Google has been trying different things with the Play Store, including changes that have been enabled and reverted so many times we've lost track — hello, account picker and review section. However, not all of these are welcome modifications, like the controversial removal of update notifications. If your workaround was to manually check your recently updated apps, Google has just made that task a little bit more difficult by messing up the Play Store's sorting method.
Head over to the Store's My apps & games section and check the Updates tab. Previously, the apps were listed by reverse chronological order, with the most recently updated apps on top and the ones that received their updates earlier on the bottom. Now, there's no sense in the sorting method. It's all random, with recent updates mixed with older ones. To check the real order, you have to move to the Installed tab and choose the Last Updated sorting method. It's a simple enough workaround... for now.
Left: Order? What is order? Right: Alternative for checking the real order.
We're hoping this is a bug and that it'll be fixed soon. At this point though, and after the nonsensical disabling of update notifications, I'm starting to question whether Google is trying to put less emphasis on recent app updates and changelogs. Surely this couldn't be a thing, could it?
The PS5's specs have been finally revealed in an official capacity. Not by Sony – although we'll hopefully be seeing a PlayStation 5 reveal any day now – but by GameStop, which promises 8K gaming, advanced ray tracing and backwards compatibility features.
However, GameStop has not yet disclosed many details regarding the PS5's controller, widely thought to be the DualShock 5. We know the controller will have advanced haptic feedback capabilities (more specific, directional vibrations rather than basic rumbles) and thanks to a few patents, we know Sony's even thinking about incorporating sensors to detect your sweat and heart rate.
Another patent, recently published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, shows Sony is thinking about adding smartphone-style wireless charging to its controllers. It's a move that makes so much sense, we're shocked it hasn't happened already.
While Xbox One controllers and DualShock 4s are both compatible with third-party wireless charging stations, this marks the first time Sony has waded into the fray. The drawings show Sony is looking to incorporate a base on which you can rest two or more DualShock 5s (or DualShock 4s), which could even be on top of the games console itself.
(Image credit: WIPO/Sony)
The controller comes with an adaptor showcasing additional keys, which can be mapped to buttons of your choice. The adaptor is "combining a wireless charging adaptor with the ability to strategically locate duplicate game controller button controls on the adaptor, which is mounted on the back side of the controller".
These adaptors also light up to "indicate a state of a battery in the game controller, and/or to indicate a functional mapping of game controller keys to adapter keys." To us, this sounds like a more advanced version of the back button add-on recently released for the DualShock 4. You can map any button you want onto these additional paddles, so to release a second version which also allow for the possibility for wireless charging seems like a natural move.
(Image credit: Future)
What could it be for? The obvious answer is the PS5's DualShock 5 controller, but why not include that functionality with the controller directly, while it was being redesigned?
A second theory is that the adaptor is for the DualShock 4. If PS5 controllers end up coming with wireless functionality and back paddles already, it would make sense to release an adaptor so that gamers could use their existing DualShock 4s as additional PS5 controllers.
Such a move would gel well with the impetus on responsibility that's going round the gaming industry. Both PS5 and its rival, the Xbox Series X, will have backwards compatibility, allowing gamers to keep their existing libraries of previous games. The Xbox Series X will also have "smart delivery" which allows gamers to upgrade their Xbox One games to the Xbox Series X versions for free. Allowing PS4 owners to keep their DualShocks and use them for the PS5 is definitely in line with this philosophy.
We're excited to see Sony finally step in with its own wireless chargers, and even more excited to see what it will do with this multi-functional adaptor. Will it be part of Sony's plans for the PS5? We'll surely know soon, as a reveal can't be far away...
Some significant changes are coming to Cortana. Starting this spring, Microsoft said it plans to make productivity the focus of the digital assistant. As part of the shift, Cortana will lose some of its more consumer-facing features, such as the ability to play music and control smart home devices. More significantly, the company plans to remove the digital assistant from its Launcher app on Android.
Microsoft says it will discontinue Cortana services in the application by the end of April. "This next step in Cortana's evolution will bring enhanced, seamless personal productivity assistance as a free update to the latest version of Windows 10 coming this spring," the company said.
It's not overly surprising to see Microsoft remove Cortana from its launcher app. While a lot of people like the launcher, the assistant was never its main appeal. What's more, we knew Cortana's days on Android were numbered when the Cortana app stopped working last month in countries like Canada, Australia and the UK. In those places, Microsoft has already removed the assistant from its launcher app as it tries to carve a different niche for the AI.
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After one big name participant after another (Facebook, Sony, Microsoft, Amazon) announced it would not send people to the show over concerns about the spread of coronavirus, GDC 2020 organizers have announced the event is off. It was scheduled to take place between March 16th and 20th, and in a statement, they said "we fully intend to host a GDC event later in the summer."
Those who were planning on attending should have received an email with answers to some of their questions about refunds for passes and hotels booked within the convention's block. Right now the plan is for "many" of the presentations that would have been given to be submitted via video and made available for free viewing online. The Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards, as well as some of those talks, will stream on Twitch during the week the event would have taken place.
In an effort to support indie developers who may be impacted financially, the IGDA has teamed up with GameDev.world on a fundraiser that will include "a Pay-What-You-Want games bundle, a public game jam, and free online live talks and Q&A translated in the worlds' largest languages."
GDC organizers:
After close consultation with our partners in the game development industry and community around the world, we've made the difficult decision to postpone the Game Developers Conference this March.
Having spent the past year preparing for the show with our advisory boards, speakers, exhibitors, and event partners, we're genuinely upset and disappointed not to be able to host you at this time .
We want to thank all our customers and partners for their support, open discussions and encouragement. As everyone has been reminding us, great things happen when the community comes together and connects at GDC. For this reason, we fully intend to host a GDC event later in the summer. We will be working with our partners to finalize the details and will share more information about our plans in the coming weeks.
For more information, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page: www.gdconf.com/faq
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Google Stadia had a rough launch, with plenty of missing features and unfulfilled promises. But the latest update to the Stadia app hints that some of those features might be coming soon, including the highly anticipated free tier, YouTube streaming, family game sharing, and more, as spotted by 9to5Google.
The biggest thing is an indication that Google is gearing up to launch its free Stadia Base tier of service soon. 9to5Google’s report found strings in the app that allow for registration without a paid Stadia code, along with a free one-month trial for Stadia Pro memberships (which includes several free games, along with other benefits).
Also found in the app is an indication that Google may be limiting the number of people who can sign up and play Stadia at one time, with warnings that “Sorry, Stadia is full in your area,” and “In order to provide the best game quality for everyone, we limit the number of accounts on Stadia. We’ve hit that limit, but we’re working hard to build additional room in the Stadia cloud so more people can enjoy the same high-quality game performance. Please check back in the future for new player availability.”
Another new feature hinted at in the app is the long-promised ability to live-stream games directly from Stadia to YouTube, something Google has been showcasing as a major feature for Stadia since it was first announced. New strings for buttons and menus related to starting, managing, and stopping YouTube live streams were spotted in the latest app, implying that the feature could be rolling out soon.
Given that live-streaming games on a traditional console or PC still requires a fair amount of know-how and hardware, making it as simple as pressing a button in the Stadia app could be a big feature for Google’s service.
Sadly, the hinted-at features are just that for now: hints. There’s no indication of when they’ll be available for customers to try for themselves. Still, it’s an encouraging sign that Google is working hard to make its initial Stadia promises a reality — even if these features are coming later than fans may have hoped.
The display might be glass, but there is still a crease. in the center.
Ron Amadeo
Check out this outrageous color-changing paint job
Ron Amadeo
The front display is very tiny. Too tiny to do much on.
Ron Amadeo
The back in "L" mode.
Ron Amadeo
The Z Flip versus the OnePlus 7 Pro. When folded up, you get a phone that's half the height of a normal phone.
Ron Amadeo
But, it's twice the thickness.
Ron Amadeo
When open, the Z Flip is just a normal smartphone.
Ron Amadeo
Yep, nothing special here.
Ron Amadeo
Like on the Galaxy Fold, the plastic bezel around the display is actually raised, so your finger can bump into it.
Ron Amadeo
There are little bumpers in the corner.
Ron Amadeo
Here we see the same T-shaped hinge caps as on the Galaxy Fold.
Ron Amadeo
This is the first hole-punch foldable smartphone, which is way better than the Fold's gigantic notch.
Ron Amadeo
Say hello to a screen-to-body ratio of 3.57 percent. The front is almost all bezel.
Ron Amadeo
An incoming notification. You get 11 characters at once.
Ron Amadeo
After the very public failure of the Samsung Galaxy Fold, Samsung is back, in what seems like record time, with another foldable smartphone. This one is the Galaxy Z Flip, a smartphone that, instead of opening up into a tablet, is a normal-sized smartphone that folds in half, making it a little more portable than normal.
The Fold had a very rocky life, and while it only launched about five months ago, that was after a six-month delay. So really, with the Z Flip being nearly a year removed from the original Fold launch date, you could say this is Samsung's second-generation foldable smartphone. And you know what? It really feels like it. Samsung has made some big technology improvements with the Z Flip, with a flexible glass display cover and some work toward dust ingress. The Z Flip shows the foldables category isn't forever doomed to failures, delays, and recalls. This is an actual, viable product that the industry is slowly working towards improving.
That's not to say the Z Flip is a good foldable yet, but it's better than the complete failure that was the Galaxy Fold. Samsung continues to make some old mistakes, and some new mistakes, but the end result is that the technology is still very expensive and unproven. The new flip phone form factor is a cheaper way to get this foldable display technology out to consumers, but it doesn't offer much of a sales pitch as to why you'd want to spend a premium for this device. The Z Flip quickly gives you a lot to think about—most prominently Samsung's foldable display technology improvements and this weird new form factor straight out of 1999.
The main display—better than plastic, not as good as Gorilla Glass
The Galaxy Z Flip is the first phone to use Samsung's "Ultra-Thin Glass." While it doesn't live up to the hype Samsung initially built for the feature, it is a lot better than what's on the Galaxy Fold. The Galaxy Fold, Moto Razr, and Huawei Mate X all use completely plastic touchscreens over top of their flexible displays, which is a solution with several negatives:
Plastic is easily scratched, which makes designs like the Mate X (with its wraparound exterior screen) really impractical. Plastic doesn't protect against pressure and punctures from debris on the inside or outside of the phone, making the phone more delicate.
Flexible thin plastic displays will squish and distort under your finger, which feels cheap and delicate. Remember resistive touchscreens? Flexible plastic displays feel like that. The display moves under your finger.
Plastic isn't as slippery as glass, and along with the squishiness of plastic, plastic adds resistance to your finger as you swipe around on your phone. It doesn't feel great.
With hinges and moving parts, the surface under the display might have some gaps in it, especially at the bendy parts. A hard glass panel would support itself over a gap, but flexible plastic will sink into the gap, making a valley or divot. If you're swiping around a high speed, you might hit what is basically a pothole in the display surface. This is the dreaded "crease" that shows up in foldable displays.
Plastic doesn't transfer light as well as bonded glass, so the display doesn't look as bright and vibrant.
The Z Flip and its ultra-thin glass fixes some of these problems, but not all of them. First, as was widely publicized, The Z Flip is not any more scratch-resistant or puncture-proof than plastic. We don't know what the scratch resistance of Samsung's ultra-thin glass is really like, because the Z Flip's display has an unremovable layer of plastic on top of the glass. Plastic is, well, plastic, and you can scratch it easily or dent it with just a fingernail. A report from The Verge tracks down a good reason for this plastic cover, though: if you did scratch the underlying ultra-thin glass, the scratch would have a good chance of propagating and shattering the display when you fold the phone. All of this bending is stretching the surface of the glass, and a scratch could be a fatal weak point.
Enlarge/ The crease, with dramatic lighting. You can sort of make out how the Z Flip is bent backwards a bit too much.
Ron Amadeo
While the screen is definitely not as hard as glass, it's also not as soft as the display of the Galaxy Fold. The underlying hard layer of glass gives you a more rigid surface to swipe around on, and it feels a lot better than the completely squishy Fold display. It still isn't as nice as bare glass, though, since the top plastic layer is a lot grippier than glass. For a comparison to other devices, the Fold feels like a pliable resistive touchscreen, while the Z Flip feels like a glass phone with a cheap plastic screen protector on top. Overall, it's an improvement: not as good as bare glass, but again it's better than the completely soft Fold display.
Four Cortex A76-based cores (One 2.96GHz, three 2.41Ghz) and four Cortex A55-based cores at 1.78GHz
RAM
8GB
GPU
Adreno 640
STORAGE
256GB
NETWORKING
802.11b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, NFC
PORTS
USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C
CAMERA
Front:10MP Selfie
Inside: 10MP Selfie, 8MP RGB Depth,
Rear:12MP Main, 12MP Wide-angle
SIZE
Open: 167.3 x 73.6 x 7.2 mm
Closed: 87.4 x 73.6 x 17.3 mm
WEIGHT
183 g
BATTERY
3300mAh
STARTING PRICE
$1380
OTHER PERKS
side fingerprint sensor
The Z Flip display cover isn't rigid enough to support itself over gaps, so the display surface isn't flat. The hinge creates a pretty deep horizontal valley across the middle of the phone, and you'll crash into it every time you are swiping around the phone's mid-section. There's an interesting difference here between the Fold and the Flip: the Fold's hinge and valley ran vertically up the center of the device, so I feel like you didn't hit it much. The Z Flip's hinge and associated valley run horizontally across the middle of the phone, so every time you swipe vertically (like say, for scrolling), you hit the speed bump. This happens constantly since we are always vertically scrolling through content on our phones.
This is Samsung's first flexible display phone with a hole punch camera lens, and another oddity is that there's a divot all around the front camera lens. You'll hit this sometimes when you pull down the notification shade. But even this is still a huge improvement over the giant, raised notch on the Galaxy Fold. The Fold notch covered the status bar on the right side of the display, which meant the notification panel was only accessible from the left side of the phone—a real bummer for the estimated 90 percent of people that are right-handed.
Lastly, the glass seems to really help when it comes to the look of the display. The Fold display looked kinda foggy, dull, and washed out thanks, in part, to the flexible plastic refracting some of the light from the panel. The Z Flip display is a lot brighter and more vibrant than the Fold. We can't be sure how close in performance the Z Flip and Galaxy Fold display panels are, but I'm going to attribute some of this glass having better optics than plastic. When it comes to the brightness and colors of the display, you could easily mistake the Z Flip for a normal, rigid smartphone. (That's a compliment.)
Next, I'm going to complain about the bezels. Normally, this part is just my usual complaining about bezels and how they, you know, exist, but these bezels are raised, which causes all the same problems I complained about on the Galaxy Fold. Android uses a lot of edge gestures that ask you to swipe in from the sides of the display, and these are bad when you have raised bezels.
The notification panel is a swipe down from the top bezel of the display. The Z Flip is the first foldable to run Android 10, which means you could enable Android 10's excellent gesture navigation system, allowing you to swipe up from the bottom bezel for the home screen, swipe up and hold for recent apps, and swipe in from the left or right bezel to go back. Even if you don't turn on gesture nav, Samsung's software has a ton of edge swipes, too. There's an always-on app drawer on the side of the device, so you can swipe in from the right bezel to open your favorite apps. Or on the home screen, Samsung lets you quickly access Samsung Pay by swiping up from the bottom bezel.
None of these edge gestures really work when the bezel and the display surface aren't at the same height. You can do them, but it feels awful and janky compared to a smooth pane of glass. Android was just not designed for obstructions around the perimeter of a device, and it doesn't seem like Samsung's software is, either. If you don't turn on gesture navigation, you still have navigation buttons at the very bottom of the display. And in this setup,I still hit the bezel while I'm trying to hit the buttons, which works but again feels bad. Even the earliest devices and cheapest devices like the T-Mobile G1 or that $10 Walmart phone have a single, hard plastic sheet covering the bezels and the display. The Fold and Z Flip are really the only devices with raised bezels, and this design idea doesn't work.
Overall, using the Z Flip display was a pretty miserable experience. There's just so much junk to bump into. If my finger isn't skipping over the sizable valley across the middle of the display, it's crashing into the raised bezels around the perimeter of the device. The Z Flip makes my finger feel like a bumper car, and there's just always something in the way when I'm trying to swipe around. It really made me miss my smooth, glass smartphone. That is just way less hassle.
Another display problem Samsung hasn't solved is the fingerprint reader. Most Android flagships have been coming with in-screen fingerprint readers, which are visible, reachable, and easy to activate. Samsung apparently isn't able to do in-screen fingerprint readers on flexible displays, so instead, both the Z Flip and Fold have a pretty wonky side-mounted fingerprint reader.
First, the mechanics of a flip phone and a side-mounted fingerprint reader just never work out. At no point during the opening process does your finger naturally fall on the fingerprint reader in a way that will work, so you have to reposition your hand a lot. Usually, I pick up the phone, change my grip to open it with two hands, then change my grip again to scan my fingerprint, then maybe change my grip a third time to a natural phone holding position depending on which hand I wanted to use. Compared to a more natural fingerprint reader position like the in-display or rear locations, the side-mounted sensor is a lot more awkward.
It's also easy to mess up the fingerprint scan. Being mounted on the side of the phone means there's not that much area to scan a fingerprint, so you're only registering a tiny sliver of your finger pad. It's easy to place your finger incorrectly and fail a scan. The fingerprint reader is totally smooth and almost flush with the sides of the phone, so it's hard to tactilely locate with your finger. Rear fingerprint readers usually live in a nice divot in a natural position, so they're easy to find. In-display fingerprint readers are right in front of you, and you can see them, meaning those are easy to hit, too. I miss this reader all the time. And it's far too easy to accidentally touch the reader with your other fingers while you're opening the phone. If you do this too many times, the fingerprint reader will disable itself.
The Hinge—more like a laptop than a flip phone
The big feature of the Z Flip is that it folds up, so the hinge is a major component. While the phone emulates the form factor of an old flip phone, the Z Flip hinge doesn't work like a flip phone hinge at all. If you take something like the old school Moto Razr hinge, this was spring-assisted, and it only really had two positions: it would snap open, or it would snap closed. The Galaxy Z Flip is more like a laptop hinge. Other than at the very top or the very bottom, it's not spring-assisted and will stay open at whatever angle you set it at.
The lack of a full-range spring assist means you can't effortlessly flip the phone open and closed the way you can an old flip phone. It's not impossible to flip the thing open and closed, however. You can whip a full-size laptop open or closed if you swing it hard enough, and that's what whipping open the Z Flip feels like. It's not easy, it's not spring-assisted, and it doesn't feel intended. You've got to violently swing it in a way that feels dangerous, and there's still a good chance it stops halfway.
Not being able to easily open the phone is a real downside, especially considering this is something you'll have to do dozens of times a day. Opening the phone needed to be really fast and easy, and it feels like Samsung isn't offering any affordances to quickly do this, at all. That's really blowing it. The front display is too small to do anything on, so you'll need to open the phone slowly, with both hands, anytime you want to do anything.
The hinge is only spring-assisted at the very top and bottom. In between, you can make it stop here...
Ron Amadeo
or here.
Ron Amadeo
Or here.
Ron Amadeo
In the L configuration, apps will take up the top half of the display. This is nice for the camera or video chat.
Ron Amadeo
You would never want to type like this, but making it a tiny laptop is fun.
Ron Amadeo
Here's a straight edge on top of the Z Flip display. See how the center touches but there is space on the left and right sides? The phone isn't flat. It opens too much and is bent over backwards.
Ron Amadeo
Two long, black felt pads run the length of the Z Flip hinge and wipe debris out of the way as you open the phone.
What the lack of spring assist means is that you can open the Z Flip to a certain angle and it will stay there. That means you can stick it on a table in an L shape and it will sit there, like the world's tiniest laptop. Google and Samsung actually worked together to make the software recognize this, and in a very limited amount of apps, you'll see UI elements pick one side of the bend or the other in this configuration.
The L shape isn't a complete gimmick, and it actually works well for camera-based activities. Just like with the camera on top of a laptop, you can open it on a table, aim the screen at your face, and tilt the hinge to get your face in frame. For taking a photo or doing a video chat, it's awesome. This is great for people who frequently video chat at a table but don't have a laptop. I'm not sure if those people exist, but if they do, they'll love this. There's also a lot of comparisons made to how the Z Flip sort of has the same form factor as a makeup compact, and I've gotten a stamp of approval from a few people that the phone can double as a good makeup mirror in a pinch.
That's all secondary, though. The first thing I noticed about the Galaxy Z Flip is that the hinge actually opens too far, and it drives me absolutely crazy. The hinge should open to exactly 180 degrees, right? A straight, flat display. Instead, the phone opens up past 180 degrees to about 182 degrees, so the display is bent over backward a bit. It's higher in the middle than it is at the top and bottom. If you stick the phone display-side down on a table, it becomes a sea-saw. Since the phone is never straight, there's no correct angle to look at it. The perpendicular angle for the top of the phone is different from the bottom, so you never quite get a straight, flat image from top to bottom. As someone with an eye for detail and maybe a bit of OCD, this is deeply annoying and makes me cringe every time I look at the phone.
My Galaxy Z Flip isn't flat and it drives me absolutely crazy.
From a construction standpoint, the hinge on the Z Flip looks just like the Galaxy Fold hinge system, just not as long. Like on the Fold, there's a big spine on the back that houses the hinge mechanics, and the two halves of the phone slide over top of it. On the inside, you'll see the exposed edges around the hinge area, with T shaped caps preventing you from lifting up the sides of the display.
While the hinge isn't waterproof or dustproof, a new feature on the Z Flip hinge is integrated brushes, which are designed to help stop debris from getting into the hinge area. iFixit tore down the Z Flip and showed what this looked like in real life, and there seems to be two long felt pads that run the entire length of the hinge, along with two taller brushes on the sides of the hinge. The long felt pads work as wipers when you open the phone, sweeping debris off of the hinge as the two sides slide over it. You can actually mark up the spine of the Z Flip with a dry erase marker, and as you open and close the phone, the internal brushes will wipe off the marker.
The "Mirror Purple" version I ordered is a psychedelic rainbow of colors. The sides and hinge are a metallic blue, the bezel around the screen is black, and the two big back panels are metallic purple when viewed straight on, or metallic yellow when viewed at an angle. The Samsung logo on the hinge has a rainbow reflectivity to it, too. It's one of the shiniest phones on the market, and when it's clean, every surface is a mirror. It is very often not clean, though—it is a crazy fingerprint magnet.
The glass back is also a zero friction surface. Every phone has a glass back, but usually, something like a camera bump provides enough resistance to keep a phone in the spot you put it in. The Z Flip, when closed, has the camera bump on the top, though, so the bottom is a small square of perfectly smooth, flat glass. If you have a table that isn't perfectly level, the Z Flip will let you know about it, by slowly creeping its way off the table and crashing onto the floor. It might do this a half-hour after you put it down.
The front display
Opening a foldable smartphone is a real barrier to entry compared to the always-ready slab phones that most of us have nowadays. While you only have to look at a slab phone to see the display, a foldable needs to be picked up and opened, usually with two hands. Considering the latest studies say we all check our phones nearly 100 times a day, being able to do that at a glance is important. The cover display of a foldable smartphone lets you do all that checking without going through the laborious process of opening the phone every 10 minutes. When it beeps, you want to be able to see why, and maybe deal with the notification, without cracking open the phone.
The front of the Galaxy Z Flip isn't great at this. It has what must be one of the smallest smartphone displays on Earth: a 1.1-inch OLED, and it really feels like a waste. Did anyone at Samsung sit around and say, "Yes, 1.1-inches is the ideal screen display size to check notifications?" I was going to diss the display by calling it "the size of a postage stamp," but then I looked at a postage stamp and realized the display is only about half the size of a postage stamp. A cover display the size of a postage stamp would actually be a big improvement.
Say hello to a screen-to-body ratio of 3.57 percent. The front is almost all bezel.
Ron Amadeo
An incoming notification. You get 11 characters at once.
Ron Amadeo
The music player. This is the same device, by the way, just at a different angle. It magically turns blue.
This camera viewfinder is a joke.
An email.
The Z Flip cover display is so small you only get two lines for a notification: usually the sender's name on line one and 11 characters of the message on line two. When (not if) the message is longer than 11 characters, the text will start a slow horizontal scroll across the tiny display. Using the front display feels more like the throwback process of checking a beeper instead of using a fully-capable smartphone.
I hesitate to call the cover display "full color." On my "mirror purple" version, you're always looking at the display through the colored metallic backplate, which distorts the colors somewhat. Samsung's interface for the front display also keeps things super simple, usually combining white text with a single second color for the icon. The visual result reminds me a lot of the old 2-color OLED displays in MP3 players and MiniDisc players that displayed everything in blue and yellow. If the screen has to be this small, that would be a fun visual to lean into more.
Even after reading the instructions (yeah, I read the instructions, what of it?), I didn't find a list of everything the cover display can do. It's a totally custom interface from Samsung, so it's not clear what features exist or how to activate them, and I've just kind of been stumbling across them. So far I've seen the following:
The time and date is the main screen of the cover display. It displays every time you tap the display or close the phone.
Notifications will pop up on the display as they arrive. Usually, you'll see the app icon and a two-line message. If you have any unread notifications, you'll see an orange dot on the left side of the time and date screen, and you can swipe to the left to see a list of icons for older notifications. Tapping on a notification will open it on the inner screen, and then you can open the phone, unlock, and see the app.
An icon for musiccontrols will show up on the right side of the time and date screen. Swiping in that direction will show a very tiny, very basic music player: You'll see a single scrolling line showing the artist and song, and a second row shows controls for previous, play/pause, and next.
Incoming callswill pop-up on the tiny display, and you'll see swipeable "answer" and "dismiss" icons for them. If you tap the "Accept" icon, you'll answer the call in speakerphone.
Plug the phone in and you'll see the charging status.
Double-tap the power button to launch the selfie camera, which looks ridiculous on the 1.1-inch display. This is the rare time you'll see the front display flex its full-color capabilities, and at a normal distance, you'll be able to see a good 25 percent of your face. Press either volume button to snap a picture, and swipe vertically or tap the screen to switch between cameras. You'll take a full-frame photo, but you'll be using a tiny sliver as a viewfinder. It takes practice to know what a picture will look like.
Other than the laughable selfie camera, these features show that the front display isn't useless, but if the display just filled the front of the phone, like normal, it could be so much better. In the full Android interface, there is quite a lot you can do to triage incoming notifications. Action buttons let you reply to messages, archive and reply to emails, or dismiss things. You can't do any of that through the tiny front screen of the Z Flip. Your only two options for most notifications are to ignore the notification or open the phone. There's also no way to view bundled notifications; you can only view the first message. And there's no way to use simple apps, either, because the screen is so small. It would be nice to fire up a calculator or timer on the front display, view notes, or get results from the Google Assistant, for instance.
Another missed opportunity for the front display is that there's no always-on option. I would really like it if the display showed the time and date all the time, so you could check it at a glance. Don't tell me the battery can't handle lighting in a 1-inch display all the time, since other phones do this with big, 6-inch displays. Samsung's software is in its usual slap-dash state, and this phone offers the ability to turn on an always-on display for the inside display, just not the outside display. This makes absolutely no sense for a flip phone that should be closed when not in use. Like with the Galaxy Fold, it seems like Samsung just slapped on its usual Android skin with zero thought given to the unique form factor.
Foldable flip phones: A big price increase for not much functionality
The feeling I keep coming back to with the Z Flip is that it's just nothing special once it's open. It's a normal-sized smartphone with normal smartphone features. You're making a bunch of tradeoffs just for the ability to fold the phone in half, which, depending on the size of your pockets, might be a little more pocketable. This is the sales pitch of the foldable flip phone. You can fold it in half, and that might, maybe, be better for your pocket.
I think foldable display technology is here to stay, but phones that open up into tablet-sized devices (like the Huawei Mate X and, to some small extent, the Galaxy Fold) offer a more compelling use case. Being able to switch between a phone and tablet form factor, on the fly, is something you've never been able to do with a single device before. There's actual potential there. Flip phones only offer the possibility of easier pocketability, and given the sizable price increase, lower battery life, and decreased durability we've seen so far, that's a big ask.
The Galaxy Note 10+, which released in August last year, is a great comparison point for the Galaxy Z Flip. The Flip is basically a Note 10+ that folds in half. Both have the Snapdragon 855+, similar screen sizes (the Note 10+ is 0.1-inches bigger), and similar size bodies. The Note 10+ MSRPs for $1100, while the Z Flip is $280 more. The Note 10+ is also higher specced, with 4 GB more RAM (it has 12GB!), a bigger battery, two more cameras (depth and telephoto), and faster charging. With the Z Flip, you're giving up all that and nearly $300 more for that flip action.
If you're a person that values battery life, then foldables are the enemy. Foldables have two problems when it comes to battery life: First, you have to be concerned about thickness, because these things are going to fold in half. So if you have a 7mm body, it becomes at least 14mm thick when you fold it up, often more, since a lot of these hinges don't fold flat. The second problem is that the hinge takes up a lot of room that would normally be used for battery. So what often happens is the battery gets split in two and stored in the top and bottom halves.
Our Note 10+ comparison shows both of these differences. The Note 10+ is allowed to be thicker than the Z Flip since it doesn't have to fold in half—7.9mm for the Note 10+ versus 7.2mm on the Z Flip—and the Z Flip is still a beefy 17.3mm thick when closed. Together with the Z Flip's hinge and split battery, there's a huge difference in the battery capacity. The Z Flip has a 3300 mAh battery, and the Note 10+ is 4300 mAh.
As for the possible pocketability, the Galaxy Z Flip isn't less phone than a normal slab phone; it's the same volume but configured differently. Is short and thick better for your pocket than long and skinny? It depends on what style of pants you wear. If smartphones fit in your pocket just fine today, I don't think there's any kind of advantage from this new shape. It's a different feeling in your pocket, but I wouldn't call it a slam-dunk better option. If your pants have stumpy little half-pockets, which is common on women's pants, the Z Flip might fit where no smartphone has fit before. Still, you'll have to decide if that's worth the numerous trade-offs.
One other notable tradeoff you're taking in the particular case of the Z Flip is update speed. Samsung has never been good at updates, as evidenced by the company taking three months to bring Android 10 to the flagship Galaxy S10. Be warned that Samsung's foldables, despite costing more than a flagship, do not seem to get the, uh, "premium" flagship update treatment. Witness the Samsung Galaxy Fold, which is still stuck on Android 9 Pie almost six months since Android 10 came out. According to Samsung's last published timeline, the company will grace its $2700 smartphone with an Android 10 update sometime in April, only seven months after the release. Our best guess is that Samsung will treat the Z Flip similarly, with a bottom-tier update plan. Samsung is apparently prioritizing these phones by sales numbers, not price.
Flexible displays are improving, but I think I hate flip phones
The Z Flip shows that foldables really do have a future. It's great to see so much improvement in such little time. Samsung's glass might not improve scratch resistance, but it gives your finger a sturdier, smoother surface to slide your finger around on, which is a nice change compared with the gross and squishy display of the all-plastic Galaxy Fold. This display also looks better thanks to the glass, and Samsung is nailing down the front camera situation with a hole-punch camera. There are still a host of problems, though, like being easy to scratch, easy to puncture, and failing to be self-supporting over the hinge, resulting in a long trench that runs across the center of the phone. Samsung's decision to have raised bezels with the Z Flip interferes with all of Android's edge gestures and gesture navigation, and the side-mounted finger reader is probably the worst biometric solution on the market.
The Z Flip shows that foldable smartphone technology is improving. It's improving quickly, and it seems like this foldable smartphone thing just might work out in a few more generations. The Galaxy Fold felt like an aborted prototype that was released to the market, but the Z Flip feels more like a real, commercial device. When it's open, you can almost forget it's this weird foldable smartphone
But after using this daily in recent weeks, I'm coming to the realization that I just don't like the flip phone form factor, or at least, I don't like the way the Z Flip handles it. The ergonomics of this phone just don't work, making it a hassle to use compared to a normal slab smartphone. You can't ever open the phone easily with one hand, so you're always picking it up and fumbling with it with two hands. My slab smartphone is always "open" and ready to go the second I pick it up. The Z Flip's fingerprint reader isn't a smooth process either. You're going to reposition your hand to do a scan, whereas an in-screen or rear fingerprint reader can be used in a natural position. These two things combine to add up to a lot of time and effort just to start using the phone.
If the flip phone form factor is going to be something that actually works for people, I think serious work needs to be done to make them open easily. They need to be usable with one hand, and right now you can't actually flip open your flip phone. Companies figured this out when regular flip phones were common back in the 90s and 2000s, but it's a challenge to scale the physics up to these larger, heavier, thicker devices while still making them durable.
On the Z Flip, this is all exasperated by the nearly-useless front display. Notifications are important and I frequently want to check and triage them quickly. The Z Flip is awful for notifications since the front display is barely large enough to read them and you can't dismiss them or use any action buttons. You're left with the desire to constantly open the phone every time it beeps. The flip phone form factor pre-dates smartphones, and I am not sure the form factor works today. Nobody needed to check their Startacs or Razrs a hundred times a day back in the 90s and 2000s—you were mostly either making a phone call or you weren't. Today, phones get used a lot more frequently, and needing to open the Z Flip for every single beep doesn't work. A bigger front display would help a lot, but firing off a quick text message still wouldn't work. I am totally in favor of the tablet-style foldable smartphone by comparison, since that factor would offer a phone-sized display on the outside and a tablet-sized display on the inside. Right now, it's simply impossible to do anything quickly on the Z Flip form factor.
The Z Flip offers one thing: a different configuration for your pocket. Buying the Z Flip would mean that differently-distributed volume (I will not call it "more compact") is more important to you than any other smartphone quality. Maybe there are people out there like that. Or if you're trying to reduce your smartphone addiction, maybe you see the annoying barrier-to-entry as a positive thing. It certainly made me want to use the Z Flip as little as possible. For everyone else, this phone has a host of downsides that just aren't worth it: a higher price, reduced durability, smaller batteries, an awkward fingerprint reader, and a form factor that requires two-hands to open and lots of fidgeting to use. Everything is harder with the Z Flip, and I've found, in my day-to-day life, I would rather use just about any other smartphone.
The Good
The glass display is much nicer to swipe around on compared to the all-plastic Galaxy Fold.
Samsung is packing this phone with specs like it's a normal flagship. You get a snappy Snapdragon 855, unlike that other flip phone, the Razr.
The wild color-changing paint job is interesting looking.
Adding a hole-punch camera to a flexible display probably took some engineering work, and it's a big improvement over the giant notch on the Galaxy Fold.
The Bad
It takes two hands to open the phone. Say goodbye to any easy one-handed usage.
Samsung's glass still isn't stiff enough to avoid valleys and divots around the display hinge and front camera.
The topmost layer of the display is still plastic and easy to scratch.
The raised bezel makes all of Android's edge gestures a chore. When swiping down the notification panel, using gesture navigation, or using Samsung's side-mounted app drawer, your finger will bump into the bezels.
The fingerprint reader is tiny and in an awkward location. Rear and in-display readers are superior. '
The hinge opens too much, so instead of opening up to a flat surface, the screen is bent over backward.
The sizable hinge takes up room that would normally house the battery. Compared to the similarly-sized Note 10+, you're losing 1000mAh.
The Ugly
The front display is nearly useless, so you'll have to open the phone every time you want to do anything.
