The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is the newest addition to Samsung’s increasing foldable portfolio and successor to what was thought of an honest foldable smartphone from final 12 months – the Galaxy Z Fold 5. What has modified this 12 months? Nicely, on paper, not a lot, however loads of refinements and the corporate’s go-all-in tackle AI (synthetic intelligence) options is one thing that may’t be missed.
In comparison with different flagships of 2024, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 additionally manages to put itself someplace on the prime, and we’ll discuss it intimately in a bit. However what’s not gone too nicely is the pricing. To match, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 launched in 2022 was priced at Rs. 154,999 for the 12GB + 256GB variant. Equally, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 launched final 12 months got here on the similar worth as Fold 4. The purpose price making right here is that this already was an excellent premium smartphone pricing, retaining all the things in thoughts. Nevertheless, the Galaxy Fold 6 this 12 months units a brand new benchmark for pricing because it begins at Rs. 164,999 for the bottom 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. If you would like extra storage in Fold 6, you have to pay Rs. 176,999 for the 512GB storage and a whopping Rs. 200,999 for the 1TB storage mannequin. Nicely, that was the pricing, and now let’s dive into what the Fold 6 provides you this 12 months and whether or not it is best to contemplate it.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Design: Thinner and lighter
Dimensions – 153.5×68.1×12.1mm (folded) | 153.5×132.6×5.6mm (unfolded) Weight – 239 grams Sturdiness – IP48 (water-resistant)
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 has ditched the rounded corners seen on the Fold 5 and gone for a extra flatter design. The result’s an oblong bar design – when folded with sharper edges. That is the very first thing you’ll discover on Fold 6 when evaluating it with Fold 5 from final 12 months. Subsequent up, the bezels. The Fold 6 sports activities thinner bezels across the show and likewise incorporates a broader cowl display – making an enormous distinction in day by day use in comparison with its predecessor.
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Dimensions-wise, Fold 6 has shed some thickness and weight. The brand new foldable is slimmer than its predecessor at 12.1mm (folded) and 5.6mm (unfolded) thickness. At 239 grams, the Fold 6 feels method lighter in day by day utilization in comparison with the Fold 5 (253 grams). Aside from weight cuts, Samsung has achieved a wonderful proportionate weight distribution. This helps as a result of it makes Fold 6 helpful for texting and even doing digicam work with only one hand.
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The aluminium body feels sturdy and provides a stable hand really feel of the Fold 6 with a claimed improved scratch-resistant matte end. For defense, Samsung has supplied Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on each the entrance show and glass again. This 12 months, the corporate has additionally taken a step in the fitting course by including IP48 safety, proving that Samsung has upped the sealing additional. Nevertheless, it’s nonetheless not dust-resistant, so be sure you’re not utilizing it round sand surfaces or in an atmosphere the place mud particles can enter the machine.
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In terms of foldables, I consider that flip or clamshell telephones have extra enjoyable color decisions than typical book-style foldables. Nevertheless, Samsung has tried to alter that impression by providing a number of choices. The Fold 6 is on the market in Pink (sure, you learn that proper!), Navy, Crafted Black (Particular Version), White (Particular Version), and Silver Shadow, which we obtained for this evaluate. I’d have cherished to strive White for certain, however this Silver Shadow color slowly grows on you and is a better option for the long term.
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Speaking about enhancements, the hinge is refined on the Fold 6, specializing in making it lighter and stronger. Samsung claimed at its Unpacked briefing that the hinge carries a number of enhancements, together with enhancements added to make it extra sturdy, utilizing a twin rail hinge, and being immune to shock. The telephone snaps solidly when folded and offers confidence in on a regular basis use.
Leaping to the crease – essentially the most controversial matter for a foldable machine. There’s good and unhealthy information. Unhealthy first, it’s nonetheless there (very a lot seen). The excellent news is that the crease is additional lowered, and Samsung is ensuring to enhance the hinge mechanism with each iteration. The primary display will get a brand new safety this 12 months, although Samsung hasn’t given specifics. We all know that it’s thicker and extra sturdy to last more.
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You get the telephone, normal documentation, a SIM ejector software, and a USB Sort-C cable within the retail field. I would like Samsung to contemplate including a case within the retail bins of the foldables, contemplating the value tag they carry, and even making it a bundle of some type. For shoppers, something added as a bundle is at all times a welcome addition.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Show: Greatest show on a Samsung foldable, but
Show – 7.6-inch fundamental display & 6.3-inch cowl display Show sort – Dynamic LTPO AMOLED Show safety – Gorilla Glass Victus 2 (cowl display)
As talked about, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 stacks nicely and ranks amongst flagship-grade smartphones. The show stands out and impressed me essentially the most. Whereas there’s hardly any change on paper in comparison with its predecessor, the Fold 6 nonetheless outshines Fold 5 with its show efficiency. The Fold 6 incorporates a broader cowl display – with a minor bump – measures 6.3 inches, up from 6.2 inches on the Fold 5. The primary display provides a display decision of 1856×2160 pixels and 374PPI pixel density, whereas the duvet display provides 968×2376 pixels and 410PPI pixel density.
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The Galaxy Z Fold 6 provides a wonderful show (fundamental and canopy) for on a regular basis duties. Be it gaming, multitasking, looking, streaming, studying, or extra. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 provides a peak brightness of 2600nits, and the daylight legibility is superb. The adaptive 120Hz refresh charge guarantees smoother animations and buttery transitions in on a regular basis utilization. The Fold 6 helps each HDR10+ and HDR10 requirements whereas, as anticipated, it comes with Widevine L1 certification.
The 7.6-inch fundamental display is among the finest yow will discover for multimedia consumption. The under-display selfie digicam on the principle display hides virtually completely, and you may take full benefit of the true property.
Apparently, Fold 6 is wider than Fold 5; nonetheless, the principle display specs do not change. Samsung has translated a slight bump in width with improved decision and side ratio. The quilt display is now simpler to make use of because of a wider 6.3-inch measurement, which makes it ultimate for typing fast texts, emails or chatting on social media apps.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Efficiency: Setting the benchmark for different foldables
Processor – Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4nm) RAM – 12GB LPDDR5X Storage – 256GB/512GB/ 1TB UFS 4.0
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 packs Qualcomm’s top-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, and the telephone feels snappy in real-world efficiency. It would not miss a beat – be it multitasking, gaming, streaming, photograph or video enhancing. The Galaxy Fold 6 outshines all different 2024 foldables within the efficiency division. Gaming is dealt with easily, and I had fun attempting out Name of Obligation: Cell and Asphalt Legends Unite on the Fold 6. Apparently, Samsung selected to go for a bigger vapour chamber on the Fold 6, which has paid off. I did not discover any heating points, thanks to higher thermal administration.
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When you have ever questioned if foldables can deal with heavy-duty duties, then Galaxy Z Fold 6 is right here to reply that query. In our artificial benchmark assessments, Fold 6 carried out excellently, which was anticipated, and you may discover the ends in the desk beneath.
Benchmark Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 (Cowl/ Essential) Vivo X Fold 3 Professional (Cowl/ Essential) OnePlus Open (Cowl/ Essential) AnTuTu v10 1,642,118 / 1,695,896 2,051,650 / 2,063,526 1,305,500 / 1,26,4480 PCMark Work 3.0 18,688 / 18,460 14,489 / 14,251 10,276 / 10,521 Geekbench 6 Single 2,216/ 2,197 2,143 / 2,167 1,426 / 1,056 Geekbench 6 Multi 6,725/ 6,689 6,562 / 6,800 4,096 / 4,114 GFXB T-rex (fps) 120 / 120 120 / 120 60 / 60 GFXB Manhattan 3.1 (fps) 120 / 120 120 / 105 60 / 60 GFXB Automobile Chase (fps) 119 / 119 102 / 67 60 / 46 3DM Slingshot Excessive OpenGL Maxed Out / Maxed Out Maxed Out / Maxed Out Maxed Out / Maxed Out 3DM Slingshot Maxed Out / Maxed Out Maxed Out / Maxed Out Maxed Out / Maxed Out 3DM Wild Life 15,678 / 15,210 Maxed Out / Maxed Out Maxed Out / Maxed Out 3DM Wild Life Limitless 18,786 / 17,898 17,985 / 18,721 13,731 / 13,731
The speaker on the Fold 6 is succesful and loud sufficient to fill a small room. The readability can be wonderful. The decision high quality is unbelievable, and the foldable can comfortably latch to networks in low community zones. I had a good time typing on the duvet display of the Fold 6 and observed that it packs a robust haptic motor. It is good that Samsung has caught up on fundamentals whereas protecting the premium finish of the spectrum. Good work general within the efficiency division by Fold 6.
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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Software program and AI: Including worth
Software program – One UI 6.1.1 Model – Android 14 Newest safety patch – June, 2024
The Galaxy Fold 6 runs One UI 6.1.1 based mostly on Android 14, and recently, in case you have used a premium Galaxy machine, there’s little to have a look at right here. You may be handled with a well-known UI with minimal bloatware. The transition from the duvet to the principle display is clean, and most apps open easily with out a stutter. Samsung guarantees seven years of Android and safety updates on the Fold 6, which ought to outlive the telephone itself – in case somebody buys a telephone now and plans to maintain it until 2031. It is a good factor to have, for instance, the IP score in your telephone. You may by no means use it when water can spill on the machine, however the safety offers you peace of thoughts.
Samsung’s new foldables – Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 include a number of AI options. This fashion, Samsung ensures it stays forward of the AI curve that rivals are slowly pushing out with their new telephones. Principally, the iPhone 16 subsequent month will probably be Apple’s subsequent massive guess with AI.
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However, for Samsung, the bottom was ready in January solely when the corporate unveiled the S24 collection with your complete Galaxy AI push. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6 are simply carrying that ahead and in a great way. I talked about them intimately in my Flip 6 evaluate, however most of these AI options are enjoyable to play on the Fold 6, because of extra display actual property provided right here.
I’ll begin with my favorite choose, and that is the Notes app from Samsung. The Notice help brings a bunch of AI options like auto-formating, summarising notes, transcribing and summarising voice recording, auto-generating covers based mostly on content material in notes, fixing grammar and spelling, and translating textual content in notes. It additionally provides PDF overlay translation for fast translation of PDF paperwork – a function you will not discover totally free on the Web. Throughout my evaluate of the Fold 6, the Notes app was on my dwelling display and was my go-to app for a number of work-related duties.
Sketch to picture was one other of my favorite AI options on Fold 6 and was a enjoyable approach to discover the artistic facet of a foul painter. The function is so good that it makes you’re feeling you’ll be able to draw. However that is simply AI doing the heavy lifting for you. I additionally tried the Interpreter function’s dialog mode, which might translate in real-time and labored flawlessly.
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Portrait Studio can convert your portraits to 3D cartoons or any most well-liked accessible kinds, whereas Picture Help offers you AI photograph enhancing instruments. The Fold 6 is a wonderful telephone when you love studying, and the looking help function can assist you summarise a webpage textual content and even assist with translations. For those who want chat help, AI can supply assist by means of the Chat help function, which might compose textual content based mostly in your request and likewise help you with altering the textual content’s tonality and checking grammar.
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All of those options mixed can assist together with your day by day duties, however provided that you utilize them accurately and, in fact, if they’re useful in your work. For me, most of those had been very helpful and enjoyable to discover.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Digital camera: First rate however not the very best on the market
Essential digicam – 50-megapixel, Twin Pixel PDAF, OIS, f/1.8 aperture, AF Telephoto digicam – 10-megapixel, PDAF, 3x zoom Extremely-wide digicam – 12-megapixel, f/2.2 aperture Selfie – 4-megapixel, f/1.8 aperture & 10-megapixel cowl display entrance digicam with f/2.2 aperture
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 packs the rear digicam setup we noticed on the Fold 5 and Fold 4. The large change this time is the upgraded ultrawide sensor for higher low-light pictures. The selfie cameras are additionally the identical as what we noticed final 12 months.
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Leaping straight to the digicam outcomes, the Fold 6, whatever the digicam {hardware}, takes some superb daylight pictures. Loads of particulars and pictures are colour-accurate, vivid and vibrant in most well-lit conditions. Pictures have a wonderful dynamic vary, and autofocus works nicely. It captures respectable pores and skin tones in portraits.
Even the bokeh pictures got here out nicely. I cherished the depth estimation on Fold 6, which was correct in most portrait pictures.
Coming to the ultrawide digicam, the pictures are respectable in daylight conditions, with ample particulars and an excellent dynamic vary. Nevertheless, one stunning information is that there isn’t any autofocus on this digicam, which implies when you attempt to use Fold 6 as your point-and-shoot digicam, chances are you’ll find yourself with some outcomes with mushy focus. The telephoto digicam can be a succesful one.
In low-light situations, pictures barely get sketchy due to many components, together with irregular autofocusing. There are excessive ranges of noise in low-light pictures in addition to underexposed topics in a number of of our samples.
One other drawback was within the zooming division. The Fold 6 is not a telephone that takes good zoom pictures, and there is not any doubt about it.
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The 4-megapixel under-display digicam on the principle display is finest used for video calls and is not apt for social media uploads. The ten-megapixel digicam, however, is healthier for social media uploads and does a wonderful job in each lighting state of affairs. Samsung has additionally barely improved video high quality on the Fold 6.
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 might not win the very best digicam award in premium smartphones. However it packs succesful cameras. It is simply that I want to match each side of the machine, retaining the value in thoughts, and that units my bar excessive for the Fold 6 to match.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Battery: Nonetheless catching up
Battery capability – 4,400mAh Charging charge – 25W (wired) & 15W wi-fi No charging adapter within the field
The battery division is barely touched by Samsung this 12 months for the Fold 6. It is like the corporate selected to keep away from bumping battery capability to make sure that the load stays decrease than final 12 months’s Fold 5. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 packs a 4,400mAh battery, and it lasted almost for a day with combined utilization the place I spent essentially the most time with the duvet display, whereas for duties like studying tales, enhancing, and streaming, I ended up utilizing the interior show. Contemplating the battery specs have not modified, Fold 6’s battery efficiency is kind of much like that of Fold 5. In our video loop take a look at, the Fold 6 lasted for 20 hours and 24 minutes, throughout which we ran the movies on the larger interior show, which was spectacular.
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Battery life apart, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 disappoints in charging speeds. Samsung, for causes it is aware of finest, is holding on to 25W quick charging help at a time when Android flagships priced upwards of lakh help minimal 65W charging speeds. In the course of the evaluate, we observed that the Fold 6 prices from 0 to 50% in half-hour. Nevertheless, full charging takes over 100 minutes, which is not good for a telephone that prices virtually a bomb.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Evaluation: Verdict
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is the very best foldable but from the home of Samsung. It delivers on so many issues it guarantees, and it’s a boon for multitaskers. The shows are the most effective on the foldables I’ve used; efficiency is snappy, whereas software program with AI options is a USP. The extra time you spend with Fold 6, the extra you may be a fan of the shape issue – particularly the use instances it provides, which really feel like a number of gadgets are rolled into one. In a time when smartphone producers are slowly getting bullish on AI options on their gadgets, Samsung can proudly boast that it has efficiently built-in a bunch, and so they work high quality.
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Now, let’s discuss some issues. The largest drawback is that foldables don’t attraction to everybody, and the second is the pricing of the Fold 6. Due to the folding type issue, it’s fragile in comparison with different telephones with a bar design and appeals to a distinct segment target market. After all, the pricing is on the excessive facet.
Speaking about options, the Galaxy S24 Extremely (Evaluation) provides virtually all the things that Fold 6 provides at a lesser worth, minus the fold design. OnePlus Open and Vivo’s X Fold 3 Professional are additionally accessible when you strictly desire a book-style foldable aside from Fold 6.