The phone is sturdier. The cameras are better. And so is battery life. I can ramble through a list of features that have been attached to the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4. Frankly, Samsung has managed to live up to expectations and is doing brisk business. And you can easily compare the spec sheets available on the official website to spot the changes.
What spec sheets won’t tell you is how close has Samsung come to making the Fold a worthy alternative to the tablet. Sure, you can say I’ve got bats in my belfry but hear me out.
The hinge is sturdy
Makes the user feel productive
Before buying this phone it’s necessary to experience it. No website or video can “market” you the device. On the one hand are smartphone users who don’t go beyond streaming and searching; this phone is not for them. On the other hand is the user who carries two devices, be it a smartphone and a tablet or a smartphone and a laptop. Samsung is targeting this crowd.
All the usual needs of any user are taken care of on the outer screen, which we will come to later. It’s the 7.6-inch unfolded screen that’s driving conversations. Far bigger than the biggest smartphone but slightly smaller than a tablet.
The biggest upgrade made this year is in the form of Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which is the most powerful processor you can find on an Android phone. But power alone cannot win the game. Power consumption needs to be kept in check without making performance suffer. The previous version of the phone was good but power drainage couldn’t be controlled. That has been taken care of.
With a fast chipset, the machine can do more, quicker and efficiently. Say the user has to undertake a few finance-related activities. You can easily fire up three apps together and divide the windows to your liking. The main window can work with banking transactions while the second window can show emails while the third offers a fair view of the stock market. Or consider making travel plans — YouTube video plays in the main window, route maps get taken care of in the second window while chatting is underway via WhatsApp in the third window. Let’s make this more complicated. An architect can browse through photographs, make sketches using the S Pen and use Slack communication tool to stay in touch with colleagues… all at once on the same screen.
These are everyday situations that are being taken care of by the phone. For a person who writes a lot, I can easily connect it to my travel Bluetooth keyboard and continue knocking out articles.
The Z Fold4 makes the user feel productive and makes almost every app appear useful. To make matters easy, an app dock has been added, giving the UI a feel of a desktop. This also means I can easily drag and drop apps to make working easy.
Given that we are now working from anywhere in the world, the Galaxy Z Fold4 ensures you can enjoy coffee without missing the tablet or laptop.
What if I want to create 3D digital models? Or what’s in there for a coder? For them the laptop is where the action still lies. Further, I want more app developers come up with versions that support the big size screen. Sure, Android is trying to get the folding phone off the ground with Android 12L OS but app developers need to be on board.
The app dock makes multi-window working easy
All-in-one device
The Fold4 proves that the folding phone is no longer unproven tech and is here to stay. The form factor allows a few cool physical features. For example, the Flex mode or keep the phone half open so it can rest on the table while watching a film or get photos taken of the night sky without a tripod. I usually carry at least two devices and for some it may well be three, including the Kindle. Reading books is such a comfortable activity on the Fold4 that I will think twice before purchasing another Kindle. In fact, what good is a Kindle in 2022? Yes, it can be about a focussed activity but that certainly can’t be the only feature any longer.
With the Fold4 in my pocket, I don’t need a tripod in many situations. The phone can rest half open while taking complicated photographs.
Speaking of photographs, there has been substantial improvements in the camera system with the main camera supporting 50MP and there is a far more useful 3x telephoto camera. The new camera system ensures crisp night shots and there is very little noise in photos. The rear camera module gets rounded off by a 12MP ultra-wide snapper and a 10MP telephoto shooter.
The system is roughly what you get on the Samsung Galaxy S22+, which speaks highly of the camera department. The photos are so good that you can process them on the phone before publishing them anywhere (online or print). And the phone now supports one of Samsung’s best photo apps — Expert RAW, which can be helpful to professional photographers.
The crease doesn’t attract attention after 10 minutes of working on the phone
The camera set-up is among the best you will find on an Android phone
Even under uneven lighting the camera performs well, like in this shot taken at Roastery Coffee House
Should you buy it?
Combined with whatever I have mentioned so far are some small updates that can sway purchase decisions. For example, the 6.2-inch cover screen is slightly wider because of reduced bezel thickness. Battery (4,400mAh) life is now managed better because of the update made on the processor. But don’t expect a charger in the box. Third, the phone picks up fewer fingerprints than the previous generation models. Like before, you get an AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, which is pretty good.
Work has been done on the hinge, which feels sturdier and smoother and it’s easier to enjoy Flex mode. The old level of water resistance (IPX8) has been maintained and I have used the phone during a downpour and got away with it.
Despite all the improvements, there are two things to keep in mind. A silo for the stylus is missing and the S Pen needs to be bought separately. And price? It’s subjective; new technology tends to be costly.
If you can overlook the pricing aspect, rarely we come across phones that fundamentally change the way we use it. Fold4 does just that. Unfolded, it’s a big phone and that suits many people. When I don’t need to do complicated things, I can use the outer display or the cover screen to check emails, reply to messages, read news…. To do more, unfold. Agree the crease is still there on the main screen but after 10-15 minutes of usage it recedes into the background much like the notch on the iPhone. On a lighter note, since there hasn’t been much of a change in the form factor for two years now, I guess 2023’s version will be something to look forward to. Whatever next year brings, for the time being Samsung has achieved what it had set out to do — change the course of smartphones and Galaxy Z Fold4 is a milestone.
At a glance
Flex mode helps while videoconferencing or watching films
Device: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4
Price: Rs 154,999
High notes
- Screen is brighter and better mounted along the hinges than before
- Cameras are top of the line
- Software changes have made multi-tasking and multi-window working easy
- Good battery life
- It’s the classiest Android phone you can buy
- This is an excellent phone verging on a tablet
Muffled notes
- S Pen stylus needs to be bought separately
- Still costly
