Foldable Luxury

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3: Will the Best Yet Be Good Enough?

Strong specs and a number of new features impress, but its cost remains rather high for most consumers

The Galaxy Z Fold3 may look a lot like its predecessor, but a number of impressive hardware upgrades and improvements mark a definite step forward for the series. (Image: Samsung)

After much fanfare — and a few leaks here and there, but that seems to be unavoidable nowadays — Samsung unveiled its latest and greatest foldable smartphone for 2021, the Galaxy Z Fold3. The company did not change much in the overall design of its flagship foldable compared to Z Fold2 (it was already considered to be the best among the few available devices of this type at the time of writing), opting to focus on numerous key improvements instead. It was a wise choice. The Z Fold3 now seems to be as perfect a foldable smartphone as current tech allows and, crucially, not just a novelty anymore: it can be used in more productive ways while retaining that undeniable cool factor.

The new Z Fold is built around a, well, foldable screen of the same diagonal and high resolution as that of its predecessor — the second screen, though, the one on the cover of the device, now refreshes at 120 Hz just like the main one. The frame of the new foldable is made of “Armor Aluminum”, which Samsung claims is much stronger this time around — at the same time, the weight of the Fold3 is somehow reduced. The Koreans have also used Corning’s toughest glass (the Victus found in Galaxy Note 20) and made sure that the Fold3 is water-resistant (IPX8 — the first foldable to offer that). The main screen is also better protected and smoother to the touch. These are all worthy improvements in their own right, making day-to-day use of this new Z Fold easier than ever before.

The secondary screen of the Z Fold3 offers the same high refresh rate the main one does, allowing for faster, more comfortable use. (Image: Samsung)

Samsung went further with the internals of the new Z Fold, though. It’s powered by the most powerful processor the company uses in its flagship smartphones, the Snapdragon 888, paired with 12 GB of memory (storage is offered in 256/512GB options). It’s Samsung’s first smartphone incorporating an under-display camera, mainly for videocalls, barely visible so the main screen can remain notch- and punch hole-free. Fold3’s battery is slightly smaller…