- I've been patiently waiting
for Samsung to send over a Galaxy Z Fold2.
And I'm still waiting
for Samsung to send a Galaxy Z Fold2, but that's okay,
cause our bros over at dbrand sent one over
and I am extremely excited to check this thing out.
I was a big fan
of the original Fold
with my main three complaints being
one, that the hinge did not hold up for me.
So I opened mine up
and I don't know if you can tell very easily
but it's really noticeable in the hand.
That's not quite 180 degrees open.
You've gotta, I have to kind of like over crank it
in order to get it flat every time I opened the device.
Number two, the YouTube Stories feature
in the YouTube app that rolls to this phone
doesn't work for whatever reason.
I can't upload stories
which, as a YouTuber, is sort of a problem for me.
And number three,
the maximum screen brightness is just not enough.
dbrand sent this,
which should be fairly obv-
(clunking)
should be fairly obvious
from the skin on the back of the phone.
You know, dbrand, you guys are going to have trouble
as phones become more and more screen.
I couldn't help noticing you guys have less
and less skin to apply.
But, hey, at least
if your business is going to disappear
at least you guys are having fun over there
putting them meme faces on them phones.
You can check them out dbrand.com.
I actually forgotten how much of a problem that was
on the original fold and it doesn't entirely fix it
because most of what they've added is in the chin
and the forehead here.
But the bezels are smaller, even if this is kind of hidden.
Yeah, you can see they're still pretty sizeable
but they're quite a bit smaller, which means
that you're not feeling quite as cramped.
At least you're able to have, you know,
four home screen icons abreast here.
That's a pretty big difference maker.
Whoa, woh-oh-oh, that hinge.
(clicking)
That is next generation.
Oh, I am extremely pleased with that.
Now in defense of the original Fold,
mine's a little worn out.
This has been fairly heavily used,
but you see that, that kind of that crack
and how wobbly that is.
You see that?
Here's the Z Fold2.
Quite stiff.
It actually feels like it,
like a tablet in the hand.
That is a night and day difference.
The other immediately noticeable external difference is
that gone is the separate lock
and fingerprint sensor button.
So just like on one of the old Xperias
from back in the day,
they've combined the fingerprint sensor
and the lock button.
Let's have a look at what the performance is like.
So, (laughing).
Oh, Samsung.
As much as I love the idea
of under screen fingerprint sensors,
your ultrasonic ones just are not as fast
as your less ultrasonic ones.
That's really responsive.
It feels good.
It feels really good.
One 20 Hertz display, baby.
Love that OLED.
Sorry, sorry.
It got, uh, after the setup process
when you migrate all your text messages and contacts
and apps and all that stuff,
it gives you a little summary that says,
"Hey, here's some things we couldn't do.
"You need to go manually back up your WhatsApp
"and transfer that over."
I thought that was really cool.
Not because like I would forget to do that
but if it was my in-laws,
it'd be nice to have like a little summary like that
of all the maintenance tasks you still need to complete.
I want to compare the maximum screen brightness here
because daytime readability
was a significant problem for me.
That is quite a lot brighter.
Okay, well this is good.
Oh, wait, I want this blue light filter on.
Here you go.
Well, there's your problem there,
but in terms of brightness, that is definitely brighter.
And one of the things that bothered me
about the old Fold, only sometimes though,
was that if you looked at it directly,
you couldn't see the crease,
but if you went off axis.
You see that?
You can really see it.
(clunking)
So I want to compare that effect on the new one.
Oh, it's still there.
It's still there.
Turns out you can't put a big crease
down the middle of your display and not be able to see it.
You see that?
It is better.
It's definitely better
but it's also definitely still there.
The good news is that
that is an absolute worst case scenario for it,
and in something like video content,
you are much, much less likely to notice it.
- You're programmed to let people with legal copies
of Windows Seven or Eight, upgrade to Windows 10 for free.
Many users have reported the free upgrades don't work.
Don't pay for a key.
The OS will still work just fine.
- Man, this is a lot of screen real estate.
So speakers, I would describe as, okay.
I mean, really, I don't know
if there's much they can do about that.
This is an extremely slim device
and at least they're providing stereo speakers
which I love the configuration because you can hold it
on the bottom like this and the speakers are here and here.
So they're never going to be obstructed.
You are basically watching a video
at the same size as your old iPhone Four.
You've got your video description
or if the app was better optimized,
you know, maybe your comments or something down here.
Now that's curious
my old Fold doesn't actually have
that same tablet-y layout when I'm not in full screen.
So that's pretty cool.
What I had really wanted to show you guys though
was the gigantic notch.
I just wish Samsung had done away with it entirely
but this is way better and way less distracting than this.
Let's see if I'm able to upload a story.
See look at that.
They're determined for me to not daily drive this device
as far as I can tell.
No posts, no stories.
All right.
Most of what Andy's telling me
he wants to know about this is more
like review territory, you know, battery life,
can you daily drive the outside screen?
I personally found that with my small hands, small fingers
I was able to do it on the old one.
So I'm actually expecting this to be a way better experience
but there is something that I want
to touch on here on Short Circuit
before we do the LTT video.
Okay, let's talk about the screen protector.
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I didn't realize how much wider it was.
Like it felt, it felt really big in my hands
and heavy and stuff,
but it is way wider than the original Fold.
So anyway, with the original Fold, there was a big hubbub
around the supposed pre-installed screen protector
that as it turned out was actually just part of the screen.
People remove them.
It caused a big, big problem, but with the Z Fold2
there actually is an included screen protector.
And I gotta say
just from the very short amount of time that I've spent
with it so far, I really don't like it.
Now, Samsung apparently has a procedure
where they will they will replace it for you once.
But I think the recommendation is to keep it on.
The problem is that the feel of the screen
as I'm swiping is really sticky.
And initially I thought
well, maybe it's just because my fingers are greasy
but it's, there's a lot of resistance there.
Like that's the one thing going from gen one
to gen two that is immediately noticeably better
about the original,
is that it doesn't have that screen protector on it.
So it seems both the front one
and the inside one are removable.
I just, the problem though
is that, guys, this is not gorilla glass on the inside.
So you can't just, you know,
scratch your keys on it and hope for the best.
Like this thing will freaking scratch
if you remove that screen protector.
(exhales)
It feels not very good though
to be honest with you, especially for like,
what is this $2,000 or something you asked
for this thing?
Like $1,800 or something like that.
You know what I think the
optimal selfie camera configuration would be for this thing.
It's actually no selfie camera.
Like, why don't you just hold it like this
and just see yourself in the preview up here
and just take your picture with your rear shooter?
Like the more you can use your best lens
on the device, the better, in my opinion.
Although if they do have to have a selfie camera here,
I'm relatively okay with that.
I just wish that there wasn't one.
Oh, so you got Chrome.
Chrome hides it.
But let's find, let's find something that doesn't hide it.
Yeah. Yuck.
Man, it is such a different experience.
I don't even have to like click a picture
just like, awesome.
Yeah, the camera bumps higher than last time, Andy,
but I don't know.
I mean, maybe the rear camera is also better than last time.
I haven't obviously spent any time with it yet,
but so far on paper,
I'm really excited to check this thing out though.
It addresses my biggest complaints
about the original Galaxy Fold
and it even just, it just feels better.
Like listen, listen to the sound.
(clicking)
Whereas listen to this one.
(clicking)
Okay, that doesn't sound much better.
Nevermind.
(laughing) Well, it felt better.
I'm going to give it a shot though.
I'm going to daily drive this at least two weeks
before I write my review
and then I'll either be switching to it.
Finally.
Finally something (thumping)
that could be an upgrade
for me from my Note9
or I'll just go back to the Note9.
That's it for now, make sure you're subscribed.