Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 may not have the best camera in a foldable and it may lack in many areas. On top of that, we may have been getting the same thing over the years with a bit of refinement here and there, but the fact remains. When it comes to refinement and trust, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 remains on top.
At a massive Unpacked event in Paris, Samsung finally took the wraps off of the Galaxy Z Fold6 and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6. Now, for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6, this year was important because this year, the Galaxy Z Fold6 has been launched amid tight competition from the likes of Vivo and OnePlus, where both these manufacturers have pushed the envelope a little bit in terms of how good foldable smartphones can be.
Last year, OnePlus gave us a very complete and refined OnePlus Open, which showcased that we can get a proper smartphone experience with the outer display along with a decent set of cameras, and then came the Vivo X Fold3 Pro more recently, which further proved the point, along with offering a much slimmer and sleek device. So can the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 remain the king of foldable devices in this battle of the GOATS? Let’s find out.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 review: Design
Like always, design is the first thing that we look at when talking about any smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 has a familiar form factor with slight tweaks here and there. This year, we are getting a 1mm wider cover display, which does make things better, but still doesn’t make the cover display wide enough to be used as a proper glass-slab smartphone.
We are also getting a more squared-off form factor this year. The frames are completely flat, and the front and back are also absolutely flat on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6. This makes the corners much more sharper, which looks really good. The sharp corners, however, make the palm grip of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 a little uncomfortable. You see, where the smartphone rests on your palms when using it with one hand, that corner of the smartphone is very sharp and holding it for longer hours makes things rather uncomfortable.
But that’s just a nitpick. The design of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 is very clean and seamless. Even the materials used in the smartphone’s build just feel very premium from the moment you hold this smartphone. Even the hinge feels more reinforced as compared to the Vivo X Fold3 Pro or the OnePlus Open, and the overall fit and finish is just on another level, despite the extremely narrow aspect ratio on the cover display.
This year we’re also getting a new camera module design on the Samsung Fold. The camera cutouts are now bigger with thicker borders and the camera rings are now black in colour. The orientation, however, remains the same with the three cameras placed vertically.
Now, talking about the weight and durability, here also the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 checks all the boxes. We are getting IP48 rating with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6, making the smartphone water resistant and also making it the first smartphone to have some level of dust resistance. There is also Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on both the front and back, so it won’t scratch easily as well.
Even the weight of the smartphone has been reduced significantly. Do note that I use the Vivo X Fold3 Pro as my primary phone and I found that to be extremely lightweight. Even so, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 felt very light for a foldable. But to put things in perspective, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 is about 14 grams lighter than its predecessor, the Galaxy Z Fold5, weighing 239 grams as compared to 253 grams of the predecessor. This is the same weight as the OnePlus Open and only 4 grams heavier than the Vivo X Fold3 Pro.
So yes, in terms of the design, there isn’t much to criticise here apart from the still narrow cover display on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6. I like this design more than the other two competitors, since this looks more clean and minimalistic. Rest, we are getting all the durability and water resistance one can ask for in a smartphone along with the first certified dust protection. And best of all, my favourite design element remains, which is the under display front camera on the main display, this just makes the foldable screen look much more seamless.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 review: Display
Coming to the display, this is again an area where Samsung always hits it out of the park, and the latest foldable is no different. The smartphone comes with a 6.3-inch cover LTPO AMOLED cover display with a QHD (968 x 2376p) resolution. So even the front display is extremely premium. Samsung is also claiming a peak brightness of 1600 nits on the cover display, which is a pretty decent number.
So I put this to the test, and during a normal sunny day in Delhi, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6’s cover display is able to push out a typical maximum brightness of over 1200 nits, which is brilliant and close to the claimed 1600 nits number. Good. Apart from being bright, this outer display is also very accurate in terms of how it represents the colours. I ran the Calman Colorchecker on the outer display of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 and here, this display showcased an average DeltaE of 0.9, which basically means that the colours you see with your eyes and the colours you see on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 cover display can not be differentiated by the human eye. A DeltaE of less than 3 is considered good for smartphones.
Coming to the main display, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6’s main display is equally good. Here also, the smartphone pushed its peak luminance to 1319 nits and represents colours very accurately. The 7.6-inch foldable panel showcased equally good colour accuracy, achieving a DeltaE of 1, which is almost as good as real-world colours and very close to the quality that we’re getting with the cover display. To achieve this level of accuracy with a foldable panel is brilliant for Samsung and only goes on to further showcase the brand’s prowess when it comes to giving us the best displays out there.
Yes, it is tuned more towards the vibrant or saturated side of things. And yes, the crease is dense. But let me make sense of both these things. Firstly, the display tuning, despite making the colours appear vibrant, is still extremely accurate (not taking away from the fact that people actually prefer more vibrant colours on their display). Talking about the crease, I’m pretty sure that the crease on foldables is not going away anytime soon. Anything you keep folded for the major part of your usage will naturally get a crease.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 review: Performance
Performance of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 is also as good as it gets. We are getting the top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset paired with up to 12GB of RAM and we are getting up to 1TB of internal storage option. Looking at the specs, it is no surprise that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 absolutely smashed the benchmark tests.
The smartphone achieved a score of above 1.5 million on AnTuTu and in other CPU-based benchmarks also, the smartphone offered great results. And while the Galaxy Z Fold6 gave us great numbers across benchmark tests, it does fall short in AnTuTu as compared to the fiercest rival, the Vivo X Fold3 Pro. In rest of the benchmarks, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 was able to trump the Vivo X Fold3 Pro, even though the difference was marginal.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6, however, heats up. Now, that is something that I have experienced with most Samsung devices and this seems to be no stranger to the heating problem. Furthermore, this is something I have experienced with pretty much every foldable that I have used or tested so far. Even the Vivo X Fold3 Pro or the OnePlus Open emitted their share of heating during my experience with the two devices.
However, if I remember from last year’s experience, the heating isn’t as bad as the previous generations. If this will remain like that remains to be seen but for now, it’s not too bad. In the CPU throttling test, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 throttled to 69 percent of its peak performance.
Even playing games on the Galaxy Z Fold6 is a beautiful experience. Yes, playing for too long will heat up the smartphone, but having a big screen that can push high frame rates for a long time is anything a smartphone gamer can ask for. Currently, all games are not tuned according to the bigger display, but you shouldn’t have any issues with some of the major titles like Battlegrounds Mobile India or Call of Duty: Mobile or even strategy games like Clash of Clans, which just gives a completely different level of satisfaction on a larger canvas.
But apart from the performance, I would like to talk about the software experience because that is what makes the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 appeal to most people. And the experience, my friends, more than makes up for the narrow cover display. First and foremost, this is still the only foldable in the world that supports a stylus.
Furthermore, the OneUI Android skin is just more refined than anything else out there. It is clean, there is no bloatware, and you are not annoyed by the confusing controls or set up processes or browser notifications, or even the plethora of permissions for literally using anything on the smartphone for the first time.
Then comes the multi-tasking and AI features on this Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6. Foldables are beast of multi-taskers when compared to traditional candy bar smartphones. And Samsung’s foldable just takes that to a whole new level. There is no limit on the number of pop-up windows you can open for multi-tasking and the gestures and controls to bring everything forward or close everything are just smooth.
Then comes the AI features which are, by far, the most refined and the most fun to play around with. Yes, people will get bored of the “Sketch to image” feature very soon but there is no doubt that playing around it for the first few times is an absolute blast! Then we have the full suit of other features like circle to search or live translation. But one of the best use case of these AI features for the Fold 6 is the interpreter, where you can have the translations on the cover display of the phone, while your conversation comes on the main display. Very convenient for showing or conversing with someone you may have met overseas.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 review: Battery and charging
Now, battery is one area where there is still room for improvement. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 comes with a 4,400mAh battery which is the same size as last year’s Galaxy Z Fold5. And while the size doesn’t matter when we are talking about the backup, it isn’t that great.
In our video loop test, the smartphone lasted about 900 minutes, which may sound great since it’s almost 15 hours, but comparing it with other foldables, the number looks very small. For reference, the OnePlus Open lasted easily 2 hours longer than the Galaxy Z Fold6, and the Vivo X Fold3 Pro lasted over 200 minutes more than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6. It is also important to note here that both the Vivo X Fold3 Pro and OnePlus Open have bigger batteries. While the Vivo X Fold3 Pro has a 5,700mAh battery and the OnePlus Open has a 4,805mAh battery.
In other scenarios also, the Samsung’s battery isn’t too impressive. The smartphone drained 5 percent of the battery while streaming a video on YouTube for 30 minutes. While playing Call of Duty: Mobile for just 15 minutes, it lost 6 percent of the battery. And lastly, the smartphone lost 8 percent of its battery while navigating on GPS for 1 hour straight.
Even the charging feels relatively slow with 25W but it’s not all that bad in all honesty. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 took almost 75 minutes to charge from 0 to 100, which is just enough for any kind of user. However, if we compare it with the competition, obviously 25W is much slower than the 100W we’re getting with the Vivo X Fold3 Pro and the 67W fast charging on the OnePlus Open.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 review: Camera
Cameras are another area where I usually like what Samsung has to offer. Here also, not a lot is wrong with what Samsung has done. We are getting a similar triple rear camera setup this time again with the 50-megapixel primary shooter, a 10-megapixel telephoto shooter, and another 12-megapixel ultrawide angle lens. So in the hardware sense, there is no upgrade. The results are also pretty close to what we got last year.
The dynamic range on shots from the primary shooter is impressive and the photos are rich in terms of the details and colours. In true Samsung fashion, the colours are more towards the vibrant side of things as compared to true-to-life, but that is something that most users prefer. In low light also, the camera performs well, but I did experience some light bleed and flare around light sources in low lights, which is something that still hasn’t been fixed.
These results are consistent in the portrait mode as well. The edge detection is amazing and the background blur can be adjusted according to your taste. Even during the night, the portraits out of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 are very good.
There are also two selfie cameras here. One on the cover display and one under the main display. Now, to save time and effort let me just say that the under display front camera is no good and you’re better off using the main selfie camera on the cover display.
So yes, in terms of the camera not much has changed as compared to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 from last year. From the specifications, to the results, to even the software remains pretty much the same. This year, we can use some AI and draw our own elements in images, but apart from that there is no AI integration in the camera app itself, which is a bit of a bummer since I expected that if not hardware, we will get some sort of a software upgrade with this.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 review: Verdict
So that was the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 for you all. Now, when I took the Fold6 for review I was a bit skeptical about not getting any major upgrades from last year. This also came from the mindset of being a Vivo X Fold3 Pro user who enjoys a proper cover display and an exquisite camera setup. And yes, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 lacks in a lot of areas when we compare it with the competition.
But all that went away when I first held the smartphone in my hands. It just feels more refined in terms of the build quality and design. The hinge feels super reinforced and gives a sense of confidence when folding or unfolding. And apart from that, we are getting the best software experience, along with a host of AI features that just work well. Furthermore, it is the only foldable smartphone that supports a stylus and comes with certified dust protection.
So yes, it may not have the best camera and it may lack in many areas, and we may have been getting the same thing over the years with a bit of refinement here and there, but the fact remains. When it comes to refinement and trust, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 remains on top. And finally, in our tests, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 scores higher than the Vivo X Fold3 Pro since with this smartphone, we are getting more things like dust resistance, more AI features, and a higher number of software and security updates which make this a much longer lasting option.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 5G Key Specs, Price and Launch Date
| Release Date: | 25 Jul, 2024 |
| Market Status: | Launched |
Key Specifications
Storage
256 GB
-
Battery capacity (mAh)
5000
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Rear Camera Megapixel
50 + 32 + 50
-
Screen size (in inches)
8
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