- I loved the original Galaxy Fold. It's gigantic screen,
top tier performance, and head turning, "wow, cool phone" factor was enough for me to ask
it to go steady with me. Until I eventually got tired of carrying a second device
around in my back pocket, and ultimately junked it for one without a floppy hinge, dim screen, and game breaking software bugs. I mean, how could Samsung treat their most premium customers? The ones who spent $2,000 on a smartphone, like second class citizens? Is the question that I asked back then. Well, now I have the answer, along with my one month
review of the only smartphone who's asking price would make Apple blush; the Galaxy Z Fold2. And it's brought to you by, this ugly picture of me. Thanks dbrand. You can get this, or the infinitely more
attractive sticker bomb skin, which is chock full of LTT
memes and tech references at the link below. But only for a limited time. So act now, or robots will
come murder your pets. Why do they want me to say that? I don't condone pet murder. Wait, sorry, they're paying how much? All right. Pet murder then. (upbeat music) The original Fold already
did a lot of things right, once we got past the
whole breakage scandal. But it had four obvious flaws. The outer screen was too
small to really be usable, even with my homunculus hands. The main foldable screen was too dim, the hinge seemed great out of the box only to turn into a flacid
pile of suck down the line, and the software was buggy. And I'll address each of these with the Z Fold2 as we go. But first, the pitch. Why on earth would you
spend $2,000 on a phone? Well, I never would. But if dbrand wants to send me one, there is a solid argument to be made for chucking everything
else and switching to it. For starters... Yes, my friends. From a dollars per square millimeter of screen area standpoint, the Z Fold2 actually doesn't look too bad in comparison to the latest
and greatest in Apple or Samsung's own lineups, does it? It really is like carrying a tiny tablet around in your pocket. And almost everything about the experience is better than last time. For starters, the weird, jello effect
when you're scrolling is almost completely gone and, that gigantic multi-lens selfie camera is replaced by a tiny
little hole punch that drove me crazy at first 'cause like, why wouldn't I just
take a selfie like this and use the front screen and
then my better rear camera? And then I could have my
screen totally unblemished. Until I realized what
a terrible experience using it this way was ergonomically, and accepted that, yeah, the hole punch here was
probably the best they could do. Next up is brightness. The final straw for me, when
I was using the original Fold, was a trip to LA when I realized, walking out of the airport, that it was completely
unusable in strong sunlight. By contrast, totally intentional, by the way, the Z Fold2's max
brightness managed 741 nits in GSMArena's tests. Not market-leading, but in the real world, it was noticeably more usable. And then finally, there's the hinge. I'm gonna admit something. Andy, I'm sorry. I was super miffed, when I got my Fold1 back
from the camera guys, with a bit of a Gull wing shape to it, unless you like really crank it open. And even though I never said anything, I blamed my shooters. But it's clear to me now,
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, seeing the infinitely
better hinge on the Z Fold2 that the old one never stood a chance. This feels much more sturdy. And on top of that, it actually opens up to almost any angle that you could want. Although, I have to confess, that with all this screen
real estate at my fingertips, Samsung's idea of using the fold as like a built-in stand while you watch movies feels pretty wasteful. I'm just gonna do that
and use the whole thing. Unlike, multitasking, which is where this device really shines. Got a WhatsApp chat going, and you wanna browse the internet? No problem. Got a spreadsheet rolling and wanna reference some
data to copy into it? You can do that too. Are you more of a single
task kinda person? No problem. In supported apps, we will
talk about this later, the Z Fold2 offers what is simply the most immersive experience of any phone that I've ever used, ever. And pretty much without compromise. With the latest Snapdragon
865 processor, 12 gigs of Ram, and a 120 Hertz display. Oh, I can't believe I
didn't mention that before. Apple's A14 Bionic might
be a lot faster on paper, and when rendering a video, and when gaming, okay. It's a super impressive chip. And we'll make a video about that, make sure you're subscribed. But the Z Fold2, and any device with a
high refresh rate display, just plain feels smoother
in day-to-day use. The best part, is that even with that enabled, the 4500 milliamp hour battery only failed to get me through
the day a couple of times. And that's with me
seeing a fair bit of TV. Don't worry though, I'm actually sleeping for a lot of while that's running. I don't actually watch
eight hours of TV a day. And by the way, the speakers are great. I also unlock, 70 times a day, according
to Samsung's usage stats, with 100 plus notifications coming in. Although that notification
number seems a little off. And we will talk about that later too. For now, more good things. 5G, Corning Victus glass on the front, up to 512 gigs of internal storage, wireless charging with
reverse charging as well. What could be bad? All right, here's something. The unfolded screen is
bigger than last time. I know, I know, crazy thing, right? I'm like, "Hey, sales pitch, giant screen. By the way, my biggest complaint, giant screen." Lemme explain. One of the biggest reasons that
I almost never use a tablet is that unless you sit down at a table, and hook a keyboard
and track pad up to it, it's basically impossible to type. And at that point, I might as well just use a laptop. Now phones get around this by allowing anyone with fast thumbs, and a reasonably good predictive keyboard, to get darn close to
desktop typing speeds. As long as the whole keyboard is actually reachable with your thumbs. So for me, a taller unfolded screen
would have been way better. It would have reduced
the size of black bars on full screen media, and resulted in a better fit when reading large documents in portrait. But then Samsung went and
widened the screen instead, making it hard for me to reach the middle of
the keyboard quickly. I know, both the stock keyboard, and actually Swiftkey for that
matter, do have split modes. But for me, I reach over
the center line a lot when I'm at full speed, and I can't do that on a splitty. Now, if you've got big hands, or you don't mind the split,
you can ignore all that. But I did have to get it out there. And this too. The included screen protector is horrible. I understand why it's there. Glass doesn't fold, at least not yet. Which means that almost anything is gonna leave horrible scratches in that underlying plastic screen. Unfortunately, using the
also plastic screen protector has really felt like going
back over a decade ago. Like the way my finger, like, here, listen to this. Right? And it's almost impossible to keep clean. So, here's what we're gonna do. Oh yeah, that, and it's actually starting to come off at the bottom hinge point. I'm just gonna pull it off right now. Samsung does not advise it. But my understanding is that technically it's a thing
that you can do, so this really does feel like
the kinda screen protector I would have gotten on
like my HP IPAQ Pocket PC. Immediately looks better. Feel how thick look, how thick this is. Check this out. It's disgusting. Oh my God, that is so much better. - [Guy] Yeah, that's way better. - That's actually my
backhand making that noise. Way smoother. If that gets ruined, at least
the Z Fold2's outer screen is a whopping two inches larger
diagonally than the old one. It's still not a pleasure to use by any stretch of the imagination. But compared to the tiny
first gen outer screen, it's way better. Like if you just need to quickly reply to a text or something, it gets the trick done. Even if holding a device like this makes me feel a little
bad for mocking like, the makers of chunky gaming phones. Now, let's talk in
detail about the camera. Actually, I'm just kidding. It is fine. It's totally not the main attraction for a device like this though, so I didn't bother sending Brandon out for two days to take pictures. Realistically, all it needs to be is good enough that the
vast majority of people would never notice the difference. And it definitely manages that. I never felt like it was holding me back. But then I'm also happy
with my daily driver Note9, which at this point is basically crap compared to
the latest Pixels and iPhones. Did you notice that by the way? That bit where I said daily driver Note9? Yeah, I think it's happening again. The Z Fold2 simply can't
be my one and only phone when it has game breaking bugs like this. Back to my notification stats. Where the hell is Microsoft Teams? I use it for work. And I promise you, I
get plenty of messages from people at work. Notifications are enabled, and yet, somehow I don't get any of them. Now to be clear, Teams notifications are a festering piece of crap
and Microsoft should feel bad. I'm not the only one in
this building that is like, having problems with it. But for all I know, Samsung could easily be
partially to blame for this. Because even very mainstream apps, like Instagram and YouTube, offer degraded experiences on the Z Fold2. Instagram, actually, I hadn't
even put this in the script, but this is hilarious. Instagram looks like garbage
and has black bars on the side. Not to mention that it
started double posting, every time I tried to post an update. Which was especially charming because I couldn't even
go back in my older posts and see that there were two posts on the Z Fold2. I had to check on a
different phone to realize, "Oh no, all these comments
about double posts." 'Cause there's the second post. So it took me a while to
figure out there was a problem. And then, YouTube still
doesn't have support for community posts or stories, features that, well, as a YouTuber, I regularly use. Now when pressed, my Google contact all but confirmed what I've always suspected is the case with the device like this. "Yeah, Linus, we know it's expensive but, frankly that's not our problem. And for anything that's
not running stock Android, there's just no guarantee that it's gonna work out of the box. And it takes coordination
between Google engineers, and engineers at the device manufacturer, to make these kinds of things work. As you can imagine, at the moment, the dozens of people like
you running foldable phones, just aren't a priority
compared to the millions who will be running iPhone
12s within the next few weeks, so you're just gonna
have to deal with it." Well, okay then. See you later. (phone thuds) Oh, it's just the ROG phone. For a limited time, we've got a drop where
you can, for some reason, buy this face skin. But I kind of figured, we talked to them. I was like, "Really you guys." So we also worked on this
super cool sticker bomb skin. It's all the same dbrand quality that you guys have come to expect. You know, precision fit, comes off without any residue, protects your device from
incidental scuffs and scrapes. And the drop is available for two weeks. So get it while it's here. Because after that, it is gone. It's gonna be linked down below. If you guys enjoyed this video, maybe check out... I don't know what the hey, go watch "Whole Room Water Cooling." That was years ago, but a lot of the new viewers probably have never heard of it. We water-cooled an entire room. Yeah, it was awful. Pet murder then. (laughter) Sorry? Is it funny though? Okay, you sure it's not too far? Okay. People can tell it's just silly? Okay.
Wonder if he's finally going to upgrade his phone after noticing his Note 9 has got a cracked back.
Actually, when Linus was complaining on Youtube about community posts that he couldnt see, I sort of realized what Google thinks the Z Fold 2 is.
Google sees the Z fold 2 as a Tablet, not a phone.
It makes sense, seeing as how my Tab S7 does not have Youtube with community posts as well. But this does not make sense, the Z Fold 2 is not a tablet, it is a phone.
This shows 2 things:
1) Google cares as much about Foldables as they do with their tablets
2) If Foldable software gets better, Android Tablets get better as well.
This is dangerous and disappointing. You would think that Google would have more care and concern about how they would treat a Flagship than they would treat the iPhones. Im sad to see that people would be disappointed with the Z Fold 2 when it was not even Samsung's fault that the software is like this.
Lets hope that Dex natively would be enabled for the next iteration of the Z fold series. For a productivity device like this, Dex on the foldable screen would be game changing.
Straight up skipping the camera review is an interesting choice
The way ltt present these tech videos with subtle humour is always refreshing to watch, alot enjoyable. way better than the specs rundown by others (not everyone tho)
This is the kind of device that Google should put out themselves so they can make sure the software side works and other device manufacturers can improve on what Google had done in the hardware...... But instead, Google spent its time trying to eat into the market share of midrange devices (and failing miserably due to availability issues) and left Samsung to fend for themselves on innovating hardware, make foldable software works, try to make Desktop mode works AND compete with iPhone at same time....
So yeah, I really blame Google for the software issue of Z Fold 2. This device is really only tripped up by Google's laziness, just like what happen with high-end Android tablet like Galaxy Tab S series.
While it is a little weird for a tech reviewer, especially someone like Linus skipping the camera section, it is fine, nobody is going to buy this niche $2000 folding phone for the camera. You will expect it to be good, which it probably is.
With the technological advances we have made, I find it really pointless to argue or have a dick measuring contest between apple or samsung or pixel etc over some features. Smartphone cameras have come a long way from when they were introduced and have definitely replaced point and shoot cameras for almost everyone but has it replaced an actual DSLR or a mirrorless camera? Most likely no and won't (in the near future atleast).
What is the biggest advantage of a smartphone camera? Spontaneity. The ability to click pictures and video on the go, in the moment, capture events that suddenly happen. My baby just starts talking for the first time? I can immediately record that with my phone to create that everlasting memory, night out with friends? sure have a camera handy. Now, a lot of people use their smartphone cameras just for social media, and yeah I use it as well, but for planned events, or trips or situations I need a good quality picture or video? I'll stick to an actual camera. I want to get a family portrait on canvas? It sure as heck isn't going to be from my Galaxy phone. The biggest advantage I feel that a smartphone camera offers is versatility and of course spontaneous use. I can take a portrait shot, I can capture the mountains, I can record events, I can record an adventure trip etc etc but in all these cases it is still inferior to a dedicated device for that. Whether it's a camcorder or DSLR or GO Pro etc.
When it comes down to which is the best? Frankly they are all so similar now. Pixel probably has better still images, apple better video, but I stick to the Samsung as it allows me almost as good functionality of that camera compared to Apple and Google while giving me other advantages. A phone is a phone, computer, media consumption device as well right, not just the camera. I stick to the samsung because of it's beautiful display, expandable storage, customization, DeX etc which Pixel doesn't offer me. Sure apple may have better video recording, but I'm not going to buy a phone for that when I don't use any other apple products. The choice is clearly subjective and a phone is not a camera only. Sometimes we forget that.
Linus actually ripped ?
Linus keeping it real! I appreciate him and his phone reviews.