The New Samsung Fold Phone Is Expensive and Clunky, But Still So Much Fun
My first moments with the $1,980 Samsung Fold were absolute chaos. I decided, with an unhealthy dose of naiveté, to unbox it at my desk. The moment I removed it from it’s packaging, tore past the flyer for Samsung’s premium care service, and held it up to the fluorescent office lights, I became a lightning rod of office attention.
“What’s that?”
“What are you holding?”
“Is that…a phone?”
In an instant stylish GQ staffers from all over the office, from rows away from my desk, had swarmed me. Okay, so it wasn’t so much a swarm as a crowd. Okay, so it wasn’t so much a crowd as six people tilting their heads. But! Those six people were swept away by the novelty of this new device, a narrow, tall phone that unfolds to reveal a massive screen. We took photos with the camera. We looked at our location on Google Maps. But mostly, we just opened and closed it a lot.
If you’ve already decided to buy the Samsung Fold, there’s nothing I can say here that’s going to change your mind. Go forth! All things considered, it’s a fun phone to use that will draw looks from literally everyone around you. To maximize your enjoyment, I recommend starting an app on the front screen and then opening the phone to use it on the big screen as many times as you possibly can. The ability to seamlessly go from watching a YouTube video on the tiny 4.6-inch front screen to watching that video on the huge 7.3-inch inside screen is by far the best part of the phone.
But if you’ve decided that price is too much to bear, even if the idea of a foldable phone and all the new tech within it intrigues you, I see you. And frankly, even if this phone was $1000, the price of the iPhone 11 Pro, I’m not really sure it’s the phone I would want.
For me, the vast majority of the problems all stem from form factor. This phone is big and heavy, and yet feels delicate and extremely breakable. And that isn’t just a product of my imagination. Systemic issues with the first review units of this phone, which were made available in April, necessitated a redesign and delayed the release of the phone. The phone now includes a 115-word warning label that cautions you not to use the phone with a stylus, not to keep it near a credit card or medical devices that could be impacted with magnets, not to let it touch water or small particles. Carrying the big device in my pocket felt ridiculous (even when I wore my loose, flow-y pants), but I also didn’t feel like it was hearty enough to just toss in my tote bag. What if my thermos filled with coffee opened? Would my phone survive?
I was mostly able to push these thoughts to the back of my mind as I got more accustomed to the phone’s weight. But that only made other issues more apparent, like the fact that the front screen is so small that it’s basically unusable for anything more than quick photos or just checking notifications. If you ever want to actually respond to one of those notifications, and don’t want to lose your mind attempting to type with your normal-sized fingers, you’ll have to open the phone up and type with two hands.
The Samsung Fold camera is another disappointment. It’s certainly good enough, with the ability to shoot in ultra-wide and night mode. But it hardly meets the astronomical expectations of its price point, especially when compared to cheaper phones from Google and Apple. In fact, when I asked my colleagues to compare shots from the Fold with ones from my iPhone SE (which I bought for $400), some of my colleagues preferred the shots from the phone that Apple no longer even sells.
It’s not all bad. The Fold supports wireless charging and wireless power share, which allows it to serve as a wireless charger itself. That means you can use your Fold to charge the included Galaxy Buds (or AirPods, if you’re a true chaotic evil). I also really enjoyed being able to use two apps at once on the large screen. There’s nothing quite like being able to watch a YouTube video while online shopping (research!) on your phone, instead of having to get out a computer.
But despite these nice features, the true appeal of the phone is it’s novelty. When it really worked, holding the Samsung Fold felt like holding the phone of the future. And it’ll soon have a ton of competitors including the Huawei Mate X (expected this fall), the Microsoft Surface Duo (promised Holiday 2020), and an untitled release from Xiaomi (who knows!).
The thing about the future though, not to be pedantic, is that it is not the present. I’m content to wait for it.
Samsung Galaxy Fold
1980.00, Best Buy
Originally Appeared on GQ
