Samsung Galaxy Fold and S10 Lineup announced at UNPACKED 2019

Samsung recently held their UNPACKED 2019, which was their 10th anniversary for Galaxy Products. They launched an arsenal of new products, including the highly anticipated Galaxy Fold, a foldable smartphone.

Galaxy Fold – A new category of smartphones

The Galaxy Fold is a foldable smartphone which appears to be an incredibly versatile product that can transform into a phone or a tablet whenever you need it to. The phone starts at $1,980 (that’s 141,000 INR in India) and releases on April 26th in the US. While that’s an incredibly expensive price for a phone, its versatality of a tablet and the phone and the potential to replace both devices does justify its expensive price.

It features Samsung’s Infinity Flex Display tech, with a primary 7.3-inch display that has a resolution of 1536 x 2152, and when folded it uses a secondary 4.6-inch display with a resolution of 840 x 1960. These displays have uncommon aspect ratios, which could be a problem with a lot of apps. Samsung uses a hinge for the phone’s folding capabilities, which has interlocking gears that are hidden within the device and aren’t visible from the outside. It’ll be interesting to see teardowns of this phone and have a look at how this mechanism works, and its durability (I’m looking at you, JerryRigEverything)

In terms of performance, it uses a powerful Qualcomm processor built on a 7nm manufacturing process which makes it highly power efficient. The processor is still unnamed, but we’ll update this article when we know. It has two batteries on each side that total to 4380 mAh worth of battery power. There are total six cameras on the phone – three on the back, two on the inside and one on the front. The phone comes in four different colors, as seen in the image below.

It’s going to be absolutely magnificent to play games like Life Is Strange, PUBG, Asphalt 9 and Fortnite on the Galaxy Fold. And because of its versatility, it will be possible to play these games on the tablet mode while using split-screen for other apps. Samsung showed this feature off by simultaneously using YouTube, WhatsApp, and a browser on the Galaxy Fold’s primary tablet display. The phone also has AKG tuned speakers which will make gaming, watching movies, and listening to music so much better.

While its versatility could justify its price, the Galaxy Fold will need a lot of software optimization to be a succesful product.

The Galaxy Fold is a first-gen product, the first of its kind. Well, technically we’ve seen foldable smartphones before, but this is the first proper approach to it by one of the biggest smartphone manufacturers. While many technology analysts will say that it’s an illogical smartphone, what they don’t realize is that this new category of smartphones will take time to mature and be succesful. Marques Brownlee also pointed this out in his recent video, where he talked about how foldable smartphones aren’t ready yet.

Optimization of the software will be very important in this new category of smartphones, and Samsung definitely realizes this. They’re partnering with Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and other companies to make their highly popular apps like WhatsApp and the Microsoft Offfice Suite to be optimized for the Galaxy Fold. Nevertheless, the Galaxy Fold is a truly innovative product and I’m excited to see this whole new era of smartphones develop.

Galaxy S10 Plus, S10, and S10E

The Galaxy S10 & S10 Plus feature a dynamic AMOLED display with Samsung’s Infinity-O Technology, which integrates the camera modules onto the display itself. They are the successors of last year’s Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus, with some pretty significant advancements this time.

The Galaxy S10 Plus has a 6.1-inch screen, while the S10 Plus has a larger 6.4-inch screen. Both have a QHD+ Resolution with a 19:9 Aspect Ratio. There are three cameras on the back – a telephoto 12MP, wide-angle 12MP, and a ultrawide 16MP shooter. Both phones have a 10MP selfie camera, though the S10 Plus has another 8MP RGB Depth Camera.

The Galaxy S10 has a starting price of $899 USD (that’s 64,000 INR in India) while the Galaxy S10 Plus has a starting price of $999 USD (that’s 71,000 INR in India).

The Galaxy S10E also features a AMOLED Display with the Infinity-O tech just like the S10, but without the curved edges, FHD+ Resolution, and a smaller 5.8-inch size. The phone also has a smaller 3100mAh battery, and two cameras (one is a 12MP ultrawide, other is a 12MP wide-angle) on the back.

The Galaxy S10E starts at $749 USD (that’s 54,000 INR in India) and ships from March 8th. All three phones will feature either a Snapdragon 855 or Exynos Processor depending on your region, featuring a 7nm manufacturing process and incredibly powerful performance & efficiency.

Samsung also unveiled the Gear Sport Active Smartwatch, Galaxy Fit, and Galaxy Buds wearables

The Gear Sport Active is priced at $199.00 USD (that’s 14,200 INR in India), and the Galaxy Buds are priced at $129.99 USD (that’s 9,200 INR in India). In many countries, Samsung will be running a limited promotion and a pre-order bonus which bundles the new Galaxy Buds on purchase of a Galaxy S10.

These will be great competitors to the Apple Watch and AirPods, which have been very popular. Samsung’s Galaxy S10 Lineup also features wireless charging that works both ways, so it’s now possible to charge these wearables through the phone itself. Now that’s a killer feature and surely reduces the number of cables you need to carry while travelling.

Samsung also announced the Galaxy S10 5G, a phone that features even better specs with 5G Connectivity. This phone probably won’t be released worldwide and only in select 5G-ready markets, like many European countries. Playing games on Samsung’s flagship smartphones has always been a great experience, thanks to their amazing displays. The new S10 Lineup will make it even better with the newer processor and even better display. Stay tuned for our gaming review on these phones!

Samsung’s UNPACKED 2019 event has brought us some phenomenal new tech. What do you think about the Galaxy Fold and S10 Lineup? Let us know down in the comments.