What is happening
The Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Z Fold 3 are Samsung’s best foldables to date, but there’s room for improvement when it comes to design, camera quality, and battery life.
Why it matters
Companies like Samsung are betting big on foldable phones as the next big evolution of the modern smartphone. But high prices and other setbacks have limited their appeal so far.
What next
Samsung is holding its next Unpacked event on August 10, where it is rumored to announce the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Z Fold 4.
Foldable phones have come a long way since the debut of Samsung’s original Galaxy Z Fold in 2019. Last year’s $1,800 Galaxy Z Fold 3 and $1,000 Galaxy Z Flip 3 are the most polished iterations of the company’s foldable devices to date, each bringing improvements in its software and screen coverage. But there’s a lot Samsung can do to further improve these devices, and I hope we see such changes in the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4.
Both phones are expected to debut during Samsung’s Unpacked event on August 10. They will represent Samsung’s latest gambit to maintain its position as the leader in the nascent but growing foldable phone market. TM Roh, the head of Samsung’s mobile experience business, said that almost 10 million foldable phones were shipped in 2021. This broadly matches International Data Corporation’s estimates that 7.1 million foldable phones were shipped in 2021, a 264.3% increase over 2020.
These numbers show that foldable devices are starting to appeal to more than just early adopters and tech enthusiasts. But there are still some hurdles for Samsung and other companies to overcome before foldable devices become as ubiquitous as standard smartphones.
Lower price
Samsung’s foldables are more expensive than their standard smartphones, which could make them a tough sell. That’s been changing in recent years, with the Galaxy Z Flip 3 in particular being one of the most affordable foldables to date. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 starts at $1,000 without a trade-in, making it the same price as the Galaxy S22 Plus. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is significantly more expensive, with a usual starting price of $1,800 without a trade-in, though that’s still a welcome upgrade from the $2,000 Galaxy Z Fold 2.
New software features
The foldable designs of the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Galaxy Z Fold 4 certainly set them apart from most phones. But the software has to catch up with the hardware.
Samsung is off to a good start in this regard. Both the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip have a feature called Flex Mode that reorients and optimizes certain apps to fit the device’s screen when folded in half. For example, flexible mode moves some compatible apps to the top half of the screen while displaying navigation and playback controls on the bottom.
My favorite example of a good use of this mode is in the Galaxy Z Flip’s camera app. When the device is half open, the shutter button, photo settings and other controls are located on the bottom half of the screen, while the top half serves as the viewfinder. The flexible mode combined with the Z Flip’s ability to stay open on its own makes it a great camera-tripod combination.
Aside from Flex Mode, the Galaxy Z Fold can also run multiple apps on the screen at once to take advantage of its tablet-sized screen.
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 can run multiple apps on the screen at once.
Patrick Holland/CNET
These are great additions, but there’s plenty of room for Samsung to do more. It feels like the software conforms to the hardware when it should be the other way around. While the Z Fold’s Flex Mode and multitasking features are a great start, they aren’t compelling enough on their own to justify buying a foldable phone.
I’d like to see Samsung develop more compelling software features. While I wouldn’t recommend buying the Surface Duo 2 because it doesn’t work very well as a regular phone, I think Microsoft is on to something when it comes to software.
The way Surface Duo 2 splits compatible apps between screens almost feels like you’re using an app in a whole new way. The Amazon Kindle app transforms the Duo into a digital book, Xbox GamePass turns it into a Nintendo 3DS-style handheld game console, and Outlook’s split-screen view turns it into a mini-laptop. There’s a lot of promise with foldables, and I hope Samsung finds more ways to capitalize on them.
Longer battery life
Battery life is one of the most important features of any phone, and foldable phones are no exception. Unfortunately, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 had insufficient battery life. My colleague Patrick Holland barely made it through a day with the Galaxy Z Fold 3’s 4,400mAh battery. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 only lasts about 11 hours before requiring a charge.
I hope Samsung improves battery life or develops new workarounds for the next iterations of the Z Fold and Z Flip. And by “workaround” I mean that Samsung could increase the fast charging speeds of the devices or make improvements to their power saving modes. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 charges at up to 25 watts, while the Z Flip 3 charges at 15 watts, neither of which is anything special. The Galaxy S22 Plus and S22 Ultra, for example, both have 45-watt charging speeds.
Better cameras
Camera quality is right up there with battery life when it comes to the essentials of a phone. The cameras on the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Z Fold 3 are good, but there’s room for improvement. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 has a 12-megapixel wide and 12-megapixel ultra-wide primary camera setup that, as my colleague wrote in his review, is “the equivalent of the cameras you’d find on a $700 phone.” The Galaxy Z Fold 3 has a triple camera system that adds a 12-megapixel telephoto lens in addition to the 12-megapixel wide and ultra-wide lenses.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 cameras
Sarah Tew/CNET
These cameras are suitable for most people. Anyone considering buying one of these phones is obviously most interested in the display, not the cameras. But for the price, I’d like to see camera quality that at least matches, if not exceeds, Samsung’s best non-folding phones. As my colleague Patrick says, “The Z Fold 3 has B+ cameras at an A+ price.” This is especially true of the Galaxy Z Fold 3’s under-display camera, which is the phone’s selfie camera when used in tablet mode.
Fortunately, rumors suggest that the Galaxy Z Fold 4 will come with some serious camera upgrades that will put it on par with the Galaxy S22 lineup.
Design improvements
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 folded and closed.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Although the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 are Samsung’s most sophisticated foldable devices to date, phones with bendable screens are still relatively new. Because of this, it takes time to get the ergonomics right, and Samsung still has some work to do here.
Let’s start with the Galaxy Z Fold. The Z Fold’s biggest downside is that it still feels kind of awkward to use as a regular phone when it’s closed. Samsung has made some design improvements to the Z Fold 3 that make it both lighter and thinner than its predecessors. But it’s still an unusually bulky phone when closed, which can cause some discomfort when using it with one hand.
Anyone who bought the Z Fold probably did so because of its large internal screen, not the cover screen. But think about how many times you pull out your phone to quickly check a notification or reply to a text message. In some situations, these tasks are much more convenient to perform when the Z Fold is closed, such as when you’re on the go and unfolding your device seems impractical.
Another design upgrade I’d like to see on the Z Fold is the ability for the S Pen to magnetically attach to the hinge of the device. A stylus storage slot like the one on the Galaxy S22 Ultra doesn’t seem like an acceptable solution, as it would increase the thickness of the Z Fold.
The Galaxy Z Flip already looks a lot like a standard phone, but one improvement I’d like to see is a larger screen bezel. The Z Flip 3 is a big improvement over the original Z Flip in this regard. While Samsung’s first foldable flip phone only had a small pill-shaped cover, the Z Flip 3 is big enough to hold widgets for weather, music, alarms and more.
The cover screen of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3
Sarah Tew/CNET
But I’d still like to be able to see more lines of text and widgets on that screen. The larger display would also make it easier to snap selfies quickly without unfolding the phone, as the lid display can double as the camera’s viewfinder. Fortunately, rumors suggest that Samsung plans to increase the size of the screen covering with the Galaxy Z Flip 4.
I also hope Samsung finds a way to make the creases less obvious on both the Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip. The creases on Samsung’s current foldables aren’t too distracting, but they’re definitely noticeable—both to the eye and to the touch. Chinese tech giant Oppo found a way around this on its Find N foldable by implementing a “waterdrop” hinge that makes the device’s creases harder to see and feel when opened. Motorola’s teardrop-fold hinge design similarly makes the folding Razr’s folds less…
Add Comment