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Saturday 16 November 2019
PROS
Superb tablet mode; it folds; impressive battery; robust enough; brilliant main display
CONS
Narrow cover display; heavy and bulky when folded; it costs two grand
PRICE
£1,900
As a rule I’m addicted to my phone. I am not addicted to the Samsung Galaxy Fold.
Now, I’m not not addicted to the Fold in the precise same way that I’m not addicted to my iPad. But unlike tablets, smartphones are unputdownable and in my experience the Fold is... not.
Because this £1,900 Samsung hybrid – the first folding phone on sale in the UK – is at once a slim, tidy tablet; a feat of engineering; an early taste of a flexible screened future and a really quite terrible phone.
Fold as phone
I’ll just caveat this whole first section with a note that there are no particularly nasty surprises to be found with this ‘improved’ Galaxy Fold design. You cannot pick off or easily damage the folding screen. Mine hasn’t cracked, nor have any other reviewers’ models in this second batch. There is a new bezel, a raised ridge along the notch and clips at the top and bottom of the device at the previously vulnerable area where the display meets the hinge.
Likewise, if the prospect of a narrow 4.6-inch front screen and a 17.1mm thick phone (at its thickest point at the hinge) appeals to you, you will be perfectly satisfied with what you are paying for.
Everyone uses their phones differently and Samsung is positioning the Galaxy Fold, together with 5G – this is a 5G device – as a chance to change what we do with our phones. I’ll get onto that soon enough but let’s start with the basics.
For the first few days with the Fold, every time I went to check something or do something, I did a tiny bit of arithmetic in my head first. As I picked it up from my desk, say, or removed it from my coat pocket, I had to decide - am I going to open it or not? But that makes sense in terms of acclimatising to a new form factor. After a day or two attempting to type out WhatsApp messages on the narrow, 4.6-inch 720x1680 Super AMOLED cover display, I started opening it every time. (A swipe keyboard helps here; my thumbs are just too fat for the tiny keys and I suspect yours will be too.)
That said, if the cover display is essentially not very useful, that negates a lot of the Galaxy Fold’s efforts. At work, if I had two phones on my desk – one a Galaxy Fold and the other, say, a Pixel 4 – and I had to check Slack or use the calculator or any number of other quick tasks, I would always instinctively reach for the non-Fold phone even after two weeks in.
The inner, folding screen is the star of the show, but the front display is just as important. Even if I have a 7.3-inch 362ppi screen available to me, I won’t always need or want it. As it stands, people use their phones more than tablets and smartphones vastly outsell tablets. That won’t change overnight and it won’t change just because tablet screens start folding up to be slightly more pocketable.
Pocketable! I have seen some reviewers note that the tall profile of the Galaxy Fold makes it pocketable. Although it is nice to be able to wrap your hand around it, this is still a device that looks like, and in some respects sort of is, two phones stuck together when closed.
It also weighs 276g. For comparison, a Galaxy S10 weighs 157g and an iPad Mini (with a 7.9-inch screen, cellular) weighs 308.2g. Ever stuck an iPad Mini in your pocket? Well, let me tell you the Galaxy Fold weighs down coat, skirt and pyjama pockets quite a bit, making it more likely to be left on the sofa or coffee table or kitchen counter. In fact, it’s a bit of a brick, despite its premium, mirrored finish and polished design details. I feel I could really do some damage with this if someone were to sneak up on me.
Folded, the Fold is an outrageous (for 2019) 15.7 – 17.1mm thick as it slants down from the hinge. Unfolded as a mini 7.3-inch tablet, it’s a mere 6.9mm thick, which is glorious in use and very respectable next to the iPad Mini’s 6.1mm spec.
What else would you choose a phone for over a tablet? Well, phone calls are only possible with the device closed and chunky or using the speaker. Web browsing was too annoying to bear on the cover display, too; a sign of how pixel-spoiled I am. How about taking photos and posting them to Instagram?
During my time with the Galaxy Fold, I attended an evening event with a view looking out over the lights of Piccadilly Circus (this is not a humblebrag, this is pertinent, honest). It was a good opportunity to test out the rear triple-camera setup - main 12MP lens, 12MP telephoto lens (with 2x optical zoom) and 16MP ultra wide lens - which will be familiar to anyone who has tried out the Galaxy S10 and Note 10 families. It’s a very capable suite of photography tools, with lots and lots of settings to dig into, but if you’re focused on quality, particularly in slightly tricky conditions, the likes of the Pixel 4 capture more balanced, less noisy images more of the time.
The Samsung Galaxy Fold is available to buy for £1,900 from Samsung online. You can get up to £500 off with a smartphone trade in.
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