Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 Offers A Premium And Refined Folding Phone Experience

In 2019, when smartphone makers continued to offer monotonous-looking pieces of glass slabs, Samsung truly shook things up with its first Galaxy Fold. Now, eventually, it did get surrounded by many issues, specifically pertaining to durability, but it offered us a fresh and much-needed perspective on the smartphones of the future.

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Today, three years from that date, Samsung has only perfected its offering, roughing up sharp edges and adding features that would not just help the device last longer, but also feel more premium, with the newest in the category -- The Z Fold 4.

I never really used a folding phone before, so I was pretty excited when I got to play with it for a few weeks. Here¡¯s what my experience was like.

A thick chonky boy

The Z Fold 4, with the dual displays it¡¯s packing is quick thick when closed shut at around 15.8mm, which is a lot if you¡¯ve got tiny hands. But for someone who has large hands such as mine, I felt rather comfortable grabbing it.

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It is, however, one heavy smartphone, coming around at 263 grams. Built out of glass and stainless steel, the smartphone shouts premium, and the off-white colour scheme on my unit had a very light pearlescent hue which looked particularly subtle yet classy.

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It is also a little annoying to see that Samsung hasn¡¯t really yet figured out a way to snap the device shut instead of leaving a little gap in between right around the hinge, like on the Z Flip4, as it would have otherwise given it a rather neat look. However, what it has perfected is the satisfying snap that you get when you close it shut.

Display(s)

The outside of the Galaxy Z Fold4 this time gets a 6.2 inches Dynamic AMOLED display, sporting a resolution of 904 x 2316 pixels, whereas the one inside is a foldable 7.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED panel with a resolution of 1812 x 2176 pixels.

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Both the panels get buttery smooth 120Hz refresh rates, however, the inner folding panel is also HDR10+ certified with a peak brightness of 1200 nits, which does get pretty bright, even under sunlight.

Despite the inner foldable screen being the true star of the show, you¡¯ll end up using the outer screen the most. And despite its strange 23.1:9 aspect ratio, the phone was a joy to use, just from the outside.

The narrow form factor allowed for some really convenient single-handed use that I haven¡¯t experienced in a while on an Android smartphone in the past. The display is sharp, vibrant and a joy to view content on.

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Of course, when I had to type news stories on the go, opening it up to use the 7.6-inch panel offered me all the multitasking real estate I needed.

Using the plastic display does feel different, and you¡¯ll need to take some extra care, making sure you don¡¯t drop the screen on the ground when opened.

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The inner display was particularly fun for consuming content or even reading for that matter, even with the crease, which you end up forgetting about. The inner screen was even more fun for gaming, diving into the world of Genshin Impact in the large screen real estate, especially while commuting.

Performance with Task View

Samsung has left no stone unturned in the performance department for the Galaxy Z Fold4. We¡¯re looking at Qualcomm SM8475 Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, paired with 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage.

The phone didn¡¯t break a sweat transitioning from apps, or even running multiple apps at once when using the large screen.

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What¡¯s more is that this year, Samsung¡¯s got a new Task View, which offers a taskbar similar to that on say a Windows PC, which allows you to instantly jump between apps, as well as shortcut some most-used apps, (very similar to the bar on the iPadOS) which is a boon and help reduce the use of gestures to reach say the app drawer.

The phone did get a little warm when you pushed it to the limits, but it also cooled down surprisingly quickly.

Impressive camera array

Just like last year, this year¡¯s Z Fold gets a triple-camera setup at the back -- a 50-megapixel f/1.8 shooter, a secondary 10-megapixel f/2.4 telephoto shooter and a third 12-megapixel f/2.2 123-degrees ultrawide shooter.

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The cameras were extremely reliable to capture imagery whether in broad daylight or during nighttime.

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Sure, they were by no means as stellar as the S22 Ultra, however, they came really close to it, in terms of image quality as well as processing.

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The night time results were surprisingly good.

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You also get two selfie cameras -- one on the cover which is a 10-megapixel, f/2.2 shooter as well as one under the folding display -- a 4-megapixel f/1.8 shooter.

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Honestly, the one inside (left) is still not as good, and the only selfie shooter you¡¯ll be driven to pick is the cover camera (right), but the one inside does a passable job as a Google Duo or WhatsApp video calling camera.

Battery

Powering the Z Fold 4 is a Li-Po 4400 mAh battery which might sound quite low for a phone with two screens, but it surprisingly wasn¡¯t.

Even on my busiest of days, which involved several hours of internal and external screen usage, camera as well as web browsing, the phone managed to last a whole day with around 40 percent battery to spare, which is surely impressive.

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This can partly be due to the new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset that¡¯s not just more powerful, but also is extremely power efficient, offering such substantial gains. For someone who isn¡¯t a power user, you can easily last a day and a half, even two days on a single charge.

What does suck is that Samsung is still stuck with 25W fast charging that takes 30 minutes to juice up barely 50 percent of the device. Other flagship makers are doing far more, with far larger batteries in far less time, which can suck for sure.

Should you buy Galaxy Z Fold4?

Galaxy Z Fold4 offers a refined folding phone experience with its stellar displays, responsive performance and rather impressive battery stamina. The cameras on the Z Fold4 captures imagery just the way you want a flagship and the fit and feel of the device shouts premium.

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While there are still some rough edges, particularly with the non-dust resistance, the crease on the inner display, the display still being a fragile piece of tech and the slow charging speeds, it manages to balance things out with its other offerings, which justify its premium price point (starting at Rs 154,999) by a very close margin.

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