Samsung Unpacked: New Foldable smartphones announced – pre-orders start today!

No great surprise, Samsung today here in New York have revealed a duo of brand new Foldable smartphones – the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Galaxy Z Fold 4.

With the end of the Galaxy Note devices, the August timeframe has been filled by Samsung with the foldable range of devices known as the Z Series.

Today, on a Hot and Humid day in New York the latest generation were unveiled, and while they look the same in most every way, they’re also different in almost every way.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4

Remember when every year devices got thinner, lighter and faster? There’s a level of that here with the next generation Fold, but in reality its more like a ruler has been taken to some curved edges, and some mechanics refined and screen edges reduced.

On the front the screen is wider by 2.7mm but not as tall to give a 23.1 to 9 aspect ratio – the wider screen helps fill that front of the device, not that it was terribly lacking last year and hasn’t been since the first generation.

Open it up like a book and a 7.6 inch screen booms out at you. This one has thinner bezels around the outside which give an additional 3mm wider screen inside.

Impressively, that 4 Megapixel under-screen camera is now covered by more pixels making it harder to spot, but still a long way from being truely hidden. On the cover screen is a 10MP camera while on the back the third, fourth and fifth cameras on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 are where the biggest leap forward happens for this device.

A 50MP regular wide camera, combined with a 12MP Ultra Wide and a 10MP Telephoto capable of 30x “Space Zoom” give you Galaxy S22 like camera specs.

That was a real sore point on the previous generations of Fold – the most advanced screen and hinge technology, but cameras that felt like they were 2 generations old.

Now, with the Galaxy Z Fold 4 you’ve got that great zoom but also fantastic low-light capabilities – we’ll test that out in the weeks ahead.

Coming in three colours, Black, Beige and Green as well as a Burgundy via Samsung only the Fold 4 launches at the same price as last year, $2,499 in 256GB configuration, and up to $2,999 for the 1TV via Samsung only.

Performance boosts mean this will be no slouch. A 4nm processor, with CPU power up 17%, GPU up 56% and Super Fast Charging with the 4,400mAh battery charging to 50% in 30 minutes.

Perhaps most notably outside the camera is the software advances being made for the Galaxy Z Fold 4.

New Multitasking design adds a PC-like taskbar to the bottom of the open centre screen, allowing easy launching of apps and pairing of apps together. Again up to four windows can be open at any time for a true multi-tasking experience.

S-Pen compatibility remains, however the pen doesn’t fit into the device as many would hope, it still needs to be kept in a seperate case.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4

Like it’s big-brother, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 looks remarkably similar. Again, shaved edges flatten out some curves and some mm or part thereof are saved all around. But it’s not noticeably thinner and is in fact a teeny bit heavier.

Coming in four colours across Telcos and Samsung, the Black, Pink Gold, Blue and flagship “Bora Purple”. If you want something more unique, there’s 75 different combinations available on the Bespoke Edition from Samsung Direct. There are five colours available on each of the front and back panels, plus three frame and hinge colour options.

Greater performance and a better camera, though not as impressive as the Fold 4, the Flip jumps to a far more respectable set of specs across the board.

Perhaps the most important spec though is the bigger battery. 13% bigger, hopefully solving the real issue with the Flip to date – getting through the day.

Again it’s not just hardware. Samsung has worked the software to take more use of the cover screen with customisation of the Cover clock and new camera modes too.

You can now more easily reply to messages on the cover, access quick settings and the Samsung Wallet.

There are even direct dial shortcuts available for one touch calling from a phone that’s folded shut.

Across the board durability

Again hard to see, but important to know, both phones are being made with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ – just better than before, as well as more durable materials across the construction so you can have confidence all around.

Of course, both maintain their IPX8 water resistance.

When and Where

Both devices are available now for pre-order, and will go on sale September 2.

We’ll have hands on impressions shortly, as well as a full review in due course.

Trevor Long travelled to New York as a Guest of Samsung Australia

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