Sold for US $ 1,980 in the USA, Fold will be the most expensive smartphone on sale in Brazil, for R $ 13 thousand
The Galaxy Fold arrives in Brazil this Wednesday, 22nd, the first foldable smartphone from Samsung. a conceptual device: it has a long shape with the screen closed. Open, it shows a larger screen, which works more like a tablet than a smartphone.
The history of the Galaxy Fold, it is worth remembering, goes through its announcement on February 20 of last year as the first folding device in the world was followed, the following week, by Huawei Mate X. In April, the first units released by the manufacturer for tests in the North American media began to fail. Films on the screen came off, allowing debris to invade the phone's hinge, damaging the inside of the fold and, consequently, the screen.
The launch was then suspended and the Galaxy Fold arrived in a reinvented version s stores in September 2019 abroad. This new version that starts to be sold in Brazil for the suggested price of R $ 12,999, only on the Samsung website.
Samsung itself says it is a new product category, above its high-end models (the Galaxy S10 / Note 10). Next month, the brand should announce its second foldable model, rumors indicate that it is called Galaxy Z Flip with a smaller screen that folds in half horizontally, like a flip phone from the early 2000s. The same design trend has already appeared in another foldable, the Motorola Razr, sold in the US for $ 1,500.
Design and specifications
Closed, the Samsung Galaxy Fold is a device that measures 160.9 x 62.9 x 15.5-17 mm and has a 4.6-inch external screen, surrounded by edges. small for the current standard of premium smartphones. On its left side, there is the gear protection that opens the plastic screen, protected to prevent the entry of debris, one of the main problems that spoiled the original release of Fold. On the right side of the device, buttons to turn the screen on / off, the volume control and a fingerprint reader that is very fast to protect the Fold.
In comparison, the iPhone 11 Pro Max and Galaxy Fold, in their fully open position
Open, it becomes thinner and wider (160.9 x 117.9 x 6.9 mm) with a 7.3 inch folding screen. It also has a notch in the upper right corner, which houses two front cameras. By the position of the buttons on the right side (and the fingerprint reader itself), the Fold gives the feeling that it was made to be used by right-handed consumers.
The technical specifications of the Galaxy Fold are above what most Android smartphone models offer on the market today: there are six cameras in total, 12 GB of RAM, 512 GB of internal storage (without expansion with cards). The smartphone uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor and runs Android 9 with the One UI 1.5 interface.
It is worth noting that, like the Galaxy Note 10, the Fold does not come with a traditional 3.5 mm headphone jack. To compensate, Samsung sends in the product box a pair of Galaxy Buds, the brand's wireless headphones (with Bluetooth connectivity) that cost R $ 1,000, separately. The Brazilian version of Fold is only sold in black.
Cameras and battery
With three cameras at the rear and three dedicated to selfies (two on the internal screen and one on the external screen), there is no lack of options in the Galaxy Fold to capture good images. The product uses, at the rear, the same 12 megapixel sensor with dual lens aperture (f 1.5 and 2.4) on the main camera, a 16 megapixel wide angle and a 2x optical zoom also with 12 megapixels.
Photographing with the Galaxy Fold is a curious experience: with the external screen, the viewing area is very small; with the big screen, it looks like I'm shooting with an iPad, which is not an ideal experience. Either way, the results are as good as on a Galaxy Note 10+ or ​​Galaxy S10 +, including great photos in night mode.
Taking photos with Fold is a curious experience
The battery in a device with a foldable screen (and a large screen, by the way) was a cause for concern before starting to use the Galaxy Fold, but the practice proved otherwise. The device has two separate batteries (one in each half) that, together, have a capacity of 4,380 mAH – a little more than that of the Galaxy S10 + (4,100 mAH) and Note 10+ (4,300 mAH). Fold reached 31% after 12 hours away from the plug, with heavy use of social networks / podcasts / emails and with Bluetooth on all the time.
Using Galaxy Fold
Having a Galaxy Fold in hand (and remembering that it is an expensive and fragile device) brings a new type of experience when using a smartphone. With Fold closed, its small screen in proportion to the body of the device and serves more as a quick way to view notifications or emails. We got used to smaller screens, and typing on the Fold's outer screen is almost impossible, with tiny keys – d to predict that owners of this phone will send more users on WhatsApp with great certainty.
But the charm of the Galaxy Fold is in the continuity of the software: you start to see a map on Google Maps (or use any other application) from the outside, and when you open the Galaxy Fold, it follows in a larger version on the internal screen.
It is on the large screen of the Fold that its great grace appears – and when fully open, the crease is almost imperceptible
And this large internal screen is the charm of the Galaxy Fold. Viewing photos you took, browsing Instagram, watching videos on YouTube or Netflix are a much better experience than on a normal smartphone. The rectangular (and almost square, in fact) shape of the tablet is excellent for this multimedia experience. And answer emails, send messages, surf the web, like on a tablet. The multitasking mode allows you to open up to three apps (and organize them your way) at the same time and, if connected to a Bluetooth keyboard, Galaxy Fold can (albeit to a limited extent) replace the notebook in a meeting or a quick business trip .
Anyway, even with all the protections that Samsung created after the initial crisis of the product, the Galaxy Fold feels fragile. You will open and close the screen carefully, and the crease in the middle is noticeable at first glance, but then it is easy to get used to the fold there.
But it is an interesting experience, even if it is limited to an audience that very much wants to have the last cry of innovation in new smartphones – until the next one comes. The Samsung Galaxy Fold is a product that looks like it will evolve a lot in the not too distant future, so you don't have to hurry to get one. Whoever has the funds to buy yours, however, can already say that he lives in the future.
