Samsung announces two new foldable smartphones

Yahoo Finance tech reporter Dan Howley reports on the features in Samsung's latest foldable smartphones.

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BRIAN CHEUNG: Well, Samsung out with a new spin on the flip phone. They announced two new foldable smartphones. And here with all of the details is Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley. Dan, flip out for us exactly-- share with us the phone. Let me see what it looks like.

DAN HOWLEY: I actually don't have it on me quite yet. But Samsung did announce today two new smartphones, as well as a smartwatch. The two new phones are the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the Galaxy Z Flip 4. I know those names are a bit of a mouthful. But they're both foldable devices. Now, the Flip is basically a clamshell-style phone. The Fold is a book-style phone that you would open as you would a book. And they're essentially meant to continue Samsung's effort to mainstream these foldable devices.

The company has put a ton of effort, R&D, treasure behind the kind of mainstreaming of these devices. And this is kind of their continued push to do so. Basically, the devices themselves, minor upgrades as far as the look. They're a little bit thinner, a little bit lighter. But they do have stronger displays, which is important when it comes to these types of foldable devices.

You'll remember when Samsung first rolled out its original foldable phones, they would run into issues with debris getting underneath the display or the display just breaking in general. That there, so they're kind of doubling down on the durability there to ensure that they don't run into that in the future.

And then they also have new cameras on the rear as well. And those are the kind of updates you would expect from these kinds of phones. I think the main takeaway here is the software that they're running. They're trying to make it so that the phones are better at multitasking. In the case of the Fold, you can run multiple apps at once. There's a new taskbar at the bottom of the screen that kind of mimics a PC style.

And the Flip, you can use it by laying it down and then using it as you would maybe, like, a makeup compact or something like that, and use that to then talk to people via video chats, although it's not going to look as good as maybe your PC would. The angle's kind of just going to show everyone looking straight up your nose. So that'll be weird, but they are innovating here when it comes to the phones.

BRIAN CHEUNG: I was going to say, Dan-- well, first of all, sorry, I didn't realize that you didn't have it in hand. So when you have it in hand, you can bring it on set. But these type of flip phones, I guess the tradeoff is that, yeah, you have more hinge components. You might get some dirt stuck in there, but you get more real estate. Have you found in previous iterations of this that tradeoff worthwhile?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, I have found it to be interesting. I actually have a friend who owns an older Z Flip, and she loves it. And, you know, I think that we're seeing more people, at least when I'm on the subway, I'm seeing more people with the foldable phones. It is, though, worth pointing out that these are not priced for your average consumer. The Z Flip 4, that will cost you $999. The Z Fold will cost you 1,799, so not exactly a mainstream device.

I also want to talk about the new Galaxy Watch 5. Now, this is an interesting device in the fact that it now offers a temperature sensor. So it can read your body temperature while you're working out. This is basically a way for Samsung to kind of tout its health capabilities on this device, really pushing into that space further and further, just as Apple has done with the Apple Watch.

Samsung, though, beating Apple to the punch when it comes to rolling out this temperature sensor. And they say that it can do things like help you better understand your sleep, your exercise, your overall fitness, things like that. They mentioned kind of being able to measure your BMI, your Body Mass Index. But that's kind of pseudoscience at this point, I think. It doesn't really provide you with an accurate understanding of your health.

But, you know, it is interesting to see them rolling into this. And then they'll provide kind of customized workout options for you as well. So they're really moving forward here with these new devices. And this is kind of Samsung's MO, where they go with a new style, a new innovative feature, and then other companies-- Apple-- will go ahead and copy that and kind of implement it, let's say, a little bit better.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Yeah. Well, again, I mean, I don't know if they're committed to actually having the hinge phone. For what it's worth, the last hinge phone I had was the LG enV2, which I think I paid for--

DAN HOWLEY: Oof, I envy you.

BRIAN CHEUNG: It was like $150 back in the day, but actually, I kind of miss that. I kind of miss the flip. Maybe I'll get one of these. I don't know. Who knows? Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley, thanks so much.