The real question for this generation is what the battery life is like, as all of the phones thus far with the Snapdragon 888 APU have had poor battery life.
Want battery life? Don't get a phone with 3 screens lol. At this stage I feel it's mostly for vanity. The Fold costs as much as a Note + a pro tablet or laptop, but compromises on the battery, single SoC, camera quality, and screen crease if you're using it for leisure. The Flip is closer to a regular phone with the added perk of the tripod-less camera and the ability to fit into shallow pockets. Half the story is about insufficient pockets!
Battery is only 4400, the internal screen is 120hz and brighter than before. hmm. I guess 6 hours max with the screen open? Shouldn't they be providing >6000mah batteries for screen sizes like these?
These things still aren't for me, but I'm happy to see the price on the Flip start to come down. If the launch price is $1000, you'll probably be able to get it for ~$700 in a few months. The Fold remains in koo-koo crazy land.
"And $1799 is not "extremely expensive". It is only $400 more expensive than rather bland iPhone 12 Pro Max 512GB."
So it's ~25% more expensive than one of the most premium, high end phones? The literal most expensive iPhone you can buy? On what planet is that not "extremely expensive" ? The iPhone was already "extremely expensive" to the vast majority of humans.
This is not a normal phone. This is new in class foldable where inner screen is a tablet. Obviously we are in early days and so its early adopters are not mainstream. But the fact that prices are dropping is a plus. I will wait another 2 generations before looking at it. So no comparisons to normal candybar phones.
" On what planet is that not "extremely expensive" ? "
of course it is. this is a perfect example of The Tyranny of Fixed Cost - the machinery to make these widgets is, more or less, unique to them. with such a low volume output, the average cost is driven by the need to amortize all that bespoke capital. it's the chicken/egg problem - lower the price to what it could be with 10x or 100x expected sales at release (and sky high price on low volume) and hope/expect that said price will, in fact, generate such sales.
the other side of the situation is far more typical - calculate the average cost based on limited expected sales due to such high average price and suck up that revenue for a while and, may be, lower the cost/price once they've retired Y% of that capital cost.
going the latter way reveals that Samsung has little to no confidence in these devices. they're likely right.
First, it's $200 LESS at launch than the Fold 2, I'd call that a good effort by Samsung to lower the price, while upgrading it at the same time (120hz, IPX8, s-pen, cpu, gpu, ext.). Second, I got mine for $1000 through pre-order, WITH $200 Samsung credit, WITH 12% Rakuten cash back, PLUS, a free upgrade to 512gb, and an extra $100 on my S21 trade.
Samsung is clearly trying to get these into the mainstream user as I believe foldable phones are the inevitable, and logical design for most future phones.
You know Samsung picked the selling price, right? The fact that the Fold 3 is $200 less than the Fold 2 doesn't make it not be extremely expensive, it just means the Fold 2 is also extremely expensive for a phone.
"Samsung has introduced IPx8 rating for the new Z devices, meaning they’re now water resistant – which is actually quite a feat for a foldable device. Samsung has managed this to employ corrosion resistant mechanical elements in the hinge design, and enforcing water resistant rubber between the electrical elements of the two phone halves."
what is "extremely expensive" these days, right? I mean, it is only 2k for a phone to swipe on Tinder and play Candy on, check your insta/face/twitter, the important daily things in life. 2k is peanuts.
Who are these for? Maybe I'm out of touch with where the cell phone market is, and I could maybe feign understanding the larger screen of the Fold, but what benefit does the Flip have over a normal form factor phone?
The demo video was pretty neat imo. The inner larger screen has a taskbar where you can pin apps so that you can use it to create split screen experiences. You can have optimized apps like Gmail\Messages\Calendar etc. can have the menu on the left side and the details on the right side. There were couple more but these 2 seemed to be a good fit. I use an iPhone and won't be upgrading anytime soon (even to the next iPhone) but it looked pretty cool + usable too.
I’m not sure because the aspect ratio on the 6.7” Flip is way too narrow so you end up with a 5.18” 16:9 viewing area which is identical to the iPhone 12’s 6.06” screen.
Lol Samsung is now copying how Apple does with those small boxes, these fools miss the pictures in them which Apple does. What's even left to ape at this point.
Another use and throw device is all I see in these, Foldable use what's the use of these devices ? The Android 12 itself kills multitasked apps hard. And no Android App is tailored to take real estate and then the weird square aspect ratio which makes any video playback useless to make it worse it's too narrow device to make use of it's screen. Maybe Emulators ? But this is a flexible plastic screen meaning it's delicate no matter what. Exorbitant price to be a guinea pig.
The spec sheet is usual fare of latest 888 disaster chipset. But the biggest thing is Battery design is now 2x, means the battery is split. So bonus pack is $999+ device not only doesn't have an IP68 rating but now a battery design which is irreparable by any chance on top the display is probably a consumable like battery now since it will fail over the time with wear and tear.
No 3.5mm jack, no SD slot are usual features as well.
Anyone who pays for this junk is adding more e-Waste garbage on top of planned obsolescence with limited shelf life devices.
I see you went straight to a feeble attempt at character assassination. It is good to know that you are incapable of actually arguing against any of Silver5urfer's points.
@vlad42 - I'm really tired of this debate-bro false inference that the absence of a detailed blow-by-blow rebuttal of a garbage post somehow disqualifies any claim that it's garbage. In context, it's clear after reading more than a few of 5ilversurfer's posts why people aren't going to waste time on a detailed counter-argument - especially when you see how they stoically refuse to value any opinion other than their own.
"Apps targeting Android 12 which plan to run in the background can no longer start foreground services" that is one, the other is Google increased the aggressiveness of the Android background tasks that's what I read on the Android Police and XDA a while back since 11.
Better battery life and system responsiveness. iOS does the same thing in that apps in the background can't run tasks in the foreground nor can they run for very long in the background before the OS suspends it.
It also means that (once again) Silver5urfer's hyperbolic claims do not really match up to reality. It's a trade-off that imposes some more constraints on apps and developers in favour of better system behaviour for the majority of users, not a total destruction of multitasking.
Multitasked apps? Multitasking was never a thing on smartphones, it's a platform intentionally designed to do almost nothing but sell you junk (junk ads, junk products, junk info, junk media, junk games). That's the hard truth.
The door has been wide open to make a real OS with real features for like 14 years now, but nobody ever bothered because they don't care. Just like nobody has displaced Microsoft Windows.
A single fold will always make an awkward pocket ratio phone that becomes an awkward aspect ratio phone gimmick. The demo pics once again show boxed multitasking because doing one thing on that aspect ratio just feels bad.
Add make a trifold Z that is an actually useful 2in1 product already. I'd be thrilled with a chonky phone if it's normal phone shaped and unfolds into a normal tablet shape. If it can legitimately fill the role of two devices I'd otherwise be buying THEN you can even ask the price for both combined along with a "fancy tech" premium.
Can anyone comment on screen damage over time with the foldable screens? I like to fit something in a pocket easy, but if the screen develops a crease mark, it's no good.
They already have a crease. You don't notice if you don't look for it.
As for durability: they've changee the material each time.
I can only speak for the first Fold, but yes it did get microscratches very easily. But you can only see them with the display off and a light shined on them. You can't feel them due to it being plastic.
Bigger scratches are quite easy to make if you are careless.
I've had more issues with the glass back, and that's not really a Fold specific issue.
Folding endurance is ~200.000 times or seen written 100x a day for at least 5 years? Rapidly folding and unfolding in a testing machine showed ~120.000 folds. People check their phones around 80-200 times a day (every 5-12min)?
Say what you want, but over the last two years I've enjoyed my time with the first Fold, even being able to do some stuff that other devices just wouldn't have been able to do (or at least do well). This mostly seems better.
It may well come across as gloating, but I can afford such a device. Many of the negatives people are coming up with seem to be hypothetical and it comes across as them just being jealous that they can't afford one.
You don't need such a device. It's clearly a luxury. So there's no need for the smear attempts.
I had to learn, that there is a habits or usage difference between Fold and ordinary mobiles, probably. Maybe You could tell to what percentage You unfold/fold Your mobile on a day and what percentage is watching on backside display only? Thanks.
But for me maybe 50:50? And I mainly use the unfolded display as just a big display. That said, when I do want to do multi-app stuff I very much appreciate the bigger display.
For some (most?) people with the 2 and 3, they may well use the front display more as it's bigger. I'm almost perfectly happy with the 1's 'small' one (it's still ultra-wide/long, so...)
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ballsystemlord - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
The real question for this generation is what the battery life is like, as all of the phones thus far with the Snapdragon 888 APU have had poor battery life.Maxpower27 - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
The S21 Ultra has excellent battery life.Wrs - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
Want battery life? Don't get a phone with 3 screens lol. At this stage I feel it's mostly for vanity. The Fold costs as much as a Note + a pro tablet or laptop, but compromises on the battery, single SoC, camera quality, and screen crease if you're using it for leisure. The Flip is closer to a regular phone with the added perk of the tripod-less camera and the ability to fit into shallow pockets. Half the story is about insufficient pockets!sharath.naik - Thursday, August 12, 2021 - link
Battery is only 4400, the internal screen is 120hz and brighter than before. hmm. I guess 6 hours max with the screen open? Shouldn't they be providing >6000mah batteries for screen sizes like these?cfenton - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
These things still aren't for me, but I'm happy to see the price on the Flip start to come down. If the launch price is $1000, you'll probably be able to get it for ~$700 in a few months. The Fold remains in koo-koo crazy land.nerd1 - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
Not a single mention of added water resistance and pen support (both the first for folderable device)?And $1799 is not "extremely expensive". It is only $400 more expensive than rather bland iPhone 12 Pro Max 512GB.
vanilla_gorilla - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
"And $1799 is not "extremely expensive". It is only $400 more expensive than rather bland iPhone 12 Pro Max 512GB."So it's ~25% more expensive than one of the most premium, high end phones? The literal most expensive iPhone you can buy? On what planet is that not "extremely expensive" ? The iPhone was already "extremely expensive" to the vast majority of humans.
trivik12 - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
This is not a normal phone. This is new in class foldable where inner screen is a tablet. Obviously we are in early days and so its early adopters are not mainstream. But the fact that prices are dropping is a plus. I will wait another 2 generations before looking at it. So no comparisons to normal candybar phones.FunBunny2 - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
" On what planet is that not "extremely expensive" ? "of course it is. this is a perfect example of The Tyranny of Fixed Cost - the machinery to make these widgets is, more or less, unique to them. with such a low volume output, the average cost is driven by the need to amortize all that bespoke capital. it's the chicken/egg problem - lower the price to what it could be with 10x or 100x expected sales at release (and sky high price on low volume) and hope/expect that said price will, in fact, generate such sales.
the other side of the situation is far more typical - calculate the average cost based on limited expected sales due to such high average price and suck up that revenue for a while and, may be, lower the cost/price once they've retired Y% of that capital cost.
going the latter way reveals that Samsung has little to no confidence in these devices. they're likely right.
vortmax2 - Friday, August 13, 2021 - link
First, it's $200 LESS at launch than the Fold 2, I'd call that a good effort by Samsung to lower the price, while upgrading it at the same time (120hz, IPX8, s-pen, cpu, gpu, ext.). Second, I got mine for $1000 through pre-order, WITH $200 Samsung credit, WITH 12% Rakuten cash back, PLUS, a free upgrade to 512gb, and an extra $100 on my S21 trade.Samsung is clearly trying to get these into the mainstream user as I believe foldable phones are the inevitable, and logical design for most future phones.
vortmax2 - Friday, August 13, 2021 - link
Just to clarify, the $1000 price included my S21 trade. All those other perks were extra.RSAUser - Tuesday, August 31, 2021 - link
You know Samsung picked the selling price, right? The fact that the Fold 3 is $200 less than the Fold 2 doesn't make it not be extremely expensive, it just means the Fold 2 is also extremely expensive for a phone.arashi - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
"Samsung has introduced IPx8 rating for the new Z devices, meaning they’re now water resistant – which is actually quite a feat for a foldable device. Samsung has managed this to employ corrosion resistant mechanical elements in the hinge design, and enforcing water resistant rubber between the electrical elements of the two phone halves."melgross - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
So, what was your point? You didn’t actually say anything.Spoelie - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
he was replying on the question above with a quotePeskarik - Thursday, August 12, 2021 - link
what is "extremely expensive" these days, right? I mean, it is only 2k for a phone to swipe on Tinder and play Candy on, check your insta/face/twitter, the important daily things in life. 2k is peanuts.thatoneguy247 - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
Who are these for? Maybe I'm out of touch with where the cell phone market is, and I could maybe feign understanding the larger screen of the Fold, but what benefit does the Flip have over a normal form factor phone?Teckk - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
The demo video was pretty neat imo. The inner larger screen has a taskbar where you can pin apps so that you can use it to create split screen experiences. You can have optimized apps like Gmail\Messages\Calendar etc. can have the menu on the left side and the details on the right side. There were couple more but these 2 seemed to be a good fit.I use an iPhone and won't be upgrading anytime soon (even to the next iPhone) but it looked pretty cool + usable too.
Jetcat3 - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
I’m not sure because the aspect ratio on the 6.7” Flip is way too narrow so you end up with a 5.18” 16:9 viewing area which is identical to the iPhone 12’s 6.06” screen.Teckk - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
Inner display is a 7.7" one.FunBunny2 - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
"what benefit does the Flip have over a normal form factor phone? "same as any flip from 2 decades ago: fits in a pocket and less likely to crack given the reduced lever action on the frame.
Silver5urfer - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
Lol Samsung is now copying how Apple does with those small boxes, these fools miss the pictures in them which Apple does. What's even left to ape at this point.Another use and throw device is all I see in these, Foldable use what's the use of these devices ? The Android 12 itself kills multitasked apps hard. And no Android App is tailored to take real estate and then the weird square aspect ratio which makes any video playback useless to make it worse it's too narrow device to make use of it's screen. Maybe Emulators ? But this is a flexible plastic screen meaning it's delicate no matter what. Exorbitant price to be a guinea pig.
The spec sheet is usual fare of latest 888 disaster chipset. But the biggest thing is Battery design is now 2x, means the battery is split. So bonus pack is $999+ device not only doesn't have an IP68 rating but now a battery design which is irreparable by any chance on top the display is probably a consumable like battery now since it will fail over the time with wear and tear.
No 3.5mm jack, no SD slot are usual features as well.
Anyone who pays for this junk is adding more e-Waste garbage on top of planned obsolescence with limited shelf life devices.
ArcadeEngineer - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
Is there a person behind this account, or is it a bot that assembles random snippets of negative reddit posts and then shoves it under every article.vlad42 - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
I see you went straight to a feeble attempt at character assassination. It is good to know that you are incapable of actually arguing against any of Silver5urfer's points.Spunjji - Friday, August 13, 2021 - link
@vlad42 - I'm really tired of this debate-bro false inference that the absence of a detailed blow-by-blow rebuttal of a garbage post somehow disqualifies any claim that it's garbage. In context, it's clear after reading more than a few of 5ilversurfer's posts why people aren't going to waste time on a detailed counter-argument - especially when you see how they stoically refuse to value any opinion other than their own.Spunjji - Friday, August 13, 2021 - link
I do wonder sometimesFulljack - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
I'm intrigued with what you say regarding Android 12 kills multitasked apps hard—care to elaborate on it?Silver5urfer - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
"Apps targeting Android 12 which plan to run in the background can no longer start foreground services" that is one, the other is Google increased the aggressiveness of the Android background tasks that's what I read on the Android Police and XDA a while back since 11.Fulljack - Thursday, August 12, 2021 - link
what does this mean for layman like me?Duraz0rz - Thursday, August 12, 2021 - link
Better battery life and system responsiveness. iOS does the same thing in that apps in the background can't run tasks in the foreground nor can they run for very long in the background before the OS suspends it.Spunjji - Friday, August 13, 2021 - link
It also means that (once again) Silver5urfer's hyperbolic claims do not really match up to reality. It's a trade-off that imposes some more constraints on apps and developers in favour of better system behaviour for the majority of users, not a total destruction of multitasking.flyingpants265 - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
Multitasked apps? Multitasking was never a thing on smartphones, it's a platform intentionally designed to do almost nothing but sell you junk (junk ads, junk products, junk info, junk media, junk games). That's the hard truth.The door has been wide open to make a real OS with real features for like 14 years now, but nobody ever bothered because they don't care. Just like nobody has displaced Microsoft Windows.
brontes - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
A single fold will always make an awkward pocket ratio phone that becomes an awkward aspect ratio phone gimmick. The demo pics once again show boxed multitasking because doing one thing on that aspect ratio just feels bad.Add make a trifold Z that is an actually useful 2in1 product already. I'd be thrilled with a chonky phone if it's normal phone shaped and unfolds into a normal tablet shape. If it can legitimately fill the role of two devices I'd otherwise be buying THEN you can even ask the price for both combined along with a "fancy tech" premium.
stanleyipkiss - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
I don't see this mentioned anywhere: do these phones have wireless charging?!Mersi Andrei, esti foarte tare.
stanleyipkiss - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - link
Nevermind. Found it.Peskarik - Thursday, August 12, 2021 - link
2k for a phone :-DOyeve - Thursday, August 12, 2021 - link
But, you are not forced to buy it.TresNugget - Thursday, August 12, 2021 - link
The fingerprint sensors are on the power button not under the sceenvol.2 - Thursday, August 12, 2021 - link
Can anyone comment on screen damage over time with the foldable screens? I like to fit something in a pocket easy, but if the screen develops a crease mark, it's no good.Tams80 - Thursday, August 19, 2021 - link
They already have a crease. You don't notice if you don't look for it.As for durability: they've changee the material each time.
I can only speak for the first Fold, but yes it did get microscratches very easily. But you can only see them with the display off and a light shined on them. You can't feel them due to it being plastic.
Bigger scratches are quite easy to make if you are careless.
I've had more issues with the glass back, and that's not really a Fold specific issue.
dante216 - Friday, August 13, 2021 - link
It's terrible Samsung plays 3rd fiddle to Apple and Google and can't negotiate dual SIM capability in the USA. Who is negotiating for them?back2future - Saturday, August 14, 2021 - link
Folding endurance is ~200.000 times or seen written 100x a day for at least 5 years?Rapidly folding and unfolding in a testing machine showed ~120.000 folds.
People check their phones around 80-200 times a day (every 5-12min)?
back2future - Saturday, August 14, 2021 - link
(estimations are previous version Galaxy Fold 2)back2future - Saturday, August 14, 2021 - link
(sorry, even wrong, estimations are Galaxy Fold, 2019 version)Tams80 - Thursday, August 19, 2021 - link
Say what you want, but over the last two years I've enjoyed my time with the first Fold, even being able to do some stuff that other devices just wouldn't have been able to do (or at least do well). This mostly seems better.It may well come across as gloating, but I can afford such a device. Many of the negatives people are coming up with seem to be hypothetical and it comes across as them just being jealous that they can't afford one.
You don't need such a device. It's clearly a luxury. So there's no need for the smear attempts.
back2future - Thursday, August 19, 2021 - link
I had to learn, that there is a habits or usage difference between Fold and ordinary mobiles, probably. Maybe You could tell to what percentage You unfold/fold Your mobile on a day and what percentage is watching on backside display only? Thanks.back2future - Thursday, August 19, 2021 - link
Fold is cover display, Flip is backside display (seems this concept confuses me a little)Tams80 - Thursday, August 19, 2021 - link
It's all personal preference.But for me maybe 50:50? And I mainly use the unfolded display as just a big display. That said, when I do want to do multi-app stuff I very much appreciate the bigger display.
For some (most?) people with the 2 and 3, they may well use the front display more as it's bigger. I'm almost perfectly happy with the 1's 'small' one (it's still ultra-wide/long, so...)
back2future - Saturday, August 21, 2021 - link
Thanks for Your experiences.