Samsung prepares for its extreme close-up
TECH GIANT UPS THE ANTE WITH PHONE’S 100X ZOOM AFTER LAST YEAR’S ‘FOLD’ DISASTER
AMSUNG came out all cameras blazing when it announced new versions of its flagship smartphones this week.
The headline news was that the highest-end Galaxy S20 phone – the aptly-titled Ultra – will allow users to access a feature Samsung is calling “Space Zoom”. It has 100x zoom. Compare that with the iPhone 11, which can do 10x zoom.
The other big news on the Galaxy front, which was not entirely unexpected, was that all the S20 phones will be available in 5G versions.
As well as the S20s, Samsung also revealed a new flip-style phone with a folding screen at the special event in San Francisco.
And there was an upgrade to its smart wireless earbuds, the Galaxy Buds, too.
The whole event was, of course, held under the shadow of the global concern of the spread of the latest potentially-deadly coronavirus.
Manufacture of consumer electronics is focused in the Far East, with an awful lot of phones being made in China. The travel lockdown is expected to affect production for companies like Apple and Huawei.
Samsung is, of course, a South Korean company and manufactures most of its phones in Vietnam. It is therefore well placed to take advantage of the other phone makers’ woes, and will be hoping the new launches will draw a line under the debacle of its first folding phone-tablet hybrid the Galaxy
Fold last year. That arrived with a screen that broke easily.
So, here’s the low-down on the three things Samsung unleashed this week. angle sticks with 12MP.
More megapixels are not necessarily good – smaller pixels can capture less light, not more. But Samsung says its advanced AI software will allow it to combine capture from all lenses to produce the best images of any smartphone.
And of course, there’s that 100x zoom. As a headline feature it’s impressive, although early testers say the results may not be all that usable. The other big feature in the S20s is the ability to capture 8K video. Although I’m not sure how useful that will be given that almost nobody has 8K screens on which to watch it.
The Galaxy S20 series arrives on March 13, and starts at £799 (£899 for 5G). The Galaxy S20+ 5G starts at £999, while the S20
Ultra 5G will start with 128GB of storage at £1199.
SAMSUNG also revealed a new version of its impressive Galaxy Buds at the event, and the + was not all that it added. The main upgrade comes to battery life which is up to 11 hours on a single charge plus another 11 hours in the charging case. There are also upgraded internals for better audio quality, and there are now two
New and improved: external mics for better
call quality.
The Galaxy Buds+ will be available from February 14, at £159.
THAT’S Flip, not Fold – and you can forgive Samsung for changing the name of its folders, given what happened with the Galaxy Fold phone last year.
The Z Flip (not sure what the Z means), is both a flip and a folder… and its big secret is that its screen is foldable glass, not plastic. No, I don’t know how they do it either.
Anyway, when folded it’s a square of 4in across, and it opens out to a 6.7in screen.
When folded there’s a tiny screen on the outside that can show you notifications, but also doubles as a little camera preview when you want to take a selfie without opening the phone.
Camera-wise, you’re looking at two 12MP cameras on the back (wide and ultra wide), and a 10MP camera on the front.
It’s also super-fast, with a Snapdragon 855 Plus processor, but there is no 5G connectivity.
Early reports suggest the hinge and glass appear much more durable than in last year’s Fold – and Samsung really needs to get this one right…
The Galaxy Z Flip will be available in limited quantities in Mirror Purple and Mirror Black, from February 14 for £1,300.
NURO’S TICKET TO RIDE
THE first licence for a self-driving vehicle built without human controls to run on US roads has been granted.
The R2 from Nuro is a delivery vehicle that will hit the streets in Texas this year for testing. So be careful if you are in the area.
The vehicle’s top speed is just 25mph, which was a factor in lifting the previous requirements that any self-driving vehicle tested must have a feature to allow a human to take over control.
Nuro co-founder Dave Ferguson said the move was a “milestone for the industry”.