Hey smores, I'm Shannon Morse, welcome to Morse Code.
This is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, a $1799.99 foldable phone.
My price was $892 after trading in the Z Fold 2 and additional preorder discounts. BTW,
I also have a Samsung store coupon code for 5% off listed in the description below, just click on the
title to expand the text. It's a referral code - if you use it, let me know that it works.
I also grabbed the Galaxy Watch4, 40mm, Pink Gold, which costs $249.99
but was free with discounts and preorder bonuses. Samsung truly has some of the
BEST trade in values and bonuses for pre orders so I do try to take advantage of
those deals whenever upgrading - however, if you aren't a reviewer, keep your phone as long as the
security upgrades keep comin'. Get the best value that you can. I buy 'em so you KNOW what's on the
market when your time to upgrade comes and you can make an educated purchase, so huge thank you
for watching my videos and subscribing. It really does help keep these reviews coming. In the box
you get your phone and a charging cable and sim tool. That's it!
Since I've owned a Fold 2 for a year, this isn't my first foldable phone,
nor do I think it'll be my last. I really enjoy the productivity that can be had from a foldable
and the large display. I'm still conscious about fragility of these
devices as well as the battery - they're good but not the best I've experienced.
Lets run through some specs real quick for this cover screen
and the build then I'll hop into the unfolded features.
Hinge looks almost exactly the same. But this one does have less metal around the edges so the bezel
looks much cleaner... and the hinge doesn't tend to creak... ? I know that sounds weird,
but when opening and closing the fold 2 the hinge made a tiny creak noise,
but the new one is relatively silent. It also has a satisfying snap
close, it feels like a magnet is supporting that closure and keeping it closed.
It's got some weight to it for sure, but it's pretty sleek. Given it's so bulky,
it still doesn't fit in those clamping car mounts very well.
I'm glad it's IPX 8 water resistant so I won't worry when I'm out in the rain,
but since it's not dust resistant I won't be taking this thing on any hikes anytime soon.
The cover display is still skinny, but they've upgraded it to 120hz to
make it a little more enjoyable to use. That skinny aspect ratio does
still make the cover display pretty hard to do any kind of productivity tasks on
it, so unfolding the phone gives you the best experience. There's a screen protector
on there too Thanks Samsung! and this one can be removed if it needs to be replaced.
There's also a 10MP selfie camera on that cover screen. It's not that great in both low light and
bright lighting conditions. It oversharpens and makes my complexion look awful while a similar
photo taken on my iphone 12 looks much better side by side. I also took this video as an audio test.
By the way, if you aren't subscribed, and I know a lot of you aren't yet,
go ahead and do so. I'll make it worth your time.
Now for the unfolded main display in all it's glory!
Unfolded it's dimensions are about the same as the Fold 2. Now check out that folding display. One
of the biggest differences with this new screen is that the main display has this
funny little Under Display Camera. I'll review that more in a bit.
The crease feels about the same as the Fold 2. There's not a major difference there.
It feels like Samsung is using the same kind of screen protector on here as well
just judging by touch but it's supposed to be 80% more durable. They warn you while
you set up the phone, on the display, to not remove this foldable screen protector
of you might damage the screen. If this screen protector lasts, then I have no problem leaving
it on there. If it starts bubbling up and getting tears in it like my old one did on my Fold 2,
then I'll pull this dang thing off. That got really annoying real quick on the Fold 2.
Whether in the sunlight or inside, seeing either screen was no issue. I took it with
me on a sunny day to the Denver Botanical Garden (highly recommend that place),
and it was great the whole time.
I love using this big screen for my day to day tasks but also for entertainment.
It's a beautiful screen to look at, and movies look awesome on here.
The crease kinda blends in so you don't really notice it that much when you're watching videos.
That Under Display Camera... we need to have a talk. It looks worse than my 2014
Note 4's selfie camera. It's just grainy and muddy, there's a ton of noise going on,
and really it's not even worth it to use for anything other than maybe a video call.
I would never use this to take photos. Look if ya can't give me a good lens to take selfies with,
just don't put one in at all. I'd rather have the punch hole camera because at least it's trying.
I get what they're going for. It gives you a more cohesive
experience on the screen without a black circle sitting at the top of the screen constantly.
But it's still noticeable because the pixel density is different,
so with light colored wallpapers it looks like a weird grey circle and stands out.
The battery was also subpar. It lasted me the entire work day. The 4400 mAh battery for example
got me down to 39% after 8 hours straight of video streaming over wifi at 50% brightness. Not as good
as the 60hz pixel 5a 5g which can straight up last ya two days, but it'll get me through a
long work day with a little to spare before I gotta put it back on the charger. I also wanna
mention the Fold 2 had a better battery life and maybe that's because it's cover display was 60 hz.
Speaking of charging: you can do wireless up to 10W qi. Or Wired up to 25W with a
compatible charger. You can also reverse wireless charge at a slow 4.5W. Unlike Apple,
who limits wireless charging to 7.5 W on third party chargers, the Fold 3
will charge at 10 W wirelessly no matter what charger you put it on, as long as it's compatible,
no Samsung certified qualifications required. That's not as fast as the max wireless potential
we're see out of Qi devices these days - of 15W - but 10W is still enough for an overnight charge.
The Fold 3 includes 5G both sub 6 and mmWave. And the speeds
were excellent for download, just plain sad for upload. I tested it on Google Fi
in downtown Denver. Keep in mind, your experience may vary depending on carrier,
location, and phone. But these were the speeds I was consistently getting.
Call quality was crystal clear. I had zero issues here in Denver on Google Fi,
and my husband could hear me fine on the other end as well.
Your usual goods like WiFi, Bluetooth, and NFC are included as well as Ultra Wide Band.
It works with Samsung Pay, and you can use some cool security tools on here like Secure Folder,
which will isolate apps, photos, movies, and private files into a protected space on the phone.
You can also lock it with fingerprint on the power button as well as face recognition with the front
cameras. They work pretty well to quickly get you into you phone and I'm glad both are included. Oh,
and I'm wearing Holo Taco on my nails. TKTKTK
As with the Fold 2, the Fold 3 shines as a productivity tool. It does offer S Pen support
but you have to either have the new Fold edition S Pen, or an S Pen Pro,
both of which are additional add on products. Any other S Pen won't even work with it,
trust me, I tried. This is because pressing down too hard could damage the display.
The 12 GB RAM and the nice Snapdragon 888 processor gives it a really zippy feeling whenever
you're writing notes while also watching videos or you're playing a game while downloading some
music and maybe editing a video in adobe rush or whatever. It comes with Samsungs One UI,
built atop Android 11, standard for this year, though Android 12 beta was just released by
Google and expected to officially launch in October, I'm recording this in September.
Lastly are those rear cameras. These haven't changed from the Z Fold 2, and my general opinion
overall of the Fold lenses hasn't changed. I was hoping we'd see some cool new upgrades
going into the rear cameras but overall, I'm really not seeing any differences between last
years foldable and this years. The specs alone are exactly the same, just in a new housing.
It's covered with Gorilla Glass but since it bumps out, I'd recommend a camera protector like the one
from WhiteStone - I put one of these on an iphone i gave my bestie and it protected her lenses 100%
when she dropped her phone. The protector cracked but they come in a two pack so
she has an extra - it's way cheaper than cracking the camera lens. Also not sponsored.
Here's some photo examples: Overall, photos were very crisp and clear, and I could easily see
all the details. Even my low light photos and portraits gave me some really quality shots,
so I'm happy with what I'm seeing here. In bright light, I noticed the white clouds are still too
bright and overexposed. I would take two shots immediately one after another and notice a stark
difference in the HDR and exposure, especially in the sky. Reds and purples were highly saturated,
sometimes too much. It took great photos in brightly lit conditions like at this
botanical garden. I was impressed that it was able to capture this hummingbird while it was
flying around. The 10x digital zoom is the max it can do. It's cool but still noisy, so
no quality difference there from what I've seen from Samsung so
far in the fold lineup. Night mode shots were pretty good but could've been better.
I consistently had some blurry shots as it seemed the shutter speed was kinda slow. In
shots where there weren't any moving targets, it did a good job of keeping things crisp and clear.
My UltraWide zoomed out shots (at 0.5x zoom) were good quality as well.
Videos were fun to take. I love this slow motion vid I captured of that hummingbird,
it did a great job with that one.
You can do HDR10+ recording and up to 4K UHD videos at 30 or 60 fps. I tend to stick to 30,
but it didn't overheat at 60 fps either. All of the software features, like the new Director's
View I reviewed in detail in my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra video, are also available in this phone.
And here's a file testing the audio and video quality.
So. After playing with the Z Fold 3 for a month, I'm not as excited about this
upgrade from the Z Fold 2 to 3 as I was hoping I'd be. A lot of the experience
stayed the same, but the build form factor and the productivity power have definitely
improved. I'm disappointed in the battery life and the cameras, especially that under display one,
so I'm hoping next year's model is better in terms of those specs.
If you've never had a foldable but you want to experience one,
and don't really wanna pay $1800 for one and you don't have a trade in to lower that cost,
you may want to consider the Z Flip 3 instead. I have a review video for that one too on my
channel or posting soon if it's not already there. But if you want the power of a tablet
in the size of a bulky phone, then the Z Fold 3 could be a good option for you.
Have you taken the plunge for a foldable phone? I'm really curious if this is gonna be the one
that people want or it's still just too expensive. Let me know in the comments.
In the meantime, shoutout to all of my supporters on Patreon like Sabasigh who just joined
and my Buy me a coffee friends including Forrest, Mak attak, and em1davis! and to the folks that
buy my merch - that all helps keep these videos coming so you can be a smarter, savvy shopper.
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Keep an eye on my channel for my studio build videos coming out each week.
Now that the studio is done, you'll be seeing a lot more videos on this channel.
Thanks again to my smores for subscribing and watching. I'm
Shannon Morse and I'll see ya soon. Bye yall!