If you’re confused about athletes taking selfies on the Olympic Games medal podium, all with the same strange-looking smartphone, you’re not alone.
It’s something that leaves many viewers wondering what’s going on. An official hands a mysterious device to one of the medalists, often to their surprise, so they can take a ‘Victory Selfie’ of the gold, silver and bronze seeded athletes.
It’s the first time this has happened in Olympic history… but why? And what is that little square phone they use?
To answer the second question: it is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
It doesn’t look like a normal smartphone as it is one of the company’s latest foldable smartphones. The athletes use it in the closed position, and for good reason.
Although there is a screen inside, an additional ‘cover screen’ on one half of the outer casing can show you a live preview of your photo (see above). Because this sits next to the main cameras, you get a better quality image than using the internal camera – which is 50MP compared to 10MP.
It’s a handy feature and one of the many reasons to buy a foldable smartphone instead of the regular candy bar design we’ve become accustomed to.
The answer to why is simple: it’s essentially product placement.
In part, this is because athletes are typically not allowed to use personal belongings on the field (or anything similar) to take photos.
If it were, you’d imagine many iPhones would be pulled out of pockets to capture these moments. This year, however, Samsung is (as usual) a major sponsor of the games, using it as an opportunity to promote its latest device.
“The Victory Selfies will be offered at medal ceremonies for individual medalists and teams of no more than two athletes, with each of the medalists informed on how and when to take their photos on Samsung phones.” said the International Olympic Committee.
The Victory Selfies are mapped and sorted by sport before being uploaded to a cloud service called Athlete365, where athletes can save and share them on social media.
Adding to the equation is that, as with some previous Olympic Games, all athletes have been issued a special Olympic edition of the Galaxy Z Flip 6.
It’s gold, of course, and there are logos on the back, including the iconic Olympic rings. You may have seen many use this during the opening ceremony, where teams were introduced as they sailed on boats down the Seine.
Samsung has also equipped it with an eSIM including 100GB of 5G data, an unlimited free pass for public transport and several official Olympic apps.
You won’t be able to buy this edition, of course (unless you might come across one on eBay soon), but the Galaxy Z Flip 6 is available now from £1,049 / $1,099.