T
he Samsung Galaxy Fold is
the most forward-thinking
smartphone of 2019, finally
delivering on the promise of a
foldable phone, and instantly
turning heads out on the streets.
And yet, it’s still not something we
can recommend to most people.
Wherever we went with the Fold,
people wanted to know what this
thing was and how it worked. We
demonstrated how it folds down to
a 4.6-inch outer screen, and folds
out again to become a 7.3-inch
mini-tablet – and it always amazed.
But there’s a second wow-factor
too: it’s twice the price of today’s
best smartphones, and has a
troubled track record with regard
to durability, which could prove
a deal-breaker.
Samsung has refined the 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.Design and features
Good news: at the time of writing
the bendable screen of our Galaxy
Fold review unit is as pristine as the
day we unboxed it a week ago. It
comes with a crease down the
middle, but this is only visible when
it catches the light. A bigger deal is
the uneven refresh rate: 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 realise 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
as if it 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 smallphone 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 and
you’ll swear glass phones aren’t
slippery after all. We felt confident
one-handing it on busy streets.
The 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. You also
won’t find an S Pen stylus (which it
wouldn’t be wise to use on a plastic
screen anyway).
At 4,380mAh, the Fold’s battery is
Samsung’s biggest, and lasted us a
day-and-a-half. But battery life
varied based on how long we had
that big screen open – we killed it
in less than a day when we tried.
The Fold feels like the biggest
sensation since the original iPhoneSamsung Galaxy Fold
From £109/month http://www.samsung.com
The most forward-thinking phone you shouldn’t buy
Images : Samsung/Techradar84 |^ |^ December 2019