case that came in the box. This
ease of handling is one of the
things that struck us the most in
our testing – while everything else
about the Fold has a futuristic vibe,
its narrow size took us back to a
time when phones were easy to
hold in one hand.
If you love big screens, but are
tired of juggling big phones, this
is the biggest phone we’ve
tested... and smallest (recent
phone) at the same time. It’s an
idea that’s been more than 10
years in the making and, as
Samsung likes to say, went through
1,000 different prototypes. It’s not
a bad start, but there’s surely more
innovation to come.
Samsung has outfitted the
Galaxy Fold with HDR10+, which
bumps up the contrast ratio
considerably on supported video
content, and made it bright
enough to be solidly visibly
outdoors. You will find glare
literally shines a light on the
middle crease, indoors or
outdoors, and you can feel the
groove. The good news: like a
notch, your brain will ignore it
in time.
Harder to ignore is the uneven
refresh rate. Scroll through a
text-filled webpage and you’ll
notice the words shift unevenly
across the 7.3-inch display.
Samsung makes the best phone
displays, so this is a compromise
we didn’t expect. Its bezel-heavy
4.6-inch cover display also shouts
“first-gen product”. Yes, the
foldable future is great, but it has
some obvious pain points you
should know about.
Still, it’s a technical marvel, with
technical limitations, and makes us
hopeful for a more rounded sequel.Delivers a ‘wow’ factor that no
other phone offers. Yet we only
recommend it to early adopters.- and, really, that’s the only reason
to take the financial risk on it. This
phone is strictly for early adopters
with money to burn and a need to
impress, and it’ll end up in a drawer
with Google Glass and other
gadgets so sadly ahead of their
time. Everyone else should wait for
something cheaper, better, and
more durable in a few months.
Durability
The arrival of the Samsung Galaxy
Fold gives you the opportunity to
own the future of smartphones and
tablets, with a 2-in-1 design that
just makes sense – if the bendable
screen technology holds up.
The key to the Galaxy Fold’s
book-like foldable design is a
20-part, dual-axis locking hinge
that prevents the display from
overextending past 180 degrees.
Whereas the screen is delicate,
the hinge feels like it’s been
meticulously engineered to
withstand abuse.
Opening and closing the Fold
feels buttery smooth, and closing it
ends with a satisfying magnetic
click, like you’ve just closed up a
book. Remember what it was like
to hang up on people with a flip
phone or even an old telephone?
That feeling is back – only now,
you’ll probably swallow them up
in a video call. Also coming back is
smartphone heft. In its folded state,
the Galaxy Fold is 17.1mm thick and
weighs 276g; for comparison, the
big-and-heavy Note 10 Plus is just
7.9mm and 196g.
However, it’s narrower than
you might think, and despite its
thickness it isn’t hard to slip into
a jeans pocket – it’ll even fit into
tight-yet-deep jacket pockets
that other phones can’t fit into,
although there’s no escaping the
fact that it’ll look like you’re packing
two phones back-to-back.Unfolded, it’s a reasonable
7.6mm thick. You’ll find a
fingerprint sensor, power/Bixby key,
and volume rocker on the right (all
accessible when the Fold is open or
closed), and two speakers at the
top and bottom. It’s easy to cover
up the powerful Dolby Atmos
stereo speakers when you’re
playing games or watching videos
in landscape orientation. Pro tip:
instead of uncomfortably choking
up your grip, try rotating the Fold
180 degrees – most apps will
rotate just fine.
When it’s closed, the all-glass
design envelopes the phone’s
outside. The glass is slippery, but
we found its folded size so easy to
grasp that we didn’t feel the need
to use the two-piece Aramid Fiber“It’ll end up in a drawer with Google Glass and
other gadgets so sadly ahead of their time”
Upgrade
Samsung Galaxy Fold
December 2019 | |^85
SamsungGalaxyFold
Supplier http://www.samsung.com
Resolution 2152 x 1536 / 1680 x 720
CPU Octa-core Kryo 485
RAM 12G B
Storage 512GB
Rear cameras 16MP + 12MP + 12MP
Weight 276gSpecs as reviewed