Samsung Shows Off Newest Phones and Laptops at Interactive Pop-Up in Downtown SF

At its first in-person product launch in San Francisco since 2020, Samsung introduced new phones and laptops into a world that's changed drastically.

"During the pandemic, technology products like PCs and smartphones became incredibly important — and everybody bought new ones," said tech analyst Bob O'Donnell, president of Technalysis Research. "The problem is now everybody's got all these devices, and we're in a tougher market."

O'Donnell said Samsung needed to make a case for why users should buy even more technology — and it did so by leaning into its highest-performance products, aimed at content creators and power users. In a three-story pop-up near Union Square, Samsung is running interactive exhibits that tell the story of these new flagship devices, and show visitors what they can create with them.

Big and Bold

"The 'Ultra' brand means 'big,' it means 'bold,' it means the the best of the best," said TM Roh, president of Samsung's mobile electronics business, at the launch event called Galaxy Unpacked on February 1.

Roh spoke to reporters and analysts gathered inside San Francisco's Masonic Auditorium, high atop Nob Hill. There, Samsung took the wraps off its Galaxy S23 series of Android smartphones and Galaxy Book 3 series of Windows laptops — including a pricey and powerful Ultra model at the top of each lineup.

The $1199 Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone has a huge screen and a massive battery, but Samsung thinks users will buy it for the camera — and O'Donnell agrees.

"When you ask people about buying a new smartphone, other than because it's got a cracked screen, it's because they want a better camera," he said.

The phone's main camera can shoot 200-megapixel photos and 8K video, and has special lower-resolution modes for better shooting in low light. "Expert" modes allow manual control over many of the camera's settings, like shutter speed and white balance — and Samsung went out and found real experts to demonstrate it.

Seeing is Believing

"You do not have to take my word for it," Roh told the crowd. "Seeing is believing."

During the one-hour presentation, Samsung showed clips and behind-the-scenes action from two short films made by award-winning directors Sir Ridley Scott and Na Hong-Jin. Each film was shot entirely with Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphones, and so were the promotional shots and interviews shown during the unveiling.

"I think they're doing it to prove a point," O'Donnell said. "I don't think you're going to see Hollywood replace all their big cameras with these. ... But what you are going to see is young filmmakers who can't afford that big equipment, being able to create the same quality as the professionals."

If the newest phone is intended for shooting epic movies, Samsung's newest laptop is intended for editing them. The Galaxy Book 3 Ultra was on display after its unveiling, running Adobe Creative Cloud apps and interacting wirelessly with the latest Galaxy phones and tablets. The $2199, 16-inch laptop weighs almost a pound less than Apple's comparably-sized MacBook Pro, and clearly takes aim at Apple's tightly-integrated ecosystem with some magic tricks of its own.

Wireless Magic

"Once you've signed into that Samsung account, those devices then can work together," explained Samsung product trainer Amy Brake, showing how users can use move the laptop's mouse pointer onto the phone's screen, grab a photo, and drag it back onto the Windows desktop. "Now you never have to email a photo to yourself again."

The new devices also include a function called QuickShare that can generate a QR code to instantly share full-sized photos and videos to non-Samsung devices. (Samsung devices can use a fast direct Wi-Fi transfer similar to Apple's AirDrop.)

Seamless interaction between devices is a luxury that's been a competitive advantage for Apple for quite some time, O'Donnell said. And there's a reason it's taken this long for Samsung to catch up: Samsung's phones run Google's Android operating system, while its laptops run Windows, which is made by Microsoft.

"Apple controls their whole ecosystem," O'Donnell said. "When it comes to partners like Samsung and Google and Microsoft, there's a lot more work to make that a seamless experience, so it's a lot harder for them."

Pop-Up Inspiration

Samsung hopes the easy part will be imagining what you can do with its high-tech devices. But in case you need inspiration, the downtown San Francisco pop-up is filled with it. Visitors are invited to walk through three floors of short experiences centered around the new phones and laptops. You can photograph tiny extraterrestrials on an elaborate moonscape, sit for portraits in a high-tech studio, and check out the phones' low-light capabilities on a stroll through a neon-lit side street in Seoul, South Korea.

Samsung's "Galaxy Experience" pop-up is scheduled to be open through February 25 at 111 Powell Street in San Francisco. Samsung is already taking preorders for the new phones and laptops, and both Ultra products are slated to begin shipping on February 17.