Don’t have time to watch the one-hour live stream yourself or read through a bunch of different articles to catch up? Here’s the most important bits:
Galaxy Z Flip
And there it is! After a handful of leaks — and an entire friggin’ commercial that aired during the Oscars over the weekend — Samsung’s flip phone-style folding smartphone is officially official. Called the Galaxy Z Flip, it should start shipping by February 14th for the somewhat eye-popping base price of $1,380.
Unfolded, the screen comes in at 6.7 inches. Folded, a small exterior display allows for some lightweight functionality— things like notifications, battery life indicators and quick selfies. There’s also a sort of halfway unfolded, laptop-style mode (pictured above) that Samsung calls “Flex mode,” which they pitch as being particularly good for hands-free video calls.
Samsung’s earlier prototypes of a folding phone saw issues with dust and debris getting into the hinge and damaging the screen from behind; Samsung says it addressed this with a layer of fibers inside the hinge meant to keep stuff out.
Galaxy S20
2018 brought the Galaxy S9. 2019 brought the Galaxy S10. In 2020, Samsung is skipping a few numbers, rocketing the naming scheme right up to Galaxy S20.
It’ll come in three variants: the S20, S20+ and S20 Ultra — starting at $999, $1,199 and $1,399, respectively. Three phones, three display sizes: S20 comes in at 6.2″, S20+ at 6.7″ and S20 Ultra at 6.9″. All three displays run at 120hz, though you’ll have to drop the native Quad HD+ resolution down to 1080p for that. All three models support 5G.
Like many smartphones launched recently, Samsung’s main focus here is the camera — and the specs here, at least on paper, are pretty mind-blowing.
The S20 has three cameras, the beefiest of which is a 64-megapixel telephoto lens. The S20+ and S20 Ultra bump it up to four cameras with the introduction of a depth sensor, and the S20 Ultra alone packs a rather wild 108-megapixel sensor on the wide angle lens. The camera specs vary quite a bit from model to model and it can all get pretty confusing, so here’s Samsung’s spec sheet breakdown for reference:
The S20 and S20+ will support up to 30x “Space” (digital) zoom; the S20 Ultra bumps it up to 100x. All three phones will also shoot 8K video. A feature Samsung calls “Single Take” allows you to take one short video and get multiple options to choose from in return — boomerangs, looping clips, AI-enhanced photos, etc.
As a fun surprise, Samsung revealed midway through Unpacked that the live stream itself was being shot and streamed from S20s:
Samsung says pre-orders should start by February 21st, with the devices hitting shelves on March 6th.
Galaxy Buds+
Samsung’s answer to Apple’s AirPods are getting an upgrade. While the Galaxy Buds+ look pretty much identical to the original Buds, the (already quite solid) sound quality should be improved across the board; they’re shifting from a single driver system to a dual driver system, and bumping the number of microphones up from two to three.
Samsung says that the Buds+ should be able to run for up to 11 hours on a full charge, with the companion charging case providing another 11 hours of charge in a pinch. If you’ve got a compatible Galaxy phone, meanwhile, it’ll be able to charge the Buds+ wirelessly through the “PowerShare” feature the company debuted last year; hold the Buds+ case against the phone for just 3-4 minutes, says Samsung, and it’ll give them a full hour of juice.
The Buds+ are expected to ship on February 14th for $149.