With the playful tease of the Galaxy Z Flip by Samsung during the Oscars commercial, the esteemed phone manufacturer didn’t just reveal a snippet, but the entire phone.
It was an unparalleled move by Samsung, and started an unprecedented wave of excitement among the media and tech enthusiasts alike.
Today (12th February), the Korean electronics giant officially unveiled the new Galaxy S20 series and Galaxy Z Flip at the recently-concluded Galaxy Unpacked event held at San Francisco.
Starting with the S20 series, it shares many of the overall design as its predecessor with some slight changes. The front-facing camera has made its way to the top centre of the display, similar to the Note 10.
There’s no dedicated Bixby button this time round, but instead, it has been integrated with the power button to serve dual purposes.
Samsung has also caved in the trend of excluding headphone jacks, so if you’re an audiophile looking to drive your IEMs with the latest flagship, you’re out of luck — unless you get an adapter, which is unfortunately not included in the box.
Touted as setting a new chapter in photography, the Galaxy S20 Ultra features 16GB of RAM, 100x Space Zoom and 8K video recording, though that last feature has trickled down to the lower models.
All three variants sport triple rear cameras. The S20+ adds a depth vision camera to the S20’s 12MP ultra wide camera, 12MP wide angle camera and 64MP telephoto camera. This is an improvement on the S10’s 16MP ultra wide, 12MP wide and 12MP telephoto cameras respectively.
Powering and processing them is the new behemoth from Samsung, the Exynos 990. Built on the new 7nm+ process, it promises to deliver AI intelligence, stronger CPU and GPU performance while drawing less power.
Along with a beefier GPU comes a 120hz refresh rate display, marking it a first for Samsung. However, there is a trade-off for that smoother experience, a downgrade from its 3200 x 1440 resolution to 2220 x 1080.
And with all the tantalising details coming out from the press conference, Samsung has paved and pushed forward a technological era of hybrid phones with the launch of the Galaxy Z Flip, which is a follow-up to the Galaxy Fold.
Samsung has seemingly abandoned the form of the Galaxy Fold in favour of flip-up design, reminiscing the days of early Motorola.
Engineered with a foldable 6.7-inch of extremely thin glass screen, Samsung claims it has been tested to withstand up to 200,000 folds, a clear attempt to shed the infamous design flaw of its predecessor.
Powering it is last year’s flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 855+, a deliberate move by Samsung to accommodate the power draw of the smaller 3,300 mAh battery in an even smaller form factor.
When folded, it measures 87.4 x 73.6 x 17.3 mm, the equivalent size of a small wallet, allowing one to easily pocket it on the go. When opened, it stretches to 167.3 x 73.6 x 7.2 mm and features a dual split-screen function, with one half for viewing content and texting on the other half.
Samsung has started the flagship wars of the new decade with a resounding bang, packing even more features in a tiny powerful package. But where does it sit in terms of pricing?
Samsung has more or less maintained their pricing strategy within the last decade, with the 6.2-inch S20 (in grey, blue and pink) starting at S$1,298 and the 6.7-inch S20+ (in grey, black and blue) at S$1,498.
Meanwhile, the 6.9-inch S20 Ultra 5G is priced at S$1,898, and — as the name suggests — will be the only phone in the new lineup that is 5G enabled, with starting availability for all three variants on March 6.
Meanwhile, the latest addition of the foldable hybrid family starts at S$1,998 and will be released on February 14, a chess play from the Korean giant to put their newest member in the spotlight.
Header Image Credit: Samsung
