Last-minute leak reveals very special Samsung Galaxy Z Flip edition
After helplessly watching all four of its highly anticipated phones get rigorously leaked and thoroughly detailed well ahead of their official announcements scheduled for tomorrow, Samsung took matters into its own proverbial hands last night, doing something pretty much unprecedented with that full Galaxy Z Flip Oscars commercial.
We're not talking about a short and vague teaser here, mind you, showing little details to build buzz without giving too much away, but rather a 30-second demonstration of essentially all the neat foldable tricks the unreleased handset is capable of.
You may have thought that meant we'd at least get a last-minute one-day break from the onslaught of recent leaks leaving virtually no question unanswered and no stone unturned, but believe it or not, there was still one (semi) important thing we didn't know about the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. Namely, it appears that the company's sophomore foldable effort is also headed for the US in a very special (and reportedly, crazy expensive) edition apart from its "regular" version.
Fashionistas rejoice!
While Motorola is seemingly working on a snazzy gold flavor of the reinvented Razr, so far released in a single bland "noir black" model, Samsung will take the style of the Z Flip to the next level thanks to a high-profile collaboration with Thom Browne.
The New York City-based menswear and womenswear brand actually teased this partnership officially a couple of weeks ago, somehow letting a promotional video running for a full two minutes and 20 seconds leak out on the interwebs just one day before the Galaxy Z Flip Thom Browne Edition is presumably unveiled.
a detour pic.twitter.com/AirJTtIn3h
— WalkingCat (@h0x0d) February 10, 2020
Unfortunately, the somewhat eerie clip is frustratingly light on details about the actual product, focusing for far too long on a male model slowly walking towards the camera before finally pulling the modernized flip phone out of... thin air, looking at it for a few seconds, closing it, and putting it away in his inside jacket pocket. Granted, that's a nice reminder of how compact the Galaxy Z Flip can get, but the commercial only turns more bizarre from there.
Of course, this type of limited edition device is more for hardcore fans of high-fashion brands than people that care about specifications... or prices. Let's hope at least those people will be able to appreciate the newly leaked ad, as well as the red, white, and blue-striped back of the special Galaxy Z Flip Thom Browne Edition. By the way, it looks like the Galaxy Buds+ and Galaxy Watch Active 2 will also get limited Thom Browne editions soon.
Pricing and availability
You know how the Galaxy Z Flip is expected to undercut last year's Galaxy Fold at a starting price of around $1,400? That will obviously not be true for this luxury Thom Browne-imprinted variant, which might cost as much as $2,500, according to a new Korean media report (translated).
At that price, Samsung can't expect this thing to contribute much to the 2.5 million unit shipment goal reportedly set for the Z Flip this year, although that's not really the point. Instead, the idea is to offer people with more money than sense yet another opportunity to stand out from the crowd.
It'll be interesting to see if the phone's internals will be changed in any significant way to justify this absolutely insane rumored price gap. The non-luxury Galaxy Z Flip is widely expected to come with a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED display, a Snapdragon 855+ processor, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage, a dual rear-facing camera setup, single 10MP selfie shooter, a 3,300mAh or so battery, and 4G LTE support only.
Apart from the memory and storage counts, we don't see what other upgrades Samsung may have in the pipeline to help Thom Browne fans feel good about themselves, so all in all, you could end up paying an extra 1,100 bucks or so for a logo.
Things that are NOT allowed: