Samsung’s Galaxy Fold 4 and Flip 4 are official, but not much has changed (on the outside)

Several leaks over the last few weeks have pointed to Samsung releasing its new Galaxy Fold 4 and Galaxy Flip 4 handsets this week. Early images of the devices suggested that nothing much has changed on the visual front. There were also concerns that hardware upgrades were more iterative than innovative.

Well, it’s all official now and the leaks were spot on about the design bit, at the very least. The Fold 4 and Flip 4 both bear striking resemblances to the previous generation of Samsung foldables. But there are a few changes in sight.

Fold or Flip 4 the future

Mostly, those changes are visible around the camera. Even then, alterations are slight. It takes much closer inspection to glean where the phone’s upgrades have taken place. Go under the surface a touch, though, and you’ll start noting changes.

Both handsets use Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus+ for the glass-fronted bits. The frame and other metal bits use something called Armour Aluminium, an aircraft-grade metal that should prove tough to mangle. We’ll see just how tough shortly, once we get our hands on the phone itself.

Another bit, returning from last year’s devices, is waterproofing. Both lineups are rated IPX8, meaning they’ll survive a substantial dunk. Dustproofing is still absent for obvious reasons. But to see any sort of difference, we’ll have to peer even further below the skin.

The meat of it all

Powering Samsung’s new foldables is Qualcomm’s newest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 platform instead of Samsung’s own Exynos chipsets. There could be any number of reasons for this change.

Whatever the reason, that’s what we’re getting this year. The Snapdragon chipset will be accompanied by 8GB of RAM in the Galaxy Z Flip 4 with 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB of storage. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 will bump those specs up to a standard 12GB of RAM and 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage.

On the power front, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is shipping with a bigger battery and faster charging. The internal 3,700mAh battery now supports 25W fast charging like the Galaxy S22 range. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 features the same 4,400mAh battery and charging capabilities as the Fold 3. Maybe Samsung spent all its time making the hinge thinner. Either way, we’ll need to get our hands on these devices to know if the changes (or lack thereof) have benefitted or hindered Samsung’s new foldables.

The Galaxy Z Fold 4 might not get a new battery but it does feature an improved camera array. The wide-angle sensor has been upgraded to a 50MP lens, up from 12MP in the Fold 3. But you should know by now that a bigger number doesn’t always produce better images. We’ll need to take some shots to know if the difference is worth it, but Samsung reckons it’ll do almost as well as its S-range flagships.

Sprouting new Buds

Samsung also took the opportunity at its August Unpacked event to showcase the latest entry to its wireless earbud range, the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. The visual changes to these seem to be mostly cosmetic. They retain much of the shape from the previous generation of Buds Pro and are available in a similar range of colours as well.

The notable changes for the Buds 2 Pro are mostly internal. They feature a custom coaxial 2-way speaker system and use Samsung’s very own audio codec, called Samsung seamless codec (SSC HiFi) that will support what it is calling ’24bit Hi-Fi’ audio. You’re also getting improved active noise cancellation (ANC) with these and three pairs of microphones.

Samsung says they will last up to five hours on a charge with ANC on and eight hours if you turn it off. The case should give you a further eighteen or 29 hours, with and without ANC respectively.

When can you get them?

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Fold 4 are available to preorder today, 10 August, until 31 August 2022. The devices will go on sale on 1 September 2022 and start at R21,000 and R38,000 for the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Fold 4 respectively. There is no word on pricing or availability for the Buds 2 Pro just yet. We’ll update this when we know more.