On the heels of Samsung’s latest flagship foldable phones, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, Microsoft has detailed how its software will play with the new hardware.
It’s Samsung’s week at its Unpacked 2021 event where it unveiled the the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, as well as the Galaxy Watch4, and the Galaxy Buds 2.
Think of the Fold as a book-like device that can be a tablet, while the Flip, as the name suggests, is basically a flip phone shape, and Microsoft has explained how some of its key apps, including Microsoft Office, Teams and Outlook, will work with these new form factors.
SEE: The best Samsung phones: Which model should you buy?
Microsoft highlights Teams on a foldable smartphone: Galaxy users can see a presentation in full-screen mode, while seeing the faces of those on a Teams video call underneath. During a Teams call, users can pull up the Whiteboard to illustrate on the board with an S Pen. Outlook also has dual-pane mode for Galaxy devices, so that you can read a full email while previewing others on the side, just like on a desktop.
“With the Multi-Active window, you can run multiple apps at the same time,” says Patrick Chomet, executive vice president, head of mobile products and experiences at Samsung.
“For example, you can open Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint and easily drag and drop a table right into your presentation. Now, you can even run two instances of the same app.”
Microsoft is trying to bring a PC-like multi-tasking experience to Android phones. While Microsoft has made a number of attempts at delivering a mobile operating system, none of these really made a breakthrough with customers and instead it is focusing on getting its apps onto mobile platforms instead.
The Z Fold 3 has a 7.6-inch display device designed with productivity in mind but with a price tag of $1799.99.
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The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 is Samsung’s shot at making foldables mainstream with a price of $1,000.
ZDNet’s Elyse Betters Picaro has a rundown of the best pre-order deals for the Z Fold 3 and the cheaper Z Flip 3. Both phones are available from Samsung. Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. The Z Fold 3 comes with a minimum of 256 GB storage, whole the Z Flip 3 is available with 128GB storage.