I recently spent quality time with the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6. Here is my take on it.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 phone is smartly designed. If you have had any experience with previous models of this series, you will notice the frame doesn’t have those very round corners. They are still there, but they are a lot less on your face now, making it a much more pleasant design, in my opinion.
The 6.3” (6.2” if you count round corners) cover screen is just a bit larger, and it can easily be used as a standard phone, albeit a bit narrower than the standard models. It has a resolution of 968 x 2376 pixels.
The internal display now has square corners, which makes it a much more pleasant design, in my view. At 7.6”, 2,600 nits and with 2160 x 1856 pixels, it’s a pleasure to use. It’s very responsive, too, with up to 120 Hz refresh rate. You can save just a bit of battery if you can switch to the 60 Hz refresh rate limit, and unless you do a lot of text scrolling, you won’t notice much difference.
Both displays use dynamic AMOLED 2X panels, which are very bright. Screen Mode settings allow you to switch between Natural and Vivid colours, with a white balance slider and an optional Vivid Advanced Settings that allows you to tweak RGB levels to make the display pop.
The changes include a new Armor Aluminium frame, which is stronger than previous versions. The hinge design has been evolving since the first foldable series, and it’s now better than ever. It’s a lot easier to open and fold the phone, and both sides sit flush when closed, a great improvement compared to previous versions, which had a noticeable gap.
My first impression when trying it was how much lighter if felt, despite being only 20g lighter than previous models.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform for Galaxy Octa-core processor is a tad faster than the previous generation. And with 12 GB, it shows, making switching apps a breeze.
If you have a device with a large screen, you might even want to have more than one app open simultaneously, and you can do it. You can drag and drop an app icon from the app list to the screen and start sharing the space between different apps, even with a floating window.
This is very convenient for copying and pasting information, but it is also handy if you have an RSS feed reader or email client on one side of the screen and the browser on the other side. Then, you can jump between apps or open new links without having to close the original app.
If this is not enough, you can always use the DEX feature to connect the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 to an external monitor via a USB-C cable or wirelessly. Add a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard for a full desktop experience, your very portable office space.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 works with 5G networks in New Zealand, and you can have a combination of two nano SIMs, one SIM and one eSIM or dual eSIM. It has super-fast mobile data and support for Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi), which are essential since we know the 3G service will be retired very soon in New Zealand.
Photography is slightly better than in previous versions. The main rear camera is still a combination of 50 MP + 12 MP + 10 MP, with the main difference being a new “optical zoom quality 2x.” Both the under-display internal and the cover cameras remain unchanged, with 4 MP and 10 MP resolutions, respectively.
Samsung made some changes to how the device manages heat dissipation. The vapour chamber is 1.6 times larger than before, allowing the phone to push speed limits without having to throttle performance down. You can feel the device running cooler than before. This will benefit those who want to use their devices for longer sessions, including movie streaming and mobile gaming.
Samsung's efforts to bring generative Artificial Intelligence to this device are the star of the show. Some of these features will be attractive to content creators, but there’s something for everyone.
For example, the phone integrates with the Google Gemini app, and the Circle to Search feature was introduced with the Galaxy Z Fold5. These features are easy to use and will help people with their everyday tasks.
The Interpreter app now fully utilises the dual screen, with the ability to use both the main and cover screens to show instant translations so people on both sides of a conversation can see the content. But if you want to use it to listen to a conference, for example, you can select the one-way mode.
The Live translate feature that worked with phone calls is also now available with other apps.
But the most exciting thing is the work done with generative images. The first release of the Samsung AI allowed you to use your finger or the S-Pen to select an area on any image and delete or move it. The generative AI would fill the space left, so you still had a nice picture. For example, you could use this to remove someone from the background before posting your photo to social media.
With the Galaxy Z Fold6, you can now add things to your pictures. For example, you can draw the contours of a car, and a few seconds later, a car will be added to your photo. You can add a flowerpot to a table by tracing a rough vase and a flower. You can also create a new picture by drawing on an empty screen. You will be shown a few different options and can select which one to save for later use.
The results aren’t always great, but it is an exciting development that should improve with time.
The OneUI system is based on Android, and Samsung promises seven years of updates and upgrades for the phone, which is a good thing, considering the price we pay for these devices.
I've been using the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 and Fold4 (skipping the Fold5) for a few years, so I can certainly see the improvements delivered here. You get a high-end phone at a high-end price. I enjoy using my foldable. It's comfortable and makes things easier for me.
