Samsung Galaxy Fold Australian review: should you fold, hold or hold off the flexible smartphone?
It folds open like a book, looks like a tablet, and acts like a phone: Samsung’s Galaxy Fold is an entertaining device but a $3000 gamble. Here’s our verdict.
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The future of smartphones has arrived … probably.
Samsung has thrown its sizeable resources at a device that opens like a book, looks like a tablet, makes calls like a phone, and slips into your pocket like you’ve accidentally left home with the TV remote control.
The Galaxy Fold is the first smartphone in Australia with a flexible screen and it certainly makes an impact.
Expect anyone who buys this smartphone to spend 70 per cent of their days ostentatiously opening and closing it, and the remaining 30 per cent talking about opening and closing it.
But while this folding phone could be the future, questions linger over whether it has arrived too soon.
This unusual device lacks some headline features of its rivals, it’s surprisingly delicate, and it not only demands a big pocket but a buyer with deep pockets.
So should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Fold or just try it out? We took it for a brief test drive.
OPEN AND SHUT
There’s no conversation starter quite like this phone.
Open it in front of someone — anyone — to kick off a game of show ‘n’ tell.
The flexible, 7.3-inch screen on this smartphone is undeniably striking, incredibly useful, and seemingly well executed.
Yes, the crease down the centre of the screen is evident — you can see it and feel it under your finger — but it’s not distracting and seems to disappear after a short time using it.
And Samsung, an old hand in the big screen game, makes smart use of the extra real estate.
Multi-tasking feels uncommonly easy on this smartphone.
You simply drag an icon from a side menu on to the screen. Two more apps can be loaded from the same menu to fill the display, and you can add up to five pop-ups too.
Of course, if you show all eight windows at once, it will look like your phone has contracted a bad 1990s computer virus.
Using three apps simultaneously is surprisingly efficient, though, and makes sense on this handful of a phone.
CLOSED CASE
The flexible screen on the Galaxy Fold is, naturally, the showstopper.
But there is a second screen that plays an important role. Namely, it lets users talk into a phone discreetly (and without bringing back side-talking).
The front Fold screen measures a measly 4.6 inches, meaning it is adequate for placing phone calls, setting alarms, glancing at notifications.
Unfortunately, this screen features serious “forehead and chin” borders, and it will have you sighing in frustration every time a Qwerty keyboard appears on it. This display is just too small.
A feature called App Continuity makes the best use of this small screen. You can open some apps, like Google Maps or YouTube, with the device closed and, when you get annoyed, open the phone to see the app transfer to the larger display.
Most Google apps and some other big-name creations, including Facebook, support this feature now but bringing more on board will be critical to the Fold’s success.
THE BUILD
Samsung teased us about the Galaxy Fold for more than a year but there’s still one big surprise when you see it in real life: it’s so very narrow.
You can easily reach across the Fold’s body with your thumb, it feels a little like a remote control, and it resembles the style of the old Nokia Communicator.
Unavoidably, this smartphone is also thick and weights about 50g more than its rivals. Despite this, it doesn’t feel unwieldy.
Its metal hinge also feels rock solid, the plastic covering goes all the way to the edge of the phone so you won’t remove it, and there is a discreet plastic border around the flexible screen.
Some of these features were designed to toughen up this phone after earlier failures and, while they work for now, there are reasonable concerns about its longevity.
These worries are partly stoked by Samsung itself. After powering up the handset, the company warns users not to press the screen hard, to avoid water, dust and screen protectors, and to keep it away from “credit cards, medical devices and other objects that can be affected by magnets”.
Storing your phone and wallet together isn’t normally a crime, and neither is tapping a screen vigorously when websites fail to load. These actions don’t deserve the loss of a $3000 phone.
HOLD IT THERE
As with many early attempts at technological progress, this phone doesn’t nail everything.
It’s not water or dustproof, for example, it supports a limited number of apps that cross the screens, it’s delicate and, crucially, it’s not a 5G smartphone. There is a 5G version of the Galaxy Fold, but it won’t be coming to Australia.
The lifespan of a folding phone is also questionable. There’s no doubt that this phone is well constructed but this is also new, fragile, untested technology. Will the screen crease too much? Will the hinge stay together? No one can say for sure yet.
VERDICT: FOLD OR HOLD OFF
There’s nothing like this phone on the market, and it will take Samsung’s competitors some time to catch up to their flexible creation.
This fold-out screen is striking, well built, and handy for reading anything from books and newspapers to websites and email. The big display hits that Goldilocks not-too-small-not-big-enough-to-be-a-tablet sweet spot.
The strange smartphone is still a massive and expensive gamble, though. Spending $3000 on a phone you can’t tap too hard, use near water, use comfortably when closed, or use on 5G networks is likely to relegate it to the very highest tier of early adopters.
Should you fold a smartphone? Absolutely.
Will the future be full of flexible phones? Probably.
And you should you wait for the second generation to iron out some of the screen creases? Yes. Yes, you probably should.
Originally published as Samsung Galaxy Fold Australian review: should you fold, hold or hold off the flexible smartphone?
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