With the playful excitement of Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip during the Oscars commercial, the respected phone manufacturer not only revealed a section, but the entire phone.
It was an unprecedented move from Samsung and triggered an unprecedented wave of excitement among media and technology enthusiasts.
Today (February 12), the Korean electronics giant officially unveiled the new Galaxy S20 series and the Galaxy Z Flip at the recently closed Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco.
From left to right: the S20, the S20 + and the S20 Ultra 5G. / Photo credit: Samsung
Starting with the S20 series, it shares most of the overall design as its predecessor with a few minor changes. The front-facing camera found its way into the top center of the display, similar to Note 10.
This time there is no dedicated Bixby button, but it has been integrated into the power button to serve two purposes.
Samsung has also embraced the trend towards excluding headphone jacks. So if you're an audiophile who wants to run your IEMs with the latest flagship, you're out of luck – unless you get an adapter that, unfortunately, isn't included.
The Galaxy S20 Ultra is said to open a new chapter in photography and has 16 GB RAM, 100x room zoom and 8K video recording, although this last function has been transferred to the lower models.
If you are curious, you can find the full data sheet here. / Photo credit: Samsung
All three variants are equipped with triple rear cameras. The S20 + extends the 12MP ultra wide-angle camera, the 12MP wide-angle camera and the 64MP telephoto camera of the S20 by a depth camera. This is an improvement over the S10's 16MP Ultra-Wide, 12MP-Wide and 12MP Tele cameras.
The power supply and processing is handled by the new giant from Samsung, the Exynos 990. It is based on the new 7 nm process and promises AI intelligence, stronger CPU and GPU performance with lower power consumption.
Together with a more powerful GPU, a refresh rate of 120 Hz is displayed, which is a first for Samsung. However, there is a compromise for this smoother experience, downgrading from its 3200 x 1440 resolution to 2220 x 1080.
Photo credit: Samsung
And with all the exciting details of the press conference, Samsung ushered in and advanced a technological era of hybrid phones with the Galaxy Z Flip, a successor to the Galaxy Fold.
Samsung has apparently given up the shape of the Galaxy Fold in favor of the fold-up design and reminds of the days of early Motorola.
Samsung is equipped with a foldable 6.7-inch screen made of extremely thin glass and has been tested to withstand up to 200,000 folds. This is a clear attempt to fix its predecessor's notorious design flaw.
With the Snapdragon 855+, last year's flagship chipset, Samsung wants to take the power consumption of the smaller 3,300 mAh battery into an even smaller form factor.
Photo credit: Samsung
When folded, it measures 87.4 x 73.6 x 17.3 mm, which is the size of a small wallet, so you can easily put it in on the go. When open, it measures 167.3 x 73.6 x 7.2 mm and has a dual split screen function, half of which is for viewing content and writing text the other half.
Samsung started the flagship wars of the new decade with a loud bang and packed even more features in a tiny, powerful package. But what about pricing?
Samsung has more or less maintained its pricing strategy over the past decade: the 6.2-inch S20 (in gray, blue, and pink) starts at $ 1,298 and the 6.7-inch S20 + (in gray, black, and blue ) at S $ 1,498.
The 6.9-inch S20 Ultra 5G will cost S $ 1,898 and, as the name suggests, will be the only phone in the new 5G range to be available on March 6 for all three variants.
Meanwhile, the latest addition to the foldable hybrid family starts at $ 1,998 and will be released on February 14, a game by the Korean giant to spotlight its newest member.
Header Image Credit: Samsung