Technologies

Samsung’s New Flip Phone Highlights the Clamshell’s Comeback

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 shows that the flip phone has revived its main-character energy from yesteryear.

Before smartphones turned ubiquitous, flip phones were the consumer-tech status symbol. They had compact and cool designs and user-friendly features. And let’s be honest: It’s tough to beat the thrill of ending a call by snapping a phone shut.

Nowadays, the flip phone is back in vogue, albeit the «smart» kind, as old becomes new again.Just ask Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney, whom Samsung has tapped to drive that point home. In an ad for the company’s latest flip phone, the actress proclaims that her Galaxy Z Flip 5 is the «best accessory» for «how she looks and feels.»

In July, Samsung unveiled its latest wave of foldable phones at its Unpacked event, where the Galaxy Z Flip 5 was arguably the tech star of the show. Compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 5, it received major upgrades, including a redesigned hinge and a much larger cover screen. The addition of that larger external display, along with software upgrades, means you can do things like record audio, peruse your calendar or track the stock market without ever unfolding the Z Flip 5. Its predecessor, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 had a comparatively small cover screen that wasn’t nearly as versatile.

«Larger cover screens make these clamshells both more useful and more deliberate — sometimes you just want a piece of information without falling into a rabbit hole of app content, » Avi Greengart, analyst at Techsponential, told CNET over email.

Sydney Sweeney and Wonyoung at the Samsung event

Back in the spotlight, en route to the mainstream

But it isn’t just Samsung. In general, flip phones are undergoing a drastic transformation in comparison to their book-style counterparts like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Google’s Pixel Fold. And much of that change is happening on the front screen.

Weeks before Unpacked, Motorola launched its Razr Plus, outfitted with a larger cover screen that raised the bar for flip phones everywhere. In late 2022, Oppo, a top Chinese phone maker, shook up the cover design of flip phones first by introducing a vertically oriented cover screen to its first-ever flip phone, the Find N2 Flip.

These new flippable cover screens seem to have hit a sweet spot: larger and more useful than a smartwatch, but smaller and less distracting than a normal phone screen. The previous generation of flip phones felt like a regular phone with a smartwatch on the front — convenient for cursory checks, but not much else.

«It’s the ‘be first or be better’ moment for the smartphone vendors,» said Will Wong, senior research manager at the International Data Corporation, a telecom market intelligence firm. «To win the foldable competition, the smartphone vendors will need to either be the first or create a more significant differentiation.»

Armed with bigger cover screens, flippables are poised to come back into the mainstream provided hurdles like durability are overcome. Either way, this latest wave of redesigns underscores how the flip phone is reclaiming its main-character energy more than ever before.

Take this anecdotal example: Oppo chose the Find N2 Flip as the product for its global foldable phone push, even though it had previously launched two book-style foldable phones in China. In fact, the Find N2 Flip is the crown jewel of Oppo’s global marketing blitz for its smartphone division, which involves sponsorships of elite sporting events including Wimbledon and the UEFA Champions League, which together attract a worldwide audience estimated in the hundreds of millions.

The phone in half flip Oppo Find N2 Flip.

Read more: Oppo Is Using Elite Sports Events to Convince People to Buy Phones

It’s very possible that Oppo’s decision hinged on past sales performance of flip phones. Clamshell-style phones have accounted for more than 50% of foldable shipments from 2020 through to the first quarter of 2023, IDC told CNET in an email. This trend is unlikely to change, the research firm said, since the average selling price, or ASP, of a flip phone is generally lower than that of a book-style phone.

«By the first quarter of 2023, clamshell’s ASP was below US$1,000 and was around 60% of the book-style’s ASP,» Wong told CNET in July.

Though foldable phones still make up a small sliver of the broader smartphone market, sales of both book-style and flip phones are expected to balloon. IDC expects worldwide shipments of foldable phones to reach 21.4 million units in 2023. This represents an increase of more than 50% over the 14.2 million units shipped in 2022. By 2027, IDC expects foldable phones to capture 3.5% of overall market share, which translates to more than 48 million shipments.

Refined, not redefined

Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Fold 5, its larger and more expensive foldable phone, alongside the Z Flip 5 at Unpacked. The book-style device is an improved version of last year’s Z Fold 4, with a different hinge. CNET’s Patrick Holland, who reviewed it, described the Z Fold 5 as a refinement rather than a redefinition. However, that essentially sums up the trend across the entire book-style foldable subcategory right now.

Though more players are entering the space, and with a range of designs, the transformation days for book-style foldables seem to be behind us. Sure, new entrants such as Google’s Pixel Fold and Honor’s Magic V2 are exciting and — in the case of the latter — impossibly thin. Book-style foldables may also be seen as being more technologically innovative than flip phones.

But they aren’t dramatically different from their predecessors right now, and that’s OK. In general, most phone makers have settled on the book-style design pioneered by Samsung in 2019 with its Galaxy Z Fold, meaning that device laid the foundation for the book-style foldable subcategory as we know it today. No small feat. A couple of years later, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 debuted with stylus support, which was also another major milestone in foldable phone innovation, but that was two years ago.

«In the short term, a significant transformation for book-style foldables in terms of hardware is not expected.» Wong told CNET in an email. «Nevertheless, we do see favorable use cases like navigation for this form factor. Thus, software optimization will still be one of the good directions for this particular product.»

Flipping into the future

Clamshell-style phones have come a long way since the trendy gadgets first broke onto the scene in the late 1990s. Today large cover screens seem to be a design hallmark for fancy flip phones, with Samsung, Oppo, and Motorola all slapping a bigger display onto the front of their respective flippables. With that change this year, it’s hard to imagine a dramatic evolution of the flip phone design going forward — it seems to have reached a stable point.

«The hardware design and the focus on the larger cover screen is not expected to have a huge change at this stage, as there is a limitation from the hardware aspect, especially when considering that the phone battery’s shape is unlikely to have a significant breakthrough in the short term.» Wong said.

The flip phone has certainly regained its cool factor, but it still has hurdles to clear before becoming mainstream. Device makers will likely focus on bringing improvements to the software and durability of their products, key areas of concern for foldables. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5, for instance, has no official IP rating for dust, meaning it can’t withstand dust ingress apart from the hinge dusters brushing particles away. That’s a lot to overlook for a $1,000 phone. Flip phones will also have to compete with established smartphones in terms of performance, price and features (better cameras, for example).

«And that is why we saw Motorola launched both Moto Razr 40 (Motorola Razr 2023 in the US) and Moto Razr 40 Ultra (Motorola Razr Plus), which is a dual-track strategy to attract consumers with lower budget,» Wong added.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and its flippable rivals can enjoy their moment in the spotlight. They may not fully replace regular candy bar-shaped phones anytime soon, but they certainly offer a unique and nostalgic experience for those who appreciate their charm.

Flip phones are back, and it’s their time to shine.

Technologies

I’ve Seen It With My Own Eyes: The Robots Are Here and Walking Among Us

The «physical AI» boom has created a world of opportunity for robot makers, and they’re not holding back.

It’s been 24 years since CNET first published an article with the headline The robots are coming. It’s a phrase I’ve repeated in my own writing over the years — mostly in jest. But now in 2026, for the first time, I feel confident in declaring that the robots have finally arrived.

I kicked off this year, as I often do, wandering the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center and its hotel-based outposts on the lookout for the technology set to define the next 12 months. CES has always been a hotbed of activity for robots, but more often than not, a robot that makes a flashy Vegas debut doesn’t go on to have a rich, meaningful career in the wider world.

In fact, as cute as they often are and as fun as they can be to interact with on the show floor, most robots I’ve seen at CES over the years amount to little more than gimmicks. They either come back year after year with no notable improvements or are never seen or heard from again.

In more than a decade of covering the show, I’ve been waiting for a shift to occur. In 2026, I finally witnessed it. From Hyundai unveiling the final product version of the Boston Dynamics Atlas humanoid robot in its press conference to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s focus on «physical AI» during his keynote, a sea change was evident this year in how people were talking about robots.

«We’ve had this dream of having robots everywhere for decades and decades,» Rev Lebaredian, Nvidia’s vice president of Omniverse and simulation told me on the sidelines of the chipmaker’s vast exhibition at the glamorous Fontainebleau Hotel. «It’s been in sci-fi as long as we can remember.»

Throughout the show, I felt like I was watching that sci-fi vision come to life. Everywhere I went, I was stumbling upon robot demos (some of which will be entering the market this year) drawing crowds, like the people lining up outside Hyundai’s booth to see the new Atlas in action.

So what’s changed? Until now, «we didn’t have the technology to create the brain of a robot,» Lebaredian said.

AI has unlocked our ability to apply algorithms to language, and it’s being applied to the physical world, changing everything for robots and those who make them.

The physical AI revolution

What truly makes a robot a robot? Rewind to CES 2017: I spent my time at the show asking every robotics expert that question, sparked by the proliferation of autonomous vehicles, drones and intelligent smart home devices.

This exercise predated the emergence of generative AI and models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but already I could see that by integrating voice assistants into their products, companies were beginning to blur the boundaries of what could be considered robotics.

Not only has the tech evolved since that time, but so has the language we use to talk about it. At CES 2026, the main topic of conversation seemed to be «physical AI.» It’s an umbrella term that can encompass everything from self-driving cars to robots.

«If you have any physical embodiments, where AI is not only used to perceive the environment, but actually to take decisions and actions that interact with the environment around it … then it’s physical AI,» Ahmed Sadek, head of physical AI and vice president of engineering at chipmaker Qualcomm told me.

Autonomous vehicles have been the easiest expression of physical AI to build so far, according to Lebaredian, simply because their main challenge is to dodge objects rather than interact with them. «Avoiding touching things is a lot easier than manipulating things,» he said.

Still, the development of self-driving vehicles has done much of the heavy lifting on the hardware, setting the stage for robot development to accelerate at a rapid pace now that the software required to build a brain is catching up.

For Nvidia, which worked on the new Atlas robot with Boston Dynamics, and Qualcomm, which announced its latest robotics platform at CES, these developments present a huge opportunity.

But that opportunity also extends to start-ups. Featured prominently at the CES 2026 booth of German automotive company Schaeffler was the year-and-a-half-old British company Humanoid, demonstrating the capabilities of its robot HMND 01.

The wheeled robot was built in just seven months Artem Sokolov, Humanoid’s CEO, told me, as we watch it sort car parts with its pincerlike hands. «We built our bipedal one for service and household much faster — in five months,» Sokolov added.

Humanoid’s speed can be accounted for by the AI boom plus an influx of talent recruited from top robotics companies, said Sokolov. The company has already signed around 25,000 preorders for HMND 01 and completed pilots with six Fortune 500 companies, he said.

This momentum extends to the next generation of Humanoid’s robots, where Sokolov doesn’t foresee any real bottlenecks. The main factors dictating the pace will be improvements in AI models and making the hardware more reliable and cost effective.

Humanoid hype hits its peak

Humanoid the company might have the rights to the name, but the concept of humanoids is a wider domain.

By the end of last year, the commercialization of humanoid robots had entered an «explosive phase of growth,» with a 508% year-on-year increase in global market revenue to $440 million, according to a report released by IDC this month.

At CES, Qualcomm’s robot demonstration showed how its latest platform could be adapted across different forms, including a robotic arm that could assemble a sandwich. But it was the humanoids at its booth that caused everyone to pull out their phones and start filming.

«Our vision is that if you have any embodiment, any mechatronic system, our platform should be able to transform it to a continuously learning intelligent robot,» said Qualcomm’s Sadek. But, he added, the major benefit of the humanoid form is its «flexibility.»

Some in the robotics world have criticized the focus on humanoids, due to their replication of our own limitations. It’s a notion that Lebaredian disagrees with, pointing out that we’ve designed our world around us and that robots need to be able to operate within it.

«There are many tasks that are dull, dangerous and dirty — they call it the three Ds — that are being done by humans today, that we have labor shortages for and that this technology can potentially go help us with,» he said.

We already have many specialist robots working in factories around the world, Lebaredian added. With their combination of arms, legs and mobility, humanoids are «largely a superset of all of the other kinds of robots» and, as such, are perfect for the more general-purpose work we need help with.

The hype around robots — and humanoids in particular — at CES this year felt intense. Even Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter acknowledged this in a Q&A with reporters moments after he unveiled the new Atlas on stage.

But it’s not just hype, Playter insisted, because Boston Dynamics is already demonstrating that they can put thousands of robots in the market. «That is not an indication of a hype cycle, but actually an indication of an emerging industry,» he said.

A huge amount of money is being poured into a rapidly growing number of robotics start-ups. The rate of this investment is a signal that the tech is ready to go, according to Nvidia’s Lebaredian.

«It’s because, fundamentally, the experts, people who understand this stuff, now believe, technically, it’s all possible,» he said. «We’ve switched from a scientific problem of discovery to an engineering problem.»

Robot evolution: From industry to home

From what I observed at the show, this engineering «problem» is one that many companies have already solved. Robots such as Atlas and HMND 01 have crossed the threshold from prototype to factory ready. The question for many of us will be as to when will these robots be ready for our homes.

Playter has openly talked about Boston Dynamics’ ambitions in this regard. He sees Atlas evolving into a home robot — but not yet. Some newer entrants to the robotics market — 1X, Sunday Robotics and Humanoid among them — are keen to get their robots into people’s homes in the next couple of years. Playter cautions against this approach.

«Companies are advertising that they want to go right to the home,» he said. «We think that’s the wrong strategy.»

The reasons he listed are twofold: pricing and safety. Playter echoed a sentiment I’ve heard elsewhere: that the first real use for home humanoid robots will be to carry out care duties for disabled and elderly populations. Perhaps in 20 years, you will have a robot carry you in and out of bed, but relying on one to do so when you’re in a vulnerable state poses «critical safety issue,» he said.

Putting robots in factories first allows people to work closely with them while keeping a safe distance, allowing those safety kinks to be ironed out. The deployment of robots at scale in industrial settings will also lead to mass manufacturing of components that will, at some point, make robots affordable for the rest of us, said Playter (unlike 1X’s $20,000 Neo robot, for example).

Still, he imagines the business model will be «robots as a service,» even when they do first enter our homes. Elder care itself is a big industry with real money being spent that could present Boston Dynamics with a market opportunity as Atlas takes its first steps beyond the factory floor.

«I spent a lot of money … with my mom in specialty care the last few years,» he said. «Having robots that can preserve autonomy and dignity at home, I think people will actually spend money — maybe $20K a year.»

The first «care» robots are more likely to be companion robots. This year at the CES, Tombot announced that its robotic labrador, Jennie, who first charmed me back at the show in 2020, is finally ready to go on sale. It served as yet another signal to me that the robots are ready to lead lives beyond the convention center walls.

Unlike in previous years, I left Vegas confident that I’ll be seeing more of this year’s cohort of CES robots in the future. Maybe not in my home just yet, but it’s time to prepare for a world in which robots will increasingly walk among us.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Jan. 29, #1685

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Jan. 29, No. 1,685.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle was a tough one for me. I never seem to guess three of the letters in this word. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

Today’s Wordle answer has one vowel and one sometimes vowel.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with F.

Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter

Today’s Wordle answer ends with Y.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to a pastry that breaks apart easily.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is FLAKY.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, Jan. 28, No. 1684 was CRUEL.

Recent Wordle answers

Jan. 24, No. 1680: CLIFF

Jan. 25, No. 1681: STRUT

Jan. 26, No. 1682: FREAK

Jan. 27, No. 1683: DUSKY

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Jan. 29 #697

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Jan. 29, No. 697.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a bit of a puzzler until you realize the theme. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Talk of the town.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: What a legend.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

ROIL, CLAIM, RARE, HELP, PEAR, PEARS, MORE, COIN, SPEAR, SPEARS

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers: