Samsung just unveiled the third generation of its foldable phones. Included in the announcement was the new Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G. Now the Fold series has been around for quite some time, and every iteration so far has been a significant improvement over the previous one.
In its third generation, the Fold 3 claims a screen that’s 80% more protected, has S Pen supports, better build and design and even an IPX8 rating along with a $200 price cut.
In this article, we’re going over the two phones to figure out all the changes and improvements Samsung made to the new Fold.
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Design
There have been some major changes to Fold 3 as compared to Fold 2 in terms of design. For starters, Fold 3 now has an under-display camera compared to Fold 2’s hole-punch camera on the main foldable screen.
The camera bump on the rear has also changed. Apart from this, the new Fold is about 2mm thinner than its older brother. You also get IPX8 water resistance and a combination of a new Armour Aluminium body, Gorilla Glass Victus, and a new stretchable PET layer on the inner screen, adding more screen protection to the new Fold.
While both phones have the same sized displays, Fold 3’s cover screen has a slightly higher pixel count at 2268 x 832 than Fold 2’s2260 x 816. The cover screen has also been bumped up to 120Hz compared to the previous 60Hz. The display on Fold 3 is also slightly brighter thanks to Samsung’s use of a new Eco display tech.
Fold 3 also has S Pen support, a first in the Fold series. However, you’ll need a special Fold edition S Pen. A new S Pen Pro has also been launched, compatible with both Note devices and Fold 3.
Cameras
Both the phones feature the same cameras, with the exception of the selfie camera on the main foldable screen. Fold 3 has an under-display selfie camera on the main screen coming in at 4MP compared to Fold 2’s hole punch cut out the camera at 10MP.
The rear cameras stay the same, with a 12MP main shooter, a 12MP ultrawide and a 12MP telephoto camera with 2x optical zoom. The cover screen front camera is also identical at 10MP.
Battery
If you look at the spec sheet, you’ll see that Fold 3 has taken a small step back in battery capacity coming in at 4400mAh compared to the previous 4500mAh. The reason behind this could be the phone being 2mm thinner and about 11 grams lighter, but how will it impact day to day battery life is yet to be seen.
Both phones do have 25W standard fast charging along with 10W wireless charging and 4.5W reverse wireless charging.
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Performance
The new Fold comes with the Snapdragon 888, which will give better performance than the Fold 2’s Snapdragon 865 Plus. The RAM is still the same at 12GB, but you get an upgraded 512GB storage option with the new phone.
Software
While you do get Samsun’s One UI on both phones, Fold 3’s software has undergone a major overhaul with many optimisations for different apps and the addition of a static taskbar, much like what you see on a Mac or Windows machine.
The new Fold also ships with Android 11 out of the box, an upgrade to the Android 10 that comes with the Fold 2.
Hardware specs
Here’s a rundown of the hardware specs between the two phones.
| Specifications | Galaxy Z Fold 2 | Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G |
|---|---|---|
| Cover Screen | 6.2-inch AMOLED at 2260 x 816 60Hz refresh rate | 6.2-inch HD+ AMOLED, 2268 x 832, 387ppi, 120Hz adaptive refresh rate 1500 nits peak brightness |
| Main Screen | 7.6-inch AMOLED at 2208 x 1768 120Hz refresh rate | 7.6-inch QXGA+ AMOLED, 2208 x 1768, 374ppi, 120Hz adaptive refresh rate 1200 nits peak brightness |
| Processor | Snapdragon 865 Plus up to 3.1GHz | Snapdragon 888 5nm 64-bit Octa-Core processor up to 2.85GHz |
| Memory | 12GB RAM with up to 256GB internal storage (UFS3.1) | 12GB RAM with up to 512GB internal storage (UFS3.1) |
| Battery | 4500 mAh dual battery 25W fast charging 10W wireless fast charging 4.5W reverse wireless charging | 4400 mAh dual battery 25W fast charging 10W wireless fast charging 4.5W reverse wireless charging |
| OS | Android 10 | Android 11 |
| Cover Camera | 10MP, F2.2 | 10MP, F2.2 |
| Main Display Front Camera | 10MP, F2.2 | 4MP, F1.8 |
| Rear Camera | 12MP ultrawide (FOV 123 degrees) 12MP wide-angle (FOV 83 degrees) 12MP Telephoto (2x optical zoom) HDR10+ recording, Tracking AF | 12MP ultrawide (FOV 123 degrees) 12MP wide-angle (FOV 83 degrees) 12MP Telephoto (2x optical zoom) Dual Optical Image Stabilisation, HDR10+ recording, Tracking AF |
| Connectivity | WiFi 6: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax HE160 MIMO, 1024 QAM Bluetooth v5.0 | WiFi 6: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax HE160 MIMO, 1024 QAM Bluetooth v5.2 (LE up to 2Mbps) |
| Sensor | Capacitive Fingerprint sensor, Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro sensor, Proximity sensor, Light sensor | Capacitive Fingerprint sensor, Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro sensor, Geomagnetic sensor, Hall sensor, Proximity sensor, Light sensor |
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