Samsung’s galaxy fold has improved over its first three versions. Despite its issues, building the first Fold with its flexible OLED panel was a feat of engineering. Samsung removed the selfie notch, increased the Cover Screen, and strengthened the hinge with the Z Fold 2. The Z Fold 3 is the first foldable with pen support and water resistance.
Samsung appears to have slowed down to polish its design with the Galaxy Z Fold 4. We’re discussing sharper cameras with more zoom, better battery life, a fresh focus on multitasking, and other upgrades. The Z Fold 4 is five to ten percent superior in most statistics despite its same appearance. But, it is still heavy and costs $1,800 more than a normal glass brick. This is the cost of a market-ready, cutting-edge product.
The Z Fold 4 weighs 263 grams or 9.28 American yeehaw units closed and measures 15.8mm at its hinge, making it less than 10 grams lighter and 1mm thinner than its predecessor. This is barely noticeable while holding both phones. It doesn’t mean everything’s the same.
Design
The 6.2-inch Cover Screen has a 3mm larger display due to decreased bezels and frame. It’s small yet significant. Typing quick replies or questions on my Z Fold 3 was tight and error-prone. Samsung improved typing and decreased mistakes without expanding the Fold.
Samsung also sharpened the phone’s edges with a whetstone, making the hinge flatter and smaller. Within the 7.6-inch flexible OLED display, the plastic bezels have been minimized. The phone looks sleeker, toned, and somewhat wider. The side-mounted fingerprint reader is fast and sensitive, making it the ideal option for this device until an under-screen sensor for flexible displays is created.
Gorilla Glass Victus+ and Armor Aluminum alloy make up the Z Fold 4. Samsung claims that their flexible display is now 45 percent stronger, and the addition of metal plates and sponges below it keeps it from becoming mushy over time.
Display
The Z Fold 4’s display, multiple displays, is its main attraction. The 6.2-inch Cover Screen and 7.6-inch main panel have 120 Hz refresh rates and high brightness. I measured the Cover Screen’s brightness at just under 700 nits on a white screen and the internal display at roughly 750 nits. Samsung’s max brightness of over 1,000 nits enhances video games and movies.
My favorite Fold feature is the flexible main display. You get a small, bright, one-handed screen to quickly check directions or call a friend while strolling. As you sit down, open the phone to show a larger, brighter display for work and enjoyment. This is on a pocket-sized device.
The wrinkle should be removed. After using a Fold for a while, you enjoy its display’s features. The Fold 4 OLED screen becomes the best e-reader when the Kindle software displays white text on a black background. Comics look better with rich colors. With so much screen area, you can watch in limited locations like the metro or work hard if you wish.
Software features
The Z Fold cannot be slowed. Diablo: Immortal and Warhammer 40,000: Lost Crusade are quite flexible. When three apps are open, the same applies. Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 CPU, 16GB Memory, and 512GB storage (or 1TB if your order direct from Samsung). The Z Fold 4 surpasses the S22 Ultra on multicore Geekbench 5, scoring 4,036 compared to 3,036.
Samsung, Google, and Microsoft also improve the phone’s multitasking software by adding Flex mode compatibility and using an Android 12L platform. Nowadays, opening a link in a new window without losing your place on a news website like Engadget is easier. YouTube and Netflix automatically adjust their user interfaces when the phone is half-closed.
The best addition is the Fold 4’s bottom-mounted taskbar, which extends the Android Home row. The bottom row of icons dynamically contracts and extends to allow access to your Home Row, recently opened apps, and any app pairings without taking up too much room.
Samsung’s Labs under Advanced settings lets you enable a range of hidden multitasking features and actions. The two-finger swipe up from the bottom or sides activates split-screen mode instantly, making multitasking easy. If you prefer a desktop-like layout, the multi-window menu option adds a tab at the top of applications with a second set of split-screen options.
Cameras
The Z Fold 4 is now closer to competing with phones like the S22 Ultra and Pixel 6 Pro. A new 50MP main camera collects 23% more light than the Z Fold 3, and a new 10MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom replaces the Z Fold 3’s 2x. Low-light photos show this. A 12MP ultra-wide camera captures huge groups and landscapes.
If image quality matters most, the Pixel 6 Pro wins. Even in daytime, when most high-end smartphones take outstanding images, the Pixel 6 Pro had better focus and detail than the Z Fold 4.
Battery performance
Recall that the Z Fold 4’s faster performance is hard to appreciate? Certainly, in terms of computational capability, but the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Processor is more energy efficient than its predecessor. The Z Fold 4’s primary screen lasted 17 hours and 13 minutes on our local video rundown test, compared to 14 minutes and three seconds for last year’s Z Fold 3.
This is plenty for any smartphone, let alone a foldable with a large primary display. If you’re using the Cover Screen throughout the day, it functioned better around 20:45. The Fold 4 offers 25-watt rapid charging, 15-watt wireless charging, and wireless power sharing.
Summary
Your Z Fold 4 rating depends on how you feel about foldables. Samsung’s latest and best smartphone is still larger and more costly. I doubt the upgrades in this edition would convince critics, especially because its design is mostly the same as before. Z Fold 3 owners have same experience. Excellent advancements do not deserve a pricey upgrade after one year.
There are now additional reasons to buy the most powerful pocket-sized multitasker, a foldable. The Z Fold 4’s cameras, performance, and battery life increased without Samsung expanding the power cell. The Z Fold 4’s enhanced software appears to unlock a mobile tablet’s true productivity. Stylus support is still handy, however the lack of a S Pen storage container hinders it.
