Review of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4
Riding the wave of success and tweaking last year’s mistakes is enough
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 is another intriguing „contraption“ from Samsung that will want to grab the attention of the most demanding users in the second half of this year. The phone was announced along with the Galaxy Z Flip4 in the first half of August, and that was after a series of leaks that gradually revealed everything.
Perhaps that was behind the not-so-warm reception of a phone that seemingly has only minimal differences between generations.
But the most significant changes are not visible at first glance. We won’t deny it. The tested Z Fold4 may evoke „Z Fold3.5" to some. Owners of last year’s Z Fold3 probably won’t see as many advantages with it, but owners of the „two“ may already be enticed by the new puzzle. Not to mention first-generation users.
The changes are, somewhat surprisingly, quite a lot – the hybrid has a more economical and durable display with a better-camouflaged selfie, a more robust and less power-hungry chipset, 8K video support, a new primary camera, a better telephoto lens and also a wholly redesigned narrower hinge.
The whole thing is smaller, lighter, and runs Android 12L. And since the Fold 4 has virtually no competition in Europe, these minor inventions are richly sufficient for Samsung.
It’s just that the same question keeps repeating itself – would you pay around $1549 for a high-end phone these days? But if you are tempted, you will get used to it, and there will be practically no turning back.
Design
More comprehensive, shorter, and lighter, but not significantly so. As a former Galaxy Z Fold3 user, holding the „four“ in my palm felt precisely the same. Yes, with prolonged use, you can sometimes notice a few millimetres in the width of the external display, but unless you have a direct comparison, most users probably won’t even see it.
The phone is also a little shorter, which has an advantage, especially in the new aspect ratio of the displays, which are again a little closer to the „standard.“ In other words, when displaying classic content, the black fill bars on the inner display will no longer be as prominent as before. And that’s a step in the right direction.
However, the „remote control“ feel remains this time, and we don’t mean that in a pejorative way. Anyone can imagine the remote well enough, and operating the device in this form (i.e., when closed) is still quite comfortable. You’ll get tied up on the tiny keyboard with fatter fingers, but that’s not the point.
With its intergenerationally smaller bezels, the external display is used for quick work, taking calls, finding information, etc., while the inner panel is used for practically everything else. And on a much larger surface area. The phone’s body is again made of shiny, durable aluminium (Armor Aluminium), on which we find all the essential elements.
There are four microphones, two AKG-signed speakers, volume controls, a locking key with a fingerprint reader, and USB-C for charging and data transfers. You can also insert two nanoSIM cards into the side drawer or one physical SIM and add the other as an eSIM.
However, Samsung has also redesigned the hinge itself, which is redesigned from the ground up. Samsung has ditched the earlier cogged-wheel mechanism for a surface-rolling mechanism.
The strength of the hinge has remained, but there has been a tiny space-saving. The hinge is also a little stiffer, which we welcome, and if dirt gets in, there are no longer so many ear-splitting sounds coming from the hinge when you squeeze it.
When opening and closing, the micro-brushes take care of actively pushing out the dirt. However, you can always rinse the hinge under running water (IPx8)…
Invisible innovations
The hinge itself is again certified for 200,000 folds, which at an average of 100 folds per day is enough for a good five years of use. The hinge is narrower, but in principle, Nothing significant has changed. You can still stop it in any position, which Samsung calls Flex Mode.
You’ll now start it up for unsupported apps, too, though the universal bar on one half of the display often doesn’t have as much benefit as if the app was directly programmed for Flex Mode (e.g., WhatsApp). When closed, there’s still a big gap between the two parts near the hinge. It does look unsightly relative to the competition, but this gap shows that Samsung can afford to offer IPx8 water resistance on the hybrid.
If Samsung were to switch to a new generation of hinge that is gapless when closed, the increased resistance would have to disappear. However, it has to be said that Samsung is done with this announcement, so we don’t know any more details. On the back of the phone, we find a three-camera isle where Samsung did its thing.
We’ve got not only a new 50Mpx primary sensor that will allow you to shoot 8K videos but also a new telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. The phone is offered in three color options. The primary shade is grey-green. Alternatively, you can get the foldable hybrid in black and beige. Under the rear cover, however, there has been no significant change.
The battery still has a capacity of „only“ 4,400mAh, and the maximum charging speed has stopped at 25 Watts (wired) or 15 Watts (wireless). The most significant jump can be seen in wireless charging, wired charging has the same power, yet the phone charges a bit faster.
You just won’t find a charger in the base box. It only includes the phone, a neatly folded USB-C cable, a pin, and user manuals. Everything else you’ll have to buy separately.
Display
Innovations that aren’t very visible. Samsung’s Z Fold4 relies on a seemingly identical 7.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display that folds in its middle. Specifically, however, it’s a new generation of the Eco2 Plus display, which includes a polarizer as an integral part of the display.
Compared to the Galaxy Z Fold3's display, the new panel is said to have 25% lower power consumption, and that’s a more than welcome change. The panel is still certified for 200k folds. The other new feature is an improved version of the UDC Plus sub-display selfie, whose overlay grid has a 40% higher resolution than the previous Fold.
On paper, it looks great, but in practice, we didn’t observe any differences when comparing the two Folds directly. And if we did, they were very minor. Instead, we found the new phone’s raster only rotated by 90 degrees. As for the translation, we found it a little less pronounced (perhaps thanks to the redesigned hinge), but the truth is that the translation in the display is still quite noticeable.
Both visually and tactilely. In practice, however, it doesn’t matter this time either, you get used to the translation very quickly, and the „unpleasant“ feeling when you grind your thumb into the translation in the display disappears after a few days.
Samsung has used a new film to cover the internal display, which is 45% more durable than before. It doesn’t extend to the edges, about a millimeter away. So definitely don’t peel the film off! And it’s also worth mentioning the higher brightness of the internal display, which maxes out at 1,200 nits (vs. 1,000 nits).
In the sun, the panel shines more than sufficiently. You will perhaps only be bothered by the dirty foil. The panel has a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz, which is adaptive. The display can switch the frequency from 1 to 120 Hz and has a sufficient resolution of 2 176 × 1 812 pixels. We have Nothing to complain about here.
The internal display again boasts support for the S Pen touch pen, which works identically to the last generation. You have to carry the stylus separately (for example, in the new Standing Cover), but the digital pencil is large enough, and of course, there’s no missing action button.
If you push the stylus too hard on display, it will automatically go in, and you can use the button to erase or press and touch the display to quickly open notes. Within the system, you can do whatever you like with the touch pen.
Of course, you can control the environment, „peek“ into submenus, scribble in notes, draw, or even recognize written text and convert it to digital form.
The stylus is a great helper again, but we think it’s time for it to be slowly integrated into the body of the puzzle. You could attach it to the side edges if it was at least magnetic. So hopefully we’ll see you next time. Because the display has a non-standard 21.6:18 aspect ratio, you have to consider that apps may not appear full screen.
In the settings, you can set the content to display at a 16:9 aspect ratio (i.e., larger side black bars) or in a 4:3 format with smaller side bars. You can have the „window“centered or dragged to the left or right edge of the display. For example, where your touch controls are located in the bottom bar.
The display colors are rich and in Vivid display mode, plus you can play around with the white balance and RGB shades. On the other hand, natural mode tones down the intensity of the colors, making them look a little more realistic.
The dark system mode saves battery, and the blue light filter protects your eyes. When you open the device, the apps from the external display are automatically transferred to the internal panel (it doesn’t always work 100%, the graphics are sometimes just annoyingly „stretched“). If you want to continue using apps after closing the hybrid on the external display, you must set it up on your phone first.
The external display has the same 6.2-inch diagonal, 2,316 × 904 pixel resolution, an adaptive refresh rate of 48 – 120 Hz, a maximum brightness of 1,000 nits, and an aspect ratio of 23.1:9. Typing on a tiny keyboard will not be a problem, you just have to take into account more frequent typos. The external display adopts the display settings from the main panel, but we have to criticize it for weaker durability.
Although the display with a 10Mpx selfie in the hole is covered by Victus+ glass, I immediately snapped the phone into the cover from out of the box and carried the phone separately in my pocket. After a few days of testing, two micro-scratches appeared on the outer panel. This wouldn’t have happened with older Gorilla Glass, as I treated the phone like candy.
Hardware
A high-end chipset and a lightweight power profile. Computing power is again at its maximum. Samsung is betting on the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, newly manufactured with a more efficient 4nm process from TSMC. And that’s especially important because the battery capacity has remained on the same footing as last year.
From this perspective, the Lightweight Performance Profile you select in the settings needs special mention. The device’s performance will drop by about a fifth (roughly at the level of last year’s Fold), only that this will save enough battery, and the phone will not heat as much.
The result is the decent battery life on a single charge and extended display on time. No problem getting to well over 4 hours with the display on. And if you don’t play games, the power savings will be even higher. In power saving mode, the phone scored 848k points in Antutu and 934k points on the full power setting.
However, we haven’t yet found that we need maximum performance in a hybrid. Further battery savings will come from disabling 5G networks. The hybrid’s gaming performance was top notch as expected, and even in Light Processing mode. We tried several games of different genres with the phone; in all cases, we have nothing to complain about.
Large display, maximum graphic quality, snappy response, and a very good stereo soundtrack. The battery has a capacity of 4,400mAh and is divided into two parts. Each of them is located in a separate part of the phone. You can charge the phone via USB-C. It’s just that the maximum is still only at the 25 Watt mark. Samsung’s competition is way ahead of the game, so maybe it’s time for the manufacturer to focus on developing fast charging as well.
Charging half a battery in half an hour and going from zero to a hundred in an hour twenty no longer impresses anyone today. Plus, there’s also 15W wireless charging and 4.5W reverse wireless charging – for when your watch or headphones run out of „juice“ on the go. You’ll need to buy the charger separately, as you only get a double-sided USB-C cable in the box.
So if you have an older, slower adapter lying around in your drawer, you won’t be able to plug the USB-C cable into it because older chargers have a USB 2.0 connector. You’ll also need to buy headphones and possibly a protective cover, another stylus, or a film for the external display. In other words, the price of the phone is not final, be prepared for additional investments.
The price of the hybrid mainly depends on the storage configuration. You can choose a phone with fast UFS 3.1 storage in 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB capacities. The third variant mentioned is available only on Samsung’s website.
We tested the 256GB variant, in which the system takes up exactly 34.81GB. The rest is for user files, and you have to reckon that you can’t expand the user memory in any way. The operating memory is 12GB in all cases and is perfectly adequate for the puzzle. In one day, the RAM is, on average, about half full. Connectivity is traditionally quite rich. You get practically anything you can think of.
Whether it’s the newer Bluetooth 5.2, dual-band Wi-Fi, or 5G networking, if you live out of range, there’s Nothing easier than deactivating your reception. With Wi-Fi, we can highlight the greater signal stability at the edge of the range, where other phones regularly drop out. GPS has always been stable and accurate, except for one instance when I was moving and the position on the map „went“ in the opposite direction.
However, I had to restart the app, and the GPS „found“ itself again. You can also run the DeX environment wirelessly or via cable on your phone. Too bad it’s not immediately possible on the large internal display. So you have to use a TV or at least a Windows 10 PC, which runs DeX mode as a separate app. The phone also has its mode for connecting to the Your Phone app.
You don’t need to install anything. You’ll find the switch right in the top bar. You can insert two physical nano sims in the side drawer or add a second SIM card as an eSIM. Again, a clear SIM card manager is waiting in the loading area, where you can adjust the behavior of each SIM card. Call quality and maximum call volume were seamless for outgoing and incoming calls. When closed, the call is made through the handset above the display, and when opened, the speakerphone is automatically activated.
However, opening the Fold does not answer the call. Only the Flip works this way. Music reproduction is provided by a pair of speakers from AKG, which have high quality and high maximum volume. Especially in conjunction with the Dolby Atmos surround effect, you will enjoy the soundscape when listening to music, watching streaming videos, and playing games.
We are a little embarrassed by the side fingerprint reader, which is sometimes „a little looking“ and does not unlock on the first attachment. However, most problems disappeared when I loaded the same finger a second time.
You can set up a face scanner as an option, but it often fails to recognize the face when wearing a hat in combination with glasses. This is even though the phone knew about the glasses during the initial scan.
Software
Android 12L is ready but hasn’t made it to many devices. While the system informs you of the presence of Android 12, the fact that it is indeed an „L“ is evidenced by the added toolbar, aka the Home Panel. Alternatively, you can verify the presence of Android 12L via developer tools. The bottom bar is the most significant addition to One UI 4.1.1 and greatly speeds up multitasking.
The bar is hidden in the system by default. It only appears when you open an app. You have a total of six positions for basic apps, with the seventh opening the main menu without having to minimize the current app in the background. You’ll find two more positions for the most recently launched apps to the right of the dividing line. System controls can no longer be centered this way.
They must be on the right or left of the bar. From the application window, click to launch the application in full screen, and hold your finger to drag the application to up to three different positions on the display, as you can have up to three applications displayed simultaneously. Of course, there’s also a sidebar from which you can drag and drop pre-made pairs or triplets of apps.
Add to that the ability to control the display with the stylus, and the multitasking capabilities are excellent. The animations are snappy enough and don’t lag, and the environment is smooth at a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate. Also worth mentioning is the content switching between the outer and inner display, called App Continuity. Type a text but then get distracted and want a bigger keyboard?
Just open the hybrid. However, it doesn’t work the other way automatically for apps. You have to set it up directly for the apps. There are no significant surprises in the environment, so enjoy the support for schemes. At the same time, you can customize the app icons, the Always On display appearance, which replaces the missing notification LED, or choose your wallpaper or lock screen appearance.
You can also select the grid density for apps and widgets or hide games only in the Game Launcher menu. You can quickly access the most used features via the handy shortcuts in the top bar. You can also dial for quick access by double-pressing the lock button. This is simply the „good old“ One UI as we know it from previous models.
Only, there’s one more new feature. Right from One UI 4.1.1, text extraction from images works in Samsung Internet Beta. Just hold your finger on it, let the image scan, and you can have a block of text selected and work with it further. For example, paste it into notes, add something manually, and share the resulting file immediately.
PDF document signatures have also worked well for us. This way, you don’t have to find a printer or „scan“ the documents with your camera (although this works in a pinch, too), but you can sign and send the document straight away.
Camera
After what one folk show a direct comparison of Samsung, iPhone and Nothing phone (1) I lost illusions that Samsung would take good photos for normal people who want to take pictures of their kids and as it happens a little kid won’t wait for a photo but is constantly on the move. So I apologize, but I won’t write anything about the camera. I recommend you look at some videos or direct reviews focused on photography.
Conclusion
We may have expected more from the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 before its launch. After all, the technological leap between the second and third generations was significant. It just turns out that the South Koreans are richly satisfied with tweaking last year’s shortcomings. This high-end device may resemble last year’s Z Fold3 in many ways, but it’s more likely to be sought after by first and second-generation Jigsaw owners who can’t return to regular displays.
The Galaxy Z Fold4 is a superb jigsaw that proves alternative designs are a force to be reckoned with in the market. Samsung may have „only“ worked on the details, but there are still two outstanding issues. The first is the gap between the two parts in the closed hinge. Although Samsung „needs“ it because of the increased IPx8 resistance, the competition manages without holes and with almost imperceptible translation. The second issue is the battery.
Samsung has optimized it in every way but has not added faster charging. 25 Watts is not enough in today’s smartphones, and it would like to add more. However, the positives outweigh the shortcomings. The phone has excellent multitasking, a hilarious display, an S Pen stylus, and improved cameras. What more could you ask for?
Maybe just a lower price. The Z Fold4 starts at the same amount as the Z Fold3. It’s just that users’ economic situation is a little different than a year ago. Will users be willing to shell out money for this phone just in time for the upcoming winter? From my perspective, this is an exciting phone with a lot to offer, but it’s not for everyone.
If you’re a first or second-generation Fold Z owner, I would wholeheartedly consider upgrading. I see this phone as too big for everyday use, it’s a brick in its folded state, and I wouldn’t want to lug it around in my pocket.
I see more use for this phone with ladies with a purse where they can put this monster away. However, even with them, I would be skeptical of the choice. After all, it is a heavy phone.
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