Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2
The most futuristic phone of 2020.
Jaded about smartphones? Think you’ve seen it all? The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is the cure; the one piece of tech that has truly wowed us in 2020. It’s the only foldable phone with 5G that we recommend buying – if, and only if, money is no object.
Every time the screen folds in half, it impresses. Strangers in a socially distant New York City, not eager to make small talk right now, are stopping us to ask: what is that thing? And is it actually worth buying? Let’s take those two questions one at a time.
The Fold 2 is the screenbending sequel to the Galaxy Fold 1, with nearly all of the improvements we asked for 11 months ago. Its 6.2-inch Cover Display fixes our chief complaint regarding the first Fold’s bezelheavy 4.6-inch front. It’s now just big enough to type on, even if it still feels cramped on account of its narrow-yet-tall shape.
Unfolded, it’s like owning a 7.6-inch mini Android tablet. That’s something we’d typically need a backpack to cart around, and would often end up leaving at home. Our 7.9-inch iPad mini 4 has been on home lockdown before it was cool. Yet Samsung’s design makes its device fully pocketable at a moment’s notice. As long as we’re not wearing our jeans with the slimmest pockets (which we’ve been told more than once that we shouldn’t be wearing anymore anyway), this chunky phone-tablet hybrid can go almost anywhere.
The inside display impresses beyond size. Its adaptive 120Hz refresh rate kicks in when you’re playing games or watching movies, offering more fluidity compared to the 60Hz screen on last year’s Fold; smoothness matters on a big screen like this. It
Everything else about the Fold 2 feels stronger, especially the retooled hinge that can prop open the phone at multiple positions.
impressed us enough to nearly distract us from the fact that, yes, there’s still a faint crease down the middle of the display and, no, despite the inclusion of Samsung Ultra’s Thin Glass, this doesn’t feel like a glass screen.
Its top layer is a plastic screen protector that feels mushy to touch compared to the solid glass front Cover Display.
Everything else about the Fold 2 feels stronger, especially the retooled hinge that can prop open the phone at multiple positions. Samsung’s variable screen mechanism is coupled with what it calls Flex Mode, which automatically reshuffles the UIs of certain apps. Its best trick is decluttering the camera app’s live preview at the top screen, while the controls appear at the bottom-right, and the last photo taken shows up at the bottom left. While Flex Mode is limited to a few apps right now, it feels very clean compared to a one-screened smartphone in which all of these elements
would appear overlaid.
Here’s where we’re going to throw the caution flag: the Z Fold 2 cameras shouldn’t dictate your smartphone purchase. It has five perfectly good cameras, including three on the back – regular, ultrawide and telephoto. But with a 2x optical and 10x digital zoom here, Samsung’s best camera phone remains the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, thanks to its stunning 5x optical and 50x digital zoom. Money can’t buy everything in one phone.
We mentioned the Z Fold 2 can go almost anywhere. It’s not waterproof or dust-proof, like most phones at this price point. But it can go the distance. We experienced all-day battery life in our testing, and the phone comes with a 25W charger in the box for what Samsung calls ‘Super Fast Charging’. It also supports fast 11W wireless charging (that’s a bit slower than the usual 15W wireless charging we see on new Samsung phones), and reverse wireless charging, in case those new Galaxy Buds Live need some juice.
We called the original Galaxy Fold ‘the most forward-thinking smartphone you shouldn’t buy’ because, even with its screenfolding innovation, it had classic first-gen limitations – and at a price higher than that of the very best laptop. We also knew that Samsung would be quick to remedy our biggest complaints – and it did. But this still isn’t the best Samsung phone for the average consumer.
So we’re torn. The Galaxy Z Fold 2 remains obnoxiously expensive for a smartphone – it costs as much as two Samsung Galaxy S20 phones if you fashion your own hinge (please... don’t actually attempt that). Yet it fixes most of the first-gen limitations we complained about, courtesy of its larger Cover Display and improved durability. It has the features we wanted at a price no one asked for.
There’s plenty of CPU horsepower and laptop-grade 12GB of RAM here, flawlessly handling multi-tasking even with three apps open and projecting a computer-like interface onto a TV using the enhanced wireless Samsung Dex mode. With a Geekbench 5 multi-core score of 3,172 the Fold 2 still falls short of the iPhone 11 Pro (3,424), and will likely be outshone further by the iPhone 12, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a performance hiccup on the Fold 2.
It’s easier to recommend this phone to early adopters who crave novelty, knowing that, with each new iteration, the perk of showing off a foldable screen will wear off. It won’t be mindblowing when the Galaxy Z Fold 5 comes out if everybody has one. If that’s triggering your smartphone FOMO, this more durable and refined Fold sequel is for you.
But the Fold 2 isn’t destined to go mainstream among average consumers when more practical phones exist, like the Galaxy S20 Plus and Note 20 Ultra, which have better cameras and start at half the price. Samsung could stand to cram more into its next foldable phone, but our biggest request for the Galaxy Z Fold 3? Fold that price in half.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is the only foldable phone you should consider buying in 2020 if you want to maximize that satisfying ‘wow’ factor when showing it off. It feels like you own a smartphone from the future when you collapse its tablet-sized screen in half, and the larger front display and stronger hinge fix the biggest Gen 1 issues. Be warned: it’s still priced for early adopters and the cameras on the Note 20 Ultra are better.
Matt Swider