I thought I’d used that joke somewhere, but this was the closest I could find.
You have to love a good pun, but something fresh is always a little better. In this case it’s Samsung having the cojones to announce the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2.
Yes, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2.
They’re not really getting away from the long-winded naming conventions, but it does seem to work in their favour. People remember what they need to from the name, as much as they remember Samsung’s innovative flair. And flair is of course the very thing the Fold embodies.
Suffice to say the launch for the Fold wasn’t the revolution mobile technology was promised. But what it did represent, was the confidence Samsung had in trusting their product and market. Yes, they may have flip-flopped on volume sold (it changing from 1 million sold to just over 500 thousand a few months later), but you could put this down to bad in-house communications or corporates being corporates. And yes, they did release the Galaxy Z Flip which further reinforced their confidence in the technology, but the Fold 2?
That’s just bravado being poured out the jug.
The Fold 2 is an impressive update from its former. Within the space of a year, they’ve already come up with massive ways to improve upon the Fold. The external screen has somehow jumped from 4.6 inches to a massive 6.2 inches, utilising as much of the space as possible. They also managed to squeeze an extra .3 inches out for the unfolded screen, pushing this up to 7.6 from 7.3. This is all still delivered via Dynamic AMOLED, which I think we all know Samsung does very well. It’s also somehow thinner when folded because of…magic I assume.
The Snapdragon 865+ processor powers the Fold 2, and apparently produces a staggering 25% increase in CPU performance, along with a 20% increase in the GPU. This means the Continuity experience created for the Fold will run even better. The experience which gives users the ability to work across multiple apps on a mobile, means what was once previously left to bigger, more powerful devices has become more portable than ever.
RAM is left the same, but we see storage reduced from 512GB to 256GB with no microSD support. Unfortunate, but I suspect the Fold 2 is working with Enterprise level users in mind. These users would be working with cloud solutions, so local storage wouldn’t be much of an issue. I know, it’s an excuse, but it does make some sense especially with all the dynamic changes the hardware has made. These changes continue across the Fold 2, with the battery increased from 4380 mAh to 4500 mAh and 5G support.
And what about the cameras?
The triple threat is still there, but we see the ultra-wide camera reduced from 16MP to 12MP. But loss in megapixel isn’t a bad thing, as there’s a tonne of other factors to consider. One of the biggest points to note is how well (or terribly) mobile phones capture light, and the Fold 2 is making moves at working better in low-light environments so the 12MP could look much better than the 16 in this case. There’s also a tonne of new additions to how users can shoot. Dual Preview allows the subject to see how they look on camera. Selfies have never been easier thanks to the Fold’s ability to show the external display alongside the rear camera. And the hinge allows new ways to shoot and view images on the fly.
The hinge refined.
The hinge which was part of the original issues for the Fold, has itself already been improved upon twice. Thanks to their refinement with the gear system on the Fold, and then the addition of the sweepers on the Z Flip, the Fold 2 is set to be the best folding experience yet. Protecting the parts which make the magic happen, while making it thinner when folded is a staggering feat. And while they may not have smoothed out the crease which inevitably shows up on screen, the Fold 2 is an impressive release.
I was skeptical about the Fold 2.
But their presentation and improvements to it took me completely by surprise. While the crease is still it’s most glaring issue, the changes they made within 12 months has me excited to see what will come next. And if they land this within the next year, the [extremely Drake voice]:
