Pros:
- Innovative folding display
- Can run three apps at once
- Dedicated customer support
- Included Galaxy Buds
Cons:
- Very expensive
- Small front display
- Bulky and heavy
- Cameras a step behind iPhone 11
Insight:
The Samsung Galaxy Fold is the most talk about smartphone of 2019, finally delivering on the promise of a foldable phone, and instantly proving a real head-turner out on the streets. And yet, it's still not something we can recommend to most people.
But then the second breath taking-factor kicks: it's twice the price of today's best smartphones, and on top of that it has a troubled track record with regard to durability, which could prove a deal-breaker for many potential buyers.
Samsung refined the Galaxy Fold over the course of a five-month delay to its launch, reinforcing the points where it broke in the hands of early reviewers. But we're still in constant fear of pixel tearing, or damaging the vulnerable plastic screen.
Right now the bendable screen of the Galaxy Fold review unit is as pristine as the day we unboxed. It comes with a crease down the middle, but this is only really visible when it catches glare (or you purposefully look for it). A bigger deal is the uneven refresh rate across the larger display: as you scroll pages, one side lags ever so slightly behind the other – it's barely perceptible, but you can't unsee it once you realize it's there.
The Galaxy Fold is the best example of why foldable is the future of smartphones. Its 7.3-inch screen is built for productivity. We multi-tasked with three apps open on a phone, as if this were a tablet. Editing photos is easier, gaming takes a gigantic leap, and showing someone a complicated spreadsheet is doable.
Its folded size is satisfying for one reason: we loved carrying a small phone again. It'll go unappreciated in photos, and the extensive bezel around the 4.6-inch screen makes it feel cramped; but hold this tall, chunky, yet narrow phone in your hand and you'll swear glass phones aren't slippery after all. We felt confident one-handing it on busy streets.
The Galaxy Fold inherits the power and cameras of the Galaxy S10 Plus, which is nice, but we missed some photo and video modes offered by the Note 10 Plus – that five-month delay means Samsung’s latest and most cutting-edge phone isn’t actually its most capable camera-wise. You also won't find an S Pen stylus tucked inside (which it wouldn't be wise to use on a plastic screen anyway, but still).
The Samsung Galaxy Fold feels like the biggest sensation since the original iPhone – and, really, that's the only reason to take a $2,000 / £1,900 risk on it. This phone is strictly for early adopters with money to burn and a penchant for impressing, and it'll end up in a drawer with Google Glass and other gadgets ahead of their time.
Samsung Galaxy Fold specs:
Body: Foldable, display folds inwards on itself. 160.9x62.9x15.5mm folded, 160.9x117.9x6.9 mm unfolded, 263g; Space Silver and Cosmos Black essential colors, Martian Green and Astro Blue with Gold or Dark Silver hinges.
Display: Primary: Foldable 7.3" Dynamic AMOLED Infinity Flex Display, 1536x2152px, 4.2:3 aspect ratio, 362ppi. Secondary (cover): 4.6" Super AMOLED, 720x1680px, 21:9 aspect ratio, 399ppi.
Rear camera: Wide (main): 12MP, 1/2.55" sensor, f/1.5-2.4 aperture, 26mm equiv. focal length (77° FoV), dual pixel PDAF, OIS. Telephoto: 12MP, 1/3.6" sensor, f/2.4 aperture, 52mm equiv. focal length (45° FoV), PDAF, OIS. Ultra-wide: 16MP, f/2.2 aperture, 12mm equiv. focal length (123° FoV), fixed focus.
Front camera: Main: 10MP, f/2.2 aperture, 25mm equiv. focal length (80° FoV), PDAF. Secondary (depth only): 8MP, f/2.2 aperture, 85° FoV, fixed focus lens.
Cover camera: 10MP, f/2.2 aperture, 25mm equiv. focal length (80° FoV), PDAF.
Video recording: Rear: up to 4K 2160p@60fps, EIS up to 2160p@30fps, slow-mo up to 1080p@240fps, super slow-mo 720p@960fps for up to 0.4s (12s playback at normal speed); HDR10+ recording. Front: up to 4K 2160p@30fps with EIS.
OS/Software: Android 9.0 Pie, Samsung One UI.
Chipset: Snapdragon 855 (7nm): octa-core CPU (1x2.8GHz & 3x2.4GHz Kryo Gold & 4x1.7GHz Kryo 485 Silver); Adreno 640 GPU.
Memory: 12GB RAM, 512GB storage, no microSD card slot.
Battery: 4,380mAh total, Li-Ion (sealed), 2-piece, 15W wired charging (Adaptive Fast charging, QuickCharge 2.0 compatible), 15W Fast Wireless Charging 2.0, Wireless PowerShare.
Connectivity: Dual-SIM - one nano, one eSIM (where available); LTE-A, 6-Band carrier aggregation, Cat.18 (1.2Gbps/150Mbps); Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac/ax MU-MIMO; GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo; NFC; Bluetooth 5.0. USB Type-C (v3.1), no 3.5mm jack.
Misc: Capacitive side-mounted fingerprint sensor, doubles as Bixby button; stereo speakers.
Samsung Galaxy Fold release date and price:
Double the price of flagship phones: $1,980 / £1,900 / AU$2,900
Launched in September in the US, UK and South Korea
It was originally set to debut on April 26, 2019
Two colors: Cosmos Black or Space Silver (Martian Green and Astro Blue have been axed)
The Samsung Galaxy Fold release date was staggered throughout the end of 2019, and getting your hands on it wasn't easy. It first came out in South Korea on September 6, and made its UK debut on September 18, when it sold out immediately.
The Galaxy Fold US release date was September 27, which was five months and one day after its original April 26 launch date. During this hiatus, Samsung tweaked the hardware, but the price remained the same: very high. Those in Australia were also able to buy the phone at the end of October 2019.
Stock of the Galaxy Fold has since stabilized in the markets where it's available, so if you are considering picking it you shouldn't have any trouble locating a unit.
The Samsung Galaxy Fold price is $1,980 / £1,900 / AU$2,999, twice the cost of an iPhone 11 Pro. You can buy it through Samsung, local stores like Best Buy, or exclusive carrier partners: EE in the UK (from £109 per month for 24 months) and AT&T in the US (it's $66 a month for 30 months).
Samsung Galaxy Fold Design:
Even though this is my second go-around with the Samsung Galaxy Fold, there’s still a real Wow factor to this device. Thanks to a sophisticated, 20-part, dual-axis hinge, you can open this clamshell just like a book, transforming the Fold from phone to tablet mode.
The motion is fairly smooth and natural; I’ll admit I felt a bit like a secret agent as I used the Fold in public, surfing the web or watching a video and then closing the whole thing up before I walked away. But I also felt nervous that someone might try to steal the device from me.
It's worth noting that the main display is plastic, not Gorilla Glass, like the outer cover display. But Samsung has fortified the larger panel by placing a metal layer beneath the screen.
When closed, the Galaxy Fold feels like a throwback phone, and a chunky one at that. It’s quite tall and narrow, and 0.66 inches thick. That’s about double the thickness of the Galaxy S10 and iPhone 11 Pro Max. This size was not optimal for the front pocket of my pants; it’s a better fit for a blazer pocket or a purse.
Samsung Galaxy Fold Battery:
With a 4,380 mAh battery, the Samsung Galaxy Fold has pretty good staying power given its huge display, but other phones last longer on a charge. On the Tom's Guide battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over 4G LTE (we used AT&T's network) at 150 nits of screen brightness, the Galaxy Fold's battery lasted 10 hours and 1 minute.
This runtime is pretty good when you consider that we used the larger 7.3-inch display for the entire duration of this test. (We will be retesting where we use the smaller front display for a quarter of the time.) By comparison, the Galaxy Note 10 Plus lasted an average of 11:09 on our test, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max averaged 11:54.
On a day with intermittent usage, which included snapping photos, streaming music, watching video clips and checking email, the phone still had 60% capacity left at 9:15 p.m; I had unplugged the phone at 6:30 a.m.
On a day when I used the Galaxy Fold more heavily, which included watching two full TV episodes on Netflix, the Fold was down to 25% come 9 p.m. That’s still more than a full day’s worth of endurance.
the Wireless PowerShare feature on the Galaxy Fold, which allows you to charge other phones and accessories by simply placing them on the back of the Samsung handset. This includes the wireless Galaxy Buds, which Samsung throws in for the $1,980 price.
Unboxing the Galaxy Fold:
We didn't need to unfold the new Galaxy as it ships unfolded in thin a box within its much bigger retail box. Indeed, the Fold arrives in one premium-looking package and there are many goodies inside.
For starters the box contains all the usual necessities - an 18W charger that hasn't been changed for years and a USB-C cable. There is also one very familiar female A to male C adapter that Samsung has been supplying within its boxes for a while.
The Galaxy Fold box doesn't contain a wired headset, but a wireless one - the new Galaxy Buds to be specific. They come within its own charging case, coupled with three types of rims for the earbuds. Those are the same buds to ship with the Galaxy S10 pre-orders, but they come as default with the Fold. And for €2000 - they better be!
But wait, there is more. There is a protective case with a carbon-like finish to keep your glass Fold safe. It's got a mild adhesive to stick it securely onto the phone, but you can easily remove it after it's been applied. Or don't use it at all - we found the case to fit very well without applying the adhesive.
Conclusion:
The Galaxy Fold feels like a phone from the future, and yet from a practical perspective it falls a bit short. When I was using Slack in one window, Gmail in another and Spotify in yet another on the 7.3-inch screen, I could see myself using my laptop less and a device like this more. I also liked being able to review and edit large documents on the go. And it’s just cool to close the whole thing up when you’re ready to walk way.
But that doesn’t mean you should invest $2,000 of your own money. Even if you put aside the lingering durability concerns around the Galaxy Fold, I find the overall design bulky and heavy, and the front display is too small. And while the cameras are solid, the iPhone 11 Pro has leapt ahead with its better HDR and night mode.
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