What They Say
Samsung opened its Unpacked event with its new smartwatches, talking up improved health, body composition and sleep tracking and highlighting the benefits of its collaboration with Google on software. (Android and Tizen Merge for Wearables) A big feature is an integrated body composition analysis system as well as blood pressure and ECG monitoring. It has a touch sensitive bezel that can be swiped for control. The event was already more than 20 minutes in before the firm got to its smartphones.
The displays on the Smartwatch 4 have been upgraded and are now 1.2″ and 1.4″ at 400×400 and 450×450 compared with 1.2″ and 1.3″ both at 360×360 on the previous version.
As expected, the new folding smartphones are the Z Flip3 5G and Z Fold3 5G and Samsung published the infographics below with the specifications. (In case these are not easy to see on your device here, you can also see them here (watch), here (flip3 5G) and here (fold3 5G).
The Z Fold 3 has a bigger front display when closed, with a full cover screen as Samsung found that users spend as much time on that display as on the main one. The cover screen is a 6.2″ 2260 x 816 (25:9) AMOLED with 120Hz. The Main screen is a 7.6″ with 120Hz and 2208 x 1768 resolution and is claimed to be up to 29% brighter. The main screen has an under-display camera with 4 megapixels and uses 2.0?m pixels. When the camera is active, the screen blanks in a circle above it, but when it’s not being used, it is invisible.
It has S Pen support (but no place to store it) using an EMR sensor – a challenge for folding devices in the hinge area. The display uses two separate digitisers that work together to detect the pen when it was between them. The S Pen Fold Edition has an internal spring and rubber tip to avoid excessive pressure on the more fragile foldable display. The EMR is said to be 40% more responsive than previous versions and was developed with Wacom.
The outside of the Galaxy Z devices is Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus which is stronger and less liable to damage. The phones are water resistant to IPX8 – a particular challenge for the hinge area.
The Z Flip 3 also has a much bigger front display – now a 1.3″ 260 x 512 AMOLED (compared to a 1.1″ 112 x 300 version). The main screen is a 6.7″ 2640 x 1080 (425ppi) 120Hz device. The 10mp selfie camera is under a hole. The camera has auto-framing and face recognition to avoid cropping subjects out of group photos. Samsung highlighted that the Flip can be placed on a surface to make video conferences possible ‘hands free’.
The handsets will be available at the end of August at $1799 (Z Fold 3) and $999 (Z Flip 3). Pre-orders will be covered by a one year warranty including a one-time display replacement service.
What We Think
In our Display Daily today (published a bit later than this article), Bob O’Donnell looks at the progress of the Samsung foldable devices. To me, a particularly interesting development is the under-display camera (UDC) in the Z Fold 3. I’m sure that details will emerge on how Samsung has done this (OTI Highlights the Challenge for Under-Display Cameras). Although the camera is relatively low resolution, there is a ‘proper’ selfie camera on the front of the device.
Android Police has a detailed ‘hands-on’ look at the effect of the UDC area which it suggests has around a quarter of the resolution of the rest of the display. While less obvious than a hole, the area still seems quite obvious.
I must admit, watching the Smartwatch 4 video almost persuaded me that it would help me. However, I really don’t need a body composition analysis to tell me how much weight I have put on during Covid!! (BR)
