Soon after launching the Galaxy Folder 2 clamshell smartphone in the South Korean market, South Korean tech giant Samsung on Thursday launched its latest premium Android clamshell smartphone, dubbed as “Samsung SM-G9298 or Leadership 8” in the Chinese tech market. Though the company has not revealed the pricing and release date of the phone yet, it confirmed that the phone will be soon available for purchase in China exclusively via China Mobile in Black colour option. The new Samsung SM-G9298 or Leadership 8 (translated from China) is the successor to the company’s previous W2017 (SM-W2017) premium flip phone, which was launched in China in November last year. The main highlights of the new SM-G9298 clamshell smartphone are its dual Super AMOLED displays, 3D glass and metal design, Snapdragon 821 processor and a 12-megapixel rear camera.
In terms of design, the Samsung SM-G9298 or Leadership 8 sports an aviation grade aluminium alloy body which gives high strength and durability to the device. As we mentioned, the smartphone packs dual Super AMOLED displays, so that you can use the phone even when it’s folded or closed. Further, you can flip open to use the other screen with a keyboard. The top shell houses a Hybrid SIM card slot, while the bottom shell features the volume rockers on the right edge and a power button on the left edge. The new Samsung SM-G9298 flip smartphone also features three capacitive touch navigation buttons on the top shell and a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor on the bottom shell. On the inside, the phone comes equipped with a large physical alphanumeric keypad with a multi-function configurable hotkey that allows easy access to frequently used social media apps.
In terms of specifications, the Samsung SM-G9298 flip phone comes equipped with two 4.2-inch full-HD Super AMOLED displays with a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. Under the hood, the device is powered by a 2.15 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 quad-core processor clubbed with Adreno 530 GPU to handle the graphics. In terms of memory, the flip phone is backed up by a 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, which can be further expanded up to 256GB via a microSD card. Talking about its software fronts, there are no words about its Android version, but it could run Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow OS as mentioned on the TENNA, while other reports suggested that the new Samsung SM-G9298 might run on the Google’s Android 7.0 Nougat operating system with the company’s proprietary TouchWiz custom UI skin on top.
In terms of optics, the Samsung SM-G9298 sports a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera with an f/1.7 aperture, 1.4μm pixels, Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF), and an LED flash module. On the front, the handset features a 5-megapixel front-facing shooter with an f/1.9 aperture for capturing selfies and making video calls. The new Android-powered flip phone also comes with some additional features like – Always-on display, Samsung Pay, S Voice, Secure Folder and a multi-function configurable hotkey.
In terms of connectivity, the Samsung SM-G9298 supports dual-SIM dual standby using the hybrid SIM configuration slot. That means you can either use this as a dual-SIM phone without memory card option or single-SIM phone with memory card option. Besides this, the smartphone also offers various connectivity options including 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 (a/b/g/n/ac), Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS/A-GPS/GLONASS, NFC, a 3.5 mm audio jack and a MicroUSB 2.0 port for charging and data transfer. On the battery front, the Samsung Leadership 8 comes packed with a 2,300mAh non-removable battery that is rated up to 68 hours of standby time. The battery also supports adaptive fast charging technology. Sensors on the smartphone include an Accelerometer, Ambient light sensor, Barometer, Proximity sensor, E-compass, Fingerprint sensor (rear-mounted), Gyroscope, Hall sensor and Heart rate sensor. Dimensionally, the handset measures 130.2 x 62.6 x 15.9 mm and weighs 235 grams.
