Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 review – the smartphone experience re-invented

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 is a new and exciting foldable smartphone that promises to reinvent the way we interact with our device and create new possibilities and experiences.

Now in its fourth iteration, the Z Fold 4 has well and truly established itself as a jewel in the Samsung mobile devices crown.

The company is positioning the Z Fold 4 and its other new foldable device – the Z Flip 4 – as flagship devices that will sit side by side with its already popular Galaxy S Series.

The Z Fold 4 has inherited a better camera, a faster processor, S Pen compatibility and a more robust build.

And Samsung has also kept the device at the same price as last year’s model despite the worldwide market difficulties.

Tech Guide has been using the Galaxy Z Fold 4 for a couple of weeks.

THE EXPERIENCE

If you’re new to a foldable smartphone, you’ll find any excuse to open the Z Fold 4.

People stopped us to take a closer look and there was no shortage of fascination for the device.

And it is one of those products that you appreciate (despite the high quality of this review) even more once you get it in your hands.

In the time we’ve been using it, every single person who asked to look at it was impressed.

But why would you want the Z Fold 4?

If you’re an avid smartphone user who creates content, consumes content and wants to stay productive on the go, then the Z Fold 4 is right for you.

It is a lot of phone – it has a front screen and front and rear cameras and a larger inside screen and an internal camera as well.

Casual smartphone users will probably steer clear but those who want this sort of versatility and power in their hands will grow to love the Z Fold 4.

DESIGN

Design-wise, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 hasn’t changed too much. It looks almost the same as last year’s Fold 3.

It is slightly shorter than the Fold 3 and a few millimetres wider but the look and feel of the product is pretty much the same.

You can notice it is smaller and lighter and the reduction on the overall bulk of the device.

Samsung says the hinge has been completed re-engineered and is also slightly slimmer as well and is noticeably smaller when the phone is closed.

The device still has a slight gap closer to the hinge, so the Z Fold 4 retains its wedge shape.

But, despite its greater thickness than a regular smartphone, it was still easy to carry around in our pocket or hold in our hand.

It should also be noted the Z Fold 4 is made of durable Armor Aluminium to handle day-to-day use and the cover screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus to resist scratches.

It also has an IPX8 rating which makes it water resistant so it can handle any accidental spills.

SCREEN

The Z Fold 4 has a 6.2-inch front screen and a 7.6-inch inside display – both with a 120Hz refresh rate so whatever you’re watching or whatever game you’re playing it is as smooth as silk.

The front screen is slightly larger than the previous model and now provides the room to get even more done.

Previously many of the tasks we needed to complete required us to stop and open the phone but now the Z Fold 4 allows you to still do those things without opening the phone.

Opening the Z Fold 4 to reveal that larger screen is now mainly for us to enjoy content and to multitask rather than replying to a text message.

It is a luxury to open that large screen on the Z Fold 4 rather than a necessity.

We don’t always have the chance to stop everything, take everything out of our hands and open the phone which is what made it frustrating to use the earlier models with the smaller front screens.

With the larger front screen, which gets its increased size from reducing the thickness of the bezels, you can easily type messages and use it one handed to scroll through emails and apps.

The inside screen itself has a slightly less prominent crease which can be seen in the right light, but you quickly stop noticing it when viewing content on the screen.

MULTITASKING

The large inside screen of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 presents a large canvas for not only consuming your content but also for getting things done.

Users can run up to three different apps on the 7.6-inch display to take your multitasking game to the next level.

When you open an app on the inside screen, a small Taskbar appears and allows you to drag the icon up to the main screen so you can run the two apps side-by-side or one on top of the other.

And it’s easy to change that orientation.

And you can even run a third app by dragging it from that Taskbar to have all the information you need there at your fingertips.

You can drag and drop pictures and text between the open apps as well.

You can also give apps more space by dragging the border in the right direction.

Users can even save this combination of apps, if they use them often, so they can be opened simultaneously on the larger screen rather than having to drag them individually every time.

No other phone on the market can match the Z Fold 4 in this department.
If you are a power user who relies on multitasking to get the job done, the Z Fold 4 can potentially take the place of your laptop when it comes time to complete those tasks.

S PEN

The S Pen is another vital feature for the Z Fold 4 and only works on the larger inside screen.

It is more responsive and allows you to write and draw and sketch like you’re using pen and paper.

The S Pen also has a text extraction tool so you can easily identify and select text to copy and share and use it in other documents.

All you need to do is draw a box around the text you want and then choose what you want to do with it.

Whether it’s taking notes or jotting down thoughts, annotating a document or photograph, the S Pen really does give high-end users another excuse to make the Z Fold 4 their next device.

That larger inside screen can be quite a canvas. Usually writing on a screen that size would require the user to carry around a separate tablet.

But with the Galaxy Z Fold 4, you can simply open the device and get to work.

One thing we wished we could be able to do is store the S Pen within Z Fold 4 rather than having to carry it separately or inside a special case.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra has space for the S Pen to be stored internally but unfortunately there was no room for the S Pen in the Galaxy Z Fold 4.

This was one of the very few negative features we could find on the device.

We would also like to have seen expandable memory. Imagine being able to load a microSD card full of all your favourite content to enjoy on that large screen.

CAMERA

There is no shortage of cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold 4 starting with the three lenses on the rear panel which include a 12-megapixel ultrawide, 10-megapixel telephoto and a 50-megapixel wide-angle camera.

On the front is a 10-megapixel camera and there’s also a 4-megapixel under screen camera on the main display inside.

This is one area we are happy to report has improved significantly with the Z Fold 4 which has inherited the camera quality of the flagship Galaxy S series.

Simply put, images taken with the Z Fold 4 are stunning.

Our images were sharp and bright with punchy, warm colour.

The other great feature was the 30x space zoom and 3x optical zoom which allowed us to get even closer to our subject.

But we found we used the ultrawide camera even more which allowed us to fit even more into our image.

For example, we took a group shot of about 10 people standing side by side and we only had to stand couple of metres away from them and were still able to fit them in.

This also helped taking shots outside and allowing us to fit even more into our images.

Another example was when we were in New York where we were able to fit one of the reflecting pools at Ground Zero and still frame the top of the Freedom Tower in the image as well.

The camera also does a great job in low light situations and can take images taken in near total darkness and fill them with light.

We really enjoyed being able to use the entire main screen as our viewfinder which made it even easier to frame our images and get the right results.

And when it comes to taking selfies there is a mode that allows you to turn on the main camera and view yourself on the front screen to really nail the image.

BATTERY

Now you’d think a device with two screens would really drain the battery, but we’re pleased to report in our daily usage we had enough power for nearly two days of use.

If the 4400mah was fully charged at 8am on Monday we were still going strong at lunchtime on Tuesday and beyond.

And this is when we were using the phone every day as our daily driver.

This battery performance is a huge win for Samsung and takes out any remaining doubt for a potential customer thinking of purchasing the device.

PRICE

It was quite an achievement for Samsung to keep the Z Fold 4 at the same price as last year’s model.

There were certainly market pressures that could have seen the price increase but the company said it worked very hard to maintain the price point from last year to hopefully make the decision easier for customers considering entering the foldable market.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 is priced at $2,499 (256GB), $2,699 (512GB) and $2,999 (1TB – Samsung store exclusive).

VERDICT

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 is a stunning foldable smartphone that will be even more appealing to the savvy customer who wants to do more with their device and enjoy a whole new experience that hasn’t been possible until now.