In order to continue being the flag-bearer of flip smartphones, Samsung has announced the new Leader 8 in the Chinese market. The new device will succeed last year’s SM-W2017 as the Samsung flagship flip phone for 2017. The Leader 8 was announced on Samsung’s website along with all the specifications.
The flip smartphone, codenamed SM-G9298 packs two 4.2-inch Super AMOLED display panels with a 1920 x 1080 px resolution, one on the outside of the device and one inside. The Leader 8 runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset along with 4GB RAM and 64GB of onboard storage, expandable up to 256GB. Samsung has decided to go with a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset this time around unlike last year’s Exynos Chipset in the SM-W2017. The Leader 8 has a 2,300mAH battery with wireless charging capabilities. Among other features, Samsung has also packed in Samsung Pay, a digital wallet for mobile payment.
On the camera front, it houses a 12 MP rear-facing camera with an f/1.7 aperture for better low-light performance and a 5 MP front-facing camera with an f/1.9 aperture. The rear facing camera records 3840 x 2160 px video at 30fps and supports autofocus. There is no mention of OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) in Samsung’s announcement post. The fingerprint sensor sits just below the rear camera along with Samsung’s standard heart rate sensor.
A flip smartphone in the era of bezel-less sleek phones is a different move from Samsung, but it has identified an audience for new-age flip phones. The specifications of the Leader 8 will hold up against many smartphones of 2017. Details of pricing and the availability of the phone have not been shared by Samsung yet. This puts a question mark on whether this device will be made available for international markets.