Samsung's third-generation foldable gets much better with upgrades.
The foldable is the most versatile product out in the smartphone industry. Not only does the foldable provide that dual form factor but do gets the flagship cameras, chipset, and other specifications almost right. When it comes to foldable, Samsung has held an edge with its Fold series ever since 2019 where we saw the Galaxy Fold which had the first foldable form factor where you can use either as a smartphone or as a tablet.
In 2020, Samsung came up with the 2nd iteration of its foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 that brought some major improvements and had a completely new design. With the second generation of the Fold series, Samsung had a quite successful but some things were missing which have been addressed in the third generation of the Fold, the Galaxy Z Fold 3.
With the Galaxy Z Fold 3, Samsung is looking quite ambitious as it has made a lot of improvements thus providing the core principle of a smartphone and tablet also. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 brings in a new design and now for the first time in a foldable, you are getting an IPX8 rating making it waterproof, an under-display selfie camera, the versatility of S-Pen support, and also Gorilla Glass Victus for protection.
From Samsung, we have the flagship Galaxy S21 Ultra (Review) which is the pinnacle of all flagships and the foldable comes closer to it thus sporting the flagship Snapdragon 888 chipset instead of the Exynos 2100. So shall you spend some extra for a dual form factor over the flagship Galaxy S21 Ultra and how good is this product for an average consumer looking out for a smartphone?
Let's find out in the full review.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 Design:
The design of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 is not a big upgrade over the Galaxy Z Fold 2 as it continues to provide the same form factor as the previous iterations of foldable be it the first as well as the second generation. So coming to the Galaxy Z Fold 3, this time around Samsung has used a stronger material which Samsung likes to call the Armor Aluminium that provides more strength and durability.
The inner glass of the display is 80 percent more durable by improving the thin glass that is applied on top of the display than its previous generation. Samsung has also improved the hinge mechanism and there is no creaking sound as the folding is very easy. However, when you do fold there is some amount of gap is left between which was the case with both the previous generation foldable.
For the first time, you have an IPX8 rating on a foldable, and Samsung has achieved this as it can survive under fresh water for 1.5 meters for 30 minutes and this was not present on the Galaxy Z Fold 2. In terms of dust, the hinge uses a vacuum cleaner-like system that keeps the dust away. The front, as well as the back of the Galaxy Z Fold 3, is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus.
To the top, there is a secondary noise-canceling microphone with dual speakers one at the top and another at the bottom. The bottom gets a USB Type-C port, a primary microphone, and a loudspeaker grille that doubles up as a stereo speaker. However, there is no 3.5mm headphone jack which is not a big miss though.
The sides of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 are metallic and to the right side, there are the volume buttons with a power button that doubles up as a fingerprint scanner. The dual SIM card slot is located on the right which is a hybrid slot. Like the Galaxy Z Fold 2, there is also a Flex Mode where you can use it as a laptop-like form factor as the hinge allows it to open into two halves where one can be moved in different angles and the other to be kept flat on a surface.
Flex Mode separates the content on basis of usage where for example in Youtube, the video occupies the first half whereas another part occupies the second half thus providing an experience of a laptop. Other applications such as Samsung Notes, Google Duo, etc. work very well in this mode. The Flex Mode also works for external display when kept at an angle for media consumption.
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 weighs around 271grams which is slightly lighter than the 282grams of the Galaxy Z Fold 2 and is around 16mm in thickness when folded and 8mm thick when opened like a tablet. It is available in three different colors - Phantom Black, Phantom Silver, and Phantom Green. Overall, the build and design feel unique and a solid upgrade over the Galaxy Z Fold 2.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 Display:
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 sports a dual display with the internal display having a size of 7.6 inches Quad HD+(2208x1768 pixels) Dynamic AMOLED with an aspect ratio of 5:4. Compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 2, the bezels are slightly less and for the first time we are also greeted with an under-display camera which is difficult to put under a display and Samsung has nailed this perfectly.
Inside the display, the crease is very much visible when light hits it but while using the display from a distance you would not notice the crease much as almost all applications fit the entire display very well. This camera gets covered when, not in use and when you turn on the front camera, it is visible and the rest of the time it is not visible as it is covered by some matrices.
This camera is 4MP which is very low in terms of resolution which will be covered in the camera section. Since the display is AMOLED, the viewing angles, as well as color reproduction, are good. The outer display is of 6.2-inches in size and has an HD+ resolution (832x2268 pixels) and like the Galaxy Z Fold 2, you can reach all parts of the display as single-handed use is great.
There is a 10MP selfie camera in a single punch-hole here. This outer display now supports a 120Hz refresh rate also which was missing on the Galaxy Z Fold 2. This display has a screen-to-body of 25:9. The inner display has a 120Hz refresh rate and this is an LTPO panel where the refresh rate varies from 1Hz to 120Hz depending on the application running in the background and this helps achieve better battery life also.
The display also automatically switches to the standard 60Hz from 120Hz when it detects a low battery.
However, you do have the standard 60Hz refresh rate also, and switching to this provides more battery life. The larger display provides a great multitasking experience as you can use multiple applications side by side, reading through webpages, playing games, and also watching videos is a big boon.
Now this display also supports S-Pen as we have been using on the Samsung Note series which is a good upgrade over the Galaxy Z Fold 2 and you get a dedicated S-Pen for the Galaxy Z Fold 3. And also the Flex Mode ensures you are getting the controls to view or control contents on the other half. In terms of brightness, the inner display has a peak brightness of 1000nits when watching videos in HDR.
The inner display can go as high as 922nits in HDR but for usual kinds of stuff like scrolling or watching it achieves 489nits of brightness. Both the displays have support for HDR10+ so you can stream HDR content on Youtube and have Widevine L1, so streaming HD content from OTT platforms like Netflix, Prime, etc. is a breeze. Netflix has support for HDR content which is good to see.
Samsung claims that with the Galaxy Z Fold 3, it has gone for a new panel called Eco2OLED. Eco2OLED, as the name suggests, is an energy-efficient AMOLED panel that consumes 25 percent less power compared to the traditional OLED panels, and also the brightness levels are slightly better as it allows more light to be captured thus resulting in better color reproduction also.
In terms of color temperature, you have two different modes - Vivid and Natural where Viviid covers the DCI-P3 gamut and you can set from warmer to cooler tone in the slider. The Natural aims as sRGB and has punchier colors on the display. Definitely, smaller upgrades like 120Hz refresh rate on the outer display, Gorilla Glass Victus protection, and support for S-Pen make the display even better.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 Performance:
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is powered by the latest and greatest Snapdragon 888 chipset and this is a very good chipset as it handles all the tasks with ease. However, here Samsung did a very good job of skipping the Exynos 2100 chipset found on the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. The Snapdragon 888 does have some heating issues in the past but here on the Galaxy Z Fold 3, there was no such issue.
Here there is 12GB LPDDR5 RAM with 256/512GB UFS 3.1 storage onboard. So all heavy games like Call Of Duty Mobile, Asphalt 9 Legends, BGMI, etc. run smoothly at the highest graphics settings with Ultra frame rate and HDR graphics in BGMI. There was no stutter or lags as such and Samsung also did some optimizations to keep the heat at bay though there is no liquid or vapor cooling system.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 Software:
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 runs on the OneUI 3.1 with Android 11 out of the box. As it is foldable, you are getting a great set of features that are new and have been carried over from the Galaxy Z Fold 2. One of the new features in the sidebar for multi-tasking where you can arrange all your applications and this works like a proper taskbar as seen on Windows laptops with a start button.
This taskbar sits permanently to the left and you can pair two to three different applications together and you can open three of them simultaneously. Like all Samsung smartphones, there is Dual Mode where you can use two applications side by side just like Multi-Window, and also the Galaxy Z Fold 3 can have three applications together running simultaneously as well as in-memory also.
The Flex Mode as said earlier is a great feature that allows streaming of videos, video calling, etc. activities much easier as the first half of the display is available for content watching or doing any task whereas the lower half of the display has controls and Samsung engineers have integrated this software with perfect precision and this is a very handy feature which should be used in future foldable also.
Since this is a foldable smartphone, Samsung has not cut corners when it comes to viewing on the display as applications like Whatsapp, Instagram take the full screen and do have any white or black spaces left thus making up with the perfect aspect ratio of the display. Under Labs settings, you can control which application can use the complete aspect ratio of the display or not.
There is also the Samsung DeX which works as a desktop. Now the biggest upgrade that this year Samsung foldable gets is the support for S-Pen which works flawlessly and you can jot down almost everything and can perform air commands like the Galaxy Note series. However, you need to carry the dedicated S-Pen for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 as other Galaxy Note S-pen does show some warnings.
Though having a lot of features, the grudge still remains as there are a lot of third-party applications pre-installed and there are constant notifications from Samsung-specific applications that do hamper the software experience especially when you are paying that premium price. But they can be uninstalled also. In terms of software updates, here you are getting three OS updates and four years of security patches.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 Cameras:
The Galaxy Z fold 3 comes with a triple camera setup that includes a 12MP f/1.8 main camera, a 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera, and a 12MP f/2.4 telephoto camera that can do 2x optical zoom. These cameras remain unchanged from the Galaxy Z Fold 2 but now the telephoto camera gets OIS. On the front, there is a 10MP f/2.2 camera and a 4MP f/1.8 under-display selfie camera present in the inner display.
The images from the main camera have good details and dynamic range. The colors look natural while there is slight oversharpening present in the background. There is slight noise present but not so much as the newer chipset does help in some better image processing. The contrast remains good but still, the Galaxy S21 Ultra with its 108MP camera does a better job.
Similarly, in low-light, the images do have a lot of noise but the dynamic range is quite good and the colors do not look washed out. Oversharpening is not present and the contrast is quite good. With the Night Mode turned on, the exposure in very low-light images is improved, noise is reduced by a slight margin, and highlights in shadows are restored.
The ultrawide camera is a 12MP one that has a larger 123-degree field of view and it has a good dynamic range with very little noise and good color saturation which looks natural. The details look slightly softer and around the edges, there is slight distortion present. Similarly, at night, there is quite some noise present but with the dedicated Night Mode, it does have better dynamic range and better images.
The 12MP telephoto camera does a good job as it takes sharper-looking details and with 2x zoom, the images have excellent dynamic range and contrast. The colors look natural also and here there is no oversharpening taking place. The zoom can go as high as 10x zoom which is good but not the best as the Galaxy S21 Ultra can go up to 100x zoom and at 10x zoom, there is very little noise and details look softer.
The images from the telephoto camera during the night come out with good details and dynamic range and all images at 2x have less noise thanks to OIS. Above 2x, the noise is quite present but still, the details come out decent. There is a Night Mode also which improves the dynamic range and reduces noise.
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 misses out on a macro camera but here for macro images, you can use the main camera by doing a 2x zoom to get a macro image. It cannot go as close as other dedicated macro cameras but still, the images have good details and a decent dynamic range. The colors look natural though.
In terms of portraits, the images have a good dynamic range and the edge detection is good. The Live Focus Mode works well and you can even adjust the background blur as needed with different filters. When you zoom into the portraits, there is slight noise present but the skin tones look natural.
On the front, the 10MP selfie camera does a good job in terms of dynamic range and the color saturation looks natural as there is no skin smoothening present. The details look sharper with no oversharpening in the background. The field of view could have been wider but still, the selfies come out good. The same goes for portrait selfies that have good edge detection and dynamic range.
Other than this, there is the 4MP under-display camera which does a pretty good job in terms of dynamic range but the details look much softer with some amount of noise present in the background. The images do have natural colors but there is some skin smoothening is that is applied at times. Still, for videos, this camera is good, and also the field of view is wide.
In terms of videos, the main camera can record 4K videos at 60fps whereas the ultrawide and telephoto camera can record 4K videos at 30fps. The videos from the main camera come out with good dynamic range and the color saturation is also natural with no oversharpening. The details do look slightly softer but the white balance is good. As OIS is present, the videos have much better stabilization.
The 12MP ultrawide camera does a good job in terms of videos as the details look sharper and the dynamic range is good. However, it could have been better slightly but like the main camera, you are getting natural-looking colors. There is quite some noise present but with Samsung's Ultra Steady Mode, the noise and shakiness do get reduced to a larger extent.
The 12MP telephoto camera takes videos with sharper-looking details with good dynamic range. The noise is quite present but very minimal at 2x. Beyond 2x zoom, the videos have slightly more noise and the details look softer. The presence of OIS helps in much better night videos. The front camera which is the 10MP one can do 4K videos at 60fps and the details look sharper with a decent dynamic range.
The dynamic range could have been wider and also there is EIS present to reduce some noise. With the EIS turned on, the videos have much better stabilization and noise is also less but it does crop in the background a lot. However, the skin tones look natural and the contrast is also good. The under-display camera can record up to 1080p videos at 60fps and it also has support for EIS.
For more camera samples and compared to Galaxy Z Fold 2 click here.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 Battery Life:
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 sports a 4400mAh battery which is 100mAh lesser in capacity than the 4500mAh battery on the Galaxy Z Fold 2. The battery can easily last for two days with normal usage and the display being set at 60Hz. With heavy tasks, like playing games like BGMI, watching videos on Netflix for 4-5 hours, and also scrolling between webpages, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 lasted one single day.
The standard screen-on time was around 4-5 hours which is pretty good for a foldable as both the displays consume battery and also the high refresh rates present on both. Like the Galaxy S21 Ultra, Samsung has not provided a charger inside the box. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 supports 25W fast charging and using that charger, the smartphone was able to charge from 0 to 100 percent in 1 hour 30 minutes.
This is very much slower compared to other smartphones that provide 65W fast charging and Samsung should up the charging speeds. There is support for 15W wireless charging and also 4.5W reverse wireless charging. These speeds could improve in the future as the OnePlus 9 Pro (Review) costs half of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 has faster 50W wireless charging support and 65W Warp charging also.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 Audio Quality:
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 has stereo speakers with one at the top and another at the bottom. The sound is adequately loud and clear with no distortion at the highest volume settings. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack something we cannot expect from a flagship smartphone nowadays. There is support for Dolby Atmos for a better sound experience.
Verdict:
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is a perfect product made by Samsung that nails the core principle of a tablet as well as a smartphone. The smaller upgrades over the Galaxy Z Fold 2 have been quite good and here you are getting a great display both outer and inner for viewing content, multitasking is a breeze with OneUI 3.1 and also the design is stronger and durable since it has an IPX8 rating which is the first time on a foldable.
The daily performance and gaming feel great as the flagship Snapdragon 888 chipset handles everything with ease. Though there are some minor heating issues, Samsung has well optimized the thermals. The software experience is great especially features like the Flex Mode, three application multi-window, and the sidebar multitasking feels great during usage.
This time around the versatility of the S-Pen is a big welcome but you need to carry the dedicated S-Pen with you. And since this is a Samsung smartphone, you are getting the best updates compared to any other Android flagship out there. There are some areas where the Galaxy Z Fold 3 could have been better. On the design side, when you fold the display, there is some gap left.
However, if you looking for cameras, they are good as now the telephoto camera also gets OIS but still, the images and videos are not so great when compared to other flagship smartphones that have much better cameras. The battery life is good but it could have been better and also the charging speeds are very slow both wired and wireless for a flagship smartphone.
The under-display camera is a good feature which is also the first on a foldable but still, it lacks higher resolution and the images from it come out to be average. So as an overall package, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 is a device that serves both well as a smartphone and a tablet if you could sacrifice on cameras which makes it a better option over the Galaxy S21 Ultra but if cameras are your highest priority, then the latter is better.
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