Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G

Welcome to the fold

Folding phone bends to your will

Samsung has been pushing the foldable Android smartphone concept for a few models now, and the latest is the Z Fold 3 5G. It’s eye-wateringly expensive – one of the priciest phones you can currently buy – so is it worth it?

Unlike Samsung’s previous foldables, this one is waterproof (but not dustproof), with an IPX8 rating. Despite the fold, it feels solid enough to survive even the clumsiest user. With its double-sized screen it’s bigger than most phones, and weighs a fairly hefty 271g. It’s 6.4mm thick when unfolded, but this increases to 16mm when closed up.

It offers a 6.2in 2268x832-pixel screen when closed. However, open it up and this expands to 7.6in with a resolution of 2208x1768 pixels. It’s very impressive, recreating 91.7 per cent of SRGB colours and dazzling brightness levels of 1,089cd/ m² . However, the square aspect ratio produces black borders at the top and bottom of the screen when viewing full-screen 16:9 or 21:9 video. The phone’s software helpfully lets you choose whether to use it in full screen or as two separate split screens. The latter option is like having two phones side by side.

The Z Fold 3 5G has the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor and a generous 12GB of RAM. It performs quickly and smoothly, and should have enough power

SPECIFICATIONS

Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 • 12GB of RAM • 256GB or 512GB storage • 6.2in 2268x832pixel cover screen • 7.6in 2208x1768-pixel inner screen • 12-megapixel main rear camera • 12-megapixel telephoto camera • 12-megapixel ultrawide camera • 10-megapixel front camera • Android 11 (One UI 3.5) • 6.4x158x128mm (unfolded), 16x158x67mm (folded) (HXDXW) • 271g • One-year warranty www.snipca.com/39334 to stay that way for years to come.

In the final analysis, however, you could buy a decent phone and tablet for less, so there seems little point paying so much for something that combines the two.