Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G review

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Introduction

We could have sworn that Samsung's original plunge into foldable displays was not that long ago. It definitely feels that way. Yet, here we are with the latest and greatest Z Fold3 - a third-generation product, or perhaps even fourth, depending on how you count the initial failed Fold launch back in the day. Foldables are maturing and already a staple, of sorts, within Samsung's lineup. In fact, the Korean giant has now been consistently delivering Fold devices on a yearly schedule, and this year, it came at the expense of the new Galaxy Note lineup. Oh, how the tables have turned.

In fact, the Z Fold3 is arguably closer to a Note than ever. One of its major highlights being S Pen support. A first with a foldable display and quite the technical challenge to pull off. Speaking of firsts and technical challenges, the Z Fold3 is also the first foldable to sport an official ingress protection rating. Nothing too ambitious, just IPX8, but quite the engineering challenge to pull-off, as well.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G specs at a glance:

• Body: 158.2x128.1x6.4mm, 271g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass Victus) (folded), plastic front (unfolded), glass back (Gorilla Glass Victus), aluminum frame; IPX8 water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 mins), Stylus support.
• Display: Foldable: 7.60" Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1200 nits (peak), 1768x2208px resolution, 11.24:9 aspect ratio, 374ppi; Cover display: Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, 6.2 inches, 832 x 2268 pixels, 25:9 ratio.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 5G (5 nm): Octa-core (1x2.84 GHz Kryo 680 & 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 680 & 4x1.80 GHz Kryo 680); Adreno 660.
• Memory: 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM; UFS 3.1.
• OS/Software: Android 11, One UI 3.1.1.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 12 MP, f/1.8, 26mm, 1/1.76", 1.8µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS; Telephoto: 12 MP, f/2.4, 52mm, 1/3.6", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 2x optical zoom; Ultra wide angle: 12 MP, f/2.2, 123-degree, 12mm, 1.12µm.
• Front camera: Under-display: 4 MP, f/1.8, 2.0µm, under display; Cover camera: Wide (main): 10 MP, f/2.2, 26mm, 1/3", 1.22µm.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@60fps, 1080p@60/240fps (gyro-EIS), 720p@960fps (gyro-EIS), HDR10+; Front camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS.
• Battery: 4400mAh; Fast charging 25W, Fast wireless charging 11W, Reverse wireless charging 4.5W.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted); NFC; Samsung DeX, Samsung Pay, Ultra Wideband (UWB) support.

The list of improvements on the Z Fold3 also includes an under-display selfie camera in place of the older punch-hole one. Another impressive engineering move, but one that has both its positives and negatives, which we will get into. The smaller external display is also slightly different this time around in terms of dimensions, but more importantly, it can now do 120Hz refreshing, just like the main folding panel.

There are, of course, other smaller differences between the older Z Fold2 and the Z Fold3 here and there, which we will do our best to highlight in the review. Things like a sturdier aluminum build on the new model. With all said and done, however, the Z Fold3 is not a monumental upgrade over its predecessor. It is very much an incremental one. Another fact that has its benefits and drawbacks.

Unboxing

Before we get to all that, let's start with the unboxing experience and accessories. No point beating about the bush here, Samsung has really skimped on the accessory package here. All you get inside the box is a relatively short USB Type-C to Type-C cable, a SIM ejector tool and some leaflets. That's all. No charger, no case, nothing.

And mind you, the Z Fold3 is by far the most expensive phone currently in Samsung's lineup. Sure, the ecological angle for not including a charger is valid. Even so, we feel like Samsung could have thrown in a case for this sort of money. It has with past Fold devices. In fact, the Z Fold2 unit we got even had a nice pair of Type-C headphones by AKG. The accessory bundle has really gone downhill.

At least there are some nice pre-order bonuses for the Z Fold3 on most markets. Make sure to check your local retailer, but most do seem to get an official case, S Pen Fold edition, that fits inside said case and a 25W wireless charger. Not a bad bundle.

As for the retail box itself, it definitely looks slick and premium. Nothing too fancy or exuberant in terms of materials, but a solid two-piece box, with a lot of padding on the inside, as one would expect.

Design, materials, ingress protection

Let's start with the overall look of the Z Fold3. It is quite similar, yet also different enough from its Z Fold2 predecessor. If you didn't know what to look for in things like the re-designed camera island, you would probably have a hard time telling the two apart at first glance. In terms of dimensions, the Z Fold3 is ever-so-slightly smaller than its predecessor in total volume. It measures 158.2 x 67.1 x 14.4-16 mm folded and 158.2 x 128.1 x 6.4 mm unfolded, compared to the Z Fold2's 159.2 x 128.2 x 6.9 mm and 159.2 x 68 x 13.8-16.8 mm, respectively. It is also lighter at 271 g, compared to the Z Fold2's 282 grams. Granted, this difference is hard to notice in real life, but still a commendable and successful shrink on Samsung's part.

Left: Galaxy Z Fold2; Right: Galaxy Z Fold3

The commendable part is that the reduced size did not come at the expense of screen size. The main display is still a 7.6-inch, Foldable Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel, with 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ support - same as on the Z Fold2 and with the exact same 1768 x 2208-pixel resolution too. However, there is the small, yet intriguing detail that there are pixels, even if with noticeably lower density, on top of the selfie camera.

Left: Galaxy Z Fold2; Right: Galaxy Z Fold3

If you are the type of person that doesn't appreciate a punch hole cutting into their content, that is arguably no longer an issue on the Z Fold3 and you could find yourself in a situation where you utilize more of the actual display, skipping a black bar to hide the punch hole. Granted, these gains are far from universally applicable but still present. We'll dig a bit more into this in the display section.

Left: Galaxy Z Fold2; Right: Galaxy Z Fold3

The outside "cover screen" display on the Z Fold3 is still being marketed as 6.2 inches, but is actually slightly bigger than the one on the Z Fold2. It also has a different aspect ratio. Not by much, but the Z Fold3's panel is 24.5:9, compared to the Z Fold2's 25:9. That, essentially means that Samsun utilized the bezes a bit better on the front, shrinking them down. The actual difference in resolution, really isn't all that much - 2268 x 832 pixels, compared to 816 x 2260 pixels on the Z Fold2.

The far more significant addition here is that the cover screen is now Dynamic AMOLED 2X like the main one on the inside. That means it can do a native 120Hz refresh rate, unifying the experience between the two displays.

Speaking of unifying experiences, a major step forward for the Fold line and foldable phones in general is the IPX8 ingress protection rating, introduced with the Z Fold3. This is a first on a foldable display phone, and the way Samsung pulled it off is quite interesting. Waterproofing a hinge, with all of its moving parts was apparently nearly impossible. Cracks and seams are just to be expected. Instead, the two halves of the Z Fold3 are actually separately sealed with waterproof tape, which is the usual way to waterproof a traditional phone. The ribbon cables that run through the hinge area and connect the two parts are sealed-off with additional rubber rings, as well as CIPGs (Cured-In Place Gasket) - a state-of-the-art gasket solution. As for the sophisticated cam-shaft hinge elements themselves - those are coated with a special anticorrosive and lubricating agent. That way, if water does get in, they should remain perfectly functional. High-tech stuff all around.

It is still worth noting, however, that IPX8 does not include dust protection and getting dust and especially other particles like sand or wood dust inside the hinge itself is a major concern.

Waterproofing components in the Z Fold3

The Z Fold3 promises to be extra tough in general, as well. Samsung is particularly proud of the high grade of aluminum alloy it is using for the body of the phone. It is called Armor Aluminum, and although Samsung doesn't share any particulars about the material, it did show-off an interesting demo, knocking a block of its stuff against a 7000 series aluminum black - the "aerospace-grade" grade material most manufacturers use on their phones.

Armor Aluminum did not walk away from the encounter unscathed, but it was in much nicer conditions. Better still, apparently, Samsung intends to use Armor Aluminum in more of its devices going forward.

Speaking of finishes on the Z Fold3, there is a new selection of colors this year. Samsung has it in Phantom Black, Phantom Silver and Phantom Green. For better, or worse, the Korean giant has moved away from its signature mystic bronze this year. It is worth noting that regardless of the color you chose, the plastic, sort of bulky frame around the foldable display always stays black, and so does the entire front of the device. That includes the coved display and its surrounding bezels.

Many of you might also remember that despite its binary initial color selection, the Z Fold2 was eventually offered with a set of custom hinge colors to spice up the look. Unfortunately, there is still no word on similar customization for the Z Fold3, but it is perfectly possible for it to also come at a later date.

We need to talk about display protection, as well. The cover screen is the easier bit - it uses Gorilla Glass Victus and also has one of Samsung's impressively-thin, factory pre-applied plastic screen protectors on top. It doesn't feel quite as good as glass to the touch, but it is among the best plastic films out there. If you particularly dislike it, though, you can always peel it off.

That is a much riskier operation on the main, foldable display. Samsung's official stand on the matter remains that you are not supposed to remove anything from the flexible display. Still, some Z Fold2 users have been living without this top layer, successfully, after pulling-off the risky removal successfully. Apparently, that leaves you with a smoother and more pleasant surface to touch. Well, things are more nuanced and complicated on the Z Fold3.

In order to accommodate S Pen functionality on the panel, Samsung had to tackle quite a few challenges, one of which was surface durability. By rearranging some of the internal layers on the main panel and using a PET top protective layer, the surface on the Z Fold3 display is now, apparently, 80% more durable than that on the Z Fold2. Of course, by its very nature, it is still soft and flexible, since it has to accommodate folding. But, through these structural changes, combined with a special S Pen with springs and dampers, Samsung has made it possible to use the signature stylus on the Z Fold3 without damaging the display.

So with the S Pen in mind, peeling off the top layer from the display this time around, while still technically possible, seems even less-advisable. Particularly if you plan on using an S Pen with your unit.

Left: Galaxy Z Fold3; Right: Galaxy Note20 Ultra

In terms of real-world feel, the surface on the main display of the Z Fold3 is very similar to that on the Z Fold2. That is to say, noticeably different and less "premium" than the feeling of glass you get from other smartphones. Yet, it is not comparable with traditional plastic, either, by managing to be smoother and with less drag overall. That being said, it is still not perfectly smooth. The crease is pretty much identical to that on the Z Fold2, is still both visible and easy to feel with a finger, yet equally easy to ignore while actually consuming media. The display still gets very dusty and greasy and you still need to wipe it down frequently and carefully. In this respect, the experience and considerations of using a foldable really haven't changed a lot.

The hinge and ergonomics

As usual, the hinge is a major highlight of the Z Fold3's design. In fact, it is arguably the most important part of any foldable's construction. Samsung made truly major improvements to its design moving from the first-generation Fold to last year's Z Fold2, allowing for both a tighter r-curve and more-crucially - smooth, linear motion and the ability to leave the device in any given angle. That was a massive upgrade.

Left: Galaxy Z Fold2; Right: Galaxy Z Fold3

For this generation, Samsung continued improving its hinge design, but in arguably more subtle and invisible ways. We already went over the extra efforts put into protecting its internals in the case of exposure to water. Just to reiterate on that point - the Z Fold3's hinge is coated with anti-corrosive and lubricating agents to give it the best chance to maintain functionality after water-exposure. While that approach apparently works well enough to earn the device a moderate IPX8 rating (up to 1.5m of water for 30 mins), it still sounds like intentionally submerging the phone is not really advisable. Just our take on things.

Enough beating about the bush, though. If you, like many others, were expecting a tightly closing device, with no air gap this time around, that is sadly not the case. There is very much a gap still present and it looks similar, or perhaps a bit smaller than the one on the Z Fold2. One of the biggest issues we had with actually using the original Galaxy Fold on a daily basis was pocket lint finding its way into the crack and onto the screen, consequently getting rubbed into it during use. This was still a problem on the Z Fold2, though notably less severe, and this is basically the case with the Z Fold3, as well.

Left: Galaxy Z Fold3; Right: Galaxy Z Fold2

Looking at the older Z Fold2 next to the Z Fold3 closed, from the side, does reveal some outward differences in the design. For one, the older one seems to have an extra, angled "ridge", sitting almost on top of the rest of the two body halves, between the display and the phone's shell. This is not the case on the Z Fold3. Though, to be fair, we can't say for sure whether this is somehow related to the actual size of the air gap and a tighter r-curve, or it is just a different overall design that moves away from a wedge and to more symmetrical halves.

The Z Fold2 also previously did a lot to reduce the gaps and exposed hinge mechanism bits around the top and bottom of the crease of the display. The Z Fold3 refines the design of this area a bit further, though, again, not in a really major way.

In fact, besides the particular improvements related to the new ingress protection rating on the Z Fold3, Samsung didn't really go into extra detail regarding any particular re-design or refinement to the actual hinge internals and design.

In real life, the hinge feels very similar to the one on the Z Fold2. It's impressively smooth in its motion end to end and snaps into place confidently at both its fully-closed and fully-opened states. We have a Z Fold2 unit at hand, in daily use for quite some time now, with a hinge that still works and feels great, with very little loosening, which gives us confidence that the same will be true for the Z Fold3, as well.

Our best guess is that the advanced elastics and cam design from the Z Fold2 are carried over. This perfectly linear motion, with consistent tension, full range and the ability to leave the Z Fold3 in any state of "unfolded" are central to the extra amount of utility, Samsung refers to as "Flex mode".

Flex mode

Flex Mode and its accompanying Flex View set of UI and UX solutions are not new and also carried over from the Z Fold2. These all hinge (pun intended) on the Z Fold3's ability to have its two halves stable at an angle to one another so it can stand semi-open on a flat surface.

We will get more into the varying aspects of Flex View in the software section, but, basically, a growing number of supported apps, both from Samsung and third parties, like Google Duo and YouTube, have specific UI variants implemented for Flex View, that, typically separate the controls from the content on the two halves of the display, kind of making them semi-independent, like having two separate monitors.

Flex Mode also extends to other specific use cases, like the ability to use the external display on the Z Fold3, propped at an angle, for content consumption, with the rest of the phone acting as a stand.

Also, using both the rear and the front cameras in Flex Mode has its place, including things like video calling and taking selfies. Though, it should be noted that this has certain intrinsic limitations. For instance, it is pretty hard to prop the Z Fold3 up confidently by itself on a surface in a way that exposes both the main cameras and the outside display for selfie purposes. This is best achieved by having the device fully-open and somehow managing to find a selfie stick or gimbal to fit it inside. The bottom line being that it is a bit of a cumbersome state to hold and manipulate the Z Fold3 for photo and video purposes.

Also, while touch-typing on the bottom half of the device - like on a laptop - sounds like a no-brainer, it is not easy to pull-off in practice. The surface is still not big enough to get two hands comfortably on there. And the lack of actual tactile buttons doesn't help the typing accuracy either.

Controls and connectivity

Just a few quick notes on the control payout and connectivity of the Z Fold3, before we move on to actual tests. The overall layout hasn't really changed in any major way coming from the Z Fold2. The power button/fingerprint reader and volume rockers are both conveniently placed and provide excellent tactile feedback.

The fingerprint reader itself is very accurate and extremely snappy. Both expected, since it is a traditional capacitive, dedicated module and frankly a nice change of pace from the still-troublesome Ultrasonic under-display modules Samsung continues to use on its other flagships.

The stereo speaker setup on the Z Fold2 is quite versatile. Rather potent, in terms of quality, as well. But, we have a separate section for that. One complaint we do have is that it is easy to cover both units up when holding the phone in landscape. An issue carried over from last year's Fold and not really addressed by the wider speaker grills this time around. Not a major issue, though, since you can flip it upside down to eliminate this problem entirely.

In a big surprise to nobody, the Z Fold3 comes pretty much fully stacked in terms of connectivity. Even more so than its Z Fold2 predecessor, mostly thanks to the newer Snapdragon 888 chipset. A fast USB 3.2 connection sits behind its Type-C port. Since DeX is a thing on the Z Fold3, you can be confident that video-out and USB host mode are both supported, as well. Wired charging is capped at 25W. Wireless charging at up to 11W is also supported and so is reverse wireless charging, at up to 4.5W. These rates are carried over from the Z Fold2.

The Z Fold3 does, however, get support for newer wireless connectivity standards, including dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac/6e and Bluetooth 5.2. with Bluetooth LE and aptX HD. ANT+ is also on board, also UWB (Ultra Wideband) and so is NFC, with support for Samsung Pay. 5G connectivity is also a thing, with both mmWave and Sub-6. You get a full set of sensors too, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass and barometer.

There is only one nano-SIM card slot on the Galaxy Z Fold3, though, there is a secondary eSIM on board as well. There could be some market and carrier differences on that front, though, so make sure to check that if it's important to you.

As far as things absent from the Z Fold3 go, there are no new and unexpected omissions. Still, in case you were wondering, there is no 3.5mm audio jack, no FM Radio receiver, no IR blaster, and no notification LED. Arguably Samsung could have found a place for that last one somewhere on the enormous body of the Z Fold3, but then again, AOD on the cover screen works nicely.

Foldable Dynamic AMOLED 2X display and a new 120Hz cover screen

Let's start with the main foldable display on the Z Fold3, since it remains the star attraction. On paper, the 7.6-inch, Foldable Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel looks almost identical to that on last year's Z Fold2. The similarities extend beyond that too, including 120Hz native refresh rate, as well as the panel resolution of 1768 x 2208 pixels. In reality, the two panels themselves, while definitely closely related, do differ quite a bit, with the Z Fold3 one further up in the evolution chain in at least a couple of ways, some of which, like durability, we already discussed.

Let's tackle things one at a time, starting with size. Looking at the raw numbers, as well as the Z Fold2 and Z Fold3 side by side, the two panels are pretty-much identically sized. The new design does get the benefit of smaller bezels, which makes the panel feel slightly bigger, though. Another major contributor to the improved immersion this year is the under display camera - a first for Samsung and a first on a foldable display, in general. Pulling off this sort of camera placement is a big engineering challenge that basically requires constructing a part of your display in such a way so it left through enough light for the camera to work, while still maintaining some pixels to be functional as a display. Going by the few existing under display camera implementations out there, the pixel density in the area seems to differ, depending on your tech and how you want to balance the quality of the display area image and the photo quality of the camera underneath. Samsung has seemingly opted for fewer pixels and a lower pixel density than most other competing solutions, which should help the camera quality, but also means that the particular display area on top of the selfie is easily distinguishable from its surroundings and with much lower resolution.

Honestly, however, while immersed in actual content, just like the display crease, this area is not really that noticeable and is easy to ignore. Particularly with fast-moving things like games, or particular style of graphics, like animation. As for the benefits of this approach to the user, an argument can be made that content can now more freely expand to the entire surface of the screen. A logic that Samsung shares, since the software on the Z Fold3 is tuned in a way that employs the typical "black bar" selfie masking technique very rarely. Definitely less so than the Z Fold2.

If the punch hole bothered you previously, you can skip the black bar to hide it and stretch the image more on the Z Fold3. It makes a big difference for 4:3 content in particular, since that is probably the best way to utilize the most real estate on the display. There is an argument to be made that other, more-common aspect media, like 16:9 and 21:9 can also benefit on the Z Fold3, compared to the Z Fold2, if we assume that you would be hiding the selfie punch hole on the older model and are fine with the noticeably lower pixel density and resolution of the area on top of the under-display selfie camera. There is a bit of a theoretical discussion to be had here, for sure, but in practice, we have to praise Samsung for making the experience seamless and conveying the sense that the Z Fold3 has "more" display to work with than its predecessor.

Left: Galaxy Z Fold3; Right: Galaxy Note20 Ultra

We already mentioned the surface of the large screen is not ideal in terms of traction and finger-gliding. There is also a visible crease in the middle and there is probably no going around that with any sort of foldable panel tech. At least not any time soon. The crease is, of course, noticeable to the touch, especially while swiping. That unfortunate drawback remains. However, again to Samsung's credit, once you are actually engaged with content on the display, the image itself looks very crisp and uniform. There are no uniformity issues, no weird discolorations. Even reflections are very well-controlled. You rarely get that "oil slick" effect, common on early foldable display tech.

There are all signs of the panel tech itself maturing nicely and so are some of the other performance improvements debuting on the Z Fold3. Brightness, for once, has been noticeably improved in this generation. In our tests, the foldable display on the Z Fold3 managed a maximum brightness of 489 nits on the slider and a massive 922 nits in max auto mode, outpacing its predecessor. Apparently, that can mostly be attributed to a new OLED design and manufacturing process, also debuting on the Z Fold3.

Left: Galaxy Z Fold2; Right: Galaxy Z Fold3

Samsung calls it Eco2OLED, where the "eco squared" stands for both "economical" and "ecological". You can read more about it here, but simply put, the Korean giant found a clever way to reengineer its OLED panel without a traditional polarizing layer. That allows for easier light penetration (33% higher light transmittance) and a theoretical, up to 25% reduction in power consumption at the same brightness levels and higher maximum brightness.

As for the eco part, the whole design simply uses less plastics overall. It is a great advancement that clearly has practical implications, observable in our tests.

Display test	100% brightness
	Black,cd/m2	White,cd/m2	Contrast ratio
Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Max Auto)	0	1024	∞
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Max Auto)	0	1023	∞
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display, Max Auto)	0	1001	∞
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G (Max Auto)	0	935	∞
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (Max Auto)	0	922	∞
Samsung Galaxy A72 (Max Auto)	0	825	∞
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G (Max Auto)	0	787	∞
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 (cover display, Max Auto)	0	741	∞
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 (Max auto)	0	714	∞
Realme GT 5G (Max Auto)	0	650	∞
Sony Xperia 1 III (Max Auto, Creator mode)	0	620	∞
OnePlus Nord CE 5G (Max Auto)	0	607	∞
Huawei Mate X2 (cover display, Max Auto)	0	601	∞
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip (Max Auto)	0	596	∞
Huawei Mate X2 (Max Auto)	0	542	∞
Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G	0	504	∞
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G	0	503	∞
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G (Max Auto)	0.275	492	1789:1
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G	0	489	∞
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display)	0	479	∞
Huawei Mate X2 (cover display)	0	472	∞
Huawei Mate X2	0	469	∞
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2	0	461	∞
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G	0	458	∞
Realme GT 5G	0	443	∞
OnePlus Nord CE 5G	0	429	∞
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 (cover display)	0	425	∞
Samsung Galaxy A72	0	396	∞
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G	0	378	∞
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip	0	377	∞
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G	0.21	377	1795:1
Sony Xperia 1 III	0	354	∞

Of course, we made sure to test the all-new cover screen on the Z Fold3, as well. While it is incredibly similar to the one on its predecessor, it is unquestionably a different panel altogether. It has a slightly higher resolution of 832 x 2268 and slightly different proportions, though it still, technically has a 6.2-inch diagonal. Just like on the Z Fold2, despite being tall and skinny, we found the cover display to be perfectly functional for all sorts of quick daily tasks.

Most crucial of all, however, is its upgrade to 120Hz refresh rate on the cover display. This way, you can have the same kind of fluidity regardless of which panel on the Z Fold3 you are using.

Back to the topic of brightness, though, just like its predecessor, the Z Fold3 manages an impressively-similar output on of its displays and both get a nice little boost in max brightness over the Z Fold3. We measured the cover display on our unit at 479 nits with the regular slider and 1001 nits in max auto mode. In practice, both displays get bright enough to be perfectly usable, even outdoors.

Having similar characteristics between the two panels also allows for some other, pretty-nifty quality of life improvements, namely the fact that Samsung effectively has one set of display settings that apply to both panels. Even the brightness sliders and their respective scales have been tuned so closely that you can expect to get pretty comparable actual brightness outputs at the same percentage. For instance, we measured 200nits on the cover screen at 50% brightness and 47% on the main display.

Speaking of impressively similar tuning, there is color reproduction, which is yet another aspect the two panels manage to perform similarly. Although, not nearly the best we've seen from Samsung panels in the past, both the main and cover displays on the Z Fold3 manage to just meet the deltaE requirements to be considered color-accurate. Both have two color modes to choose from - Vivid, which targets the DCI-P3 color space, is the default and, like we said, is just accurate enough to be considered good for color-sensitive work. Then there is Natural, which aims for sRGB and hits that mark with nearly perfect color accuracy. Impressive stuff all around, especially since it is being pulled-off in tandem on two very different and very untraditional panels! The default vivid mode also has manual color sliders and color temperature adjustment.

Display color settings

Quite expectedly, the Z Fold3 has support for HDR10+ on its main display. Software reports regular HDR and HLG compatibility, as well. There is also Widevine L1, which means that streaming services like Netflix are more than happy to serve-up the highest quality suitable for the Z Fold3's display, which is FullHD, with HDR, since there are not enough pixels to do native 4K.

HDR and Widevine support

That's all fine and dandy, but what about the cover screen? The official specs sheet is a bit limited in this regard and granted, we don't really think too many Z Fold3 users are going to be quite as excited as us to see The Hateful Eight and its Ultra Panavision 70mm 2.76:1 aspect full-up the cover screen almost perfectly. Well, best we managed to work out, HDR support is present on the cover screen, as well. For what its' worth.

High refresh rate and adaptive refresh rate behavior

The Galaxy Z Fold3 has support for up to 120Hz refresh rate on both its main and cover screens. There is adaptive refresh rate on both panels, as well and it all works at the native resolution of both panels - pretty much a zero-compromise setup.

To turn on the high refresh rate, there is an option for Motion Smoothness, with two states - Adaptive and Standard.

Display Motion smoothness settings

Standard is the straight-forward 60Hz option with all of the battery-savings that can net you. The adaptive option is way more interesting, since it employs an automatic switching behavior, so that the effects of high refresh rate on battery endurance can be mitigated.

Generally speaking, the Z Fold3 will stay at 120Hz for as long as you actively interact with it and there is enough ambient light available. That means touching the screen, as well as triggering some behavior that wakes the device up. A few seconds of inactivity later - whether it be leaving it on a table or even just staring blankly at it while holding it for a few seconds and it'll go down to 60Hz, only to crank the refresh rate back up once you touch the screen. If light is too low, you will basically be locked at 120Hz. The entire UI and pretty much every app (except for some games and other rare exceptions) behave in this way.

Adaptive refresh rate: UI and lock screen

The lock screen is somewhat of a weird edge case, where the phone will switch to an odd 96Hz refresh rate mode, seemingly for the duration of the animation of the screen and then go back down to 60Hz. We didn't really observe this anomaly anywhere else.

This automatic switch from 120Hz to 60Hz and back to 120Hz does combine the benefits of lower strain on the battery and higher responsiveness and snappy operation when interactions do occur. However, it does have certain consequences. For instance, both the Samsung Internet browser and Chrome, which we tested, were more than happy to operate at 120fps and sync with the blurbuster's UFO test. However, a few second later, both just drop down to 60Hz and 60fps when left alone. We wish there was an exclusion or whitelist of some sorts, so we could accommodate such scenarios on a per-app basis.

Adaptive refresh rate in browsers

On a way more positive note, Samsung's adaptive refresh rate switching is actually among the smartest we've seen, particularly in the way it handles video playback. The logic seems to be somehow hooked into the internal video decoder, since it reacts to the frame rate of the video that is being plaid. That is to say, when you play a 30fps video, the refresh rate is set at 60Hz and for a 60fps video, it also stays at 60Hz. We can't say for sure why Samsung went for a factor of two, but it is definitely the case. More impressive still, when you play a 24-25fps video, the Z Fold3 starts refreshing at 48Hz. Very neat!

Automatic video refresh rate switching

And when we say it hooks into the video decoder in some way, we mean it, since this behavior carries over to other video players as well, not just the default gallery. YouTube behaves in the same way, though, the mobile app itself is not particularly transparent about video fps other than the standard 30 and 60fps options. Some channels, however, do upload at 24fps and for those the Z Fold3 triggers its 48Hz mode. All of this, of course, only occurs after you leave the phone alone for a few seconds, without interacting with it so it disables its 120Hz mode.

Adaptive refresh rate YouTube

It is also interesting to note that this behavior is not dependent in any way on whether you are viewing the video in full-screen or not or the orientation of the device.

HDR content doesn't alter the behavior either, which is interesting to note, since it does seem to do that on the new Z Flip3. That device always locked to 120Hz when HDR content starts playing. Perhaps it is due to some limitation of that particular panel. We can't say for sure.

Adaptive refresh rate in HDR YouTube content

Netflix behaves in exactly the same way as other video players. Since most of the content available on there is 24fps, you end up with 48Hz while watching and 120Hz while interaction with the UI. Again, HDR makes no difference.

Adaptive refresh rate in Netflix

What about gaming? Well, unfortunately the behavior is a bit less consistent there than with video playback. We tried a few games that we know can go over 60fps and most of them basically locked the display at 120Hz, regardless of whether we interacted with them or not. Some dropped down to 60Hz in menus and during fmv sequences, which was neat, but some, like Dead Trigger 2 locked at 60Hz, despite the fact that they can go above 60fps.

Adaptive refresh rate in games

Once again, we find ourselves wishing for a whitelist or some other way to adjust the refresh rate on a per-app basis, like, for instance, what Asus has on the ROG Phone line. Samsung's built-in Game Launcher does include an option to lock refresh rate to 48Hz, which is something. Though, it is clearly mostly meant to save battery life.

Samsung Game Launcher

Since we already mentioned the Z Filip3, this is another interesting difference in refresh rate behavior between the pair, since the Z Flip3 does actually have a three-stage selector in place of the simple 48Hz switch. You can choose between 48Hz, 60Hz and 120Hz on that phone, which is a lot better.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 battery life

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 has an advertised battery capacity of 4,400 mAh, which is a bit lower than the Z Fold2 and its 4,500 mAh capacity. In typical foldable fashion, this is a total capacity. On the inside, the Z Fold3 actually has two separate battery packs - one 2280 mAh and another 2120 mAh one. Clearly the decrease in overall size and volume of the Z Fold3 over its predecessor necessitated a slight decrease in battery capacity as well. 100 mAh is hardly massive, though, so not really worth criticizing.

In any case, on a device like the Z Fold3, battery capacity is just one and arguably the smallest part in the battery endurance formula. Between the big foldable display, powerful and power-hungry chipset and relatively limited battery capacity it is no surprise that the Z Fold3 does pretty poorly in terms of battery endurance.

Comparing to the Z Fold2 as the closest point of reference, we can see the Z Fold3 mostly manages the exact same endurance numbers in both on-screen tests and with 3G calling. The Snapdragon 888, inside the Z Fold3, however, seems to be doing notably worse in standby than the Snapdragon 865 inside the Z Fold 2.

We carried out the web browsing test in the Adaptive refresh rate mode, while constantly monitoring the current refresh rate thanks to Android 11's built-in tool. Our web browsing script refreshes pages every 10s, and every refresh triggered a spike in the refresh rate to 120Hz, which then dropped back down to 60Hz 1-2s later. We reckon that's a behavior fairly representative of real-world use - you swipe on the screen, refresh rate shoots to 120Hz, you then read for a bit, it goes down. As for video playback, we switched the phone to the Adaptive Mode. We already described its behavior in depth and for our particular test video, the Z Fold3 kept its display at 48Hz. If you were playing a 30fps video instead, which is most content out there, you would get slightly worse numbers in the video playback test, but not by much.

For what it's worth, at least the Z Fold3 managed to do a bit better in terms of battery endurance than its Z Flip3 sibling. Pretty much expected, given that phone's smaller battery pack. It is worth noting, however, that both phones consistently fell a bit behind in standby battery performance than what we have come to expect from the Snapdragon 888 chipset. Perhaps there is some room for tweaking and improvement there.

For the sake of thoroughness, we ran our on-screen tests on the cover screen on the Z Fold3, as well, using the same logic - Adaptive refresh rate mode, which meant 48Hz while playing the test video and a mix between 60Hz and 120Hz while refreshing in the browser test. We got notable better on-screen numbers, as expected, though, the outside display on the Z Fold3 is still plenty big and can now also go up to 120Hz, making it a bit less viable than before to stick to for the sake of better battery endurance.

That being said, the most realistic battery endurance number for the Z Fold3 would probably be somewhere between the two ones we got, depending on your personal mix of main and cover screen usage. Samsung's Adaptive refresh rate logic and its insistence to stick to 120Hz constantly when ambient light is low is also worth bringing up once again, since it can make a difference.

In any case, the Z Fold3 has a one-day battery live, at best, less in practice with a power user or otherwise heavy use during the day.

Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating denotes how long the battery charge will last you if you use the device for an hour of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. More details can be found here.

Video test carried out in Adaptive refresh rate mode and 48Hz. Web browsing test done at the display's highest refresh rate whenever possible. Refer to the respective reviews for specifics. To adjust the endurance rating formula to match your own usage patterns check out our all-time battery test results chart where you can also find all phones we've tested.

Charging speed

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 has an advertised battery capacity of 4,400 mAh - just around 100 mAh less than its Z Fold2 predecessor. There are actually two separate battery packs inside the device - one 2280 mAh and another 2120 mAh one. This kind of spit is typical for the foldable form factor. Even the Z Flip3 has two separate packs.

The Z Fold2 can charge at a maximum advertised rate of 25W. Unfortunately, Samsung does not provide a charger in the box. We do, however, know that Samsung has been using DP, PPS-enabled chargers as of late, making it fairly-easy to find a charger that support the maximum charging rate of the Z Fold3. To keep things as consistent as possible, we just tested with an official Samsung 25W charger.

30min charging test (from 0%)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 9
  100%
• OnePlus Nord 2
  98%
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  89%
• Realme GT 5G (65W)
  87%
• Huawei Mate X2
  80%
• Realme X7 Max 5G
  60%
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  54%
• Samsung Galaxy A52 (25W)
  52%
• Sony Xperia 5 III
  49%
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  43%
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  40%
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G
  33%
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
  33%
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  30%
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+
  18%

Time to full charge (from 0%)

Lower is better

• OnePlus 9
  0:29h
• OnePlus Nord 2
  0:31h
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  0:37h
• Realme GT 5G (65W)
  0:39h
• Huawei Mate X2
  0:58h
• Realme X7 Max 5G
  1:00h
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  1:15h
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  1:23h
• Samsung Galaxy A52 (25W)
  1:30h
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  1:30h
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
  1:46h
• Sony Xperia 5 III
  1:50h
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  1:55h
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G
  2:00h
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+
  3:35h

The charging speeds we achieved fall in line nicely with what we managed to achieve on the older Z Fold2. That is to say, a consistently slower rate than what we would have expected from a traditional Samsung phone, with a single battery of a similar capacity and the same charger, say the Galaxy Note20 Ultra. With no official info on a special concurrent-charging standard, we can only assume that the slower overall charging is down to having to charge two smaller batteries, each with their own charging curve and trickle cycle.

You can also charge the Z Fold3 wirelessly. Samsung says it supports around 11W this way, which is also a bit lower than, say the Note20 Ultra and its advertised 15W. This also falls in line nicely with the two-battery-pack-setup explanation.

Reverse wireless charging is about the same, though, rated at 4.5W and only available if you have at least 30% charge in the phone.

Speaker test

The Galaxy Z Fold3 has a pair of amplified speakers at its disposal. These provide an amazing multimedia consumption experience, with great clarity and impressive frequency response. These speakers are impressive loud, as well, earning a "very good" rating in our tests.

The Z Fold3 also has Dolby Atmos at its disposal, with a few different modes, as well as manual equalizers. In its default auto mode, Dolby Atmos actually managed to boost loudness a bit further, not by much, but just enough to put it even closer to the output of the Galaxy Z Fold2. Dolby Atmos did, however, also slightly hurt the phone's frequency response. Again, not by much.

If we have to be picky, we'd say that the speakers are quite easy to cover up in landscape use due to their lower position. This is not a new problem and Samsung even seemingly tried to address it, making the speaker grills a bit wider than on the Z Fold2. Of course, you can just flip the unfolded Z Fold3 around and the problem is gone.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.

One UI 3.1.1 on top of Android 11

Samsung created a bit of a confusing situation with its One UI versioning with the Z Fold3 and Z Filp3. These phones were previously rumored to launch with One 3.5, which was then expected to trickle down to other devices. Turns out that was not the case, and Samsung's presentation during the Unpacked 2021 event didn't really help either, since it talked about One UI 3, with no extra digits attached. Turns out, the Z Fold3 and Z Filp3 get an exclusive One UI 3.1.1 launch version to begin with - .1 better than what the S21 family is currently running, which probably signifies the presence of certain features, exclusive to the form factor, like Flex mode.

As detailed in this official community forum thread in Korean, One UI 3.1.1 will not be coming to any other devices. There is no real mention of One UI 3.5 either. However, the company will bring some of the app improvements and other enhancements to current flagship devices through a software update. This update won't change the version number. So, it's still going to be One UI 3.1 but with everything One UI 3.1.1 has to offer. Everything relevant to non-foldables, that is, which we imagine resides mostly under the hood. All the while, One UI 4.0 is already on track for an upcoming beta run and will likely be the next major update within Samsung's device lineup. It will bring along Android 12.

With these confusing details out of the way, it is important to note that there really aren't that many visible changes in One UI 3.1.1, compared to One UI 3.1 on other Samsung devices, nor, for that matter the One UI 3.1 running on the Z Fold2. A few small UI and UX tweaks here and there and some extra optimizations from third-party apps, which we will point out as we go.

Taking things in their natural order, you are likely first to be greeted by the Samsung Always On display feature. 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 set up a daily schedule as before. You can, of course, keep it always on, too. You can choose different clock styles and font colors, (auto) brightness, and what notifications to be displayed.

Always On display settings

The Always-On feature is a good example of one that works identically on both the inside and the cover display, depending on whether the Z Fold2 is open or not. Samsung has done an exceptionally good job of differentiating between the two displays for some features, where it makes sense, while naturally leaving shared settings for others, all without breaking the general UX flow.

One good example is the way the Display smoothness option, which was previously only visible while using the inside display on the Z Fold2, but is now a shared setting on the Z Fold3, since its cover screen can also do 120Hz. In fact, most of the display settings, including brightness and color are just controlled by the same set of shared settings, with Samsung hiding away all of the difficult extra steps of unifying the behavior of the two panels behind the scenes. This kind of refinement deserves praise since it is no easy task to pull off.

The lock screen, for instance, is also shared between the two displays in pretty much all of its aspects, including the clock style, widget selection, and notification logic. All except for the wallpaper selection, which can be done on an individual basis for the two panels. Admittedly, this is one feature that could benefit from being segmented in the future.

Lock screen: Cover display • Main display

The Home screen and App drawer, however, are superb examples of Samsung seamlessly separating out customization for the two panels. While the options here may look deceptively identical, you get to set them independently while the Z Fold3 is open and while it is closed. This includes everything from the app grid, widget selection, and layout, and wallpapers. You can even have entirely different shortcuts on the two panels.

Cover home screen • Cover app drawer • Main home screen • Main app drawer

A lot of the overall visual polish in the Z Fold3 UI is actually a function of One UI itself and hasn't changed drastically in recent years, but rather has been going through a constant process of refinement. In that sense, many elements can be considered a "standard" Samsung affair. That means that the basics, like pull-down for a notification share and quick toggles, slide right for a Bixby feed and all of those familiar bits are all there. We won't be digging too much into them since that's not the interesting bit the Z Fold3 has to offer.

What we all want to see is the powerful multitasking, and a good place to start a tour of that is Samsung Edge screen. It is another feature that should be familiar to existing Samsung users. It is surprisingly useful on the Z Fold3 too, particularly the Apps panel - a perfect companion for quickly getting in and out of multi-tasking mode.

App panel settings

Using either the recent apps view or the Apps panel, you can start a multi-window session with a trivial side-by-side split. The Apps panel is convenient for a couple of reasons. One is the fact that you can either manually edit the shortcuts it houses or, alternatively, let it surface your recently used apps.

Then there is also the ability to save any particular multi-tasking configuration as a quick toggle. This includes the apps, their relative position, and window size. Both dual and the newer triple-split multi-tasking setups can be saved, and recent setups also get automatically suggested. It's a massive time-saver. Just set up a usage scenario you like and save it to the Apps panel for easier access later.

Launching apps and multi-window setups from the App panel

Before we move on to some actual multitasking, which hasn't really changed all that much from the older Z Fold2, there are a few improvements in the App panel currently exclusive to the Z Fold3. Though, our best guess is these are likely to get backported to the Z Fold2 as well. For one, you can now have a single row of icons in the panel, which wasn't previously possible.

Single row of icons on App panel

This generally saves on some screen real estate, if you don't personally use too many combinations of apps. More interesting, however, is the ability to pin the App Panel. This essentially creates a taskbar, which remains constantly on-screen and does eat away some space. However, on the flip side, you get a much more desktop-like experience out of it, with the ability to quickly switch between apps and even sets of apps.

Pinned App panel offers a taskbar experience

Back to the multi-tasking itself, the simpler dual-split can either be horizontal or vertical. You can also control the split one way or the other by simply dragging the middle bar. Dragging is also how you can quickly and easily get content from one window to the other. The list of supported content types has been expanding and will likely continue to do so. Text and picture dragging, likely the most commonly used, is supported almost universally.

Controlling a basic two-way multi-tasking split

Clicking the dots on the middle bar provides a few options, including a quick way to swap the places of the two apps and another to change the orientation of the split. The third button saves this multi-tasking configuration as an entry in the App panel like we already mentioned.

Each app gets its own little oval control bar near the top while in multi-window mode. It can either be used to grab and drag the app for repositioning or bring up a few options with a click. These include the ability to go full-screen on the given app or collapse it further into a floating window.

Manipulating individual apps in a multi-window configuration

Samsung refer to this floating window as Pop-up View. Some apps won't cooperate fully, and some rare ones will outright refuse to go into this mode. To address that, however, One UI 3.1.1 does include a Labs tab inside the Advanced features menu, with a toggle switch that can force multi-window and pop-up view on any app, regardless of whether the developer included support or not, with typically pretty good success rate.

Labs menu with extra features

We'll get back to the other experimental features in a bit.

Moving on to the three-way multi-window split. It is a bit harder to initially set up, but once you dial it in, set the proportions, placements and shuffle everything around, using the split controls, just the way you like it, you just save it for posterity, as a whole, in the Apps panel.

Triple-window multitasking

You can still drag content around in this setup and basically jump from app to app instantly. It is important to note that some apps won't necessarily be able to run concurrently while in this mode. Notable limitations include the ability to only have one video playing, both for convenience reasons and because of limitations in the Android video decoding pipeline. Some apps that do real-time updating might do it slower or put it on pause while in a small window and not in focus. It all depends on how they are coded, but, overall, most apps and a large chunk of Android are made to facilitate a single-app execution model first and foremost.

Nevertheless, you can even go beyond these three apps and rake multitasking even further with Pop-up View windows. You can pile up to five of these on top of a three-way split, making for a total of 8 "active" apps at the same time.

Multi-tasking at its limits

You can freely resize and drag these individual floating windows around and even set their transparency. Although, in most cases, that tends to add to the chaos, rather than reduce it. You can also collapse the windows into what is commonly known as a "chathead". If you collapse multiple apps in this way, they will end up grouped in a folder-like manner, which helps keep things tidy.

There are other nuances and limitations to consider and discover, as well. For instance, certain apps refuse to run more than once, which is a thing Android developers can explicitly request in an app manifest for one reason or another.

Overall, Samsung went above and beyond in the multi-tasking features department. Perhaps even a bit too far in practical terms. Still, if you think there is a particular setup that will work great for your needs, chances are that the Z Fold3 can facilitate it, which is all that matters.

If you still find yourself wanting more freedom and an even more PC-like experience, the Z Fold3 does include Samsung DeX support, both wired and wireless to a monitor or TV, as well as a Windows PC, with a specific client. However, one thing absent is the ability to trigger DeX on the display of the Z Fold3, without the need to attach an external one. This is a thing on some of Samsung's tablets and seems like a great fit here.

On to what Samsung calls Flex mode or Flex view. It is also not a new concept, but instead, one carried forward from the Z Fold2 and expanded upon. It was absent on the original Galaxy Fold due to the inability of its hinge to be stable at any given angle. On the Z Fold2 and now the Z Fold3, having the display folded between 75 degrees and 115 degrees triggers Flex view.

That essentially means that the phone is aware that it is in this particular physical state and lets the Android OS and any running app know. In this sense, Flex View is just a Samsung marketing term for triggering behavior already baked into modern versions of Android, specifically designed to make apps more aware of the current state of foldable displays, allowing them to adapt their UI.

Seeing how Samsung is effectively championing this particular foldable form factor, it makes sense that it also does a lot of the initial pushing and work with its own dev team and third-party app developers to make the first set of such form-factor-aware versions of apps a reality. The list of apps that currently follow that behavior on the Z Fold3 isn't huge and mostly consists of Samsung's own apps. The video player can do it, and so can the Gallery app. Both have their respective controls on the bottom and the content on the top. The Gallery app simply dedicates a "trackpad-like" touch area for navigating back and forward between images to the bottom half. A bit awkward and with limited usability, which honestly seems to often end up being the case with these early Flex View implementations.

Flex view: Video player • Gallery • Camera

The camera app is the most notable example of Flex View working in a beneficial manner. The idea is that, again, you get to have your controls on the bottom half of the display and the viewfinder on top. This is definitely useful for taking both selfies and shorts with the main camera while the phone is sitting on a flat surface. It just feels more natural.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that the main camera array and the cover display are on different sides of the Z Fold2, there is no way to leverage Flex view mode to take a selfie with the main cameras.

Samsung has been working with third-party app developers as well. In fact, quite a few names were hinted at during the Unpacked 2021 presentation, but with few actual working demos. Google is definitely on board, and Google Duo has had a Flex View supported version ever since the Z Fold2. The YouTube app on the Z Fold3 has a dedicated Flex View playback UI variant. It doesn't really change the interface too much, but it's a start.

YouTube: regular UI • Flex View UI

Chrome also, sort of has particular behavior implemented for the Z Fold3, though technically not tied to Flex View. Opening a link in a new window on the main display of the Z Fold3, by default, opens another window in split-screen.

Chrome new window option on the Z Fold3

We did try to find some other examples of Flex View as well, trying apps like Spotify and TikTok, specifically mentioned during the Z Fold3 and Z Flip3 presentation. However, to our eye, both looked and behaved in a standard matter, perhaps just triggering a tablet UI, rather than a traditional phone one, which is not exactly the idea of Flex View.

Spotify and TikTok don't really have Flex View support.

In an attempt to sort of "shoehorn" in at least some Flex View behavior, Samsung has also included a per-app Flex mode panel menu in the Labs part of the settings. It tries its best to "force" apps to work better in Flex View.

Force Flex View • Enable App split view • Customize aspect ratio and auto rotation

Our experience is that it manages to have some effect mostly in multimedia players, where the bottom half of the display ends up displaying a tweaked version of the Android multimedia controls that you might see living in a notification or on the lock screen of another phone.

Flex mode panel forced on apps: Spotify • Plex

Other interesting Labs experimental features include the ability to enable something called App split view. The only app we found that even popped up on the list here was Samsung Members, and we couldn't figure out exactly how the toggle modified its UI or behavior. Maybe we are missing something.

On the flip side, the ability to set the aspect ratio and auto-rotation behavior on a per-app basis is a neat idea. Particularly for apps like Instagram, which is notorious for not scaling gracefully on odd screens. By default, on the Z Fold3, it still opens in 16:9 mode, with the bars on either side getting filled by a blurred version of your wallpaper. You can now force it to full screen, and it actually looks and works great. Of course, your mileage will vary with other apps, especially ones built for older Android versions and not updated in a while.

Forcing Instagram to fullscreen

Many apps, like note-taking apps or IM's do have a natural way of "working" in this half-opened state on the Z Fold3, though without really responding to Flex View mode since the content and keyboard tend to end up naturally separated.

This is kind of useful, but not really, since, even with its massive size, the Z Fold3 is still kind of small and awkward to properly touch-type on.

Time for the uncomfortable truth about the current state and near future of Flex View and proper foldable mode APIs, already baked into Android - we are way too early in the adoption process, both in terms of hardware and software. Before the foldable form factor becomes properly popular, the best we can expect is limited efforts for futuristic UI transitions and morphing from interested major parties like Samsung and its partners.

In more ways than one, the foldable experience is still, very much an experimental, early-adopter one, with all of the drawbacks that brings about.

In lieu of proper and mass Flex View/Flex mode support, Samsung can and does, at least offer a nifty way to control whether to use the main display on the Z Fold3 in "Multi view" or "Standard view" mode, though the Screen layout and zoom settings menu.

Screen layout and zoom setting

This is not a new concept and is also carried over from the Z Fold2, where it essentially forced third-party apps to render in their tablet UI variant, if available. It still has the exact same effect on the Z Fold3, but Samsung has also included a specific "tablet" UI variant for its settings menu, as well as some apps, like the messages and calendar, effectively expanding on the idea.

Apps reacting to screen layout toggle: Messages • Calendar • Setting menu

Definitely an option worth exploring.

Another great option, that really makes sense with the form factor and hardware at hand here, carried over from the Z Fold2, is called Continue apps on cover screen. The name is nicely descriptive. Even since the original Fold, Samsung made a point of being able to launch an app on the cover display then simply open the phone up and have the same app naturally transition to the bigger panel. Some apps might not particularly like the process or cooperate with it and require a restart, but things are getting better and better, as more developers start implementing Android's resizable window classes.

Anyway, this option makes the reverse logic possible. This actually makes a lot of sense for some apps, like navigation, where you definitely want the bigger screen to set up a route, but then should be perfectly fine actually getting directions from the cover display. That can happen organically, by simply closing the Z Fold3.

There is simply way too much to cover in terms of software on the Z Fold3, and we won't be able to get through nearly all of it. We would, however, like to give some well-deserved credit to Samsung keyboard - probably one of the most versatile Android keyboard solutions currently out there. It fits right at home on the Z Fold3, especially with its comprehensive and extensive support for customization and resizing. It even comes with three distinct modes, out of the box - regular, split and floating.

Samsung keyboard regular, split and floating modes

These work in both portrait and landscape orientation on both displays. Plus, you can have a different model for the main display in landscape and portrait mode and a third one for the cover display. Now that's versatility!

Samsung keyboard options

That being said, this is probably a good time to mention that typing on the extra-tall cover screen is quite difficult and feels very cramped.

And we haven't even scratched the surface of what is available here in terms of tweaking and customization. Dictionaries, multiple languages, custom symbols, autocomplete, swipe-typing, the list goes on and on.

Hopefully, we managed to mostly cover the important, custom parts of One UI 3.1.1, on the Z Fold3, specifically meant to cater to its unique form factor and features. Overall, Samsung made the best of its pre-existing Fold experience and somehow managed to bring in even more excellent improvements. Top marks all around!!!

S Pen on a foldable display

Samsung put in a lot of engineering work to get its signature S Pen working on the foldable display of the Z Fold3. We already went through all of the durability challenges in terms of the display itself and these do extend to the actual S Pen accessory. The Z Fold3 doesn't support previous generations of S Pen and in fact actively complains and tells you to stop when you bring one close to its display. There is a good reason for that. Even with the harder display on the Z Fold3, in order to prevent physical damage, Samsung constructed both of its new S Pen accessories with special soft tips and internal spring dampers to really minimize the pressure on the panel.

You probably already know, but in case you missed it, Samsung launched two new S Pen options alongside the Z Fold3 - the more basic S Pen Fold edition and the S Pen Pro. Neither is included with the regular retail package of the Z Fold3 though the S Pen edition one is part of pre-order bundles, alongside a matching case, with a place to slot said accessory.

Let's go through the differences between the two models real-quick. Size is an obvious one. The S Pen Pro is bigger in every way and also heavier. It kind of has to be, given all of the extra hardware inside and additional functionality. Here is a handy comparison chart to reference.

The big functional difference being Bluetooth, which allows the Pro model to have Samsung's Air actions. Those are the inputs you can do from afar, like using the button on the S Pen as a camera shutter or drawing in the air to trigger other actions. In order to pull that off, there is Bluetooth onboard, as well as a battery, which requires charging, hence - the USB Type-C port.

To the best of our knowledge, the S Pen Pro has no other way of charging, unlike the convenient wireless coil and capacitor system that has been a staple on recent S Pen design for Samsung's Note line. On the plus side, the S Pen Pro does offer compatibility with other devices, besides the Z Fold3. Its switch disables the springs, among other things, in that particular use case.

Like its name suggests, the S Pen Fold Edition only works on the Z Fold3. It has the soft tip and spring dampening. It is also essentially passive and does not have a battery but does retain support for Samsung's Air command features. These are the features that get triggered by hovering the S Pen above the device's display - a situation in which its location can still be precisely tracked, and its onboard button suddenly starts to work.

This might look like magic to anyone not familiar with older S Pen models before Samsung even added the additional, Bluetooth-powered Air actions. The way it functions and always has is through Wacom's patented electromagnetic resonance (EMR) technology. It is essentially a special electromagnetic grid under the display that can track the S Pen if it is close enough to get powered by the electromagnetic field it emits.

EMR hardware on the Z Fold3

In case you needed yet another reason why the Z Fold3 is such an engineering marvel and such an expensive one, in order to get EMR working on a foldable, Samsung and Wacom essentially managed to put two separate EMR grids on either half of the phone and then connect them to the same controller and do all of the math necessary to enable precise tracking on the "dead" zone, on top of the hinge! Inspiring stuff, all so we can draw and take notes on a foldable device.

And, in practice, the system definitely works. Tracking is just as precise as we have come to expect out of Samsung's S Pen tech, and response time is also really impressive. You don't need to worry about the whole soft-tip and dampened setup feeling way too different either. Coming from daily-driving the last few generations of Galaxy Note devices, we can confidently say that everything feels and works just as great on the Z Fold3.

A Snapdragon 888 in all markets

A cutting-edge device of the Z Fold3's caliber kind of demands a top-tier chipset. It just seems like the most obvious fit. When you are paying EUR 1800 or so for a phone, you expect the very best. This was the case with the Z Fold2 and is also very similar to the Z Fold3. Following in its predecessor's footsteps, the Z Fold3 only has one chipset option - the Snapdragon 888 on every market. There is no Exynos variant.

Short of the further boosted Snapdragon 888+, this is pretty much the cream of the crop Qualcomm currently has to offer - one prime Kryo 680 core, at up to 2.84 GHz, three more "big" Kryo 680 ones, clocking up to 2.42 GHz and four "small" Kryo 680 ones, at up to 1.8 GHz. Also part of the chipset - an Adreno 660 GPU and a full set of truly modern connectivity options, including 5G support for both Sub-6 and mmWave, the newest Wi-Fi 6e and Bluetooth 5.2. You can get the Z Fold3 with either 265GB or 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage. We have the smaller variant. Both get 12GB of RAM.

It is a truly decked-out setup, but with one major caveat - hat management. The unfortunate reality is that the Z Fold3 struggles with heat management and quickly loses performance due to thermal-throttling with prolonged loads just like its predecessor. The Snapdragon 888 chipset is really power-hungry and tends to run hot. On top of that, we have to consider the fact that despite reaching up to 16mm in thickness when closed, the body on the Z Fold3 is actually very thin at just 6.4 mm on each side. Even thinner than last year's model. And inside that space, Samsung had to fit cutting edge hardware and a lot of it - two different displays, two separate batteries, and a total of three cameras, to name just a few things. There is also the complex and big mmWave antenna setup.

Things quickly add up, with the main takeaway being that the performance curve on the Snapdragon 888 inside the Z Fold3 is tuned quite conservatively. The chip quickly drops its maximum CPU clocks when things get toasty.

This is easy to notice even with consecutive benchmark runs, which made the whole benchmarking process that extra bit more complicated, since we cooled the Z Fold3 between each run. For the highest possible scores in bursty benchmark runs, we also made sure to enable the Enhanced processing toggle that Samsung has hidden away inside its battery management menu. It basically tunes the Snapdragon 888's behavior a bit more aggressively, making it clock higher for longer while it can, at the inevitable expense of less performance in the longer run.

Let's kick things off with some straightforward, CPU-only runs in GeekBench. The Z Fold3 is in fairly decent shape in these tests, though it is clearly underperforming in both single and multi-core tests.

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Realme GT 5G
  1139
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  1130
• OnePlus 9
  1129
• Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate
  1128
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6R
  1128
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  1126
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  1109
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
  1095
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display)
  1095
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  988
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  979
• Realme X7 Max 5G
  967
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+
  959
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  950
• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  906
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  901
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  880
• Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
  813
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  537

The latter seems to be particularly hard for the Z Fold3 and particularly its thermal management to handle. It makes sense - more cores engaged equals more total heat. Even though the Z Fold3 gets outpaced by the Z Flip3 in this particular scenario, it still holds its own. Though, its CPU performance does seem to come closer to traditional Snapdragon 865 devices, rather than properly-cooled Snapdragon 888 ones.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate
  3728
• OnePlus 9
  3629
• Realme GT 5G
  3555
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  3515
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6R
  3486
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  3441
• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  3296
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  3294
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  3248
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  3244
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
  3239
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display)
  3239
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  3191
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  2715
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+
  2690
• Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
  2621
• Realme X7 Max 5G
  2614
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  2603
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  1627

AnTuTu seems to be quite favorable towards the Z Fold3. It is a compound benchmark that takes into account multiple performance and hardware factors, like resolution, memory and storage, to name a few. Still, we do, once again, get better scores from traditional form-factor devices with older hardware, for what that's worth.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• OnePlus 9
  715196
• Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate
  708579
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6R
  708156
• Realme GT 5G
  703986
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  688720
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  657273
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  638497
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
  635918
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display)
  625966
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  607423
• Realme X7 Max 5G
  605819
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  596866
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  571312
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+
  566786
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  564907
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (cover display)
  562403
• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  543986
• Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
  524692
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  508760
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  279342

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6R
  823354
• Realme GT 5G
  810433
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  794016
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
  752218
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  749132
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display)
  724906
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  682223
• Realme X7 Max 5G
  680671
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  333668

Since it has graphics components to its testing, AnTuTu is where we start to get into the general "weirdness" of the Z Fold3's graphical behavior. Between its two unconventionally proportioned displays, their ability to refresh at up to 120Hz, but only if Samsung's adaptive refresh rate algorithms and the app play together nicely, performance is a bit chaotic and all over the place. Unfortunately, this is the case with real-world GPU loads, like actual games, as well, since you can never be quite sure how any given game is coping with the resolution, aspect and adaptive screen refresh rate.

For the sake of thoroughness, we ran all of the graphical benchmarks a few times on both the main and the cover screen, with the 120Hz adaptive "smooth" mode enabled and cooling the Z Fold3 down after each run. Starting with GFX Bench, we have a few observations to make.

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  174
• Realme GT 5G
  171
• OnePlus 9
  168
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6R
  160
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  150
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  142
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  142
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  136
• Realme X7 Max 5G
  129
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  128
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (cover display)
  128
• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  127
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+
  126
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  125
• Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
  123
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  116
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display)
  102
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
  100
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  39

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6R
  135
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  117
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  114
• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  108
• Realme X7 Max 5G
  107
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  104
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  98
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  96
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  88
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  86
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  84
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+
  67
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
  64
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (cover display)
  60
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display)
  60
• OnePlus 9
  60
• Realme GT 5G
  60
• Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
  59
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  35

In a huge surprise to nobody, the 1768 x 2208 resolution of the main display on the Z Fold3 is torturing the GPU quite a bit. Also, there are probably some optimization issues that still need to be ironed out on the software side of things since we can clearly see the Adreno 660 outpaced by lesser hardware in off-screen runs, which should not be dependent on actual display resolution or aspect ratio.

More concerning still, the Z Fold2 has an identical resolution and its lesser Adreno 650 is also managing better fps numbers.

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 9
  119
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  116
• Realme GT 5G
  112
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6R
  111
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  111
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  109
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  94
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  91
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (cover display)
  91
• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  89
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+
  88
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  86
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  86
• Realme X7 Max 5G
  86
• Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
  81
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  80
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
  71
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display)
  71
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  29

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6R
  101
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  91
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  86
• Realme X7 Max 5G
  79
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  78
• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  77
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  76
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  71
• Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
  61
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (cover display)
  60
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display)
  60
• OnePlus 9
  60
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  60
• Realme GT 5G
  60
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  58
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  53
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+
  40
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
  40
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  26

Another observation worth making is that looking at the easiest OpenGL ES 3.0 Manhattan runs, we still keep around, we can see the main display and its adaptive refresh rate are allowing for frame rates above 60, even if the Z Fold3 only managed a few frames more than that. In contrast, GFXBench is clearly not playing well with the adaptive refresh rate on the cover screen, where it is clearly capped at 60Hz, despite the setting and is managing to saturate that refresh rate with 60fps rendering.

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 9
  70
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  69
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6R
  69
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  68
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  66
• Realme GT 5G
  65
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  57
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  55
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (cover display)
  55
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
  55
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display)
  55
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+
  54
• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  52
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  51
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  50
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  50
• Realme X7 Max 5G
  50
• Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
  48
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  17

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display)
  60
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6R
  59
• OnePlus 9
  58
• Realme GT 5G
  55
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  54
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  51
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (cover display)
  46
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  46
• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  45
• Realme X7 Max 5G
  44
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  42
• Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
  42
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  40
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
  38
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  34
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  33
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  33
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+
  24
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  15

This kind of inconsistency in behavior is unfortunately not limited to benchmarking app. Certain games might behave fine on, say, the main display of the Z Fold3, 120Hz, and all while failing in some way on the cover screen, or vice-versa. Some might be borked on both displays together.

To the Z Fold3's credit, however, when a game does work properly on its main display, the experience is on a whole other level, much more akin to playing on a tablet than a phone. The extra screen size is just part of what makes the experience special. In fact, the 22.5:18 aspect ratio of the 7.6-inch foldable OLED results in a much taller image rendered by complying game engines, which frequently makes using on-screen controls a lot more pleasurable, since you are not covering as much of the actual gameplay.

Once we move on to harder GPU test runs, we start to see the advantages the lower resolution of the 6.2 inches, 832 x 2268-pixel cover screen brings about. Or, more accurately put, we get to see just how "extra-handicapped" the main display on the Z Fold3 in graphics rendering performance.

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 9
  43
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6R
  43
• Realme GT 5G
  38
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  34
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display)
  34
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (cover display)
  33
• Realme X7 Max 5G
  31
• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  30
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  30
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  29
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  25
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  25
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  24
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  22
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  20
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
  18
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+
  16
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  10

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display)
  49
• OnePlus 9
  40
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6R
  40
• Realme GT 5G
  39
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  36
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  34
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (cover display)
  33
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  33
• Realme X7 Max 5G
  33
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  31
• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  30
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  30
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
  25
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  23
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  23
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  22
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+
  16
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  10

On a slightly more positive note, running off-screen graphics tests with the Z Fold3 closed and open doesn't really make much of a difference, which is the expected behavior. If some difference does arise, it can be attributed to statistical error or perhaps worse heat dissipation while the phone is closed.

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6R
  31
• OnePlus 9
  30
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  29
• Realme GT 5G
  29
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  28
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  25
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  23
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  22
• Realme X7 Max 5G
  20
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
  19
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display)
  19
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  7

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6R
  28
• Realme GT 5G
  28
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  27
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  27
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  25
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  22
• OnePlus 9
  22
• Realme X7 Max 5G
  22
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  20
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
  20
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display)
  17
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  7

In our experience, 3DMark tends to offer consistent and nicely comparable results. Unfortunately, even it didn't manage function quite properly on the Z Fold3.

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1.0 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  6605
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  6431
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  6248
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  6139
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  5879
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (cover display)
  5738
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display)
  4611
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  2395

The Slingshot Extreme Vulkan 1.0 run, in particular, was quite weird since it claimed that while running on the main display it managed to max out the test, yet still provided a very low score while running on the cover screen. Mind you, by definition, these 3DMark tests are supposed to render their frames at a fixed resolution off-screen and then display them, which should take resolution and other display weirdness out of the equation. Since that is obviously not the case, we can only circle back to our theory that there are still some rendering issues to be ironed out on the Z Fold3.

On the plus side, in the other two 3DMark runs, we get nice and tings scores, regardless of which display we run the app on. Not particularly impressive results, mind you, but that's in line with the overall trend.

3DMark SSE ES 3.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  7215
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  7073
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  7035
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (cover display)
  6984
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  6543
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display)
  6137
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
  6052
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  2517

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Realme GT 5G
  5872
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  5807
• Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate
  5745
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  5676
• OnePlus 9
  5667
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6R
  5667
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
  5635
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (cover display)
  5563
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  5547
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  5261
• Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
  4236
• Realme X7 Max 5G
  4216
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  4194
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  1031

Just to reiterate once again, between its combination of odd displays, with unconventional resolutions and aspect ratios and Samsung's adaptive refresh rate tech, that now has to juggle up to 120Hz on both panels, the Z Fold3 clearly has issues with graphics rendering performance. On top of that, the foldable suffers from its thermal dissipation and management limitations, which also makes it underperform in the CPU department. It is clearly not making anywhere near the most out of the performance the Snapdragon 888 is capable of.

Then again, if Samsung had decided to pair the Z Fold3 with a better-balanced, lower-tier chipset, it would have been pretty hard to explain to most buyers who would then have to pay likely the same or a very similar exuberant price tag and not even get a flagship chipset.

Plus, there are other potential downsides to such a theoretical downsizing, like sacrificing some extra chipset features or perhaps even an inability to power certain aspects of the Z Fold3's exclusive experience, like two odd panels, with up to 120Hz refresh rate. The topic is definitely wide open for discussion, but at the end of the day, for better or worse, the Z Fold3 is sort of stuck managing a Snapdragon 888 on top of everything else it has on its plate.

Thermal management

Of course, we couldn't just make claims on the Z Fold3's thermal management without providing the numbers to back it up. For that, we turned to the excellent CPU Throttling test app, with a lengthy 20-thread, 60-minute stress test. This was done with the Z Fold3 in its fully open state, pre-cooled down to room temperature and with the Enhanced Processing toggle off, so as not to mess with the default scheduler and performance curve and behavior.

CPU Throttling test

To Samsung's credit, the graph didn't show any really jarring, sudden dips, which is what you don't want to see, since those typically result in stutters while gaming. The overall performance loss, however, is massive and starts appearing as early as 5 minutes into stress testing. Granted, this is not a realistic real-world load, but then again, an actual game would also be stressing the GPU as well. Bottom line - heat is a major issue for the Z Fold3.

Solid triple camera setup

The Z Fold3 is probably the quintessential device when it comes to versatility. That is to say, it tries its hardest to do as many different things as possible. Literally, it's a phone, a tablet, it has S Pen support, it's waterproof, and that's just from the top of our heads. It is inevitable that it won't be the best at any one given thing, just decent enough. There is arguably a no better example of this than the camera setup on the Z Fold3.

Just like its predecessor, the Z Fold3 offers a versatile main camera setup, though one that is far from cutting-edge and the best Samsung currently has. At the helm - a familiar 12MP Sony IMX555 sensor, with 1.8µm pixels and 1/1.76" area, behind an f/1.8 lens. In terms of extra bells and whistles, it has Dual Pixel Phase detection autofocus and OIS. This is directly borrowed from the Z Fold2.

The main camera sits in the middle of the Z Fold3's distinctly different camera island. Not only has its shape been redesigned from last year, but it now protrudes a lot less, which is a nice generational improvement. Especially seeing how the rest of the Z Fold3's body has also gotten slimmer.

Sitting tight above that is 12MP, f/2.2, 123-degree, 1.12µm ultrawide camera. This also seems borrowed straight from the Z Fold2. If that is the case, we are probably looking at a Samsung S5K3L6, since that is what our Fold2 review unit had. That being said, sifting through the supported hardware config files on the Z Fold3 unit we have does also list a Sony IMX258 sensor (1/3.06", 1.12µm) from all the way back in 2015, which has been featured in various rumors prior to the Z Fold3's announcement. There is the possibility that units exist with both sensors, and short of disassembling ours, there is no real way of knowing. In any case, there is still no autofocus here, which would have been a nifty addition for macro shots.

Finally, the main camera setup is completed by a 12MP, f/2.4, 1/3.6", 1.0µm, 52mm telephoto snapper. It is advertised as offering 2x optical zoom, and digitally the Z Fold3 can go up to 10x. As far as we managed to dig up, it uses an SK Hynix Hi-1337 sensor. Not exactly common or overly popular. Still, Samsung did tack a lot of extras on top, including PDAF and OIS.

On the selfie side of things, we have a traditional 10MP punch hole selfie cam on the cover screen. It also appears to be directly borrowed from the Z Fold2, with a 1/3", 1.22µm sensor, sitting behind an f/2.2 lens. It is based on the Sony IMX374 sensor, which is actually also found on the original Galaxy Fold. According to Sony's specs, the sensor does support autofocus, but that is not the case on the Z Fold3.

Finally, we get to arguably the most interesting camera of the bunch - the new under-display unit. It is definitely different from the second selfie on the Z Fold2, and as per the official specs sheet has a resolution of 4MP, with 2.0µm pixels and f/1.8 aperture. Consulting config files once again, we think this camera is actually based around a Sony IMX471 sensor (1/3", 1.0µm). That, however, has a native resolution of 16MP, which would suggest that Samsung is probably doing some sort of binning to end up with 4MP stills. We can only imagine how much more complicated dealing with actual RGB pixels in the way of the lens. Interestingly enough, this particular sensor has been quite popular with OnePlus over the years, and ever the OnePlus 9 family uses it for selfies. Not that that traditional implementation can realistically be comparable to whatever Samsung has done to accommodate an under-display installation.

As usual, we start the camera tour with the camera app. It is, unsurprisingly, a standard Samsung affair. All of the core features and on-screen buttons, and notations have remained quite consistent in the last few years. Honestly, this is not a complaint, but actually rather appreciated.

Of course, the UI is going to appear quite different on the large internal display, compared to the cover one.

Camera UI on the main display

And then there is the new Flex Mode camera UI variant, as well. It basically separates out the viewfinder on one half of the display and camera controls on the other one. It is pretty convenient for propping the Z Fold3 on a flat surface to shoot, but works in a vertical orientation too. That being said, it's impressive just how well Samsung has managed to scale this UI in a convenient manner.

Camera UI in Flex View

The tree icons are 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. Alternatively, you can just drag your finger on the trees.

Basic camera UI

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.

Camera settings

The HDR (Rich tone) setting is has been fixed this time around and is no longer separated out into two toggles. Now you just have an Auto HDR toggle in settings, which we kept enabled for our samples.

There is only one fold-specific button here - one that controls the cover display. When the Z Fold3 is unfolded or in Flex View, pressing it simply turns on the cover display as a viewfinder so that your subjects can see how they look and pose for the shots.

Selfies with the main cameras

When the Z Fold3 is folded, this button becomes a "selfie" switch. This prompts you to open the fold, and then it places the entire camera UI, complete with controls on the cover display, so you can capture your selfie using the main cameras while controlling them on the cover screen.

12MP main camera quality

The main camera on the Z Fold3 produces very competent shots. That is hardly a surprise, seeing its hardware is pretty much borrowed from devices like the Galaxy S20 and the Z Fold2 and based around the familiar Sony IMX555 sensor.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP main camera samples

That being said, looking at older samples from some of the aforementioned devices, compared to ones from the Z Fold3, there are some notable differences in processing. It can still be considered flagship-grade, but perhaps a bit more "laid-back" than what Samsung used to do a while back.

Shots from the Z Fold3 can appear slightly softer from time to time and even a bit noisy in certain areas like skies, which is mostly due to less aggressive sharpening and noise suppression. Colors are also not quite as exaggerated, though they still tend to have that signature Samsung "pop".

Resolved detail is on point, though it is worth noting that a native 12MP resolution is a bit on the lower end in a market full of various Bayer and binning solutions. Finer patterns, like the holes on balcony railings in some of our samples, often don't resolve quite right and cause moire fringing. Nothing too major, but still worth pointing out. Same goes for the Z Fold3's tendency to overexpose a bit. Even so, both Auto HDR and AI Scene detection work great, kicking in at just the right time and only manage to improve shots. Here are some samples with AI Scene detection turned off for comparison.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP main camera samples, AI scene detection OFF

Samsung has honed their particular photo look that appeals to its customers over the years and is not doing any drastic alterations to it.

12MP ultrawide camera quality

Ultrawide shots from the Z Fold3 can best be described as "good enough". There is nothing particularly fancy about them, and while we've seen better, Samsung could have definitely done a lot worse too. Some deficiencies intrinsic to ultwrawides in general can be spotted, like general softness and a bit less detail and dynamic range.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP ultrawide camera samples

In fact, softness is actually becoming a bit of an issue on the ultrawide, to be honest, mostly due to the fact that Samsung is applying similarly "laid-back" processing here, with moderate extra sharpening. Perhaps the ultrawide would have benefited from a more heavy-handed approach. Then again, this would have also likely messed with color rendition. Samsung has once again managed impressive consistency in terms of colors across its different cameras, and it only makes sense that we get a more subdued pallet from the ultrawide, as well. Though, that being said, the occasional red in the frame still tends to "pop" quite a bit.

12MP telephoto camera quality

The telephoto snapper on the Z Fold3 has a native zoom level of about 2x. It delivers competent shots. Noise creeps up rarely, mostly in larger areas with uniform colors. Dynamic range is good, if not stellar colors continue the much-appreciated trend of consistency.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP telephoto camera 2x samples

Honestly, in good lighting conditions, these results are quite comparable to those from the main camera.

Beyond the familiar "single tree" toggle, which triggers 2x mode, there is also a linear slider on the Z Fold3, which goes all the way up to 10x, with another anchor-point set at 4x. Naturally, we tested those as well.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP telephoto camera 4x samples

As is the norm, there is cropping, interpolation and upscaling going on, behind the scenes here to get resulting 12MP images at higher zoom levels. Both the 4x and 10x zoom levels honestly surprised up in terms of detail and just how low the noise levels are. Of course, this all hinges on good lighting conditions. Even so, we deem both perfectly usable.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP telephoto camera 10x samples

Here is a full set of samples at every zoom level from the main cameras for your convenience.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G zoom levels: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 4x • 10x

One notable omission on the Z Fold3 is a dedicated macro mode. Ideally, we would have loved to see autofocus on the ultrawide for the best possible macros, but that is not a thing either. You can get relatively close to a subject with the main camera, but autofocus tends to get really wonky.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP main camera macro samples

Your best bet is using 2x mode on close-up objects, which does not actually trigger the telephoto camera, but instead uses the main one to focus at such a short distance. It is definitely good enough for reading small text.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP telephoto camera macro samples

Selfie camera quality

If there is one thing the Z Fold3 has plenty of, it is ways to capture selfies. This does enable plenty of versatility on the foldable form factor. You can do so with either one of the two dedicated selfie cameras - the familiar 10MP regular snapper on the cover screen or the new 4MP under-display unit on the inside of the phone.

And, of course, arguably the most logical thing to do if you really care about the quality of your selfies is to just use the primary camera setup for selfies while using the cover display as a preview and camera control. That way, you get all of the benefits of the powerful camera trio.

Here are some "selfie" shots from the main cameras first, since we already covered their quality characteristics. Even at 2x, the telephoto doesn't work particularly well in terms of framing at a standard arm's length, but the option to use it is still there. After all, if you prop up the Z Fold3 in just the right way, this is a viable way to capture yourself or a group of people from further away with the telephoto.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP "selfies" with the main cameras

Moving on to actual selfie cameras, let's go through the familiar 10MP cover screen one first. It basically borrowed from the Z Fold2 with its 1.22µm pixels and an f/2.2 aperture. It's nothing too fancy, with autofocus standing out as the most notable omission. However, that's not that big of a dealbreaker, considering the Z Fold3's ability to capture selfies with the full power of the trio of main cameras on the back.

In terms of actual quality, the 10MP selfie snappers capture plenty of detail and look sharp. The lack of autofocus isn't a big deal either, since the focus plane is quite forgiving. Positive impressions, overall.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 10MP cover selfie camera samples

Not all Samsung long-standing traditions are great. The availability of two "field of view" options for selfies is one of the less-amazing ones. Mainly since the camera app defaults to the odd, cropped mode, which, in this case, produces stills at around 6.5MP. We aren't sure why Samsung persists with this, but it is a thing. At least you can tell the camera app to remember your last field of view setting, instead of having to switch every time.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 6MP cover selfie camera samples

As a small side note, it should be mentioned that there is a small amount of beauty correction applied to the selfie camera by default. You can always go in and turn it off entirely, though. To its credit, Samsung's beauty mode is on the tamer and more natural side compared to other solutions we have seen. You can still go overboard, but it's not easy.

On to the star attraction then, or at least the camera we are probably most interested in exploring since it is kind of the only new addition to the Z Fold3 and also Samsung's first attempts at an under-display selfie unit. According to official specs, this is a 4MP unit, though, our own software config snooping did suggest Samsung is using a Sony IMX471 sensor with 16MP native resolution instead. Regardless, it sits behind a fairly bright f/1.8 lens. Though, we aren't exactly sure how that number translates to actual light capture capabilities since the lens is technically sitting behind an array of RGB OLED display pixels. A quite low-density set of pixels, to be fair, which probably works in the favor of camera quality.

Top: Galaxy Z Fold2; Bottom: Galaxy Z Fold3

On the flip side, you can still clearly see the spot on the foldable panel. Much more than, say on the recent ZTE Axon 30, which seems to already be using a second generation of the technology. Though, it should also be noted, in conjunction with a traditional display, not a foldable panel, with newfound S Pen support and all the hardware that requires.

Perhaps another thing worth noting is that when the under-display camera does actually get triggered, the display pixels above it become a lot less visible. This is also accompanied by a nifty ring animation on the display around the camera.

But enough about the hardware, how is the actual camera quality? Well, in a word - acceptable, but only thanks to heavy processing. These selfies are quite soft and not necessarily due to a shallow fixed focus plane. Rather, it is just some sort of technical limitation at play.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 4MP under-display selfie camera samples

You will notice, however, that the edges and basically everything other than an actual face in the frame is a lot softer. Samsung is doing a lot of processing to sharpen up your face for these stills. Something that becomes clearly evident even in the camera app viewfinder once you start moving a bit too fast in the frame for the algorithm to keep up or, alternatively, introduce a particularly bright light source in frame. With softer light and while standing still, you can actually see your face "sharpen up" gradually. Freaky stuff.

Speaking of light sources, the under-display selfie cam appears to be faced with hardware-specific issues on that front, namely that the RGB display pixels positioned on top of the camera can refract different light wavelengths, which when uncorrected for properly, leads to some interesting color fringing.

Samsung, once again, does the best it can to fix that under normal selfie conditions, but if you decide to torture the software with a bright light source and things like leaves and other fine detail in front of that, you can clearly see the optical defects. With no extra sharpening applied to your face, the overall importance of computational photography on this camera really becomes apparent. Here are some examples.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 4MP under-display selfie camera samples

On a more positive note, once again props to Samsung for doing its best and mostly managing to unify the color rendition across its selfie cameras and even, to some degree, the main ones.

Samsung simply had to include its "cropped" field of view mode on the under-display selfie as well, for some reason.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 2.6MP under-display selfie camera samples

With it enabled, you get 1856 x 1392-pixel stills, or right around 2.6MP, instead of the default 2304 x 1728-pixel 4MP ones.

Live focus mode

In keeping with Samsung tradition, the Z Fold3 has Live focus mode, which is just another way of denoting portrait mode. The fancier name is quite fitting, though, since stills get saved in a special format that allows you to actually adjust focus and accompanying effects after taking the shot. That's not a new feature, but it's cool enough to keep bringing it up.

Live focus mode

There are quite a few effects to choose from, including different background blurs, color modes, and even a "studio mode" as it's come to be known. All of these come with a slider to adjust intensity.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: Live focus mode camera samples

One thing Samsung appears to have improved significantly since the Z Fold2 is the quality of the subject detection, separation and particularly the background blur. All of these used to be an issue, particularly with busier backgrounds, which is no longer the case.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: Live focus mode camera samples, different modes

It is worth pointing out that for a while now, Samsung has been taking the camera data for its Live focus shots from the main camera and using the ultrawide for depth info instead of the other way around. This is the case here, as well, which does mean that you are limited to either using the main camera or the zoom one for portraits.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: Live focus mode "selfie" camera samples

Live focus can work on non-human subjects as well, but it is quite finicky and difficult to get the algorithm to properly trigger.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: Live focus mode camera samples, non-human subjects

Of course, if you insist on getting your portrait selfies on an actual selfie camera, you can use the regular 10MP one on the cover screen. Quality is solid all around, and you can use the "cropped" field of view for selfies portraits as well, though, we really don't know why you would.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: Live focus mode cover selfie camera samples

You cannot do Live focus or portrait shots with the new under-display selfie camera. Samsung probably deemed their quality not good enough.

Last, but not least, rounding the photo quality section, we have added samples from the Z Fold3's main and telephoto cameras to our extensive photo compare database. Feel free to pixel-peep.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G against the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G in our Photo compare tool

Video capture quality

Video capture on the Z Fold2 is capped at 4K. There is no fancy 8K here, and frankly, it won't really be missed. We still think 4K remains the significantly more practical video resolution of choice. You can do up to 4K@60fps on the main camera, as well as the 10MP cover selfie. The ultrawide and telephoto are limited to 4K@30, which is common for ultrawide and probably an arbitrary choice for the telephoto, more than anything else. The 4MP under-display selfie cam can go up to 1080p@60fps, and it can, of course, also do 30fps capture.

As far as the video capture UI is concerned, there are absolutely no oddities to note. Samsung has, once again, managed to stick to its familiar look and feel and disguise any particular tweaks, particularly implemented to cater to the foldable form factor. Options are pretty standard for a flagship Samsung as well and include optional HDR10+ recording, Zoom-in mic, and an HEVC toggle.

If you leave the latter alone, the Z Fold3 encodes all of its videos in h.264, with an AVC video stream and an accompanying stereo AAC one at 48 kHz. All perfectly normal and pretty much the norm. There are no bitrate irregularities either. From a purely technical standpoint, everything is operating, as the engineers like to say - "nominally".

Let's kick things off with a 4K@30fps sample from the main camera. We expected Samsung flagship-level performance going in, and we got exactly that. No surprises.

Plenty of detail, a decently wide dynamic range, basically no noise or other artifacts. Colors, just like with stills, are a bit less-punchy than Samsung processing of old, and we would say a bit more "true-to-life". There is still some of the signature "flair" here and there. Overall, absolutely nothing to complain about.

At its maximum 4K@30fps setting and native 2x magnification, the telephoto camera delivers solid flagship-level performance, as well. Sure, there is a bit more noise, but kept well under control.

Colors are, perhaps, just slightly off from the main camera and seem to even look slightly more toned-down. The difference is pretty minor, though. Of course, as zoom levels go up, so do noise and softness. Even so, at 4x, the video honestly still looks solid. Anything beyond that, we would be a bit more hesitant to use, though. It should be said, however, that even at 10x, these are among the better clips out there. You can see all of the samples in the following playlist.

Footage for the ultrawide camera was in no way disappointing either. Sure, as with any ultrawide, you get more softness, more noise, and a narrower dynamic range. Softness, however, is only noticeable around the edges of the frame and not all that bad. As far as resolved detail goes, there is still plenty to work with. And we especially appreciate Samsung's continued and impressively successful efforts to keep the color profile of its different cameras as similar as possible.

We also made sure to test the two selfie cameras and their respective video capture quality and capabilities. We have combined a regular video and a stabilization sample from each camera in a clip to showcase both quality and the abilities of the EIS.

Starting with the 10MP cover selfies cam and its 4K clips, these look perfectly acceptable, though with the usual drawbacks of a selfie - mostly limited dynamic range. Resolved detail and colors are pretty spot-on.

As for the stabilization, it works great but does crop away quite a bit of the frame.

The same is also true for EIS on the 4MP under-display selfie cam. As far as its quality goes, like we already Said, Samsung is really working hard to sharpen up the image and especially faces as best it can and is mostly succeeding unless there is a lot of motion.

The other thing that often trips up this particular camera are bright light sources and in general jarring changes in lighting. The dynamic range of the sensor is quite narrow, to begin with, and then there is the whole challenge of dealing with artifacts from the display pixels positioned on top of the selfie cam.

The real question, however, is why you would want to use the under-display selfie in a "vlogging" manner in the first place. On top of all the issues we already mentioned, it is also capped at 1080p. Literally, any other camera on the Z Fold3 offers a better experience in this particular use case. If you actually plan on vlogging, you should probably just figure out a good rig to use one of the main cameras on the Z Fold3 to do it.

The primary use for the under-display camera in the real world is probably going to be for video calls. That means a static frame, likely with constant office lighting and just your face in frame - all perfect conditions for Samsung's excellent sharpening algorithm to work its impressive magic. Plus, after all of that effort, said video stream will just end up super-compressed by whatever video conferencing app you use anyway. Hence, the under-display camera is perfect for its intended purpose in our mind.

Stabilization

For stabilization, the main camera and telephoto cameras on the Z Fold3 have OIS. On top of that, there is an EIS toggle in the settings menu, which works across the board - all three rear cameras and the two different selfie cams. Finally, there is Super steady, which tends to offer additional smoothness beyond the regular OIS, and it is available as a toggle in the main camera UI, but only supports the ultrawide and the main camera. No telephoto and no selfie cams.

We already showcased the regular EIS on the two selfie cameras, and it generally works just as well on the three main cameras of the Z Fold3. That is to say, hand-stunners, as well as shaking while walking is generally taken care of. On the telephoto, in particular, using EIS can sometimes cause a bit of extra focus-hunting, but it's hardly experience-breaking.

Just to reiterate, you can only have access to basic EIS on the telephoto. Super steady is available on the ultrawide and main camera. The extra smoothness on offer is probably not worth it if you are just walking or trying to capture something while moving around since you will just be giving up even more of the frame, with little extra benefits. Super steady comes in strong with things like running or perhaps some vehicle activities when vibrations are involved.

Rounding off the video section, we took some sample clips, at 4K, of our standard test posters.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G against the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G in our Video compare tool

Low-light camera quality

Samsung generally has one of the more "mature" low-light implementations out there. Naturally, that depends on having good camera hardware, as well, which is mostly the case on the Z Fold3. While definitely not cutting-edge, the camera setup is solid overall.

Let's start with the main 12MP camera in full Auto mode (AI and HDR on Auto). There is plenty of detail in these stills, considering the conditions. Sharpness is good, without any obvious signs of aggressive software over-sharpening. Noise is kept at bay well, too.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP main camera low-light samples

Overall, another expectedly solid flagship showing. Though, to be fair, these photos could have probably benefited from a bit more sharpness.

Moving on to the telephoto camera at its native 2x zoom level, we definitely get a bit more noise all around the frame. Also, the occasional focus-hunting issue we experienced with this camera in good lighting conditions is even worse when the lights go down. Again, it's just a case of occasionally losing focus and then taking a few seconds to re-focus. If you are patient enough, it almost always gets it right. So, not a major dealbreaker.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP telephoto camera 2x low-light samples

Naturally, you can see sharpening artifacts here and there in the frame, but it's nothing too jarring and more a case of nitpicking on our end than anything else. Overall, you still get plenty of detail and surprisingly well-balanced exposure and handling of light sources.

What about higher zoom levels beyond the optical 2x limit? Well, naturally, softness increases with zoom, but at 4x and surprisingly even at the max 10x, you can still get usable shots. Plenty of processing is obviously required to get there and is evident in the still, but still, quite impressive.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP telephoto camera 4x and 10x low-light samples

The ultrawide camera is arguably the only one of the main cameras on the Z Fold3 that doesn't quite live up to flagship standards. To be fair, it never actually managed to produce throwaway shots in our experience. Stills are quite dark, and softness is prevalent pretty much all-around, but especially near the edges. Light sources often end up really blown-out too.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP ultrawide camera low-light samples

You can generally rely on Night mode to get better low-light shots, and this has typically been the case with Samsung's implementation. The Z Fold3 gets a pretty standard Night mode setup, which, again, is not criticism. On the contrary, Samsung has one of the snappier Night mode implementations out there. Its stacking algorithm is also solid and quite forgiving towards small shakes and twitches while capturing.

Night mode UI

The way Night mode is meant to work is that it automatically determines the duration of its "exposure" time, based on the available surrounding light. When the system works correctly, you mostly get 4 to 5 seconds of exposure, plus a few extra seconds of processing, which is a reasonable amount to hold still, even if you are holding the hefty Z Fold3 fully open for selfies with the main cameras.

However, we did experience a particular bug with our Z Fold3 review unit where Night mode would just get stuck at the minimum 1s exposure and not really produce proper results. This seems to happen on the telephoto most often, and we found no easy way of "unsticking" it.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP main camera Night mode samples

Even when it is not functioning optimally, Night mode never made a photo worse for us. It fixes light sources in a major way and levels out both shadows and highlights nicely, by clearly stacking a few shots. The difference in sharpness is substantial, too.

Understandably, Night mode has an even more profound effect on shots from the ultrawide, which have more issues to address to begin with. The boost in sharpness is particularly noticeable, and there is even a slight increase in resolved detail.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP ultrawide camera Night mode samples

The same logic tends to apply to telephoto Night mode shots too. To reiterate, even when the algorithm got stuck at just 1 second, the resulting shots still looked a bit better than their regular counterparts.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP telephoto camera 2x Night mode samples

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP telephoto camera 4x and 10x Night mode samples

Low-light selfies, of course, get the full benefit of choice once more. The best thing you can do, if you care about quality, is just using one of the three main cameras on the Z Fold3.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP rear cameras low-light samples

That, naturally, includes optional Night mode, for even better shots.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 12MP rear cameras Night mode samples

The 10MP cover selfie camera on the Z Fold3 holds up well in low-light but is nothing spectacular. Shots come out looking a bit soft, but with decent levels of detail and acceptable light handling.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 10MP selfie camera low-light samples

Night mode is available for this camera as well and tends to have a more subtle effect, mostly boosting shadows a bit. Once again, it never actually managed to make a photo worse, so it gets our recommendation.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 10MP selfie camera Night mode samples

The 4MP under-display camera, on the other hand, unsurprisingly struggles hard in low-light conditions. Photos are extra soft with anything other than faces, specifically sharpened-up by the algorithm looking almost jarringly soft.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: 4MP under-display selfie camera low-light samples

Light sources can sometimes look particularly funky. Not just blown-out, but also with off geometrical distortions, once again due to the display pixels that sit above the camera. On top of all that, there is no Night mode available for this camera. We would really avoid using it in low-light.

Finally, here are some low-light test videos. These were captured in the regular video mode on full auto with the trio of main cameras on the Z Fold3. You could potentially squeeze out slightly better results using the versatile Pro Video mode, but you definitely have to know what you are doing.

For most users, regular video mode on auto will produce more than adequate results. Again, nothing spectacular, but a solid showing all around, even from the ultrawide camera. Plenty of detail and low levels of noise.

Competition

Finding a proper alternative for the Galaxy Z Fold3 5G to actually recommend is a nearly impossible task. Samsung is continually breaking ground on foldable display tech and this particular form factor. So much so, that the Z Fold3 is, without any question, the most mature and feature-complete out of all of the foldable devices out there.

Left: Galaxy Z Flip3 5G; Right: Galaxy Z Fold3 5G

Sure, one could technically make the argument that it is still kind of an iterative upgrade over the Z Fold2, but that mostly glances over a whole tone of extra innovation and painstaking, industry-leading work that went into what was already an engineering marvel in the Z Fold2.

Looking back at that device, it is truly impressive how much more refined it was, compared to the original Galaxy Fold. It was almost like Samsung compiled a list of all of our complaints and concerns and addressed them one by one, nearly perfectly. Now, the Korean giant has somehow, yet again, managed to improve even further on its work. Durability - a key concern we have always expressed with foldables now has a massive boost with the addition of IPX8 rating on the Z Fold3. Plus, enough time has passed with Z Fold2 units in active use to prove that Samsung's core foldable design and components do, indeed, hold up very well.

Left: Galaxy Z Flip3 5G; Right: Galaxy Z Fold3 5G

But, enough beating about the bush, the main reason we bring up the Z Fold2 is that it, kind of still is the most viable one to one, direct competitor to the Z Fold3. That is truly a testament to Samsung's continued dedication to the form factor.

However, we wouldn't really recommend you go out and buy a Z Fold2 today. For one, you will be giving up on some stellar additions to the foldable formula, like the aforementioned IPX8 rating, S Pen support, a smoother 120Hz cover display and better panels all around, to name just some highlights.

There is a price argument to be made, but even it doesn't quite hold up. Sure, the Z Fold2 has depreciated massively since its original EUR 2000 MSRP, however, that depreciation kind of preceded the Z Fold3 launch and happened on its own, which could theoretically be a sign that the Z Fold3 will fall in price nicely in a few months as well. Betting aside, Samsung is really aggressive about pricing this year, not only is the starting MSRP of the Z Fold3 lower at around EUR 1800, but looking around at various carrier deals, the Z Fold3 is heavily subsidized. So much so, in fact, that if you want to really save some money and make the Z Fold2 a potentially better value, you might have to pick it up from an unofficial source, like an eBay seller. That opens up a whole other can of worms, regarding warranty and long-term considerations, like cheaper screen repairs in this generation of foldables.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G • Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G • Huawei Mate X2

Speaking of Samsung and its foldable efforts, we can't ignore the Z Flip3 5G, which, while facing its own set of battles and compromises, is, undoubtedly, also the most mature and refined foldable display "flip phone" currently on offer. Of course, its form factor leverages foldable panel tech for very different end goals, mostly skipping on the advanced and enhanced productivity aspects of the Z Fold3.

If, however, you are interested in the Z Fold3 mostly for the "bleeding-edge" tech appeal it offers and not as much its insanely exhaustive feature list, you could get the significantly cheaper Z Flip3 and have your "conversation-starter" phone needs met. This might sound like an absurd reason to even consider the Z Fold3 for many of you out there, but, may we remind you that companies like Caviar are still very much in business.

Left: Galaxy Z Fold2 5G; Right: Galaxy Z Fold3 5G

Since we are clearly not shying away from some "out-there" alternatives to the Z Fold3, we would be remiss not to at least mention Huawei's involvement in the foldable race, which, granted, seems to be dwindling at best lately. The last device in that roster is the Mate X2, which, may we remind you, is still a 2021 model. The reason it seems so distant, however, is the fact that you practically can't get one even if you wanted to. The Mate X2 was a bit of a paper launch, bordering "concept phone" territory to begin with, and things haven't improved since.

We'll stop listing unobtainable and odd devices now since we hopefully got our point across - the Z Fold3 is a unique offer, with very little direct competition. That, however, doesn't necessarily mean that you can't substitute it for a pair of devices and get an even better overall experience, just not in the same singular package. This is very much the case.

Samsung's latest and greatest S21 Ultra 5G can be had for just under EUR 1000 and unquestionably delivers a better traditional smartphone experience than the Z Fold3 in every conceivable way. The same is also true of the Galaxy Note20 Ultra. Granted, its tech is a generation older since Samsung decided to neglect the Note line this year, but the point still stands, and you also get an S Pen in the fully-featured familiar manner - Bluetooth and all, with a place inside the phone's body.

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G • Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G • Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max • Huawei P50 Pro

Don't fancy Samsung? You could treat yourself to Apple's current top-dog in the iPhone 12 Pro Max instead. Still not your cup of tea? Well, you could also go down the Huawei route, with something like the new Huawei P50 Pro or perhaps the slightly older, but still great Mate 40 Pro+. A great thing about going for one of these major players is the potential to leverage their respective device ecosystem and pick up a matching tablet device to supplement the missing productivity on the Z Fold3, with the bonus of great and seamless (to various degree) interoperability between the two gadgets. Just to throw out a few baller suggestions on that end - the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+, the Apple iPad Pro 12.9 (2021) and the Huawei MatePad Pro 12.6 (2021) .

Of course, our point here being that even at its revised lower MSRP, the Z Fold3 costs enough for you to get the fanciest traditional form factor smartphone of your fancy and, with a few value decisions along the way, you could also easily get a phone and tablet combo that, combined, will deliver a lot better versatility.

Verdict

Giving a "final verdict" on Samsung's foldable devices has always been a real challenge. In fact, we could argue that with the Z Fold3 5G, Samsung has made things even harder on us, since it is undeniably and quantifiably better than its predecessor, while also technically cheaper and with that, still the best foldable around.

That is actually one of the few easy titles we can confidently slap on the Z Fold3 - it is the best, most feature-rich and all-encompassing foldable currently on the market. Samsung took the already excellent Z Fold2 and refined it further, adding things like IPX8 and S Pen support to the mix. It is, effectively, a representation of the very best this particular new form factor is currently capable of, and in an almost hard to believe turn of events, Samsung is actually selling it to users, not just showcasing it at an event somewhere. With aggressive pricing, pre-order bundles, deep carrier subsidies and a lower MSRP, no less. It's almost surreal really.

Bottom line, the Z Fold3 is arguably the best phone it could have been. That is to say, it really does make the most out of its form factor and every bit of currently available tech out there. Why then is it still so hard to recommend outright?

We thought about it quite a bit, and we do have some good guesses. Looking back at the original Galaxy Fold and the first generation foldables, the hype was truly high, and even though it was very easy to poke holes in some aspects of the design and implementation, these deficiencies were sort of swept away by the novelty factor of it all.

Moving on to the Z Fold2, where most of these issues were successfully addressed, we suddenly started bringing up the price argument more and more. Often in isolation, but also along with some viable arguments, like, why should we pay so much for a device that, while very cool, doesn't offer nearly the full feature set of say last year's Galaxy Note?

Well, Samsung really doubled down with the Z Fold3. It has an even more refined hinge and overall better and sturdier body, not to mention a bit smaller. Both displays are truly gorgeous and brighter than ever. The cover screen is now 120Hz as well, while the inside display works hard to offer an even more immersive experience by using an under-display selfie cam and has gotten even tougher and harder to scratch. In part, to accommodate actual S Pen support - a feat that seemed nearly impossible to pull off in this particular setup.

Sure, the Z Fold3 runs hot and doesn't make the most of its chipset, it also chews through its battery very quickly, and its camera setup is solid, yet nowhere near the best in 2021. All of these were true on the Z Fold2 as well and kind of come par for the course with the form factor, rather than being Samsung-specific.

Even so, they are technically still deficiencies over a traditional smartphone. All of which points squarely to one conclusion - we don't really have issues with the Z Fold3 5G, but rather the foldable form factor, in conjunction with current smartphone tech. And while that doesn't and shouldn't really change anybody's actual purchasing decision, it is an important thing to recognize.

The Z Fold3 is and truly awe-inspiring device that makes the most of its form factor and current tech capabilities. Samsung truly succeeded in creating a device that can do it all. Unfortunately, the reality is that a lot still needs to be sacrificed to the form factor. No way around it. If that is something you can accept and be on board with - there is currently no better forward-looking path than that the Z Fold3 is on. For everyone else, there is still better value and utility to be had from a classic smartphone in 2021.

Pros

• Improved durability and materials, further refined design and smaller hinge gap. IPX8 waterproof rating (no dust protection).
• Both displays are better and brighter. 120Hz on the cover screen is a great addition and Samsung's Adaptive refresh rate works great.
• S Pen support is a great addition on the Z Fold3 form factor, though with some particular considerations.
• Excellent stereo speaker setup.
• Familiar and feature-rich One UI 3.1.1, modified to facilitate the unique form factor and imbued with rich multi-tasking features. Flex mode and Flex view are getting increasingly wider app support.
• Solid all-round camera system, complete with unique selfie capabilities, through the cover display.

Cons

• Hinge gap is still present and even the new tougher display protector is still soft and susceptible to damage.
• Under-display camera offers a more immersive multimedia experience than a punch hole, but is still far from perfect and the camera quality is not great. There are better implementation of the tech already out there.
• No microSD slot.
• Disappointing battery life. Charging speed underperforms for its 25W rating and there is no charger in the box.
• The Snapdragon 888 chipset is a bit thermally-constrained and underperforms. It is also quite power-hungry.

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