Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

In August, China ushered in a new wave of folding screen phones. Samsung, the pioneer of folding screen phones, released two different folding forms of Galaxy Z Fold4 and Galaxy Z Flip4 this month. Among them, the price of Galaxy Z Fold4 starts at 12999 yuan and is now officially available for pre-sale.

The first generation of Galaxy Fold was launched in 2019, and now that the Galaxy Z Fold4 has grown to its fourth generation, how does it perform after four generations of products that are typical of horizontal folding phones? CTOnews.com had an in-depth experience of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 at the first time. Without saying much, let's move on to the evaluation link.

The appearance of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 does not change much compared with the previous generation of products, and it is more based on the details of the experience, such as the further reduction of the size of the fuselage, such as the finer hinge design, and the increase in the width of the outer screen, and so on.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 continues the design language of the previous generation. The long camera module is located on the left side of the fuselage, the rest is left blank, the arc of the edge of the foggy glass back shell is so narrow that it is almost negligible, and the whole back is completely flat.

The middle frame also uses a flat design, but the edge part actually has a circular arc, which avoids the cutting feel brought by the right-angled frame; in the folding state, from the back point of view, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 shape has a bit more hard sense, capable, concise design style I believe will be liked by many people.

In terms of weight and size, the BWH is 67.1 x 155.1 x 15.8mm (hinge)-14.2mm (side thinnest) when Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 is folded. In the expanded state, the BWH is 130.1 x 155.1 x 6.3mm respectively.

Compared with the previous generation, the Galaxy Z Fold4 weighs only 263g because of its lighter hinges, which is 8g lighter than the previous generation and the same weight as the lightweight millet MIX FOLD2. 263g, in fact, is about the weight of an iPhone Pro Max with a mobile phone case, so in terms of experience, it is basically close to the weight of a traditional straight-board machine.

Let's take a look at the details.

On the right side of the frame is the fingerprint identification area, the volume button is slightly above, and the bottom is the charging port; the other half of the fuselage, the upper and lower parts are huge loudspeaker holes; the SIM card is located in the upper area of the left middle frame; the hinge part is printed with Samsung Logo;. It is worth mentioning that the antenna breakpoints on the frame in the phone are symmetrical.

Compared with the previous generation, the most obvious change of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 is the adjustment of the aspect ratio of the outer screen, which has been adjusted from 24.5 to 23.1. Compared with the previous generation, the width of the outer screen has been increased by 2.7mm while keeping the size of the outer screen 6.2in. As a result, the outer screen of the Z Fold3,Z Fold4 looks wider and less like a "remote control". The increased width of the outer screen also makes the outer screen have a very high availability, including watching Douyin and chatting on Wechat, the experience is basically close to the traditional straight-screen machine.

In terms of screen parameters, in the expanded state, the inner screen is 7.6inch, 21.6 AMOLED,2176 18 display ratio, the second generation dynamic AMOLED,2176 x 1812 resolution, support 120Hz adaptive refresh rate; the outer screen is also the second generation dynamic AMOLED screen, 6.2inch, 2316 x 904resolution, support 120Hz adaptive refresh rate.

In terms of experience, this is still the top folding screen right now, the best folding screen you can buy for a phone. On the other hand, the display effect of the internal and external screens is exactly the same, and there is no sense of fragmentation caused by the difference in screen quality.

It is worth mentioning that, according to CTOnews.com 's earlier report, this time Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 made a big move on the screen-using Eco ²OLED Plus and UPC Plus technology for the first time. According to reports, Eco ²OLED Plus uses a new color film material, screen light transmittance as high as 68%, and compared with the general OLED, panel power consumption is reduced by 37%, light transmittance is increased by 1.6 times, and compared with last year's Eco ²OLED, Eco ²OLED Plus mainly improved non-polarization low-power technology.

In addition, Z Fold3 and the newly released Xiaomi MIX FOLD2 use Eco ²OLED technology.

UPC Plus, on the other hand, is an innovative technology that eliminates the camera hole in the monitor, and its perceptual resolution is 1.4 times higher than the previous Z Fold 3.

Confusingly, compared with these two aggressive new technologies, Samsung seems to be much weaker in publicity, not even mentioned in the introduction page of Galaxy Z Fold4. This may be. A big factory. The confidence of the big factory.

After talking about the screen, let's talk about the hinges and creases that we are more concerned about.

Because Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 does not use the usual droplet hinge, but still has a traditional U-shaped hinge, the two screens cannot fully fit when folded, and the huge gap left by the screen is slightly cheaper. The asymmetrical fuselage in the folded state may even give you a product that does not seem to sell for more than 10,000 yuan.

And back to creases.

Compared with the water drop hinge, the crease problem is indeed the disadvantage of the U-shaped hinge, the former is similar to the crease area for the depth, while the latter is the crease depth for the area. So, as far as Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 is concerned, the crease problem exists. For example, after a few rays of light on the mobile phone screen, you can see the crease, which is particularly obvious under the flameout screen. For example, if you swipe your fingers across the screen, you will feel deeper creases.

For example, in the following two sets of comparative GIF pictures, the creases of Xiaomi MIX Fold2 and vivo X Fold phones with water drop hinges are not particularly obvious in light, but Samsung's creases seem to exist all the time.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4, vivo X Fold, Xiaomi MIX Fold2 (left to right)

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 (bottom), vivo X Fold (left), Xiaomi MIX Fold2 (top)

Admittedly, Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold4 has relatively obvious creases compared with recent hot folding screen phones, and screens that have never been able to merge are a little cheaper.

To take an inappropriate example, vivo, OPPO and other folding screen creases, like a pretty girl, a small mole on her face, exists, but does not affect the girl's original temperament; for Samsung creases, it is equivalent to this mole growing in the middle of the forehead, it almost always tells you-"Isimm here, man", in the critical moment, always let you have a "awe" heart.

However, there is no reason to deny Samsung's other leading edge in hinge technology because of the crease problem-for example, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 is IPX8 waterproof and waterproof for a folding screen phone with a mechanical structure, which is impossible without strong manufacturing support.

Second, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 hinges, and even like a notebook, in different folding angles under arbitrary hover, some folding screen products, some hover angle is relatively loose, it is easy to "bounce" back, but Samsung does not have this problem, even, different hover angles, the sense of damping is the same, tough, and not loose, this is really powerful.

With its powerful hinge technology, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 can really be like a laptop, with half the screen for displaying content and the other half for operation.

Of course, this innovation in the vertical interaction mode is inseparable from Samsung's optimization and update of the system, which is also the author's favorite point when using Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 as the main computer. Let's move on to the system interaction, specifically.

System Interactive Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 is the first device to be equipped with Android 12L, a special version of Android created by Google for large-screen experiences, including collapsible devices.

Bank of China version of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4, loaded with One UI 4.1.1 version, this version for system fluency, and adapt to optimize a large number of application animation, the vast majority of App, open with the "ramen" animation visual effects, such as using the outer screen to open an App, the App will slowly enlarge in the way of the outer screen scale, until covered with the entire screen. The optimization of these details makes the whole experience of the phone very lubricated, like butter.

Of course, the most obvious change in One UI 4.1.1 is that there is a brand new taskbar at the bottom. When the screen expands, similar to Apple Mac's Dock bar layout, you can fix your commonly used App at the bottom of the screen. When you open an application full screen, these commonly used App and three keys as well as a collection of applications will be scaled down and fixed at the bottom of the screen in the way of the taskbar. Click an App. The application switching can be completed, and the multitasking is more intuitive.

For large-screen devices, the operation logic of clicking on which to open is very close to the experience of PC.

The split-screen experience that One UI 4.1.1 brings to Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 is excellent.

First of all, in the method of operation, in the full-screen state of an App, drag the App of the taskbar to any area of the screen to complete the split screen in that area.

As shown in the following figure, drag and drop to the bottom of the screen to split the application up and down:

For example, drag and drop to the central area on the right side of the screen, you can complete the left and right application split screen; you can even achieve a three-split screen on this screen, for example, when the application is split, drag another App to which side, that is, 1/4 split screen this time.

In other words, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 can open up to three applications, allowing three applications to be launched on the screen at the same time.

In addition, when the split screen is switched back to the background at this time, the split state of the application will not be destroyed, and the previous split state will be maintained when it is opened again.

As far as the actual experience of CTOnews.com is concerned, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4's split screen optimization is particularly excellent, basically achieving the adaptation of all App, including CTOnews.com 's best buyers, cloud calendars, and even some fairly niche software that has not been updated for a long time, and can easily do up and down, left and right, and 1/4 split screens, and there will be no problems such as screen segmentation caused by split screens, which is quite a bonus to the experience.

Of course, with regard to the split screen method, in addition to the bottom drag App described above, there is a more simple and rough way. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 provides a double finger side slide way to split the screen. For example, in the full-screen state of the application, the split screen of the corresponding position of the App can be realized by sliding the two fingers inward from either side of the left, lower or right side.

In addition, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 also provides a sidebar, which can be exhaled by side sliding. Click the corresponding App to display the full screen, and drag the App to the corresponding position on the screen to achieve split screen or small window display.

There is also a simple and rude way to open the App window. In the full-screen state of App, drag from the upper left corner and the upper right corner of the screen to the screen, and a virtual box will appear. Drag to the location, that is, to display the small window with the size of that position.

In the small window state of App, the maximize, minimize, and close buttons appear in the upper right corner. Similarly, when you click the status bar above the split application in the split state, you can also exhale the maximize, minimize and close buttons, and click to perform the corresponding operation. Obviously, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 is very close to the PC experience when it comes to large screen interaction.

In addition to split screens and small windows, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 also supports applications to display left and right on the screen at the same time. Samsung calls it a "split view", which is similar to Huawei's "parallel horizon", such as Dianping, Nail, pinduoduo, Taobao, Weibo, QQ, Zhihu and other commonly used App have been adapted.

Taobao split-screen view

Meituan split-screen view

However, in terms of experience, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4's "split view" has room for further optimization, such as opening Taobao, which is displayed in full screen and clicking on the secondary page, which will be displayed on the right screen, but occasionally the screen will be obscured.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 also leaves a killer feature on the large screen interaction-stereoscopic interaction mode, that is, Samsung's hover function.

Samsung provides a stereoscopic interactive mode switch for almost all apps, and when the phone is half-folded, the app will display on the top half of the phone, while the lower half of the screen provides a touch panel for operation.

For example, when you open a video App, the top half of the screen is used for content display, the bottom half shows a trackpad, including screenshots, brightness settings, volume settings and other buttons, and even a trackpad button is provided on the far right. After clicking, you can exhale the trackpad, and there will even be a small mouse, and you can use the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 like a laptop.

Although this virtual touchpad may seem like a chicken rib, or there are not many application scenarios, the operation of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 also gives a folding screen phone boundless imagination-for example, if you OTA a virtual keyboard, this is a laptop.

What's more, in hover mode, you can also split the screen. For example, the upper part is used for content display, and the lower part opens a note-taking App, or Wechat, etc., while watching videos while using it for other purposes, which can be said to make full use of the advantages of this big screen.

On One UI 4.1.1, Samsung provides a lab function, located in the setup-advanced features, including the three-dimensional interaction, split-screen view and other functions introduced above are all in this lab. Click on the corresponding functions and there will be corresponding introductions and diagrams. For ordinary consumers, there will be a short learning cost in the early stage, but it is not too difficult to get started. Once you are familiar with the large-screen interactive system of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4, it is really "hard to use".

In fact, the author in the use of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 during this period of time, also experienced a "turning point" process, at the beginning, when using the Galaxy Z Fold4, the rounded corner design icon, the traditional three diamond keys, as well as the complex setting interface, always remind the author of the sour and cool when I used HTC, and there is some resistance in my heart. However, when familiar with this set of large-screen interaction, immediately "really fragrant" up, whether it is animation effects, or split-screen application adaptation, we can see that Samsung is really careful, and, this is very close to PC large-screen interaction, is very worthy of competitors to learn and learn from.

In terms of performance experience configuration, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 is equipped with 4nm's Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 + Gen 1 chipset, supplemented by 12GB's RAM and 1TB internal storage (maximum), built-in 4400mAh battery, and supports 25W fast charging + 15W wireless charging. And support Wi-Fi 6 Magi USB 3.0, Bluetooth 5.2 Magi AKG Shuangyang, NFC,S-Pen, double nano-SIM and so on.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 comes standard with 12GB storage. The following CTOnews.com gets the 12+512GB version mainly to see the performance of the new Galaxy flagship.

Note: running scores and game tests are all tested on the big screen.

As shown in the figure below, the comprehensive score of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 Rabbit has reached 1048688, which belongs to the normal level of Snapdragon 8 +.

In the flash performance test, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 has a write speed of 1969MB/s and a read speed of 1863MB.

3D Mark, which focuses more on the theoretical performance of GPU, has a total score of 10559 for Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 in the Wild Life test project, with an average frame rate of 63.20fps, still at ceiling level:

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 achieved 66.2% stability in 3DMark's Wild Life Stress Test project, and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 is slightly "conservative" compared to its aggressive performance-tuning competitors.

GeekBench5 running score, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 single core is 1289 points, multi-core reached 4062 points, Snapdragon 8 + normal performance level.

(the performance training of different models is different, the above running points are for reference only.)

In terms of running points, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4's performance adjustment for Snapdragon 8 + should be slightly conservative, and it may pay more attention to the temperature control of the fuselage in extreme scenarios. Of course, the overall performance release is also at a very high level in theory.

In terms of actual combat, CTOnews.com tested Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 with the original God game.

It is still the same old rule, it is still the highest picture quality "original god" for 30 minutes, the test environment is an indoor air-conditioned room of about 25 °C, the game test scene is the outdoor running map + fighting monster, and the battle scene accounts for about 40% of the total game time.

(the picture quality of the original god is set as above)

As shown in the following figure, the average frame rate of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 reaches 54.36fps, with a maximum value of 61fps and a minimum value of 19fps:

(Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 original 30-minute frame rate 54.36fps)

In the course of the game, there is no lock screen drop in the whole process, but in the battle scene, the frame rate will fluctuate between 40-55fps, slightly visible to the naked eye, but not much. The frame rate throughout the game is basically maintained above 45fps, and the overall game performance is OK.

Let's take a look at the power performance. In the "original God" game, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 reached 4.751W, which is very low among a group of Snapdragon 8 + flagship models. After all, the average frame rate of the original god is also slightly lower than 3fps. Thus, in some high-intensity game environments, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 performance release tends to be conservative, paying more attention to power consumption, temperature and other aspects of performance.

(Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 original power consumption)

In terms of temperature, the measured maximum temperature of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 is only 42.5 °C, which is located in the back camera area. This temperature control performance is already quite excellent. After all, the larger fuselage and heat dissipation area are obviously more dominant in high-intensity game scenes.

Overall, the overall performance of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 is online, although the performance release is not particularly wild, but after all, it is also 12GB large memory and Snapdragon 8mm, the so-called skinny camel is bigger than a horse, whether it is high-intensity games or daily use, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 performance is not a problem.

In terms of battery life, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 carries a 4400mAh battery. In my actual experience, I went out at 8: 00 in the morning and 6: 00 the next morning, when the battery left 9%. In this process, the screen is lit for 5 hours and turned off for 17 hours. The screen time, including no less than 30 minutes of photos, short videos, games and running test, as well as nearly 60 minutes of navigation, belongs to the level of medium and high intensity. As far as the author's personal experience is concerned, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4's battery life performance is still quite good, after all, the basic full use of the inner screen, can meet the one-day battery life requirements of ordinary users.

The image shows that Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 has five cameras, including a 1000-megapixel selfie on the outer screen, a 4-megapixel off-screen camera on the inner screen, and three rear cameras:

1200 megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens

F2.2, pixel size: 1.12 μ m, FOV: 123mm

5000 megapixel wide-angle lens

Full-pixel dual-core focus, optical anti-shake, F1.8, pixel size: 1.0 μ m, FOV: 85 "

1000 megapixel telephoto lens

PDAF Phase focus, F2.4, Optical Anti-shake, Pixel size: 1.0 μ m, FOV: 36 "

Among them, the telephoto lens supports 30x spatial zoom, including 3x optical zoom.

Let's take a look at this inner-screen camera. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 has a higher resolution of the camera area under the screen than its predecessor, so visually, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4's "screen" effect is much lower. In most scenarios, the existence of this camera can be ignored.

Let's take a look at the selfie effect of this off-screen camera, as shown in the following picture, the left sample is taken by the off-screen camera, and the right sample is taken in front of the outer screen. From the first look and feel, the color of the outer screen is more natural, while the inner screen is obviously redder, such as the beauty effect of some earlier mobile phones, and the smear marks are more serious.

Front shooting on inner screen and front shooting on outer screen

If we zoom in, compared with the 10 million front camera, the 4 megapixel off-screen camera also has the disadvantage of insufficient resolution, such as the collar in the image below, which has lost almost all the details.

Front shooting on inner screen and front shooting on outer screen

But that's not a problem, because after all, the camera sacrificed picture quality for a more complete screen display, and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 has two front screens, and the inner screen is good enough for daily video calls, meetings and other scenes.

After talking about these two front lenses, let's take a look at the post-image experience of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4.

First, put up a sample sheet and let's have a feel:

Main photographer

Ultra-wide angle

Ultra wide angle, backlight

Main photo, backlight

3X long focus

Main photo, night view

3X long focus

From a hardware point of view, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 is basically a continuation of the three shots on S22 +, but the color style is not quite the same.

For example, in a well-lit environment, the straight-out photos of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 are very bright and look beautiful. The beautiful range here includes transparent, bright, lively colors and texture, and this seemingly bright color orientation is not a "saturation warrior" style. If you try too hard, you will feel that the picture is not very clean. And Samsung has a degree of relaxation in the control of color, which is very consistent with everyone's "memory color", so the overall viewing degree is also very high.

Secondly, whether it is ultra-wide angle or main camera, telephoto, all show a basically consistent color performance.

Another point that I remember deeply is that Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 has extremely exaggerated HDR performance, such as the above several groups of backlight samples, the sun's strong light stubbornly hold down, still retain the details of the clouds in the sky outside the strong light, while the dark details such as distant leaves are also preserved. Even, this super HDR performance is not exclusive to the subject, and the ultra-wide angle also has a similar performance. Of course, the disadvantage of this kind of violent HDR is that in some scenes, objects outside the bright light will be surrounded by a small halo, which is not so natural.

In the night environment, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4's straight-out performance is equally excellent, the look and feel is also clean and transparent, the highlight control is OK, and there is very little noise in the sky. However, in some darker environments, it will automatically turn on the night mode, with a long exposure of about 2-3 seconds, which is a bit like iPhone's "3-second night scene". When the light is not enough, you immediately call "night scene". At this time, you can't shake your hands, and the photos will all burn, so it's obviously not suitable for snapping scenes. If you can compress the long exposure time a little bit, the experience will be better.

Of course, if you don't like this automatic night view, you can go to the camera settings and turn off the scene optimizer. Another point to note is that Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4's ultra-wide angle does not support 4K 60fps and 1080p 60fps video recording. It is hoped that it can be upgraded through OTA later.

Conclusion: to evaluate Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 from the perspective of a product, it is not too much to describe it as the top folding flagship, such as light and thin body design, such as benchmarking screen display, hardware quality, and, for example, the large screen experience that makes the large screen experience more perfect, humanized, and even called "productivity". These are the leading advantages of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4.

The only disadvantage may be the unfriendly crease, but Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 also brings IPX8 waterproofing and an excellent hovering experience that competitors simply don't dare to imagine.

For consumers, this seems to be a multiple choice question, not a judgment question.

What Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 brings is a feeling of "show on the inside and show on the outside". To put it bluntly, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 is a product with its own temperament. In comparison with competitors, it may not impress you in the first place, nor will it post some exaggerated "cool techs seasoning" to stimulate your taste buds, but if you are interested in the flagship folding screen, or you have enough budget. Choose Galaxy Z Fold4, I believe the experience is also worthy of the starting price of more than 10, 000.

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