Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 Review - Change Comes At A Price By Soldier Knows Best

Okay, so there is a reason why I have both of these phones sitting on this table together and that's because for me, I think both of these phones represent a definitive change or a shift in the phone marketplace and just being honest with you guys for a second I've been making YouTube videos for about 15 years, and it's tough to keep going this long and trying to figure out ways to keep you interested in watching our content and trying to figure out how to be different from everyone else. And that's just me being real with you and I think a lot of smartphone companies are going through this same type of thing, because there are a ton of phones that flip that have wings and have multiple screens and so right now they're trying to figure out how to get your attention in order to ultimately get you to want to buy their phone. And so for me, with this original iPhone here, the OG. When I first used this phone, it was something different like using the software and the UI. I was totally, totally new and for me this was my very first tech review, as I'm showing you right here. I looked like 130 pounds lighter there, but um.

This phone meant a lot to me because it definitely gave me something totally different and unique. But now we have the Galaxy Z for two and this phone is giving me that same feeling. That feeling of something is changing, and this is going to be something that kick start a revolution when it comes to smartphones, and it's going to be a long journey. But I think this is the one that has put a lot of things together and that's even after I've used the original galaxy fold here. But even though this first fold was perfect, I thought it was a better tablet than it was a phone, and it just had some things that needed to be fixed in order to really bring it all together and make it that perfect total package and the main thing they needed to do to fix.

This was to make the display on the outside, or the cover display a lot bigger, and now they have done that, and I don't need to give you the specs. You can see the difference between the two right now um, so yeah. Now I find myself using this screen a lot more than I did with the first generation, and so it is a skinnier screen. So it's going to be a little kind of not what most people are used to, but it's wider it's taller, and it looks perfect. But you know what the skinny screen is actually growing on me, because it's easier for my thumb to reach over left and right and up and down versus something like the Galaxy Note, 20 ultra, which is just kind of big and wide, and the zfo2 is also going to be heavier than the original galaxy fold, and it's just going to be one of the heaviest smartphones out on the market.

But you really only feel that weight in the one-handed mode. So if you don't like heavy phones, this is not going to be the one for you. But when you do eventually open up this thing, that weight kind of is evenly spread out, and it actually makes for it to be a really balanced phone. So I actually don't mind the weight myself, and then I also do like the fact that, on the back, the kind of spine of the phone, where the hinge connects to two pieces is mostly flat there. You don't have a lot of ridges going on there, so it feels just perfect in your hand, to hold this but uh just going back to that cover display real quick.

One thing I would like to see in the zoo 3 is that the screen runs at 90, hertz or above right. Now it is running at 60 hertz. But besides that the screen looks good and then something else that makes this outside screen better is that this phone does now have this new flex mode, because the hinge itself can actually be angled up and down. So you can move it into position and if you are watching the video on the cover display, you can now set it on your desk, and you can adjust the angle. So it's a lot easier to watch instead of having it just flat on your desk, like with most other smartphones, but this flex mode is also cool when you do open up the phone, and you take a gander at this big 7.6 inch display, which is bigger than the previous generation and yeah. First, I love this screen.

It's like the iMacs of smartphones, because it gives you a perfect experience when watching uh content like movies and stuff um, but yeah when you're in an app like YouTube, you can actually bend it and then now you'll have your comments, and you can look at the description and stuff like that on the bottom half of the screen and then also at the top you'll have the video playing and this flex mode works with other apps, like the clock, app the gallery app and also Google Duo, which will allow you to now be able to have the video chat on the top part of the screen. And then you can control the settings for the chat down at the bottom. But my favorite app that works with this mode is going to be the camera app, because this allows you to be able to have a viewfinder of what you want to take your photo or video of on the top screen. But then, on the bottom half of the screen. You can have your controls on the bottom right hand, side and to the left of that you do have this little preview.

That will allow you to look at some photos in the videos that you just took previously so yeah. This whole setup is just really cool and then now you also have the option to turn on that outside screen when you're taking a photo of someone. So now they can see themselves because we all know those people out there that need to make sure their hair is perfectly right um. So now they can see themselves before you take that picture, so you don't have to keep taking pictures over and over again. But one thing I do wish this mode did have been like a little five-second preview of the photo after you take it so now that person can see it on the outside screen to give you the okay, instead of having to turn the phone around to show them that photo, but yeah flex mode is cool, and I know that Samsung and Google are working on trying to get more apps and more developers on board.

With this particular type of format but yeah, I can't wait to see more apps adopt this, because I think right now you have a decent amount of apps but the more, the merrier. But right now let me step back real, quick and go back to just looking at this 7.6-inch screen, which is like holding the mini TV. Yes, the IMAX of smartphones is my name for it, but this thing is great, and I like the fact that it does run up to 120 hertz as far as the refresh rate- and this is a variable refresh rate, so the phone can determine if you're doing something that doesn't really need to run at 120, hertz um. It will actually bump that down and that could help with battery life. And then the screen will be a little more durable than the original galaxy full screen, because this is using Samsung's ultra-thin glass that they introduced with the Galaxy Z flip.

So it's going to be more durable. Just a little tougher and Samsung does automatically apply a screen protector on this phone before they put it in your hands. And yes, you can remove that yourself, even though Samsung does recommend that you allow them to do it or allow one of their certified repair people to do it um, but yeah. You know. One thing I don't like about this screen protector is just that it does collect a lot of your fingerprints and your grease, and it just makes like a really weird kind of odd feeling when you are using it.

It feels a lot more plastic, even though it is ultra-thin glass. It just feels way more plastic than I want so, hopefully, Samsung can come up with a different type of screen protector there or not need one at all, but yeah you have the screen protector on there and also the crease going down. The middle is still there. Yes, I know a lot of people, don't like it, but honestly, when you are using this phone, and you have the screen brightness up, you really don't notice that crease. But there is one thing I did notice and that's the front-facing camera on the bigger display, because, even though it's a lot smaller than the one that was on the original galaxy photo here by a lot, it still is in the way when it comes to watching video, because most video you will watch will have some letter boxing and I felt that Samsung could have hit that front facing camera a little more by moving it towards the top right hand, corner and just have it hidden away in the dark void of the letter boxing.

But if you can't get past that- and you just start playing games like Call of Duty or even just a card game, um everything just looks better and just feels better because you don't have to have all of your buttons, especially in the first person. Shooter just feel really too cramped in because on a regular smartphone screen, your fingers are going to be taking up most of what you can see and in this particular scenario that's not the case, but I will say when it does come to gaming. I really like to use devices like this racer fish, which allows you to be able to add some physical controls um to your game, but unfortunately, with the form factor of this z-fold too. It's just not going to work with something like this right, so this does bring me up to a point of that. Yes, this phone is cool, it's perfect, but it may not work with some of your smartphone accessories like this, or maybe some of your car mounts and stuff like that.

So it's not a dealbreaker for all of those things, but just be aware of that, but I can say that those type of compatibility issues are the worst thing about the design of this phone, because everything else is on point and I first have to say that Samsung has, I think, personally, made the best smartphone color ever because this mystic bronze, along with the mystic black, that they've made just really allow this phone to pop, and when I pull this thing out of my pocket. Uh people see the color of this phone and they just kind of give you This oohs and odds and stuff like that, but yeah when you're paying 2 000 for a phone, you want it to kind of look like it. I sometimes guess- and this color definitely helps with that, and if you want to spice things up a little more, you can customize the color of the hinge. I think you get about four different options there, but that will make your phone a little longer to get to your hands because of the shipping delay, but that may be worth it if you're looking to do something like that, and so just looking around this phone man, I mean this is the ultimate example of looking good and feeling good and Samsung has also squared this phone off too, because the original phone was more rounded um, but this one is squared off, and it gives you just more kind of edges to kind of hold on to, so it feels good in one-handed mode and also too, when you do open it up. You feel like the phone feels really balanced and also just feels great to hold in your hand, and also this year they have combined the power button and the fingerprint scanner inside one single button.

So now, when you do press down on the power button to turn it on, it will also read your fingerprint and then now you can get into your phone a little quicker all right. So now, let's talk about the camera, so this phone does have five total cameras, so you have two front facing cameras, one on each display and then on the back. You do have this triple camera setup here, including an ultra-wide, a telephoto and a wide angle, camera and all three of those come in at 12 megapixels and don't get me wrong. You can take some fantastic photos with this camera system, as you can see, but it's just the fact that this is not the best camera system that Samsung makes on smartphones. Actually that goes to the 700, cheaper, Samsung Galaxy.

Note 20 ultra here. So what's missing here. So, basically, you don't have the 108 megapixel wide angle, camera on this new z-fold too. So that means you can't take a photo on that mode and then crop in later, for maybe like Instagram or something and still have perfect quality, and you're, also missing the 50 times. Zoom.

That's coming on this note, 20 ultra, so you can see from this example. I really like to take. You know photos of where I'm zooming in, and you start to lose a lot of detail a lot sooner with the galaxy z4 2 and then, of course you just can't get up to that 50 time zoom, which I know the photos, look crappy at 50 times, but still those photos around 30 times. Zoom really do benefit from that camera system. So yeah it just kind of sucks not having these the full photo capabilities that Samsung is able to create on the more expensive phone, and then only one of these phones can record 8k video and yes, you guessed it.

It is going to be the note 20 ultra. So look, I know, there's a lot more going on inside the galaxy c42 that Samsung has to worry about, and they have different components that cost more and 5g, and all of that stuff, so they're trying to make sure they kind of balance the price and also the specs. But I still want to find some way where I can get the best camera system that you make on the most expensive phone that you sell and honestly, even if you have to charge me a little more personally, I would be okay with paying that and so, even with all those things being said, I still like taking photos and videos on this thing, especially with the flex mode and the camera app, as I showed you before, and then also you do have auto framing. So when you are recording video, it can kind of keep you in frame as you move around, and so this phone also does have the pro video mode that Samsung introduced with the Galaxy Note 20 lineups, and this gives you full control over your video. You can control the focus, the exposure all of that stuff before you hit the record button and then also too it does allow you to use Bluetooth.

Earbuds, like these Galaxy Buds, live that I'm using right now to be able to use them as a microphone. So I'm a good amount of distance away from the phone, and it's still doing a pretty good job, so yeah. If you want to have a lot of control over your video, this is going to be the mode for you all right. So now, let's talk performance, real, quick! So inside this phone you do have the snapdragon, 865, plus 12 gigabytes of ram. All of that stuff is gonna.

Allow this phone to just be zoomy fast. I don't know if that makes sense. Zoom me fast, but you know what I'm saying um and also inside this phone. You do have a 4500 William battery inside it, which I'm not going to say it gives me all-day battery life all the time, because I use this phone very heavily because I do use it mostly as a tablet. But if I know I'm going to be away from a wall charger for a while, I can just do a couple of tweaks in my usage and I can get all day battery life and then, of course, you do have that wireless PowerShell feature on this phone, so you can place another phone or another kind of like earbuds on the back of it and charge it if you wanted to um now there is one thing on the spec sheet that I do have a slight issue with and that's just the storage, because this phone only comes in one configuration and that comes with 256 gigabytes of storage.

Now, if this was just a regular smartphone, that would be fine for me, but the fact that this is also a tablet. It means that you don't have a micro, SD card slot to expand your storage, and also you don't have a 512 variant, so you pay more money for if you wanted to so because for me, I like to put a lot of my movies and TV shows on my tablet. This can easily fill up, and so those are the specs. But what about just using this thing? Well, Samsung has tweaked the software to allow you to take advantage of this bigger display, so you can use things like app pairs which allows you to launch multiple apps at the same time. So I have a pair here of about three different apps and I can have my YouTube running.

I can maximize that video in that window. I can be looking at other apps and scrolling up and down like on twitter and then also you can rotate this in landscape mode, and this will allow you to get a different feel, and you can readjust the sizing of these apps. You can drag and drop and move other apps over into these windows. So this is cool, but I know like you. I want to see the s pen come over to the Galaxy Z fold to line up, but until these foldable screens become more durable.

I totally understand why Samsung is waiting to add s. Pen support I'm just impatient. I can't wait till they do and oh app continuity is making this return again, and this basically means that if you are using an app on one of the displays say you're using an app on the cover display when you open it up to the bigger display, the app will continue to run and then vice versa. If you go from the bigger display down to the smaller one, but unfortunately all apps don't work in this particular mode, but you can go into the settings to see which ones do and then also you can turn this feature on and off for each individual, app. Okay, you also look now.

Let me talk about the elephant in the room when it comes to foldable phones, and that is durability like how long are these phones going to last? Are they going to break in six months a year or two years, and the only answer I can give you is how the heck should I know, and that's because you know foldable phones have only really been out for about a year or so they haven't been out for enough time for us to really know the long-term effects of folding and unfolding these screens and the hinges and stuff like that? Now Samsung has said that they rate this for like 200 000 folds, so that breaks down to about a hundred folds per day, and that should last you for about five years, which is a good amount of time. But we have to kind of wait and see to see what happens in two years or three years. But let me say this: I think that smartphones are tools, and this is a very expensive two thousand dollar tool. But if you're buying this, you just need to know what you're buying and, let's say, for example, these chopsticks, which I consider to be tools too. If I was to take one of these- and I was to kind of just break it now, because this broke pretty easily, does that mean that this tool is poorly designed, and they shouldn't sell them? No, of course not.

You know what you're getting you know that this is made out of wood, and you shouldn't bend and break it, or this will be the result and that's something kind of similar with this Galaxy Z, fold too. This is not like your typical smartphone. It doesn't have like an official IP rating. So when it comes to water, I'm not saying you can't get it wet. As you can see in this video, I'm just saying that you shouldn't throw it in a pool and then, with the main big tablet display you don't have to be scared of it.

You know like, even though it's not your typical glass, I don't feel that it's going to break just under normal use and then, when you do buy this phone, you do get the galaxy zero premiere service, which is like enhanced customer support, and also you get discounts and even like a Michelin, star, dinner and stuff like that. But also, if you do break that main display the first time you need to repair it, it will cost you 150, which is a good deal compared to the regular price after that which will be 599. So look if you do break the screen. Just do it once after that you're going to be hurting a little like I'm, not telling you that you need to baby this phone. I just wouldn't give it to a baby, and so that's really the only way that I can explain something like this, but no matter how you cut it, slice it or even fold it.

This two thousand dollar phone is simply not for everyone, but it's for a good amount of people out there who are looking to have two devices in one and looking for something that just really nails it in almost every aspect and yeah 2020 has been an interesting year and so far this is the phone that I think is going to be the one that really kind of gives us an outlook as far as what we can expect from smartphones going into 2021 and beyond, and I'm happy to say that this is definitely an easy recommendation from me. What do you think about it? Leave your comment down below and also, if you like, this video, give it a like. If you want to subscribe and see my other videos coming up, make sure you do that. But, like always, I do want to thank you for watching this video and I will catch you later peace. You.

Source : Soldier Knows Best