Galaxy Z Fold3 Review

Of the two foldable phones Samsung currently has in the family (Galaxy Z Fold3 5G and Galaxy Z Flip3 5G), the Fold is the newest shape of foldable for most of us – folding a phone like a book? Whoda thunk. It’s definitely a game-changer, particularly for folks that work on the go or are big multi-taskers, multi-screeners.

Along with the Z Flip3, the Z Fold3 was released for sale in Australia on 10 Sep 2021.

• At a Glance
• Specs
• Look and Feel
• Battery and Performance
• Features
• Camera
• Operating system

This phone is something that comes out of those futuristic Saturday morning cartoons you watched as a kid. I mean – a phone…that folds like a book…and is much more like a tablet than really any other phone on the market? Sounds like a sci-fi fever dream. But it’s real, and it’s the 3rd generation of the Galaxy Z Fold3 from Samsung. And it’s one you could easily have in your pocket.

Please note with this sample phone we didn’t have an S Pen included, so I haven’t included that feature in this review – so if you’re looking for an overview of the S Pen integration with the Z Fold3, we’ve got a primer for you. 

Optus is relying on product information supplied by Samsung in making the representations above.

This phone is not something you see every day, and the profile of it, the feel of it, the way it holds in your hand, all remind you of that fact. The cover screen is narrow, at 67.1mm or 2.6 inches wide – compared to the Galaxy Z Flip3, which is 72.2mm or 2.8 inches wide. The phone is thick, as well, with the hinge coming in at 16mm or over half an inch.

That being said, with an S20 Ultra as my day-to-day phone, the weight and size of this foldable phone wasn’t too much of a shift for me – so it probably wouldn’t be for you either.  

In the time I’ve had this phone, I’ve used it like I would any other phone, rather than trying to use it like a tablet. Over time, I’m sure many people with a foldable phone, particularly the Fold series, would use it like a tablet, particularly with the S Pen compatibility, though for many the primary use of this is still as a phone.

I will say it took me a bit of time to get used to the big internal screen particularly when it came to holding the thing, and typing on a split screen, too (like the Z Flip3 it’s a bit of a thinner phone when unfolded than my brain expected). Once I got there it was definitely a bit of a sea change – in a good way. The cover screen, for opposite reasons, also was something to get used to, and occasionally I still got tripped up texting on the phone because my fingers were too cramped. For some, this may work really well if they prefer one-handed texting, my brain never made it that far though.

The resistance or tension of the hinge, and the pure concept of folding a phone like a book (I mean, how do you even go about doing it? I flailed a little) also took time to adjust to. Over time I got used to it, and so did the phone – the resistance was a bit less…sticky over time as it got used more often.

Now what we’re all thinking – the crease. Is it noticeable? Yes. Does it “ruin” your experience of the phone? Definitely not. You’ll likely catch sight of it when you’re watching videos in landscape and probably when you’re outside, none of the times I caught the crease was a deal breaker for me – the features of the phone more than outweigh that slightly awkward reflection, at least for me.

Overall, this foldable phone is just a good phone, and in some ways, better. The sound, for one, feels almost cinematic, and sounds a lot better without headphones than most of the phones I’ve ever used – at least in my non-audiophile opinion. And the internal screen…bigger is better, and for this internal screen it’s absolutely true.

To answer your question – the internal screen never behaved or felt differently enough from a traditional glass screen to pull me out of the experience and question the technology I was using – yes, even with the crease. The brightness, the scrolling, the ability to use in full sun, the actual feel of the screen – was all similar enough to a non-folding glass or glass-like screen to keep me firmly within the digital universe.

The internal display I found I used the most in the evenings when I was relaxing, and yes, sometimes using a second screen while I was watching TV. While I used multi-tasking and flex mode sparingly, when I did it was definitely the most useful way to use a screen given what I needed to do (budgeting for the month, watching along with a YouTube recipe in the kitchen) – we’ve got the full run down on multi-tasking, too.

With the big internal screen there was one particular Labs feature that I found useful – the pinned taskbar. Like you’d have on a desktop or tablet, it gives you more space for quickstart icons for all your favourite apps, rather than being limited by the dock at the bottom of your screen. It also sticks around when you use other apps, unlike the dock at the bottom of your phone, so it makes multi-tasking that much easier.

With great sound quality, you’ve also got crisp and smooth video playback. Depending on your aspect ratios, you may get some letterboxing (the black bars at the top and bottom of any given screen), which most of us are used to with widescreen videos anyway.

While the battery on this is officially a typical 4,400mAh, I found with light to middling usage (minimal video watching or gaming, regular use of battery heavy apps like Chrome or Instagram) the phone lasted about 2 days on a full charge and took about an hour and a half to fully charge.

For me, this is what I’m used to, my default setting with phones, so it wasn’t particularly one way or another with the battery and performance. The same goes for the brightness, refresh rate, and scrolling on this phone. It’s all up to the current standards I’ve come to expect and were all mostly, quite, better.

The triple lens setup on this phone is really quite good, all a respectable 12 megapixels:

12MP (Wide, F1.8) 12MP (Telephoto, F2.4) 12MP (Ultra-Wide, F2.2)

And then you’ve got two more options, the cover and the main under display camera:

Main screen: 4MP (F1.8) Under Display Camera
Cover: 10MP (F2.2)

With this phone, you actually have three cameras you can use to take a selfie – the standard main screen “front facing” 10MP camera, or with the click of a menu button to “selfie mode” you can flip out the cameras on the back of the phone and take a selfie with those 12MP lenses (while previewing your shot on the cover screen), or you can use the 4MP under display camera. I was particularly impressed with the quality of the “selfie mode” images. It took me a minute to understand how to activate that mode (it’s a menu option you need to choose, rather than an automatic feature). Once I did, it was easy as pie.

The under-display camera is new to the third generation of the Fold, and the rest of the camera suite has a crisper resolution for you to get your photo. I’d opt for the other two ways, as with the under-display camera and the 4MP, you get a decent amount of degradation in quality. I would expect in future generations Samsung will look to enhance the under-display camera – for the moment, though, you have better options.

While other models in the Samsung line-ups may have superzooms or super-big megapixels, how many times do we use those super fancy, super specific features? Honestly, probably not much for the average person. The wide, ultrawide and cover screen/front facing lenses are the same lenses as the S21 has, with the only difference being the telephoto. That sounds pretty good to me, and the photos came up well too.

PS - if you’re looking for a translation of all the megapixels and lens types, the differences between zoom types and more, we have a camera lens primer for you.

Some samples:

1. Landscape at 0.5, 1x, 2x and 10x

Landscape on the fold3 at 0.5x magnification

Landscape on the fold3 at 1x magnification

Landscape on the fold3 at 4x magnification

Landscape on the fold3 at 10x magnification

2. Night mode

With night mode on

With night mode off

3. People & Faces

4MP under display

Cover lens image, 1x

Rear (“selfie mode”) 1x

Rear portrait (“selfie mode”) 1x

While still an expensive piece of technology, it’s worth remembering it’s a phone…that folds. It’s new, so it will cost a bit to take home a piece of this new technology. And with the ultimate new thing in phones – the fold factor – you aren’t really sacrificing much, if anything – when you pick up a Galaxy Z Fold3.  If the price tag doesn’t faze you, this is a phone to check out.

And there you have it, folks!

For when you’re really looking to supercharge your life, get the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G, or otherwise check out Samsung’s range of phones.