Ryan Haines / Android Authority
???? Good morning! I heard The Strokes last night at a concert! (Not saw, but heard, because I could hear it from the old airport field they were playing at here in Berlin.)
Flip unpacks early
What’s been rumored for a while, that Samsung’s 2022 clamshell looks like it has only mild refinements from the 2021 edition, seems to be true.
Problematic leaks:
- The problem with leaks like this is that Samsung doesn’t get a chance to inflict its marketing on us.
- And, without really knowing what’s changed, or knowing if this is a prototype or the final version, we can only observe changes from the outside.
What we see:
- The leaks are via sourced images by TechTalkTV (including the image above), plus a brief video, showing what looks like a production sample of the Flip 4.
- There’s an almost identical design to the Galaxy Z Flip 3: two vertically stacked rear cameras, a small external display, and an internal punch-hole screen.
- But there are some nice little improvements: the Galaxy Z Flip 4 looks like it has a less visible crease, with refinements that appear to make it a little more shallow.
- The phone’s hinge and bezels are also a tad bit thinner, putting the same size display in a smaller device overall, that’s lighter as well.
- Also, the YouTuber reveals that the phone will house a 3,700mAh battery (up from 3,400mAh) and 25W charging, up from 15W.
- Interestingly, apparently, it’ll come with the same 12MP main and ultrawide cameras, and the same 10MP selfie camera.
- We don’t see internal specs: it’s likely the Flip 4 will come with a new chipset, possibly even the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, which is set to offer performance and efficiency improvements as well.
What it means:
- Samsung offering the Flip 4 without any revolutionary features isn’t a bad thing — the old style of an “S” edition comes to mind, though Samsung calling this the Flip 3S doesn’t sound great.
- What it may mean, if Samsung isn’t pulling out all stops, is that the Flip 4 could get a price drop. The Flip 3 started at $999, for what it’s worth.
- I’m unsure: the 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset won’t be cheap, and inflation is widespread across materials and goods.
- But it’s possible Samsung has some margin to drop the price a little to make the foldable more attractive.
Roundup
???? “Ultrawide monitors are overrated, here’s why I use a 4K TV instead.” Great read. (Android Authority).
???? As the stock market and crypto fall due to rising inflation (and the likelihood of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates), expect to see shakeouts, just as we saw with Terra/Luna. The latest trouble is with Celsius, a crypto lending service, which said it has paused withdrawals, causing Celsius’s CEL token to fall as much as 70% (CoinDesk).
???? NASA’s plan to get Ingenuity through the Martian winter (Ars Technica).
???? “Veterinarians of Reddit, what do pet owners ignore the most?” (r/askreddit).
Monday Meme
Dall-E and Dall-E 2 are limited betas only available to those who have been whitelisted.
The Dall-E Mini generator, which is much less ambitious and freely available, is here, and it’s creating all kinds of things, the weirdest of which are posted to subreddits and Twitter.
Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor
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