Samsung held its latest Galaxy Unpacked event in New York and online and released its latest foldable smartphones, the Galaxy Z Flip4 and Galaxy Z Fold4 as expected.
The key display specifications (both described as Dynamic AMOLED 2X) are:
- Fold 4 – this has a 7.6″ folding OLED with 2176 x 1812 (21.6:18) at from 1-120Hz and a cover display that is 23.1:9 and has 2316 x 940 resolution and is adaptive from 48-120Hz. Output is 1,200 cd/m2 and the protection for the cover display is Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+
- Flip4 has a 6.7″ 2640 x 1080 (22:9) folding screen with 1-120Hz and a 1.9″ cover screen at 260 x 512.
The bezels are slightly slimmer and the Fold4 is 3.1mm shorter than the Fold3 while the Flip4 is thinner at the hinge by 1.2mm and is 1.5mm shorter when closed. The Fold4 has been made compatible with the S Pen (sold separately) and both of the devices are now waterproofed to IPX8 standard. DSCC has previously reported that the display is thicker (partly to deal with the S Pen digitiser) but the overall device is thinner, no mean achievement! On the other hand, DSCC has said, the stack on the Flip4 is slightly thinner. Weight of the Fold4 is down from 271 gms to 263gms and the Flip4 is slightly up at 187gms.
Battery life has been improved and there are better cameras. The Fold4 now has a 50mp camera (up from 12mp last time) and a 10mp 3x zoom camera from the S22 series. The Flip4 has the main camera from last year’s Fold3, so still just 12mp, but with better light collection. Battery on the Flip4 is up from 3,300mAh to 3,700 and the charging is faster. Video capture is just up to UltraHD rather than the 8K of the top of the line S22 series.
The chipset is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 which is made on a 4nm process, down from 5nm last year.
GSMArena got a look at the phone and was disappointed that the crease in the middle of the Fold4 is as visible as in the Fold3 but said that the under display camera is slightly better hidden than last time. There are some good photos here.
Pricing on the Fold4 is broadly the same as the Fold3 but the Flip3 is slightly more expensive than last year.
Analyst Comment
After my Note9 gave up the ghost a couple of weeks ago and decided to start powering off and re-booting at random, after 3.5 years, I took the plunge and upgraded to the S22 Ultra – which has the S Pen. I use that only occasionally, but when I do, I’m very glad of it. I have been surprised that in general it doesn’t feel a huge amount better although the camera features are well ahead. The display is brighter, the battery life is longer, it’s a bit ‘slicker’ but it’s also a bit bigger and heavier which seems retrograde. I hate to think how many years it will be before I replace this one. I have only one friend that has a Flip3 and he does like it.
Samsung apparently wants to ramp up sales, but in the current economic climate, the pricing looks tricky to change the market size materially. Still, Samsung has lots of data about the market, so I guess it knows what it is doing in terms of pricing. (BR)
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