Future Technology[Hardware Weekly] Samsung's foldable finally feels normal
Samsung dropped the telephoto lens and shaved the weight down instead, and the result is the first Fold that feels like a phone rather than a party trick. That is the headline this week, but stacked memory chips and a sturdier Xbox handheld are both worth your time too.
The Big 3
Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8 finally feels like a normal phone
Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8 went on sale August 5 at 1,899 dollars, running Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, weighing 201 grams, with a 5.5 inch cover screen and a 7.6 inch inner display. The trade-off is no telephoto lens, just two 50MP sensors.
Why it matters: foldables have spent years being impressive rather than desirable. This is the first one light enough that you would not think twice about carrying it daily.
Samsung's next memory chips bond straight onto the AI chip
At FMS 2026, Samsung showed zHBM, zNAND-O and BV-NAND, memory built to stack directly on top of AI accelerators using wafer bonding rather than sitting beside them on an interposer. Samsung claims up to 8x the speed of current HBM5 and a third of the energy use, though it is still an early concept with no production date.
Why it matters: AI chips are now bottlenecked by memory bandwidth more than raw compute, and whoever solves that first gets to sell every AI lab a cheaper way to run the models they already built.
Asus and Microsoft fix the one thing everyone complains about on handhelds
The ROG Xbox Ally X20 special edition keeps the Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chip, 24GB RAM and 1TB SSD from the standard Ally X, but adds a 7.4 inch Nebula HDR OLED screen and drift resistant TMR joysticks with a transforming D-Pad.
Why it matters: stick drift has driven more handheld returns than any spec shortfall. Fixing it matters more than another core count bump.
Quick Hits
Huawei's MateBook Fold launched August 5, a 13 inch laptop that folds shut, with a dual layer OLED hitting 1,600 nits peak brightness. Details
Intel's Arc G-Series chips are aimed squarely at handheld gaming PCs, with manufacturers already lining up devices to use them. Details
AMD confirmed Zen 6 Medusa CPUs for 2027, with a Gorgon Point refresh of current Strix and Krackan chips landing this year. Details
The Anbernic RG SP handheld launched August 5 from 65 dollars, undercutting the premium end of the market by a wide margin. Details
Pick of the Week
Bose Ultra Open Earbuds skip the eartip entirely, clipping onto your ear instead, so you keep full awareness of your surroundings while still getting real bass. Good for runners, commuters and anyone who hates the seal of in-ear buds. Skip them if you want noise cancelling for flights, this is the wrong tool for that job.
Check current pricing at your usual retailer. More on open-ear audio
Worth Waiting For
Google's Pixel 11 series gets its full reveal at the Made by Google event tomorrow, August 12, with pre-orders opening the same day. Expect four models: Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL and Pixel 11 Pro Fold. Pricing and full specs stay under wraps until the event itself.
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Happy building. Nath, Future Technology
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