Ten years after launching its first Galaxy phone, Samsung has put on an impressive show with the unveiling of its 2019 devices. As well as the brand new Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10 Plus, and Galaxy S10e, Samsung has also introduced its long-awaited Galaxy Fold device, with a fully bendable screen.
The Galaxy Fold stretches to a tablet-sized 7.3-inch display when opened out, showing a smaller 4.6-inch display on the front when you've got it snapped shut. Based on what we've seen so far, it looks like an innovative piece of technology – though at a starting price of US$1,980, it'll cost you when it goes on sale in April.
Apps that you're viewing on the front screen appear instantaneously when you open up the larger, foldable screen inside. You can even fit three apps on the larger display, though how usable they'll be at that size remains to be seen.
The device uses the Infinity Flex display that Samsung previewed last year. The company says it has a hinge that can withstand hundreds of thousands of openings and closings, and away from the screen, the Galaxy Fold offers 12 GB of RAM, 512 GB of storage, and two batteries that add up to 4,380 mAh of power.
The processor wasn't specified but is likely to be top of the range. For photo-taking, there's a triple-lens camera on the back (when closed), a dual-lens camera on the large tablet screen, and a single-lens camera on the front (when closed). Finally, color options are black, silver, green and blue, and there's even going to be a 5G version.
The Galaxy Fold is likely to grab most of the headlines from the event, but for most of us it's the standard flagships that'll be closer to our budget, and this year there are three of them, as there were three iPhones last year: the cheapest Galaxy S10e, the standard Galaxy S10, and the premium Galaxy S10 Plus.
These "next generation" smartphones, as Samsung calls them, feature Dynamic AMOLED displays (which adjust tone mapping on the fly), hole punch notches on the front, and ultrasonic fingerprint scanners built into the screens.
The 6.1-inch S10 and the 6.4-inch S10 Plus are the closest matched. They feature the same internal processors (the Snapdragon 855 or Exynos 9820, depending on region), and the same triple-lens 12 MP + 12 MP + 16 MP cameras on the rear, capable of an ultra-wide 123-degrees field of view, if needed.
The Galaxy S10 offers up to 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB of internal storage. On the S10 Plus, that's upped to a maximum of 12 GB of RAM and 1 TB of internal storage. One other difference is the single-lens front-facing camera on the S10 and the dual-lens front-facing camera on the S10 Plus.
Besides the specs bumps from last year's phones, Samsung says the AI for automatically choosing photo scenes has been improved, as has the video stabilization technology. Reversible wireless charging is included now as well, so you can charge up other devices by placing them on your smartphone.
If your finances can't quite stretch to the S10 or S10 Plus, the 5.8-inch Galaxy S10e is here for you. It's smaller and settles for a dual-lens 12 MP + 16 MP rear-facing camera, with up to 8GB of RAM and 256 GB of internal storage available.
In the US, the Galaxy S10e will start at $749.99, the S10 at $899.99, and the S10 Plus at $999.99, with the devices going on sale on March 8. There's also going to be a 6.7-inch Samsung Galaxy S10 5G model, though we're still waiting on pricing and availability details on that. Your color choices are white, black, green, blue, yellow, and pink, with ceramic black and ceramic white also available for the S10 Plus.
Samsung also had time at its Unpacked event to show off the Galaxy Buds wireless earbuds, a Galaxy Watch Active smartwatch, and Galaxy Fit fitness trackers. At first glance, it looks like a winning range of hardware devices for Samsung for 2019 – your turn, Apple and Google.
Source: Samsung
A convergence device like the Fold was the only logical destination for the traditional smartphone form factor to head towards. The practicality of having a smartphone size device, let's put it around 5" and a tablet upwards of 8" should theoretically be a hit, in many ways the Note line was when it offered the largest display on a phone at the time.
This first Fold iteration won't however be anywhere near the revolutionary device the Note was, for many reasons, the least of which is the price. It can be argued that a large number of people now don't own a traditional computer these days and a smartphone is their only computing device so justifying a $2K purchase is no different than buying a $2K desktop or laptop. But even so, those computers are still out of reach for many of those that only own a smartphone and nothing else.
This will definitely be a niche device at first, this tech has some ways to go to mature and be commoditized and prices to come down to something a good chunk of people can afford, otherwise it will be DOA for but only the sliver of people that can afford one.