It looks like Samsung is going to have a very busy February with a host of new smartphone announcements lined up. The Korean giant is said to announce its flagship Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+ and the Galaxy Z Flip on February 11 at a special Unpacked event in San Francisco, followed by the Galaxy S20 Ultra on February 18.
Now the Galaxy S20 series has been leaked over and over again and we know almost everything about all the three phones in the series by now. But the second foldable from Samsung – the Galaxy Z Flip - is turning out to be one of the most hyped phones of the year, and as its launch date approaches the clamshell foldable smartphone seems to be stealing some of the limelight from its siblings that have already enjoyed their fair bit of pre-launch hype.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip official renders leaked
The Galaxy Z Flip has been leaked a couple times before but it seemed to have been overshadow by the Galaxy S20 flagships. Now, thanks to a new set of leaks that have surfaced online, we can say that we have a very good idea of how the Galaxy Z Flip is going to look.
The leaks courtesy of reputed leaker Roland Quandt and German technology site WinFuture.com, show the official renders of the upcoming foldable clamshell smartphone in blue and a beautiful shade of purple.
WinFuture and Roland Quandt have a good track record when it comes to renders of upcoming devices, so the leaks look quite convincing. The earlier concepts though were roughly based on leaks and rumors, but these look quite official, and we don't see any reason to doubt their credibility.
Observations from the renders
The leaked renders reveal a punch hole display with a slightly thick plastic bezel or plastic trim surrounding the display, similar to what we've seen on the Galaxy Fold, but slightly slimmer. The bezel could be for protecting the screen that it covers.
The bezel on the Galaxy Fold was improved after initial recall and the plastic display protector was placed under the thick bezel so that the user would not be inclined to remove the plastic protector as doing that would harm the display. So we quite get the point of the thick bezel.
Infinity Flex display
According to the WinFuture report which is in German, the foldable display unfolds to reveal a 6.7-inch screen with an unusually tall 22:9 aspect ratio. The resolution is said to be Full HD+ with HDR+ support. Samsung is reportedly calling the display the Infinity Flex display for obvious reasons.
Furthermore, the punch hole display houses the selfie camera at the top-center mimicking the Infinity-O displays on the Galaxy Note 10 and the upcoming Galaxy S20 series.
Phone can be folded at different angles
The report also suggests that the Galaxy Z Flip opens quite freely owing to the improved hinge and the flex or fold can be adjusted between 70 and 110 degree angles. Samsung is also reportedly claiming that it can be easily placed on the table at these angles.
Also from the renders we can see that at the point where the phone folds, the screen has two nubs or angled grooves which allow the two opposite plastic trims/bezels to rest on top of each other when the phone is closed. This creates a gap between the two displays that could be to avoid the actual display from making contact when the phone is closed, thus avoiding the chances of the screen getting damaged due to any particle that would get sandwiched between the two halves of the screen causing the screen to get damaged.
The images also reveal that there is no visible gap on the outside when the phone is folded, unlike the Galaxy Fold which has a visible loop gap in between that allows dirt and other particles to easily enter the gap and damage its plastic screen. The Galaxy Z Flip is also rumored to use Samsung's Ultra Thin Glass on the display, which will hopefully make it less susceptible to scratches or marks.
The second screen
The back of the phone shows an outline of a rather smallish 1.06-inch external secondary display which reportedly has a resolution of 300 X 116 pixels. The external display is placed on the right side of the dual rear cameras. The secondary screen is said to be a Super AMOLED display which supports always-on features, but it is still not confirmed whether it will be a monochrome panel or color display. But we strongly hope it will be color.
The frame along with the hinge is made up of aluminium and the back of the phone is covered with Gorilla Glass 6 having tapered edges to give it a curved look.
Not a mid-ranger after all
Contrary to earlier reports that suggested that the Galaxy Z Flip would pack mid-range specs, the Galaxy Z Flip is in fact going to be a very powerful device which will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ chipset along with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.0 storage. The foldable device will also sport a dual camera setup at the back consisting of a 12MP dual-pixel main camera and a 12MP ultra-wide sensor with OIS support. The front camera will be a 10MP unit as rumored earlier. The Galaxy Z Flip will be fuelled by a 3,300mAh battery which will come with Quick Charge 15W wired charging and 9W Qi Wireless charging support.
Not as cheap as you'd thought
It also looks like the Korean media was wrong in saying that the Galaxy Z Flip would be priced under $1,000, as the latest reports suggest the phone will cost around $1,400. The Galaxy Z Flip is going to be announced alongside the Galaxy S20 series on February 11 and will hit store shelves on Valentine's Day.
