Samsung's foldable phone is amazing, but it's still not perfect

• Strip away the outer shell of technology and parameters and explore the origin of design and humanity.

"Your uncle will always be your uncle." This was the most common comment I saw after Samsung's press conference a few days ago. It really shows that Samsung is still leading in terms of technological strength, and is still awesome as always.

A large part of this praise was brought by the folding screen phone. It was the first device to be unveiled at the conference. Although the demonstration lasted less than 15 minutes, only one-third of the length of the Galaxy S10, it did not prevent it from becoming the most eye-catching focus of the night.

Of course, as everyone has questioned, foldable phones still have many potential problems. Samsung's Galaxy Fold is no exception. Based on the information that has been released so far, let's take a look at where it has been improved and what parts are not perfect.

Excellent hinge design

A major selling point of foldable screen mobile phones is that they are "foldable", because they solve the contradiction between "people's desire for larger display screens" and "large screens will inevitably lead to larger device sizes, so portability will be sacrificed."

Of course, the emergence of flexible screens allows us to see the idea of ​​folding the screen, which is why foldable screen mobile phones appear. The problem lies in how the folding structure should be handled.

Previous folding screen phones have not done well in this regard. For example, the flexible hinge of the FlexPai cannot fit the upper and lower layers of the structure together well. If you look at it from the side, there will be a large gap in the bent part.

We have to mention Microsoft's Surface Book here. Since the screen can be removed and used as a tablet, it will be heavier than the screen of a traditional notebook.

In order to allow the base to better support the screen, the development team designed a carpet-style hinge as a bearing point, but this structure is destined to prevent the upper and lower layers from closing well.

The current hinge design of FlexPai is actually very similar to Microsoft's hinge. The reason for this may also be related to the screen.

Let’s first take a look at the Axon M launched by ZTE. It is defined as a dual-screen mobile phone, so it consists of two separated screens, which means there will be a seam in the middle for connection.

Therefore, it can use a very traditional hinge design like a notebook, completely closing the left and right layers together.

But foldable screen phones are different. Whether you choose the external folding version of Royole or the internal folding version of Samsung, you will see a whole display screen when unfolded, which puts forward new requirements for the strength and durability of the screen.

After all, in the past, screens could not be "folded" like newspapers or books. Their structure and selected materials determined that they did not provide the conditions for "folding".

Of course, if you force yourself to stack them, the result might look like this.

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Let's see how Samsung did it. According to Samsung, they invented a new polymer protective layer, which is a plastic film material that makes the screen more resilient and durable, solves the problem of brittleness, and is 50% thinner than the screens used in traditional mobile phones.

In addition, Samsung has also put a lot of effort into the hinge structure. Its interior is an interlocking gear design, and from the demonstration diagram, it looks more like the left and right layers are nested in the middle hinge structure.

Therefore, when closed, although some gaps can still be seen in the middle, compared with the FlexPai which chooses soft hinges, the problem of excessive R angle after closing has basically been solved.

There is another detail here. When you unfold the Fold, you cannot see the hinge and Samsung Logo on the back of the phone. At this time, it is hidden inside the left and right back panels; only when you fold it up again will the hinge part in the middle be exposed.

Before seeing the real phone, I dare not say that Samsung has completely solved the screen crease problem of the folding screen, but its hinge design is definitely the best one at this stage.

Do third-party apps need to be adapted for foldable phones?

In foldable screen state, do mobile phone applications need to be re-adapted? This is related to the user experience, but Samsung and Google have already provided a set of solutions.

One is Google, which proposed a feature called "Screen Continuity" last year, which mainly allows Android applications to adapt to screens of different sizes and proportions.

For example, if you open the Youku or Bilibili video app on a foldable phone, you can browse and watch it like a tablet when it is unfolded; but when you fold the screen, the app will switch to a small-size display mode like the phone.

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But what if the app only has a mobile version and no adaptation work is done? Samsung plans to solve this problem through a multi-window approach.

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There was a demonstration like this at the press conference: the presenter was watching a Youtube video, then he swiped to the right from the edge to call out a Dock bar, and selected the WhatsApp chat app. After the app was opened, it automatically filled to the right side of the screen. At this time, the two apps were displayed side by side.

Next, he went on to open the browser app, which was placed at the bottom right of the screen.

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If you think the browser window is too small, you can simply drag the window to switch the display position.

In fact, this interaction method is very similar to window management software such as Magnet in Mac. The core is to achieve the purpose of tiling multiple task windows on the same screen through automatic segmentation of multiple blocks. Friends who have used iPad Pro should also be familiar with this interaction.

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According to Samsung, Fold can support the simultaneous display of up to three apps when unfolded. But can it break the boundaries between apps? For example, files, pictures or links can be transferred between any two apps? This still needs to be answered in the future.

There is nothing to complain about the configuration.

In order to build its flagship, Samsung used all the best components it could find on this Galaxy Fold folding screen phone.

One is the chip. The Galaxy Fold configuration table states that it is equipped with a 64-bit 7nm architecture octa-core processor, which can basically be identified as Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 or Samsung's own Exynos series.

In terms of storage combination, in addition to 12GB LPDDR4x RAM, it also uses up to 512GB of UFS 3.0 flash memory. Its access speed is twice as fast as the UFS 2.1 used by the current mainstream flagship phones, which is very helpful for large-capacity storage operations and shooting ultra-high-definition videos.

In terms of cameras, Samsung has equipped the Galaxy Fold with six cameras. The camera on the external screen is mainly used for simple selfies and videos, the dual cameras on the internal screen can meet further selfie needs, and the back is a standard "wide-angle + telephoto + ultra-wide-angle" triple-camera combination.

The combination of six cameras may seem very luxurious, but in fact it is a trade-off of some structures. For example, the inner screen has an extra "side bangs" because of the dual-camera structure. In addition, the front cameras of the inner and outer screens actually solve the same need. Can this be accomplished with only one set of cameras in the future?

The external screen size and ratio are very "non-mainstream"

According to Samsung's official statement, the Galaxy Fold's external screen uses a 4.6-inch Super AMOLED screen. Judging from the size alone, it may be associated with the previous iPhone 6/7/8 which was equipped with a 4.7-inch screen.

But the two cannot be said to be completely the same, the difference lies in their respective proportions. In fact, the screens of iPhone 6/7/8 use the traditional 16:9 ratio, and even the full-screen iPhone X without the forehead and chin is close to 18:9, while the ratio of Samsung's secondary screen is 21:9, which is what we commonly call "fish screen".

Being narrow and long does not mean that this screen is comfortable to use. In fact, the ultra-wide screen is more suitable for watching videos and playing games. But considering the existence of the internal screen, I think this external screen is more used to solve light task needs rather than for audio and video entertainment.

In addition, the 4.6-inch screen size itself is also very awkward. For consumers who are already accustomed to large-screen phones of about 5-6 inches, it is difficult to convince them to use a small screen.

What's more, even if Samsung chose such a narrow and long screen, the display space of the external screen still cannot fill the entire front of the body, which makes the Galaxy Fold look more like a product of the feature phone era when in a closed state.

It can only be said that Samsung chose this awkward outer screen size and ratio more to take care of the inner screen. After all, if the width of the outer screen is increased, the area of ​​the inner screen after unfolding will also become larger, which will pose a new challenge to the weight and size of the whole machine.

Unofficial weight and thickness

These two indicators are also one of the main complaints about current foldable screen mobile phones.

We can take a look at the FlexPai phone previously launched by Royole Technology. Its official thickness is marked as 7.6mm, but in fact this is the "thickness after unfolding". If the left and right parts are closed, the thickness of the whole machine will increase to 15mm, which is basically equivalent to stacking two mainstream mobile phones together.

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Another one is the ZTE Axon M dual-screen mobile phone, which has a thickness of 12.1mm when closed.

As for weight, the FlexPai weighs 320g, which is roughly equivalent to the weight of an Apple iPad mini 4. Last year's Xperia XZ2 Premium, which was said to be "half a pound," weighs only 236g, while the ZTE Axon M dual-screen phone weighs 230g.

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So, can Galaxy Fold keep its weight and thickness within a more reasonable range? It’s hard to say before Samsung’s official announcement. Considering that Fold can bring the left and right layers together more tightly, its thickness should be similar to that of ZTE’s. But if the weight cannot be controlled below 250g, it will be a big burden to put in your trouser pocket.

The battery life under high configuration is questionable

The Samsung Galaxy Fold is equipped with a 4380mAh battery and supports wireless charging and reverse wireless charging like the S10, which is a relatively high standard among today's flagship smartphones.

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We can also learn from Samsung's press conference that it actually puts a battery of about 2200mAh in each of the left and right halves of the foldable screen phone, and the two together achieve a total capacity of about 4400 mAh.

The question is, can we use the "smartphone battery life standard" to measure this folding screen device?

After all, strictly speaking, the unfolded Fold is already a small tablet device with flagship configuration. In horizontal comparison, whether it is Samsung's own 8-inch mid-range tablet Tab A or Apple's iPad mini 4, both are equipped with batteries of more than 5000 mAh.

Foldable phones are still not popular, why does Samsung still want to mass produce them?

You should be able to see that although the launch of Samsung Galaxy Fold is a major breakthrough for smartphones, when it comes to practicality, we still cannot have too many expectations for current foldable screen phones.

The Verge commented that from the perspective of consumer devices, the Galaxy Fold does not make much sense; there is also a saying, "What is a product that Apple will not choose to mass-produce? The Samsung Fold is a good example", which actually means that folding screens have no practical value at present.

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Having said that, my point of view remains the same as before, that is, Samsung currently needs to flex its muscles to consolidate its brand premium.

The overall environment of the Android mobile phone market is changing. The competition between products is no longer limited to hardware. In fact, it has gradually evolved into a stage involving differentiated technology, brand reputation and even the display of technical strength.

This is even more true in China. Lei Jun recently made the following statement in an interview after the Xiaomi 9 launch conference:

• You are all leading companies and you all invest a lot of money in the R&D stage. In fact, this is also for the pre-research of various projects. But since last year, I don’t know who took the lead, but even the pre-research technology was released, which drove us crazy.

After all, everyone can make a "bucket machine", and there are always people who can lower the price, but emerging technologies are more difficult to be imitated and surpassed by competitors. Only when the barrier is high enough can you gain higher bargaining power for your own brand and then sell the product at a higher price.

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What's more, Samsung is not Apple. It does not have the iOS system and does not have an ecological environment that it can control. As long as Samsung still intends to compete for the market position of high-end Android phones, it will inevitably compete with the surging Xiaomi, Huawei, OPPO and vivo, and seek opportunities to win over its competitors.

The Samsung Galaxy Fold folding screen was created for this purpose.

After all, I can make it and sell it, but you can’t. Sometimes that’s the difference, and it’s easy to tell who’s better.