When the whole new foldable smartphone market emerged a few years ago, few manufacturers took it as seriously as Samsung. It made the first proper, consumer-ready device in the Galaxy Z Fold. It wasn't perfect, but it was a start, and - while it was very expensive - it was one of very few you could actually buy.

Samsung remains as committed as ever to the foldable market in 2022 and is still one of very few manufacturers that's selling this type of device outside of China. Still, despite this relative lack of competition, the company continues to evolve and refine the original foldable.

It might not feature huge changes from the previous model, but the changes made have made a noticeable difference to the experience of using it.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 is a welcome update that moves this folding phone into a flagship space with boosted power and new cameras. It might be expensive, but this remains the big screen folding phone of choice, with software support for wider usage of the display and plenty of quality in all areas.

Pros
  • Narrower bezels
  • Flagship cameras
  • Loads of power
  • S Pen compatible
  • Undeniable 'cool' factor
Cons
  • No S Pen storage
  • Charging speeds remain average at best
  • Internal display drains battery quite quickly
  • It's really expensive

Design and build

  • 155.1 x 130.1 x 6.3mm (unfolded)
  • 155.1 x 67.1 x 14.2-15.8mm (folded)
  • 263 grams - IPX8 water resistance
  • Graygreen, Phantom Black, Beige and Burgundy colours

The broad strokes concept of Z Fold is unchanged from the original. You get a big flexible display on the inside of a phone that opens up as the phone unfolds, giving you a display the size of a small tablet that easily folds smaller to fit into your pocket when not in use. Then, there's a smaller display on the cover to use in those instances you don't need or want the bigger display.

Despite that overarching idea staying mostly the same, the small differences in design have improved the product considerably. Especially when compared to the very first model, but even when compared to 2021's Z Fold 3.

The aesthetic changes are subtle, but give the device a look with cleaner lines. Samsung's so-called 'Armour Aluminium' edges extend ever so slightly further up the edges, and offer a very clean border to the stunning Graygreen matte glass on the back of our unit.

While they have a flatter look to them, the angle at the edges isn't completely right-angled and sharp. There's some subtle curving in the glass near the edge, and on the aluminium frame itself, helping it retain a feeling of comfort in the hand. Samsung has skilfully avoided that sharp, squared-off approach favoured by Apple.

That 'Armour Aluminium' also means the phone is more resistant to drops, and makes the phone more sturdy and durable than its predecessors too. Although, we weren't willing to put it through painful drop tests to discover just how much more durable it is.

Looking down on the Z Fold 4 from the end
Pocket-lint

It's also the most water-proof foldable phone with an IPX8 rating which means it can survive up to 30 minutes in up to 1.5 metres of water. In short - if you drop it in the sink, or get caught in the rain, the phone will be absolutely fine. And if not, Samsung has a dedicated care plan for these folding phones to help get them repaired if they are damaged.

While all these attributes are great, it's the change in shape and size that made this phone feel different to its predecessor. It's shorter and slightly wider when shut, and that means Samsung's been able to put in a more usable cover display. That makes one-handed use with the phone shut much easier and more intuitive.

You don't feel as though you're using a skinny, narrow, secondary display anymore. It's not quite at 'normal' smartphone display shape - and not as compact as the Oppo Find N - but it's an improvement nonetheless.

Being a foldable phone does have its downsides from a durability perspective, however. The necessity for it to open and shut means a hinge, and that means there are very small gaps along the spine of the phone when shut where dust and - as we found out - sand, can get in.

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There's nothing more anxiety-inducing than hearing a phone crunch as you open and close it because sand found its way into the hinge after being placed in a shorts pocket. So if you want our advice - check your pockets for any fluff or grit before putting this phone in there.

The good thing here, if there is one, is that none of this lint or grit makes its way into the visible parts of the phone. The internal display - for instance - is completely sealed, so won't get ruined by particles slipping under the panel like they used to on some older generations.

The only thing we can't tell within the first couple of weeks using a new folding phone is whether or not the display will survive being used every day for 2-3 years. We've seen previous generations from Samsung have displays where the semi-permanent protective layer starts to bubble and separate from the display panel after a while. That is still a risk with any phone that has a flexible display.

One feature that rarely gets any praise on a phone is the fingerprint sensor. Especially the side-mounted ones built into the wake/sleep key on the right. Usually because they're notorious for phantom activations leading to the phone failing to unlock and requiring a passcode when you accidentally touch them with the wrong part of your hand.

Z Fold 4 photo 7

With Samsung's latest Fold though, that didn't happen once. Even when we deliberately pressed our palm against it to see if it would try and register like some do, it didn't. Samsung's fingerprint scanners aren't easily fooled. It was an impeccable experience, and one that should be highlighted because - often - we only talk about them when they don't work. When it works properly, it's a feature that's easily forgotten and slips to the back of our consciousness. And that's the best kind of feature.

One last feature we'd like to see: an S Pen silo. The Fold is the perfect S Pen companion, thanks to that big display inside, but if you want to use Samsung's stylus with the phone, you'll either need to carry it loose, or buy a case with an included slot.

Displays

  • 7.6-inch foldable 120Hz AMOLED panel
    • 1812 x 2176 resolution - 1200 nits peak - HDR10+ support
  • 6.2-inch 120Hz AMOLED cover display
    • 904 x 2316 resolution

Samsung knows how to make great displays and how to get the most out of them, and it shows on the Z Fold 4. Both panels are bright, colour-rich and vibrant. The default calibration will likely be a bit too saturated for the purists out there, but you do get to choose a more natural, less saturated view as well if you want to.

That large, flexible display on the inside does have a slight crease in it. It's not really all that noticeable when the screen is on and you're using it, but you can feel it when you swipe your finger or thumb across the screen from left to right or right to left.

Z Fold 4 photo 20

Likewise, the under display selfie camera which hides beneath that big panel is visible at times. Like the crease, it's most visible when the screen is off and light catches it, but with the screen on (unless the top area is dark) it's almost like it's not there. You can see it if you look closely, but it's very much ignorable.

The displays then - both of them - are more than capable of delivering a great visual experience. In terms of brightness, colour, contrast and sharpness, they're great. If you can put up with the excessive pillarboxing due to their unusual aspect ratios, you'll not find much to complain about here.

When gaming, the graphics usually fill the entire internal display, making the most of that extra real estate. However, with those visuals being increased in size, we did notice a lack of sharpness, which comes from blowing everything up to much larger sizes.

Software tweaks

  • Android 12L-based One UI 4.1.1
  • S Pen support
  • DeX built-in

Hardware design and displays - of course - make up an important part of how you'll experience using a Galaxy Z Fold. But arguably, to get the most out of it, you'll need to take advantage of the software it's loaded with. And even here, things have changed from previous models, although Samsung is going to roll out a lot of the changes to the Z Fold 3 too.

To build its OneUI 4.1.1 skin with these changes, Samsung leverages the versatility of Google's Android 12L software. 12L - unlike 12 - is designed to be better optimised for larger displays like tablets, and so makes sense on the bigger canvas of the Fold's internal display.

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With apps that are well optimised for this larger panel - like the Samsung-lauded Microsoft Outlook - you can have an email app where your inbox fits down one side, and the conversation or message lives on the right.

A big part of the experience is centred on multitasking, and built on a platform that makes it easier to use multiple apps at the same time using a split screen view. Having the ability to have two apps side-by-side in virtually full-screen makes copying content and information between them very convenient. And, the task bar at the bottom of apps and app pairings you regularly use makes it even easier than before to get into that mode. You can just drag and drop an app, and have it take up one half (or quarter) of the screen.

Likewise, you can fold the display to a right angle and sit it up, with video playing on the top half and controls on the bottom when watching video through Chrome, or Samsung's Internet app. It's a surprisingly convenient experience; being able to just put the phone down with a video playing, and not have to hold it, or rely on a third party addition like a case with a built-in kickstand or dedicated holder.

Z Fold 4 photo 3

Add that to Samsung's usual staples of things like DeX which lets you use the Fold plugged in or connected wirelessly to a display for a PC-like computer interface, and the support for Samsung's S Pen stylus, and you have one of the most fully-featured Android-based skins on the planet.

In classic Samsung style though, it's not short of frustrations. Samsung preloads its phones with a few additional apps that are largely redundant, and - while supporting Google's autofill, assistant and payment services - the software (by default) tries to nudge you in the direction of using its own.

That's not necessarily a bad thing if you're a long-time Samsung user who's always relied on Samsung Pay, Bixby and Samsung Internet, or Samsung's autofill and keyboard. But if you're coming from another device, it can take a little working around to get it all defaulted to Google's stuff instead.

Performance and battery life

  • Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor (4nm)
  • 12GB RAM - 256GB, 512GB or 1TB storage
  • 4400mAh battery
  • 25W wired charging - 15W wireless charging

One thing Samsung's done absolutely right with its recent foldable phones is ensuring that they work and act like flagship phones, while also being something of a novelty still. And has done so without confusing matters by launching phones with different processors for different regions. That means, regardless of where you buy the Z Fold 4, you'll get the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor. The resulting performance that comes from it is exceptional.

Interface elements glide smoothly under the finger, offering responsive animations. Even in apps like Twitter that are usually a little troublesome, the Fold 4 flies. There's no moment where we felt the experience was laggy or slow. Of course, part of that is to do with the processing, and also down to the 120Hz refresh rates of the display which seem to kick into gear as soon as they're needed. We didn't see the stuttering we'd noticed on some other Samsung models from earlier in the year. It's a similar experience when putting the time into our favourite games titles like Mario Kart Tour Mobile and Real Racing 3. Everything's smooth and effortless, from the fast-paced graphically intense games to the slower-paced puzzle games like The Room: Old Sins. All the while, the phone remains relatively cool. There wasn't an instance of finding the phone getting noticeably warm.

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One area that will suffer when you put lots of time into gaming on the big internal screen: battery life. But then, that's expected. When you have a display much larger than the norm, and battery that's very much not larger than the norm, you will probably notice a similar drop in battery juice.

We didn't ever manage to completely drain it in one full day with regular usage. That's with usage split between both displays. Usually that meant quick replies and checking emails and messages mostly done quickly from the cover display, but the main display used for the times we were browsing, gaming, checking social media and such.

With our own typical usage - around 3 hours of screen time - we'd have somewhere around 30 per cent left over from the battery. With a 'regular' smartphone with a similar-sized battery, that would likely be around 40 per cent with our own typical usage. It could definitely benefit from having a larger battery.

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Charging is relatively quick though, with 25W fast charging support offering a 50 per cent top-up in 30 minutes. It'll also support 15W wireless charging. It's not quite up to the levels of Oppo, OnePlus, Xiaomi and Honor - which all offer speeds over 100W on flagship models - and also, Samsung doesn't ship the charger in the box. Those competitors do.

Cameras

  • 50MP f/1.8 main camera - OIS and PDAF
  • 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide - 123-degree FOV
  • 10MP f/2.4 telephoto - 3x optical zoom/30X 'Space Zoom'
  • 4MP under display selfie camera
  • 10MP cover selfie camera

There are five cameras in total on the Z Fold 4. Both the front cover screen and the internal display have their own selfie cams. The former punched into the display, the latter - as mentioned - hidden by the display. Then there's the triple camera system on the back.

This main camera loadout feels just like using any of Samsung's other flagship phones for the most part, and offers similar quality and versatility to the likes of the S22 series models.

The strong primary lens is joined by an ultrawide and a telephoto zoom which reaches 3x optical and up to 30x digital. Samsung has applied its 'Space Zoom' functionality to this camera, offering up to 30x zoom using an algorithm and the sensor's individual pixels to keep the image as sharp as possible. Not that it works all that effectively.

Pushing the camera out to these extreme ends of the zoom length often meant it struggled to focus properly and while it does get you impossibly close to far away objects, the end result is quite mushy and lacking in detail and colour. Anything past 10x zoom using this hybrid zooming tech is generally where it starts to fall apart quite badly.

Still, there's a good balance of colour and quality between the three lenses. Despite their different sensor and pixel layout, it's refreshing to see that results across all three cameras all look like they come from the same phone.

Shots have that classic Samsung colour-rich and saturated approach which gives the images a healthy 'pop' factor. Some might find the results a little too colourful and unrealistic, but it's an attractive look and one that's great for sharing on social media with plenty of dynamic range, contrast and depth.

It's only when light levels drop that we noticed differences in the capabilities of the cameras. Most striking was how the ultrawide camera struggled in low light situations, whether it was just while snapping a regular photo indoors with less direct light or when using the night mode outside after dusk.

Away from bright daylight, indoors, the ultrawide would produce quite dark, crushed shots with lots of noise, particularly in the shadows. Using night mode was almost pointless on the ultrawide too, with it not being able to really draw much extra light in at all. On the flip side, the main camera is strong in pretty much any condition. There is a tendency to over-process and sharpen night mode shots, but it's a useful feature to have when you want to snap interesting shots after sundown without carrying a tripod with you everywhere.

One of the best things about the cameras isn't the cameras at all though. It's the clever use of the external cover displays and hand gestures that elevate the experience. At least, they do if you like taking selfies.

With the phone open, you can use the cover screen as the camera's monitor, and then use any of the three main cameras on the back of the phone to take selfies, rather than rely on the poorer quality selfie cameras. And, you can just hold your palm up to the screen to activate a 3-second countdown, giving you enough time to move your palm away, smile and let it capture your portrait.

The resulting images are so much more dynamic and rich in detail and colour that it's worth the extra fiddling to open up the phone and set the cover screen as the selfie display to take them. Otherwise, the selfie camera in the cover display still does a good job of snapping a decent selfie with good colour and detail. We'd avoid using the under display camera on the main display, however. It's low resolution, and the added layer between the lens and the subject means images are generally a little hazy. They're also nowhere near as sharp or rich in quality as results from any of the other cameras.

Verdict

The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is a welcome update to Samsung's flagship folding phone, offering refined hardware that opens the door to a better overall experience. The reduction of bezels lends to the premium look, with a great finish reinforcing this phone's position as a superior device.

While the overall look hasn't changed much, there's now more power and upgrades to the camera which means it will deliver more, closing the gap with the Galaxy S in terms of photography power.

Overall, it's still something of a specialist, expensive device and one we think we'll likely be massively outsold by its cuter, more portable sibling, the Z Flip 4. But with the subtle changes to the shape and size making the outer display more usable, and the tweaks in software to take advantage of the larger internal display, it's a more refined experience than any large-screened foldable on the market