Connect with us

Published

on

The Samsung Galaxy Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5.

Ryan Browne | CNBC

Samsung on Wednesday launched two new folding smartphones that are thinner and lighter than earlier models, as well as a tablet and two new smartwatches.

The South Korean electronics giant said its new phones, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Fold 5, come with more rigid hinges and brighter displays — but offered mainly incremental upgrades over last year’s models.

CNBC takes a look at some of the new features.

Galaxy Z Flip 5

The star of the show in Samsung’s new folding phone portfolio is its new Galaxy Z Flip 5.

The Flip 5 is a clamshell-style folding handset that, when shut, takes a square shape that fits more comfortably into your pocket. Flip it open, and it becomes a regular, rectangular smartphone.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5’s standout feature is a much larger cover display.

Ryan Browne | CNBC

It’s water- and dust-resistant, and has a three-stop, “zero gap” hinge to adjust the device’s angle. It’s a lot slimmer than its predecessor, with the hinge gap now barely noticeable when you fold it shut.

But the standout feature of the phone is a much larger cover display, which you can use to select a range of widgets, including your calendar and clock — and it allows for enhanced selfie-taking.

The screen on the front cover of the phone has a new “flex” window that allows users to expand its 1.9-inch display to a 3.4-inch one, so that you can customize it to more easily access notifications and widgets.

Though the hinge is tighter and the phone itself feels sturdier than previous iterations, there’s still a noticeable line that runs down the middle where the phone’s hinge is located.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5. Foldables, or phones that bend in half, remain a niche part of the smartphone market. But they’re growing fast.

Ryan Browne | CNBC

Foldables, or phones that bend in half, remain a niche part of the smartphone market. But they’re growing fast.

Samsung faces competition in this category from a slew of rival phonemakers, mainly Chinese firms, that are challenging the company with their own folding devices.

In February, Chinese vendor Oppo launched the Find N2 Flip. And Honor, the spinoff brand from Huawei, launched its Magic Vs for international markets.

Motorola plans to bring out a new version of its foldable Razr device later this year. Lenovo owns Motorola.

Still, Samsung remains the market leader. The firm launched its first foldable handset in 2019. In 2022, it commanded an 80% share of global foldable shipments, according to Canalys.

The market expects foldable phone shipments to double to 30 million in 2023. But foldables accounted for just 1.1% of the total smartphone market last year, according to IDC data.

Still, that gives the industry ample room to grow. And, as people who’ve held on to their phones for longer near their chance to upgrade or trade their old phone in, they’re more likely to buy the top-of-the-range smartphones rather than older, less advanced ones.

“Currently, I think foldables will remain a lucrative niche with good margins and premium positions,” Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight, told CNBC via email.

“They resonate well with consumers that want to stand out from the crowd and have something different from the homogeneous mono-bloc black rectangle.”

The Flip 5, which is available for pre-order, starts at a price of $999.99. 

Galaxy Fold 5

The Samsung Galaxy Fold 5.

Ryan Browne | CNBC

Samsung also announced a new version of its Galaxy Fold phone lineup, the Fold 5.

The advances on the Galaxy Fold 5 are less noticeable than those on the new Galaxy Z Flip, with Samsung mainly offering more incremental updates.

The Fold 5 has a 6.2-inch display that can be folded out to reveal a bigger 7.6-inch main screen akin to that of a tablet. The main display is much brighter than the last, too, emitting 1750 nits, the industry measure for brightness.

It is 2.4mm less thick than its predecessor, according to Samsung. It also comes with an under-display camera so that you barely notice it when using your phone to message people or watch movies. It’s also compatible with the company’s S Pen.

The Galaxy Fold 5 starts at $1.799.99.

Foldables may be a niche part of the market, but they offer a number of benefits over the standard black slabs we’ve all become accustomed to — not least because of the ability to have more than one app displayed on a screen.

Ryan Browne | CNBC

Foldables may be a niche part of the market, but they offer a number of benefits over the standard black slabs we’ve all become accustomed to — not least because of the ability to have more than one app displayed on a screen.

For instance, when using the Galaxy Fold 5, you can fold the device out to a tablet-like slab and display one app on one half, and another app on the other.

Google entered the market earlier this year, launching the Pixel Fold, its first folding phone.

That the launch was from one of the largest U.S. tech companies — and the owner of Android — lent some credibility to the market.

Still, Paolo Pescatore, co-founder of PP Foresight, said that all eyes remain firmly on what Apple will do in foldables. “In essence, Apple does not need to do anything right now,” he told CNBC.

“No doubt Apple is looking and working hard behind the scenes to bring novel devices to market. When it does, it will invigorate this segment and kickstart consumer demand for foldables.”

Samsung is doubling down on foldables even as the smartphone market more broadly is contracting. Global smartphone sales declined 11% year over year in the second quarter of 2023 amid gloomy demand, according to analyst firm Canalys.

But the market is showing some early signs of recovery.

“The smartphone market is sending early signals of recovery after six consecutive quarters of decline since 2022,” said Le Xuan Chiew, analyst at Canalys, in a report last week. 

“Smartphone inventory has begun to clear up as smartphone vendors prioritized cutting inventory of old models to make room for new launches.”

Galaxy Tab S9

(From left) The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, Galaxy Fold 5, Galaxy Watch 6, and Galaxy Tab S9.

Ryan Browne | CNBC

Samsung also launched its newest tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9. It comes in three versions: an 11-inch Tab S9, a 12.4-inch Tab S9+, and a 14.6-inch Tab S9 Ultra.

The Tab S9 has a 120-hertz display for smoother scrolling and can be viewed more easily outdoors, Samsung said.

It comes with an S Pen straight out of the box. There’s also a “creator edition” available for the S Pen that supports changeable tips for drawing and writing.

Samsung said the tablet comes with enhanced speakers that allow for more cinematic audio.

It can also act more like a desktop computer, with the ability to mirror apps found on Windows PCs.

The Tab S9 starts at $799.99.

Galaxy Watch 6 and Watch 6 Classic

'Sea of sameness': Are smartphone makers out of ideas?

Continue Reading

Technology

Amazon’s new Echo devices designed for Alexa+ start at $99

Published

on

By

Amazon's new Echo devices designed for Alexa+ start at

Daniel Rausch, vice president of Alexa and Echo, announces the Echo Studio and Echo Dot Max during an Amazon event showcasing new products in New York City, U.S., September 30, 2025.

Kylie Cooper | Reuters

Amazon on Tuesday unveiled four new smart speakers and voice-activated displays that are revamped with Alexa+, its personal assistant that’s powered by generative artificial intelligence.

The company debuted the Echo Dot Max, a revamped version of its compact smart speaker, which costs $99.99. Amazon also unveiled a new Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11, priced at $179.99 and $219.99, respectively.

There’s also a new version of the Echo Studio, a larger, higher-end model with a more powerful speaker, priced at $219.99.

All the devices are available for preorder on Tuesday, and users will get Alexa+ early access “out of the box,” Amazon said. The Echo Dot Max and Echo Studio ship Oct. 29, while the Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11 ship Nov. 12.

Read more CNBC tech news

The devices were launched at Amazon’s fall hardware bonanza, held in New York. They’re the first batch of revamped products under the leadership of Panos Panay, a former Microsoft hardware leader who joined Amazon in 2023.

It’s also the first set of Amazon hardware to integrate the company’s long-awaited Alexa+, which debuted in February and has slowly rolled out in early access for some users.

“These are the most powerful Echo devices we have ever created,” Panay said on stage at the event. “Custom silicon, advanced sensors, our best microphones and sound, noise cancellation, understanding the user, faster than anything we’ve ever delivered before. They’re also beautifully designed to fade into the background.”

Alongside a revamped look, Amazon added new AZ3 and AZ3 Pro chips for edge processing to the devices, which are faster, more powerful and have “AI built right in,” said Daniel Rausch, the head of Amazon’s Alexa and Echo businesses.

Panos Panay, head of Amazon’s Devices and Services team, introduces Echo during an Amazon product event in the Manhattan borough of New York City on September 30, 2025. Amazon announced its next generation of Kindle, Ring, Blink, Fire TV, and Echo devices.

Charly Triballeau | Afp | Getty Images

The devices also feature a so-called Omnisense platform that gives Alexa “better contextual awareness,” Rausch said. It allows the Echo Show to be able to recognize users and serve up personalized insights, like an analysis of how they slept last night or alert users if they left their front door unlocked after midnight.

Amazon faces growing pressure to update its hardware and software for the generative AI age following the success of rivals such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. Meta also has its Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which use its Llama large language model to answer spoken questions from the user.

Amazon is also looking beyond Alexa or Echo smart speakers for opportunities in device growth.

The company in July confirmed it’s acquiring AI wearables startup Bee, which makes a wristband that can record and transcribe conversations.

Amazon comments on $2.5 billion settlement with FTC

Continue Reading

Technology

Nvidia’s market cap tops $4.5 trillion after string of AI infrastructure deals

Published

on

By

Nvidia's market cap tops .5 trillion after string of AI infrastructure deals

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang attends the “Winning the AI Race” Summit in Washington D.C., U.S., July 23, 2025.

Kent Nishimura | Reuters

Nvidia shares reached a fresh record on Tuesday, climbing almost 3% and lifting the chipmaker’s market cap past $4.5 trillion.

The stock is now up about 39% for the year, and continues to attract investors as Nvidia steps up its pace of deal-making, cementing its position at the center of the artificial intelligence boom.

OpenAI said last week that Nvidia would take an equity stake worth up to $100 billion in the AI startup, and would build hundreds of billions of dollars worth of data centers filled with Nvidia graphics processing units. OpenAI then announced five massive new data centers with Oracle that are expected to be filled with hundreds of thousands of GPUs. The whole “Stargate” project will cost $500 billion, the companies said.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says Nvidia’s products comprise about 70% of the spending on a new AI data center.

Analysts at Citi on Tuesday raised their price target on Nvidia from $200 to $210, citing an increased forecast for AI infrastructure spending after the OpenAI announcements.

“We believe OpenAI came to Nvidia asking for help as Nvidia has a very compelling product, and as the number of users and compute being consumed per user basis is growing,” Citi analyst Atif Malik wrote in the note.

OpenAI is far from alone, as Meta, Google and others are also dramatically ramping up their infrastructure spending.

CoreWeave, a cloud provider that includes Nvidia as a large shareholder, said Tuesday it had reached a deal to supply Meta with $14.2 billion in AI infrastructure services.

Nvidia’s stock is outperforming all of its megacap peers so far this year except for chipmaker Broadcom, which is up about 40%, similarly boosted by OpenAI.

WATCH: Worried about an AI bubble? Trader says she prefers hard assets, especially silver

Worried about an AI bubble? Trader says she prefers hard assets, especially silver

Continue Reading

Technology

Spotify founder Daniel Ek stepping down as CEO, company names co-CEOs to replace him

Published

on

By

Spotify founder Daniel Ek stepping down as CEO, company names co-CEOs to replace him

Daniel Ek, founder and chief executive officer of Spotify, attends the Cannes Lions 2016 on June 22, 2016 in Cannes, France. 

Antoine Antoniol | Getty Images

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek will step down from his position and move to the role of executive chairman, the company said Tuesday.

Spotify shares dipped around 4% following the announcement.

Ek, who co-founded the streaming platform in 2006, will be replaced by current co-presidents and longtime executives Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström as co-CEOs, the company said in a release. The transition will happen Jan. 1, 2026.

“Over the last few years, I’ve turned over a large part of the day-to-day management and strategic direction of Spotify to Alex and Gustav–who have shaped the company from our earliest days and are now more than ready to guide our next phase,” Ek said in a release. “This change simply matches titles to how we already operate.”

Read more CNBC tech news

Ek, who has been a member of the board since 2008, said his new role will focus on steering the company’s long-term strategy and providing support to its senior team.

“It’s been an honor of a lifetime for me to be able to lead Spotify for close to 20 years,” Ek said in an X post.

Stock Chart IconStock chart icon

hide content

Spotify year-to-date stock chart.

Continue Reading

Trending