The new foldable phones from Samsung are now here, and as we already knew, they are the Galaxy Z Fold 3 & the Galaxy Z Flip 3, the successors of the Galaxy Z Fold 2 & Z Flip 5G, respectively. In this article, we will talk about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, which is also the more expensive of the two. It comes with some significant upgrades such as an under-display camera, the IPX8 certification, S-Pen support, and more. As for the price, you’ll have to shell out a hefty $1,799.99 to get your hands on one, and while the price does seem pretty high, it is still less expensive than the last year’s Z Fold 2 which launched at $1,999! So, that’s interesting.
Design-wise, there isn’t a massive change here compared to the last year’s Z Fold 2. The camera module on the back gets slightly redesigned, so it is no longer sitting inside a rectangular island. Also, on the inside, there is no longer a hole-punch cutout for the selfie camera because it now sits under the display. Samsung says that this time, the company used the strongest aluminum ever used on any Samsung flagship. So, the frame is made out of what Samsung is calling the “Armor Aluminum.”
On top of that, there is also the Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection for the outer display. The display on the inside is having a newer protective film this time which Samsung says makes the inner display 80% more durable than the last generation. And also, there is now IPX8 certification which is impressive for a foldable phone. This means that while there is no protection against dust, the phone can survive a dip in the water.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 also gets S-Pen support, and since the inner display can get damaged easily, there is a special S-Pen for the Z Fold 3 named “S-Pen Fold Edition.” There is a retractable tip, so this means even if you wanted, you could not put a lot of force on display using this S-Pen as the tip will get retracted if you do that. You can also use the “S-Pen Pro” with Z Fold 3 by switching to the “Z Fold” mode.
Speaking of the specifications, the Z Fold 3 has a 6.2-inch display on the outside with Gorilla Glass Victus protection & a 120Hz refresh rate. There is a 7.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel on the inside with, again, a 120Hz refresh rate. So, this time, both the displays are having high-refresh rates. There is a 4 Megapixel camera under the display on the inside, and while you may think the megapixels count is so low, it is worth mentioning that the pixel size is 2.0-micron!
Under the hood, there is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SOC (not the Plus) paired with 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB or 512GB UFS 3.1 storage. The battery size is 4,400mAh, and the phone supports 25W fast charging via the Type-C port, 11W wireless charging, and 4.5W reverse wireless charging.
Finally, coming to the cameras on the back, there is a triple camera system that includes a main 12 Megapixel shooter with an f/1.8 aperture lens, OIS and 1.8-micron pixel-size, a secondary 12 Megapixel camera for ultrawide shots, and a third 12 Megapixel telephoto lens with 2X optical zoom and OIS. So, in terms of the rear cameras, there doesn’t seem to be an upgrade over the last generation. The outer screen has a 10-megapixel selfie camera placed in a hole-punch cutout.
So, Samsung was very smart here by going for an under-display selfie camera only for the inner display because most of the time, users will be using the outer screen for taking selfies, so the quality of the under-display selfie camera being not that great won’t be an issue for a majority of users.
Finally, there are three colors in which the Z Fold 3 comes named Phantom Black, Phantom Green, and Phantom Silver.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 starts at $1,799 / €1,799 / £1,599. Pre-orders start from today, and the phone will go on sale on the 27th of August.