The Galaxy S20 FE is Samsung’s new $699 budget flagship

One thing Samsung knows for certain: it’s interested in budget flagships. The category makes sense these days, as users are increasingly unwilling to spend north of $1,000 on new phones. That’s doubly the case during the COVID-19 pandemic, with people leaving the house far less often and simply not possessing the same sort of disposable income they once had, amid economic slowdowns and widespread unemployment.

Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Ultra is a lot of phone for a lot of money

What’s less certain is how to position such a device. Samsung’s been through a lot of different names, including, most recently, the “Lite” line. That name made sense from a utility perspective. The S10 Lite was simply a lower-spec’d version of the flagship of similar name. Ultimately, however, I suspect that Samsung decided that pointing to the device’s shortcomings wasn’t ideal from a branding perspective, which is why we’re currently looking at the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE — or “Fan Edition.”

Image Credits: Samsung

The name implies that the product is an update to the S20 aimed firmly at Samsung’s fans. Here’s what Mobile head TM Roh had to say about the new device: “We are constantly speaking to our fans and taking feedback, and we heard what they loved about our Galaxy S20 series, what features they used most often and what they would want new smartphone. The S20 FE is an extension of the Galaxy S20 family and is the start of a new way to bring meaningful innovation to even more people to let them do the things they love with the best of Galaxy.”

That’s true from a certain perspective. Samsung says it did some focus grouping to come up with the right combination for the FE, which I believe. It’s also probably true that “cheaper” was a big feature many folks have been looking for in their handsets in recent years, so from that standpoint, Samsung’s got fans’ numbers here — $699 for something approaching a flagship isn’t that bad, these days.

Samsung announces ‘Lite’ versions of the Galaxy S10 and Note 10

And Samsung’s made a point to be mindful of the comprises it made here in the name of keeping the prices down. The biggest changes from the rest of the S20 series are a downgrade in materials, from a glass and metal to plastic (polycarbonate) design, display and camera specs. At 6.5 inches, the screen size actually falls between the S20 and S20+, but it’s been reduced from a QuadHD+ resolution to FHD+ — similar to what you’ll find on the Galaxy A71. The refresh rate stays at 120Hz, though the curved screen is gone.

Image Credits: Samsung

The S20’s 8GB of RAM has been reduced to 6GB, though the 128GB of standard storage remains the same. You’ll find the same Snapdragon 865 on board and, interestingly, the battery has actually been upgraded from 4,000mAh to 4,500mAh, owing to a larger device footprint. There are three rear-facing cameras, with the telephoto dropping from 64-megapixels down to eight — though the front-facing selfie cam has been upgraded from 10 megapixels to 32.

Not the latest and greatest, but in all, pretty reasonable compromises made in the name of shaving $300 off the device’s starting price. Pre-orders start today. The device starts shipping October 2.

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Apple partner Servify raises $23 million to scale its devices after-sales and management platform overseas

Servify, a Mumbai-headquartered startup that operates a device lifecycle management platform and works deeply with brands including Apple and Samsung in a number of geographies, has raised $23 million in a new financing round.

The Series C financing round for the five-year-old startup was led by existing investor Iron Pillar, and other existing investors including Blume Ventures, Beenext, and Tetrao SPF participated in the round. The new round pushes Servify’s to-date raise to $48 million.

Servify works with enterprises such as Apple, Samsung, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Nokia, Motorola, and Airtel and handles after-sales services such as device protection, exchange, and trade-in programs for its partners, explained Sreevathsa Prabhakar, founder and chief executive of the startup, in an interview with TechCrunch.

The startup, which offers its services through a whitelabel arrangement with enterprises, works with over 50 brands and reaches over 50 markets. With Apple, it works in three geographies, and in over half a dozen with OnePlus.

The new round, which was oversubscribed, will help the startup expand its expertise in many new product categories and deepen its reach in international markets, said Prabhakar, who has more than a decade of experience in overseeing after-sales and other device management businesses.

“We are keenly interested in unique businesses addressing hard problems in very large and global markets and are excited to continue to back the company in its next phase of growth. Stellar execution by Servify’s team combined with its differentiated technology platform have led to the company’s impressive growth this year despite Covid-19 related challenges,” said Anand Prasanna, Managing Partner at Iron Pillar, in a statement.

The coronavirus outbreak has deeply impacted the business of Servify, which was profitable in the financial year that ended in March. The month of April and May, when many countries enforced lockdowns, the startup’s business reached a complete halt. But in the months since, it has not only fully-recovered but grown to new heights, said Prabhakar. During no time, the company laid off any employee or reduced their salaries, he said.

“It is very satisfying as we have more than quadrupled our revenue in 2020 till date, and raised funds for expansion even during the tough economic climate. This further strengthens our belief that we have built a globally scalable sound business that is not only trusted by large brands, but also the investor community,” he said.

TechCrunch asked Prabhakar if he would ever consider engaging with customers directly. He said the current model of Servify enables it to acquire customers at no charge and he thinks it’s the right model to maintain moving forward.

Prabhakar said he is hopeful that more venture firms will look into this new category, which has traditionally does not receive much attention because it did not fit into existing spaces such as SaaS. He said Servify has proven that this category is crucial and thriving.

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Royole returns with another foldable

I first spent time with the Royole Flexpai at a TechCrunch event in China back in 2018. The device was exciting. It was the first commercially released foldable, after all, before Samsung and Huawei offered their respective takes on the form factor. But ultimately it felt like, at best, a proof of concept. It was a shot across the bow from a little-known Shenzhen-based hardware maker, and ultimately little else.

The last two years have been — let’s say “complicated” for the category. I don’t think anyone was anticipating that $2,000 foldable phones were going to disrupt the industry right out of the gate or anything — especially in a time when more people are spending less money on their mobile devices. But to say foldables got off to a rocky start is something of an understatement. Royole has announced a few more products here and there, but the Flexpai continues to be the company’s most engaging from a consumer perspective.

A closer look at Royole’s foldable display

At an event in Beijing this morning, the company announced the Flexpai 2. The device is similar in design to the first model, which is to say it folds with the screen facing outward. The design makes sense from the standpoint of offering up notifications while closed (there’s a reason the Galaxy Fold 2 got a larger front-facing screen), but now you’ve got two screens to scuff up when the big old device is in your pocket.

The device itself got a bit of screen time during the press conference, though not a ton. For now we mostly have press shots to rely on, which is going to continue to be one of the pain points of covering hardware in the COVID-19 era. Fittingly, the company spent a lot of time talking hinges here — that, after all, was a high profile point of failure for Samsung’s first-gen device.

Here’s how Royole describes it in the press material:

The structure of the hinge is stable and shockproof, providing the great protection for the screen. It has more than 200 precision components with 0.01 mm processing accuracy. The hinge technology holds around 200 patents and solved many issues seen in other foldable smartphones.

Image Credits: Royole

Having had limited time with the Flexpai, I’ll say that robustness didn’t seem like one of the primary issues with a product that had some other first-gen bugs. The thing was pretty massively thick, though — which Royole has addressed with a design here that’s around 40% thinner than the first gen. The display is a generous 7.8 inches — though no mention of whether there’s glass reinforcement, which could be an issue.

There’s 5G support, a healthy 4450mAh battery and a Snapdragon 865 processor. The company updated its waterOS, which is built on top of Android 10 to offer a more seamless foldable experience. It arrives in China this week priced at around $1,427, which is wildly expensive for a standard smartphone, but actually pretty good for a foldable.

U.S. availability is, once again, a big question mark.

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Samsung is holding yet another Unpacked Event on September 23

One thing I’ll say for in-person events: they compelled companies to cram in a lot of news. After all, if you’re going to ask an auditorium full of people to travel from around the country — or world — you want to give them a lot of bang for their buck.

Samsung did manage that with its Galaxy Note event in early August. We got a new phone, new earbuds, new watch, new tablet and a preview of an upcoming foldable. A couple of weeks ago, the company devoted an entire second event to the new Fold. And now here we are, a couple of weeks later, staring down yet another event.

Samsung’s new Galaxy Fold arrives September 18 for $2,000

The September 23 event will likely focus on the Galaxy S20 Fan Edition that’s been floating around in leaks for a few months now, the way Samsung devices tend to. I’m not saying there won’t be a bunch of other news at the event as well, but the Fold event lowered my expectations a bit with regard to what the company deems worthy of a standalone event in 2020, versus, say, issuing a press release or something.

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra review

Anyway, the so-called “Fan Edition” finds the company picking up a long-abandoned trend of issuing lower-cost alternatives to flagship devices (notably, a refurbished version of the Note 7).

Here it seems to be a lower-priced take on Samsung’s primary flagship, the Galaxy S20. From the sound of it, the device is essentially a rebranding of its “Lite” line — the latest take on an already confusing approach to its budget flagship offerings.

We’ll find out more September 23 at 7 a.m. PT/10 a.m. ET.

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Samsung’s got a new budget 5G handset and a fitness tracker with a two-week battery

Yesterday’s overflow Galaxy Unpacked event was about one thing and one thing alone: the Galaxy Z Fold 2. Honestly, it was a bit anticlimactic after its predecessor found Samsung unveiling five new devices. But the singular focus wasn’t for lack of new stuff to show off. In fact, the company just unleashed a whole slew of new products across a wide range of categories, including a gaming monitor, charging pad, refrigerator and washing machine.

There are two in particular I’d like to break out here, however: the new Galaxy Fit 2 band and A42 5G handset. The latter in particular is worth highlighting, given the company’s huge push into 5G this year. Samsung is betting big on pushing early and hard on the next-generation wireless tech.

Early this year, the company announced that it would be standardizing 5G across its flagship products. The company has also made a major push toward embracing the tech on its budget devices, including the A7 and now the A42. 5G hasn’t quite turned out to be the market correction the industry was banking on, due in no small part to a slowdown in sales from the pandemic. Certainly few banked on that. But while Apple has yet to announce a 5G iPhone (give it a month or two, mind), Samsung’s already loaded up.

And importantly, the A42 looks like it may be Samsung’s cheapest 5G offering (though we’re still waiting on exact pricing). Honestly, Samsung wasn’t particularly chatty about the device during an IFA-tied event. Though we do know there’s a quad-camera system and a 6.6-inch display. Honestly, one of the most remarkable things about 5G is how quickly affordable devices have hit the market, thanks in part to the efforts of component makers like Qualcomm.

Image Credits: Samsung

The Galaxy Fit 2 is notable mostly for the inclusion of a 15-day battery (per Samsung). It can autodetect five different kinds of workouts and monitors sleep. It’s nice to see Samsung still offering something up to the dwindling tracker market, even as its (and the world’s) focus has clearly shifted over to smartwatches.

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The 5G version of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S7 starts at $850 and arrives September 18

2020 was going to be the year 5G went truly mainstream. Things obviously haven’t gone according to plan these past several months, but this is undoubtedly the year Samsung went all-in on the next generation technology. After being one of the first to market with a 5G device, it’s since made its way across the company’s various flagships and even onto a couple of mid-range phones.

With the arrival of the Galaxy Tab S7 5G, Samsung also becomes one of the first to add the extra layer of connectivity to its line of premium tablets. At today’s big Unpacked redux event, we’re finally getting a better look at what the 5G version, including the ever important pricing and availability.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ hands-on

The 5G models hit the market September 18 for $850 for the S7 — that’s a $200 premium over the standard model and the same starting price as the S7+. The 5G S7+, meanwhile, runs $1,050.

I’ve got a full write up of the non-5G version of the S7+ here. All of the words should pretty much apply to the new models, expect, you know, with more 5G. Honestly though, I don’t really have 5G access at the moment in the neighborhood in Queens I live in. In that case, the system reverts to LTE connectivity.

For that reason, this is going to be a pretty niche model. Honestly, the connect tablet market is still relatively niche to began with — and that’s likely to be even more so the case for 2020, when people are continuing to work from home in large numbers.

Pre-order for the tablets opens tomorrow.

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Meet the $3,300 edition of the Galaxy Z Fold 2

If you’re going to spend $1,000 on a phone, you might as well spend $2,000. And honestly, if you’re going to spend $2,000, why not just go for it and spend $3,300? That seems to be a chief guiding principle behind the Samsung Galaxy Fold Z 2 Thom Browne edition — a handset for those who want the priciest mobile device you can buy — and then some.

Image Credits: Samsung

Samsung has been partnering with the high-end American fashion designer for a couple of devices now. The Z Fold 2 edition follows the release of the Thom Browne Galaxy Z Flip, which also cost an additional $1,100 over the price of the standard foldable. Per the press materials:

[T]he second release further explores its shared ethos to provide a deeper level of hardware and software integration. The geometric grey and signature multicolor stripe is complemented by a grosgrain pattern, creating a visual texture of fabric on Galaxy Z Fold2’s unique design. Software additions, including a new lock screen and exclusive photo filter, digitize the Thom Browne world and bring a sense of luxury into every interaction.

Further justifying the device’s cost is the inclusion of a Galaxy Watch 3 and the Galaxy Buds Live — neither of which ship with the standard Fold Z 2. And perhaps even more importantly, it’s something you can lord over the heads of your slightly more frugal friends who only shelled out for the regular Fold.

It’s all part of the company’s work to frame the foldable as a truly luxury product. The standard model notably also ships with Samsung’s upgraded Premier Service. That includes “on-demand concierge support” and a one-time screen replacement for accidental damage. All solid additions for a still-new form factor. But the company is also tossing in Founders Card membership, access to a bunch of golf/country clubs and a meal from a Michelin star restaurant (terms and conditions apply, obviously). However, still no free Galaxy Buds with the standard model.

If all of that sounds good to you, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 Thom Browne edition goes up for pre-order tomorrow and enters general availability on September 25. The edition is limited to 5,000 units, so act now, I guess.

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Samsung’s new Galaxy Fold arrives September 18 for $2,000

As far as launches for revolutionary products are concerned, the Galaxy Fold could have gone a lot better. It’s not for lack of hype, of course. Years of prelude punctuated by Samsung’s own breathless expectations provided plenty of build-up, but in the end, the device felt like a partially baked disappointment.

A number of early units broke for a variety of reasons. Samsung recalled the foldable, went back to the drawing board and released it on a delayed timeline. I ran into issues with my second sample pretty quickly. At the end of the day, the device just demanded a level of gingerliness most users can’t really afford with a day-to-day mobile device.

My Galaxy Fold display is damaged after a day

The Galaxy Fold Z 2, which was the centerpiece of today’s Unpacked annex event, is largely devoted to addressing the biggest complaints about the original. Given the issues with the original, that’s about as admirable a goal as any. We were all aware that the Galaxy Fold was going to be a learning process for Samsung — and certainly there’s a certain degree of throwing caution to the wind — but relative to the company’s other device, it just didn’t feel finished.

Image Credits: Samsung

We certainly didn’t feel comfortable advising people to purchase the device for $2,000. The Fold Z 2 is priced the same (which is to say still prohibitively expensive for most), but it could be the product the first gen should have been. I’m going to wait until we’ve had sufficient review time to say anything definitive about the device, but in Samsung’s defense, the company does seem to have addressed most of the major issues with the original — thanks in no small part to some advances introduced with Flip last year.

Living with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip

The biggest update here is the addition of what the company calls “Ultra Thin Glass” to the primary foldable 7.6-inch display. That was one of the largest pain points of the original — as cool as the technology is, it’s not worth a lot if the touchscreen can’t withstand touches. The technology here is more or less the same as what Samsung introduced with the Flip.

Image Credits: Samsung

The same goes for the new “sweeper” technology, which builds in a brush to wick away particles that might otherwise fall into the phone. This was another issue with the original — crap was getting behind the screen, causing damage when pressure was applied to the front by the user. This is the third-generation of the feature, according to Samsung, sporting a thinner brush than the original. Per the company:

To achieve this, Samsung developed new innovative sweeper technology to achieve the same level of protection in a smaller space. The Galaxy Z Fold2 Hideaway Hinge features revolutionary slim cutting technology, modified fiber composition and adjusted fiber density.

That’s a fancy way of saying they made thinner bristles. The hinge has also been improved to allow the device to stand at a variety of angles. That’s going to be an important point as the company looks to compete directly with the likes of Microsoft’s Surface Duo and any other dual-screen devices coming down the road. That’s augmented by Flex Mode (another Flip addition), which reconfigures the screen to make the best use of the partially open display.

Image Credits: Samsung

The other big update here is the addition of a much larger front-facing screen. At 6.2 inches, the front of the device is actually a serviceable display for use while the device is closed. Last time around, the front-facing screen had a weirdly long aspect ratio and wasn’t really great for anything but notifications. The company seemingly took something away from Huawei’s first dip into the foldable category.

The new Fold has 5G support, of course — that’s now standard across the company’s flagships, along with some mid-tier devices. That’s coupled with a beefy 4,500 mAh of battery life (split in two, each behind a display), 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. There’s only one memory/storage option for the device for the States, which will run $2,000.

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That entitles the buyer to the Galaxy Z Premier service, which includes on-demand support for the phone and a one-time replacement after accidental screen damage. There’s also a bunch of other perks thrown in, like Founders Card membership and access to golfing, or dinner at a Michelin-star restaurant. I would have preferred a pair of Galaxy Buds, to be honest, but Samsung’s really pushing the luxury angle here.

The Galaxy Z Fold 2 is up for pre-order September 2, and starts shipping on the 18th.

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