The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 (opens in a new tab) was the flagship phone that introduced water resistance to foldables, and the Z Fold 4 brings it back, along with a healthy set of updates and refinements across the board.
Although foldable phones are still an indulgent luxury with their high prices, Samsung proved that they could be life-proof, which was quite a feat. Confidence in foldables, and Samsung’s foldables in particular, has skyrocketed in the last year as a result. In fact, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 (opens in a new tab) was the most successful foldable ever, thanks to its relatively affordable styling for a foldable ($999 / £949) and some clever works of BTS K-pop.
Samsung is the foldable favorite in the West, but take a look at the Chinese smartphone market, and things aren’t so dry. Huawei is doing much better there than here; capable of launching foldable 5G like the Mate X2 (opens in a new tab), with its periscope camera. Look at Vivo, and its Vivo Fold X also has a periscope camera, not to mention in-display and out-of-display fingerprint scanners. Xiaomi doesn’t leave out Samsung either; The China-only Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 (opens in a new tab) is the thinnest and lightest foldable yet, and it has a full-sized front display and a Leica-branded camera system.
But don’t sleep on Samsung. The Korean brand may have more competition in China than in Europe or the US, but none of that competition takes advantage of the large drop-down screens on their pen-supported phones, and they’re not water-resistant either. But is it enough when the phone’s starting price is $1799 / £1649?
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 (256GB Grey) for £100 upfront with 125GB data for just £67 a month from EE Mobile (opens in new tab)
Design and display of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4
(Image credit: Basil Kronfli / Digital Camera World) (opens in new tab)
Familiar, but refined – that’s where Samsung is going with its new Galaxy Z Fold 4. So if you’ve ever seen a Z Fold 3, you’re in for a very real deja vu. By redesigning the hinge mechanism of the new foldable, the display on the cover is wider and framed by less bezel, and the whole phone is lighter than its predecessor.
Going into details, while the Z Fold 3 was 271g, the Z Fold 4 is 263g. When you consider that an iPhone 13 Pro Max (opens in a new tab) is 240g, that’s not too much. As for the world’s lightest two-in-one foldable, the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 weighs just 1g less than the Z Fold 4.
So it’s relatively light, great, but is the Z Fold 4 really thin? Absolutely, when deployed. At 6.3mm thick, like a sleek and slim tablet, it’s a bit. Closed, however, it is still a thickums. Shaped like a wedge, it measures 14.2mm at its thinnest point and 15.8mm at its thickest. Some phones enter this territory; the Xiaomi 12s Ultra, for example, with its 1-inch camera sensor is about 13.5mm when the camera bump is included. That said, most phones are much, much thinner: less than 10mm.
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(Image credit: Basil Kronfli / Digital Camera World)
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So Samsung hasn’t made a magical machine that can transform from a miniature smartphone to a sprawling tablet, but the Z Fold 4 is still a great mix of design highlights. On the front, it has a 6.2-inch cover display, while inside, the main display is a relatively square 7.6-inch flexible display.
When opened, a speaker and USB-C port are at the base, a fingerprint scanner and a combination of power buttons and a volume rocker are on the right, and at the top there is the second speaker. There’s a triple camera on the back and two selfie cameras on both screens, a bottom-screen camera on the main screen and a traditional hole-punch front-facing camera on the cover screen.
Made with Armor Aluminum and Samsung’s Gorilla Glass Victus Plus, both introduced in the Galaxy S22 series (opens in a new tab), the bodies in the line have had a durability hit on paper, and in two full weeks with the phone is still free. of dings and boops.
That doesn’t mean the Z Fold 4’s flexible screen isn’t more fragile than the traditional one. If you hit it, it will likely fade, but as a pack, this is probably the most life-proof collapsible.
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(Image credit: Basil Kronfli / Digital Camera World)
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As for the screens, their dimensions have been updated slightly, despite being the same size on paper as those of the Z Fold 3. Both are slightly wider and slightly shorter, which means that everything the phone is a little more squat.
Whichever screen you’re using, you’ll see a dynamic AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a pixel density of over 380 pixels per inch, sharp enough for all but the most discerning.
The inner screen has a fold in the middle, and the sooner you get used to it, the more you’ll enjoy the whole Z Fold 4 experience; although it didn’t interrupt us, we can’t help it because it’s so noticeable. .
While we thought we’d benefit from the large 7.6-inch drop-down tablet screen, we actually found ourselves using it more at home. It works brilliantly with the Readly or DC Comics Infinite apps, perfect for relaxing on the couch with a magazine.
The foldable’s square aspect ratio is also great for playing older 4:3 videos, from Full Metal Alchemist to The Golden Girls. For newer 16:9 or 21:9 videos, it’s still adequate when folded in half in Flex mode, which pushes content to the top half of the screen, or when using the front display.
Unlike most HDR smartphone displays, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 also supports Netflix HDR, so it supports a wide dynamic range between screens and generally whether you’re watching, swiping or reading , both the cover and the tablet screen looked great.
The only caveat to the Fold 4’s dual-screen excellence is bright sunlight and smudges. The tablet’s screen looks very dirty compared to glass after using it for a few days, with the top layer of the foldable screen sticking to fingerprints more than traditional screens. This can affect visibility in particularly bright environments, so a cleaning cloth will be essential if you want the best of the Z Fold 4.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 Camera Specs
The Z Fold 4 has seen an increase in camera hardware compared to the Z Fold 3. The rear cameras are almost identical to the Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus, with a mix of wide, ultra-wide and triple telephoto cameras .
This upgrade also means a larger main camera sensor, from 1/1.76-inch to 1/1.56-inch, a welcome upgrade. Samsung opts for its own 50MP S5KGN3 sensor, which combines an f/1.8 lens, 23mm wide-angle and phase detection autofocus (PDAF).
While there’s no periscope zoom camera, unlike the Vivo X Fold, there’s a bit more reach this time around compared to the Z Fold 3. The telephoto lens has a 10MP Samsung S5K3K1 sensor that’s shown to 1/3.94 inch, producing a pixel size of 1 micron. In terms of optics, there is an f/2.4 lens with a focal length of 66mm, PDAF and OIS.
At ultra-wide, and that’s where the Z Fold 4 falls behind the S22 lineup, with its Sony IMX258, a 13MP sensor that captures 12MP images on the Fold 4. The small sensor is equipped with an aperture f/2.2 and has a field of view of 123˚, which is equivalent to a focal length of 12mm.
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(Image credit: Basil Kronfli / Digital Camera World)
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Recording modes include Portrait, Photo, Video, Pro, Pro Video, Single Shot, Night, Food Panorama, Super Slow-Mo, Slow Motion, Hyperlapse, Portrait Video and Director’s View.
The camera takes advantage of the phone’s Flex mode, so when the Fold 4 is folded in half, the top half of the screen acts as the viewfinder, while the bottom half offers the shooting controls. This is especially useful in the director’s view, which previews all three focal lengths on the secondary screen, so you can make an informed decision when switching. Pro mode also really benefits from a split-screen view, with the top half of the fold clear for your image and the bottom half showing manual shooting options.
The Z Fold 4 captures video at up to 8K at 24 fps and 4K at up to 60 fps, and if you’re shooting in Pro mode, manual ISO can be set up to 3200 and shutter speed up to 30 seconds .
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 camera review
While not the best camera phone of 2022 (opens in a new tab), the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is much better than the Z Fold 3, thanks to its updated main camera and extra telephoto reach.
Starting with the 50MP primary snapper and the Fold is a great point-and-shoot camera. It’s good for freezing in the right light, and while it captures plenty of detail and a balanced image, most will like the warm, vibrant photos it takes.
Samsung is known for its crisp, vibrant photos, and the Z Fold 4’s images are faithful. They look clean and sharp out of camera, ready for Instagram or WhatsApp, but miss the wide dynamic range you get from phones like the Xiaomi 12 Pro (opens in a new tab) and the Xiaomi 12 (opens in a new tab), that you lean a little more on computational photography, bringing out details from the lights and shadows.
The main camera is quick to focus and take a photo, and can capture them with a relatively shallow depth of field when close to a subject.
A photo taken on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 (Image credit:…