Samsung Galaxy Fold – Big steps forward, a few behind

Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X are the two first foldable smartphones from major smartphone manufacturers. The reality soon set in, however. It was found shortly before the Galaxy Fold’s launch that it had serious screen and durability problems.

Samsung addressed the issues, delayed its launch and delivered a device with a lot of potential. Samsung would then release the Galaxy Z Fold 2 to address a variety of issues, including foldable display durability and a more traditional outside display.

How do you improve on something as good as the Galaxy Z Fold 2 then? The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is the answer. Does Samsung succeed in making its new foldables mainstream? You can find our full review below. However, we wanted to take a second look at the device with fresh eyes. In this Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 second opinion review, let’s dive in.

After only a few glances at foldables like the Galaxy Fold 3, Huawei Mate X and Royole Flexpai, I’ve jumped straight into the Galaxy Z Fold 3 to test as a day-to-day driver, avoiding some of the initial teething problems with large screens.

Samsung’s new foldable phone is thicker than most flagships, with a thickness of 14mm, and weighs 271g. It’s like carrying two smartphones that are relatively thin strapped together. This phone will fit into jeans pockets, but it is a little tight due to its thickness and weight. You can’t keep anything else (and shouldn’t, either) in the pocket.

Overall, the build quality was excellent. The aluminum frame is complemented by a back glass that does not attract fingerprints and a metal hinge protector that has the Samsung logo on it. This all adds up to an iPhone that looks and feels expensive, which is what it should given its $1800 price.

Samsung’s IPX8 rating is the best. The foldable phone is now catching up with the flagships in terms of features and durability. The phone’s dust resistance rating is not rated, so you may have to be careful with it in some situations, or even leave it behind if you are going to the beach.

Samsung also claims that the screen folds up 80% more than it did before. Samsung also feels confident in the durability of its folding screen to support S Pen, although via a special Fold Edition stylus with a retractable tip ($49).

How does foldable living work?

But what about folding? The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is incredibly thin when it’s folded. However, this also makes the device very thick. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 has a form that is similar to a TV remote when it’s used as a smartphone. It also features a 25:9 ratio.

You’ll love the fact that this is a very polished foldable experience. The device can be unfolded with two hands, but it was possible to fold it in half using just one hand. (Place your thumb along the crease for help). The device also produces a pleasing thwack when folded.

Fold’s tablet-sized screen is its main selling point. It’s a bit disappointing that despite Ultra Thin Glass and the claim of 80% durability, you can still tell it is a plastic display. The screen is not as rigid as a conventional smartphone’s screen, but it doesn’t feel any less durable. I didn’t even feel like the phone was about to break when I prodded the screen with some force.

S Pen support, as mentioned above, is an excellent way to entice Galaxy Note lovers who have been scorned by the device. However, the absence of an S Pen integrated slot — at least one that is not awkward — is disappointing. The Note 20 Ultra’s larger screen is a welcome change from the Note 20 Ultra. Palm rejection also worked very well. The support, in either case, is Samsung’s way of saying that the screen has become much more durable.

It would still be nice to have a slightly larger screen, particularly for YouTube. Videos don’t use the entire screen unless they are 4:3. Video is still very enjoyable, and web browsing or reading on this device are also pleasant. Outdoor usage is generally fine as the screen was bright enough.

The Z Fold 3 has an obvious crease on its foldable screen, making me wonder how big previous creases had been. It’s also very visible under your fingers. The crease on the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is a bit worse, since you are almost always touching it. The Z Fold 3 is different. You’re only touching the sides, and not the center.

The Galaxy Z Fold 3’s narrower design makes it easy to use on a daily basis, even though the device is thick and heavy. It is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus. The screen, which has a sharp display and is bright enough to use outdoors as well, looks great.

However, the external display may be a bit too narrow. The keyboard on the device is too small to fit the display. This is a problem when entering text. This is also felt strongly when you are reading text passages (e.g. It’s also felt when reading passages of text (e.g. Samsung was likely forced to make this decision by design concerns, but I do think that the Galaxy Fold 2 is a huge improvement. It feels as if Samsung gently encourages you to read on the larger screen.

The upside is that scrolling through Twitter and Reddit on the iPad can be a pretty cool experience. It’s only a slight increase in content compared to the traditional smartphone but you still get a nice experience. It’s possible that a future Z Fold would benefit from a slightly thinner device, but a bit wider. The Huawei Mate X2 phone’s display is a bit wider, delivering a ratio of 21:9.

Without software, a foldable device is not worth anything

Samsung’s previous foldables have done an excellent job at utilizing the software. This is also true, since the One UI skin of the company supports the adaptations you would expect for two screens, along with a few other features.

Flex Mode, which was first introduced on the Galaxy Z Flip 2 and Z Fold 2 last year, allows app developers to make use of the device’s half-open state. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 has this feature as well. You can use the Galaxy Z Fold 3 as a tablet, and leave it half open. This allows you to watch YouTube (no need for kickstand), or take pictures without a tripod.

Samsung also implemented features such as app continuity, which allows you to select the apps that will appear on the smartphone display when the device is folded. It has also made a good job with home screen consistency.

It’s clear that there is room for improvement. It would be nice to have the option of changing refresh rates by screen. It would be great to have separate volume controls on each screen, since I am more likely to need volume when using the foldable media screen.

Auto-rotation can also be turned off per screen, which is a minor inconvenience. Auto-rotate is needed for things such as Flex Mode, which rely heavily on it. Android 11 has rotate prompts that make things easier. However, these prompts also affect the second screen. If you want to rotate a video from the main screen into landscape, then hit the button to turn it again.

The biggest problem with the Galaxy Z Fold 3’s software is the fact that many third-party applications still do not take into account the foldable design. Samsung’s keyboard, for example, has a split layout, where half of the keys are on the left and the other half on the rights (and there is nothing at the fold). Google Gboard, however, does not offer this option. This is a strange omission, as Android Marshmallow on tablets had a split-keyboard in 2015.

Instagram is another major app which hasn’t optimized itself for foldables. As you can see, the interface is a mess. You would think that the company wanted to make the most of the foldable display to show off content. It’s doubly frustrating because the same issue was present with both Galaxy Fold 2 and Galaxy Z Fold 2, but it hasn’t yet been fixed.

The Galaxy Z Fold 3’s camera specifications are similar to those of a Samsung flagship from several years back. Three cameras are included in the rear combination, including a primary 12MP sensor, a telephoto 12MP shooter with 2x zoom, and an ultra-wide 12MP lens.

As 8K requires cameras with a resolution of 33MP and higher, you won’t get 8K Video Recording or 8K Snap. The foldable’s 2x sensor means that it doesn’t have long-range zoom. The phone does have night mode and Samsung’s Single Take Mode, as well as Director’s view, Super Slow Motion, and Super Stable video. You still have a good variety of video modes.

The 12MP camera produces images that are crisp, with good autofocus, but the Scene Optimizer, which is enabled by default, cranks up the saturation way too high for me. It’s hard to tell if it’s a result of the HDR, or if something else is at play. But I have noticed that mountains and other scenery look smudgy when inspected closely. You can see my point by zooming in to the last shot. The main camera is good, overall, but won’t win you any awards at the end of the year.

This camera produces some wide-angle shots that are pleasing to look at. Images taken during daylight have similar colors to those of the primary shooter. This camera has a very noticeable loss of detail at the edge. It’s not uncommon for ultra-wide camera to suffer from this problem, but the effect is more noticeable on my phone than other devices I have reviewed in recent months.

There’s also no autofocus, which is another disappointment. Tapping on the screen will only change the exposure, not the focus. This also excludes macro photography.

The 12MP 2x Telephoto Lens is a good choice for those who want to zoom in at 2x or 4x. However, the colors will be muted when compared with the ultra-wide and main camera. If you want to take long-range shots (>10x), look at other devices, because the detail is generally abysmal. This 10x image of the mountain is an excellent example. Even my Huawei Mate 20 Pro from 2018 managed to take a picture with minimal noise.

It’s a good camera, but it is noisy and dark when you don’t use the night mode. Vivo’s Night Mode is more detailed and aesthetically pleasing than Samsung’s.

The ultra-wide is useless in low light, while the night mode can turn super dark, noisey scenes into useable photos. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is still behind other flagships in low-light photography with its ultra-wide lens.

There’s also a 12-megapixel selfie camera with a hole cutout in the front, and a 4-megapixel selfie camera hidden under the display on the folding screen. This last camera produces an extremely noticeable haze when paired with light backgrounds. The camera outline is also visible when the screen has been turned off, or when it’s paired with dark colours.

Samsung also wants to use this feature during video call. You should always use your smartphone’s screen shooter. It will capture more detail and HDR. Below is a comparison.

The video quality reaches its maximum at 4K/60fps and is actually quite good. There were few to none dropped frames, and noise is kept in check. Samsung offers Super Steady, which is capped at 1080p/30fps. The stabilization is good, but sometimes there’s a jelly-like effect. It would be great to see Samsung upgrade this to 1080p/60fps. The extra frames will make the video much more smooth.

The cameras, when taken together, are the weakest link in the Galaxy Z Fold 3 chain. If Samsung is looking to appeal to Galaxy Note fans or people who love premium flagships in general, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 will be the device to do it. Software updates won’t fix everything. It’s not that you’re getting a bad camera experience, you’re just getting a better one with other smartphones like the Galaxy A72 or Galaxy S20 FE. Our Google Drive folder contains full-resolution images.

Flagship-level performance

Like Samsung’s other foldables before it, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 has high-end components to keep everything running. In 2021, this means the Snapdragon 888, 12GB RAM and up to 512GB expandable storage.

The benchmark performance reflects flagship silicon in general, though the AnTuTu was on the lower side. Our own Speed Test G benchmark produced a result of 97 seconds. This is significantly slower than smartphones like the Xiaomi Mi 11 Series, the Galaxy S21 Ultra and the Oppo Find X3 Pro.

Samsung’s folding phone is very responsive in real-life usage. It was easy to navigate menus and load apps as well as scroll through websites. The experience was equally smooth on both screens.

We downloaded games like Genshin Impact and Call of Duty Mobile to see if we could bring our phones to their knees. Genshin Impact looked great on the huge screen, and ran without any lag. Call of Duty, Hitman Sniper, and other games ran smoothly, without any noticeable judder. Dolphin’s emulator was also a great experience, and we were able to play Metroid Prime as well as F-Zero GX. The games had some minor stutters, but were otherwise very playable.

It’s clear that the phone has plenty of power in real life, but how about its mileage? The dynamic refresh rate feature allowed me to achieve over 6 hours screen time on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 several times. The usage of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 was mostly via its smaller screen. It was also relatively heavy, consisting of 90 minutes YouTube, 30 minutes Genshin impact, YouTube Music, and Podcasting.

After a day pushing the device hard, it lasted six and half hours on screen. The benchmarks were a lot, followed by a little under an hour’s worth of gaming/emulation and nearly three hours watching YouTube (mostly in small screens). This is a pretty impressive result in our opinion. Mobile gamers and those who want to watch a lot of videos should be able to benefit from this.

After you have exhausted your battery, the Z Fold 3 will not be recharged by the charger that comes with it. The phone is capable of 25W charging speeds and it took about 90 minutes to charge the Z Fold 3 from zero up to 100%. This is a bit slow, especially when you consider that charging times under one hour are common among flagship devices. A charging time of even one hour would have been nice. If you prefer charging pads, there is 11W of wireless charging available.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 Review: Second opinion: the best foldable but not best phone

Galaxy Z Fold 3 may not be the right foldable phone for everyone. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 offers a similar experience with a larger screen, but without the bulk. Samsung’s foldable is smaller and has an IPX8-rated screen. However, the size of the device means that the battery and the telephoto lens are not as large.

If you’re looking for a tablet that can fit in your pocket, but were waiting to see if some of the foldable issues would be resolved before buying it, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 is the only option outside China. Even Huawei’s and Xiaomi’s China only foldables are not able to address durability issues as much as the IPX8 and tougher folding screen.

If you prefer a phone with all of the features and bells that come along with a flagship smartphone, then you’ll want to wait until the Galaxy Z Fold 4 or purchase a Galaxy S21 Ultra. Even with the unique design and extra polish, you can expect a better camera, more traditional smartphone displays, and faster charging at the $1,800 price tag.

First foldable to receive an IP water-resistance rating.

Samsung’s new foldable flagship is similar to the 2020 model, but it has some improvements in terms of design and specs. The new model also comes with an IPX8 certification and is compatible with an S Pen. Its price tag has been reduced.