I said it last year and I’ll say it again. The foldable phones we see and use here and now tell us exactly what most smartphones will look like in the future. Not tomorrow. Not this year. Maybe not even next year. But in a few years, remember my words, you will be using a flip phone. Or considering buying a folding phone. Last year, when Samsung’s journey began with the first-generation Samsung Galaxy Fold, it wasn’t the prettiest start. Of course, what Samsung did next shows character. Instead of going into denial mode and posting videos of how everything is fine and that the anomalies on the screen are normal (looking at you, Moto), they went back to the drawing board. The revamped first-gen Galaxy Fold turned out to be something quite special. A phone that caught our collective attention, whether folded or unfolded. The successor has now landed. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G. The name is a mouthful, but that’s never been a problem for great products.
Let’s start with the price first. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G will cost you Rs 1,49,999, which is a penny no matter how you look at it. That said, this year’s phone requires considerably less cash outlay than last year’s Galaxy Fold. That was priced at Rs 1,73,999. There are reasons why Samsung has been able to achieve a lower price for this year. First are the comparative economies of scale, which 12 months allow you to achieve. Second, while the Galaxy Fold was sold in the 12GB RAM and 512GB storage variant, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G is available in the 12GB RAM and 256GB storage option. The 5G bit is also added, yes, which is added to future tests. Last but not least, there’s the little matter of wireless headphones. While last year the Galaxy Fold included the Samsung Galaxy Buds wireless earbuds, the Galaxy Z Fold2 5G gets by with wired earbuds.
The Moto Razr is NOT competition
Let me clarify one thing from the beginning. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G does not have any similar competition in the Indian market. No, last year’s Moto Razr or this year’s Moto Razr 5G are very different form factors. And that we have established that the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip addresses these very effectively with a significantly lower price point as well.
Now that the history lesson is out of the way, let’s get down to business with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G.
What a difference a year makes
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G has significant hardware and design improvements over the Galaxy Fold, resulting in an even more elegant and immersive user experience. For starters, you will immediately notice that the cover screen, also the smaller of the two screens, is now larger than before. Instead of 4.6 inches before and with really thick bezels on top and bottom, this year’s Galaxy Z Fold2 5G has a much larger 6.23-inch screen there. That, in itself, is a full-blown smartphone experience waiting for you. Open, rather than unfold, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G and you get a 7.6-inch screen instead of a 7.3-inch one. And the very fact that it is now an Infinity-O display variation called the Infinity Flex, means that the front camera is now a small circle much like the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra, and that eliminates the thicker bezel that houses the predecessor.
The intelligence remains as is, in the sense that if you are using an app on the cover screen and decide to unfold the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G, the app seamlessly switches to this larger screen. If what you’re watching is a YouTube video, go to an even bigger screen too. What also helps is that now more apps support this type of real estate in the Android app world, making everything look better and fit better.
This 2X Dynamic AMOLED display uses low power adaptive frequency technology that can reduce the power consumption of OLED displays by altering the refresh rate, depending on what is on the screen at the time. Alters the refresh rate automatically to reduce power consumption as much as possible. You don’t really need to consume the same amount of battery with the highest refresh rate while viewing photos as you would while watching a video. This display can go down to 11Hz, which will translate to significantly better battery life over the course of a day as you use the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G as a work phone that switches between different apps and tasks. You will never notice any change in brightness or any kind of flickering when this dynamic change occurs, which is a testament to how smoothly the transition is made, often more than once every few seconds.
The screen also feels less “smooth” than last time, although the layer it is touching is plastic. Don’t remove the factory-installed screen protector, but I like the feel of the compositional changes in the sandwich of glass and plastic that makes up the foldable screen of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G. The crease is also less deep as you wear it, or are my eyes playing tricks on me?
While the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G’s footprint and overall dimensions remain largely the same as the Samsung Galaxy Fold, more or less, there are some significant changes to the overall build. The hinge, for example, now has a newer design and is more discreet than before. This also has the cam mechanism implemented with a smarter lock, allowing you to keep the phone unfolded at virtually any angle you want. It’s great if you unfold the phone like a laptop and place it on a desk, for video calls on Google Duo, Zoom, and more.
As before, you can use this even larger space of the unfolded Infinity Flex display to open more than one application side by side. For example, you can have three applications open side by side sharing the same display space, or have some open in the pop-up format with the flexibility to drag them anywhere on the screen. You can also save the application sharing layout, which means that you can always open three applications in the same screen sharing settings at all times; that’s great for productivity uses where you could have an email app, a web browser, and maybe a third workflow app open together each time.
This has power, and then something
Under the hood is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ processor with 12GB of RAM. It can’t and won’t use as much power as most phones and even laptop replacement use cases. Everything feels incredibly sleek and fluid, and you probably don’t realize you have 22 apps open at the same time! Much of the hardware brightness corresponds to the One UI 2.5, which although visually remains the same as before for the most part, has seen significant improvements in terms of power management and RAM. All of that translates to less used resources, less clutter, and better battery life.
Speaking of which, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G continues the proven formula of combining two divided battery blocks on either side of the hinge, to work together. This time around, the 4,500 mAh capacity is also higher than last year’s Galaxy Fold. Don’t worry about carrying a charger or have some kind of battery anxiety. This phone will easily last you a day, even if you spend most of your time using the phone excessively just because the screen is so bright that you can’t take your eyes off it.
A case of two different halves
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G has a total of 5 cameras. There is a triple camera system on the back, which basically consists of three 12-megapixel sensors, each for wide-angle, ultra-wide and telephoto. The larger pixel sizes compared to the Galaxy Fold’s triple camera setup means that overall there are significant improvements to the photos you click on. From the start, the details are fantastic and the colors are rich and well distinguished. Dynamic range is good and so is edge sharpness. Low-light photos also turn out fine, although manual focusing is sometimes necessary to get the subject in focus. However, it’s hard to understand why the Galaxy Z Fold2 5G’s cameras are definitely a step back, at least on the megapixel front, compared to the Galaxy Note20 Ultra. On the spec sheet, this kind of difference (the Galaxy Note20 Ultra packs in 108-megapixel + 12-megapixel + 12-megapixel cameras) just doesn’t look good.
Above the deck display and integrated into the unfolded main screen are 10 megapixel cameras; you have the flexibility for selfies and video calls in any mode. Both modules are identical to the front camera of the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra, and I can tell from my experience of recording links for video packages, that they also provide really good videos.
The final word: this is definitely the future of phones
The thing is, for the Rs 1,49,999 you are paying for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G, you get an undeniably unique and undeniably premium smartphone experience. Learn from the predecessor and it really shows. Yes, it may take a while to get used to the form factor as it folds and unfolds. Or that it doesn’t have a 100 megapixel camera or something. However, as a foldable phone that really has no competition, so to speak, the Galaxy Z Fold2 5G is sure to surprise you. And have the same effect on the people around you. They would like to know what this is. And that will be as good a time as any to show off some of the party tricks of this gorgeous foldable phone.
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