Galaxy Z Fold 2 Review: Folding King... But For What? By Marques Brownlee

The year is 2020 it's September. I just want to be the one to point out. This is the third folding phone in a row getting a video what a time to be alive. What's up MHD here, and this is a Samsung Galaxy z, fold, 2 5g the fold 2 brought to you by optical flow, of course- and this is the only phone that folds- that I can actually recommend any group of people actually buy in 2020. It's still expensive, it's 2 000 bucks, and it's still got its compromises. The tech inside is still very young, but this is the best one.

This is the king, but for every reason out there that this is the king of folding phones, there's. Another reason why you probably still shouldn't buy one yet a big part of why the fold 2 is so good is the hardware this generation 2.5 hardware here is the most evolved, so this build even makes the previous galaxy folds look a little sloppy like it's boxier, it's more squared off, it's tighter. The hinge is firmer, and I still I love this satin finish and the brushed metal look. Of course, it is truly Samsung improving in a ton of places at once, but also fundamentally, it's still a kind of awkward galaxy fold form factor that we're used to there's still a gap between the screens when it's closed, and it is still pretty thick. It's still a chunky, candy bar phone when it's closed, which is a little awkward to hold and definitely a solid chunk in your pocket.

So it's a little give a little take, but I think obviously, the biggest change you'll notice, the most impressive thing you will instantly recognize is the new screens both on the inside and outside. They are, technically speaking, a massive improvement. They are spec for spec everything you would have wanted them to improve, but in use these actually also turn out to be kind of a win-lose. So on the outside of course, way: bigger, full screen corner to corner 6.2 inch cover display way better, looking way, more modern, just a hole, punch, selfie camera up top. Clearly, this is an improvement.

It's what we were all thinking when we saw the first fold when are they going to fill up that screen, and now they did. But the funny thing is okay, part of the dynamic of having that tiny cover screen on the old fold. I talked about this in the review. Is it's actually a barrier to entry to getting lost in your phone? So if you just need to do something real, quick, like you get a text, you want to reply or just change the song in Spotify or just something real, quick in the notifications. You do that on the tiny cover screen, and then you turn it off, and you're done, because you don't want to use the tiny screen very much.

But if you really do need to get something done, then okay, you got a galaxy fold, you open it up, and you use the main screen. But now that outside screen is so big you can actually use it more often, and it's not so bad. You can kind of just use that outside like a normal smartphone, it is a little narrow, so typing is still kind of compressed and the aspect ratio is a bit odd, sometimes with some apps, but actually found myself, one-handed scrolling through Twitter or Instagram or relay for Reddit or just kind of burning time on the outside screen. In a way I never would have on the tiny front screen before and now reachability is actually more of a problem, because the screen is so tall now that it can be kind of hard to reach the top one-handed. So weirdly, what's happening is getting this way.

Bigger better outside screen made me more comfortable just staying on the outside screen, just hanging out on the outside, like a normal phone, which is a terrible habit to get into because clearly the inside screen is amazing. This is where all the magic happens. The main display here on the fold 2 is pretty much all win, and this is what makes the galaxy fold so fun to use and such a king, really it's bigger, its brighter bezels are smaller, notches have disappeared, and it's now bumped up to 120 hertz. It's such a win that you know that you can carry around a screen like this in your pocket at all is awesome every time I unfold it. I just kind of want to find something to do so.

I can keep using it. It's so great. The sad thing is the software experience, mostly. The app optimization is still catching up to this odd aspect ratio, since it basically is a mini tablet, and there is also now a setting in the fold to that lets you use tablet mode with some apps that support it instead of just big blown up phone mode, so there are columns and everything now, but a lot of apps still have trouble. Looking good on this squarish aspect, ratio, videos hardly ever fill it up unless you're watching a Brandon, Harvard video, maybe there's also always huge black bars Instagram and a lot of other apps are just kind of weird blown up phone versions.

Even the camera, viewfinder isn't quite filling up the whole display and that can kind of cheapen the experience, but every once in a while. There are some good apps where you turn it 90 degrees, and you're in that columns, mode and tablet mode like Spotify or Gmail, and this thing becomes so great. It's a productivity machine. I was loving that I think a world where all my favorite apps have a version like that. To take advantage of this display is going to be awesome.

It's just that's not quite the world. The galaxy fold lives in yet, and I also found something quite interesting with the battery. So in making the fold my daily driver, I was a little concerned. I was going to pay attention to the battery right. It's a bigger outside screen, a bigger and 120 hertz inside screen and the battery's not seeing a huge bump up.

So I'm going to pay attention to battery right, so I'm testing the phone I'm using it like every day, and I'm starting to notice I'm getting to the end of days with more battery than I did on the old fold, like I'm ending days with like 35 45 left, and I was thinking about it, and it turns out it's not because of some crazy optimization. It's not the new specs, it's not some bigger internal battery or some hack. It was because I'm I'm using this smaller 60 hertz display so much more than I was on the old fold that I was actually saving battery that way. So this is just a weird usage habit that I picked up. Of course, your mileage may vary.

I think there's going to be people that get this phone and like never ever want to use the outside candy bar display, and I totally get if it's. It's kind of jarring, actually going back and forth between 60 hertz and 120 hertz and such a weird aspect ratio, but I'm just telling you how it ended up for me battery was improved because I was using the outside display more than I expected to so when you put it all together, Galaxy Z, fold.2 right now is the folding phone king. It's the best folding phone in a lot of ways like it's got the best specs of any foldable, that's for sure, snapdragon, 865, plus 12 gigs of ram. It's the only one, I think, with wireless charging other than the z-flip. Furthermore, it's got the best set of cameras in any foldable coming in pretty much around the same tier as galaxy s20.

Furthermore, it doesn't have all the super highest end features like space, zoom or 8k video, but it'll still do 10x zoom, and it is still a triple camera with a main, a telephoto and an ultra-wide that you can also use as your selfie camera, thanks to a software feature, so you're going to deliver photos that are still very clearly very easily Samsung flagship photos with all their HDR and bright and vibrant look, which is great. Furthermore, it's got some of the best battery of any foldable, even minus my anecdote of using the outside screen more. Furthermore, it's still packing a 4 500 William hour, dual battery and that's been more than enough for regular use, and it's got the best screens of any foldable, and maybe this is debatable, but it's easily the best brightness colors and resolution an amazing, thin, bezel, 2k, 120, hertz AMOLED inside it's just so sick that you can get this in your pocket. Furthermore, it even has the best fingerprint reader from my experience right on the power button. Furthermore, it's got the best speakers, I've heard in a foldable for sure, and one of the best hinges now that they've tightened it up and given it a more confident feeling firmer hinge that can stay in place at multiple angles, plus a couple software tricks to take advantage of it like special modes with YouTube and the camera app.

If you can remember to use them they're kind of cool. So thanks to Samsung having the most iterations to work on this I'd say this is like 2.5. This is the king right now in 2020. For what, though, like what does it mean to be the best thing in a category that most people should still avoid in 2020 right now like if this is the best we can do, and this is the best screen in a foldable, but you still have a pretty pronounced crease that the eye can still catch from various angles. It's the king, but for what? If this is the best, we can do with ultra-thin glass, but there's still a factory installed screen protector with the edges all the surrounding way.

That Samsung tells people not to remove themselves, but it's still going to collect dust around the camera cut out where you can clearly see they took a shortcut, it's its the king, but for what? If this is the best, we can do with a confident well-engineered hinge that hopefully doesn't have any durability issues in the future and lets you feel like you have the most control over the phone and the software layer on top of android does as much as it can to help continuity between the outside screen and the inside screen, but still 75 percent of apps look like a stretched, awkward version of themselves. Every time you open them up, it's the king, but for what so, even though this is the best folding phone, it's also still super obvious that this is nowhere near the end of the line it's nowhere near mature. Yet, first, there's still. Compromises like the outside screen is still slightly worse than a normal smartphone, because it's its suit tall and narrow and chunky to hold, and then the inside screen is also still slightly worse than a normal tablet, because it's a little smaller, and it's a little squarer, and it has a crease and number two. It's still expensive.

It's 2 000 bucks for that price. Furthermore, it's always crazy to make comparisons, but you could get an iPad Pro and a Pixel 4a and some Sony noise-cancelling headphones and probably have money left over. But there's something you get with the galaxy fold too, that you don't really get anywhere else, which is the most complete most evolved, foldable phone so far that you can actually get and having all that stuff in one device that you can fit in your pocket. That's a pretty sweet start thanks for watching catch. You guys in the next one peace.

Source : Marques Brownlee