Samsung unveiled the latest version of its folding smartphones last August with the debut of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4. The Korean giant isn’t standing still though, as rumours are already starting to surface about what we should expect in its successor, the Z Fold 5.
Here’s everything we know so far about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5.
When will the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 be released?
There is no official date as of yet from Samsung, but the company does have a pretty set release schedule for its flagship models. Here’s when the previous generations arrived:
As the two past generations have been released in August, we think it’s a pretty safe bet that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 will be revealed in August 2023.
How much will the Galaxy Z Fold 5 cost?
Folding phones still remain in the upper tier of premium devices, so when Samsung does update the Fold catalogue you can be sure it won’t be cheap. As a guide to kind of prices you’ll be looking at, here’s how the previous couple of generations lined up:
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4:
256GB: $1,799/£1,649/€1,799/₹154,999
512GB: $2,009/£1,769/€1,919/₹164,999
1TB: $2,249/£2,019/€2,159/₹184,999
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3:
256GB: $1,799/£1,599/€1,799/₹149,999
512GB: $1,899/£1,699/€1,899/₹157,999
As you can see, some prices stayed the same between models, while others crept up. With the ongoing inflation across the globe, it seems unlikely that you’ll see much of a reduction in cost when the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 arrives, and if anything prices could rise slightly.
A good guide could be how much the Galaxy S23 series increases in price relative to its predecessors, which we’ll find out when it launches on 1 February.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
What about new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 specs and features?
It’s still quite a while before the new Fold is due to arrive, but we have started to see a few rumours emerging about what Samsung plans to introduce in the update.
The main leaks so far have come from the Korean tech site The Elec, which reported that, as with the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, the new Fold 5 will come with the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, which launched late last year.
Similarly, SamMobile reports that the phone will feature the exact same 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage options as last year’s model.
The Elec article also states that Samsung is sticking with the triple camera array in the Fold 5, which will be comprised of a 50Mp main sensor (the Samsung ISOCELL GN3), presumably flanked by a 12Mp ultrawide and 10Mp telephoto as found in the Fold 4. The Elec does state that the selfie camera will feature a 12Mp sensor, which will be a slight increase from the 10Mp one currently on the Fold 4.
The site expects a jump to a 108Mp main camera with OIS at aperture f/1.7, joined by a 64Mp 2x zoom camera and a 12Mp ultrawide. That would mean a significant resolution jump for both the main camera and the telephoto, though admittedly a drop from 3x zoom to 2x on the latter – though with Samsung’s digital zoom expertise it could easily make up the difference there in post-processing.
We’ve heard contrasting news from Vietnamese site The Pixel, which reports both that the Fold 5 will have a new Snapdragon chip – presumably the as-yet unannounced 8+ Gen 2 – but that it will have a camera overhaul too.
Still, we have our suspicions about The Pixel’s report. For one, the site doesn’t have a track record to match other leakers, and doesn’t specify its source here. But we also doubt the report a little because some of its details seem clearly off – the site suggests Samsung will be returning to the taller, thinner unfolded dimensions of the Z Fold 3, which would feel like a step backwards from the well-received proportions of the Fold 4. We find that change hard to believe, which makes us doubt everything else in here too.
Still, The Pixel also joins other sites in reporting that this might be the year that we finally see Samsung incorporate the S Pen stylus inside the phone with a dedicated slot. The company reportedly tried and failed to work this into the Z Fold 4’s design, and The Elec reports that in a meeting with component suppliers Samsung said that a dedicated S Pen slot is one of the features needed to take its foldables to the next level of popularity – alongside thinner and lighter designs, and improved camera performance.
It might have failed though, as Korea’s ETNews now reports that the S Pen won’t slot into the phone. Samsung R&D was working on it, but ultimately space constraints apparently won out, so you’ll still have to hold onto your S Pen yourself.
Meanwhile both Korean site Naver and leaker Ice Universe have reported that Samsung is moving to a waterdrop hinge design for the Z Fold 5. This is the tech now widely used by rivals which bends the display into a curved droplet shape as it folds, which has two impacts: it allows displays to fully close when folded, with no gap between, and it reduces the size of the crease when the screen is flat. This has been the Z Fold’s main gap with rivals in the last year or two, so this move would help Samsung prove it’s still got the lead in foldables.
Leaker yeux1122 has claimed that Samsung brought a prototype foldable with a waterdrop hinge to CES 2023, and shared this shot of the prototype (right) compared to an existing Z Fold 4. This shouldn’t be taken as a definitive clue to the design of the Z Fold 5, but does suggest that if Samsung does adopt this updated hinge it could help it produce a thinner and lighter foldable, in addition to the benefits to the display.
Naver
Thinner and lighter is exactly what leaker Ice Universe thinks Samsung will deliver. He predicts that the Fold 5 will be 13-14mm thick when closed and weigh 254g – down from 15.8mm and 263g for the Fold 4.
Finally, Ice has also claimed that the Z Fold 5 will once again feature IPX8 water-resistance – the same rating as the Fold 4. That means a high level of waterproofing, but no official protection from dust.
Otherwise the Fold 5 could share many of the same specs as the Galaxy Z Fold 4, which included a 6.2-inch AMOLED cover display, with the internal folding one being a 7.6-inch AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. There were also stereo speakers, Wi-Fi 6e, Bluetooth 5.2, 5G, a 4400mAh battery that supports 25W charging, as well as an IPX8 waterproof rating.
Obviously, we’ll continue to update this article as more information becomes available, so be sure to check back regularly. In the meantime, you can see what the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 will be up against by looking at our best smartphones and best phones coming in 2023 roundups.
Perhaps what this is all about is a disguised account of Will Sheldon’s interiority. But it has been complexified with separate narratorial levels, with a disorienting overlapping of perspectives and representations that undermines the process of recognition or identification proper to the autobiographical reading.
Body parts are detached here—which is usually characteristic of studies, in the like of Eugene Delacroix’—but so are affections; cynicism has been added into it all. There is something also akin to Pierre Klossowski’s take on the simulacrum. There is no distinction between reality and its depiction anymore.
The ambivalence, made of attraction and repulsion that is so typical of Sheldon’s work, cleaves the subjects: characters are thus “divided” (or detached?)—between a quantity of sentiments that their environments send back to them, to us. We’re witnessing a forgery; a forgery of identity/ies by means of a fanatical repetition of modicums. Through their prismatic selves, we can only access a blurred vision of the painter’s essence.
However, even if everything is detached, everything coheres in an intimism a la Edouard Vuillard or Pierre Bonnard. Some domestic scenes and familiar faces can be discerned in these works. The depiction of light, the use of color, and the apprehension of perspective are also in similitude with the ones of the movement.
Will Sheldon is showing us the clandestine, the confidential entry, the escape hatch, maybe even the key to understanding his work. This mix of mediums (paintings and drawings, oils and crayons); this mix of techniques (departing from the airbrush to probe the classical paintbrush); this mix of subject matters he has been obsessing over to this day (from the BJDs and the portraits, to the architectural elements); this sensible attempt to make a painting of his drawings; these different chronicles; everything, he is covertly and reservedly trying to show us everything, all of the confidential and personal. This is a potlach1, he detached a piece of himself, what a beautiful offering!
at Heidi, Berlin until April 15, 2023
1 A potlatch is a gift-giving ceremony as practiced on the Northwest Coast of North America. It was recorded by numerous ethnographers, including Franz Boas, and has been re-analyzed by several authors or philosophers such as Marcel Mauss or Georges Bataille.
Hannah Rowan’s work explores the slippery complexities of water that draws together a liquid relationship between the human body and geological and ecological systems. She works across sculpture, installation, performance, video and sound to explore the uncertain form of materials.
“Tides in the Body” explores the intertidal realm and watery embodiment that is informed by her recent residency in Greenland. The title for the exhibition is borrowed from a phrase by Virginia Woolf and is further elaborated on by Hydrofeminist theorist Astrida Neimanis: “Water as body; water as communicator between bodies; water as facilitating bodies into being. Entity, medium, transformative and gestational milieu. All of this enfolding in, seeping from, sustaining and saturating, our bodies of water. ‘There are tides in the body,’ writes Virginia Woolf.” (Neimanis, 2017)
The main space of the gallery includes sculptures in cast bronze, hand blown glass, melting ice and ceramics. The back room of the gallery shows a video projection of a performance film exploring the movement of ocean tides and melting ice in Greenland. The intertidal realm is further explored through a series of wall-based ceramics, cyanotypes, and photography.
The intertidal realm is a liminal space on the shore between high and low tide, where land and sea meet, the intertidal zone is underwater during high tide and exposed to air during low tide. Rowan’s work takes ideas of porous and leaky boundaries to work with motifs of saltwater, tidal movements, melting ice and aquatic beings who inhabit the intertidal realm such as oysters, muscles, seaweed, jellyfish and octopus.
Rowan is informed by Hydrofeminist theory and feminist new materialism in her research and sculpture, she is interested in exploring material intimacy, touch, memory, gesture and the relationship between the body and earth’s living system. Her sculptures and performances dissolve boundaries between self and other and explore a merging of human and non-human bodies. Central to her work are ideas of transformation, ephemerality and becoming, her sculptures foreground material liveness, animacy and interaction.
Rowan’s work involves an ephemeral chain of events unfolding through material states: transformation, growth, reaction, adaptation, evolution and degradation, and reflects upon an essence of time in which the relationship between different materials act upon or support each other. As she explains, “I am interested in working with a wide array of materials and forming intricate connections and assemblages with these elements through a fluid process.” “Often water plays a role in relation to the material states of these other components,” the artist continues. Rowan finds deep relationships between elements often considered inanimate but in fact just operate on different timescales.
Curated by Tatiana Martyanova
at C+N Gallery CANEPANERI, Milan until April 24, 2023
The mass protests across France over a proposed new policy that raises the retirement age reached the Louvre on Monday as a crowd blocked the museum’s entrance, leaving tourists frustrated.
The peaceful demonstrators gathered outside the Paris museum’s glass pyramid, singing and wielding banners that read “Work less to live more” and “Museums mobilized against the pension reform.” Several Louvre employees reportedly joined the protest.
Speaking into a microphone, a tour guide who didn’t appear to be affiliated with the Louvre attempted to explain what was happening to the tourists, some of whom had purchased time-sensitive tickets. “You are here to see the Mona Lisa,” she said in a video shared by the Independent. “But now are you experiencing something much more interesting than the Louvre—you are experiencing the French protest.”
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It is unclear from the video whether the listeners appreciated the sentiment.
“This is ridiculous, we come from everywhere in the world with our children to visit a museum and it’s ridiculous that 20 people are blocking the entrance,” a Mexican tourist told Reuters.
In a statement posted to social media, the Louvre said it could not open “for now.” The museum did not specify when it would begin allowing visitors again.
More than a million people have protested for weeks against pension reforms that push the retirement age from 62 to 64 and require workers fund the pension system for longer.
The unpopular law was enshrined by French President Emmanuel Macron through a constitutional loophole after parliament vowed to reject it. The protests have caused disruptions to transportation and schools, as well as a crisis of trash piling on the streets after garbage collectors joined the strike.
Thursday saw the first spasm of violence as the front door of the city hall in Bordeaux was set on fire. Meanwhile, in Paris, vandals smashed newspaper stands and hurled smoke bombs at police, who responded with force late into the night.
In a statement, Paris police said they were prepared to prevent a second protest from forming outside another popular museum, the Centre Pompidou.
Vivo already has two foldable smartphones available in the form of the Vivo X Fold and X Fold+, although neither has made it out of China thus far.
It now seems that another device is in the works, this time with a flip phone design that would make it a rival to the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Oppo Find N2 Flip. So, what can we expect and will we be able to buy it outside China?
Here’s all we know so far about the Vivo X Flip.
When will the Vivo X Flip be released?
There’s no official confirmation from Vivo yet on whether the X Flip is a reality, let alone when we might see it appear. We have seen a post on Weibo from a reliable Chinese tech tipster called Digital Chat Station who reported ‘Vivo X Flip SM8475…coming soon’.
Now, this is hardly a solid announcement, so it’s still possible that the X Flip may be a little way off yet. To see when it might be launched, we can only really look at the previous foldable schedules.
Here’s when they were released in China:
Vivo X Fold – April 2022
Vivo X Fold+ – September 2022
It isn’t much to go on, we know, but as foldables are still a new category for most manufacturers this tends to be the case. The Vivo X90 range was released in November 2022, which represents the other flagship models, so it might be that Vivo holds off for a while before revealing the X Flip.
Alternatively, with the Fold releasing in April and then getting an upgraded model six months later, there’s always the chance that Vivo decides to have a foldable release window in the first half of the year, while its standard premium models come out in the second. With that in mind, we’d keep a keen eye on April 2023.
Whether the device will be released outside of China remains a mystery. Vivo’s two foldables haven’t so far, but some of its other flagship phones do leave China. Rival Oppo has brought its first flip phone, the Find N2 Flip, to Europe while leaving the book-style Find N2 China-only, so it’s possible Vivo will follow a similar model.
How much will the Vivo X Flip cost?
With no announcements from Vivo, we don’t really have any idea how much the X Filp will cost. The only clues we can use is those of similar devices in the marketplace. Here’s how the usual suspects line-up:
As you can see, there isn’t a cheap one amongst them. Foldable screens still cost a lot of money to develop and implement, so expect anything from Vivo to come with a price tag around the $1,000/£1,000 mark.
What about the Vivo X Flip specs and design?
It’s probably no surprise that at this stage we don’t really know much about what Vivo has in store for its first flip-style phone. But, that doesn’t mean there haven’t been some rumours beginning to surface that throw a little light on the mysterious device.
Starting with the design, a rumour put forward by GizmoChina is that the second screen on the outside of the Vivo X Flip will be horizontal, as seen on the Motorola Razr 2022. This was backed up by another post from Digital Chat Station that outlined a rectangular outer panel, but also a circular camera housing above it.
In the feed below the comment was also a concept render from another Weibo user called Star Ozawa that displayed how the finished Vivo X Flip could look.
A similar design has popped up in another image of Vivo’s plans. Again we see a landscape rectangular cover display – apparently 682 pixels wide – with a circular camera module, though in this case with just two lenses, and a Zeiss logo placed within the ring. From this we can also see that the main screen is likely to be 1080p, aka Full HD, which makes sense – so are the main displays on other recent flip phones.
Weibo
As for specs, GSMArena reports that the new device will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. This isn’t quite the top-of-the-line represented by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, but it’s pretty close. We’ve seen that seemingly corroborated in a Geekbench listing for a phone with model number V2256A, believed to be the X Flip, which features the 8+ Gen 1 supported by 12GB of RAM and running Android 13.
Leaker Digital Chat Station has suggested plenty of further spec details on Weibo. He says the main screen will be a 6.8in, 120Hz OLED panel – which sounds plausible enough – and that the phone will pack a fairly large 4400mAh battery with 44W charging, which would be impressive for a flip phone.
Most interesting is his report on the cameras, suggesting specific specs for the two main lenses: a 50Mp IMX866 main camera joined by a 12Mp IMX663 ultrawide.
Aside from these tidbits, there’s nothing else we know so far, but of course we’ll be updating this article as more details become apparent. Until then, you can take a look at our guide to the best new phones coming in 2023 to see whether you want to wait for the Vivo X Flip.
Alice Pasquini (b.1980) lives and works in Rome. Recognized by the sector with an extraordinary response, she is an internationally renowned artist who works all over the globe. Exhibitions of her works are on urban surfaces, in galleries and museums in hundreds of cities worldwide (Sydney, Singapore, Amsterdam, London, Berlin, Oslo, New York, Buenos Aires, Yogyakarta, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Marrakech, Saigon, Rome, Naples, and more).
Pasquini has lived and worked in Great Britain, France, and Spain where she completed coursework in animation at the Ars animación school in Madrid. In 2004, she also obtained an MA in critical art studies at the Universidad Complutense.
Street Art
Due to her traveler attitude, Alice’s preferred canvases are city walls. The Roman artist, both a street artist and painter, as well as an illustrator and set designer, has developed different threads in her research, from narrating feminine vitality to manipulating the three-dimensional possibilities of her work. She moves from urban explorations to installations using found materials.
Street Art works ranges from small interventions on street furniture to large murals. Among Alice’s works on canvas exhibitions are: the Saatchi Gallery, the MACRO Rome, the Centro de Arte Barcelona, and the Espace Pierre Cardin. It is included in the Treccani Encyclopedia online and on Wikipedia.
Pasquini was a guest of numerous interviews and the protagonist of dedicated reports on Rai, Sky Arte, and Arte. Alice also attended TEDx Talks and has various collaborations with many Italian Cultural Institutes worldwide.
Ultimately, she is the creator and artistic director of the Cvtà Street Fest, an international Street Art festival since 2016. With Medina Art Gallery, she participates in the International Fair of Modern and Contemporary Art Rome Arte in Nuvola 2022.
B-Road
When: From March 25th to April 05th, 2023
Where: Medina Art Gallery – Via Merulana 220, Rome.
Pasquini’s project B-Road results from a journey to those places where life slows down and goes back to the streets. B-Roads are secondary paths, a suburban parallel universe where lives and communities meet more than in main streets where everything homologates.
Picture the road as the metaphor for the life path. In that case, the secondary road amplifies the sense of a personal journey in which digressions, changes of route, and loopholes are necessary.
Many works of unprecedented interest in energy, intensity, and fullness are on display.
Among these is the artificial nest, designed to house and protect birds engaged in the delicate stages of nesting and brooding. It becomes hope and shelter for humans: a place of passage and a crossroads from which to start again. Pushing us deeper, the lightness of the moment cannot avoid the memory of the migration and the precariousness of all the human communities that cannot find shelter.
Follow Alice on Instagram, or visit her website here >
Foldable devices started to hit their stride in the last year or two, and the competition is fiercer than ever with updated foldable hardware worldwide from Samsung and Motorola, and even more in China from the likes of Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo.
Google could be preparing its own entry into this emerging market however, with the Google Pixel Fold tipped to arrive this year, defying reports that it had been cancelled.
We round up all the news and speculation about Google’s first foldable.
When will the Google Pixel Fold be released?
There’s no solid information about any release date as yet, as Google hasn’t even confirmed that a foldable device will be launched.
In 2020 9to5Google reported that it had seen leaked internal documents from Google that suggested a foldable device would appear in the fourth quarter of 2021. That obviously didn’t happen though, and the phone also didn’t appear any time in 2022.
That means 2023 is now the target, and the good news is that signs so far point to a launch some time in spring 2023, as reported so far by display expert Ross Young along with Korean site The Elec and leaker Jon Prosser. That means it could appear at 2023’s I/O conference, perhaps alongside the Pixel 7a – which is exactly what’s laid out in a Pixel product roadmap obtained by Android Authority, and echoed by leaker Yogesh Brar.
Of course, we don’t yet know exactly when I/O will take place. Young has predicted a launch in March, with panel production apparently set to start in January, though Prosser’s Front Page Tech more pessimistically points to May, as does Brar.
There’s an even more pessimistic prediction though: The Elec published a new report in January 2023 claiming that mass production for the phone has been delayed again and won’t take place until Q3 this year – i.e. July to September. That doesn’t rule out a reveal for the phone at I/O, but does mean that any such reveal would be well ahead of the phone actually going on sale, and gives some reason to think that the Fold might instead arrive alongside the Pixel 8 in October.
Is the Pixel Fold cancelled?
There was some speculation that the Pixel foldable had been cancelled.
Ross Young reported in 2021 that “Google has decided not to bring the Pixel Fold to market,” citing sources in the display supply chain that say Google has cancelled its parts orders for the foldable.
Young suggested that Google was concerned that “the product wouldn’t be as competitive as it needed to be,” as they’d be primarily up against Samsung “in a small niche market facing higher costs than their primary competitor.”
This looks unlikely though. Young himself has since reported that the Pixel Fold is back on track, and it looks like while the company did cancel parts orders, Young may have been a little rash in jumping to report that the phone as a whole had been scrapped.
What will the Pixel foldable be called?
To be blunt, we have no idea – though most people online have started calling it the Pixel Fold.
9to5Google reported in 2022 that it will be called the Pixel Notepad, though has since changed its tune and predicted that Fold is the likelier name.
The only thing we know from Google is the phone’s codenames: Passport, Pipit, and Felix, believed to refer to different internal versions of the product.
‘Passport’ was been spotted in various bits of Android code, including the first public beta of Android 12, as spotted by 9to5Google. It appeared along with a model number – GPQ72 – believed to be tied to the phone’s Japanese variant.
More recently, ‘Pipit’ has appeared in Camera app code, a Geekbench listing, and parts of the Android 12L beta, and 9to5Google believes that this is a new codename for a foldable Pixel phone, while Android 13 code brought with it the third codename, ‘Felix’, which has since appeared on Geekbench too, and appears to represent the phone’s final version.
How much will the Google Pixel Foldable cost?
This is another area where we don’t know too much. There’s no past record to go on and pricing is still somewhat nebulous for this class of device. One thing that’s pretty certain though is that it won’t be cheap.
9to5Google’s reporting unearthed a price along with the rumoured name and release strategy, and the site says that Google has a “target price” of $1,400 for the Pixel foldable in the US. Yogesh Brar has predicted similar, reporting that the phone will cost something between $1,300 and $1,500.
That would be impressive if true, as it would undercut the phone’s chief rival – the Galaxy Z Fold 4 – by $300-500. That would certainly be enough to give Samsung pause for thought, and could force the Korean tech giant to in turn drop prices for this year’s Z Fold 5.
We’ve heard a higher price elsewhere though, with Front Page Tech predicting that the phone will cost a whopping $1,799 when it arrives on US shores, which could make it much less competitive.
In any case, any foldable device Google launches in 2023 is likely to start at over a grand, so you might want to start making use of that old piggy bank in preparation.
What are the Google Pixel Foldable specs?
Displays and design
Obviously, the main addition to the Pixel feature set will be a folding screen of some kind. This looks likely to be the book-style approach adopted by the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Huawei Mate X2, rather than the vertical clamshell orientation used by the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Motorola Razr.
Getting the display right will be crucial, as we’ve already seen how hard it is to avoid creasing in the display where it folds or the panels just outright failing as with the original Samsung Galaxy Z Fold.
The most tantalising renders to date are below and come from Front Page Tech, supposedly based on images of the phone seen by the site. They show a foldable with a similar design to the Pixel 7 Pro, with triple rear cameras and a tall front display. The site adds that it will be available in ‘Chalk’ and ‘Obsidian’ – a.k.a. white and black – and adds that its source claims the phone is “really f**king heavy,” which has since been echoed by a 9to5Google report that the phone will be “heavier than the 263g Z Fold 4,” though no specific weight is given.
If you’re not convinced, it’s probably telling that rival leaker OnLeaks has produced remarkably similar renders in partnership with the site HowtoiSolve. Both depict similar proportions, with a fairly wide design, and almost identical visions of the updated camera bar.
OnLeaks adds that the cover display will be 5.8in, with the inner screen larger at 7.7in, and that when open the phone will measure 158.7 x 139.7 x 5.7mm.
For a better look at the phone’s size and shape, YouTube Dave2D got his hands on a plastic dummy unit of the phone, supposedly with totally accurate physical dimensions. He notes how thin the phone is – each side is just 5.7mm thick, match OnLeaks’ specs – and that the phone seems to close fully flat, suggesting it’s using a waterdrop hinge much like recent Oppo and Xiaomi foldables, and unlike Samsung’s latest.
Interestingly, he also spots that on his dummy unit there’s a camera cut-out inside the thick bezel of the internal screen, suggesting that this camera will sit inside the bezel, rather than using a punch-hole (though there’ll be a punch-hole on the front, seemingly).
As for more specific screen specs, The Elec has repeatedly reported that Google is purchasing the phone’s displays from Samsung. The latest reports suggest a 7.57in folding display and 5.78in outer screen – roughly in line with the numbers used for the above renders, though both OnLeaks and the Dave2D dummy suggest a slightly larger 7.67in internal display.
Interestingly, The Elec has reported that while the phone will use the same ultra-thin glass (UTG) coating as Samsung’s foldables, it won’t include the stylus support of the Z Fold 4, and will in fact use an older, thicker version of Samsung’s display tech – the type it used before the Z Fold 3. That might make it trickier for Google’s phone to compete, unless it undercuts the Galaxy on price.
Leaker and developer Kuba Wojciechowski has added weight to those predictions in a report for 91mobiles. He also says the Pixel Fold will use a Samsung-made display, with a resolution of 1840×2208 and dimensions of 123mm x 148mm – which works out pretty much at the same 7.6in diagonal reported above. Wojciechowski adds that the display will support 1200 nits of brightness, and may support a 120Hz refresh rate, though he doesn’t go so far as confirming that final spec.
As for the outer display, the 5.8in size that’s been reported is smaller than the 6.2in screen on the Z Fold 4. That will include a wider aspect ratio, suggesting that the cover display will be a bit shorter and squatter than the Fold 4’s narrow panel, as we can see in the renders above.
For another hint at the design, the Android 12L beta 2 included animations that seem to reveal the rough shape Google is using.
Spotted by 9to5Google, the two animations show how a SIM card could be inserted into the device (the second shows the phone in its closed form). We can see that it’s a wide book-style foldable, but interestingly the aspect ratio looks to be closer to the square-ish form of the Oppo Find N2 than to any of Samsung’s Z Fold designs, which could help the Google foldable stand out in western markets when it launches.
Core specs
When it comes to core specs, it seems almost certain that the Fold will use the in-house Tensor G2 chipset that Google developed for its Pixel 7 phones.
Earlier in development we thought the Fold would use the first-gen Tensor, thanks to a Geekbench 4 listing for a phone named ‘Google Pipit’ – remember that Pipit is one of the Fold’s expected codenames. The listing doesn’t specify the Tensor chip by name, but lists an octa-core ARM chip with a base speed of 1.8GHz and peak speed of 2.8GHz – an exact match. It’s seen here along with 12GB of RAM, and running Android 12 as you’d expect.
Now it’s obviously far more likely that the second Tensor will appear, and in turn we’ve now seen that on Geekbench too, this time under the ‘Google Felix’ – another known codename for the Fold. We see the second Tensor’s peak speed of 2.85GHz and performance cores at 2.35GHz, and once again the phone seems to have 12GB of RAM, though of course this time it’s running the latest Android 13.
Of course, if the Fold is delayed further, then there’s a chance it ultimately ships with the Tensor G3 we’re expecting to see used in the Pixel 8.
Cameras
We think we know a little about the phone’s camera specs, but there are two key variants seen. The first comes from the 9to5Google report that unearthed the Pipit codename mentioned above. The site found code that reveals the four camera sensors believed to be used in the foldable: a 12.2Mp IMX363, a 12Mp IMX386, and two 8Mp IMX335 sensors. The latter two are tagged with ‘inner’ and ‘outer’, suggesting they’re for a pair of selfie shooters.
For context, this essentially looks like a return to the sort of camera specs used before the recent Pixel 6 upgrade. The IMX363 is the same sensor used for the main camera in the Pixel 3, 4, and 5, while the IMX335 is also the same sensor used for the selfie cameras in Pixels up to the 6 – though not the 6 Pro. The IMX386 is also found in the Pixel 6, where it’s used to power the ultrawide.
A separate code dive by developer Kuba Wojciechowski reveals the same set of camera sensors, but also a Samsung GN1 – the current main sensor in the Pixel 6 and 7 phones.
Wojciechowski has also found a separate camera setup tied to the Felix codename however, and believes this is more likely to be what’s seen in the final foldable. Here we see a triple rear camera with the 64Mp Sony IMX787 primary sensor, a 10.8Mp Samsung S5K3J1 telephoto, and a 12Mp Sony IMX386 ultrawide. The inner selfie camera appears to be an 8Mp Sony IMX355, while on the front there’s another Samsung S5K3J1 (though presumably not used with a telephoto lens here).
While some had hoped that Google might be trying out an under-display camera on the Fold, renders and leaks so far predict something rather different: a regular punch-hole selfie camera on the outer screen, and a camera built into the bezel on the inside. That would allow an uninterrupted main screen without the compromises in quality forced by cameras under the screen, though any camera small enough to fit into the internal frame might be pretty limited anyway.
We even have an idea of how that might look thanks to a patent discovered by 91mobiles, apparently filed in June 2021.
Battery and charging
We don’t know a lot about the Pixel Fold’s likely charging capabilities, but do have one hint. The same 9to5Google report indicating the phone would be heavier than rivals also explains why: it will have a bigger battery.
No specifics are given, except that it will be larger than the 4400mAh cell in the Z Fold 4 or the 4520mAh cell in the Oppo Find N2, but that it will still be “well below” 5000mAh. So big for a foldable, but not as big as some slab phone flagships.
The phone will also benefit from software improvements, including features from Android 12L, an Android version that improves support for large screen devices like tablets – and foldables. It includes enhanced split-screen support for all Android apps, two-column notification shade and control centre layouts, and a desktop-style taskbar – all of which we can expect to see on the big screen of the Pixel Fold.
If you can’t wait to get the latest smartphone technology in your hands, check out our guide to the best phones coming in 2023.
If you cannot get enough of The Mandalorian, Andor and all things set in a galaxy far, far away, then you should not be missing out on the annual Star Wars Celebration.
This year there is plenty of Star Wars content to look forward to, including the upcoming launch of Ahsoka and the rest of The Mandalorian, which is currently rolling out episodes. This event is the place to hear all the latest news and announcements about these titles and more.
Whilst the Star Wars Celebration will be an in-person event, there is a way to tune into the panels and news as they happen. Here is everything you need to know.
When is the Star Wars Celebration?
Star Wars Celebration kicks off on Friday 7 April 2023 and finishes on Monday 10 April 2023. There will be panels and events across all four days of the convention.
You can get a taste of what is to come with the video below:
How to watch Star Wars Celebration panels
The Star Wars Celebration will be taking place at the ExCeL in London, UK. If you are lucky enough to live near there (or have no qualms about getting there on short notice), then some limited tickets are still available – so you can get all the in-person perks of cons such as photo ops, autographs and fan meet-ups.
For those without tickets, never fear. You will be able to catch all the latest news via the Star Wars Celebration LIVE! video stream, which will be broadcast on the official Star Wars YouTube channel.
We don’t know which panels specifically will be livestreamed, but the event will include “colorful commentary, surprise celebrity guests, and exclusive interviews”, so its certainly worth a watch.
What panels and news will be at the Star Wars Celebration?
We will almost certainly be getting news about Ahsoka, as there is a whole panel dedicated to it – and rumours of a fall release date have been circulating. We could also get an announcement of season four of The Mandalorian, and perhaps some updates on the second season of Andor.
The Direct has reported rumours of three new Star Wars movies that could be announced. If that were to happen, we would expect it to be during Lucasfilm’s Studio Showcase. We may also find out if The Bad Batch is returning for more.
You can see the full schedule of the event here. Below are some of the most anticipated panels of Star Wars Celebration, and what time they will be taking place (though we don’t know if all of these will be livestreamed):
Friday 7 April 2023
Lucasfilm’s Studio Showcase – 11am BST/6am ET
The Making of Andor Season One (with Tony Gilroy and Diego Luna) – 3pm BST/10am ET
Saturday 8 April 2023
Ahsoka (with Dave Filoni, Jon Favreau, and special guests) – 11am BST/6am ET
Star Wars: The High Republic – 1pm BST/8am ET
40 Years of Return of the Jedi (with Ming-Na Wen) – 2pm BST/9am ET
Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures Screening – 3pm BST/10am ET
Clone Wars – 15 Year Anniversary Panel (with Dave Filoni and guests) – 5:30pm BST/12:30pm ET
Sunday 9 April 2023
Villains of the Sequel Trilogy (with Ian McDiarmid, Andy Serkis and Gwendoline Christie) – 11am BST/6am ET
A Look Back at Obi-Wan Kenobi (with Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen) – 1:30pm BST/8:30am ET
Lucasfilm Publishing: Stories From a Galaxy Far, Far Away… – 5:30pm BST/12:30pm ET
Monday 10 April 2023
Star Wars: The Bad Batch – 11am BST/6am ET
Marvel Comics Presents: Star Wars – 12:30pm BST/7:30am ET
Celebration Europe Closing Ceremony (featuring special guests) – 4pm BST/9am ET
OnePlus and Oppo today denied they are leaving the UK and European market.
Leaker and All About Samsung writer Max Jambor tweeted Monday claiming that both smartphone makers would be “pulling out of Europe,” but the companies say otherwise.
“OnePlus will not exit from Europe and the UK and maintains stable operations in local markets. OnePlus will continue to invest in Europe and provide more innovative product and solutions for its users,” OnePlus global PR Manager James Paterson told Tech Advisor in an email statement.
“Oppo is committed to all the existing European markets,” an Oppo spokesperson said via email.
“We had a great start in 2023 with the successful launches of several products in Europe and have a line-up of upcoming products for the rest of the year. As always, Oppo will continue to provide more innovative products and the best-in-class service for users moving forward.”
Jambor had earlier cited Germany, the UK, France, and Netherlands as the countries OnePlus and Oppo would be “first to leave”.
I can confirm: OPPO and OnePlus are pulling out of Europe. First to leave are Germany, UK, France and Netherlands.
In a subsequent tweet Jambor claimed that “right now only the countries listed will close down. Not Europe entirely.”
Both Oppo and OnePlus are brands owned by Chinese firm BBK Group, which also owns other smartphone brands including Realme and Vivo. Exiting European markets would represent a big shift in sales strategy for the brands, with OnePlus successfully entering the UK and European market in 2014 with its first phone, the OnePlus One.
Both brands also sell wireless earbuds and smartwatches to European consumers while Oppo recently launched its Pad Air tablet.
Oppo does not sell directly to US consumers but some of the best Oppo phones of recent years have been released in the UK and Europe including the Oppo Find N2 Flip, a flip-style rival to Samsung’s Z Flip 4.
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The Headlines
JIM HARITHAS, the freewheeling curator who cofounded two key Houston art institutions, died last week at the age of 90, the Houston Chronicle reports. With his wife, Ann Harithas, who died in 2021, Harithas established the Station Museum of Contemporary Art and the Art Car Museum. The Station Museum, which opened in 2001 and shuttered indefinitely late last year, presented a wide array of venturesome art, from the local to the international. The Art Car Museum focuses on Houston’s annual Art Car Parade. Harithas came to the city to serve as director of its Contemporary Arts Museum, a position he held from 1974 to 1978. Prior to that, he had led the Everson Museum of Art (where Yoko Ono’s first museum show generated a rumor of a Beatles reunion) in Syracuse, New York, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
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ALL PUBLICITY IS GOOD PUBLICITY. Following news that a Florida principal was pressured to resign after sixth-grade students were shown an image of Michelangelo’s David (1501–04), the museum where it resides, the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, Italy, invited parents and the students from the school to come and have a look, the Associated Press reports. “To think that David could be pornographic means truly not understanding the contents of the Bible, not understanding Western culture and not understanding Renaissance art,” its director, Cecilie Hollberg, said. Florence’s mayor also invited the ousted principal, Hope Carrasquilla, to come through. Carrasquilla said that she may accept, explaining to the AP that, while she has visited the piece before, “I would love to go and be a guest of the mayor.”
The Digest
The artist Koo Jeong A will represent South Korea at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Organizing the pavilion will be Jacob Fabricius, the director of the Kunsthal Aarhus in Denmark, and Lee Sun-hee, its director. The exhibition will involve “invisible elements such as scents and temperatures,” Kim Da-sol reports. [The Korea Herald]
Sotheby’s hit pause on an online auction, “Natively Digital: Glitch-ism,” after one of the artists in the sale, Patrick Amadon, raised concern its lack of female-identifying artists. The auction house said it will hold the event later with “a more equitable and diverse group of artists.” [Decrypt]
Archaeologists studying the burial of a man in the second century at a Roman necropolis on the edge of Sagalassos in Turkey found more than three dozen bent or twisted nails. A new paper argues that they were part of an occult practice aimed at ensuring the dead did not return. [The New York Times]
The art historian James Hall has proposed that Vincent van Gogh’s 1889 The Starry Night was inspired by the then-new Eiffel Tower and the fireworks surrounding its inauguration, which are channeled in the “pyrotechnical music of the stars, sky, and clouds” in the artist’s legendary piece, Hall writes. [The Guardian]
Meet Markus Dochantschi, the architect behind a bevy of major New York art spaces in recent years, from the new-ish Phillips auction house in Midtown to the forthcoming Tribeca locations of Marian Goodman and Alexander Gray Associates. His thoughts on the white cube? “I’m a bit tired of it,” he said. [The New York Times]
At an event on Friday, Greece marked the donation of three fragments of the Parthenon from the Vatican Museums to the Greek Orthodox Church. “This act by Pope Francis is of historical significance and has a positive impact on all levels,” Archbishop Ieronymos II said. [The Associated Press]
The Kicker
GAMECHANGER. In the New York Times, Matt Flegenheimer and Kate Kelly have a robust profile of Steve Cohen, the billionaire art collector and hedge-funder who is now the big-spending owner of the Mets. He has gone from “a reclusive avatar of scofflaw capitalism to an avuncular Twitterer who could probably be elected Queens borough president by acclamation,” they write. Once known for running a highly intense workplace, Cohen said, “I’ve mellowed.” Because of the huge player contracts he is paying, Major League Baseball has instituted a so-called Cohen Tax aimed at penalizing such deals. Outfielder Brandon Nimmo told the Times that Cohen said of that rule change: “It’s an honor. Wouldn’t you want a tax named after you?” [NYT]
OnePlus has today denied it is leaving the UK and European market.
Leaker and All About Samsung writer Max Jambor tweeted Monday claiming that both smartphone makers Oppo and OnePlus would be “pulling out of Europe,” but OnePlus says otherwise.
“OnePlus will not exit from Europe and the UK and maintains stable operations in local markets. OnePlus will continue to invest in Europe and provide more innovative product and solutions for its users,” OnePlus global PR Manager James Paterson told Tech Advisor in an email statement.
Tech Advisor has asked Oppo for comment and we will update this story if they respond.
Jambor cited Germany, the UK, France, and Netherlands as the “first to leave”.
I can confirm: OPPO and OnePlus are pulling out of Europe. First to leave are Germany, UK, France and Netherlands.
In a subsequent tweet Jambor claimed that “right now only the countries listed will close down. Not Europe entirely.”
Both Oppo and OnePlus are brands owned by Chinese firm BBK Group, which also owns other smartphone brands including Realme and Vivo. Exiting European markets would represent a big shift in sales strategy for the brands, with OnePlus successfully entering the UK and European market in 2014 with its first phone, the OnePlus One.
Both brands also sell wireless earbuds and smartwatches to European consumers while Oppo recently launched its Pad Air tablet.
Oppo does not sell directly to US consumers but some of the best Oppo phones of recent years have been released in the UK and Europe including the Oppo Find N2 Flip, a flip-style rival to Samsung’s Z Flip 4.
When the artist Sayed Haider Raza (1922–2016) was a child living in a small, forested village in in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, his teacher drew a circle on the board and told him to concentrate on it to stay focused.
Years later, the circle returned into the artist’s life, this time drawn by S.H. Raza himself on his now iconic paintings depicting the bindu. Sanskrit for “drop,” “point,” or “grain,” a bindu is a symbol of the cosmos and the point of all creation in Indian philosophy. S.H. Raza’s black bindus burst and anchor his abstract geometric paintings in burning yellows, oranges, greens, and reds. They are setting and rising suns within interior, symbolic landscapes, where lines of poetry in Hindi or other vernacular languages sometimes emerge.
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These masterpieces, including explorations of his native land, are characteristic of Raza’s paintings made primarily between the 1960s and the ’80s, and make for fiery, swift entry points into his creations. They speak their own, mysterious language in dialogue simultaneously with his Western contemporaries and his Indian heritage. They are also an overripe introduction to the often miscategorized and under-recognized universe of modern Indian art, of which S.H. Raza was a leading figure.
In a belated effort to help rectify that, S.H. Raza’s paintings have been united in a rare, though restrained gathering of some 90 paintings at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, on view until May 15. The exhibition is a first retrospective for the artist in France, where he lived from 1950 until 2011, and highlights his earlier, lesser-known experimental works. Unfortunately, his groundbreaking abstract geometric paintings, which reach their crescendo in the early ’80s, are introduced relatively late into the exhibition and feel under-represented as a result. Still, seeing S.H. Raza’s painterly progression, fleshed out in this chronologically organized exhibition, reveals a fascinating life of artistic question and response, battled out on canvas.
During his time in France, S.H. Raza traveled to India annually, effectively straddling both continents, and refusing to be pinned to either. He “lived with a dual belonging, and a dual consciousness,” said Roobina Karode, director and chief curator of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, a significant lender to the exhibition. “He really did not like how people said he was an Indian painter in Paris. He was trying to reach out to the cosmos, to embrace the entire thing, and break that narrow vision.”
Raza is among India’s most celebrated artists, and a co-founder of the country’s renowned Progressive Artists Group (PAG), along with M.F. Husain, F.N. Souza, S.K. Bakre, and others. Formed on the eve of Indian independence in 1947, the group rebelled against previous, colonial-era artistic movements such as the Bengal School of Painting, which focused on “true Hindu art,” or works “free of colonial infection,” as Partha Mitter writes in 20th Century Indian Art, a recent survey published by Thames & Hudson.
Instead, PAG artists explored what a new national identity might entail. They looked to Indigenous philosophical and artistic traditions, while also embracing a form of internationalism that was curious about Western art, but not derivative of it, as is often misunderstood.
PAG artists “were struggling with wanting to be seen globally, beyond India, because they felt they were equally competent, and equally involved in the practice of modernism,” Karode told ARTnews. “They were open to influences, but they were actually trying to make meaning of what it was to be modern in their own context.”
And, as Karode pointed out, Eastern philosophy heavily influenced European modernism. “This traversing of influences is happening all the time, but [historiographies tend to say] it always started from the West. What comes out of [India], doesn’t get equally acknowledged, and that acknowledgement is something these artists were passionately working toward,” she said. “It was not a one-way street.”
S.H. Raza, Ondhu, Heart Is Not Ten or Twenty, 1964.
The Pompidou exhibition’s curator, Catherine David, agreed the “derivative question comes up for every modern artwork that is not from the self-proclaimed centers of modernity. It’s very complicated to deconstruct, but we’re working on it.” As early as the 19th century, Indian artists used their own modes of expression “that are not in any way replicas,” forming a body of modern and contemporary art that is quintessentially figurative, she explained.
Raza, however, took a peripheral course to that of his Indian peers, despite maintaining a close bond to his artistic cohort and origins. He distanced himself from their dominant figurative art, moving toward abstraction. In the exhibition, this development is illustrated from rarely seen early watercolors on paper, depicting Indian cities, female figures, and geometric landscapes devoid of people, reminiscent of Bernard Buffet, van Gogh, Gauguin, and fellow PAG member and friend, F.N. Souza.
Works in this mode brought Raza relative early recognition, particularly during the years he was more closely associated with the Paris School of artists. He was the first non-European artist to receive the Prix de la Critique in 1956, and he exhibited in major international cities, including the Venice Biennale in 1956. The gallery Lara Vincy represented him in France, and he enjoyed widespread visibility in India as well. In 1959 he married French artist Janine Mongillat (1930–2002), whom he met through friends from the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris, where he studied on scholarship from 1950 to 1953. Unfortunately, none of Mongillat’s intriguing artworks, including strange, painted sculptures and collages made from found objects and paper mâché, are included in the exhibition to highlight another source of influence for Raza.
By the ’60s, a major change was afoot in his practice. “Raza started getting a little anxious about feeling there wasn’t much of India in him,” said poet Ashok Vajpeyi, a longtime friend of the late artist and head of the Raza Foundation. “So, he started on a different direction, and moved toward a kind of abstraction.”
He began looking increasingly to Rajput miniature paintings on paper, dating from the 16th to 19th centuries, moved by “their power, in terms of composition, space, and color,” David said. “Little by little, Raza finished with figuration, and he embarked on the process of deconstruction, toward an explosion of color, until we are left with a colored composition.”
S.H. Raza, La Terre, 1977.
Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. New Delhi
Soon came large, flat areas of vibrating pigment, composed within linearly divided segments of canvas, informed by Mark Rothko as well as other American Abstract Expressionists. He discarded Parisian shades and opted for colors evoking hot, humid Indian summers. His childhood memories of walking alone at night through the forest led to a key series of works from the 1970s, titled “La Terre”(the land), where poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke also comes in as an influence. In these works, glowing points of light break through darkness and chaos.
Around the same time, examined roughly a third of the way through the exhibition, references to Indian spirituality become more prevalent, including early references to bindus as well asnagas, kundalini, Indian poetry, and classical music, known as ragas. As one rounds the exhibition’s last leg, Raza effectively enters his well-known “radical and symbolic geometric abstraction,” per the wall text. His masterworks titled Maa (Mother), Rajasthan, and Saurashtra, to name a few, can include bindus drawn with the perfection of a protractor, alongside dense, roughly gestural geometric forms and color, painted within rectangular strips and square marked segments. The latest works on view are pared down, cleaner, and more uniform, losing much of their vibrancy and singularity. Raza’s symbolic, ordered forms often reference renewal and a cyclical concept of time, and are a support for meditation in the Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist traditions.
S.H. Raza, Saurashtra, 1983.
Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi
Born into a Muslim family, Raza’s father was a forest ranger who interpreted Islam liberally, leading to his son’s interest in Hinduism and Christianity, all three of which are referenced over the course of his career. “He created an indirect narrative around elements of his own culture and civilization, that was a very important aspect of his work to me,” said artist Manish Pushkale, a mentee of Raza’s who has previously exhibited alongside his teacher.
In the last decade, demand for S.H. Raza’s works has hit record highs, rising 800 percent in value at auction between the mid-1990s and 2010s, reaching a top price of $4.45 million at Christie’s in New York in 2018. “The hardest thing for us is sourcing these incredible works,” said Damian Vesey, a specialist modern and contemporary South Asian art at Christie’s.
At a packed opening at the Pompidou, visitors, many of whom flew in for the event, dressed in a myriad of sparkling saris, lending the event a festive touch, not incompatible with the works on view.
“I think Raza had a celebrative instinct, unlike the usual modernists, where there is disruption, dislocation, tension,” Vajpeyi said. “Raza tried, on the other hand, to reach consonance, tranquility. He was trying a different kind of modernism, which undid the dichotomy between the sensuous and the spiritual. For him, they were more or less the same.”
Describing Raza as a “master colorist,” Vajpeyi added, “Raza’s legacy is that colors can speak. They can sing.”
