Galaxy Fold review: Samsung’s new phone shows the promise and peril of foldable screens — CNET

From the first moment I held it, I knew the $1,980 Galaxy Fold would be something different, something special. It’s become painfully clear that a foldable phone lives and dies by the quality of its bendable screen, center crease or no. Bending a screen is a visceral action that for me feels completely natural and right. The promise — and peril — of foldable phones is real.
Nobody expected the screens on some reviewers’ phones to malfunction so quickly, or for Samsung to postpone the Fold’s April 26 sale date for weeks — until June 13 for AT&T’s preorder buyers — while it investigated what went wrong. That sucked, because the incidents cast a pall over the Fold and over the concept of foldable phones in general. I’d been superexcited to be one of the first in the world to try the Fold, but the screen meltdown let all the air out of the balloon. Because, as the first real phone of its kind, the Galaxy Fold is so important, and because of the alarming screen developments, I’ve taken my time making this evaluation as thorough as possible to avoid any knee-jerk reaction. I’ve used the Fold every day for more than a week in every way a person can use a phone, even (gasp!) to make calls. I ran two overnight battery drain tests, peered at its screen from every angle, and typed until my hands ached. Close up with the Galaxy Fold screen, notch and hinge
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Although the early production review unit Samsung gave me never so much as flickered, CNET will hold off giving the device an official rating until we’ve fully tested a final production Galaxy Fold. That Samsung somehow missed proper quality control before releasing this device will stir up memories of the Galaxy Note 7 battery flame-out. If reviewers hadn’t caught the screen problems on the Fold, a lot of unhappy customers might have shelled out $2,000 for a device that gives more headaches than glimpses of the future. And of course we have to wonder how this will affect other foldable phones, such as the Huawei Mate X and the (rumored) foldable Moto Razr. 10:12

After a week, I’m still divided about the Fold. The world doesn’t need foldable phones. We can get along perfectly fine without them. I hope the Fold’s early misfortunes don’t deter Samsung and others from trying again. The Fold’s screen problems, while important, distract us from evaluating where this device works well and where it doesn’t. We need to be able to let the drama settle and really look at what the Fold has to offer. So that’s what I’m going to do. Are you with me? Opening and closing. Multitasking. Being portable. What the Fold isn’t so good at:
Protecting the internal screen. Smooth scrolling. When you open the Fold, any app you launched on the outside also opens on the inside. Companies have made foldable phone concept sketches and prototypes for years, but the Galaxy Fold marks the first time there’s been enough critical mass in interest and technological know-how to make a commercial device possible. Samsung isn’t alone. Huawei’sMate XandTCL’s commitment to a future foldable are making this new bendable design more real every day.
The screen’s about as soft and tender as a young shoot, and just as easily mangled.EvenGoogle’sin on the action, pledging Android support so that its software will switch from one screen orientation to another as you fold and unfold the display. A little-known company sold the first foldable phone, theRoyole FlexPai, but Samsung’s Fold is the first «real» foldable phone for most people.
If Samsung and its rivals can fix major problems that the Fold is seeing now, and enough people wind up clamoring for the design, then foldable phones have a chance to change the way people use their devices. Read more:Galaxy Fold pains could help other foldable phones succeed

Look closely beyond the bezel and you can see a thin film on the Galaxy Fold’s screen. Samsung says this protective layer isn’t a screen saver, and you shouldn’t remove it or you might damage the screen. Angela Lang/CNET
Premium on the outside, cheap feeling on the inside
The Galaxy Fold has two screens, but it’s the 7.3-inch inner display that’s your real living space. My review unit is still 100% usable, without bumps or distortion, but if you look at it closely, over on the left side there’s a small divot. You can see it clearly in our review video. I’m not even sure when it happened, but it does speak to the fragility of this type of design. Samsung had to go this route to justify the phone’s high price. A magnetic closure helps the Fold feel securely battened down.

I don’t expect plastic bezels on a $2,000 «luxury» phone. The plastic film that’s caused such a ruckus is only one problem. Two reviewers took it off (I thought about doing so myself), which caused the screen to immediately malfunction. Samsung later said it’s not a screen guard, but an integral part of the phone’s structure. With a thin border between this protective layer and those plastic bezels, it’s hard to tell — there’s enough room to easily slide in a fingernail or tool to give this film a tug. You can see how something could work its way in there. On the bright side, opening and closing the Fold feels awesome. The Fold is a phone you have to understand on a physical level that words and photos don’t do justice to. You have to feel how much force you need to throw into it to close the device and open it again. To gauge the smoothness of that big hinge as the «wings» open and close. It isn’t hard, but you do need to be deliberate, and I like the little bit of exertion the Fold demands from you. And that clack when it does close! The Infinity Flex display is made of a type of plastic because bendable glass isn’t available yet. Sarah Tew/CNET
It’s not just me that thinks this. It’s such an «aha!» moment. (My mom called the screen color «pure and glowing.»)
I do love that I can actually zip the Fold into the pocket of a short-waisted, fitted leather jacket. When I’ve finished a session of use, I can simply close it up with a snap and stash it away.
Let’s be real about the screen crease
Before the Galaxy Fold screens began acting up, this seam running down the phone’s plastic Infinity Flex display was the thing worrying people most. Would the crease get worse? Until we find a material that fluidly self-heals when bending and unbending, we’re going to have to put up with some amount of creasing. So does your elbow. Angela Lang/CNET
When I press down on the 7.3-inch screen when the Fold is opened, I can feel the hinge mechanism underneath, but I don’t really feel it if I’m swiping lightly. The notch sticks out like a sore thumb
As much as I like the Fold’s looks, some of its design elements are real head-scratchers. First, there’s that notch. It’s a roughly inch-long cutout on the right side of the 7.3-inch display, housing two cameras and some sensors.
I’ll be honest with you, it looks pretty ridiculous and unnecessarily large. It doesn’t ever obstruct the action of a scene, but I don’t think it needs to be quite so big.

The Galaxy Fold’s notch is taking up quite a lot of space. You don’t notice the notch so much, but you also don’t get the full-screen experience. That’ll just make the bezel look thicker. This design gives the screen the impression of being smaller than it is. When it’s folded up, the Fold feels a bit like a flip phone or older candybar phone, making it convenient for placing calls. It’s less convenient to launch the camera by double-pressing the power button, or unlocking the phone when it’s folded up. Those buttons are on the second camel hump when the Fold is closed, so you have to reach across one layer to press them. That leads to inaccuracy. Sarah Tew/CNET
The Fold gets one of my favorite new Samsung features, Wireless PowerShare. This lets you charge up another device you put on the Fold’s back. But the S10 Plus, a wider phone than the Fold, had to be situated just so or it’d slide off.
When the Fold is completely closed, there’s an air gap — the opening closest to the Galaxy Fold’s hinge where the two halves meet don’t fully touch. Then I slipped in another. Closed, it looks like a sandwich. I’ve accidentally pressed it numerous times. The Fold isn’t water-resistant, so you need to take care you don’t drown your investment.
When it comes to the real business of a phone — using apps — the more compact configuration is a bit more of a challenge. Although the Fold’s screen is much smaller than any phone you’re used to, you can still access all your installed apps. You can make folders, so that helps put more on the page, and of course there are multiple home screens, so you can quickly get to your apps. Sarah Tew/CNET
Font size and icons are both miniaturized, which feels like a throwback to the days when we all hunched over our phone screens, hunting and pecking our way through apps. Maybe it’d be easier to type on the 4.6-inch screen if the Samsung keyboard supported tracing. I could switch to Gboard, the virtual keyboard I prefer, but then I’d lose the split-screen keyboard when I open the Fold. I scoured the settings and it doesn’t look like you can use different inputs on the front and interior screens the way you can set different wallpapers. Now playing: Watch this: Epic Galaxy Fold unboxing: Samsung makes it count
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My solution was to use voice input, but Samsung’s default software only mangled my words more. I was able to turn it off in the settings, which fell back to Google’s voice input, my preference all along. I’d definitely rely on Google Voice or Bixby to do certain things, like place a call, search for store hours or turn Wi-Fi on and off. The one thing I will say is that the Fold is easy to use one-handed when folded up, especially if all you want to do is follow maps navigation or snap a quick photo.

The Fold doesn’t close perfectly flat. Sarah Tew/CNET
‘App Continuity’ works as advertised
When you open the Fold, any app you have open on the outside will also unfurl on the inside. But if you want the app on the inside screen to follow you to the smaller exterior one, you’ll need to select those apps in the Display settings. Right now, WhatsApp,Microsoft, Spotify,Amazon PrimeVideo, Samsung and Google apps have all been optimized to use the design. The split screen keyboard is helpful. My hands still stretched across the screen and got tired, but I never felt like I was going to drop the Fold and I still preferred it to typing on the smaller screen. I’m sure that third-party virtual keyboard replacements will rise to the challenge.
Multitasking: There’s an art to using three apps at once
Multitasking is one of the Fold’s biggest selling points. Being able to use up to three apps at the same time is, after all, one advantage of using a larger screen. Now say you want to chat with someone while you’re playing YouTube videos. You swipe from the right side of the screen (where the edge display is on other Galaxy phones) and launch an app that way.

You can use up to three apps at once. Angela Lang/CNET
You’ll notice that opening the second app scooches the first one over to the left so the second one can load as a tall, narrow panel. Then, if you add a third app (same way you add a second), the secondary panel divides in half to make room for the third panel. You can slightly resize these windows, close them out, and drag and drop to reposition them using blue «handles» at the top of the app. For example, if you want your third app to become your main window, you can drag it over into that position.
I noticed right away that the more apps you have open, the smaller the font. So you may not really want to use all three at once all the time. But if you want to quickly open the calculator while you’re reading a news story, you don’t have to stop what you’re doing to switch focus. You can also turn the phone to landscape mode to change the orientation, which makes the windows wider and shorter.
To load an app on the main window, you swipe up to access the app tray. To open an app on one of the other windows, you flick from the app tray on the right and launch an app that way. You’ll never have the option to open some apps as secondary or tertiary panels, and that really sucks. I’m hoping Samsung will work with top app developers to make this happen. Interestingly, I noticed that some apps might open not as a panel, but as a pop-up (see my embedded tweet above). In this case, I opened Netflix to start a download, and then opened Google Drive to find a file while I waited. I had expected Drive to open as a panel, and was surprised to see it as a window in a window, a lot like the picture-in-picture view that lets you see Google Maps navigation as a thumbnail while focusing on something else entirely. You can force the app to expand if you dig around in the display settings, but that didn’t change anything for Netflix. Sarah Tew/CNET
The Fold’s six cameras are as good as on the S10 Plus
The Galaxy Fold has a total of six cameras: three on the back, one on the front and two inside:
10-megapixel camera for quick shots and selfies (outer screen). 10-megapixel camera (inner screen). 8-megapixel RGB depth sensor (inner screen). 16-megapixel ultra-wide angle (backing). Angela Lang/CNET
While you can snap shots using the 4.6-inch screen, Samsung expects you to use the Fold unfolded to take most photos, because you’ll be able to better adjust the blur and settings that way. Now I’ve become one of those people.
Taking photos while the Fold is closed up is workable, but not awesome because it’s hard to tell if your photo is in focus, and it’s much harder to move tiny sliders for Live Focus (portrait) shots. You can either share the photo right away, or open the Fold for fine-tuning. Angela Lang/CNET
Since Samsung is using the exact same cameras on the Galaxy Fold as it does on the Galaxy S10 Plus (and S10 5G), so you get great quality photos.
I’m intrigued by the 8-megapixel depth-sensing camera on the inside, since it’s essentially going to be used for selfies, not for AR experiences in front of you (or else it’d be on the rear). Perhaps if Samsung magically turns on secure face unlock using the depth-sensing camera, this would be one way to open the Fold before unlocking it. It could be used to verify online payments. I’ll get into that in a little more detail below. In my tests, the Fold certainly went from morning until night, but I did need to plug it in again at the end of the day. The Fold will last longer closed than it will if you continually use it open, for the simple reason that the larger screen demands more power. We see the same camera setup as the Galaxy S10 Plus. Open, the Fold lasted 16 hours on the first run and 17 hours on the second. Compare that to the Galaxy S10 Plus, which ran 21 hours with the same test. The Galaxy Fold uses the same Snapdragon 855 processor as the Galaxy S10 phones, and I’m happy to report that benchmarking test scores fall right in line. Using apps on the big and little screens felt fast. App continuity, which shuffles apps between the inner and outer screens, is a completely new trick, so there’s a fraction of a delay there that I won’t hold against Samsung and Google at this early stage. the Huawei Mate X
Specs

Samsung Galaxy Fold
Huawei Mate X
Display size, resolution
4.6-inch Super AMOLED (1,680×720 pixels); 7.3-inch Dynamic AMOLED (2,152×1,536 pixels)
6.6-inch (2,480×1,148 pixels); 6.38-inch (2,480×892 pixels); 8-inch OLED (2,480×2,200 pixels)
Mobile software
Android 9.0 with Samsung One UI
TBA
Camera
12-megapixel (wide-angle), 16-megapixel (ultra wide-angle), 12-megapixel (telephoto)
Four rear cameras
Front-facing camera
Two 10-megapixel, 8-megapixel 3D depth
At least one
Video capture
TBA
TBA
Processor
Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
Kirin 980 processor
Storage
512GB
512GB
RAM
12GB
8GB
Expandable storage
No
No
Battery
4,380-mAh dual battery
4,500-mAh dual battery
Fingerprint sensor
Power button
Power button
Connector
USB-C
USB-C
Headphone jack
No
No
Special features
Foldable display, wireless charging, fast charging
Foldable display, fast charging
Price off-contract (USD)
$1,980
TBA, converts to $2,600 (2,299 euros)
Price (GBP)
TBA, converts to £1,500
TBA, converts to £2,000
Price (AUD)
TBA, converts to AU$2,750
TBA, converts to AU$3,620

Originally published April 15 at 6 a.m.