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Introduction
The Galaxy Fold was the "one more thing" at Samsung's MWC event this year and what a thing it was! A smartphone with a massive foldable AMOLED screen, a second AMOLED on the outside for mundane tasks, a bunch of trendy cameras all over - these wrapped within a unique body with a sophisticated hinge. And being a first of its kind, the Galaxy Fold promised one thing - to show you the future if you are ready to pay the price - and a steep price it is.
The foldable handsets, once known as flip-phones or clamshells, have been around for years, though lately, they've been out of commission. Not anymore though. While Xiaomi and Motorola were experimenting with sliders Samsung has taken a different path, one that was charted way back in 2013 when the maker launched the one and done Galaxy Round with a flexible display. But while both LG and Samsung tried to play the flexible card, it wasn't the thing the users wanted. But if you can flex it, why not fold it, right?
Fast-forward five and a half years and we are holding the gadget we really wanted back in 2013 - a foldable smartphone. But the one and done curse may just be striking again, as by the time we finished this review Samsung had already recalled all Galaxy Fold units because of broken screens and postponed the launch for an unknown period of time.
The good news is Huawei Mate X is just around the corner and Samsung might be pressured to fix the Galaxy Fold. But the Galaxy Note7 fiasco was not so long ago and Samsung may decide not to risk another one and cuts its losses.
Anyway, whatever happens, we are here to give you a glimpse of what's coming or what could have been. Either way, the Galaxy Fold is an incredible piece of technology worthy of experiencing. Because it might be the next big thing, whether it goes on sale or not.
Samsung Galaxy Fold specs
- Body: Foldable, display folds inwards on itself. 160.9x62.9x15.5mm folded, 160.9x117.9x6.9 mm unfolded, 263g; Space Silver and Cosmos Black essential colors, Martian Green and Astro Blue with Gold or Dark Silver hinges.
- Display: Primary: Foldable 7.3" Dynamic AMOLED Infinity Flex Display, 1536x2152px, 4.2:3 aspect ratio, 362ppi. Secondary (cover): 4.6" Super AMOLED, 720x1680px, 21:9 aspect ratio, 399ppi.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 12MP, 1/2.55" sensor, f/1.5-2.4 aperture, 26mm equiv. focal length (77° FoV), dual pixel PDAF, OIS. Telephoto: 12MP, 1/3.6" sensor, f/2.4 aperture, 52mm equiv. focal length (45° FoV), PDAF, OIS. Ultra-wide: 16MP, f/2.2 aperture, 12mm equiv. focal length (123° FoV), fixed focus.
- Front camera: Main: 10MP, f/2.2 aperture, 25mm equiv. focal length (80° FoV), PDAF. Secondary (depth only): 8MP, f/2.2 aperture, 85° FoV, fixed focus lens.
- Cover camera: 10MP, f/2.2 aperture, 25mm equiv. focal length (80° FoV), PDAF.
- Video recording: Rear: up to 4K 2160p@60fps, EIS up to 2160p@30fps, slow-mo up to 1080p@240fps, super slow-mo 720p@960fps for up to 0.4s (12s playback at normal speed); HDR10+ recording. Front: up to 4K 2160p@30fps with EIS.
- OS/Software: Android 9.0 Pie, Samsung One UI.
- Chipset: Snapdragon 855 (7nm): octa-core CPU (1x2.8GHz & 3x2.4GHz Kryo Gold & 4x1.7GHz Kryo 485 Silver); Adreno 640 GPU.
- Memory: 12GB RAM, 512GB storage, no microSD card slot.
- Battery: 4,380mAh total, Li-Ion (sealed), 2-piece, 15W wired charging (Adaptive Fast charging, QuickCharge 2.0 compatible), 15W Fast Wireless Charging 2.0, Wireless PowerShare.
- Connectivity: Dual-SIM - one nano, one eSIM (where available); LTE-A, 6-Band carrier aggregation, Cat.18 (1.2Gbps/150Mbps); Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac/ax MU-MIMO; GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo; NFC; Bluetooth 5.0. USB Type-C (v3.1), no 3.5mm jack.
- Misc: Capacitive side-mounted fingerprint sensor, doubles as Bixby button; stereo speakers.
The Galaxy Fold employs every cutting-edge piece of technology available on a smartphone - the most current Snapdragon 855 chip, enhanced with 12GB of RAM, a half a terabyte of teh fastest flash storage there is, a triple camera on the back, a dual-camera on the inside, and even an extra autofocus selfie camera on the outside. There is also a large battery, a ton of connectivity options, stereo speakers, and whatnot.
The one thing the Galaxy Fold can't do is withstand water. But it would have been a second technology miracle to capsulate the phone against water.
But before we unfold the Galaxy Fold, and we promise the puns end here, let's see what's in its box.
Unboxing the Galaxy Fold
Surprise! We didn't need to unfold the new Galaxy as it ships unfolded in thin a box within its much bigger retail box. Indeed, the Fold arrives in one premium-looking package and there are many goodies inside.
For starters the box contains all the usual necessities - an 18W charger that hasn't been changed for years and a USB-C cable. There is also one very familiar female A to male C adapter that Samsung has been supplying within its boxes for a while.
The Galaxy Fold box doesn't contain a wired headset, but a wireless one - the new Galaxy Buds to be specific. They come within its own charging case, coupled with three types of rims for the earbuds. Those are the same buds to ship with the Galaxy S10 pre-orders, but they come as default with the Fold. And for €2000 - they better be!
But wait, there is more. There is a protective case with a carbon-like finish to keep your glass Fold safe. It's got a mild adhesive to stick it securely onto the phone, but you can easily remove it after it's been applied. Or don't use it at all - we found the case to fit very well without applying the adhesive.
Design
The foldable phone was a long time coming and the wait is finally over. Last February Samsung and Huawei introduced us to their foldable phones and now every other maker is probably racing to come up with an interpretation of their own. Today we have the device that sparked this revolution, at least on the grounds of being announced first, and that's the Galaxy Fold by Samsung.
We have already handled both the Fold and Mate X and the future is promising. Luckily for all early adopters out there - those two devices have different takes on what a foldable phone should be like. So, even within the first generation, the users can already choose what works better for them.
Samsung's interpretation of the term foldable is simpler - it has an inner 7.3" display that folds on itself. This way it's better protected against damage, but there is an overcomplicated hinge and then strong magnets to keep the thing folded - a few too many things that can potentially compromise long-term durability.
Then there is the Mate X by Huawei, which 8" notch-less display is of the outer kind - meaning it folds the other way around and is always exposed to scratches or worse. Its folding mechanism is simpler though making it less susceptible to failure in the future.
Now, back to the Galaxy Fold. The phone is kept closed thanks to springs and magnets - there are no last-century solutions like clasps or the like though nothing can replace the ribbon cables just yet and there is one connecting the two sides.
The magnets are placed around the longer sides of the Fold are pretty strong and thanks to those the whole thing closes with a remarkably satisfying 'clack'. Samsung promises it will take at least 200,000 hinge actuations before anything begins to deteriorate, which means the Fold will survive the plenty of times it is going to be used as a fidget toy and believe us - it is a remarkable fidget clicker despite its size.
The magnets indeed help to keep the Fold closed and make for that whole soul-tickling clack sound and all, but if you leave the Galaxy next to some tiny metal objects, they will stick on its sides. And the jury is still out if this is cool or not. But if you are with us on the fidget side of things, you already know the answer.
The folded Galaxy is a reasonably manageable device, and one you can easily stick in a jeans pocket.
Of course, it's not compact - on the contrary, it's tick as a small brick or as two S10+ phones. At 263g it's not light either, yet it doesn't come off as exceptionally heavy.
In its folded state, the Galaxy Fold is well within a single-handed usage territory. The 4.6-inch display is a throwback to simpler times - it was before phablets went so mainstream that we forgot there was a specific name for this category. You can easily pull out the Fold and make a phone call or take a quick selfie all while carrying a bag of groceries in the other hand.
The cover screen is a 4.6" Super AMOLED one, with trendily rounded corners. Above it is an earpiece and a 10MP selfie snapper with dual-pixel autofocus. In addition to quick calls and messages, this screen is also good for a viewfinder when you are in a hurry and you don't want to unfold the whole thing.
And the Fold indeed has an impressive camera setup on the back. It's the same configuration Samsung used on the Galaxy S10+ - a 12MP main snapper, a 12MP telephoto one with 2x zoom, and a 16MP ultra-wide-angle cam.
Unfortunately, the setup is humping a bit, which makes the whole Fold a bit unstable when left on a flat surface unfolded. But this isn't what's bothering. It's that sometimes this hump stops the Fold from fully unfolding and thus leaves a small bump in the middle of the inner display. Which is not that pleasant considering price, premium status, and all.
Samsung Galaxy Fold is full of gaps
Then there's another irksome aspect of the Galaxy Fold - when it's folded, a gap remains between the two pieces. You can't just fold in half like a piece of paper - we take it Samsung went for the minimum radius that was technologically feasible.
The Fold has slightly different controls from all other Galaxies. There's no under display fingerprint reader on this one like there is on the S10 and S10e. Instead, it's a conventional capacitive sensor on the right (non-hinge) side, similar to the one on the Galaxy S10e. It also doubles as a Bixby button and we're certain that will lead to unintentional Bixby launches and it will require getting used to.
Samsung Galaxy Fold
Unfolding the Fold presents you with the whole 7.3 inches of Dynamic AMOLED display goodness. Effectively, the area showing content is in a 4:3 ratio but there is also a status bar up top to account for the additional 100-odd pixels extra height beyond the customary 2,048x1,536px.
The status bar is off to the left side, with a notch that holds the two selfie cameras eating into it in the top right corner. It's one of the biggest notches around, there's no denying that, and it is a bit of an eyesore.
The notch holds the Galaxy S10+ dual-cam selfie setup - one is a 10MP dual-pixel AF snapper, and the other one is an 8MP depth sensor. But if you thought of that as an eyesore, then brace yourself for some even worse news.
There's also this vertical crease in the middle where the display folds in half. It's just there, always. It's particularly visible on lighter backgrounds or on dark ones with light reflecting directly off of it, and the only time it disappears visually is when you hit the blind spot when looking upon the screen at sharp 90-degrees.
This is far from ideal, obviously, and all the developments Samsung's made in its display technology to get to this point aren't quite enough to make a foldable screen that opens up fully flat. The good thing is your brain is very likely to actually learn to ignore it and look past it. That, of course, depends on just how big of a perfectionist you are about the displays in your life - moderately sane folks will probably be fine with it.
You can leave the Fold folded halfway or so and its screen will be fully operational, if you for some reasons have wondered about that.
And the screen is of the same quality as any other recent AMOLED by Samsung. It's as big as an iPad Mini's display, sans the bezels of course.
And having a tablet-sized screen allows for all tablet benefits - fitting more content on the screen, enjoying games better, insane multi-tasking, and more.
The Galaxy Fold body is reasonably built of glass and metal. The outer shell is made of glass pieces, probably Gorilla Glass, while the frame is all metal.
Samsung Galaxy Fold
The inner display is covered with some sort of a protector and the whole thing feels quite soft. That's expectable though, as the screen is foldable, and it should be soft.
Unfortunately, this protective folio turned out to be the one to stay in the way of the Galaxy Fold launch and Samsung has effectively postponed the premiere until it finishes assessing the situation. Apparently, this is indeed a screen protector, but upon removal it destroys the soft OLED panel underneath. Samsung did not warn about this in any manner and we can understand why some reviewers decided to peel it off. An obvious warning is indeed required within the retail box.
But the issues didn't end with the protector. Some hinges failed while using the phone and ruined the screen. Others turned up not to be so air-tight and allowed for small particles to enter underneath the screen rather easily and make for some nasty pimple-like bulges.
All of these problems combined led Samsung to recall all review units for further inspection. The company claims it has redesigned the hinge many times until it decided on the one we saw. The others before that weren't that safe for the screen. Well, apparently this one isn't either.
We don't know how things will turn out, but we hope those few reportedly failed reviewers' units to be because of pre-production hiccups and not because of a bad design - a worst case scenario that will discontinue this Fold for good.
Anyway, if the Fold makes it to the market, you will enjoy something truly unique. First, you will have to get used to the size and its fold/unfold routine, but let's not forget this is a folded tablet turned into a smartphone or the other way around, but it's not just a phone. Just a phone is the Galaxy S10, a versatile tablet-phone is what the Fold is.
So, the Galaxy Fold is pretty unique. Its build isn't the safest or the most secure, but it just can't be at this stage of its technology. The Fold could be your daily driver, but you shouldn't bring it on the beach or the pool - there is a big change you'd ruin it there.
Handling it starts feeling natural after a few days of folding and unfolding and you will eventually get the natural with its multi-tasking capabilities. Plus, that HDR10+ AMOLED is a feast for the eyes and Netflix, HBO, Amazon, YouTube and the likes offer endless entertainment.
Even with all the oddities and concerns, the Fold seems like an incredible piece of technology to own. It's a tablet and it's a smartphone all at the same time.
Two Super AMOLEDs but only one matters
The Galaxy Fold has two separate displays - a foldable 7.3" Dynamic Super AMOLED and an ordinary 4.6" cover (front) Super AMOLED. While the screens are very different, they have one thing in common - both are OLEDs with underlying Dimond PenTile matrices.
The 7.3" foldable AMOLED is of 2,152 x 1,536 pixels resolution or 362ppi. This isn't a common resolution, and neither is the aspect of 4.2:3, though once the whole top row disappears in order to hide the notch, then you get the pretty common 4:3 aspect ratio and a lot of apps support it.
The Dynamic moniker before the usual Super AMOLED branding stands for the new HDR10+ capabilities added by Samsung to its latest generation of OLEDs. The first phones to have those so-called Dynamic screens were the S10 trio and now the Fold is following suit.
We measured 370nits of maximum brightness on our Fold screen when handling the slider manually. Letting the Auto take over, the phone is capable of cranking that up to 560 nits. That's not close to the 800 nits we measured on the S10 phones, but they don't have foldable screens, do they?
The innovative screen has a special protective folio, which probably contributed to the small light leakage we measured on pitch black. Unfortunately, this layer must not be peeled off as it will be the screens undoing. Other reviewers have already tried that, and this indeed let to the destruction of the soft OLED panel underneath. If Samsung intents to keep the foldable display this way even after the changes that may or may not come after the recall, it must warn the users in an appropriate manner.
As for the cover screen, it's 4.6" in diagonal with rounded corners and of 1,680 x 720 px resolution (399ppi). It has a 21:9 aspect ratio but due to the size, it won't do much for multimedia.
The cover screen has no light leakage when displaying blacks. The maximum brightness in manual mode is 380 nits, while when it's left on Auto, it can go as far as 620 nits.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | ||
| 0.002 | 370 | 185000 | |
| 0.006 | 557 | 92833 | |
| 0 | 380 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 623 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 385 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 793 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 531 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 660 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 653 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 428 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 620 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 391 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 655 | ||
| 0 | 571 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 605 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 459 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 655 | ∞ | |
Both screens demonstrated impressive minimum brightness levels - 1.6nits for the foldable and 1.9nits for the cover screen.
The handling of colors that's been more or less unchanged for generations of Galaxies has been overhauled. The menu now gives you two settings - Vivid and the default Natural. Natural is tuned for the sRGB color space where we measured an average DeltaE of 2.9 and a maximum of 4.3. The whites remain accurate to within a DeltaE of 2.5, which is excellent.
The Vivid mode comes with a bit punchier output which in most cases is accurate to the DCI-P3 color space with an average DeltaE of 3.9. Samsung claims when in Vivid mode the screen will display any content as accurate as possible to the content's intended color space.
When in Vivid mode, you get a slider for adjusting the color temperature in a five-step range from cool to warm, with the default in between. There is an additional set of RGB sliders under the advanced button below.
The cover screen has identical options and similar color presentation and accuracy.
Finally, we mentioned that the foldable screen is HDR10+ capable with the "+" being the key thing here. Think of it like this - even an HDR panel may end up having a narrower dynamic range than you may want within a single movie. HDR10 content comes with static metadata that specifies how to allocate that available dynamic range from the moment you start the playback. If your display's dynamic range is 16 arbitrary units, and your movie spans 20 units, you'd lose 4 when playing back because the dynamic range was preallocated for the best average for this movie. Imagine that you could allocate on the fly the 16 units of DR based on the dynamic range needed to display each individual frame instead of setting it in the beginning. That's roughly what the '+' in HDR10+ does.
There's the tiny caveat that as of now, HDR10+ content is realistically only available on Amazon Prime Video, and devices that support it are far and few between.
Battery life
The Galaxy Fold has a 4,380mAh power pack inside, split in two and there is a piece in each half of the phone. The phone supports 15W wired and 15W wireless charging.
In our testing the Galaxy Fold clocked 10 and a half hours in Wi-Fi web browsing and 17 hours of looping videos in airplane mode. We measured 37 and a half hours of 3G voice calls too. All of that combined with a bit higher than expected standby consumption resulted in an overall Endurance rating of 90 hours.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSer App. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Samsung Galaxy Fold for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Filling up that battery once it's been depleted happens with Samsung's Adaptive Fast Charger that's been around unchanged since the Galaxy S5, imagine that. It's rated at 9V/1.67A and 5V/2A, so 15W is the maximum it'll output. It charges the Fold from flat to full in 1:50h with the battery indicator showing 37% at the half-hour mark - so not really all that bad, especially considering the big battery.
Stereo speakers
The Galaxy Fold has a stereo speaker setup and thanks to its form factor - it has the real thing - two independent and equally loud speakers on its shorter sides. When holding the phone in landscape, each speaker handles the respective channel, while in portrait they're assigned the channel they had last time they were in landscape.
In our three-pronged test, the Galaxy Fold posted an 'Excellent' score for speaker loudness. It's also a joy to listen to, though it could have benefitted from a little bit richer output within the high notes.
Finally, if you hold the phone in landscape and the speakers are close to your palms, you would create improvised chambers, and this will noticeably amplify the sound. We don't know if their placement was intentional for exactly this type of use, but it's brilliant, nevertheless.
| Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Ringing |
Overall score | |
| 68.9 | 71.8 | 81.1 | Very Good | |
| 70.1 | 74.2 | 81.6 | Very Good | |
| 71.2 | 74.9 | 80.2 | Very Good | |
| 70.5 | 74.0 | 84.7 | Excellent | |
| 74.4 | 74.2 | 83.6 | Excellent | |
| 70.7 | 73.1 | 90.9 | Excellent | |
| 70.9 | 73.8 | 90.9 | Excellent | |
| 71.4 | 73.5 | 91.1 | Excellent |
Audio quality
The Galaxy Fold is the first Samsung flagship to NOT include a 3.5mm audio port. Unfortunately, the maker isn't providing a USB-C to 3.5mm audio adapter in the retail package, which means that we were unable to perform our audio quality test. We could have used an adapter from a Huawei or Xiaomi phone, but since those adapters contain a built-in DAC, the output would be representative of the adapter rather than the new Galaxy Fold so we only do audio output testing if an adapter is provided by the manufacturer.
Active adapters such as this one do their own processing, so if you get a different adapter, you won't get the same kind of output, and our findings wouldn't be relevant to you.
Luckily, Samsung is bundling the wireless Galaxy Buds with the Fold, so we can't really complain as much.
Android Pie and One UI retrofitted for the Fold
For starters, the Samsung Galaxy Fold boots Android Pie, but you won't be seeing much of its original skin, if any. The Fold has the company's latest proprietary launcher called One UI - the one on the S10 and updated S9 series, but for the Fold it has been enhanced in numerous ways.
Don't be alarmed, though. It's as any other Android launcher we've met. It's just that the Fold is an entirely new breed of a device, and the software needed some tweaks for a more meaningful user experience. Samsung appears to have done a lot of things right in this respect from the very start.
Samsung's Always-On Display has been one of our favorites, it's turned on by default and available on both screens though we doubt you will use it on the large display. It can also be not-so-always-on - now you can have it displayed only when you double tap on the screen, in addition to being able to setup a daily schedule as before. You can, of course, you know, keep it always on. You can choose different clock styles and font colors, (auto) brightness, and what notifications to be displayed.
Always On Display
The lockscreen is the same for both cover and tablet displays, excluding the wallpapers that is. And you can unlock the phone via a fingerprint or a face. The fingerprint scanner is always on, blazing fast and with excellent recognition accuracy. The Face Unlock on the other hand is less secure as it's based on the selfie snappers alone. You can prioritize one before the another.
Lockscreens
You do get entirely separate homescreen layouts for the cover screen and the tablet, complete with different wallpapers. That way you can keep your dialer on the outside and don't have it in the way of more useful apps on the 7.3-inch screen.
Speaking of dialer, if you're on a phone call with the phone folded, and decide to unfold it, it's smart enough to switch to speakerphone - we appreciate Samsung's subtle way of saying 'don't put a tablet to your ear'.
Homescreen (cover) • App drawer (cover) • Homescreen (tablet) • App drawer (tablet)
The fold/unfold action makes for a rather smooth transition between the front and rear screens too. Currently, it works on Samsung's native apps and the Google suite, but it'll switch almost instantaneously, and it'll even take you to the same position on the page where you had scrolled to on the other display. But note that this works only from cover to tablet and not the other way around. If you fold the screen, then everything is paused, and the phone goes to locked state.
The whole One UI looks are translated to the Galaxy Fold. The new notification shade with toggles and the refreshed task switcher are onboard, too. In fact, the app switcher is probably the one place you will need the most.
In the tablet state you get multi-window multitasking and we're talking multi-window. While in an app, you can swipe in from the right to pull a drawer of compatible apps. You start with a trivial side-by-side split, but you can expand that to one big window with two small ones.
The sidebar • Multi-window in portrait mode
Multi window also works in landscape, where you'd even have more useful aspect ratios for your apps.
The side-bar • Side-by-side • Three windows
You can also pile several pop-up windows on top. Perhaps a bit overkill if taken to the extreme, but the option is there.
Available pop-up apps • Available pop-up apps • Piling pop-up apps
You can change the transparency and window size for each pop-up app. You can minimize them and then bring them back when needed. All pop-up apps appear in the task manager but they are also stacked in a small floating window as icons, which is the thing that will help you control or close those.
Pop-up apps in task manager • The pop-up apps floating bar • Transparency • Minimized app
If you have filled the screen as we did and decide to close the Galaxy Fold - all of the apps would simply pause and the phone gets locked. If you unlock the cover screen - it will be empty. If you open the Fold you will also end up on the homescreen - but you will notice a small white marker on the right side. Pull it and it will help you restore all previously opened apps in multi-window and floating mode.
Restoring multi-tasking apps
Typing is easy on the Galaxy Fold. Well, not so easy on the cover screen, but we can't imagine anyone in right mind doing this to oneself. So, there are three typing modes on the Fold - a regular keyboard, a split-screen keyboard, and even a floating keyboard. You can choose the size of the virtual keys, too.
Keyboard (cover) • Portrait keyboard • Split keyboard • Floating portrait keyboard
And get the same keyboards in landscape view, too.
Landscape keyboard • Split keyboard • Floating Landscape keyboard
As before, Samsung's own take on the custom Android is full of features and pre-installed apps. We are overwhelmed, and it's hard to go over every one of them. And besides, there are plenty of carry-overs from the previous software versions. Some users may be annoyed with the heavy customization and set of pre-installed apps, especially if you are coming from a vanilla Android.
For multimedia you have the new Gallery app by Samsung for browsing photos and videos, while Play Music handles well, your music. There is also a proprietary My Files file manager app, Samsung Health app, Bixby assistant, among others.
Gallery • Gallery • Subway Surfers • Subway Surfers
All default apps support native Continuity and they transition smoothly from cover to tablet screen.
But apps that don't support the Continuity feature (where you'll open an app on the smaller screen and then unfold the phone to the larger one) will display huge black bars on either side of the app window once you unfold. We hope the most popular apps will be updated soon to fix that.
Everything else is One UI through and through. There is the usual notification shade, Google's Digital Wellbeing services are here, there are even Samsung's Game Tools for uninterrupted gaming, among many others.
Gaming Tools • Game Tools • Web browser • Dialer
And if you combed through our screenshots, you've probably noticed that Night Mode is available on the Fold.
Some apps open in a default landscape orientation which prevents you from muffling your speakers - if you launch a landscape game and you're holding the Fold wrong side up, it'll simply display upside down so you'd be prompted to flip it around. To be fair, we've seen it on some Android tablets and there's a built-in provision for it in the OS, but it's nice that Samsung did choose to implement it.
One missed opportunity, however, is that when you're taking a photo with the rear camera in the unfolded state there's no viewfinder displayed on the cover screen and your subject can't see the framing. The Mate X does have a similar feature only there it works in the closed state due to the innie-outie differences. This one, in particular, could potentially be added later in software if there are people vocal enough wanting it. That is of course if the Galaxy Fold eventually makes it to the shelves.
Performance and benchmarks
Unlike the S10 phones, the Samsung Galaxy Fold has only one variant and it has Qualcomm's top-shelf Snapdragon 855 chipset. It's based on the 7nm node from TSMC and incorporates an octa-core CPU that consists of eight big Kryo 485 cores that are clocked differently to optimize performance and efficiency. The most powerful core is clocked at the whopping 2.84 GHz then there are three toned-down cores clocked at 2.42 GHz and the final cluster of 4x Kryo 485 cores tick at 1.79 GHz and are used for the least demanding tasks. This unusual processor architecture makes use of ARM's DynamIQ architecture that bundles different cores with different clocks work seamlessly in a single package. The GPU is Adreno 640 and it's Qualcomm's top of the line graphics processor that can handle pretty much everything you throw at it.
The Galaxy Fold, being expensive, unique, and again expensive, makes up for that price tag not only with screen, but RAM and storage, too. The Fold packs the whooping 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. There is no microSD slot on the Fold, though.
The Galaxy Fold is Samsung's first smartphone to use the latest UFC 3.0 storage - the S10 series rely on UFC 2.1 When it comes to performance, Samsung says that its 512 GB UFS 3.0 embedded flash drive features a sequential read speed of up to 2100 MB/s, a sequential write speed up to 410 MB/s, and 68,000/63,000 read/write IOPS. When compared to SATA SSDs, the 512 GB UFS 3.0 device offers four times higher sequential reads but is slightly slower as far as write and random performance numbers are concerned.
These are all theoretical numbers, of course, so we did run AndroBench to see how the Fold storage fares against the S10 one.
The Galaxy Fold posted amazing numbers in both Sequential Read and Sequential Write. In Read it did 1436 MB/s vs 789 MB/s on the S10+. In Write test
Moving on to Random Read and Random Write. In read the Fold posted 155 MB/s vs 138 MB/s for the S10+. In Write mode the Fold did 31 MB/s vs 25 MB/s for the S10+.
Obviously, the nеw UFC 3.0 storage matters, and it surely adds even more value to the Galaxy Fold.
We ran our traditional benchmark routine and the Snapdragon 855 chip inside the Galaxy Fold did as expected - read on par with other S855 devices such as the LG G8.
The latest Qualcomm processor is indeed the best one available on any Android today and only Samsung's latest Exynos is a match for it.
GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone XS Max
11432 - Samsung Galaxy Fold
11028 - LG G8 ThinQ
10735 - Samsung Galaxy S10+
10387 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
10014 - Samsung Galaxy Note9
9026
GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone XS Max
4777 - Samsung Galaxy S10+
4522 - Samsung Galaxy Note9
3642 - Samsung Galaxy Fold
3512 - LG G8 ThinQ
3419 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
3323
The Adreno 640 is e beast, too, and it performs even better than Samsung's Mali choice for the latest Exynos. Let's say the Fold is perfectly equipped to handle any available cutting-edge game at the time of writing and probably the ones to launch in the next couple of years.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone XS Max
60 - Samsung Galaxy Fold
52 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
50 - Samsung Galaxy S10+
37 - LG G8 ThinQ
33 - Samsung Galaxy Note9
25
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone XS Max
47 - Samsung Galaxy Fold
32 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
29 - Samsung Galaxy S10+
23 - LG G8 ThinQ
20 - Samsung Galaxy Note9
15
3DMark SSE 3.1 Unlimited
Higher is better
- Samsung Galaxy Fold
6135 - LG G8 ThinQ
6017 - Samsung Galaxy S10+
4632 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
4315 - Samsung Galaxy Note9
3501
Finally, the compound AnTuTu test just confirms the Galaxy Fold features the right hardware and for its price tag you are getting indeed the best the Android market has to offer.
AnTuTu 7
Higher is better
- Samsung Galaxy Fold
363016 - Apple iPhone XS Max
353210 - Samsung Galaxy S10+
333736 - LG G8 ThinQ
331537 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
316156 - Samsung Galaxy Note9
248823
So, as far as performance is concerned, the Galaxy Fold behaves flawlessly. It packs every bleeding-edge piece of hardware there is right now - not that anyone expected anything less, of course. It may get a bit warm here and there, but nothing worrisome.
Same cameras as on Galaxy S10+, plus one extra
Nobody will be buying the Galaxy Fold for its camera prowess, and yet it's among the best equipped mobile devices for shooting photos and videos on the go. The cameras of the Galaxy Fold are almost entirely identical to those on the S10+ save for the slightly dimmer lenses on the two 10MP selfie shooters.
Both the rear camera and the inside selfie shooter benefit from the larger viewfinder that the 7.3-inch display provides, though the flipside of this is that you're getting dangerously close to the ultimate faux pas of taking photos with an actual tablet. If you need to be more discreet, you can always take pictures with the same rear cameras in the phone's folded state, of course, albeit framing on a smaller 4.6-inch display.
The triple camera at the back is virtually identical to Galaxy S10+ one - a 12MP primary shooter, a 12MP telephoto snapper, and a 16MP ultra-wide one.
The primary sensor has 1.4µm pixels, OIS, and dual pixel phase detect autofocus. It's got a dual aperture lens in front which can switch between f/1.5 to capture more light in dark scenarios and f/2.4 for improved sharpness in good light.
The telephoto snapper uses a 12MP sensor behind an f/2.4 lens with 1.0µm pixels, OIS and regular phase-detection autofocus.
Finally, the 16MP ultra-wide-angle cam is behind an f/2.2 lens but there is no autofocus here.
The Galaxy Fold has three selfie cameras - two above the big display and one above the cover display. The 10MP snapper from the Galaxy S10 and S10+ is on both sides of the Fold, but behind a darker f/2.2 lens. On the inside, there is another 8MP depth detection module for better Live focus portrait selfies. Note that Live focus is available with both selfie snappers, the inner one makes them more accurate though.
On the software side of things, the camera app is absolutely the same as on the S10 series. Samsung's expanded the range of scenes its Scene Optimizer will recognize and optimize for by 10 for a total of 30. Auto HDR is available, too.
Camera app
That would be the tree designation is here to stay - '3 trees' means ultra wide-angle cam, '2 trees' denote the regular camera, and '1 tree' means the telephoto. Pinch to zoom is also available and it switches seamlessly between the three cams.
Basic operation is straightforward with side swipes for cycling through modes and an up/down action for toggling between the rear and front cameras. You can add, remove and rearrange the modes in settings. The HDR (Rich tone) setting is not only in the menu but it's even more convoluted as it has an on/off toggle, and then when it's on, you can choose whether to kick in automatically or be always on. This one we keep in auto.
For the Live focus mode Samsung has switched to using the primary camera for capturing the photo and the telephoto for gathering depth data, as opposed to the other way around.
Image quality
The photos from the main 12MP shooter are excellent - there is a great amount of detail and overall a clean, noise-free image. Colors are lively but not over the top, and dynamic range is excellent. The photos are one bit sharper than what we usually got with the S10 phones, but not over-sharpened though.
Samsung Galaxy Fold 12MP camera samples
The telephoto camera captures images with very similar quality to ones from the main cam in broad daylight.
Samsung Galaxy Fold 12MP telephoto camera samples
The images we took with the 16MP ultra-wide camera are pretty great for their class. They can't be a match for the regular or telephoto images in terms of pixel quality, of course, but for their exaggerated perspective purposes - you'd be very pleased.
At fit to screen magnifications the images look pretty nice with pleasing colors and very good dynamic range as far as these types of cameras go - due to the extreme coverage you're inevitably going to get a wider margin between the lightest and the darkest area in the frame, and the HDR algorithms can only do so much.
Samsung Galaxy Fold 16MP ultra-wide-angle camera samples
In low light, the main camera captures very good images with well-defined detail and little noise. Dynamic range is also excellent.
Main camera, 12MP low-light samples
The Fold, just like the S10+, is more inclined to use its telephoto camera for '2x' zoomed in shots (second and third photo) - previous models straight up defaulted to a digitally zoomed in shot from the primary cam. Even so, it still resorts to the main module under a certain light threshold. However, neither approach produces stunning results, and telephoto shots are just usable, but little more.
Telephoto camera, 12MP low-light samples
The low-light shots from the ultra-wide camera are quite good, although not as good as the regular ones. Still, for their purpose - those will do pretty fine.
Ultra wide camera, 16MP low-light samples
And here you can see how the Galaxy Fold compares against other snappers in our extensive pixel-peeking database.
Samsung Galaxy Fold vs. Galaxy S10+ vs. iPhone XS Max in our Photo compare tool
Live focus
The Galaxy Fold may be taking the portraits with the main cam as opposed to the telephoto, but we're really happy with the shots we're getting out of it. The subject/background separation is excellent, faces are nicely detailed and skin tones are just right. Naturally, your mileage will vary with the complexity of the subject and its relation to the background, but even unruly-hair-guy is satisfied.
And again, no, you can't use both screens simultaneously when shooting portraits, which is a big missed opportunity.
Galaxy Fold 12MP portrait shots
Various blur effects are available, too.
Different portrait effects
Selfies
The Galaxy Fold has the new 10MP selfie camera and an 8MP auxiliary unit for gathering depth data. That second module is what sets inner selfie camera from the outer one.
In good light, the Fold captures awesome selfies - sharp and highly-detailed. In photo mode the colors come out a bit warmer and more contrasty than in portrait mode - even with all beautification options turned off, and we're attributing that to the HDR processing which is off when in Live focus. It's not necessarily a bad thing, we're just saying that photos taken in the two modes will have a slightly different look, if HDR kicks in in Photo mode.
Selfies from the inner camera
The outer selfie camera has the same photo quality as the inner one, though its portrait shots are less accurate since it lacks a depth sensor.
Selfies from the outer camera
You can capture 4K videos with either selfie camera, and the quality is great. You can even enable electronic stabilization and it works excellent.
Video recording
The Galaxy Fold is a highly-capable video camera that offers 2160p video at 60fps and 30fps, HDR10+ capture, and 960fps slow motion recording at 720p. Of course, there's also 1080p at 30fps and 60fps as well.
With the H.264 codec, the 4K@60fps videos are captured at 72Mbps bitrate, the 4K@30fps - 48Mbps, the 1080p@60fps - 28Mbps, and the 1080p@30fps - 17Mbps. H.265 is also available, bringing those numbers down. HDR10+ footage is in H.265 only and the bitrate is 54Mbps. The audio is always recorded in stereo at 256Kbps bitrate.
There's electronic stabilization available in all modes except 2160p/60fps. That's not all though - there is also a Super Steady mode for extra-bumpy occasions. Aiming to replace your GoPro, it uses the ultra-wide camera, which means no autofocus. It's also only available in 1080p resolution due to the processing power requirements and the lack of many extra pixels outside of the 2160p frame for the stabilization to crop in from. Those caveats aside, the results are mightily impressive.
The regular stabilization is already very good and it has you covered when more detailed footage (or, you know, autofocus) is required. It smooths out shake nicely and we didn't observe any jello effect or issues when panning.
Otherwise video quality is very good. 4K footage from the main cam is detailed and contrasty, with spot-on color reproduction. There's virtually no difference between 30fps and 60fps clips in terms of detail, which is quite a feat.
1080p videos are similarly great and aside from the obvious drop in resolution (and consequently detail) when compared to 4K, they exhibit the same qualities.
The telephoto camera's output is nearly as good in 2160p@30fps as the main one, but going to 60fps brings a noticeable degradation in quality - it seems the videos were shot with the main camera, digitally zoomed and then cropped. And, surprise-surprise, the same applies to 1080p recording, only 1080p@60fps comes with an extra crop compared to 1080p@30fps.
There are no such issues with the ultra wide camera - it simply doesn't have 60fps modes. The 30fps ones are excellent though, provided your subject are far enough to be in focus. Because, you know - fixed focus lens, and not fixed up close.
Finally, you can use our Video Compare Tool to see how the Galaxy Fold stacks against others when it comes to video capture.
2160p: Samsung Galaxy Fold against the Galaxy S10+ and the iPhone XS Max in our Video compare tool
Final Thoughts
Samsung Galaxy Fold is truly a unique device, there are no two words about it. The moment we laid our hands on it, folded that screen, and began the initial setup - we were in awe. It's so rare for us - the reviewers - to be jaw-droppingly impressed nowadays by something. In the era of mundane designs and big screens, the closest thing we get to innovation is a slider. Or an ugly pop-up appendix.
And the Galaxy Fold changed that. It's one of kind, for now, and offers something unseen - a foldable tablet-sized screen of flagship-grade quality at that. It has a notch, who cares. It's foldable, it works, it's...did we say foldable!? You get the idea.
When folded the Galaxy Fold is very reminiscent to one probably obscure to many device - the LG BL40 Chocolate - the first phone with a 21:9 display. But Pepperidge Farm remembers!
Anyway, it's one of the most unique devices around and that alone is the key selling point of the Fold. We are sure that most of the people who get it will do it for the opportunity to experience history in the making rather than the sum of its internals.
But there will be enough users to pay really close attention to the Galaxy Fold details - the people that value those $2000 and expect the Moon, the stars, and more. And a lot of them may be disappointed in the end, because the Galaxy Fold is not only far from perfection, but it's not even close to today's flagship standards.
After a couple of days playing with this new toy the joyful sighs will pass and the golden dust will eventually settle down. The Galaxy Fold is a concept device first and foremost. It has all the flaws you can expect from a first generation of any technology, and if you are not ready to accept them, your journey into the future cannot start with the first Fold.
Then, you could have thought like many others that the Galaxy Fold is a smartphone. It is not. It's more of an Android tablet that can be folded and thus carried in your pocket. But the Galaxy Fold isn't there. It is one very fragile device, super susceptible to dust and other particles which may enter the space under the foldable screen and annoy you forever.
You can't take the Fold everywhere - not in the rain or snow, not on the beach, let alone in the sea/pool, and you probably won't let any kids near it. So, if you want to be safe - you will need to have an extra phone for these occasions. Yes, having a Galaxy Fold means having a backup device and carry both with you occasionally.
Before this review was ready Samsung had already recalled all review units for further investigation of reported screen damage. This is a hint of what it means to be an early adopter of such a futuristic tech - invest a lot of money and accept the worse may happen.
Yet, even despite the potential issues, we are already missing the Fold. Can we have it back, Samsung? Please? Pretty please?
The Alternative
The only competition the Galaxy Fold is facing on the market is the Huawei Mate X, of course. It has an even bigger OLED display - it's notch-free, and it folds the other way round which leaves its entire surface exposed. While this makes it less secure, it allows for a much simpler hinge and there is no visible gap in-between the folded panels.
The Mate X is equally fast, it has the trio of cameras to impress, there is a larger battery with 55W fast charging, and you can even expand its memory via an NM card.
Huawei Mate X
But what matters is that it shows a different type of folding screen and we are yet to see which solution will prevail if any.
The Mate X is expected in June, probably when the Fold will launch as well, but it will cost more than the Galaxy. Though we are already in the luxury territory, where price tags don't really matter. Not in the way the mainstream user is used to, anyway.
The Verdict
It's rather easy with the Fold - if you want to own the next big thing on the mobile market in spite of its hefty price, many caveats, and potential issues lurking within - you either buy the Galaxy Fold or the Mate X. It's up to you to decide which folding form factor you like better.
The Fold is like a prototype device you can buy a few months (or years) before its completely ready and it will show you a glimpse of the future. Perfect it is not. But a perfect show off it truly is.
Pros
- Futuristic design, great fidget toy
- Dependable battery life
- The fastest and richest hardware package around, 12GB RAM, 512GB UFC 3.0 storage
- Excellent camera for both photos and videos
- Lovely One UI with great multi-tasking capabilities
Cons
- It feels like a concept device, and it's not a phone but a tablet-phone
- Expensive
- Not available yet (and it may never will)
- Not water or dust proof and particles may get under the screen
- The screen crease is hard to stop noticing
- No audio jack, no microSD
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