Things You May Want To Know About Samsung Galaxy Fold

While holding a Samsung Galaxy Fold, you might start thinking that you are living a bit ahead of time. This phone is the most forward thinking smartphone that you can buy in 2019. However, it is definitely not the phone to be recommended to everyone.

When you fold it down, it turn into a 4.6-inch display which you can use in the way you use other smartphones. And when you fold it out, it becomes a 7.3-inch mini-tablet.

The first WOW factor of this phone is its screen size when you fold it out. And the second WOW factor is its price, which is extravagantly higher. And one more thing about this phone is that the troubled track record of its durability may turn out to be a deal breaker.

While Samsung has done some hard work to ensure its better durability over the course of five months, you never know when you are going to see pixels tearing and the vulnerable plastic screen getting damaged.

Looking at this phone, you can safely say that it’s the future of the smartphones. A 7.3-inch screen is definitely something that will allow you to do better multitasking. You will find photo editing a lot easier, and the gameplay experience is going to be quite amazing.

It is not quite easy to judge the battery life of this phone. It uses the Samsung’s biggest 4,380mAh battery. But Samsung Galaxy Fold is not the normal phone either. While using the bigger screen, you are surely going to see the faster consumption of battery.

Release date and price

This phone was originally set to be launched in April 26, 2019. That was the first date of launch announced by Samsung. The second date of US launch was September 27, which was five months and one day after the original launch date. During these five months, Samsung did some major tweaks in the hardware. On the second launch date, the phone was re-introduced with the same price, which is very high indeed. This phone was launched in Australia at the end of October 2019.

The price of Samsung Galaxy Fold is $1,980, which is twice the cost of an iPhone 11 Pro. You can buy this phone from Samsung, local stores, or excusive partners.

One important thing to note here is that a 5G version is available for the UK users while US Galaxy Fold is limited to 4G LTE.

Foldable design and durability

With Samsung Galaxy Fold in your hand, you can consider yourself interacting with the technology which is yet to become public. This phone comes with a 4.6-inch ‘cover’ display and a 7.3-inch main display. This book-like foldable design is powered by a 20-part, dual axis locking hinge which is responsible for preventing the folding out of this phone beyond 180 degrees. The best thing about the hinge is that it is made to withstand the abuse.

Opening and closing the fold is quite a smoother process. While closing it, you will feel a magnetic click in the end.

While this phone is quite a thick device when you fold it in, it remains quite portable as you can slip it into your jeans pocket without a hassle. This phone is aesthetically pleasing despite the fact that it is quite a heavier device. And this is where you cannot call it “pretty”.

Screen

Screen is the main feature of this phone because it has got it in two parts. On the cover is a 4.6-inch display which is smaller when you compare it with the screens of other smartphones available in the market. This cover screen is meant to provide just the basic interaction a person needs from a smartphone. But if you want to do the browsing or gaming, you can fold the phone out like a book and start using the 7.3-inch screen. The aspect ratio of the bigger screen is 4.2:3, which is much closer to traditional 4:3 TVs that have become ancient now.

When you fold out the phone, it retains a crease in the middle. Good thing is that this crease is not quite visible when you use it normally but it can be more evident when a glitter appears on the screen due to surrounding lights.

Performance

This is where you are not going to find this phone quite a convincing thing to own, especially when it is too expensive. From the perspective of processing capability, it is just as fast as Galaxy S10 because it has the same Snapdragon 855 chipset. But if you think about it in a realistic manner, you will realize that this processing power is more than enough to smooth performance of Galaxy Fold. The multitasking in this phone is powered by 12GB of RAM.

Cameras

This phone comes with 6 cameras in total; i.e. 1 cover display camera, 2 inner front cameras, and 3 rear cameras. The camera quality in general is much like Galaxy S10 Plus, which means that the quality is good. With powerful hardware and software, the photo editing is amazing.

Looking into the specifications, the selfie camera is 10MP with an aperture of f2.2. When the phone is unfolded, the dual camera setup on the inner side of the phone shows up. This setup consists of a 10MP selfie camera and an 8MP RGB camera.

On the back side of the phone, there are three cameras which include a 12MP regular camera (f/1.5 + f/2.4), a 12MP telephoto camera (f2.4), and an ultra-wide camera (f/2.2).

Battery

To make the phone last with the specs it holds, it is equipped with two batteries which, in combination, enhance the capacity to 4,380mah. Even with this bigger sized battery pack, the phone can last a day and a half on average. That is mainly due to the bigger size of the screen.

The major drawback is that this phone comes with a 15W charger which required extra time to charge the bigger battery. And what’s even stranger is that 25W and 45W chargers that can charge a Note 10 are not compatible with Galaxy Fold.

A Short Review of Samsung Galaxy S7

Samsung Galaxy S7 was a phone launched in 2016. So, it seems pretty much of an old-fashioned phone from the perspectives of its looks but it is a phone which is loaded with the specs and features that bring it into the category of modern phones. And the best thing about it is that it is getting cheaper.

This phone comes with a design which is quite similar to that of S6 which was launched in 2015. But if you look at the specs, this S7 surely wins the battle of specs and features.

Price and release date of Galaxy S7

Galaxy S7 was launched in March 2016. At the time of its launch, the S7’s price was $750. However, you can buy this phone now at a price of $280. It is worth mentioning here that you might find it difficult finding a new S7 phone. But if you are happy with a refurbished phone, you are going to get even bigger discount.

Design

At first glance, you are going to mistake S7 for S6 because it looks like that. The premium glass and metal finish is just as same as S6. However, you are going to see the difference between both phones if you look a bit closely. And that’s where you will realize that S7 gives the best look and feel.

The classic home button is no longer surrounded by a metallic rim. This way, the button blends a bit more into the overall design of the phone.

This phone comes with the dimensions of 142.4 x 69.6 x 7.9mm. This way, S7 is a 1.1mm fatter than the S6 but you are not going to feel the difference while holding the phone in your hand.

On the back side of the phone, there is no camera bump. So the surface on the back is flat but the phone remains in ideal position when you hold it in your hands. And the size of this phone ensures that you could use it with one hand only. Alongside the camera lens, there is a flashlight and a heart rate monitor.

Display

Galaxy S7 comes with a 5.1-inch QHD AMOLED screen. The screen resolution is 2,560 x 1,440 pixels with a pixel density of 577ppi. This display configuration appears to be the same as that of Galaxy S6 but it is not bad given the fact that people likes S6 a lot. The display is sharper, brighter and more colorful.

Another good thing about this phone is that you can keep the phone screen turned on with the wallpaper of your choice. That wallpaper will show you the time and date. This display doesn’t take much of the mobile’s resources so it is not processor intensive.

Specs and performance

Since this phone is a flagship, it should be no surprise that this phone has some very powerful specs inside the metal and glass casing. There are two variants of S7 available, with processor as the difference between the variants. For Europe and other parts of the world, the Galaxy S7 comes with a Samsung-made Exynos 8890 octa-core processor. And for USA, the S7 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core chip. The reason is that Snapdragon 820 supports some major LTE bands in USA. Both chips are powerful. The mobile performance is supported well by 4GB of RAM. Nevertheless, running benchmark tests for both S7 variants brought Exynos-toting Galaxy S7 on the top due to a better number of processor cores.

Camera

In case of the camera, Samsung can be clearly seen believing in the “less is more” approach. The main lens of S7 is a 12MP camera which is a replacement to 16MP in the S6. But this decrement in the number of pixels has actually played major role in improving the camera functions. Less number of pixels means extra light entering through the shutter. This is the reason low light performance of S7 is amazing.

Battery performance

The battery performance in S7 is boosted with the help of a larger sized battery.  It can last a day even if you run some processor intensive tasks. In S6, the battery had the capacity of 2,550mAh. S7 uses 3,000mAh power pack which is definitely agreeable for the users.