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00:00Is there any issue with a cat butt being in the video for most of it because she's obsessed
00:05currently by my little viewfinder monitor off camera here. She can see this part of a cat and
00:10she thinks it's someone else. Let's crack on with half a cat and the screen. Galaxy Fold 6. Is it
00:16any good? Well I've been using this for a couple of weeks carrying around in my pocket and I've
00:20had a pretty good time with it but the question is should you actually buy it? Also is it better
00:25than these guys, the competition, and of course we've got the Pixel Fold 2, we've got the Honor
00:30Magic V3 coming out, lots of rivals also with the new 8th Gen 3 chip but also compared to their
00:36predecessors, its predecessors, we've got the Fold 3, Fold 4, Fold 5 here and also the S24 Ultra.
00:43I've pulled out all the stops for this video. Where does the Fold 6 land? Should you spend
00:49£1,800 or $1,900 on this folding phone? And most importantly, the question we've all been asking
00:57ourselves, can an extra millimetre make all the difference? I'll be honest, after my hands-on
01:03first look impressions video thingy, I came away a little bit underwhelmed. The Fold 6 has a lot
01:09of nice refinements that do add up to make it a better experience. It's thinner, it's lighter,
01:14it's faster, it's brighter, it's more durable, we get even more AI features that you probably
01:18won't use and yes, it is even more expensive. £50 or $100 more than last year and still for a
01:25paltry 256GB of storage. And of course, if you fancy a case or an S Pen or even bloody charger,
01:32that'll cost you extra. The thing is, as a bit of a tech nerd, which I'm sure you are as well,
01:37I don't have a problem sometimes, every now and then, spending a lot of money on something if I
01:42think it's the best of something, like if I'm getting my money's worth, if nothing else can do
01:46this as well as this. And as much as I have been having a good time with this and I think it is a
01:51terrific foldable phone, I just don't think Samsung's done enough. Same size battery,
01:56same charging speed, basically the same camera as last year, although actually, if I just spoil a
02:01little bit later in the video, just look at these photos side by side, the 3, the 4, the 5, the 6
02:06and the S24 Ultra. I will cover all this and the camera bit in a moment but because of Samsung's
02:10ProVisual engine and also the improved ISP on the new chip, it is a better camera.
02:16But it's not good enough. And it's certainly not as good as the S24 Ultra, which came out, what,
02:21five, six months ago and also cost £600 less. I appreciate they've had to make some compromises
02:26and different decisions to get it in this form factor and you are buying this because you want
02:30a tablet screen, not necessarily the best camera phone. But you'd kind of think, given how this
02:36remains so expensive and how in all other regards, basically this is a top spec, all singing,
02:41all dancing phone, that the camera just still falls behind a little bit. But anyway, I'm jumping
02:46ahead, we'll come to that in a second. Now to Samsung's credit, they have addressed my number
02:50one issue with the fold and that was just how ridiculously narrow the cover screen is. Some
02:54people claim they loved it, those people are lying, it was too narrow, too much like a remote
02:57control. This year, the key thing is it's one millimetre wider. In fact, the whole tablet is
03:03actually a little bit shorter, wider and also thinner. It's a slightly different aspect ratio,
03:08which I 100% approve of. It is a subtle difference, but it does make it more comfortable to use and
03:14typing a little bit less squished. And it is now near enough a 21 by 9 aspect ratio, which is what
03:19you'd get on a Sony Xperia phone. Personally, I'd wish they'd gone a little bit further. Your Vivos,
03:24your Pixels, your OnePluses all have a bit more of a normal quote unquote phone screen for the cover,
03:29but this is certainly a step in the right direction. And it's made a pain point just a bit
03:34less painful. Although, speaking of pain point, I was very happy with my script writing for this
03:40because if you actually pick it up, let's talk about the design. The first thing I noticed,
03:43if you pick it up with your left hand, this little corner jabs into your palm, whereas the Fold 5 has
03:50this slightly filleted corner. It is not the end of the world. Don't not buy it because of it,
03:54but it is something I noticed pretty quickly. Oh, and of course it is still
03:58very wobbly on the desk. In fact, let me just bring in, this is like a feature I'm going to
04:04call now of the Samsung Folds. I think it might be one of the wobbliest. In fact, it doesn't
04:10happen as much obviously when it's open. That is one reason to maybe get a case with this,
04:15not only to protect your 2000 pound nearish investment, but also the S Pen, the new S Pen
04:20cover case is much slimmer. I really like that. So not only does it prevent it from wobbling on
04:24the desk, give you some protection, but also it houses the S Pen. So definitely consider that.
04:29Four generations of Galaxy Z Folds side-by-side. It's definitely an evolution rather than a
04:35revolution in terms of design, but certainly the 6 is the best so far, as you would hope.
04:39And it's pretty crazy actually how chunky and how heavy these older ones are. Even versus the Fold
04:444 from two years ago, the 6 is 24 grams lighter. Also, please ignore the fact that I may have
04:50dropped a phone on my Galaxy Fold 5 a few months ago, which has cracked the glass. It's Gorilla
04:55Glass Victus 2, which is the same as you get on the Fold 6. But while the glass is the same,
05:01actually it is a lot more durable. One of the key upgrades here is that we now have IP48 water and
05:07dust resistance. The first time we've had dust resistance on a Fold. We also have the aluminum
05:11frame, which is now matte rather than glossy, and it's 10% more scratch resistant, whatever that
05:16means from Samsung. And they've also got a new FTG glass, or foldable thin glass, rather than UTG,
05:23which they say makes it a bit tougher, but also slightly reduces the crease.
05:28Now actually, in my hands-on, I did say that I couldn't notice any difference with the glass
05:32with the crease, but I'm going to say that's not quite true because I've had more time with it now.
05:37And side by side with the 5 and the 6, visually not significantly different, but as you run your
05:42finger over it, it's less of a crater, if that makes sense. Kind of hard to explain. So a small
05:48improvement to the crease and the screen overall. And also the bezels, particularly on the front
05:52screen, have been reduced quite significantly actually. And with these squared off corners,
05:57a very similar aesthetic to the S24 Ultra, with its more boxy look. And not only is it lighter,
06:01but it is also thinner. 1.3mm thinner, in fact, when folded, and half a millimetre thinner when
06:07open. I think it looks a lot smarter, we get more screen space. Overall, quite a nice step up in
06:12terms of design, and importantly, durability. Still a little bit boring looking, if I'm honest,
06:17that. What do you think? Obviously we do have new colours. Silver shadow, as I have here. We have
06:21pink and navy. All a little bit bland, if I'm honest. I think I'd actually go with either the
06:26crafted black or the crafted white options that you can get online at Samsung.com. And as I say,
06:31I'll leave a link in the description if you want to have a peruse for yourself.
06:34One of the main upgrades, though, is the new chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy,
06:39which is a fair bit faster. How much faster, you ask? Well, I've actually run the numbers just for
06:44you. And I'm going to bring in these guys, going all the way back to the Snapdragon 888 with the
06:49Fold 3. And actually, looking at the numbers in Geekbench to start with, and certainly if you are
06:54coming from a Fold 3 or 4, you will definitely appreciate the speed boost here. And particularly
06:58if you play games. If we switch over to the Wildlife Extreme Stress Test, it's funny. Even
07:02though the Fold 5 introduced the Vapor Chamber Cooler, which is also a return for the Fold 6,
07:06the stability is actually quite a bit lower than the older, less powerful Fold 3 and Fold 4. But
07:11still, we are getting significantly higher scores. A roughly 20% uptick from the 5 in terms of
07:16graphics. Still 12 gigs of RAM, though. Still the same storage options. No change there. 256 gigs
07:22for the base model, then 512. A 1TB option if you are Mr. Moneybags. I think for this price,
07:28it would have been good to see a little bump in RAM or maybe 512 gigs starting. In fact, that would
07:33definitely have been nice to see. It feels a bit stingy, I have to say at the moment. But despite
07:37that, with the new chip, with the 120Hz screens, with Web1 UI 6.1.1 built on Android 14, it is a
07:45very fast and slick experience. It's genuinely really nice to use this. So whether you're just
07:49doom-scrolling in socials, playing demanding games, or pretending to utilize the full app
07:54multitasking the Fold offers, with three side-by-side and a fourth floating on top,
07:58it all handles it flawlessly. The multitasking, the flex mode, DeX, the Galaxy AI features,
08:04the S Pen, all this extra stuff that perhaps isn't really represented on a spec sheet,
08:08does add up to make the Fold 6 stand out. Still no sign of Wi-Fi 7 on the Fold 6. Not the end of
08:15the world, because like 5 people have a Wi-Fi 7 router. I am one of them, actually. But for that
08:19kind of price, given that this is all about future-proofing, it would have been good to see.
08:23Let's talk about the battery. Because the Fold 6 shares the same size, 4400mAh cell as last year's
08:28Fold 5, and the same 25W charging. Plus wireless and reverse charging, of course. So no change in
08:34the battery hardware there. But Samsung says, thanks to efficiencies of the new chip and
08:39various optimizations, it should last a little bit longer. Well, shout out to my good buddy Ben
08:44over at Lover of Tech who made this fantastic extreme battery drain test video, where in the
08:48end, the Fold 6 lasted less than 10 minutes longer than the 5. Although I suppose, considering
08:54we do have a more powerful chip and a thinner chassis, it's not a bad result, actually. And
08:58this was a very demanding test. So the Fold 6 will easily get you through a full day of use.
09:03If you do have 10 seconds at the end of this video, go and check out Lover of Tech,
09:05and we gotta get into that 100K. Quick mention of the screens, because there isn't a whole lot to
09:10talk about, really. Same 7.6-inch internal tablet screen, same resolution, 120Hz, although a slightly
09:16changed aspect ratio, but nothing significant. Still very much a square. Of course, we've got
09:21the slightly bigger 6.7-inch cover screen. The main difference is they've bumped the peak brightness
09:26up to 2,500 nits. But otherwise, still the same lovely screen as before. Of course, the issue with
09:33a square-ish aspect ratio is that if you are watching movies, you're going to get some pretty
09:38chunky letterboxing. Actually, I find myself watching movies on the cover screen more often
09:43than not because it actually suits the almost 21 by 9 aspect ratio there. But I do quite like it
09:48because it is a foldable. You can put it in what we're going to call a tent mode there and watch
09:52it like that. And actually, if you do put it back to the main cover screen and then fold it a little
09:57bit into what you call flex mode, it pulls it onto a top screen there. So in a similar way, you can
10:03then kind of watch your movie. And of course, then you can open up for the full tablet screen,
10:07up to three apps side by side, a fourth one floating on top. And you can also have a split
10:11screen, one top, one bottom on the front cover as well. This is all about versatility and
10:16productivity if you think you can utilize this. The only thing that still sucks is this
10:21underscreen camera. Still the same four megapixel camera introduced a couple of years ago now,
10:25I think it is. It does a reasonable job of hiding, blending in under the screen there. You can still
10:30see it's a little bit pixelated up close, but it's not distracting at all. Quality's a bit rough.
10:36It's mostly just for video calls. Most of the time, you're going to want to use these cameras.
10:41Let's talk about these cameras. OK, so still 5, 50 megapixel main, 10 megapixel three times
10:47telephoto and a 12 megapixel ultrawide with the new sensor, as well as the four megapixel
10:52underscreen camera and the 10 megapixel cover camera. Five in total. Same as before. The only
10:58changes are the new ultrawide sensor, being able to shoot 4K60 with it and also some of the
11:03processing and algorithm upgrades. We now have Samsung's pro visual engine, which actually is
11:09not just marketing fluff. It does seem to make quite a significant difference, particularly to
11:13dynamic range. You can see with this extremely backlit shot here, both for the main camera and
11:19particularly the ultrawide, it does a much better job than the five and avoiding that
11:23bright background being completely blown out.
11:43Let's do a little side by side video test and also give you a bit of a tour of the studio.
11:48We're all in today. Pete's over there. Hi, Pete. Although the real boss is actually here.
11:55This is Sylvie the cat, working hard. So I'm filming this 4K30 with the rear cameras,
12:02just walking around and changing the lighting. The new pro visual engine is supposed to reduce
12:06the noise in lower light, particularly for video. So you have to let me know what this looks like.
12:11Working on a couple of laptops at the moment, a gaming handheld, some phones I can't talk about yet.
12:16But lots to do, lots to do in fact. I should probably get back to work.
12:22So if you've used a Fold from the last few years, this will be very familiar. You've got your 0.6
12:26times ultrawide, one times and the three times you can whack it up to 30 times digital. Although,
12:31to be honest, even the 10 times is pretty ropey. So I wouldn't go beyond three,
12:34which obviously is quite a big limitation compared to going with something like an S24 Ultra.
12:39Still, even if it's not the best camera phone, you do obviously have the flexibility of using
12:44the cover screen preview. I'm actually shooting this with it unfolded. So I'm using the front
12:49screen, the cover screen preview, so I can see what you're looking at, frame my video and then
12:54shoot with the main cameras rather than having to rely on the lower quality selfies. And of course,
13:01being a foldable, you can use it in flex mode and it acts as its own little tripod.
13:06Samsung are promising seven years of OS updates, which is very reassuring,
13:10fantastic support there. And this ship's running their One UI 6.1.1 software,
13:15which adds a couple of new Galaxy AI features, but it's nothing that significant really. Although I
13:20do appreciate we have this new Galaxy AI menu in the settings, but some of the Galaxy AI image
13:25generation tools are a lot of fun to play with. Whether you're giving yourself a top hat or a
13:29rabbit on your shoulder, that actually came out better than I expected, to be honest.
13:32It's more the eraser tools and the image generation within the gallery app to sort
13:36of fix photos that I use more often. Although I still maintain one of my favourite software
13:40features on the Samsung phones is the ability to make any video go slow motion just by touch and
13:45holding the screen. Not everyone will agree, but I think that Samsung is still out in front. They
13:52do the best in terms of software, particularly on the folds. And there's a larger point about
13:56the whole Samsung ecosystem with the Galaxy Ring and the new Watch 7 and 7 Ultra, their tablets,
14:01their phones, you've got Quick Share, smart things, pretty much everything that people
14:05love about the Apple ecosystem is available within the Galaxy ecosystem as well,
14:09which is not something most of its rivals can offer.
14:12So let's wrap this up. Should you buy the Fold 6? Well, possibly is my annoying answer to that.
14:19If you know you love a Fold, if you've used one before, if you know and love it, then sure. I
14:24don't think it's a significant upgrade. There's lots of little nice refinements, particularly
14:27the design. We've got the new chip, which makes it more future-proof. The camera is appreciably
14:31better than the 5, but not significantly, not night and day. I think if you're still rocking
14:36a Fold 2, 3 or perhaps even a 4, it might be worth upgrading. But you can't get away from the fact
14:42that it is £1,800 or $1,900. What I would do is wait and see what the Pixel Fold 2 or whatever
14:48they're actually going to end up calling it looks like, or indeed here in the UK, the Magic V3 from
14:52Honor is coming out. And by that point, we may see some deals and discounts on this as well.
14:56So perhaps it's just worth waiting an extra month or two. I do love the Fold. I genuinely
15:00love this phone. I just don't think it's a huge upgrade. And it's just getting a little bit
15:05boring from Samsung. So my dream Fold 7 would be an even wider, just a little bit wider cover screen
15:10still, because it's still a little bit small for typing on. Much better camera, bigger battery,
15:16and also I'd love to see them bring over the anti-reflective screen that we get on the S24.
15:21It's one of the most underrated features for me. What a difference that is with the more
15:26anti-reflective Gorilla Glass that you get on the S24. I would have loved to have seen this
15:31on the Fold. It made a huge difference. So hopefully next year. But if you do fancy
15:35checking one of these out, I'll leave a link below. Let me know if you've got any questions.
15:38I really hope you enjoyed the video and I will see you next time right here on The Tech Jab.
15:42Thanks for watching.