Few phones are as unique as the Z Fold 4, and even fewer have an experience like it. It appears to be a marginal improvement over last year's device. It's a little bit smaller, a little bit lighter, and a little bit wider. It has a faster processor and a better camera.
The experience is much more than the parts. Something was already so impressive in and of itself, that it's the continued perfection that makes it so impressive. A tighter execution of a fairly new concept, that continues to make more and more sense for a group of users not willing to settle for anything but the biggest and best phone made by the company.
It feels like using an object from a future time when using the Z fold 4. It still turns heads when I use it and, thanks to the new taskbar and a few other refinements, the Fold 4 is back in the lead. It's the best phone I've ever used, even with a few flaws. A lot of phones have been used by me.
I've been using the Graygreen color on the T-Mobile network in North Carolina and New York City for over two years.
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The software has not been updated since the review started. The July 2022 security patch was used in the Z Fold 4.
The Fold 4 review unit was provided by SAMSUNG.
Backdrops is a wallpaper that can be downloaded for free on the Play Store.
The device will be available from August 26, 2022, on all major US carriers, unlocked, and internationally.
The unlocked version of the Z Fold 4 can be had for $1,799 in the U.S. with a variety of trade-in deals. Similar deals are offered by U.S. carriers and retail outlets. If you trade-in, the best deals will often reduce the price by half.
Graygreen, Phantom Black, and Beige are the three different colors of the Z Fold.
There are today's best deals.
If you were to look at the Fold 3 and the Z Fold 4, you would think it was the same device. The design language of the Z Fold 2 was established by the company. The Fold 3 was similar to the Fold 2, but the Fold 4 slims it down a bit.
The Z Fold 4's height was reduced by 3mm when compared to the Fold 3. The device is now 0.8mm wider and 0.3mm slimmer when unfolded. When compared to the other device, it's only 8 grams lighter. It is still a very heavy device.
| Category | Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 |
|---|---|
| Display | 7.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2x, LTPO (1-120Hz), 2176x1812, 21.6:18 |
| Cover display | 6.2-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2x, LTPO (48-120Hz), 2316x904, 23.1:9 |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 |
| Memory | 12GB |
| Storage | 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB |
| Rear Camera 1 | 50MP, ƒ/1.8, 1.0μm, 85-degree FoV (main camera) |
| Rear Camera 2 | 12MP, ƒ/2.2, 1.12μm, 123-degree FoV (ultra-wide) |
| Rear Camera 3 | 10MP, ƒ/2.4, 1.10μm, 3x optical zoom |
| Cover Camera | 10MP, ƒ/2.2, 1.22μm, 80-degree FOV |
| Inside Camera | 4MP, ƒ/1.8, 2.0μm, 80-degree FOV |
| Battery | 4,400mAh (dual 2,200mAh batteries) |
| Charging | 25W fast charging, 10-15W fast wireless charging 2.0, 4.5W reverse wireless charging |
| Weight | 263 grams |
| Dimensions (folded) | 67.1 wide x 155.1 tall x 15.8mm thin |
| Dimensions (unfolded) | 130.1 wide x 155.1 tall x 6.3mm thin |
| Water and dust resistance | IPX8 |
| Colors | Graygreen, Phantom Black, Beige, Burgundy (Samsung.com exclusive) |
A new hinge design that is 6mm narrower and noticeably slimmer was used to slim down. The new hinge is easier to fold and unfold than the previous one.
That is a relief for me. There have been a lot of times in the last year when I tried to open the Fold 3 and it was hard to get it to open from the side.
The act of pulling the phone open isn't as difficult as it was last year. It's much easier to close and has a new, more padded closing snap that makes it sound better.
The fold 4 is flatter than the fold 3 because of the new hinge. You will only notice it if you upgrade from the Fold 2 or 3.
The image is the first of eight.
Nicholas Sutrich has an image on his Facebook page.
Nicholas Sutrich has an image on his Facebook page.
Nicholas Sutrich has an image on his Facebook page.
Nicholas Sutrich has an image on his Facebook page.
Nicholas Sutrich has an image on his Facebook page.
Nicholas Sutrich has an image on his Facebook page.
Nicholas Sutrich has an image on his Facebook page.
Nicholas Sutrich has an image on his Facebook page.
The wider outer display of the Fold 4 is one of my favorite changes from the Fold 3. It's just so much more practical to use.
You won't see a thick bezel on the left edge of the Fold 4, instead it's 2x the width on the right side. The outer screen of the Fold 4 was reduced in size to take advantage of the heft of the device.
The slightly wider display makes all the difference in the world, even though it looks like a small difference in person. I frequently pressed the wrong key on the Fold 2 and 3 because the screen was so small. When moving between phones with different screen sizes, I haven't done this before with the Fold 4.
This is one of the changes I like the most. It was hard to type on the Fold 3's outer display. The wider screen on the Fold 4 doesn't seem to be the same as before.
The image is the first of four.
Nicholas Sutrich has an image on his Facebook page.
Nicholas Sutrich has an image on his Facebook page.
Nicholas Sutrich has an image on his Facebook page.
Nicholas Sutrich has an image on his Facebook page.
The new sub-pixel design on the under-display camera gives it better photo and video quality, and it even makes it better hidden than on the Fold 3.
The display is friendlier for videos with aspect ratios of 16:9 now that it's wider and shorter. I don't think I noticed a difference in practice. I can't say that there are enough opportunities to find this newer aspect ratio as an advantage.
The inner display has been reduced, but that isn't the most impressive change. The under-display camera is the winner. This year's design is much more rounded than last year's and features a completely different design.
Even if the camera didn't get upgraded, the new sub-pixel design makes for cleaner, clearer pictures that look higher resolution than last year's. The camera section shows the difference.
The first image of two.
Nicholas Sutrich has an image on his Facebook page.
Nicholas Sutrich has an image on his Facebook page.
Stronger glass and better screen protectors should help keep these displays looking gorgeous for even longer than before.
The cover screen of the Fold 4 is no longer pre-installed with a screen protectors, and the inner display's screen protectors are the same material as last year. Some fold and flip phones had bubbles on them.
While I never had this issue on my Fold 3, my wife's Flip 3 screen protectors began peeling and cracking about eight months into ownership. It will repair this for free, but it will use up the one free screen replacement in the process, and it isn't a good idea to replace the protectors on your own.
The ultra-thin glass has been strengthened. The ultra-thin glass is due to a combination of two things.
I would like to talk about the speakers that the phone was equipped with. The speakers deliver great volume, balanced sound, and audio. Playing games on the Fold 4 is a joy because of the screen size and the virtual surround sound that comes from the speakers.
The Fold 3 was called the heir to the throne by me last year. Many Note fans will prefer the S22 Ultra because it has a holster, even though I still feel like the Fold is the better Note device.
While the Fold 4 doesn't have a holster for the S Pen, it does have a Note-style case that has one on the back. Caseborne and Spigen make cases that have S Pen holsters in the spine, on the back, or on the right side of the case.
If you're a stickler for having a single device that does it all, the Fold 4 will provide an experience closer to that ideal than any other device currently on the market.
The image is the first of four.
Nicholas Sutrich has an image on his Facebook page.
Nicholas Sutrich has an image on his Facebook page.
Nicholas Sutrich has an image on his Facebook page.
Nicholas Sutrich has an image on his Facebook page.
Spigen's Thin Fit P case gave me immediate access to the S Pen all the time. I recommend this case to anyone who loves using the S Pen because I noticed that I used it more.
The S Pen Fold Edition will be available in two new colors this year. It's a nice touch that makes the Note look better. The Fold is the same color as the device it's holstered in, so it's no different.
The S Pen on the Fold 4 has some drawbacks. The cover display does not work with it. I tried to tap on it more than once, but I couldn't remember that it was impossible. The foldable inner display has a pen on it. I would love to see this added to the Fold.
The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 does a much, much better job of delivering consistently excellent performance than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. It also doesn't get hot!
The Fold 4 makes it feel zippier than before, even though it never felt like a slow device. It's great that the big screen has a new taskbar that makes it easier to use multitasking.
It's important because, as we pointed out in many phone reviews this year, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 doesn't hold up to its promises of better performance than 2021. The 8+ Gen 1 does a better job of delivering consistently excellent performance and not getting hot at the same time.
The Fold 4 doesn't get particularly hot to the touch and the game shows great framerates throughout the experience. It was great to get an experience that was as consistent as the Fold 3, which means the game ran smoothly and didn't stutter or drop the framerate as many phones will.
It's a huge improvement over any flagship device released in the first half of the 20th century. You will probably not notice the difference while scrolling through social media or the web.
You will still get better battery life on the newer phone even though the battery size was not increased. Thanks to the superior energy efficiency rating, that's once again.
The Fold 3 did not have a great battery life. Over the past week, I traveled to New York City, played a lot of video games, took a lot of photos, and worked on the camera.
The Fold 4's battery didn't fail to live to see the end of the day. That is not something I could ever say about the Fold 3 on a busy day, and it shows just how much more power efficient the 8+ Gen 1 Chipset is than anything from this year or last.
In our lab tests, the Fold 4 lasted up to three hours longer than the Fold 3 on a single charge.
The Fold 4 lasted up to three hours longer than the Fold 3 on a single charge, thanks to the battery rundown tests that Future gave us. The battery life difference was reduced by an hour at the adaptive refresh rate. This is impressive even though the battery size was not increased.
If you need more time out of the battery, you can set the phone to the new low power mode, which scales the processor back about 100MHz at its peak andPrioritizes Thermals over Performance. I couldn't tell the difference in performance between apps.
I didn't find this to be the case, as the low power mode doesn't affect gaming. The framerate dropped over a 30-minute period while I was playing the game. The game would run between 24 and 30 frames per second after that time period.
The new low power mode helps the phone get through a few more hours in a day and doesn't affect everyday performance.
The game ran between 50 and 60 frames per second. I didn't notice that the phone was getting too hot in either of the power modes. The phone felt like I'd left it in the sun on asphalt when I was playing games. The phone isn't the only one.
Low power mode helps the phone go through more hours on a single charge.
Even if it's only "fast" by the standards of the company, charging is still much faster. A 30-minute charge adds 50% to the battery's capacity, which is enough to last half a day's worth of normal use. If it ever wants to claim to have super-fast charging times, it has a ways to go.
This year's Z Fold release doesn't come with a lot of new software features, but it does have one big feature: a taskbar.
Four years ago, the original Fold was launched, and it was my favorite feature to date. It feels like the Fold has been unlocked.
It is similar to the Edge panel in that it is always on the large inner display. There are two main sections separated by apipe characters.
You can see icons for the last two apps on the right of the pipe. A quick tap will swap between them, and is a quicker way to use three full-screen apps in one go.
The taskbar is my favorite new software addition to the phone and makes it a true multitasking beast.
There is a mirror on the left side of the pipe. On the left and right sides of my folders are Edge and the Phone app. To get a list of every app installed on the phone, I can always tap the app drawer on the left side of the screen.
It takes only two taps to get to any app on the phone, and that is amazing for a power user.
The Fold 4 and Flip 4 are the first phones to ship with the foldable-centric Android 12L.
The bottom half of the display on the flip 4 and fold 4 were made to work like a trackpad. When an app is in Flex Mode, the phone is not completely folded, but it is not completely unfolded.
I couldn't find much use for this feature.
Much of the enhanced multitasking is due to the fact that the Z Fold 4 is the first phone to ship with a new version of the operating system. The taskbar is not a feature specific to the company. For now, this is the only place you can find it.
A new OS with enhanced capabilities for foldables and large screens means that there are a few quirks that need to be fixed. While apps seem to scale better when folding and unfolding the phone than they did before, I ran across a number of bugs that were very clearly bugs.
The keyboard got stuck behind the notification shade when I tried to use the quick reply function. Sometimes the taskbar would have no apps on it. Either I had to close the app and reopen it or I had to return to the app and solve the problem.
I'm pretty sure I've run across half a dozen instances of oddUI errors. I don't think it's worth complaining about, but it's worth noting.
The first thing I did when I got the Z Fold 4 was compare it to the Fold 3. Shortly after, I published a review of the camera on the phone and noted how much it had been upgraded.
Some of the most important parts of the Fold 4 camera experience will be highlighted. If you want to see all the in-depth details, you need to check out the camera review.
Over the course of the past two weeks, I didn't find myself wishing I'd brought my phone with me. You will understand how big of a deal that statement is if you've ever listened to or read my other reviews.
The Fold 4 wasn't enough to complete the task. Compared to last year's phone, its camera was an excellent performer, and that's a triumph.
The only weakness I found with the phone was in bright light where the camera tends to overexpose shots. For the most part, any photo that sees this minor over exposure can be fixed in a photo editing app with a tap.
Among the biggest improvements is capturing motion, which has long been a problem for Samsung phones.
The biggest improvement is the ability to capture motion. The experience for people who own pets or have children will be one filled with lots of blurry photos, which is why I've written about it on many reviews.
A child or a pet can be captured by the Z Fold 4. It produces a clear picture that I didn't expect. The main sensor or the telephoto sensor is used. It's an impressive improvement.
The improvement in movement in just a few months compared to the S22 Ultra is significant.
The image is the first of three.
The image is from the central repository of the operating system.
The image is from the central repository of the operating system.
The image is from the central repository of the operating system.
The Fold 4's 3x optical telephoto camera doubles as a great macro lens which, for me, is preferable to a dedicated macro camera or even an ultra-wide camera that doubles as a macro lens, as you can get great, detailed up- close shots without actually having to use
The first image of two.
The image is from the central repository of the operating system.
The image is from the central repository of the operating system.
Space Zoom works incredibly well up to about 20x. Beyond that, results are very mixed but usually not great.
The telephoto camera now has 3x optical zoom. The fold 2 has 2x optical zoom. It's a newer, better sensor that uses "space zoom" to help deliver clear shots from far away.
You can shoot up to 10x away. The samples were taken at 10x zoom to prove the point.
The image is the first of four.
The image is from the central repository of the operating system.
The image is from the central repository of the operating system.
The image is from the central repository of the operating system.
The image is from the central repository of the operating system.
The space zoom works up to 20X. Results are usually not great beyond that. It's not likely you'll want to use these photos for more than illustrative purposes, even though the Fold 4 can zoom up to 30x.
The Statue of Liberty looked terrible from this distance. The shot of the butterfly was okay, but the object was closer to the lens than the statue was. There are a few shots at 30x zoom.
The first image of two.
The image is from the central repository of the operating system.
The image is from the central repository of the operating system.
Outside of China, there isn't much competition in the large foldables space. There are many excellent phones that offer better cameras or sleeker form factors that consumers can choose from.
The honor of having water-resistant foldable phones is retained by the company.
There is only one real competition in other countries. If you don't want to spend a lot of money on a Fold 4, the unlocked version of the Z Fold 3 is still a good option. You could get a second-hand Fold 3 for less if you upgrade to the Fold 4.
The flip 4 is a great alternative to the fold if you don't have enough space in your pocket. There are improvements to the camera and better battery life than the Flip 3, and it comes with the same software. There is nothing quite like having a big old screen that you can fit in a pocket.
If it's something you want to buy...
If you want to buy it, you should not.
There are a lot of reasons not to upgrade to the Z fold 4. The phone does it all, from taking photos and video to multitasking. The battery life and performance of the phone are better than ever before.
You would be foolish to ignore the lead thatSamsung has in the foldable space. Superb hardware that is a joy to use is not the only thing this means. It also means more mature software that works the way you would expect it to, and this year's iteration is more about making a formula than changing the rules.
It's still a lot of money and will make anyone think twice before giving it to someone. Thanks to the advent of the Fold series, it is now possible to replace a phone and a tablets with a single device.
It's clear that the device isn't for everyone. It's unlikely that most users will need a powerful, versatile device every day, but power users, gadget lovers, and productivity hounds will be happy with the software and hardware.
For most people, the flip 4 makes more sense, but for me and people like me, it's the best phone I've ever used.
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