If you look back at some of the more embarrassing product launches in tech history, Samsung is a name that keeps on popping up again and again. Of course, there was the fiasco that was the Galaxy Note 7, a device that was quite literally prone to catching fire and, in some cases, exploding and injuring unsuspecting users. More recently, the launch of Samsung’s Galaxy Fold was pushed back after nearly all early review units broke just a few hours into testing.
Though Samsung ultimately released the Galaxy Fold a few months later, the device didn’t exactly instill confidence that foldable smartphones represent the wave of the future. While foldable smartphones are intriguing and novel, there’s a strong case to be made that the design is effectively a solution for a problem that doesn’t actually exist. What’s more, a good number of initial Galaxy Fold reviews were less than flattering.
While it remains to be seen if foldable phones will fade into obscurity in a few years’ time, Samsung has no plans to take its foot off the gas. At Samsung’s upcoming Unpacked event, the company is planning to introduce a next-gen foldable smartphone dubbed the Galaxy Flip Z. What’s more, Samsung is also planning to release a Galaxy Fold 2.
In the interim, we recently stumbled across an exhaustive Galaxy Fold review on Reddit from someone who spent a lot of time with the device. If you’re at all curious to check out an in-depth review about what day-to-day life is like with a Galaxy Fold, the thread is definitely worth checking out in its entirety, especially because it’s surprisingly positive.
A few choice excerpts can be seen below:
[The] device just feels great to hold. This is the first phone in years that I’ve felt confident carrying around without a case. the slim folded mode is easy to carry around or use one handed, and when the thing is opened, the plastic protective rim around the screen gives you a decent place to hold on to while doing your thing. Do note the weight and form factor will take a few days to get used to, if you are like me and generally mostly hold a phone with one hand and the other hand is for navigating, outside of typing.
Interestingly, though not surprisingly, the Galaxy Fold doesn’t excel when it comes to media consumption:
So if you wanted to get this purely for media consumption… not worth it. Where it gets interesting is other stuff. Do note with how android apps typically work, the screen density does affect if you see the phone or tablet variant of an app and classic samsung’s default zoom puts everything into phone view… which sucks. Changing it down to the smallest does change stuff up though. Here is youtube. Feedly. Google Calendar. Gmail does its split panel view,chrome gives you the tabs at the top and much more. Obviously not all apps on android have robust tablet views, so stretched phone apps often give you less info… but apps that are optimized for tablets typically do give you more stuff on the screen. YMMV on the app. This includes the web as well. Sites behave differently too and might offer you more or less text on screen.
Overall, I’m still not sold on the idea of foldable smartphones, but the review above is mostly positive. So while I remain skeptical, it will be interesting if we see an uptick in mainstream adoption once the Galaxy Fold 2 and Flip Z come out.
