Samsung “Flips” Innovation to New Heights With New Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Z Flip

Samsung has literally “flipped” the switch on innovation taking the mobile phone to new heights.

The company unveiled a trio of S 20 devices, the S20, S20+ and the S20 Ultra in the Galaxy series including the sought after Galaxy Z Flip folding mobile phone in San Francisco on 11 February. 

The Galaxy S20 series introduces a brand-new camera architecture that combines AI with Samsung’s largest image sensor yet. 

It has a triple camera setup on its rear, and the S20+ and S20 Ultra have an additional depth sensor.

The Galaxy S20’s camera offers super-high resolution with 108MP for the Galaxy S20 Ultra; 64MP for the Galaxy S20 and S20+. 

With the Galaxy S20’s Space Zoom technology, you can zoom in up to 30X zoom on the Galaxy S20 and 20+, or step-up to the S20 Ultra’s folded lenses with 10x lossless zoom for 100x Space Zoom. 

Advanced crop-zoom technology allows S20 users to capture a shot, crop it and edit it more easily, while maintaining the quality.

The new Galaxy S20 smartphones will be available in South Africa from 6 March and will retail at R18,999 for the Galaxy S20 128GB, R20,999 for the S20+ 128GB and R26,999 for the S20 Ultra 128GB. 

Asked about why Samsung jumped from S10 to S20, CEO for South Africa and Africa Mr Sung Yoon says it’s all about innovation. 

“We think 2020 is a big year. The Galaxy S20 has big innovation with the cameras, 100X zoom, which will change the entire camera industry and together with 108MP which enables us to make 8K video. So, this is new quantum jump in technology with the camera.” 

Samsung’s foldable phone the Galaxy Z Flip, looks like Motorola’s recently-revived Razr but very much better. The phone has a three-stop hideaway hinge, which allows it to open at three different angles, rather than open and closed.

Samsung says the Galaxy Z Flip would be available in three colours – Mirror Purple, Mirror Black, and Mirror Gold.

The device sports a main 6.7-inch OLED Infinity Flex Display display when open with a resolution of 2,636 x 1,080 and a smaller 1.06-inch 300 x 116 panel on the back. The device has a dual battery which delivers a total capacity of 3,300mAh.

The Z Flip will ship with a Snapdragon 855+ processor, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of internal storage, and a 3,300mAh battery.

The rear camera features two 12MP lenses – one wide and one ultra-wide. The front of the Z Flip sports a punch-hole 10MP camera with autofocus.

Samsung says Galaxy Z Flip is built for the modern, on-the-go lifestyle with the foldable experience unlike any other smartphone on the market today.

The Galaxy Z Flip will retail for R 29,999 or R 14,999 per month and will be available on 22 February. 

Samsung is also taking steps to improve the video chat experience. It has partnered with Google to bring Duo video calls directly to the Samsung dialer. Users will simply tap Duo to start a video call in Full HD, with up to eight friends.

What’s a super smartphone without buds? Samsung also unveiled the Galaxy Buds+ with the biggest change being the battery life from six hours to 11 hours. Samsung has made changes to audio quality, and it has added a Spotify button, but unfortunately, the Galaxy Buds+ still don’t have active noise cancellation (ANC).

Samsung also announced that it will make the free-to-play racing game Forza Street available on its Galaxy devices. This is the first time a Forza game will be available outside of PC and Xbox, and it could help showcase the 120Hz refresh rate on the S20 phones.