Ever since Samsung unveiled their first Frame TV a handful of years ago, they’ve been making waves with every iteration because of their gallery design and ability to blend into any picture wall. Now, Samsung…
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There are plenty of places to start a discussion about the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, the new flagship phone of Samsung’s next, renamed generation of its Galaxy S line. There’s the dual-band 5G connectivity, the 120Hz screen. Also, of course, the sky-high $1,400 starting price. But the question that jumped out to me the most when I first saw this beast, with its impressive 10x optical zoom and unheard of 100x digital zoom, is whether that camera is a revelation or a gimmick. The answer? Well, it’s both.
The S20’s ability to zoom optically up to 10x is a terrific feature, and the ability to zoom that deep without destroying image quality is a freedom I enjoy even if I use it less than I expected in practice. Beyond, to the 100x and even the more modest 30x zoom, the downsides start to overpower any practical application. Yes, it is a great party trick, but I can hardly imagine, like, using it.
In case you forgot, zooming works like this. Optical zoom uses physical lenses to magnify your picture, letting you get closer with no compromise in image quality. Digital zoom takes a picture, crops it and enlarges, giving you chunkier pixels the further you zoom. By using a sideways mounted lens and a prism to fit inside a large but manageable camera bump, the S20 lets you get that deep 10x zoom guilt free, which is definitely incredible.
Shooting around with the S20, I found this was great for a few of my pet projects, like getting crisp, close up pictures of interesting features on buildings, and I figure it would be similarly great for shooting wildlife from a distance, or getting close ups at a concert or sporting event. At 10x magnification, it is a little difficult to hold the camera still enough to get a clean shot, especially in low light conditions or with one hand. I spent more time using 5x purely for ease of use. But that impressive zoom can help you get shots you’d otherwise need an honest-to-god zoom lens on an actual camera to capture. It’s sick, even though I didn’t find quite as many uses for it as I expected.
If you need a steady hand for 10x, you need an actual tripod for 100x. Once you get above 10x, keeping your target in the frame while you press the button feels more like balancing a broomstick on your finger than using a point-and-shoot. It is a hopeless exercise to try this one-handed, and it is still barely manageable with two. The camera app shows you a handy mini-map in the top of the screen that you can use for reference, which is crucial since the ultra-zoom picture from the viewfinder will be nigh unintelligible. But it can only help so much since the physical act of aiming is wildly challenging.
Now don’t forget this is also digital zoom, which means you are losing image quality at the same time. The S20 boasts some machine learning tech that ostensibly helps repair your ridiculously cropped image but it can’t work miracles. Your final images, if you somehow manage to stay on target to get the shot, are basically as high resolution as a watercolor painting. I can maybe, theoretically, imagine a case where this would be useful, if you were trying to get a faraway shot as evidence instead of art. I mean, it’s cool for a second! But at best it is a party trick.
Of course, the S20 has more going on than just its camera. With dual-band 5G connectivity, the S20 Ultra and its little brother, the S20+, can deliver the face-melting 10 Gbps-and-higher speeds the best 5G connections will be able to offer, if you can find them. Meanwhile, the baseline S20 only supports the slowest flavor of 5G. Its screen, with a silky smooth 120hz refresh rate, is beautiful though tests indicate it robs you of about the hours of battery life to have it turned on. These are both features that, like the camera, are objectively impressive but maybe not practically useful for most people. And at a $1,400 price point to start ($1,600 with maxed out specs!!!!!!) it is very hard to recommend this phone as a sensible purchase, especially when the S20 and S20+ sport more modest prices ($1,000 and $1,200) and less intense cameras (3x optical, 30x digital) that still push the limit of practicality.
It’s still ultra cool though.
Samsung provided this product for review.
It’s the time of year when designers, brands and retailers begin to stock their digital shelves with new-season goods. For us, that means a rolodex of open browser tabs and auto-fill credit card info. From the new school of prep, to innovative techwear to the basics we’ll leave the office for, these are our favorite style releases of the week.
Big plaid makes for a big western shirt.
I literally left my desk in the middle of writing this piece to go uptown and buy this exact Christoph Lemaire-designed sweatshirt. You know, for research. My findings are that it’s great and I have no regrets.
Vans’ latest spring drop of sneakers is wild and includes psychedelic colorways, checkerboard monk straps and a shoe in the middle of evolving into another shoe.
Adsum’s brand of pared-back sportswear is deep in the closets of the creative set. This 3/4 Zip was clearly a good one — it’s already sold out.
The masterful denim duo behind Ooe Yofukuten turned their expertise toward a lineup of vintage-inspired bags. Turns out their jeans making skills translate very well to bags.
But who needs bags to carry your stuff when you’ve got pants like this?
New York outfit Aime Leon Dore just dropped the lookbook for its spring collection. I’ll likely leave my desk to “research” the collection as well.
Our Legacy’s box shirt is reincarnated every season in very different fabrics. This time, it’s reached enlightenment.
SoCal by way of Texas by way of Ralph Lauren store RTH makes a compelling case for animal print belts. And yes, we are compelled.
Nike teamed up with New York artist Tom Sachs to for a space-inspired collaboration that features the return of their 2018 collaboration of down-filled shorts and a space helmet-inspired beanie.
East meets West with Studio D’artisan’s take on a classic Wrangler jacket, swapping out the usual denim for hardy indigo-dyed sashiko.
Thom Browne constantly pushes fashion’s envelope. Now he’s pushing (and folding) its buttons.
Everlane goes toe-to-toe with basketball shoe competitors, equipped with full-grain leather and a low carbon footprint.
Italian techwear brand Stone Island focuses its innovative eyes with glass. Literally. Its latest jacket and shorts combo uses thousands of tiny glass beads to achieve an effect that’s simultaneously iridescent and dusty.
It’s bright out. And you’re not a sunglasses guy. And you also don’t want to mess up your hair. Plus, you like Patagonia.
Sorry I’m not home right now. I’m dressing into spiderwebs.
A new scent for the new season.
Unless you’re a celebrity, keep the ice chill.
When you can’t decide on a pattern but you can only buy one Kapital jacket.
It’s no secret that Samsung is trying to launch the world’s first foldable smartphone. Rumors of this phone have swirled 02around for years, but excitement has been drumming up significantly in recent months. Why? Well, partly because current smartphone design is now arguably stale. In recent years there’s been very little innovation in terms of form factor, not to mention that companies now opt for the safe candybar approach (slim bezels, 18:9 screen) and they’re too afraid to rock the boat.
Samsung’s foldable Galaxy phone is about the change all of that. It’s not exactly clear what this phone is going to look like, but the idea of a phone that folds is possibly the most radical design concept we’ll ever see since Nokia’s more experimental slide and flip phones in the early aughts.
Rumors say the phone is going to be named Galaxy F. What’s more, Samsung is apparently close to unveiling it. The company is trying to speed up development and can’t afford to postpone the phone again. Which makes sense since rival Huawei is reportedly going toe-to-toe with the South Korean giant for the world’s first title.
The Galaxy F may be announced as soon as November, according to Samsung Mobile chief DJ Koh. No word about specs yet, but Koh shared a lot of details on how it’s going to work. You will be able to use most of the phone’s functions even when it’s folded, but if you need to browse or see something, you might have to unfold it.
Development has been a “complicated” journey, but Koh said Samsung has “nearly concluded” it. The executive did not share details about pricing, but rumors say it’ll cost somewhere around $2,000, twice the price of an iPhone X.
As virtual assistants become even more advanced, people find them even more indispensable. Ordering a pizza or online shopping is just a voice command away after all. That’s why we some major tech companies try to cram each one’s respective program into different gadgets.
Smart speakers seem to be all the rage with Apple’s Siri on the HomePod, Google’s Assistant on Google Home products, Amazon’s Alexa found its home inside various Echo models, and Samsung’s Bixby is on, well, nothing as of now other than its mobile devices.
That’s going to change soon with the Samsung Galaxy Home, the South Korean tech firm’s take on a smart speaker with Bixby on board. Despite its odd shape, you’ll be glad to know that it houses 6 speakers and a subwoofer. Superb sound can be expected since everything has been expertly tuned using Harman as well as AKG audio enhancement and technology. Don’t worry about not being heard, because there are a total of 8 microphones that will respond to your whims.
You will notice that the Galaxy Home is covered in fabric, which is becoming quite common among Bluetooth speakers from various brands. Physical button controls are located on the top while the round base sits on three stainless steel legs. Just like the competition, Samsung’s built-in SmartThings hub platform allows you to control your compatible smart home devices. We have yet to know more about its pricing and release date.
Photos courtesy of Samsung
With the release of the 2018 Samsung QLED TV, the company that made headlines with their revolutionary displays is back at it. While in off mode, the new TV can do some impressive visual trickery, being able to mimic the wall behind it. Even better, the ultra-slim, 49 ft-long power & data cable is also transparent, so the whole thing conveniently dissolves into your decor.
Available in different sizes, ranging from 55-in to the 88-in Q9F model (we hear this monster goes for about $20,000), the TVs feature Direct Full Array dynamic backlight technology and Bixby assistant voice control. Besides making the set blend into its background when idle, the aforementioned “Ambient Mode” can also display news, weather, or traffic updates.
