The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is the company's most ambitious, productivity-centric smartphone yet. This third-generation model feels more refined thanks to improvements such as an IPX8 rating and S Pen support. It has all the makings of a proper flagship on paper but can it be an option for everyday use or is it still a novelty item? For a lot of people with deep pockets (both figuratively and literally), the big question still remains – does it make sense buying the Galaxy Z Fold 3 over something like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra or an iPhone 12 Pro Max? By the time this review is published, I would have spent a little more than a week with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, and while this is certainly not a very long time for such a device, it's enough for me to come to an understanding about who should actually buy this phone. Let's begin as there's a lot to unpack.
First, a quick price check. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 starts at Rs. 1,49,999 in India with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. There's a second variant with the same amount of RAM but twice the storage (512GB) priced at Rs. 1,57,999. It has been launched in three colours internationally, however at the time of this review, Samsung only has the Phantom Black option available for Indian customers. This is an expensive phone and there's no two ways about it. However, if you picked it up during the pre-booking phase, chances are you would have gotten some discounts and additional benefits such as Samsung Care+ with it. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 looks very similar to its predecessor, except for a minor design change to the rear camera module. This phone is a little bit slimmer than its predecessor when unfolded and the overall weight is a bit lower at 271g (vs 282g), but it's still just as chunky in its folded state and the two halves don't sit flush against each other, leaving a gap when the phone is closed. Samsung boasts that it is now using a stronger aluminium material for the chassis compared to the previous model. I like the fact that the frame and glass back panel have a matte finish, which contrasts well with the glossy hinge and outer display. One thing that I still have to get used to is just how slippery the entire body feels. Opening the Galaxy Fold 3 takes a bit of an effort due to the strong resistance of the hinge, and the slippery finish of the frame doesn't make this any easier.
In the folded state, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is easy enough to hold but feels quite bulky in a pocket. It's nearly as tall as an iPhone 12 Pro Max, but narrower, which makes it more comfortable to grasp. However, you will need two hands to unfold it. If we look at the phone as two halves, then the upper one has the stereo speakers on the top and bottom, plus a microphone and a dual-SIM card tray on the right, while the lower panel has the rest of the microphones and the USB Type-C port (USB 3.1 Gen1). The outer display or ‘cover screen' on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is more or less the same as it was on the Galaxy Z Fold 2, except that it now supports an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate. It's a 6.2-inch AMOLED panel with an HD+ resolution (2,268x832) and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. This display is bright and vibrant, and is useful for simple tasks such as scrolling through your Twitter feed or playing casual games, but it's not ideal for typing on unless you're a skilled swipe-typer because of how narrow it is. There's a hole-punch camera on the top, which can be masked by using smartly designed wallpapers. The main attraction is of course the folding 7.6-inch AMOLED display which has a higher resolution of 2,208x1,768, along with HDR10 playback and a 120Hz refresh rate. More importantly, Samsung claims it has used a much stronger ultra-thin glass (UTG) over the AMOLED display which should offer more durability.
A week with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is pretty short but performance was top-notch throughout. Apps transitioned well from one screen to the other, the displays were bright with good colour saturation, and everything felt fluid and snappy. When it came to typing, I nearly always had to unfold the phone and use the main screen since it's more comfortable. The keyboard automatically splits into two sections for better reachability for your thumbs. A swipe-down gesture from the bottom of either display shrinks its contents for even better reach. The crease in the folding screen is still very much there, but when viewing content in full-screen and head-on, it's barely noticeable. The main display is simply gorgeous for consuming content. Videos generally have thick black bars on the top and bottom because of its dimensions, but most apps will let you fill the full screen at the cost of cropping the frame. The stereo speakers sound really good and get quite loud too. Other than videos, the Galaxy Z Fold 3's main display is great for reading books on, be it novels or comic books. Games look amazing on the main display, no matter what you play. Productivity apps such as Microsoft Office and Google Sheets are much nicer to use when you have so much screen real estate. Of course, there are a bunch of Android apps that don't adapt to the large screen as well as they should, such as Slack, and some that don't work well at all, like Instagram.
Let's start with the most interesting and arguably the lowest quality camera of the bunch – the under-display selfie camera. It's resolution is just 4-megapixels and the aperture is f/1.8. While it's serviceable for video calls or face recognition, it's not very good for taking photos. Samsung's post-processing tries its best to fix things but there's still a noticeable difference in quality between it and the 10-megapixel selfie camera in the cover screen, despite the latter's even narrower aperture. Thanks to the folding nature of the phone, you can bypass both selfie cameras and simply use the rear cameras to take a selfie, thereby giving you vastly better quality and flexibility in terms of lenses. Other than the under-display camera, the rest of them are exactly the same as what the Galaxy Z Fold 2 had, except now the 2X telephoto camera is also optically stabilised. The three main cameras – wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto – all have 12-megapixel sensors. I would have liked to see camera improvements from the Galaxy S21 Ultra make their way here, such as laser autofocus or higher optical telephoto magnification, but sadly, none of that is present. When you open the camera app from the cover screen, you have the option of using the rear cameras to take a selfie. Opening the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 halfway lets you see your most recent photos and videos on the left, while the viewfinder and controls are on the right. Switching to a landscape orientation in the same half-folded state, the controls then move to the bottom along with the preview of your last photo.
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