Samsung held an event earlier today titled Unpacked where they took the wraps off a ton of new gadgets. I’ll get to the Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra in a separate article, but I wanted to shine a light on the company’s latest foldable since I think it’s one of the most exciting devices of 2020.
Meet the Galaxy Z Fold 2. Quite the name, I know, but it’s associated with the much-anticipated sequel to 2019’s Galaxy Fold which served as Samsung’s first mass-market folding smartphone. Compared to its predecessor, this foldable looks much more modern and refined. It almost looks like a third-gen product instead of a second-gen. That’s how much of an improvement it is.
The pictures above prove it. The OLED screen on the front is now 6.2-inches instead of 4.3-inches like before and comes with a 120Hz refresh rate. Meanwhile, the display inside gets upgraded to 7.6-inches (compared to 7.3-inches) with a 2208×1768 resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, an OLED panel, and a small hole-punch cutout for the selfie camera. Both screens have barely any bezels around them, while both are also covered in glass (the inner screen uses the same ultra-thin glass/plastic hybrid as the Galaxy Z Flip).
On the back, there’s a pretty big camera bump, but it contains three different shooters: a main 12MP lens, a 12MP telephoto lens, and a 12MP ultra-wide lens. The two selfie cameras are 10MP a pop. You can shoot up to 4K video at 60 frames per second, while the selfie lenses can capture 4K at 30 frames per second.
In terms of the design, Samsung has reengineered most of it so that it’s a lot more durable. There’s a new “sweeper” inside the hinge to remove dust and other unwanted particles using elastic fibers. The entire phone is covered in frosted glass and is only 6mm thin when open. It’ll ship in Mystic Black and Mystic Bronze (a.k.a. the color Samsung has been teasing for weeks leading up to today).
Rounding things off, let’s talk specs. The Z Fold 2 uses the Snapdragon 865 Plus processor paired to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. There’s a 4,500mAh battery inside which supports 25W fast charging. A fingerprint sensor lives on the side of the device, it comes with stereo speakers, it supports Samsung DeX, it utilizes UFS 3.1 storage, and there’s an Adreno 650 GPU.
Here’s the one thing we don’t know: pricing. Samsung says the Galaxy Z Fold 2 will go up for pre-order on September 1st, and that’s the day we’ll learn how much money you have to shell out to get your hands on this phone. Personally, I think it’s gonna cost at least $2,000 since the original Fold was $1,980. They might lower the price to sell more units, but I’m not sure if that would be feasible. This is a premium device that’s in early stages of its industry existing. Why not charge as much money as possible?
I’ll have more details on the Z Fold 2 at the top of next month. Stay tuned.
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