Samsung Electronics Co on Tuesday unveiled a new foldable phone, the Galaxy Z Flip, its second attempt to sell consumers on phones with bendable screens and clamshell designs.
The new phone, announced at a product event in San Francisco, can unfold from a small square upward into a traditional smartphone form, and goes on sale tomorrow starting at US$1,380.
Samsung’s first foldable phone, the Galaxy Fold, finally went on sale in September last year after delays and reports of screens breaking. The Fold, which carries a price tag of nearly US$2,000, folds at a vertical crease rather than horizontally as a flip-phone design would. Motorola has also taken the flip-phone approach with its new US$1,500 Razr phone.
Photo: Reuters
The Z Flip can stay open at different angles for use watching videos or taking photos. When the phone is closed, it takes selfies and displays notifications in a small window on the cover. Unfolded, its screen measures 17cm diagonally.
Samsung says it added fibers to the gap between the hinge and the phone to keep out dust and improve hinge function, likely to address the shortcomings of the Galaxy Fold.
On the more traditional front, Samsung offers its S series. In a nod to the start of the 2020s, the South Korean company showed off the Galaxy S20, S20 Plus and S20 Ultra, skipping directly to the S20 from its previous S10 series.
The S20 phones are designed to take high-quality pictures in dark settings, Samsung product manager Mark Holloway said. The phones can take both video and photos at the same time, using artificial intelligence to zero in on the best moments to capture the still images.
Samsung’s renewed focus on the camera follows other smartphone makers. Apple Inc last fall announced the iPhone 11, which offers an additional lens for wider-angle shots and combined multiple shots with software to improve low-light images. Google’s Pixel phones also offer a similar low-light feature.
Samsung’s S phones already offer the wider angle and some features for low-lighting. However, the company says the new phones would focus on high-resolution photos and the ability to zoom in 30 to 100 times, depending on the model.
The camera on the S20 series is “a giant leap,” Moor Insights & Strategy’s Patrick Moorhead said, adding that people might gravitate toward the more expensive models even as the sales of smartphones slow.
Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen called the S20 “astounding,” but worried that the crowd at the event had a muted response.
“I think we’ve reached the point in the technology timeline that all of us have technology that’s so good, better than we can even grasp or take advantage of, that anything new that’s introduced is not greeted with the same enthusiasm,” he said.
The S20 phones go on sale in the US on March 6, and range in price from US$1,000 to US$1,400.
All S20 models are compatible with 5G networks. The Z Flip does not work with 5G networks.
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