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Home / New Zealand

Tech world reacts to 'gender fluid' Galaxy Note 20 Ultra smartphone

By Jack Gramenz
news.com.auΒ·
5 Aug, 2020 06:22 PM3 mins to read

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The new Galaxy Note 20. Photo / Supplied

The new Galaxy Note 20. Photo / Supplied

Korean electronics giant Samsung has been immediately mocked online after a livestreamed event that saw the brand announce a swathe of new products.

But not every one was happy.

Samsung announced three new smartphones, a new smartwatch, two new tablets, and a pair of wireless earbuds, but it was The Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra that were the first to cop it.

Samsung experimented with a new livestream format, necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic, to project a massive scale model of the Note 20 that was immediately mocked online.

NOOOO THE GALAXY NOTE20 IS SO BIG 😭 pic.twitter.com/3qc4zWzQhL

— m⁷ misses taehyung πŸ“Ό (@twinkletaeee) August 5, 2020
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Others roasted Samsung's introduction of the phone's colour schemes, which is available in a variety of colours including bronze, grey, green, white and black, all with "Mystic" as a prefix.

But in describing the different colours Samsung made a strange characterisation.

Samsung describing the mystic bronze Galaxy Note 20 as the first gender fluid phone. Didn't see that coming. #SamsungEvent pic.twitter.com/qxV6C4KmOo

— Joe Cox (@JosephCox) August 5, 2020

Yeahhh that's definitely a plastic back on the Note 20. Not thrilled about it but I guess I'll put a case on anyway#SamsungEvent

— Holly Brockwell (@holly) August 5, 2020

The definition of gender fluid (or non-binary) is of, relating to, or being a person whose gender identity is not fixed. In other words, they don't identify as either male or female.

Notable examples include Australian actor Ruby Rose.

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The Wall Street Journal's technology columnist Joanna Stern said the phrase was "not a phrase I'd ever thought I'd hear in a Samsung phone launch".

Another said: "Didn't see that coming".

Samsung also introduced some new wireless earbuds to compete with the market-dominating AirPods, featuring a bold new jellybean-style design that has also inspired comparisons.

Loving the new Galaxy Buds #SamsungEvent #GalaxyUnpacked pic.twitter.com/etHrOfgTOC

— Jordan (@PKDrone) August 5, 2020

WHY DO THOSE BROWN GALAXY BUDS LOOK LIKE BEANS pic.twitter.com/1JdfLXh00c

— Ω‹suus⁷ ❀ (@jminshi_) August 5, 2020

While plenty of people tuned into the livestream (at one point more than 455,000), not all of them were there for the new devices.

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As is the case with everything to do with the K-Pop music genre, and particularly the group BTS, the extremely online fandom were also having their say while they waited for a performance from the group.

me watching the galaxy unpacked livestream on my ipad and having my airpods in while tweeting from my iphone like: pic.twitter.com/20oGVWxGbX

— 𝐞π₯π₯𝐒⁷ - 𝐣𝐣𝐀𝟏 𝐒𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐒𝐧𝐠 β—‘Μˆ (@jiminsvkook) August 5, 2020

That performance ended up being a very brief cameo of some of the band members playing with the new Galaxy ZFold2, to the disappointment of many.

In addition to the Note phones, the company announced a new wearable: the Galaxy Watch 3, as well as a new laptop-tablet hybrid to compete with Apple's iPad Pro and Microsoft's Surface devices.

There was also a follow up to last year's much-hyped Galaxy Fold, a phone that can hopefully avoid its revolutionary predecessor's fate.

The original phones were certainly impressive but began breaking almost immediately and required a redesign. The ones that had already been made apparently ending up in the hands of dubious electronics resellers.

Details about the new version, called the Galaxy Z Fold2, are still pretty scant but Samsung claims to have learnt from its first two foldable devices and the people who bought them and has promised "meaningful innovations".

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