Fold-able smartphones first surfaced on the digital horizon at the start of 2019 when Samsung went all out in their reveal of the Samsung Galaxy Fold. Despite the company’s expectations of it being an innovation, the device didn’t attract as much positive reviews as it should have. Due to this, customers were skeptical for this year’s Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 too, but Samsung handled it fairly well.
Even before the official release of the phone, the testing units started reporting multiple crash reports that involved both hardware and software issues. This was the start of a humiliating period for Samsung as they had to purposefully delay its release, hence denting their reputation.
So, fold-able phones have been trickier to handle as compared to the regular shaped smartphones. Even Huawei, with their Huawei Mate X faced backlashes due to degraded build quality in their first-ever fold-able smartphone.
Due to this, fold-able smartphones developed a reputation of being buggy, fragile, and comprising of lower specs as compared to the high-end flagship phones just due to their innovation.
News flash: Majority of the audience didn’t buy it.
Luckily, Samsung realized that this approach won’t be sustainable for long enough which is why it has now released its third folding phone, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2, an elegant and innovative smartphone with a unique form factor.
Although the purpose of having a mobile phone was well.. mobility. However, the customers in their widespread array of expectations from their mobile phones, lost the point halfway through the innovations. Now, people are more concerned about getting a bigger and better display than ensuring that the smartphone ensures mobility. This drastic shift in the expectations from a device have redefined the dynamics of the smartphone industry, hence the construction of dual-screen and/or fold-able smartphones.
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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2
After the first two relatively dull attempts at the most intuitive and exciting form factor in smartphones, Samsung finally got the trick of doing it right.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is the company’s third iteration of a fold-able smartphone. Smartphone designs have been upgrading with consistency and as a result are getting bigger and bigger. However, design experts agreed on a single theory that innovations are dying a slow death.
Luckily, the leading smartphone manufacturers emerged from the abyss of silence and assured people that there is still room for practical innovations, hence the release of a fold-able smartphone.
In the process of upgrading its innovative lineup, it ensured that it kept the great baseline ideas of the first Galaxy Fold, fixed the humiliating flaws of both the Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Z Flip, and implemented all their experience and learning in their third-generation fold-able smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2.
Reviewers think that the pricing of the device is still a defining factor in the overall aura of the smartphone, but they are hopeful that it can be fixed in the near future.
Meanwhile, let’s dive in to the details of the new Galaxy Z Fold 2.
Design
In theory, a fold-able smartphone is one of the most easiest ways of having a bigger screen display without any issues. But, reality is far from it.
Samsung had to face these problems first hand when they released the testing units of their first two folding phones in the past.
Thankfully, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 has eradicated the existing the design problems in its huge 7.6-inch screen.
According to Samsung, their latest folding smartphone is capable of surviving up to 200,000 folds which is an incredibly high number for such a technology.
The new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 comes in two major colors black and bronze with multiple color options for the hinge accents such as blue, red, silver, or gold.
Display
The beginner issues with Samsung’s fold-able smartphone attempt were the awkward dimensions of the screen on the original Fold. It was impossible to type on the phone comfortably on the tall and narrow external screen.
Worry not, the new Galaxy Z Fold 2 covered this issue with the prominent 6.2-inch 2260×816 display that works just as well as the primary screen. The screen is capable of functioning in all kinds of apps without any issues and provides additional comfort considering a fold-able smartphone. In cases of applications that involve messaging and viewing images, the screen is everything that you can ask for.
Moving on to the primary 7.6-inch screen, it presents the user with a 2208×1768 display that is gorgeous, period.
Due to the unusual 5-by-4 aspect ratio, the smartphone is able to bend in an L-shaped structure and Samsung being its quirky self didn’t miss the chance of labeling it as its Flex Mode.
Camera
Although the new Galaxy Z Fold 2 is an overall super-phone, it still falls behind the if compared to the flagship smartphones of 2020. The smartphone comes with three 12-megapixel cameras on the back and two front-facing cameras, all of which have the capability of recording at 4K 60 FPS.
While the hardware components of the smartphone might not be as competitive as its competitors, the software side of Samsung does a remarkably well job to live up to the expectations of providing an overall good camera experience.
Surprisingly, pictures at 1x and 12-megapixel mode under low light are identical to that of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. This is remarkable.
While other phones require different accessories for added stability, the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is able to achieve extended form of stability by going into Flex mode that uses the top screen as a viewfinder when capturing a photo or recording a video.
Performance
Since this is now a premium flagship smartphone, the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 fulfills the customer expectations as it arrives with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ processor coupled with 12 gigs of RAM that are capable of triggering the power a flagship phone demands to provide a premium experience.
When considering benchmark results, the smartphone does a fairly good job with numbers such as 980 on single-core and 3,118 on multi-core performance metrics when the main (big) screen is open which is pretty much identical to its counterpart 865+ devices.
The new fold-able smartphone comes with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor just like the Samsung Galaxy S10e and it does a good job at being accurate and ensuring high-speed unlocks.
Typing on big touchscreens have always been a struggle as the early users of iPad and Android tablets faced immense difficulties in adjusting with the unusually sized screens. However, technology devised a cure by splitting the keyboards into either ends of the lower part of the screen to assist typing.
Samsung knew this could be a potential deal-breaker for its flagship hence the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 has a split keyboard that ensures the keys remain within thumb range to allow comfortable typing experiences.
The only thing this huge display misses in its performance is stylus support. While Samsung has made great leaps with their third-generation fold-able flagship smartphone, the company couldn’t manage to integrate a pen layer with the folding glass.
Maybe the rumors of the discontinuation of the Note series be a hint to the Fold lineup getting the much needed stylus support; maybe.
Adding to its supreme performance metrics, the smartphone’s battery does an exceptional job by providing an average of 11.5 hours screen-on-time at 75% brightness with a capacity of 4,500mAH.
Moreover, the phone comes with support for 22W fast charging, wireless charging, and the productive option of reverse charging so you can now charge your compatible smart devices from it.
Final Verdict
Next-gen innovation for smartphones is here. It’s the fold-able screens that are capable of providing premium flagship experience with the option of bigger and brighter screens.
The extreme price of the new Galaxy Z Fold 2 might be a deal-breaker for some of the customers, but people who crave for innovation and feel comfortable with change, will definitely enjoy the premium feel that comes with this flagship.
So if price is not an issue for you, you should definitely try this one out, it is likely to become your favorite smartphone lineup.
Have a nice day.
