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| Roh Tae-moon, president and head of the MX business division at Samsung Electronics, poses with the company's new smartphones, the Galaxy Z Fold 4, left, and the Galaxy Z Flip 4, during the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event, Wednesday. Courtesy of Samsung Electronics |
Tech giant to release Fold 4, Flip 4 on Aug. 26
By Baek Byung-yeul
Samsung Electronics has unveiled its much-anticipated new Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 foldable smartphones, designed to maximize usability compared to previous Z series phones, the company said, Wednesday.
The tech giant hosted the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event both online and offline in New York and introduced the new foldable smartphones made with its latest technology, which allows the company to differentiate itself from Apple's iPhone and other mobile devices.
Samsung also came out with new wearable devices: the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro wireless earbuds, as well as the Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro smartwatches.
"The Galaxy foldable series embodies Samsung's innovative philosophy to meet consumers' ever-changing needs," Roh Tae-moon, president and head of the company's MX business division, said during the unveiling event.
"Samsung has grown foldable smartphones into a category used by millions of people around the world and will continue to innovate to let more consumers experience foldable products in the future," Roh added.
Samsung puts more emphasis on the Galaxy Z Flip 4, a clamshell-style foldable phone, as its predecessor the Z Flip 3 garnered huge popularity with its slick design and convenience that fits in one's pocket when folded.
To ensure longer usage time than the previous version, the Z Flip 4 comes with a 3,700 mAh battery, an increase of 12 percent over the battery of the Z Flip 3. The device also supports high-speed charging, allowing users to charge up to 50 percent of the battery in about 30 minutes at the zero percent charging level when using a charger of over 25 watts.
Design-wise, the Z Flip 4 provides a more sophisticated look by applying a slimmer hinge, matte back glass and glossy metal frame. The device also enables users to create their own version of a cover display in various formats such as photos, graphics interchange formats (GIFs) and videos. Using Flex mode, users can also take selfies at various shooting angles with two hands free.
For the Galaxy Z Fold 4, Samsung said users can perform tasks more efficiently than before through improved functions.
Samsung newly added a PC-like layout Taskbar feature in the Z Fold 4 to provide an environment in which users can more conveniently access frequently used apps and recently used apps. Multi-tasking can also be activated more easily through the new Swipe gesture feature. Simply with a finger gesture, users can switch the screen to a pop-up style or split it to a multi-screen format.
By strengthening its partnerships with Google and Microsoft, the Z Fold 4 offers enhanced multitasking experiences for apps that are widely used.
Google's apps, such as the Chrome browser and Gmail, support drag-and-drop, allowing users to quickly copy and paste texts, links and photos from one app to another. When using Microsoft's MS Office and Outlook, the Z Fold 4 provides an optimized user interface for foldable screens.
In terms of the device design, the Z Fold 4 becomes slimmer and lighter than the previous version, as it uses a slimmer hinge and its weight has been downsized by 8 grams to 263 grams, the lightest among the Z Fold series.
Samsung said that the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 will be launched in Korea, the United States and Europe on Aug. 26 and will be released elsewhere worldwide soon.
For the Korean market, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 comes in two versions: a 256-gigabyte one and a 512-gigabyte one, and they are priced at 1.35 million won ($1,030) and 1.47 million won, respectively. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 will also come in a 256-gigabyte and a 512-gigabyte version, which are priced at 1.99 million won and 2.11 million won.
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