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- Samsung has unveiled its new Galaxy Z Series.
- Its next generation of foldables include the Z Fold 5 folding tablet, and the Z Flip 5 clamshell, powered by a custom Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset.
- For more stories, visit the Tech and Trends homepage.
Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy Z Series at Unpacked.
Its next generation of foldables include the Z Fold 5 folding tablet, and the Z Flip 5 clamshell, powered by a custom Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. The devices come with Samsung's promise of four years of Android upgrades and five years of security updates.
Flip it
The Flip 5 has the most noticeable update in the form of a 3.4-inch full cover display – larger than Oppo's vertical Find N2 Flip at 3.26 inches from earlier this year.
When compared to its predecessor's 1.9-inch cover display and 17.1mm thickness, the Flip 5 receives a 278% increase on its front display and at 15.1mm thin, it is more pocket friendly with a completely flat Flex hinge.
The larger display lets users do more than just check notifications and use Samsung Wallet; it provides access to quick settings, supports widgets with clock faces, lets you customise the camera shortcut key and offers a full keyboard with emojis for email and messages.
It also finally offers third party app support, which includes WhatsApp, Google Maps, Netflix, YouTube, and the creation of Spotify playlists.
The Flex hinge enables hands-free entertainment through an unfolding mode between 20-70 degrees; and a tabletop mode, which is propped up like a laptop from both the front and inside displays.
The 3.4-inch screen enables vertical video creation for YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels or TikToks. When opened, the bottom half of the screen becomes a customise toolbar with controls like rewind or fast forward.
Users can take selfies using the main rear 12MP camera with an instant preview feature on the cover display, as seen on the Find N2 Flip. It can be used as a tripod to shoot full-legth pictures and AI Night Videos.
The Flip 5 is being touted as the only water-resistant flip phone, featuring a Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 screen and "aircraft grade" armour aluminium. Its durability has also been tested for at least 200 000 folds.
Fold it
Referred to as "the most powerful PC in your pocket", the Z Fold 5 folding tablet is slimmer and completely flat when closed at 13.4mm and it weighs 253g, compared to its predecessor's 15.8mm size and 263g weight. When opened, it is 6.1mm thin, which is 0.2mm thinner than the Fold 4.
The Z Fold 5 has two AMOLED displays: a 7.6-inch large main display, and a 6.2-inch cover display.
The main display has a symmetrical design with 1 200 nits of brightness and a variable refresh rate from 1-120Hz. It has S-Pen support, multi-tasking for up to three apps and one floating window.
When used as a tablet, the advanced taskbar feels like a laptop, which lets you pin eight apps and access four recent apps, allowing for quick access at startup.
Multitasking with drag and drop between third party apps on the Z Fold is not new. However, the Fold 5 expands this feature to include support for WhatsApp. It uses two-handed drag and drop through its multi-touch display for copying and moving.
As with last year’s model, Samsung promises powerful performance for gaming, a 4 400mAh battery, 12GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. The camera also remains the same: a 12MP ultra-wide camera, 50MP wide with OIS, and a 10MP telephoto lens, plus a 10MP selfie-cam.
Tab S9 and Watch 6
Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Tab S9 trio of tablets with 5G that all run a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, making it as powerful as the flagship S23 Ultra smartphone.
The Tab S9 Ultra, S9+ and S9 all have dynamic AMOLED displays with a 120Hz refresh rate, offer quad AKG speakers, on-screen fingerprint sensors, and introduces eSIM support, in addition to a physical SIM slot.
Meanwhile, the new Watch 6 is aimed at fitness enthusiasts and the Watch 6 Classic at the high-tech user. The Classic gets a size increase of 43mm and 47mm.
New features include advanced sleep coaching, personalised heart rate zones for exercise, and a comprehensive health management system. New apps it will support include WhatsApp, Gmail and Pocket Casts.
Pricing and availability
Pre-orders open on 27 July. The Z Flip 5 will be available in mint, lavender, cream, and graphite at a recommended retail price of R29 999. The Fold 5 will be available in icy blue, phantom black and cream, starting at R45 999.
The Tab S9 Ultra will cost R32 99; the Tab S9+ comes in at R27 999 and the Tab S9 is R24 999. The Watch 6 starts at R7 499, and the Watch 6 Classic at R9 499.
