Samsung nearly always does something weird during its Unpacked launch events: sometimes by getting a smiling Mark Zuckerberg to walk past a dystopian audience in VR, or hiring a random movie star or K-Pop band and this year, Spider-Man’s sidekick. (Ed. note: Guy in the chair, Mat!)
This year, to mark the launch of three new foldables, two new smartwatches and to tease some almost-here smart glasses, Samsung is smashing together its Fold 8 series with the (concept of the) great British boozer in the center of Soho, London. And because I thrive at covering random, slightly confusing pop-up brand activations, I went along to the Fold Inn to see if there was any cool tech to write up. Samsung made sure to have a few product experts around, but following our Unpacked liveblog (and my own briefing on all the new devices) I knew everything to know about the company’s latest, except which beers were on offer.
As is to be expected of any good product activation, the Fold Inn featured several themed vignettes. The main attractions included a “folded” bar that extended up the wall, with (non-working) beer taps. Samsung had three non-alcoholic beers on tap, each themed to somehow convey the personality of its new phones: the City Pour, Soho Sippa and Shoreditch Pint. These were available in half pints and tasted pretty terrible to me. Your experience may vary, of course. If you’re hoping to know what exact brand of non-alcoholic beers they were so you can avoid them in future, I’m sorry to report that Samsung declined to share who brewed the beer. There was also non-Samsung-themed Grolsh (3.4 percent APV) for proper legends.
In the backroom, there was also a pool table that crept up the wall in the back room. It matched the aspect ratio of the newly launched Galaxy Z Flip 8, several of which were dotted around the table. The walls were decorated in line drawings and artworks that wouldn’t look out of place in a Sam Smith’s or a traditional-style pub in the UK. That is, until you looked closer at the images, and spotted the phones in everyone’s hands. There was even a dog on a flip-phone. While the Samsung devices pictured were from around 2006, that was 20 years ago — long enough to feel historical to me.
There was also a signed England football shirt on the wall — classic pub decor, even if it would have been better off the back of a World Cup victory. I pulled out a Z Fold 8 and tasked Gemini with figuring out which players the signatures might belong to. It turned out to be a Euro ’96 squad — when my interest in soccer peaked — with the autographs of strikers Alan Shearer, Teddy Sheringham and manager Terry Venables all easy enough to spot.
Mat Smith for Engadget
The Fold Inn nailed some of the pub fundamentals, like having not enough seats and a steadfast denial of the existence of air-conditioning. The biggest divorce from the reality of a British pub, though? Having three taps dedicated to alcohol-free beer. It makes sense, given the opening hours: The Fold Inn will open its doors for only two days, today (July 24) and tomorrow, from 11AM to 8PM. And if you can’t get enough of Samsung’s London invasion, it’s got ads on buses and huge digital signage just down the road in Covent Garden too. You can’t escape the Folds.
Mat Smith for Engadget
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