We received our palms on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 simply forward of the official announcement and checked out all the brand new AI options, the refined construct, and the particular sauce that Samsung hopes shall be sufficient to lastly make foldables go mainstream.
However, as I maintain the Galaxy Z Fold 6, I’m wondering if Samsung realizes who this cellphone is made for. Whereas the corporate talked large about how the Z Fold sequence was made for fanatics and energy customers, Samsung has failed to supply the numerous and significant updates that telephones just like the Honor Magic V2 and Vivo X Fold 3 have.
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 additionally comes with a $100 worth enhance regardless of not launching with any significant new options, making it that rather more out of attain for the mainstream client. It is a unusual place for a colossal firm like Samsung to be, particularly provided that the corporate invented the folding cellphone class. But, right here we’re with one other underwhelming 12 months of Galaxy foldables.
Value and availability
Preorders for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 start on July 10, 2024 with common availability to comply with on July 24. The mannequin with 256GB storage retails for $1899, whereas $1999 will get you 512GB storage and $2099 upgrades that to 1TB of storage. Preorders by way of Samsung.com qualify for a free storage improve, so you will get the 512GB mannequin for the value of the 256GB mannequin, and many others.
All Galaxy Z Fold 6 fashions ship with 12GB of RAM and embrace a free one-time display screen protector substitute. Fashions bought by way of your service of alternative will embrace 1 12 months of Samsung Care+ without spending a dime.
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is available in three most important colours: Silver Shadow, Pink, and Navy. Clients who order by way of Samsung.com will even get to select from Crafted Black and White colorways.
The identical, however completely different
Cease me if this sounds acquainted. In case you had been to select up a Galaxy Z Fold 6, it is unlikely that you simply’d discover many variations between this 12 months’s mannequin and final 12 months’s. Samsung’s strategy has lengthy been to ship iterative updates yearly, slowly enhancing upon the stellar Galaxy Z Fold 2’s radical design.
This 12 months, Samsung shrunk the general thickness by a full millimeter, shortened the cellphone by 1.4mm, and made it 1mm wider than the Z Fold 5 when closed. Due to the best way the hinge unfolds, this implies the cellphone is 2.5mm wider than the Z Fold 5 when unfolded.
Regardless of the cellphone being 1mm wider when closed, the outer show is 3mm wider making it simpler to sort on and use each day. Samsung additionally squared off the corners which supplies the cellphone the look of a ebook when totally opened.
The Fold 6 now carries an IP48 water and dust-resistance ranking, that means it is in all probability not doomed for those who unintentionally drop it within the sand.
I assumed I might dislike this since I usually don’t love sq. telephones — I am taking a look at you, Galaxy S24 Ultra — however this cellphone feels higher as a sq. as a result of it is a product that makes extra sense in a book-like kind issue. It additionally has the added bonus of constructing the display screen really feel even bigger for the reason that corners embrace extra show and fewer roundness.
Moreover, Samsung added mud resistance to the Z Fold 6 for the primary time within the sequence historical past. The Fold 6 now carries an IP48 water and dust-resistance ranking, that means it is in all probability not doomed for those who unintentionally drop it within the sand.
A brand new floating edge design that lastly provides it a full lip throughout to make it simpler to open.
A part of the advance is that Samsung created a brand new floating edge design that lastly provides it a full lip throughout to make it simpler to open. One among my greatest design complaints for the reason that Z Fold 2 is that the flat, flush edge when closed makes it harder to open than essential. That is utterly solved right here.
This floating edge design additionally provides the cellphone the phantasm of being thinner than it truly is which is an effective factor as a result of that is nonetheless a really thick cellphone when folded closed. It is also noticeably lighter, coming in at 239g which places it on par with the best foldable phones.
The cameras are nonetheless the identical dreadfully underwhelming ones discovered on the $799 Galaxy S24, a cellphone lower than half the value.
The issue is that Samsung does not function in a bubble and continues to be squarely within the shadow of foldables just like the OnePlus Open or Honor Magic V2 that are nonetheless half a millimeter thinner but pack in much more spectacular digicam {hardware}.
In the meantime, Samsung has the audacity to extend the value of the Z Fold 6 by $100 all whereas preserving the identical 3-year-old digicam {hardware} because the $799 Galaxy S24. Samsung says the ultrawide digicam makes use of a more recent 12MP sensor however the on-paper specs aren’t any completely different and the sensors used most frequently — the primary and telephoto cameras — are nonetheless dreadfully underwhelming.
A minimum of they made the digicam modules look prettier this 12 months, proper?
However whereas Samsung may nonetheless make the subsequent Z Fold somewhat thinner and add higher digicam {hardware}, there’s one factor they nonetheless do a lot, a lot better than everybody else: the S Pen. That glorious S Pen case from final 12 months is again and with just a few minor design tweaks to make it higher than ever.
Because the cellphone is 1mm thinner, including a case like this feels much less cumbersome, too. There’s one colour case to match every of the cellphone’s colours and a few S Pen fashions also have a shiny button on them for a pleasant impact.
The S Pen continues to be wonderful however is not any completely different from final 12 months. Except you rely the shiny button, in fact.
The shows have seen extra enhancements this 12 months, persevering with the development of constructing ultra-bright displays by rising the utmost brightness to 2600 nits on each shows. That outer show can be totally LTPO this time round, too, that means it might dynamically scale from 1-120Hz. Final 12 months, it may solely drop right down to 48Hz.
And whereas final 12 months’s Galaxy Z Fold 5 show made me need to curl up in a ball and die from all its sluggish flickering, this 12 months’s seems a bit higher. Samsung doubled the PWM price on the Galaxy Z Fold 6’s shows to 480Hz, matching that of the Galaxy S24 series. It isn’t sufficient of a change to assist actually flicker-sensitive individuals but it surely may be sufficient to assist forestall extra individuals from turning into flicker-sensitive.
The crease on the within folding display screen additionally been reasonably improved however to not the diploma as we see on the Galaxy Z Flip 6. In different phrases, whereas it is flatter than ever, you will nonetheless discover it for those who maintain the cellphone at an angle. That makes it higher for watching movies and drawing on, which is nice since Samsung added a bunch of nifty new AI drawing instruments to the Z Fold 6.
AI
Now comes everybody’s favourite half: AI. The kicker is that the brand new AI instruments right here would possibly truly be my favourite a part of the entire expertise, and that is as a result of they lean in to what makes the Z Fold 6 particular. Folks have beloved to doodle on their Z Folds for the reason that Z Fold 3 launched S Pen help, however some individuals had been held again by a scarcity of abilities within the artwork division.
Fortunately, AI could make up for all of your shortcomings by turning your elementary school-level doodles into true artworks.
Let’s take my rudimentary sketch of Trogdor the Burninator under, for instance. Do you suppose he’d be burninating the countryside wanting like that rubbish on the left? Fuhgeddaboudit. One faucet of the generate button used Galaxy AI to show that mess into an exquisite drawing worthy of being known as artwork.
Now the entire peasants can draw at an artwork college stage.
The brand new AI doodle function turns your rudimentary sketches and picture markups into one thing actually wonderful.
However this function is not simply good for random doodles that you simply may be doing on the clock. It is also nice for marking up photos such as you by no means have earlier than. Did you are taking a trip image of the ocean however realized there’s nothing attention-grabbing within the water? Doodle an extraordinarily rudimentary boat and faucet generate, then watch as pure magic unfolds.
It might even brighten up photos of your pets, as you will see within the second instance!
The Z Fold 6 additionally has Circle to Search, Google Gemini, and some new AI digicam options which can be quite a lot of enjoyable. You possibly can take any picture and run it by way of the brand new Portrait Studio function to present it a enjoyable new look. That features watercolor, 3D fashions, and even cartoon-like kinds. Definitely loads higher than downloading a type of sketchy apps that ship your information to who-knows-where.
Lastly, Samsung added in the identical Galaxy AI productiveness options that launched on the Galaxy S24 Extremely like doc abstract, translation, and extra. These are all rolled into what Samsung calls Observe Help and, fairly frankly, makes much more sense on a tool like this with a display screen massive sufficient to really edit paperwork on.
The issue, in fact, is that many of those options have already come to the Galaxy Z Fold 5. The large distinction is that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 contained in the Z Fold 6 can do a few of them on-device, whereas most AI capabilities on the Z Fold 5 are finished within the cloud.
Whether or not or not any of this stuff makes a distinction to you in all probability nonetheless does not justify the $1899 price ticket, although.
