The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 doesn’t reinvent the folding wheel, but it does add some welcome polish to the most popular book-style foldable on the market. With a redesigned flagship-quality camera setup and a matured software experience, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 reclaims its place as the most innovative ultra-premium smartphone available in the world at large.
Samsung’s message throughout 2022 has been loud and clear: refine, don’t rebuild. We saw this with the flagship Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus, the mid-range Galaxy A53 5G, and even its Galaxy Watch 5 series smartwatches, all products that stick to familiar shapes with only subtle changes inside and out. Not even Samsung’s ultra-premium and expensive Galaxy Z Fold 4 could escape the trend, but are minor steps enough for the cutting edge of smartphone technology? Find out in our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 review.
About this Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 review: I tested the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 over a period of 12 days. It had Android 12L with the July 1, 2022 security patch. The unit was provided by Samsung for this review.
What you need to know about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 (12GB/256GB): $1,799 / £1,649 / €1,799
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 (12GB/512GB): $1,919 / £1,769 / €1,919
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 (12GB/1TB): $2,159 / £2,019 / €2,159
Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Z Fold 4 alongside the Galaxy Z Flip 4 as part of its August 2022 Unpacked event. It succeeds the Galaxy Z Fold 3 in a way that can only be described as the apple that doesn’t fall away from the tree The overall design of the folding book is almost identical to its predecessor, except for a few millimeters and grams shaved off here and there.
From the outside, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 still features a 6.2-inch AMOLED display, with a dynamic refresh rate of 120Hz. It’s slightly sharper and a fraction wider than the Galaxy Z Fold 3’s external display, and the 10MP central camera remains the only holdover. Samsung’s outer screen is surrounded by an Armor aluminum frame with a new, glossier finish for 2022. The durable outer package also retains its IPX8 rating for water resistance, while the outer screen now it is covered by Gorilla Glass Victus Plus.
The design and build of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is as refined as ever, but most of the upgrades are under the hood and inside the rear camera module.
Once you open that hard case, you’re greeted by another crisp AMOLED panel, this time measuring 7.6 inches diagonally and covered in Samsung’s proprietary Ultra Thin Glass technology of the latest generation. The resolution is again slightly sharper than its predecessor and is combined with a dynamic refresh rate of 120 Hz, up to 1,200 nits of peak brightness and a slightly improved 90.9% screen-to-body ratio (from 88.8%) due to its marginally more boxy aspect ratio. The internal display of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is only affected by the selfie camera under the second-generation 4MP display, although it is much less visible than the one found on the previous model.
Fortunately, Samsung finally provided the Galaxy Z Fold 4’s rear camera module with some much-needed updates. It now has almost the same trio of shooters as the tested Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus: a 50MP main lens, a 10MP telephoto lens and a 12MP wide-angle lens. They’re still in the corner of the back panel (also Gorilla Glass Victus Plus), but each lens has a shiny ring that matches the phone’s frame.
Under the hood, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 packs Qualcomm’s latest flagship silicon, the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor, backed by 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of non-expandable storage. A familiar 4,400mAh battery provides the juice to keep the productivity power going, with 25W wired charging and 10-15W wireless charging to recharge it.
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
While Samsung’s first Fold devices pack a lot of packaging, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is another sign of the times. It comes in a very thin box, accompanied only by paperwork, a SIM eject tool and a USB-C cable.
While it’s bound to remain a leader in the premium folding game in North America, where it remains unquestioned, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 faces more international competition than ever. Xiaomi, for example, announced its Mix Fold 2 right after the Galaxy Unpacked event. It’s thinner than Samsung’s device and has a larger external display, though its build is far less durable. The Oppo Find N is another strong foe, with a smaller, wider frame to combat Samsung’s tall, thin approach. While both foldables are limited to the public in China, the Huawei Mate Xs 2 hits European shores and carries the torch for outie-style foldables in a world of innies. However, due to the current trade ban between the US and Huawei, any kind of software support from Google is lost.
The Galaxy Z Fold 4 goes on sale starting August 26 and can be purchased online in the US from Samsung, Amazon, Best Buy and more. It comes in four different colors: Greygreen (pictured), Phantom Black, Burgundy and Beige.
Has the design changed at all?
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Without holding the Galaxy Z Fold 3 in one hand and the Galaxy Z Fold 4 in the other, you’d be hard-pressed to tell that the design has changed. Even if you have both phones at your disposal (like us), it’s still tricky to separate them. Like its clamshell sibling, the Galaxy Z Flip 4, the Galaxy Z Fold 4’s external changes are reduced to a few millimeters here and there.
More specifically, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 is 3mm shorter and 2mm wider than its predecessor when unfolded. When closed, there is no difference in width. It’s also 8g lighter, though it’s still a heavy boy at 263g (9.28oz). All buttons and ports are also in familiar places. The capacitive fingerprint reader and volume rocker are on the far right when open or closed, while the USB-C port is on the bottom edge of the right half when open. On the left half, you’ll find top and bottom output speakers that create stereo sound.
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
While the tablet-sized screen inside remains the phone’s central attitude, the outer screen is where you’ll be running most of your tasks if you’re using the Galaxy Z Fold 4 on the go. The external 6.2-inch AMOLED panel remains tall and thin, as a starting point. Despite having the same diagonal measurement as its predecessor, the shorter overall height of the device means that the bezels lost some weight. The slimmer bezels provide a few extra pixels of width compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 3, resulting in a slightly slimmer 23.1:9 aspect ratio, closer than ever to the dimensions of the screen of a normal phone and much more pleasant to use as a result. .
None of this affects the position of the in-display selfie camera on the cover, which is front and center and surrounded by a small black ring. You can also feel the thinner bezels on the internal display, as the 2mm adjustment comes courtesy of Samsung’s reimagined hinge. The difference isn’t huge, but the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is a story of little progress.
If you’ve never used one of Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold devices before, and many haven’t, the form factor will take some getting used to. I had no problem using it with one hand while it was folded, but it becomes almost impossible once you open the device. Mixing the 7.6-inch behemoth with a single palm is like picking up a scoop of ice cream and trying to shove it into your mouth with the same hand. You might get a scoop here and there, but you’ll enjoy it so much more if you just eat it right.
The wider aspect ratios might be a bit more manageable, but the Galaxy Z Fold 4’s size and shape still require two-handed use.
Once you’ve adopted the two-handed approach, you’ll find that the easiest way to approach the Galaxy Z Fold 4’s internal display is to use it as if you were using a traditional Android tablet. However, tablets don’t force you to darken the rear screen with fingerprints. If you prefer to scroll and navigate with your right hand, like me, you’ll end up with a lot of smudges on the cover screen when using the device unfolded. They’re easy enough to clear, but they can drive you crazy as you switch between the two modes.
After getting used to the book-like form factor, it doesn’t take long to really appreciate the power of the internal display. The boxier aspect ratio of the massive panel makes it squarer than ever and, in turn, more pleasant to use when immediately folded into its vertical orientation. It can get very bright up to 1,200 nits and the color reproduction is excellent. Meanwhile, the 120Hz adaptive refresh rate is delightfully smooth and can drop down to 1Hz when viewing static content to save battery. Unfortunately, the crease in the middle of the folding screen is anything but smooth – you won’t slide your finger into it as much as you would with the Galaxy Z Flip 4’s horizontal dip, but it’s still there and still noticeable if you pick it up. the light in the wrong position.
While Samsung hasn’t solved the crease problem, it has managed to hide a blemish on the book’s screen; the under-display selfie camera is immediately less obvious than the Galaxy Z Fold 3’s pixelated blob thanks to a new scatter-type subpixel arrangement. The camera results are still pretty awful (we’ll get to that), and you’ll still notice it on white or light-colored backgrounds, but it blends much better with darker tones.
Samsung’s sandwich of premium materials means the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is as tough as a foldable phone can be. According to Samsung, the Gorilla Glass Victus Plus outer screen and back panel blend seamlessly with the color-coordinated Armor aluminum frame, while the inner ultra-thin glass screen is more durable than before. Is…