Phones Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4

[Ludatyk]

I do like the balance on the Fold 4 and the narrower cover display makes one-handed use easier. However, my knuckles sometimes cramp and seize up when two-handing the cover display. It's not a huge problem though and easily fixed by using the device unfolded.

That’s what I find hilarious at times.. when folks complain religiously about the narrowness of the cover display, it‘s as if they haven’t discovered the phone can unfold.

Because if there’s a scenario where I plan to use the keyboard for a lengthy discussion… I’ll unfold it.

 

[Tulani]

There's also competition from Google with their foldable as well... so, I'll be shocked if the Fold 6 is some modest upgrade from the Fold 5. And don't get me wrong... the Fold 5 was a solid upgrade to the Fold 4.

But it wasn't as huge as I would of liked... so I'm anticipating something really special too. And that Snapdragon gen 3 that's gonna be inside it.. will take it to another level. And it appears Samsung & Qualcomm have a partnership that allows for them to get the best chips exclusively for Galaxy phones.

Fold 6 rumours are starting to surface with talk of a pen attachment either at the back or side

 

[NeonNights]

Fold 6 rumours are starting to surface with talk of a pen attachment either at the back or side

I used the S Pen everyday on my Note 4, 8, and 10+, but in the past year with the Fold 4 there's only been maybe two times I truly yearned for a stylus and that was for e-signing something. The larger inner screen of the Fold 4 negates the precision of a stylus because everything is bigger and more manageable with just my finger.

I love the idea of an integrated S Pen but would rather have the everyday benefits of wider cover screen and slimmer/lighter design in the Fold 6.

 

[sunking101]

I only ever used the stylus on my Note phones for highlighting text in photos etc (anywhere where copy & paste didn't work) to then extract. It was a fantastic help to me and kept me on the Note upgrade cycle. Since Samsung put the text extraction feature into their gallery the stylus became unnecessary for me overnight.

I don't use the SPens that come with my Samsung tablets, I didn't buy an SPen and crappy, bulky case for my Z Fold 4 and I don't use the SPen that came with my S23U. If a future Fold has a hump anywhere on its body to house an SPen then I wouldn't be buying it. Lousy idea!

 

[Ludatyk]

Fold 6 rumours are starting to surface with talk of a pen attachment either at the back or side

I’m on board with this plan… since this allows for more space for the battery.

And I know Samsung adds a S-Pen to the Tab series, but they have been doing that for years. This is new territory for the Galaxy Fold… I rather have the space for more battery than the S-Pen. And this is coming for someone that uses the S-Pen daily.

The larger inner screen of the Fold 4 negates the precision of a stylus because everything is bigger and more manageable with just my finger.

I’m not sure about you.. but I have my settings at the highest density. I have my font size at the smallest possible setting along with the Screen Zoom.

In addition to that, I keep my minimum width at 402 dp. Whenever I’m doing some heavy multitasking… I find myself doing that with the S-Pen. Using copy and paste while selecting content is much better with the S-Pen (imo).

 

[kasakka]

Fold 6 rumours are starting to surface with talk of a pen attachment either at the back or side

I don't understand the appeal when cases can already provide that.

 

[Tulani]

I don't understand the appeal when cases can already provide that.

Choice and product evolvement

 

[Johns12]

That’s what I find hilarious at times.. when folks complain religiously about the narrowness of the cover display, it‘s as if they haven’t discovered the phone can unfold.

Because if there’s a scenario where I plan to use the keyboard for a lengthy discussion… I’ll unfold it.

This may be just me, but I also find the outer screen of Fold 4 just a little narrow. Of course I understand that I an open it, but sometimes I want to type a quick message without unfolding, and my typing mistakes are way more than when using a wider screen. That being said, I love my Fold 4.

 

[Ludatyk]

This may be just me, but I also find the outer screen of Fold 4 just a little narrow. Of course I understand that I an open it, but sometimes I want to type a quick message without unfolding, and my typing mistakes are way more than when using a wider screen. That being said, I love my Fold 4.

Oh, I concur and there are plenty of people out there that agree with you on the outer screen being really narrow.

But what I'm trying to express is those who make an effort to constantly bring it up and focus on it as if there's no other encouraging features that’s available on the Galaxy Fold. Because I truly like what OnePlus and Google has done hardware wise with their foldable, but they fall short on the entire package for me.

 

[Ludatyk]

Kudos to Samsung! Enjoying One UI 6... haven't fully took a deep dive into the new camera features, but the whole experience seems solid.

Received the update to my Fold 4 yesterday morning... I followed the news regarding One UI 6, but to actually experience it. It's something different and I truly like what I'm seeing... from the new font, new notification player, overall smoothness and all the little things that I stumble upon.

And then there's One UI 6.1 on the horizon... all these new experiences prevent me from thinking about the upcoming Fold 6 lol.

 

[Tulani]

Kudos to Samsung! Enjoying One UI 6... haven't fully took a deep dive into the new camera features, but the whole experience seems solid.

Received the update to my Fold 4 yesterday morning... I followed the news regarding One UI 6, but to actually experience it. It's something different and I truly like what I'm seeing... from the new font, new notification player, overall smoothness and all the little things that I stumble upon.

And then there's One UI 6.1 on the horizon... all these new experiences prevent me from thinking about the upcoming Fold 6 lol.

I like what Samsung is doing

 

[NeonNights]

The UI and transitions are noticeably smoother. I also like the changes to the notification area.

 

[NeonNights]

Whelps, I am in a little conundrum. My beloved Fold 4 had a partial catastrophic failure all of a sudden two hours ago. My wife and I had just picked up our daughter from school and were all on our way to a lunch reservation. Fold 4 was wired charging in the car, no signs of anything wrong. We reach our destination, I unplug the charger, and notice the Fold 4 is strangely off (it was in the folded/closed state). I couldn't power it back on and thought the battery had died but I recall it was at 40% the last time I looked at it while it was charging.

After many attempts it wouldn't power back on and the front cover screen stayed off. I unfolded the phone and tried the power button and it miraculously came to life, but as soon as I begin folding it closed it would power off again. This is very odd that it would suddenly fail like it did -- it was already in the closed state, nothing spilled on it, and I did not drop it. I simply unplugged the charging cable and the phone died and couldn't be powered back on unless it is unfolded. I suspect some wiring that powers the front cover was severed but that's so odd because I last unfolded it probably 30 minutes prior with no issues and it continued working fine when folded close during the drive to our destination.

Anyways, I've been on chat for the past 2 hours with Samsung Support but they're not offering any real help other than to trade in the device for something else. This is very disappointing because the Fold 4 has been my absolute favorite phone of all time for the past 18 months. Clearly, I am out of warranty but I didn't expect it to fail in this manner. I've used the Fold 4 in the rain and dropped it numerous times without an issue before (I do have a screen protector and case on it). The case has lots of nicks and scratches but the phone itself has held up fine. I could understand if I had a particularly bad drop and damaged the phone, but in this case I simply unplugged the charging cable and poof the Fold 4 no longer powers on when folded/closed.

Up till today I marveled at how well the Fold 4 has held up. These 18-months are the longest I've ever held onto a phone before upgrading, and I was planning to go a full two years before jumping to the Fold 6. Now I have to figure out what to do next:

1. Keep using it in the opened state until the Fold 6 releases
2. Take the hit and trade it in now for a Fold 5 through Verizon (since I am receiving trade-in credits)
3. Maybe go to an S24 Ultra

Sigh.

Edit: Reading similar experiences on Reddit from other Fold 4 owners. I wonder if Fold 5 is plagued by this too. Also, I noticed my Fold 4 no longer fast charges. I wonder if the phone will slowly die completely in a few days.

 

[SteveJUAE]

Whelps, I am in a little conundrum. My beloved Fold 4 had a partial catastrophic failure all of a sudden two hours ago. My wife and I had just picked up our daughter from school and were all on our way to a lunch reservation. Fold 4 was wired charging in the car, no signs of anything wrong. We reach our destination, I unplug the charger, and notice the Fold 4 is strangely off (it was in the folded/closed state). I couldn't power it back on and thought the battery had died but I recall it was at 40% the last time I looked at it while it was charging.

After many attempts it wouldn't power back on and the front cover screen stayed off. I unfolded the phone and tried the power button and it miraculously came to life, but as soon as I begin folding it closed it would power off again. This is very odd that it would suddenly fail like it did -- it was already in the closed state, nothing spilled on it, and I did not drop it. I simply unplugged the charging cable and the phone died and couldn't be powered back on unless it is unfolded. I suspect some wiring that powers the front cover was severed but that's so odd because I last unfolded it probably 30 minutes prior with no issues and it continued working fine when folded close during the drive to our destination.

Anyways, I've been on chat for the past 2 hours with Samsung Support but they're not offering any real help other than to trade in the device for something else. This is very disappointing because the Fold 4 has been my absolute favorite phone of all time for the past 18 months. Clearly, I am out of warranty but I didn't expect it to fail in this manner. I've used the Fold 4 in the rain and dropped it numerous times without an issue before (I do have a screen protector and case on it). The case has lots of nicks and scratches but the phone itself has held up fine. I could understand if I had a particularly bad drop and damaged the phone, but in this case I simply unplugged the charging cable and poof the Fold 4 no longer powers on when folded/closed.

Up till today I marveled at how well the Fold 4 has held up. These 18-months are the longest I've ever held onto a phone before upgrading, and I was planning to go a full two years before jumping to the Fold 6. Now I have to figure out what to do next:

1. Keep using it in the opened state until the Fold 6 releases
2. Take the hit and trade it in now for a Fold 5 through Verizon (since I am receiving trade-in credits)
3. Maybe go to an S24 Ultra

Sigh.

Edit: Reading similar experiences on Reddit from other Fold 4 owners. I wonder if Fold 5 is plagued by this too. Also, I noticed my Fold 4 no longer fast charges. I wonder if the phone will slowly die completely in a few days.

Sorry to hear this, not had this issue with my Folds 1 to 5, I did have a faulty USB port on my F2

Is a repair not an option ?

 

[NeonNights]

I suppose I could but am reading repairs for others was about 50% of new phone. In that case I'd rather trade it in and get a new one.

I wanted to wait for a Fold 6 but may be forced to "upgrade" to a Fold 5.

 

[NeonNights]

So I stopped by a repair shop. They confirmed both front and inner displays are still working fine, but there's a ribbon beneath the inner display that's probably creased. Repair estimate is $569.

I then drive to the Verizon store and, surprisingly, they have a rare Open Enrollment on their protection plans and the employee recommends I add the protection plan and wait 30 days to file a claim. I said that sounds sort of unscrupulous to do and gaming the system, but honestly that's the cheapest route -- $17 for the monthly protection plus $99 for deductible.

Third option is to simply pay off the Fold 4 and trade it in towards the Fold 5, or maybe the S24 Ultra.

While I mull over my options my Fold 4 has now refused to fully power on. I guess the closing and opening of the phone by the repair shop guy, me, and the Verizon employee has made the problem worse. It now still powers on but is stuck at the Verizon logo. It won't fully boot into the Home Screen so the phone is effectively useless.

I glanced at the S24 Ultra in the store and the display is huge. seems like it would be very close in size to the cropped/letterbox screen when watching content on the Fold 4 inner screen. As much as I love my Fold 4, I am starting to gravitate going back to a slab phone...something I previously said I'd never do. This catastrophic failure of the Fold 4 during a simple action of unplugging the charing cable, and not due to an accidental drop onto the ground or into a lake, has shaken my faith in foldables. I still love them but definitely get a warranty.

I still don't know what to do but I'll at least need to get a cheap temporary phone to tide me over. Worst is I can't even pull data off the Fold 4 to backup since it won't boot to the Home Screen. Most of my stuff is automatically backed up to Google Drive or my NAS, so I think I'm okay, but I can't browse the internal drive on the Fold 4 to make sure. I also can't factory reset it (I don't think) if I do send it in for an insurance claim, so that leaves my data possibly vulnerable.

 

[NeonNights]

So the Fold 4 finally managed to boot to the home screen and I backed up more data as a precaution. It is also popping up warnings of "software issues during last boot" and to check for latest update (which im already current). The Fold 4 is becoming more and more messed up.

My cousin held onto the Note 8 I gave him a few years ago. He upgraded to an iPhone last year so I'll be able to borrow the Note 8 temporarily and then will factory reset the Fold 4.

I've been reading reviews of the S24 Ultra and may ultimately go back to the slab design. At least it will have better cameras and an S Pen. It will be a bittersweet side-grade. Still not certain of my decision. Maybe I'll still take a chance at the Fold 5 with S Pen case and extended warranty or wait to see what the Fold 6 looks like first.

 

[NeonNights]

It took most of the day but finally have everything transferred to the Note 8. Despite being a 6-year-old phone, on a 3-year-old version of Android and One UI 1.0, performance isn't too bad. There is an extra 2-4 seconds when loading apps or websites compared to the Fold 4 but will be perfectly adequate for the next couple of months.

I used to really like the split window feature on the Note 8 but it feels so anemic and constrained now when compared to the Fold 4 (which I've now factory reset). I don't know if I can go back to even an S24 Ultra because I'm still going through Fold-withdraw. Ironically, I used to love using the S Pen when I had the Note 8 but haven't bothered to take it out yet today.

 

[SteveJUAE]

Something seems odd about that repair estimate as its even more than replaced inner screen

I would get a Samsung quote to repair then u can judge trade in price with a working vs broken phone

 

[NeonNights]

Something seems odd about that repair estimate as its even more than replaced inner screen

I would get a Samsung quote to repair then u can judge trade in price with a working vs broken phone

At the time I couldn't get a straight answer from Samsung Support as they kept saying I need to send it in for diagnostic and it would take several days to evaluate. At the time I didn't have the Note8 option and didn't want to be without my Fold 4 as it still worked in the unfolded/open state.

According to AndroidAuthority site, it's about $499 for an inner screen replacement so I don't think the local phone repair shop was out of line quoting $569 after tax. Plus the phone repair place would only need a few hours and I'd have my phone back same day.

Interestingly, after I factory reset the Fold 4 it now can power on when folded/closed! However, it's still stuck at the Verizon logo and hasn't booted to the Home Screen. I can open and close it and it doesn't exhibit the strange power shutoff behavior today. However, it keeps both displays on now, both stuck at the Verizon logo, so there's definitely still an issue and at the very least a battery drain concern powering both displays even when folded closed.

 

[NeonNights]

At least I can power on with the main cover screen now and it got past the Verizon logo finally, but now it shows the following. I will have to take a closer look and research it later. Busy day today. Note8 camera used to be good but is really bad by today's standards.

 

[NeonNights]

So the Fold 4 has been touch and go over the weekend. I managed to get it to boot back up and get past the Optimizing Apps screen again, and surprisingly the cover screen stayed functional again. But after a few days of delicate use it powered off again yesterday and I can't get it to power back on anymore.

The battery percent shows up on screen but doesn't actually charge when plugged into the charging cable or a wireless charging pad. Instead the Fold 4 vibrates every few seconds.

I decided to call Asurion today and explain the situation, sharing all the details from last week, my visit to Verizon, how the Fold 4 started working again but then finally went kaput yesterday. They had me upload an affidavit and I'll get a decision tomorrow on what can be done.

What's strange is when I submitted the claim online it asks if there's any damage to the device, such as back glass cracked. Well, there was this quarter-inch crack above the camera module during the first month of ownership, but I didn't think that was related to the phone malfunctioning now (I really think the frequent folding/unfolding is causing stress on some ribbon behind the screen and it doesn't really hold up anywhere near the 200,000 folding actions that Samsung claims). Anyways, when you select "no damage" it automatically denies your claim and directs you to call Verizon Tech Support.

I then explain the whole situation to Verizon Tech Support, including the quarter-inch crack on the back when they ask about ANY damage. The rep was really helpful and was almost leading me to describe the crack as a scratch, but I honestly told him I could feel it's a crack when I run my fingernail over it. Apparently if I had called it a scratch then maybe Verizon Tech Support could do me a solid but I'll never know because I insisted it was a crack (which it is) and any type of crack means they send me back to Asurion to take over again.

While the Asurion reps are all very helpful I was disconnected a few times and had to repeat the details over and over. Eventually, we got far enough along in the process where the Asurion rep conferences in a Verizon rep to verify line and coverage dates. I had to explain that the system currently shows my Note 8 in service because I had to pull the SIM out of my no longer working Fold 4. Once they understood the chronology of events and verified my coverage then they had me upload a signed affidavit and my driver's license and said they'll notify me of a decision within 24 hours. Hopefully the Fold 4 can get repaired or replaced. I am lucky the Fold 4 continued to function a little longer into the Open Enrollment protection plan.

 

[NeonNights]

Asurion still denied my claim, based on the Note8 being registered on the Verizon network at the time the Fold4 went kaput. The irony is I was using the Fold4 on WiFi and transferring things back and forth until things looked good and I could swap the SIM back, but the Fold4 didn't make it long enough.

Sigh. I am getting tired of using the Note8 as it's very slow and can't keep up with me switching between apps. What I learned though is I probably wouldn't enjoy using the S24 Ultra either due to the cumbersome split and floating window arrangement when I want three apps open.

I guess my options now are to DIY the Fold4 myself, pay it off and trade it in for a Fold5, or wait it out for the Fold6.

 

[NeonNights]

I discussed it with the wife and she's okay with me getting a Fold 5. The Note8 just isn't cutting it for me. There is a pink cast across 80% of the display, I need to top off the battery twice to get through a full day, and the more I use it the more I notice the performance lags.

I decided not to wait for the Fold 6 and just grab the best deal I can direct from Samsung (mostly to preserve the trade-in credits I'm still receiving from Verizon on the Fold 4). The Fold 4 is basically a lost cause, and because it no longer charges nor powers on it has zero trade-in value. I plan to get the Fold 5 with the slim S pen case and some added warranty coverage from day one. As nice as the S24 Ultra is, I just can't go back to a slab phone again

 

[Mellofello808]

If you get the fold 5 make sure to have insurance.

It was a huge PITA but Samsung care + replaced my fold 4 free of charge when I had a similar issue earlier this year.

I was able to argue it was a manufacturing defect, and they changed it out despite me owning it for 14 months at the time.

Next time I am going to get the lost protection also. Moments after I took this picture the phone came inches from falling in the ocean this past Saturday.