Samsung may not be the first company to launch a foldable mobile, however, no one doubts that it is being the brand that sets the pace when it comes to the folding mobile category; with its latest Galaxy Z Fold 3 it becomes the new rival to beat.

The Z Fold 3 has three key goals: to become the flagship device on which the company tests and implements its most advanced technologies; evolve the line of folding devices and their possibilities; and finally, serve as an indicator of where this technology is evolving and the costs associated with it.

Design and Build Quality

Samsung's original Galaxy Fold was a game-changer for its launch, to be sure, but it also suffered from some serious engineering issues and quality of construction quite important.

In fact, most of which didn't come as much of a surprise to those who appreciated just how technically complex it must be to create one of the first foldable screen phones on the market, ready to be commercialized.

In a review by our former Tech Advisor colleague at the time, Henry Burrell, he described the phone as an "aspirational mess." Now we see how the Z Fold 3 is a suitable phone, but keeping the retrospective vision of the evolution of the Fold line.

Three years later, Samsung manages to deliver a wedge-shaped, book-style vertical folding form factor, encased in an external display and an expansive internal display, all housed in what Samsung calls 'Armor Aluminum'.

Durability is one of the most important improvements of this generation, with a mixture of polished and well-brushed aluminum alloy, which surrounds the screens and the spine of the hinge, which is the most important element of the structure of the telephone.

The Z Fold 3 is thinner (16mm at thickest when closed) and lighter, at 271 grams compared to 282 grams for the previous generation. But the great achievement here has been being able to guarantee IPX8 certification for resistance to water and dust despite its design with moving parts.

This generation has also improved the dust caps (the ones that were first added to the Fold 5G), although it will be difficult to deal with the dust and lint particles that end up accumulating in the fold of the phone, for which you will have to pay attention special attention.

Speaking of unfolding, the hinge mechanism is especially robust, instilling confidence in reliability for long-term use, as well as being able to remain fixed at any point for easy use at any angle.

However, we thought that a textured finish implemented along the frame would offer more grip when handling the Z Fold 3, and that when opening and unfolding its screen we could do it more comfortably even with a single hand hand.

As long as you don't opt ​​for the limited edition Thom Browne, this year's colorways are more understated (compared to its predecessors), with shades in Phantom Black, Phantom Silver, and the signature color Phantom Green.

There's also no ability to customize the hinge, something the Fold 2 did offer.

Screen and S Pen

Talking about the Fold range is talking about a folding screen and the use of dual screens. On the one hand, the 6.2-inch tall format screen with a 25:9 ratio located on the outside, which offers a more traditional mobile phone experience.

On the other hand, we have the folding screen that when opened reaches the impressive size of 7.6 inches. Samsung has studied Fold owners and has chosen to include the 120Hz refresh rate on both due to the use made of both panels.

Samsung has also worked to improve the hardware on offer, with a main panel reported to be "29% brighter" than the Z Fold 2's equivalent and also apparently 80% more durable.

Perhaps one of the most common questions is: can you see or feel the fold line that runs down the center of the Fold 3's screen? In a word, yes, but it is not a debilitating deficiency as some might think, but an inherent peculiarity of mobiles with folding screens.

In most situations, when looking straight ahead, you can't see the crease line at all; with color and contrast only unbalanced compared to the rest of the panel when viewed off-angle.

As such, the main display's visual fidelity feels comparable to Samsung's other flagship phones of the same year (albeit with a lower pixel density of 374 dpi, the S21+'s Full HD+ display from 6.7 inches has 394 dpi).

The 4:3 aspect ratio is unconventional by modern standards, offering what amounts to two standard smartphone screens side by side and fused together, but the result is an impressively expansive canvas.

Not only does it accommodate more screens in terms of displaying certain types of content at a larger scale than a conventional phone (like 16:9 video), but it also allows multiple apps to run at once (up to three, depending on the size of the screen). Samsung software).

S Pen

Samsung has also implemented new features on the Z Fold 3's panel by adding its first camera under the screen (more on that later) and implementing the S Pen support, making it the most versatile mobile you can currently buy.

While Samsung's unique stylus is an optional extra (and requires a special Fold Edition variant with a softer, springier tip to use on the Fold 3's screen), it pairs well with the Fold 3's expanded canvas. folding.

The S Pen Fold Edition still offers a familiar pen experience, with sensitivity comparable to touch input (even when drawing through the screen's slightly indented crease) and fully valid latency.

If you're looking to take notes, scribble some drawings, or practice digital illustration, the S Pen is well equipped for these tasks. For something more serious, you may have to turn to Apple's latest iPad Pro and Apple Pencil combo or a dedicated graphics tablet.

While stylus input works in most apps, only a few apps embody the S Pen's pressure and tilt recognition, limiting its full potential, something Samsung needs to work on for future generations.

Software and Features

Although the Z Fold 3 runs Samsung's own version of Android 11 (with the promise of years of updates), version 3.1.1 OneUI comes with specific optimizations to improve the user experience on Fold devices.

Beyond the obvious inclusions like one-handed mode and, when using the home screen, an optional split keyboard for more comfortable two-handed typing, Cover Screen Mirroring lets you choose whether the layout of the home screen remains constant on both or if you want a separate screen.

With the extra screen you get by using the main screen, the Fold 3 can fit up to three apps at once (the best way to show off your productivity prowess), with the ability to scale, resize and reorder apps. Applications.

The only quirk is that since Android still displays as a tablet OS natively, Samsung's window management sits on top of Android's rudimentary split-screen multitasking (which only supports two Applications).

It would have been cleaner and less messy if Samsung had simply hidden or disabled the Android implementation itself; ensure that users only interact with the OneUI-optimized version of this feature (essential, in the case of Fold).

There are even options to force apps to adhere to certain aspect ratios, necessary for games like Call of Duty Mobile, which would otherwise fill the screen with awkward resolution or odd placement of items.

Performance

Unlike the Galaxy S21 range, there is no chipset that is associated with the region where it is marketed, which means that wherever you choose to buy yourself one, you'll get a device with Qualcomm's top-tier Snapdragon 888 SoC.

It is accompanied by the figure of 12 GB of RAM (paired with 256 GB or 512 GB of UFS 3.1 type storage). Equally, the Z Fold 3 remains in the same level as its rivals, such as the Huawei Mate X2 and other more mainstream phones.

It's clearly not at the top of the list of the best smartphones of the year, based on the numbers, but real-world results show that the Z Fold 3 has a mobile performance ship. badge without delays, delays or heat buildup.

Running games on a screen of this size is quite a positive experience, even if it turns out that some titles require a bit of optimization and pre-tweaking in order to run in the best possible screen format conditions.

Perhaps most impressive is the continuity offered when switching from the cover screen to the main screen. During any video playback, the Fold 3 didn't skip a frame, with lag-free audio and video, even though the Fold technically had to re-scale on the fly.

Autonomy and charging

Inside the foldable you will find two battery cells, each located on either side of the hinge mechanism of the terminal, which feed the Z Fold 3, which adds up to a total of 4400 mAh in total (slightly smaller than that of the Fold 2).

Thankfully, it keeps a single USB-C port to contend with, positioned on the Fold's right half, when open, which supports Samsung's 25W fast charging, along with up to 11W wireless charging and a 4.5 W reverse wireless charging. This function, called 'Wireless Power Share', is ideal to complement the charging of the Galaxy Buds 2 wireless headphones, or the company's latest Galaxy Watch 4.

Although 25 W is a figure that is below average, especially compared to the entries of other big ones like Oppo, Realme and OnePlus, which exceed 65 W, recharging the Fold 3 with the official charger gives us it takes about 90 minutes.

Testing with a standard 27W PD charger actually took a few minutes out of this entire process, reaching 100% in just 83 minutes, with over 40% charge achieved in half an hour, both times.

As for longevity, beyond the factors that affect all modern smartphones, such as display technology (ie LCD or OLED), adaptive brightness, and refresh rate, depending on how you use , the Fold 3's two screens can have a big impact on battery life.

If you're on the go, chances are you'll prefer to use the external display on the cover, which is smaller and has less power consumption impact than the larger one (since the narrow panel is less conducive to productivity), for ease of use. while days spent at home or at a desk, you can always turn to the home screen.

As such, in testing, I experienced strong variance, with one charge delivering 7.25 hours of screen-on time, while another only returned 4.25 hours of battery life.

For those looking to get more hours out of their Fold, beyond turning to the phone's battery saver settings, there are small tweaks the Galaxy Fold community recommends to help extend the longevity of the Fold 3, such as enabling the dark mode and disable 'Scanning nearby devices'.

Cameras

Unlike the Huawei Mate X2, which launched with the brand's best phone cameras to date, the Galaxy Fold 3 doesn't try to beat its competitors. competitors in this area; instead, it offers a trio of 12 MP rear sensors that capture images comparable to the S21.

It uses a smarter optically stabilized 2x telephoto lens for this, instead of the 64 MP sensor found in the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Plus. There's photo consistency across all three sensors with accurate color and great low-light performance.

The shots feature Samsung's signature color vibrancy and more extreme contrast, compared to camera kings none other than the Google Pixel or Apple iPhone, with a slight lack of Dynamic range.

In any case, the images are consistent. It could be argued that a paltry 2x magnification from the telephoto sensor raises questions about the value of its inclusion, particularly when, at its maximum 10x digital zoom, detail becomes dire.

But the real offender here is the front-facing main screen. Although the cover screen also houses a 10 MP front-facing camera with which you'll be able to take decent selfies, Samsung must have thought that making a foldable display with S Pen support wasn't challenging enough.

That is why it has decided to implement in the Z Fold 3 the first camera that the company introduces under the screen of a smartphone. Although it is impressive, the bottom line is that it would have been better not to bother.

The idea of ​​an under-display camera is to hide the black cutout that in-display cameras often create behind a mesh of pixels, but the Fold 3's implementation has the opposite effect.

ZTE's Axon 30 5G already features second-generation under-display camera technology, hidden behind a pixel grid of the same density as the rest of the display; making it almost imperceptible.

By comparison, the resolution of the Fold 3's implementation is so low that you'll be able to distinguish individual red, green, and blue pixels with the naked eye. There's also the fact that this camera quality has narrow dynamic range, poor color reproduction, and poor low-light support when capturing video.

The silver lining to all this is the 'Preview' cover screen, which allows you to take selfies with the main rear camera while the flip is open, showing a preview of the viewfinder on the front cover screen. simultaneously.

Even so, the under-display technology Samsung has used in the Fold 3 should have been kept inside a lab until it was more mature and comparable to the competition, before becoming a consumer-ready product.

Prices and availability

Samsung sells its Galaxy Z Fold 3 at a recommended price of €1,809 in the case of the configuration with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. If you choose to increase to 512 GB, the price increases by €100.

All of them can be found with the previously mentioned color finishes of black, green and silver Phantom. Currently, as a promotion, Samsung maintains the offer to give away a Galaxy Watch 4 with the purchase of any of the Z Fold 3 models.

Despite obvious improvements in areas such as design and performance, probably in an effort by Samsung to bring its range of foldable phones closer to the general public, the company has decided to slightly cut the price of previous generations.

Clearly this year's Fold is still above the level of more mainstream super-flagships like Samsung's Galaxy S21 Ultra, Xiaomi's Mi 11 Ultra and Apple's iPhone 13 Pro Max, which it means that it is still something exclusive.

If you like the space-saving aspect of the foldable form factor but want one that's even more compact, then the Galaxy Z Flip 3, which launched alongside the Fold 3, is worth considering. even more significant price cut.

Verdict

There are a number of improvements that the Galaxy Z Fold 3 dominates over its predecessor; with a cleaner, more rugged design that somehow adds the essential feature of water resistance, along with an expanded feature set like S Pen support.

While processing, gaming, and camera performance may not be industry-leading, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 focuses on making the foldable concept more attainable and affordable without presenting real sacrifices in any way. particular area.

However, where the Fold 3 does stand out within this expanding product category is in creating new user experiences for foldable form factors. Here, Samsung is the main driving force for all that is to come.

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