Samsung launches Galaxy Z Flip foldable phone and Galaxy S20 series smartphones

Samsung announced four new smartphones at its Samsung Unpacked event held in San Francisco yesterday.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip

Samsung has released a second foldable phone with a few drastic design changes. Unlike the Galaxy Fold released last year, the Galaxy Z Folds vertically, cutting its height by half when closed. There is still a slight gap in the middle when closed, but it now uses a more durable glass for its 6.7-inch 2,636 x 1,080 AMOLED display. 

To show notifications when the phone’s closed, Samsung installed a tiny 1.1-inch AMOLED display on the cover to display notification icons. Interestingly, it can also be used as a small viewfinder. Due to its size, however, its viability may be limited.

Its rear camera array features a conservative dual-sensor setup, coming with a 12MP f/ 1.8 Wide-angle camera and a 12MP f/ 2.2 Ultra-wide camera. On the front, There’s a single 10MP f/ 2.4 camera.

Because the phone folds vertically, it’s able to prop itself up. At the event, Samsung showcased several use cases for this mode, including taking video calls without a stand. Samsung also developed Flex mode that divides the display into two halves to show different content and controls.

Internally, the Samsung Z Flip forgoes Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 865 SoC and instead uses the last-gen Snapdragon 855. It’s still plenty powerful, but it won’t have a 5G modem.

Other specs include 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. There’s a battery in both halves of the phone, totalling to 3,300 mAh. Like most recent flagship phones, the Galaxy Z flip supports wireless charging as well.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip will be available in Canada in limited quantities for CA$1,819.99 starting Feb. 11. Colour options will include Mirror Black and Mirror Purple. Compared to the Galaxy Fold’s CA$2,599 price tag, the Galaxy Z Flip’s cost is much easier to swallow. Granted, it’s still costly, but it’s dropping closer to the mainstream flagship slab phones. All Galaxy Z Flips come with four free months of YouTube Premium.

Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra

The Galaxy S20 series is the rigid slab phones familiar to everyone.

Samsung has dramatically improved the refresh rate on the display. When used in 1080p mode, the screen can operate at 120Hz to provide a more fluid experience in games. The caveat is that if you increase the resolution to 1440p, the display dials back to 60Hz.

With the Galaxy S20 series, Samsung dove fully into 5G. All three models come with 5G capabilities thanks to their Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC and an external 5G modem. In Canada, only the sub-6GHz frequencies will be supported.

With the new SoC comes LPDDR5 memory, a noteworthy upgrade to LPDDR4/X. Compared to the previous generation, Samsung’s LPDDR5 uses 30 per cent less power while boasting 50 per cent higher data rate. The Galaxy S20 5G and S20+ 5G can be configured with up to 12GB, while the Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G can house 16GB.

Storage-wise, the Galaxy S20 5G has 128GB of storage. The Galaxy S20+ 5G and Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G bump it up to 512GB.

Whereas the Galaxy S20 and S20+ both feature a 12MP f/ 2.2 ultra-wide camera and a 12MP f/ 1.8 wide-angle camera, the Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G has a 108MP f/ 1.8 primary camera. The tradeoff, however, is a slightly lower resolution zoom camera. Unlike the two smaller models that have 64MP telephoto cameras, the Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G has a 48MP camera telephoto camera. With that said, the Galaxy S20 Ultra has an L-shaped telephoto lens array for 10 times optical zoom. Combined with its 10 times digital zoom, the S20 Ultra can technically reach 100 times zoom, although image quality at such magnification can be blurry.

All three models come with appreciable batteries. They’re rated at 4,000mAh, 4,500mAh, and 5,000 mAh, respectively, and feature wireless charging in both directions. The S20 5G and S20+ 5G come with a 25W charger. The Galaxy S20 Ultra comes with a 45W charger.

The Galaxy S20 series is available for pre-order now, starting at CA$1,320. All pre-orders made between Feb.11 and Mar. 5 will include a free pair of the new Galaxy Buds+.