods later this year.

Samsung's smartwatch lineup is refreshed with the Galaxy Watch7, available in 40mm and 44mm sizes. The Galaxy Watch7 is powered by a 3nm processor, offering enhanced performance and power efficiency. It includes dual-frequency GPS for improved location accuracy and advanced health tracking capabilities, along with new gesture controls. While Apple is rumored to bring sleep apnea detection to the Apple Watch later this year, with the Galaxy Watch7, Samsung has beaten Apple to deliver the feature first.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra is Samsung's new high-end smartwatch, designed for durability and extreme conditions, making it suitable for athletes and adventurers. It features a titanium frame, water resistance up to 100 meters, and the ability to function at a wide range of altitudes. With a battery life of up to 100 hours in power-saving mode, the Watch Ultra includes multi-course workout tracking, advanced heart rate monitoring, and an emergency siren. Its design and feature-set largely mirrors that of the Apple Watch Ultra.

Finally, Samsung introduced the Galaxy Ring, a health-focused wearable designed to track a variety of metrics, including sleep, heart rate, and skin temperature. Made of titanium and available in nine sizes, the Galaxy Ring offers up to seven days of battery life and does not require a subscription for accessing health data. It provides comprehensive health insights with features like sleep scoring and an overall energy score, and it closely integrates with other Samsung devices.

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If you haven't already listened to the previous episode of The MacRumors Show, catch up for our discussion with Luke Miani about the upcoming Apple Watch "Series X."

Subscribe to ‌The MacRumors Show‌ for new episodes every week, where we discuss some of the topical news breaking here on MacRumors, often joined by interesting guests such as Matthew Cassinelli, Brian Tong, Quinn Nelson, Kevin Nether, Jared Nelson, Eli Hodapp, Mike Bell, Sara Dietschy, iJustine, Jon Rettinger, Andru Edwards, Arnold Kim, Ben Sullins, Marcus Kane, Christopher Lawley, Frank McShan, David Lewis, Tyler Stalman, Jon Prosser, Sam Kohl, John Gruber, Federico Viticci, Thomas Frank, Jonathan Morrison, Ross Young, Ian Zelbo, and Rene Ritchie.

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Top Rated Comments

Kermit262 Avatar
9 months ago
I wish Apple would release an Apple Ring. I would ditch my Apple Watch in a minute. I wear a mechanical watch so I wind up wearing two watches.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SMH4KIDIOT Avatar
9 months ago

I’m used to Samsung releasing products with elements that mimic Apple products, but the Watch Ultra felt like an April Fool’s product. I’m not sure they could have copied the AW Ultra name, composition, features, etc. any more than they did. The only thing they didn’t blatantly copy is the shape, though it has its own odd form with a rounded rectangle shape, just as the AW Ultra has the strange stacked design with protrusion on one side. I get that you can only do so much with a watch, but they easily could have kept the round form factor, and simply made it more robust, like a Garmin-esque smart watch, imho.
What happens is people have really short-term memory. The design is an original Samsung design, they revamped the Galaxy Gear Sport watch, now called Ultra which matches their Ultra phone. The Gear Sport watch line from 2017 which was made for "extreme" sport activity with 5ATM /50m water resistance depth rating. It's a similar square circle design. Those are standard smart watch features that Samsung pioneered. All people need is to do tiny research into past Samsung product lines, they were producing square smartwatches before they started making circular ones. They were 5 generations in before Apple made the first Apple Watch.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
victorvictoria Avatar
9 months ago
Samsung could make a phone with next gen AI, infinite battery life, and a bullet-proof Nano-LED folding screen. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still Android.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Johns12 Avatar
9 months ago
Looks like a good lineup. I've pre-ordered the Fold 6
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GuruZac Avatar
9 months ago
Samsung really went creative with the Watch Ultra...even down to the watch band and button accent colors. sarcasm off❕
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HJM.NL Avatar
9 months ago
It took Samsung years to mimic the Apple look and feel. The packaging of the ring is very Apple like, also their laptops and phones. You can say what you want, but competition has been coming from a long way. The parts Apple set itself apart from the competition in a positive way are over. Innovation has been very stagnant at Apple since Timmy is at the helm of Apple. Big projects like Titan and Vision Pro failed. The one thing that Apple was able to leapfrog the competition (A- and M- series of processors) diminished by the time Qualcomm released their snapdragon xelite processors. Their first iteration is on par with the M3 series. I’ll bet their next iteration of their chips will leapfrog Apple as well.
Oh and another failure of Apple is to compete with 5G modems.

It seems that Timmy is following the famous hockeypuck instead of knowing where it will be going.

Time for a new visionair at Apple who shows more love at tech innovation than Timmy who’s only concerned about money and investors.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)