Living with the Galaxy Z Fold 6: how is it?
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Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 6 is fresh out of the oven and now available for purchase. The pre-order period is gone, but if you grab one now — you can still get $120 in instant savings, and an enhanced trade-in offer for up to $1,200 off!
We are lucky enough to have a Galaxy Z Fold 6 here at the office. And, after we ran it through all our tests, our full Z Fold 6 review, and various comparisons — I was just too tempted not to yoink it from the office.
So, I've been living with the Galaxy Z Fold 6 — the flagship foldable, chock-full with the latest hardware and design solutions from Samsung. How is it? Well, it's been great! But let's delve deeper!
The new design
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 looks a lot like the Z Fold 5, but with a refreshed design — a facelift, a thin bezel, a starker rectangular design. Since the phone isn't rounded around the edges, the cover screen feels like it stretches out to its limits. The same can be said about the main display, which gives you that huge canvas to multitask on. Samsung is using a new layer of cover glass in there, which further reduces the crease along the middle — it appears very visible in pictures, since it's hard to capture on camera without shining a light on it. In real life, though — it easily disappears into on-screen content!
Personally, I really get into the Fold experience once I get into the habit of "committing" to the phone and unfolding it every time I intend to use it for more than just replying to a simple message. From then on, it simply invites you to multi-task — the Samsung One UI interface has multiple ways of getting you into split-screen — swiping on apps can "push" them to the side, or minimize them into a window. Favorite app pairings can be saved so you instantly start up your favorite split-screen scene. Or, apps from the edge panel can be pulled into the main display to open in a floating state.
The hardware is truly the heart of this phone
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform for Galaxy has truly rocked the benchmark scores this year, but real life is not about grinding numbers, right? The Galaxy Z Fold 6 feels smooth and responsive with anything you do. It launches apps quickly, swaps through them with a breeze, and it really helps that you have 120 Hz displays both inside and out — all the animations feel buttery-smooth.
Personally, I am a Samsung DeX enthusiast — I adore the idea that you can just bring your phone anywhere, and as long as you have an external monitor and wireless peripherals, you can do actual work. Like on the stand-up desks in our office — I can just walk in, Galaxy Z Fold 6 in-pocket, and I have everything I need to type out articles, quickly sift through all the emails, and open multiple windows to research topics and news. Again — not a beat skipped, thanks to that Snapdragon!
And yes, of course — I tried gaming on it. Uhhh, for research purposes, if my boss asks. I ran both Call of Duty: Warzone and Arena Breakout: Infinite — the hot current FPS go-tos of 2024. In the case of CoD — "hot" can be a double intendre, as the game is quite demanding on mobile hardware. However, after letting it download all its high-quality assets, I found that I can game with the Galaxy Z Fold 6 just fine, and keep the high frames going thanks to a relatively huge vapor-cooling chamber inside.
The cameras have improved!
Typically, it's accepted that the Galaxy S Ultra is the camera phone, while the Z Fold takes a step back. And it's sort of the same this year — if you want the best Samsung camera possible, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is the way to go. But!
I was quite surprised by how well the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is doing in that department. On paper, it has the same specs as the Galaxy Z Fold 5 from last year. In reality — I am getting better photos from the Z Fold 6. In highly-lit environments, they can seem like the HDR is a pinch too aggressive, but in general — I like the colors, dynamics, and details. During my time with the Galaxy Z Fold 6, I did not feel like I was taking a "compromise" in camera, just to have a foldable phone. On the contrary — I am perfectly fine with this being my main phone, period!
I was quite surprised by how well the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is doing in that department. On paper, it has the same specs as the Galaxy Z Fold 5 from last year. In reality — I am getting better photos from the Z Fold 6. In highly-lit environments, they can seem like the HDR is a pinch too aggressive, but in general — I like the colors, dynamics, and details. During my time with the Galaxy Z Fold 6, I did not feel like I was taking a "compromise" in camera, just to have a foldable phone. On the contrary — I am perfectly fine with this being my main phone, period!
Galaxy AI — now with more new tricks!
We were already introduced to the Galaxy AI early this year with the Galaxy S24 line, and I did a deep-dive with it, finding my favorite features out of it. In general, I absolutely love the "summarize" feature for websites, voice recordings, or even notes. But particularly websites — it has made my research tasks easier, as I can quickly get the sentiment behind any editorial. Just to be sure it's on point — I always test it with every article I publish myself, and the Galaxy AI summarize feature is able to understand my sentiment, my point, the general message of my writings.
With the Z Fold 6, we got a couple of new features specifically tying to the S Pen — a new Sketch to Image feature can transform your scribbles into actual pictures, in a few different styles. To be completely honest, I only use this for entertainment value, but I am absolutely terrible at drawing, and am pretty sure I can't squeeze the full use from it.
What I can do, however, is use the on-board Google Gemini to brainstorm ideas or — again — super-power my research into articles and topics. It's easily accessible via a diagonal swipe from the bottom corner of the screen, or you can launch it from the Gemini app icon. And yes, it also works in DeX!
Galaxy Z Fold 6 — taking the digital nomad through a busy day
The Galaxy Z Fold 6's 4,400 mAh battery seems like it has its work cut out for itself, feeding that large screen and powerful processor, right? However, I found that it's perfectly capable of lasting me through a day, even when I wouldn't put it down when testing its camera and Sketch to Image features. Our battery test says 12 hours of constant web streaming, 7 hours of YouTube playback. That's pretty OK for regular smartphone usage.
However, considering that the Z Fold 6 caters to that "digital nomad" lifestyle — it's very possible that you will have the phone plugged into a hub, or at least resting on a wireless charger from time to time. With our hybrid, home-office-home work model, I found the Galaxy Z Fold 6 to be a perfect companion for my professional endeavours. It was there when I needed it at the office, and it was giving me a much-needed big screen when I am out for coffee and such.
Samsung is currently celebrating the launch of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 with a plethora of deals, discounts, and offers, so don't forget to check them out here:
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