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Samsung Galaxy Fold tested: mistrust without reason

18.11.2019

Translation: machine translated

The future is here. After some aftershocks, the Samsung Galaxy Fold is finally on sale. And it has a lot going for it, even if the world is still lagging behind.

The Samsung Galaxy Fold is supposed to be the future. And it probably is. Because the idea behind the device, the technology, is too good not to be. Because the Fold fulfils two needs:

The broad market wants ever larger screens
The broad market, especially men, have a limited amount of space in their trouser pockets and therefore want physically smaller devices

Foldable smartphones seem to be the solution. But the Fold, as I've been using it for the past few weeks, in this exact configuration, is unlikely to be the last word in wisdom. Even without the device's turbulent history, the Fold in its release version has flaws in its design. But the biggest problem is a different one: the human element.

I don't trust this thing.

Feels better than it looks

"Wow, that's a big one" is one of the sentences I heard a lot during the review. Yes, the Fold is about twice as thick as a normal smartphone. Unsurprising considering that it has to fold the technology of a smartphone or tablet. And somewhat counterproductive in the sense that it takes up space in said tight trouser pockets. Below I talk about the form factor like a book, because that makes it a little easier.

If you place two smartphones on top of each other, you have approximately the thickness of the fold. But not the width, because when unfolded, the Fold is 11.79 cm wide and 16.09 cm high. When folded, it is 6.29 cm wide and 16.09 cm high. The fact that it is not 5.8 cm wide is due to the fact that the "spine" protrudes slightly when folded. This disappears between the two "book covers"
when unfolded

The fold is not pretty. It really isn't. In terms of the rough design, two or three things still need to be perfected before it really looks like a beautiful device. But it fits surprisingly well in the hand when closed. As it is not as wide as a normal smartphone when folded, even smaller hands can work with it. It doesn't get in the way in a trouser pocket and is never bulky or annoying. The weight of 263 grams doesn't bother much, even if longer phone calls can be a little strange and the weight can be annoying.

So far, so good. The rest of the hardware is largely familiar from the current line-up of Samsung phones. But Samsung has to break new ground with the cameras. If you look at the following list, you can only stare in wonder, but in the context of the foldable hardware design, Samsung had no choice but to install a total of six cameras.

A triple cam in the back:

2 MP, f/1.5-2.4, 27 mm, wide angle, OIS
12 MP, f/2.4, 52 mm, telephoto, OIS, 2x optical zoom
16 MP, f/2.2, 12 mm, ultra wide angle

Then a selfie cam on the front of the "book cover":

10 MP, f/2.2, 26 mm, wide angle

This camera also serves as a face unlock cam.

Then two more cameras when unfolded:

10 MP, f/2.2, 26 mm, wide angle
8 MP, f/1.9, 24 mm, wide angle, depth sensor

The rest? Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, 12GB RAM, 512 GB internal memory, stereo speakers with AKG tuning, support for Samsung Dex (yes, that still exists) and a 4235 mAh battery with 15W fast charging capability.

Instagram is spectacular

In use, the Galaxy Fold gives me no reason to distrust it. Because the software, Android with Samsung's One UI, is good.

First and foremost, the software scales nicely to the unfolded screen, is compatible with Nova Launcher and works well. "Good" is the word that runs throughout. The small screen on the cover allows you to use your phone without restrictions even when it is closed.

This is where the form factor of the flipped phone comes into play, for better or worse. Of course, the Android world has not yet arrived at the plus-minus square screen format. Android has barely arrived, by the skin of its teeth, at 18:9. YouTube suffers the most. Because sure, the picture is bigger, but at the top and bottom of the picture you have massive black stripes where there is simply no video. This leads me to conclude that the form factor is not the last word in wisdom if you think in the context of full screen mode.

Except for Instagram.

Instagram has relied on square images and videos since the beginning of its more or less inexplicable rise. There's only one word: wow. Instagram used to be a pastime on the tram. It still is. But now it's a great pastime. The pictures are large, screen-filling and the videos make the impression they should. Finally, a screen that makes Instagram content look the way it should.

Well, dropping 2000 francs/euros or more just because of Instagram is absolutely presumptuous in the vast majority of cases and never justifies the purchase. The fold in the screen is invisible to the user of the phone in most normal lighting conditions. But as soon as you angle it, you can see it.

We need to rethink

Over time, I realise that I'm using the phone incorrectly at best. And if not incorrectly, then not as efficiently as I could. I'm one of those people who always has what feels like 50 tabs open in the browser and a dozen or so folders and programmes at the bottom of the dock or taskbar. The more screens I can attach to a computer, the happier I am. Funnily enough, however, a smartphone is a thing on which I only ever use one app at a time.

Is the screen big enough for split screen, i.e. two or more apps on one screen?

Yes, absolutely. Great.

I can display a browser and my mails side by side. It's quite easy if you know the knack.

Press □
Long press on the first app you want in the split screen
Drag and drop it to the right edge of the screen
Do the same with the other apps

The Galaxy Fold can display up to three apps simultaneously. It is never slow, never overloaded. This shows what the 12 GB and the Snapdragon 855 can do. It's simply a joy.

The joy is somewhat dampened by the fact that the world - just like with the square image format - has not yet fully embraced the split screen. Instagram, for example, doesn't go along with this. The Galaxy Fold throws you an error saying "This app does not support split screen". Then there's the issue with the keyboard. SwiftKey works well, reliably and if you split the keyboard in the middle, you can type extremely comfortably with two thumbs.

But: If you watch a video on the left in split screen and want to type something on the right, the keyboard covers the entire screen and obscures half of the video. Not cool. Very, very uncool. You can solve this by either employing the pop-up player in NewPipe, but then you don't need Split Screen, or by having a third app at the bottom left that pushes your video to the top. And simply opening a third app just so there's a third app, I don't see that happening.

Unless, of course, the video is on the right-hand side of the screen. Because in split screen mode you don't see the home screen there, but an overlay that displays an app. The height and width of this overlay on the actual home screen is based not only on the home screen, but also on whether another overlay is displayed on the same level, such as a keyboard. Then the video moves. That's weak. I expect the coders of a super-expensive phone, which is supposed to be the future, to test something like this. And on the left as well as the right.

And yes, dear user Klagebunz, Youtube Vanced probably also works and should have the same problem. I just like NewPipe better.

Other than that, I realise when using it that I initially went about things with the apps completely the wrong way. The Fold is not there to display an app in full size on a screen. Sure, in the case of Instagram it looks really great, but the question "And now? What's the point?" remains stubbornly unanswered.

However, in the context of my normal use of screens with multiple screens, windows and applications, I see massive potential. One that I've never seen with tablets - I'm better off with any laptop in terms of size - and that I miss with a normal phone. After all, both tablets and smartphones are primarily devices that I use to consume media. Okay, WhatsApp and Signal as broadcasting devices, but it would rarely or never occur to me to send a tweet on my mobile unless I had to. On the Fold, this is suddenly conceivable.

In short: we need to rethink. The form factor of the Fold doesn't have to explain itself to us, we just have to play around with it until we find out what we can do with it.

The mistrust of the new

That all sounds great. So why the mistrust that I couldn't get over during the entire test phase? It took me a while to get to the bottom of the feeling of "This thing is guaranteed to disintegrate, break or shatter". Because the outer shell feels solid and has even survived quite gentle drop tests. However, I didn't dare go any higher than about 30 cm on a linoleum floor. Too expensive and, to be honest, too good to use and too exciting.

One of my favourite Youtubers, JerryRigEverything, took the Fold apart. There too: there's no reason to distrust the workmanship. Sure, Zack - his name isn't Jerry - destroys the phone, but I don't see anything I could point my finger at and say: "Aha! There's the breakage! That's where I'm going to break it!"

The reason for my mistrust is a different one. A nasty and actually totally nonsensical one. It's the feeling you get when you open the screen. We're all used to some kind of tempered glass. Gorilla Glass or a rival product. For years, we've been told that we want bulletproof glass at best. That was true even before smartphones. Even my very first mobile, a Motorola StarTac, had a pane of glass over the display, or a pane that felt like glass.

But now the Samsung Galaxy Fold. Logically, the foldable display cannot be made of glass or a glass-like surface, because glass - as we know - is not particularly flexible, which explains why the "beer bottle origami" hobby does not exist despite no attempts. The inside display of the fold seems to give way slightly when it comes into contact with the finger. It's not that I could somehow push things around, but it feels a bit like when you push around on your LCD monitor on a PC or laptop. Even if you tap the display with your fingernail, the sound is not right.

The sound of a device should not be underestimated. Especially with cars, it's a science in itself. An engine has to sound the way it should. A car door has to sound roughly the way a car door sounds when you close it. This is called product sound design and works with people's instinctive order of perception. People hear before they see. The sound of an object must therefore fulfil certain qualities.

When I touch the display with my fingernail, which happens more often depending on the length of my fingernails, I expect a bright, cool "takk takk" sound. But the Galaxy Fold gives me a muffled, warm "Tupp Tupp" sound. That sounds wrong, it feels wrong. I don't trust it.

Samsung doesn't seem to trust the inner screen yet either. In the USA, you can have the screen replaced for a small price in the first year. After that, you can just as easily buy a new flagship to replace the screen. Samsung has set up a Concierge Service worldwide. As a Fold owner, you can call them and get support. In Switzerland, you can have the screen replaced once in the first year for 149 francs. This offer is not available in Germany. There, however, you can register the Fold for Samsung Care+ and pay a deductible of 130 euros in the event of damage.

This doesn't necessarily inspire much confidence.

Despite all this: I am sure that foldable displays still have a long future ahead of them. The basic version of Android has included support for foldable phones in Android 10, API 29, in the core of the operating system, which makes it a bit easier for developers to work with the concept. And honestly, I like foldable displays. I like being able to do multiple things at once, or look at pictures really big, and then just stash the device in my pocket.

The Samsung Galaxy Fold in its current form may not be the future, but it's a step in the right direction. Good work, Samsung. <p

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Dominik Bärlocher

Senior Editor

dominik.baerlocher@digitecgalaxus.ch

Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.

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