No one has been producing foldable phones longer than Samsung. And for the first few years, the sheer quantity of advancements we received on the Galaxy Z Fold series meant it didn’t really have any competition. But more lately, the rate of innovation has slowed as new contenders like the OnePlus Open and Pixel Fold have debuted. Now for 2024, Samsung has fortified the Galaxy Z Fold 6 with a sturdier but substantially lighter frame, a new ultra-wide-angle camera and a plethora of AI-powered features. Unfortunately, not much else has changed, leaving us with a pretty iterative improvement. So while the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is the finest all-around huge foldable on the market, it feels like complacency is eroding Samsung’s advantage among flagship flexible phones.
Design And Displays: Tweaked Size With Significantly Brighter Panels
After minimizing the space between the screen (when closed) on last year’s phone, Samsung has changed the Galaxy Z Fold 6’s size again for 2024. But the changes are so minute you have to quantify them in millimeters. When closed, the phone is little over one millimeter slimmer and when you open it up (in portrait), the primary screen is 2.7mm broader but one millimeter shorter. It’s not a ton, but you do have a bit extra area for activities. And of course this also impacts the outside Cover Display, which is around 1mm bigger as well – just enough to make using its on-screen keyboard more forgiving.
Elsewhere, the entire phone is crisper, from its boxier edges to the more squared-off corners on both panels. Samsung also says the Enhanced Armor Aluminium used in the Z Fold 6’s chassis is around 10 percent stronger than previously, although I hope you’ll excuse me for not dropping it on purpose just to find out. Holding everything together is a new dual-rail hinge. And this time, I think Samsung has found the right mix between something that’s easy to open but still keeps its place when you want it to. But the largest design update is a 14-gram weight decrease compared to the previous generation. Granted, that might not sound like much, but now the Z Fold 6 only weighs roughly 4 grams more than its non-foldable cousin, the S24 Ultra. And on an already weighty phone, this tweak makes a tremendous impact.
Cameras: Mostly Unchanged
When it comes to photography, I’m a bit disappointed with the Z Fold 6, not because it can’t take a nice snap, but because I know Samsung can do better. For this go around, Samsung has persisted with a trio of back cameras, choosing for a new 12-MP sensor for the ultra-wide lens – and it’s very excellent. But at the same time, the ultra-wide lens is the one I use the least in daily use, and it's not close.
The other two cameras – the 50-MP primary and 12-MP telephoto with a 3x optical zoom — are strong, but they’re the same ones Samsung used on at least the past two generations. In a shot of some strawberries, the Z Fold 6 created a lovely photograph with deep saturated hues and outstanding details. At the same time, though, you can also notice the somewhat exaggerated warm tones you frequently get with Samsung cameras. And at night, the Z Fold provided a wonderful shot of a flower in a very challenging lighting scenario.
The issue is that once Google debuted the Pixel Fold, Samsung doesn’t really have a reason for saddling the Z Fold 6 with degraded photography when compared to the S24 Ultra. The Pixel Fold features a longer 5x optical zoom and an edge in overall photo quality. Just have a peek at two zoom images captured by the Z Fold 6 and the Pixel Fold. In a vacuum, Samsung’s picture doesn’t seem horrible. But then take a peek at the Pixel’s picture. It's much crisper and more detailed.
Ai Features: Fun And Occasionally Beneficial, But Not Necessary
As we observed back at the beginning of the year, Samsung has moved the Galaxy AI package it released with the S24 to the Z Fold 6. And by and large, a lot of the functions are the same including things like Chat Assist which you can use to make social posts or emails while picking a number of tones. There’s also compatibility for Google’s Circle to Search along with translation and summary capabilities. A couple additional adjustments for the Fold is that now the phone can translate text in place instead of spitting it out into a giant unformatted blob, which is wonderful but kind of situational. And I might remark, Google Lens currently offers comparable features. Perhaps the most essential one is the ability to make dual-screen translations, so each person can view text in their language in real-time, depending on what side of the phone they’re looking at.
Some new additions are the Portrait Studio tool that can create an AI-generated drawing of someone based on a photo and a choice of genres including comic or watercolor. It’s amusing and it’s excellent for a giggle or two, but I’m not sure how beneficial it will be on a daily basis. There’s also the Sketch to Image tool that allows you to add a simple design to an existing shot and then have the phone produce a more realistic version of it in your final image. I still think Samsung’s basic AI picture editing features are the most useful of the lot, since they make it easy to eliminate distracting elements or perform quick touch ups. But once again, all of this feels more like additional information rather than basic requirements.
Read Also: Google Pixel 9: A Comprehensive Review
Battery Life: Great Lifetime But Might Need Some Quicker Charging Tech
While Samsung didn’t raise the size of the 4,400 mAh cell in the Z Fold 6, the phone does offer significantly greater battery life thanks to enhanced energy efficiency from its new processor. On our video rundown test, it lasted 20 hours and seven minutes while using its huge main screen and 25 hours and 19 minutes when using its outside cover display. That first statistic is even better than we saw from the Pixel Fold (15:22) and OnePlus Open (19:19), so if you need a big-screen phone with enough life, the Z Fold 6 is the simple decision.
Unfortunately, its billing hasn’t altered much. You still get 25-watt wired charging and 15-watt wireless charging, which are both fairly terrible statistics in 2024. And while I wasn’t expecting to see support for Qi2 magnetic charging on the Z Fold 6 because Samsung elected not to add it to the regular S24 range, I’m still a bit angry that a phone this costly is taking crucial functions off the spec list.
Wrap Up
It wasn’t long ago that almost every component in the Z Fold series was unsurpassed by its competition. But now phones like the Pixel Fold exist, which delivers superior overall photography. Then there’s the OnePlus Open, which weighs the same as the Z Fold 6 even after its recent diet. And let’s not forget, both of those opponents are 2023 models. Plus there are Chinese challengers like the Honor Magic V3 and the incoming Xiaomi Mix Fold 4, which are both smaller and lighter than Samsung’s winner.
Don’t get me wrong, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is still a nice foldable, a wonderful one even. It’s had superb performance, good battery life and convenient features like native stylus compatibility. But it feels like after all this time sitting fat and content on its throne, Samsung has a lessened appetite for ultimate dominion. Instead of long-awaited features like a built-in S Pen or an enhanced under-display camera, we got a variety of AI-powered tools and stunts, which are enjoyable but not great standout attractions. And at $1,900 — which is $100 higher than last year — the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is the most costly it's been since the Z Fold 3. But I guess that's the price you pay Samsung for having such a long reign on top.
