Samsung Celebrates Galaxy's 10th Anniversary With Galaxy Fold, S10 5G
Samsung faithful hoping for a peek at a rumored foldable smartphone weren’t disappointed Wednesday as the company gave an April 26 shipping date for the Galaxy Fold: a 4.6-inch screen when closed and a 7.3-inch tablet when open. Samsung filed trademark applications globally in the fall to register the promotional phrase “The Future Unfolds" (see 1810010009). Wednesday’s launch stage featured that tagline and had the look of a box with folding sides to drive home the theme.
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The crowd at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium had a muted response, likely sticker shock, at the announcement of the hybrid device’s $1,980 price. “Welcome to the $2,000 smartphone era,” tweeted Washington Post tech columnist Geoffrey Fowler.
Using a “shocked” emoji, Wired referred to the phone's “whopping” cost, asking if people would spend that much money on “a smartphone that doubles as a tablet.” Some users called the device too small as a phone but not large enough as a tablet. Fowler questioned whether users need to be able to browse, text and view content simultaneously, a capability Samsung executives trumpeted: "What can you do on a folding phone? Three app multitasking, says Samsung. Do we need three apps at once?"
Verizon Wireless will be Samsung’s launch partner for the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G when it ships in Q2, one of a fleet of new phones marking the 10th anniversary of Galaxy smartphones. The 5G phone’s 6.7-inch display is Samsung largest smartphone screen to date, outstripping the 6.4-inch S10+, also introduced Wednesday. The 5G model will have 4,500 mAh battery, which CNET Executive Editor Roger Cheng attributed to the network, not the device: “The Galaxy S10 5G has a bigger screen and big battery not because of the content, but because of the power drain that comes from a next-gen network.” The 5G model will come with a 25-watt charger. Price wasn't announced.
In its more traditional smartphone lineup, Samsung launched a trio of sub-$1,000 smartphones. Wired called the $999 S10+ flagship “the most innovative phone Samsung has ever produced,” highlighting the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor built into the Dynamic AMOLED display, three rear cameras and its support of Wi-Fi 6. It’s Samsung’s first smartphone to record in HDR+. The three cameras include a 123-degree ultrawide, wide-angle and telephoto, and an Instagram mode enables users to edit photos for posting to their social media account directly from the phone.
Other features that captured interest on Twitter were the Galaxy Buds, a stubby version of Apple’s Air Pods incorporating AKG sound, and device-to-device wireless charging. Samsung billed the wireless charging as a way to save a user’s, or a friend’s, battery life. A user can place a bud case, a compatible smartwatch -- or even another phone -- on the back of a charged phone for instant backup charging.