Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 Review – Is this the best flagship foldable of 2024?

Since the first Galaxy Z Fold debuted in 2019, Samsung has steadily refined the performance, durability and design of their flagship foldable series to retain its position as the premier flagship foldable phone. For the new Galaxy Z Fold6 they’ve refined the formula in a number of subtle yet critical ways.

We managed to get our hands on a Galaxy Z Fold6 review sample at launch and after sharing our first impressions and having put it through its paces – here’s what we think of their sixth generation flagship foldable!

@hitechcentury We unbox the all new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 in a stunning Navy colourway. It is now on preorder in Malaysia with general availability after 24 July 2024. #samsung #tech #fyp #techtok #sembanggadget #malaysia #samasamabelajar #foldable #galaxyzfold6 #withgalaxy #galaxyai #LearnOnTikTok #asmr #samsungunpacked ♬ original sound – Hitech Century

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 Review – Lighter, Slimmer and Tougher

We previously shared our Galaxy Z Fold6 first impressions in our prior feature. In essence, the Fold6 is a more refined, lighter version of the earlier Fold5, weighing 14g lighter while being 2.7mm wider, 1.4mm shorter and having a slightly larger front cover display by 0.1-inches.

@hitechcentury We get a firsthand look at the all new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 that is slimmer, lighter and has a wider cover screen than the Galaxy Z Fold5 while packing more powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy processors too. #galaxyai #withgalaxy #galaxyzfold6 #samsung @samsungmalaysia #tech #fyp #techtok #sembanggadget #malaysia #samasamabelajar #foldable #snapdragon8gen3 ♬ France Accordion Swing – MIZUSATO Masaki

The phone also retains the same tough Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the cover display and backplate while featuring improved Armor Aluminium on the frame along with a redesigned and sturdier hinge. It also gets an improved IP48 dust and water resistance rating.

All this results in a flagship foldable that feels lighter than any other Fold series phone before it while having better tactility and heft. The hardware is also exceptionally well appointed on every front. Here’s how it stacks up on paper:

Price	RM7,299 (256GB), RM7,899 (512GB), RM9,099 (1TB)
Display	6.3-inch HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X (2,376 x 968 pixels), 1-120Hz refresh rate, 22.1:9 aspect ratio, 410 ppi [front Cover display] | 7.6-inch QXGA+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X Infinity Flex (2,160 x 1,856 pixels), 1-120Hz refresh rate, 20.9:18 aspect ratio, 374 ppi [main folding display]
Processor	Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy
OS	Android 14 w/ One UI 6.1.1 [7 years OS & security updates]
Memory	12GB LPDDR5X RAM | 256GB/512GB/1TB storage
Cameras	10MP F/2.2 [cover display camera], 4MP F/1.8 [under display camera], 50MP F/1.8 Dual Pixel autofocus w/ OIS + 12MP F/2.2 ultra wide angle camera +10MP F/2.4 telephoto w/ PDAF and OIS w/ 3x optical zoom and 30x Space Zoom [main camera]
Battery	4,400mAh w/ 25W wired fast charging, 15W wireless charging, reverse wireless charging
Size/Weight	68.1 x 153.5 x 12.1mm [folded[, 132.6 x 153.5 x 5.6mm [unfolded] / 239g

The phone also runs on the latest Android 14 with OneUI 6.1.1 overlaying it which has a number of Galaxy AI updates. One UI 6.1.1 also has the ability to assign up to 8GB of virtual RAM Plus off the onboard storage though this can be dialled down to just 2GB if you’re short on space in 2GB increments.

Here’s how our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 review unit with 8GB RAM Plus assigned fares in synthetic benchmarks:

3DMark WIldLife Extreme	3,242
3DMark WIldLife Extreme Unlimited	3,995
3DMark Steel Nomad Light	1,355
3DMark Steel Nomad Light Unlimited	1,224
3DMark Solar Bay	6,591
3DMark Solar Bay Unlimited	6,427
Geekbench 6 Single Core	1,889
Geekbench 6 Multi Core	6,447
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	10,955
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	12,542
PC Mark Work 3.0	17,794
PC Mark Battery Life	19 hours 31 mins

In terms of overall performance, the Galaxy Z Fold6 does not disappoint with benchmarks that closely match what the Galaxy S24 Ultra has to offer and which outpaces its predecessor the Galaxy Z Fold5 by a respectable margin.

In the 3D Mark Steel Nomad Light Unlimited stress test which tests the phone’s capacity to testhandle demanding workloads and heat management, it managed to score a high loop score of 1,344 with the lowest loop score being 984 and enjoying 73.2% stability with temperatures peaking at 40°C.

In comparison, the older Galaxy Z Fold 5 had lower averages, with a best loop score of 966 with the lowest loop score being 762 though it has a higher 78.9% stability. However, temperatures ran hotter on the older phone and were capped at 42°C.

This shows that the vapour chamber in the Fold6  is doing its job by helping to reduce peak temperatures under load with the faster, better performing Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy though the odd lower stability score is likely due to pre-release firmware.

Synthetic benchmarks aside, our Galaxy Z Fold6 review sample blazed through everything thrown at it in terms of paperwork, content creation and editing too. Editing Capcut videos in 4K resolution was a smooth affair and the Fold6’s core strength – heavy multitasking shined as it ran three apps simultaneously on the main screen. Needless to say, web browsing and productivity apps ran smoothly and it was able to comfortably handle Genshin Impact and Warzone Mobile on default settings.

The bump up to 2,600 nits of peak brightness for both the cover and main display is an improvement especially when viewing both screens under direct sunlight and it certainly looks brighter than its predecessor that had a main screen maxing out at 1,750 nits and the cover display at 1,700 nits. Colours on both displays are gorgeous and vibrant. There isn’t much of a reduction in the crease this time around but it’s hardly obvious when in use and is only apparent if the screen is off. 

Battery life is excellent on account of the optimised chipset and even under heavy use it was comfortably able to handle a full workload including heavy camera use and liberal doomscrolling on TikTok with mostly usage of the main cover screen and occasionally flipping over to the main screen. 

In benchmarks, it was able to last a whopping 19 hours and 31 minutes which is an impressive record for any phone. Your mileage will vary of course as heavier use of the main display and demanding tasks like video editing and camera use will likely drain the battery faster. Unfortunately, the Galaxy Z Fold6 still sticks with 25W wired fast charging much like last year’s Fold5 with similar charging speeds which are still respectable but not the fastest in the game.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 Review – New Galaxy AI features

The biggest draw to the Galaxy Z Fold6, its updated Galaxy AI features, work well in specific scenarios though they might not be compelling enough for those who aren’t frequent travellers or who don’t need to interact in a foreign language on a regular basis.

One of the new features showcased is in Samsung Notes, their integrated note-taking app which now has a Sketch to Image function where you can doodle an image with either your fingers or the optional Galaxy Z Fold6 S Pen and then get Galaxy AI to generate an image based on your artistic scrawl.

The image gets uploaded to the cloud and you then get presented with a few interesting options to choose from with the AI able to recognise many landmarks and symbols. While it tends to interpret raw sketches as artistic doodles, it does its best work when adding doodles to existing images. A crudely drawn scrawl showing a white cat resulted in a realistic cat in an existing photo which is quite an impressive feat.

Another usage is Galaxy AI is to create AI-generated portraits of people with your choice of 4 styles – comic, 3D cartoon which makes it look like a Pixar movie, Watercolour and Sketch. It’s certainly entertaining for a lark though it’s not something that would be repeated on a daily basis.

Of value to travellers and linguists is Galaxy AI’s beefed up language translation capabilities. Rather than having to laboriously capture text and then getting it translated in Google Translate, you can simply press the Home button and then press the translate button to interpret whatever is appearing onscreen be it a website in a foreign language or a menu on your camera viewfinder though this requires data to work. Nevertheless, it’s an elegant, effective game changer.

On top of the Call Assist modes that debuted in the Galaxy S24 series phones, the Galaxy Z Fold6 also has a unique feature that takes advantage of its cover and main displays referred to as Interpreter mode. It can operate on a single screen be it the cover or main display but when the Fold6 is folded halfway up, one party can glance at the cover display and the user on the main display to get a real-time transcription of the conversation.

In our tests with a native Korean speaker, it worked like a charm. The other Galaxy AI features like Chat Assist where you can amend the tone of a message and its writing style are all present and especially handy if you’re too tired or busy to write a formal reply. 

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 Review – Cameras

The portion of the Fold6 that experienced the least upgrades are its cameras which are almost identical to its predecessor. You get a 10MP F/2.2 selfie camera on the cover display, a 4MP F/1.8 camera on the main folding display and a rear triple camera array built around a primary 50MP F/1.8 camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS) and dual pixel autofocus.

This is paired with a 12MP F/2.2 ultra wide angle camera and a 10MP F/2.4 telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and OIS. The newest update here is that the 12MP ultra wide angle camera uses a new sensor that offers better performance. 

The rear triple camera array offers snaps with up to 30x space zoom and up to 8K@30fps video while the front 10MP cover display selfie camera offers up to 4K@60fps video. The inner main folding display maxes out at 1080p@60fps video. 

Overall performance is akin to the Galaxy Z Fold5 for the main cameras including telephoto zoom and the selfie cameras. Where the Fold6 gets a minor improvement are its ultrawide cameras with an improved sensor which offered better detail in low light compared to its predecessor.

While it won’t outgun a base Galaxy S24, the Galaxy Z Fold6 still retains a solid setup that covers the bases and can tackle most scenarios.

Should you buy the Galaxy Z Fold6?

The Galaxy Z Fold6 enjoys a conservative array of upgrades that make it lighter, slimmer and wider while offering a slightly larger cover display along with better performance and longer battery life thanks to its more efficient chipset. 

Those who already own a Galaxy Z Fold5 may not find it as compelling an upgrade but those who own an older Fold or own another brand and are looking to own a Fold will find this a worthy acquisition.

While some competing foldables have slimmer chassis or more powerful cameras, the Galaxy Z Fold6 still remains in the lead as the premier business foldable as its tightly integrated hardware and software ensures smooth and reliable performance with OneUI, offers unique Galaxy AI features and has a guaranteed  7 years of OS and security updates.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 review sample courtesy of Samsung Malaysia. To purchase please visit www.samsung.com/my