DPASamsung isn’t giving up on the foldable smartphone, and has unveiled its second folding phone, the Galaxy Z Flip, which can be folded in half to roughly the size of a powder compact.
When folded out, it’s as big as a normal smartphone and has a 6.7-inch AMOLED display.
But at just under 1,500 euros in Europe (about 2,200 Brunei dollars), the price of this clamshell goes beyond the upper end of what most people pay for a smartphones – which market researchers see as a problem for this phone’s sales.
Several testers have also noted the horizontal crease at the centre of the display, a necessary evil for a phone that folds in half.
A different take on folding
While this isn’t Samsung’s first folding phone, it’s certainly a different approach to last year’s Galaxy Fold. Firstly, that phone cost around 2,000 dollars, and secondly, when folded out, that one was the size of a small square tablet.
Samsung rival Huawei has a similar folding tablet, but so far it’s only available in China.
The closest existing phone to the new Z Flip is a modern take on the flip phone from Lenovo’s Motorola. But this revival of the old Razr, which folds out to smartphone size just like the Z Flip, has a plastic display as opposed to the more durable folding glass in Samsung’s folding phone.
An improved hinge
In spite of all the hype, market researchers, such as Ranjit Atwal from the analysis company Gartner, generally assume that expensive folding devices like these will remain a niche offering in the near future.
But Samsung has also learned valuable lessons from its problems with its first foldable. The Galaxy Fold market launch, planned for the first half of 2019, had to be postponed after the folding hinges proved to be a weak point in test devices distributed to US journalists.
The hinges were later improved for the retail version, and the new Z Flip has now improved the hinges even more with a new brush system to keep dust out. It also allows users to fold it half open so the phone can sit up like a laptop.
(Photos: Samsung)
Fancy colours, average battery
The phone largely hits flagship-level specs, with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB of storage.
It also sports a dual rear camera, but can’t quite match the variety and new zoom capability of Samsung’s new S20 range, launched at the same time.
While it does support wireless charging, the battery is limited to a mediocre 3,300 mAh. The phone also features a miniature display on the rear, so you can see if you have important notifications without having to flip open the phone.
Samsung is also positioning the Z Flip as a fashion accessory and strongly marketing it to women, hoping they will appreciate the compact size when folded up, as well as versions in gold and pink.
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