The Fold paves the way for innovation but ultimately lacks practicality

There is no denying it, The Samsung Galaxy Fold has been one of the biggest talking points in smartphones since the phone became smart. Its innovative design has had people drooling whilst at the same time bringing controversy along with it for the ride. Just a normal day in the world of tech right?

The Fold’s hybrid 2-in-1 design makes it the first on the market to do such a thing, but is first always best? Simple answer? It’s complicated.  Going first has its benefits, in the fast based world of consumer technology, it’s important for brands to go first, to make a statement and to ultimately flex their muscles.

Do it right and some of the products will hold legendary status for years to come, this is just as much about marketing as it is the product itself. Do it wrong however and you’ve just saved your competitor a truck load of cash in the R&D dept giving them a full blueprint to benchmark along with customer feedback and engagement.

Design

Let’s get straight to it. This phone is all about design, about pushing boundaries and paving the way for innovation to those who choose to follow and even those who don’t.

The Fold, aptly named is Samsung’s first device with a foldable screen in a smartphone. Its butterfly design enables the user to turn the device from a not so regular smartphone into a tablet simply by opening it.

Straight out of the box, you actually get the device unfolded, opened out in all its glory. If you’re a fan of the smaller things, you’ll appreciate this. Samsung has definitely put a lot of thought behind the packaging.

It has a big, kind of ‘square’ screen

 

Upon picking it up, it feels like tech you’ve never felt before. Opened, it feels too big to be a phone but it also feels too small to be a tablet. We didn’t quite understand what it was meant to be but I don’t think we were supposed to either. Its unorthodox design brought us joy and that’s what matters.

The increased real estate makes it a joy to use and it’s just as responsive as a non-foldable panel would be. The flexible panel is incredibly bright and sharp being AMOLED and does a great job of giving the user a clean experience.

It’s 7.3inch size makes it big enough to use it for multiple apps, but this screen really comes into its own when it’s working in isolation. Reading the news, using the camera and youtubing was excellent. This is very much a 2 handed device and bordering on tablet functionality, as such we would have loved it if Samsung incorporated a stand into the main design of the phone to really take advantage of that big screen.

The one gripe we had, bear in mind this came later. When opened it feels and looks very square. It’s not a form factor we’d have preferred given this will no doubt be used for watching video’s and engaging with apps differently.  Then again, it’s not something that would make or break a decision on buying this handset either.

Regardless of that, this display has ridiculous eye appeal. you’re instantly drawn to it. Open this up anywhere in public place and expect people to stare and ask questions. Disclaimer, there is a time and a place for this. Please don’t get robbed.

 

The Crease

There is not a single thing on the Fold that will get critiqued more than this. Yes, a bendy screen is always going to have its weaker points but consumers these days do not care. They would expect retailers such as Samsung to defy physics. Going back to going to market first, these are some of the things that can be eradicated through testing and feedback and this is one of them. You cannot unsee the crease and to make matters worse, you can’t un-feel it either.

It’s not as bad in portrait mode as there’s a chance you’ll avoid it on the scroll, flip it into landscape though and you’ll feel the crease on every action you make.

It really has a way of taking away everything that’s good about the design and we hate that we hate it.

The crease really makes the product feel and look unfinished and it’s a real shame as for some (like us) IS the make or a break issue.

Folded up

 

Being ultra-premium, we’re happy to say the fold actually folded with a premium feel. It doesn’t feel cheap but it closes just like the door of a VW golf with an added magnet to give it that extra bit of pull.

Folded up, this phone takes on a whole new persona. Once again it’s like a phone we’ve never seen before, it makes no sense and we love it.

The Fold is actually a dual-screened device. When folded, a front screen dubbed the “Cover Display” acts as your main screen and works exactly the same way a normal Samsung screen would just a lot smaller.

Unpopular opinion, for the time we had it, we really enjoyed using this phone closed. We’d like to think its because it feels more like a ‘normal’ phone but its not. It’s nothing like a normal phone and that’s why we love it. The love may be short-lived but it sure was fun.

There is something very satisfying about using a tiny screened phone but I’m not sure if its because I know I’m one action away from turning it into a massive one. There is no middle ground here and it’s absolutely mental.

Having options here had us continuously thinking what option do I go for now? Do I open or close, close it or open? After a while, it got a little tedious and we often found ourselves just using the phone closed when the novelty started wearing off and this, of course, is not very practical if you’re in a job that requires you to e-mail all day.

Security-wise, we liked the fact that Samsung included a fingerprint sensor but it the positioning of the reader is completely in the wrong place. Using it left-handed we’d recommend registering your middle finger and right-handed….well..just look to enter a passcode instead.  We were constantly having to slide our thumb down to open the phone and often missed the reader altogether which became pretty stressful.

 

Size and Weight

When in fold-mode, the smartphone 17.11mm thick and weighs 276g. What this translates too is that it’s pretty thick and its pretty heavy but very well executed. When buying premium products they should feel premium and the Fold does exactly that.

Its rather long too, the 4.6inch screen only take up around 60% of the real estate on the front panel. The other 40% you can say is divvied between what can only be described as a big chin and a big forehead. Using this phone feels and looks great but on the practical side sometimes it feels as though you left your house with your remote control in your pocket.

Open this phone up and suddenly this phone feels very light and also a little fragile. It trims off a lot of its fat taking it down to just 7.6mm

 

Battery

The battery in this phone is the largest Samsung has ever put into a smartphone coming in at 4,380mah, to put that in comparison its got a very similar amount of battery power to its cousin the Note 10 plus which is 4,300mah.

Of course, the numbers only tell one part of the story. The Fold will be used in a completely different way to the note. Whilst it has a bigger and better battery it will no doubt deplete quicker as its operating 2 screens plus a 5G network.

With that in mind, the battery wasn’t bad at all. After a full days use with busy early adopter mode activated (opening and closing for no reason to show people and know and people I don’t) we still managed to come with around 40% at the end of the day. It’s important to note that we did not use this phone for gaming in this review.

Camera

The camera borrows the same core components as the Galaxy Note 10 which is triple camera design, so you get your standard, wide-angle and telephoto modes as standard along with the night mode feature in the software.

The camera quality is brilliant as expected and we love taking photos on all of the latest Samsung devices. Samsung to this day still reigns supreme with its wide-angle lens and its even easier now to line up your shot given you can use a 7.3inch screen as a viewfinder.

Being as big it as it is, one of the features we really liked is that you can move the shutter button to anywhere on the screen to ensure you’re not reaching to press ensuring you never miss the right moment.

Be careful though, you will look like a bit of a wan*** doing it. We’d rather you avoid making tablet photography a thing and leave that on the grounds of the Tower of Pisa. Unfortunately using the phone un-folded and open is probably the best way to take a photo. Whilst it still works great, the cover display is just a tad too small and its image quality makes it a less desirable option.

Price

At the time of writing this review, the Galaxy fold is sitting comfy at a whopping £1900. Do we expect many people to buy it? Probably not. Will it come down in price? We wouldn’t assume so. Now the most important question of them all. Is it worth it? We often question the worth of something but ultimately it’s always the price in which someone is willing to pay.

For us personally, its not something we’d be parting our hard-earned cash with. £1900 in today’s market will get you a whole lot of smartphone and then some. Of course, you won’t be able to flex (in both senses of the term) like you can the Fold but do you really need to?

 

Specs

Samsung Galaxy Fold
Cover Display	4.6-inch HD+ Super AMOLED 21:9 aspect ratio
Main Display	7.3-inch QXGA+ Dynamic AMOLED 4.2:3 aspect ratio
Processor	7nm 64-bit octa-core SoC
RAM	12GB (LPDDR4x)
Storage	512GB (UFS3.0)
Cameras	Cover camera: 10MP selfie camera, ƒ2.2 aperture Rear triple cameras: 16MP ultra-wide camera, ƒ2.2 aperture 12MP wide-angle camera, Dual Pixel autofocus, OIS, ƒ1.5/ƒ2.4 apertures 12MP telephoto camera, PDAF, OIS, ƒ2.4, 2X optical zoom Front dual cameras: 10MP selfie camera, ƒ2.2 aperture 8MP RGB depth camera, ƒ1.9 aperture
Battery	4,380mAh Fast charging compatible on wired and wireless Wired charging compatible with QC2.0 and AFC WPC and PMA wireless charging
Software	Android 9 Pie
Network	4G LTE 5G NR
Connectivity	Bluetooth 5.0 Wi-Fi 6 GPS