Galaxy Fold review Samsungs foldable phone lives and dies by its screen CNET

I knew from the instant I held it that the $1,980 Galaxy Fold, the arena's first important foldable telephone, could be something different, some thing special. Feeling the screen open and near turned into one of these visceral action that felt natural and proper. And after doing everything from watching films and studying the news to writing emails on that enormous 7.3-inch display, you may never want to head back to "best" a 6-inch display once more. The promise -- and peril -- of a foldable phone are actual. And it's all within the display, middle crease or no.

We knew there would be growing pains, however no one predicted the displays on a few reviewers' telephones to malfunction so quickly, or for Samsung to postpone the Fold's April 26 sale date for weeks -- until June 13 for AT&T's preorder buyers -- even as it investigated what went incorrect. That sucked, because the incidents cast a pall over the Fold and over the concept of foldable phones in fashionable. I had been tremendous excited to be one of the first inside the global to attempt the Fold, however the display meltdown allow all the air out of the balloon.

Because the Galaxy Fold is so essential as the first actual telephone of its kind, and due to the alarming screen developments, I've taken my time making this assessment as thorough as viable to avoid any knee-jerk reaction. We all deserve better than that. I've used the Fold every day for extra than every week in every manner a person can use a phone, even (gasp!) to make calls. I ran two overnight battery drain checks, peered at its screen from each perspective and typed until my hands ached.

Although the early production evaluate unit that Samsung gave me by no means so much as flickered, CNET will preserve off giving the tool an reputable score until we have absolutely tested a very last production Galaxy Fold. The truth that the Fold has now suffered five display screen meltdowns before it even reached clients' arms worries me deeply.

That Samsung by some means missed proper high-quality manipulate before freeing this tool will stir up reminiscences of the Galaxy Note 7 battery flame-out. If reviewers hadn't caught the display screen issues at the Fold, quite a few sad clients would possibly have shelled out $2,000 for a tool that offers extra headaches than glimpses of the destiny. And, of path, we have to wonder how this will have an effect on other foldable telephones, such as the Huawei Mate X and the (rumored) foldable Moto Razr. Will the real foldable revolution stall a few years at the same time as looking ahead to Corning's bendable glass?

I have to mention that Samsung is recollecting all evaluate units. While it is in all likelihood the organisation desires to do some damage manipulate earlier than extra problems expand, reviewers were also told on the out of doors that we would have a confined, 10-day evaluate duration earlier than having to present the telephones lower back.

Read more: The Galaxy Fold's display malfunction: Everything you need to know

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After a week, I'm nevertheless divided approximately the Fold. The world does not need foldable phones. We can get alongside flawlessly fine without them. But we have to need them -- not because the Fold is now, but as it may be. I desire the Fold's early misfortunes do not deter Samsung and others from attempting again. The emblem is already rumored to be at paintings on two extra separate designs. Maybe one of those may be the price tag.

The Fold's display troubles, while actual, also distract us from evaluating in which this device works nicely and wherein it would not. We need so that it will permit the drama settle and definitely examine what the Fold has to offer. So that's what I'm going to do.

Let's agree that the Galaxy Fold is a testbed tool for developers and the earliest adopters to shop for, and for the rest people to ponder over -- after which permit's positioned that aside and dive into the info. Are you with me?

What the Galaxy Fold is satisfactory at:

• Screen viewing, e.G. Reading and watching videos
• Opening and closing
• Multitasking
• Being portable
• Grabbing humans's attention

What the Fold isn't always so true at:

• Protecting the internal display screen
• Typing, mainly at the small outside screen
• Long-lasting battery life
• Being round water
• Smooth scrolling

When you open the Fold, any app you released at the out of doors additionally opens on the internal.

Samsung

Why we care about the Galaxy Fold in the first place

The promise of a foldable smartphone is all about the display screen. Specifically, approximately giving you an expansive, uninterrupted show to look at films, play video games and study on, then placed away to your pocket.

Companies have made foldable telephone concept sketches and prototypes for years, but the Galaxy Fold marks the first time there may be been sufficient essential mass in hobby and technological understand-a way to make a business device feasible. Samsung isn't by myself. Huawei's Mate X and TCL's dedication to a destiny foldable are making this new bendable design extra actual each day. 

Even Google's in on the action, pledging Android aid in order that its software program will transfer from one display orientation to some other as you fold and spread the display. A little-recognised agency bought the primary foldable smartphone, the Royole FlexPai, but Samsung's Fold is the primary "actual" foldable cellphone for the majority. 

Look closely beyond the bezel and you may see a thin film ringing the Galaxy Fold. Samsung says this defensive layer is not a screen saver, and also you shouldn't eliminate it or you might damage the display screen.

Angela Lang/CNET

All foldable phones will start out ultra-highly-priced -- the 4G version of the Fold starts at $1,980, and the Mate X prices approximately $2,600. UK and Australian costs haven't been introduced, but $1,980 converts to approximately £1,500 or AU$2,750. 

There can also still be kinks to workout on launch. But if Samsung and its competitors can restoration important issues that the Fold's seeing now, and enough people land up clamoring for the layout, then foldable phones have a danger to trade the manner human beings use their devices. A foldable smartphone should someday make tablets obsolete.

Read more: Galaxy Fold 'loss' will be Mate X's and foldable Motorola Razr's gain

The display screen's approximately as gentle and smooth as a younger shoot, and simply as easily mangled.

My Galaxy Fold's 7.3-inch display: No breaks, however a dent

The Galaxy Fold has a small 4.6-inch display screen you may use whilst it is closed, however it is the 7.3-inch internal show it is your actual residing area. While you get chemically hardened Gorilla Glass on the outdoor, this inner display is made from plastic, not glass -- due to the fact we do not have bendable glass yet. That method the display screen's approximately as soft and soft as a young shoot, and simply as without difficulty mangled.

The Galaxy Fold's body count is up to 5 amongst early reviewers. My evaluation unit is still 100% usable, with out bumps or distortion, however if you study it carefully, over on the left side there's a small divot. You can see it truly in our evaluation video. 

It's likely that something vicious in my handbag marked up the display when I tossed the Fold in open to complete a benchmarking take a look at even as getting off a educate. It nearly looks as if the 1/2 moon of a fingernail. I'm no longer even certain when it came about, however it does speak to the fragility of this kind of layout.

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Premium at the out of doors, cheap feeling on the inside

It's the bendable display inside that makes the Galaxy Fold so uncommon, however there is lots about the general design that radiates its status as first-generation and unfinished. 

It appears and feels top class at the outside when closed up tight, way to glossy glass surfaces, luminous coloration and a sparkling, dressed-up hinge. Samsung had to go this course on the way to justify the phone's high price. A magnetic closure enables the Fold experience securely closed. 

I don't count on plastic bezels on a $2,000 "luxury" smartphone. Do you?

Angela Lang/CNET

But while you open it up, the interior feels and appears toylike, with plastic bezels and a massive notch to suit the plastic screen.

The plastic movie it really is induced such a ruckus is best one hassle. Two reviewers took it off (I concept about doing so, myself), which prompted the display screen to at once malfunction. Samsung later stated it's not a display screen protect, but an fundamental part of the phone's shape. With a thin border among this shielding layer and those plastic bezels, it is hard to tell -- there may be enough room to easily slide in a fingernail or device to offer this movie a tug.

Another hassle is the dirt and lint that want to acquire in this gap. More worrisome, possibly, are small dual openings among the screen and the hinge, one on either pole when the Fold is open. You can see how something could paintings its way in there.

On the bright facet, beginning and remaining the Fold feels extremely good. The Fold is a phone you have to understand on a bodily degree that words and photos don't do justice. You should sense how a lot force you need to throw into it to shut the tool and open it again. To gauge the smoothness of that large hinge because the "wings" open and near. It isn't always difficult, but you do want to be planned, and I like the little little bit of exertion the Fold needs from you. And that clack while it does close! Extremely enjoyable.

The Infinity Flex show is made of a sort of plastic due to the fact bendable glass is not to be had but.

Sarah Tew/CNET

It's no longer just me that thinks this. I've surpassed the Galaxy Fold around to co-employees, friends, perfect strangers craning to get a look -- even my septuagenarian dad and mom -- and you can see their faces mild up the first time they bend and unbend the screen. It's such an "aha!" second. (My mother referred to as the screen shade "pure and glowing.")

I do love that I can definitely zip the Fold into the pocket of a quick-waisted, fitted leather jacket. When I've finished a consultation of use, I can surely near it up with a snap and stash it away. 

Let's be actual approximately the screen crease

Before the Galaxy Fold monitors started appearing up, this seam jogging down the smartphone's plastic Infinity Flex display changed into the aspect annoying people most. It changed into unsightly, they said, at the same time as fretting over long-term wear and tear. Would the crease get worse? Would it get in the manner?

Yes, the crease is there, and it is distinctly seen in certain mild for the simple and enduring reason that foldable phones have displays that bend in half of. Until we discover a cloth that fluidly self-heals whilst bending and unbending, we are going to ought to placed up with some amount of creasing. Foldable monitors with outward bends consisting of the Mate X and FlexPai have an obvious ridge, too. So does your elbow.

If you are not navigating video games in the middle of the screen, the crease likely isn't always to your manner.

Angela Lang/CNET

When I press down at the 7.3-inch screen while the Fold is opened, I can experience the hinge mechanism underneath, but I do not genuinely feel it if I'm swiping gently. It does not much get in the manner with the few games I've played thus far, and after I'm immersed in what I'm doing, like reading the display or watching a video, the whole lot else simply fades away. 

I'd alternatively not have a crease, however at this point, it's the least of the Fold's screen concerns.

The notch stands proud like a sore thumb

As an awful lot as I just like the Fold's seems, a number of its design factors are real head-scratchers. First, there's that notch. It's a roughly inch-lengthy cutout at the right facet of the 7.3-inch display, housing two cameras and some sensors. 

I'll be honest with you, it appears quite ridiculous and unnecessarily large. I get that Samsung wanted to center the cameras, but when you shine a light onto the notch, you notice that the lenses and two sensors soak up a ways greater room than they need to. When you play video, the notch is a massive thick bump off to the side. It would not ever hinder the movement of a scene, but I don't assume it needs to be quite so big. 

The Galaxy Fold's notch is taking up pretty plenty of area.

Angela Lang/CNET

In a few apps, like YouTube and video games like Riptide Renegade, the screen in line with the notch blacks out to create wider bars on either facet. You do not notice the notch so much, but you also don't get the total-display experience.

If you hate the notch enough, you may artificially black out a part of the screen the use of a few show settings (Display > Full-display screen apps > Advanced settings > Hide digital camera cutout). That'll just make the bezel appearance thicker.

The Fold's 4.6-inch screen is just too small and narrow

Samsung's foldable smartphone is tall and narrow whilst closed, and the 4.6-inch outdoors show feels small floating in the center of the body, surrounded on all sides with the aid of a fair bit of empty space. This design gives the screen the impression of being smaller than it's miles. The opportunity, I think, might be to have an even taller display, which would possibly present some of its personal demanding situations formatting not unusual apps.

When it's folded up, the Fold feels a chunk like a flip phone or older candybar telephone, making it convenient for placing calls. It's much less convenient to launch the camera via double-urgent the energy button, or unlocking the cellphone while it's folded up. Those buttons are on the second one camel hump while the Fold is closed, so that you have to reach throughout one layer to press them. That results in inaccuracy.

Talking at the closed-up Fold is comfy and makes feel.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The Fold receives one of my favorite new Samsung features, Wireless PowerShare. This lets you charge up another tool you placed on the Fold's again. That went well for smaller accessories such as the wi-fi Galaxy Buds. But the S10 Plus, a much wider cellphone than the Fold, needed to be situated simply so or it would slide off. 

When the Fold is absolutely closed, there is an air hole -- the outlet closest to the Galaxy Fold's hinge in which the two halves meet do not absolutely touch. It's honestly smaller than I feared it might be, and at the same time as it's substantial, it doesn't stand out. I may want to easily slip in a credit card. Then I slipped in any other. The Fold stayed folded, in the main due to the anxiety created with the aid of the magnets. 

The Fold's hinge movements smoothly, however a massive mechanism right here also makes the width of the smartphone's "wings" pretty slender. Closed, it seems like a sandwich. On the right aspect, there is a quantity rocker and a strength button, and the fingerprint reader doubles as the Bixby button. I've by chance pressed it severa times.

Life is specific with a 4.6-inch screen.

Sarah Tew/CNET

There's no headphone jack, that is OK if you use the unfastened Galaxy Buds wi-fi earbuds that come inside the field, however bad when you have stressed out headphones you'll rather use. The Fold isn't water-proof, so that you need to take care you don't drown your funding. 

When it comes to the real commercial enterprise of a telephone -- the usage of apps -- the more compact configuration is a bit more of a undertaking.  Although the Fold's display screen is a good deal smaller than any phone you're used to, you could nevertheless get admission to all of your mounted apps. Samsung preloads a big clock widget, which you can faucet to get into your clock app (available for placing an alarm), and you may trade this widget up if you'd like. 

There's additionally the Google Search bar, and area for three app icons. You can make folders, in order that enables put more at the web page, and of route there are more than one domestic monitors, so that you can fast get to your apps. The app tray is likewise easy to invoke by means of swiping up from the lowest, as you will on different phones.

Typing on that tiny display screen can be a project.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Font length and icons are both miniaturized, which seems like a throwback to the times when we all hunched over our cellphone screens, searching and pecking our way through apps. As I tried responding to tweets and messages while at the cross, it have become clearer and clearer that this display screen, and its virtual keyboard, are too small to be beneficial. I can almost type accurately after I'm motionless, however as soon as I commenced taking walks or being bounced through a teach or bus, the errors grew to the point of being unreadable.

Maybe it'd be easier to kind at the 4.6-inch display if the Samsung keyboard supported tracing. I ought to switch to Gboard, the digital keyboard I decide on, however then I'd lose the split-display keyboard once I open the Fold. I scoured the settings and it does not seem like you may use different inputs at the front and indoors screens the way you can set distinct wallpapers.

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My solution turned into to apply voice input, however Samsung's default software best mangled my phrases extra. I changed into in a position to show it off inside the settings, which fell lower back to Google's voice enter, my desire all along. That helped highly.

I have smaller fingers, so it this was tough for me, however it's sure you will battle when you have bigger hands. I'd sincerely depend on Google Voice or Bixby to do sure matters, like vicinity a call, look for keep hours or turn Wi-Fi on and stale.

The one aspect I will say is that the Fold is simple to use one-handed while folded up, specifically if all you need to do is follow maps navigation or snap a brief image. 

The Fold doesn't near perfectly flat.

Sarah Tew/CNET

'App Continuity' works as advertised

When you open the Fold, any app you have open on the outside will also unfurl on the inner. This is called App Continuity, and it is something Samsung and Google labored on together to make sure that the Fold would not revel in lag. 

This works as expected and right now. But in case you want the app at the inner display screen to observe you to the smaller outside one, you may want to pick those apps within the Display settings. This is because you can not want every app to dog your heels. You might determine that, for maximum apps, remaining the cellphone means final out what you're doing.

Right now, WhatsApp, Microsoft, Spotify, Amazon Prime Video, Samsung and Google apps have all been optimized to use the design. If the app does not support App Continuity, it nonetheless works, however you will want to resize the app for complete-display screen -- otherwise you'll see black bars on both side.

The split display keyboard is useful.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The moment you start typing, you may observe that Samsung splits the keyboard to make it greater relaxed on the larger display screen. My palms nonetheless stretched across the display and got worn-out, however I by no means felt like I become going to drop the Fold and I nevertheless favored it to typing on the smaller screen.

I'm not the sector's biggest fan of the Samsung keyboard, and it's irksome that you can not hint to type in cut up-display screen mode. I'm sure that 0.33-party virtual keyboard replacements will upward push to the task. 

Multitasking: There's an art to using three apps at once

Multitasking is one of the Fold's largest selling factors. Being able to dissipate to 3 apps at the equal time is, in spite of everything, one gain of the usage of a larger screen. But multiactive windows, as it's called, is complicated and a touch puzzling, so endure with me and I'll do my fine to give an explanation for it.

Most of the time, you may open an app the manner you normally might, both by way of tapping the icon on your property display, selecting it out of your Recents tab, or swiping up from the bottom to pick out from the app tray. Now say you need to speak with someone while you're playing YouTube videos. You swipe from the proper aspect of the screen (in which the brink show is on different Galaxy telephones) and launch an app that manner. 

You can dissipate to three apps at once.

Angela Lang/CNET

You'll be aware that establishing the second one app scooches the first one over to the left so the second one can load as a tall, narrow panel. Then, in case you upload a third app (same way you add a 2nd), the secondary panel divides in half of to make room for the third panel. You can barely resize those home windows, close them out, and drag and drop to reposition them the usage of blue "handles" at the pinnacle of the app. For example, in case you want your 0.33 app to become your most important window, you can drag it over into that function. 

I observed proper away that the more apps you've got open, the smaller the font. So you can not actually need to apply all three straight away all the time. But in case you need to fast open the calculator whilst you are reading a information tale, you do not ought to prevent what you're doing to interchange attention. You also can turn the telephone to panorama mode to change the orientation, which makes the home windows wider and shorter. 

To load an app on the main window, you swipe up to get entry to the app tray. To open an app on one of the other home windows, you flick from the app tray at the proper and release an app that way. One more pro tip: You can also build out your multiwindow display screen by way of dragging and dropping icons from the Recents tab. 

Closed, the Fold seems like two telephones stacked one on another. You can see the fingerprint reader/Bixby button underneath the lock button. 

Angela Lang/CNET

Everything I simply described takes place in a really perfect world, but there are limitations. You'll by no means have the option to open a few apps as secondary or tertiary panels, and that simply sucks. I'm hoping Samsung will paintings with top app developers to make this show up.

Interestingly, I observed that a few apps might open now not as a panel, but as a pop-up (see my embedded tweet above). In this case, I opened Netflix to begin a download, and then opened Google Drive to find a record even as I waited. I had expected Drive to open as a panel, and was amazed to look it as a window in a window, a lot like the photograph-in-picture view that lets you see Google Maps navigation as a thumbnail whilst focusing on some thing else completely. I expanded the pop-up and moved it around the use of the identical "handles."

Speaking of the Netflix down load (two episodes of the British length secret agent drama Traitors), the photograph didn't obviously fill the display screen and I failed to see an onscreen manipulate to extend it -- simply black bars at the pinnacle and backside. Samsung will actually want to paintings with Netflix on formatting, because this is not a really perfect association. You can pressure the app to enlarge if you dig around in the show settings, however that did not trade whatever for Netflix.

The Galaxy Fold is available in black, green, silver and blue.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The Fold's six cameras are as good as on the S10 Plus

The Galaxy Fold has a total of six cameras: three on the back, one on the the front and two interior:

• 10-megapixel digicam for brief photographs and selfies (outer display)
• 10-megapixel digital camera (internal display screen)
• 8-megapixel RGB depth sensor (inner screen)
• 12-megapixel most important digicam (backing)
• 16-megapixel ultra-huge attitude (backing)
• 12-megapixel telephoto lens (backing)

You might get stared at taking pix with the Galaxy Fold open, however you could satisfactory-song your shot.

Angela Lang/CNET

While you may images the usage of the 4.6-inch display, Samsung expects you to apply the Fold opened up to take maximum snap shots, because you will be capable of better alter the blur and settings that manner. I do not love conserving up a pill-sized display screen to take my images. I make amusing of those people (sorry, human beings). Now I've come to be one of these people. 

Taking images while the Fold is closed up is doable, however now not splendid as it's hard to tell if your picture is in recognition, and it is a lot tougher to move tiny sliders for Live Focus (portrait) shots. But in case you're really taking a quick percent, or do not need to draw interest to your self by unfolding the Fold, then it's completely excellent. You can both percentage the image proper away, or open the Fold for best-tuning.

It's lots less complicated to take selfies from the closed role than from the open position, and it's also extra private -- you don't have everyone and their canine watching you check your teeth to your 7.3-inch screen. 

One-exceeded camera photographs are suitable for taking a short picture to share right away.

Angela Lang/CNET

Since Samsung is using the exact equal cameras on the Galaxy Fold as it does at the Galaxy S10 Plus (and S10 5G), so that you get incredible satisfactory photos. 

I'm intrigued through the 8-megapixel intensity-sensing digital camera on the interior, on account that it is basically going to be used for selfies, now not for AR studies in front of you (or else it'd be on the rear). Perhaps if Samsung magically activates cozy face liberate the usage of the intensity-sensing digicam, this would be one way to open the Fold before unlocking it. It may be used to affirm on-line payments. Until then, the fingerprint reader is rapid and clean enough to use open or closed. I'll get into that in a bit more detail under.

Solid battery lifestyles and performance, however scrolling can get weird

Samsung guarantees all-day battery lifestyles at the Galaxy Fold's 4,380-mAh power supply (that is split into two batteries, one for every facet). 

As continually, how long you get relies upon on how you use the telephone. In my assessments, the Fold truly went from morning until night time, however I did need to plug it in again on the cease of the day. The Fold will last longer closed than it'll in case you continually use it open, for the simple purpose that the larger screen needs more strength.

We see the same digital camera setup as the Galaxy S10 Plus.

Sarah Tew/CNET

That become obvious in CNET's looping video drain battery test in airplane mode. Open, the Fold lasted 16 hours on the primary run and 17 hours on the second. Compare that to the Galaxy S10 Plus, which ran 21 hours with the identical take a look at.

The Galaxy Fold makes use of the identical Snapdragon 855 processor because the Galaxy S10 telephones, and I'm happy to file that benchmarking check ratings fall proper in line. Using apps on the huge and little monitors felt speedy. App continuity, which shuffles apps among the inner and outer screens, is a very new trick, so there's a fragment of a put off there that I might not hold against Samsung and Google at this early level.

What I will point out -- and I know I'm now not the first reviewer to achieve this -- is a peculiar effect called "jelly scrolling" that makes the text scroll at one of a kind costs at the Fold's left hemisphere as opposed to its proper aspect. When you scroll speedy in either route, blocks of text seem like they slant up or down. It's no longer going to get on your manner, but the two sides actually aren't aligned. Just one more aspect for Samsung's to-do listing.

Galaxy Fold vs. The Huawei Mate X

Specs

4.6-inch Super AMOLED (1,680x720 pixels); 7.3-inch Dynamic AMOLED (2,152x1,536 pixels)	6.6-inch (2,480x1,148 pixels); 6.38-inch (2,480x892 pixels); 8-inch OLED (2,480x2,two hundred pixels)
Android 9.0 with Samsung One UI	TBA
12-megapixel (extensive-attitude), 16-megapixel (ultra wide-angle), 12-megapixel (telephoto)	Four rear cameras
Two 10-megapixel, 8-megapixel 3-d depth	At least one
TBA	TBA
Octa-center Qualcomm Snapdragon 855	Kirin 980 processor
512GB	512GB
12GB	8GB
No	No
4,380-mAh dual battery	4,500-mAh dual battery
Power button	Power button
USB-C	USB-C
No	No
Foldable show, wi-fi charging, rapid charging	Foldable display, fast charging
$1,980	TBA, converts to $2,600 (2,299 euros)
TBA, converts to £1,500	TBA, converts to £2,000
TBA, converts to AU$2,750	TBA, converts to AU$3,620

Originally posted April 15 at 6 a.M. PT and updated regularly.

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2019-04-24 17:57:00Z
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