Mishaal Rahman and FragmentedChicken are in South Korea for Samsung Unpacked!
It’s weird with time zones but they’ll be on for the next hour or so. They’re juggling on-the-ground stuff at the press conference so post any questions here and they’ll respond once they can!
Edit: We’ve left the hands-on area, but feel free to continue posting your questions. We’ll continue to answer them if we can, and might have another opportunity with some of the devices.
For articles about Samsung’s latest announcements, see the Megathread sticky at !android@lemdro.id.
Thanks for joining us here in our new home, so happy to have big names help to validate it!
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the watches, it feels like the 5 was kind of an incremental upgrade, and it’s looking like 6 might be similar, anything that’s not captured on the spec sheet that makes it a worthwhile upgrade?
What are you thinking of upgrading from? I’ve seen a lot of people say a similar thing about the Fold 5 versus the Fold 4 but it’s worth noting that most people don’t upgrade their devices every year so the target audience likely isn’t people like us.
For sure! I’m actually just in the market for watches in general, I love the ticwatch dual display (but don’t love that my tichwatch pro 3’s software is… collecting dust on the proverbial shelf…) but the samsung watches always seemed so spiffy and clean! So you’d say overall we’re still pretty incremental then in terms of meaningful changes from the watch 4?
I also actually daily drive the TicWatch Pro 3! I know Mobvoi is working on a Wear OS 3 update for the watch, but it’s still in private beta and probably won’t roll out soon for regular users.
I’m personally interested in the Watch 6 because it runs Wear OS 4 based on Android 13 out of the box and thus has access to a bunch of Wear OS apps I currently can’t get on my TicWatch lol.
Questions to both (or either)
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Does any device presented today feel like a meaningful upgrade? I can’t remember the last time everything was so incremental. Even the bigger outer screen on the Flip 5 is just that, bigger screen. It’s still a limited set of widgets, only this time bigger. How much difference does that make?
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Is the s-pen case for the Fold 5 actually something that’s usable? Or does it make the whole device an unwieldy brick?
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Does the dock with up to 4 recent apps on the Fold 5 feel more useful and convenient, or rather overwhelming and cluttered?
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What color variants do you see there for all those devices? Which do you like the most?
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Through the Multistar Good Lock module you’ll be able to run any app on the cover screen, so I would say the Flip 5 cover screen is indeed a big upgrade. (If you’re the kind of person to use Lemmy then you’re probably comfortable with installing/sideloading Good Lock.)
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Didn’t get to get this but will ask tomorrow if we can get our hands on it
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My first impression is that the taskbar felt cluttered with 4 recents apps but fortunately in settings you can choose how many recents to show.
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Didn’t really get a chance to appreciate the colors, sorry! Was more focused on stuff like the hinge, crease, software, etc
Appreciate the answers, and can definitely understand colors were the least of your interest haha. But since you did mention “hinge, crease, software”, I’m going to ask about that (if you don’t mind). In MKBHD’s video I noticed the foldable a don’t really open fully flat. More like 179.5°. Is that camera distortion, or maybe a faulty device that Marques had a hands-on with? Or is it just a drawback of the hinges with teardrop creasing display, just like is the case with the Pixel Fold?
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To a certain extent, all phones these days are arguably just incremental upgrades. It’s up to you to determine whether those upgrades make a difference for you. It’s also worth noting sometimes the upgrades aren’t immediately reflected in the design, and you might need to dig deeper to see the changes and improvements. For example last year, I feel like both the Fold4 and Flip4 got meaningful upgrades. The Fold4 got the GN3 50 MP primary sensor, the Flip4 got a larger battery, and both got the 2nd gen Eco OLED display along with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. Coming from the Snapdragon 888 on the Fold3 and Flip3, that’s already a major upgrade for efficiency (battery life) and performance. All of this was coupled with the software addition allowing you to set the performance profile to light, which supposedly gives you the performance of the 8 Gen 1 and further increases efficiency (and thus battery life). For me, that meant I could make it through the day on the Fold4, while I couldn’t on the Fold3. The larger outer display on the Flip5 could mean using the inner display less, depending on whether you will actually be able to run any app on it. Apparently you will be able to with a future update to Multistar, a Good Lock module. Why would you want to use the inner display less? Maybe you prefer using a more compact device. Maybe you want to use your phone less, and the act of unfolding the phone encourages you to use it more. In that case, a fully functional outer display might help discourage needless use. Maybe you want better battery life, assuming that display consumes less power compared to the inner display.
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I only took pictures of the case on my way out. It looks reasonable to me. I’ll update you if I get my hands on it.
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In addition to Mishaal’s reply, you could also just turn the whole thing off. I never used it with the Fold4, and will probably never use it if I get another foldable. Just my preference.
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I only saw all of the Fold5 variants, minus the exclusives. The blue is really doing it for me, followed by the cream with that subtle hint of gold.
Here are some of my observations:
-The crease on the Fold5 has improved a lot. The Fold4 crease had noticeable depth, while the Fold5 is subtle. That being said, I wouldn’t let the crease be the deciding factor in purchasing any foldable. It really does disappear while you’re looking at it straight on.
-The Samsung logo that was previously carved out on the hinge has been replaced with no carving at all. That’s an improvement since the letters can collect dust, dirt, and oil, and actually also had stickers that could fall out, revealing what was left after they carved out the letters on the hinge.
My first question for @FragmentedChicken is, are you able to comment? Welcome to Lemdro.id!
Excellent. Not sure how many folks are awake over on our end of the world! How’s the energy over there?
I thought it was pretty overwhelming with how many people there were. Everyone was just recording with their phone or camera, a bunch of flashes constantly going off. Apparently that’s business as usual for this type of thing.
Are there still pre-applied screen protectors on the foldables and can you still see the edge of the protector?
Yes and yes for the Flip5 and Fold5 inner displays. The outer displays for both didn’t have a screen protector, but that may not be indicative of what you’ll get with a retail unit. Also, IIRC, the Fold4 did away with the screen protector on the outer display.
Thx! Did you notice any difference in the texture of the display surface in the area covered by the screen protector? Does it feel like you could leave an indentation if pressing with your fingernail?
The screen protector feels like glass. It’s been improved ever since the Fold4. I used the Fold3 and Fold4 for around 6 months, and managed to keep the screen protector pristine. You can probably indent it if you try hard enough, but something like fingernail scrolling is fine.
Hmm didn’t check for that on the demo units but I’ll check the unit I’ll get and will ask about the other device as well.
