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Special Report -- Galaxy Unpacked Delivers 3 S20s and 1 Flip
February 16, 2020
At the Galaxy Unpacked event, Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Flip, a handset has an outward-facing display that unfurls to reveal a bendable panel within. It’s Samsung’s answer to Motorola’s reimagined Razr and TCL’s DragonHingeconcept, and while its internals are middle-of-the-road, its price is more reasonable than might be expected. The Galaxy Z Flip will begin shipping to customers who preorder on February 14. The Galaxy Z Flip is a smartphone in two congruent parts: A top portion housing the external display — the Focus Display — above which sits twin cameras and an LED flash, attached to a bottom portion via a hinge that supports the tall internal screen. The outward-facing AMOLED panel measures 1.06 inches diagonally with a resolution of 300 x 112 and Corning Gorilla Glass 6 shielding, which is rated to withstand up to 15 consecutive drops from 1 meter onto rough surfaces. Taking a page from the Motorola Razr, the screen dims when it’s not in use and otherwise displays the time, battery, charging status, and notifications. And when a phone call comes in, it shows the caller ID, as well as sliders for rejecting or accepting the call. The cameras above the display — which double as selfie cameras, with the screen serving as a viewfinder — share a resolution (12 megapixels) but not a field of view. One has a 123-degree wide-angle field of view and an f/2.2 aperture and optical image stabilization, while the other has a 78-degree field of view and an f/1.8 aperture. Both shoot video in up to 4K resolution at 60 frames per second, and they benefit from Samsung’s Pro Video Mode, which offers fine-grained control over each clip.
Figure 1: Galaxy Z Flip
February 16, 2020
At the Galaxy Unpacked event, Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Flip, a handset has an outward-facing display that unfurls to reveal a bendable panel within. It’s Samsung’s answer to Motorola’s reimagined Razr and TCL’s DragonHingeconcept, and while its internals are middle-of-the-road, its price is more reasonable than might be expected. The Galaxy Z Flip will begin shipping to customers who preorder on February 14. The Galaxy Z Flip is a smartphone in two congruent parts: A top portion housing the external display — the Focus Display — above which sits twin cameras and an LED flash, attached to a bottom portion via a hinge that supports the tall internal screen. The outward-facing AMOLED panel measures 1.06 inches diagonally with a resolution of 300 x 112 and Corning Gorilla Glass 6 shielding, which is rated to withstand up to 15 consecutive drops from 1 meter onto rough surfaces. Taking a page from the Motorola Razr, the screen dims when it’s not in use and otherwise displays the time, battery, charging status, and notifications. And when a phone call comes in, it shows the caller ID, as well as sliders for rejecting or accepting the call. The cameras above the display — which double as selfie cameras, with the screen serving as a viewfinder — share a resolution (12 megapixels) but not a field of view. One has a 123-degree wide-angle field of view and an f/2.2 aperture and optical image stabilization, while the other has a 78-degree field of view and an f/1.8 aperture. Both shoot video in up to 4K resolution at 60 frames per second, and they benefit from Samsung’s Pro Video Mode, which offers fine-grained control over each clip.
Figure 1: Galaxy Z Flip
Source: Company
The cameras are one of the few distinguishing features on the otherwise low feature- Galaxy Z Flip, save a capacitive fingerprint sensor and a volume rocker on the right side and a USB Type-C port and speaker grille toward the bottom. The Z Flip has a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED Infinity Flex primary panel, which has a 2,636 x 1,080 resolution (425 pixels per inch), a 21.9:9 aspect ratio, and a top-center hole-punch cutout to accommodate the front-facing camera. The camera has a 10 megapixel sensor with an f/2.4 aperture and an 80-degree field of view, and it features a software-defined auto-focusing algorithm that hones in on the faces it detects.
The cover lens uses Ultra-Thin Glass to strengthen it against abuse that might lead to artifacting. (It’s rated to last up to 200,000 folds.) Beyond the improved robustness, Samsung says Ultra-Thin Glass enabled it to shave millimeters off the phone’s thickness and ounces off its weight. The Z Flip is just 7.2 millimeters when opened and 15.3-17.33 millimeters when closed, and it weighs 6.9 ounces — 0.3 ounces lighter than the new Motorola Razr (7.2 ounces). The Galaxy Z Flip packs Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855+, a capable system-on-chip that’s the successor to the Snapdragon 855. The 7-nanometer eight-core chip can achieve download speeds up to 2Gbps over cellular, and it supports Wi-Fi 6 (aka 802.11ax), along with 802.11ac Wave 2 for superior wireless performance on pre-802.11ax networks. Four 64-bit ARM Cortex cores based on Qualcomm’s in-house Kryo 485 handle the heavy lifting — one prime core clocked at 2.95GHz and three performance cores at 2.41GHz — while four 1.78GHz efficiency cores handle less performance-intensive tasks. Somewhat uniquely, the Snapdragon 855+ diffuses AI capabilities across multiple components (including a tensor accelerator) for a theoretical capacity of trillions of operations per second. The Galaxy Z Flip the first to carry the Z designation, which Samsung is dedicating exclusively to foldables.
One thing truly stands out -- Flex Mode, a feature that enables half of the folding phone’s screen to sit upright while the bottom rests flat on a table. Up until now, everyone has been waiting for a reason that a foldable phone would be worth considering over one without a pliable display. Flex Mode instantly answers that question, demonstrating how users will be able to snap selfies using the top half of the screen while activating controls on the bottom half. Flexibility specifically and uniquely enables this; it’s only because the Z Flip has a locking hinge that it’s able to let you see the screen on the Y axis while the controls sit on the X axis. It doesn’t take much imagination to picture further mini laptop-like scenarios where users can conveniently tap on a little keyboard while using the rest of the face as a display. Suddenly the value of the Z Flip’s atypically elongated display makes a lot more sense than it did as a super-long, flat panel of glass. Trumping Motorola’s folding Razr, users get the benefits of a big screen, the pocketable footprint of a small phone, and a middle-of-road option that works in a convenient new way.
One negative reported by testers was the extreme sensitivity to smudges from fingerprints. In the demo area at the Palace of Fine Arts, rows of Z Flip demo phones were accompanied by nearby Samsung employees each with a microfiber cleaning cloth
Samsung also announced the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+, and the Galaxy S20 Ultra. All three devices feature the same SoC, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 or Exynos 990 depending on the region. However, the performance won’t be quite the same between all 3 units in each region, because Samsung is offering multiple SKUs of each S20 model, some of which have 8 or 12GB of RAM. The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is the first smartphone on the market with 16GB of RAM, but it might not hold that crown for very long. Xiaomi is scheduled to announce its flagship Mi 10 series just two days, and the upcoming devices may also feature up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM. Samsung is likely sourcing the RAM modules from its own memory-making division, unlike Xiaomi who is dual-sourcing from Micron and Samsung. With 16GB of RAM, the S20 Ultra comfortably surpasses the average laptop in terms of memory capacity. This amount of RAM seems absurd on its surface, but it could prove useful for those using Samsung DeX as a full-blown PC replacement. Furthermore, with how much memory modern high-end Android games and camera processing algorithms take up, the 16GB of RAM supports the Galaxy S20 Ultra in all scenarios without ever having to worry about apps reloading. In addition, Samsung’s 16GB RAM module is LPDDR5, which is faster than the previous generation LPDDR4X modules found in most flagship smartphones on the market. LPDDR5 enables faster memory speeds at a lower power consumption thanks to features such as DVFS, Deep Sleep Mode, DQ Copy, and WriteX. In essence, the 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM on the Samsung Galaxy S20 is future-proofing the purchase so apps can always be kept in memory, switched quickly between apps, and load multiple apps on the phone or in Samsung DeX for many years to come.
Figure 2: Galaxy S20, S20+, And S20 Ultra
The cameras are one of the few distinguishing features on the otherwise low feature- Galaxy Z Flip, save a capacitive fingerprint sensor and a volume rocker on the right side and a USB Type-C port and speaker grille toward the bottom. The Z Flip has a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED Infinity Flex primary panel, which has a 2,636 x 1,080 resolution (425 pixels per inch), a 21.9:9 aspect ratio, and a top-center hole-punch cutout to accommodate the front-facing camera. The camera has a 10 megapixel sensor with an f/2.4 aperture and an 80-degree field of view, and it features a software-defined auto-focusing algorithm that hones in on the faces it detects.
The cover lens uses Ultra-Thin Glass to strengthen it against abuse that might lead to artifacting. (It’s rated to last up to 200,000 folds.) Beyond the improved robustness, Samsung says Ultra-Thin Glass enabled it to shave millimeters off the phone’s thickness and ounces off its weight. The Z Flip is just 7.2 millimeters when opened and 15.3-17.33 millimeters when closed, and it weighs 6.9 ounces — 0.3 ounces lighter than the new Motorola Razr (7.2 ounces). The Galaxy Z Flip packs Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855+, a capable system-on-chip that’s the successor to the Snapdragon 855. The 7-nanometer eight-core chip can achieve download speeds up to 2Gbps over cellular, and it supports Wi-Fi 6 (aka 802.11ax), along with 802.11ac Wave 2 for superior wireless performance on pre-802.11ax networks. Four 64-bit ARM Cortex cores based on Qualcomm’s in-house Kryo 485 handle the heavy lifting — one prime core clocked at 2.95GHz and three performance cores at 2.41GHz — while four 1.78GHz efficiency cores handle less performance-intensive tasks. Somewhat uniquely, the Snapdragon 855+ diffuses AI capabilities across multiple components (including a tensor accelerator) for a theoretical capacity of trillions of operations per second. The Galaxy Z Flip the first to carry the Z designation, which Samsung is dedicating exclusively to foldables.
One thing truly stands out -- Flex Mode, a feature that enables half of the folding phone’s screen to sit upright while the bottom rests flat on a table. Up until now, everyone has been waiting for a reason that a foldable phone would be worth considering over one without a pliable display. Flex Mode instantly answers that question, demonstrating how users will be able to snap selfies using the top half of the screen while activating controls on the bottom half. Flexibility specifically and uniquely enables this; it’s only because the Z Flip has a locking hinge that it’s able to let you see the screen on the Y axis while the controls sit on the X axis. It doesn’t take much imagination to picture further mini laptop-like scenarios where users can conveniently tap on a little keyboard while using the rest of the face as a display. Suddenly the value of the Z Flip’s atypically elongated display makes a lot more sense than it did as a super-long, flat panel of glass. Trumping Motorola’s folding Razr, users get the benefits of a big screen, the pocketable footprint of a small phone, and a middle-of-road option that works in a convenient new way.
One negative reported by testers was the extreme sensitivity to smudges from fingerprints. In the demo area at the Palace of Fine Arts, rows of Z Flip demo phones were accompanied by nearby Samsung employees each with a microfiber cleaning cloth
Samsung also announced the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+, and the Galaxy S20 Ultra. All three devices feature the same SoC, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 or Exynos 990 depending on the region. However, the performance won’t be quite the same between all 3 units in each region, because Samsung is offering multiple SKUs of each S20 model, some of which have 8 or 12GB of RAM. The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is the first smartphone on the market with 16GB of RAM, but it might not hold that crown for very long. Xiaomi is scheduled to announce its flagship Mi 10 series just two days, and the upcoming devices may also feature up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM. Samsung is likely sourcing the RAM modules from its own memory-making division, unlike Xiaomi who is dual-sourcing from Micron and Samsung. With 16GB of RAM, the S20 Ultra comfortably surpasses the average laptop in terms of memory capacity. This amount of RAM seems absurd on its surface, but it could prove useful for those using Samsung DeX as a full-blown PC replacement. Furthermore, with how much memory modern high-end Android games and camera processing algorithms take up, the 16GB of RAM supports the Galaxy S20 Ultra in all scenarios without ever having to worry about apps reloading. In addition, Samsung’s 16GB RAM module is LPDDR5, which is faster than the previous generation LPDDR4X modules found in most flagship smartphones on the market. LPDDR5 enables faster memory speeds at a lower power consumption thanks to features such as DVFS, Deep Sleep Mode, DQ Copy, and WriteX. In essence, the 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM on the Samsung Galaxy S20 is future-proofing the purchase so apps can always be kept in memory, switched quickly between apps, and load multiple apps on the phone or in Samsung DeX for many years to come.
Figure 2: Galaxy S20, S20+, And S20 Ultra
Source: Company
The tables below show what Samsung changed, comparing the Galaxy S10e with the Galaxy S20, the Galaxy S10 with the Galaxy S20+, and the Galaxy S10+ with the Galaxy S20 Ultra.
Table 1: Samsung Galaxy S10e vs. Samsung Galaxy S20
Source: Company
Table 2: Samsung Galaxy S10 vs. Samsung Galaxy S20+
Source: Company
Table 3: Samsung Galaxy S10+ vs. Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
Table 3: Samsung Galaxy S10+ vs. Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
Source: Company
In all three cases, the phones are bigger, heavier, with a larger screen, no longer come with a headphone jack and cost more. There are more cameras, faster processors, and more RAM and the batteries have more capacity.
Figure 3: Galaxy S20 Pricing vs. S10
Source: Company
DisplayMate examined the performance of the new Galaxy S20 Ultra OLED running an in-depth series of Mobile Display Technology Shoot-Out Lab Tests and Measurements. In summary, the Galaxy S20 Ultra display is 23% Larger in Screen Area than the Galaxy S10 – it’s even larger than the Galaxy Note10+ and is the largest display in the entire Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series. In summary, the Galaxy S20 Ultra:
- Has both the now common 60 Hz Display Refresh Rate plus a New Higher120 Hz Refresh Rate that improves image Scrolling and Videos, plus Motion and Gaming Performance in Apps, and may also reduce Screen Flicker.
- Reaches its Peak Display Brightness at a new Lower Ambient Light Level of 20,000 lux, which corresponds to Full Outdoor Daylight that is not in Direct Sunlight, further improving Outdoor screen readability in Medium as well as High Ambient Light. Record Peak Brightness is 1,342 nits, which is 10% higher than on the Galaxy S10
- Has Natural Mode luminance of 823 nits with an All White Full Screen 100% Average Picture Level (APL) image, which is the most challenging image for an OLED display because all the pixels are at full power. For the Vivid Mode with an All White Full Screen it is 828 nits. These are Record Setting Brightness for OLED displays with 100% Average Picture Level APL images.
- Display Brightness is up to 14 percent higher than the Galaxy S10.
- Sets or matches 12 Smartphone Display Performance Records including 5 that are Rated Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect.
- Reduces very short wavelength Blue Light by 35% compared to the Galaxy S10, while still maintaining the same Wide Color Gamut, is TUV Certified for Eye Comfort with Reduced Blue Light using a new blue OLED with an improved light spectrum that has a reduced short wavelength component.
- Has the Most Color Accurate Display DisplayMate has ever measured, with a Record Setting Absolute Color Accuracy of 0.5 JNCD, which is Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect, and almost certainly considerably better than existing smartphones, living room HDTVs, Tablets, Laptops, and computer monitors.
- Has reduced the color shift at viewing angles. White color shift, which is the most common background color is particularly noticeable on many OLED and LCD displays. The Galaxy S20 Ultra has a relatively small White Shift of 2.2 JNCD at 30 degrees, which is unlikely to be noticeable for typical Viewing Angles. The Color Shifts for Green and Blue Primaries are relatively small, with 2.3 JNCD for Green and 3.4 JNCD for Blue at 30 degrees. The Color Shift for the Red Primary is larger at 5.0 JNCD at 30 degrees, which may be noticeable for some color content, but should not appear objectionable. Almost all current model Smartphone OLED displays have either 1 or 2 Primary Color Shifts greater than 3.5 JNCD at 30 degrees Viewing Angle.
- Uses the new Gorilla Glass 6, which provides much higher resistance to breakage; is IP68 water resistant in up to 5 feet of water for up to half an hour, which means you can comfortably view the display in typical wet indoor and outdoor conditions; Can be used with Polarized Sunglasses in both the Portrait and Landscape orientations unlike LCDs, which generally work in only one of the two orientations; accepts a microSD card, to add large photo and video files.
- The full report is available after 10:00 AM ET on 2/17 at: http://www.displaymate.com/Galaxy_S20_ShootOut_1U.htm