Samsung has just introduced its next foldable technology, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the Galaxy Z Flip 4. These new smartphones are accompanied by brand new equipment such as the Galaxy Watch 5, the Galaxy Watch 5 Professional and the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional. For this print piece, we will only miss new smartphones. If you were anticipating major updates like the ones we picked up with the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 smartphones, you might be a little disappointed. The all-new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 are iterative updates with minimally changed designs, improved cameras, and a current-gen processor. Still, a few of the tweaks, while small, are quite significant and might be enough to win favor with potential customers.
Let’s start with the Galaxy Z Fold 4. Its price starts at $1,799.99 (about Rs 1,42,830 before tax). According to Samsung, the main strengths of the new Fold are its flagship-grade cameras, a more powerful SoC, and a lighter body. The latter is the first thing I noticed and although this model still weighs 263g (the Z Fold 3 weighs 271g), the load now seems more evenly distributed. However, it is very bulky and the 2 halves of the mobile phone are not aligned when closed, as with the Flip.
The steel body is flatter this time and all ports and buttons are in their familiar positions. The overall dimensions are also mentioned to be only slightly smaller than the Galaxy Z Fold 3, although it’s actually hard to tell without seeing each device side by side. The Galaxy Z Fold 4’s hinge is strong and can be opened to different angles, depending on how you want to use this machine.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 has a polished design and is lighter than its predecessor
Samsung has borrowed a few of the digital cameras from the Galaxy S22 collection, and the Galaxy Z Fold 4 now supports “Nightography” options, which is the company’s marketing language for low-light images and movies. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 features a 50-megapixel main camera with OIS, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera, and a 10-megapixel telephoto camera with 3X optical zoom and up to 30X digital zoom. Selfie cameras appear unchanged.
The Galaxy Z Fold 4’s interior and exterior screens are the same size as the older model, but there are a few tweaks. The outer display is now protected by Corning Gorilla Victus+ and has an adaptive refresh rate of 48Hz-120Hz, while the inner folding display has a more power-efficient refresh rate range of 1Hz-120Hz .
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 runs OneUI 4.1.1 mostly based on Android 12L. The software basically looks like what we saw with the Galaxy Z Fold 3, but Samsung has added a whole new taskbar feature so that the bottom row of apps on the home screen remain pinned next to the controls. navigation each time you open a full-screen application. Samsung had floated this idea as a Labs feature on the Galaxy Z Fold 3, but this implementation on the Galaxy Z Fold 4 feels far less intrusive.
Samsung has added new multitasking options to OneUI for the Galaxy Z Fold 4
The taskbar can also show you recently opened apps and multi-window app pairs, if any. Along with the pinned icons, there’s a drawer to access the rest of your apps. I think it might be a better multitasking solution than using the sliding app carousel, which I’m not a big fan of, but it’s still a possibility if you want to use it.
Coming to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, it will also get the flattened frame remedy. The cell phone looks fashionable on that purple trim, although I’m not a big fan of the glossy texture of the body. Our biggest gripe with the Galaxy Z Flip 3 was its battery life, and thankfully Samsung installed a larger 3,700mAh battery (up from 3,300mAh) this time around for greater efficiency in that regard. The battery can also be mentioned to have the ability to cost zero to 50pc in just half an hour. This machine will retail from $999.99 (about Rs 79,350 before tax) when it goes on sale internationally.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4’s hinge is now smaller at 1.2mm. Unfortunately, the quilt display screen has not been enlarged. It might still perform all the same tricks like letting you take a selfie when the phone is folded and now Samsung says you’ll be able to send automated replies to some messages from the outside show as well, although I wasn’t not in a position to take a look at this.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 has a bigger battery than the previous model
The Galaxy Z Flip 4 has comparable “Flex mode” options in some apps when you have the phone folded halfway. Flex Cam is something new and lets you trigger a timed capture by holding your palm against the camera. The Flip 4 also has “Nightography” options from the Galaxy S22 collection, but the sensors appear to be the same 12-megapixel pair for the Z Flip 3’s extended and ultra-wide cameras.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 boasts of bigger battery and smaller hinge
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 are each powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC. Each has an IPX8 rating for water resistance, in addition to stereo audio and Wi-Fi and reverse Wi-Fi charging. The Galaxy Z Flip 4 is on the market in three variants with up to 512GB of storage, and all of them have 8GB of RAM. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 can be equipped with up to 1TB of storage and all variants can have 12GB of RAM. We have to wait and see which variants are really coming to India and at what price.
Although both smartphones are iterative upgrades over their respective predecessors, the upgraded cameras and new SoC make them look more aggressive and may help justify the premium price. For the Galaxy Z Fold 4, the weight reduction should make a difference during extended use, but that may be moot if you plan to use a case with it. The Galaxy Z Flip 4’s larger battery should face the biggest gripe we had with its predecessor. We’ll be bringing you comprehensive opinions on each of these smartphones closer to their India launches, so stay tuned.
Disclosure: Samsung sponsored correspondent’s flights and resort for Bangalore trip.