Above: The interface for the photos app adjusts when the ZFlip’s screen is folded. Photo by Mark Lyndersay.

BitDepth#1316 for August 23, 2021

Some devices just resonate with you on sight. Even in a promotional video, they create a sharp urge to own them.

Samsung’s new Galaxy Z series devices, the third iteration of their foldable line are likely to create that impulse in the audiences they were built to target.
But, they are also going to be very different people.

The ZFold 3, a device that’s basically two Galaxy phones connected by a hinge, is likely to appeal to someone who really needs a phone that can morph into a square tablet.

For the ZFlip 3, the demographic downshifts to a hipper, more fashion conscious user who is smitten by the notion of taking a Samsung smartphone and folding it in half.

The same basic technology is deployed in both devices, a foldable AMOLED high dynamic range display and the third generation of Samsung’s hinge technology, improved to resist water penetration.

A day after the launch of the new devices last week, Samsung made a review sample of the ZFlip 3 available for evaluation.

The device does exactly what it promises in promotional videos.

The open phone is indistinguishable from any of Samsung’s premium Galaxy phones, the sleek case is made of Gorilla Glass bound together by a sleek polished aluminum frame.

The bright screen reaches right to the edge of the frame, but doesn’t wrap like the Infinity screen used on most top-level Galaxy phones.

What does one call them now? Unfoldable? Bend-free? Unhinged?

Open, the screen flattens out neatly and you have to hold it at a distinctly odd and unusable angle to see anything like a fold in the screen surface. In normal use, the screen flex is invisible.

The ZFlip 3 is almost exactly the same size as an S21 Ultra and has dropped 2 millimetres in thickness from the first ZFlip model.

It’s actually a bit lighter than an S21, but the hinge puts a block of engineered metal in the middle of the device, giving it a different, more centered weight distribution.

Face recognition on the ZFlip 3 has taken another jump forward from the largely unusable technology on the S20 and an improved implementation on the S21. It’s usable for unlocking the ZFlip.

There aren’t many feature surprises for a current Samsung smartphone user. The cameras are Samsung’s standard wide and ultrawide lens array. No telephoto reach here.

The OS has been updated to One UI 3, which has adds some fold-specific features to the device and a new toolbar to the right of the interface.

Touch an admirably thin but still usable sliver of pixels floating at the screen’s edge and it slides out to become a dock for frequently used apps.

It’s a nice usability feature that’s probably useful on the larger ZFold, but feels too big and clunky on the smaller ZFlip.

The real magic on the ZFlip kicks in when you start to fold it in half. On apps that have been optimized for its folding action, the software splits when you fold to 90 degrees.
An optimised game will locate controls on the bottom half and fill the top half of the screen with the game display.

The YouTube app recognises the folding action and puts the video in the top half of the screen, which is cute, but not really as effective as turning the unfolded phone sideways to get a true full-screen experience.

On other apps like the Calculator, the interface has been redesigned to improve usability when folding.

Both the ZFlip and and ZFold offer the user two screens. On the ZFold, it’s a full smartphone screen.

The tiny quarter-height screen on the ZFlip has been improved to display more information, including a default time and date, and additional screens you can access with a swipe for a summary of recent emails, a music controller, timer, voice recorder and alarms.

It’s an always-on widget suite for the tiny face screen on the folded device.

I am, of course, being rational about all this. I live in house with a young lady and a slightly less youthful lady, and the unanimous decision upon seeing the device was, “I want.”

On price, the ZFlip 3 tracks closely with list pricing on the S21 Ultra, but doesn’t pack the lens hardware of that smartphone.

The ZFold 3 is a very different proposition for a potential buyer. The list price remains stratospheric at US$1799.

For that price, you get the functionality of a top of the line Android smartphone that unfolds to become a small tablet for roughly the price you’d pay for both as separate devices.

That’s a very specific target user for a very specific kind of device. At the price, there isn’t room for much whimsy.

It all feels a lot like when Samsung dropped the first Note in a smartphone market that had only just begun to scale devices up in size.

That first Note was a big jump and defined a market niche for the company.
The Z series marries something we know, hinged computing hardware, with something completely new, pocketable, minified smartphones that transform, and Samsung is inviting a market to form around this capability.

Samsung will introduce the ZFlip 3 and ZFold 3 to the Trinidad and Tobago market in September 2021.