Testing Android Z Fold 4 from Samsung in Detail

 

TAMADIGI - The Android Z Fold 4 of Samsung Galaxy is undoubtedly a great mobile, but is it good enough to spend so much money? The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 is a refined foldable with improved durability, great performance, and pixel-perfect cameras, but it doesn't do much different than its predecessor. Minor changes might appeal if you were on the fence, but bigger updates to competitor foldables leave the Android Z Fold 4 in the dust. In addition, it is still very expensive, without a drop in price as in previous years.

If you were expecting Samsung to throw out the rulebook and completely redesign its big-screen foldable in its fourth iteration, you'll be disappointed. In fact, at a quick glance, it's hard to spot any significant changes in the design of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 compared to its predecessor.

Screens

As with previous generations, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 has two screens: an oddly thin and narrow 6.2-inch outer screen and a larger 7.6-inch folding screen. However, with the slight adjustment to the width and length of the phone, this time you get a slightly wider and squished viewing experience on both screens, although the difference is minimal, with an aspect ratio of 23.1:9 on the outside screen and 21.6:18 on the inside. For reference, the Z Fold 3 offered 25:9 and 5:4 screens respectively.

However, the outer screen has its advantages. The 6.2-inch AMOLED screen looks great, with a sharp resolution (904 x 2316), a very smooth 120Hz refresh rate, and a maximum brightness of 720cd/m2 in testing, which is easy to use on exteriors.

Cameras

The 4 MP f/1.8 Under-Display Camera (UDC) has made its return in the Galaxy Z Fold 4, likely in an attempt to redeem itself after the near-universal mockery with the Galaxy Z Fold 3. on top of the camera has increased with the last generation, it's still incredibly easy to spot where the UDC is on the internal display. A ZTE Axon 40 Ultra, this is not.

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Still, image quality improves overall - especially with the help of image processing tools - but it's not really designed for taking selfies. Rather, it's there so you can make video calls on the larger internal screen, and it does that pretty well. For a traditional selfie experience, the 19 MP f2.2 snapper positioned in the center of the outer screen is better. It's capable of taking selfies decent enough for social media, and it's identical to the Android Z Fold 3. What impresses most is the updated rear camera system. In fact, it's one of the biggest improvements to the Z Fold 4 overall.

Battery and Charging

What is better than a battery? Two batteries, of course. The Android Z Fold 4's battery system is split between the two halves of the smartphone, allowing for a slimmer design while offering a decent 4,400mAh combined capacity. It may be exactly the same as its predecessor, but there are big battery efficiency improvements in Qualcomm's latest chipset and, surprisingly, it shows in use.

We found that we could comfortably get through the day browsing, texting, and scrolling through TikTok using a combination of both screens. Admittedly, we wasn't gaming much - neither aspect ratio is ideal for gaming - so gamers and split-screen multitaskers may see worse battery performance, but it should be enough for most.

In tests, the phone managed 7 hours and 40 minutes when using its larger foldable screen exclusively - although better performance should be expected if the smaller outer screen is used more often. This figure is still behind most flagship "candybar" smartphones with much smaller screens to power, but it manages to beat phones like the Nothing Phone (1).

Of course, you'll need to charge it most days, which makes the fact that the Android Z Fold 4 comes with the same 25W charging as its predecessor a bit of a disappointment. Samsung claims you can get around 50% battery in 30 minutes - we've actually seen it hit 59% in tests - but that's far from impressive. In fact, considering the extremely high price of the phone, and the fact that some smartphones offer 150W+ fast charging that can fully charge a phone in less than 15 minutes, it's lackluster to say the least, a feeling amplified by the price of the Fold.

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