- Refined design
- Seven years of software support
- Improved battery life
- Expensive
- Underwhelming cameras
- Significant display crease
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is unsurprisingly Samsung's best foldable phone, but it's least ambitious. There are three changes year-on-year: a wider external display, a lighter build, and a faster processor.
Those are all good. Great, even! You’re not going to pick up the Z Fold 6 and think it's a bad device or anything. It's just hard not to be disappointed by how iterative this generation feels, especially when there are still challenges with the form factor Samsung has yet to solve.
The Fold is meant to be Samsung's best phone, the showcase for its prowess as a manufacturer. Yet when I look at the Z Fold 6, the sheer drive of the Samsung that made the original Fold is missing here, let alone the Samsung that stuffed a phone with so many features it occasionally caught fire.
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Telstra
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What we like about the Galaxy Z Fold 6
Let's start with the good. Samsung has hit the sweet spot with the Galaxy Z Fold 6's design. The external display is just that little bit wider, now measuring in at 6.3-inch. While it's still unusually narrow for its height, the extra width is surprisingly meaningful. I found typing on the Z Fold 6's cover display a lot more natural than on any of its predecessors. I didn't even need to tweak settings like keyboard size.
There's still definitely a bit of a learning curve when it comes to getting acquainted with the Z Fold 6's unusually tall external screen, but the balance is much better this time around. The Z Fold 6 still has a unique form factor you won't mistake for any other phone, but day-to-day use is a lot more practical. There's less need to unfold the device for a good typing experience.
The same translates across to other apps running on the front display. They're just that little bit better, to the point where you're not making a compromise by running them on such an unusual display. It's like using a super tall iPhone mini, rather than a device that's simply too narrow.
Samsung has also shaved a bit of weight, with the Z Fold 6 now coming in at 239g. That's just 7g heavier than the Galaxy S24 Ultra, making it a bit more like a normal phone. While it's still on the heftier side, it's a bit more reasonable than past models. The Z Fold 5 was 14g heavier, for context.
These design changes have come with an aesthetic rework. While past Z Folds have had a curvy vibe to them, Samsung has squared off the edges on the Z Fold 6, clearly taking cues from the S24 Ultra. It makes the phone look a bit more refined, but also comes with a trade-off. When you've got the Z Fold 6 unfolded, the sharper corns can jut into your hand, depending on how you hold it. Some positions are more comfortable than others, but this is a fairly minor niggle.
Samsung has also stepped up its game when it comes to software and security updates. The Z Fold 6, along with the Z Flip 6, are the first Samsung devices set to get seven years of software and security updates. That matches Google's best-in-class commitment on the Pixel 8 family, and is great to see. When it comes to other foldable phones, we tend to only see three years of operating system updates and four years of security. Even if you're not planning on keeping the Z Fold 6 for seven years, the long software life can help resale value and make it a bit more useful if you're planning on handing it down.
Lastly, while the Z Fold 6 still has a 4,400mAh battery - identical to what we've seen in every Fold since the Z Fold 3 - battery life has definitely improved. In my testing, I was able to get between five and six hours of screen time per charge. That translated to over a day of moderate usage per charge, with a comfortable buffer.
This result came from using the external display around 75% of the time. If your usage skewed more to the using the larger internal screen, I'd expect a shorter battery life. I could definitely see the battery percentage ticking down faster when I had the phone unfolded for a longer duration.
Different usage habits make measuring battery a little harder, but it's nonetheless an improvement over past Folds. When I reviewed the Z Fold 4, I was only getting between three and four hours of screen time per charge, for example.
What we dislike about the Galaxy Z Fold 6
While a more practical design, longer software life, and better battery are all great, there are challenges Samsung hasn't addressed with the Galaxy Z Fold 6. Some of these are issues other brands have long solved, while others feel like compromises you shouldn't be making when you're paying just short of $3,000 for a phone (and $200 more than the previous model).
The internal display is the most egregious of these: the Z Fold 6 still has a pretty hefty crease in the middle of the screen. While manufacturers like OPPO have managed to drastically minimise the crease in their folding phones as early as 2021 with the original Find N, Samsung hasn't made anywhere near as much progress. Motorola's Razr 50 Ultra also barely has a crease.
When key competitors have managed to drastically minimise the crease in their folding displays, it's odd that Samsung hasn't kept pace in a category it's pioneered. Sure, a crease doesn't change the way you use the phone, but I'd still prefer it to not be there. It's clearly a solvable problem, and again, the Z Fold 6 costs almost $3,000.
Similarly, Samsung has barely upgraded the Z Fold 6's camera setup. There's a new ultra-wide lens that promises better low-light performance, but otherwise, you're getting the same hardware configuration as we saw in both the Z Fold 5 and Z Fold 4. The 12MP ultra-wide lens is joined by a 50MP primary lens and a 10MP 3x optical zoom lens.
Camera hardware is naturally only part of the equation, and a new chipset can also help with image quality, but by and large, the results on offer here are good, but not great. The photos I took aren't that different to what my colleague Fergus got on the Z Fold 5 last year or what I got on the Z Fold 4 the year before.
Even slightly dim lighting can result in significant camera grain and lack of detail in photos, when using the primary camera. Nighttime photography is prone to blur, and at times, unrealistic colours. The new ultra-wide lens does well during the day, but is inconsistent at night. The zoom lens fares similarly, but is too slow for most low-light situations. This is especially disappointing given Apple and Google have both made their long-range zoom lenses significantly more usable in the last 12 months.
Needless to say, other high-end devices like the iPhone 15 family and the Pixel 8 family will get you better photos. Samsung's own Galaxy S24 Ultra will too. Samsung has proven it can make better cameras, so why isn’t it putting that same tech in its most expensive phone? Why doesn't the Z Fold 6 have a 200MP camera?
Galaxy Z Fold 6 camera samples
Check out these camera samples taken on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6. Click or tap on any photo to see a larger version.
Samsung's also insisted on using the same under 4MP under-screen selfie camera it's been using since the Z Fold 3 in the internal display. Predictably, nothing has changed here. It's jarring when you notice it on the screen, and the picture quality is awful. I'd much prefer a camera cut out here than using "futuristic" tech that isn't ready yet.
And in the same vein, the Z Fold 6 has S Pen support, but it's still an optional extra. At this point in the Fold's life cycle, an S Pen feels like the kind of feature that should be integrated into the phone itself. If Samsung can work out how to make a foldable phone, surely it can work out how to stow an S Pen in one?
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 has all the Galaxy AI features found in the Galaxy S24 family, as well as a couple of extras. I haven't touched on these because they're now also available on previous Samsung foldables running the latest software, so they're not strictly new. You can read more about Galaxy AI in my Galaxy S24 Ultra review.
In terms of new Galaxy AI features, there's an upgrade to live translation which lets you use the external display to show a message to who you're speaking to while you look at the internal. There's also a new image tool that lets you sketch on a photo, after which AI will attempt to make it look photorealistic. The results from this are pretty mixed.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 - Final Thoughts
It might seem like I've been tough on the Z Fold 6, but that comes from a place of love. I was immediately taken by the potential of the form factor when I tried the original Fold five years ago, so it's a shame to see Samsung falling behind in a category it pioneered.
I have no doubt that Samsung can solve the display crease and put better cameras in the Z Fold. Why it hasn't is beyond me.
The cynical take is that it's not interesting in spending the extra resources on these challenges, given its dominant position in foldables in the West. If that's the case, Samsung is doing a disservice to its most loyal customers.
Samsung's head of mobile for Australia, Eric Chou, told me the brand has historically seen a lot of existing loyalists rush to buy a new Fold during the pre-order period, and that the refresh cycle for those buying flagship phones is much shorter, "due to the loyalty we have from customers who want to upgrade to the latest and greatest".
With that in mind, the Z Fold 6 feels like a smaller upgrade than it should when compared to the Z Fold 4. Better battery life and a more practical design are great. The lack of camera improvements isn't. If your Z Fold 4 is still holding out strong, I'd wait and see what Samsung comes out with next year. If you're on a Z Fold 3 (or older), the Z Fold 6 will definitely be a more significant upgrade if you're keen to stick with a foldable.
If you're foldable curious, the Z Fold 6 isn't a bad place to jump, even if it's an expensive one. It's Samsung's most refined device to date, and fulfils the promise of being both a phone and a tablet better than any previous generation Fold. But, you still run into the problem that you can buy a better phone for less money, whether you're sticking with Samsung or looking at other manufacturers. How much do you want the folding form factor?
It's easy to imagine the Z Fold 6 being a more compelling device than it is. You only need to look at Samsung’s history - and the Galaxy S24 Ultra - to know it can do more. Samsung doesn't need to reinvent the Fold, but there's still so much it can do that other brands have already achieved in the space.
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 isn't a product from a hungry Samsung trying to cement itself as an innovative force, it's a product from a complacent Samsung resting on its laurels.
When reviewing phones, we consider a number of key factors. Primary concerns include:
- Camera: Does a phone take good photos? How does it perform in low light? Can it handle moving subjects?
- Battery: Will it last a full day? How many hours of screen time can you get per charge?
- Screen Quality: Is it nice? Is it bright enough for a sunny day? Do colours distort off-axis?
- Performance: Is the phone fast enough for day-to-day tasks? How does it handle more demanding activities like gaming?
We also take any unique features or inclusions into account.
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