Samsung Galaxy Fold
Samsung
Galaxy Fold Summary
- Samsung Galaxy Fold comes with a 7.30-inch touchscreen primary display with a resolution of 1536x2152 pixels. It also features a 4.60-inch touchscreen as its second display, with a resolution of 840x1960 pixels.
- Samsung Galaxy Fold is powered by an octa-core processor. It comes with 12GB of RAM.
- The Samsung Galaxy Fold runs Android Pie and is powered by a 4mAh battery. The Samsung Galaxy Fold supports wireless charging, as well as Quick Charge 2.0 fast charging.
- As far as the cameras are concerned, the Samsung Galaxy Fold on the rear packs a 16-megapixel primary camera with an f/F2.2 aperture; a second 12-megapixel camera with an f/F1.5/F2.4 aperture and a third 12-megapixel camera with an f/F2.4 aperture. It sports a 10-megapixel camera on the front for selfies, with an f/F2.2 aperture.
- Samsung Galaxy Fold based on Android Pie and packs 512GB of inbuilt storage.
- Connectivity options on the Samsung Galaxy Fold include Wi-Fi, GPS, and USB Type-C.
- It was launched in Space Silver, Cosmos Black, and Martian Green and Astro Blue colours.
Design
- Samsung believes the Galaxy Fold has the most intuitive form factor for a foldable phone, with the screen folding in on itself to provide protection, much like a laptop.
- The company certainly hasn't taken the challenge of designing of its first foldable phone lightly. This is a phone that's been over 10 years in the making and has gone through over 1,000 different prototypes as well as the further durability improvements.
- The book-like folding action does feel like a natural way to open the handset, and it's certainly easier to get to grips with than the Huawei Mate X – Huawei has taken the opposite design approach to Samsung, with the screen on the outside of its device when it's folded.
- Open up the Galaxy Fold fully to reveal the 7.3-inch display and the 20-part, dual-axis hinge locks into place, preventing you from over-extending the display past 180 degrees.
- Fold it back up and the phone snaps shut with a satisfying sound, giving you confidence that it won't accidentally unfurl itself in your bag.
- Samsung has spent a lot of time working on the dual-axis hinge, and it gives the device a tactile feel, with a smooth movement between its two states. It's been designed to withstand more than 200,000 folds and unfolds, which works out at 100 opens and shuts a day for five years – so it should last.
- It certainly feels sturdy, and capable of surviving repeated folding and unfolding, and a nice touch is the way the hinge disappears into the body of each half of the phone when it's fully opened.
- The second version of the phone also comes with caps over the top of the hinge to ensure dust doesn't get into the device. It also feels more sturdy when opened out into its tablet form as Samsung has laid metal inside the device to ensure you don't bend it too far.
- When Samsung first revealed the device, it had a screen protector on that was unlike what you'd get on your average smartphone. Some testers removed that protector, and it caused structural issues with the phone.
- Samsung has now included a slim rim around the outside of the inner display that blocks you from removing the screen protector and also helps keep the device closer together when it's folded back into its thinnest form.
- It doesn't feel like the most premium aspect of the phone, but if it ensures people don't remove the screen protector it will have done its job.
- The fingerprint sensor is located on the right edge of the lower half of the device when it's closed, falling nicely under thumb or finger, and so it remains in that position when the phone is unfolded. The sensor also acts as a Bixby launch button when pressed, jumping you straight
Display
- The Samsung Galaxy Fold has two screens, with the 4.6-inch HD+ Super AMOLED display on the front (when the device is closed in 'phone mode') feeling a little small by today's standards, when most phones have screens which are at least five inches in size.
- It's made to feel smaller thanks to the sizable bezels above and below, reminiscent of phones from around 10 years ago. It's a trade-off that has to be made, as the tech has to fit somewhere, and the benefit of its diminutive size is that it can be easily used one-handed.
- In terms of aesthetics, though, it's far from pleasing to the eye. In a world where bezels are disappearing almost completely, the look here is a real blast from the past – and when you consider the asking price for the Samsung Galaxy Fold, some may argue that its appearance, at least in 'phone mode', doesn't quite match its premium price tag.
- The small display is bright and clear though, with Samsung's Super AMOLED panel providing plenty of color. You can easily navigate Android, and it's useful for checking notifications, reading messages and controlling music playback.
Interface
and performance
- There are various ways you can use the Samsung Galaxy Fold. When closed, the 'phone mode' provides one-handed operation for tasks such as calls and music playback.
- The 4.6-inch display operates like that of a regular smartphone, so apps and games work as you'd expect, although with a bigger screen just a quick unfold away, working on the smaller screen can feel cramped.
- Open the device up into 'tablet mode', and the larger screen makes social media, messaging, web browsing, gaming and photo/video editing much easier.
- Each time you transition from one screen to the other, compatible apps will follow your usage patterns for a seamless experience. For example, if you launch Google Maps in 'phone mode', and then open the Fold up, Google Maps will automatically be displayed on the big screen.
Key
Specs
- CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
- Memory: 12GB
- Storage: 512GB
- MicroSD storage: None
- Screen size: 4.6 inches (folded), 7.3 inches (unfolded)
- Resolution: 1680 x 720 (folded), 2152 x 1536 (unfolded)
- Connectivity: USB-C, Bluetooth 5.0
- Battery: 4,380mAh (LTE model), 4,235mAh (5G model)
- Size: 160.9 x 62.9 x 17 mm (folded), 160.9 x 117.9 x 7.5 mm (unfolded)
- Weight: 263g (9.28oz)
- Operating system: Android 9.0 Pie
There’s
plenty of processing power inside the Samsung Galaxy Fold, thanks to the
inclusion of this year’s flagship — the Snapdragon 855. That chip should be
plenty powerful enough to handle the Galaxy Fold’s unusual design, while 12GB
of RAM means it should also be excellent at handling multiple apps at once.
It’s worth noting that a high amount of RAM makes more sense on the Galaxy Fold
than other smartphones, as the unfolded screen can be used to run three apps at
once. There’s no need to worry about running out of storage space either. The
Galaxy Fold comes with 512GB of universal flash storage, and it can read data
twice as fast as other smartphones.
Wired
charging capabilities are slightly disappointing due to Samsung’s continued
love affair with QuickCharge 2.0 — other devices have moved on to Quick Charge
3.0, and even 4.0 — but wireless charging is also included, and you’ll even get
one of the Galaxy S10’s headline features; Wireless Powershare. Plonk your
Galaxy Buds case down on your Galaxy Fold and you can charge it using your
phone’s battery.
Camera
- With all the innovation in design, it would be fair to give Samsung some slack on the camera front. But you needn’t do so — the Korean company has pulled out all the stops, adding six camera lenses to the Galaxy Fold.
- You’ll find the first camera lens on the cover, above the 4.6-inch Super AMOLED front display. It’s a 10-megapixel selfie lens with an aperture of f/2.2, and a field-of-view (FOV) of 80-degrees. You’ll find three more impressive lenses are around the back of the device though. The first is a 16-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens with an aperture of f/2.2 and an FOV of 123-degrees. Next comes a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens with Super Speed Dual Pixel autofocus, optical image stabilization (OIS), a variable aperture of f/1.5 and f/2.2, and an FOV of 77 degrees. The final lens is a 12-megapixel telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom, phase-detect autofocus (PDAF), OIS, and an aperture of f/2.4.
- We’ve not forgotten the final two lenses though. Open the Galaxy Fold up and you’ll find two more selfie cameras looking out at you from the device’s odd notch. The main lens is a 10-megapixel lens with an aperture of f/2.2, and a wide FOV of 80-degrees. The second lens is an 8-megapixel depth-sensing lens with an aperture of f/1.9, and a wide-angle FOV of 85-degrees.
- All of this comes with Samsung’s now usual bevy of A.I.-powered extras, including the Scene Optimizer and the Flaw Detection that can tell you if someone blinked or moved suddenly. Video capabilities are also impressive, with the ability to record 4K UHD footage at 60 frames-per-second (fps) and super slow-motion video at 960 fps.
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