'Start experimenting and innovating again please': Samsung's spicy Reddit AMA covered foldables, health, and AI — and the company didn't shy away from responding to criticism | Tech Radar
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'Start experimenting and innovating again please': Samsung's spicy Reddit AMA covered foldables, health, and AI — and the company didn't shy away from responding to criticism
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The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 (Image credit: Richard Priday / Tech Radar)
They answered all sorts of questions, including those criticising a perceived lack of innovation, and an undesirable focus on AI
Among the answers, health was pointed to as an area of future innovation, along with technology that understands what you need
Following the recent launch of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8, Annika Bizon, VP of Product and Marketing for Mobile Experience at Samsung Electronics UK & Ireland, has taken to Reddit for an AMA about these devices and other topics.
Many of the answers are some combination of marketing jargon and tech support, but there are some genuinely interesting nuggets too, including a response to claims that Samsung has stopped innovating.
Reddit user densusenapi commented: "I've been a long-time Samsung customer since the original Note. I replace my phone every 3 years since the hardware innovation just isn't there anymore? I used to change my phone every 2 generations but the leaps are so small now. Start experimenting and innovating again, please."
To which Bizon replied: "If I may, I'd like to politely challenge the idea that the hardware innovation isn't there. The more people use AI every day, the more personal it becomes and that's pushing us to rethink how phones and wearables work for people alongside how they look. That kind of shift only happens if the engineering and craftsmanship behind it can keep up, and that's still where we put a lot of our energy as a company.
"The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a good example. This year we're expanding our foldable range to meet a real need we kept hearing from customers who want a bigger, wider screen to go deeper into content. The new Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 has had a phenomenal upgrade this year too to make sure it can help you achieve your fitness goals in the most extreme environments. So, I promise you we're not slowing down; we’re experimenting based on what people are telling us they would like.
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It’s a fair answer, but arguably this has been a far more innovative year for Samsung than most recent years have been — we don’t often get whole new phone form factors after all.
But between what Bizon detailed above and the Privacy Display on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, the brand has genuinely done some very interesting things this year, so hopefully we’ll see more of that going forward too.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 (Image credit: Future)
As for what form that future innovation might take, in a separate response, Bizon pointed to health as a real focus at least for her personally, saying:
"I think we're at a super exciting time for mobile innovation. As I'm sure you're aware, we've just launched our biggest ever foldables line-up, inspired by how people are using their devices. AI is really helping us think more about new form factors, because we're all using our phones in much more personalized ways.
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"But if you want to know what excites me personally right now, it's health, because that's where I think our devices and the features on them are helping people in ways they would never have imagined. Suddenly we're shifting as a society to being more preventative in the way we approach health challenges.
"So let's start with some of our features, powered by the new sensors on the Galaxy Watch 9 and the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2. Vitals is a good example, because it tracks things like skin temperature and heart rate overnight, and flags meaningful changes so you can determine if you might be about to fall ill, and act by resting more.
"It's also become more personal. We've all been told about 'get eight hours sleep,' but our new sleep latency feature, which calculates how long it takes you to fall asleep from when your head hits the pillow, can help you work out what your optimum conditions are for falling asleep.
"I've seen this play out in my own training too. I did an ultramarathon a while back and pushed on for far too long despite how I was feeling and that's a really common mistake. Fitness Index now helps flag your strengths and weaknesses earlier, and Nutrition Alert will nudge me if my hydration levels are too low.
"That's the shift I'm most excited about — how technology understands what you need, and gives your personal experiences."
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)
That — unsurprisingly — doesn’t really give us any concrete ideas of what to expect next from Samsung, but technology that “understands what you need” will almost inevitably involve AI, and this, of course, also came up in the AMA — though largely through people being negative about it.
Multiple Redditors essentially said that they don’t want AI on their phones, to which Bizon noted that “if AI isn't for you, every AI feature on Galaxy devices is opt-in. You can switch off anything you don't find useful.”
That said, Bizon also suggested people should give AI a chance, arguing:
“If you're open to dipping a toe into using AI, my advice is always the same — try one small thing and see if it saves you time. Say you're out and about and spot a concert poster, show it to your phone with the camera and ask it to find tickets for you to buy. If it's useful once, great. If it's not for you, that's fine too.”
That advice might work for some people, but many others are opposed to AI as much for ethical reasons as functionality ones — so they’re unlikely to give it a chance, and may object to it being on their phones even if it can be disabled.
Still, AI aside, it will be interesting to see whether Samsung continues its current innovative streak. We'll probably have an indication of whether it has done so or not early next year, when the Samsung Galaxy S27 series launches.
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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at Tech Radar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.
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