- The first foldable smartphone is here,
again, and you can officially buy it this Friday, again.
Here's what you'll get if you do.
And here is why I'm so excited to welcome it back,
into the fold.
(upbeat music)
And folks you know, I don't normally do unboxings
but this debut is different.
As a quick refresher, Samsung rolled out the galaxy fold
back in the spring, but it wasn't ready for prime time
with design flaws that made it too fragile
to survive a normal day.
I covered those shortfalls along with the design changes
Samsung made to address them in a video earlier this month.
And now I've got my very own retail review device to borrow.
Samsung says it wanted to elevate the ownership experience
for fold customers, and when we pull away the box
within a box that actually contains the phone,
we see the first evidence of that.
It's a welcome letter, hardly unique to Samsung,
OnePlus has been doing this for a few years
to make people feel like they're joining an exclusive club.
You know, rather than just buying a phone.
So I'm more interested in the insert beneath that.
This is a list of perks you get when you do
drop that money on a fold.
Number one, a dedicated support hotline.
It's open 24 seven for your questions or troubleshooting.
Apparently you'll be able to call by voice or video chat,
even schedule an in person meeting,
if you want a Samsung rep to physically walk you
through the device.
Below that, is an offer for a onetime screen replacement
to quote, "give you peace of mind".
Yeah, that piece is gonna be hard to come by if you've seen
the Jerry rig everything video.
If you haven't, suffice it to say that this display
is the softest, most fragile on the market right now.
So it makes sense that Samsung is offering
a repair solution if something happens to it.
Still, it's only good within one year of purchase
and it costs $149 dollars, which doesn't bode well
for peace of mind over the long term.
To protect the outside, you do get a complimentary case
for the fold.
It's made of Aramid, the material that forms the basis
of Nomex worn by fighter pilots,
because of its flame-resistance.
And Kevlar, which makes a Bulletproof vests.
Should be a pretty solid case in other words.
At the bottom of this treasure chest,
a charger rated for a not very fast, quick charge 2.0
sorry folks, the 25 watt charger from the note 10 plus
didn't make the jump.
Then there's a USBC to a adapter and the crown jewel
of the collection, a complimentary set of galaxy buds.
These are a pretty solid set of wireless ear buds
that usually go for $130 bucks, so nice.
Coming to the phone itself, you cannot unwrap it without
seeing these care instructions and that's good
cause there's a lot of them.
You're not allowed to press hard on the display.
Even with your fingernail.
Use any objects to touch the screen, put any stickers
or screen protectors on it and you should get the fold away
from your credit cards because of the powerful magnets
that keep it closed.
Most important of all, the fold is by no means
that Samsung's words dust or water resistant.
So if you buy it, you'll want to mentally hop into
the way back machine and treat it like you
would have treated your smartphone from a decade ago.
After you dropped the nearly two grand on this thing,
you'll need to go buy a $30 dollar burner phone
for the beach.
Picking up the redesign fold, I get the same feel
I reported from Berlin.
A little more solid on the hinge feel
and locking open a bit more firmly.
I don't have to do away with the visible crease
in the screen, unfortunately, but it kind of fades away
when the screen is on.
And frankly, I'm too distracted by my joy at being back
on a foldable phone.
That's kind of a misnomer, people before me have said,
this is really more like a foldable Tablet
and the first few things I find myself wanting to do again,
bare that out.
I lost my Kindle Oasis a while back
and I've been without an E-reader since.
Well, the fold is the perfect size to take its place.
So I eagerly re-sync my Amazon account,
dive back into Calvin and Hobbes and Richard Russo.
The second thing I do is lament the loss
of those custom colors I loved so much,
which were cut from the assembly lines
in an effort to streamline production.
So I restore a little of that color by swapping out
the Samsung keyboard for a custom G-board.
It gives me a little eye candy and space for my thumbs
to spread out, which I like.
My third task is to round up the truly colossal
amount of bloatware on this thing,
and though the fold doesn't have a recycle bin,
I give it the next best thing.
Obviously this isn't the unlocked model,
it's the 18T variant and no carrier is better than Ma Belle
at burying its customers under a prodigious mountain
of unwanted junk.
But I give 18T credit for agreeing to sell the fold
in stores, unlike T-Mobile,
which canceled after the whole debacle in the spring.
This isn't a review, so I'll make this my final point.
Being back on the fold is a constant reminder
that you're on the bleeding edge.
That means bad things as well as good
dealing with wonky apps that reset when you switch
between screens or the phone forcing you into tablet mode
to train the fingerprint sensor, which makes no sense.
It means getting used to the leaden weight of this ponderous
brick when it drops into your pocket.
And then the anxiety when you pull it back out
and wonder if your pocket lint is gonna find its way
in there to kill the display somehow.
And yes, you still have to deal with an external screen.
Not much bigger than the Palm phone.
But this is still the first day, so each time I pop it open,
it all becomes worth it.
Reading a book, taking notes, playing a game,
watching a YouTube video, BT dubs please like and subscribe.
It's like having a tablet that fits in your pocket.
Remember how for years some of us begged Google
to build multi window app support into Android.
And when we finally got it, we never used it
because the screens just weren't big enough.
Well this one is, and big enough to run three apps
at a time in fact.
Add in the fact that the phone is its own tripod,
handy for me and has tremendous battery life
handy for everyone.
And I continue to feel that life on a folding phone
is just beginning to reveal its advantages.
I'm gonna take my time exploring that life
and deliver my review down the road folks.
In the meantime I'm gonna document the day to day
with the fold over at my Instagram account.
Join in over there or on Twitter.
Ask me of anything you wanna know about the galaxy fold.
And if you are gonna buy one of these,
and you miss the fun colors, as much as I, do what I do.
And dbrand it.
drand sponsored this video, and with premium vinyl skins
in so many textures and colors offered at a fair price.
dbrand is the best way to customize your galaxy fold
while also protecting it.
Hit the link in the description below.
This unboxing made possible by a galaxy fold review sample
provided by Samsung, but I don't do paid reviews.
The company provided no compensation in exchange
for producing this video, and Samsung was also not
offered copy approval.
That means they're seeing this for the first time,
right along with you.
Please subscribe to the Mr mobile on YouTube
if that's the kind of video you'd like to see more of.
Until next time, thanks for watching
and stay mobile my friends.