Samsung Galaxy Fold Hands-on: Samsung At Its Best

Samsung Galaxy Fold Hands-on: Samsung At Its Best

The Fold Finally Arrives in the Philippines

After months of waiting for the improved version, Samsung has finally launched the Galaxy Fold in the Philippines. The breakthrough folding phone is official in the country and is being sold through local carrier partners like Smart.

Folding Wonder

Turns out building a folding device is a massive challenge, something that Samsung found out a few months ago when the first generation devices started failing while it was with publications for review. After recalling the devices and improving the hinge mechanism and protective coating on the display, it seems like the Galaxy Fold is ready for mass consumption.

There are two displays on the fold – a small 4.7-inch display serves as the main interface when the phone is folded up, while the 7.3-inch main panel lights up when you open up the phone.

The inner display uses Samsung’s Infinity Flex Display, a fancy name for the polymer that the Korean company used to build the inner panel with. It’s plastic because obviously glass doesn’t bend, though there is a protective coating on it to help it with durability.

Like we said earlier the hinge for the phone has been reinforced for better durability, which we assume is good for a couple of thousand folds.

If the outside is pretty revolutionary, the insides of the Galaxy Fold is less so, as it essentially carries the same hardware and cameras of the months-old Galaxy S10 Plus in it. That means a Snapdragon 855 chipset, 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, as well as a 12-megapixel main camera with a variable aperture lens (f/1.5 to f/2.4), 12-megapixel telephoto camera with f/2.4 aperture and 2x optical zoom, as well as a 16-megapixel ultra-wide camera.

There’s a dual selfie cam on the front as well that’s composed of a 10-megapixel shooter and an 8-megapixel camera as well that also functions as a depth sensor. You also have a 10-megapixel selfie camera on the cover so you don’t have to open up the device when the need to take a quick selfie arises.

We’re impressed at the fact that the Galaxy Fold has two batteries in it: 2,135mAh and 2,245mAh which combined gives you a total of 4380mAh of juice on tap.

As slightly dated as the hardware is, there’s really nothing like the cool factor of closing and opening the Galaxy Fold. No other phone comes close to it in terms of overall coolness – all other phones just look extremely boring beside it.

Obviously there’s the question of price, and the Galaxy Fold is expensive for what it is. In the US the phone is priced at around $2,000. In the Philippines, you can purchase the Galaxy Fold outright but, as you can imagine, it comes with a rather hefty price tag of Php 109,990. Smart will offer the device via its Signature and Infinity Plans but, as of writing this article, they have yet to release full details. Monthly payments aren’t going to be cheap of course, and that’s OK with Samsung since this is a very niche device aimed at only the most discerning of users.

For those planning to get the device, you can expect VIP After Sales support for the device, which includes Free Pick-Up and Delivery should anything happen to the device, a 24-hour hotline, and a whole host of other perks; definitely a good thing given all the moolah people are going to drop for this device.

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