Samsung has arrived at the end of the road
Flap, the fourth: Samsung has made many small adjustments to the Galaxy Z Fold 4. That doesn’t sound like much, but all in all it makes a huge difference in everyday life. And yet the field report on the new folding cell phone also shows: This is not the case for Samsung.
Contents
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4: Small changes with a big effect
With the Galaxy Z Fold 4, Samsung impressively proves that the whole is often more than the sum of its parts. On its own, each improvement is hardly worth mentioning. The new Galaxy Z Fold 4 has become a little lighter, thinner and narrower. The software is more convenient to use and Samsung has drilled the cameras.
Bottom line, these add up But detailed improvements come together to form an overall picture that makes the Galaxy Fold 4 a step up from its predecessor – at least in its niche.
It is unrivaled for its top target group. No smartphone is a better e-book reader, nowhere else does multitasking work so well with multiple apps, games are a lot of fun on the XXL display and then there is the S Pen. The stylus turns the Fold 4 into a notepad if necessary or drawing board.
But you buy all this for one high price and that’s not (only) the RRP of 1,799 euros meant.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4: Often a bad compromise
Because the fourth Fold generation is also no cell phone for everyone. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 continues to be a compromise, and often a bad one.
It is neither a particularly good smartphonebut when folded it is still too thick, too heavy and gives the impression of a remote control in the hand.
One However, it doesn’t cut a particularly good figure as a tablet either. With its 7.6-inch display, it is too small when opened, there are far too few tablet-optimized apps and there are often display errors. It is true that these can be remedied to a certain extent with the right settings (more on this below) and Android 12L has also made operation in tablet mode more convenient. However, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is still a long way from a tablet experience à la iPad.
My wish to the Galaxy Z Fold 5
After my time with the Galaxy Z Fold 4, it’s clear to me that Samsung arrived at the end of the road. The Fold 1 was nothing more than a proof of concept, the Fold 2 made the foldable phone usable, the Fold 3 fixed the biggest blunders and that Fold 4 is now the final touch. Samsung can’t get more out of this design, which has been used in slight modifications since 2019.
“A good horse only jumps as high as it has to,” they say. The saying applies to Samsung, because in Europe the industry leader had so far no significant competition with its folding cell phones. But that is changing: Xiaomi, Oppo and other competitors are already flocking and are likely to offer their foldable smartphones to us sooner rather than later. So the time for minimal improvements is over, that Galaxy Z Fold 5 must be a complete redesign.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4: I liked that
- Lighter, narrower and thinner: Compared to its predecessor, the Fold 4 is 8 grams lighter, and the Fold 2 is even 19 grams lighter! At 263 grams, Samsung’s latest folding phone is only 23 grams heavier than the iPhone 14 Pro Max. And the dimensions have also shrunk slightly at 155.1 x 130.1 x 6.3 mm at each corner. You notice that in everyday life with every step.
- Thinner hinge: The hinge has also been overhauled and is now narrower. Overall, the Fold 4 looks so modern.
- Cover display wider: On the other hand, the outer cover display has become a bit wider. This makes operation a little easier, because the 23.1:9 format makes typing easier, for example. But watch out: lighter, not light. Due to the narrow width, typos are still part of everyday life.
- Reliable fingerprint sensor: The fingerprint sensor is housed in the power button on the side and works perfectly and quickly. An in-display fingerprint sensor on the cover display would of course be more convenient. Maybe with the Fold 5.
- Barely visible under-display camera: The under-display camera has made a decent leap forward and is hardly recognizable in everyday life.
- enough performance: Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and a whopping 12 GB RAM provide plenty of power. Whether it’s a graphically complex 3D game or multitasking with several apps at the same time: Nothing made the Galaxy Z Fold 4 sweat.
- Enough memory: Even the entry-level variant comes with 256 GB of storage.
- Flagship level cameras: The Galaxy Z Fold 4 does not quite reach the top of the group’s own cameras, the Galaxy S22 Ultra is still there. But the folding phone comes close enough to the S Pen flagship. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 takes excellent photos day and night. The same goes for the selfie camera.
- Back hardly prone to fingerprints: The matte back of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is surprisingly fingerprint resistant.
- Useful software improvements: Android 12L, specially designed for tablets and foldable devices, makes the Z Fold 4 a real productivity monster. Above all, the new taskbar including app launcher works wonders here. In this way, the folding cell phone becomes almost a mini PC.
- Excellent speakers: The speakers sound surprisingly good for such a small device.
- Good battery life: With the Galaxy Z Fold 4, you can actually always get through a working day, even with heavy use. Less demanding users can also manage 1.5 days.
The Galaxy Z Fold 4 in the video:
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4: I didn’t like that
- Expensive: The Galaxy Z Fold 4 isn’t a cheap treat. The RRP starts at 1,799 euros. But the price is slowly falling.
- Kink in the display: It feels like the kink in the display has become even more prominent compared to the Fold 3. This may be due to the new screen protector that Samsung is using.
- Tinkering with apps: In the unfolded tablet mode, many apps have display problems. Some things can be solved by changing the app rotation, the app aspect ratio, the screen zoom or the font size. Samsung gives you the right tools for this, but with a cell phone that costs around 1,800 euros, this fiddling is unacceptable.
- Response problems on the folding display: Occasionally there are reaction problems on the folding display, for example when typing. This leads to typos. The folding display is not as responsive as a “normal” smartphone display. The problems came up again and again, felt more often in the center of the screen in the fold range than on the outside.
- Sticky popping sound: The Galaxy Fold 4 makes a strange “sticky” noise when you open it – especially if you haven’t opened it for a few hours. That sometimes sounded gross.
- Poor quality of the under-display camera: The under-display camera may hardly be noticeable in everyday life. The quality of the recordings is still miserable: dark, washed out, terrible. One wonders why Samsung is so stubbornly sticking to this feature. Fortunately, there are still selfie snaps above the cover display, or you can use the main camera directly, which is one of the greatest advantages of the Fold series thanks to its folding capability.
- Loading speed not up to date: With 25W fast charging (wired) or 15W wireless charging, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 charges very slowly. After all, there is reverse wireless charging.
- The taskbar app drawer cannot be sorted: The new taskbar is a useful feature. But it would make even more sense if the app drawer integrated there had the same setting options that the regular app drawer offers – for example being able to change the way the app is listed.
