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Samsung Unpacked 2020 event: all of the latest rumors, news, and more

It’s February, and in the tech world that has come to mean that all eyes are on Samsung. The company will take the stage at its Unpacked 2020 event on Tuesday, February 11th at 2PM ET / 11AM PT to show off the Samsung Galaxy S20, S20 Plus, and S20 Ultra.

Rumors and leaks also indicate that Samsung will debut its next foldable phone, this one being called the Galaxy Z Flip. Between this Samsung handset and Motorola’s new Razr, 2020 is becoming the year of the flip phone redux. Each of the four phones have been extensively leaked, and if you want to catch up on the rumors, we’ve put them all in one article.

But why read just one article when you can read them all? If you want to see each and every important update from Unpacked 2020, you’ll find them all collected below.

  • Cameron Faulkner

    Mar 6, 2020

    Cameron Faulkner

    Here’s where you can buy the Samsung Galaxy S20

    The Samsung Galaxy S20, S20 Plus, and S20 Ultra are available, following their announcement in early February. If you didn’t preorder, you can get one from numerous retailers and carrier stores around the country.

    Below, you’ll find all of the carrier stores and retailers that are selling the phones. However, if you preordered one, it’s likely that you already received your phone. You can now redeem your free credit earned by ordering one before the March 6th cutoff date. Here’s how:

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  • Sean Hollister

    Feb 19, 2020

    Sean Hollister

    Folding glass: how, why, and the truth of Samsung’s Z Flip

    Photo by Nick Statt / The Verge

    On February 11th, 2020, Samsung introduced the world’s first folding glass phone: the Galaxy Z Flip. Samsung declared that it had broken the laws of physics by bending glass, specifically by making “a leap from polymer screens to ultra-thin glass technology.”

    Samsung made it sound like it had invented a new proprietary form of glass, and the company even dubbed it Samsung Ultra Thin Glass (UTG). “We’ve done the impossible and created ultra thin glass that folds,” the company’s presentation claimed, adding that it “protects your screen from scratches.”

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  • Sam Byford

    Feb 12, 2020

    Sam Byford

    Why Samsung’s 108-megapixel camera isn’t just a gimmick

    Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

    It’s true that software and machine learning are more important than hardware when it comes to delivering the best smartphone cameras. But it’s also true that hardware plays a part, and that over the past few years Samsung has been unusually conservative with its smartphone camera technology. And it’s also true that you absolutely could not level that accusation at the Galaxy S20 Ultra.

    We’ll have to spend more time with the device to see if Samsung’s software game has improved. But it’s hard to imagine the company making much more effort to fill out the S20 phones’ spec sheets. The Ultra in particular has crammed two notable firsts (for the US market, at least) into its sizable camera bump: a “periscope” telephoto lens for unprecedented zooming capability, and a 108-megapixel sensor for the main wide-angle camera.

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  • Jay Peters

    Feb 12, 2020

    Jay Peters

    The Galaxy Z Flip’s split-screen mode isn’t just for Samsung foldables, says Google

    Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Flip clamshell foldable has a cool new feature that can split the phone’s enormous vertical real estate into a top half and a bottom half, and Google tells The Verge that other phone makers will soon be able to build that feature into their phones, too.

    The feature, which Samsung calls “Flex mode,” can split the phone’s display into two four-inch screens that can each show different types of content while you’re using an app. Samsung gives the example of watching a YouTube video on the top half of the screen while searching for other videos or reading comments on the bottom screen. My colleague Dieter Bohn also got to test the mode with a Google Duo video call, which showed a video chat on the top half of the screen and call controls on the bottom half of the screen.

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  • Feb 11, 2020

    Dani Deahl

    Flipboard will soon share short videos alongside the news for $3 a month

    Image: Flipboard

    News aggregator app Flipboard is launching a new ad-free curated video service called Flipboard TV that will come preinstalled on Samsung’s new Galaxy S20 phones and cost $3 a month. The service will be exclusive to the S20 for three months, and then roll out to all the other places Flipboard is available.

    Flipboard TV focuses on short-form videos delivered in a customized news feed, which you’ll find under a new dedicated tab in the Flipboard app. The feed will algorithmically suggest videos based on your interests, and users can follow videos based on things like topic or publication to populate their feed.

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  • Chris Welch

    Feb 11, 2020

    Chris Welch

    Samsung confirms its AirDrop-like ‘Quick Share’ is launching on the Galaxy S20

    Image: Samsung

    AirDrop has long been a handy convenience that comes with using Apple gadgets, but Samsung has finally come up with its own version. And it’s debuting on the Galaxy S20, S20 Plus, and S20 Ultra. It’s called Quick Share, and Samsung says it lets you “share everything with your friends instantly.” Quick Share is detailed toward the bottom of this page that’s about the S20’s camera.

    Similar to AirDrop, Quick Share can show “which of your contacts is nearby” so you can easily send files to them. But an interesting advantage over AirDrop is that Quick Share allows you to share with “up to 5 friends” simultaneously. AirDrop limits you to one recipient at a time.

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  • Chris Welch

    Feb 11, 2020

    Chris Welch

    Samsung’s Galaxy S20 phones are getting Google’s helpful Live Caption feature

    Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

    Samsung’s Galaxy S20 lineup will be the first non-Pixel phones to gain Google’s Live Caption feature, which transcribes and captions videos in real time with excellent accuracy — even when the volume is turned down. Live Caption debuted on Android 10 with the Pixel 4, and Google positions it as a helpful tool among Android’s accessibility features. It has since come to older Pixel devices, but Samsung is the first outside of Google to offer it.

    Live Caption works completely on device, meaning your captions are never sent to Google’s servers or shared with the company. It can’t be used for music, phone calls, or voice-over IP calls, however. And app developers have the option of opting out of sharing their software’s audio with the system; in cases where they do, though, Live Caption won’t work right.

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  • Cameron Faulkner

    Feb 11, 2020

    Cameron Faulkner

    How to preorder the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip

    Samsung announced the new foldable Galaxy Z Flip during the company’s Unpacked 2020 event, and you won’t have to wait very long to get your chance at buying one. It will be available for purchase starting this Friday, February 14th — a week before preorders for the Galaxy S20 phones even start. In case you were really striking out on Valentine’s Day gift ideas, here’s one on the house.

    So far, only AT&T and Sprint have confirmed availability of the Galaxy Z Flip through its respective sites and physical retail locations. As for pricing, AT&T shared that it will cost $46 per month for 30 months and it costs $57.50 for its 18-month loan, and while we don’t have a price for the unlocked version of the foldable phone through Samsung, that puts it at $1,380 for the total cost.

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  • Dieter Bohn

    Feb 11, 2020

    Dieter Bohn

    Samsung Galaxy Z Flip first look: folding glass changes everything

    Samsung just unveiled the Galaxy Z Flip, its second folding phone. This phone’s big improvement over foldables to date is the use of a glass screen, and it definitely feels a whole lot nicer. It feels like glass, and it can’t be easily marked up by a fingernail like the plastic screens used to date. I tried my darndest to see the crease in the hands-on area and while I could see it, it wasn’t easy. Of course, we were in a somewhat controlled and completely chaotic and crowded situation, so don’t hold me to that long term.

    The phone has a strong hinge, and that comes with some ups and downs. On the upside, it can hold itself open in any position. It opens smoothly, doesn’t creak, and and feels pretty good overall. On the downside, the phone is harder to open. It doesn’t flip open like a classic clamshell phone. Opening it with a single hand takes a lot of work, so you’ll probably be using two most of the time.

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  • Cameron Faulkner

    Feb 11, 2020

    Cameron Faulkner

    Here’s how Samsung’s Galaxy S20 stacks up against the Pixel 4, OnePlus 7T, and more

    Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

    Samsung has debuted its new Galaxy S20 lineup of phones, and since it’s one of the first big releases of 2020, it gets to set the bar for what kind of power and features you should expect from a new phone. Given the strong suits of the smallest Galaxy S20 — including specs like a quad-lens rear camera array, the Snapdragon 865 processor, a high 12GB RAM count, and a display with a variable refresh rate — it will give other companies a high bar to match.

    And until companies like LG, OnePlus, and Google release new phones in 2020, all we have to compare Samsung’s latest phone to is older phones. The comparison below isn’t definitive; we haven’t reviewed the S20 yet, and comparing phones spec by spec doesn’t always provide the full story of what each device can do.

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  • Jay Peters

    Feb 11, 2020

    Jay Peters

    How Samsung’s Galaxy S20 compares with the iPhone 11

    Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge

    Samsung has just announced the Samsung Galaxy S20 lineup, and they look to be good upgrades over last year’s Galaxy S10. This year, there are three new models: the Galaxy S20, the bigger Galaxy S20 Plus, and the spec-stuffed Galaxy S20 Ultra.

    One of the headline features of the S20 is a screen that you can toggle between a 60Hz and a super-smooth 120Hz refresh rate. The phones also have a lot of camera tech on board: the S20 has three cameras, the S20 Plus adds a time-of-flight sensor, and the S20 Ultra has a monster 108-megapixel lens with 100x zoom. All three phones support 5G, though only the S20 Plus and S20 Ultra support ultra-fast millimeter wave networks at launch. Samsung says it will launch a Galaxy S20 that supports Verizon’s millimeter wave network in the second quarter of this year.

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  • Cameron Faulkner

    Feb 11, 2020

    Cameron Faulkner

    All of the biggest announcements from Samsung’s Galaxy S20 event

    Samsung’s Unpacked 2020 event has wrapped. The company jumped right in with the announcements by unveiling the Galaxy Z Flip foldable phone, and introduced the Samsung Galaxy S20, S20 Plus, and S20 Ultra.

    If you want the play-by-play of each moment with commentary from The Verge’s Dieter Bohn, check out the live blog. But if you want the biggest headlines with the need-to-know facts, you’ll find all of that below. This post will be ordered from newest on the top to oldest at the bottom.

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  • Feb 11, 2020

    Dani Deahl

    Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip should be more durable than the troubled Galaxy Fold

    Samsung announced its newest folding phone, the Z Flip, at its annual Galaxy event today, but the company promises it won’t be plagued with the same problems as its other folding phone, the Galaxy Fold.

    The Z Flip is Samsung’s second foldable phone, following last year’s Galaxy Fold. The Z Flip’s 6.7-inch display folds into a pocketable square shape, and the phone has an ultra-thin flexible glass display that should resist scratches better than the plastic screen it currently uses on the Galaxy Fold.

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  • Jacob Kastrenakes

    Feb 11, 2020

    Jacob Kastrenakes

    Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip has the first folding glass display

    Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip has something that’s been on no other foldable phone to date: a folding glass screen. So far, every foldable phone and tablet has relied on plastic to cover up the display. It feels worse, dents easily, and likely contributed to their delicate builds. Glass was always hoped to be the future, whenever manufacturers could figure out how to make it.

    The phone’s display uses “ultra-thin glass” durable enough to withstand 200,000 folds, Samsung says. It refers to the technology as “revolutionary flexible glass,” and says that it’s “built to last.” Samsung says the glass is “proprietary,” suggesting it was made in house, and has branded the tech as “Ultra Thin Glass.”

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  • Tom Warren

    Feb 11, 2020

    Tom Warren

    Samsung’s new foldable Galaxy Z Flip will arrive on February 14th for $1,380

    Samsung is unveiling its latest foldable Galaxy Z Flip phone today. It looks a lot different than the troubled Galaxy Fold, and it folds up much like the new Motorola Razr. It’s clearly designed to be a full phone with a 6.7-inch OLED display that folds and shrinks into a much smaller square when it’s closed. Samsung is planning to launch the Galaxy Z Flip on February 14th, priced at $1,380.

    Think of it as a tiny phone that slips into a pocket or bag and can be folded out like a regular flip phone. The Galaxy Z Flip also includes a clever 1.1-inch OLED cover display that highlights notifications when the device is closed, and you can tap on them to get straight into apps once you unfold it again. You can even use this cover display as a viewfinder for the camera.

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  • Cameron Faulkner

    Feb 11, 2020

    Cameron Faulkner

    Samsung’s Galaxy S10E, S10, and S10 Plus are $150 off

    Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

    Samsung is knocking $150 off the cost of its entire Galaxy S10 lineup of phones, which includes the S10E, S10, and S10 Plus. These permanent price cuts are effective immediately, and it’s happening on the heels of Samsung’s Unpacked event where it unveiled its new Galaxy S20 generation of flagship phones.

    These 2019 phones have already seen a good deal of discounts in the year that they’ve been available, and with this price cut in effect, you’re looking at new starting price of $599 for the S10E, $749 for the S10, and $849 for the S10 Plus.

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  • Barbara Krasnoff

    Feb 11, 2020

    Barbara Krasnoff

    The new Galaxy S20 phones are Samsung’s first to record 8K video

    Samsung’s phones are well-known for their outstanding cameras. So when word went around that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor would be the chip that would power the new Galaxy S20 line, many suspected that one of the new features of the phone would be the ability to record 8K video.

    And now we know: Samsung’s three new Galaxy S20 5G phones will indeed allow you to record in 8K for high-quality, brilliantly colored videos. These aren’t the first phones with the ability to record in 8K. That honor is held by the Chinese company ZTE, which introduced its 8K Smart STB phone in Shanghai in 2019. However, the Galaxy S20 phones will have the advantage of the new Snapdragon processor (not to mention the ability to be marketed in the US).

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  • Chris Welch

    Feb 11, 2020

    Chris Welch

    Samsung announces Galaxy Buds Plus earbuds with huge boost to battery life

    Samsung has just announced its second-generation true wireless earbuds, the Galaxy Buds Plus. They feature a design that’s more or less identical to the original Galaxy Buds but offer a number of improvements. The Galaxy Buds Plus are priced at $149 and will come in black, white, and blue color options.

    Specs for the Galaxy Buds Plus were leaked ahead of Samsung’s Unpacked event and revealed that the latest model makes impressive strides in battery life. They can last for up to 11 hours on a single charge, and the charging case extends that to 22 hours before everything needs to be juiced back up. In situations where the buds are completely dead, charging them for just three minutes over USB-C will get you an hour of playing time.

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  • Chris Welch

    Feb 11, 2020

    Chris Welch

    Samsung’s regular Galaxy S20 doesn’t support ultra-fast 5G

    Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

    All of Samsung’s Galaxy S20 phones — the just-announced S20, S20 Plus, and S20 Ultra — support 5G. But at launch, only the latter two will be compatible with ultra-fast millimeter wave networks, like the one Verizon currently bases its entire 5G experience on. The standard Galaxy S20 only supports “sub-6” 5G used by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint in the United States.

    Sub-6 5G offers better coverage and range than millimeter wave, but peak data speeds (upwards of 500 or 600Mbps) can’t match the gigabit performance you get with mmW — if you’re standing in exactly the right spot, at least.

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  • Dieter Bohn

    Feb 11, 2020

    Dieter Bohn

    Samsung’s Galaxy S20, Plus, and Ultra first look: cameras, 5G, and 120Hz screens

    Samsung has announced its latest flagship phones: the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20 Plus, and Galaxy S20 Ultra. Technically, Samsung is appending “5G” to the names of those phones, as each one will support 5G in the US and other select markets. They’ll be available on March 6th with prices ranging from $999.99 to $1,599.99, and preorders begin on February 21st.

    I briefly tried out all three versions last week, and my first impression is that Samsung wants to make sure there’s no spec that isn’t maxed out: the screens have high 120Hz refresh rates and are bigger than ever, the data comes in at 5G speeds, the cameras zoom farther and rack up megapixels in the hundreds, and even the batteries are bigger.

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  • Jon Porter

    Feb 11, 2020

    Jon Porter

    How Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Ultra achieves its 100x zoom

    Samsung’s newly announced Galaxy S20 Ultra offers a new feature that the company is calling “Space Zoom,” which allows its cameras to offer a total combined optical and digital zoom of 100x. That sounds like one of the biggest zooms we’ve seen on a mainstream smartphone, but there’s a lot of nuance to how Samsung’s phone achieves the figure. In short, it’s all down to a combination of optical zooming hardware, image processing, and an exceptionally high-resolution sensor.

    At lower levels of zoom, Samsung is relying on a “folded” 4x telephoto lens behind the hole in the back of the phone, which it’s combining with a 48-megapixel sensor. Then, between 4x and 10x zoom, the phone offers what Samsung is calling a “lossless hybrid optic” zoom, which relies on a combination of sensor cropping and binning where multiple pixels are combined into one big pixel. The use of the word “lossless” implies that Samsung doesn’t think you’ll see any loss of quality up to 10x zoom. Then, between 10x and 100x zoom, the phone is using similar methods, but it’s a digital zoom that will inevitably mean less detail as the zoom increases.

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  • Dieter Bohn

    Feb 11, 2020

    Dieter Bohn

    Live from Samsung’s Galaxy S20 and Z Flip keynote

    Samsung is back with another Unpacked event in San Francisco. The Verge is here to live blog the keynote, which begins at 11AM PT / 2PM ET. What should you expect? Phones, lots of phones. Specifically, the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20 Plus, and Galaxy S20 Ultra. Plus, expect Samsung’s second attempt at a folding phone, the Galaxy Z Flip, which is rumored to be the first folding phone with glass instead of plastic on the screen.

    The S20 phones are likely to be the main focus, though. They’re Samsung’s flagship devices and the place where it most directly competes with the iPhone. All three Galaxy S20 phones are rumored to support 5G and have high-refresh rate screens, which will be two of the big phone trends in 2020. The big question mark is the camera, though. Can Samsung catch up with the Google Pixel and the iPhone 11 Pro? There are rumors of very high megapixel counts, which usually bodes ill for camera quality. Maybe Samsung will flip that script.

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  • Barbara Krasnoff

    Feb 11, 2020

    Barbara Krasnoff

    Watch Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2020 live

    Samsung’s big Unpacked event, where the company is introducing its latest (and, it hopes, greatest) products, is today, February 11th. If you’re a Samsung fan or you’re just interested in the latest tech devices, it should be interesting to watch.

    News about many of the products that the company plans to announce is already buzzing around the internet, including Samsung’s latest flagship phone series, the Samsung Galaxy S20 and S20 Plus (which should include 5G support); a foldable Galaxy Z Flip; and a pair of true wireless earbuds.

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  • Dieter Bohn

    Feb 11, 2020

    Dieter Bohn

    Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip phone needs to do way better than past foldables

    Image: WinFuture

    Later today, Samsung will officially announce a new folding phone, the Galaxy Z Flip. We know this because many, many details have leaked about it. Also because Samsung itself decided to just show off the whole damn phone and several details about its workings during the Academy Awards. It just up and aired a Galaxy Z Flip commercial before it even announced the phone

    Samsung always goes hard at the Oscars, so it’s no surprise that it aired an ad this year. I was not expecting such a full reveal of its folding flip phone, though!

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  • Chaim Gartenberg

    Feb 10, 2020

    Chaim Gartenberg

    Samsung’s Galaxy S20 is a make-or-break moment for 5G

    The Galaxy S10 5G.
    The Galaxy S10 5G.
    Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

    Samsung is about to launch the Galaxy S20, its newest flagship phone and — if history is anything to go by — what will largely be the standard that the rest of 2020’s top phones is measured up against. Millions of people will buy the S20, which will almost certainly be one of the most popular phones sold in the United States this year. 

    It’s also going to be the first real test for 5G networks in the US, one that could help establish the networking standard as the true next-generation technology that companies have spent years hyping it up to be — or it’ll shine a spotlight on the half-baked mess of competing standards, technologies, and strategies that currently makes up the 5G market in the US. 

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