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In a year that no one could have predicted, where each day seemed hell-bent on outshining the first with new horror, surprise, or both, it has been difficult to stand out as a category-defining device. The fact that the Galaxy Z Fold 2 not only managed to justify its existence as a $ 1,999 phone, but also laid the groundwork for an entirely new genre of foldable devices, is a testament to how much Samsung got it right in 2020. Despite which turned out to be largely self-imposed obstacles.
It’s fair to say that the original launch of the Galaxy Fold was a disaster. It is not a disaster at the level of “sudden explosion and then the airplane is prohibited in all the countries”; rather the ironic kind of “if you were to predict how the folding would wobble, this is it.” Breakthrough screens, essential flexible OLED parts that get mistaken for disposable screen protectors, that sort of thing. For a time it seemed that the entire category had been destroyed before it began.
However, Samsung, for all its flaws, cannot be accused of being unable to compromise. Despite the memes and general skepticism that his initial failure had done nothing to deter, he came back with the Galaxy Z Fold 2.
That turned out to be a triumph. One with only early adopters and those with the deepest pockets only in mind, perhaps, but a genuine glimpse into the not-too-distant future anyway.
Yes, most of the specs were shared with the Galaxy S20 + and the Galaxy S20 Ultra. However, what those metal and glass slabs lacked was the sturdy hinge and the ability to open it, his face gleaming in the OLED sun, like Indiana Jones in front of a long-lost treasure chest, to find the much Larger 7.6-inch Infinity Flex Screen inside.
There were compromises to get there, of course. The second-gen phone is still thick when closed (16.8mm at its widest point) and at 282 grams it’s heavier than a Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. There is no water resistance rating, no memory card slot, and despite Samsung Display’s best efforts, there is still a considerable gap between the halves when closed.
However, they practically pale with daily use. The exterior display is still narrow, but its 6.2-inch 2260 x 816 resolution is surprisingly useful. The weight and thickness still make one-handed use a chore – my thumb can reach the bottom half of the screen, but it doesn’t stretch further up – but it’s not the frustratingly limited experience of the first screen on the screen. Fold cover.
However, what you really want is to open it, because then the thick phone becomes a very useful little tablet. 7.6-inches might not sound like a big difference to the paper cover display, but with its near-square aspect ratio it’s a lot bigger than you’d expect.
Certainly big enough to have a full-height app on one side and then share what’s left of the screen with two other smaller apps. This is how Samsung likes to showcase the Galaxy Z Fold 2 in promotional images and, to be honest, I wasn’t convinced that it would be especially useful in practice. Turns out, if you have the right mix of apps – that is, those that respect customizations made to the Android and Samsung theme – to do the smart resizing and UI readjustment, it’s actually weirdly productive.
The crease in the center of the foldable OLED, which seems to generate a surprising degree of obsessive frustration in some quarters, isn’t really noticeable after the first few days. Moreover, now I also do not notice the notch of the iPhone, so its mileage may vary. The 120Hz refresh rate means scrolling doesn’t have that jelly-like wobble on the screen either.
However, what makes the Galaxy Z Fold 2 feel really cohesive is how well the exterior and interior play with each other. I didn’t think it would be so useful to start with an open message on the cover screen, to realize that it would make more sense to have a larger screen to read and reply to, so open the phone and have that message go ahead too. Again, not all apps work that well on this, but when it does what it’s supposed to, it feels almost magical.
Elsewhere, if you’ve used a recent high-end Galaxy device, it will look familiar. The cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold 2 aren’t as good as those on the Note 20 Ultra or Galaxy S20 Ultra, but they’re certainly good enough. The Snapdragon 865 is also a known quotient, although Samsung pairs it with 12GB of memory and multitasking has never proven to be an issue. It’s weird not being able to expand storage on a Samsung phone though, and the company keeps the 512GB version for a small handful of markets. The United States has only 256GB to play with, which seems petty.
2020 hasn’t exactly been friendly to premium devices. Even if there are people willing and able to spend more than four figures on their flagship smartphone, the optics of launching something like this during a pandemic and the ensuing economic downturn seems dull. Not surprisingly, the most prominent phones of the year were Google’s Pixel 4a and Apple’s second-generation iPhone SE, both priced below $ 400.
Is there room in all of that for a $ 2000 folding? Samsung has been reluctant to talk about sales expectations, or, for that matter, sales performance, for the Galaxy Z Fold 2, although it’s certainly fair to assume that demand was predicted to be relatively low by standards. of the mass market. As we’ve seen in the company in the past, in situations like these, the goal is more to be visibly on the cutting edge than to make the company profit.
Just as importantly, though, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 is a stepping stone for folding items to enter a wider market. Samsung has been candid about its hope to launch more affordable versions in 2021, and phones like the Galaxy Z Flip have already pushed into more achievable territory. As we saw with OLED in the first place, things that start out as a luxury can become a mainstay with surprising pace.
However, what strikes me most among all of that is how cohesive even this initial vision of a phone and tablet hybrid has been. The fact is, there are a lot of moving parts involved for something like the Galaxy Z Fold 2 to be right, and I’m not just talking about the hinge. It’s about hardware, yes, but it’s also about software: at the operating system level, at the Samsung level, and then trying to secure buy-in from third-party app developers as well.
Easier said than done, and the fact that so much software feels right at home on the foldable is a testament to how seriously Samsung and Google are taking the fledgling form factor. We are certainly still in the relative beginning of that journey, but it is one I am much more confident in than other unusual phone designs.
I can’t really recommend the Galaxy Z Fold 2 to most people – it’s still a curiosity, albeit functional, and a geeky luxury. Regardless, as devices that make you feel like you’re living in the future advance, nothing else in the mobile space this year has come close.
