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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 is official: more of what makes the Fold great

By Preslav Kateliev

Updated: Aug 19, 2022, 9:27 AM

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Samsung

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Just like clockwork, Samsung booked an August event to announce its new foldable phones. And just like expected — the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is here to bring incremental upgrades to the winning Fold formula.

Admittedly, the jump this year around is not as big as it was from the original Fold to the Z Fold 2, or from that one to the Z Fold 3. But still, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 brings a number of quality of life improvements and upgrades, so let's see what this announcement is all about!

Design and display

The Galaxy Z Fold 4 follows the similar booklet design, nothing is changed there. The outer display is still a 6.2-inch panel, but it's slightly wider than last year's Z Fold 3. The aspect ratio of the external screen is now 23.1:9 (it's around 24.6:9 on last year's model). There's also a slight bump in resolution — it is now 2316 x 904, meaning pixels-per-inch density is around 406. The selfie camera on the outside shell is not hidden under the screen, as some rumors suggested.

Of course, that internal screen is the crowning jewel of the Z Fold series and it is a 7.6-inch beast with a much wider aspect ratio of 21.6:18. And yes, it is also slightly wider than last year's Fold 3, which has a 22.5:18 ratio. Back to the Z Fold 4 — the resolution here is 2176 x 1812, meaning the PPI is around 373 — still quite dense and sharp!

There's an under-screen selfie camera on the inside, just like last year. This time around, Samsung hid it under an even denser array of pixels, attempting to make the screen look even more seamless.

Both screen panels are Dynamic AMOLED X2, as Samsung calls them. They both have adaptive refresh rate, going all the way up to 120 Hz. The outer screen's minimum refresh is 48 Hz, the inner display can drop all the way down to 1 Hz. We wonder what application that might have for the internal screen.

All of these slight gains in screen width come thanks to a slightly thinner hinge area, it seems. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 measures at 6.1 x 2.64 x 0.56 in (155.1 x 67.1 x 14.2 mm) when folded. Thickness increases to 0.62 in (15.8 mm) towards the hinge, since it's slightly wedged. This makes it almost identical to last year's Fold 3, it's just slightly shorter than before. As for weight, the Z Fold 4 is measured at 263 g, which is quite hefty, but still slightly lighter than last year's model with its 271 g.

The Fold 4 comes in three main colors — Phantom Black, Gray Green, and Beige. Stay tuned as we find out if there will be any exclusive colors in the Samsung store.

The fingerprint scanner is still embedded in the power button, on the side of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 — it doesn't have an under-screen scanner, as some leaks suggested. The camera module on the back is a 3-in-line shape, as before, but slightly thicker as Samsung has upgraded the cameras a bit.

The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is rated IPX8 for water-resistance — this means up to 30 minutes submerged in up to 1.5 m of fresh water. The X means that the phone still isn't resistant to dust and particles, so watch out around the beach and salt water.

Camera and audio

As mentioned above, we have a slight upgrade in the camera module. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 now rocks a 50 MP main camera, a 12 MP ultra-wide with a 123-degree FOV, and a 10 MP telephoto camera with a 3x zoom lens. Both the main and the telephoto snappers are assisted by an OIS module for better stabilization. Samsung included a 30x Space Zoom feature here, and if these specs all sound familiar it's probably because the whole camera module looks like it has been lifted from the Galaxy S22 phones (not the Ultra, mind you). That's not really a bad thing — we liked the S22 cameras, and we expect great performance from the Z Fold 4 as well.

The selfie camera on the outer shell is a 10 MP one and is pretty much considered as the "main" selfie camera you are going to be using. The one that's hidden under the display inside has a 4 MP sensor and we are skeptical about its performance. It's pretty tough to get good imagery when there's a layer of actual screen in front of your camera — the Z Fold 3 wasn't great there, but the camera was good enough for video calls. We expect similar results from the Z Fold 4.

As for audio, there's the typical stereo setup with speakers on the top and bottom of the phone (so they become left / right when you are holding it in landscape). The Z Fold series has had great speakers thus far, so we expect the same with the Fold 4.

Software

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 runs on Samsung's One UI, which is a heavy reskin of Android 12 at the moment, naturally. It has its own distinct, brightly-lit look with a lot of whites, transparent elements, and colorful icons. It is also chock-full of features, especially on the Fold series, where we now have more multi-tasking improvements.

Now, as before, you can launch up to 3 apps on the big screen — two square-shaped ones and one in a tall aspect ratio, taking up a full half of the screen. You can also open more apps in pop-up, floating windows. So far, that is not new.

What is new is the new persistent dock — a taskbar-like strip of your favorite apps that is always accessible. This was much needed and we can't wait to play with it more. But, if our time with the good old Galaxy Note Edge and its ever-present Apps Panel is anything to go by — this is exactly what the Galaxy Fold series needed to elevate its multi-tasking.

The dock can house your favorite apps, but also your favorite split-screen combinations, so you can launch up to 3 apps on-screen instantly.

Of course, there are mechanics baked into the software to accept S Pen gestures and scribbles, as the Z Fold 4 will — again — support a special S Pen stylus with a soft tip that doesn't damage the screen. Unfortunately, the S Pen is not included with the Z Fold 4 package.

Hardware

The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is powered by the latest-and-greatest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 — an improvement on the flagship chip, which brings performance up by 10% and energy-efficiency by 30%, compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. It's a fantastic chip, which we tested extensively and walked away impressed. Of course, we are curious to see how Samsung implemented the platform and optimized for it.

You can get the Z Fold 4 in three storage variations — 256 GB, 512 GB, or 1 TB — and all three come with 12 GB of RAM. So, you have plenty of memory on tap and those of you who want to live the mobile nomad life should be able to just bring their Fold anywhere and utilize the DeX desktop mode to put some work in when required.

The Galaxy Z Fold 4 has a 4,400 mAh battery — exactly the same capacity as on the Z Fold 3. So, we don't expect any drastic change in battery life and performance — a full day with the phone should be just fine. It supports Samsung's Super Fast Charging with plugs of up to 25 W — Samsung says you should get 50% of charge in 30 minutes.

As for wireless charging, it will support up to 15 W pucks, and the Galaxy Z Fold 4 also offers wireless power sharing or "reverse wireless charge", so you can top up your accessories or give out some charge to someone else with a Qi-compatible phone.

Release date and price

Save $900 on a new Galaxy Z Fold 4 with trade-in

The cutting-edge Galaxy Z Fold 4 is available at Samsung.com for as low as $1019.99 with eligible trade-in. And this is for the 512GB variant! You can get it for even cheaper if you go with the lower 256GB model, and further cheaper if you buy it locked on certain carriers.

$1019 ⁹⁹

$1919 ⁹⁹

Expired

The Galaxy Z Fold 4 will be up for pre-order momentarily, starting price $1,799.

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Preslav, a member of the PhoneArena team since 2014, is a mobile technology enthusiast with a penchant for integrating tech into his hobbies and work. Whether it's writing articles on an iPad Pro, recording band rehearsals with multiple phones, or exploring the potential of mobile gaming through services like GeForce Now and Steam Link, Preslav's approach is hands-on and innovative. His balanced perspective allows him to appreciate both Android and iOS ecosystems, focusing on performance, camera quality, and user experience over brand loyalty.