Samsung releases clamshell W2018 flip phone in China with f/1.5 aperture and Bixby

The flip phone is about to make its grand return on Android OS, thanks to Samsung.  The company has partnered with Chinese telecom company China Telecom to introduce the W2018 – a high-end flip smartphone with two screens.

The phone will mark the 10th anniversary of the W series in the Chinese market. Samsung held an event in Xiamen, China. The phone will reportedly come with two screens and Bixby on-board as well. The phone has two displays, both with AMOLED technology, at a screen size of 4.2-inches with 1080p resolution. The phone will feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, expandable up to 256GB via microSD card. The phone’s Bixby AI will also support Chinese language as well.

Apparently, the phone’s camera will be quite unique, featuring a 12MP camera with an aperture of f/1.5, which will beat the LG V30’s camera aperture of f/1.6. This will translate to better low-light photography and better videography. Apart form the phone’s optics, the phone will come with a measly 2,300mAh battery, which seems a little less, considering it has to power the powerful chipset, as well as two AMOLED screens. The phone will likely be made available to Chinese and neighbouring markets, but it is unlikely that the phone will have a global release date internationally. This means that we might not get to enjoy the luxury of the widest aperture on a smartphone just yet.

For buyers, the phone will retail for $2,000. Just like Samsung’s earlier flagships, the phone’s build will be made of a combination of metal and glass materials and will come in two colours – Gold and Platinum. The phone also has physical buttons in the form of a full keypad as well as navigational buttons, which should send users down nostalgia lane.

Apart from having the world’s widest aperture at f/1.5, the phone is also the first clamshell design phone to come with a digital assistant. While the phone will release with Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box, Samsung has that the phone will be given an update to Oreo 8.0 any time now. It is unfortunate that Samsung will not be making the phone available around the globe, considering that it will be featuring some exclusive features that we haven’t yet seen on a smartphone. Nevertheless, the Chinese market has always been known to have a taste for the extravagant and the innovations presented over there could likely make its way to foreign shores sooner or later.

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