Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 Review: The True "Pro" Phone

The Galaxy Z Fold3 is the best argument that can be made for this form factor. If you have the money to own it, this is a magical device.

In 2019, Samsung introduced the Galaxy Fold, the company's first foldable device, aimed at giving you a tablet-sized screen that folds into a smaller phone-sized device. With that initial Galaxy Fold, Samsung paved the path for its new ultra-premium product line, but that came with many caveats like durability concerns.

With the Galaxy Z Fold3, Samsung not only refined its original concept, but it's also paving the way for what productivity devices will look like in the future. But is it worth $1800 to have now?

Design: Thinner, Stronger, Better

The Galaxy Fold from 2019 felt very much like a prototype; the device had clunky bezels on the cover display and an obnoxious notch on its inner display. Last year, Samsung exponentially improved design with the Galaxy Z Fold2 addressed those issues and making the foldable feel more like a usable phone. This year we get an iteration of that refinement, and it looks stunning.

The Z Fold3 is one of the most beautiful devices released this year, and it comes down to how well built the device is for what it does. The Fold3 has the same footprint as the previous Z Fold2, but the bezels are slightly smaller, and the device is marginally thinner and lighter.

On the cover display, the Z Fold3 gets a new 120Hz panel but retains the same long and slender candy bar shape from the previous Folds. When folded, this device feels like a tank, but because of how tall and narrow the cover screen is, the Z Fold3 has excellent ergonomics. That said, the unusually tall aspect ratio of the cover display makes it cumbersome to use with one hand, and things like typing and watching movies can feel quite awkward on it.

Even with these setbacks, some content can actually take advantage of the cover display; Marvel Studios' Loki nearly matches the 24.5:9 aspect ratio, and it looks great. Mostly everything else, however, will have black bars.

Onto to the main display, you're undoubtedly going to get the largest screen on any "phone" on the market. The 7.6-inch screen spans edge-to-edge and has a nearly square aspect ratio. For media content, you're going to get black bars here too, but because of how big the main display is, you can expect to have a viewing panel at least two times bigger than today's biggest of phones.

Samsung made a new screen protector for this year's foldable, and it's the closest they've gotten to mimicking actual glass. Last year's Z Fold2 had a malleable plastic screen protector, which over time, would start to feel gummy and sticky; the Fold3 does not feel that way and is comparable to a premium plastic screen protector.

Samsung says that this new protector will provide 80% better durability than the previous one, and while I do believe them, this is still some form of plastic, and over time will show signs of wear; we'll have to see how this new protector stacks up for long-term use, but it's an impressive step up from the previous Galaxy Z Folds.

On the sides of the device, Samsung made the aluminum rails matte and is using 10% tougher aluminum than their previous devices. The matte rails make the device comfortable and grippy to hold, and the tougher aluminum should add to better drop protection.

The right side of the device houses the volume rocker and the power button, and just like all the previous Galaxy Z Folds, the power button doubles as a fingerprint scanner, and it is one of the most responsive and fastest fingerprint scanners I've tested to date. By default, Samsung sets the fingerprint scanner to activate when you press the button, and it's for a good reason. I turned the setting off for a brief period, and I would regularly have my device either unlocked while in my pocket or more commonly, have the fingerprint scanner disabled because it would be scanning every touch. All this to say, it's an excellent fingerprint scanner and makes the device feel very snappy.

The back of the Z Fold3 is quite simply beautiful. The review unit we have is the Phantom Silver color, and it's a striking finish. It's roughlyu the same color as the Galaxy S21+ and S21 Ultra's Phantom Silver color, and it's one of the best finishes Samsung developed for their flagship phones.

The Z Fold3 also comes in Phantom Black and Phantom Green, which look great in their regard. All the colors are matte and do a decent job at hiding fingerprints. The camera setup on the back of the device is changed from last year's phone but now protrudes way more since the Z Fold3 is slimmer; this makes the entire phone wobble when placed fully down. That said, you can fix the camera bump with a case.

The Hinge

It's no surprise that the design of Samsung's most expensive flagship is great, but where you'll notice Samsung's design expertise would be on the hinge of this device. The hinge on the Galaxy Z Fold3 is the best hinge Samsung has engineered for the Galaxy Z series to date; this year, the hinge feels tighter and can prop up the phone at even more angles.

More impressively, Samsung was able to design the Z Fold3 to be IPX8 water-resistant. This is unprecedented in the world of foldable devices, and it's one more step to making foldable phones closer to regular slab phones. Of course, the rated IPX8 only means water resistance and not dust resistance; the Z Fold3's hinge is still very much susceptible to extensive dust exposure and can cause damage to the inner screen.

Overall, the Galaxy Z Fold3 is by far Samsung's best looking and feeling foldable to date; the device sets a new bar for foldable phones with its design and its durability.

Screens: 120Hz All The Things

The Galaxy Z Fold3 gets a couple of upgrades to its displays, and surprisingly, Samsung is willing to add experimental aspects to their most premium flagship.

On the front, the bigger 6.2-inch cover display is back from the Z Fold2 but now sports a new 120hz refresh rate; the addition of a faster refresh rate makes the Z Fold3's cover display feel one step closer to a regular flagship phone, and it makes the device feel snappier and more responsive.

The tall, slender aspect ratio of the cover display is great to hold but can make content and apps feel cramped. I think the best use case for the cover display would be to use it for notifications and the occasional quick replies; most tasks you'll find yourself doing will most likely benefit from the larger canvas of the main display on the Z Fold3.

Speaking of the main display, the 7.6-inch inner display of the Z Fold3 has gotten the usual incremental upgrade, but it adds to a better experience overall. For one, the screen is now much brighter than the Z Fold2, coming in at 1200 nits compared to 461 nits, making the inner display noticeably more viewable in direct sunlight.

When we discuss foldable phones, inevitably, we have to talk about the crease; the Z Fold3 doesn't do very much in terms of flattening the crease or making it less visible when viewing from harsh angles, but I will say that because of the higher brightness of the new panel, you'll barely notice it unless you run your finger over it.

The most prominent difference between the Z Fold3 and the Z Fold2's main displays is the inclusion of the under-display camera. When looking at it from the press images, it doesn't look too bad, but it's barely any improvement over having a hole-punch camera. From a distance, it makes you feel like you're holding an uninterrupted screen in your hand, but that quickly deteriorates when you shift the phone or put anything bright against it.

The pixel density is low compared to the rest of the panel; you'll see artifacts. To make matters worse, the 4MP camera that's there doesn't deliver on the quality you would expect from a device from this price range; it's a shame because Flex mode makes the Galaxy Z series one of the most convenient devices for Zoom calls.

That said, for most other camera-related tasks, very few people end up using the inner selfie camera, so Samsung made a relatively safe decision putting its first under-display camera on the Z Fold3, but it still feels like it takes away from the polish the rest of the device delivers on.

Aside from the under-display camera, the Galaxy Z Fold3's inner display finally supports the S-Pen; this makes the Galaxy Z Fold's larger display more justifiable than every other large phone on the market. Although it's here, it's not without subtle compromises.

The S-Pen support on the Galaxy Z Fold3 opens the gate for having better utility on the main display; you can use it to highlight ebooks, jot down meeting notes, and use it as a mobile curser to do tasks with more finetune control. Even with all these conveniences, Samsung is making it clear that this device is still not a Galaxy Note. For one, you need to buy the S-Pen separately, but you either have to get the S-Pen Fold Edition or the S-Pen Pro because the screen isn't strong enough to sustain the pressure of a regular stylus.

On top of that, there's no slot to store the S-Pen after finish using it, just like on the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Evidently, Samsung doesn't want you to forget that the Galaxy Note line still exists, so if you want to get the S-Pen for the Galaxy Z Fold3, you have to deal with the fixable shortcomings Samsung deliberately chose to leave in.

Cameras: Good Cameras, Great Experience

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 has one of the most noteworthy camera systems on any smartphone I've seen thus far, and it's less to do with the cameras themselves and everything to do with the folding aspect of the device.

The device has a total of five cameras; a 10MP selfie camera on the cover display, a 4MP under-display selfie camera on the main display, and three 12MP wide, ultrawide, and 2x telephoto cameras on the back. The camera hardware here is about the same as last year's Z Fold2, which was already using dated sensors compared to the 108MP beasts of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and Galaxy S21 Ultra, but that isn't to say that these are bad cameras.

Samsung spent an entire year refining the image processing of these sensors; it makes this camera system very reliable and very consistent. The shots from the back cameras on the Z Fold3 are great. It does a good job balancing shadows, HDR, and highlights, but tends to oversharpen and saturate the brighter colors (like every other Samsung phone).

Night mode on the Z Fold3 is also excellent, but it's nowhere near as good as the larger sensors of Samsung's other flagships. The night shots are comparable to the standard Galaxy S21 and S21+ devices.

We can't talk about the camera system of this device without addressing the new under-display camera on the main display. As mentioned earlier, it's not the best looking, especially with the octagon-looking pixel array, and when it comes to photos themselves, they're noticeably worse than the rest of the cameras on this device.

The images need to be processed since the phone needs to run an algorithm to remove the haze and distortion caused by the pixels around the camera. Even with this algorithm, you are left with a soft image, which doesn't look good compared to the photos coming from the cover display selfie camera. I hope Samsung can improve its under-display camera tech to deliver adequate picture quality and consistency with the display panel.

As mentioned before, the Z Fold3's camera experience is what really sells this system; opened up, the viewfinder on the main display takes up the entire panel, and when you're in Flex mode, you can use the device like a tripod to take videos or time-lapses without jitters.

You can also have the back cameras act as selfie cameras, and with the cover display as your viewfinder, you can take ultrawide selfies that look better than any other phone on the market.

There are many benefits and unique use cases of the cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold3, but you'll be more intrigued by the software experience than the camera hardware alone.

Performance and Battery Life

When it comes to performance on the Z Fold3, there is no question that this is one of the fastest and most reliable devices on the market. The Galaxy Z Fold3 sports a Snapdragon 888 chipset, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of base storage, but you can upgrade to 512GB if you so choose.

While other devices may match the performance and specs of the Z Fold3, none can come close to the multitasking capabilities of the large inner-display. The nearly square aspect ratio of the main display essentially means there are two regular phone screens side-by-side, allowing you to run three apps simultaneously.

The gestures and controls feel very snappy and responsive when switching between apps that you can multitask on this device like you would on an iPad or PC. During my time testing, I experienced no issues with performance, and I doubt many users will have any hiccups down the road; this is a productivity powerhouse.

While the Z Fold3 multitasks like a PC, the same can be said for how it handles battery life. The Z Fold3 sports a 4,400mAh cell, and if you look back on the Z Fold2, it's smaller. During my time testing, I had some big inconsistencies with battery life, and it's because of how I used the device.

On certain days where my usage for primarily on the cover display, I was able to get five and a half to six hours on a single charge, but on days where I was binging Netflix and multitasking on the larger main display, I got around five hours of screen-on-time.

The battery really does act like a laptop; you'll run out very quickly if you put your device under load, but on typical days, you should be able to get through a whole day. That said, I still recommend users purchase some form of power bank to make sure they can comfortably use this device for an entire day of use.

Samsung, unfortunately, ditched the charger in the box with the Z Fold3. It was bad when they didn't include one with the S21 Ultra, but way worse when they don't include one with their $1800 flagship device. The device supports up to 20W and can reverse wireless charge other devices.

Should You Buy The Galaxy Z Fold3?

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 is the company's best foldable, and truly the best foldable in the market to date. The design is polished yet as durable as ever, and the software experience has been refined to make an Android tablet surprisingly enjoyable to use.

Samsung has created the best iteration of the Galaxy Z Fold with this year's Z Fold3, but for most consumers, the $1800 price point is still not low enough to make this device viable. The fundamental issues of folding phones—like lack of dust resistance and subpar battery life—still aren't justifiable for most people to consider getting this device.

That said, the Galaxy Z Fold3 is the best argument that can be made for this form factor. If you have the money to own it, this is a magical device that changes how you use a phone.

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