#and it's very nice and nostalgic with a couple quality of life upgrades | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mikegranich87 · 3 years

Text

Galaxy Z Flip 3 hands-on: A straightforward upgrade for a nice price cut

youtube

Of all the devices Samsung launched at its Unpacked event today, I find the Z Flip 3 the most interesting. It’s a smartphone that folds in on itself to become half its size and features a new external display that’s four times larger than the one on its predecessor. Though it lacks the S Pen support offered on the Z Fold 3, the Flip 3’s bendable screen still delivers a 120Hz refresh rate that makes scrolling and animation rendering smoother. It’s also water resistant and can process contactless payments when it’s shut, making it more useful in its smaller mode. Just as important, it now costs $1,000, down from $1,300, making it not affordable, exactly, but on par with other flagship smartphones. At a brief hands-on event in New York, I was able to check out the Flip 3’s upgrades and am cautiously hopeful that this is the first foldable I’m ready to buy.

The Flip 3’s non-sequential name might be slightly baffling (the last two models were the Z Flip and Z Flip 5G), but for the most part, all of its upgrades feel self-explanatory. The most obvious is the larger external screen — or, as Samsung calls it, the Cover Display. Instead of the 1.1-inch sliver from the original Flip, the new Cover Display measures 1.9 inches diagonally, giving users four times the screen real estate. This means you can see more of your notifications or widgets at once (up to four lines, according to Samsung). You can also swipe through up to six widgets on this screen, and the options available include things like Samsung Pay, Weather, Alarms, volume control, media playback and step count.

As before, you can tap and swipe to interact with this screen, and I scrolled vertically on the Flip 3’s Cover Display to toggle through clock, volume control and Samsung Pay widgets. It was nice being able to drag the slider on this screen to make the phone louder, but I could also use physical keys on the side. Other widgets are probably more useful, and Samsung will need to encourage developers to create them for their apps. There weren’t any notifications on my demo unit, though, so I didn’t get to see how that would look. Side-swiping on this panel also didn’t do anything, though this likely depends on what the widgets themselves are designed to support.

The other benefit of a larger Cover Display is when you’re using it to frame a selfie with the Flip 3 closed. Of all the nostalgic value that using a flip phone brings, snapping a selfie with a tiny outside screen and camera is the one thing that immediately brings me back to the 2000s. (I was one of many who used a pink Motorola Razr V3 circa 2003-4.)

Mat Smith / Engadget

Of course, I’m not suggesting you rely on the Flip 3’s relatively cramped Cover Display and 10-megapixel selfie camera as your primary means of shooting portraits. But in a pinch, the new larger window is more useful than its predecessor’s in gauging what you’re snapping. I used it to capture a couple of selfies at my demo session using the volume buttons on the phone’s edge as triggers. Though I couldn’t see all of the scene in the viewfinder, it was enough to get my colleague and I centered in the frame.

Open up the Flip 3, set it up in a half-folded mode, and you’ll see the Camera app expand to take up the whole 6.7-inch screen. Samsung calls this view Flex Mode, and compatible apps automatically rearrange themselves so that their layouts align with the top and bottom halves of the display. In the Gallery app, for example, the bottom section becomes sort of a navigation pad where you can swipe sideways to scroll through your pictures in a carousel. In the Camera app, the viewfinder takes up the top half while controls sit on the bottom.

I didn’t have time at our briefing to try out every app, but so far I’ve noticed that Camera and Gallery supports Flex Mode while Photos, Maps and Chrome do not. The ones that do also switch between Flex Mode and full-screen very quickly, which is a promising sign of the Flip 3’s processor’s performance. The device will have the same chipset as the Fold 3, which in the US is the Snapdragon 888, and it’ll come with 8GB of RAM along with 128GB or 256GB of storage.

Samsung said it’s working with developers to optimize more apps for Flex Mode and that it has already enabled at least 50 percent of the most popular options. Thankfully, it’s not like you can’t use your favorite app if it’s not optimized for Flex Mode; it just won’t be laid out as nicely.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

In addition to the larger cover display, the Flip 3’s upgrades over its predecessors include support for adaptive 120Hz refresh rate on its internal screen. This made quickly scrolling through the list of articles on Engadget’s homepage look smooth, and will likely make the system feel faster overall. Though the 22:9 aspect ratio is taller than most phones today, I didn’t find it too jarring. Meanwhile, images looked colorful and crisp on the Full HD+ display.

One more improvement that Samsung made on the Flip 3 is its water resistance rating of IPX8. There weren’t any setups at the demo event for me to test this out, so we’ll have to take Samsung at its word for now.

Like the Z Fold 3, the new Flip features some overall durability improvements. Samsung used a new “Armor Aluminum” in its metal frame and hinge that makes the phone 10 percent stronger, while the company said the Gorilla Glass covering the device is 50 percent more durable than previous models. The main screen also uses a new protective film that’s said to be stronger and more scratch resistant. These durability claims aren’t something I can vouch for yet as I didn’t try dropping or scratching our demo units, but I can say that the Flip 3’s hinge moved smoothly and stayed open at various angles. I was also able to close the phone with one hand, albeit without the same satisfying thunk that Razrs made.

Despite all its durability upgrades, the Flip 3 is about just as light and thin as the Flip 5G, though the new phone is slightly smaller. Samsung is offering the Flip 3 in seven colors this time around, and while I still love the purple version, the green option is also gorgeous. Oh, and don’t forget the Thom Browne edition that will also be available in a Team USA color scheme in a nod to the Olympics.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Everything else about the Flip 3 is pretty much the same as before. You’ll still get a 3,300mAh battery, a 12-megapixel rear camera and a 10-megapixel one for selfies, which produced nice enough samples during my hands-on. But battery life and image quality are among the many things we’ll need proper review units to test out in the real world.

Though I’m excited that Samsung has managed to drop the Z Flip 3’s price down to $1,000 while adding water resistance, improving the overall build and Cover Display, I’d like to see how the software updates add to its experience as a daily driver. But from my brief preview, the Z Flip 3 might be the first foldable device I’m ready to invest in and could finally make the category ready for the mainstream.

Follow all of the news from Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event right here!

from Mike Granich https://www.engadget.com/galaxy-z-flip-3-hands-on-specs-price-available-now-140057384.html?src=rss

0 notes

seganerds · 6 years

Text

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Mega Drive was by far SEGA’s most successful console, and boy won’t they let us forget it.

Since abandoning the hardware side of things, the company have doggedly re-released a near-identical list of Mega Drive games on too many formats to list here.

Truth be told, it’s actually pretty surprising that only now, four years after launch, are the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One finally getting their due, in the form of the aptly titled SEGA Mega Drive (or Genesis, if you’re in the US) Collection.

The lighting changes with the time of day, which is pretty cool.

ONE FOR THE AGES?

You’d be forgiven for thinking that by now the whole exercise is beginning to feel more than a little perfunctory. However, this time around, developer D3T have at least gone to the trouble of introducing some new (or relatively so) features, such as online multiplayer and a horizontal flip mode, changing the standard left-to-right gameplay for most games, into right-to-left.

Likewise, the games list itself has undergone some very minor tinkering: notable by their absence are all of the Ecco games, Fatal Labyrinth, plus Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. In their place we get 16 ‘new’ titles, including Bio-hazard Battle, a curious insect-themed shmup missing from previous generation collections. I say ‘new’ because all the games featured in the SEGA Mega Drive Collection (plus a few more) are available on Steam and many were on the Wii’s late Virtual Console. It’s a solid line up with a good mix of genres, albeit an all too familiar one.

The collection’s interface is a full 3D render of an early ‘90s SEGA fan’s bedroom, complete with various on point props and appropriate pre-millennial decor. As appealing as that may sound, it’s worth bearing in mind that what’s on offer here is almost identical to the free front-end released on Steam a few years ago. So, while technically this collection is also coming to PC, it’ll be a relatively minor upgrade to the existing experience and we’d expect games to continue to be sold separately rather than as a set on Valve’s digital platform.

Seemed like the best place to start.

AN UNALTERED BEAST

Choosing a game to play involves navigating a shelf full of spine on Mega Drive cases, just like real life in days of yore. It’s cute, but feels a little sluggish. Thank goodness there’s a favourites feature, allowing titles of your choice to be moved to the very start of the list. Various game-specific challenges can also be accessed from here, and where applicable, it’s possible to immediately skip to the correct part of the appropriate game to attempt them. While a nice idea, this is only likely to be of use to hardcore trophy or achievement hunters. The aforementioned flip mode is similarly throwaway, with few practical applications outside of novelty speedrunning and streaming.

For a handful of games, it’s possible to select from a number of regional variations. While it’s not quite clear what the criteria were here, this seems to be an option for text-heavy RPGs where there’s likely to be a language barrier, plus in a couple of instances where there are significant differences between versions (Streets of Rage, for example). Although there aren’t any digital manuals to peruse, the obligatory save state function is present and correct, with quick functions handily mapped to the right stick.

The emulator itself has a wide number of customisation options, but again, little we haven’t seen before. Since these games run natively at a 4:3 aspect ratio, by default they’ll have black borders on either side. If that’s not to your liking, you can instead choose from a number of border designs, to stretch the display area to 16:9 or even zoom out in such a way that the games can be seen actually running on the cute little portable CRT in your aforementioned virtual bedroom.

What’s more, there are optional scanlines, a TV Projection setting, which mimics the distinct curvature of old tube TVs, and a number of Pixel Filters. While we’d assert that a sharp, pixel perfect presentation with plain borders is best for extended play, there’s certainly some fun to be had playing with the settings here. Below are some examples to give you an idea of what’s possible:

Video reproduction is almost perfect, as is sound, the odd dodgy effect notwithstanding. We did experience occasional, sporadic split second pauses during play, but the overall experience is solid. We’re quite sure that the vast majority of gamers, even those who played these games back in the ‘90s, will be perfectly happy with the quality of the emulation, but ultra hardcore perfectionists may beg to differ.

SUMMARY

We love the Mega Drive, and on one hand it’s great to see some of its best games grace current generation consoles. On the other, the stock line up of titles is getting pretty stale by this point, and the cool bedroom interface is far from new itself.

The bottom line is this: these are excellent games that still hold up today, but if you’re here, on SEGA Nerds, you’ve probably played them to death many times over. Yes, it’s convenient to have them on a modern console, particularly when it’s getting harder and harder (or rather, more and more expensive) to connect pre-HDMI consoles to new TVs, but we’re pretty sure that every human being on earth that was ever going to play Sonic the Hedgehog already has by now.

If you’re one of a tiny minority of nostalgics that has yet to re-live SEGA’s 16-bit halcyon days, or desperately want some to add some Mega Drive classics to your PS4 or Xbox One library, this collection is great. For the rest of us, though, there are simply too few new gameplay opportunities.

PROS

+ Great games

+ Customisable emulator

+ Cool interface

CONS

– No truly new games

– Minor audio issues

– Flip mode and challanges little more than novelties

[Editor’s note: SEGA provided a promotional code for the purposes of this review]

Does SEGA's latest Mega Drive/ Genesis Collection worth the price to buy games you might already own? Click to find out! #GenesisClassics The Mega Drive was by far SEGA’s most successful console, and boy won't they let us forget it.

1 note · View note