As Samsung celebrates it’s 25 Anniversary in Chinese Market, it has launched the Samsung W2018 a clamshell phones (call it flip phone) in an event in Xiamen, China which turns out to be an absolute monster. It succeeds the W2017 that was launched last year.
The W2018 is undoubtedly a ultra-premium device made from metal and glass, and weighs more than the Galaxy S8 and Note 8. It comes in two colors; Gold and Platinum.
It carries a pair of 4.2 inch Super AMOLED displays with a 1080 x 1920 resolution. It also features a full keypad for user who prefer a traditional clamshell user experience with navigation buttons visible when folded. When folded, it can be used without having to access the physical keyboard.
The device comes with a single 12mp sensor and what stands out about it the more is it’s wide aperture at f/1.5, the widest currently in any smartphone beating the likes of the LG V30 and Huawei Mate 10 Pro with f/1.6. The W2018 should take better shots in low light conditions than those two.
Like current Samsung flagships like the Note 8, the W2018 is powered by the latest high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor backed by a hefty 6GB of RAM. It comes with 64GB on-board storage with expansion of up to 256GB via SD Card. It’s fingerprint sensor is mounted at the back.
The W2018 unfortunately comes preloaded with Android 7.1.1 Nougat but Samsung promises an Oreo update come 2018. Bixby Assistant is also available on the W2018 with a dedicated button making it the first clamshell device to ship with a digital assistant.
Price-wise, it doesn’t come cheap as it’s expected to cost $2400 and will only be available in China. What do you think about this phone? Leave us a comment below.