Samsung announces new Android smartphones, Z Fold 4 and Z Flip4

Samsung announced on Wednesday its Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 folding phones that go on sale Aug. 26 and start at $1,799 and $999.

Foldable phones make up a relatively small slice of the overall smartphone, though Samsung and other Android device makers hope consumers will see them as a unique alternative to normal rectangular phones.

The Z Fold 4 features a book-style design that opens up to a spacious 7.6 inch AMOLED 2 x display. When closed the phone's features are accessible by its 6.2 inch AMOLED 2 x display. Samsung says the Z Fold 4's interior screen is 45% stronger than its predecessor.

The Z Flip 4 opens like an old-school clamshell phone. The tiny 1.9 inch front facing screen has a Super AMOLED display that you can use as a photo and video viewfinder, as well as receive notifications, check messages, and make mobile payments.

If you flip the Z Flip 4 open, you'll be met by a 6.7 inch AMOLED 2 x display. It's a idea that you can use the outside screen for basic tasks and then pop open to the larger screen to take care of things like browsing the web, scrolling through TikTok or checking your email.

Both the Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 share the same overall look and design as the Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 Samsung says it has shaved a bit off of the sides and edges of the phones to make them just a hair slimmer. You are not likely to notice the change very much, practically speaking.

This time around, Samsung has given the Z Fold 4 a new interface that is more similar to what you might find on a PC. A new Taskbar mode lets you run up to three apps at the same time or two windows of the same app at the same time. Google GOOG, GOOGL apps support drag and drop capabilities, so you can copy and paste links and photos between apps.

The Z Fold 4 gets a 50 megapixel wide-angle lens, 10 megapixel telephoto lens with 3 x optical zoom and up to 30 x Space Zoom, and a 12 megapixel ultra-wide angle lens. An under display camera allows you to take selfies and video chat with friends and family when you use the Z Fold 4 main screen.

The special feature of the Z Flip 4 is that you can use certain apps when the device is half open. You can talk to your friends and family while the phone is on its own, with the bottom half serving as a base, so prop the Z Flip 4 up on a table and open a chat app. You can also access certain app controls from the lower half while it is in this configuration as well.

The Z Flip 4 comes with a 12 megapixel ultra-wide angle camera and a 12 megapixel wide-angle camera. There is also a 10 megapixel front camera, though it is not an under-display style camera like the one found on the Z Fold 4.

Both phones run on Qualcomm's QCOM Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip. The Z Flip 4 uses Google's Android 12 software, while the Z Fold 4 uses Android 12 L.

The Flip 4 has 8 GB of RAM and up to 512 GB of storage inside, while the Z Fold 4 gets 12 GB of RAM and up to 1 TB of storage. The most important thing is that both phones are water resistant, so you can drop them in the sink or, god forbid, the toilet, and not worry that your $1,000 plus gadget is sunk.

When I get my hands on them in the coming weeks, I will let you know how the Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 perform in the real world.

Email Daniel Howley at dhowleyyahoofinance.com.