Samsung announced several products at its live-streamed product Galaxy Unpacked launch on Wednesday, including the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Galaxy Z Flip 3.
The new foldables are introducing to Samsung’s Galaxy Fold series a number of firsts including, water resistance, an eco-friendly design, and S Pen support.
Here’s a rundown of the highlight features announced.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3
Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Z Fold 3 with a 120hz refresh rate for both its front and main displays. The brand noted that users use the cover screen just as often as the main screen, so it put just as much effort into maintaining the quality of the standard smartphone experience. When opening the Galaxy Z Fold 3, the main display is 7.6-inches and uses a technology called Eco Squared, which allows it to be 29 percent brighter while still consuming less battery power.
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 includes many app optimizations and multitasking options on the main screen, which allow several apps to effortlessly open at the same time. It also includes a taskbar for easy access to apps, which is reminiscent of the Air Actions feature on the Galaxy Note series. Samsung discussed its many partnerships with brands including Microsoft, Spotify, Youtube, and TikTok, among others.
Samsung introduced its first under-display camera on the Galaxy Z Fold 3, which it says is visible for image capture and video capture, but is seamless and invisible for other functions, including gaming and video playback. The handset also includes stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support, which Samsung says offers multidimensional sound.
The development of water resistance and stylus support essentially went hand-in-hand for the Galaxy Z Fold 3. Samsung explained that the handset is made of three main parts; two body pieces and a hinge. While it is easy to make the body sections water-resistant, the hinge can be especially susceptible to moisture damage over time. Samsung said it took several measures to safeguard against this, including using corrosion-resistant material at the hinge, as well as long-lasting grease, rubber, and cured-in-place gaskets (CIPG) to preserve the Flexible Protected Circuit Board.
As the first foldable with water resistance, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 is rated IPX8 as protected from everyday water damage. The handset’s main screen is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus and its display has increased flexibility by 80 percent over the previous generation.
Samsung also developed the S Pen Fold Edition, especially for the Galaxy Z Fold 3, with a rubber tip and an internal spring that acts as a shock absorber when users write or draw on the display. Similar to the challenges of water resistance, Samsung said it has to power both sides of the body on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 with separate digitizers, and get them to work together as a single panel. The brand partners with Wacom on the project, working with a technology called electromagnetic resonance (EMR) to solve the challenge and to increase the display’s responsiveness by 40 percent.
In terms of specs, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 features a Full HD+ 6.2-inch Super AMOLED front panel display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 2260 x 832 resolution and a 7.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X internal display with a 120Hz refresh rate 2208 x 1768 resolution and protected by Gorilla Glass Victus. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip and includes 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB and 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage options. Its battery is a 4,400mAh cell, which supports wired fast charging and wireless charging. For software, it runs Android 11 with a Samsung One UI 3.1 overlay.
Its triple rear camera setup includes three 12-megapixel lenses, the main lens with f/1.8 aperture, 78-degree FoV, 1.4um pixel size, OIS, 2PD, a wide-angle lens with f/2.2 aperture, 123-degree FoV, 1.12um pixel size, FF, and an ultra-wide-angle lens with f/2.4 aperture, 1.0um pixel size, OIS. Its under-display camera on the main display is a 4-megapixel lens with f/1.8 aperture, 2.0um pixel size, while its front display selfie camera is a 10-megapixel lens with an f/2.2 aperture, 1.22um pixel size.
Other features include 5G connectivity, Bluetooth 5.0, two nano-SIM slots, and an eSIM slot. Its color options are Phantom Black, Phantom Green, and Phantom Silver.
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 will be available August 27 starting at $1799, with preorders starting August 11. The foldable will come with a year of Samsung Care+ free with a preorder.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3
Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Z Flip 3 in four main color options, cream, green, lavender, and black, in addition to three more color options pink, white, grey, which can be purchased only at Samsung.com. Users also have the ability to customize and personalize their Galaxy Z Flip 3 handsets with various colors and designs and match them with other products in the Samsung ecosystem, such as the Galaxy Watch 4 and the Galaxy Buds 2.
Samsung said it made the cover screen four times larger to allow for functionality including previewing selfies. The device’s flex mode is also ideal for capturing images. Users can open the handset and place it on a flat surface to activate. It can recognize up to four people, and if there are five or more people it will adjust the camera to ultrawide mode. Users can then trigger the shutter with a voice command or tap with a wearable. Flex mode also allows for functions such as hands-free video chat.
The device uses the One UI 3 interface, which includes Samsung’s Bixby smart assistant, functioning 35 percent faster due to processing directly through the phone rather than through the cloud.
In terms of specs, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 features a 6.7-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X Infinity Flex Display with a 2640×1080 resolution and a 1.9-inch Super AMOLED cover display with a 512×260 resolution. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G chip and includes 8GB of RAM and 128GB and 256GB internal storage options. Its battery is a 3,300mAh cell. Software includes Android 11 with a One UI 3.5 overlay.
Its dual rear camera includes two 12-megapixel lenses, one wide and one ultra-wide, plus a 10-megapixel front-facing camera.
Other features include stereo speakers powered by Dolby Atmos, a side-facing fingerprint sensor (side), and facial recognition.
The Galaxy Z Flip 3 will be available August 27 starting at $999, with preorders starting August 11. The foldable will come with a year of Samsung Care+ free with a preorder.
