This week, after months of leaks and speculation, Samsung launched the Galaxy S20 line of phones — all boasting the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processors, upgraded 120Hz displays, improved camera hardware, and built-in 5G capability. As an added surprise, we also got a new foldable model in the form of the Galaxy Z Flip, which according to my ZDNet colleague, Chris Matyszczyk, is the phone to be “seen with.”
Now, I’m not going to downplay the S20 or the Z Flip in terms of their strategic importance to Samsung. The company needed to do a refresh this year because you can’t go a year without doing a device or tech refresh in the consumer electronics industry, especially when you are talking about something as visible as smartphones.
This year, it was important for Samsung to put a stake in the ground about its commitment to 5G and to reassure its customers about continuing to make investments in folding screen technology. Those two technologies are key to the Korean tech giant retaining their No. 1 mobile device manufacturer status on a worldwide basis while also maintaining leadership in the mobile industry as a whole.
That being said, if you are up for a mobile device upgrade because your phone is several years old and are looking across multiple vendors for a top contender, the S20 series and the Z Flip are not practical choices. As my Jason Squared co-host, Jason Cipriani, has noted, 5G coverage in the US is currently abysmal, and it will likely take two years or more for the major telcos to achieve comprehensive coverage for both Sub-6 and mmWave 5G networks.
Unless you are buying the top-end S20 Plus or S20 Ultra, you’re not buying a phone with mmWave capabilities anyway; you can only use the more extended range, slower Sub-6 networks on the regular S20, and Verizon will not even offer the standard model for the time being due to lack of Sub-6 coverage on its network.
And folding screens? I’m not confident after Samsung’s last fiasco that this folding screen phone is going to be any more resilient to wear and tear than last year’s Tech Turkey. And while Motorola isn’t Samsung, its first-generation phone using this tech doesn’t seem to be living up to the 100,000 fold MTBF it was supposed to have — it failed at 27,000 folds on a test performed by our network sister publication, CNET. So, the technology for this is far from baked. In a few years, these issues may very well work themselves out, and I am confident in Samsung and Motorola as engineering firms. But, at these prices, I’m not going to be an early adopter.
Oh, yeah… If you do buy one of these things? They start at $1,000 for the base S20 and almost $1,400 for the Z Flip. Yeah, that.
Yes, there are also the sweet 40MP and 108MP cameras on the new phones. But, unless you’re aiming to take professional style photos using RAW, then intend to show them on native resolution devices such as 4K and 8K displays, and print them with costly boutique art reproduction quality printers, you’re not going to enjoy the full capabilities of the cameras on those phones. By default, when you take photos, they are going to be stepped down to a much lower resolution and file size to put less strain on mobile networks and eat less onboard storage. Can you get more sharpness out of an extreme crop? Yes, but that’s not something people typically do.
Even if you do sync these at native resolution to a service like Google Photos (which, you can’t, unless you pay extra for it with a storage plan), services like Instagram and Facebook will heavily compress everything you upload, so you’re going to get digital artifacts, and they will not look nearly as sharp as the originals. Most people take casual photos of things — selfies, friends, candid family shots, pets, food. You don’t need a 40MP — let alone a 108MP camera sensor. Most of this type of photography benefits much higher from image processing than sensor quality, and Samsung so far hasn’t invested in this in the same way that Apple and Google have.
Sounds like a bummer, right? Well, not so fast.
Samsung did announce something that should make everyone very happy: A significant price drop on last year’s S10 models, which are very lovely phones indeed.
Disclosure: ZDNet may earn an affiliate commission from some of the products featured on this page. ZDNet and the author were not compensated for this independent review.
Samsung dropped the prices for the unlocked Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10, and Galaxy S10 Plus with 128GB of storage down to $599.99, $749.99, and $849.99, respectively, in the US. That’s at least a $200 price cut from the original launch price for these devices, and that is not reflecting final trade-in price with a qualifying Samsung, Apple, or Google device. As of this writing, most of the major retailers have not yet followed suit with discounts — although the current price is reflected at Amazon and Best Buy.
I expect there to be additional promotions in the next month or two, as Apple is expected to launch its iPhone 9, and Google is expected to announce the Pixel 4A and drop the price of its flagship phones, the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4XL.
As a refresher, the S10 uses the Qualcomm 855 processor (the flagship SoC from last year) with 8GB RAM and 128GB of flash storage. It has a 550ppi pixel density display at 1440×3040 resolution with a 60Hz refresh rate. In addition to a 12MP selfie — which is the same as the Galaxy S20 — the phone has three cameras: A 12MP wide, a 12MP telephoto, and 16MP ultrawide. And it can take a high-definition video at 2160p. The phone recently received its Android 10 upgrade, as well.
In every area that is practically meaningful to the average end-user, the S10 is as good as a phone the S20 is — for a lot less money.
Are there cheaper Qualcomm 855 phones on the market? There sure are, such as OnePlus and ZTE, which have some genuinely excellent devices in the $500 price range. The ZTE Axon 10 Pro is now $469, and the OnePlus 7 Pro is $499, and we highly recommend both of those excellent devices. But I expect that, with this increased pressure from Samsung (and Apple in the next few months), we will see these phones drop in price even more, as well.
But if you want to go with a phone that will be well-supported and is a no-brainer purchase if you need to upgrade from an existing Samsung, Google, or Apple device? Pick up an S10.
Are you planning to upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy S10 after the recent price drops? Talk Back and Let Me Know.
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Leaving her elderly father on a basement floor for two days in a soiled adult diaper won’t mean jail for a Calgary woman.
Justice Indra Maharaj accepted a joint Crown and defence submission on Wednesday for a two-year-less-a-day conditional sentence order for Tara Picard to be followed by 12 months of probation.
Prosecutor Donna Spaner and defence counsel Shaun Leochko proposed a community-based term which will include eight months of 24-hour house arrest followed by a nightly curfew for the second eight months.
Maharaj also agreed with the lawyers to order Picard to commit 300 hours of community service over the length of the three-year sentence.
The Calgary Court of Justice noted that amount of community-service hours was “a lot” to commit to.
But Maharaj said it showed Picard, 52, was truly remorseful for her conduct towards her father, whom Postmedia is not identifying because of the embarrassing nature of the facts of the case.
“What that shows me is Ms. Picard does sincerely recognize what has happened here,” the judge said of her willingness to complete community service.
“What I interpret from that is Ms. Picard’s willingness to give back to the community.”
Picard pleaded guilty in January to charges of assault and failing to provide the necessaries of life to her 77-year-old father.
Court heard caregivers found the elderly Calgary man on the basement floor of his daughter’s southeast home wearing a soiled adult diaper.
At the time, Picard was responsible for her father’s day-to-day care after he was moved to her residence, Spaner, reading from a statement of agreed facts, told court at the time.
“He had a number of medical ailments, including non-insulin dependent diabetes, coronary artery disease, some early onset dementia-like symptoms and chronic alcoholism,” Spaner said.
“(He) had been living independently in a Calgary apartment building. Family members became concerned that he was not caring for himself safely.”
With the help of Alberta Health Services he was moved to a home where Picard resided.
A registered nurse assigned to his care attended the 38 Street S.E. home on Nov. 15, 2021, to drop off food bank supplies for him and was told he was sleeping downstairs.
When the nurse called about an hour and a half later and spoke to the man on the phone he said he was lying on the floor, had fallen and was unable to get up.
When she returned to the home with a co-worker she found the victim lying on his back on the floor.
“(He) said that he had been lying on the floor for two days,” Spaner said.
Leochko said Picard was overwhelmed by the situation she was thrust into.
“It really was more than she could handle,” he said.
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@juanhall: I gotta say, this was the most interesting bike in this post….love that Intense is experimenting with gearboxes…I can see it have a huge effect on DH bikes….thank god there’s still people pushing things. Now, they need to make an Enduro bike with the Pinion MGU!
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The City of Pointe-Claire would like to inform you that the Bob-Birnie arena will be closed for its annual maintenance as of Monday, April 29. The Annex rink will reopen to the public on Monday, May 13, and the arena’s Main rink will be accessible as of Monday, June 3.
Public skating will resume on May 13, and the summer public activities programming will begin on June 3 when both rinks have reopened to the public.
In addition to the annual maintenance of the facility, two renovation projects are also scheduled to start at the same time:
Installation of new sound systems
The City will be replacing its current sound systems in both the Main rink and Annex rink, to offer arena visitors a better overall experience, whether watching from the stands or participating in on-ice activities. This project is expected to be conducted throughout the month of May.
Renovation of locker rooms in the Main Rink
The City will also be renovating the five locker rooms located in the Main rink, to bring up to date the amenities currently available to participants. These renovations are expected to begin in early May and will be completed by mid-August.
For all information about the Bob-Birnie arena, visit the arena’s page on our website.
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