Hi Friends,
Samsung has two launch cycles where in one they launch their foldable and another one where they launch the latest S series of smartphones. Along with that they also have intermediate launch events where they do the A series in some countries, M series in another and also S Series FE versions as well.
I had my hands on the latest released Galaxy Z Fold6 for 3 weeks around the Navratri - Diwali Festive season and I totally loved using the same. I also got the same in Pink colour so it was a little bit odd to carry but as it was not mine to keep so I didn't bother too much. No one also said anything to me as well as I clicked photographs in all the events I attended during the whole month of October 2024, the last being the Dell Tech Forum CXO Lunch as well. But when you have one of the most valuable phones in your hands, I don't think people will speak up as they will think that you are someone of power or an achiever whom they don't want to say anything.
Coming back to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 5G smartphone, the first thing you will observe if you have used the previous versions is that it's much lighter than the others. The second thing to notice will be that there is no space between the two sides of the screen when folded. Thirdly, As you open the full screen the the middle line on the screen doesn't feel in your fingers like previous generations as the aluminium hinges have been enhanced and the line is not visible as well while watching videos or taking photos etc.
There is no last one as there are so many more that are launched in this range of smartphones which I am going to discuss further in my blog post or easy way if you want to see the video review. I also posted some of the thousands of photos I took using the camera at the end of the video.
First things first, it's really easy to set up any of the Samsung Galaxy smartphones using the Smart Switch or directly as a new device. This review unit was already ON so I directly got the main wallpaper wakeup screen so I just had to insert my Google and Samsung registered emails. It was much faster as the processor is the same as the S24 Ultra which is Snapdragon 8 Gen3 Mobile platform for Galaxy.
Once you set up then you can easily go to either Google Playstore or Samsung Store to get some of the free apps like WhatsApp which you may need in your day-to-day usage of the phone. During this time, you will observe that the battery gets a little bit warm in the older generations of phones but not on this one. During my whole review period, I didn't see it getting warmer at all despite heavy use of phone, screen, camera and video editing.
The battery doesn't change from 4400mAh (two of them inside the body) but there are a lot of savings that came from the adaptive refresh rate of 1-120 Hz on both the cover and main screen along with various software and hardware performance enhancements. The phone definitely lasted me a whole day without worrying about charging it during the afternoon or evening. When I use any phone, I am using it fully as you will see from the 3000+ photos/videos I took in just 20-25 days. During the month of October 2024, I posted around 115 YouTube Shorts that fetched me around 200k views as well.
This is the fun part of using this extra-long 7.6-inch screen that gets folded as well to make it easier to carry. This is a great way to watch all the lovely YouTube videos I create or any from your favourite creator along with a lot of web series and movies making this a perfect entertainment device. I found the speakers to be a little bit faded as compared to the previous versions. This phone has direct singular openings as compared to the circular 10 dotted grills. This I think made it more susceptible to getting blocked by your hands or the surface you put it on. If you do not change the orientation, you will find it difficult to hear even at full volume.
The screens that Samsung provides you is a magical experience on most of their devices especially this one. The colours are vivid, the brightness is top-notch even in the direct sunlight, and the graphics and text look clear and crisp. Sometimes you feel that your eyes have been watching bad VGA display in your previous phone when you switch to the new Galaxy Z Fold6. It's a device that has a Kindle, PSP, Office tools, Tablet, Pencil and smartphone merged into one along with a camera that is suitable in case you want to shoot something in the air on your business trips.
Coming to the Artificial Intelligence features that Samsung calls Galaxy AI, this particular version comes with all of them enabled along with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 version. All others even the S 24 Ultra series don't have all of them as well. But it's just a single feature that's missing in S24 Ultra and that's Drawing Assist. But as this is just a software-based thing, sooner or later it will come to other compatible phones. My older generations of Samsung smartphones including Z Flip3 and Note 20 only have the Circle to Search feature enabled as part of AI as it doesn't have the processing capabilities to do the other Galaxy AI things.
It's super fast on this phone as I showcase the same in the video as well. There is so much more you can do using the S Pen which didn't come along with the review unit. You can combine the power of S Pen and Galaxy AI to create a lot of new images generated by AI and sketch to draw on the photos to create a new version of the image. You can get translation on the go, on the call, in the meeting. It can even make notes while you attend any call. These things are really powerful which makes it a productivity master which really fulfils the use case for travelling businessmen or executives who run their business on phones or are away from their laptops etc. This particular use of Galaxy Z Fold6 is one of the most highlighted features that lead to all the sales for sure for Samsung. Though you have the CoPilot in the newer laptops if you are not using one, then Galaxy Z Fold6 is your best bet as it's portable, easy to use and powerful enough to use it any way you want.
There is definitely a market for phablets that Samsung brought to the market a long time ago and they monopolised the market too. There are a lot of Chinese brands including Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, Tecno, OnePlus and Honor brought their slimmer versions to compete against either the Z Fold or Z Flip series. Google too took some time to create its own foldable as well. These companies are making thinner, slimmer foldable that people like as well. In this competitive world, Samsung has to continuously enhance their Z Fold series as the phone is just shy of the ZAR 45000 price range and when you don't get the same kind of camera as in the S Ultra series, it breaks my heart every time they launch the next generation.
Samsung doesn't have to worry about thinking that either of their phones will cannibalize the other series but the markets are totally different and it all depends on the customer's choice as well. As a brand, you have to provide the best in all the versions based on the price charged so that customers get the best value and choice in all the top variants of smartphones. If you fail to provide the same then the other brands will definitely be looking for their extra-hardware products (for example 3X folded smartphone) to take over the market created and ruled by Samsung. My thinking as a customer will be then to decide if I want to combine my content creation journey (S24 Ultra) with the same capable phone considering Galaxy Z Fold6 also have the same camera capabilities to include the bigger screen, Galaxy AI, multi-tasking and office productivity on the go. If yes, then I will pay around ZAR 50000 for Fold and if not then I will just restrict myself to ZAR 30000 for the S Ultra series. Currently, you have to leave one to get another hence the search for a great phone continues!
Link to video - https://youtu.be/spg5DekxEdI - Your Views Are My Only Blessings!
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