Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G: A cheat sheet

Image: Samsung

Samsung has unveiled the 3rd procreation of its Galaxy Z Fold smartphone named appropriately capable the Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G. In galore ways, the caller telephone is akin to its predecessor, the Galaxy Z Fold 2. Both phones connection a hinged foldable plan with interior and outer screens, 5G connectivity, a 7.6-inch show and a rear triple camera setup. But the Z Fold 3 5G ups the ante with S Pen support, a speedier processor and a somewhat little terms tag.

SEE: Research: How 5G volition alteration business (TechRepublic Premium)

Foldable phone

The astir salient diagnostic of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G is its foldability. Since unveiling the Galaxy Z Fold successful 2019, Samsung has been banking that consumers would beryllium attracted to the novelty and uniqueness of foldable phones. Like its predecessor, the Z Fold 5G offers a hinge-based plan that allows you to unfold and fold the phone.

When the instrumentality is folded, the 6.2-inch screen surface lets you view, enactment and play with each your apps and content. Unfold the phone, and the edge-to-edge 7.6-inch interior show takes the signifier with 2 screens. Both screens tin relation arsenic 1 to springiness you other existent estate, oregon they tin enactment separately. For example, unfastened a papers successful the apical fractional and motorboat a virtual keyboard successful the bottommost half, and your telephone functions similar a tiny laptop. A peculiar customizable taskbar lets you rapidly entree your favourite apps.

Image: Samsung

The hideaway hinge that holds the 2 halves unneurotic allows the telephone to enactment successful spot astatine immoderate angle, adjacent lasting up. The hinge connected the Z Fold 3 is thinner than the 1 connected its predecessors, according to Samsung. Plus, a sweeper diagnostic uses bristles to repel particulate and ungraded and support the hinge country clean.

"Phones with folding displays are an integral portion of Samsung's smartphone strategy, and Samsung is connected its 4th iteration, gaining an expanding magnitude of user feedback, which is cycled backmost into improving its adjacent procreation of devices," said GlobalData elder expert Anisha Bhatia. "With Huawei accelerated losing its grip connected the smartphone market, and nary motion of a foldable iPhone, this futuristic conception is unfastened for Samsung's taking."

Processor and storage

The Z Fold 3 5G is powered by a much almighty CPU than its predecessors. The caller telephone comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 spot versus the Snapdragon 865 Plus recovered successful the Z Fold 2. The caller processor promises a faster and much businesslike show with a 6th procreation Qualcomm AI engine, a Tensor accelerator with doubly the compute capacity, and a people of 26 for TOPS (trillions of operations per second) performance.

The telephone comes with 12GB of RAM and offers a prime of 256GB oregon 512GB of interior storage. There is nary built-in SD paper slot, truthful there's nary mode to adhd other storage.

S Pen support

Image: Samsung

The Z Fold 3 5G is Samsung's archetypal foldable smartphone to enactment the company's S Pen to fto you constitute notes and gully straight connected the screen. You person to acquisition an S Pen made specifically for the phone, either the $50 S Pen Fold Edition oregon the $100 S Pen Pro. Both pens travel with a retractable Pro extremity with unit bounds exertion designed to amended support the phone's surface portion you constitute oregon draw. The S Pen Fold is compatible lone with the Z Fold 3 5G, portion the S Pen Pro works with immoderate S Pen-compatible Galaxy smartphone oregon tablet.

Connectivity

As with the Z Fold 2, the 3rd procreation telephone offers 5G connectivity for areas that enactment the latest wireless standard. The caller telephone supports Sub6 for broader sum and millimeter question (mmWave) for higher speeds. Also included are Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC and GPS.

Cameras

The Z Fold 3 5G comes with the aforesaid 3 12MP rear cameras arsenic its predecessor. The F2.2 ultrawide camera offers a tract of presumption (FOV) of 123 degrees, the F1.8 wide-angle an FOV of 83 degrees, and the F2.4 telephoto an FOV of 45 degrees. For video signaling the cameras supply an optical zoom of 0.5x retired and 2x successful and a integer zoom of 10x.

The screen surface selfie camera offers 10MP, portion the interior camera provides lone 4MP (down from 10MP successful the erstwhile model). On the positive side, determination is simply a large betterment present that hopefully volition find its mode to different smartphones. The interior camera uses an nether show exertion that hides it from view. No notch. No punch-hole. No cutout. That means the show is genuinely borderline to edge, though it's an innovation that hopefully won't impact the prime of your photos oregon videos.

The camera provides a fewer antithetic shooting modes. Portrait mode lets you rapidly alteration the extent of tract and lighting. Night mode tries to clasp the due colour and clarity nether low-light conditions by stabilizing the rear camera. Night Hyperlapse mode snaps long-exposure shots with the rear oregon screen cameras. And Director's View mode takes videos from antithetic angles and cameras.

Display

When the telephone is folded, the screen surface provides a 6.2-inch HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X show with a solution of 2,268 x 832 pixels and an facet ratio of 24.5:9. The refresh complaint has been bumped up to 120Hz vs the 60Hz connected the Z Fold 2, truthful the show promises to beryllium faster and easier connected the eyes.

When the telephone is unfolded, the main surface offers a 7.6-inch QXGA+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X show with a solution of 2,208 x 1,768 pixels and an facet ratio of 22.5:18. The refresh complaint of 120Hz is the aforesaid arsenic connected the Z Fold 2.

Samsung besides touts the surface arsenic 29% brighter but much vigor businesslike than successful erstwhile models acknowledgment to its caller Echo show technology.

Battery and charging

The two-cell 4,400mAh dual artillery offers somewhat little capableness than the 4,500mAh utilized successful the erstwhile model. But the much businesslike Snapdragon 888 processor should compensate for the little capacity, truthful artillery beingness hopefully volition beryllium much oregon little the same. The telephone supports accelerated charging and wireless charging with 25W accelerated charging, 10W accelerated charging and 4.5W reverse wireless charging.

Durability

The Z Fold 3 5G is designed with Armor Aluminum, which Samsung points to arsenic the strongest aluminum ever recovered connected a Galaxy smartphone.

The beforehand screen surface uses Corning Gorilla Glass Victus to support it against scratches and drops. Lab tests conducted by Corning recovered that Gorilla Glass Victus withstood drops onto hard, unsmooth surfaces from up to 6.7 feet. Corning said that this caller spirit of Gorilla Glass has up to 4 times the scratch absorption of competing products. The surface besides is covered with a caller protective movie made of stretchable PET (polyethylene terephthalate), making it much durable than erstwhile models, according to Samsung.

The main surface is composed of Samsung ultra-thin glass, which the institution says is little breakable and much scratch-resistant than successful the past. Further, the Z Fold 3 5G is rated astatine IPX8 for h2o resistance, which means it tin past immersion successful much than 3.3 feet of water.

Authentication and security

Both facial designation and a fingerprint sensor are disposable to fastener and unlock your telephone arsenic good arsenic authenticate purchases and logins. Located connected the broadside of the device, the capacitive fingerprint sensor doubles arsenic the powerfulness button. Your fingerprint information and different accusation stored connected the instrumentality are protected by Samsung's Knox security. A peculiar unafraid folder is designed to isolate backstage files specified arsenic apps, photos and videos.

Operating strategy and interface

The Z Fold 3 5G comes with Android 11. Samsung besides has outfitted the telephone with a peculiar mentation of its One UI interface designed to instrumentality vantage of the foldable format and display.

Colors

The Z Fold 3 5G is disposable successful 3 colors: Phantom Black, Phantom Green and Phantom Silver. Included successful the container are the telephone itself, a information cable, ejection pin and a speedy commencement guide.

Specs for the Galaxy Z Fold 2

• Internal display: 7.6-inch QXGA+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X Infinity Flex Display (2,208 x 1,768 pixels), 120Hz refresh rate
• Cover surface display: 6.2-inch HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display (2,268 x 832 pixels), 120Hz refresh rate
• Dimensions: Folded: 2.64" x 6.22" x 0.63" (hinge), 0.56" (sagging); Unfolded: 5.04" x 6.22" x 0.25"
• Storage: 256 GB oregon 512GB
• RAM: 12 GB
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 888
• Cameras: 12MP rear ultrawide, wide and telephoto lenses; 10MP selfie screen camera; 4MP nether show camera.
• Battery: 4,400mAh dual battery
• Login security: fingerprint scholar connected side, look recognition
• Charging: Fast charging compatible connected wired and wireless, wireless powerfulness share
• Connectivity: LTE, 5G Sub6/mmWave, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS
• Ports: USB-C
• SIM card: One eSIM and 2 Nano SIMs
• Water Resistance: IPX8
• OS: Android 11
• Colors: Phantom Black, Phantom Green, Phantom Silver
• Included successful the box: Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G, information cable, ejection pin, speedy commencement guide

Should I bargain the Z Fold 3 5G?

One mode to reply that question is with different question. Do you privation oregon request a foldable phone? What started retired arsenic a gimmick from Samsung and 1 that was poorly designed with the archetypal Z Fold has evolved into an intriguing and perchance utile concept. Foldability turns your smaller smartphone into a mini tablet-sized device, effectual for multitasking, creating documents, playing games and watching videos.

The different reply to that question depends connected what telephone you ain now. If you presently ain a non-foldable telephone and spot yourself genuinely taking vantage of this signifier factor, past the Z Fold 3 5G is surely worthy considering. If you already ain the archetypal Z Fold, the 3rd procreation represents a leap guardant successful presumption of performance, reliability, durability and different areas. But if you ain the Z Fold 2, past the changes you'd find successful the Z Fold 3 are much evolutionary than revolutionary.

Of course, the deciding origin usually comes down to cost. Even successful a smartphone marketplace that has seen selling prices leap implicit the past fewer years, $1,800 is simply a beauteous penny to walk connected a mobile device. You'd beryllium shelling retired the aforesaid magnitude oregon much that you'd wage for a full-blown computer. That has to springiness anyone pause, adjacent for a instrumentality that perchance represents the aboriginal of the industry.

Of course, the Z Fold 3 is hardly the lone foldable crippled successful town. Samsung's caller Z Flip 3 offers a foldable acquisition astatine a overmuch little price, though its clamshell flip plan is smaller and little immersive. Microsoft's Surface Duo is different instrumentality connected the foldable concept, and 1 that has plummeted from its archetypal terms of $1,400 down to nether $700.

Following successful the footsteps of Samsung, different Android manufacturers are readying their ain mobile phones. Even Apple has filed a patent for a foldable iPhone, though specified a instrumentality is apt a fewer years away. So if you're keen connected a foldable telephone close away, Samsung is inactive the main crippled successful town.

Availability and pricing

The Z Fold 3 5G is available for preorder arsenic of Aug. 11, 2021 and volition motorboat connected Aug. 27 successful prime regions, specified arsenic the U.S., Europe and Korea. In the U.S., the telephone is up for preorder from Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and US Cellular.

Anyone who preorders the telephone volition person a twelvemonth of Samsung Care+ extortion to screen the instrumentality for accidental damage, including surface replacement, h2o harm and backmost screen replacement.

The terms starts astatine $1,800 for the 256GB mentation and rises to $1,900 for the 512GB model. Those prices are $200 little than the archetypal outgo of the Z Fold 2 but inactive correspond a precocious people for a smartphone.

Also see

• Wi-Fi 6: A cheat sheet (TechRepublic)
• 5G: What it means for borderline computing (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
• IT disbursal reimbursement argumentation (TechRepublic Premium)
• Smartphones and mobile tech: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic connected Flipboard)