Heyup Tryout Review:
SAMSUNG GALAXY Z Fold 4
by Tingy
Unboxing Experience
To be completely honest, the unboxing experience is a bit lackluster. I understand that companies like Samsung and Apple don’t need to have elaborate boxes for their devices (as we know they are trying to cut cost in this category) but just knowing how, for example, ASUS ROG Phones pack their devices, I just feel like Samsung could do something extra for you since this is such an expensive device. You just spent upwards of $1800 on your new phone, you should get a nice presentation when you are unboxing it.
What was included in the box was:
The charging brick was a pleasant surprise, since I’ve come to expect Apple, Samsung, and Google devices to no longer come packed with a charging brick. However, since I got the international version of the Fold 4, I guess it comes with one. Better than nothing!
3.5/5 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
Initial Impressions
The setup of the device is a bit long, it came with a lot of bloatware in the beginning. I haven’t owned a Samsung Smartphone since the Samsung S7 Edge. It’s crazy to see how much things have changed. I have to admit the UI and overall software is very stable, especially since they had to tailor-make a lot of features for this unique device.
Build Quality
I think it’s pretty obvious that this is an absolute unit of a phone. It weighs a whopping 269g! Definitely the heaviest phone I’ve ever used. I personally don’t mind heavy phones, because heavy phones usually means a bigger screen (which is what I prefer), but I understand that it’s definitely not for everyone.
My first time folding it, I was extra cautious since my brain wasn’t used to the fact that this smartphone can literally fold in half and I thought I would snap it! Closing it does feel satisfying though, as you hear a clap, reminiscent of the flip phones (or it’s little cousin, the Samsung Z Flip) of old. The overall build quality is excellent. The hinge is great, making folding easy and smooth. I haven’t experienced the old gen Folds so I can’t compare it to them but from what I’ve heard from media and Tech YouTubers is that it has improved a lot, minimizing any dust/dirt particles that can get inside.
I got the “gray-green” colorway which is nice and simple, professional looking. I do wish Samsung took some more chances with more colorful options though, but hey that is what cases are for right?
The volume button and power button are both on the right side of the device. The power button doubles as a fingerprint sensor which surprised me. I thought this kind of method was starting to get phased out, as I think the vast majority of phones in 2022 probably use an optical fingerprint reader inside the screen. I personally haven’t used a fingerprint sensor phone since 2018. It took a bit of adjustment but it is a nice addition. The side fingerprint sensor is very accurate, sometimes too accurate, as I’ve accidentally unlocked it in my pocket quite a few times!
4.5/5 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
Display
Here comes the best part of the device!
For the outer display, it is a 6.2” AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate capability, also sporting Gorilla Glass Victus+. It is a very solid display, the colors are great, brightness goes up to My only gripe is that it is a bit skinny compared to your normal 2022 smartphones and it took some time to get used to typing on a small display (especially for someone with big hands like me). People can say you can easily unfold the device and use the inside display, but in my personal experience, you won’t normally unfold it for normal everyday activities. The main reasons being:
A few apps look a bit awkward when using the full screen on the inner display.
I personally felt a bit weird walking around with a mini tablet in public.
You need 2 hands to use the inner display, while you can easily use 1 for the outer one.
Also, when you look at the Z Fold 4’s competition, for example, Xiaomi Mix Fold 2, that outer display is 6.56”. On paper, that difference doesn’t seem much but I have tried the Mix Fold 2 before and when folded, that device feels much more like a normal smartphone size in 2022. Hope that Samsung makes the outer screen a tad bigger next year and it will be perfect.
For the inner display, it’s a 7.6” (diagonal) display and it’s absolutely amazing. The brightness levels are amazing and the colors are vivid. The ever controversial crease is also barely noticeable! You will see it on an all black screen at an angle, but most of the time, I promise you won’t notice it at all. What is most surprising to me is how many of the apps I normally use are already optimized for the inside display. Discord, Chrome, Reddit, and YouTube (though YouTube Shorts is a bit hard to watch cause it zooms in to the center) all run very well on full inside screen. Really does feel like you have the power of a tablet and phone in one. Even typing on the inner display feels amazing, as Samsung smartly separated the keyboard into two screens, so your hands will easily adapt to it. I am honestly amazed at how well everything works.
When using the internal display, you can have up to 3 apps open multitasking at the same time. I personally rarely did multitasking on my older phones, since it kind of shrunk the apps to unusable levels. However, on this phone, it’s nuts.
Watching basketball comfortably while simultaneously keeping track with my fantasy team. This is crazy!
Whether you are gaming, watching videos, or checking your social media feed, this thing makes the experience 10x better. I’m a big fan of basketball so I’ve been having a blast watching NBA games on this.
4.5/5 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
Performance
One of the main reasons why I was considering getting this device myself was because of the new chipset, Snapdragon 8+Gen 1. I’ve heard great things about it preventing overheating while maintaining great performance and that is exactly what i’ve gotten so far.
I haven’t played high performance games like Genshin Impact on this yet. I’ve played Arknights, Dragonball Legends, and Marvel Snap and all ran with no issues. I played for an hour and half and it was just a little bit warm, not difficult to handle at all.
Marvel Snap, a new card game. Pretty fun! Check it out.
Playing on this huge screen is amazing. Every game I’ve tried has worked on the big screen. The only issue I ran into is when I fold the screen while gaming, it says the App isn’t compatible with “screen switching” so it forces a restart of the game. Not a huge issue, I’m sure that will be fixed in the future.
5/5 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕
Battery/Charging
The battery is a modest 4400mAH battery with up to 25W fast charging, 15W wireless charging. In my daily use so far, it is fairly solid. I’ve used it for almost a week now and before I went to bed there was around 10% left every time. It could definitely be better though, for a device that demands a lot, you’d love to see a 5000mAH battery. If you game or watch content in one session for 2-3 hours straight, definitely it will drain pretty fast.
Also fast charging wise, unfortunately it’s pretty weak. The phones of 2022 have really upped their game in this category, with phones ranging from 65W to 120W fast charging. Of course you can debate that it will destroy the battery at these charging speeds but myself coming also an owner of the REDMAGIC 7S Pro that has a 65W fast charger, it’s just very convenient to take a break, plug in and go do something else for 20-30 mins, and come back with near full charge.
⅘ 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
Camera
Admittedly, I am not a huge camera person, but this is one of the best features on this device, so I will do my best to cover it. It is equipped with a 50MP triple camera setup, along with 2 selfie cameras (one on the cover screen, one on the inside). The selfie camera on the inside display is underneath the display, similarly to ZTE’s Axon 40 Ultra and the latest REDMAGIC phones. As expected, the UDC is not very good. The technology still isn’t there yet, but I do appreciate that Samsung used UDC here because you definitely want a full screen experience on the inside screen. Also, since there is a normal selfie camera on the front, you don’t truly ever have to use the UDC. I’ve only used it once and that was for this review.
Top: UDC
Bottom: Cover screen selfie cam
Taking photos on the Galaxy Z Fold 4 feels pretty great. Coming from a 3 year old One Plus 8 Pro as my daily driver, I could tell the difference in quality immediately. I compared it to my wife’s iPhone 13 Pro and I can say it goes toe to toe with it. The only major difference is how the Z Fold 4 takes photos with bright lights, which I think the iPhone does better in. Hopefully though, that can be fixed by Samsung in a future update. Taking pictures of objects in motion really shows off the power of this camera.
The zoom is powerful on this phone, especially since the Samsung AI cleans up the blurriness to the best of its ability. It goes up to 30x. It’s not as good as the S22 Ultra’s but it is still better than most.
Overall, taking photos with this phone is fun! There’s just so many things you can do with your pictures that you can get any outcome you want.
5/5 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕
Conclusion
Overall, the Samsung ZFold 4 is absolutely amazing. A couple of years ago when I saw the Fold 1, I expected it to just be an experiment Samsung was throwing out there, unsure if it would become mainstream. The initial reviews of the Fold 1 were pretty rough, as I remember there were hinge issues and inner screen issues. For the Fold 4 I think they’ve done an amazing job at tweaking the design since then and now it is near perfection. Some things to note though, since this is such a huge investment definitely get yourself a very protective case, as you don’t want to break your heart and crack it on a drop or something. I got myself this carbon fiber case that wraps the whole phone.
Love the look of this case, but the hinge protector for sure could be better. I am debating on getting the SPen for this or not, if I do, I’ll definitely invest in a Spigen case or something similar that gives it true protection.
Would I recommend this? For sure, but there’s some things you need to ask yourself:
- Do you like heavy phones?
If you prefer smaller, lighter smartphones then this won’t be for you.
- Are you willing to spend $1800 on a smartphone?
The cost of this smartphone is pretty insane so if you aren’t willing to invest big bucks into this, then this might not be for you. However, personally, I believe that smartphones are worth going premium for because they have become so important to us. It’s something we use literally every day, every hour. For me, it is worth it to get the best of. Also, as of this review, I saw there are some huge deals right now for this device, going for up to $800 off for Black Friday. Definitley check it out if you are interested!
- Are you a Fold 3 user?
If yes, then I wouldn’t recommend upgrading to this unless you can trade in your existing device and get a big discount for it. The upgrade is in the cameras, chipset and durability. The rest is very similar, even the pricing is the same (with the Fold 4 adding a 1TB option).
Finally, I just want to thank the Heyup team again for giving me a chance to review this insane device. I really love being a part of this community as everyone is nice and I really enjoy reading peoples opinions on tech products. Really hope everyone enjoyed reading this!
Final Score:
4.5/5 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
PS:
I also invested in a Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, since I figured I might as well integrate myself into the Samsung ecosystem😂.
If you guys want a review on this as well let me know!
