Samsung’s first under-display camera in a smartphone, the Galaxy Z Fold 3, is now available for purchase. It has S Pen pen compatibility and Samsung’s first under-display camera in a smartphone.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is the company’s latest flagship foldable, and while it appears identical to the previous model, it comes with a number of significant modifications, both for the better and for the bad.
The greatest change is the internal screen’s switch to an under-display selfie camera, which allows you to take selfies and video calls without a punch-hole or a notch – but it’s not completely invisible. When you add in S Pen, pen capabilities, waterproofing, and a substantial price decrease, this phone starts to seem very remarkable.
Samsung has dominated the foldable industry so far, but with growing rivalry from Huawei and now Xiaomi in China, the Korean company has a lot to prove with the Fold 3 to stay ahead of its competitors – read on to see if it succeeds.
On August 11, Samsung unveiled the Fold 3 alongside the Z Flip 3, Galaxy Buds 2, and Galaxy Watch 4 during a Galaxy Unpacked event.
Pre-orders started right away, but the Z Fold 3 is now available in most regions as of August 27.
The Galaxy S21 FE was supposed to be released at the same time, but it has been postponed; instead, it may be released alongside the Galaxy Tab S8. Of course, there’s the Galaxy S22 range to look forward to, but it won’t be till next year.
This is also the time of year when we’d anticipate the Galaxy Note 21 to be released, but Samsung has cancelled this year’s model, so we won’t see a new Note until next year.
More foldable are also on the way. Previous rumours included a more inexpensive Galaxy Z Fold FE, as well as two additional folding form factors dubbed the Z Fold S and Z Fold Scroll, but none of them is anticipated to be released until later this year, if at all.
Despite packing in a few key upgrades, Samsung has clearly strived to keep prices down for this new generation of Z Fold, in an effort to make the phone more mainstream.
That’s a £200/US$200 reduction from the £1,799/US$1,999 starting price for last year’s Z Fold 2. It’s not as sharp a price cut as Samsung managed for the new Z Flip 3, and definitely leaves this phone firmly in the ‘ultra flagship’ category, but it should still help make the new Fold more appealing.
Pre-order bonuses were also available; in the UK, anybody who pre-ordered received a free year of Samsung Care+.
If you order before September 30, you’ll get a free Samsung Galaxy Note Pack worth £79.99, which includes a Flip Case, S Pen, and 25W charger, plus an additional £250 on top of the trade-in value of a qualifying older phone – from Samsung or other stores.
Expect a big leap in innovation between the first two Fold models, but don’t expect it to happen again.
On its second-generation smartphone, Samsung improved a lot of aspects, including expanding the tiny 4.6in front screen and increasing durability – see our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold review to learn more about what we didn’t like about the original edition.
Fold 3 contains further minor design changes and adjustments, as well as a few new functions and enhancements.
Here’s one area where Samsung hasn’t rocked the boat, keeping the Z Fold 3 design essentially the same outside of its cameras.
The back camera module is now rounder, as opposed to the squared-off design seen on previous recent Samsung flagships, but the major difference is the addition of an internal under-display camera, which will be discussed later.
Aside from a little slimming of the hinge, the phone is essentially the same size as the previous iteration, although it is 11g lighter at 271g.
It also comes in new colours, including black, green, and silver, the latter of which is somewhat iridescent rather than ordinary silver.
The phone’s build quality has improved far more than its appearance. The new ‘Armour Aluminium’ frame is supposedly tougher than ever before, while Gorilla Glass Victus protects the outer display and Gorilla Glass DX coats the camera lenses.
In a first for a foldable, the phone also has an IPX8 rating. That signifies a high degree of water resistance (the ‘8’), but that Samsung has not had the phone tested for dust or sand resistance (the ‘X’).
Samsung hasn’t changed too much about the phone’s two displays – with the obvious exception of that under-display camera on the inside.
The main, folding display remains at 7.6in, while the outer display is 6.2in. Both screens are AMOLED and support 120Hz adaptive refresh rates
The core specs are also mostly as expected, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 at the core of the handset.
It’s accompanied by 12GB RAM, and either 256GB or 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage – no real change from last year.
Naturally, 5G is supported, though this year’s model has had the upgrade to dual-SIM, and still supports eSIM in addition.
Again, changes here are limited. The actual battery has had a slight reduction to 4400mAh – from 4500mAh, so it’s likely a small enough drop that it won’t seriously affect runtime.
Charging hasn’t changed at all, with 25W wired charging and the same 10W wireless charging support.
As mentioned above, perhaps the biggest change in the Z Fold 3 is the under-display camera that’s used on the folding screen.
This is meant to help with the problematic location of the inner camera, which sits in the middle of one side of the panel when the screen is fully open, making it awkwardly positioned. The aim behind this technology is that it will be less apparent than the punch-hole camera on the Z Fold 2, allowing for a seamless display.
After viewing the effect in person, it’s evident that it’s not invisible, and that it looks a lot like the blocky under-display camera seen on last year’s ZTE Axon 20 5G – and a lot more noticeable than the Xiaomi Mi Mix 4’s comparable hardware.
The main question is how well the 4MP lens shoots photographs, which is tough to judge after only snapping a few brief test selfies during my hands-on time, which I wasn’t allowed to publish here. Photos appeared to be a touch soft, but the quality was decent enough for video chats, and in principle, the more visible camera should be able to provide better photo output than Xiaomi’s stealthier version.
You also get a triple rear camera setup that’s very similar to the Fold 2, with three 12Mp lenses: an OIS-enabled main camera; an ultrawide; and a 2x zoom lens, now also bolstered by OIS.
Finally, as the Galaxy Note 21 won’t launch at all, it’s no surprise that the Fold 3 supports support Samsung’s S Pen stylus, though only on the internal folding display.
It is supported similarly to the S21 Ultra, and won’t physically slot into the phone, but will instead fit inside compatible cases for the foldable.
The Fold 3 will also only support two specific S Pens, both of which are new: the S Pen Fold Edition, and the S Pen Pro – if you try to pair another S Pen model the phone will warn you not to, and Samsung says you risk scratching the display.
Both supported S Pens feature a new retractable stylus tip that limits the amount of force applied to help protect the display from damage, which older S Pens lack.
Here are all of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 specs you need to know:
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