Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “What’s actually new about Samsung’s latest drop?”.
It’S been a summer of flashy tech launches and now it’s samsung’s turn in the spotlight and the company isn’t making any big moves. It’S foldables the z-flip and the z-fold are back with new additions. The galaxy watch is going pro and the buds pro are getting a sequel but across the board it’s a story of little changes here and there not big leaps. It doesn’t make for an electrifying product launch, but it might make these devices just a little bit nicer to use let’s dive in and take a look starting with the folding phones, we’ll cover the buds in the watches later. So you can skip ahead.
If that’s, what you’re interested in so we’ve got the galaxy z, flip 4 and it’s big brother, the z fold, for there have been some durability improvements, but mostly limited to the main screens on both devices. Samsung says: they’re 45 stronger than the previous versions. That’S thanks to using stronger ultra thin glass and making adjustments to the display’s layers. There’S stronger adhesive on the screen protector too. So those should stay in place a little better and hopefully this time around samsung’s figured out the dreaded bubble problem. The phones are still rated to 200, 000 folds and samsung has made the bezels and the hinges on both a little slimmer on the fold.
The two times telephoto lens, has been promoted to a three time zoom, and it also includes space zoom for the first time, which is just samsung’s term for digital zoom, with some ai enhancements. The camera under the folds main display also blends in a little better. This time around, you can see it if you’re looking for it, but it’s much less distracting than on last year’s model. Both models have updated main camera hardware. There’S a bigger 50 megapixel sensor on the fold.
Image processing is supposed to be better too remember: nitography yep! That’S here, samsung says low light photos are brighter and the really nice portrait mode updates we saw on the s22 series, are here too there’s a few software changes under the hood too, when you use flex mode, that’s when you have the phone folded halfway. There’S a new feature where you can use part of the screen as a touchpad there’s even a little mouse cursor to move around when you’re using chrome, the folds taskbar is now on the bottom of the screen. Rather than on the side, you can do more from the flip’s cover screen too, like sending quick replies to texts.
Oh and one thing that hasn’t changed. The price, the z, flip 4 is still 9.99 and the z fold 4 still cost 17.99. So, in my short time, with the device i felt, like the phones feel really nice, the hinges are a little stiff. You have to be kind of firm when you’re opening and closing the phones.
It’S not really like a one-handed joint, but i don’t know about 17.99. That’S that’s: you can buy like a bag full of phones for 17.99. Let’S talk about the watches, there’s the galaxy watch 5 and the brand new galaxy watch 5 pro. The watch 5 is kind of the definition of minor updates.
There’S a new skin temperature sensor and the design has been tweaked so that the watch sensors make better contact with your skin. Samsung says the glass on the watch face is sixty percent stronger than on the watch. Four and the battery is also fifteen percent, bigger and samsung claims. You can get up to 50 hours on a single charge.
That’S good because battery life on the watch four kind of sucked there are 40 and 44 millimeter sizes, and it starts at 279 for bluetooth or 329 for lte. The watch 5 pro is for serious outdoorsy types, it’s 45 millimeters. So it is not small and it felt pretty chunky on my wrist samsung claims. It will get 80 hours on a single charge which is wild or even up to 20 hours of continuous gps use. It has turn by turn route, specific navigation, which is kind of unexpected, and it’s rated 5 atm in ip68 waterproof. So you can wear it on a swim.
It’S also more expensive. Naturally, it’s 449 for bluetooth and 4.99 for lte. So that’s a steep 170 dollar premium over the non-pro version. One thing you’re not going to find on either watch a physical rotating bezel.
Just the capacitive touch screen. Bezel samsung still sells the watch for classic with the rotating bezel for now, but we wouldn’t be surprised if it goes away entirely. The capacitive bezel is fine. It gets the job done, but there’s that tiny delay that you don’t get with a physical bezel. Finally, the buds, the galaxy buds – 2 pro like 2 – pro too furious anyway, there are you guessed it very minor updates over the buds pro they cost 2.99 and there’s higher resolution. 24-Bit audio and the buds themselves are 15 smaller samsung says they should be more comfortable to wear all day and that the air vents are a little bigger to relieve pressure. I didn’t wear them all day, but yeah they’re, pretty comfortable samsung claims. There’S three extra decibels of noise cancellation compared to the original galaxy buds pro and that these do better at handling higher pitch sounds.
They include spatial audio and automatic, switching between samsung devices, but still don’t offer proper multi-point support like the pixelbeds pro. So that’s kind of a bummer big bummer, maybe they’re saving that for the sequel, galaxy buds pro tokyo drift. This wasn’t exactly the most exciting unpacked we’ve seen recently, and that’s okay, at least with its foldables samsung, doesn’t have to do a lot of work because it basically owns the product category they’re still years ahead of the competition. So the little moves and refinements here and there make sense.
But if you were hoping for a summer blockbuster from samsung well there’s always next year, there’s gon na be new phones and then after that, there’s going to be some more new phones, um and then christmas happens and then there’s more new phones so buckle up. .