In August, China ushered in a new wave of folding screen mobile phone releases. Samsung, the pioneer of folding screen mobile phones, released two mobile phones with different folding forms, Z Fold4 and Z Flip4, this month. Among them, Z Fold4 starts at 12,999 yuan and is now officially available for pre-sale.
The first generation of Fold was launched in 2019, and now Z Fold4 has developed into the fourth generation. So after four generations of products, how has this representative product among horizontal folding mobile phones performed? IT House conducted an in-depth experience of Samsung Z Fold4 for the first time. Without further ado, let’s get into the evaluation process.
Appearance
Compared with the previous generation of products, the changes of Samsung Z Fold4 are not big. They are more based on the improvement of experience details, such as the further reduction of the body size, such as the thinner hinge design, and the width of the external screen. The increase and so on, let’s look at them one by one.
Samsung Z Fold4 continues the design language of the previous generation. The long camera module is located on the left side of the fuselage, and the rest is left blank. The edge curvature of the matte glass back is so narrow that it is almost negligible, and the entire back is completely flat. ;
The middle frame also adopts a flat design, but the edges are actually rounded, which avoids the cut-to-hand feeling caused by the right-angled frame; in the folded state, when viewed from the back, the Samsung Z Fold4 has a few more shapes The tough, capable and concise design style is believed to be liked by many people.
In terms of weight and size, the dimensions of Samsung Z Fold4 in the folded state are 67.1 x 155.1 x 15.8 mm (hinge) – 14.2mm (the thinnest part of the side). In the unfolded state, the measurements are 130.1 x 155.1 x 6.3 mm.
Compared with the previous generation, Z Fold4 uses a thinner and lighter hinge, so the weight reaches only 263g. Compared with the previous generation, it is 8g lighter and has the same weight as Xiaomi MIX FOLD2, which is mainly thin and light. 263g, in fact, is about the same weight as a Pro Max with a mobile phone case on, so in terms of experience, it is basically very close to the weight of a traditional candy bar machine.
Let’s take a look at the detailed design.
In the center of the right side of the frame is the fingerprint recognition area, slightly above it is the volume button, and at the bottom is the charging port; on the other half of the body, the upper and lower parts are huge speaker openings; the SIM card is located in the area above the middle frame on the left side; the hinge part is printed with Samsung Logo; It is worth mentioning that the antenna breakpoints on the middle frame of the mobile phone adopt a symmetrical design.
Compared with the previous generation products, the most obvious change of Samsung Z Fold4 is the adjustment of the aspect ratio of the external screen, from the previous 24.5:9 to 23.1:9. Compared with the previous generation products, the external screen size remains 6.2 inches. , the width has increased by 2.7 mm. Therefore, compared with Z Fold3, the external screen of Z Fold4 looks wider and less like a "remote control". The increased width of the external screen also makes the external screen very usable, including watching Douyin and chatting on WeChat on the external screen. The experience is basically close to that of a traditional direct-screen machine.
In terms of screen parameters, when unfolded, the inner screen is 7.6 inches, 21.6:18 display ratio, second-generation dynamic screen, 2176 x 1812 resolution, supports 120Hz adaptive refresh rate; the external screen is also a second-generation dynamic screen, 6.2 inches, 2316 x 904 resolution, supports 120Hz adaptive refresh rate.
In terms of experience, this is still the top folding screen at the moment, and the best screen you can buy for a folding screen phone. On the other hand, the display effect of the inner and outer screens is completely consistent, and there is no sense of fragmentation caused by different screen qualities.
It is worth mentioning that according to an earlier report by IT House, this time Samsung Z Fold4 has a big trick on the screen – the first application of Eco² OLED Plus and UPC Plus technology. According to reports, Eco² OLED Plus uses a new color film material, and the screen light transmittance is as high as 68%. Compared with ordinary OLEDs, the panel power consumption is reduced by 37%, and the light transmittance is increased by 1.6 times. Compared with last year’s Compared with Eco² OLED, Eco² OLED Plus mainly improves the non-polarized low-power technology.
In addition, Z Fold3 and the recently released Xiaomi MIX FOLD2 use Eco² OLED technology.
UPC Plus is an innovative technology that eliminates the camera hole in the display, and its perceived resolution is 1.4 times higher than the previous Z Fold 3.
What is confusing is that compared to these two powerful new technologies, Samsung seems to be much weaker in publicity. On the introduction page of Z Fold4, it does not even mention it at all… This may be… . Dachang… The confidence of Dachang…
After talking about the screen, let’s talk about the hinge and crease issues that everyone is more concerned about.
Since Samsung Z Fold4 does not use the common water drop hinge, but still uses the traditional U-shaped hinge, the two screens cannot fully fit together in the folded state, and the huge gap left by the screen is slightly cheap. The asymmetrical body in the folded state will even give you a product that does not look like a product that sells for more than 10,000 yuan.
Back to the crease.
Compared with water drop hinges, the crease problem is indeed a disadvantage of U-shaped hinges. The former is similar to exchanging the crease area for depth, while the latter is exchanging crease depth for area. Therefore, as far as Samsung Z Fold4 is concerned, the crease problem exists. For example, when a few rays of light shine on a mobile phone screen, you can see the creases, which are particularly obvious when the screen is turned off. Another example is when you slide your finger across the screen, you can feel the deeper creases.
For example, in the two sets of comparison GIFs below, the creases of Xiaomi MIX Fold2 and vivo X Fold, which use water-drop hinges, are not particularly obvious under light, but Samsung’s creases seem to have always existed.
Samsung Z Fold4, vivo X Fold, Xiaomi MIX Fold2 (from left to right)
Samsung Z Fold4 (bottom), vivo X Fold (left), Xiaomi MIX Fold2 (top)
It must be admitted that compared with several recent popular folding screen mobile phones, the creases of Samsung Z Fold4 are relatively obvious, and the screen that cannot be merged is also slightly cheap.
To give an inappropriate example, the creases of folding screens such as vivo and OPPO are like a small mole on the face of a pretty girl. It exists, but it does not affect the girl’s original temperament; for Samsung’s creases In other words, this mole grows in the middle of your forehead. It tells you almost all the time – "I'm here, man". At critical moments, it can always make you feel "awe".
However, I have to say no here. Just because of the crease problem, we cannot deny Samsung’s other leading advantages in hinge technology – for example, Samsung Z Fold4 is IPX8 waterproof. For a folding screen phone with a mechanical structure, it can Waterproofing is impossible without strong manufacturing process support.
Secondly, the hinge of Samsung Z Fold4 can even be hovered at different folding angles like a notebook. For some folding screen products, certain hovering angles are relatively loose and it is easy to "bounce". "Go back, but Samsung does not have this problem. Even at different hovering angles, the damping feeling is the same. It is tough and not loose. This is really amazing.
It is precisely with the powerful hinge technology that Samsung Z Fold4 can really be like a laptop, with half of the screen used for displaying content and the other half of the body used for operation.
Of course, this kind of innovation in the vertical interactive mode is inseparable from Samsung's optimization and updates of the system. This is also the author's favorite point during the period of using Samsung Z Fold4 as the main machine. Next we enter the system interaction link, specifically.
System interaction
Samsung Z Fold4 is the first device to feature 12L, a special version created for large screen experiences including foldable devices.
The national version of Samsung Z Fold4 is equipped with One UI 4.1.1 version, which optimizes a large number of application animations for system fluency and adaptation. Most apps have a "ramen noodle" animation visual when opened. For example, if you open an app on an external screen, the app will slowly enlarge in proportion to the external screen until it fills the entire screen. These detailed optimizations make the entire mobile phone experience very smooth, like butter.
Of course, the most obvious change in One UI 4.1.1 is the addition of a new taskbar at the bottom. When the large screen is expanded, it is similar to the Dock bar layout of Apple Mac. You can pin your commonly used apps to the bottom of the screen. , when you open an application in full screen, these commonly used apps, three major keys, and application collections will be reduced and fixed at the bottom of the screen in the form of a taskbar. Click an app to complete application switching and multitasking. It’s also more intuitive.
For large-screen devices, the operation logic of clicking and opening is very close to the PC experience.
The split-screen experience brought by One UI 4.1.1 to Samsung Z Fold4 is even more excellent.
The first is the operation method. In the full-screen state of an App, drag the App from the taskbar to any area of the screen to complete the split screen in that area.
As shown in the figure below, drag to the bottom of the screen to complete the split screen of upper and lower applications:
Another example is dragging it to the center area on the right side of the screen to complete the split screen of left and right applications; you can even realize three-screen on this screen. For example, drag out an App while the application is split screen. , drag it to which side, that is, a quarter split screen will be achieved this time.
In other words, Samsung Z Fold4 can open up to three applications, allowing three applications to be expanded on the screen at the same time.
In addition, after splitting the screen, if you switch back to the background at this time, the split-screen state of the application will not be destroyed, and the previous split-screen state will remain when you open it again.
As far as the actual experience of IT House is concerned, the split-screen optimization of Samsung Z Fold4 is particularly good, and it can basically adapt to all apps, including the most popular apps produced by IT House, Cloud Calendar, and even some quite niche ones. The benchmark software, which has not been updated for a long time, can easily split the screen up and down, left and right, and into quarters without problems such as screen fragmentation caused by split screen. This is a great addition to the experience.
Of course, regarding the split-screen method, in addition to dragging the app from the bottom as described above, there is a simpler and more crude way. Samsung Z Fold4 provides a two-finger side-sliding method to split the screen. For example, when the app is in full-screen mode, slide two fingers inward from any side of the left, bottom, or right to split the screen at the corresponding position of the app.
In addition, Samsung Z Fold4 also provides a sidebar, which can be called out by swiping sideways. Click the corresponding App to display it in full screen. Drag the App to the corresponding position on the screen to achieve split-screen or small window display.
There is also a very simple and crude way to open the small window of the App. In the full-screen state of the App, drag from the upper left corner or upper right corner of the screen into the screen. At this time, a virtual box will appear. Wherever you drag it, that is, the position will be The size is displayed in a small window.
In the small window state of the App, the maximize, minimize, and close buttons will appear in the upper right corner. Similarly, in the split-screen state, click the status bar above the split-screen application to call out the maximize, minimize, and close buttons. Click the button to perform the corresponding operation. Obviously, in terms of large-screen interaction, Samsung Z Fold4 is very close to a PC-level experience.
In addition to split screen and small windows, Samsung Z Fold4 also supports applications to be displayed on the left and right sides of the screen at the same time. Samsung calls it "split screen view", which is similar to Huawei's "parallel view", such as Dianping, DingTalk, and Pin. Commonly used apps such as Duoduo, Taobao, Weibo, QQ, and Zhihu have all been adapted.
Taobao split screen view
Meituan split screen view
However, in terms of experience, there is room for further optimization of the "split screen view" of Samsung Z Fold4. For example, when you open Taobao, it will be displayed in full screen, and click on the secondary page. At this time, the page will be displayed on the right screen, but Occasionally, the screen may be blocked.
Samsung Z Fold4 also has a killer feature for large-screen interaction – the three-dimensional interaction mode, which is Samsung's hover function.
Samsung provides almost all applications with a switch option for stereoscopic interactive mode. After turning on this function, when the phone is in a semi-folded stereoscopic state, the application will be displayed on the upper half of the phone's screen, while the lower half of the screen will provide a touch screen. Control panel for operation.
For example, when you open a video app, the upper half of the screen is used for content display, and the lower half displays a touchpad, including buttons for screenshots, brightness settings, volume settings, etc. There is even a touch panel on the far right. Click the control panel button to bring up the trackpad, and there is even a small mouse. You can use Samsung Z Fold4 like a laptop.
Although this virtual touchpad seems a bit useless or has few application scenarios, the operation of Samsung Z Fold4 also gives the folding screen mobile phone endless imagination – for example, if a virtual keyboard is added OTA, this It’s completely like a laptop!
What's more, in hover mode, you can also perform split-screen operations. For example, the upper half is used for content display, and the lower half is used to open a note-taking app, or WeChat, etc., while watching videos, One side is used for the other, which can be said to fully utilize the advantages of this large screen.
On One UI 4.1.1, Samsung provides a laboratory function, which is located in Settings-Advanced Functions. Functions including three-dimensional interaction, split-screen view and other functions introduced above are all in this laboratory. Click on the corresponding function, and there will be Corresponding introduction and illustrations. For ordinary consumers, there will be a short learning cost in the early stage, but the difficulty of getting started is not too high. Once you are familiar with the large-screen interactive system of Samsung Z Fold4, it is really "hard to get back once you use it" .
In fact, the author also experienced a "turning" process during the period of using Samsung Z Fold4. At the beginning, when I started using Z Fold4, I had rounded design icons, the traditional three diamond keys, and complex The setting interface always reminds me of the sour feeling I had when I used HTC, and I feel a bit resistant. However, once I became familiar with this set of large-screen interactions, it immediately became "really fragrant". Whether it was the animation effects or the adaptation of split-screen applications, I could see that Samsung had really put its heart into it, and this kind of large-screen interface that is very close to a PC The screen interaction method is very worthy of learning and reference by friends and businessmen.
Performance experience
In terms of configuration, Samsung Z Fold4 is equipped with a 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, supplemented by 12GB of RAM and 1TB of internal storage (maximum), with a built-in battery that supports 25W fast charging + 15W wireless charging. And supports Wi-Fi 6, USB 3.0, Bluetooth 5.2, AKG Dual Yang, NFC, S-Pen, dual nano-SIM, etc.
All Samsung Z Fold4 series are equipped with 12GB storage as standard. The following is mainly the 12+512GB version obtained by IT Home to see how the performance of the new flagship is.
Note: Benchmarks and game tests are all tested on a large screen.
As shown in the figure below, the Samsung Z Fold4 AnTuTu overall score reached 10.0 points, which is within the normal level of Snapdragon 8+.
In the flash memory performance test, the writing speed of Samsung Z Fold4 reached /s, and the reading speed even reached /s, which shows the ceiling of UFS 3.1;
3D Mark focuses more on the theoretical performance of the GPU. In the Wild Life test project, Samsung Z Fold4 scored a total of 10559, with an average frame rate of 63.20fps, which is still the ceiling level:
In the Wild Life Test project, Samsung Z Fold4 achieved a stability of 66.2%. Compared with competitors with aggressive performance tuning, Samsung Z Fold4 is slightly "conservative".
In terms of running scores, Samsung Z Fold4 scored 1289 points in single-core and 4062 points in multi-core, which is the normal performance level of Snapdragon 8+.
(Different models have different performance adjustments, and the above running scores are for reference only)
Judging from the running scores, Samsung Z Fold4 should be slightly more conservative in adjusting the performance of Snapdragon 8+. In extreme scenarios, it may pay more attention to the control of body temperature. Of course, the overall performance release is theoretically very high. s level.
In terms of actual combat, IT House used the "Genshin Impact" game to test Samsung Z Fold4.
The old rules are still the same. It is still 30 minutes of the highest quality "Genshin Impact". The test environment is an air-conditioned room with an indoor temperature of about 25°C. The game test scene is outdoor map running + fighting monsters. The combat scene accounts for about 40% of the total game time. Passed the internal screen play test.
(Genshin Impact image quality settings are as above)
As shown in the figure below, the average frame rate of Samsung Z Fold4 reached 54.36fps, with a maximum value of 61fps and a minimum value of 19fps:
(Samsung Z Fold4 Genshin Impact 30-minute frame rate 54.36fps)
During the game, there has been no lock screen frame drop throughout the entire process, but in battle scenes, the frame rate will fluctuate between 40-55fps, with a slight frame drop visible to the naked eye, but not much, and the frame rate is basically maintained throughout the game. Above 45fps, the overall game performance is still acceptable.
Let's take a look at the power consumption performance. In the "Genshin Impact" game, Samsung Z Fold4 reached 4.751W. This power consumption performance is very low among the Snapdragon 8+ flagship models. After all, the original power consumption is very low. The average frame rate is also slightly lower by about 3fps. It can be seen that in some high-intensity gaming environments, the performance release of Samsung Z Fold4 tends to be conservatively adjusted, paying more attention to performance in aspects such as power consumption and temperature.
(Samsung Z Fold4 Genshin Impact power consumption)
In terms of temperature, the measured maximum temperature of Samsung Z Fold4 is only 42.5°C, located in the camera area on the back. This temperature control performance is already quite good. After all, the larger body and heat dissipation area are obviously more advantageous in high-intensity gaming scenarios.
Overall, the overall performance of Samsung Z Fold4 is online. Although it is not particularly wild in terms of performance release, it still has 12GB of large memory and Snapdragon 8+. The so-called skinny camel is bigger than a horse, no matter how tall it is. Whether it is intensive gaming or daily use, the performance of Samsung Z Fold4 is not a problem.
In terms of battery life, the battery of Samsung Z Fold4, based on the author's actual experience, was that when I went out at 8 o'clock in the morning, at 6 o'clock the next morning, the battery remaining was 9%. During this process, the screen-on time is 5 hours and the screen-off time is 17 hours. The screen-on time includes no less than 30 minutes of photography, short videos, games, and benchmark tests, and nearly 60 minutes of navigation, etc., which is a medium-to-high-intensity level of use. As far as the author's personal experience is concerned, the battery life performance of Samsung Z Fold4 is quite good. After all, the internal screen is basically used throughout the whole process, which can meet the daily battery life requirements of ordinary users.
Image performance
Samsung Z Fold4 has a total of 5 cameras, including a 10-megapixel selfie lens on the outer screen, a 4-megapixel under-screen camera on the inner screen, and three rear cameras, namely:
12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens
F2.2, pixel size: 1.12μm, FOV: 123˚
50-megapixel wide-angle lens
Full pixel dual-core focusing, optical image stabilization, F1.8, pixel size: 1.0μm, FOV: 85˚
10-megapixel telephoto lens
PDAF phase focusing, F2.4, optical image stabilization, pixel size: 1.0μm, FOV: 36˚
Among them, the telephoto lens supports 30x spatial zoom including 3x optical zoom.
Let’s first take a look at the camera on the inner screen. Compared with the previous generation product, the resolution of the camera area under the screen of Samsung Z Fold4 is higher. Therefore, only visually, the “gauze” effect of Samsung Z Fold4 is lower. a lot of. In most scenarios, the existence of this camera can basically be ignored.
Let’s take a look at the selfie effect of this under-screen camera. As shown in the picture below, the sample on the left is taken by the under-screen camera, and the sample on the right is taken by the front-facing external screen. Judging from the first impression, the color of the outer screen sample is more natural, while the inner screen is obviously a little redder, like the beautification effect of some earlier mobile phones, with more serious smear marks.
Internal screen front-facing shooting, external screen front-facing shooting
If we zoom in, compared to the 10-megapixel front camera, the 4-megapixel under-screen camera also has the disadvantage of insufficient resolution. For example, the collar in the picture below has basically lost all the details.
Internal screen front-facing shooting, external screen front-facing shooting
But this is not a problem, because after all, this camera sacrifices image quality in exchange for a more complete screen display. Moreover, Samsung Z Fold4 has two front cameras, and the inner screen is used for daily video calls. It is completely sufficient for scenes such as meetings and conferences.
After talking about these two front lenses, let’s take a look at the rear imaging experience of Samsung Z Fold4.
First upload the sample, let everyone feel it:
Main photographer
super wide angle
Ultra wide angle, backlight
Main photo, backlight
3X telephoto
Main photo, night scene
3X telephoto
From a hardware perspective, Samsung Z Fold4 basically continues the set of three cameras on the S22+, but the color style is not the same.
For example, in a well-lit environment, the direct photos taken by Samsung Z Fold4 have very bright colors and look beautiful. The beautiful range here includes transparent and bright pictures, lively and textured colors, and this seemingly bright color orientation is not a "saturation warrior" style. If you use too much force, the picture will feel unclean. Samsung's control over colors is very relaxed and in line with everyone's "memory colors", so the overall viewing experience is also very high.
Secondly, whether it is ultra-wide angle, main camera, or telephoto, they all show basically consistent color performance.
Another thing that impressed me deeply is that Samsung Z Fold4 has extremely exaggerated HDR performance. For example, in the above sets of backlight proofs, the strong light of the sun is suppressed, and the details of the clouds in the sky outside the strong light are still preserved. Dark details such as distant leaves are also preserved. Even this kind of super HDR performance is not exclusive to the main camera. The ultra-wide angle also has similar performance. Of course, the disadvantage of this kind of violent HDR is that in some scenes, objects outside of strong light will have a small halo around them, which makes them look unnatural.
In the night environment, the direct-viewing performance of Samsung Z Fold4 is also excellent, the look and feel is also clean and transparent, the highlight control is acceptable, and there is very little noise in the sky. However, in some slightly dark environments, the night mode will be automatically turned on, with a long exposure of about 2-3 seconds. This is a bit like the "3-second night scene". If the light is not enough, the "night scene" will be called immediately. At this time You can't shake your hands, otherwise the photo will be blurry, so it's obviously not suitable for capturing scenes. If you can compress the long exposure time a little more, the experience will be better.
Of course, if you don’t like this automatic night scene, you can go to the camera settings and turn off the “Scene Optimizer”. Another point to note is that the ultra-wide angle of Samsung Z Fold4 does not support 4K 60fps or 1080P 60fps video recording. We hope that it can be supported through OTA upgrade in the future.
Summarize:
To evaluate Samsung Z Fold4 from the perspective of a product, it is not an exaggeration to describe it as a top-notch folding flagship, such as the thin and light body design, benchmark screen display, hardware quality, and the perfection of the large-screen experience, human nature These are the leading advantages of Samsung Z Fold4.
The only disadvantage may be the unfriendly crease, but Samsung Z Fold4 also brings IPX8 waterproof capabilities and an excellent hovering experience that friends can’t even imagine.
For consumers, this seems to be a multiple-choice question rather than a true-false question.
What Samsung Z Fold4 brings is an experience of using the phone that is “showy on the inside and perfect on the outside”. To put it more bluntly, Samsung Z Fold4 is a product with its own temperament. In the comparison of products, it may not impress you at the first time, and it may not post some exaggerated "black technology seasoning" to stimulate your taste buds, but if you are interested in the folding screen flagship, or If you have enough budget, choose Z Fold4. I believe the experience it brings is worthy of the starting price of more than 10,000 yuan.
