Tech Deck Tricks: Samsung Galaxy Fold 5: Features The Next Foldable Desperately Needs To Have

The first mainstream foldable smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Fold, was released in 2011. Released in 2019. Since then, Samsung has grown steadily every year. August 2022, the leaflet market grows by more than 62%. The company has yet to make a promising announcement that it expects more than 50% of smartphone shipments to be foldable devices in the coming years. That's also possible with the $1,800 starting price of the Galaxy Z Fold 4, which can be called the sleekest foldable on the market.

The problem is that the competitors are starting to get crowded. While Samsung is the pioneer and has the best display technology, almost every smartphone manufacturer offers at least one foldable device. The exceptions are Apple, which has fueled rumors of foldable devices for years with no sign of a prototype, and Google, which reportedly has a foldable Pixel in the works. Many other Android makers and their sub-brands, Oppo, Xiaomi and Huawei, have devices ready to support the Fold lineup after having their products certified outside of China.

Making the Galaxy Z Fold 5 the best foldable yet, we have some ideas for how Samsung will fare in the foldable market.

Fewer Samsung apps

The year is 2023 and Samsung is still insisting on reinventing leading Android apps and branding them as its own. This may be because the company sees Apple's iPhone as the main competitor to other Android makers. Or why your app store can take a percentage of the apps people download that would otherwise go to Google. This includes in-app purchases like Epic Games' most popular game, Fortnite. Since the developer refuses to pay Google and Apple for all in-app purchases, the only place to get the game is the Galaxy Store.

Use only standard Android apps to free up more memory. According to AppBrain, you are the leading Android smartphone maker, with more than double the market share of next competitor Xiaomi.

Android is quite fragmented with each manufacturer using different components and designs in updated versions of Android. Users don't need Samsung Internet Browser, Samsung Music, Bixby or Samsung Mail - all they need is usable storage and plenty of space. Allow Google to develop native Android apps and save money on development.

Q. Where is the pen kept?

Samsung might please many fans by offering an internal silo to house the S Pen when it launches the Galaxy Z Fold 5. The S Pen holder is included in the Fold 3 and Fold 4, but you don't need buy a case to store the stylus in. optical.

Oh, and a stylus should be included. Those who want a foldable device will pay an extra $50 (or more) for the S Pen, while early adopters will pay $1,800. Galaxy S23 Ultra buyers didn't have to pay extra for the stylus; They don't even have to be tongue twisters.

Enter the location on level 5 to store S23 Ultra Style. This isn't about stealing Ultra's sales; Phablet fans won't be getting fins anytime soon. This chills frustrated Fold fans who had to put a grip on the Fold to put the S Pen in their pocket. The S Pen must also be used on the cover screen. Only the Fold 3 or 4's internal screen works with the stylus. The external display is the perfect size for writing short notes, for which you can use the S Pen.

no cream

Samsung is at the top of the display game, but the Fold series is holding it back. Redraw all 5 layers to reduce screen creases or find a way to remove creases completely. The competition already uses teardrop hinges which allow the flexible AMOLED panels to fold over the folded part and flatten the two halves.

Oppo, Huawei, and Xiaomi use this type of zipper to make their phones slim and flat so they slip easily into pockets and purses. Samsung has retained the traditional hinge that maintains the space between the screen halves when folded. This hinge had issues with the original hinge, which led to the recall of the first batch and the delay of the larger version that followed.

In 2022, we learned that Samsung is experimenting with bendable waterdrop designs for its capes. The company decided against using these designs for one main reason: it reduced the possibility of reversing the water heater. This meant losing the IPX8 waterproof rating, which Samsung was unwilling to do. It seems something has changed since that report. Famous leaker Ice Universe recently said that the Galaxy Z Fold 5 will use a teardrop design and fold completely when closed. It also reduces the scaling effect, improves the look of the internal screen, and feels better when typing, scrolling, and typing.

360 degree screen

Each generation of Galaxy Fold only folds one way so the screen fits into the fold. Given how complicated it is to create a self-contained foldable screen, limiting it to just tilting in one direction was probably a smart move at first. We've seen short tech demos from companies like Xiaomi with foldable displays in many places, but it hasn't become a consumer product yet. This shouldn't be the case with the Galaxy Fold 5.

Samsung Display has AMOLED screens and the devices can be bent in any direction to have S-Bend, or they can be bent inward or outward in the same position. Z Fold S is said to have a 360 degree hinge that can fold to either side. Samsung Display has pushed AMOLED so its new panels can bend and slide.

This technology, called Flex Hybrid, enlarges the internal screen, occupying the same space when folded and unfolded. The current prototype measures 10.5 inches with a 4:3 aspect ratio or 12.4 inches with a 16:10 aspect ratio, making it significantly larger than the Fold 5, but it doesn't there's no reason why Samsung can't discount this technology. pocket book.

slim design

The rest of the foldable market is coming out with thinner and lighter phones – the Galaxy Fold 5 is expected to follow suit. The current Galaxy Z Fold 4 weighs 263 grams. Compared to 8.25 ounces (234g) for Samsung's next biggest screen, the Galaxy S23 Ultra, the Galaxy Fold 4 weighs a full ounce, adding to all-day portability. Samsung is looking for a way to make the next Fold smaller. Otherwise the race continues. Samsung's main selling point here is that most companies that make foldable phones only release them in China.

It's starting to change. Oppo's recently launched Find N2 is foldable and features a 7.1-inch display with the same resolution as the Galaxy Fold 4. The Oppo Find N2 weighs 8.2 ounces (230g), less than the Galaxy S23 Ultra and significantly smaller than the Galaxy Z. 4 layers

One of the ways Samsung has reduced weight and thickness is by redesigning the band to use a teardrop shape, as mentioned above. This change reduces the thickness from 3mm to 13mm when closed. A thinner hinge requires less metal, which slightly reduces the weight of the device.

Better battery life

Another thing Samsung could improve on the Fold 5 is battery life. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 has a capacity of 4400 mAh and is divided into two halves of the device. That's enough for day-to-day use in our recent test, short for watching lots of videos or playing games. This battery capacity is comparable to other devices in this market segment. Oppo Find N2 uses a 4520 mAh battery, Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 uses a 4500 mAh battery, and Huawei Mate Xs 2 uses a 4600 mAh battery.

The space in the device limits the capacity of the battery in the folding range. While the two halves of the device offer plenty of space for battery capacity, the rest of the hardware inside takes up more space as it's split between the two compartments. Samsung could improve things without increasing the battery by using a more efficient processor or finding other ways to reduce water leaks. Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 in the Fold 4 has significantly improved battery life over the previous generation.

The new Snapdragon chips used in the Galaxy Z Fold 5 further improve efficiency, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 offers a 60% improvement in power per watt.

Quick charge

Samsung is one of the few Android smartphone makers that doesn't support triple-digit fast charging speeds. Instead, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is limited to 25W with USB-C and 15W fast wireless charging. Samsung's other flagship, the Galaxy S23 Ultra, packs a 5,000mAh battery and supports Charges 45W wired fast charging. Bringing the charging loops from the S23 Ultra to the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is a step in the right direction to make the foldable more useful throughout the day for productivity or content consumption.

Samsung can go further if it wishes. Apple may be content to limit fast power to 27W on the iPhone 14 Pro, but that beats all Android competition. The OnePlus 11 5G has an 80W charger in the US market and 100W SuperVOOC in the rest of the world. Tom's Guide tested the OnePlus 11 against the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which is a great comparison since both have 5,000mAh batteries.

According to the test, the OnePlus 80W charger took 15 minutes to charge 57% of the battery, while the S23 Ultra only charged 31% of the battery. The OnePlus 11 was at 97% after 15 minutes, while the S23 Ultra was only at 57%. It makes a big difference in how long you want to be online.

The best secondary cameras

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 has a 50-megapixel f/1.8 wide-angle lens. That's probably enough, and you don't need to use the Galaxy S22 Ultra or the 108-megapixel 200-megapixel sensor. Galaxy S23 Ultra sensor. According to a report by Vietnamese magazine The Pixel, the company could do this with an additional 108-megapixel camera instead of the 50-megapixel sensor. Not the right camera to focus on, the secondary cameras deserve more detail for this generation's disappointment.

The Fold 4 has a 12-megapixel 123-degree ultra-wide-angle field of view, an f/2.2 lens and a 10-megapixel telephoto lens with OIS and 3x optical zoom. This new report also mentions the secondary cameras, the telephoto lens has been replaced by a 64 megapixel sensor, an f/2.4 lens and a 2x optical zoom with dual pixel PDAF focusing. The super wide-angle sensor seems unchanged.

We're not sure if the 2x optical zoom is enough, although it's nice to have more megapixels to play with. One of our criticisms of the Fold 4 is that the digital zoom is "incredibly painful". Maybe instead of upping the megapixels, Samsung could increase the optical zoom range to 4x or more, or maybe Sony's new varifocal telephoto lens used on the Xperia I IV.

Refresh (or disable) the under-screen camera.

For the Galaxy Z Fold 5, we'd like to see the under-display selfie camera disappear. Tried, tested and desirable. Don't think 4 megapixels isn't enough these days. A smear on an AMOLED screen is just as annoying as the pixels that you think could stop working at any moment. It's improved over the under-screen camera used in the Fold 3, but not by much, and Samsung still uses a punch-hole selfie camera on the front display where it doesn't mind damaging the AMOLED.

Samsung already knows it needs to improve the quality of the under-display camera. According to Elec, Samsung Display is working to replace the yellow polyimide film that makes flexible OLED screens transparent. This improves light transmission to the camera sensor under the display, but early indications are that it won't be ready until the Galaxy Z Fold 6 launches.

Another reason why Samsung solved this problem is iPhone. Apple wants to bury the Face ID sensors and selfie camera under the screen of the next iPhone, possibly the iPhone 16. Samsung, the iPhone screen maker, needs a more transparent substrate so that facial recognition sensors are working properly. Apple standards.

More storage space

With the launch of the Galaxy S23 series, Samsung released a new storage module called UFS 4.0. These new modules claim speeds of 23.2 Gbps per lane, compared to 11.6 Gbps for UFS 3.1. This increase means read speeds of 2100 Mbps to 4200 Mbps and 1200 Mbps to 2800 Mbps respectively. These are impressive numbers for a 46% increase in power efficiency, even without impacting actual use.

Read and write speeds are important, especially when dealing with large files created by high megapixel cameras. A more important consideration for these large files is how you store them. The Fold 4 has 256GB, 512GB and 1TB storage options and does not add UFS 4.0 because the maximum storage capacity is limited to 1TB. If this happens, Samsung will not be able to add more storage to the Fold 5. This can make upgrading or replacing cheaper. Storage options start at 512 GB and end at 1 TB. GB.

Another thing Samsung can do is remove bloat from Android ROM. As Ars Technica explains, Samsung's version of the Android operating system takes up 25GB of space on the 512GB Galaxy S23. That's four times more than Google's 128GB Pixel devices running Android. It is a 19 GB piece to be cut, which gives more space to the user.

Low price

When Samsung introduced the first Galaxy Fold in 2019, it started with an affordable price of $1,980. The latest device, the Galaxy Fold 4, starts at $1,800 for 256GB of storage and goes up to $2,160 for 1TB of internal storage. That's a lot of money to pay, even for a smartphone that bends perfectly in the middle. Samsung can reduce its margin a bit and gain more market share. It also reduces the hurdles customers have to navigate to get the best deal on the Fold 5.

At the time of the Fold 4's launch, Samsung was offering several pre-order deals that made the foldable even more affordable. These include a free upgrade to the 512GB storage option if you buy the 256GB Fold 4 directly from Samsung's online store. Free coverage and up to $1,000 in business credit are also included. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 alone has a total retail value of $1,000.

Samsung also offered hundreds of dollars in Samsung Credit, which can only be used on other devices purchased after the Galaxy Z Fold 4. It's still technically a discount, but only when you go over the numbers of sale of Samsung with accessories and other devices. . We want to see lower costs first; Even the $100 difference was worth it.

better screens

Samsung makes some of the best OLED screens in the industry and devices that rival it. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 features "bright and colorful" AMOLED displays inside and out with a 120Hz refresh rate and high pixel density. These flexible displays are developed by Samsung Screen, which places the OLED transistor and organic light-emitting layers on a PI substrate instead of the previous method. This flexibility is used in foldable devices and edge-to-edge screen phones, such as the Galaxy S line and Apple iPhones.

This is the case with flexible screens that use laminated AMOLEDs. Samsung's display features QD-OLED, which offers better color accuracy, lower power consumption and better viewing angles. Currently available QD-OLED panels are not suitable for foldable devices because they have two glass substrates, one for the TFT layer and one for the quantum dot film.

That's about to change, as Korean publication The Elec reports that Samsung is working on removing the layer of glass needed for the display's quantum dot coating. That still leaves a layer of glass for the TFT layer, but brings Samsung closer to using QD-OLED in flexible devices. The company will be able to apply its knowledge of using PI substrates to new display technology to bring bendable quantum dot OLEDs to market.

A new user interface solves

The Fold 4 added a handy taskbar to the internal display for multitasking. This desktop-style taskbar contains pinned and recently used apps, ready to drag onto your home screen to launch home screen mode. This allows two or three applications to appear on the screen at the same time and improves productivity. The Fold 4 runs Android 12L, a custom version of Android optimized by Google to work best on tablets and foldable devices. It is not clear if the base will be based on Android 12L, so it will not appear in previous bases.

What's clear is that Samsung has yet to create an interesting use case for why consumers want a foldable phone. If the external screen isn't already protected, it wouldn't make sense to protect the screen while it's folded. Apps still work like any smartphone, the main difference being that the Fold is in Flex mode.

Samsung leans on the layering difference and offers UI rake apps tailored to your use. Like the Microsoft Surface Duo 2, the Kindle app can turn into an e-book when opened. or a digital representation of the typewriter when a word processing application is open. Thing is, Samsung was interested in the foldable display, but played it relatively safe with the software that runs on it. Now is the time to be bold in both.

Read this next: Android 12 Hidden Features You Probably Didn't Know About

Will Apple release a foldable iPhone? It's too late?

Labels: Samsung

Tech Deck Tricks

Wednesday, March 8, 2023

Samsung Galaxy Fold 5: Features The Next Foldable Desperately Needs To Have