Winners and losers: Galaxy fans get a rare treat while Moto cancels at the last minute

OPINION: It has been a busy week for the team of product experts at Trusted Reviews. Over the past seven days we’ve published our definitive verdict on some big name products including Apple’s MacBook Air (M2) and the new OnePlus 10T smartphone.

However, despite these big name reviews, for us there has been one very clear winner and one very clear loser to grace the headlines this week. Here’s what they are.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Watch fans

This week Samsung fans have had plenty to get excited about with a sea of fresh rumours and hints about its fabled next wave of foldables and wearables.

First we saw Samsung drop a teaser trailer for its new Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 handsets, a week before it’s expected to unveil the devices at its event on August 10. The 40 second clip didn’t give much away but it carried taglines suggesting that the handsets will have a focus on improved productivity and better camera performance.

The latter is particularly important as camera performance was a key issue we experienced testing the older Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 last year. The cameras on both phones performed well, but didn’t come close to matching the experience we got shooting on the Galaxy S22 Ultra and other flagship handsets at the time. This is a key reason you won’t see either in our best camera phones guide.

But adding a cherry on top, we also saw some fresh leaks about the fabled Galaxy Watch 5. This is a key release for Samsung as it’s expected to be the company’s second wearable to feature the much improved Wear OS 3, rather than Samsung’s own Tizen software. The use of Wear OS 3 was a key reason why we loved the older Galaxy Watch 4 when we reviewed it last year. From what we’ve seen that won’t be the Watch 5’s only selling point.

Specifically, we saw a report from serial tech leaker SnoopyTech on Twitter suggesting the Watch 5 will have much faster charging than the Watch 4, which is a good thing as battery life was middling at best on the older model, based on our tests. On top of that we also saw a report surface on Samsung’s own blog reporting a new, more overt focus on fitness and wellness services for its wearables, suggesting that the Watch 5 may offer more developed tracking services than its predecessor.

Loser: Moto phone fans

While Samsung fans were given a lot to get excited about, the opposite was true for Motorola followers. This week, after a lot of build up, the phone maker abruptly cancelled an event where it was expected to unveil the Moto Razr 2022 and X30 Pro.

The company was due to hold its launch event at 11:30am GMT / 7:30am ET on August 2, but general manager Chen Jin took to Weibo mere hours before it was set to begin to announce that the launch would no longer take place.

No reason was given with the post simply stating:

“I’m sorry to inform you that it was originally scheduled to [have] the moto new product launch… at 7:30 tonight [but it] was cancelled for some reason,” said Jin (via translation software). “We still sincerely hope to bring the new moto products to everyone, and still be the moto that Chinese users like.”

This is a shame as we were genuinely excited to see what the firm had done to improve its Razr foldable. Here’s hoping we get a new launch date soon.