Google aimed to change some of this with Android 12L — which Samsung helped build — but there’s still a ways to go before this feels as natural as I hope it one day will. Still, even with some ever-so-slight jank that occurs from having two very different size and shape screens, the Z Fold 3 experience remains unparalleled in every single way. Review Changelog This article was originally published in August 2021. It was updated in November 2021 with the following changes: As far as the main camera is concerned, everything remains the same as on the predecessor phone. All three built-in lenses have a resolution of 12 MP. The main module is a 26 mm wide-angle lens with a large, image-stabilised 1/1.76-inch sensor. The non-stabilised super wide-angle lens covers a 123° angle of view. The telephoto lens provides 2x optical zoom with OIS. The inner selfie camera, on the other hand, is much more innovative. For the first time, it is positioned invisibly under the folding display. This allows you to use the full display area without any disturbing elements. However, the selfie camera's resolution is only 4 MP. For this reason, the outer camera is recommended for good selfies. New Processor, Slightly Larger Battery Elsewhere, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G is powered by the Snapdragon 888 chipset, along with a healthy 12GB dollop of RAM and a choice of either 256GB or 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage. Both the cover screen and tablet-like inner display have a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz – with S Pen stylus support – and it’s also the first-ever Samsung phone to incorporate an under-display selfie camera. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G review: Price and competition If better scratch resistance and a surface you'll want to touch weren't enough, folks who enjoy using polarized glasses would be happy to know what these screens work just fine with their favorite pair of specs. Conversely, the Z Fold 2's screen would turn into a mess of rainbow colors when viewed with polarized lenses.

With specs like that, it’s no surprise to anyone that the Fold 3 5G’s performance is stonkingly good. With speeds sitting among the best, the Fold 3 5G’s Snapdragon 888 reached a single-core processing result of 1,127 in the Geekbench 5 test, with a score of 3,584 in multicore.

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There’s plenty to talk about on the software side of things as well. Samsung has vastly improved the Z Fold’s multitasking abilities, with a split-view overhaul (you can adjust the size of the windows within apps) and the option to enable a static taskbar that functions similarly to a Windows PC or Mac. I had my doubts but came away with a level of trust in Samsung's camera software smarts that I simply didn't expect.The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 cameras are good, but not groundbreaking; you’ll either be satisfied with the finely detailed photos and video, or disappointed that this Note 21 Ultra-replacement doesn’t take things much further than 2020’s Z Fold 2. It depends on how much camera-phone comparison shopping you do.

While Samsung has offered phones with 1TB of storage in the past, that’s not an option here, and there’s no microSD card slot to get you any more storage beyond 512GB. Frankly, with cloud storage becoming ubiquitous, there’s little desire on the part of manufacturers to go higher than this, at least until 4K and 8K video recordings become popular. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 battery life Terms and conditions apply. See https://www.samsung.com/sg/offer/samsung-care-plus/ for details. Samsung Care+ prices are subject to change without notice. Samsung Care+ coverage may vary by country, model and deductibles may apply.

The main camera is a little bit wider than other phones, which helps take in more of any scene but also creates a bit of fringing and lens distortion on the edges of shots. This is particularly noticeable when trying to take photos of anything less than a foot away. The Galaxy Z Fold 3’s main display looks pretty stunning, and a big reason for that is a new under-display camera. Instead of having to stare at a notch or punch hole, the UDC on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 is nearly invisible, especially when you go full screen on content like photos and videos. When the display is dark, say on the home screen, you can make out the tiny hole, but it’s not that noticeable. The update was initially supposed to roll out in December but faced a series of delays due to some bugs that were bootlooping some devices. While it's not based on Android 12L— that's the sort of Android 12.1 that Google designed to work best for foldables and devices with large displays — we expect that some of Android 12L's new features will make their way to the next One UI update on the Z Fold 3.

Camera-wise, aside from the under-display selfie snapper, you’ll also be able to use a 12MP (f/1.8) rear camera, which is partnered with both a 12MP (f/2.2) ultrawide camera and a 12MP (f/2.4) telephoto unit with 2x optical zoom. The primary and zoom cameras benefit from optical image stabilisation (OIS), and the cover camera uses a single 10MP (f/2.2) sensor without OIS. We've detailed everything that's coming to the Fold 3 in the One UI 4.1 update. The foldable is getting access to Samsung's ExpertRAW app, letting you take RAW photos that you can tweak to your heart's content. How do these cameras perform? Well, they’re very good but not the best I’ve come across. The iPhone 12 Pro’s images ever so slightly edged it in almost every side-by-side shoot-out, since the Z Fold 3’s pictures generally looked a bit too overprocessed for my liking and the iPhone managed to capture a touch more detail.

Before buying the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3

New in the Z Fold 3 is water resistance, and we did test this out without breaking our super-expensive review unit. We even unfolded it underwater – and while we flinched, the phone’s durability didn’t. However, its IPX8 rating means you won’t be able to take this phone to the beach, as it’s not dust-resistant. Grains of sand will be the Achillies’ heel of foldable phones for some time to come, it seems. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 display You get a top-tier Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC plus ample RAM and storage. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 also supports Samsung's S Pen ‘Fold Edition' and the new S Pen Pro. It's also now IPX8 rated for water resistance.Samsung's own apps are already optimised for multi-window use but the company has also collaborated with others including Spotify for better experiences on the Galaxy Z Fold 3. In this beach scene you can see that the Galaxy Z Fold 3 struggles to deliver the same amount of detail and subtlety as the iPhone, especially when it comes to the translucence of the water, the variations in sunlight and the bark in the tree on the right side.