Samsung launches a trio of Galaxy S20 phones and the Z Flip

At its annual Galaxy Unpacked event in New York, Samsung introduced its 2020 lineup of flagships, the S20, S20+ and S20 Ultra. But to kick off the event, it was straight to the new Galaxy Z Flip, a new foldable smartphone that flips open bottom to top instead of sideways like the Galaxy Fold and it’s book-like format.

Galaxy Z Flip

Right from the outset, Samsung is clear about who the $1380 Z Flip is meant for: it’s trendsetters and trail blazers, people who like to stand out and be noticed. The company refers to the design of the Z Flip as being playful and premium at the same time. The back is a reflective one in Mirror Black, Purple or Gold. The colours seem to change colours when the light falls on the back, guaranteed to turn heads towards the user.

When opened up, the screen is a 6.7-inch one with hardly any bezel around it and behaves like a regular Android until you fold it and stop it at any angle. In this mode you can use the top half for viewing pictures, websites, YouTube etc while the bottom half can be used for interaction such as typing out a comment.

The Z Flip has a symmetrical and very neat squared off design. On the top screen you get notifications, take a call, shoot a selfie and perform a few basic tasks. the screen is a bright AMOLED and made of thin glass, not plastic, which Samsung says is not brittle or fragile and can fold up to 2,00,000 times. It uses a punch hole camera and can be propped up to take a selfie hands free and won’t need a tripod. The hide-away hinge uses a gap which is filled with a fibre shield to keep dust and dirt from getting inside the phone.

Galaxy S20 series

David S. Park, head of US mobile channel marketing of Samsung Electronics, speaks on stage during Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2020 in San Francisco, California

The Samsung Galaxy S20 series is Samsung’s first, full 5G flagship lineup and it centres around a powerful camera. The Galaxy S20+ and Galaxy S20 Ultra are the first devices able to power new mobile experiences that take advantage of both sub-6 and mmWave. The Galaxy S20 supports sub-6.2 All three devices are capable of delivering non-standalone and standalone 5G capabilities.

The camera architecture combines AI with Samsung’s largest image sensor yet for greatly improved image quality. The cameras use Samsung’s largest image sensor so far because of which the image resolution is significantly increased for more detailed with flexibility for editing, cropping, and zooming. S20 and S20+ have a 64MP camera. Another benefit is that the larger sensors take in more light, so users get rich image quality even in low light situations.

The S20 Ultra has a breakthrough 108MP camera. There is the option to shift dynamically between a high resolution 108MP mode and a 12MP mode, due to nona-binning technology which combines nine pixels into one at the sensor level. With the Galaxy S20’s Space Zoom technology there is a combination of Hybrid Optic Zoom and Super Resolution Zoom, which includes AI-powered digital zoom. One can up to 30X zoom on the Galaxy S20 and S20+, or step-up to the folded lenses on the S20 Ultra, which uses AI powered, multi-image processing to reduce quality loss at high zoom levels so that users can experience Super Resolution Zoom up to 100X with a clearer view.

The S20 series is fully packed with specs. 12GB RAM for two of the phones and 16GB on the Ultra. They use Snapdragon 865 though which processor these phones will use in India is not yet clear. There is 128GB and 512GB of storage with 1TB expansion via microSD card.

India prices and availability has not yet been announced.

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