Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 Review: The best foldable smartphone just got better

For the price you would pay, you are bound to expect a phone with a solid, premium build quality. And the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 will not disappoint you. The phone comes with an all-glass build and has an Armour aluminium frame. The phone also has a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, which is currently the strongest protection layer for a phone in the market.

While we are it, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 is also protected from water damage with an IPX8 water resistance rating. This means that the device can stay 1 meter underwater for about 30 minutes. You might have concerns about the dust resistance, courtesy if the hinge mechanism. Samsung, during the media briefing, said that some improvements have been made over the already-improved bristles that were added in the Fold2 last year. That being said, we would not be adventurous enough to take this phone to the beach.

Despite all the hardware improvements, the Fold 3 is slightly lighter at 271 grams. The weight is still on the higher side but when held in hand, you are unlikely to complain, especially after considering the phone’s dual-purpose offering of a phone and a tablet. It is also slimmer at 6.8mm when unfolded. It perhaps is among the slimmest foldable and slab phones out there. Of course, the Z Fold 3 is as thick as two phones when you fold and keep it in your pocket. 

In terms of looks, the foldable phone is obviously going to grab the attention when you fold or unfold it in the public. Adding to its attractiveness is this Phantom Black shade, which has a matte finish on top. I absolutely loved the colourway on the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (Review) and am happy that the Fold 3 gets a similar treatment. You also get the Silver colour option, in case you do not love the Black colour (but why would you not?)

Display

When I used the Galaxy Z Fold 2 last year, I was pretty impressed with the foldable screen. However, despite Samsung claiming that the foldable screen is more durable than the previous generation model, I was cautious while using the Z Fold 2. Things have changed with the Galaxy Z Fold 3. The 7.6-inch foldable screen feels more durable than ever. According to Samsung, it is 80 percent more durable than the Fold2. I folded and unfolded the phone multiple times without worrying about the display splitting and breaking into half. 

The foldable screen also does not attract many smudges like the Fold2’s display did. Yes, the crease is still there and it is something that we might have to live with for the next few years. But here’s the thing, the crease is only evident when you are watching something on it from a slightly tilted or a side angle. 

Another highlight Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 feature is the under-screen camera. Samsung tried to get rid of the notch on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 by placing a 4MP camera beneath the display. You can easily notice the larger pixels on a white or black background but are likely to get bothered by it. It at least did not bother me while watching Silicon Valley on Disney+ Hotstar and Schitt’s Creek on Netflix. 

The foldable screen is also plenty bright and offers vibrant colours by default. I did not have any complaints about any off-axis colour shift or the screen brightness during my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 review period.

For scrolling though social media, I preferred sticking to the 6.2-inch cover screen as it is a lot easier to use with one hand. Though, the aspect ratio is quite narrow and some apps like Instagram initially cropped out the border text. The 120Hz refresh rate support is easily noticeable when scrolling though social media on the cover screen.

There is support for S Pen for both displays. Two things though. Your Note series S Pen will not work as the Z Fold 3 gets a special S Pen Fold Edition. Second, we did not have the new S Pen to check its performance on the Z Fold 3.

Performance and Software

The Galaxy Z Fold 3 gets the best performance hardware you will find on any of the 2021 flagship phones out there. It has a Snapdragon 888 SoC under the hood with 12GB of RAM as standard. You get to choose between 256GB and 512GB storage options. Goes without saying, the performance is top notch. We not only played games on the phone but also used to do those basic edits and work as well. Photo-editing apps like Lightroom work quite smoothly. Even BGMI and Call of Duty run without breaking a sweat. That being said, the form factor is quite odd to play mobile games. In case you can manage, the Z Fold 3 can handle your gaming sessions.

While most phones get credit for their hardware performance, one must appreciate the software tricks on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3. It runs Android 11 based One UI 3 out of the box. Samsung has already announced four years worth of updates to its premium line of products. One UI is among my favourite Android skins out there. Last year though, although the Z Fold 2 had great hardware, the software did not feel as polished. 

With the Z Fold 3, One UI 3 is well optimised for the screen estate. You can open and access multiple apps on the screen at a time simply by swiping on the right edge and dragging them on to the display. For instance, you can watch Money Heist on Netflix and maybe scroll through Instagram or Twitter side-by-side. In case you want to know about the stock market, you can split-view and open the Moneycontrol Pro app as well. 

Samsung has also worked with many third-party developers to optimise app performance on the Z Fold 3. The result is giving users the option to hide those black bars and get an all-screen experience (though slightly stretched) on the foldable display. Like last year, Fold 3 also gets support for Flex mode, wherein a half of the display is used as a stand while displaying information or other functions like using it as a cursor. More such features can be explored in the Labs section of the Settings, which are experimental features that can help improve the user experience.

In terms of audio, the Z Fold 3 has a dual stereo speaker setup. The audio output is loud and clear. That being said, you are likely to accidentally cover the speakers when holding the phone horizontally.

Battery

With all that screen and powerful performance unit, you would also have questions about the battery life on offer. During my 14-day Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 review period, the device gave me an average screen-on time (SoT) of 6.5 hours. The 4,400 mAh battery might seem a bit small for the two screens but it was surprisingly above average as per my use case. The foldable phone was used to stream content, play some games and scroll through social media. The lowest SoT I got was 5 hours and 13 mins on the day when I used the camera quite a lot and consumed content. That is still decent for a foldable phone with a large screen, if you ask me.

What I do feel is a compromise though is the limited 25W fast charging support. Samsung does not provide a charger with the device anymore and its something like the new normal - you have to deal with it. However, a slightly faster charging speed for the 4400 mAh battery would be appreciated. At 25W, the Fold 3 takes close to an hour and 30 minutes. Chinese players like Xiaomi, Oppo, Realme offer faster charging support on their devices. We hope the Fold 4 (or whatever it is called) gets something similar.

Camera

With all the software tweaks and hardware supremacy, the weakest link of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is probably its camera. Don’t get me wrong, the camera performance is not bad but not flagship-grade either. The Z Fold 3 gets a total of five camera sensors - three on the back, one on the cover display and one under the foldable screen.

Let’s start with the triple-camera sensors on the back. All three sensors - main, ultrawide and telephoto - have a 12MP resolution. The main camera is perhaps the best among the three when it comes to colour reproduction and details. You get vibrant shots in daylight with a decent dynamic range. However, the contrast is slightly on the higher side and you will notice less details in the shadows. Lowlight performance is also above average for the price. While the software does bump the exposure in night mode, you will notice that it messes up with the contrast levels. The highlights are slightly overexposed in a bid to get details in the shadows.

The ultrawide camera is quite good but photos are distorted around the edges, which is quite common across all phone cameras. It produces the same boosted colours you get to see on the main camera. Lastly, the 12MP telephoto camera. It does not get the 100x zoom love that the Galaxy S21 Ultra gets and resorts to 3x optical zoom. Up to 3x zoom, the photos are good and more than just usable. Anything further will offer less details and washed out colours.

For selfies and video-calls, you have a 4MP under-display camera (UDC) and a 10MP front camera. The 4MP camera is still Samsung’s first-generation UDC. The results aren’t as great and its best that you not use it at all. Samsung says this 4MP UDC is useful for video-calls, wherein the large screen can also be useful for an interrupted experience. In case you click a lot of selfies, you have two options - 1) Use the 10MP selfie camera on the cover screen. 2) Open the Fold 3 and use the rear camera system.

The 10MP front camera is more convenient to use and offers good amount of details while not messing up with the colours. The portrait mode too does the job with proper edge detection. In case you want ultrawide selfies, open the Fold 3 and use the cover screen as your video finder to click photos using the rear camera. Click here or on the Flickr slideshow below to check some photos we shot during our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 review.

Verdict

So, is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 worth buying? The USP of this year’s Fold is durability, quality and that under-screen camera tech. While the latter has massive room for improvement, it is safe to say that the Galaxy Z Fold 3 sure does feel sturdy and durable. Of course, the phone is likely to break into two parts if you try but for general use case, we would not be concerned about the device’s overall durability. I did feel confident after a couple of days of use to quickly fold and unfold the device and use the foldable screen like a regular smartphone display. 

The performance too is quite top notch but the hero for me here is the software experience. Samsung’s Labs is a neat addition to help users explore its experimental features on the Z Fold 3. That and other features like Flex mode help make use of the extra screen estate more efficiently.

Battery life is still okay but hopefully Samsung works on improving the charging speed. The camera performance isn’t the best either with respect to the price and you can get better results on the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max or Samsung’s own Galaxy S21 Ultra (Review). That being said, for the average user who clicks selfies or photos for the Gram, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 does a decent job. 

The Fold 3 is still expensive at a starting price of Rs 1,49,999 but it is also among the very few novelty devices out there that serves the purpose of two products - a phone and a tablet. One would argue that you can buy a premium phone and a decent tablet. However, factor in the part of carrying two devices that occupies more space versus one that serves the purpose of both in a smaller form factor, and you are likely to go for the Fold 3 here.

All in all, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is a big step-up in the foldable smartphone space. It is only the third-generation foldable phone and we have seen multiple improvements. The addition of an IP-rating for water resistance, coupled with the strengthened durability, gives me the confidence to use this phone as a daily driver. In case you do not wish to splurge and want a foldable phone experience, try considering the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3.