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00:00Hey what's up, MKBHD here and I think it's safe to say we're about to be right back
00:07in the thick of it.
00:08Smartphone season is about to be upon us and what better way to kick that off than with
00:13a folding phone.
00:14Well, it's a pair of folding phones actually.
00:15We have this new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 that I have a lot of thoughts about, that I was
00:20really curious about after such a big improvement from the last fold.
00:24But also, there's a new Z Flip announced alongside it that I also got to play with.
00:29And honestly, if I'm only able to recommend one of these to a regular person, it's probably
00:33the Flip and it's much more pocketable design and really nice refinement with the outside
00:38cover screen.
00:39So check out that video, it's going to drop at the same time as this one, I'll link it
00:42below the like button.
00:43But this is the one I'm more into.
00:45So this is the one I'm more likely to use, it's the Z Fold 3.
00:49And holding it for the first time, it does look and feel very similar to the Fold 2.
00:54We've seen this look before, but there's some pretty noteworthy improvements here with
00:58a bunch of small changes that kind of add up to being worth a new generation.
01:02So you've probably already seen the new camera bump.
01:04It's smaller than that huge square from last time and we'll get to those cameras in a second.
01:08But everything, everything is just a little tighter and a little more well put together
01:14here.
01:15New Gorilla Glass Victus on the front, the whole phone is about two millimeters thinner
01:20and it's slightly lighter than last year as well.
01:22And the hinge, the most important part, is even more tucked into the side of the phone.
01:27It doesn't stick out as much.
01:29So the whole phone, along with the weight of the hinge, has this feeling of being very
01:34firmly well put together and it's this very satisfying feeling.
01:38It's so well put together, in fact, that it's actually, I was surprised to learn it has
01:42an IPX8 water resistance rating, which is pretty intense.
01:47That means it can survive water from all directions and can actually be immersed in water, which
01:52I already know means someone's going to do an underwater test with it.
01:55I'll probably watch, but that's a pretty big step for a folding phone, isn't it?
02:00Now importantly, that's IPX8, not IP68.
02:03So the X means it wasn't tested for like fine granular particles, solid particles.
02:08So it's not dust resistant.
02:10And that actually makes a lot of sense.
02:12That's been the nemesis of these hinges, just little tiny grains, little particles getting
02:17into the hinge and eventually ending up under the screen.
02:20But the fact that it's so watertight that they can actually certify it for water resistance
02:26is pretty impressive to me.
02:27I'm pretty sure that's the first folding phone that we've seen, the first new folding screen
02:32type phone that's water resistant.
02:34Then another great touch is the cover screen that's on the outside, which is almost exactly
02:38the same size and resolution, is now 120 Hertz also to match the inside screen.
02:44That I love.
02:45Last year on the Fold 2, I never really got over the fact that the 60 Hertz outside screen
02:49felt worse than the 120 Hertz inside screen.
02:52It made me want to use it less.
02:54But now it just kind of feels like a really tall candy bar shaped normal phone with high
03:00refresh rate and everything.
03:01But let's talk about that big inside screen, shall we?
03:04Because this is where we have the most changes, same size, same bezels and 120 Hertz refresh
03:11rate, same dust caps at the top and the bottom.
03:14But notice anything missing from the inside screen?
03:18See, last year, there was a hole punch camera at the top and the middle of the right hand
03:23side.
03:24And if you're looking up there, yeah, this year, that selfie camera has moved to behind
03:28the display.
03:29Oh yeah.
03:30So Fold 3 has an under display selfie camera inside of a folding display.
03:35So I've made an entire video just all about this camera behind the display tech.
03:40Boom.
03:41I'll also link it below the like button if you want to watch that video.
03:43But if you do check it out, it is a really curious new technology.
03:47It's a first generation thing.
03:49And it definitely has some quirks and some weird things about it, which is why I was
03:54kind of surprised actually to see it in such a premium, high end, expensive Samsung device.
04:01But it's here.
04:02It's definitely not invisible by any means.
04:05You can clearly see it whenever you look for it.
04:07And it exhibits this pixelation through the gaps in the pixels that I talked about in
04:11that full video.
04:12It's got like this octagon shape of pixels.
04:16And everything that passes through that octagon gets really pixelated, especially when it's
04:19bright colors and whites, and especially when it's off axis.
04:24And most interesting of all, the actual quality of these other first generation selfie cameras
04:30I looked at are not great.
04:32It would look really hazy in the viewfinder.
04:34And then once you snap the photo, it literally runs a defogging algorithm to sharpen up and
04:40clean up the picture.
04:41And I could actually see that same thing happening here.
04:43When I took selfies on the Fold 3, it's a little hazy in the viewfinder, but then you
04:48snap the picture and then you look at the picture fast enough, you can literally see
04:51that processing, snap the contrast in, get rid of that haze.
04:56But it's still not that great of a picture.
04:59So this, it's interesting that it is, I mean, I'm excited to get my hands on this phone
05:03longer term for the full review, but also to see what kind of photo quality and video
05:08quality that this actually produces, to see how much worse it actually is than the hole
05:14punch camera that came before it.
05:16But yeah, I think if you ask Samsung why they did this, I think their logic would be that
05:21this is the least important or least used selfie camera on the Fold.
05:27Like you already have on the new Fold, you'll have a selfie hole punch camera on the cover
05:31display.
05:32And then if you really want a high quality selfie, well, you can open it up and point
05:36those cameras at yourself and use the viewfinder as a nice selfie shot.
05:41So this inside selfie camera, it's not really used all that much, maybe for video calls
05:46sometimes or just a very quick convenient thing.
05:50So they figured this was Samsung's place to take a little bit of a risk with some bleeding
05:54edge tech to give us the full corner to corner expansive inside screen we've wanted since
05:59the beginning.
06:00Sure, you can still see the camera sometimes and it's not perfect, but hey, it is better
06:06technically than a hole punch.
06:08But my favorite inside screen improvement here is that the foldable glass protective
06:12film is 80% more durable against scratch resistance, meaning they've finally made the Fold S Pen compatible.
06:21Now this is all great and we love the headlines.
06:23Obviously this is very exciting for people who wanted the bigger canvas for the note
06:27taking and all that.
06:29But this definitely comes with an asterisk that I think we should consider, okay?
06:34Not to pour water on this fire or whatever, but think about it.
06:38Yes, the Fold is going to be clearly great for note taking, sketching.
06:43Maybe it's just straight up just as good as the note at everything it did.
06:46It's got all the same S Pen features and it's a super responsive 120 Hertz panel.
06:50All that is great.
06:51But this is like a special case of an S Pen for this phone, okay?
06:56First of all, you need literally a special S Pen.
06:59It's a new one called the S Pen Fold Edition and it looks like a normal S Pen, but it
07:03has a softer retractable tip so you can't apply too much pressure that could still damage
07:08the screen.
07:09And it's of course still an optional accessory, so you also need to buy an optional case
07:13to carry it around with the Fold unless you want to have them both loose in your pocket.
07:18And other styluses generally aren't going to work.
07:22I mean, there are some big soft tip styluses if you just want to replace your finger as
07:25an input device.
07:27But most pens for writing and sketching and all that good stuff are not soft tipped.
07:32They're not retractable tipped.
07:34So I even got a warning on the screen that says, only use S Pens designed for your Galaxy
07:40Fold.
07:41Other S Pens or other styluses for that matter, may damage the screen.
07:44Which brings me to the only other option for this phone, which is a brand new, much bigger
07:50S Pen Pro that has to be set to Z Fold mode, which is literally a physical switch
07:56on top of the pen that makes the tip retract more easily and with less pressure.
08:01But that's it.
08:02Now the S Pen Pro, it actually is pretty cool.
08:04And unlike the Fold edition, it is active.
08:07It's got a battery, it charges via USB type C, but it also has onboard memory so you
08:12can copy and paste stuff between different Samsung devices.
08:16Like if you have a Samsung tablet or a laptop, that sounds super cool.
08:20But this is all specialized workarounds to loop in the Galaxy Fold into the S Pen world.
08:27So at the end of the day, if you've got to go the extra mile to buy the S Pen and buy
08:31the case to carry it around in, well then you can do all that and you can bring the
08:34S Pen into your life.
08:36But I guess what I'm trying to say is, I think Samsung should keep around the Galaxy Note.
08:41Fold has a new set of triple cameras, like I mentioned, an ultra wide, a standard and
08:46a 2X telephoto and a flash.
08:48They're right in line with the tamed down stuff we usually see here in the Fold.
08:52And I think they'll probably hold up in the full review, but we'll see.
08:55And there's a bunch of pretty sweet new software features that make this phone even more of
09:00a multitasking monster.
09:02I already always felt like super productive anytime I use the Fold.
09:07And now there's a new lab section in the settings where you can like force every app to work
09:12in multitasking for custom aspect ratios.
09:15And my favorite tweak, those slide over apps from the side, you can now permanently pin
09:20over to the right-hand side of the phone like a dock, like just straight up like a dock,
09:25like a desktop operating system.
09:27And so then your shortcuts just live over there all the time, kind of like the dock
09:30in Mac OS X or in Windows.
09:32It can shuffle around your most recent apps.
09:34It's really useful for copying and pasting between apps or moving back and forth between
09:38things, hopping your app drawer anytime from over there, unpin it anytime you want to.
09:44Very nice.
09:45Very nice.
09:46Oh, I just realized I haven't told you guys the specs yet.
09:49Snapdragon 888 and 12 gigs of RAM in every module starts at 256 gigs.
09:54There's also a half terabyte version and 4,400 milliamp hour battery, which is technically
09:59a little smaller than last year's 4,500.
10:02But the phone is just a little bit more compact, a little thinner.
10:06And then three colors.
10:07There's the silver you just saw most of my hands-on time with, but there's also a black
10:11and a phantom green.
10:13And that is a nice green.
10:14I'm kind of into that more than I expect it to be.
10:16But yeah, would you, this is my question to you, just from the first impressions, now
10:20that you've seen it's official, would you pick up this phone for $1,800?
10:25Because that's how much it's going to cost.
10:26It's a little less than before, but that's the starting price for the 256 gig Z Fold 3.
10:31And like I said, I still think among these two new folding phones they've announced,
10:36the Flip, which starts at 999, still expensive, but that's like more of a reasonable
10:43phone to recommend to more people, I think.
10:45So if you want to check over on that video for my thoughts on it, definitely do that.
10:49But I'm curious if you guys would be into 1,800 bucks for the newest, highest end,
10:54most premium, well-built folding phone I've ever seen.
10:58Super interested.
10:59Either way.
11:00Thanks for watching.
11:01Subscribe if you haven't already.
11:02And I'll catch you guys in the next one.
11:04Peace.