The Samsung Galaxy Fold 3. Here we are yet again with Samsung's Flagship folding phone. Samsung
says they've upgraded several things, like the internal screen durability, and something called
armor aluminum. But even without opening the box, the biggest improvement I see is the
packaging. Huge props to Samsung for ditching the plastic. Plastic packaging is usually not
recyclable and takes about 450 years to decompose in a landfill which is crazy. Your plastic bubble
wrap or packing material will be around for the next 25 generations. Your 20th great grandchild
will still be able to find everything plastic that you've thrown away still chilling in the dirt,
which is pretty gross. Sustainably sourced paper, on the other hand, can be recycled 6
times and decomposes in just 2-6 weeks. And more trees get planted to make it. Huge win
for everyone including the planet. Thumbs up to Samsung for making the switch. Let's get started.
[Intro]
This new Galaxy Fold 3 starts at $1800. Pretty expensive for a phone,
but this phone is rather unique. Inside the box we get a USB-C cable but no charging brick.
But that's fine, most people already have one. And Anker makes faster chargers and
longer cables anyway. I'll leave a link for my channel's sponsor Anker down in the description.
There are magnets inside the Galaxy Fold 3. It's kind of towing my lighter across the table.
But you didn't come here for the magnetic attraction, you're here for the Mohs action.
And it looks like again this year we might see some carnage. The warning list turning
on the phone is still a mile long, including no touching the display with a fingernail,
only using the specially built S Pen Fold edition. And, you know, dust might cause damage. All while
not removing any screen protectors. Samsung makes it seem like this Fold 3 needs to be
handled with white gloves and a clean room, but we'll see how true all that is. The Fold 3 is
very similar in appearance to the Fold 2 and Fold 1, with a small gap between the folded screens,
and a wedge shape when closed. I imagine the gap helps keep the screen from creasing too tight
and to help keep the two screens from rubbing up against each other when it's closed.
Let's start the scratch test. The Fold 3 has two screens. The exterior front facing screen
does come with a removable screen protector. At least I hope this one comes off.
The Mohs scale of hardness helps us differentiate between different materials,
like plastic which scratches at a level 2 or 3. Glass, which scratches at 5 or 6.
And sapphire which scratches at a level 8 or 9. Samsung says they're using Gorilla Glass
Victus on both the front and back of the Fold 3,
and that matches up perfectly with our scratches at level 6, with deeper grooves at a level 7.
The same slab of Victus glass is up protecting the 10 megapixel camera. It's as scratch resistant as
the rest of the front screen. Opening the phone while the camera is on transitions us to the
much larger screen in the center, along with the hidden underscreen camera up on the top right.
We've seen underscreen cameras before with the Axon 20 and the Axon 30. And it looks
like Samsung also has that super low resolution pixel grouping above the camera that we saw on
the First Generation Axon 20. They're about a year behind. The pixels turn off when the front facing
camera's activated. Then the pixels turn back on when the front camera is off. And honestly it's
not that bad. The halo around my studio light is minimal. The camera itself was only 4 megapixels,
but since there are literally 4 other nicer cameras to choose from on this same device,
it's really not that big of a deal. And it's pretty cool that Samsung's trying something new.
I'm all for it. Samsung has said that with this Fold 3, their middle screen is 80% more
durable than last year's, which would be pretty impressive. The Mohs scale of hardness isn't
the best scale to use on different levels of plastic. No matter what plastic it is it will
all fall between level 2 or 3. We would need something like a shore durometer to fine tune
that scale and see if the hardness levels improve between generations. Because as of right now,
we're still getting scratches at a level 2, with deeper grooves at a level 3. And
once again my fingernail is still able to leave very noticeable marks on the surface.
The display underneath the plastic might be 80% more durable,
but it's still very soft on the surface which is just something to keep in mind. The more we know
what to avoid, the longer the phone will last and stay in good shape during it's lifespan.
The front camera is also tucked underneath this soft plastic layer and could get scratched - all
4 megapixels of it. Samsung has created a special fold edition S Pen stylus for this Fold 3,
with a special spring loaded tip to help relieve the pressure on the surface of the screen.
It's a pretty strong spring inside. Pressing the tip of the stylus onto the screen,
it does leave a slight indentation onto the plastic. I'm only pressing about 50%
of the spring's capacity, it's not fully locked out. And even at 50%,
this is probably pressing harder than most people would ever be drawing with the S Pen.
Wiping off the display it's pretty impossible to re-find the marks I was making.
So I would say that the S Pen is indeed safe to use on the screen. S Pen yes, fingernails no.
Inside of the S Pen are some interesting things.
We have the lower half of the Pen with it's removable and replaceable tip,
along with a coil of copper wires that let the digitizers under the folding display
sense where the S Pen is at, even while it's hovering above the surface of the screen.
The top half of the Pen is where we find the spring, along with a pretty beady magnet.
Another thing Samsung talked about in their launch event was the armor aluminum. And I'm
not sure what aspects of the aluminum are armored though since it appears to scratch about the same
as most other aluminum phones out there. The power button doubles as a fingerprint scanner.
And the volume rocker is made from metal. The oval of plastic up here
is probably for the 5G antenna, but we'll have to check that during the teardown.
Folding the phone shut we can scratch both top halves of the phone at the same time. We have
a few microphones and a loudspeaker up here. We get some more aluminum on the hinge of the phone,
along with some inlaid Samsung lettering – the same as last year.
You can be loud if you really want to but it probably won't ever fall out on its own.
Down at the bottom of the phone we get our USB-C port and the second stereo loudspeaker.
And over here on the last of the 6 sides we haven't tested yet,
we have the SIM card tray which has room for one SIM card, and no expandable memory.
All of these things we've kind of come to expect from the Galaxy Fold series of phones. One thing
I did not see coming this year though was water resistance. This guy is ipx8. The x means it's not
dust proof which is why I currently have a lot of dust in my hand. You might be asking, “Hey Jerry,
how can a phone be water resistant but not dust resistant?” Well rumor is that Samsung has coated
the internal circuits with an oleophobic coating. The coating can repel water without having to be
watertight. Pretty cool technology since it would probably be pretty difficult to plug up all the
gaps and holes on a folding phone which has all those gears inside the spine. We'll have to check
out the oleophobic coating during the teardown. With rocks, dirt, and dust spilling out of both
ends, I think it's pretty safe to say that this is reasonably the most dirt the folding phone could
ever anticipate in real life. We'll open and close it a few more times all for good measure.
Surprisingly though the hinge is still as silent as the day it was made. No rocks, dust,
or dirt is captured inside. Not sure if Samsung is still doing that internal bristle thing or not,
it's another thing we'll have to check during the tear down. But so far the dust resistance
is pretty impressive. I wouldn't take it to the beach or job site of course,
but it's nice to know that it's not going to fall apart with the first speck of dust it encounters.
The back glass is textured Gorilla Glass Victus. And for the rear camera units we
have a 12 megapixel telephoto, 12 megapixel main sensor, and 12 megapixel ultrawide.
Easy to remember when they're all the same and all protected by glass.
Making our way around to the front screen, we see it's a 6.2 inch dynamic AMOLED 2X,
with a 120 hertz refresh rate. After about 14 seconds the screen does go black and the pixels
kind of glow a dark red. Interesting. Let's see if the same thing happens on the middle screen.
The middle screen is the same dynamic AMOLED, but includes some folding action. This guy is a square
7.6 inches and has the same 120 hertz refresh rate. Oddly enough though, it lasts about twice
as long on the burn test, with even less damage. The pixels only stayed a burned white color like
we normally see on AMOLED displays. And even the plastic surface didn't suffer much damage, even
after 30 seconds of fire. Not, you know, super relevant to everyday use, but still interesting.
The fingerprint scanner is over here on the side of the phone. It's a capacitive
sensor built right into the power button, which is where, personally,
I think they should all be. Not a huge fan of the underscreen scanners myself.
And after setting my thumbprint, and adding some hard core scratches to the side of the scanner,
we can test it with everything appearing to work just like normal. Not too shabby.
Finally, the bend test. The first Galaxy Fold did not survive my durability test,
but not because it physically snapped in half. The screen got poked, then it died.
The second Galaxy Fold did survive all this abuse, and now it's time for the Galaxy Fold 3.
It still has a very quiet hinge. And when folded shut there is no budge from the front or back.
No surprise. We would expect that sturdiness from a folded phone and massive spine.
But what about when the phone is opened and folded backwards? Even though this Fold 3 is
thinner than last year's Fold 2, we still have no catastrophic damage while bending from the back.
There was a slight complaint, which made me nervous, but still no damage to the screen,
even after attempting it again. The Galaxy Fold 3, surprisingly, survives my durability test.
The soft inner display may not be the 80% harder surface that we were looking for,
but the phone as a whole is for sure 80% stronger than it appears on paper.
Nice work, Samsung. It would be interesting to get inside and see that oleophobic motherboard
during the teardown. Speaking of which, if you want a sneak peek, there's always my Teardown
Skin from dbrand showing off the inside of the phone from the outside without ever
needing to take it apart. Doesn't get much cooler than that. I'll leave a link down in
the description so you can grab a Skin for your own phone. And let me know down in the comments,
at what price point, if any, would you buy a folding phone? I'm curious.
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And thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.